Adrift
around Ralowyn as she treaded water to keep herself afloat. The slender elf shifted her weight to tread the water primarily with her legs. She would not be able to stay afloat forever. The great swells of the Gant Sea would eventually swallow her, and not a soul would know her fate. She decided she would not give in easily to such an undesirable end to her life. Her arms stiffened, reaching her hands below the surface for the Staff of Anvelorian. She’d unfortunately dropped the artifact when she was propelled from Henry’s spiraling body after the pegasus had been struck down.
She reached into the deep, hoping beyond hope to feel the artifact through the dense waters. She had been able to pull the staff toward her through the air many times in the past. It was an act that had become almost thoughtless for her. It was easy because she had always been connected to it with an invisible tether. But then, it had always been nearby. Reaching through the salty waters, she could not sense its presence.
Ralowyn spluttered and coughed as she accidentally slipped beneath the surface. Several tears escaped her eyes and joined the rest of the saltwater. She was unsure what she could do.
The elf thought about her memories with Merrick. She recalled the way his eyes looked at her when he smiled. She saw his shoulder-length brown hair tousled by the wind as they crossed the paddock overlooking the city of Calrok.
She had grown fond of the huntsman. Though he still had a boyish way about him and liked to have fun, she found him to have a deep side that surpassed his years. Like her, he’d experienced deep heartache. People who’ve lost loved ones share an inexpressible understanding.
Her vision flashed to an imagined sight of him struggling in a tangled net with Valurwind unintentionally crushing him and pushing him deeper under the water while they wrestled for air.
Ralowyn’s eyes snapped open.
She didn’t know if Merrick was alive, but she would not succumb to the deep, nor to despair. This would not be how their story ended, and she would not resolve herself to such a fate.
The elf centered her breathing and extended a single slender hand through the waters. As her head slipped under the surface of the water and she began to sink, she reached with all her might, focusing her mind and will on a singular point. Her heart pounded in her chest, reverberating through her limbs and head.
There.
She felt something far below the surface cutting through the water, hurtling toward her. In a moment, she saw a lavender light rippling through the dim. The Staff of Anvelorian broke the surface of the water in an exciting fashion, like a whale breaching in a celebratory leap.
A whale, Ralowyn thought. The pinnacle of the silver staff burst with magical light, and her eyes blazed with a lavender hue. She reached out with her heart and mind for help. Shortly, she heard the haunting echo of whale song. The great vibrations resonated through the water and into her body.
The elf shed more tears, but these were filled with joy. Her silvery hair splayed out in the water like some strange tentacled sea creature as she peered below her to view the great mass of whale that drew near.
With the Staff of Anvelorian firmly in her grasp and her new friend there to help, Ralowyn’s outlook shone brighter. She still did not know what was happening on the enemy ship or whether Merrick had even survived. She did know two things: she would stop at nothing to find the huntsman and she needed help.
When Tanessa had burst through the door of Calrok’s modest mage library, Smarlo had been in the middle of reading a rather fascinating excerpt on the innate magical properties of celeris crystals in old Master Kanjor-Pukra’s tome Magic of Mines, Their Monsters, and Minerals. She’d startled him, and his first reaction was to laugh. He was no longer laughing.
Tanessa hurriedly explained what had happened in the middle of the night at their home and started weeping. The slender orc mage could hardly process what she told him. As he rushed with her back to his gar’s home, he hadn’t been sure what to expect. As Smarlo observed the stone-skinned creature, unconscious and tied up before him, he knew he couldn’t have expected the reality he faced.
The sunlight beamed through the opening of the stable, landing on the creature’s form as it slowly rose and fell with the rhythm of its breaths. The smell of hay and leather permeated the area. The sun was warming the world, and the wind rustled the long grass in the paddock outside the stable.
Smarlo’s eyes darted to Tanessa at the entrance. She watched the house carefully, not paying attention to the strange creature whose deep breathing made the only noise inside the stable. Smarlo’s long ears twitched with sympathy. Tanessa had always been good to him. He and Karnak had been best friends, even when they were young. Long ago when Karnak had fallen for the charming orc woman, Smarlo had felt a hint of jealousy at losing his friend’s attention. That was short-lived. He had grown to love Tanessa as a sister.
“And there was an elf, as well?” Smarlo asked gently.
Tanessa didn’t look away from the house. “Yes. Dressed in black.”
“And what did he say about our stony friend here again?”
“Just that they weren’t even really friends, like their working together was some sort of necessary inconvenience for him.”
“I see.” Smarlo nodded, staring at the creature before him. “And Karnak, Merrick, and Ralowyn went after the elf?”
“Yes.” Tanessa sighed. She seemed as though she were trying to keep herself from breaking down into another fit of sobs. “But they’ve been gone for so long.”
“And you said Merrick flew back to retrieve Ralowyn and Ker?”
“Yes. Merrick came back and shouted for Ralowyn to get Ker from the cliffs. Then they were off again.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, hugging herself closely.
Smarlo strode to her and placed a long hand on her shoulder. “Tanessa, you’re tired. It’s been a horrible night. You should get some rest.”
“How can I rest? Karnak is out there, and I have no idea what’s happening.”
Big tears escaped her eyes. She scrunched her face, trying to fight them back.
“But your son is safe. Gernot is unhurt. He’ll be shaken, I’m sure. But for now, he rests, and you should too. Go be with him. I will watch this one,” Smarlo said, jutting a thumb toward the unconscious prisoner. “Karnak and the others are probably trying to sort this all out. By now I’m sure they’ve already caught up to the fiend and are questioning him. I sent Taglan to find Belguv, and he’ll rally the squadron. I’m sure they’re already in the air and flying our way. I’ll have them look for Karnak. If we still haven’t heard from the others by nightfall, we will start to worry then.”
“You should already be worried.” A coughing laugh resounded behind them. “Her husband is already dead.”
Tanessa picked up a nearby shovel and charged toward the prisoner. Smarlo grabbed her and held her back.
“No! What do you know?” she shouted.
The stony face turned into a jagged smile.
“Tanessa, wait! We can get information from him.” Smarlo struggled to explain while the enraged wife fought to get at the prisoner.
“Information won’t help you.” The creature sneered. “A shadow is rising. It already looms over Kelvur. The world you know is coming to an end. It will be dashed upon the rocks like the waves. The tide of war will wash you away, and you can do nothing to stop it.”
“Kelvur?” Smarlo asked.
“You know nothing!” The stony prisoner laughed and shook his head.
“What of my husband?” Tanessa growled at him.
The prisoner clicked his tongue. “He is most likely dead. He wasn’t even the one we wanted. The sorcerer sent us for the—”
Suddenly, the stony prisoner stopped speaking and expelled an odd guttural sound. His eyes widened, and his mouth gaped. Pain and surprise crept across his face, and he hunched over again.
Smarlo and Tanessa looked at each other, confused.
The orc mage took a step closer to inspect the creature. He wasn’t breathing. Smarlo grabbed at him and shook him. “No. What?”
“What is it?” Tanessa asked in a quiet panic.
“He’s dead,” Smarlo said. He indicated a small feathered barb that protruded from the prisoner’s neck. “Someone killed him. Someone’s here!”
Tanessa didn’t hesitate. She bolted from the stables, straight to her house. Smarlo followed her into the sunlight, trying to spot the attacker. He saw no one.
He ran into the house, finding Tanessa rocking Gernot in her arms, tears streaming down her face.
Smarlo’s heart dropped, but when Gernot pushed at his mother, trying to escape her tight squeeze, relief flooded the mage.
“Is everything alright in here?” Smarlo asked, his heart thumping so hard he felt it in his long green ears.
“Yes,” Tanessa managed to say through her sobs.
Smarlo made a quick sweep through the house to ensure no unwanted parties were present and ran back outside.
The sun was shining like a normal day in Calrok. The outside warmth and the smell of the paddock flowers contrasted the dread that Smarlo experienced within. Something was very wrong in Finlestia.
Targ, the youngest among the Scar Squadron, was assigned to guard Tanessa and Gernot. Members of the squadron had buzzed around the place throughout the day. The squadron had found no sign of Karnak or the others, despite the long day of searching. Smarlo had received regular reports on the flight patterns of the wyvern riders searching for their friends as they tackled the areas around the city in planned patterns. Their searching had thus far resulted in nothing, but Belguv pressed the squadron on, expanding their search area.
Master Tan-Kro, the elder mage of Calrok and the keeper of the city’s modest mage library, was informed of the situation and joined Smarlo in the stable. By the time the older mage arrived at Karnak’s house, Smarlo had searched all the stone-skinned prisoner’s pockets for any clue as to its identity but had found little.
Laid out before the orc mage were a couple of items, seemingly of limited informational value. A small pouch held a couple pieces of dried meat. Smarlo could not guess the source of the meat. Three coins were emblazoned with indistinguishable markings. They didn’t appear to be very valuable in Smarlo’s estimation. The strangest of the items was a small piece of blank parchment.
Smarlo had shifted the stony corpse into a prone position to get a better look at him. His build was not so different from that of an orc. His muscled arms and barrel chest were larger than Smarlo’s, but the mage was a tall and slender orc. The creature had more the build of a large orc like Karnak. It had eyes and teeth much like theirs, and where hair should have been, strange patches of moss grew. As odd as those were, the stony skin perplexed the orc mage most. In all his years, he’d never read anything about such a creature.
When Master Tan-Kro entered the doorway into the stable, Smarlo was jolted from his speculations.
“What in Finlestia …?” The old orc mage trailed off.
“It’s good you’re here,” Smarlo half-greeted him. “I’ve found little on his person, just some small things.”
“Even small things can be big if you look at them the right way,” Tan-Kro said quietly as he circled and inspected the stony corpse.
“A pouch of dried meat, some coins, and some blank parchment,” Smarlo said flatly.
“And the markings on the coins?” Tan-Kro asked like a teacher quizzes a pupil.
“Vague, hard to make out. They seem old, worn—like they’ve been used for centuries. They don’t look familiar.”
Smarlo handed the coins to Master Tan-Kro. The old orc examined them with his long, knobbled green fingers. A white eyebrow shot up, and for a moment, Smarlo thought the Master might be able to tell him something about them.
“They do not seem very valuable,” Tan-Kro said.
“I didn’t think so, either.”
“But they also don’t look like they’re from Tarrine.”
Smarlo paused. In his mind, that conclusion made sense. The creature had mentioned Kelvur, and nothing about this creature had been familiar. Why couldn’t it be from Kelvur or somewhere else outside Tarrine? The problem was that the only interaction they’d had with someone outside of Tarrine was the dark sorcerer Jaernok Tur. If their stony-faced attacker was from Kelvur as well, it meant they may be in for a whole lot more interaction with Kelvurians, and they had proven to be anything but friendly.
“Kelvur,” Smarlo replied.
Master Tan-Kro appraised the corpse again, placing the coins back on the ground where Smarlo had organized them before his arrival. “Why Kelvur?” Tan-Kro asked.
“The creature spoke of a shadow that covers Kelvur, and he mentioned that the sorcerer sent them. Jaernok Tur is the only Kelvurian we’ve seen here in … who knows how long. Records of Kelvur are limited. Also, we followed Karnak and Merrick’s tracks to the cliffs down the coast. It seems they pursued the attackers out to sea.”
“And no sign of them?”
“No,” Smarlo answered. He was frustrated by their lack of results. “Belguv took others with him to fly over the sea. They will likely find nothing. There won’t be any footprints on the waves.”
“True,” the old orc agreed airily. “But there is always something to find if one looks hard enough.”
Smarlo scratched at his long green ear to fight his growing irritation. He loved Master Tan-Kro. The old orc mage had been a fine mentor to him all these years. But, he didn’t have time for the mage’s ambiguous colloquialisms. They’d been at this all day. The night was coming, and they had little to show for their efforts. They had no information to put into action. With Karnak gone, oversight of the Scar Squadron rested on Smarlo, the second-in-command. With no information, what command could he give? He felt stuck, with a growing tightness in his stomach.
“You look tired,” Tan-Kro said bluntly.
Smarlo laughed. “I am.”
“Have you eaten?”
“No.” Smarlo admitted.
“Perhaps we get someone to help us bring all this to the library where we can protect and inspect it further. We can get some food to renew our strength. It may be a long night.”
Master Tan-Kro sounded like a compassionate father. In truth, he had been like a father to Smarlo as he’d grown up under the older orc’s tutelage. He appreciated that Tan-Kro still cared deeply for him.
“You’re right. I’ll have someone bring the corpse to the library. I’ll take these with me.” Smarlo picked up the pouch of dried meats, the coins, and the parchment and tucked them in an inner pocket of his robes.
When they stepped outside, one of the orcs that had gone with Belguv’s search party was just dismounting from a distressed wyvern in the paddock. As the orc ran over to him, Smarlo assumed he’d worked the wyvern to a great speed in order to get there. Hope rose in the orc mage.
“What is it? What have you found?” Smarlo asked.
“We found …” The orc gulped a breath. “We found the she-elf!”
“Ralowyn?” Smarlo asked to clarify, though Tanessa had told him the attacking elf had been a male.
“Yes,” the orc said, shaking his head in disbelief. “She was atop a … a whale!”
“Atop a whale?” Smarlo’s facial features contorted.
“The creature was bringing her to the coast.”
“Where is she now?” Smarlo pressed him.
“Belguv sent me to tell you. He flew out to talk to her. They are coming back to Calrok.”
Smarlo turned to Master Tan-Kro who’d been listening with great interest. “Kelvur,” the younger mage stated as though there could be no doubt that all signs pointed to the lands across the sea.
“Perhaps,” Tan-Kro replied.
“We may need to reach out to our friends. I sense this is going to be bigger than we expect.”
Master Tan-Kro nodded thoughtfully.
Smarlo whipped open the side of his cloak and sifted through the layers until he reached the pocket he was looking for. From it, the orc mage procured a small abalone seashell.
He whispered something to it, and a small orb of light flickered into existence, floating just above the shell in his hand. The light licked the colorful shell, dazzling the messenger orc still standing nearby.
Smarlo paused under the dusky sky gathering his thoughts and looking at the scene before him. He’d always loved the view from Karnak’s home. He’d spent many evenings there with his best friend, gazing over the city of Calrok and out to the sea. He worried for his friend, wondering where the big orc was, but dared to believe that Karnak was still alive and well.