Siege of shadows the kee.., p.21
Siege of Shadows: The Keeper Chronicles Book 3, page 21
“The elves don’t attack visitors,” Alaric said in an unconvincing voice. “A sharp trill came from a nearby tree. It was echoed from another. And another.
Sini held the blue flame in her hand up higher, showing it to the creatures in the shadowed tops of all the trees nearby. Roan hurriedly did the same.
“Douglon?” Alaric called. “It’s getting a little tense out here.”
A flash of motion in the nearest tree caught Sini’s eye and she whirled toward it.
With a shriek, a small figure no larger than a two-year-old child leapt out of the tree. Sini caught a glint of wild eyes and white claws before it crashed into Roan.
Chapter Twenty
Roan staggered back into his horse, shoving back at the little creature clinging to his chest and screeching.
The little elf had a shock of short white hair, spiked out in all directions. Sini lunged over and grabbed at the elf’s arm, trying to pry it off Roan while it strained and snapped its teeth near his neck. The little elf’s arm was thin, with hard, stringy muscles, and its skin was oddly dry. The moment Sini touched it vitalle seeped out of her hand into it.
The elf ignored her entirely, flinging itself at Roan with everything it could muster. Its face was gaunt, its eyes wide and bulging, its cheeks sunken. Roan managed to get the creature at arm’s length, but it merely turned to scratching and biting at his arms.
In a breath a half dozen more hurtled down from the trees, landing on the others. A screeching flash of coppery skin slammed into Sini’s shoulder. She grabbed its skinny torso. Tiny bony fingers clamped into her hair. Nails dug into the back of her scalp and yanked her head backwards. The little elf screamed a sound of pure hatred and slammed its head into Sini’s temple. The grove spun for a moment as another hand scraped across just below her neck, sharp nails scratching her skin and clenching her shirt.
Sini squeezed her eyes shut against the spinning grove. She wrapped both hands around the elf’s chest and shoved the creature out to arms’ length. The elf didn’t let go, and its fingers wrenched Sini’s head to the side.
Sini let out a cry of pain that was lost in the shrieks of elves and the shouts of her companions. Beside her, Alaric fought with a scrambling mass of greenish elf he had driven to arms’ length while another clawed at his legs. Will managed to toss one elf off. It landed on all fours, still hissing. Two more climbed up the back of his legs. Roan finally got his white elf grasped solidly in one hand and was reaching for his sword when a dozen more dropped out of the trees and rushed for them.
“No weapons!” Douglon bellowed, running out from between the Vigilants. “Do not draw that sword, boy! They’ll go crazy!”
“This isn’t crazy?” Sini cried, scrambling away from one near her feet.
“This is nothing!” Rass called, rushing out behind Douglon. Her hair was disheveled, and there were long red scratches crisscrossing her arms and legs. She ran to Will, pulling at an elf that clung to his legs.
Douglon pulled one off Alaric’s leg. “Stand down, you stupid creatures!” he hollered at them. The horde of tiny elves paid no attention. The one in his arms slashed toward his face and Douglon gave it a thunderous look. “Derien, calm down!”
The elf Sini was holding grabbed at her wrist, and the skin where they connected burst into pain. Sini let out a yell and tried to pull away, but the elf’s grip was too strong.
A wave of weakness passed over her, and Sini stumbled to her knees.
Vitalle. The elf was sucking energy out of her so fast Sini could barely breathe. This wasn’t painless sunfire, the elf was sucking out her life.
She reached for the sunlight.
The energy of the grove rushed into her with a ferocity that sent her reeling. A sound like raging wind filled her ears. Her skin hummed. Energy shot from the ground into her knees. Her arms and neck and back drew sunfire in faster than she ever had before. The pain in her wrist was so excruciating, it took a moment to realize the little elf had calmed.
Its gaze was glued to Sini’s wrist, its face transformed into a look of pure bliss.
It was a girl, Sini realized in a detached sort of way, with beautiful copper skin and wide green eyes flecked with gold.
Around her the sounds of struggle worked past the noise in Sini’s head. “Vitalle!” she yelled to Alaric and Will. “They need vitalle!”
The copper elf loosened her grip and raised a sweet gaze to Sini’s face. “Give them to me!” Sini called. “They’re starving!”
Roan was the first to move, dragging the three elves that were attacking him over to Sini. A rush of pain lanced through her when he pressed the two that were on his legs against her back. It only took a heartbeat before they flung themselves off Roan and onto Sini.
The pain grew where they touched her, and where Sini touched the ground. It was the grove itself—the vitalle from the grass and the trees pouring into her—that burned. Gritting her teeth, she closed herself off to the energy streaming into her from the ground. It shoved against her knees, but she kept it out, letting only the sunfire pour onto her and through her.
The little copper elf chattered loudly, jumping and slapping her hands together. The chaos of elves around them turned like a school of fish and focused on her. They collapsed toward Sini, tiny hands scrambling to touch some part of her body. The pain faded as the forest’s vitalle was cut off. The sunfire filled her and streamed out effortlessly into the elves.
Even kneeling the elves only came up to her chest, and Sini reached her hands up above them toward the sky, drawing in everything she could, feeling it rush into her arms, her face, her neck, seeping out of her into the clamoring elves.
The ones who couldn’t reach her scrambled over the ones who could. Sini had a vague impression of Will and Alaric nearby, drawing vitalle from the ground in thin streams.
The energy flowing through her was more than she’d ever channeled. Tenfold more than when she’d healed Goven. She could feel the hands of the elves grabbing on tightly, loosening as they were fed, falling off to be replaced by more. Their screeching and scrambling were a distant tumult past the rushing river of vitalle.
The light filled her, swept her up in its purity and warmth, its vastness. This was life. Good and whole. No weakness, no sickness or hunger. Just light and life. Her hands glowed with a warm golden light. The skin on her fingers blurred into brightness like the edge of a candle flame, yearning to spread out, to soar into the sky. Luminous, weightless, and free.
Free.
Her skin softened, brightened, stretched toward the sunfire. It was so close. She ached to become a part of something so glorious. The golden glow on her hands grew brighter, burning along her skin with warmth and wholeness.
Dimly, she felt the number of hands on her dwindle and the pressure of the energy lessened. The light lessened as well, and Sini grabbed at it, panicked at the thought of it leaving. Her body was jostled, and she lost her hold. Exhaustion rolled over her and the light fled.
Awareness of the grove flooded into her. A crowd of tiny elves clustered around her, sitting or climbing sleepily over one other. The rushing in her ears was replaced by the sound of the elves’ chatter.
The little copper elf sat in front of Sini, looking up into her face. When Sini met her gaze, the little elf smiled a wide, toothless grin and scrambled up onto Sini’s lap. With a huge yawn, she snuggled into her.
Sini numbly wrapped her arms around the little creature and sank over to sit on the ground. Her fingers on the elf’s back were glowing with a golden glow. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sight. Everything was so dark and weak. Her own flesh dim and heavy. Sharp cuts stung on her arms and across the back of her neck. She breathed in deeply, letting the lifeless air fill her lungs.
The grove was so much quieter. She left her eyes closed, listening to the normal peaceful sounds of the forest. The air was empty, lighter. No vitalle pressed against her. She could still feel the towering energy of the elven trees, but they seemed content.
The yearning for the light squeezed her heart, and a sense of enormous loss fell over her. She understood Chesavia’s words.
For one glorious moment I wanted to join it. To let myself transform into light. To be vast and alive and free…Here, in the darkness where my skin is just skin, and my flesh merely mortal, trapped in one moment and one weakened form, my soul aches at my choice.
“Sini?” Will asked quietly.
She cracked her eyes to find him kneeling next to her, his hand outstretched toward her shoulder, his face worried. She glanced at her fingers, but they were only flesh and blood. She gave him a weak smile. “I know what they were hungry for.”
“Are you all right?” He touched Sini’s shoulder tentatively as though he expected to be shocked.
Alaric looked at her with something akin to awe. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I’ve never read about anything like that. How did you—? Where did you get—?” He stopped and looked to Will for help.
Will let out an exhausted laugh. “Alaric, I get the feeling someday you and I are going to be remembered only as ‘those two Keepers who brought the legendary Keeper Sini back to Queensland.’”
Chapter Twenty-One
Legendary Keeper Sini.
The words echoed in her head hollowly. The sunfire danced on the treetops and she itched to drag her fingers through the light, to feel the warmth pour through her skin again.
“Sini,” Alaric said cautiously, “why aren’t you dead?”
Sini felt oddly detached from them, her mind stunned from the absence of the light.
Roan picked his way through the elves to Sini, looking down at her with a cross between shock and concern. “Are you…hurt?”
“I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine, not exactly.
“You should be dead,” Will agreed. “Why were your hands glowing?”
His words caught her attention. “You saw that?” He and Alaric stood waiting. But she had no words to explain what had just happened. “The elves needed a lot of vitalle.”
“We noticed,” Will said.
She had glowed. A cold fear cut through her. She had glowed and her hands had blurred as though…as though they were turning into light. She swallowed down the horror that rose from the idea.
Sini shook her head and looked at the people around her. Despite her fear, she couldn’t quite banish the strange longing for the light.
“They needed more vitalle than anyone should rightly be able to give them.” Alaric turned to Will. “How many did you feed?”
“Two.” Will held out his hands and showed a bright red blister spreading across each palm. “And I was terrified another would touch me.” He glanced to a wide patch of dead grass that he’d pulled all the vitalle from. “Sorry, Rass.”
“There’s plenty more grass.” Rass looked up at him with a weak smile from where she sat—in her own patch of dead grass—being fussed over by Douglon. “I fed four.”
“You should have left the feeding to the Keepers,” Douglon chided her. “You were already exhausted.”
“We all should have left it to just one Keeper,” Will said.
Rass patted Douglon on the cheek. “I’m all right, uncle.”
Douglon gave a disapproving huff but kissed her on the top of the head before lifting two elves off her lap and settling them over by a cluster of others. He had a fresh red welt running down his cheek into his beard. Will dropped down beside Rass and she leaned against him. Sini tried to focus on the little grass elf, who looked meatier than the last time Sini had seen her. Her bare legs and arms, though scratched, looked strong. Her face was full, but dark shadows hung beneath her eyes and her shoulders slumped.
Alaric gestured to a withered tree shoot next to him. “It took a tree, but I fed three. Maybe two and a half before the last one went to Sini.” He turned his palms up to show blisters matching Will’s. “I believe that left thirty-nine for Sini.”
“Only thirty-eight and a half,” Will pointed out. “Let’s not give her more credit than she deserves. Would you like to show us your hands, Keeper Sini?”
With the ends of the power just at the edge of her mind, the title almost fit, and the dry look she intended to fix him with curled into a smile. She had felt the light the way Chesavia had. One of the greatest Keepers of all time, one whose skills most Keepers struggled to understand—Sini understood her perfectly.
She unwrapped one hand from the little elf nestled against her and held it up. It still stung a little, and when she spread her fingers apart a thin arc of pink shot between them, but there were no blisters. Aside from the place on her wrist the first elf had touched, her skin wasn’t even red.
“Are you part elf?” Rass asked.
The idea was so ludicrous Sini let out a laugh. “If you’d met my parents, you wouldn’t ask that.”
“Have you come up with any way to heal blisters?” Will gingerly stretched his fingers “oh great Keeper?”
“A wound is simply closed. A burn needs all new skin over a wide area…” Sini grimaced. “Burns are tricky.”
He sighed. “That’s what I thought.”
An elf pulled on Will’s leg and he picked up the little bluish creature. It snuggled against him and gave a sleepy yawn. “Emotional little things, aren’t they?” He sat down on the ground and two others climbed onto his lap.
“Every day, all day.” Douglon sat with an exhausted groan. “They’re never reasonable. They’re either giddy with happiness, screaming with fury, or sleeping. There’s no middle ground. And here I thought grown elves were moody.”
Rass threw a pinecone at him that bounced off his shoulder.
“At least now we know what they needed.” Alaric sat swarmed by his own group of baby elves. They climbed onto him like a handful of sparkling jewels.
Sini shook off the last of her thoughts of the light. The elves’ skin was each tinged a different color, their hair a darker version of the same. They uniformly had short hair that shot out in every direction, some in straight spikes, some in curls. There was a marked difference between the males and females. The faces of the little girls were long and lithe. The little boys were rounder, their bodies broader.
“Isn’t vitalle what they should be getting from the trees?” Sini asked, shifting the now sleeping copper elf into a more comfortable position on her lap. “You get your energy from the grass, right Rass?”
Rass nodded. “We’ve been trying to get them to connect to the trees, but they don’t seem to know how.”
“And we can’t show them how to do such an absurd thing.” Douglon growled at two of the elf boys who were attempting to climb up his legs, but gently moved them onto his lap. One reached up, wrapped his fingers around a braid in Douglon’s beard and gave a sharp yank. Douglon swore and swatted the hand away, then offered the elf his finger to hold instead. “Why can’t you just eat mutton?” He asked the yellowish creature in his lap. The little boy smiled up at him and closed his eyes. “I don’t know how to get anything from the trees either,” Rass admitted. “They’re not like the grass. I can feel how strong the trees are. But I can’t get to them.”
“We could show them,” Alaric offered. “Or at least we could try.”
“Unless Sini wants to stay here as a magical nursemaid for forty-six elves,” Will said with a grin. Three elves were tangled together on his lap, another climbing up his back.
“That sounds exhausting.” Sini glanced over the crowd of elves around them. They were all thin, their elbows and knees bony. The little copper girl in her arms had been born six days ago and hadn’t really eaten? No wonder they’d been angry.
“It’s brighter,” Roan said, peering into the edge of the forest.
It was brighter. Sunlight filtered through under the nearest trees, landing on bright green ferns and reflecting a verdant glow onto the trunks. The leaves rustled with an utterly normal sort of sound. The whole feel of the forest had changed.
“Maybe the elves weren’t making the forest angry,” Sini said. “Maybe it was angry that they were hungry.”
“Well, whichever it is, this is the most peace we’ve had in days,” Rass said leaning on Will’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you all came.”
“We need some help of our own.” Roan looked at Douglon. “Her Majesty, Queen Saren, requests that you take us to Duncave.”
Douglon’s eyebrow rose. “Who are you again?”
“This is Roan of Greentree,” Alaric said. “He is Saren’s emissary to the dwarves, and he’s betrothed to the heir apparent.”
Douglon grunted. “My sympathies on being so close to the throne.”
“Don’t worry,” Sini said, “he’ll just be a royal ornament.” She gestured to his clothing. “A colorless, sober, level-headed ornament.”
“Unless Queen Saren’s court is a lot different than Horgoth’s in Duncave,” Douglon said, “you’re not going to fit in at all,”
Roan squinted at the two of them as though trying to decide whether they were serious. “Her Majesty tells me that you are of royal dwarven blood.”
“I’ve been trying to change it out for useful blood my whole life, but so far, I haven’t had much luck.” He turned to Alaric. “Can you believe Horgoth still hasn’t had any children?”
“These sorts of things can take time.”
“Horgoth’s just wasting time, like he does on everything. A council meeting that could take less time than a quick snack takes all evening. Designing a blasted throne room could be done with some snapped off commands, yet work has come to a halt over the last few years due to his indecision. I’m sure it’s the same with the heirs.”
“We have pressing matters to speak to the High Dwarf about,” Roan broke back in. “Please escort us to the nearest entrance to Duncave. We can leave immediately.”
“First,”—Douglon grinned—“you don’t want me taking you to Horgoth. If you want him to listen to you, you should deny knowing me. Second, we can’t leave immediately. Shall we just leave Rass with forty-six elves that may turn back into vicious monsters at any moment?”
