Blood Of Gods

CHAPTER 7

Sunlight shone through the tree branches, lighting up the multicolored crystals that lined the skywalk’s railing. Aullienna Meln took it slow, one foot in front of the other, as she made her way across the plank. The day was certainly a bright one, and filled with joyous sound. Her people scurried about on parallel walkways, calling out to her, cheering her on, yet she felt no relief in the sound. I must enjoy the wonder of it, of them, the young elf told herself. I must, I must, I must. Even though autumn’s chill rode on the wind, even though her world had fallen to shambles around her.

Ever since returning to the Stonewood Forest, nothing had gone right. Their band of elves had been surrounded, her betrothed shot with an arrow, her mother clouted in the face. Aullienna herself had been carried away in a sack, only to be dumped onto the floor of Briar Hall, the court of the Lords of Stonewood. No smiles had greeted her. Instead, she’d been welcomed by a long-lost brother she’d never met, who had been banished from Stonewood long before Aully was born.

I hope you die horribly, Carskel, she thought, hearing the elf’s whisper-soft footsteps behind her. I hope your insides catch fire and your intestines fall out your mouth.

“Stop dawdling,” she heard Carskel say. Something poked into her shoulder blades, and she peered behind her. There stood her brother, tall and slender, with a head of long white-gold hair, flowing satin blouse over gossamer breeches, and his khandar swinging from his hip. He looks so much like father, she thought in despair. The tip of his walking stick was pressed against her back. He smiled, baring his teeth, his eyes twinkling in the slender beams of light that infiltrated the canopy. He seemed so pleased with himself. Just seeing him like that made her hate him all the more.

I should conjure a fireball and wipe that smile off his face, she thought.

“I’m going,” she said instead. She knew that somewhere nearby, Ethir Ayers and Mardrik Melannin, Carskel’s loyal enforcers, held the rest of her loved ones. Should she turn against her brother, should she hurt him in any way, Mother, Kindren, Noni, Aaromar, and all the rest of those who had traveled with her would be in danger.

We should have never left Ang, the child in her complained. Bardiya would never have allowed this to happen.

Grow up, her new resolve answered.

Elves cheered as she circled around the skywalk, passing small home after small home nestled into the branches of the old, sturdy trees. Her people hung out of windows and from the railings of the planks above, tossing handfuls of shredded leaves down on her in celebration. The scene was eerily similar to when she’d been ushered through the courtyard of Palace Thyne on the announcement day of her betrothal to Kindren. Aully thought she should feel sadness at the memory, or even regret; instead, all she felt was anger.

The Dezren city within the trees took up a relatively small section of forest-only a two-hundred-yard area at most, consisting of a ring of forty-seven trees. What the city lacked in width, it made up for in height, with each of the thick trees containing multiple homes circling around its trunk. Although Briar Hall was one of only two structures resting atop the highest and most distant of the trees, those closer to the center of the ring were much more densely populated, with the lowest of the thirteen houses still twenty feet off ground and accessible only by rope ladders. Within the city’s boundaries, there was no need to let one’s feet touch the earth at all. Each tree was connected by even more ladders, along with those spiraling stairs and hanging skywalks. Back before she’d become a prisoner, the skywalks had been Aully’s favorite places to be. She would stand there for hours, smelling the sweet scents of roast rabbit, blackroot stews, and cooling raspberry and boysenberry pies, in between singing with her friends and listening to wizened old elves tell stories of days long ago. She blended into the crowd then, a nondescript member of a loving and joyous community, for though her parents were the Lord and Lady of Stonewood, it had long been practiced that one elf was of no more import than another.

The odor of food was still present, but she was no longer faceless. Every set of eyes that looked at her now did so expectantly, with reverence, as if welcoming a goddess back into the fold. The attention made Aully feel dirty, but not nearly as dirty as what she was about to do.

Carskel gently nudged her onto the swaying causeway that crossed through the city’s central clearing. He kept his hand firmly gripped around her forearm, squeezing once they reached the center platform. Very slowly he spun her around, and Aully gazed in wonder at the multitude of people that waved and whistled from the various walks. She caught sight of Hadrik, Mella, and Lolly standing with their respective families, the only three faces Aully could see that weren’t smiling. They seemed sad. The three of them had been Aully’s friends since the cradle, and it had been those three who’d found her and her ragged group as they wandered home through the forest. But they’d only been there to put them at ease before Ethir and his henchmen rounded them up.

They aren’t sad, Aully thought. They’re ashamed.

“Wave to our people,” Carskel muttered out the side of his mouth. Aully looked up at him, her lips drawn tight in defiance. Her brother squeezed her arm even tighter, making her yelp, a sound that was swallowed by the raucous cheering. Aully caved, lifting her hand and fanning her fingers as she and Carskel circled in place. The cheering picked up a notch. “We love you, Aullienna!” someone shouted. “Our princess has returned!” said someone else. The platform she stood on rocked back and forth. Aully felt her insides clench.

Carskel then knelt beside her, put his arm around her shoulder, himself waving and smiling at the crowd. “Look down, to your right,” he whispered into her ear. “But don’t you dare react.” Aully followed the jut of his chin, squinting as she gazed at the darkened area beneath the lowest walkway. At first she couldn’t make out what was there, but then Kindren stumbled forward, falling to his knees at the edge of the clearing. Kindren raised his head, staring up at her with pleading eyes. His face was marked with bruises, and his left shoulder was in a sling. For a moment Aully thought about leaping over the platform’s hempen rail. More than anything she wanted to call out to him, but she didn’t dare. Her eyes closed.

“There is more,” Carskel said in his sweetly menacing voice.

She peered through half-closed eyelids as her mother and more than two dozen other elves were shoved into the light. Aully looked on helplessly as Lady Audrianna pulled Kindren to his feet, wrapping her would-be son-in-law in a protective embrace. Kindren shuddered in her grasp, the Lady of Stonewood holding him tightly, as if squeezing the sobs from him. The rest of her troupe then gathered around, consoling him like they would their own child, until Ethir and his cohorts began to roughly separate them. Aully looked all around her, wondering why everyone was still cheering when thirty of their brethren were being mistreated in plain sight. Then she peered behind her, saw that the lower walkways on the opposite side of the clearing had been kept empty. From the vantage point of those on the upper skywalks, only the overhanging edge of the lowest domiciles would be visible.

Aully took a deep breath, stilling her nerves.

“You won’t hurt them,” she said.

“So long as you keep your end of the bargain, no,” her brother replied, again in that sickeningly pleasant tone. “Make sure it remains that way. Your uncle is with us. It is time.”

Carskel gave her shoulder a light squeeze and stood up. He was two heads taller than Aully and carried himself with an air that oozed royalty, but she knew it was nothing but a ruse. This was an elf who had brutally assaulted his own sister, violating her in the most depraved of ways. He was a monster.

The platform began to shimmy, and Aully glanced down the walk to see her Uncle Detrick striding toward them. He looked dignified in his white robe, but she could see the anger hidden behind his easy smiles. His left hand was wrapped in beige cloth, hiding the empty socket where his index finger had once been, cut off when he dared raise his voice against his nephew. Detrick was an elf beaten, resigned to the role Carskel had given him.

Detrick stopped halfway down the walk and raised his hands. The frenetically cheering crowd hushed.

“Citizens of Stonewood Forest,” Detrick began. “My brothers and sisters, we have been rudderless for quite some time, but on this day we gather to welcome our royal family back into the fold. You all know Aullienna, my niece, your princess. Thirty days ago she returned to us, limping through the forest, desperate for home. This young girl has experienced horrors we can only dream of, losses that would send the best of us howling into our beds. Her father, our Lord Cleotis, is dead. Her mother, our dear Lady Audrianna, is seriously hurt, and her recovery is not certain.” Aully gulped at the words and glanced down at where her mother stood, but she could not make out the expression on Lady Audrianna’s face. Detrick went on: “However, she did not go through her ordeal alone. With her the entire time was one brave elf, a lost soul who has returned our princess to us, a brave warrior who saved the lives of many. He will help guide us through the trying times ahead. Are we ready to greet him?”

The crowd roared, but the sound was half as vociferous as it had been. Aully then noticed looks of disapproval painting the faces of the elder elves. They recognize him, she thought. They know what he did. She felt Carskel stiffen beside her.

Her uncle gestured to her and Carskel with an open hand. “And now,” he shouted, “Princess Aullienna!”

Aully’s hands twitched, her knees shook. She knew the story she was supposed to tell by heart. She had been made to recite it daily whenever her jailers came to give her soup and bread: The humans of Paradise had turned rabid, the god Ashhur attacking Dezerea and putting countless of their cousins to slaughter. Her beloved brother, Carskel, who had been wrongly accused by Lord Cleotis, had returned from his exile to save his cherished family, freeing the prisoners from their bonds and leading the dash across western Dezrel. For months they’d hidden in the desert, avoiding the ravenous humans, gradually sneaking along endless dunes until finally wending their way home.

A horrible lie, every last part of it. The truth, as she had learned during her uncle’s drunken and weeping late-night visits, was that Carskel had taken refuge in Quellassar during his hundred-year exile. He was a tool of the Quellan Triad and had convinced Ethir Ayers to take control of the forest city with promises of wealth and land. Her betrothal to Kindren, as it turned out, was a ruse to get Lord and Lady Meln out of Stonewood, to supplant them. From that day forth Carskel had ruled Stonewood in secret, waiting for the day his sister returned. Evidently, the plan had been to free Aully, and only Aully, so she could return home to become betrothed to her brother, solidifying the allegiance between Dezren and Quellan.

Their escaping Palace Thyne had never been in the design, Ceredon’s righteous conscience never expected. Once more Aully damned herself for ever leaving Bardiya’s side. Had she never come back, her people would still be safe. Had she stayed put, Kindren’s life wouldn’t be in danger. .

The cheers died down and the crowd began to murmur. Carskel again squeezed her arm. He peered down at her, his phony smile faltering.

“Go on,” he said, his voice full of worry. “You are wasting time.”

She nodded to him and shook out of his grip. Stepping forward, she grasped the hempen rail and stared at the many expectant faces. She cleared her throat. “My people,” she said. “I have returned-”

“Louder,” snapped Carskel.

“My people,” she said, trying to gather strength in her throat. “After a long, harrowing journey, I have returned home. Words cannot express how joyous it makes me to see all of your faces, to once more greet friends I thought gone forever.” She shot a look at Hadrik, Mella, and Lolly. “This beautiful forest I never expected to see again. It fills me with. . with. . ”

Her whole body was shaking. “I am happy,” she continued. “I am relieved. And that relief is all due to the elf you see behind me. This great elf who was framed for a crime he did not commit, a noble elf who was forced to live a hundred years away from the home and family he adored. . an elf who will lead us into. . into. . ”

She paused, glanced behind her at Carskel, saw him urging her to go on. Then she looked down at Kindren, Lady Audrianna, Noni, and Aaromar, flanked by their captors. Her eyes met her mother’s, and Lady Audrianna lifted her head proudly, emanating strength. Kindren did the same. Aully focused on them, on their tear-streaked faces, and saw Kindren mouth, No. Her eyes widened. She lifted her gaze to the heavens.

Do I dare, Celestia? Please tell me what I do is right.

A gust of wind blew, rattling the branches, swaying the platform, bringing goose pimples to her flesh. In its sound she heard her answer, cruel and unforgiving.

“An elf who has spat in the face of our goddess!” she shouted. A shocked silence fell over the three thousand elves in attendance. Aully didn’t think about what she needed to say, she just said it, and was stunned by the volume of her voice. It seemed to carry for miles despite her diminutive size. “Carskel Meln, my exiled brother. He’s a liar, a fool, a murderer. He raped my sister, Brienna! He plotted our destruction! The goddess damn every last one of you who follows him into ruin!”

A hand closed over her mouth, an arm wrapped around her waist, and she was yanked backward. The crowd erupted, this time in a din of angry, frightened shouts. Some began to throw vegetables from the skywalks.

“Our princess is feverish!” Aully heard her uncle’s voice shout close to her ear. “Tired from the journey and delusional!” She bit down as hard as she could, drawing blood. Detrick shrieked and spun around, releasing her. She stumbled forward a few steps across the platform. . directly into Carskel’s arms. Her brother spun her around and locked his hands around her waist, lifting her off the ground.

“You have been a bad girl,” he murmured, his hot breath moistening her neck. “And bad girls need to be punished.”

Detrick continued his pleading with the infuriated people of Stonewood Forest while Carskel spun Aully around and leaned against the thick hempen rail. The rope bowed outward so far that Aully feared it would break, sending the both of them plunging to the rock- and root-covered ground below. But the rope held.

“Look what you wrought,” he said, forcing her to look to where her people were huddled in the shadows. They were being beaten by their captors, the sounds of their struggle drowned out by three thousand hollering voices. Already one lay dead: Aaromar, her mother’s protector, kind, handsome, and now nothing but a corpse with an arrow pierced through the eye. Aully looked on in horror as Noni was brought to the front, her upper body bathed in darkness. Unlike the others, the ancient elf did not struggle, tight-lipped resolve on her wrinkled face. Ethir appeared behind her, grabbing her by both shoulders. Noni gazed up at the girl who had been her ward for fourteen years, and she opened her mouth to scream.

Aully never heard what her nursemaid had to say, as a moment later Ethir came down hard on the old elf’s head with a dagger. Noni’s eyes bulged, the dagger’s tip exiting below her chin along with a spray of pinkish blood. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, falling into Ethir’s arms like a fainting lover.

Aully’s entire body went numb, and she collapsed just as Noni had. Carskel held her tightly, carrying her across the walkway, deftly avoiding flying fruit and sticks. The whole while, Detrick continued his pleading, declaring Carskel’s innocence and Aully’s lunacy.

“You have been bad, my darling,” her brother said in a sinister whisper as they exited the walkway amid a mob of angry elves. Two of the Meln house guards appeared, shoving protesters aside. Carskel rounded the corner and began climbing the spiral stair back toward Briar Hall. “But all is not lost,” he said when no one was around to hear. “The people will come around. . you will come around. Once I show you the cost of betrayal, you will have no choice.”

Aully stayed silent, allowing him to carry her. She had seen her father murdered right in front of her. She had suffered in a dungeon, lived as a refugee, and became a prisoner to pain. It’d have been easy to succumb to it all, but her loved ones had shown her the way, defiant even before the face of death. Because of Carskel, she’d suffered, she wept, and now she swore to the last breath in her lungs to never give the bastard what he wanted.

Not ever.