Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)

Tatianna gasped as clean air finally leapt into her contaminated lungs. She choked trying to breathe properly, collapsing on the grass. She rolled onto her back coughing up. All cuts and stripped skin were finally healing properly now that she was out of that place. Gods, what had she done?

She woke what never should’ve been woken. What was it going to do? Would it kill everyone and everything as it did before? What if it did? she thought, I would be responsible for all that death.

The Elfir’s wings had yet to rise from the Dark Lands, but that didn’t deter her anxiety. If there is a war, it will hear it, and it will end it. She leaned forward off the ground, taking in her surroundings. She had no idea where she was. But considering the barren dirt within her view, she guessed she was on Lyracris’s border, close to the wastelands that centred Crénia.

She made it out. Despite everything, probability against her every turn, she had made it out. Nylif. She needed to find Nylif. I’m coming for you girl, then we are going to try and stop a war, she sent through their newly formed mind link. It was a tether between them that she followed through Lyracris’s border.

No ripping heads off human scum? Came back the reply. Tatianna shook her head despite Nylif being unable to see the action.

Not yet, she whispered back. Although there were a few people that she craved to see bleeding on the floor, she needed to save some of the innocent ones first. If she was right, then what she had just awoken may be coming for them. If anyone enrages it enough to leave the Dark Lands, they were all as good as dead. Why was she so stupid to go in the first place?

Hope, whispered the feline voice. Yes, hope. Hope for answers, hope for proof, or rather disproof. Hope that she wasn’t the monster they all said she was but the Elfir’s words rang true.

My blood runs through your veins. That is what it said. She had the rotten cursed blood of the Dark Lands that made the Carasak, the Goblins, the creatures children feared in their worst dreams. But she was an Elf…

Her hands brushed against one of the trees, drawing upon the magic that infused the land for strength to carry on. She was tired, but vengeful. She would not let the Dwarfs kill Nylif. She promised the gods that if one hair was plucked from Nylif’s skin, the cost would be their lives.

She continued through the woods as fast as she could and a few hours later the string’s length felt so short she could reach the other end. Nylif’s scent of the pine trees she originated from was distinct in the air. There was a faint chatting between the group of dwarfs, whispers about the horrible warmth of the sun, a desire to be back home, and talk about her, the bitch Elf “whose corpse was going to rot in the dark.”

“Oh please, it will be eaten before it rots,” another chuckled. “We should just kill the wolf already, it’s been days.”

“I heard a myth, Elf dies their weird animal dies,” replied one.

“Who knows with these freaks, just slit its throat to be sure. I want to get back to the forge, my skin can’t take the sun.”

She had enough. She walked out of the bushed, a smile on her face and swag in her step. “Hey boys,” she said. All heads spun towards her. She was feeling weak after everything that had happened, but they weren’t going to know that. “This is what you wanted right?” she asked holding up the ancient book. “Now…you can let both me and my wolf go as negotiated, or die horribly screaming. It’s your choice.”

She cocked her head to the side letting her eyes fill with the rage she felt. Nothing was better than rage as a motivator, perhaps love. And she loved that wolf more than anything and anyone. “Ok, give us the book and you will walk away,” said one of the dwarves.

Tatianna had grown up on a street. She had been lied to enough times to know when someone was trying to manipulate her. It may be a Dwarf, but they weren’t soulless, they gave their own signs. The unbending eye contact was one of them. “Ok,” she said and played along with it. She threw the dwarf the book that looked much larger in his six-fingered hand. “The wolf?” she asked, although she knew the answer before the dwarf opened his mouth.

“Yeah, that doesn’t work. You see, this was a secret mission and you kind of complicate the secret part.”

Tatianna took another look at them, well at their weaponry. Most of them carried a short sword, however, the one closest to her carried both a sword and her dagger. She looked back at them, a plan formulating in her head. “Kill the witnesses,” she replied with a wicked smile. “I agree.”

She channelled the forest trees and pushed the dwarves back, just enough to distract them and use up all the energy she could handle. Whilst they were stumbling she rolled towards the dwarf with her dagger, taking it from the hilt before the Dwarf knew what was happening. She drew her dagger and sliced up that Dwarf’s neck.

The rest of them were coming to their senses now, charging toward her. She spun around and stabbed another one in the heart picking up their Kaddeian sword from their hand. The next dwarf was more prepared and was able to block her first strike, but didn’t see the second.

She cut through them easier than cheese, although they were strong, none matched her speed. Whilst driving her dagger into one’s chest, another managed to slice her stomach. She hissed and used the momentum of her turn to cut the Dwarfs head clean off. She approached the last Dwarf hand clutching her open wound. It wasn’t deep, but it bled a lot, curtsy of the Kaddeian blade she was cut with.

“Who do you work for, why is the book important?” she demanded.

The last Dwarf was lying on the ground. She recognised him as the nicer one from before, but she didn’t care about that. The Dwarf’s dark lips spat out a bunch of blood. “I don’t know, we were just sent to get it.” She believed him, then she brought her blade down.

Wiping off the blood she walked over to Nylif and looked at the metal chain wrapped around her neck. She placed her hands above it and concentrated on her desire to free the wolf, feeling the rage of them trying to take Nylif from her. The chain heated up enough for her to break it.

“Hey girl,” she whispered and hugged the wolf. “Thanks for having my back.”

They went too peacefully, Nylif growled looking at the corpses.

“Perhaps, but what’s done it done,” she replied and adjusted to a sitting position. “Can we just…rest before going anywhere? I need. I need some sleep.” She rested her eyes and Nylif used her as a pillow whilst guarding her against any threats. Tatianna had never been so exhausted.

May loves arrow land on a forgiving heart for my sins are too high to count, she thought as her dreams filled with the destruction that had eyes of black.

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Tatianna stopped the small Dwarf-sized horse outside the Inn in Kalida, for once her small short frame seemed to look large on something. Nylif was almost as tall as the pony and waltzed beside her. Many Elves looked on in curiosity.

Stay here, she told Nylif and walked into the Inn.

“I’d like to stay a night,” the Elf’s eyes looked along her blood-soaked clothes and the impromptu bandaging around her stomach that had the slow healing wound.

“Killing humans?” asked the Innkeeper.

Tatianna’s scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. “Why would I be going around killing humans?”

“Did you not hear the King’s new law? Be careful someone may think you are a human sympathiser with those words,” replied the Elf. Tatianna looked around and noticed all eyes on her.

“What?” she asked.

“Have you been living under a rock? Who are you, mortalis pheilla?” snarled some random Elf from behind. She didn’t understand the ancient language, but from his tone, she assumed it wasn’t good.

Tatianna turned around and spoke as clear. “I’m your Queen,” she replied which immediately stopped all the muttering and insults. Some looked over her and recognition came across their faces. At that moment she felt…powerful. Just three words could quieten a room and she liked the thrill it gave her, probably a bit too much. She had never felt it before, not like this. And she knew of the price that came with it, with holding power too close. “Now please leave me alone so I can get some fucking sleep.”

“You don’t need sleep,” said the Innkeeper. “You need a coronation.”