The Chronicles of Starlyn

The Chronicles of Starlyn: Chapter 21

A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long since an update. I've been working on perfecting my synopsis and query letter for 'The Crimson Claymore' and sending them out to a few agents. Wish me luck. I'm also thinking about putting 'The Crimson Claymore' on kickstarter and asking my poor friends and you guys, to help me, who is even more poor. To raise around 2,500$ that it would cost to have my novel professionally edited so perhaps I can have better luck getting it published somewhere. Thanks for all the support from everybody, please comment and let me know what you think.

Chapter 21:

                Starlyn stood outside the recently abandoned drayek camp. Tears stormed down her face in rivers on uncontrollable sobs. Shronan stepped next to her and gently put his hand onher shoulder. She brushed the water from her eyes and clasped her hand over his.

                “We will find her,” he said.

                “I wish I could believe you, but we have been one step behind her this whole time. Everywhere we go we miss her by a breadth. She knows our moves.”

                “She is smart, but she is not perfect Starlyn. Nobody is. She will make a mistake,” Shronan said.

                “When?” Starlyn whispered.

                “I don’t know,” admitted Shronan, “But when she does, we’ll be there.”

                Starlyn nodded and brushed the tears of her haunted past away. The sun had fallen behind purple haze in the sky and a full moon shone brightly directly aboe her. She wondered if she would ever see her mother again. Her sister, Arria, did such a good job of disappearing into the night. She remembered the day so long ago when she released the arrow that stabbed her sister in the back. Arria fell to the ground, Starlyn knew her aim was true, but when she looked back through tear infected eyes, the body was gone. Nearly six months passed before she ever found a sign of her sister. She knew if there was one thing Arria was good at, it was to disappear. Even before the black magic claimed her soul, Arria would disappear for months at a time without notice, the same as their mother. Starlyn felt she the only one whom wanted the security of a home and family.

                Anaela walked up to her and put her hand gently upon her shoulder as she fingered the hammer her sister gave her so long ago. The hammer was forged by Arria herself many decades ago with love and compassion. It seemed the last warming memory she had of her sister as she gripped the hammer. Swirls of silver and gold throughout the metal made it glitter in the starlight and though it was large it still felt comfortable and light in one hand. The handle was long enough for her to steady it with two hands with strikes, but the weapon felt light enough to only need one steady hand. She missed the weapon dearly and felt naked when she was without it.

                “We will find her,” Anaela said.

                Even though Starlyn hadn’t known Anaela for very long, she felt a bond between them, a trust that ran much deeper than any of the other elves traveling with her or those in the heart of Sudegam. Anaela might be void of the memories of her past and clueless about where she came from, but her compassion towards Starlyn and her desire to help made her the closest person Starlyn ever had to a friend. Even before the last few months that her mother had been sick, she never really fit in with the high elves of Sudegam. Her mother was often rebellious towards the rules the king set forth for the elves to abide by. She didn’t believe they should isolate themselves from the humans of the land. Instead, she believed an alliance between elves and humans could benefit the entire land of Calthoria and lessen the wars the humans often had against themselves.