Mira's View (24 page)

He stared at her intently, taking in every
inch of her face as she did his. Reaching out he cupped Galena’s
face, bringing her toward him. She felt the warmth of his fingers
against her cheeks and his breath against her face, sweet and
inviting. He held her face for a long time, studying her, searching
her eyes, his own hard, but filled with love. Whether it was
because of their desperate situation or their closeness to the
gods, Galena suddenly felt overwhelming emotions flow over her and
through her.

She gasped as she saw memories that were not
her own, flow through her mind. She closed her eyes and grasped
Elenio’s hands as she felt them tighten their hold on her. She felt
the anger that consumed Elenio as well as the undeniable love he
had for her. Fear filled her mind, as she knew it did his. Every
emotion, every thought that Elenio had ever had, she now possessed.
It was just as the elves described happened when they went through
the commitment ceremony.

She held back the tears, realizing that she
was closer to Elenio now, than she had ever been. She opened her
eyes to find that Elenio was staring at her with the same dazed and
loving look as she was sure was displayed on her own face. She was
unsure the reason, but unless she was totally off, Mira had just
chosen to unite Elenio and Galena as they would have been, had they
not undertaken this journey. Searching Elenio’s face, she felt the
love he had for her even as she felt her own love for him. It was
comforting and mind boggling all at once. To contain one’s own
emotion was often times a struggle, but to contain your own and
that of another’s was almost overwhelming.

Elenio pulled back and for the first time in
weeks, really smiled at Galena. It was the smile that she
remembered seeing as they grew up and as he finally declared his
intentions for her. A smile that reached his eyes.

“You felt it?” he asked, a hint of
uncertainty in his voice.

“How could I not?” His smile widened even
more as he bent down to kiss her lightly. They continued to stare
at one another, trying to absorb what had just happened and the
feelings that accompanied that special moment until Tark awoke and
threw a piece of old cheese at them, clearly annoyed.

“Oy, none of that if I can’t be with my
Taura!” he shouted angrily.

Grinning guiltily at him, Galena responded by
packing up their bags. Tark grumbled the entire time, packing his
bags with such force that it was a wonder he didn’t break
something. Snatching up a piece of fruit, he ripped chunks off and
chewed, still looking thoroughly irritated. Elenio however, was
quite the opposite. Between packing things and reaching over to
stroke Galena’s cheek or kissing her hand, he would never have been
ready if Galena hadn’t helped him along. She couldn’t help
returning the smile or chuckling at the goofy grin on his face from
time to time.

Still annoyed, Tark stormed off up the
mountain at such a pace that Galena and Elenio were practically
running to keep up.

Panting, Galena called up to him, “What is
your problem?”

She stopped on the trail as it had gotten
much steeper in the last few yards and she found that she was
struggling to keep her breath. Instead of answering, Tark
continued. He had reached a point where there was no clear trail,
just a stone face in front of him. Reaching up to find a hold, he
began to slowly make his way up. Galena glanced toward the
direction that he was heading and noted that there seemed to be a
small ledge about twenty feet up from where he was climbing. Taking
her flask and putting a pinch of her herbs in it, she took a long
drink before replacing the cork. If she was going to have to climb
for any given time, she would prefer not to have to stop for a
throw up break.

Elenio waited with her as she replaced the
flask back in her pack. Making sure her sword was secure and out of
the way. She did as Tark did and looked for the nearest handhold
for which she could use. She spotted one not too far up. Reaching
as high as she could she grasped the hold and started to pull
herself up, but stopped when she heard the tumbling of rocks and
Tark yelling above her. She looked up to see Tark, freefalling back
to where they stood. He slowly flipped in the air, knocking his
shoulder on the stony face before continuing his fall to the
ground. Galena didn’t think; instead, she acted. Sweeping an arm
out, she caused a great gust of wind to reach out and pluck Tark
from his fall. It cradled him slowly as Galena willed it, and
brought him safely back to the ledge he had been attempting to
climb to moments before.

Galena heard him moan loudly and sighed with
relief. Banged up or not, he was alive. She looked to Elenio to
share her relief with him, but realized that he was staring at her
with horror. It only took her a moment to realize yet another
mistake she had made. Rau now knew where they were.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

A spasm of terror and triumph filled Rau as
he felt Galena’s magic flow through him. He knew where she was, but
this was what terrified him. She was closer than he had expected.
Much closer. How had she accomplished it without being seen by any
of his scouts or any of his army for the matter? He thought of the
punishment that the torlics would have in store for them once they
returned for having let Galena slip past them yet again.

He pulled on a giant cord that would summon a
messenger to him. They would not fail him this time. He had his
army there and waiting, they just needed to know that their prey
had slipped past them once again. Rau sat back on his throne,
impatiently awaiting the arrival of the messenger and plotting
different ways to torture his incompetent soldiers. Relief was
beginning to wash over him as he realized that Galena would soon be
disposed of and he could continue as he had for centuries. Soon,
everything would be the way he liked it, with him in control once
more.

The messenger walked in and bowed low to Rau,
for which Rau was in no mood for.

“Go to the Mountains of the Gods. Let General
Zaku know that the elf girl is there on the mountain side,” he
rasped as he pointed in the direction of the mountains. “Go as
quickly as you can.”

Bowing low once more, the creature promptly
turned and headed back out the door from which he came. Rau smiled
to himself. He could see the end of Galena as he watched his
messenger disappear from view.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Deciding to use magic once more so that they
could check on Tark more quickly, Galena used another gale of air
to deliver Elenio and herself safely to the shelf where Tark was
lying. They landed gently on either side of him. Much to Galena’s
relief, Tark was sitting up and holding his bleeding shoulder.
Stooping down, she looked at it and found that it was bruising
nicely already, but the scrapes were shallow. She found some of the
bandages that Morgo had gotten for them and after cleaning the cuts
with water, wound them tightly around Tark’s arm. After that was
taken care of, she gave him a drink of her water, which quickly
took care of the ache that was causing him the most grief. Once she
saw the pain fading from his face, she reached her arms around his
neck and hugged him tightly. He returned the hug, but refrained
himself from squeezing as hard as she was.

“He knows,” Tark whispered into her ear.

“I know, but I couldn’t let you fall. You’re
the only blood family that I have left. We’ll just have to go a bit
faster now.” She pulled back and looked at her brother once more,
before smiling at him.

It was worth it,
she thought.

Elenio reached down and giving him a hand,
helped Tark to his feet. All three turned to survey the next climb
up and saw to their dismay, that the next ledge lay a good forty
feet above them. Sensing that this was going to be a very long day,
Galena reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt. She rubbed it
onto her hands, dropping the remaining bits.

Here goes nothing
, she thought wryly
to herself.

Their progress up the mountain took a great
deal longer than Galena would have liked, but it couldn’t be
helped. They had to stop every chance they got to rest a bit before
continuing up. Galena felt that her arms would fall off at any
moment, but still she continued. By nightfall, she could go no
further. They found a shelf, about two hundred feet higher than
when they set out that morning, to stop at for the night. Elenio
got some food and they shared water from Elenio’s flask as the
other two had drunk theirs. Galena swished the remaining water
around, knowing that it would be too hard to go without it, caused
the flask to refill. She poured some of that water into hers and
Tark’s flask before causing them to refill as well. They said
nothing for they knew that this day had been inevitable. They
gratefully took the water without a word.

Sitting next to one another in silence, they
polished off the remains of the whole food they had left, knowing
that tomorrow, Galena would once again have to use her magic to
make the pieces that Morgo had provided, into more.

“Well, that’ll be less that we have to carry
around,” Elenio commented, looking at the remaining crumbs.

Galena nodded, rolling her shoulders to
relieve some of the tiredness from carry such a heavy pack. “One
less thing to worry about.”

They decided they would all sleep that night,
as it was unlikely that the torlics would be upon them so quickly,
but that they should leave at first light in order to keep their
head start. If worse came to worse, Galena could help their
progress up the mountain with the wind. But this thought made
Galena nervous, because she knew she would only be able to do that
for so long.

They continued their race up for three days.
On the fourth day, they took a much needed break on a small shelf.
The strain of using magic and climbing was taking its toll on
Galena. She laid back and took a deep breath, but was stopped from
truly unwinding by the persistent dancing of Twoit.

“What’s wrong with you?” Galena asked a
little irritably. Twoit walked over to the edge and looked down at
something below. Curious, Galena followed the ferret’s gaze and
felt her heart stop. The torlics had realized that they were there
at last. She looked up and to her dismay, realized just how much
further they had to go, and they weren’t even sure if this was the
right mountain peak. Galena wanted to scream, but instead, pointed
out the torlics to Elenio and Tark. Elenio clenched his jaw as Tark
looked down with a determined look on his face.

“Time to fly, little sister.”

Galena nodded and stood. They quickly packed
up and then grabbing a hand with each of her own, she thought of a
giant gale of wind sweeping them up and into the air. No sooner had
she thought this than she felt herself and the other two rise into
the air. She looked up and found a small clearing for which the
wind could carry them to. The instant their feet touched the
ground, Galena had another gale lift them further up the mountain.
She was able to do this a couple more times, before she felt the
burning in her hand. Landing once more on the mountainside, she let
go of their hands before grabbing her own. She gasped as the pain
ran up her arm, making it feel as if her whole arm was on fire.

“This is as far as I can take us today,” she
gasped. Tark looked down and seeing the distance she had bought
them, nodded in satisfaction.

“Can you climb still?” he asked. Galena
grimaced, but seeing how they really had no choice, nodded. They
continued their way up, but slower than they had been. Galena
constantly needed a push up or to be pulled up as her arm still
burned angrily. Finally, she could go no further. They had reached
a small cave of sorts in the side of the mountain and it was there
that they decided to camp for the night.

Galena felt Elenio shaking her awake much
sooner than she would have liked. She tried to roll over so she
could go back to sleep. She was still so very tired, surely it
couldn’t be morning yet. However, Elenio continued to shake her
more earnestly.

“Come, my love, they are moving much quicker
than we are. Already they have closed the distance by half.”

Galena sat up, panic taking hold of her. “How
are they moving so quickly?” she asked, still a little groggy.

“My guess is that Rau is helping them along
the way,” came Tark’s reply from somewhere near the mouth of the
cave. “Do you feel up to some more wind?”

Galena tested her hand and frowned when she
noticed that the burning was still there. She had not gotten enough
rest or food to replenish her energy. Plus, with making more food
and water, she had used up a great deal of energy before calling
the wind to her aide.

“I could, but then you would have to carry me
the rest of the way.”

“Let’s start climbing then before they’re on
us.”

They began to climb, this time without
stopping to break, for the torlics drew closer. Galena’s body grew
weaker as the top grew closer. They were almost there. She couldn’t
help, but pray out to Mira the whole time; begging the goddess to
move her special place to this mountain even if this wasn’t the
peak she normally looked from. Each pull and push caused her
muscles to scream in agony, but still they climbed on. With every
ten feet, the torlics seemed to gain twenty until they were close
enough that Galena could see their ugly faces grinning at her.

She watched as Tark pulled himself over the
last rise and then reached down to help her up. She felt Elenio
push her from behind while she struggled over it herself. They had
made it. They were at the top of the first mountain. She looked
around her, even as Tark reached down to help Elenio. The view was
amazing. Fall colors could be seen in every direction, but her
stomach dropped as she realized there was no statue of Mira. No
sign of a shallow pool. They had chosen the wrong mountain.