Below the Peak (Sola)(59)
“Thank you for coming back for me” she whispered after much deliberation, folding her hands between her thighs and the dagger resting on her lap.
“You are welcome” Finn replied, softly.
“However, you should really thank the prince. He is the one who just saved you” he added in the same tone as he halted beside the prince’s horse. Nara licked her lips, his words and actions causing a contradiction of what she has always considered them to be all these years and what they have just done for her.
She glanced at the prince and found the same inscrutable expression he exercised on his face regularly. He had arrows in one of his hands, their points coated with dark red powder and rotten grime. She looked at the bodies lying on his feet. Her stomach blanched, and nausea noosed her throat. The bodies of what she supposed to be the ghostly creatures, were human corpses. Their rotten smell wafted around them, forcing her to breathe through her mouth. They look like some mutated abomination. As if someone replaced parts of their anatomy with other creatures, the hands with bones bird’s wings and mouth of a terrible beast with sharp teeth. Earth worms and maggots crawled from their decayed bones and chewed on their soiled and rotten flesh.
Nara’s eyes shook as she stared at Lucky.
Calemir watched as she brought her palm up and covered her mouth, and looked at the horse who no longer had flesh the whole upper part of its body, just its skull and ribcage shielding what’s left of its organs and whole heart. Rage burned within her gaze. Opening her mouth, she whispered soundlessly… Her mouth formed words like…she was counting.
“We call them the cursed spirits,” Finn said solemnly, looking at the grisly display. “They consume the flesh of their prey leaving the heart for last with delusive attempts to walk the earth as they did once.”
“9…7…21…” her face twisted tightly, her chin trembled as she counted more loudly… “1…2...3…” she shook her head and yelled, “DARN IT!”
“They eat anything…” Finn paused mid-sentence, staring at the girl as if she had grown another pair of head. He also stopped stacking the arrows back in the quiver.
The girl screamed and started kicking one of the corpses. She kept doing it over and over, screaming in rage and thrusting her boot into the corpses.
What the… Finn glanced his way. “Hey…” Finn began gently. She wasn’t listening, her whole body began to tremble.
Moving toward her, Calemir grabbed Nara’s arm and jerked her. “Look at me” he spoke softly. She tried to pull from his grip, her head shaking violently.
“Be still!” he ordered grabbing her face with one hand and placing the other on her mouth to muffle her screams. He forced her to look at him.
“Be calm and silent” Calemir commanded. Nara’s brown eyes widened, terrified.
“If you don’t shut up, more of those will come” his eyes bored into hers, annoyance shinning in them. “It’s either you keep quiet, or we leave you here, got it?”
Nara swallowed and breathed hard, nostrils flaring, the sharp breath warming the space between thumb and forefinger sat just below her nose. Calemir removed his hand from her mouth and held the sides of her face firmly. After a long second, his command sank in her head, past the rage, pain twisting and overwhelming her. He let the emotion slip from her to him until all she could feel were his warm hands on her face and the heat of him being close to her. She blinked tears and nodded her head lightly, her breathing slowing. I’m calm her body seemed to say.
Calemir understood. He dropped his hands and stepped back, giving her the space she needed.
Chapter Twenty-two
Forod Kingdom
Elloveben City.
Calemir
It was in the waking of dawn when they entered Elloveben. They climbed and descended a hill a quarter a mile away outer edge of the city. Through the mild darkness and vast mist, Nara beheld the beautiful city. It’s impenetrable walls and its high towers. The castle stood tall over all other buildings like a beacon. The Orange glow of the sun glided high over the mountains and cracked the early morning mist and basked the lush dewed grass and the entire city. It was an enchanting view that stole her breath. The morning chill pricked her skin, as her body trembled and teeth chattered. Nara clenched her teeth, wrapped her hands around her upper arms and with cold fingers, she rubbed some warmth to her chilled skin and bones. It was chilly here than back in Murisa. She rode with Finn and had taken a whole day for them to get out of the forest. She was beyond relieved they made it out alive. They crossed the arched bridge, the walls and entered the city. It was even more beautiful inside especially the small gardens and trees she spotted almost in every corner of the vicinity. Few elves strolled down the still quiet streets. The elves bowed and curtsied before Calemir as they passed and stared at Nara in surprise and curiosity. Her stomach flipped with nerves. She felt like she was at an auction, her being the exotic creature for everyone to see. She hunched a little, forcing herself to ignore the eyes and stared at the back of prince’s head as he trotted and lead them. It was the palace’s vast square that made Vessener’s own look puny and insignificant. Here it was extensive and broad, built to assemble thousands of people and at the very center stairs that erected to a soaring statue. Nara lifted her head and stared in awe. The immortalized clean-cut sculpted elf stood tall with one foot in front of the other, spear in hand as if ready to leap and slay the unforeseen enemy. It exuded power and might.