Miras Last (11 page)

Galena smiled in return and took a step back.
“Shall we head to Tark’s and see what the plan is for
tomorrow?”

Elenio nodded his head in response before
taking Galena’s hand once more and starting in the direction that
he had been heading.

Galena felt better after settling their
argument. After all that they had been through, it seemed silly to
go on being angry at one another for sheer pettiness.

Within a few moments, they arrived at Tark’s
tent to find Taura alone. After giving them both a hug, she told
them Tark started out early that morning and she hadn’t seen him
since the night before. She also said he could normally be found
with one of his generals. They thanked her and headed out to
Morgo’s tent, but found that neither of them were there. Finally,
after they ran into Hasa, they were able to meet up with Tark who
was indeed meeting with Fala, Morgo, Nina, and Naradin on different
battle tactics and their overall impression about the first
attempt. Galena threw in her two cents while Elenio sat back and
listened to it all. Naradin felt that they might do better if they
surrounded Rau’s army, but Tark laughed this idea away.

“We don’t even have enough elves to surround
one side, let alone all of them.”

Naradin looked grim at this reminder and
thoughtfully sat back.

“The earlier we leave, the better. I think we
should pick off as many as possible before they reach Blackwell.
Once they do, it will be nearly impossible to gain any ground,”
Elenio said thoughtfully.

“Galena could always blast her way through,”
Nina said sarcastically, but this remark was met with Elenio and
Tark’s instant disapproval.

Morgo held up a hand to silence their further
complaints before saying, “She only teases. You forget we know
better than any other elves how far you can take magic. However,
you do realize it will take something of Galena size to finally get
to Rau.” Morgo was staring at the floor at this last statement
while he waited for everyone to absorb what he told them.

“As much as I would like to say no, I realize
that would be fool hardy,” Tark nearly whispered.

“So, I guess the real question is how do you
plan to get into Blackwell, Galena?” Morgo asked, still looking at
the floor.

All eyes turned to look at Galena, but she
found that she couldn’t meet any of them, especially not Elenio’s
or Tark’s. “Ummm, I hadn’t thought that far, but I definitely plan
on doing something to keep us from dying,” Galena muttered to no
one in particular.

“Spoken like a true hero,” Elenio said,
rolling his eyes as he did.

“Well, it’s definitely a start,” Morgo said
grinning broadly at Galena. “I’ve got a couple ideas on the
matter.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Galena said, returning
Morgo’s grin.

“It definitely sounds like I’ve thought of it
a bit more than you have,” Morgo said, chuckling as he did.

“You think about everything more than anyone
else!” Tark exclaimed.

Chapter
Eight

True to his word, Tark had the entire camp
packed and ready to go before the sun ceased to touch the land in
the far distance. The tents and all the hammocks were stowed away
in a single pack with a magical trick Morgo showed Galena when they
were traveling through the tunnels of the underground world such a
very long time ago. She shrunk everything to the size of an ant.
Morgo told her it took all the underground elves to pack, unpack,
and construct the entire camp. Even then, they hadn’t been able to
do it all at once, but had to resort to doing a handful of tents at
a time so they could preserve their energy. It took them a little
over an hour to do what Galena did in a matter of minutes with
energy to spare.

Galena spent most of the morning walking
beside Morgo and discussing the different strategies he thought
would prove beneficial when it came to battling Rau or even how to
get to him. They were both sure he would place every dark creature
both named and unnamed between himself and Galena. He wouldn’t risk
going directly against her until she forced his hand. Many of the
ideas revolved around trying to use lightning or something else big
to create an opening, but Galena felt this would be equivalent to
Morgo trying to put creature after creature to sleep, eventually
she would wear out.

Throughout Morgo and her discussions, Elenio
walked patiently beside Galena, listening intently and offering
suggestions at random. He never openly said it, but Galena could
feel the fear radiate in him for her. She felt bad for him, knowing
exactly how he felt because of her experience in that horrible
cave. She reached out and taking his hand, gave it a squeeze,
trying to reassure him, but knowing it was useless to try. No one
would rest easy until the war was finished. Even then, if Galena
lost, the elves left would have to go into hiding. She wasn’t sure
what Elenio would do and tried not to think of it.

The elves walked through the entire day and
only stopped to rest and eat late that night. The following day,
like the morning before, they set out before sunrise once more.
Tark had Galena check on the progress of the dark creatures and
found they’d stopped just a short distance away from Blackwell.
They appeared to have set up camp. Now they were waiting for the
elves to make their appearance. Galena also searched for Morak and
found him and his elves heading in the opposite direction of the
enemy’s camp. They were jogging at an even pace and making good
time. Tark figured if the elves kept traveling as well as they had
and Morak’s group kept traveling at the pace they were, the two
groups would meet within a couple of days.

Once again, the elves moved out as soon as
the sun peeked above the distant land. This time they didn’t have
to worry about packing up because they had all slept under the
stars. They traveled in this manner for roughly a week, meeting up
with Morak and his group on the third day as Tark predicted. It was
on the seventh day when they came within seeing distance of the
enemy’s camp. Galena could smell the salty sea on the breeze. She
had never been this far south in the land of Tomiro. The Mountains
of the Gods had been the farthest she’d ever been and even then,
they didn’t lie on the outer edges of land, but more in the general
southern part.

Blackwell was on a small island a short way
from the southernmost point of Tomiro. Galena had always heard
stories of how dark and depressing the land was in that region, but
hadn’t realized how much so until she had reached it. Death and
darkness was the most prominent feature in this forsaken land. The
sky above even gave up trying to fight the dark of Blackwell and
had the permanent look of an approaching thunderstorm. The ground
below as far as the eye could see was varying shades of black and
gray. The dark intunerics were scattered all throughout the area
and were said to make up the very walls of Blackwell. They had
sucked the surrounding land dry of anything good and containing
life.
Very long here and we won’t have to battle Rau, the stones
will kill us,
Galena thought dryly.

“We’ll make camp here tonight and tomorrow
we’ll engage the enemy,” Tark said with a look of determination and
disgust on his face. “Make sure everyone at least has a hammock to
sleep on. I want no one lying on this ground for any length of
time. They may not wake up if they do.”

The generals nodded their heads in agreement
and set off to inform all of the elves of their plans.

“Kind of feels like we’ve arrived at death’s
door, doesn’t it?” Elenio said, eyeing the enemy army and the
surrounding land with disdain.

Galena said nothing to this, but looked at
the enemy as well. They seemed much more intimidating surrounded by
all the dark and gloom. Perhaps it was because they blended in so
well with the surroundings, it made them appear to have doubled in
size. It was possible Rau may have sent reinforcements, although
Galena somehow doubted this because she felt he was truly a coward
at heart and wanted his strongest closest to him.

“Come on, let’s help set up some hammocks. I
have a feeling sleep will not come easy in this place,” Galena
said, shuddering slightly at the thought of trying to fall asleep
in a land that seemed filled with nightmares. If any land needed
light in it, it was this one.

The next morning was as dark and gloomy as
the day before. The only reason Galena knew it was day was because
the night had been the darkest Galena had ever been through.
Without the aid of lanterns or campfire, she had not been able see
her hand in front of her face. Elenio still claimed she glowed
faintly, but she couldn’t see it. The chill that had seeped into
her very bones, made her feel depressed and alone. She could tell
by Elenio’s thoughts and emotions that he felt the same.

She awoke and waking Elenio, because she
refused to be apart from him for even a moment since they had
arrived, they went to find Tark. They found him, along with several
of his generals, going over last minute instructions before setting
off to meet the enemy. Galena looked over at Morgo who looked as
tired as she felt.

“Rough night too?” she asked, looking
concerned.

“I was haunted by nightmare after nightmare.
It seemed as soon as I would wake from one, another would follow.
All my worst fears placed in my dreams to torture me.”

Not for the first time was Galena thankful
Mira had taken her ability to dream from her. She could only
imagine what the night would have held for her if she hadn’t.

“Tell me about it,” Elenio said darkly.

“I think that was the common theme for the
night,” Tark said, joining them. “Were you able to sleep at all?”
he asked, looking at Galena, worry coloring his voice.

“My dreams were taken from me. A blessing
from Mira,” Galena answered as she looked in the direction of the
dark army. “When are we heading out?”

“Within the hour,” Tark answered. He turned
to look at the enemy army as Galena was. “Why?”

“I’m going to see who would like to own a
blazing blade,” Galena said, smiling at Tark as she did.

“Glad you can find something amusing in all
this mess.” Tark shook his head in amazement as Galena continued to
grin mischievously.

“Giving us an advantage should make everyone
happy.”

“Just make sure that they understand the
spell will react anytime the sword comes in contact with any living
flesh. It doesn’t matter if the flesh belongs to good or evil,”
Morgo said, coming up on the other side of Tark.

“Got it. Care to come with me to help explain
the rules and provide water for the ones who manage to set
themselves ablaze for not following those rules?” Galena asked.

“Lead the way,” Morgo said.

“Elenio, are you coming?”

“No, I want to talk with Tark for a little
while. I’ll catch up in a bit.” He too was staring in the direction
of the enemy army, a look of disgust on his face.

Galena looked at him for a moment more,
debating whether she wanted to argue about this, but decided
against it. Instead, she turned and followed Morgo, who was already
heading to a group of elves preparing for battle.

Galena and Morgo had talked to several groups
of elves and put spells on most of their weapons, when Elenio
finally caught up with them. He looked grim, but stood back and
watched as Morgo explained to another group the idea of having
blazing weapons. Galena backed up, knowing Morgo would be able to
do a much better job convincing the elves than she would and turned
to Elenio.

“What was that about?” she asked so only he
would be able to hear. She felt a sadness wash over him and
thoughts of her battling the enemy army alone as she had before
flashed through his mind. “Oh.”

“I’m not saying anything or trying to
convince you to do differently,” he said, watching as several elves
in the group stepped forward to have spells put on their arrows and
swords. “It’s not my fault you know my thoughts.” He looked back at
her and grinned halfheartedly.

“I love you. Would you like me to blindfold
you or tie you up so you don’t have to watch?” Galena asked,
smiling and poking him in the side.

“Yeah, because tying me up worked so well
before.” He raised his tunic sleeve showing her the scars left from
wrestling with a vine. When she had been in the cave fighting
against the fears of her mind, Elenio had been struggling with a
vine the guardian tied him to a tree with in order to keep him from
attempting to get into the cave and saving her. When Galena emerged
from the depths of the darkness contained within the vanishing
mountain, she needed to heal all the cuts and bruises on Elenio,
but some of the deeper cuts had left ragged scars on his arms for
which she could do nothing about.

“True, so maybe I’ll keep you locked up in a
giant air bubble.”

Elenio looked at her curiously and Galena saw
flashes of his thoughts race through his mind.

“Interesting,” she said as she pieced
together the thoughts. “It might be worth a try once we decide we
need a break.” Morgo was finishing up with the explanations, which
meant that Galena was up.

She fixed the fire within each of the weapons
and turned back to Elenio when Morgo shouted. She rolled her eyes,
extinguishing yet another elf with a wave of her hands.
Apparently, not all the elves listened carefully,
she
thought. Fortunately, for the elf, no serious damage had been done
other than the burn marks on his pants.
Maybe this wasn’t such a
good idea.

* * * *

The elves gathered and stood waiting a short
distance from the dark creatures Rau sent out. Unlike the first
battle, there was nothing but flat, dark land all around. There
were no good hiding places for the archers to shoot from, so Tark
settled for keeping them toward the back of the elf army. He
briefly considered placing them on some of the larger intunerics,
but it made the elves feel drained when they stood on them for too
long. This suited Galena fine, she had an idea that involved their
use.