Kingdoms of Caelum; Autumn of the War Queen

Chapter 20

It had taken a long time to reach the brow of Fortis. Cold sweat glistened on Katla's skin; she was frozen, wearing only the thin tunic she had travelled so far in. Her eyes rolled with exhaustion and she noticed her vision was blurry; each step up the Kingdom was an arduous task. At the top the wind raged, a cruel cold wind that seemed to stab at her soul, but despite it all, she had made it. The tower was so tall its top raised high into the clouds, black and chilling, and it seemed to portray a message of venom and warning. The tower was sat in the middle of a high walled stone courtyard and she could see the shadows of Dark Elf guards patrolling the top. The shadows were enough to make her want to run far away from this place and never return, but she had come this far to save Bane's life, she could not give up now. Biting her bottom lip and mustering up courage, she approached the walls. As she did, she noticed five or six lines of strange objects at either side of the pathway, shrouded in the dark gloom. Straining her eyes, the sickening realisation hit her. They were heads. Heads on spikes, and all of them human. Vomit rose and she released an involuntary cry stumbling backwards. Suddenly a loud shrill in foreign tongue bounced off the walls; they had seen her. It seemed as though she was not welcome as two arrows whistled through the air and missed her by a hair's breadth.

"No!" she cried out, but another arrow slammed into the ground next to her. She dropped to the floor, frantically waving her hands as guards approached.

"Stop, please!" Katla wailed, but they paid her no attention, dragging her up by her hair, pulling her to her feet. One Elf carried a torch and held the flames cruelly close to her face.

"Humans are not permitted near the tower!" he hissed in a heavy accent.

"LOFAID!" she yelled. Remembering Bane's warning as the flames excitedly licked her skin, Katla scrambled quickly to get her words out.

"I want to see Lofaid! It's of the uttermost importance!"

A heated debate started in Elvin between the guards. She watched as one brought his hand to his head and made a chopping movement. They were deadly serious.

"I know you can understand me!" she shouted above the din.

The guard with the torch suspiciously snapped back at her in perfect Caelum tongue.

"What would Lord Lofaid want with you girl?!"

"I have a message for him" Katla said braver then she felt. She glanced around at the severed heads weakly, and they continued an argument she could not understand.

"Give the message to me", he said finally taking the torch away from her face, but Katla was much too wise to play dangerous games like this.

"I am the only one who can deliver Lofaid this message. It is of grave secrecy and importance."

Again they talked in Elvin around her and then seemed to agree. Stripping her roughly of her weapons and then crudely checking for anyone else who may be lurking in the grounds, she was pushed into the large arms of the Dark Elf with the torch. Without warning, he hit her, splitting her lip. She fell, dazed, to her knees, but was then grabbed by her wrist and dragged toward the tower.

"Believe me, you will end up amongst your kin", he breathed vilely as he brandished the torch towards the heads.

"Come into the light," the snakelike and almost feminine voice sung from across the room. He spoke perfect Caelum, without an accent, humanlike. A small fire crackled in its hearth and black smoke rose upwards into the chimney. Whatever burnt smelt sweet and nauseating. The guards had delivered Katla to this room as instructed, and now she stood opposite an elf covered in a hooded black cloak. She could not see his face as he sat surveying her from the shadows of the room. From deep within, she found her courage.

"I have a message from Bane," she began, hearing her own heart thump from within. Lofaid stood from his chair and she jumped. He stood silent for a moment and then started to walk to her. A deep step and loud clunk of mail told her he had a limp.

"What is it?" Lofaid asked darkly.

"He is injured, sir. On the mountain path. We were attacked by half breeds."

"We?" he asked as he turned his head to face her. The fire light shone onto his deep purple face. It was disfigured with burn scars. She shuddered inside.

"...yes. I have travelled from Gaar with him."

Lofaid's expression was curious, he was only slightly taller then Katla and he stared straight into her eyes. She felt a strange unease and lowered her lashes to the floor. After a moment he limped to the door and shouted in Elvin to his men. She stood frozen to the spot unsure what would happen now, and she was confused. How did Bane have this bizarre relationship with Lord Lofaid, the brother of Queen Anisana? When he had finished, Lofaid turned back round to Katla and spoke to her in a soothing melodic voice.

"I will make sure he is collected, wait here. You will not be safe outside this door, and by that I mean you will find death."

He said nothing more before he left. For a long while Katla stood before the fire. She discarded her now tattered high boots and poked her cold toes towards the embers, then she looked over at the table and hunger suddenly screamed out. She didn't hesitate to gorge on what was there; apples, a seeded batch of fresh bread and four exotic, juicy dates. They tasted like paradise. Afterwards, her eyes began to feel sleepy but her mind was tortured with fear: fear of Lofaid, the Dark Elf who seemed to take pleasure in human death...fear for Bane. Oh, how she wished she had found him help in time. And fear for the future; she felt so deeply lost in this world outside Roskilde. A knock from the door broke her train of thought; it was an Elvin maid. She entered shyly, nervously carrying a pail of steaming hot water. Then, without looking at Katla, she walked over to the simple bed and pulled a tin bath from underneath. A dozen times she came back and forth from the room filling the bath. Then on the last visit she added drops of lavender oil and placed a silk robe on the bed before leaving. Katla felt uneasy about bathing in this strange place, but the fragrance of the water was intoxicating. She undressed and stepped in. The gentle feel of the warm liquid brought grateful tears to her eyes as she immersed herself. She pulled out her red ribbon and dunked her head; the black mass of thick hair floated gracefully on the surface. Underneath the water however, in her relaxed state, the memory of her father and everything she had been through drifted into her mind; his last cry, his fallen body, Ragan's leering face, the images of the heads in Fortis, and the half breeds, the first man she had ever killed. And then she thought of the men at the RisingPort and the danger she was in by just being a girl. She also thought of Amya, so little and alone in Roskilde, and then everything began to overwhelm her. Anger, fear, hate and grief shot through her body in relentless waves of suffocating pain, and for the first time since leaving Roskilde she allowed herself to really weep.