Miras Last (19 page)

“Do we have everyone?” she asked as soon as
Tark came into view.

“Yes.”

“Good, because I don’t think I could fly back
over there if I wanted to.” Galena sat down hard on the ground, her
legs shaking badly and her arms hung limply at her side. “I need
something to eat,” she said wearily.

Instantly, one of the underground elves
pulled out a small crumb of bread and grew it into a loaf, handing
it to her when she finished.

“Thank you,” Galena said, feeling somewhat
taken aback.

“See and you doubted us,” Morgo said. He was
laying on the ground beside Galena, clearly exhausted from the
amount of magic he’d used. Nina was on his other side starting to
come to from her recent blackout.

“I already told you I was sorry about that. I
had just gotten used to being depended on for what felt like
everything,” Galena said, biting off a hunk of bread.

Morgo just smiled and closed his eyes. “Yep,
and I think I’ll leave the flying elves to you for future
reference.”

“See what I mean, depended on for
everything,” Galena said grinning down at him.

Elenio came up to her about that time and
handed her a flask of water, which she downed eagerly. “Well, we
did it. We got all the underground elves in safely and they come
with supplies. Remember those wonderful ires?” Elenio asked taking
a bite out the apple he was carrying.

“Yep, they blow things up.”

“They came loaded with them.”

“Well, I say things just got a bit more
interesting,” Galena said.

* * * *

Galena devoured a couple loaves of bread
before she finally felt better. She was still tired, but she had
felt worse. Standing up, she thanked the underground elf once more
when she realized that she vaguely remembered this elf. She tried
to focus on him, but his face kept drifting in and out of her
thoughts, reminding her of how she constantly felt the entire time
she was underground. Shaking her head slightly to help her refocus,
she looked intently at the elf who realized Galena was studying
him.

“Are you surprised to see me?” the elf asked
in the same dull monotone voice that was characteristic of all the
underground elves.

“To be honest, I’m trying to remember if I’ve
seen you before and I feel as if I have,” Galena said struggling
now to stay focused on the conversation.

“I am Lars, the head elder of Freeva,” the
elf said, smiling slightly at Galena.

“Umm, where was that again?”

“My village,” Morgo answered, coming up
behind Galena. He clasped Lars’ arm with his forearm. “Welcome, my
friend.”

Galena stood back and stared with amazement
at the difference between the two elves. She recalled a time when
she had struggled to focus on Morgo, but now the complete opposite
was true. Even with his slightly crooked nose now, Morgo was a
good-looking elf. Everything about him had changed since arriving
in the world above. Galena hoped the same would hold true for these
new elves or she would really have a hard time getting to know
them.

She left Morgo with his friend and went to
find Elenio who’d wandered off in search of Tark. She wanted to go
back to the tent and rest for a while, but didn’t want to leave
without letting someone know where she went. Who knew what they
would do if they thought she’d gone missing?

She started heading toward the food tent,
which was where the majority of the elves seemed to be heading,
when she heard something strange. A high-pitched screeching or
hissing. She couldn’t tell which it sounded more like, only that it
was making her ears ache terribly. She looked around and noticed
several elves also seemed to have noticed the terrible noise as
they were covering their ears in response. Galena looked around for
whatever was making the sound, but saw nothing. She spotted Elenio
coming toward her, his feelings of confusion racing through his and
her mind.

Galena looked to the sky, but all that she
saw there was the dome of light. She turned to look behind her,
toward the wall of fire when the sound came again, this time louder
and shriller.

Now Galena covered her ears as they throbbed
painfully with the noise. Elenio was looking everywhere as well and
many of the elves were crouching on the ground, alarm written on
everyone’s expression. Out of nowhere, a giant, winged creature
came swooping down, snatching up an elf with one of its clawed
feet. It went flying back up and through the light dome
disappearing from sight. Another one shot down, snatching another
elf from the ground before retreating to the sky. They moved with
such incredible speed, that Galena was barely able to identify what
they were.

“CRAGS!” she heard someone shout. She felt as
if her stomach had been filled with ice as several more dropped to
the ground with incredible speed, picking up more and more elves
with every drop.

“I thought you said that nothing dark could
go through the light dome?” Elenio shouted as they raced toward the
nearest tent.

“And I thought I told you it would not keep
anything solid out!” Galena shouted back, close on Elenio’s
heels.

“Galena! Take down the light dome, we need to
see them coming,” Tark shouted as he came into sight.

Instantly, the light was gone and what Galena
saw almost caused her heart to stop. The sky was filled with the
giant, winged creatures. Some of them now carried elves in their
clutches, while others were eyeing the remaining camp with their
giant black eyes. They reminded Galena horribly of a lizard that
she would often find scaling the trees in her home village only a
hundred times bigger and scarier. Rau used these creatures to
deliver messages, but apparently, he had decided it was time they
took a bigger role in the war.

Several more shot down toward the ground,
snatching elves in their claws and retreating. Galena watched in
horror as one of the crags grabbed Nina. It turned quickly before
smashing into the ground before soaring back into the sky. Nina
turned in its clasp and tossed something at it, within seconds it
let go of Nina as it erupted into flames. She went careening toward
the ground at incredible speed. Without thinking, Galena sent a
gust of wind, grabbing her and bringing her safely to the land
where she released the gale, placing Nina gently on the ground.

Galena raced out into the open, looking up at
the sky to watch the Crags soaring high above, elves clutched in
their grasp. Morgo joined her along with several of the underground
elves.

“There is at least three or four dozen,”
Morgo said his face still turned to the sky.

“At least a dozen elves have been taken,”
Lars reported, a hint of emotion in his voice.

“We need to get them down before I can do
anything to the crags. I’m afraid I might hurt the captured elves
otherwise.”

“Can you cause the wind to blow enough so
they’ll let go?” Morgo asked calmly.

“Worth a try.”

Elenio came up beside Galena, sword ready.
“You work on getting our elves back, I’ll watch for any crags
trying to sneak in,” he said, watching the sky.

Galena glanced up, preparing the wind to whip
around some crags, when more of the giant winged creatures dropped
down, but instead of grabbing more elves, they deposited several
dark creatures far from where the flames could reach them.

“Great,” Galena heard Elenio say
sarcastically. Tark had also arrived along with Taura, Fala, Morak,
Zaza, and Yeia.

“Get those elves back and let us handle the
monsters arriving,” Tark said grimly.

Galena nodded her head. The sooner that she
could get the elves back safely, the sooner she could make camp
safe again. She turned her face toward the sky, focusing on
whipping the crags around as she listened to the sounds of a battle
breaking out around her. Just as Morgo predicted, several of the
crags let go of their captives in order to right themselves. To
Galena’s surprise, another gust of wind picked up the now free
falling elves and delivered them safely to the ground just as she
had done with Nina. She looked around and saw several of the
underground elves were guiding the wind with their hands. This act
alone freed Galena up so she could focus more on releasing the
elves and then destroying the emptied clawed creatures. Smiling,
she turned her face to the heavens again, this time causing those
creatures to burst into flames.

She grabbed her sword for extra strength as
she attempted to shake more elves loose, but the crags seemed
prepared for this. There were still a couple more elves being
carried away by the crags toward Blackwell. She needed to act
fast.

“Can you and the underground elves float the
rest of the elves down if I get them free?”

“Yes,” Morgo said.

Lars nodded his head in agreement and called
for the remaining underground elves to join them in the
clearing.

Satisfied, Galena took a deep breath and
looked around for Elenio. She saw him battling a couple of torlics
while Tark was dealing with a narook. She saw the few enemies that
had been dropped off were quickly being dealt with. The crags were
approaching with more dark creatures. Galena sent bolts of
lightning after them, causing them to burst into thousands of
pieces.

Galena sent herself soaring into the air at a
speed she had only done once before when she had been joining the
battle in the valley. She felt the wind whistle past her, it
smelled of dark magic and death. Coming up to the first the crags,
she cut the claw holding the elf off, allowing the elf to free fall
before being caught up with a gust of wind. Galena raced past the
crag, ignoring the final screech that it made as it burst into
light. She caught up with two more, causing them both to burst into
light with a swipe of her blade. The elves they carried found
themselves swept back to the camp.

She looked down and saw she was flying over
the enemy camp now and was heading directly toward Blackwell. The
intunerics that were all around began to drain her. She felt her
hope beginning to flee and dark thoughts taking over her mind.
Weariness of a full day started to creep up on her.
Not yet,
she thought. She had to be quick with the remaining crags or they
would soon be entering Rau’s domain.

Sincerely hoping she wasn’t about kill the
remaining elves, she caused the remaining crags’ heads to catch
fire. This had the effect that shaking them with a second gust of
wind had not had. Instantly, they dropped the elves, the fire that
was consuming their bodies was also taking over their thoughts. The
elves began to fall to the ground, and to Galena’s horror, nothing
picked them up. Apparently, they were too far away for the
underground elves to help. Feeling incredibly tired, Galena created
a funnel of wind, sucking up all the elves and some dark creatures
into it.
They’ll deal with them when they land,
Galena
thought.

Her limbs were growing heavy and she fought
to stay awake. She sent the funnel of wind to the elf camp, making
sure to cause it to dissipate as it drew closer. Unfortunately, for
those elves, Galena didn’t have enough strength to make sure they
had a soft landing, but were instead set down rather harshly. She
couldn’t help it though. Galena struggled to keep herself aloft and
flying as she headed back to camp. The two acts combined seemed
more than she could manage however.

She watched in a detached sort of way as the
ground grew closer and noticed her flight had slowed down. The elf
camp was still a couple hundred yards away. She could make it. The
dark creature’s faces started to come closer into view and still
she was fifty feet away.
I have to make it,
she thought, her
head rolling around as she fought to stay conscious. Twenty feet.
The torlics began to jump up, trying to grab at her legs, which
were just a little too high. She wasn’t going to make it. She
landed with a thud and took off running as fast as she could
manage. The dark creatures were circling around her, menacing looks
on their faces. Switching her sword to the other hand, she prepared
herself to make a last stand. She saw the firewall just a few feet
away; if she fought a couple, she could lower the firewall just
enough for her to pass through. It was her only chance.

She turned and started to run again toward
the firewall, cutting down the torlics that were determined to
block her way. They burst into light, temporarily blinding some
narooks beside them. Using this to her advantage, Galena ran past
them, her legs beginning to feel like jelly and harder to control.
Galena forced herself on. She heard another dark creature coming up
behind her. Turning around, she quickly dispatched of it before
resuming her race to the fire barrier. More and more creatures were
coming. They all seemed to realize they had to beat her to the
firewall.

A couple more steps. Galena started to fall,
the ground racing toward her. She couldn’t go any further. She was
too tired. Blackness started to fill her vision when she felt it.
Wind surrounding her, picking her up gently from the ground. She
felt the sting of a blade cutting through the skin and muscles of
her leg before the blackness consumed her.

Chapter
Thirteen

Elenio examined the cut on his arm. It was a
shallow one, but it still annoyed him. If he had been paying more
attention, he would have never gotten it. The torlic simply snuck
up behind him while he’d been watching the underground elves
retrieve Galena. It wasn’t a moment too soon, from what he could
tell. She was already unconscious and bleeding badly from her left
thigh. He’d just started toward her when he heard the torlic
breathing behind him. He turned around, prepared to block him, but
the torlic was already swinging. Elenio made to jump out of the
way, but not quite soon enough. The torlic’s sword ripped through
the sleeve of his tunic, grazing his arm in the process. Elenio
wasted very little time on the torlic after that.