“But I can’t. Not without the sword’s power.”
Erich’s shoulders slumped; it had happened again. He’d risked his life for nothing. For another false hope.
“Then this is where our paths diverge,” Erich said and turned to walk away, picking hay and manure off his clothes. He’d need to change, no, burn it all. After he retrieved his dagger and lay low for a few days, he’d travel on foot to Porroque and catch a ship from there across the Ageless Sea.
“Wait!” Fritz shouted.
Erich kept walking.
“I can’t do this without you.”
“With or without me, this plan is doomed to fail.”
“I saw you in my dream; together we steal the sword, and I heal you. You must believe me.”
“Unlucky for you, I’m not—” He froze as he turned to look at Fritz.
The elf had changed in the sliver of moonlight peeking from between the clouds: his eyes golden, eternal as if they contained the cosmos within them. Magic warmed the air, vibrating between them. Here in the woods, away from the pollution of stone and human filth, he could sense the power in him in a way he hadn’t before.
Along his travels, he’d met charlatans a plenty, and in rare instances, he felt real power. Those times before paled in comparison to what he felt rolling off Fritz in waves. Magic knew magic. It spoke in a forgotten ancient language that even Erich didn’t understand, but he felt it instinctively. The dragon within him raised its head curiously, nostrils flaring as if it might scent the enchantments in the air. Whether it was fate or dumb luck that brought them together, his gut told him this was it. A wordless promise stirred in him; this was it, the answer he’d been looking for all along.
But if he were to stay in the city and help Fritz steal the sword, he couldn’t do it as a nameless vagabond. He’d have to resume the role of Prince Erich once more.
8
Atwig snapped, and Liane’s eyes darted across the shadowy detritus as a chill wind sent a shiver down her spine.Vine-covered crumbling columns framed the waxing crescent moon hanging against the inky-black sky, lending little light. Long grass pushing through cracks in the decomposing cobble swayed as a rat skittered out, leaping from stone to stone before diving into a nearby hole. Liane exhaled in relief. There was nothing there but rubble and weeds.
Nature had reclaimed this citadel of the ancients, turning it to rubble over the past hundred years since corruption wiped out the city. Those same forgotten ancients who’d built it had also carved the stone tunnels beneath the palace. Most knew of the higher tunnels, which were used as escape routes for the royal family or as storerooms for wine and cheese. Most didn’t know about the lower rooms and passageways.
She’d discovered the tangled thread of tunnels quite by accident. As a girl, she and Elias used to hide amongst the barrels of wine they stored in the upper tunnels and jump out to scare servants, but once when they were caught, they retreated deeper, discovering a labyrinth that soon became their underground playground. Before long, their exploration took them deeper and farther from the palace, and together with Ludwig, they’d mapped out the many winding passageways. Beyond collapses they discovered rooms filled with mosaics and ancient storerooms with collapsed shelves and empty sacks of dust.
One tunnel led away from the city and to the ruins. She and Elias used to stand upon the precipice of it, taunting one another to enter. Despite their boasting, neither of them ever did. The fear of The Corruption held them back.
Ludwig stepped out of the cave first, and despite her fears, no tendrils of magic burst forth, nor did chimera leap out of the shadows to devour him. After a quick inspection, he beckoned her to follow, and she crept out after him. Gravel crunched beneath her boots as they explored the ruined city. There was an unnatural stillness to the place, and each sound they made was swallowed up as if falling into a void of silence. It made the hairs stand on the back of her neck and her stomach twist with uncertainty.What if the church was right, and this place was a fountain of corruption?Liane pushed these thoughts aside as they continued on.
They passed through what might have once been a city square, and she wondered, not for the first time, who were the people that once lived here. Were they human, elves, or some strange forgotten race…? If only Elias were alive, he would have marveled at the carvings in the stone facades, and spun theories about the people who’d carved them, what their lives were like. Liane stopped to examine a purple flower blooming in what appeared to be a community fountain; its velvety petals unfurled and swayed gently in the evening breeze. She reached out to touch it, then froze when she heard footsteps nearby.
“They’re late.” A man’s voice accompanied the footsteps.
“You can never trust an elf to keep their word,” a second man replied.
Liane’s heart leapt into her throat, and tingles rippled out from her spine, reaching the top of her head to the tips of her fingers. Elves?What were elves doing this far south of the feral lands? After they’d tried to conquer the continent generations ago, they’d become humanity’s mortal enemies.
Ludwig pressed his finger to his lips and nodded toward a gap in a nearby collapsed wall. Taking care to move silently, they positioned themselves inside the building, to peer between a curtain of vines onto the street below. One smuggler paced while the other leaned against a wall.
“I thought you were getting us some extra muscle,” the pacing man said.
“I tried; the arrogant prick thought he was too good for us,” replied the one-eared man.
“Those pale bastards make me uneasy.”
“Don’t worry ’bout them. I can handle ’em.” One-ear opened his jacket to reveal the dagger strapped to his hip.
“I thought we agreed to no weapons,” an elf said as she emerged from the shadows.
Liane had blinked, and four pale and lithe creatures stood in a half circle around the smugglers. The tales described them as if they were ten feet tall with fangs dripping in venom, but apart from their pointed ears, they looked human and otherworldly beautiful. How could something so horrid be this beautiful? Her mind struggled to comprehend the two contradicting facts.
“It’s a dangerous world, and besides, you outnumber us by two. That ain’t fair now, is it?” One-ear said.
