Excerpt
Chapter 1
- Ledrelyen
Fluffy white
clouds floated in the blue afternoon sky.
Sparrows, robins, and jays chirped merrily in the lush
green trees below. Squirrels
scampered across branches.
Through the lush green grassland just miles west of the
forest, the Ama’lonn River rippled and flowed, a furrow of
sapphire in the emerald countryside.
The pink amalin flowers that gave the river its name were
in full bloom, strewn abundantly through the soft green grass.
The elven
princess Ledrelyen sat atop a turret’s balcony of Castle
Nathwenar, overlooking the land, her legs dangling over the
parapet. She was
only six, but she could still appreciate the wonder of her
father’s kingdom. Someone
would likely have been upset had they seen her perched in this
precarious position. Her mother probably would have screamed.
The thought had not really even crossed Ledrelyen’s
childish mind. Everyone
in the castle was far too busy these days to pay much attention
to her, so it had made for a delightful game to steal furtively
away from all the hubbub. Now
she had escaped, and sat alone here in calm innocence, taking in
the wonderful scene. She
was clad in a dress of emerald hue, the long sleeves decorated
with thin traceries of pretty leaf patterns.
A gentle breeze blew past her pointed ears and ruffled
her long golden hair, adorned with a headband of solid diamond
from her father and a flower she had picked near the river.
It had been a few days since the young princess was
allowed outside the castle, but the stalwart amalin flower still
clung to its vibrant color, which was the most beautiful shade
of pink at the base fading artfully up the petals to white
edges. Something
was happening outside, something she understood only to the
extent that it was keeping her inside the walls of Nathwenar.
She paid it little heed.
Ledrelyen loved life in her blissful innocence, for her
father, King Vamendrae, ruled in a time of peace and prosperity.
Today this time would change.
From a high tower
came the resonant sound of a silver horn, followed by the
commanding voice of an elven captain. “Black ones on the northwest horizon! The Darians have come! To
arms! ‘Tis the
Black Legion! To
arms!”
Ledrelyen leapt
to her feet, standing now upon the very edging of the balcony,
her hands upon the raised stone beside her as she peered out
toward the horizon. Someone
had told her several days ago which direction northwest was, but
it took her a moment to rediscover it.
Eventually her eyes, young but gifted with the keen
vision of elvenkind, settled on the black mass a few miles away
on the grassy plain. A
deep-set fear emerged in her mind, but her eyes were riveted to
the scene. The wind
blew against the folds of her dress as she stared out toward the
approaching dark shape. Before
long she saw that it was in fact a cloud of many shapes,
thousands, the shapes of men marching over the grass. Black
flags whipped in the wind above them, and their raiment was
dark, darker than any she had ever seen.
Minutes passed—or perhaps hours, time was not chief
among Ledrelyen’s concerns—as the black-clad men drew
closer.
“Lara’nai!”
an elven captain yelled the order to fire.
Quick sounds then came to her ear, almost like swiftly
uttered whispers, as barely visible blurs flew from the
battlements below her out toward the approaching army.
Down upon the grass, men cried out and fell to the ground
by the hundreds. Arrows…but
they were more than just arrows. They were the legendary weapons of the elves.
These dark men had provoked their anger somehow, and even
Ledrelyen knew that they would now pay dearly for their mistake.
As the front
ranks fell away, the flanks of the Black Legion split away
toward the sides of the castle.
One flank headed in her direction.
More elves lined up on the walls to meet their advance.
Then, near the rear of the black army came a great burst
of flame, catching Ledrelyen’s eye as it seemed to gather in
about itself and grow brighter.
Ledrelyen could hear the rumble and then a great whoosh
as the ball of flame surged up into the air.
The cloud of arrows was lost to sight in the fire surging
toward the ramparts some distance away to her left, and then it
struck the wall.
The castle shook
with the thundering boom. Ledrelyen
screamed as she was thrown from her feet back onto the balcony,
bruising her arm. She whimpered. Somewhere
below the balcony she could hear an elf yelling. “Ladders! They’re
mounting the wall here! To
my side--ah!” He
was cut short as a bow twanged from amidst the Darians.
The clang of steel against steel met Ledrelyen’s ears.
She started to
push herself up from the ground when suddenly the door leading
back into the tower banged open. A dark-haired man in ragged black clothing stood with his
longsword in his gloved hand.
“Well, what
have we here?” he said menacingly, stepping toward her.
Then from the
doorway a feathered shaft imbedded itself in his back.
Ledrelyen turned and gasped in relief when she saw an
elven warrior standing at the door, longbow in hand.
“‘Twill be
the last time you challenge us, filthy Darian,” he said to the
collapsing man in black. “Come,
princess.”
The elf took
Ledrelyen’s hand and rushed her away.
Back through the door, down a flight of stairs and across
the ramparts they went. Ledrelyen
ran alongside him as fast as she could, panting and crying the
whole way. She
could hear swords clashing and the twang of archers loosing
arrows…and here and there she saw that dreadful fire, its
smoke rising to the blue sky. Where was Daddy? Where
was Mommy? What
was happening?
Finally the elf
stopped. They stood
at the edge of the battlements. The deep blue moat lay below.
Another warrior elf ran out a tower door, sword drawn.
“The black ones
are coming up, Aa’ren!” he said.
“We must flee from this place!”
With a nod from
the first elf, the two grabbed Ledrelyen and jumped off the
ramparts. The gray
wall slid away behind them as they plummeted into the moat with
a huge splash. Ledrelyen
panicked as her vision was consumed in swirling bubbles and
waves. She clung to
the elves with all her little might, but the moat tugged them
from her grasp. She
floundered underwater, frantically striving for the surface. Then someone hauled her up out of the moat into a small
crammed longboat. Ledrelyen
sat there for a minute in the stern of the boat, coughing up
water and sobbing for breath.
She could see that her boat was not alone.
There were a few floating in the moat, all crammed with
elves and a few husky dwarves. They shouted hurriedly amongst each other, pulling out oars
and fitting arrows to bows.
The boats began to sluggishly crawl out of the moat
toward where it joined with the Ama’lonn River.
A volley of arrows flew up into the air and came down
onto the small fleet. Ledrelyen
gasped as the second elf that had saved her fell, an arrow
lodged in his chest. Elves
shot back at the Darian bowman, now collecting on the castle
walls. Dwarves frantically rowed, stretching their powerful
muscles to the very limit.
Accelerating, the boats cut through the water, barely
evading volleys of arrows that nipped menacingly into the water
just behind. In
minutes they were out of range.
The cries and
sounds of battle soon died down.
Elves now crowded around Ledrelyen, concerned but unsure
how to help. A
dwarf pushed his way through, motioning for the elves to move
back.
“All right,
lads, give the poor little maid some air,” he knelt beside the
sobbing child, gently patting her back.
“There, there, me lassie.
Those blaggards in the black won’t be botherin’ us
now, the pesky Darians. M’name’s
Baltofus, but my little friends can call me Baltie.”
Baltofus laid Ledrelyen down in his lap.
To the girl the world seemed to calm again as the water
rushed by along the sides of the boat and the dwarf stroked her
hair tenderly, whispering to the elf warrior who saved her,
“Look at that! She
still has ‘er daddy’s diamond headband, and after all that!
I tell yer laddie, God’s pertectin’ our little
princess. She’s
somethin’ special.”
As Ledrelyen
drifted off to sleep in the dwarf's lap, she thought about the
day’s drastic happenings.
She didn’t know these Darians, but someday, someday,
she thought, she would put an end to them.
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