Keira told me about Ven, and gave me a drawing of him. I recognized he markings on him as those of me and my sister. He appeared fearsome and she expected us to find him and kill him. Her reasoning was that he wanted to be a new Barzilla and he was evil. We had to track him down as he was in the North now. She was earnest that I had to complete this task. He would harm our kind, just like Barzilla had. She told me how she believed in Barzilla at some point, when she was young, but by the time she was seventeen, all hope in him had left her. She was twenty-four now. I was born when she was fourteen, and oddly enough, her first child. She said she wanted Ven dead, that way she could get a new mate and have another child. She wanted to try to raise a child on her own, of her own. I promised I would do my best.

I was uncomfortable with the task. I was asked to kill, to murder, although not without reason or warrant. I had not even killed a chicken or a mouse before, much less, my blood father, someone I looked just like, and someone my mother Keira once worshiped. I did not want to kill everyone or anything. Riessla and Raken agreed that it should be done. They had always felt hatred for Ven. I think one of them had Simaya as their mother, Liria’s twin, and he made her go mad. That is why she no longer lived at the Red House, she stayed with him, leaving the children with Liria. My friends also believed, sort of, in traditional ways. He broke that with his little harem in the Deadlands. He probably had hundreds of offspring. We were nothing special to him. He was ruining everything held scared to by the Dark kind.



As we moved into the countryside, we slowed. We all were tired. No one had gotten sleep, but there was no place to camp just yet. We pushed to get to the wood. We had nothing with to sleep, so good weather was needed. Yet it was spring and we knew that at some point we would be caught in the rain. But it was not that night.

We slept in a corn field as we tired too quickly. The stalks were young, but we were hidden well enough. I did not sleep well without my soft bed, feather pillows and warm quilt. Raken and Riessla seemed fine to sleep. So I stared up at the stars, imagining figures, then counting them. I lost track after a little while and attempted sleep again, with little luck. A mouse startled me, but I made no noise as to keep my companions in slumber. The night air was chilled and I was tightly wound in blankets, but hey became damp and that bothered me as well. Out of frustration, I stopped attempting to sleep, my patience with myself had worn and I only wanted to get comfortable, but I also realized if I was comfortable, I would have slept at least a little bit and maybe if I stopped worrying, that would help.

By morning I was frazzled and already missing home, but said nothing of the subjects to my friends. I was hungry and handed out some of the bread we had brought. No one said much as we continued on and into some grassland. It appeared vacant of life beyond bunnies and birds. Eventually we passed into another town and we were no longer at any ease. People outside of the town surrounding the palace had little respect or regard for Dark Ones and only did they know the King and Queen housed two. We were hidden away mostly and never much left the grounds. They did into know of my being like their daughter.

I had brought money in hope we could stay in an inn, so I could actually sleep, but it took five tries until late at night before we could find an inn who accepted us in. And yet we got a small room with a single bed. Riessla was small, so she fit at the foot and Raken fell asleep on the floor. We had a breakfast in the inn, but found ourselves soon shooed away.

We were out of Liesta by the night, now in Carberry. Carberry spread over grassland and took much of the coast, both rocky and otherwise. It has some ports, but oddly enough clung to land. Only some fishing was done in this area. We walked on across the land, over a couple tall hills, feeling more exhausted by the hour. It was becoming necessary to find a place to stay.



Another village showed itself, and we walked through it, partially just happy to see a bit of civilization. No one seemed to notice that we were in sight, at least for a while, but then it came upon us, the violent reality of what we were. A group of young men, travelers from Kenna, it seemed walked toward us. They were educated, rich, probably in Carberry for cheap beer and an excuse to act up. There were about eight of them, they seemed sober enough, but there were hints of violence in their eyes that concerned me greatly. They began to poke at Raken who did not want to fight back, they pushed Riessla and I away and began to hit him. He tired to stand his ground without actually fighting back, but was forced to act. He was taller than the others, and unlike them, had worked, so although thin, he was very strong. He became very angry and lashed back at his attackers. I had to hold Riessla back, she wanted to help her brother, but she, not reaching even his shoulder while on her toes, would only be flung aside and hurt further. She kicked and hissed, crying for me to let her go, and when I did she was seized by one of the men and thrown to the ground. I soon followed with little notice. The man took her throat in his hand and violently kissed her. She kicked more and brought him to his knees. He was temporarily unable to do much, but he went angry with adrenaline. He ran upon us and hit her head to the dirt and she blacked out and went limp. He did not stop hitting her head. She was limp for only a moment before she shook and like a rabid animal, foamed at the mouth. I attempted to get on my feet to fight back, but there were so many of them, it was impossible.

I went to her and held her head in place so it would not get hit any further and I tried to sit her up so she did not choke.

A woman from a small house nearby ran out of her door with a broom and started screaming at them to leave. Those who did not promptly were hit with the broom. She looked at us, “Come in my house, I will help the girl,” Raken lifted his sister up and we followed the woman into the relatively bare house. She opened another door and there was a small room with a fireplace and a bed. She told Raken to set her there and she retrieved water. “I am Lela,” She said, “Lived here longer than most of those people have been alive,” She had a gruff voice. She cleaned the girls wounds would and wrapped her head up. She said, “It may be a bit before she wakes up, I saw what happened,” She looked at the boy, “But I think you took it worse,” She lifted his chin up to see a large wound, his clothing was torn, as was mine, that and now dirt covered. “It is a miracle they did not kill you.” She led us into her kitchen and sat us down. She put a large mass of cooked meat in front of us, “Eat what you like.” She had another, larger mass of meat, what looked like the rest of whatever animal it used to be. She opened the back door to where many children were and put the meat on a small wooden table attached to the house. They were ill dressed, had a lack of any real clothing.

The Lela had a basket of bread and poured it into a dirty trough. “You could be surprised how many nomads come through here. All of these children have been dropped off with me. I do my best to feed them, I only eat after them, and they only eat when food it donated.” She looked at me, “You wear human clothes,” I nodded, “Come with me, I have an extra dress, a girl who lived here, it was hers, and she left it behind after she left.” She retrieved the dress and told me to put it on. And I did, and it fit, “Lovely, that should be more comfortable to travel in, that is what it was made for anyways,” She looked outside,” I cannot keep them fed sometimes and they eat so much…” the food was already gone. The chicken came amongst the children at pecked at the crumbs on the ground. “Will you need the rest?” We had yet some meat on the bone. She picked it up by the head of the bone and put in on the structure. “We have extras!” She called out. The children ran up again.

“Raken? Raken!” A weak voice cried out. It was Riessla, she had woken. We went to the girl’s bedside. “What happened? Why am I here? I am sore,”

Raken said, “You got beat up real bad. We all did. Just stay here for now,”

“Where are we?”

“In a nice lady’s house, her name is Lela,”

She closed her eyes and curled up, “Alright,” Raken seemed relieved that she was alive and awake. Raken and I then went to sit outside on chairs with the woman.

Lela asked, “Where you raised by humans?” I nodded, “Very rich ones by the look of the dress you had on,”

“The monarchs of Liesta actually.” I answered plainly, “My mother Keira, she did not want me, and when she had my sister Ressa, my sister; she was scared I think, still irresponsible,”

The tunic I now wore was clean, light and comfortable and of black cloth.


We slept well that night and in the morning we had to leave hungry. We left before the sun, so we would not be attacked again. We stopped by a small store in a t own in the late morning to get food. There we were accepted, oddly enough, although not warmly.



Raken and Riessla and I were all sore and slow and weak. We all were fumbling along. The sea would hopefully show itself in about five days. Carberry’s land would go from town-land to some country grassland mixed with sparse forest, to rocky terrain. I did not know the exact location of the North bound port. Raken guessed, by a map he peered at, that a small, but substantial peninsula was a good place for a port to be, and we should head in that path. So we did, not looking forward to the five days before us.

Of the first we passed out of the town, not enough food to last one day, unless we planned to go hungry. So as we walked any food was looked for. One fruit tree was found and we gorged ourselves so even if we did want to eat, we had no room for it, and we left just enough room to walk. Riessla still had head pains, saying that at sometimes she could not see. Raken and I were concerned, we had no available help. We had to go slower in those episodes.

The little bits of forest were pleasant to walk through. I felt like a child exploring once again. There was much to see and smell and feel. I could never be bored in such an environment, nor did I expect to feel boredom for some time. There was an adventure ahead of my companions and me.



The rain did come, two days later. We were in the middle of the grassland, it was hilly and voice of trees. Raken searched for cover while Riessla and I sat near a bush that shielded us from the wind. Finally Raken found a dent in a hill that was just large enough for us three.

We were cold and clammy, it was a painful feeling. I had never been so uncomfortable, nor had I felt so alone. Raken held Riessla in his arms and helped her stay warm, while the dirt wall as doing such a job for me. I felt filthy, achy, and wishing for my nice dry and soft bed. That was the pay for experience I supposed. One cannot gain everything without giving up some comfort.

The rain ceased halfway past the morning. We were out of food and water but we were only a day away from the sea. The day became warm and that brought some help from out pain. The sky was clear, a bright, milky white blue. Only a few clouds stood in the sky. The air was fresh and clean.




The sea’s smell was coming to us, bring salt to the air. We all became excited. Off in the distance we could see water but we could see some boats. We wished to see a port. There was a town ahead. It was small and quaint. No people milled around, only a few cows and chickens. We yet walked around it to avoid any disagreements with conservative people. The port would be no better in niceness. Riessla was in a good mood, she wanted now to go to sea. She wanted to know what sea sickness was like. Raken thought that was comical and asked her only to lose her lunch away from him.



Night fell; we were in the correct port. Boats came and left, but the only one for the North would not leave for an hour. The men still at the tavern. Only one person guarded the entrance, an old man, who had fallen asleep standing up, leaning on a barrel with his spear loose in his hand. It was easy to sneak inside. We had to find a place to hide, and there was a crate of something, grain it appeared to be. Raken helped take the bags out and stack them elsewhere so we could fit, and we did. It was cozy yes, smelled bad, of course, and it was quite miserable. Hungry and thirsty and too nervous to fall asleep. Once footsteps were heard, my fear flew out of my stomach and through my throat, unable to scream it out, it buzzed in my head.

The ship moved now. It fell quite in the night, after a party. We could fall asleep, in shifts. That was helpful for the nerves, but all I wanted was to be on land. Riessla was getting sick, and we all dreaded her getting really sick. Thankfully when that happened, it helped that we had not eaten in four days, so nothing came out.



There was shaking and a giant hit. We wanted to cry out. There was pure chaos. Raken opened the top of the crate and we saw fire. The head flooded to us. People ran around. There was the passing of weaponry. We were ignored. After being on the sea for five days the ship was attacked. I did not know by what or who or why. The ship was going down into the sea to be a pile of wood and soggy grain-flour.

We could swim and we would have to. Seeing the physical fighting on the deck. We jumped into the water. Shore was ahead as well as the east, the morning sun. We fought to cling to floating pieces of wood. Dead floated and then sunk. Riessla was still crying from seeing so many happenings.

Raken swam strong, at some points, helping his sister. Again I felt completely alone in the world. It was a terrifying and peaceful feeling, that if I was to suddenly fall off the edge of the world, no one would be missing me. I would not be forgotten, because to be forgotten, you have to have been remembered in the first place. Only would I have made a little dent in the life of my family, and even then, bigger things there were.



Shore was visible, as were docks and a guarding station. It was clear the Dark Ones were not welcomed up in the North or anywhere else.

The closer we came, the easier it was to see the guards. Two elves there were, and with the female elf was an about eight year old Dark one girl, she was quite full blooded in her kind as well. There was no visible way to get around them and they probably had seen us by now. I told the other two to keep going to shore; we could not stay out here any longer. We needed to get drinking water and badly.

The shore became close and we could walk. We must have looked pathetic. Collapsing on shore, we had to rest, although the female elf approached us, “What is your business? Did you come from the South?”

“Yes, we came from the South,” I stammered at first, gaining my strength to stand. “We are on our own business,”

“If you wish to pass, you must speak,”

Riessla cried out, “We are looking to find someone! Do you have water? Please, we need water!”

The Dark girl dislodged hr water from her belt and we passed it about. The female elf asked us, “Who is it you seek?”

“Ven,” I said, “And we are not friendly toward him in this mission toward him,”

“Odd as you are his offspring. Yet I still find it surprising that you wish to deal with him and you are so young,”

“Miss, he wants to take over in Barzilla’s place. He wants to continue the war,”

“The war is over; your kind’s time is over with. He has no place to claim,”

“Then he plans to make one! I may be young, but I am not ignorant. I know of the war and of the haze, but I know knowledge that you do not, of the Southlands. It has its own battle. The Dark people fight it from both sides, and so do the men. There is no guarantee for a win there, there is no haze. If Ven rallies them, the Southlands will fall.”

“Impressive you one, but it does not push me toward any action,”

“Could you let us through?” Raken asked, “We are not planning on hurting anyone, except him,”

She smiled, a kindly amused sort of smile, “Come with me. We will need to get you some food before anything else.” She brought us into a tent. It was sparsely furnished and held a lot of confiscated items from passing ships. She gave us food, “My name is Asella. The girl with me is Nakia,”

“Hello,” We said to them and proceeded on introducing ourselves. We ate much of the food, bur fell full quite soon.

Asella said, “I have been assisting the Dark Ones rebuild. WE have refugee camps of the survivors now in Ebonwood, a bit south of here. They may have seen something, and maybe you could help me. We have people coming in everyday all over the North and South. If they appear suspicious, they are detained for a time. It sounds cruel, but necessary. WE have very few people around here that we can trust.” She rubbed her hands together. “I will take you to the Northern camp. It is almost in Ellmere. It is the most populated. Someone ought to see something. You should rest here tonight, though,”

She left the tent to go to the port. From a flap in the tent I watched. The ship was in no state to be called a ship anymore. It was a hunk of floating rubble. Some of the sailors crawled onto land, but many people had died. Rescue boats were sent out to get the injured.

Riessla had fallen asleep, I wished to, but my mind swarmed to the point it was too difficult to do so. Curiosity as well was a factor. Raken soon went to sleep as well. Finally we had a warm and comfortable place to sleep and only did I doze off once or twice.

When night came, I did fall asleep. My eyes forced themselves shut without asking me first. We had not been disturbed for anything more than a meal.



Asella led us to the road, gave us horses that were also taken by them. “It is about a day away to the south,” She told us softly, “And I do not expect to stop more than once,”

The elf did not speak much and I had never really seen one before in person, but she did not look right. She had to have been a Tier. Her eyes were as such, and despite her attempt to cover up the markings, they were visible.

Riessla almost fell asleep while riding, she was still so weak and our five days without food did not help.



The camp was ahead. Night had come. There were old tents set up and people surrounding fires and wrapped in blankets. Many were Slavinicas, but most were nomads, and most of those were the rare full-blooded kind. There was this one young nomads male who was busy handing out blankets. Asella met with him, there was talk. The boy came to us and said, “Hello and welcome. We could always use help here! Asella says you are all the way from the Southlands!”

“Yes, and it has been a difficult journey,” I answered him, “I am Adria, and this is Raken and Riessla,”

“Well hello, I am Kenla,” He shook my head. There was an intense look in his eyes. Then he looked to the siblings, “I have some room for you with some children in the big tent,” He led them off and I stood by Asella.

“Are you staying?” I asked.

“No,” She said, “I will leave you here, good luck.” She took her horse and rode away quickly.

Kenla came back and took my hand. I was at first a bit startled, “And what part of the Southlands again?”

“Liesta,” I said, “The heart of the South,”

“Is your kind welcome there?”

“Not exactly,” I stated, “But there are always exceptions to everything,” We walked along, “Is it any better here?”

“They have often been killed. Most Dark Ones and Tiers have been hunted down,”

“Then I am safe?”

“You are a Dark One, one of Ven’s I see. You might not be,”

“You know about Ven?” I asked.

He nodded, “Oh yes, of course. Most of the North if you are Dark do. He has been traveling around, trying to sound like Barzilla. People are not really listening to him,”

“Have you seen him?”

“Are you looking for him?”

“Yes…”

“Well good luck, he disappears faster than anything I have ever seen,” He laughed, “Do you wish to meet him?”

“In a way…”

He nodded and smiled, “You are very beautiful Adria,”

“Thank you,” I said sheepishly, “Have you always lived up North?”

“I have traveled around, but yes, all the time up North. I have been from Ellmere to Kipling and everywhere in between,”

“So you must be of age?”

“Eleven, almost twelve. You seem to be,” He said, “Are you taken?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you have a mate?”

“No, where I grew up, it was no allowed. So I suppose this does not include that jurisdiction,”

He smiled kindly, “I think you should go through the coming of age ceremony here. We can try to figure it out tomorrow,”

“I came to rebuild,”

“I know, you will do that as well, but these things are more about rebuilding moral. It cheer people up more than just… blankets and nasty food that is a bit too old to expect much good flavor from,”

“Alright,” I said with a heavy sigh, “What needs to be done here?”

“The surrounding areas brush must be cleared and cleaned. The twigs and wood will be used for firewood, arrows and so on,” He said, “You should rest, and you can stay in my tent. I will take the floor,”

“Thank you,”

There was an odd feeling with Kenla, a tension, but attraction as well. I was comfortable enough around him without the sibling-like feeling. And by morning I was convinced I had found my mate. I did not say anything about the subject, only did I follow directions. He and I went to the surrounding area of the camp. The forest was broken and in ruins. A pony and cart were with us and we threw limbs and twigs into the cart.

“Did you have the scarification done?” He asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“So that is checked off the list,”

“I do not plan on weaving anything anytime soon,”

“Well, that is understood. We need a feast for you!”

“Kenla, why are you doing this?”

“Do you know how these ceremonies end?” I shook my head no, “You chose a mate,”

“And you are hoping that I choose you?”

“Maybe,” He smiled and threw a bundle into the cart, “Will you?”

“Maybe,”

“Funny.” He said and took my hand, “I know it is not proper,” He kissed my hand, “May I have an answer now?”

“Well, you have not earned it! Must you prove yourself first?”

“Oh, is that not but a formality?”

“As for me, I find it a necessity.”

“You do?” He laughed, “What do you ask of me?”

“Um, traditional stuff of course,”

“You do not know what that even is!” He sat down in a stump.

I stood still with my hands on my hips. “Well, I am sure that I can find someone to ask who does, or you could just do it.”

“Who am I supposed to compete again, eh? Myself?”

“Or I could find someone!” I spit out, next to him now.

“Or you could just say yes!” He said, “That would be much easier! So much easier!”

“And boring. Let us make this interesting!”

“Do you want to climb a tree or something?” He was joking.

“Why not? Sure! Go!” I shoved him playfully. He stood up very slowly and brushing himself off. “Are you going?”

“Patience Adria!” He went to a tree, took a heavy side and began to climb up it madly like some kind of agile animal. It took him very little time to be at the peak of the tree. He yelled down, “How was that?”

“A-Amazingly fast! How did you do that?”

“It appears you really have been cut off your heritage! We are naturally agile!” From halfway down the tree he jumped to the ground and landed well on his feet. “So how about you try?”

“Well, I have before… but um, not like that,”

“It is not hard; it is in your blood! Just try it!” So I began to climb and instincts implanted deep in me went mad and I was going quicker than I thought was actually possible. Kenla cheered me on and said, “Good job, Adria!” I laughed and he said, “Are you going to come back down?”

“Um, that does not seem as easy.”

“Try! I am not coming up there to get you!”

“Oh fine,” I said and slowly worked my way down partially and then swung down the rest of the way. Kenla embraced me, “So have I connected to my heritage enough?”

Are you going to give me a yes, yet?”

“Oh, I do not know. You proved nothing to me. What else can you do?”

He had a curious, amused look on his face, “Well… would you like to go to the river? We could go swimming,”

“That is not you proving anything to me, and you know it,”


“Well, it might end up being that way, but it also sounds like fun.”

“We have work to do,” I said and I threw him his gloves, “Come on. We did not come out here for a reason,”

“Yes, we did,” He twirled me around and came close to me and put his hand on my cheek.

“Are you not going to give up?”

“Not until I hear the word yes directed toward my question,”


“Oh, no loopholes here I see.”

“Stubborn, stubborn girl!” He cried out in happy frustration, “Do I hear a yes?”

“You heard nothing,” I said plainly, “But I may as well say…”

“Yes?”

“Sure,”

“You still did not say yes!”

“Why give you that satisfaction while I have the leg up on the situation,”

“Smart too! My, my, I am impressed!”

“Yet, I have not been impressed by you, mister!”

He said, “We will have to change that. But did I hear a yes yet? Is it a yes?”

“Sure.”

“Does that count?”

“If you want it to.”

“Still no yes…” He slumped, “Shall I take you someplace tonight? We still have things to get done I suppose,”

We worked with smiles, but went quiet, having not have spoken much further. In one morning I just drastically changed my future. I had to think about children! That was the whole purpose in this, correct? So I felt a bit overwhelmed, but with Kenla, I did not think. It was surely a concerning feeling, but a freeing feeling as well. I wanted to be free, but I was not sure that anyone was really free. Kenla seemed as so. The look in his eyes was that nothing was weighing him down and the fact that I had said… ‘Sure’ took another bit off his mind.



That night, after a long day of work, because we did actually work, I was tired. We had gathered enough brush to help build a wattle and daub house and provided everyone with fire for the night and maybe up to three more. Riessla and I distributed food around.

I only wanted to go to sleep, but Kenla was much less interested in sleep. He took a bow in his hand and a quiver. “Let’s kill two birds with one stone. I can prove to you that I am wroth that yes and get a feast for you! How does that sound Miss Adria?”

“I can live with that, but please be quick. I am exhausted,”

“Oh, you are a Dark One, not a wimp! Act like it! Embrace it! Come on!” He took my hand and pulled me into the forest. I giggled like a child and I did not know why. I felt too happy and light, “Shh,” He said and he ducked me under a bush. The moonlight opened up the forest. It was filled by a herd of large deer. He put an arrow into the bow and pulled back and held it, it was pointed at a large young male, not the head buck. So he proved some smarts to me, and eyesight as the arrow went into its neck. It fell, warm blood going to the ground. The rest of the herd bolted. He told me to close my eyes, but I knew that he went to cut its neck and strung it up to drain.

He came to me while my eyes were still closed. He placed his lips on mine and kissed me warmly, arms around me tightly. It was odd truthfully, not how I thought a kiss would be, but I was not exactly all-knowing on the subject. His hand was soft on the back of my head, then he pulled back, “Did I get that yes, yet?”

“I suppose so. I will give you my… yes,”

“Finally!” He screamed out proudly, “Would you like to go back to the camp? I will deal with the kill,” He kissed my cheek, “Good night, beautiful,” He said. I went back to his tent and fell asleep ignoring my future.

I slept in past any expected time. I had passed by the morning meal. Kenla had been doing his chores; he did not appear to tire at any point. It was funny in a way, his lightness. “Good morning! By the way you slept you would have run a few miles,” He knelt by me, “So, tonight we will have the feast. I have it all figured out,”

“So how does this work anyways?” I was leaning on my arm looking at him, still on the bed.

“There is dancing and drums and food and drink. Maybe we can go away from here for a day or two,” He touched my cheek, “So it can be just us,”

“You cat like you have known me for quite some time,” I said to him.

“I feel like I have, oddly enough,” He said, “Alright, come on, wake up, get ready for the day,”



I was dressed in a tunic that showed my stomach and its markings. The animal had been cooked and seasoned. People came out with drums and a glorious celebration began. There was a beat that went straight through me, shaking my inner core. It was overwhelming and a sensory overload. I came forward and people cheered. Kenla stood beside me and the chief had us tied together, we were literally bound, our wrists were tied together, a both human and Dark tradition. It was over, I had a mate. I could never go by my father’s wants to get married and have a husband. I knew what this entitled in a way. But for that moment I was encased by all the wondrous and mad happened. Nomadic celebration was a bit barbaric, surprising. Civility was in minimal order. Riessla and Raken seemed to be enjoying everything as well, being able to be their kind without inhibition, because they had no inhibitions if for only one night. It was happy and merry and no one worried.



The next day had come without the party ceasing yet. Kenla had packed things for us to retreat away from it all and into the woods. There we spent the night.

“You know that you must come back in a year.” He told me.

“Why is that?”

“Well, I can see you were raised by humans,” He said. He lay beside me with a smile, “This will sound odd, but this year you will start your cycles. Unlike humans you have four a year, not however many they have. You must go through a year’s worth before you are able to have children and… tradition states that as well,”

“More tradition,” I mumbled, “Then do I leave again?”

“Yes,” He said easily, “I think you will actually need a ship to come and go. I do not suggest stowing away again,”

“That was not fun, I must say,”

“How many children?”

“What?”

“How many would you like?”

“I have never thought about it much,”

He chuckled and said, “You have a year before you have to worry about one, how about ten?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? That is a bit much, do you not think?”

He chuckled and with a large smile on his face said, “You have a lot more time than a human, Adria. No being scared necessary. You can have one at a time and let it grow up and then continue on,”

“I would be like over 100.”

“Yes, you have at least 170 years to have children,”

“Are you mad?” I laughed, he was serious, “Oh my… that is a long, long time…. So Dark couples do not live together, at all?”

“No,” He said, “Sometimes they are in the same tribe and they are obviously friends and all, but not like humans. My job is limited,”

“Seems a bit unfair,” I sighed, “I get no help from you?”

“Well, you get help having the kid and that is about it,”

I put my hand over my eyes, trying not to laugh, “That is a given,”

“And that is about it,”

“I was told that this system was efficient,”

“It is!”

“Of course…” I muttered, “Are you going to be less charming now? You start and I think I will just not come back next year,”

“Me? Less charming? Oh no!”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“That was supposed to be charm!” He cried out. We smiled at each other for the longest while. “Not convincing enough?”

“I would not say so.” I nodded matter of factly.

“Does that mean I must try harder/”

“Yes,”

“Another yes! I am raking them in,” He laughed and shimmied closer. “You look concerned.”

“I am thinking,”

“About what?”

“Can Dark people love?”

“I would think you would have figured that out in your own mind. I know for humans you have family, but there is little attachment in the nomadic world. I have hardly seen my father. Whenever Ma wanted another child, my father would come, then my oldest brother would watch us while for a few days we would not see either of them. They grow up so fast! There is not time to attach. People of our kind are cold, but not baldy. We have survived and have become so strong because of it. We do not attach ourselves to life itself. I do not fear dying and most of us do not either.”

“I have not pondered death much,” I honestly said, “If I stared it in the face I might run,”

“You have been raised by humans Adria. They hold life dearer to them than food. A Dark One’s honor lies in death, not much in life.”

“That, I did not know,”

“The war did not much understand that, some on the other side did. If the haze was dead, the war would not have been lost.”

“Were you on the side of Barzilla?”

“Yes and no. In a way I agreed with him that we deserved to have dignity and not to be treated like animals. Yet I did not agree to what measure he went to. Our kind groveled in his presence. That is no dignity. That is a pathetic excuse for him to be worshiped.”

“Most people would stand for dignity but to wage war?”

“That was also a personal bit of him. He wanted to have more land. He wanted to conquer Arundel, to make everyone his slave.”

“He almost succeeded,”

“I am not sure if in the beginning this was what he was looking for, or he really wanted the nomads to be free, period.”

“Free… we are looked to as pigs, if anything, he made it worse.”

“No, that I do not think. He advanced pour kind, made a name for us. Without him, we might not exist. Our entire kind could have been wiped out centuries ago.”

“I did not know that,” I said, “I have heard little good of him,”

“Because what I said is all there is, and much of that was byproduct.”

“Do you think it will be better?”

“Eventually. People have to accept that we are not easily defeated!” He put his hand in the air jokingly, and then lay back down. “But the fighting is over. Most of the enemy is dead,”

“Meaning what?”

“Almost all Dark Ones and Tiers have been killed. I thought I said this already. Only some nomads and Slavinicas are left,”

“Oh,” I said, “All killed in battle?”

“No,” He sighed, “They have been hunted. Mostly by the elves, but men too. The elves are not content to have their land back. They want revenge for their ‘pain and suffering’.” He did not appear overly sympathetic. “If there could only be so open eyed to see that we are suffering as well,”

“Yes, but they do have the right to redeem themselves,”

“Redeeming has a reputation to trample,” He said with a huff, “The whole war on our part was in want for redemption of dignity and so on,”

“Yes,” I agreed, “So patience is needed. Things should sooth over in time. We should not expect immediate gratification after a war,”

He said, “You are so smart!”

“Well, I’d hope so,”

“I do not understand,”

“With all the education poured into my mind, I hope it comes through,”

“It’ll seep through at some time, if it has not already, but those were our own thoughts, not someone else’s,”

“So you do not blame the education?”

“It might have taught you to think that way, but it did not put the thoughts in your head.”

“Are you educated?”

“Slightly, only slightly,” He looked up to the stars, “If knowing my letters and numbers count. I do not know how to read very well. I can count, but most people can,”

“You can always learn,”

“What do I need to know? I know all I need to,”

“You speak eloquently, and you would do well to write it down,”

“For whom or what purpose? So I can parade around saying, ‘look at this’ and hope I know someone can draw pictures inside so people have a clue of what I am saying. If I could tell it, I would rather do that,”

“I cannot imagine not being able to read,” I exclaimed, “But at home, I have books to read and some reason to write. So I cannot really relate,”

“Nor can I relate with the want to. So there is something we disagree on. You can see why our kinds’ way is more efficient already! We could not live together,”

“So does such a thing as compromise exist?”

“Yes, one parent with the child completely as a compromise for convenience,”

“Ah,” I said softly, thinking my sister was not absurd, completely. It went quiet for a moment. I had to wrap my mind around the present. “Everything is quick in the nomads’ world!”

“Except life. You will live longer than humans,”

“It seems so backward,”

“And humanity does not? Short and slow, at least we can get more accomplished.”

“In an overly simplified fashion,”

“Instead of overly complicated and dysfunctional,”

“That is a way of analyzing it,” I stated, “It never seemed that different to me until I came here. You people must put heart into something.”

“You people? You are one of those people, and yes, we do: celebrating and feasting! Humans do not know how a great party goes!”

“It is boring,” I answered, “Organized dancing,”

“Organized?”

“You have steps,” I stood up, “Let me show you,” He stood up and I placed his hands where they properly belonged. He seemed patient enough to learn. “Pretend there is music; hear it in your head.” So I began to dance, I had never been the leader before, “Why are you laughing?”

“Because it is funny!” He stopped and was smiling, entertained.

“Well, I never thought of it as funny, only… old,”

“Our dance is old! Older than humans civilization! Before Godwin was ever even settled,”

“Should you not say Godwin first, than civilization?”

“See? I have no place learning to write!” He laughed, “I win!”

“I did not know this was a competition,”

“Is it not always?” He asked, “Always!”



So time continued. I felt content, settled. Kenla yet had not ‘runaway’ from me as I predicted. I was supposed to have, but I came for a reason, and that reason was not him. I came to help rebuild, and look for Ven. Kenla had been a distraction; I lost what track we had actually had of him.

Kenla and I took up mending tents; we sat beneath a tree with needles and thread, “Have you learned our craft?” He asked.

“Yes, does it look like I am clueless to this?”

“Well, you are not weaving. You are stitching!”

I took in a heavy breath, a bit annoyed with him, “You have lost your charm,”

“I feel like a failure!” He joked.

“Yeah, it’s gone,”

“Aww, what would bring it back?”

“I do not know, maybe you have to convince me to come back next year! I could just go back to Liesta and stay there,”

“Well, that is not fair to you, or me!”

“That convinced me not,”

“I know it probably did not. Am I not a joy? I find that our conversations are entertaining, sometimes riveting!”

“Not entertaining enough,”

“Well, we should do something about it, a competition. We can see who can swim faster, across the pond,”

“Swimming?” I asked, “I can do that, but we must finish these tents first,”

“Responsible…”

“Yes! I thought that was a good quality, and it was last time I checked. We promised to do this, mister,”

“You are a Dark One, promises are supposed to be little,”

“So your promise to me is nothing?”

“I am not a Dark one!” He said, “But it does, of course. That is a different kind of promise,”

I shook my head, “We are going to get this done before we do anything, end of story, Kenla,”

“I think that is the first time you have used my name,”

“No, no, I am pretty sure I have said it before,”

“I would have remembered,”

“Alright, a big milestone!”

“Sure,”

“So… you…? Ugh, I give up!” I put my head back on the tree then kept going.



Night fell before we finished mending all of the tents. Kenla took my hand and we ran off to the forest. I did not know where exactly the pond was. I heard nothing of it past Kenla. He was in a light mood now; the tone of his voice was different, it was as it was when we met. “Right over there!” He cried out. There was a big smile on his face, “I am going to win!”

“Not so fast mister.” I seized him by the arm as he was ripping his shirt from him. He chuckled and embraced me, kissed me then ran off. “Oh no you do not!” I followed in his actions.

When he called to go both of us bolted into the water. The cold water touched my skin and I felt very chilled for a moment, but I picked up momentum quickly. I did not know where Kenla was, I just went straight forward. The moon was the only light and it illuminated the shore. I found a pulse and followed it.

Then I hit the shore, exhausted. I could not see Kenla, in the water or any other place. So I sat on a rock and waited. “There you are,” A voice said. I turned to see Kenla standing and eating an apple. “You went in a circle I think or you are just slow,” He said. I shook my head, “Want a do over? I can go again!”

“Um, no, you can say you win,” I said, still breathing heavily. I shook with the cold. We were both in the same boat with the cold and both of us were dripping went, and only in our skivvies. He sat next to me and gave me an apple he retrieved from the woods and we went quiet while eating. “Any charm yet?”

“Not really, just competitiveness.”

“But that is a good thing, right?”

“Sure,”

“No yes?”

“I said sure, that counts,” A smile broke on my face.

“Charm, charm! I need charm…!”

“That is something you have to find all by your lonesome, and if you do not find it soon, you will be all by your lonesome,”

“So this did not work? I thought it was fun,”

“Sure,”

“Stop with the sures!”

“Um… sure,” I laughed.

“Um, more charm,”

“That was not charm!”

“So if I kissed you hand and opened doors… would that be charm? Would that count?”

“Maybe,”

“Maybe?’

“Maybe,”

“Then I shall try, because you must come back next year! You must, you must, Adria!”

“Oh poor little Kenla, is he going to be oh so deprived of me?”

“Yes!”

“Well, that makes me feel just a bit better…”

“Charm?”

“Crudeness actually, but charming crudeness.”

“That is charm!” He chuckled, and lay down on the rock.

“How long are we going to be here?”

“We have to go back across, or around, but however long you wish,
I looked to him and his eyes sparkled. They had color to them, a teal-grey bright color. For a moment, in his eyes, he looked like a child. “You are so human,” He said.

“Why do you say that?”

“You act like one,”

“Oh really?” So I sat up and crossed my arms.

Suddenly I felt arms around me, “And I find nothing wrong with that,” He whispered into my ear.

“Now so are you,”

“I am?” He asked, I could just barely see his face. He kissed my cheek and I leaned back so I could see him better and we kissed warmly, but we had to soon leave. He helped me up and as we walked around the lake, we continued to talk, “When you go, I will miss you,”

“Do you forget that I must find Ven before I go home,”

“He is so elusive. You’ll need a tracker to help you,”

“Do you qualify for that position?”

“No, not really, but my brother does. He used to work for Ven, but had convictions against some of his practices,”

“Like?”

“There are hundreds of you, hundreds of his offspring,”

“That is odd,”

“So, he is, my brother, is a traditionalist. He believes that is not right for any Dark kind to do. He left Ven and tracked across the Deadlands to come here. If I knew I would not had let him go. I will find him,”

“What is his name?”

“Akken, I like my name better, though,”

I smiled, “He is about eight years older than I, and he has three children now I think,”

“And his mate?”

“I have only seen her a few times, Lili, I think. I am not for certain, but if it is not her name, it is one of the children’s.” He nodded, matter of fact. “She is really nice, I think there is Slavinica in her because she is really quite small,”

“How many other siblings do you have?”

“I have twin sisters, there is a set of three boys in there, and another sister and another brother,”

“So nine of you in all?”

“Yes, Dark Ones and nomads tend to have multiples. My mother and father both were killed in the war, one of my sisters too,”


“Is that why you do not speak fondly of the war?”

“They did not care to think who they were killing,”

“That is how it normally goes,”

“I know that our kind have not in the past… but our pillaging is declining. Partly in fear, we will all be wiped into oblivion,”

“That is a good fear,” I said lightly.

“To have the threat of being wiped into oblivion? Never thought of that as being positive,”

“Well, not that part. Um, never mind,” I sighed and rubbed my arm. He took my hand, “What is that all about?”

“Charm!”

“You will never forget that, will you?”

“No, I have to make sure that you come back,” At this time we reached the other side of the lake. I slipped into my dry dress, and he into his trousers and shirt, ‘I am glad the wild dogs did not take them away,”

“Have they before?”

“Oh yes, and it is difficult to explain to people why your clothes are mission, or why you were not wearing them to begin with,”

“We have work tomorrow that we need to do,”

“I know, I know,” He sighed, “But I will be away to find my brother,”

“You are just being lazy,”

“You need his help, do you not? I am helping you out by finding him, now be nice!”

“And you get out of work all at the same time,”

“If you say, can I come with? I think I will fall down,”

“What?” I laughed and smiled. He shrugged, “You do not know what you are saying,”

“No, not really,”

“I did not think so,” I patted his shoulder.

The next day was interesting. Kenla disappeared early in the morning. I went with Riessla to gather up brush and remove partially charred and dead trees. So from the morning meal on, we hacked, broke and carried wood. A few ponies and carts were used and we cleared enough land that there was room to expand the camp and potentially build permanent buildings, which was against the nomads nomadic life, but they were evolving, and considering they were allowed in such a small area, it made sense for some people to settle down.

And night came, many of us sitting around an outdoor fire. Riessla and Raken seemed content to be here. Yet they were detached from the group, in their own protected little world. I could tell that they would like to get on Ven’s tail soon, and so would I. Maybe it was genetic, in my blood, but I craved blood. It was a sick feeling. I did not know if it was wrong or not. By human standards, it was obviously a no-no, but in this world, it was understandable. The Dark world… that was a part of me. Maybe I should ignore the urge, as I was going back to a human world. I had to be semi-recognizable, although, my father would not approve of my decision with Kenla. If I really was gone for a long time, I could come back with child.



Kenla came back in two days with a nomad who he bared some resemblance to. It was Akken, and he was a cold-hardened soldier. He did not appear to have much in his past ‘tailing’, as he called it. It was odd, the stark difference between him and his brother. Of course Kenla had not gone to war, nor had he worked for Ven, or tracked across the Deadlands.

Maybe Akken could be chiseled into and show emotion, anything but determination, although a good quality that was.

By the next day Akken said that the last place Ven was seen was west around Gehenna, and he was moving east again, trying to follow in Barzilla’s preaching footsteps. He said that any refugee camp he would come to, to show how it was he should be the new Barzilla. Rumor had said that the free nomads chased him out of Gehenna with multiple swords at his back, and fire. That made me smile. Akken said, “There are only two camps before he gets here,”

“Should we wait or go after him there?”

“Either way, I do not know how successful you will be. He is a skilled opponent, when he is seen, but he tends to disappear.” He looked up, “Can you fight?”

“I can shoot a bow, but Pa would not let me handle a sword,”

“You may need to learn then,” He said, “Kenla is no good with anything beyond a bow either. I can teach you both.”

“Thank you so much Akken,” I said.

He looked to Kenla, “You never told me how nice she is.”

“Because… she is kind of not normally polite,”

“To you,” I added in, and then I said to Akken, “He lost his charm,”

‘That fast ay? I was told I still have it, eight years in. Not a few days,”

“What? Did Lili tell you that?”

“Yes, yes she did,”

“Well, she is just trying to be nice. Her kind is… known for that stuff,” Kenla said slyly.

“Her kind huh?” Kenla made him angry, “Tell me Kenla, what do you mean by that?”

“She is a bit Slavinica,”

“Actually all…”

“Well, she acts like them,”

“Are you making fun of her?” He was in his face and red with anger.

“No, no, I was just saying…”

“Saying what?”

“That she acts like them!”

“And what do they act like!”

“All quiet and nicey-nice,”

“And if you told her that to her face she would bring you to your knees,” He said without laying a hand on him, “She is going to come here in a week and a half,”

“Fun…”

“Shall I inform her of your comment?”

“Um…”

“Well, regardless I am going to,”

“Why is she coming? Are the kids?”

“Are you that ignorant, and only the youngest,”

“No, I thought you would come up with a funnier answer than that,”

The Akken pulled out a sword and said, “Should we get to work? Adria, I will spar Kenla quickly. He can show some of his true light. He is not good at everything, or much actually.” He pulled out his own sword, “Come on Kenla,” It was comical to see the short spar ending with Kenla on the dirt ground with a sword to his neck, “You say anything more against Lili and this is going to be through you.” He hissed. He set the sword around and helped Kenla up. Kenla had an embarrassed and defeated look on his face. “Come here Adria,” Akken beckoned. He took the sword from Kenla and handed it to me, “I am not going to spar you, I just had to do that,” He smiled, “Follow what I do, try to stop the sword wherever it goes, alright?” I grasped the sword, “One hand Adria, it’s not a bastard sword,” He moved it side to side and I followed. He became a bit quicker as time went on and I had to pick up my pace, “Move you feet Adria. You cannot just simply stand still,” Instantly, it seemed, he took up a large staff-like stick, “Be flexible,” And he began to fight with both. He took a swing at my legs and I jumped over it, “Good,” He said, with a sudden surge of energy, I seized the stick from him and tripped him. He laughed and said, “I am impressed. I am sure you could beat Kenla, “He looked at his brother, “Would you like to try?”

“Sure,”

“Again, with the sure!” Kenla yelled out.

He threw Kenla his sword, I said, “You do not want to be beat by a girl, do you?”

“If this was by a bow, I’d win,”

“We can try that next,” I said, “I have been trained since I was three,”

“Well than we would see,”


Akken stepped in and took the swords and gave him a stick as well, “I do not want blood drawn,”

“Just broken bones…” I said and we began. He appeared slow to reaction when he was not with a bow. He was quickly brought to the ground, I leering above him, holding the staff on his throat, “I won,”

“Give me my bow,” He gruffly said, and as he stood, he brushed himself off and had a look of determination cover him. I had not seen a place with targets about, although unnecessary. “We will go to the woods. Some targets hand there,”

I walked with Akken. Kenla was in a bad moon, having a few bruises now. The little place had dummies in the trees. There were six. “Alright,” He said, “Take three and I will take the others, so we will see how gets closest to the dots,” So I had mine finished quickly and well then waited for him to finish and soon he did. I pointed to one of his arrows and split it. “Looks like I win again,” I stated, “You are losing what charm you have left!”

“Hunting,” He said, “Tonight, who brings back the best kill,”

“That is not fair. I have never hunted before,”

“Then I claim a default victory?”

“No, I did not say I would not try!” Raken had hunted, maybe I could borrow his help. The rules were very vague, and Kenla said nothing at all about help. So I found Raken and Riessla, and I asked for his help. He seemed excited to help. And that night we trekked to a place Raken seemed to have a feeling about. We climbed into a tree, “Now wait,” He said, and we sat in silence. There was little light, a cloud passed in front of the moon.

“What are we trying to catch?” I asked.

“Well, I was assuming deer,”

“What if he gets something else?”

“I do not know, just shh,” He said. I held the bow in readiness. Eventually I saw a large elk. It was old and weak, but he was once great. I pointed the arrow and shot. The animal collapsed and I shot again at its neck and Raken jumped down and cut its throat for me and retrieved the arrows. “This will feed the village for a good many days or weeks,”

“It will,” I said, “How do we bring it back? You or I could not carry it, or both,”

“A cart,” He said, “I will get one,”

I sat beside the lifeless animal. I pet its thick fur. Raken came back and we lifted it up best we could and pulled it along to the camp. There we waited for Kenla. Many people floated around us but we could not allow them to go after it to clean it just yet.

Kenla’s kill was of the same size. So there was a tie. He appeared very frustrated with not winning. I wanted to lighten his mood. I took his hat and ran away with it into the open, cleared area past the camp. He came after me as I went into the small patch of forest. I could not see him, and stopped. Suddenly I felt him slam against my side and he drove me into ground. He laughed and still had his arms tightly around me. I tried to wiggle away but his grip tightened. I laughed loudly and he tickled me so I would let go of his hat. He put it back on his head and continued. “Stop it!” But I could not stop laughing.

He did not and said, “You cheated,”

“It was not in the rule! I just evened the field. You gave me no rules!”

He continued on, “I win then! I got that all my myself!”

“I shot it!” I said, “Oh stop!”

“Of course you did, if not, it would really be cheating!”

He stopped and helped me stand, then wrapped and arm around me, “Do we call it a draw?”

“I beat you at two and tied you at one. So, no,”

“I beat you swimming,”

“So I won two, and you won one. So what is the next test?”

“Who can sleep longer.”


“No,” I said, “Although I do feel tired.”

“Who can drink the most.”

“My mother says Dark Ones come out drinking. I’ll win, give yourself a chance,”

“Says the girl who probably has not drunk anything past simple ale,”

“It is in my blood mister,”

“So you have not? Hah, hah!” He said.

“That is a dumb test. You will prove no charm to me in that way.”

“I forgot it was about charm…” He muttered, “Well, go rest Adria. I will think of something by morning.” I giggled and while he went to speak to his brother, I went into his tent, snuggled myself into many of the quilts and old blankets and fell asleep.





I woke to kitchen duty with Kenla in the morning. I was not one, who knew much about cooking, but these people did not care about taste, they just wanted food. We had little to pick from, some old cabbage and the elk. So that was what was made. Some people asked if a few people would be sent to the nearby human village market. We needed some grain, both for the stew and bread. I did not know that grain, both for the stew, but barely was very versatile. She was in short supply, but so was money. I had some, but it would help none, it was the currency of the South. When the North and South traded, it was goods traded. For the gain we had little for goods besides the elk meat, so that was our good to trade.

Riessla and I wished to go. I had not much time with her since we arrived and when we went she was in a good mood, a light one. As the cart went forward she spoke about how she liked it here and she had learned a lot and it was nice to be in a different place. “I feel like Yana. She left to go to Caithere, but it is sort of like that,” She sighed, “And you met Kenla,”

“That was not planned,” I said, “But I think I am glad I did,”

“You think?”

“Well, he already acts different.” I said, “But that is alright. I do not plan to be here long. Akken should help us find and catch Ven,”

“Do you still want to talk to him?”

“Ven?”

“Yes Ven,”

“Well, I will figure that out with circumstances,” I said, “If I do not have the opportunity, I think I will be fine,”



The village market was small, with few options, but had lived with Dark problems for centuries; the war ending did not end that. So we were not exactly welcomed, that I could tell by their eyes. Riessla was feeling uncomfortable, “Will they trade with us?”

“I hope so,” I jumped from the cart and took one of the baskets with slabs of meat wrapped in it. Riessla sat in the cart. I saw someone selling grain, barley mostly. I went to them, “Hello,” I said, putting the basket on the table.

“What do you have?”

“Elk, about twenty pounds here, and more if you’d like,”

“How much grain? I can offer forty pounds of grain for it,” She lifted three bags onto the table.

“Thank you,” I said and took the bags to Riessla.

There was someone selling rye and corn and I got about fifty pounds and was happy that I was getting business.

I stood by Riessla, talking when I was confronted as we were in the South. I was ordered to give him money, “I do not have any money,” I said, but he was not convinced. I used what I learned with Akken, found as stick and used it, but soon found myself in a jail cell.

“Adria, do you want me to get someone?” Riessla asked.

“Yes, although they want money before I can be released,”

“I’ll get someone,” She ran off, we had secured the food so it was not taken.

I sat in the cell; it was ground and bars, with a sleepy man watching.


By night Kenla and Akken came. In a matter of a moment Akken knocked the man out cold, took the key and opened the door. “Come on,” He said, his voice was tired and possibly angry. I followed him out. Three horses waited, “Hurry up!” He cried, I jumped on the horses back. We sprinted off as quickly as possible so no one would notice.

Akken reprimanded me, “Do you know what you just did?”

“I did not kill anyone! I was defending myself, that man attacked me,” I huffed.

“You do not understand… you… they are not going to let us trade anymore, and if we are lucky, the camp will not be attacked,”

“What do you mean?”

“They will want revenge, Adria,” he said sternly. He ordered holes to be dug to hide the food so it would not be taken as well as valuables. The camp began to blow into a frenzy.



Morning was early, no one slept because they did come, the angry people, with torches and weapons. I was scared, but many of the camp simply ran off with their family and animals. The humans tried to set fire to our things, but out kind ran to and from the river to put the fires out. The smell of burning cloth was putrid and overwhelming. They took horses and the food we did not hide, they pillaged just as the nomads were known for. No less cruel, not more careful either.

Although I was very much thankful that no one died. Not that there were no injuries. Riessla and I had been trampled along with many others.

So while ground into the dust, we stayed for a second, then crawled away into the woods. We sat together I watched as the men concluded in taking what they wished before running away with it. We felt safe enough to come out to analyze the damage. Some horses had been taken, tents were torn down, bedding ripped apart. The stores made so quickly were still safe. I knew that the people would retaliate, or at least they would try to get their horses back. I knew now why they were nomadic: no one wanted them around.

After a short night people began to pack up their things to push further south. About five horses were missing, branded with the nomadic tribe signs and weaved halters. They would be easily visible. Four male nomads went to retrieve their horses. Kenla was in that group as one of those horses was his. He owned three in all, but his only stallion was stolen. It was a big, black, beautiful animal that was greatly prized. He said it was of the best nomadic stock still in existence.

Before we could leave, Kenla wanted to do that, and as soon as it was, we went south east. There was a system of how things were moved and it was very efficient. Children sat on these little flat things that were filled with personal items that were dragged along by horses, ponies, oxen and even dogs. Others walked alongside.

We wanted to set up camp in a safe place, but we were unsuccessful the first day. Ideally, we wanted an open area, semi-near human settlements, both to trade and… some stealing opportunities. Of course stealing would not be advised. The reputation of nomads was already a bit too bad. People wanted to burn us all and oddly enough it was the elves that kept nomads and Slavinicas alive.




By day two, we did settle on a good place, a bit too open though, grassland. There was plenty of grazing land though for the animal. Through the day we set up and tried to get comfortable. We baked bread and distributed it and meat. The rest of the meat was dried so it would last longer. Someone left to trade the last of the fresh meat for other food and salt. She was not harassed, or given any grief, although she was a nomad with light eyes. She did not look so scary.

Akken said that Lili should come in a few days as we came closer to her. She was going to bring Clairta, her youngest daughter, a one year old child. Akken was in high spirits to be able to see his mate, of whom he had not seen in six months. So he made his tent acceptable, reserved some extra food for his family as well. Kenla still bothered him about his mate being Slavinican and Akken was exhausted of it. “If you so wish to, say it not to me, but her when she arrives,”

“I will!” Kenla sounded so sure of himself.



The day did come when she came. She was striking, the largest eyes I had ever seen and they were not completely dark. She was small, almost funny to see her beside Akken. The child held heavy resemblance to Akken. Lili was very much a Slavinica, although her demeanor was not much for that. She could hold her own, I learn that of her nine siblings, she was the only female. She was tough.

Kenla confronted her and she said, “And what would you like to call yourself? Seems that your little girlfriend is higher up than you, she being a Dark One and all, and what are you? Just a plain ole’ nomad.”

I smiled, she just smiled and went back to Akken. They showed affection and talked about the children. Their oldest was seven, the middle was four and the youngest was one. She said she did not want to wait three years for another. The oldest had already had gone to a different tribe, being a boy, for an apprenticeship or for work. The three year old was a girl like the one year old. “Whatever you want,” He said.

“Ugh…” Kenla mumbled.

Akken said, “Oh, I almost forgot! Lili tell him, I have not lost my charm! He already has,”

“He’s not lying,” She nodded, “And you have? The year has not even come. If it is gone now… hmm, that means you will not be very successful,”

“And he is?” Kenla pointed, “You saw him six months ago and I do not see a newborn,”

Akken chuckled, “She just came by to see him. IT was not the proper time, now you hold your tongue,” He snapped, “You act as though you were raised by mad men,”

“You are insulting yourself,”

“Oh, I left when you were three,” He said, “You cannot blame me for your failings,”



The day went on, slowly, and then a week. We were waiting for Ven to get out of the west part of Ebonwood. Lili had left in that time. I expected to see a sad d but both seemed happy enough. It has been two weeks since we arrived, getting close to three. I felt discouraged that Ven would ever be found. I was not going to wait, I wanted to be proactive.

None of those around me felt that I was being smart. It was not as safe. Yet, if he ever got wind of me looking for him, he would not risk coming to this camp. It would be of little loss to him, his word spread anyways. And as of now Ven was at the largest of the nomad camps. He probably was trying to recruit Dark Ones to go with him to the Deadlands.

“Kenla, please come with. I cannot go alone,”

“You will have my brother. You cannot track without him.”

“Do you want me to come back alive or not?”

He laughed. We sat at the fire, cooking some food. “Well, if you go, then I do not expect you to, if I go with, I will not come back either!” He said and put the blanket around my shoulders, “And neither of us are any good dead, Adria,”

“I promised that I would get Ven. Waiting is not pushing me closer to getting that done. Kenla, I must do this. If I must go alone, then I will. I would just prefer not to,”

“Alright I will, but in the first place, Akken is going with you regardless!” He said, “Is two days close enough for you?”

“One is, but I can live on two,” I said and put my head on his shoulder, “Why do you need two?”

“To get ready. We need food and other things to take with,”

“We could follow the villages and fields…”

“Oh Miss Innocent is not so innocent anymore?” He asked and crossed his arms that were around me at one point in time.

“Was I that innocent to begin with?”

“I do not know,” He said lightly, “Do you have a plan?”

“Um… no, not really. I was just going to go where he was last and follow him.”

“Practice!”

“What?”

“You… and I… need to practice,”

Akken interjected, “Mostly you,”





That was what was done the following days, almost exhaustingly, but we did leave. Raken and Riessla were happy enough to stay and help those of the camp. So I tried not to worry about the upcoming events despite Akken’s warnings. He said Ven had gone to great lengths to find Keira and Ressa, I knew it was bad when Akken knew who they were. Ven did not give up on his pursuits. I needed to take those attributes into myself. I could not give up.

We left by morning and went up north, following the villages as I suggested, saving our dried meat, and eating what we could although much of what was growing was young, berries were ripened.



Akken was serious, and asked people questions about Ven, if he had come around. Some said that they came from the west and he was still in the large camp so there was little tracking yet to do.



In a week we arrived. It was immense, busting and crowded. Tents were practically on top of one another. Small fires were surrounded by poor and tattered nomads. They had old and dirty clothing, little food, the soup being thin. This was the perfect place for Ven, other than it would be hard to find him. Akken began to speak to people. Apparently he had just taken a new mate and by the night, he would have a speech.

The female looked familiar, “Would you by chance know a Liria?”

She smiled, “Well, I have a twin by the name,” She looked at me for a little while, “Adria?”

“Yes,”

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to meet Ven,” I said. I looked to Kenla to be quiet. “Simaya, Riessla and Raken are in a camp a bit south of here.”


“Yana was mine,” She said, “You are not here to see him. Keira put poison in you, I know she did. You came with weapons. You should leave or I will tell him and have you three killed.”

“Simaya…”

“Go!” She cried and pointed forward. WE hid, though. She stood outside of a tent. “That must be Ven’s tent,” I said.

“Crawl around back to make sure,” Kenla pushed me. I look a cloak that I had brought and put it on, hiding behind crowds and boxes until I was behind the tent. I found a flap and opened it. I could just see his back, I knew it was him because I could see the bars on his neck and the familiar marking on his back and they were like mine. His mate stood in a robe in front of him. She moved toward him and I left my place and found my way back to Kenla.

“It is him,” I said, “We should go to his speech,”

“You could shoot him,” Kenla said, “Since you think you are such a good shot. Try to hid the bow, though, under that cloak,”

“That is dangerous,”

“So is a melee attack,” He huffed, “How long is it going to take for him to come out?”

“Depends on if he wants twins,” I mumbled.



I time he did come out, alone. He went toward the center of the camp. We stood at the back of the audience with a clear escape route. Akken was hidden away, waiting. I had my bow ready with the arrow.

Ven came up and stood on the box. Five females stood behind him with adoration on their faces. “Those all his?” Kenla asked. I nodded, although it was but an assumption.

Ven began, “My good Dark people, I thank you for your hospitality. Yet, I see the poverty and desperation you have been thrown into recklessly. You have been put into the ditch again by stupid and prideful creatures. They have persecuted us with no regard! They forget the power our kind holds! They forget the war! Two hundred years of our superiority! We must retaliate to show that we cannot be so easily put down like dogs! I have amassed an army in the Deadlands, on both sides of the Rift. I need you to support our second rise. If we show how strong we are, collectively, we will not be again defeated. Not all Tiers have been defeated and killed, I have them, and I have much of what is left of the Dark One population as well. I wish to stage an attack upon Fearghal, it is already weakened and if it is taken, Godwin then will soon fall.” He stood tall; I aimed to take my shot as he continued on. Someone yelled out and my hand shook, it hit his shoulder and not his heart. He was immediately rushed away and I ran, hiding in an empty wooden box.

I only left when things had settled. My cloak blended in with his tent and I looked in. Simaya was with him. I knew while she was there I could not try to get him.

She tried to clean around the arrow, “Just pull the damn arrow out, Simaya!” He screamed at her.

She yanked it out and it dropped on the group. He bled badly and she did her best to clean it out and wrapped it up. “Does it feel any better?” She asked nervously.

The bandage was already red, “Of course not,” He snapped.

“I am only trying to help, Ven,” She said and touched his cheek. He pulled it away. She looked sad and said, “Should I redo it?”

“May as well…”

Once Simaya finished, she went to kiss him, he slapped her and ordered her to leave. He was alone; I put the arrow into the tent. He turned and took the arrow, “Curious,” He said, then thrust his hand out the tent and seized my neck. He traced his finger along my chin, “One of mine. Your mother told me you were dead,” I bit his thumb and he let go and I ran. He called for guards to come.



I found Kenla and Akken and said, “He took the damn arrow and he knew it was me without even seeing me!”

“How do you know?” Kenla asked.

“Because he said so!” I cried out.

“So he is still alive?”

‘Yes, I had to bite him to get away,” I said, “They will probably move him out of here and leave,”

I could see him being rushed out. Akken said, “I guess so. Follow me; we have to keep him in sight.

Kenla appeared confused. Yet we went along, trying not to be seen. Ven was taken out of the camp and into the forest. We hid in amongst the brush and waited. He was too heavily guarded. We had to wait again.

Simaya came to him crying, “Please, do not leave Ven! I want to come with you! Please Ven!”

“Simaya!” He screamed.

“Ven… I… Ven!”

“Go back to the Deadlands,”

“I want to be with you,” She took his hands. “Please,”

She appeared in despair and said, “I left everything, everyone, for you,”

“You did not have to. Go to your children. You have a tendency to forget about them,” He said, “You and the others will be sent there. You may be in charge if you like,”

She nodded, “Anything else…”

“No,”

“I will do as you ask,” She said, “I am with child again.”

He said, “Alright, now go. I will be home soon,”

“Be careful Ven, please,”

“I will not be killed,” He said, “No go,”

“Are you going to look for Keira again?”

“I know where she is. I have people after her, and Liria.”

“Liria does not love you, neither does Keira,” She said.

“Goodbye Simaya,”



We watched, waiting for him to go to sleep. Yet, when he appeared to, he was surrounded by multiple guards at least eleven. Akken said we could not take them all. Kenla urged that we could shoot some of them, and then hightail it into the trees, up the trees. Akken suggested that we could shoot from the trees because if we were caught, we would be cornered.

“You expect me, a person who learned how to use a sword a couple weeks ago to fight for my life in a tree…”

“You could be surprised how easy it is when it is a life or death situation,”

So we moved just slightly and in increments. We were not terribly noticeable. Finally we got into the trees. Kenla in one beside me. We all aimed at our “own” and shot. No one really missed and they seemed much easier to kill than Ven. There was eight left and they acted fast, so we each took another shot, one of us missed. Six left and they were climbing the trees, two apiece. I found myself shooting one as it climbed and then I took out the sword I had for the next. He looked at me, my heart raced. I was not ready for this. I stumbled back as he came closer. I could not find my footing and fell down halfway, hitting branches as I went, then Kenla ran really fast through the trees, “Adria!” And he stopped my falling. He climbed toward the Dark One and killed it, “Are you alright, Adria?”

“Yes, yes,” I said mumbling. He held and said, “Come on,” Akken came down agily.

“Ven is gone and the remaining five,”

“Which way?”

“South,” He mumbled.

“It is like they just disappeared,” I said.

“Come on,” Akken said and we pushed forward. Yet we did tire and rested safely in the trees. I was hungry, and thirsty, but we had little to eat. Our horses had been left, and we only had what we had taken. Kenla gave me a small bit of meat and bread. He had a small amount of water in his canteen as well. There was only open land south, until we had to cross a portion of the river.

The next day we had nothing. No animals to hunt, no food left, if we wanted to eat grass, then we would be full to the brim, but because we did not eat grass, we were going hungry. And because we had not seen Ven since the night before, we were not in high spirits.



We passed by a single field of very young cabbage and filled up on that and grabbed a chicken on the way. It was not much for three people, but it was something. Yet Ven was out of sight. Akken spoke to people passing and heard that he was by the river now. We were somehow a day behind him, and we would have to ford it.

And when we arrived to the river, we could not find a shallow part that was not quick in movement, or a part that was not fast, period. Akken was a very strong swimmer, and fought the current to near exhaustion before getting to the other side with a rope that Kenla held the other end. Kenla told me to go next and he wrapped the rope around my middle, so if necessary, I could be pulled out. I was still in pain from my fall and the cold water did not help that. It slowed me even further. Akken pulled me along a little to help me as I was doing the best I could.

The water did not wish to cooperate. Finally I got to the shore and just fell down upon it. I threw Kenla the other end of the rope and he wrapped it securely around himself. The wind began to blow fiercely. He jumped in the water and fought against both forces. The wind did not let up and a cracking sound came from above. Akken screamed, “Kenla, watch out!”

Kenla ducked underneath the water, but the limb broke and fell upon him. He floated like a dead animal. We pulled on the rope and pulled him to us. We lifted him from the water. He was limp, still breathing though. “Kenla, Kenla,” Akken began.

“Wake up!” I screamed, with no avail. Akken carried him into the forest where we set up camp to recover. Our blankets were wet, we had no food.

Akken looked at me, “You know Ven?”

“Not personally,” I began, “My mother was one of his mates, his favorite, you mentioned her before, Keira, and my foster mother, who is human was at his compound. He has been searching for both of them, and me and my sister.”

“You look like him,” He said, “I was at his place in the Deadlands too for a while. I was one of his guards. I left because of how many times he had hurt people, the females mainly, and the children who did not… turn out right, he’d drown them like puppies. I can still hear the screams. He drilled into them that Dark people are supposed to be without attachment. There were at least twenty females there and so many children. He would send them away and send them to camps,” Akken looked up, “I met Lili there. She was one of his slaves. I left with her. He treated her terribly and I could not stand it,”

“Kenla says Dark people do not love,”

“That should be a lie, I suppose it is much more difficult than for humans, but I love Lili,” He said, “And I am sure you love your family,”

“Not Ven,”

“Of course not,”

“Do you not miss Lili? You hardly see her,”

“Well, I do miss her, but in my life I will have plenty of time with her. We do not need to be with each other constantly to love each other,”

“I hope I will love my children,”

“It is possible,”

“Do you?”

“I do not them. I have seen them only a few times each,” Akken said, “And if you live in the Southlands, Kenla will not either,”

“I know, that is my home though,”

“Which kingdom?”

“Liesta, but Chestnut too, my Pa is the king of both. I live in Liesta most of the time. The other royals in the council have not seen me since I was very small. They were scared of me, I think. I can remember.”

“People are afraid of what they do not understand.”

“And what is unknown. At that time they just were killing Dark Ones left and right. A massacre occurred by a river and we still find weapons and armor when we swim,”

“If you find Ven, I will help you.”

“Do you think that the evilness is in someone’s blood?”

“If you are asking if you are or will be evil, it is your will and decision, Adria,”

“I sure hope that is how it works,”

“It is fact,” He stated, “You are not anything like him. He has no regard for life or people,”

Kenla moved around, but did not wake up. He shivered badly, almost shaking convulsively. Akken removed his coat and shirt and put him closer to the fire and he stopped for the most part.

“He needs to open his eyes,” I hissed.

“You and I need to stop worrying about him. Go to sleep, Adria,”

Despite my lack of comfort, I slept and heavily. By morning, Kenla was awake. He was groggy, sore and slow to move. He said it felt like he had gotten run over by a herd of horses. We realized that we would not leave our small camp today or tonight. Akken went to retrieve some food. He fished down the river and started a fire. I would have to get over my hatred of fish. I was hungry, so I ate it. Yet it was still morning. “What will we do for the rest of the day?” I asked.

Akken huffed and smiled, “Um, well, I do not know,”

Kenla looked up, “Suffer in cold and pain and hunger,”

“I fed you!” Akken snapped, “And I am toasting my clothes right now, you will have to wait on that. I cannot help your pain,”

“Some mead sure would,”

“It would help a lot of things if we had it…”

“Can you heal faster?” I asked Kenla.

“Sure, I can do miracles,” He growled.

“It was a joke,”

“What I am feeling is not,”

“I am sure,” I said, “I did not say it was not,”

“I am not trying to be cross,” Kenla was exasperated, utterly frustrated as well, “We should leave tomorrow regardless of situation. We cannot get too far behind, and they have horses,” He stated.

“He is going to the Deadlands, Nelan, in the South, and not to another camp. We need to somehow tell someone about his plans to start another war,”

“Asella,” I said, “The port we can go through, to get through the South, she can warn people. She, she is an elf,”

“No,” Akken said, “You cannot trust those people,”

“Let me finish, she is, or was, a Tier. She lived, although by force, in Ebonwood for a long time,”

He looked terribly reluctant, “I am not sure…”

“She can get people together to stop him. The council in the Southlands would be more than willing to oblige.”

“With massacring Dark Ones?”

“Well, that too, but this kind from Ardery has been itching for a battle, now he at least has a reason,”

“What about those people in Nelan that should not die?”

“That’s when my Ma comes in. She lives for the Red House practically. She can come and get children out,”

“Only children? Ay… um, you need to be much broader than that. The females, some of the males too… you cannot destroy them all,”

“I understand,” I said, “But I am not sure we can screen every individual. There will be a fight to get in, we can just take the ones remaining as prisoners and then see who can be trusted,”

“You will not bring the elves into it,”

“What about just one?”

“The Tier?”

“Yes,” I looked to the river.

“Might as well,” He patted my arm, “We can go to the port, but we will not be going by boat. I know how to cross the Rift,”

“And the Deadlands? That is dangerous,”

“Kenla told me how you came over, this is just as dangerous missy,”
“I thought the Rift could not be passed,”

“Probably not by humans, but we can climb. It is a bit difficult, but should go alright.”

“You sound so positive,” I mumbled, “And the Deadlands? It is called dead for a reason, Akken,”

“Obviously,” He answered, “Because trees cannot grow and there is not water, but if we can go through Pallan, we should be fine if we get enough water. Plus plenty of people with plenty of farms. So food could be taken care of. People there might look at us funny, they do not know about Dark people, but they will not try to kill us like other places,”

“You have this all figured out!” I exclaimed lightly.

“Well, a plan is a good thing to have Adria,” He said.

“Kenla whined, “This sounds like a lot of traveling.”

“Yes, that is because it is a lot of traveling, Adria,” Akken said, “You two complain a lot, and if you complain any more, I do not think I could take it!”

“And you would leave?”

“Yes,”

“We would end up following you in that case as well!”



The next day we planned to go, expecting in one more day to get to the port. Kenla tried to be quick, his wobbling gate was entertaining and his occasional grunt and complaint, and reminding us of how his body has been slammed into the rocks at the bottom of the river bed, was also entertaining.

We had yet to see a substantial village. We were in the heart of southern Ebonwood. We were near the coast and there were few nomad camps around, most had stayed in the north as with tradition, although a few had trickled down. Ellmere had put a few ports here, with guards to keep Dark Ones out. There were trade ships and homes, like a tiny colony. There were stores and people walked about. It was picturesque and lovely.

The one thing we wanted was a good night’s sleep. There was an inn with an elderly man and his son running it, so nervously we came to them and introduced ourselves. Both looked at us curiously and looked at each other. We told them that we had no money, nothing, and that we just wanted a room, “No food either?” He asked.

“No sir,”

“Well, come on in. We have room, everyone left on the ships,” He said, the older one opened the door to the pleasant inn. It smelled of bread baking and warmth. There was a young woman, I assumed the young man’s wife. She looked to us with worry but the old man told her to pour us some stew. We were set at a table with milk and the stew and ate our fill.

She brought us sweet cake as well. We sat back with smiles and talked. We were the only ones in the inn. The room we were given was large and comfortable and we all slept for quite a while. The smell of eggs cooking woke us. Feeling refreshed all were in a good spirits.

In the dining room, a dog was sleeping by the fire lazily with a loose towel in his paws. Children played outside, two of them. “Thank you so much,” I said, “We are very grateful,”

The old man nodded and said, “You’re welcome,”



We continued on and the next port was where Asella was. It should show itself around noon. We also hoped for another meal. We walked without speaking. I was sore and unable to move smoothly. I knew Kenla was not any better off. He was pushing along. Akken was determined, and he did not want dealings with the elves. He said they were only trouble to Dark Ones and nomads. There was nothing I could say that would change his mind. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, Akken was.



The port was rather empty as well. There was only two chips docked and unloading cargo into a cart. Asella and that Dark girl Nakia were there. I ran to her and she smiled and asked, “You came to see me? You have good timing; I left for northern Ebonwood and returned just yesterday. What is it you need?”

“Ven is trying t put together an army in Nelan. I feel that he will try to take the south over before the North. The North is still in retaliation and war mode. The South is not ready for any fight unless they are in the offense,”

She looked at Nakia and said, “Go get your father, quickly now,” She ran into the nearby tent. Asella said, “You have not answered my question,”

“We need help,”

“To speak to the council? I fell they would take it better from you,”

“Actually yes that is the help I need. I am going to Nelan. We think that is where he is heading. If I can sneak in, I can figure out what is going on,”

“And?”

“We do not want to destroy perfectly good people. I can find out who is trustworthy,”

She put her head to one side and Nakia came with a large Dark One. Asella looked to him, “Jakia, what do you know of Ven?”

He appeared confused, “Barzilla thought he was amazing. He gave him all his secrets, even… how to make Tiers, or some kinds at least. All of his studies on culture, breeding documents, all of it. Barzilla did not want to die even in death. Jealous Dark generals tried killing Ven, to take his place, but they ended up giving up because it was a fruitless question,”


“Can he be killed?”

“Oh yes,” He seemed positive, “But he is so terribly elusive and he is worshiped by so many who would throw themselves in-between he and an arrow,”

“We have noticed,”

“And Nelan is packed with an army and weaponry,”

“Then we need an army,” I said softly.

Akken huffed, “Good luck. Everyone is tired of war,”

“The South is not!” I exclaimed excitedly and thought I already mentioned this, “They’ll agree to this, I know,”

Asella nodded, “Am I to speak to them,”

“Please, that would be wonderful. I want to go inside the compound first, while an army is put together and gather people to take to the Red House.”

“The Red House?” Kenla asked.

“The only semi-safe place in the Southlands for nomads. My Ma runs it, and I was born there. They may be treated differently but they are not killed,”

Asella nodded and said, “Alright, I will speak to the council and afterwards I will find you in Nelan to speak to you as well,”

“How?” I asked. She immediately transformed into a tiny bird. “Alright so you are a Tier,” She turned back to herself.

“I thought so,” I smiled and looked at Akken, “See! She’s alright. She does not hate Dark people,”

“Hmmph,”

“Does not like elves?” Asella asked.

“Not at all,” I said, “He is just thinking you’ll kill him or something,”

“I am too soft for that.” She smiled, “If I was to kill anyone, I should have killed this General,” She motioned to Jakia. “For understandable reasons, at least to your kind, revenge. It is not terribly reasonable to elves,” She took a breath, “I must admit that I wished to take the Dark out of me though,”

Akken spoke up, “Why did you not then?”

“The power of shape shifting. It is very useful I have found. After things settle, maybe I will get rid of it.”

Akken said, “Is there an inn here that we could stay at?”

“Not that is nice to your kind, but a house. Come with me, you look like rest is necessary,”

Kenla said, “Yes, yes, that is true.” He led us to the house above a store. We climbed stairs attached to a balcony that surrounded the building. A sweet old, very old, woman answered. She was very short, a bit pudgy and bent, crooked hands, but a lovely smile, “Visitors Asella?”

“Yes, Elle. Can you house them for a night?”

“Oh of course! You have not brought me any visitors for a while!”

“I shall remember that. Thank you Elle. They should not cause you any trouble,”

She had us come inside. The home was surprisingly spacious and she had two guest rooms. The home was open to the light and happy and comfortable. “What are your names?” We introduced ourselves and said, “I am happy you are here. Let me get you some milk. Please sit,” We did as she asked and she poured us milk, “What would you like for supper? I can make stew, fish, pie… cheese pie sounds good, would you like that?”

“That would be great, thank you, ma’am,” Akken said.

“Would you like eggs as well?” She asked, “I have plenty of those,”

“Sure,” We smiled and watched the old lady move around the kitchen.

“Could one of you nice boys help me? I have a bit of a leak in my room. Could you fix it? My sister will not let me do it myself,”

Akken said, “Kenla and I can do that for you,”

“Oh yes, thank you! I hope it is not too much trouble, but it just has to get done,”

The boys gathered up her tools and climbed up. The woman looked at me, “I knew you do not have husbands, but is one of those like yours?”

“Kenla,” I said, “Just recently actually,”

“Oh, that is so nice,” She said, “He is very handsome, quite a catch,” She pointed at a painting, “See that? My husband sure was a catch as well. Handsome and kind, he was. He died eleven years ago though,”

“Do you have any children?”

“Four sons, all sailors. Oh, so nice they are!” She smiled proudly, “Edger, my husband, we met when I was fifteen, we got married before I was of age. My parents did not know! Oh it was such an adventure, and then he built this home, right here, and we were one of the first at this port. My youngest son’s wife runs the store downstairs. But in the early days, it was just me and him. Not to brag, but I think we helped to build this place up like it is today. Edger was also employed to build the docks and boats, or help anyways. It was good he was raised in Albridge. He knew how to do everything. He taught runaways who came here, so they could get jobs. Some of the boys stayed here and built the houses and cottages in the countryside. He was so kind. We had seven children actually, but a fever swept through Ellmere, all three of my daughters were taken, and Edger almost. It left him partially debilitated in his left arm. People respected him for being so strong, he kept working like nothing had happened,” She nodded, “But that fever came back later and took him,”

“You must miss him,”

“And my girls, but I can feel him comforting me, and my boys help me with every day, but I am stubborn enough. I will not let that take me,” She seemed so happy, I thought that attachments would cause only grief, but despite the loss of half her family, she was not stricken with it. She was still so comfortable because of her family, she was cared for and loved and not alone. If I ever reached old age, I could have many children, but n one to help me along. That was of great worry. Those back in Liesta, I could not let those relationships fall apart, “Would you like to meet Ruby? She is one of my son’s wives, she runs the shop downstairs right now and they live next door.”

“I would love to,”

She seemed to jump through her skin with joy. We climbed downstairs and there was Ruby, a woman in her mid thirties, with fiery red, long, loose hair. Elle introduced me and told me what they sold: eggs, milk, bread, and meats as well and some other foodstuffs like salt and honey. Ruby was quiet, bustling around. Elle asked her how much was sold and Ruby opened up an old box with money inside of it.

Akken entered the shop, “Would you like that old fence fixed up too ma’am?”

“Oh yes! That would be wonderful!”

Akken went back out and took care of it. Ruby said, “Oh ma’am, look, my daughter is coming!”

A little girl, about five came in the small shop. “Miss Lizzy fell down! She needs help!”

Ruby and I went to the next door house. Miss Lizzy was at the bottom of the stairs that led up to their apartment above a fishing shop. She was very hurt. She was young and twenty year old girl, who now was unable to walk. The little girl, Ella, named after Elle, was crying, saying we had to help Miss Lizzy. So we carried her into the apartment and put her on her bed. Ella gathered up a cool cloth to place on the maid’s forehead. “Are you alright Miss Lizzy?” Ella asked.

“Oh yes, I will be fine, Ella. Thank you,” The girl said, “I am just clumsy,”

“Should I cut the potatoes up for you then?”

“No, I do not think you should use a knife,”

“Aw, alright,”



We went back to Elle’s house. The pie was almost done, tea was as well. Akken and Kenla finish were finished and sat by me at the table. Elle said, “I like nomads, although people in Ellmere are not exactly on my side about that. I think it is unfair to blame an entire people for individuals fault. It reminds me of the hate between Ellmere and Albridge. In reality, if Mariana was a village girl, and not the princess of Albridge than there might not have been a giant hatred.”

She stood and distributed the pie. The two boys dug in before she set the plate down. She smiled, “I am glad you appreciate my cooking,” She poured more tea and said, “I should get some bedding put together. I had stripped the guest rooms down since Asella had not brought me any more guests,”

“Sit down and eat,” I said, “It can wait,”

She did and we ate our fill in quiet, “If you could stay just a day more. I still need some help around the land. I would greatly appreciate it,”

“We can do that,” Akken said, finishing his pie. “What would you like for us to do?”

“My chicken coop needs fixed up and wood needs to be brought in, and I like company,”




That night we went to sleep early and stayed there long, wrapped in quilts and warm. Akken woke early as if he was not tired and went to the kitchen to talk with Elle and she made the morning meal. I could smell it as I woke. Akken was outside now, visible from the window beside me. He walked along the water’s edge, and then waded in, picking up muscles and putting them into a bucket. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

When I woke again, Kenla had eaten breakfast, and the wood had been brought and stacked. Only the chicken coop had to be done now. In fact I woke to Ella’s voice as she ran throughout the house. But soon the chicken coop was finished and we ate again and went to sleep again. It was a rejuvenating experience. I had never appreciated sleep as much as I did, at this moment, nor comforts as there were in this house. I did not want to leave.

Time did come, after two days, seven meals and a lot of sleep, to leave. Elle gave us food and hugs. With bread enough for many days, a few meals worth of meat, fish and lots of potatoes and butter for them, and the bread. If rationed correctly, it could last a week.

We continued on south, now in the outskirts of Pallan. At the moment there was not a lot to show for it. Only recently had the coast been colonized, people were more heavily centered in the western portion, the part most well protected by the marsh. Yet going from the main town and going straight south was the safest option to get into the Deadlands. Akken has us go a bit to the west. Farms began to appear and I had problems with the idea of stealing from these people. Most appeared comfortable, the main sight being thatched and roofed cottages just big enough for a good sized family, a small barn with a handful of animals, and behind the house, a field of grain or produce, or hay. As well as this, a small garden for herbs and flowers.

That was the majority, but we did pass by large manors made of stone, with glass and paths. Many of those places had slaves in old, rundown shacks away from the pretty buildings.

The slaves were in shabby rags, most looked like they had gone hungry for most of their life. I worried my kind’s fate would be reduced to that.



With no money, we could find no inn to stay in, so we slept on the ground near a farm, listening to the lowing of cattle and the wind blowing through the potato field. The night was still very warm. I was uncomfortable, wishing to bathe, even in a river.

And the next morning we woke, distributed some bread, with a few days still left over. We had to find some more food. By noon of that day we found a garden in the back of the meadow. Akken took some berries, tomatoes and onions and we went to stream and cleaned them. Our food supply would last another few days. We had a journey ahead of us to get to the Deadlands of the North.

Akken said that when we reached the Deadlands, we would have some problems. No matter what, we would run out of water. Our canteens, all six of them, would be dry in a few days, all because of the heat. For the next day, only would we eat the dried meat because we were by water.

I hoped Pallan would end close to the Rift. The hope was without avail. We passed through the inhabited bits of Pallan into land getting increasingly hotter and drier. We continued to follow the stream for the water. Ahead, far though, was a rocky outcrop, to our right was a large parcel of half-dead forest. Akken stopped and smelled the air, “Smoke,” He said, “I smell smoke,” He looked to the forest. Smoke rose from it and pooled in the sky.

Suddenly it burst from the forest and onto the field of yellow, dried grass. Akken pushed us ahead. I could already feel the head going through my back .We were heading for the rocky outcrop. It was bare of flammable objects, although I did not know how safe it was. Running from fire seemed impossible.

Kenla pushed me forward, my eyes focused on the outcrop. I tried to ignore my lungs and legs and just push forward. The outcrop was still so far away. The heat increased, yet I knew it was not close enough to consume me. I was behind Kenla and Akken, although barely. Akken was screaming something, but I could not process it.



I touched the rock; Kenla went into a damp cave and motioned for us to follow. It was attached to the stream, water dripped from the ceiling onto us. We went as far back as possible. The water pooled nowhere in the cave. I feared the fire would come to us, suck out the air and leave us trapped. Personally I was terrified. My heart jumped and flipped around. Neither of the other two seemed calm either.

The light was visible, but not the outside or the fire. I wanted to see it, for some hope, not only a guess. Akken moved forward, instructing us to stay put. He came back and said, “It is still burning, but away from this place.” He muttered, wiping his brow.

By this time we had stopped trying to follow Ven. We knew he was too far ahead and in Nelan now probably. We would have to weed him out from the inside.



The field was charred and black; smoke clung above in the air. They made black makeshift clouds. We walked out, following the burnt ground south. The heat by the next day was extreme. We were in the Deadlands, away from shade, moisture or any foliage at all. It was light colored rock as ground and the sun burning in the sky down upon us. It took much control not to guzzle down every drop of water I could. We slowed greatly purely because of the heat, and we hoped we were going south, but there were absolutely no landmarks, nothing at all. Either way, I knew the Rift would be found, but the question was when. We needed water and desperately. We would run out in a day. We made a little shack of our blankets and walking sticks. We ate the tomatoes, getting some water from them. Yet the heat made it difficult to sleep. Exhaustion did not even assist in the whole sleeping situation. Kenla had his hand firmly on my back, but gently caressing me as if it was a comfort to him as well.

We made the decision before morning to keep traveling and to rest during the day. We did not travel efficiently, although we worried more about survival. I wished we had taken the boat.



Akken acted like he knew where he was going. He had gone through this before, the opposite way when he left Nelan. If he could survive, then I did not want to slack. We had at least food and some water.



Out of water, we all were miserable. My mouth was dry, lips chapped, my eyes felt on fire. We all poured sweat, and yet it did not do much for the cooling benefits it promised. We must have looked like walking dead, and yet the Rift had yet not appeared. We had to cross the damn thing yet. I felt like I’d so easily die and not care. If to return to the North, we’d have to do this, I’d rather be locked in Nelan. Of course it was still hot, but there was shade, food and water, especially water.



Akken found a tree like plant, and cut it open. Inside was water and we drank it down, feeling partially refreshed, although I did not know if I would ever be the same. We found another similar plant and filled our canteens with the liquid. Although not pure water, it was still something that we could drink. And at this time we still had some food left, but the heat took away the want to it. There was absolutely no hunger, only the awareness that food was needed for energy. Yet, there would always be a lacking of energy regardless. The heat just ate it up.


We had been in the desert for four days. I felt lost, like Akken did not know what he was doing, or where he was going. I did not say anything. I did not have to. Kenla complained enough about the subject, saying we were going to die out here and shrivel up like wrinkled old cloth. Akken was not at all amused. He told Kenla to stay quiet or be dropped down the Rift when we got there. Kenla said that we would not get to the Rift to be dropped into it in the first place.

They bickered constantly throughout the night and day. It was wearing on us all. Both calling each other stupid. Finally I told them arguing over stupidity would help no one, and that if we wanted to live, we should work together. The Rift should come soon, within the next day. That quieted them enough to continue on.



I had never seen the Rift until this point. There was just a break in the land. A wide, black break. On either side it would touch the sea, maybe even link the water, but looking down, one could not see the bottom, or any hint of it. Just a pit, it was.

Akken began to tie the rope onto a large, heavy stone. He said, “Come on,” We walked to the edge. He began to climb down. When he was far enough down, I went and wrapped the rope around my hands and slowly climbed down. I was directed where to go by Akken. I shook from weakness but continued. Kenla was above me, climbing without using much of the rope. I noticed that we were on a positive slope. We were no longer going straight down. I could see Akken’s plan. The other side also was on the similar slope. Soon there would be less of a gap and we could get to the other side, but we could use no rope although it seemed that I was the only one relying on it. Unlike these other nomads, I had no experience climbing rocky cliff sides, while they seemed completely competent in the activity.

We continued down until the other was within jumping distance. Akken reaching over and encouraged me to follow in his jump. There was a small platform on which to land. He understood my worries and tied the last rope around me, so in case I fell; he might be able to stop me. The sky above was getting dark. We would have to hurry to reach the top in time. My hands were cut and bleeding. It caused the rock to be slick and for me to slip a little. Kenla was beside me and said, “You are alright,” He said, “We are almost there. As Akken reached the top, Kenla as behind him closely. I was slowly making my way to the top; every muscle in my body was trembling.

It was dark when I collapsed on the flat rock, wanting to not move and crawl into that cool cave we had left. Akken urged me to move, taking me by the hand and lifting me up. “Adria, keep going,” He said, I leaned on Kenla for support.



Deep in the night we stopped to rest. It was lovely, cool, or just a moderate temperature we were not used to. I rested on Kenla chest; he caressed my head and kissed my cheek, “We are almost there, baby,” We were near a small tree, it was an odd sight, but it was a comforting one as well. Akken was uneasy, he was hearing something that Kenla and I could not. Akken looked about and walked around. I yawned and closed my eyes. Kenla said, “Akken, I hear it now,” So I sat up and looked about, but Akken was out of sight.

“Where is he?”

“I am not sure,” There was a howl.

“Wolves? Wolves out here?” I looked at him. His face was chapped and aged.

“Yes, mostly in the North segment, but here as well. The Ellmerians put them out here,”

“And they live?”

“Well, you can hear them,” We stood and Kenla called out for Akken. He cried out and we ran toward the sound. There was but one brown wolf that he was fighting off. The others were running off in the distance. Kenla went into the fight; Akken got flung to the ground on his arm. He screamed out. The wolf yelped from Kenla and ran off. Akken’s arm was bent in the oddest of ways. He was in such pain. We helped him back to the little camp. I ripped off a strip from the bottom of my dress and bound his broken arm. He said, “Damn,”

Kenla laughed, “Something had to go wrong, did it not?”

Akken huffed, “Shut up Kenla.”

“You went after it,”

“I wanted to make sure it was not a damn guard from the compound, Kenla,” He was glaring at his brother.

“Yes, Dark guards howl…”

“We just need to get some rest, maybe then you won’t be so much of an idiot,”




Morning was hot. We walked on, expecting to see Nelan; Akken’s arm now in a sling made of part of my dress Ahead of us was the compound. “Akken, how do I get in?”

“There is an irrigation tunnel,” He began, “Climb in through there; it will lead into minimally guarded barracks if you can find a sympathizer you will be in good shape,”

“Where will you two go?”

“Into whatever human kingdom is south of here and find a member of the council. I hope that elf of yours kept up to her promise,”

“Stop doubting,”

“I do not trust them and I will stop doubting when I see the promise is fulfilled,”

“And they do not trust you either,” I pated his good arm, “So what side is the tunnel?”

“West of where we are now,” He pointed. I was excited for the opportunity for food and water. Akken said, “We are going to have to separate now. We cannot be seen.”

There was a bit of nervousness now, having to go on alone. I hugged Kenla and they went westward. I just went toward the compound. I could see guards, although they faced the other direction. In fear I continued on, my heart beating furiously. I creeped up to the brick. I closely walked along it, and found the tunnel. It was filled with a few inches of water and it was quite snug. I crawled into it, with little room to move or breath for that matter. Yet I drank up the dirty water to quench my intense thirst.

On the other end of the tunnel was a girl, working in the garden. I pushed my way into the garden; the hearty girl looked at me with curiously, “Now where did you come from?” I could not speak, “You look wretched,” she said. “Hide behind that plant. I will be right back,” And I did .She came back with a dress and comb. She had me put the dress on and she buried the old one, “I am Kriana, who are you?”

“My name is Adria,”

“One of Ven’s I see,” She said lightly with a bird like voice, “I think he has a picture in his bedchamber of your mother. You bear a striking resemblance to her.” She said, “Keira is she?”

“Yes, how do you know?”

“Because she is here. She was brought in just a few days ago,” She sighed, “That poor girl was not very happy about it either, that is odd because she is Ven’s favorite,”

“How many mates does he have?”

“Here he has about thirty, maybe less than that, so he has a lot of children. Obviously you being one of them,”

“And your little bun?”

“Maybe,” She said, “I am not really sure to be honest. I had a mate, but Ven annulled it when I was brought here,” She shrugged, “I am worried that if it does not come out looking like Ven, he’ll have it killed,” She looked around, “Let me take you inside. You need some food, but we cannot let anyone see, it is before meal time,”

I was given ale and bread with cheese, “Thank you,”

“And you can take a bunk by me, well, sort of. My bunk mate Synne will have to know though,” I followed her about. The room she was in had six beds in it, small beds with shoe boxes at the end to hold all their clothes. It was very bare and uniform. “This one is open,” She said, patting a bed, “No one pays enough attention to notice that you are here, or were not at one point,” She said.

“Where is Keira? I need to speak to her,”

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice. It was Ven; he was speaking to a guard about going on a water run. Then his voice drifted away. Kriana said, “She is probably still in his chamber. She has not been able to really leave. I have been bringing her food,”

“Is she alright?”

“Not the happiest person as I have said, actually she complains a lot, even around Ven. And odder than that, is he puts up with her. But other than that, she is fine,”



“Do you like Ven?”

“Truthfully, I have no opinion. She is the only one he puts any actual energy into. I spent a sing night with him, if that. He did not say much, only asked me where I was from, my lineage as if I was some kind of horse, and he made sure that I was not with the other side.”

“Are you?”

“I was four when the war ended, I have no opinion on that either, not that I agree with it, I just do not really disagree,” She led me back into the kitchen where she put a good meal on a plate, “Let us go give this to her,” She opened a large set of heavy, wooden, double doors, opening up a room. It was well furnished, round, with tall windows with rich drapes. Then there was Keira, who at this time was about 25. She still looked so scared and childish, but strong and angry at the same time. “Keira,” I said.

She turned around from the window, “Adria? Oh baby, what are you doing here?”

“I told you, I am going after Ven,”


“You said you wanted to see the North,”

“Well, I did see the North, and then to follow Ven so we could get him, we had to come here. What are you doing here?”

“He sent one of his goons and Simaya to come and get me,” She huffed, “You are not safe here, missy,”

“We have to kill him, or he’ll try to do what Barzilla did.”

Ven’s voice floated in. I ran to hide in his wardrobe. Kriana left. I watched as Ven entered saying, “I almost forgot, I have news, while up North, I saw Adria. You said she was dead, Keira,” Keira reached for his sword and he stopped her, “What was that for?”

“You are going to hurt her!”

“She shot me!” He said in defense, his voice was oddly light, “Keira, why do you act as so? I care for you!”

“You do not treat me as so, keeping me locked up in here. I do not appreciate it,”

“I’d give you anything, anything in the world you would want, but it has to be here of course. I have worked hard to get you here,”

Her eyes lit up with an idea, “I want my own compound, like yours, a little bit away from here. My own things,”

“Why?”

“It is so loud and crowded here and I have nothing of my own,”

“Done, I shall work on that for you,”

“And I will hand pick my servants. I want to be able to trust them,” She was onto my plan. “And I will not be made into a sitting duck, so the soldiers as well,”

“Anything for you,”

“And about your mates, stop taking them. I find it unfair to me, and rude, very rude actually, Ven,”

“You are were not first mate I took Keira,”

“So?”

“Fine, I will stop taking new mate,” She crossed her arms, “I will find you the best cloth and beautiful jewels,” He said, to change the subject in ways and he began to kiss her. She made a hand gesture that I could go. I ran to Kriana who led me into the bunk room. The others girls were all there, four of them,” There was still one empty bed.

“Here’s a new girl, from, where are you from?” Kriana asked.

“The North,” Was my answer. I was introduced to Synne, Miri, Alvia, and Mireya. Only one of them seemed to be a problem and that was Alvia. She was all for the Dark movement and into in the way the other people were. The others were not for the violence and slavery of Barzilla’s plan. At least the others just thought persecution should end. Alvia was the only other one with Dark One in her blood, the others were mostly nomadic, and only Kriana was Ven’s mate, the others were with soldiers, Dark Ones of Barzilla’s favorites and that is why they were safe and alive down here.



Food was passed out by bunkroom, a large tray of bread, and a large bowl of soup. We all shared a relatively civil operation. The food was good and the drink. Not much happened that night. I heard Ven was already working on the plans. He did not seem that despicable, yet it must have been false. Keira told me how evil he really was, that he just wanted power and yet why did he care about Keira? The only other thing he cared about was his power and influence.



I sat by the window, looking outside. The others had gone outside for one of Ven’s little speeches. I could not hear him, but my exhaustion confined me to the room. A bird landed on the window and looked at me, then stepped inside. Suddenly I saw Asella before me. She smiled, I told her the plan, she said, “It will be slow, but if you do not want any good life at risk, I suppose it will work,”

“Did you speak to the council?”

“Yes, and when the time comes, we will have support. I will check in once in a while to see how it does,”

“Thank you for your help Asella, I am grateful,”

She transformed into a bird and flew away.



I went to bed, trying to sleep. In the morning I woke to Synne and Alvia speaking. “What do you think she is? She is not pale enough for a Dark One, but she had the black eyes, but she is definitely not a Slavinica,”

“I think she is a Dark One, but she has been in the sun for a while,” Synne answered lightly and easily.

“I do not trust her,” Alvia snapped. I still pretended to sleep, “Where did she say she was from?”

“The North,”

“Where in the North?”

“All she said was the North,”

“She is probably working for those elves,”

“Why do you make these assumptions?”

“She just showed up! Ven brings people with him, and he was already here,”

“Oh well, let us go to work. Come on,” They left the rope. Kriana turned from her bed and looked at me.

“That was interesting,” I said.

“Alvia is not the smartest. She’ll forget, or stop caring,” She sat up and grabbed her comb. Her black hair was a little bit past her shoulders, although she had a long, elegant neck. I noticed a bit of scarification on her shoulder. She saw my staring, “My tribe is around the Deadlands originally.” She pulled down her tunic a bit so I could see the almost-floral markings. She smiled, “And you?”

“On my stomach,”

“Only?” I nodded, she traced from her hip, up and around her shoulder, “Of course it is not concentrated, but why do you have it if you are a Dark One? You do not need it,”

“My mother is full nomad. I wanted it because it was so pretty on her,”

“Oh yes! I almost forgot!” She laughed lightly and then yawned.

“Why are you awake so late?”

“Because I do not go until a little bit from now. The sun must be up. The others start work first,”

“Then they eat?”

“Yes, it is easier that way. Normally morning and midday meals and late meals are at work, it was only like it was yesterday because Ven was speaking.” She handed me the comb. We dressed and I came with her into the kitchen. She poured something from a bag into a pot of hot water. She stirred it and white, tasteless mush was made. She had many jars of herbs, portioned for a batch. She poured in the herbs and salt and stirred again. I helped her to fill some pots, ten of them, for the ten groups of workers. A few textile rooms, a granary, a mill room, and barn staff and so on. Nelan was apparently self sufficient. There were about eight wells for water that assisted the irrigation. I was amazed that anything grew out there in the first place but enough food in a massive enclosed garden was grown to feed who knows how many children, females and males. The garden held grain plants, some vegetables, and a few fruit trees and next to that was the barn with chickens, hogs, and cattle, both for dairy and meat. There were two girls to care for the garden, and a child as well. Eight boys were for the bars, four people in the granary, three just for the mill otherwise. Five females worked in the nursery, three people were on an irrigation and water team. Ten people were in a mason/stone cutting work probably five times that would be added to build Keira’s palace. Everyone else worked either in caring for an actually massive herd of sheep or the textile mill that was run. There were still some who worked in trading to sell the textiles and to get those precious jewels, metals, and other things to make the compound more ornamental. As well as that, a few potters as well, and nurses to the soldiers and a brewery staff.



Kriana and I had to feed all of those people. I lifted the pots of mush onto carts and someone else distributed it. Keira and Ven’s breakfast included fruit and sausage, no herbed mush. The remaining time until the midday meal we made a thick stew of chicken meat, tomato, leek and beans, and bread, lots and lots and lots of bread. I had never cooked much until the point. We had no breaks, as soon as the midday meal was over; we had the evening meal to worry about. More bread, cake-like this time, and fish that was procured south of here, one single fish large enough to feed everyone, mixed with potato and cheese into a thick, potent stew.

“How many children are there here/”

“In the nursery?” I nodded, “Right now, about fifty. The ones that get older are sent elsewhere to establish more camps although some do stay here to work or get mates,”

“Do you have Slavinicas here?”

“Oh yes, yes, they do all the brewing and granary stuff. There are like thirty or so of them. Ven is trying to sell them in the south to the humans, but no one wants to buy them. The humans would rather buy full blown Dark Ones or nomads because they are bigger,”

“As slaves?”

“Yes, Ven is one that really started the market in the South, in my opinion, mostly because he was the one that brought Dark people to the South in the first place,”

“About the first subject, maybe humans in Liesta,”

“The Red House? I have heard of it,” She said, “That is where Keira was taken from,”

“And the North?”

“Yes, if that makes any sense,”

She laughed and said, “I think we are done. Let us go back to the room,” she said and we went back ahead of the other girls, “First day at work, I hope you enjoyed,”

“Sarcasm?”

“I did not think it was bad. During famine you invent new things to eat that do not taste too terribly bad,” She was light with her speaking as we sat down on the bed and she removed her stockings. “My feet are so sore though?” She rubbed her soles and said, “And I do not know why exactly,” She sighed, “You said you came to get rid of Ven? What about the people here?”

“You’ll be fine, we are working on that. We just do not want another war… we do not want to hurt anyone except Ven,”

“Who is we?”

“A couple nomads and the council of the kings of the Southlands,”

“So… will they kill Ven?”

“If Keira doesn’t first, or me,” I laughed.

“Your own father?”

“Eh, I do not think of him as so. I do not even think of my mother Keira as my mother. It is hard to explain…”



I went on with daily chores, getting used to the routine and understanding how things worked around here. Slavinicas lived separately, underground. They did not really talk much to the rest of us. Now they worked with other males and carts pulled by cattle in the heat to cut stone to build up Keira’s compound. She had shown me the plans of how elaborate it would be, so I had plenty of time to weed through people. We began a list of people, even in a short amount of time, including Kriana who was still such a help.

Nelan was not as solemn as I had believed. Ven had to make sure that they believed he and they were only there for their good. There were parties, Kriana and I were too busy to go, though, but they lightened us and everyone else.

I told Kriana about my plan, in detail. She had been in Nelan for a couple of months, so she knew a lot of the character of the people. She, although not hating Ven to the point of celebrating his death if we were able to complete that aspect of the task, she understood the reasoning behind this plan, and she wanted to help. Synne was put in upon the plan as well, but other than Keira, that was the extent of the outside knowledge.

There was a bit of guilt in my mind because Nelan was a beautiful place, just run by a disgusting creature. Yet it had to go, it represented something that the Dark races need to put behind them. It represented an age that needed to be forgotten.



It had been five months since I had left Liesta and four months since I had been with Kenla. Time continued to move on and the compound was being steadily built to Keira’s specifications. Ven had sent people to get things like paint and tile and such to make the compound beautiful. She wanted a courtyard in the middle with a glass ceiling. She asked for a couple of dogs too that Ven sent for. Her requests never seemed to end. She even wanted a stone pool, a kitchen, garden, and she wanted an elaborate bedchamber as well. She asked Ven for things that were hard to find in hopes that it would draw this whole thing out longer. I was not sure of why that was until I got the courage up to ask. “I am not going to take another mate Adria. As much as I… dislike Ven, he is my mate,” She looked me in the eyes, “I was not the same person I am now when I had you and I was not good. Do not take this the wrong way because I have beat myself up over it since then, but I did not want you, Adria, I was irresponsible, and even when Ressa came along, I was terrified. I want to another chance at being a mother, and if this is the only chance I get, I am going to take it. I am expecting now, so I hope that in three months or four I will see the little one,” She actually seemed happy, “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said, “I am glad that you are happy,”

“Or will be at least, I just want to get out of this room, but Ven is so worried that I’ll run off,”

“It is possible to live out there,”

“Not with a little parasite inside you,” She laughed, patting her, at this time, small belly, “Or out of you either. Your plan is going to have to work. I want to go back to Liesta,”

“Me too,”



I could see the progress at the new compound, and it was going fast under the deadline that Keira wanted to have the child in there. Ven himself turned into an overseer of the work. Pottery was being produced, vases, plates, bowls, jugs, and the whole lot. Tapestries, clothes and rugs as well were being put out. Jewels were being brought in, shined and put away for the moment for a smith to make things of. Keira picked everything out and spent her days doing so, thinking of new things to keep Ven alive and the army away longer to see if she could have more than one pregnancy. I did not become angry knowing the reason she was drawing this out, but the longer she did so the longer I would be away from home. I had resigned when I left home in the first place that I would be gone for a while and there was a possibility that I would not be coming back.

I did miss home, the comfort of repetition and familiar faces, although I was getting repetition here. The faces part, I suppose I was getting to know people, but not to the point I knew them my whole life. Yet I did like being around my own kind. I did not feel like I stood out, I was treated… normally. Although Nelan was not a lovely place to be. For starters, the Deadlands was its location. The Deadlands are hot, very, very hot, all the time, no matter what. It’s dry, dry to the point I felt like rubbing butter and cream into my skin to relieve the chapping. Food was watched carefully, if something went missing, it was scary. The people in charge had one word to describe them: harsh. The wounded soldiers had mouths on them as well, both for complaining and insulting. Dark One’s had this superior air to them, fueled probably by Ven’s little ideals. Yet certain nomads had privileges to the good food like certain guards and Keira.

There was a certain system, the Dark Ones (and those nomads mentioned) were first with the better food, bunks and rink, then the nomads, and then the Slavinicas who had to survive on leftovers, and for the most part those were very meager.



Kriana went into labor in the fifth month, having over-baked the bun. She was nervous, it being her first child and she appeared like she would have more than one. She was so hearty, so big that she was continually uncomfortable and often in pain. I had spent long nights massaging her back and feet to try to relieve some of the pain, but she needed to have the children.

It was the dead of night, she had not a wink of sleep, and she had been pacing for a while, having said nothing until now. I had woken a few times, guessing what was going to happen. She was sweating and rubbing her back. She told me she had to go to the midwife in the nursery and she wanted me to go with her. I held her hand as she walked, although it was sort of a waddle at this point. There was little light, so it was difficult to see. I had not been to the nursery before, but Kriana knew where she was doing and despite the fact that there was no way to see, she pushed forward. “Almost there,” She whispered, there was worry on her face. When we reached the door, she knocked upon it heavily despite that worry. A small Slavinican girl answered the door. Ellice was her name. She was very young, the daughter of the late midwife. “It’s coming, Ellice,” Kriana said.

“Or they’re,” The girl said looking at her belly, “Come in Miss,” Her apartment was separate from the nursery and had another bed in it for this purpose. She had Kriana lie down then checked her and said, “Alright, just wait here. I am going to get water. Is this your first?”

“Yes,”

“Alright,” She returned with a jug and bowl and towels that hung on her arm. She felt Kriana’s belly and said, “Oh honey…”

“What? What is wrong?”

“You are having more than two even,”

“Three? Oh great…”

Ellice smiled, “We’ll get you through this with no problem, Kriana, just cooperate. I do not see any problems yet, so be positive,”

“I am trying, but the idea of doing this three times is not really helping my being positive,” She attempted to smile. Then she cried out and Ellice said she would see a head. “There they are, the head is out, and you are doing great Miss Kriana,”

Kriana asked, “Is it Ven’s?”

“No,” I said, “No marking on her,” She smiled in some relief, “Do you want me to get the soldier for you?”

“Oh no, maybe later,” She sighed, then cringed and cried out again. She held tight onto my hand. Ellice was holding the newborn, the first, a girl. She cleaned her off and wrapped her off and put her in a basket near the unlit fireplace. The child cried loudly and made a fuss as Ellice delivered the afterbirth, so that meant the children were separate and not together like many twins. Kriana was not at all concerned with this; she was straining to see the girl and wished to comfort it. I had to remind her that was a bit busy at the moment. The baby would be just fine.

“So we have one, and just two more to go,” Ellice said comfortingly.

“I am going to keel over from exhaustion before I get to that point, Ellice,” Kriana huffed.

“You will do just fine,” She stated solidly, “Now focus,” Kriana squeezed my hand tightly again. She ceased crying out loud to such an extent as before. After a while the midwife said, “And number two,” As she saw it. The child was also a girl. “Look at them, beautiful they are, Miss Kriana. You are doing wonderfully. No stopping now,”

“Ever delivered four before?” I asked the midwife.

She looked up to me and thought for a moment, “No, but I have delivered a few with three, but mostly ones and twos. I have only been doing this for a little while.”

“What?” Kriana looked at her, “A little while? You know what you are doing, correct?”

“Oh yes, I know what I am doing, Miss. Now how are you feeling?”

“In pain, sore, tired and cranky,”

“You will soon feel better once you hold one of these little ones,”

“How am I going to nurse three of them?”

“Your body will adjust, do not worry,”

The child was soon delivered and she was put alongside her sisters. Poor Kriana was so exhausted that she took a nap before holding and nursing the babies.



I had to handle the kitchen alone that day. Kriana stayed in Ellice’s room until the night. She brought in a large basket that she kept her daughters in. Kriana told me that once weaned; they would stay in the nursery and be taken care of there. I realized that the army would have to be told of the nursery, or we would have to smuggle the children out ahead of time.



A week went by and Asella visited again. She had noticed the excellent progress on the compound. “It is looking wonderful,” I said.

She nodded slowly, “Keira does not want Ven to be killed, does she?”

“Not at the moment,” I answered, “She still does, I promise, she just does not want him gone… right now,”

Asella looked at bit annoyed and looked out of the window toward the garden, “Curious,” She sighed, “I do not understand her ideas, I was told my your mother Lynn that a couple years ago the only thing that Keira wanted was his head on a pike. She is stalling, and she cannot stall forever. If she is waiting to have an entire brood, it is not going to happen. She extends her time to long and we are coming in regardless of if the compound is finished or not or if her dreams are completed. We are not here for her. We are here to hopefully end the Dark races little reign of terror,”

“And I am sure that she knows that, but at the moment, she just wants to make up for some lost time,”

“And it is not necessary,” Asella stated sternly and she looked at me, “I hope you do not get any fantasies in your mind as such. We need you to be focused as you are the one that brought this about. The wheels are in motion, Adria, and this will happen whether either of you are ready or not and I prefer that you are ready. This needs to work, and I know you understand that. It is no difficult concept to grasp.” She paused and said, “Are you alright here? Your family and mate are concerned for you.”

“Tell them I am doing well. I am in no… immediate danger,”

“I will pass that on to them. Kenla and Akken are on the edge of the Deadlands with those planning the attack. Your friends Riessla and Raken are on a boat heading back to the South currently. Goodbye Adria, and remember what I said,” She transformed and flew from the window as she had the last times she visited. She knew there was many months to wait.





Keira’s compound was built, sort of. It was still in a non-polished state, but Keira who was about three months along now, wanted to move in. She had a list of people to be brought in, guards, soldiers, and maids. Kriana and I, as well as much of our roommates, packed p and moved to the compound. Beds were carried n. Kriana brought her three little ones and we had our own room. There was about fifty people Keira planned to have in the compound at this time, but the number would possibly grow. Ven was seemingly oblivious to the plan, but I did not know.



Keira had twin boys; she had me by her side like Kriana. She had given birth in the pool in the center of the compound to ease some of the pressure as she was experiencing much pain. She asked for Ven to come and see the boys. I turned away so he would not see my face, but I listened closely in. “I named the first Venten, after you. You wanted an heir by me,”

“They are nice, Keira,” He said lightly and kissed her forehead. “Is the compound to your liking?”

“It is not finished yet,” She said plainly.

“Of course not! I would not give you something half finished.”

“I know,” She took his hand and gave him a kiss back. He left and her face lightened as she looked at the two boys. “Adria,” She said, “You almost killed me when you were born,”

“I have heard,” I said, “I am going back to the kitchen,”

“Adria,”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for all you are doing. It is because of you I can get out of this place,”



Keira had guards and soldiers from Nelan. She said that she trusted them all, none of the ones she picked were for Ven, they feared them though, saying Ven had been harsh lately to them and their families and had been getting rid of any threats or opposition, even in the slightest. It was hard to know who was with his ideals, and who was just scared and who was lying. There was fear everywhere and it was stimulating but also draining. What was worse was Keira informed them of the plan that the humans were coming and we had to plan to hold off Ven when they arrived. She did not want to deceive them.

Keira and I spoke about how to get the children out of the main compound .She understood that putting them in her compound would not work. They would have to be smuggled out, my second idea. Asella had come by and noticed that the compound was running while we were speaking. “I know how we can get the children out.” Asella calmly said, “By night we can possibly escort small numbers or so out at a time to the south. Akken can do the trips; they are comfortable with the terrain,”

“The children are in the center of the compound,” Keira said.

“Which is also near the kitchen and the kitchen is near the garden and you snuck in through the irrigation tunnel. The children can be brought through there,” Asella said lightly.

“And babies?”

“The water drains out at night,” I said.

“And I have stayed for a few days surveying,” Asella also said, “It is fine,”


“It seems so easy,” I said.

“Does you want it to be difficult? It will not be as easy as you think. I spoke to the Slavinica in charge of the nursery, Ellice, she said that those who run the nursery would help, but to make it not so noticeable, do it in a stream, not all at once. Yet, eventually, they will have to report the loss of children so they are not in danger as suspects,”

“You sure have this figured out,” Keira said.

“Well, it needs to be figured out and it needs to work,” She said, “I want to save as many as we can,”

I said, “I was thinking of it as a minimal loss situation, we need to just worry about saving who we can, and not worry about saving everyone,”

“We will not save everyone. That is well understood. Innocent people will die,” She began softly, “But Ven and his followers cannot be allowed to continue on, or more innocent people will than in this situation. We have found his plans,” Asella looked to Keira, “He plans to attack the Red House, to take back the rest of his people who are there, and he believes that they will easily follow him and take the palace with them. Liesta will, in that case fall, and as one of the more powerful seats within the council, the council will have no other choice but to act upon the attack, and Ven will have a reason for his people to once again go to war, but this time with the South,”

“I have heard of that, yes,” I said, although not in that much of detail. Ven was smart, but he was not smart enough to realize that no one was going to just sit around and let this happen as easily as he thought it would.

“Every move is dangerous Adria, be careful,” She patted my shoulder, “I will be back a day before I send the nomads. Have Ellice collect two children to be sent out,”

“Yes, I will have that done,”

Ellice was back at the nursery so she could act this out. She had picked two little ones out, but Kriana asked if her three could be sent south instead. She had no weaned them just yet, but she wanted them safe. Ellice figured she would send Kriana’s first, and then the other two the next trip.

I was getting pretty excited by now that this would actually work, but something weighed on me. People were going to die; it was not going to be simple and easy or pretty. But regardless of that all, it was going to happen, it could just happen better. We did not have to watch good people die. I would not be able to handle that.



I waited in the garden of Nelan’s compound at night, hiding amongst the brush with the three children swaddled and nearby. I heard a knock on the inside of the tunnel, it echoed just a bit. I bent down to see Kenla’s head in the tunnel with a smile. I handed him the first, he backed out to give her to Akken, we continued until he held the last and left without any words. I wished I could speak to him, but this was business and it was dangerous business.



I went back to Keira’s house with the rouse of picking up ale. I would not see Kenla until he returned in three weeks for the other two. And each time I did see Kenla, it made me happy. He was alive and looked alright. Yet I knew that eventually he might be caught, yet they were careful enough and had a system of which I did not know.

Ellice did have to report that about ten children were all of a sudden missing. Her helpers vouched for her saying it happened over night. Ven made an announcement of a purge for purity. My heart fell. Thankfully he assumed that it was someone inside who took the children. Keira’s compound would be searched for outsiders, but Nelan would be purged. I had to hide. Keira put me in a barrel of flour. I had a small tube to breathe through but it was difficult and uncomfortable. The kitchen girl let them look just about everywhere else in my room. My heart almost choked me, being stuck in my throat.

The pure lasted about three days. It cost many lives. The stone courtyard in the back of Nelan was stained red now. Ven feared his own followers that they wanted power of their own over his, and this development was apart from abductions. They just happened to coincide with the same time frame. He had five of his soldiers killed just for that reason, the reason was scary. He killed what Slavinicas were not in Keira’s compound, which was about ten. Thankfully Ellice was safe, but shaken. Any soldier he felt was bitter to him was either suddenly called to Keira’s for killed. It was a time of terror, even as it ended; people had to watch themselves closer than normal. Ven had his best people with eyes everywhere in Nelan. When he had suspicions Keira would either take them or find out that they were jealous of Ven, and in that case, they were killed. That red patch of stone was getting ever so redder.

Ven was no longer as much of a caretaker as he was anymore. He really just wanted to instill fear and appear like a strong and ruthless leader now. He was no longer all smiles. He looked more like a Dark One general gain. He was not a pretty face; he was handsome and striking but not pretty. He looked and acted as if he came from stone. With that he would crush any opposition in his path, any hint of doubt as well. Yet he was not as supported as he thought he was. Keira’s compound was not at all a majority, maybe fifteen percent of the population of Nelan, and still a sizeable number, although it did not include children.

We did not try to save the Tiers. At this point, they were too far gone, all shell and nothing else. They were kept in deplorable conditions, small, dirty cells in a hot, poorly ventilated shed behind Nelan. They all had the same look in their eyes, emptiness. There was less in their eyes than in the eyes of sheep. Yet they were not tame like sheep, they were angry creatures and lashed out, went mad, absolutely mad. If anything, death would be a blessing. But it was still forty or so lives that would be lost and very unique ones, some of the last of the Tiers still alive. Unkindness had made them as Barzilla imagined, and I did not wish for this to happen, but it was going to. Keira was convinced it was for the best to have them killed; they were an unpredictable threat with powers that were only destructive.

I became used to the daily life of Keira’s compound. I almost forgot about Liesta, about home. I needed to focus on the task at hand.

The compound became a palace. Gold was inlaid upon the walls and columns; the pool was laid with beautifully cut stone. Keira’s bed chamber had the softest of cloth and pillows, and a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Attached to her chamber was that of her sons’. She was involved with them. She cared for them like a human would, she was attached to them. Her boys were more animated than the other children I had seen in Nelan.



To celebrate the completion of the compound, Keira wanted a good Dark party. She borrowed drums from Nelan, bonfire wood, and ales of all kinds. Barrels were lined up on a stone table in an outdoor courtyard and mugs. It was morning, but Keira was excited. Keira took me to her wardrobe in her bedchamber and leafed through the clothing and threw me an elaborate, beautiful tunic. It was embroidered with gold thread upon the front and back with small beads, making encrusted designs. “Put it on, missy,” She said, holding onto a similar purple one, I eyed it, “This one is mine,” She said slyly. She motioned again and had me wear it. I looked in the looking glass. She stood behind me, “You are beautiful Adria,” She said. It crossed m chest and went into a shin length skirt, baring my stomach. Keira stood next to me now, “Oh you grew up so fast…!”

“And you look my age… that is creepy,”

She laughed slightly, “Nah, you are still just a kid… and a beautiful grown Dark One, all at the same time; oh it must be so confusing to you,”

“Do you see Ven when you look at me?” I asked nervously.

“I never have,” She answered with a strong and truthful voice, “I see Adria, not Ven,”

“Keira,” I began, “Do you love us?”

“Us?”

“Ressa and I, and the boys,”

“Yes, I do. But I am not going to lie and say that I always did. I missed out on how amazing you are, smart and talented and sweet. I can only hope some of that came from me,”

“I can assure you that none of it came from my father,”

“Maybe the smart part, I am not that smart, remember I believed in Ven at one point in time,” She put her hand on my shoulder.



I watched from inside as some of Keira’s servants put torches in the ground for light. Ven was not invited according to Keira. He was too busy with… other business, or that was how she worded it. For the first time in a while we could all let loose and be what we are. To be merry and excited, to feel the beat of the drums and dance. I wanted to experience the essence of the only Dark passion considering life had practically been joyless since I arrived. No one had any true smiles or pure happiness. Maybe this could change it.


The courtyard was being filled by sunset. Females, soldier and guards came in to the not-so-standard party as it lacked the customary feast, but it had the ale, barrels and barrel of it for maybe a hundred people as the children stayed inside.

By this day much had been accomplished to be celebrated. I lost track of the time I had been here, or away from home for that matter. If I tried keeping track, I would feel like home would never come.

The nursery at this time was always half empty, the last children would be taken out at the last minute; everyone to be saved otherwise was in Keira’s compound. Everything was as it was supposed to be.



Now all of the people were having fun. Kriana greeted me and gave me a mug of ale. “Isn’t this so exciting?” She was utterly gleeful, “I have been waiting for something like this!” She jumped up and down, some of the ale spilled, “Oops!” She was disturbingly giddy, but she made me smile.

A Dark One stood behind her, he motioned for me to be quiet and I said nothing. He suddenly embraced her, she screamed and he took the ale and placed it elsewhere so she would not spill it any further. She was smiling so brightly, “Drysten! What are you doing here?” She hugged him and kissed his cheek.

“I came to see you!” He exclaimed and she did not let go. They walked away to dance. Drysten was risking his life just to see her, and it was adorable but Ven would not find it as so. I watched them melt into the crowd. Others urged me to join them and I tried but felt no want to dance. I left the group and sat down on a stone bench.

Keira came over to me and slowly sat down beside me and took in a heavy breath. “Why so down? It is the one year anniversary of something you forgot to tell me about,”

My eyebrows rose, “It is?”

“And you did not tell me you had taken a mate,” I did not respond, she had this halfway amused look on her face and she lightly patted my back and rubbed it briefly, “Kenla did not forget,” She pointed ahead of me and Kenla stood at the other end of the courtyard patiently. I sprinted toward him and ran into him as we embraced, “I am so glad to see you!” I cried out. He went to kiss me; his hands were strong on my back. “You could not imagine what has happened since I came here Kenla!”

“We can worry about that later,” He took a lock of my hair and put in behind my ear, “Would you like to dance?” He took my hand, and led me into the group. I began to absorb the loud and heavy, yet energetic beat of the drums. It was by instinct that we danced, moving together closely. It was easy to forget to think. My body moved all on its own. I could feel his breath on me and he had this odd look in his eyes. At times we would just stare at each other, but yet without thought. We forgot about everyone else, everything else.

The night wore on, without tire. It just continued on and on. Time ceased to exist in the cool night. But it did come to an end, but by choice. As the drums continued to beat, coming back to reality it caused my heart to beat funny, “I have not stopped thinking about you,” Kenla breathed into my ear.

“That is unfortunate,” I laughed and smiled. I put my hand to his face, “I have missed you,”

“Let us go inside and pulled on my hand and we jogged to the inside of the compound. He shut the heavy door behind us and we ran down the hallway like children. He immediately stopped, surprising me. It was so quiet inside the compound it was almost painful.

Kenla looked at me, “Do I have charm yet?”

“Oh I do not know,” I said sarcastically.



It was the one year anniversary of our meeting, and while the party continued on we were alone in the compound. And as night ended, the party did not. We decided to lounge around. I put my feet in the pool, and Kenla kissed my neck and shoulders. I ignored him for the most part by now and combed my hair out, “Kenla…” I mumbled in annoyance.

His lips moved toward my cheek, “Yes?”

“Are you trying to be a bother?” I asked as lightly as I could.

He chuckled and rested his chin on my shoulder. He moved my hair to the other side, “Am I succeeding?”

“Were you trying?”

“I am being charming!” He exclaimed and pulled away to look at me, “Oh so serious!”

“You or me?”

“I am serious about the charm, and you are serious like the mental serious, come on, Akken was trying to give me pointers on how to have charm!”

“Huh, that is kind of creepy… well stuff has happened Kenla,” I said, thinking back to the purge, “Since I arrived to the Deadlands I have been in constant fear.”

“Of what?” He said with a kind voice.

“Of… a lot, that this will not work, that I will be found out, we will be found out, that I will never go home again,”

“Adria, you need to stop worrying, you must understand that the wheels are in motion. It is more than what is happening here now. You are only a day away from the camp Akken and I live at,”

“Alright,” I said.

He rubbed my shoulders, “Loosen up Adria, and be happy. You are safe right now,” When he had finished he jumped into the pool and I got splashed and laughed a bit. He took my hand and pulled me in.

“Kenla!” I cried out.

“What? Fun isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“This! Come on!” We splashed at each other. Then we heard someone come inside. Ven, it was Ven. My heart exploded in fear and we hid under the water. He walked by and we jumped out and ran leaving wet footsteps to follow our path. Kenla was laughing like it was a joke.

We hid in Keira’s chamber. I changed my tunic, hanging it up as it was borrowed. I hoped Ven would not bother to visit his twins and thinking that would be a miracle if we did, we hid in their room. Both woke up soon and I picked one of them up and handed him off to Kenla, and held the other. We talked to them quietly and bounded them into calming down. They complained of hunger. I snuck off to the kitchen and grabbed them some of the white mush. They ate and we let them run around.

“I like your brothers,” Kenla said.

We heard footsteps coming from the chamber. The boys fell silent and we all went still. The door opened up and it was Keira. The boys jumped on her and she smiled, “You two look like you have seen a ghost,”

“For a second I thought you were Ven,” I said.

“Ah, well thank you for feeding the boys,” She said, noticing the bits of food that graced their chests. “Did you enjoy the party, or what part you were there for…”

“Yes, it was fun,” I said, “Ven is in the building.”

“I know,” She sighed, “I saw him and he wanted to speak to me and plan a meeting, and yes I know, I do not feel that we will not be here for too much longer,”

We exited with her and I could hear Ven screaming. Keira hid Kenla in a small, hidden room near the boys’ room. We ran up, Ven held Kriana’s neck. “You betrayed me!” He hissed and threw her to the ground and began to kick her harshly. She screamed out in pain. Drysten ran to her.

“Kriana!”

“And you!” He hit Drysten who let out a sickening cry.

“Ven, Ven! What are you doing?” Keira screamed to him.

“Taking care of these two,” He looked to Kriana with burning eyes, “You are mine, mine! Not a damn soldiers! Where are the children?”

“They got stolen from the nursery with those others!” She cried and held her side, attempting to sit up. He kicked her in the head and her head hit the ground. Drysten crawled to her.

“You irresponsible girl!”

Keira said, “Ven, stop please! Do not hurt them!”

He unsheathed his sword and he put it to Kriana’s neck, “Why should I do that? Keira, she disobeyed me, she saw him!”

“Because she cares about him Ven,” Keira said, “You know the lengths you went to get me. Drysten feels the same,”

“Oh, so I should put the blame on him!” A light went to his eyes and he put the sword on his neck.

“Do not kill him Ven,”

“Oh, alright, you can have him if you can save him!” He plunged the sword into his abdomen. Kriana dove to him and held the wound. I ran to get Ellice who brought bandages and water. Ven was no longer there. Kriana was crying while Drysten was going pale. Ellice began to stitch him up and try to save him. Kriana was badly bruised and bleeding. I hugged her and she continued to sob into my shoulder.

“I cannot lose him!”

“Ellice will save him,” I said, yet I could see all of the blood pooling onto the tiled floor.

Kenla ran out to help. He reassured Drysten and worked with Ellice. Once he seemed to be stabilized, he was taken away to a room and I cleaned up the blood. The floor had been stained and half a day of scrubbing was unable to clean it up.

Drysten was alright, although he had lost his consciousness. Kriana’s wounds were tended to carefully and she was beginning to feel better as well. We brought them ale that was to help dull the pain a little.

Kenla said, “You were so close to Ven! You did not kill him!”

“Not part of the plan,” Keira said, “And I would like to have another child before he gets killed thank you,”

“He almost killed them!” Kenla cried, “Next time he will kill someone, you are being selfish,”

“He in most cases only goes after those in Nelan.” Keira hissed, “Kenla, drop it. He will be ended in time, just be patient.”



Kenla tried to leave, but Ven became a fixture and Keira had to hide us away in a some-what small, confined room. She had furnished it with a rug and pillows and quilts. “This will be just for until Ven leaves,” She said nervously. The door closed and she moved things in front of it. Kenla sighed and rolled around on the carpet rug. “This is terrible!”

“Yes, thank you,” I said, “Neither of us have choice mister,”

“Not terrible because of you, but Akken is going to be really angry because I am not coming back on time!”

“He will be just fine, stop worrying about Akken, worry about yourself. He can fend for himself, he is a grown man!”

“Well now would be a good time to tell me that really long story that you began last night.”

So I told him about the journey I had here and everything that happened. It only took up half a day and we became bored again. So I took a long and drawn out nap. When I woke Kenla hugged me tightly, “How do you feel? You were very tired this morning,”

“I have hardly slept,”

“Now you have plenty of time though!” He exclaimed, “And a nice big pile of… that!” He pointed to the pillows and quilts.



The next two days all I did was sleep. Kenla paced a lot like a caged animal. I was not much for entertainment, and he had been in the Deadlands about a week. He wanted to get something accomplished.

Keira dumped some wood blocks into the room for him to whittle at. So he did and it kept him partially occupied.



When I came out of my two day nap I felt better, although sick, and that lasted another three days. I tried lying down, standing to get the nausea to leave, but no relief came. I did not even lose my lunch. Only after drinking two consecutive mugs of mead did the nausea leave.

Kenla said, “I do not think you are sick, just maybe with child,”

I shrugged, “Maybe, but being ill for a week does not seem worth it,”

“Too late now!” He said with a bit of glee and tackled me playfully in amongst the wood shavings. He ticked me and I laughed loudly.

Keira came running in and told us to be quiet. Ven was still around. We just wanted to get rid of the boredom. There was nothing else, no books, no nothing, other than Kenla’s whittling projects that began to make a pile in the corner of the room. He began to finally gather up the shavings into a basket, yet was it was constantly overflowing.

We ran out of things to talk about, by now he had an all-knowing knowledge of my childhood, family and home. I knew the names of all his siblings, parents, his childhood friends. He lived first in northern Albridge, slowly moved south, was run out of Aylwin, went further south and then moved along east, across the mountains and to Ellmere where they moved around until recently. He did not talk about fun really, and it was concerning. Although as short as my childhood was, I still had one. He did not and yet he acted as though he did. He was light and funny. I enjoyed being with him although all day and every day was wearing on me. Living with him for the rest of my life would be absolutely intolerable. Ressa was wrong, in my eyes. This system, worked.



Another two weeks passed and I was still feeling ill. In fact I felt absolutely horrendous. It was evening, at this time, the dinner hour. The nausea was so terrible that I could hardly move. I began to lose my lunch; Kenla held my hair behind me and comforted me. The pain in my abdomen was sharp. It felt like knives were being plunged into me and ripped at my back. It was both a shallow and deep being, aching and stinging. It was a pain of such greatness as I had never felt before and never would wish to feel ever again.

It lasted late into the night. I rolled around in the pillows and my sweat. Kenla tried to comfort me. At one point he held me like a child.




I realized that I had been carrying, but had lost it. It battled me and technically I lost. Kenla was kind, supportive and said that it was alright, my body had just made an executive decision that this was not the right time for me to have a child.



Two more days passed, I had recovered and the pain subsided. I was still too frustrated with myself and the world to even think straightly. It was not that I needed to make sense of this all, it was made already. It was not a complex thing. I just needed time to decompress. What I needed to do was to get out of the stupid, cramped room. Ven was wearing on my sanity now and I had not seen him since I had been placed in here.

Keira said any day now Ven would go back to Nelan, but she was not light about it. I did not fear that she was starting to care for him, but something had changed while I was in the room. She did not hiss with hate at the very mention of him anymore. Maybe she did not hate him any longer. It was not the time to ask, not with Kenla around.



There was a knock at our door, and Kenla opened it. Asella stood there, in actually lovely attire, a blue tunic with a belt. Although rugged it had character, but my eyes were going to a pendant hanging from her neck. It was a sparkling, almost-while silver color and I was feeling an intense aching pain all over me, and I thought it was the pendant causing the pain.

“Damn!” Kenla cried out, “You wear Pentilin in a compound of Dark people? Why?”

“Oh! I forgot I was wearing it!” She laughed.

“And why do I not believe you?” Kenla complained and moved against the back wall, he looked at me, “My, my, my it has got to hurt you, Adria, you are a Dark One!”

“Oh yes, it does, but I am confused why does that pendant hurt me?” I just stared at it and it was beautiful, why was I in pain from it?

“Pentilin!” Kenla screamed, “It’s the elves’ metal, full of white magic… and it does not agree with us. It will burn you if you touch it,”

“Interesting,” I mumbled.

“I did come here on business,” she said, “To take you back Kenla, and Keira says you may leave the room Adria,”

“That is wonderful news!” I said, “I need to see the sun! I have got to go outside!”

“And I get to leave the Deadlands!” Kenla hopped up from the back of the room, and then his face fell, “It will be a long journey…” He referred to the Pentilin, “Oh my,”

Asella sighed, “You will just have to live with it, Kenla,” Her eyes went to me, “The compound is finished, I have spoken to Keira and the children in this compound will be smuggled out in a week, and the next week the same shall be done to Nelan. We will come as the army the following day,” I nodded, it really was happening and soon.

I embraced Kenla and said goodbye, knowing that I would see him soon.

I pulled out all of the bedding from the prison room and put it away neatly. Then I went to the room I shared with Kriana. She was napping, and I tried to be quiet, but she stirred, “Adria? Is that you? It has been weeks!” She sat up and yawned.

“Yes,”

“Ven has been such a bother,” She cried out, “And is so picky about everything, and while he was here he inspected everything and watched Keira so closely,”

“He did not inspect everywhere,” I said, “Not the little closet I was locked in,”

“Keira told me what happened,”

“I am fine, just flustered,”

“Well, everything will be different soon. Very different, do you know where we will end up?”

“Maybe in Liesta, but I will try to get you to be sent up north. At least there you will not be at risk of enslavement. But it is up to the council,”

“What council? What do you mean about enslavement?”

I sighed and said, “The council is what is running the attack,” I said, “And they are in charge of everything else too,”

“The enslavement part?”

“Well, I do not know what they are going to do with you. The Red house in Liesta was an option but it is getting full, I would feel that falls into the enslavement part,”

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, I’d rather stay here and I do not want my girls in that situation!”

“They’ll be given schooling, the Red House is not a bad place to live, Kriana! I promise. My Ma runs it and she is very nice. I will try to make it better, if that is where you end up,”

She shook her head, “I like it better here,” She said, “I do not want to end up as a slave to a human,”

“So you would rather be a slave to Ven? He hurt you!”

“At least he is Dark,”

“He does not care about you,”

“And a human will? Adria, I am sorry, but I thought that you would have us freed,”

“In the South I am not sure that is possible, Kriana. If I could get you sent up North I would,”

“What is so wrong with the South that we cannot possibly be free?”

“Do not be angry with me, but as soon as Dark people came to the South, there have been lots of problems with them,”

“Seems we are welcomed neither North or South, that is why we are here, in the middle,”

“He is going to do nothing good for you, or anyone else but himself, Kriana,”

“There is no where we can go that will do any good for us. The North is still resenting the war, we have a tiny piece of land to live on. The South must think we are just things to be bought, sold or killed,”

“Kriana, no matter what, this is going to happen,”

She rubbed her forehead, “I know, and you started it,”




The week passed in tension as Kriana was not happy with me. I collected the fifteen or so children in this compound. I wanted to gather up Keira’s twins as well. “No!” She exclaimed, “They stay with me!”

“You do not want them to see all of this,” I tried to explain.

“Why not? I saw most of my tribe get destroyed by your Pa’s soldiers! I am not going to lose them!”

“They could get killed Keira,” I stressed.

“They will not. I am not sending them with strangers.”

“Akken is not a stranger to me. He is a good person and will take very good care of both the boys,”

“No, Adria, that is final,”

“You do not know what you are doing,”

“And you do? They are mine and so are you,”

“No, I am not, you did not want me, remember? You did not raise me! I am only trying to help the boys!”

“Leave Adria,”

“Keira…”


“Go,”

I was frustrated and angered, the two people I was closest to in this place were being difficult. Either way what was going to happen was going to happen and I had to spare her boys from what was going to occur. It was not fair to put them through this ordeal.

The night fell and despite Kriana’s reservations, she helped me herd the children into the outside courtyard. I told Kriana to go get the boys from their room and to take the back door. Without question she went to their room and got them.

I quietly moved the children, some of which had packs on their backs. Their ages ranged from a few infants to those about six years old. Anyone older stayed at Nelan’s compound and did not come to this one in the first place.

I instructed the little ones to be quiet. I could see Akken, and a few others arrive. I hugged Akken, but did not see Kenla. Kriana came with the young boys and handed them off to Akken. We waved as the group moved across the dark land.

I would not enjoy the next week.

That night Keira woke to check on her twins. She realized that we had sent them away. She stormed into Kriana and I’s dark room and screamed, “You took them! You took my boys when I told you not to!”

“It is in their best interest! You want them here for selfish reasons!”

“I want them to be with their mother!”

“Keira, you just do not want to mess up again. They will be just fine, you have to trust me!”

She was still angry, “Adria, it is not just about that. You went against me,”

“Yes and I know that,”

“And you say it so lightly!”

“Fine, you hate me, it will be over in a week anyways, just understand that the boys are safe now,”

I put my headscarf on, pulled my sleeves up and left the room, picking up a basket and went to the garden to pick some produce. Hopefully I could calm down.

I had a basket full of beans and cabbages. I washed them up and let them sit. Kriana came in and she said, “I do not want to hold this against you… I do not like this angry feeling, but you lied to me as well,”

“I know, I just wanted the boys to be safe. I knew it was wrong, but it was also right,”

“I understand that you were looking out for them. But I am not sure that Keira sees it that way,”

She began to make flat bread as I went to retrieve fresh milk. We had four cows in the barn, but as I entered the farmhand told me that they had two now. Akken took the other two with him. I was confused, wondering if Akken expected there to be more carnage that I imagined, or if it was to help feed those at his camp. The farmhand was not very happy with his cows being taken.



I came back with fresh milk. Kriana continued making the bread. I began to make soup with the things I had picked. “What is going to happen?” She asked.

“I do not know,” I said truthfully.



The night for the Nelan nursery to be emptied came. Ven noticed it as it happened. The children got away, but Ven found out the plan. Someone had told him. I was angered as he began to prepare for a battle. He got his soldiers together, and the Tiers. The council was not prepared for Tiers. Especially not Tiers that Ven messed up to make them shift into disturbing, dark, gangly, disgusting creatures. They looked more like monsters than Tiers, or anything else for that matter. They looked like bricks could fall on them and they would not even notice.



Ven came into the compound, he was fuming with anger and confronted Keira about taking her soldiers. She refused and said that she needed them to protect her. He clenched his fist and held it to his lips and said, “This must be of your doing,”

“No Ven! I promise, I did not plan this!! I would never do that to you,”

“Do what?”

“Betray you,”

“You have before, and quiet easily. You lied about Adria. You left Nelan after having it attacked and you brought in a human!”

“I was scared!”

“That what?”

“You would kill my daughter! You were! You were going to have her sacrificed to Barzilla and I thought that you would do that to Ressa!”

“To show my allegiance Keira,”

“See? You were going to!”

“Keira, I apologize, but that was years ago,”

“But I did not plan this Ven!”

He became angry, “You are lying to me!” He hit her and she fell to the ground. He left without the soldiers. Keira was crying in frustration and I helped her up. She brushed herself off.

“Thank you,” She said as if it was forced from her, “I guess I was being absurd about thinking he had changed,”



The time had come. We instructed everyone in the compound to gather up all their belongings into makeshift bags that had been made in the past week. We gathered in the large hall by the door. Everyone had this stunned, confused, almost excited but scared look upon their face, but none appeared comfortable. We were close together by the door, trying to all fit in the small space, but we were where we were supposed to be.

In the hall there were two windows. All flooded to the tall windows to try to see, those of us lucky enough to perch near them could see the human army approaching in a dark line from far off. They were on foot and carried torches. The little lights bounced in the distance, it was almost a scary sight.

The light waned, sunset painted the sky red like blood. From Nelan, no soldier was yet seen, and the gates were still closed shut. It was as quiet as death. Keira was watching it closely.

There was this terrible emptiness of time, nothing happened, we all just waited in the quiet, focusing on the soft breath of one another, the heat becoming almost intolerable at this time. The heat of the day had not gone, it was still as hot as noon, but the body heat of so many so close together was wearing on us all. The smell was terrible, hardly any of us appeared clean, and none of us smelled as so.

The silence broke as the doors to the gate flew open. It was a deafening boom as they slammed against the stone wall. A hoard of evil looking Tiers ran out as identical monsters running at very high speeds toward the human army. My heart was temporarily mad and sped as fast as the creatures outside. These creatures were black, lanky, and their ribs could be seen, their eyes were large and black, but still empty. Their hair was sparse and nasty, they were unkempt, their teeth were yellow but long and sharp and disgusting, the same could be said about their claws. They ran on all fours like animals, as that was what they became. They had no tail, on a small, bony rump, and sharp hocks on their back legs. And as they ran, they became more and more excited. They shook their heads around as if they knew that the end to their suffering was coming so soon. Yet they would put up a fight for the hell of it.

Arrows flew into the Tiers, a few of the weaker ones went down, others easily pulled the arrows out with their claws and teeth. It seemed that some of them, the arrows just fell off their backs like water as if they were made of some sort of stone. And then the two sides collided, a fight commenced. I could hardly see individuals and I hoped my Pa would be alright. The Tiers were terrible, they were vicious creatures that ripped and tore at anything in their path, and ignored any pain that they felt. Maybe they were numb to it, but they seemed to enjoy the fight. Yet the men overpowered them, as the Tiers were in few numbers and the men had many.

The Tiers were killed, but men had fallen as well, and many of them. It was not much of a victory, just a step toward a bigger battle. The gates slowly opened this time. No more Tiers came out, but Dark soldiers. They were not the best equipped, yet they were on a mission. They had such purpose to them, more purpose then the inexperienced army of the South men. These Dark people knew that this was a fight to save what Barzilla started, and they agreed that Barzilla was right. They believed that the way for the Dark races to have dignity was to be rulers, rulers of the men of the North and South. This is what Dark Ones and nomads did well, other than drinking and celebrating, it was fighting. Their entire history was made up of survival of the fittest, more so than any other race. Fighting was how the Dark people got their food, and everything they owned, how they proved themselves as grown, how they chose leadership and how they got mates. In many cases it was just a way of living. Battles were not marked down as history, they were everyday life, but this battle had something to it. They really had to prove themselves, and this was where they lived and got their food and mates, this place was their life and they did not want to lose it or their chance at supremacy. But it was a failed attempt from the beginning.

A few arrows were shot on either side, but it was not a rain of either. It caused minimal damage. The two sides clashed so quickly there was not time to do anything else. And Ven’s side was outnumbered. All kingdoms of the South had given up their best men to end this and hopefully bring some peace and quiet to their land. Although it was a good ratio, it looked to be two Dark soldiers for every three humans. It was still an even fight. Most of the people who were fighting on the side of the South had never seen a fight like this before. They might have been trained, but in this case it did little to help. Only a handful from Liesta and surrounding areas had been in tiffs with Dark bands, and that was still such a small scale.

Neither side seemed to overcome the other. Those who made the headcount uneven poured into Nelan and began a senseless massacre. Dark people were destroyed. Nelan was left intact though so as to loot it later when it was safe. As far as I knew, no prisoners were being taken though I saw people being taken out of the compound bound and tied together. This was turning into more of slave taking raid than a battle to end the Dark races power.


Keira began to cry as did many seeing the carnage. The people they knew were being killed and their future was coming. We had prepared for this for so long, but preparation was no desensitizing us to this.



The war went into the darkness of the night. It moved closer and closer to Nelan as the numbers of the Dark dwindled. They began to defend Nelan instead of focusing on destroying the humans. They stood upon the gates around the compound, volleying arrows like mad. They threw spears and javelins as well, but the men were beginning to climb the gates. Dark people held the gates shut as the men rammed into it and attempted to find any other way into the compound. Swords were still drawn.

The men broke through the gates of the compound and poured in. Some left that compound and came toward us. Their swords were out still. They should know the plan, I told myself continually. And as they approaching we all began to move around, not still like stone. The others asked if we were safe and asked if they were coming to kill us. I did not know, but I reassured them that they knew the plan, that they were here to help us leave. So we opened the doors. I did not recognize any of the men. They began to holler and herded us together like animals and out the door packed together tightly. There were carts; I did not know where they came from at the back of the compound. We walked along the wall. When we reached the carts we were stuffed in as other carts were filled with valuables from the compound. Keira was yelling if something was breakable or not.

We lurched forward. I looked by as Nelan began to burn, a trail of body heaps leading up to it.

The garden became engulfed in high flame, an uncomfortable stench in the air. Animals were hurriedly taken away from the barn as it soon caught fire as well. Smoke filled the sky and blocked out the stars above.

There was wailing from the carts. The experience was disorienting as we were pulled away from the destroyed compounds and away from the Deadlands.



We pulled through the Deadlands, the ground was hard and rut filled. We bounced along, still overheating from the closeness and body heat. Some tried to sleep, but it was of no use. There was no room and there was no forgetting what just happened. I could only see the cruelty of either side. The men just killed with no care on their face. There was no guilt or kindness, just the wish for death. Some of my hope in humanity was failing and that was concerning me. Yet I did not feel like there was any more mercy on the side of the Dark people. Ven had his men kill even in their own death, saying that they would die in vain if they did not take someone with them. There was no feeling of safety on either side.

There was a camp at the edge of the Deadlands and it was flooding full with people. Those who arrived, me included, were pushed from the cart and into a large group. Keira cried out for her children, when no answer came Kenla told her that they were farther south in a camp with the rest of the children. She took in a deep breath and calmed.

Makeshift tents had been put up and built, people were packed into them. At the moment, food was unavailable and the terrified people did not complain just yet.

From far off, the fire was still visible and it became immense, and our ears heard a mall boom. The Dark people went quiet, and those outside the tents watched closely across the flat ground.

There were few humans around, only some older soldiers from Liesta who acted as guards and watched us suspiciously. No one acted up; there was no energy for it. All of us were exhausted and unable to sleep.

Kenla and Akken who had returned with the carts, filled with loot and continually through the surprisingly cool night more carts came carrying anything that appeared valuable in the least. I saw gold jewelry, precious stones, the best of the Dark woolens, vases, granite blocks that came from Keira’s compound, clothing and supplies for daily living. It was poured onto the ground and some Dark people swarmed to it. They were shooed and pulled away by the humans and the items were sorted through and stored elsewhere. Keira only stared at her belongings silently. She waited for another cartload of people to arrive. Yet when no one did, we knew that the fight was not yet over. The fire did not diminish either and no one returned.



The night pushed on, people had been settled and food had been procured from one of the carts. We handed it out to the displaced people who sat in huddles, with grieved and angry looks on their faces. I did not expect celebration, but I did not expect this. There was not a single smile or a hint of joy.

A group of soldiers eventually came and I saw Joseph, my Pa and I ran to him. He and I hugged, “Adria! There you are!”

“What happened out there?”

“Some ran and we are finding them now.” He stated, “It is over,”

“Ven? What about him?”

“He is captured,” He turned and pointed to three humans pulled a broken and bloody Ven along. Keira jumped up and ran to him. She spit upon him and screamed, “I hoped you would burn!” There was such hate and pain and spite in her voice.

He looked up and sneered, “Seems that they have saved me for something!”

Joseph said, “Bring him over here!” And he looked to me, “Here is your chance, you wanted to speak with him,”

I walked up to Ven and he analyzed my face, “So it was you,” He smiled, “You are quite beautiful,” he said, “And mine,”

“You are going to die and your people will no longer be as you wish,”

“Our people,” He hissed, “You are one of us Adria, and you know it. Embrace it,”

“No,” I said, “I am not of your ideals,”

“I know everything about you. You are Dark in and out. You have my blood in you, you are me!”

“Then there are a lot of you,” I said, “I am not you. There is only one of you, and soon there will be none of you!”

He laughed deeply and did not stop. He just kept laughing. It was no happy laugh or light laugh. It was a laugh of sheer madness; he knew it was coming to an end for him. It was a laugh of giving up. The great last leader o the Dark races had just given up, as if it was so easy! As if it was nothing. His whole world had been destroyed and was burning, all loyal followers. Maybe most remaining Dark Ones as well. All he worked for was gone.

He just lay there, his black hair matted with sweat and blood, a large cut on his face had filled with dirt. His fingernails were torn, and his strong forearms were bruised. He did not look pathetic. It was impossible I believed. He was still an impressive and handsome creature. He still had striking markings; he still had those abyssal eyes. Yet he had worry marked in the bags beneath them in a deep greenish-blue color.

This sight was sad, to see something so great fall so hard. Ti was bound to happen, though. There was a great want for his head on a pike. He had lived eleven years in running and hiding, but his ambition and greed had caught up to him. He was caught. He was caught like a wild hog.

My eyes went to Keira who appeared conflicted. There was pain on her face, as her teeth were clenched and bared like a beaten dog about to retaliate. Her back was even curled. She was thinking, although it was evident that it was not clear. From a woven belt upon her hip she seized a shining simple dagger. She lunged upon Ven, her knee on his chest as she leaned over him. From her loose braid, her hair hung over her face. She held the dagger tightly.

“You do not have to do this Keira,” He said.

“It will not work,” She said, “You have lied to me too many times. It is over Ven. It is over,” Her voice was both forceful and resigned.

His face went placid, but she was overcome by something and she was no longer composed. She stabbed him many times, screaming unintelligible words. Akken grasped her and pulled her away. She fought, kicking and clawing. Akken threw the blade to the ground and tried to calm her.

Ven was not dead. He fought for breath, his eyes looking straight ahead to the black sky. There was something different; they were not the usual black. They looked like Keira’s, one could see color. He coughed, going a deathly white, blood in a streak from his mouth to his chin. He looked innocent. I went to him, by some urge. No matter what he did, he should not die alone. No one should die alone. I sat beside him and held one of his hands with both of mine. They were chapped and rough. He felt cold. I wished he would just die. This was cruel. I knew exactly what he had done, I heard the stories, but it did not matter. The Dark One dying beside me what not him. That left him already; I could see it in his eyes. Now the child was there. He was different.

It may have been an eternity that I sat there waiting for him to slip away. He was holding my hand now and he said, ‘Thank you,” And his grip loosened. He was gone. I stood, after gently placing his hand down I walked away to wash my hands and face. I looked back as Ven was lifted up and carried away. I found out later his body was placed in a pile of other Dark soldiers.

The remaining of our soldiers came back, most needing medical help. One many had lost his arm and lay on a mat. A physician from Kenna was around and helped im, but he did not expect the young Liestan slave to live. Asella had appeared, bringing Pentilin milk. It was for the men, who needed healing, but it was given to the free men first, and she ran out before the person who needed the medicine most received it. Keira went to him, and she removed her belt and put it on the top of his arm stump, as he had just lost his forearm, and made it tight. On her belt was a small pouch that she removed and in it was some herbs that she then boiled. She relieved a flask and poured the green liquid into it. She poured the hot water next on his skin. He cried out, then she heated a rock up and placed it on the stump, and the flesh melded together. He stopped bleeding.

Keira now looked so young, but tired and stunned. She was young, being twenty-five, she looked but a few years older than I, but it was her demeanor. It was as if she was thirty years older than that at least. She had seen much, experienced much, already. I hoped that she was inspired. She took a life, she had to save one.

The slave seemed to become stable and Keira moved on. I was trying to settled the soldiers who had arrived and to get them some ale. Kenla helped me hand it to the weakened men.



Asella spoke to Akken and I, saying that we would stay here at least through the morning. No one was really ready to move. We had some food, enough to keep people content until tomorrow’s night.

Asella was more concerned about the mobilization. The soldiers had carelessly dumped loot near some of the tents. But she also worried about the horses and ponies. They had no food in the area. What ‘bushes’ had some sparse leaves that were in the area had been eaten. WE could not stay long for their sake.

Then there was another concern. She called for all remaining able bodied soldiers to arm themselves. Her good eyes could see a small band of Dark Ones coming toward us. We had just enough men to appear intimidating, yet the band came upon us. It was ragtag, but the strongest soldiers. They demanded nothing of us, but a last fight. It was suicide. They would not win, and that was evident. Our men did not go easy on them.

The bodies were piled up onto of Ven’s and the morning came. The pile caused people to pack up in expectation to leave. The pile had old furniture that had been destroyed thrown upon it and burned as we left, only to stop that night halfway there.

The people had tired quickly. I thought that these people would be used to being uprooted. Yet they were overwhelmed, having lived in place so controlled for so long, and now they did not know where they were going to live.



The morning of the next day we had touched the end of the Deadlands. The children were reunited with their mothers. It was briefly joyous, but no one seemed to be in good heart or health. The food we had was minimal, but we had food.

The people set up camp and fires, yet they enjoyed the cool air, as we had shade and were away from the heat of the Deadlands.

I sat beside Kriana and I’d tent. A human girl came to me; she was from Treanne, a slave sent to help care for the soldiers. She was curious looking, having hair that was cut short and deep brown-reddish, almost purplish hair. Her skin was a very light olive color. She had large intelligent, but serious eyes. She appeared a strong girl, but not unkind.

She held a pot, “Would you like some tea, miss?”

“Yes please,” I said and she poured me some.

“Where you in the compound?” She nervously asked.

“Yes,”

“Have you seen a soldier? He is young, barely of age, pretty tall, black hair, hazel eyes,”


“No, I am sorry. I did not see many soldiers up close,”

She sighed, “Alright thank you. I am sorry for bothering you,”

“What is your name?”

“Kella,” She said.

“Treanne?”

“Yes I work on the palace farm.” I noticed that the girl was with child.

“Is the one you look for your husband?”

She noticed that I had looked at her belly, “No, we are betrothed. And the answer to the question you will ask, is no,” She said, “I have not seen Brennan in a very long time. He was sent away to be trained, and he did not have a choice. He is a kind boy, can hardly slaughter an animal, and cries when one of his foals dies…” She smiled, “He does not know I am with child, he knows that I was attacked, but not this… he will be surprised,”

I did not think as I spoke, “Would you like to come and live in Liesta?”

“Why?”

“You can be free,”

She appeared confused, “You can do that?”


“Well, no, but my Pa can, he is the king of Liesta. King Lucan should not miss two of his workers,”

“You know King Lucan?”

“Yes, he is one of the only sane men in the council,” I joked, “Is Lucan here?”

“Yes, he is in the green tent,”

From behind her stood a boy who fit the description that she gave me. He motioned to be quiet as he embraced her. Her face exploded in a smile. She hugged him and cried. He touched her belly and kissed it. I smiled as well and looked for the big green tent, and when I found it, I entered unannounced. Lucan turned and saw me, “Adria?”

“Yes,”

“What is it you need?”

“Sir, it is about two slaves who were on your grounds, they are barely of age, Kella and Brennan,”

“Yes?”

“May I take them to Liesta?”

“Do you intent to pay for them?”

“Sir, no, I just would like them to be free,”

“Why?” He asked, “They are in no worse situation than every other slave,”

“Please sir,”

“May as well, but you understand that they have never been free. You will have to find a way to get them on their feet,”

“Yes, sir,”

I told Kella the good news and she thanked me, “Where will we live?”

“I have some people I will ask to see if they need some works,” I answered, “You will be paid and soon you can gain enough to be on your own,”

Brennan was a long and lanky boy, and he appeared very happy, “I have always wanted my own farm!”

“And our own things!” She jumped up and down, “How long will it take?”

“Depends on the wage you are given by the person you work for,”




So there was some happiness at this camp, but it was yet a dark place. Smoke was still in the sky toward the Deadlands in two places, the resting place of at least twenty Dark males, and Nelan, where at least three hundred more had been slaughtered and left. The place was in ruins, once a beautiful place, it seemed like this should not have happened in this way. It should have been clean, but how clean could this possibly been? It was bloodshed. And the weight of the fact that I knew several good people had been killed or seriously injured was heavy. It was impossible to save everyone. But it was yet hard to look upon the unexpected grief in the camp. I had always assumed that Dark people did not care enough to be driven to weeping. I had been told Dark people did not love, but the Dark mothers grasping, holding and crying over their children told me otherwise. It might have been the relief of being freed from such confines; they were able to show it.

The only thing that I wanted right now was to see joy. There was happiness, yes, in some sense. Happiness to be alive and the fact that it was almost over and there was going to be new life ahead, but no joy.


I sat by my tent, exhausted. A woman from Anwell was dishing out soup, and I waited until everyone was finished. She was a medium tall person, big boned, although she was not fat, she had a round, fair face and very round blue eyes to match. Her hair was a creamy, very light golden color. When she walked, her ankles made sharp popping noises. When she came to me, she spoke easily and directly. And all hard consonance at the end of any word turned into a ‘t’. And her little helper was a child who looked exactly like her, about seven years old with the same hair and face. It was a kind of scary resemblance. I thought it would be odd to have a younger identical person following me around.





The council met to discuss what would be done with these people. Pa, plus the kings of Ardery, Carberry, Anwell, Kenna and Caiteere were in attendance. The king of Ardery just thought that they should be annihilated, but he was the only one with that opinion. Lucan said that they should be petitioned apart and made into slaves. The king of Carberry-Anwell agreed with them. Kenna did not. Kenna offered up no option. Caiteere asked that they could help rebuild their caste in the water that had been destroyed many years ago.

Debate continued on and it was decided that Treanne’s idea was going to be used, sort of. The Darks would be indentured for twenty years to pay off the debt and help rebuild.

Kriana would be angry about this. It was not the freedom she expected and hoped for. Now they had to petition off the nomads.

Liesta had contributed the most to the effort and they claimed a third of the nomads. Treanne, Anwell-Carberry and Kenna each claimed a sixth. Caiteere got what was left over. Ardery wanted no claim on them. Treanne was to pick through and find those who were able to do heavy work, but Kenna wanted to do the same. Throughout the fighting and debating over bodies, they decided to herd together up all the Darks left in the South to petition.



Over the next couple of weeks we did not move camp. Instead, the camp just grew to massive proportions. Ardery had brought all surviving nomads from their lands in a matter of just a few carts. The people were there in no good condition. Caiteere from theirs, as well as Liesta’s (those not secured in the Red House) as well as Anwell-Carberry’s. The numbers were in the thousands.

I clung close to Kenla’s side. I told Pa that we had to claim him and Akken no matter what, although Lucan had his eye on the latter.

The final count of heads was 6,820, a surprisingly small number that had survived, and this did not include children five and under. The king of Ardery left, as he did not wish to bring any back with him. An even cut of the nomads would have given each king a little over 1,300. Yet Liesta did lay the biggest claim with asking for 1,600. Anwell-Carberry asked for 1,500, and Treanne asking the same amount, but it was denied, giving them a claim to the standard 1,300, Kenna and Caiteere each asked for 1,210 and were granted it.

It seemed like an inhumane thing to do, to auction these people off, but humans did it to humans, and unless these now indentured people individually committed crimes, they would be freed in twenty years. I wondered why we did not do as the North did (although they held at least fifteen times the population), giving the Darks their own chunk of land. No one wanted to give up land, and the subject was not discussed in any length.



All of the nomads were lined up in no particular order. I sat by Kenla and Pa, as Kenla was safe with us. All the kings had scribes beside them to write down who was claimed by whom. This was just the first day, out of a yet unknown numbers.

The first to step up was a young girl, probably just old enough to be placed in this category. The king from Kenna raised his hand, the girl looked relieved as no one wanted to go to Treanne or Caiteere. There was a trend in Kenna’s pickings, as they tended to be more of the in-home house servant type, or those who were skilled enough to build things well. Treanne took mainly field worker type nomads, the big, stronger looking ones.

As when Akken came up, Lucan raised his hand and immediately following, Pa. The one running the auction looked puzzled, as he was Kenna’s diplomat and there had been no fight over a nomad yet, “Sir,” Pa began, having already claimed Lili and Akken’s eldest child. “I hold claim to his family. Do not separate him from them,”

Lucan said, “Males have no family,”

“Excuse me?” Akken hissed, “Half of the reason you were able to destroy Ven and Nelan was because of my brother and I. I did not expect my help to lead to me being treated like an animal,”

The diplomat said, “I say he goes to Liesta,” Kenla patted my leg in relief.



The day had ended, having only gone through eight hundred nomads and there were packed up in carts and sent away, I with them, and Keira. Pa had claimed Kriana and her soldier as well under my request. I wanted to leave the camp, I just wanted to go home and rest. But there was work to be done. What was to happen with the nomads? The Red House could only feasibly hold forty more.

So it was that question I pondered over while dozing in and out of sleep while traveling. Kenla and I had stayed near each other, partially out of fear of permanently losing one another. He was no happy with the outcome of the ‘war’. He deserved his freedom, but his family did as well. But he knew I could do nothing about it. In reality, we completed the task we set out to do: to end the last remnant of the Barzilla-age in the South and to get rid of Ven. Those both were done, and I should be happy. But I was no… Pa was not actually going to free these people until he had to, Kenla and Akken included. They were good workers. Some would be… in some terms, rented by wealthy landowners as workers and the money would come to us. Along with this, some would be employed to build buildings and roads. Kenla would live in the Red House and Lili and Akken. Akken would get to know his children.



Ma was waiting for me in the entrance of the palace. She hugged me tightly, “I am so happy to see you Adria!” She exclaimed. Matthew stood in the background and waved. Ma had a few tears, “We thought we lost you,”

“Well, here I am,” I said, “It is nice to be home.” It was comforting to be in familiar and stable surroundings.

“And who is this?” She motioned to Kenla.

“Kenla, he and I are together…” I said in the easiest terms possible.

“I hope you took good care of my daughter, Kenla,” Ma said to him with a smile.

“He did Ma,” I answered.

She looked at him and said, “Well, I have told you that I was not terribly comfortable with you not getting married but I could get used to this,” She patted his shoulder with her scarred hand. Kenla’s eyes appeared surprised as her head was not burned as the rest of her. She ignored that very fact and said, “I think Ressa would like to see you, but I expect you both back for dinner,”

We went upstairs to Ressa and I’s room. Nothing looked different except for my sister. She had grown up noticeably. She turned and said, “Adria! Adria!” She hugged me, “I never thought I would miss you as much as I did!”

“Thank you? It is nice to see you too,”

“And who is this? Oh you did, didn’t you?”

“Yes, this is Kenla,” I said.

“Nice to meet you,” She said, “I suppose I will be seeing you a lot in the future,”



Our dinner was in the dining room. Ma, Ressa, Kenla and I, but not Pa. Pa had not yet returned and would not for a few days. Then we would have another really good meal. The meal was duck with gravy and fresh good vegetables and plenty of sweet honey cakes. I did not know a person could eat as many cakes as Kenla did as soon as he saw them. We did not really speak, though. We were very tired and needed to get our minds to settle before we would be ready to speak about our experiences.

Ma did ask questioned and I gave her simple answers as not to alarm her with the journey. Ressa seemed to understand more than she did that I did not feel like talking, and I went to sleep in my bed soon after the meal. Kenla took the floor as he did not get an assignment to a cottage or bunk yet.

Yet I stared at the ceiling, exhausted though, and feeling like I could not physically move. My mind was running. I could see the dead of the shipwreck, the humans’ attack, everything. I remember everything in detail, everything bad and then I fell asleep, but continued to wake through the night, for the first time feeling safe enough to have nightmares. I would wake with my heart going as fast as if I was running .And in my dreams, sometimes I was.

I had a small, terrified screech, leave me. Kenla woke, “Adria?” He whispered, “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” I said, I lay back down but was unable to fall asleep. Each time I closed my eyes I saw something I did not want to see and I would have to open them, “Kenla?”

“Yes?”

I crawled down to him from the bed and he wrapped his arms around me and said, “Relax Adria, you are safe,” He kissed my forehead, and I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep. By morning, though, I did not feel well rested. I was slow, tired and groggy. I chose, as Kenla woke, to go back into bed and stay there. Ressa had come to my bedside and said, “Hello, do you want me to bring up your breakfast?”

“I am not very hungry,”

“You need to eat something, I will bring up some honey cakes,”

I slept through her return and Misty’s entrance, and as I woke from thirst I saw milk, honey cakes and a blanket atop me and gifts wrapped in paper on the foot of the bed, but out of sleepiness, I went back to sleep after drinking some of the milk and eating a cake. Kenla had been placed in a cottage, but had not taken up a work schedule just yet. Ma wanted to wait until Pa at least came back. Kenla would live with Akken and two other males, one who had been in the Red House and one from Nelan.





When I woke, I went to the presents. There were five packages. I opened the smallest first, I was a bone necklace and in scraggly, childish handwriting, was Kenla’s name and mine. The necklace was well made, and beautiful. I put it on my neck and I went to the looking glass, but most of all I treasured the piece of paper that Kenla wrote with probably a lot of help from either Ma or Ressa, but he wrote it. The second package was slightly larger and contained a new ribbon and hair comb. Both were white and lovely. The third package contained two headscarves, with a tag from Riessla and Raken. They had returned as well. The other presents were a shawl that had Misty’s stitches, so I knew it came from her and a deep blue dress that was simple but comfortable and had a belt. I wore it as I went downstairs. It was time for the midday meal. I could smell bread and meat. Yet I was still tired and wishing to sleep a bit more, but I knew I had to be awake for the rest of the day.

Ma asked me if I like the presents and I told her that I loved them. She told me what was being done at the Red House. Away from the main camp, a new bunk house was going to be made. Ma said she received word from Pa that she should pick from the new nomads the forty to stay at the Red House and then, s a new group would come in, to do construction. Ma said she wanted to have all the roads in the grounds redone, the fences upgraded, a new mill, and wells dug. That was just a few of her requests. Recently two mines for ores and gold had been opened on the north ridge and she would send plenty of workers there. She believed that this temporary enslavement would bring a real boost to the South. We would have excess enough to trade with the North and gain money to pull ourselves out of debt.


Yet I felt that the Dark world had fallen, its customs were not able to be acted upon, their way of living was nonexistent, they were no longer nomads, and they could not be nomadic. They were just Dark people, and Ven’s world had fallen with it, the glory he hoped for, the world of war was gone. Now it was a semi-peace. The Dark people were at unrest due to the conditions the war had brought. Some questioned why the humans were trusted. I questioned it as well. This action, ending any hope of the Dark recovery, was something I was not able to live with in comfort.