Free Elves: Once Walked With Gods by James Barclay Page B

mage’s stomach. Blood was pooling quickly beneath him.
    ‘Your blood will feed my forest. Your soul will shriek in endless torment. Nothing can save you.’
    He turned to run back around the statue after Sildaan and Garan. Serrin stopped him with a curt hand gesture. He indicated the main doors and the two trotted outside.
    ‘Live today, Auum.’
    ‘We have to take the head from the beast,’ said Auum.
    Serrin carried on running, straight into the rainforest to the right of the stone apron.
    ‘Assemble the faithful. Then return.’
    ‘How do we know who they are? Sildaan has betrayed us. Sildaan. Who else?’
    Serrin sighed and stopped where they could see the temple but were hidden by the embracing foliage. Auum felt detached. It wasn’t shock at what he’d seen inside the temple, more a cold dread at what they faced. Serrin’s eyes were brimming with tears.
    ‘We will start with your brothers and sisters.’ Serrin put a hand on Auum’s shoulder and kissed his forehead. ‘You saved my life.’
    Auum inclined his head. ‘And I will be here to do so again for as long as you need me at your side.’
    ‘You are destined for better things than guarding Silent Priests.’
    Serrin was frowning and Auum could see his eyes had misted over.
    ‘We’ll get Aryndeneth back,’ said Auum. ‘We’ll right this wrong. Yniss will not turn from us.’
    ‘Can’t you feel it, Auum? Everything we believe in. All that we are as elves is at risk. The blood of men is staining the floor of our temple and an Ynissul priest invited them inside. The harmony is failing.’
    ‘That is an inescapable conclusion.’ Auum’s smile was hollow. ‘Talkative for a Silent Priest, aren’t you?’
    ‘These are unusual times. And they call for unusual solutions.’
    ‘Meaning?’
    Auum could see Serrin nagging at his lower lip as he wondered whether to say what he wanted to suggest.
    ‘The threads will tear themselves apart. The elves will be in conflict again. Just like the War of Bloods.’
    ‘Worse,’ said Auum. ‘This time, we don’t have Takaar to unite us.’
    Serrin stared at him. ‘Don’t be so sure.’
    Auum almost lost his balance.
    ‘He will not come. He turned his back ten years ago. We don’t know if he is even still alive.’
    But despite his protestations Auum’s heart began to race and something that felt like hope coursed through his body.
    ‘Do you really believe him dead? Takaar?’ Serrin paused. ‘You have to find him, convince him. I have to take word of what’s happened here back to Ysundeneth, to Jarinn and Katyett. News of your mission too.’
    ‘I am your shadow. I will not leave you.’
    Serrin placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Our paths will cross again soon enough. Do this for me. Bring him towards Ysundeneth. I’ll find you.’
    Auum nodded. ‘Where is he?’
    ‘Verendii Tual,’ said Serrin. ‘He is an ula with more power than he knows but be careful. Ten years of solitude will not have been kind.’
    ‘This is the plan of a monkey-brain,’ said Auum.
    ‘In a land being consumed by those with their eyes turned from God, he with a monkey-brain will reign.’
    ‘That is not in the scriptures.’
    ‘Not yet,’ said Serrin. ‘Not yet.’

Chapter 7
    When you enter battle you are always fighting three enemies at once. Your fear, your foe and his courage.

    The heat in the Gardaryn was stultifying. The bedlam that had greeted the end of Lorius’s address had gone on and on, with Helias apparently unwilling to bring the chamber to order as protocol demanded. But Jarinn did not look for help or support. He merely waited for the noise to recede.
    ‘Lorius displays much passion,’ he said eventually.
    Katyett waited for the baying of the crowd to begin again but instead they stilled and turned to face him, listening.
    ‘And he speaks with some measure of truth,’ continued the high priest of Yniss.
    ‘Look at that,’ breathed Merrat.
    ‘There’s still hope while they remember they