Chapter 317 (1/2)

Chapter 317

The journey to Eidelholh it took nearly two full days

We traveled in silence, uiding the rest of us carefully through the outskirts of Elshi+reHornfels and Skarn had it the hardest; they weren’t woodsroundThey hated thein puddles of mud…which happened often

Boo and Grawder, on the other hand, seemed completely at ho ahead, charging through the forest like a couple of wild ani in the soft soil or sniff after sohI knew that Boo would always be able to find his way back to h we stayed cautious, Tessia and Albold weren’t worried the Alacryans would find us in the forestThey expected that ould already be at Eidelhol, and the Alacryans couldn’t navigate Elshi+re well enough to have effective patrols

When we did actually talk, it was largely to discuss opti discoveredWhile neither Albold nor Tessia had a ood sense of what to expect by the tins of the Alacryans were all over the place before we got our first look at Eidelhol face down at the base of a dying treeA hole the size of an apple had been burned coh hiaze fixed on the sight, despite wanting to spin away and pukeThis was soet used to

Albold leaned over the corpse, his usual cheery expression nowhere to be found“He wasin silence, we didn’t linger to investigate ot closer to the village,carefully in case we ran into Alacryans in the woodsAs we approached, the sound of axes thudding into trees grew louder and louder

Tessia held up a closed fist, and we all went still and tenseShe leaned toward me and pointed aheadThe h to li mana, I enhancedatThere was no ht shi+ning on brown earth beyond

Then it snapped into placeWhere the sun shone, the forest siain until ere just at the edge of the treelineThe Alacryans had cut down all of the trees around Eidelhole field of deforested land lay between us and a sad, gray little town

I was sure the elven village must have been really pretty, once upon a tihs that s seereen roofs had turned brown like fallen leaves

I could see where a lot of the houses around the edge of the town had burned downA few square buildings, n, had been built in their place, and a handful of Alacryannor buckets of water or armloads of wood

Tessia stood to le of her body made her look like a predatorShe was so tense I could practically see her quivering, like a silver jaguar waiting for its prey

I wasn’t the only one who noticed

“Let’s find soht,” Curtis said, stepping up beside Tessia

“No,” Tessia said sihtAlbold, you and Curtis o eastKathyln, Skarn, and Hornfels, you three take the mana beasts and find someplace to shelter, somewhere we can use as a base of operations”

Curtis must have noticed the looks of confusion all around“I’ll be able to find Grahen the four of us meet back up after our circuit,” he explained“We always knohere the other is”

Skarn spit into the dirt“I can’t wait to be done with this hiking nonsenseC’reat brutes, you’re with us” This last was directed at Grawder and Boo, who looked hesitantly toward Curtis and me

“I’ll be back soon, Grawder,” Curtis said, s warh Boo’s fur, then scratched him under his chinHe looked at , I booped his nose“You stay with Grawder, sillyWe’ll be right back”

Curtis gave his sister a hug, and over his shoulder she shot rin

To the dwarves, Tessia said, “Thank you for being here, friendsThe elven people owe you a great debt”

Skarn sihtest bow“We’re all in this fight together nowIt’s Skarn’s and my hope that, some day, we’ll be able to free our own kin fro and queen GreysundersUntil such a tih, we’ll deliver our boots to Alacryan asses wherever we can find them”

Tessia returned the bow, then turned her turquoise eyes on me“Ready, partner?”

Partner…

It was strange, being referred to like that by herWe’d coe in the underground town after Arthur disappearedPastthis, but I sort of looked up to Tessia nowShe was also one of the few people that treated me…as meAnd Tessia had been the one to push for me to be involved, for me to have the chance to help our people

With a deep breath, I reached for the feeling deep in my core and manifested the first phase of my beast will“Yeah, I’lance at Boo, who stood up on his hind legs and waved one big paw, looking as sad as I’d ever seen him, I set off after Tessia

She led us east, always keeping under the cover of the treesWe e while I kept a lookout for any threats in the forest, especially Alacryan soldiers

We hadn’t beenfora whiff of so the undergrowth to hide as best we could while I searched for the source of the scent

“There,” Ielven woe tree less than twenty feet awayShe was carrying a wicker basket in the crook of one ar redacross the side and back of her neckShe walked with a slight limp

I was surprised to see that she wasn’t chained or manacled in any wayThere are probably other, less obvious ways to bind so to Tessia’s parents, the late king and queen of the elvesThe Alacryans are good at things like that

Distant shouting and the splintering crash of a falling tree irl stopShe stared sadly in the direction of the noise for a moment, then irl but stopped herselfIt looked like we both wanted to help her, but it wasn’t the right ti elf had ht, where she jogged aardly back toward the village

After that we crept along even e, butand s approachingWe’d gone a little e before I had to withdraw my beast will to rest

Shortly afterward, Tessia stiffened, then stabbed her thue berry bush

I couldn’t see anything, so I watched Tessia’s face carefully in case I needed to conjure an arrow in an instant, but after several long seconds she relaxed and stood upHesitantly, I followed her lead, my bow at the ready

Nearby, Albold stepped out froside Curtis, and I let out a relieved breath

“Things see the the prisoners yetYou?”

Albold nodded, face tense“Makeshi+ft cages—little e of townThere are a couple hundred prisoners at leastI counted thirteen guards”

“But only three es,” Curtis added“The rest were just normal soldiers—unadorned, they call thehtfully at a loose lock of her hair“Okay, you two complete your circuit, put a second set of eyes on this side of the villageEllie and I will take a look at the prisoners ourselves”

“There is a large logging party working on that side of town, tooWe had to go well out into the forest to avoid the, we said our farewells, then we split up again

As we rounded the far side of the village, the consistent thudding of axes into wood grew louder, and, as Albold had said, we found a group ofto fell, cut, and carry away lu I noticed was that all the workers were AlacryansIn fact, there were no elves assisting with the logging at all

We were crouched behind a naturally fallen tree a couple hundred feet fro them work

“Even under threat of death, my people wouldn’t cut down the trees,” Tessia whispered, answering my unasked question

Without another word, she took off deeper into the forest, giving the workers a wide berthIt didn’t take us long after that to find the roughly built cages were housing elves like animals ready to be butchered

It was hard to believe anyone could survive long in such awful conditionsThe elves were nearly all standing, their bodies pressed against one anotherThey had just enough rooesThe elves looked pale and thin, their dirty skin stretched too tightly across their faces, giving thees were hly milled frames connected by narrow planksI wondered for a moment why the elves didn’t try to break out, but then I realized that they were probably so tired and weak that they didn’t even have the strength to break the wooden slats, ht on an elven esHe was slulazedI couldn’t bear to continue looking at the sight of his body left to rot next to his own faers treht then and there

The voice in the back oflike a childIt re at these prisoners, though, I doubted that they would lastso at a makeshi+ft table made of a stumpI closed my eyes and activated

“—tired of the stinkBabysitting a bunch of unwashed, half-dead elves wasn’t what I had inthis place over, you know?”

“Telldown at us all the tirette, and she fulAre you going to take yourBut yeah, you’re rightI’m not sure e need a dauard these elves all by herselfIt’s those Milviews, I’hblood status, I’ll—”

But I lost track of the conversation for a rette, where have I heard of that name before?

I turned to Tessia to ask her, but she held up a hand

Not a second passed before a chill ran downup the deathly aura that s corpses nearby

Athe guardsHe looked like a walking skeletonHis face was pale and puffy, his eyes so sunken and dark that they looked like e to his forehead and cheeksHe was tall and aardly thin with sharp, spiderish lihted

The back of his robes were cut away, revealing a series of dark tattoos standing out against the white fleshHis spine and ribs were sharply defined, their gray shadows intersecting the sharply inked lines in a way I found gross…almost inhuman

Silently, the es, then stopped suddenly, just outside of the enclosure with the dead elf pressed against the barsHe turned to look at one of the guards, a thick-chested uards stood well back

“What happened here?” the pale uard“An early execution?”

“N-no, sirThey’re not in good healthA few have died of—of weakness”

“Is it not your job to guard the if most of them have already succumbed to their…weakness” The uard threw himself to one knee and bowed

“Of course, BilalWe will make sure the rest survive to be killed at the proper tiuards head“Just keep the for another day or two” He turned away fro out into the trees