The Elf Thief

Chapter 25: Ghosts

Chapter 25

Ghosts

“Down!” Sonya shouted and knocked Dearekk out of the way. Not a moment later, half a dozen arrows embedded themselves in the stone behind where Dearekk had been standing.

Both of their eyes widened. Slowly, Sonya wrapped a hand around the arrow’s shaft and pulled. It came out relatively easy, sliding out of the stone without a sound and leaving a slit in the wall.

Dearekk reached out to touch it, but Sonya jerked it away.

“Are you an idiot?” she hissed. “This thing cuts though rock like a knife through butter and you want to touch it?!”

Dearekk looked away sheepishly. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Is that the third time you’ve saved my life?”

“Fourth if you count the flaming hammers,” she growled, pulling out the other arrows from the wall. Ever so carefully she broke the heads off and wrapped them tightly in a piece of cloth before sticking them in a compartment in her boot. Who knows? she thought to herself. They may come in handy.

“The flaming hammers don’t count,” Dearekk protested. “They just would have seriously injured! Not killed.”

Sonya rolled her eyes, “Whatever. You only have two either way.”

“What? No!” Dearekk said indignantly, “I have three! I stopped you from walking into that pit!”

“I don’t know,” Sonya shot back teasingly. “There was nothing at the bottom, you probably could have just pulled me out.”

“What if I decided to leave you there, huh? Because with your attitude, missy, I just might” He gave her a playful shove for good measure. “Either way I got you next time. That should even things out.”

Sonya laughed. It was her first true laugh in a long time.

Dearekk looked around. “Maybe we should split up. There’s not that much more area to cover, and we should be getting close to the exit.”

She nodded. “Good idea, we’ll split up at the next fork.”

            Not five minute after they had split up, Dearekk was starting to wonder if it really was a good idea. All the passages looked exactly the same and the exit was nowhere in sight. As he wandered around the mess of stone and darkness, he began to wonder if he missed something.

            Determined not to panic, he allowed his mind to wander a bit, before thoughts of what he left behind consumed him. Enoka was definitely safer than if she had stayed at the castle. Of course, she would probably be trying to take over Eron’s black-market by now, but knowing Eron, he wouldn’t let it go without a fight.

            The King was probably hiding his anger quite well. Although there was no doubt he was amassing an army at the very moment. No matter how many allies they got, Dearekk knew that the King’s men would outnumber them. They always did.

            Rith was hopefully settling into his new commander position. He was a natural at leading, and his soldiers would definitely be the best in the army. Dearekk’s stomach couldn’t help but twist at the thought of the inevitable final battle. He could only hope he didn’t meet Rith in battle.

            It brought tear to his eyes when Dearekk remembered his old life. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he had been teasing Rith about liking the serving maid. Why me? Dearekk couldn’t help but scream out in his heart. “Why was my life ripped away? Why my father something evil?