Metal mage 5, p.12
Metal Mage 5, page 12
I sighed at the erotic sight and decided that even though I’d waited weeks for a twenty-minute meeting, I was still the luckiest guy in the realm.
Cayla’s blue eyes found me on the embankment, and she beckoned for me to join them before she turned back to Shoshanne.
I should’ve known they’d know exactly how to cheer me up.
My anger dissipated as I walked toward the edge of the water, and I was finally able to think back more clearly on the morning.
Aside from the infuriating treatment they’d shown my half-elf, there were so many ridiculous aspects that would need careful consideration before I decided what our next move should be.
Namely, the complete bullshit of their “months of deliberation.”
We didn’t have months. For all I knew, the Master would rule over every nation by then, and I wondered how the elves could ignore such a threat.
Although, it was probably because they were too busy with their own petty disagreements. Every elf in that meeting had a problem with the others, and as I considered that there were virtually no allies amongst any of them, I realized there would be no deliberation.
Those elves weren’t going to meet again, and they definitely weren’t going to give us or the Master another thought. They’d go on killing each other and spitting at each other’s feet just the same.
So, it was all on me to get shit done.
I furrowed my brow as I stood to climb back down, and the women emerged dripping and giggling from the pond when I jumped down the last few feet.
They laid themselves out in the moss to dry off, and I admired the view as I raised my arms toward the rockface.
The embankment wasn’t made of the same pale rocks as we’d seen before, but rather a bluish rock with stripes of rusty orange through out.
It was less pliable, but still nice to work with, and I closed my eyes to get a design in mind for our makeshift house. First, I dug a cave out of the embankment just to the right of the waterfall and made it tall enough that I could stretch my arms up from inside. Then I lifted the chunks of rock I’d removed and attached them to the top lip of the cave before I pulled them out several feet so the ceiling extended out across the mossy ground.
The walls dropped down in a sloping dome, and I left an arched doorway for the entrance. I modeled the cutouts for the windows after the ones in the hall of the Elven Council, just as a subtle fuck you, and when I’d finished, there were a dozen circular cut outs around the upper portion of the wall.
Inside, the air was already cooler than the jungle, and as I walked around the large space, I decided to make a small workshop in the back cave and leave the mossy ground of the entrance for our bed.
I felt a thousand times better once I’d formed a workbench and a forging area. There was really nothing in this realm like stretching my magic, and I realized how badly I’d needed to, so I made a mental note to make sure I didn’t go too long without using both my Terra and Metal magic. By the time I’d finished carefully raising the earth to create a wide and mossy bed for the four of us, the tension in my shoulders had finally gone completely.
I exited the house and found the women fully redressed. The three of them foraged along the bank of the pond for fresh pink berries, and they turned their smiles my way when I joined them.
Cayla gestured to the house behind me. “It looks perfect,” she purred.
“I think so.” I grinned and tucked the princess under my arm. “Sorry about earlier,” I added, but Cayla shrugged and laid a kiss on my cheek.
“Don’t worry, we were a little … tense, too.” She winked to Shoshanne, and the Aer Mage blushed as she giggled.
“I noticed,” I said with a coy smile. “Feeling better?”
Aurora smirked as she bumped her hip into Cayla’s. “Much better,” she assured me.
I chuckled and took a handful of berries from the platter in Shoshanne’s hands, and as I did, a giant white bird flew up out of the bushes in front of us.
Aurora snatched her dagger from the strap at her thigh, and it sailed straight up to the bird’s chest.
I raised my brows and watched the white feathers fall back to the ground. “Must be the elf in you,” I mused.
Aurora snorted. “Right? They definitely have a way with daggers, if nothing else.”
“I nearly got one in the head on our way out,” I admitted, and the women looked at me with instant worry.
“What?” Shoshanne demanded.
“Yeah. I was a little distracted by someone,” I told the Aer Mage. “I actually wanted to talk to you guys about it. I saw the Baroness from Rajeen.”
Aurora looked incredulous, and Cayla narrowed her icy blue eyes.
“Are you sure?” the princess asked.
“Pretty sure,” I said with a nod. “At first, I thought I’d imagined it, because I can’t think of a single reason she would be with the Elven Council. I mean … she’s a mage, and she’s from the far south east, but it was her.”
“Did the elves know she was there?” Aurora asked. “She did say she could be as invisible as she wanted.”
I thought about this, but then I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure they knew. She walked out through the doors with a group of elves.”
Shoshanne looked seriously confused, so I filled her in.
“When we were building the tracks from Serin to Cedis, just before we met you, we passed through Rajeen,” I explained. “The Baroness is a Tenebrae Mage, and we stayed in her castle there for a night.”
“For the creepiest night,” Aurora clarified. “No one spoke, everything was painted black, and the Baroness was … ” The half-elf couldn’t even find the words, and I didn’t think I could have either.
“Yeah,” I chuckled, “it was all very weird, to say the least. Then she told us to take the tracks through her salt mines on our way south, and when we get there, this fucking fire scorpion attacks the train. Then it tried to kill all of us.”
“I still think she sent us there on purpose,” Cayla added, and I furrowed my brow as I considered this.
“I’m not so sure … ”
Aurora stared at me. “You’re joking, right?”
I raised my hands. “Hey, hear me out. As off putting as the Baroness was, that salt saved our asses. The scorpion would’ve had us if I didn’t use the salt to extinguish it,” I pointed out.
The half-elf gave a slow nod. “That’s true,” she admitted.
“And the Baroness was the one who told us to go there,” I continued.
“So … ” Cayla mused, “you’re saying maybe she didn’t send us to the scorpion?”
“Maybe she sent us to the salt that could destroy it,” I said with a shrug.
“That could be,” Aurora allowed. “But if you saw her with the elves, I wouldn’t wager she’s the kindest of mages. Those elves were assholes.”
“That’s the thing,” I said with a sigh, and I rubbed the back of my neck as I thought things over. “I don’t know what to make of her being at that meeting. But regardless of the salt, I have a bad feeling about it. She’s a shadow mage, and we don’t know anything about the extent of her powers. For all I know, she’s as tight with the Master as Abrus was …”
Aurora frowned.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean--” but Aurora waved me off.
“It’s fine, really. You’re not wrong,” she said with a shrug. “Abrus was in the Master’s pocket, and the Baroness was nearly as intimidating as he was.”
“Either way,” I continued, “what I know right now is that she was there at the meeting, and she can manipulate shadows with her magic. So, keep your ears open, alright?”
The half-elf nodded and turned to scoop up the dead bird.
Cayla marinated the meat in the dwarven wine, and we settled in for dinner beside the pond as the sun slipped toward the horizon.
“What are we going to do?” Shoshanne finally asked after we’d spent about an hour avoiding the topic of the meeting.
I sent her a wry smile. “I’m working on it,” I admitted. “Those elves aren’t going to get back to us, so I’ve gotta figure out how to get even just one of them to tell me about rune magic. I think it’s our best shot.”
“Mason … ” Aurora sighed.
“I know,” I interrupted, “but we’re not leaving Nalnora without some answers. If we do, the Master wins these lands, whether the elves want to acknowledge the threat or not. We’ve seen what he’s capable of.”
“But you’re not going to meet with Onym’s House, right?” Aurora asked pointedly.
I shoved a chunk of bird into my mouth and followed it up with a lump of toast. Then I shrugged.
The half-elf cocked a brow. “He was the first one to break that oath about the weapons in the hall. How could you think you can trust him or his House?”
I swallowed and finished my wine before I answered. “To be fair, every elf in that chamber had weapons too, he just threw his first. Also, nearly every part of that oath was broken within twenty-minutes if you think about it,” I pointed out. “So, we know we can’t trust any of them. That’s a blanket issue, not just an Onym issue.”
Aurora sighed and shook her head.
“Hey,” I said, and I brushed the half-elf’s arm. “Don’t worry, alright. Whatever we do, we’ll play it safe, I promise.”
She turned her emerald eyes to me and gave me a small smile, but I could see the worried crinkle on her forehead.
I suggested we should all turn in early after the day we had, and we curled up together on the mossy bed just as the chirping began in the blackened jungle.
I laid there with my women’s arms draped around me for what felt like ages, before the moonlight streamed through the round windows and illuminated our house in pale blue light. Then I carefully lifted Cayla’s arm from my chest and gently rolled Aurora over so she was wrapped around Shoshanne.
The moss quieted my footsteps as I headed for the door, and I paused beside the archway. With a spark of my magic, I etched the words “be right back” into the rockface where the moonlight would illuminate it for several hours more before I left the house and went out into the night. As I stopped and strained my ears, I could tell by the long slow breaths I heard that the women hadn’t woken up.
I felt a little like an asshole, but I hadn’t lied. I told Aurora we were going to play it safe, and that was exactly what I was gonna do.
There was no way I would bring my half-elf within spitting distance of Onym’s House without knowing what they were up to, and as much as I hated to admit it, the black-eyed elf hadn’t been entirely wrong.
I did need help. What I wanted to find out was if the elves of House Natyr would be the ones to help me, or not. Once I figured that out, I could come up with my next move.
I stuffed my revolver against the back of my hip before I quietly covered Bobbie in a little den and pulled some rock over most of the archway to our house. Then I listened one last time to be sure the women were still sleeping before I dipped into the line of trees.
The moonlight fell in dappled light across the jungle floor as I carefully made my way through the ferns. Luckily, the chirping was so loud it masked any noise I made as I brushed through the plants and tripped over more than a couple logs. Two wriggly creatures dropped on me from the treetops too, but eventually, I saw the glow of torchlight through the trees.
I snuck to the edge of the tree line and ducked behind a felled tree already grown over with its own mini ecosystem of mushrooms and moss. Over the edge, I could see the fortress that housed the elves of House Natyr, as well as the two guards who stood on either side of the great wooden doors. They held their glaives across their chests, and from the light of the torches above their heads, I could tell neither had silver hair.
The house sat at the base of a slope, so I couldn’t see most of the surrounding yard, but what little I could see was cleared of all trees. Only thick grass and a few stubborn ferns remained, which meant that once I approached the place, I’d have no chance of concealing myself.
The river rock that formed the walls of the house was barren compared to the ones we’d seen at the hall of the Elven Council, and even though the yard was silent, the large square windows that had been left at the upper levels glowed with firelight.
I furrowed my brow and lifted myself a little higher above the log, and a wooden bridge glowed in the pale light as it stretched from the outer rim of the slope down to the doors of the fortress. From what I could tell, there were only two guards in the yard, and I looked around carefully as I silently climbed over the log.
At the edge of the slope I stopped and crouched low to look over the lands beneath the bridge, but there were only shadows and a few carts down there.
Then something sharp prodded my shoulder, and I slowly turned.
Onym stared down the length of his glaive at me for a long moment, and he didn’t say a word. Then he nodded toward the bridge, and I stood up.
He kept the blade against me as we headed down the bridge, and as we came into the torchlight, the two guards tipped their own glaives so I was surrounded.
“I believe I was invited … ” I muttered, but Onym only prodded me toward the door.
The three elves escorted me into the fortress, and I glanced around the large entryway, but everything was dark in the silent place.
Firelight glowed at the end of a long hallway, and as we came to the light, we turned into a large room with three wooden tables set out in the same style as the Elven Council. These weren’t raised on lofty platforms, but the look on the face of the elf who sat at the head table made it all feel just about as condescending.
It was the same elf who had sat between Onym and the elf with the murky blue eyes at the meeting.
Onym finally removed his glaive from my back, and he came around the table’s end to stand beside his leader.
There was a striking similarity between the two elves, as both shared the same eerie black eyes, but the head of the House was older, if just as muscular, and his long green hair was the lightest and palest green I’d ever seen.
He said nothing when Onym came to his side, so we all stood there looking at each other in the deserted room while the guards headed for the door.
Right before they left, the head of the House spoke, and his voice was deep and gravelly.
“Search the trees,” he ordered. “The women are probably near.”
I made sure my face remained unreadable.
As the guard’s footsteps faded back down the hall, a door in the corner of the room opened, and two elves strolled in, apparently not aware that there was company.
The murky blue eyes shot to mine, and the elves stopped in their tracks for a moment before they slowly made their way to the tables.
The one I didn’t recognize had deep purple hair and fiery red eyes, and he eyed me with disgust as he seated himself at one of the side tables. The elf who stood guard with Onym joined beside the leader, though, and he exchanged glances with the two, but said nothing.
I was about to just ask what the hell they wanted, when the head of the house rested his elbows on the table and brought his fingertips together.
“Before we begin,” he growled, “there is the matter of the mutt.”
Maybe it was the residual irritation from the day, but I was immediately pissed off.
“Excuse me?” I asked coldly.
“The half-elf you brought into our lands,” the leader clarified. “As a human, you are no more welcome here than those bumbling dwarves you associate with, but to bring a mutt into the heart of Nalnora is an insult to our very race.”
I ground my jaw, and the leader continued.
“You should know, if we endeavor to help you, you will be required to leave the mutt in the wilds where she belongs, if she has not already been dealt with by my guards.”
“Then we have nothing else to discuss,” I told him and turned for the door.
“I believe we do,” the leader countered, “if you are not so big a fool as to turn your back on the strongest Household west of the river.”
My blood began to boil, but I turned back and brought myself to the center of the room.
“I suggest you get to it,” I growled.
The leader gave a filthy smirk. “You saw the strength of my sons in the jungle yesterday, so I don’t think I need to tell you our warriors are the most powerful in this part of the region.”
He looked smug at the words, and as I glanced to his silver-haired sons, I could see they didn’t doubt the man’s words for a moment. They really believed they were the hottest shit around, and although they had fought viciously, I didn’t necessarily associate their style with power. Only dirty habits.
So, I chose not to respond.
The leader continued. “But you have certain strengths as well, I believe, and from what I saw at the hall of the Elven Council, a rather remarkable weapon at your disposal.”
The elf who sat at the side table snorted. “Whatever his weapon,” he said in a snide, nasally voice, “he’s still a human, and we don’t need his--”
“Silence!” the leader snapped, and his black eyes flared to the purple-haired elf who turned his glower to the tabletop.
From the corner of my eye, I could tell Onym hadn’t looked away from me once, and I kept my own sights on the leader as I slowly pulled my magic to the surface and sent it out across the tables.
It surged lightly as it sensed the metal around the room, and I took stock of where all the daggers were. To my surprise, the brother with the murky blue eyes only had his glaive.
“Now,” the head of the House said, “the Elven Council dismissed you today, but what you probably have not surmised is they have no intention of deliberating about your proposal. I am sorry to say you have no hope of gaining the knowledge you seek.”
I tried not to smirk. “Damn, really?” I asked. “I thought they said it would only take a few months.”
“I’m afraid that is not the case.” The leader nodded, and I thought he meant to look sorry, but he really just looked like a condescending prick. “However, as was mentioned, a majority rule amongst the ten Houses would sway the prospects in your favor, and this is where we can help you, Mason Flynt.”
