Golden Crown: The Fey Lands Saga book 2

The Night Devourers: Forest of Lornis court of Darkness

    For the next day and a half we traveled I having to rest several times a day as my wing muscles tired. Ozarel seemed to need no rest but she patiently, she having taken on a female name and Talemnig simply waited swords of fire drawn and listening for intruders as I tended to my necessaries or gathered food for myself or simply sat breathing in the air as my wings got their much needed rest. Talemnig was quiet almost taciturn in his dealings with me. His whole being was focused it seemed on his mission. "Its like this my chosen heart sister, we who feel called to serve in this way are bonded beyond the simple word of love." "We are so bound to our chosen that if the chosen meets a bitter end we usually follow, to be reborn, we retain our selfhood but it is only by being reborn that we might be rid of our bonds." "Otherwise if there is a battle and our bonded falls we usually fall after so that we may be together in the veils of the Gods." "He is like many Válenardri joyful, cheerful, and fun loving." "But he feels himself being pulled toward his chosen." "Its an ache in the soul until the chosen is near enough that we can do the choosing." "We need our chosen as much as our chosen need us."
    "Are many chosen?" I asked as we camped near a river. the river had a bridge with an arch that simply read Borderlands of the courts of darkness. "Its not uncommon, but it isn't rare." "About a quarter of us go out to choose, half serve the gods directly, and a quarter run the kingdom of Válenardryss." "Usually we start getting a gentle nudge that something will happen." "Round about our ten thousandth year we may be chosen, no younger since we have great powers at our disposal which need to be trained." "If you are ten thousand and you don't feel an urge that you might be chosen you are given an assignment either by the gods, or the one who spoke to you, the Válenardri of Válenardri."
    "Forgive me Phaydra." Said Talemnig quietly, "I have been rude." "I feel so drawn to my chosen, and I know it is soon." "It feels as though my skin will break open." "I'm sure its unpleasant." I said, "Are many Fey chosen?" "What about Elves or nymphs?" "We are usually guided to serve any who are in need." "Usually however its someone who will be a ruler, though we don't discriminate." "Why usually a ruler?" I asked, "Because they need our help, we have powers so vast that a ruler can utilise them more effectively." "But." Said Talemnig stooping over a fire and tea kettle, "If it is a child who is extremely gifted we are just as like to choose them for they will often be known as one of the great heroes."
    We flew over the bridge to meet several guards at their posts. Swords drawn they approached my group, "Who dares enter the courts of darkness?" Asked one black Fey from his hair to his wings, "Phaydra Galatine." I said, "Princess Phaydra?" He asked, "Indeed." "And these are." He lifted a hand, "Válenardri because of their deep service need no permissions, they travel where they are drawn." "Same for priests unless they speak against the court." "Enter as you may your Highness." "How long do you stay?" "I don't know." I said, "I need Nightbeam flowers, Krothdalkeh roots, and Meorithshirle leaves." "And you need these fresh?" "Yes." I said, "Then we bid you welcome to the court Highness, Válenardri."
We entered the dark forest of Lornis soon after that, the Válenardri flying close to either side and behind me as we wove ourselves through the twisted knotted dark woods. the Válenardri with hands on swords that glittered with light and flame. We finally had to set down in a a tiny bowl of a clearing. Once I'd used the bushes i rolled up in my cloak. The Válenardri prepared to keep the night awake. "We don't need sleep, we fall in to meditative trance to commune with the Gods and to set our spirits free." "But we need no sleep." "It must be boring for you, and i must slow you down." I said self consciously, "You do not bore us." Said Talemnig bluntly, "You are Fey, we are they." "It is no odds you may sleep as we cannot." I winced beneath his withering flaming gaze, "What he means dearling sister mine is that you don't bore us, we need no sleep but we also don't judge you either for your need of it." Said Ozarel gently into my mind, "We light need, live we do in light and the peace of the Gods." Said Talemnig dropping his severe silence to talk in the syntax they used, "Assume i must that judge you not we who must have light to be?" "I don't." I said, "Then needs must, sleep you must, light need we must."
"Does the dark land bother you?" "Bother us it does, but needs thee must be here, as chosen by Ozarel thou art." Said Talemnig softly as he flew into a tree, perched on a branch hands on the hilts of his weapons, the perfect representation of a statue of glowing light.
I must have drifted off for I felt a hand on me and a hissed, "Chosen, highness." Clearly whispered in my ear, "Stand slowly." Said Talemnig's gravely whisper. the fire was dead as if smothered quite all at once, "what is it?" I asked, "Night devourers approach." I winced, "Bologs and Vedrani with them." "For the Gods sakes." I said fear swamping me, "Indeed." "This bodes ill." Said Ozarel flanking me as Talemnig did with their wings. "Where's your light?" I asked, "Later." Said Talemnig as he drew his sword from his sheath quietly so the hiss of metal was very soft though it sounded loud in my Fey ears.
A cloud of darkness swamped the area, it crawled across the sky. The scrape of claws on the ground, the bone numbing fear of the Vedrani with their winged lion like bodies, stinger tails and flaming tongues. the darkness multiplied so that even with my new Fey sight I could just barely glimpse the two beings beside me completely dampened and only showing a pearly dull shimmer. the weak moonlight could account for that of course but it must hurt them to sustain such a glamour about themselves. "Pain us it does." Said Talemnig mind to mind, "Ozarel, blade shield, no light."
Before I could eve think of what he'd said Ozarel lifted clenched hands holding a rapier dull and dead of the glory it usually had and performed a figure eight around us three times as she chanted low, her voice even glamoured. Suddenly Blades began to whirl about us all, moving spiralling always there. then Talemnig chanted and moved his hands in complicated patterns and arrows moved about us as well. Then Ozarel lifted hands to create a shield of living thorns and needle like leaves.
I felt the first kiss of the Vedrani's touch on my mind, it felt as if the claws were scraping, leaving my mind raw and bleeding. My fear was real for I'd dealt with them. But the moment the mind touch happened Talemnig lifted a hand and the arrows flew toward the darkness, "Now!" He shouted as groans filled the clearing. Bats, rats, spiders and those others were surrounding us. with flaming swords, the shields protecting us we fought through the night until i spied the head of the army of night devourers that had come across our pathway. With a challenge Ozarel lifted a hand and a lake of burning lava approached the night devourers who screamed as it touched their flesh. "Light!" Cried Ozarel and Talemnig lifted a hand. A river of light advanced and vaporised the night devourers where they stood. With a scream as the largest of them fell to the light the others froze, then collapsed into a pool of inky shadow and this melted into the earth. The Bologs and Vedrani had fled once the Válenardri had shown their light.
"Why were they here?" I asked as we surveyed the dark but now quiet forest, "We draw them." Said Ozarel, "Wouldn't I also since I killed their God?" "So selfish they are that worship they do not." "Any leader challenged is, until a new leader rises." Said Talemnig, "Drawn to thee they most surely are." "thou having defeated one such causing their army to fall again seek they vengeance upon thee." "How would they know i was here?" "Know not they would of thy presence Highness, our light they would have seen." "Thy mind if one has touched perhaps then a Vedrani knowing of thee would say to the night devourers." "A cause then to attack thee they surely would then." "Our light they would see from afar, thee a fitting target also, attack see they no other choice."
"Because I destroyed the evil one and the rest tied to him." I said, "Leaders they have not, power if one has then one attaches as like to minions to a master." "Death the only way to destroy a herd is." "Choice thou had not but to defeat the evil one." "Revenge a bonus they would see."
"Glad I will be to see the end of this forest." Said Talemnig falling into his silence once more. It took us several days to find all the plants and put preserving spells to keep them fresh. Finally we left through an old portal back into the court of light. The Válenardri bathed in the weak sunlight seemingly to pull it into themselves, "If the darkness bothers you you aren't chosen by a Fey of the courts of darkness?" I asked, "Chosen we are by both Fey courts, explain we do of our need for light." "they that can pools for us they make and filled with our light they are." "Bathe there we do." "Other times leave we do for a sennight to find a mountaintop to light bathe in." "Feel you do the emotions of the one who chose you I expect?" Asked Talemnig, "Of course i do." I said, "Know thou wouldst then of her need for light and being of a goodly soul deprive her thou wouldst not." I shuddered at that. He was right of course. If I could feel Ozarel's  emotions and she could feel mine and she was starved for light then I would make sure she had opportunities to bathe in it.
We finally crossed into Galadice's forest and I rejoiced for I'd be home soon. As I thought that Galadice and his wife the Queen of the moon Elves appeared. "Hail and well met." He said as he lifted his hands from his sword, "High Fey Phaydra, and two Válenardri with." "I beg of you to allow me to extend my hospitality to you for a night." "The hospitality is accepted Majesty." "May I present Galadice, his royal majesty, King of the Moon Elven kind." Ozarel and Talemnig bowed slightly, "A pleasure it is to see thy kind." Was all Talemnig said. I looked at him and his eyes were veiled by lines of pain. He knew I would not be rude though he was in great pain, "Talemnig I know you have a mission to find your chosen, and by the pain I see in your eyes it must be close." "If you would rather?" "Leave I will not, hospitality will I not deny these friends of thine." "Glad of thy care of me I am." "My chosen nearby is." "Find I can them in the morn and pain will cease." "then come two our home and you must tell me your tales Phaydra." "Gods only know when I'd see you again, accept attributes and fetes, festivals and such." "Come come." He gestured.
"So they attacked you, surrounded your camp?" Asked Galadice over a meal of roasted bird and vegetables and candied roasted beets, acorn cakes and honeyed tea, "Yes they did tiredly as I devoured an acorn caked covered in butter and honey, "gods preserve us." "Its lucky you had these two with you." "gods be thanked." I said wearily, "Rest and join us for morning meal before you leave?" Asked Galadice, "Of course."
The next morning after a meal of corn mush fried into cakes, fresh fruit and tea we flew into the west toward home, toward where my beloved was ill and tired and with his parents ill, but home to me ever and always. Home.