10

Despite her best efforts, Miraveh couldn't stay awake any longer. She didn't know at what point her eyes closed, but she felt certain it wasn't long after she had sat down and taken a sip of the drink the elves had given her. The nightmares came and went, faces upon faces haunting her, but the nightmares did not wake her. Nor did the rising of the Sun. When she did open her eyes once more, she could tell most of the morning had passed.

"Better?" Sialira sat beside her now, wearing a plain, white shift, the elder elf away to the side, talking to a group of elves. "They gave us all sleeping draughts. They were quite open about it. Something about reading our intentions from dreams. You slept longer than any of us."

Miraveh snapped upright, her hand rising to her chest where she did not find the leather of her over-armour, her chainmail, or the padded under-armour. The elves had undressed her during the night and had clothed her in a simple, white shift. She felt something else upon her chest, also. A large leaf, the underside of which had some kind of paste spread upon it. She pulled the leaf away and saw that the bruising she surmised she had was not there.

There remained a light, yellow tinge to her skin, but a tentative press of the fingers told her that the bruising had all but disappeared. Likewise, the bruise to her side also held a leaf with the same paste. That bruise, too, had gone. She lifted her hand to her cheek, but the scar remained. Whatever magic the elves used to heal her bruising did not extend to cuts, it seemed.

"Gather our things and get Daras. If they allow it, we're leaving." Miraveh scowled as Sialira shook her head, pressing a hand on Miraveh's shoulder as she tried to stand. "Fine! You stay, but they drugged us. You trust them, I won't!"

"You know, these elves are wonderful people!" As though mentioning his name caused him to appear, Daras came to crouch beside Miraveh, offering her the cooked leg of some kind of bird. It smelled delicious. "Absolutely horrific for thieves. Apparently, if we want something, we can have it. Where's the fun in that?"

He, too, wore only a white shift, in his other hand, Daras held another leg of meat and offered it to Sialira. She smiled and picked a flake of meat from the bone, tossing it into her mouth. At some point along the journey, it appeared Sialira had come to like the man, despite his loud and often admission of his larcenous nature. If nothing else, that surprised Miraveh about the usual stiff and proper Sialira.

"How can you possibly be an effective thief if you keep telling everybody?" With a girlish giggle, Sialira grinned towards Daras and he gave her a wink in reply. "Well, I for one will count every coin I have before and after I sleep and if a single coin goes missing, you'll regret it."

"I would never take from one as lovely as you, my dear Sialira. Well, never say never, eh?" Again he winked, bobbing his head and waving his hand in a crouched bow. "And I am an exceptional thief despite telling people. It makes the entire prospect of thievery far more exciting."

Miraveh ran a hand through her hair aghast. Her two companions acted as though they weren't accosted in the middle of the night, drugged and disrobed without their consent. She took her hand from her head, pulling a strand of hair before her eyes. The elves had brushed her hair, too. This was not something she could understand.

The elves, to look at them, were hardy creatures, their clothing rough and practical. Their hooked noses, pointed ears and strangely coloured skins gave them a sinister air, yet they acted with pleasantness and courtesy, drugging them to sleep notwithstanding. Even now, the elder elf looked across to Miraveh, inclining her head in greeting, yet continuing to talk with her fellow elves.

"Don't you find this a little off? Our clothes, for instance?" She picked at the shift, looking around for her armour. Then she thought of something else, her hand dropping to her side. "My sword!"

"Calm down! Our clothing is being cleaned. They said we stank." Sialira shrugged and Miraveh couldn't argue with that. They hadn't bathed at all over the course of the days. "Your sword is there. One of their warriors was sharpening it when I woke up. He seemed to think it a sword of great value."

Miraveh looked behind her, where Sialira had pointed, and saw her sword, gleaming in the sunlight. It did, indeed, look as though someone had tended to it. Even the flap of leather that had hung loose, near the pommel, had become repaired. She reached over for it and placed the sword by her side, her eyes roving around the elves in the camp, wondering if any would try to take it from her.

"We have little to fear here, Miraveh." Daras' hand squeezed her shoulder. "Well, not from the elves, I think. They seem to think the Hunters O' The Dark are searching for them. And, apparently, there are monsters out here in the wilds. Something to do with the magic returning, I expect. There were no monsters when I came this way years ago."

"Well, I suppose they could have killed us while we slept." Her eyes fell upon the leg of meat still in Daras' hand, her stomach growled and Daras pressed it into her hand. "You don't know what it's like. Out in the wilds, you can't trust anyone. I know. Trust me."

"Well, Yusuvur seemed to trust the elves she had with her." Sialira rolled her eyes at Miraveh's grimace at the name. "If she trusts them, so shall I. She is the wisest of us, after all."

Miraveh couldn't agree with that, though she doubted Sialira would listen were Miraveh to recount some of the many tales she could tell about the older Witch. Miraveh had seen Yusuvur make mistakes, trust the wrong people, perform terrible deeds, all in service of her mission. Yusuvur was not perfect, in any sense, nor was she the most wise. She manipulated people, people like Sialira, and it was often those manipulated by Yusuvur that inevitably suffered.

"Well, until you two decide what we're doing, I'm going to find me an elf with a chalk-white face and one ear." Daras stood, looking from Sialira to Miraveh as their eyes questioned him. "He performed a sleight-of-hand earlier that I've never seen before. I simply must learn it. You never know when these talents can come in handy."

With that, Daras set off towards one side of the camp, stopped, turned a different way and began to grin as he moved away to find the talented elf. Nothing seemed to bother the man. Even back in Kubsa, though afraid for his hand, he had seemed almost amused at the actions of the crowd he had tried to cheat. Miraveh had never met anyone like him.

That left Miraveh alone with Sialira once more and an awkward silence covered them like a blanket. They had not spoken properly since Miraveh's outburst days before. The girl had continued on the journey south reluctantly. Miraveh knew she was right, however. Yusuvur knew how to take care of herself and, if the Hunters O' The Dark did attempt to spread their influence north, they would find a land, and Witches, experienced in battle.

The north had suffered many hardships during the past few years. The Shade of Xirasir had attempted to take the north as a stepping stone to the rest of the world and the north had paid dearly for it, with only Alsurna region and Donsa saved from the worst of it by virtue of being where Kay had grown up.

Sialira had never seen Yusuvur during those years. Not truly. Yusuvur had made visits to the city and to the tower of the Coven of Scales, but she played a part there. Beyond those city walls, Yusuvur had a ruthlessness about her that few had witnessed. Miraveh had.

"Would it hurt to take advantage of this hospitality?" Sialira broke the silence first, her hands rose and fell, slapping upon her thighs as though she could not fathom Miraveh's reticence. "You don't have to trust them, not completely, but this is the first rest we've had in days. I'm sure you could forge an escape if we need it. Just a little longer?"

Miraveh frowned at that. Sialira had far more confidence in Miraveh's abilities than she did. With a glance around, Miraveh counted far more than the dozen-or-so elves she had thought surrounded them the night before. Far more. She doubted they could make it ten feet before becoming recaptured if they tried to escape. But, then, they weren't really captors. They had no bindings about their hands or legs, no guards, no eyes watching them.

No eyes, except for those of the elder elf and those eyes held curiosity and interest, not animosity or ill-intent. At least, not that Miraveh could see. The elder elf placed the flat of her palm on the chests of those she spoke to, in turn, and they began to disperse, leaving the elder elf to turn towards Miraveh, smiling.

Miraveh gave Sialira a half-hearted nod, telling her they could stay. If only for long enough for Miraveh to learn everything she could from the elder elf.

-+-

The elder elf waited for Miraveh to get dressed in her now-clean clothing after washing herself down with water provided by the same elf. It seemed they were hospitable and friendly, but Miraveh couldn't bring herself to relax. Once dressed, her sword fastened to her belt, Miraveh felt a little more comfortable. Safe.

A look of mild amusement told her that the elder elf knew very well Miraveh's feelings and didn't appear to mind the distrust. She inclined her head, urging Miraveh to join her, and they began to walk. The camp soon showed itself to be far larger than Miraveh had thought, stretching for some distance, huddled in crevices and dips in the terrain. They walked for a while and Miraveh looked back to see that, even after a short walk, the camp looked all but invisible to prying eyes.

After a while, climbing to the top of a ridge, Miraveh found herself looking out across a sea. She hadn't realised how close they had come to the Sea of Baerakis and, far out beyond the waters, she saw the plume of smoke and ash that rose from the great volcano at the centre of the sea. Mount Trevidor. She had only ever heard of that volcano in tales.

"This was once land as far as the eye could see." The elder elf swept her hand out, taking in the mountains a little further to the south and east that encircled the sea. "Our people lost their lands once, because of the Mountain-That-Fell and again when magic left this world. Twice, the elves have searched for a new home, now. Though I fear we will not find one. Humans have spread far and wide during The Slumber."

She turned her back to the mountains and the sea and the plume of ash that never settled, facing Miraveh, and waited. Miraveh had read about the Mountain-That-Fell, and of the time when magic became ripped from the world. She had read about the elves. Once, as a girl, she had not seen the need to learn to read. Now, she wished she could have read more. She had no idea what to say to the elf.

"Who are you? Why treat us so well when humans hunt your kind?" She glanced away, searching the horizon. Even now looking for a way south, towards the isthmus and beyond. "Why are you here?"

"All good questions! I am Laloruntir, matriarch of this band of nomads. Though what I did in my previous lives to deserve such a burden, I could not say." Laloruntir laughed. A strange, young laugh that seemed out of sorts with her appearance. Large nosed, small, black eyes and rutted, dark grey skin. "We treat you well because that is our way. Don't let our weaponry fool you, we dislike fighting, though we do when we must. Ah, and why we are here ..."

Her words trailed away and she turned, once again, to the mountains and the sea beyond. A stray wind blew, catching Laloruntir's stringy hair, lifting it and showing her pointed, elven ear, as though to remind Miraveh that they were not the same race, though it was all too obvious. A sadness passed across Laloruntir's features and Miraveh almost felt the weight of the time the elves had lost.

She could understand, to a point, that loss. When she had returned to Donsa, she too had felt loss, though she hadn't truly lost her home village. It had felt both exactly the same as the village she and Kay had slipped away from during a moonless night, but crushingly different. The people the same, yet not. Even after three months, she had only begun to reintegrate with her fellow villagers and yet still felt apart.

"I couldn't begin to imagine what this world must look like to you." Miraveh followed Laloruntir's eyes, wondering what she searched for. "Things must be so different. The land must be the much the same, though? Centuries mean nothing to mountains."

"We had a city here." A long finger pointed towards a space between two of the mountains and then pointed to other places. "And there, and there. We built them to watch the sea. A first line of defence against the creatures that called Trevidor home. Gone. All gone. Centuries ago for humans. Yesterday for us."

Miraveh felt a shiver run down her back. She felt the weight of those centuries press upon her. Where Laloruntir had pointed, she could see no sign of cities. No towers, no walls. No straight lines at all. Only the mountains and the vast sea. They had nothing. Had returned from their ages-long sleep to nothing. At least Miraveh had familiar faces and places to welcome her back.

With a sigh and a shrug, Laloruntir turned away from the view before them and began to head back towards the damp, as though everything she had said had explained everything she needed it to, but Miraveh still felt as much in the dark as before. None of it explained why the elves camped here, where they could fall under attack from the Hunters O' The Dark at any moment. Then a thought came to her and she looked back towards the spot Laloruntir had pointed.

"You think something is still there, somewhere." She ran to catch up to Laloruntir. "You're searching for a home."

"We are of the same ilk, you and I." With agility belying her age, Laloruntir skipped over a wide gap in the ground. "We are both Seekers who do not, or, in my case, did not want that burden. I tried to avoid my duty, ignored my responsibilities to my people, until a Witch gave me hope and purpose. She showed me that duties and responsibilities need not be burdens at all."

Another shiver ran through Miraveh and she stopped dead in her tracks. She had thought it strange that the elf had known about her destined calling, that she was, as Yusuvur and others had put it, a 'Seeker', but she had put that down to magic of some kind. An elven magic that allowed them to see the purpose of people.

Now, as she thought about it, why did Laloruntir then need to press her fingers upon Miraveh's temple to read her intentions? Why was touch required for the one and not the other? It had all appeared coincidental, but coincidences rarely happened as most people thought. Most coincidences required a push.

"Yusuvur! You speak of Yusuvur!" Anger welled up inside Miraveh, even before Laloruntir turned to look at her, a knowing smile upon her lips. "This is a trap. Oh, I know! You're not violent. It's a different kind of trap. One to make me do her bidding!"

"My child, she merely thought you needed ..." Laloruntir held out her arms to show she meant no harm, but Miraveh shook her head.

Even here, Yusuvur had her tentacles reaching out toward her. How the once 'Barren Witch' had managed to inform Laloruntir of her coming, Miraveh couldn't begin to imagine. Knowing Yusuvur, this trap could have been laid months ago, schemes upon schemes upon schemes, waiting for something, or someone, to trigger them.

Or the Witch could have some way of communicating with Laloruntir via magic. Or she had used a portal to reach here and then transported herself away again. Still sticking her fingers in Miraveh's life. She would not have it! Miraveh felt dizzy but shied away the comforting hand of Laloruntir until she realised that the elder elf had not done any of this with ill-intent. She truly thought she was helping. She had no idea what Yusuvur was like.

"I'm sorry, Laloruntir, but you have been used." Taking a deep breath, Miraveh attempted to calm herself before the elder elf. "Yusuvur expects too much of people and cares little about how it affects others. I hope you find some remnant of your past, I truly do, but my way leads elsewhere. To the south, to the isthmus and on to the Southern Lands. I am seeking something, just not what she wants me to seek."

"If you intend travelling along the finger of land to the south, then there is something you need to know." Laloruntir took Miraveh's hand between both of her own. "Great danger lies that way. A danger this land has not seen since magic left the world."

As Laloruntir explained things to Miraveh, she started to understand how greatly the world had changed since the return of magic. She had seen some changes but they had seemed somewhat small. Not trivial, but also not anything that could cause great concerns. She had seen a fair few magical creatures. Faeries, pixies, even. And, of course, elves. It had never occurred to her that, along with these magical creatures, others would arise.

But arise they had and, if nothing else made her reconsider her journey south, this did. Though, gods help her, she still wanted to go.