A War of Silver and Gold Read online

  Cassia adjusted her eyes to the darkness. Echoes sounded clear through the empty, tall hall. Her ears grasped about every move and sound. Her heartbeat was so silent and slow, she could barely hear it. The darkness suffocated her, swallowed her whole.

  She moved deeper into the chamber, closer to where she believed she heard a sharp intake of breath. If that monster was hiding there, she was ready to deliver it a fatal blow.

  The feral she-elf would have never let it overpower her. She was a Lady appointed by the King. She was there because she had fought that lycan's ancestors many times.

  She shouldn't have been afraid. She was to be feared.

  Her feet fell all the more silent against the marble. Her breath caught in her throat. Her heartbeat was diminished to nothingness confined in her chest. She even willed her mind to stop.

  She caught glimpse of the creature's clothes, white frocks and blond hair.

  Nadeer was on the floor, her forehead touched the marble as prayers left her mouth. Prayers Cassia hadn't known of, or maybe prayers she had known long ago when her mother silently sang to her. Prayers of the traitors, prayers of gods across a sea of monsters and toils, gods so savage that should have never been considered deities at all.

  Cassia set her jaw. Nadeer was praying to Agantha. Her eyes narrowed to the traitorous elf. She battled inside her whether to spare Nadeer or stab her with the dagger on her white, unblemished back.

  Taking a step backwards, Cassia hid in the shadows cast by the tall pillars around the room. Nadeer remained there in the centre, praying.

  Nadeer’s words agitated Cassia, praying to meaningless beings turned her into a mindless beast; it turned her into an Adanei, the King’s mortal enemies. If Cassia was to raise her arms and stab Nadeer in the back, she knew that no matter how dishonourable it was, she would spare Nadeer’s soul from entering into that monstrosity of a paradise the Adanei ascended after death.

  "Where is the lycan, Nadeer?" Cassia’s voice was sharp, the words rough against her tongue.

  The priestess's head remained against the marble. She made no move, but her mouth had stopped uttering the diabolical prayers.

  "I think you were asked a question priestess."

  "Mother of all good and fair, daughter of light and darkness. Oh fair, Agantha..."

  Cassia stepped out of the shadows as she listened to the hideous prayers. She grasped Nadeer by the hair and hoisted her up, the dagger pressed intimately against her tall neck, so intimately Cassia thought she had drowned blood from Nadeer’s flesh. The priestess’s prayers continued, her eyes remained pressed shut, her demeanour unchanged as if believing in her gods kept her alive. Traitorous little thing, Cassia tugged at her hair harder and hissed.

  "You helped the monster. Where is it?"

  Nadeer stopped praying for a moment, her gaze turned to Cassia; Nadeer’s feral glance turned Cassia’s guts inside out.

  "You made a mistake, my Lady."

  "Where is it?"

  "You wouldn't want the gods' wrath upon you."

  "I'll skin them alive before they manage to do anything. Where is the monster?"

  "Don't hurt him." Nadeer squealed as Cassia thrust her onto the floor with a nudge of her knee behind the priestess’s leg. "He is one of us."

  Cassia’s eyes narrowed, her fingers flexed against Nadeer’s hair. If she was not a priestess of Nature, then Cassia would have skinned her alive and given her carcass to her beloved lycan to feast.

  "He is a monster, not a Nevdor."

  "You are mistaken." Her voice silent, she raised her arms in defeat, but Cassia didn't let her go, she grasped her tighter, even earning a pained gasp from her. "Lady of noble Navacore, he is a Dark Elf."

  "Don't waste your breath, Nadeer. I saw him, I killed him... almost. He is a lycan."

  "No, no lycan. He is the son of Lord Abertron."

  "Abertron has daughters, you stupid whore. He never sired a son."

  "Abertron had a son hundred years ago, a son bitten by a lycan. He turned into the monster you think him to be."

  Cassia pulled the priestess’ hair a bit before she plunked her towards the floor. Vicious witch. Traitor. Cassia sheathed the dagger back to her belt and straightened her spine. "Then he must be returned to his father."

  "No!" Nadeer's head shot up, shaking maniacally. "Lady, Abertron will kill Ael. You are being as ruthless and evil as the Adanei.”

  Cassia hissed and drew the dagger again with clammy fingers. She grasped Nadeer’s hair and grazed the skin of her neck with the dagger. How dare she compare Cassia to the monsters of the gods?

  Adanei.

  Cassia was no Light Elf, she had never been.

  Never been a traitor.

  She dug the dagger into the skin of Nadeer’s neck and hissed, blood splattering from her flesh. Cassia didn't care, no, seeing blood seeping out of white skin was the most macabre thing she had seen, but it made her feel powerful. It ignited a flame in her that she had not encountered since the War.

  "Don't compare me to them!" She relaxed the grasp she had on the priestess’ hair. "Tell me where he is and I will spare you."

  She shook her head. "In the healing chambers, but please don't hurt him."

  Cassia didn't reply. She let go of the blond hair in her hand and dragged herself up. She marched away from the marble fountain in the middle of the room and went towards the stairs. Even though the priestesses thought themselves to be elegant and creatures that believed in higher ideas, once they entered the temple's rituals there was no going back, only riches and endless silk and satin dresses. Priestesses were beings that thrived under the attention of males. She had caught them numerous times neglecting their rituals.

  Cassia stood before the door of the healing chamber, her left hand pressed against the wooden panel; her other hand grasped the dagger slightly coated in the blood of that blasphemous priestess. If the monster was to attack her, she would attack back, ripping pieces of its flesh from its bones. She pushed the door open and peeked in before stepping inside, throwing the door wide open.

  There was relative silence in the room. The lycan had his eyes turned to her, he made no move or blinked. She walked towards him, her hand firmly gripping the dagger.

  I dare you, monster, attack me.

  I dare you to talk, twitch your brow and attack me.

  Attack me, bastard!

  The creature remained there, though, nonchalant to Cassia’s own inner chattering. She swore to Nature that if he was to move, she would slice his throat and make Nadeer watch as she gave his carcass to the Bears in the woods to feed on.

  Cassia could see no change on him, no twitching of his brow, or his fingers, or anything. That creature had come here with one purpose then, to die and Death was something Cassia rarely resisted giving those days.

  Cassia grasped her cold finger around his blond hair. She dragged him up. He winced, a vile pain coursing through his veins. Cassia’s breath hitched knowing that the priestess had used her magic to heal the monster.

  Cassia clenched her arms and threw him out of his bed, onto the floor, hoisting him towards the door. He thrashed and snarled and barked at her, but Cassia’s grasp was steel against his hair. She had commanded men to meet their deaths, killing a lonely lycan was supposed to have been the easiest thing. She snaked her hand to his shirt and dragged him down to the Hall. Every stair she took, a violent hit on his spine.

  Nadeer waited by the staircase, praying and weeping. "Lady, please let him go. Please, let go of him."

  Cassia slammed the beast onto the marble and gripped onto his hair tighter. "Have you bed him already, Nadeer? Is this why you care about him that much?"

  The priestess shook her head and walked, missing a few steps, beside Cassia, trying to stop her. "Let him go." Cassia listened to the breaking of Nadeer’s voice with triumph, a sick and twisted triumph. Cassia exited the Hall. Her hands burned, but she paid them no heed.

  She threw the lycan onto the ground and took the rope
from her horse.

  Nadeer wept loudly, a sloppy sound that infuriated Cassia. Nadeer missed another step and threw herself onto Cassia, grasping her arms and growling in anger. "Lady, don't hurt him, don't hurt him. He is vital to you, Lady Cassia."

  Cassia stilled, her blood thrumming in a sweet rhythm. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. "I don't need help from him or your damned gods."

  The Lady nudged the lycan to the side with the heel of her boots and bent down, bound his hands tightly together and then his legs with the rope. She pulled the other side of the rope up, binding it on the hook at the back side of the horse’s saddle. Nadeer wrapped her one hand around Cassia’s arm preventing her from climbing the horse. Thoughts about binding Nadeer beside the lycan and dragging her around the City crossed Cassia’s mind. The monster inside her required the cascading of blood to satisfy its sick and maddening soul.

  "Stay out of this." She snarled at her and turned away.

  Gritting her teeth Cassia jumped on the brown saddle.

  It was two minutes from the temple to the castle and the roads were full of thorns and rocks. No matter what Cassia was or what she thought, no matter if the sight of blood turned her stomach upside down. No matter if a smaller, brighter piece of her, of what she was, screamed at her to let the lycan go and not torment him anymore.

  She couldn't do this.

  She set her jaw and tugged at the reins, turning the horse before letting it spring down the square and towards the northern road.

  Cassia could listen to the lycan behind her, shouting and asking for help, but she didn't turn, she didn't even spare another thought.

  She let the horse ran. And ran it did, up the hill, taking the longer road as if it had a mind of its own. Bluemane was the most cunning creature Cassia knew, but the most loyal also.

  She let it gallop on its own mind and managed to enclose her own thoughts away from the screaming and wincing lycan behind her.

  She only felt the approving glances of her people and nothing else. She took no excessive bliss in bringing pain. It was new to her, but that was what she felt; sadness. A wave of the utter need to stop and give the lycan back to Nadeer. She could faintly hear the pleading shouts of the female. She should have asked Cassia first, she should have told her the reasons Nadeer needed to heal the creature.

  Cassia did what she had to do to preserve the existence of her race, of her city.

  Every honourable leader would have done so.

  It was a tradition. If the lycan survived at the end, then Cassia was to spare his life and force Nadeer to take care of his wounds. That was the way the things were done in Cassia’s city for thousands of years, the Lords before her had done that, and so the Lords before them.

  She was a savage hybrid, a beast wrought from two different civilisations, human and Dark Elf. She was lethal, the most lethal elf in the King's court.

  The horse came to a halt at the entrance of the castle. It forced her to wake up from her own little world of misery. She shook her head; her face unfaltering as she dismounted the horse and let the rope fell from the hook of the saddle.

  She had done something terrible; it was the first time since the War, since she had led that city into glory, that she had dragged a being, with bound hands and legs, from her horse. Nadeer approached and fell on her knees beside the lycan. She wept and held his dirty head on her lap, her white frock strained and filthy by now.

  The scene before Cassia made her recoil in horror.

  What had I done?

  Monster or not if Nadeer was right, then that was the son of one of the strongest Lords in Aethos and he deserved to have a life that met up with the standards of his Territory, his City.

  Cassia shook her head. It didn't matter anymore. He must have been dead after all the torment she had bestowed upon him.

  "Is he alive?" Cassia’s voice was hoarse but stern and calculated. Nadeer nodded faintly. Cassia nodded in relief. She didn't know what she was going to do if he had been dead. "Guards, help the priestess bring the lycan in the castle, give her anything she needs." She shook her head and looked at the sky, hoping for a better tomorrow.

  5

  Cassia went down the snowy, white winter hill to the training grounds, the clattering of iron against iron went about the place and grunts and shouts travelled along it.

  She stepped into the cold armoury, the temperature even though somehow warmer; was still chilling. Her fingertips frozen underneath the leather gloves, she ignored the frostbite and shivered.

  The stools with the swords and the chain mail lay in ignorance of the arctic weather on their purple, velvety cushions. Cassia had her sword strapped to her belt, her dagger on her waist and her knives tucked beneath the sleeves of her jacket.

  Cassia passed through the small wooden door on the eastern wall of the armoury. Outside the bitter cold became more prominent and aggressive. She gave a stern look at the soldiers training. Their captains barked, their spines straightened and the silver armour glittered faintly in the sunlight. It was hard to train in snow, but it prepared the soldiers for winter battles.

  Cassia’s elven army was used to snow. The vast lands she had been given were coated in snowflakes throughout the year, even in summertime. Another curse courtesy of the King.

  Cassia’s keen eyes scanned the area searching for-

  The dark haired elven captain frowned and tapped his chin with his fingers, as he surveyed a pair of duelling soldiers on the ring before him.

  Ardan was a long life companion. They had fought side by side; they had run in the forests to hide when battles were deemed lost and they knew each other. Brother and sister, siblings with ties tougher than blood. She trusted him with everything she had. They had bandaged each other's wounds and had passed through flames and arrows together.

  Cassia sighed. Ardan had been most fortunate to have found his other half, his mate. Fortunate to know that he returned every night in his house and someone waited there for him, to talk with him, share his day, his toils and happiness.

  Shaking her head, Cassia went to stand by Ardan. Her fingertips fidgeting with the hilt of her sword, her thumb toying with the red gem in the middle. The dark haired elf turned his head, his dark green eyes searching hers as a devious smile reached his mouth. He shook his head and sighed, interpreting her silent innuendo with the sword.

  "I heard what happened." His voice was as strong as she remembered it. She hadn't seen him in a week.

  "It had to be done." Cassia cleared her throat and lowered her eyes, glaring at the patch of green peeking through the snow at her feet. "I tried not to hurt him, not as much as I should, at least."

  "I know. I know you, Sia."

  "I don't recognise myself anymore." She whimpered and raised her head towards Ardan. She didn't reciprocate his smile. Her soul was as frozen as the infertile lands she ruled. "We can spar,” she raised an eyebrow, trying to change the subject. "For old times' sake."

  He rolled his eyes in annoyance and grunted. "And return home to my mate with a broken rib?" He shook his head. "That's not going to happen anytime soon."

  "Afraid, are we?"

  "I am not afraid of a female." Cassia’s eyebrow rose higher if possible and threw him a sharp glare. "But I am afraid of you."

  She huffed noisily and narrowed her eyes. "Am I not a female?"

  "For the love of Nature, Sia." He exclaimed, a playful frustration evident in his voice. "Go bother some unknowing male. The last time I saw you with one, was that librarian dwarf. Are you certain you don't want my wife to play matchmaker again?"

  "Fine, then I'll train with your wife."

  "Yes, go-- What?" He shook his head as his eyes widened. "No, no, no! If you touch a hair of her precious blond locks, I will-"

  Cassia rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Anaysha,” she shouted, cutting Ardan mid-sentence. A blond female turned her head towards them before she moved gracefully on her long legs and bowed her head before raising her chin.

  Anaysh
a threw a glance at her mate behind Cassia, and said, "Sia, you called for me?"

  Cassia turned her head and took a look at Ardan's horrified face. "How is your swordsmanship, Ana?"

  "Absolutely horrible," Ardan said and came to stand between the two infernal she-elves. "Clumsy, terrifyingly inelegant and troll like. Oh! Look at the time. Anaysha must return home to take care of the children."

  Ardan yelped as Ana poked his side with the back of her sword "Ardan, dear." Ana pulled him away and threw him a devilish smile. "It's your turn today, remember?"

  Ardan grunted and turned towards Cassia, narrowing his emerald eyes, palming his sword, he said, "I'll skin you if you hurt her, princess or not, you are still my baby sister in arms so,” he cleared his throat and turned to his wife. "Kick her ass, baby." He walked away, throwing occasional glances across his shoulder, ensuring the safety of his mate.

  Cassia shook her head, chuckling softly. Ardan had always been a possessive bastard, but Ana knew the way to bend him to her will. Cassia’s heart clenched in her chest. "Grab your sword, Ana."

  "Show the way, Sia."

  Getting into the ring, Cassia’s senses heightened in a blink. She unsheathed her flamberge sword and moved away from Ana, her own hand over her longsword.

  Cassia stood in the centre, facing Ana, her fingers twitching against the leather. Memories from the War splashed before her eyes and she grunted, trying to shove them deep into her memory.

  Cassia couldn’t stand the remembrance of all that darkness, all those feelings of not knowing what do to, of not having a purpose for herself to fulfil her needs, her mental needs. Even though, she had drowned herself into the careful lines of war, dipped herself in blood and gore, she felt as if her life had no reason of existence. She was too much of a coward to dare face Death.

  She shook her head. She had to concentrate on what happened at the moment and forget the tides of those times. Times that she hadn't slept at nights, because of the twitching of her arms had become so violent from the hours of fighting her mind couldn't shut down, the cramps taking over her body as her mind went into a state of shock. War had left her ugly and broken. It was all she had left and she clung to this, never letting it go.