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Chapter 36 - Without a trace

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Luke tapped his fingers along the hilt of his sword, focussing on not looking down the hole for the fifth time this minute.

They’ll be fine, he told himself. They can handle it.

He glanced instead at the Silverborn pairs in the woods behind him patrolling the perimetre, then at the ones across the gaping hole in Naisha’s ground. Seeing nothing unusual, he returned his gaze to scanning the horizon.

Did the elves refer to it as the ground or as the roof? he wondered. When you spent most of your time underground, he supposed it would be the latter, but wouldn’t that make it underroof and not underground? The line of mental questioning occupied him for several minutes, but the frail attempt at diverting his attention wasn’t enough to keep his eyes from drifting back, hoping to see a head pop out from the darkness.

He whacked his head, resolving to ask Skye when they were back in Alguarde. Not before, because they were going to make it there with one more elf than they’d left with.

Luke swapped the hand that held his blade, feeling the shield slung over his shoulder become heavier. Deities, why had Tayne left him behind? Anything could have happened down there. Logic told him he was doing more good up here keeping watch, but his heart told him he should be down there beside his friends facing whatever dangers might’ve come.

Tayne told you to stay up here, so that’s what you’re going to do, he told his legs. Blaze is comfy where she is. Lots of manoeuvring room.

He whistled three ascending notes. A few seconds later, the descending reply came from across the chasm. Luke nodded and inhaled through his nose. All was well, for now at least.

Deities be damned, what was taking them so long?

Luke wrinkled his nose as something caught his attention for the six thousandth time in two seconds. All was well except for the black portal hovering in the sky like an all-seeing eye. That thing creeped him out.

Blaze nickered quietly underneath him, the rumbled vibration conveying her warning through his legs. Luke followed her gaze and found himself staring at the rubble Tayne had disappeared down. A scrabbling noise, like falling rocks echoed from its depths.

“Luke!” a voice cried.

Upon hearing his name Luke flew from the saddle. This was it, what he’d been waiting for in one form or another. He moved quickly to the edge and peered over, finding himself staring at the face of one of the knights Tayne had taken with him.

“Where are you! Luke! Silverborn! Anyone!”

Dread settled in his stomach. The knight was injured. “Aye! What happened?” he asked, although scenarios were already spiralling around his head.

Ambush. Mistake. Betrayal.

There is no way Donovan followed me.

The injured Silverborn raised his hand, shielding his eyes against the light. “Oh deities you’re still here. Luke, they’re gone!”

“Who’s gone? Where?”

“Skye! Tayne, Wrain, Jesse, all of them!”

“Where?”

The Silverborn at the bottom of the rubble waved his hands in the air. “I don’t know! Poof! They were there and they weren’t and oh deities how could they do this?” He began to pace. “I always knew the corruption was evil, but deities how are we supposed to fight against this?”

Luke waited out the Silverborn’s confusing rant, hoping for useful information. When none came, he made a decision. He had to go down. If they were truly missing, he needed to act fast. They couldn’t be far.

“Rayume! Curader! With me, we’re going down!” he called behind him. The two answered quickly. He noted Curader reaching for his daggers. “Draw your weapons once we get down the bottom. We don’t want to deprive a demon of a chance to impale you.”

Curader gave him a wry smile at that, but put the daggers back in their sheaths beside his sword.

The injured Silverborn, Pep, he could see now, clutched his weapon tightly with eyes darting into the darkness as he waited for them to descend. Luke clapped his hand on the knight’s shoulder, signalling to lead on.

“Demons. Careful,” said Pep. “They only started appearing after she came and took them.”

Luke didn’t bother trying to decode the statement, instead preparing himself to be ambushed from the shadows. Without context, the words made little sense. He’d figure it out when he got there.

Damn it all Tayne, you’d better be here.

They reached their goal without incident, something Luke was almost tempted to remedy. The sight of the bodies and blood coating the walls roused a burning hatred within him towards a person who, as far as he was concerned, was a waste of breathable air.

If he had anything, anything to do with this, I swear by the deities I’ll hang him by his toes from the castle’s tower for the crows.

The imagined sight gave him a small measure of satisfaction, but it was in no way able to counteract the catalyst. He itched to find the nearest demon and run it through in the hope of releasing the tension building in his muscles.

He inhaled deeply through his nose; a technique Nissa had taught him that proved to be effective at calming him. He had a situation to deal with here. Donovan, or whoever it was, he corrected himself, could be dealt with later.

Skye’s going to kick my ass a few times before I get some kind of self-control, but she’d be proud. He frowned. I think.

The Silverborn Tayne led in had backed together in a rough defensive formation against a crumbling wall. When the head of the formation spotted Luke, he raised his hand and the rest fanned out to create a wider perimetre.

That wasn’t a good sign. Someone else wouldn’t have taken over unless Tayne, Wrain, or even Skye wasn’t around.

Most of them seemed uninjured despite the carnage surrounding them, a fact which confused and relieved Luke. The most likely situation, he decided, was they’d arrived just as things were ending. Perhaps Tayne and the others had merely become separated from the rest during the fight? Split off in pursuit and left a few Silverborn here?

He did a quick headcount. There were only four missing from the group that had gone down. This really wasn’t good.

Time to ask. “What happened?”

The Silverborn at the head of the group answered him. “We’re not sure. We got here, everything was silent. Tayne found Skye, then she was healing this one here,” he said, gesturing behind him where a female elf sat. “Before we knew it however there was some shadow woman, called herself Ebony, and they vanished. All of them.”

Breathe. They’ll be fine. “Vanished? Where?”

“We don’t know. We started searching for them, figured they couldn’t have gone very far, but we were attacked by demons. Came out of a portal around where the shadow Sentinel disappeared.”

“You mean the Master?” asked Luke.

“Nay. The girl. What else could she have been? You know how he can teleport through the shadows.”

Before Luke could reply, the elf stood up. She clutched her side, eyebrows drawing together in pain. “She wasn’t a Sentinel. She didn’t have the mark on her arm,” she said quietly.

Her armour was ragged despite her skin being whole where dried blood suggested it had once been otherwise. This was the elf Skye healed. She’d witnessed the massacre here, probably barely escaped with her life.

 “Sentinels are pesky things anyway,” said Luke, waving a frivolous hand through the air. “Always causing trouble in one form or another. We definitely didn’t need another one of them prancing around anyway, did we?”

The elf pulled her braided hair over her shoulder and combed the ends with her fingers. She gave him a small smile. “For others more than some.”

Luke scratched above his eyebrow. She was willing to talk, at least. “Mmm, I won’t argue with that. May I call you ‘elfie’, a name which seems to aggravate Skye without fail or do you have a name I might use instead?”

“Kya.”

“Kya it is then. Might I ask what happened here? You seem to have a better grasp on it than my Silverborn despite the esteemed knights that they’re supposed to be. Perhaps we’ll have to recruit you?” he said. Kya’s mouth parted slightly and she frowned, obviously not sure if he was kidding or not.

To clear her confusion, he called out, “It’s okay my brave warriors, I’m here now. We have an elf to protect us. You can all stop quivering in your boots.”

The Silverborn around Kya rolled their eyes and sighed in mock exasperation, but he was pleased to see a few grim expressions lift from the faces of those around him, Kya’s own included. Seeing her shiver, he placed his cloak around her shoulders. She took it without complaint and he sat her down by the wall once more.

“Rayume! Over here, with me. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders and I believe we’re going to need it.”

When the two sat waiting, Kya started speaking.

“He attacked us when night fell, exploding the roof above out head and crushing many of our number before the fighting even began. Someone alerted the Watch but tainted were already streaming in through the hole. Most realised it was too late and tried to flee, but the Master had disabled most of the keystones and we couldn’t get out.”

As she went on, Luke’s blood boiled. When she told them how they’d been herded to the central square and forced to fight, the massacre around him took on a new form of the word ‘horrific’.

“All the while, tainted and this...eccentric black haired woman, the one that took Skye and the Silverborn with her, kept dragging us back however they could managed, only to die either by blade or magic. He kept telling us to thank Skye; that she’d brought this on us, but I didn’t believe it. She’d never, ever let something like this happen.” A tear escaped and fled down her cheek.

Luke found his voice in her silence. “No. It wasn’t her fault.” He knew very well who could be blamed for all of this. A short, black haired man with a face like a weasel to be precise. “She left trying to save you but I guess she didn’t make it in time.”

He placed his head in his hands, trying to piece everything together with Donovan’s face floating around his mind. “So you said the black haired woman took them?” he asked.

Kya gave him a slow nod, her chin tucked away in her drawn up knees. “She called herself Ebony and was under the Master’s command. She kept looking for praise from him. He...he...just why? Why did this happen to us?”

The question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular. She hid her face, her sobs not quite muted by the fabric. Luke looked to the ceiling, his grip on the hilt sending a shooting pain down his knuckles. Inhaling wasn’t working. Physical pain distracted somewhat.

Rayume cleared his throat and glanced sideways at Luke. “So Skye healed you, after which Ebony appeared?” he said. “Even though she’s not a Sentinel, if she can teleport around as you claim I’d wager she’s still a creature of shadow.”

“She couldn’t have gone far -- heck, the Sentinel himself can only shadow step once a night. She couldn’t have--“

“We have no idea of her capabilities, Luke,” said Rayume. “But if it’s as Kya says and they vanished without a trace, I don’t think we’re going to find them here. She’s not a Sentinel, we can’t think of her as bound by his limits. You said she shadow stepped multiple times?” he asked, looking to Kya for confirmation. She glanced up at them and nodded.

 Rayume placed a hand on her shoulder gently. Luke half expected her to pull away, as Skye did, but she leaned into his touch, resting her head on his hand.

“Did the Master mention anything else about Skye? Or perhaps a Silverborn, Tayne maybe?”

“He was talking to someone about waiting for Skye and her escort to arrive at some point, I think...it’s all kind of blurry, and...” Kya trailed off for a moment and composed herself. “I think he did. I know I’ve heard the name Tayne before. The whole attack was to lure her out here.”

There was a silence as the two Silverborn processed her words.

“He knew she was coming,” said Luke. “I’ve got a pretty good guess of as to how, too.” A pain shot up his wrist and he forced himself to remember Skye’s threat.

Did he want his behind kicked into next week by an elf at least a head shorter than him?

No. So he’d keep his head. He’d control himself. He could do that for Tayne. He would do that for Tayne. If Tayne and Wrain were gone, command of the Silverborn was his responsibility until they returned.

“But that doesn’t matter. Point in case, this Ebony person probably took them to the citadel. Right?”

Rayume’s morose expression told him all he needed to know.

“Right. It’s a fact. We’re dealing with it as one. There’s no point dwelling on how we could have stopped it from happening, only what we’re going to do now.” The talk was more for himself, but Rayume and the Silverborn eavesdropping seemed to nod in agreement and he wasn’t about to complain.

“So now all that’s left to discuss is how we’re going to go about the rescue operation. Ideas?”

Kya stared at him. The tears had wound down her cheeks and mixed with the dirt and blood, creating an odd kind of war-paint. “You’re insane. You want to march on the Citadel?”

Rayume was shaking his head. “Luke, we can’t. We’re nowhere near full strength with our numbers here. It’d take three, four days to get back to Alguarde, and then weeks to travel to the citadel in which time, the Master will probably have enslaved, turned or killed them.”

“Damn your logical thinking,” said Luke. Ray was right, of course, but it didn’t mean he was about to ditch the idea of a rescue any time soon. He couldn’t live with himself if he’d knowingly left them behind. “See, this is why I brought you along. I’m too impulsive for my own good.” Deities, how was he going to help Tayne and the rest of them? “What do you suggest?”

Rayume shifted uncomfortably. “We do the only thing we really can do. Go back to Alguarde and make sure it’s safe for them when they get back. Imagine if they escaped, only to find you’d caused a demon uprising and some imp had been crowned overlord.”

“I’d be in favour of the imp taking over the position of Advisor. All in favour, say I!”

Control it. Ass kicking. Possible dangling upside down from a tree in the royal gardens.

Luke sighed.

“As much as I hate to admit it Ray, you’re right.”

“I know.” He must have seen Luke’s frustrated expression because he added, “they’re capable, Luke. There’s nothing we could have done that they couldn’t as they are now.”

With a shrug, Luke said “It’s just better when you’re there. I hate the waiting bit.” Rayume nodded in agreement and Luke looked around. So much death. “We need to get moving, there’s nothing else for us here.”

He went to stand, but Kya grabbed his hand.

“Actually, there is.” Luke raised an eyebrow at her, and she rushed on.

“We managed to hide a few of the children away, and I don’t think they were found. I’ve been looking for them and...” She swallowed, closing her eyes for a second. “I can’t see them. I know Ebony found them at one point, but she said something about a cousin and disappeared, leaving them alone.” Kya paused, uncertainty muddling her features. “I know it’s a long shot, but...”

“We’ll get them out. Lead on,” said Luke. With everything that’d happened, he figured they deserved some kind of break.

*+*+*+*

Twenty minutes later, the Silverborn were mounted and ready to leave with seven new additions to their party. Kya, two other elven warriors of about her age and the four children they’d hidden with to protect as a last ditch effort. Luke gave the two elven warriors Jesse’s and Wrain’s horses to ride, Alida to Kya, and tied Wing behind Blaze.

“Why do I always get stuck babysitting,” he mumbled to himself as Kya lifted a small elven girl of about five years into his lap.

Kya glanced at him. “You too huh?”

Luke snorted in reply. When she lingered around, stroking Blaze’s neck, he leant forward and grasped her hand.

“They’ll be okay. You haven’t seen Skye when she gets mad now she’s got magic. Lifts a whole tree up to hang the trouble maker by his boots. Hilarious to watch and most effective too.”

Kya gave him a soft laugh and shook her head. “It’s true then. She really is a Sentinel.” A sad smile lifted the corner of her lips. “She’s always been so stubborn and different from everyone else. If anyone can handle the responsibility, it’s her. You should’ve seen how hard she trained with her blades just to know she could hold her own against a demon.”

“Oh believe me; I know how hard she trains. Deities help us, an elf like that with magic.”

Kya said something he couldn’t hear to the girl in his lap before she left. Luke watched as the girl tangled her fingers into Blaze’s mane, and despite a heavy heart, he couldn’t help but smile.

She’d grow up; have a second chance at life. The Master wasn’t infallible. There was some kind of hope, and that was better than none.

He looked to the sky where the hovering black void had disappeared, thinking as loud as he could.

Tayne, Wrain, Jess, you’d better be okay. Skye, wherever you ended up, keep them alive. The Silverborn are screwed if they’re left in my care.

*+*+*+*