Surrender, Book 3 The Elfin Series (23 page)

“Don’t you dare leave me, not again,”
he growled at her through their bond as his hand turned her face toward him. Dirt smeared her cheek and clung to her clothes. Her skin was cool and her lips were growing paler. And still she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Cush didn’t understand it. She’d been fine, other than her memory being jacked up. Only a few moments ago, she’d been perfectly okay. What had changed?

“You’ve been successful, warrior.” A cool voice spoke from behind him. The elf looked up to see Oakley staring at something, or rather someone, just over Cush’s right shoulder.

“Oakley,” Cush said softly. When he didn’t respond he snapped his fingers in his face finally gaining the boy’s attention. “Here, hold onto her.” He carefully laid Elora’s body back in her brother’s lap. He stroked her cheek gently before finally standing slowly and turning to face the interloper.

He wasn’t surprised to see the old woman standing there. Her attire, and the many trinkets hanging from her body, revealed her quite clearly as a servant of the Voodoo queen that ruled this swamp. The queen had already come to him once and explained her plan; it only made sense that either she or one of her priestesses would check up on him.

“But then my queen not be thinkin you be havin any trouble.”

“Who are you and why are you here?” Cush asked, attempting to keep his voice even and calm.

“I am Chamani. I am a part of this here land. You and yours be guests and guests must play by de rules.”

“Do the rules include this?” Cush said, pointing at Elora lying motionless on the ground. Cush took a step toward the old woman. “Your queen,” he nearly spat the word at the priestess, “did not mention that when I killed Tarron it would affect Elora. Is that part of the rules, to not share all of the information?”

“Would it have changed your actions? Would you not be killing the man who put de spell on her?”

“He didn’t put the spell on her on his own, He had help. Perhaps, that one also needs killing,” Cush threatened as his eyes narrowed.

“My queen not be answering to you. She need to keep de balance. You played yo part in de plan. Whatever else happens not be her concern.”

“BULLSHIT!” Cush roared. He very rarely lost his cool, but then he’d never faced the possible death of his Chosen until now. “It is her concern now.” He held out his hand and out of nowhere a bow materialized in it along with a silvery arrow. He nocked the arrow and aimed it at the old woman. “Will she protect you, Chamani? Will your queen, whom you have served so faithfully, keep my arrow from piercing your heart?”

“If dat is to be my fate, den so be it.”

The old woman didn’t seem phased in the least at the possibility of dying.
So be it
, Cush thought as he let the arrow fly.

L
orsan’s breath froze in his lungs as he felt his gut clench and his heart stutter. His soul screamed within him, screamed for his mate. She was gone—that was the only thing he knew that could cause this kind of pain.

His knees hit the ground just as he came face to face with his Chosen. He clutched a travel bag in each hand, one containing the Book of the Elves. Ilyrana’s eyes were gleaming and she had a smug look on her face. His mouth dropped open and he blinked several times to make sure his eyes didn’t fool him.

“How are you here?” he asked, his voice breathless with the pain he was feeling.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I just felt…it felt like…like I had lost you.

She laughed. She actually laughed. “You must have been mistaken love, as you can see I’m perfectly fine. So since I answered your question, perhaps you can answer mine, just where are you running off to, my love?”

For a moment he wasn’t sure what to think, but her question reminded him of his current situation. “The Forest Lords,” he gasped. “They were here. They told me my fate was set and that I could do nothing to change it. I won’t go down without a big damn fight.”

“Fate?” His mate practically spat the question at him. “Since when do you believe in fate? Haven’t you always told me that we make our own destiny?”

“Regardless, if I’m going to die it will be by my choosing and definitely not at the hands of the humans attempting to break down my door. We have to go. Now!” The dark elf queen could see panic in her Chosen’s eyes.

“Lorsan, listen to me.” She placed both hands upon his shoulders. Then she said the only words that could distract him from making his escape. “Calm down. I’ve done it, my king. Our troubles are over. I’ve found an elder. I know the secrets of the book,” she whispered, almost desperately, lowering her head and looking directly into his eyes. “Some of them anyway. The rest he will give up, once he’s been properly…persuaded.”

“You…you found one. Who?”

“Vyshaan.”

“Vyshaan? I…I…haven’t seen him in years,” Lorsan responded. “Where? How?”

“He’s been right here under our noses this whole time,” she almost giggled, “hiding out at Rezer’s place. The light elves led me right to him, just like I thought they would.

That devil, Rezer, hiding an elder. I couldn’t believe it at first. By the way, we will need to take care of that elf soon, my love. He has some very powerful secrets. Secrets that could hurt us if we don’t attend to them.”

“What secrets?” Lorsan asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

“Nothing we can’t handle, now that I know how to decipher the Book. Come, love.” She took his arm and guided him back into his office. “We have much to do.”

A muffled noise reached the office. Apparently there was some commotion down on the casino floor.

“Yes, yes, very much to do,” Lorsan said distractedly. Already her old Chosen was returning to himself. If he’d heard the commotion going on downstairs, he made no note of it. A broad grin was beginning to spread across his face. He tossed one of the bags aside haphazardly. The other he placed on his desk, unzipped it, and then gently pulled out the ancient text. He placed it softly on the desk and then looked up at his Chosen, his beautiful Chosen, that had somehow pulled off a miracle.

“Ilyrana, my beautiful, powerful, lovely queen, you have been so faithful all these years, ruling by my side, but this—this is your most outstanding accomplishment. You are truly a worthy dark elf queen.”

The beautiful dark elf giggled lightly. “Lorsan, you flatter me.” If he didn’t know any better, he’d thought she might actually have blushed. That was something he hadn’t seen in a very, very long time. He could tease her about that later. Like she said, they had work to do.

“Where is Vyshaan now?” he asked suddenly curious as to why she hadn’t brought the elder with her.

Just then more noises came from outside the office. Several people could be heard shouting. It seemed that the commotion had not been contained to the casino floor.

“Damn those accursed humans,” Lorsan muttered. “Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to try and enslave them. They are so taxing.”

“He’s in one of the holding cells,” Ilyrana continued, ignoring her mate’s comments and answering his original question. “And so are the light elf king and queen. I didn’t want to risk dragging Vyshaan through the casino. He is just as powerful as we remember. It took all my strength and five of my best elves to subdue him. He won’t be easy to break, but I think we are more than up to the task.” She gave a light chuckle, enthralling him with her sensual smile. “I was able to get a few bits of information from him before he passed out,” she continued. “Sit, lover. Let me show you what I’ve learned.”

He dropped into the chair behind his desk and she went and stood beside him.

“Now,” she said, opening the book to a random page, “Vyshaan told me the key to deciphering the stories comes from a very complex code based on our own ancient Elvish alphabet. You see these large curly letters at the end of each paragraph? Each of these corresponds with a letter of our alphabet.”

“Of course, of course,” he whispered peering closely at the book. “But which letters of our alphabet correspond to which letters of the book?” He leaned down, staring, unblinkingly at the letters on the page before him.

Ilyriana moved behind him and began rubbing his shoulders as he studied the pages.

“Well that is the most vexing thing,” Ilyrana said lightly, as if she wasn’t actually in the least bit vexed. “You see, Vyshaan told me that only an elf that was pure of intentions could decipher the code. Even knowing how the code was deciphered, an elf with evil intent will be unable to determine the corresponding letters.” Standing behind Lorsan, she began to massage her Chosen’s arms and shoulders even deeper, attempting to relax him. “This is because the Forest Lords designed the corresponding letters to continually shift from one to another. A letter in our alphabet, say the letter ξ, for example, might mean ‘R’ in the human alphabet one minute and ‘T’ the next minute. Ingenious really.”

“Ingenious?” Lorsan roared. “This is terrible!” The dark elf pounded the table in frustration. How are we supposed to decipher the book if the meanings of the letters keep changing?”

Ilyrana walked around to the front of the desk.

“Well that’s the thing, Lorsan.
We
aren’t going to be able to decipher the book.”

“What are you talking about?” he said, voice and eyebrows both raised. Lorsan attempted to stand but found his body welded to the chair. His upper body seemed permanently affixed to the back of his comfortable leather chair. He thrashed about but couldn’t break the magical hold.

“What the?” he growled. “What have you done, Ilyrana?”

“Ilyrana? You think that witch is pure in her intentions? As if―” Then a bright light began to radiate from the figure before him. In a twinkling of an eye, where before stood his beautiful Ilyrana, now stood, shimmering in all her glory, Syndra, the light elf queen.

“How did you do this?” Venom laced the king’s words. “Why couldn’t I sense you? I should have…I should have been able to see through your glamour.”

Syndra leaned across the desk, placing her face mere inches away from the dark elf as he struggled against the invisible bonds.

“Power,” she whispered. “Your pure, unadulterated lust for power has been your downfall at last, you miserable excuse for an elfin king.

You see, I wasn’t lying to you, Lorsan. Vyshaan really did give me the key to deciphering the book, and it really does take someone who doesn’t want to use the book for evil. When your Chosen and her dark elves took us by surprise, they probably would have gotten the better of us, but Vyshaan…well let’s just say he knew which side he had a better chance with, and it wasn’t yours.”

“
Y
ou can be as loud as you like, former king, either way you will be coming with me.” Ilyrana’s hand shot out at the same moment’s Syndra’s did, and the room was lit with a light so bright that everyone had to close their eyes. But just as fast as the light had appeared, the room was plunged into darkness.

Syndra heard grunts and shouts echo throughout the room, just before she felt a hand on her waist.

“Back to back, my queen,” Tamsin shouted.

“Of course. You think this is my first battle?” She and Tamsin stood facing outward, backs pressed against each other. She glanced at Lisa who was standing next to the elder. “Stay close to him.” Lisa nodded and took a step closer to Vyshaan. Syndra began chanting quickly, waving her hands in front of her. A sphere the size of a Volkswagen enveloped them only an instant before the first bolt of darkness struck it and bounced harmlessly away. Again and again the dark elves sent powerful dark pulses flying toward the light elves. Syndra grunted with the effort to hold against their onslaught. Meanwhile, Tamsin sent beams of light into the darkness, aiming for the sources of the dark pulses. Most went wide, but occasionally a grunt and a splash of light revealed a dark elf falling to the floor, indicating he’d found his mark.

“Concentrate your fire!” Ilyrana’s voice rang out in the darkness. “To me, my dark elves!” And she shot a huge dark beam at Syndra’s shield. She bore down with all her might. The dark elves followed her lead. They each shot their own bolts at the spot where Ilyrana was aiming, focusing their power, attempting to break the light elf’s defenses.

Syndra growled in frustration; the strategy was working. Sweat poured from her brow and her eyes were squeezed shut tightly. Despite her efforts, despite the strength she was receiving by being connected to Tamsin, she was starting to fade. She felt him attempt to push more of his power into her, but he too was waning.