Tales from Niveen

Chapter 4 - Pena

Verida - Avinas

56th day of Banem, year 146, Era of Ke'larri

We've been on since yesterday evening. Barely a rest. He stumbles slightly ahead with his shitty expression and those pompous golden flowers on the hilt of his sword. Some kind of expensive steel. Perfectly sharpened because he's never used the damn thing. What a great surprise to Althaes when their beloved princes return. And Aelathari with the gall to marry Aeliana off to him like that'll stop him breaking the treaty as soon as he takes the throne.

We work our way through the woods at Ariele's lead, his darksight the strongest, but I stay fixed on Varydris' movements. He tramples everything, each step cracking out loudly around us. Even Sy, as uncoordinated and night-blind as he is, makes less of a stir. I think to put an arrow in Varydris' back when he trips over a branch, crashing to the floor, crunching leaves and snapping twigs ringing out abruptly. Tara's eyes are on me. Ariele puts his hand on Varydris, keeps him down. Waiting for what we might hear in the dark.

Nothing.

We move forward once again and Tara falls back to meet me. Let it fucking go, she barely whispers. Do you want to die out here, she asks. No? Then focus on right now and keep your fucking wits about you. Then she's back up towards the front, scanning the trees.

She doesn't know. She doesn't know what I'm going to do to the first Hnegeeran I see. Everyone else can sit back and watch because I'll take them all. I'll watch the life leave them and take the heads to Farwood and put them on the border on stakes and then I'll wait forever just to kill any others who dare to cross.

We've walked for hours in speckled moonlight, still nowhere near Farwood, but even here I think I can smell the burning bodies. Nobody seems troubled, but they wouldn't be, spoiled the way they are. Nothing but softness in their lives.

Trees grow dense, trunks becoming ever more massive. Wild oaks and snake trees, their ancient roots twisting and weaving through each other, creaking and rustling. Blotting out the moon. And no other sound. No birds or flies, no ina that dance and glow. The air is thick, the ground littered with broken branches, fallen saplings, faint tracks in the dirt. Ariele stops us.

He goes far ahead. Crouches low behind a fallen tree, eyes fixed through the deep woods ahead. We stay behind, silent and still. Eventually, he returns.

"A single small fire in the distance," he says under his breath, "I need Varydris and Sy to stay here. Only darksight ahead."

With that, we start again and I'm no good with ranged sight, but I strain my eyes to make out the glimmer. Sure enough, it flickers far off like a ghost. I stare into it. Imagine the Hnegeerans huddled around it, my arrows sinking into their skulls one by one. We tread slowly and the light grows brighter. Eventually, I don't have strain to see it. The others have their weapons drawn and I think to do the same before the sound starts like an animal barreling through the trees.

Tara waits too long before she yells at us to move and it slams into me. I feel the sickening crack in my shoulder and scream out, catch a glimpse of the burly Hnegeeran before his fist comes down over my face. Warm blood floods my nose and I dig for the knife at my waist when he shouts out in pain. He turns and is on Ariele, long arrow pointing out of his back.

Ariele is a flash of color, a blade through the neck, and the man crumples to the ground, choking for air. Tara's hands are on me and a soft golden glow emanates from under them. Shoulder clicks back into place and she quickly hoists me up. Pushes me forward.

"It's not fully healed, okay? Be easy."

She looks to speak to the others, now on alert. She begins as Sy and Varydris crash through the trees towards us, panting.