Captured by the Elves Ch. 13

Note: All the characters in this story are over the age of eighteen. The elves even more so. It does not represent any real people or groups. It is a fantasy. There are literally elves in it. Please look at the story tags. If you don't like these things then maybe you shouldn't read them This is chapter 13 so you should have a good idea of what this is about by now. This is the finale to this current series. It's been a long time coming, and this part is on the longer side because there was a lot to touch on and wrap up. Sorry. In the future I really want to try to scale things back to make them more digestible. Enjoy.

"Drag them home, lads."

Curly Jack laughed as he gave the order, and the men got to work.

I felt ill after the blow to my head. The sharp pain had devolved into a dull ache and the bleeding stopped. However, the dizziness and the general "sick head" feeling was so dominant that I just wanted to lie down. The Eastern men had constructed a litter and Katania and I were bound to it. They began dragging us back to the area controlled by the humans.

There was no sign of Ericka. The men hadn't been lying about her. On the way back we passed by the body off the man that Ericka had killed. He was stripped of all his items and clothing, and his mortal remains consigned to the forest. Perhaps the lost graveyard would continue to grow from the outside. Was it the place itself that was cursed or merely the people that sought to intrude on it?

As we were dragged through the forest, Katania found moments to speak to me quietly enough that the eastern men didn't bother us.

She said, "I'm sorry for all of this, Kiari. You shouldn't have helped me."

"What I did was the right thing. That's all."

"It hurt you," she said. "What you did. I see it. Why did you do this?"

"My choice. My consequences."

I thought about the other version of myself that I'd spoken to. She'd said that she had failed, and I wondered how so. Was she even "me" though? I'd never been much of a believer in fate. Merchants don't put much stock in such things. I was raised to believe that everything in the world had a price and that it was my responsibility to get the best price for the family. Everything else was negotiable. That usually included morality, but my parents didn't like to talk about that part. Like most merchants.

During our journey back, I hoped that we'd be spotted and intercepted by the elves, but that was not meant to be. I had no idea what had befallen the settlement since we'd been gone. Let alone if it was still there. The span of days had been short, but I knew from experience what could happen over the course of a few days.

I knew we were getting close when I could once again smell the smoke. Like before: it was all encompassing and oppressive on all fronts. Being away from it--even for a short time made me despise it even more. The humans needed to leave if the forest had any hope of recovery. After what I'd seen and experienced, I was becoming even more a believer that the forest was a sacred place and needed our protection.

Finally, after much journeying and self-doubt we were brought back to the human encampment. Much had changed since I'd been there. Tents had been burned and they lay in crumpled ashen heaps. Some of the wooden fences had been destroyed as well. Defenses that would have protected them from outside attack fell because the attack had come from within. Along the outside of the camp dead men hung from trees or had been staked out in display. It was clear to me that a horrible battle had taken place within the human camp.

"Home at last," said Curly Jack. "No offence to you elves, but that old forest was far from pleasant. We killed so many of those lizard beasts...if only we could've collected the skin to tan it. We'd be rich men when we got home. Oh well. A loss is a loss. We're sure to be winning now though."

Our entry into the camp began garnering much attention. Curly Jack's men dragged the litter we were attached to into a central area and deposited us there. Many of the camp denizens were drawn to the commotion. And, of course, some of the men couldn't help but recognize me. Being regarded as the "cute one" had become annoying and dangerous. That struggle would stay with me for...Hell, it never left.

Katania and I were removed from the litter, and dragged over to the Command tent. Most of Lord Collins' colors had been stripped from it, and replaced with the copper star of the clergy.

Eventually, the priest decided to grace us with his presence. He was a flurry of robes as he entered the tent. Obviously, he was much more confident in his new promotion than he had been before.

"And here you are," he said. His pale eyes settled on me. "The gods teach us patience, and indeed that has been the point of this whole sordid affair. Patience and conviction."

"Lord Collins?" I asked.

The priest said, "The lord has been remiss in his duties, and let himself fall into corruption. However, wearing irons makes a man humble, and I do pray that he shall be saved. The mercy of the gods offers hope."

I didn't like the sound of that. I said, "What about peace? Make peace, priest. Let these men return home whole."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? To convince devout men to give in to your charms, and abandon their courage?"

"It would be peace. Even you should want that."

"If I were losing," he said. "The fact is that I have the advantage. One violent night here proved it. Godly men now control this camp."

"Don't you want to go home? This whole thing could end in a much easier way."

"Easy does not mean right. No. It will end as it will. The gods will decide."

My heart sank. He was committed to this course of action. There was little that I could do to stop it.

"My name is Theobald," he said. "It's fair that you know my name."

"I know it. My name is Kiari."

"You renounce the name that you were born to?"

"I adapted to what fate had in store for me."

The priest approached me. He reached his cold hand into my tunic, and took hold of the copper start that still hung between my breasts.

"Would that I had dealt with you before," he said. "Many lives would be saved."

"You can still save them," I said. "Call off this war. Become a peacemaker."

He shook his head. "You misunderstand. This is more than a contest of arms. It's one of faith. Lord Collins proved to be too weak to manage this. That is his doom. I will be victorious in this challenge. You she-elves are dangerous heretics. There is no denying that. We shall prevail though."

For a moment it seemed as though Theobald was going to rip the pendant off me. Then he looked down my tunic, which made me look away. The priest ripped my worn tunic down to the middle exposing my breasts to all. He pointed at the new tattoos across the top of my chest.

He said, "And now you bedeck yourself in sacrilegious markings. Ink in the skin like a mongrel sailor off the docks. Were you even remotely pious in your previous form?"

"I went to church and prayed with all the rest. If the priest from my town was here, I'm quite sure that he'd be much more understanding. He was a kind man who practiced the love that he preached."

"Enough," said Theobald. "I've been more than tolerant. Guards, put these creatures in the new cell."

I tried to pull up my tunic with my bound hands, but Theobald hit me.

"Do not cover yourself. I want everyone to behold your sinful nature. And I want them to see the copper star on you. It marks you as being judged by the gods. I believe that I need to affirm the faith of my men. You will help me do so. Thank you for that."

Katania and I were led away. I had hoped that words would work with Theobald, but they failed me. Failed us. I could deal with facing my own fate, but to have dragged poor Katania into it...

Katania and I were put inside a brand-new cage that hadn't existed when it was last there. This one was purposefully left out in the elements and placed near the camp's latrines. The smell had not improved with time. The opening of the cage was on top this time. It required the men to use a scaffold and a ladder to access it. I had to admire to craftiness of the men that were left there. Katania and I were dropped in. I cried out at the pain in my knee, but it was more out of worry of pain than actual pain. I'd been lucky.

Katania was quite worried though. It took me some time to convince her that I was unharmed. It was only after that when I realized that we were not the only ones in the cage. At first, I thought it was just another poor deserter like Ericka had been. The man had been beaten savagely, and was left to wallow in tattered rags and filth. He was starting at the muddy ground. Not reacting to the new additions to his cell.

Then I knew who it was.

"Lord Collins?" I asked. "Is that you, my lord?"

The lord looked to have aged greatly since I'd last seen him. His beard was ragged and filthy. His pale blue eyes looked up at me with a slight dullness to them. He was lost, but then after some time he recognized me.

"It's you," he said. "You came back."

"Not voluntarily, my lord."

"I thought that you were dead. Like my son."

I couldn't help but look over to Katania. My new convert couldn't bring herself to look upon the fallen lord. She averted her eyes and pretended that he wasn't right there next to us.

"My lord," I said to him. "What has happened? You had the situation well in hand when I was last here."

Lord Collins mumbled to himself. The lord didn't look well. He shivered in the cold mud. I didn't know how long he'd been there, but his age wouldn't help him in managing.

"I brought this doom upon myself," he said. "My son died and I didn't know how to cope with that. So many are dead now. This will ruin my family and my name."

I wasn't fully aware of his situation, but I didn't want to give up on him.

"Are there any loyal men left?" I asked. "They can't all be dedicated to Theobald."

"Too many were killed. Those who are left won't risk themselves now. They'll follow along until Theobald decides to return home and then go their separate ways. But, what does it matter? It's all for naught now."

"This is not who you are," said Katania. Her voice was strained and she was fighting back tears. Her sudden outburst shocked Lord Collins and myself. She continued: "You've never been defeated and would certainly never surrender to some priest."

Lord Collins turned to get a better look at the she-elf who was berating him. He was confused. "Do I know you?" he asked. "I'm familiar with Kiari here, and I made her convert the deserter, but who are you?"

Katania still wouldn't look at him.

I said, "She's right, my lord. This was your army. You should command it, and take it back east to fulfill your commitments."

The lord huffed and seemed to find the notion amusing. He said, "I seem to recall that I offered you a price for my leaving. But Henry is dead. I regret involving you elves in this, but there's no stopping it now. I should've known that I was doomed when those damned 'mundane' elves abandoned me. The only question is: will I die out here or be dragged home in chains? I believe that I favor a quicker death. At least I can be with Henry then."

I looked over at Katania. I was starting to get angry with her for not stepping in and helping, but that was probably unfair. To force her into such a confrontation...how could I subject her to that?

Finally, it was Katania who settled the matter. She looked right at Lord Collins and even I could detect some speck of recognition in the older man's eyes.

Katania sighed painfully. She said, "Gods, help me. I didn't die, father. I was certain that I would, and there were plenty of times that I wanted to, but I am alive."

Collins stared at her for a time. Taking in the sight of her. She was a very comely woman, who despite being slightly altered by me, still possessed haunting blue eyes. She was well formed with plump breasts and curves that any man would appreciate. Somewhere in all of that though had been a young man named "Henry".

Lord Collins looked at me to confirm this revelation.

I nodded.

"Say it," Lord Collins said to me.

"This is my friend Katania. She is what was made of your son 'Henry'."

Collins looked back at the woman that his son had become. He said, "So, it did happen."

I wasn't sure how the lord was processing the news, but he was soon moved to tears.

"Henry," he said. "I'm so sorry for taking you away from home. The night before we set off...I just knew that it was a mistake."

"It wouldn't have changed things," said Katania. "I wanted to leave home and see the world. What happened...well, it happened."

"But to suffer this?"

Lord Collins still looked as if he couldn't fathom what had become of Henry. Katania took her father's manacled hands in hers.

She said, "I'm happy, father. This isn't exactly what I was planning for when I left home, but..." she looked over at me for a moment, and then back to her father. "I'm happy."

"I believe that I can have peace with that," said Lord Collins. "But sadly, you are trapped here with me and doomed to die."

"Not doomed yet," I said. "We don't know what will happen."

I was still hopeful for some sort of attack from the she-elves. Theobald's control may have offered the remaining men some resolve, but there were fewer of them. The deaths of the previous men and the departure of the mundane elves must have weakened them. The men had to be weary.

All they needed was the push.

But would it happen in time to save us?

I didn't know.

I watched as Katania and her father embraced. That gave me hope. I couldn't give up on that. I decided to at least try and rest while I could.

Later that night, we heard the commotion. The fighting. The screams. Men barking orders. I tried see whatever was happening in the distance from inside the cage, but to no avail. I had to rely on logic, which told me that it was an attempted raid, but not a successful one. I don't believe that the elves knew the situation inside of the human camp. Landa and Dria would want to push against it--hoping that one side of the camp would cave in. A worthy idea.

A sudden loud ruckus exploded on the far side of the camp. Flames and smoke were everywhere. Men were calling for water and those men not at arms moved to fill what buckets they could from their water stores. Water was something that the camp still had plenty of as the humans still controlled access to the river. That was why Braith had lost hope for our victory. All the commotion and chaos within the human camp had left us alone within our wooden cage. We were gripped by the sudden pregnant silence. As if we knew it would surely give birth to something grim.

Katania readied to defend her father and I, but it wasn't attackers that emerged from the darkness. A group of hooded figures in cloaks approached us. The one that came closest to me the cage was the shortest and broadest of the group. The figure pushed back its hood to reveal the rather plain face of Clive, the physician.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," he said. "It was the only way for us to hide and get over here."

I looked at the other figures. "Who is 'us'?"

"Men that I've hired. Not all of the men want to stay here for this nonsense that Theobald is selling. They've agreed to get us to the border. We'll be on our own for a few days, but I have associates from the college that I can call upon."

"You want to take us east? No, we must go back to the settlement to save the others."

Clive shook his head. He said, "I'm sorry, Kiari, but we can't. The chemical distraction that I created will only last a little while. The siege is going to happen, but you don't have to be there. Perhaps later we can transfer you to the college in Peltest, if you desire to be closer to your old home. In time. That's the best that I can offer you at this moment."

I looked to Katania. She didn't seem to like the idea, but what other options did we have?

I looked to Lord Collins. "What do you think, my lord?"

"You're really asking me?"

"It's your fate too," I said.

Collins considered it for a moment, and then shrugged. He said, "The college does have considerable power near its branch locations. Many powerful lords support them. If his 'associates' can be trusted then we'd be safe for a while."

Clive was looking at me. "We were not planning on taking Lord Collins," he said.

"You would leave him here to die?"

"He caused most of this," said the physician. "And he's a famous lord. He'll be difficult to hide."

"I'm not leaving without him," said Katania. "I can't."

I looked to Clive. "He comes with us or we don't leave."

The doctor scratched at his short-cropped hair nervously. "Very well," he said. "This whole thing is going to be very expensive."

The men dragged over the scaffold and ladder, and climbed on top of the cage. One of them set about working on the lock.

Katania pulled me close, and whispered: "Are you sure about this?

"Not really, but what are we supposed to do?"

She said, "If we make it, and I mean 'If' we make it, we won't come back. I'm from the east. Most of it is under martial law. Not just kings and lords, but field commanders. People can't just travel."

I knew what she was saying, and its gravity wasn't lost on me. However, if there was a way to save her and her father...

"We can never know what tomorrow will bring," I told her. Such trite words that I almost cringed painfully once they parted my lips.

Katania stopped objecting. She looked at me--putting any faith she had in my new scheme no matter how foolish it was. Gods, I could almost hear Raina there laughing at me for such foolishness.

She would say, "Your father won't be there to bail you out of this calamity, William. And I won't be there to crack skulls and save you. What will you do?"

Raina wasn't there, and those words were merely the doubt that I already felt.

Clive's men finally got the lock undone. They helped Katania and I out, and then, at the urging of Clive, who offered them more money, they pulled Lord Collins from the cage as well. Our escape had begun and at first it was successful.

My doubts would prove to be justified.

The chaos in the camp continued. Clive and his men quickly moved us to a portion of the camp with several destroyed tents and a massive pile of refuse. They moved aside a wooden barricade, and another man in a cloak stepped out to meet them. Clive seemed to expect this though.

"You have the wagon?" asked Clive. "You said that you'd get one."

"I did," said the man in the hood. "Thing's have gotten a bit more expensive though. You understand?"

Clive grunted in a huff. He said, "I can't believe this nonsense."

"Is what it is, doctor."

"Fine," said Clive. He reached into his cloak, and gave the man an old ring. "That's all I have left. If you want more, I can pay you when we get to the college."

"Thank you," said the man. "The second part won't be happening though."

Before Clive could ask the dark figure what he meant, the man drew up near him and began plunging a dagger repeatedly into the doctor's middle. He did it so many times that it seemed unreal. I screamed and tried to get to Clive, but we were suddenly surrounded by the men of the camp. The rest of Clive's men surrendered without a fight. Our supposed escape had all been a farce.

Clive was allowed to sink to his knees into the mud. A puddle of blood was quickly spreading beneath him. The doctor struggled to look back to me. "I'm so sorry," he said. Then the blood loss took him. Clive fell over and was gone from us.

His killer pulled off his cloak, and revealed himself to be none other than Curly Jack. The bearded man wiped his bloody blade off on his trousers.