Chapter 1

With golden hair shimmering in waist length waves, 18 year old Alexandra Mithril guided her jet black stallion through the crowds of dead, wounded and prisoner soldiers toward Devilair.

The keep was perched on a steep mountain cliff that bordered the ocean. The waves had beaten a deep overhang in the bedrock. Anyone who attempted to scale it would plummet to their death.

The guards at the gate were stunned that such a beauty would come to the castle at such a bad time. The guard to her right halted her and removed his helmet to reveal a woman with the fairness of her sister, only with darker hair. Lorien.

As Alex slid off her horse to embrace her tomboyish sister, the other knight removed his helmet to show off a handsome young man, Lorien's husband, Ronaldo.

The three spoke excitedly to each other as they escorted an exhausted Diarmid to the stables. When they entered the great hall, there came up from the crowd, of men, soldiers, lords and ladies alike with a deafening applause. All were clad in bloodied armor from the battle of earlier morning.

Then Ronaldo spoke, "Lords, Ladies, Knights, we have fought and won a great fight. We can now rest here in peace tonight with the good Lady Mithril in our midst." With that said there came a roar of approval from the gathered mass.

He raised his hands for silence and continued, "In order for the dead to be mourned, the wounded to be healed, you all to see your families and the prisoners taken care of, we will march, in three weeks time, to war against the ELVES!!" Once again the crowd showed its approval. "Tomorrow we shall start to plan!" After the speech the dinner was under way.

A look of deep concern creased Alex's features. Her father's greatest ally was with the Elves. Loraine saw her sister grimace at the mention of the rich blood of her friends being spilt. She suddenly remembered the precious life long bond between Alex and the Elves. Loraine knew she had to convince Ronaldo to reconsider the war notice.

With the dining well under way, Alex motioned to her sister that she was 'retiring' to warn the Elves and to tell their father the bad news. Both girls knew that the men and most of the women would be too drunk to even notice Alex's absence. They also knew what their nights mission was. With that Alex left the great feast and ran to tack her horse, since the stable hands too would be celebrating the days success.

She had to ride hard to at least make it to the Elven borders by dawn. Yet somehow the exhausted steed found the strength to overcome the night. Alex was only about twenty minutes away from Eärendur when she felt herself falling as consciousness slipped from her grasp.

Alex, although unconscious, could feel the strong arms of the Elf guards as they laid her on her horse and strapped her there so she would not fall off. She could hear shouting, bow strings being zinged and twanged. She heard a muffled cry as the arrows struck their mark. She heard a last, rasping breath as the victim of the arrow rain slipped into the same state as she.

Chapter 2

Alex felt herself being lain into something soft and warm and then being buried there by something just as soft and warm but also fairly heavy. She started to panic when she saw a blinding white light at the end of the long tunnel. She forced her eyes open and awoke to a cool cloth placed on her forehead. She saw in the distance a beautiful orange sunset. She remembered this room. Alex woke fully to find a look of deep concern on the Elven king, Diego. She asked him how long she had slept. He answered with a sigh and three days.

"I must warn you, your majesty," she started but he cut her off.

"Yes. I know. And for the final time call me Diego, please."

"I will do as you bid. But how do you know?"

"I like to stand guard at the border sometimes. Well I was, the night you came to warn me. You told Raven and I the reason for the rush. We left our posts to escort you and your stableboy safely into our stead." He looked pleased with what he had done and waited for her reply.

It took a while for what he said to sink in. "What stableboy? I swear I left Devilair alone. Show him to me ... Wait. When I fell from Diarmid, I was mostly unconscious but I heard the bow strings snapping, a slightly muffled cry when the arrows hit and someone on the horse beside me rasping for breath . . . no you couldn't have. The lord of Devilair will surely have your head now . . . "

She was about to continue when he said, "No he is not dead. We merely fired a few warning shots not meaning to harm him. We brought him back here to the castle where we dislodged almost half a dozen arrows from his left side and one, right away in the gentlest fashion, from a spot very near his heart. I will show him to you but you might be very much surprised."

As they continued down the staircase, Alex noticed the corridor walls were lined with some sort of magical ball of fire that felt warm to the touch of friends and burned into the enemy's heart.

Sometimes the Elves themselves would load them onto their arrows to launch them at the attacking foes. Alex's father had been aimed at with these but he knew enough to dodge them. The Elves saw this method and noticed him for who he was.

The first time he came to the Elven keep was because Alex had been trying to protect their mother when the enemy laid siege to the castle. The Elves could not die unless cut down in battle. They could live forever without showing a single sign of age. There the great bond between Alex and the Elves was forged. She too would not die or show signs of aging past 33 years.

Even as they continually descended, Alex could feel the warmth from the fire ball torches. The guards, Raven and another whom she didn't recognize, swept down in low bows as the two finally reached the bottom of the great staircase.

Chapter 3

What she heard before they entered the small chamber surprised her indeed. She could hear as plain as day, even though the door was as thick as the door of a vault, an evil sort of laughter. When they entered the room Alex could not see but feel the presence of the guards that were hidden in the dark corners.

"How are you today, Jonathon?" asked Diego.

Alex recognized the young stable hand from Devilair. And although he was no more than 21 years of age.

"My Lord, you have been ever so kind to me and the Lady Mithril. I have accepted your hospitality and hindered you long enough." with that said there came a mischievous look to his eyes.

In one fluid motion he withdrew a dagger. He charged at Diego. Although the Elf had foreseen this he had come unarmed. The Elves in the corners tried to tackle the enraged boy but he slit their throats and continued toward the king. By this time Raven having heard this going on had already notched his bow. As he leaped into the room, he loosed the arrow, notched another and loosed it again. He continued until Alex, watching in the darkness, screamed.

Both men slowly turned around to look at her when they realized she had stopped screaming. Jon had his small knife pressing ever more tightly on her neck. Raven had been shooting blindly at the wall. "Move another inch, she will die." The men tried to convince Jon they meant no harm to either him nor to Alex. It slowly found its way into Jon's head. He released the dagger, let it fall to the ground, kicked it over to Raven, slumped to the floor and wept bitterly, for the sight of what he had done.

Diego had Jon moved to a more versatile location. He had Jon blindfolded, while he was sleeping, so he could not see who it was who woke him. Diego lightly rapped his dagger hilt on Jon's temple when he got too fidgety in the moving.

When Jon did actually wake, he thought he surely must be in heaven. With the largeness of the room he imagined that a few more than a handful of 15 people could fit into the chamber. When he saw Alex enter with Diego he laid back and wondered to what painful doom he would be subjected to.

Alex whispered something to the king that Jon couldn't hear. He reluctantly left, closing the heavy wooden door behind him, saying he would have guards positioned a short distance away, should Alex need anything, or should Jon try to cause trouble. Alex though was given true word that she could excuse the guards only if she saw fit. With that Alex started her long yet wondrous and deadly tale of her part in the Elves history.

"I was told by my father to watch over my mother and to stand by her side throughout the battle. My mother died in her bed before they could rape her. Somehow my father found a way to get through the thickest part of the fight to get to my mother and I. Father had heard us screaming when we got attacked by the Montanges, his greatest enemy. He found me lying in a pool of blood, with a group of 6 dead men lying on the once clean and polished marble floor. Their captain had gotten annoyed that a female with little knowledge of sword fighting could slay his men. So he stabbed me in the chest so near my heart I thought I would die that very minute. But my father had reached us right in time to slay his greatest enemy in the back before he could move to anywhere." At this point Alex could see Jon was beginning to tear up at the amount of description she used.

She waited to restore him to his former state and then continue, but he told her to just go and "that a man is not a man until he cries". "At this point I was losing consciousness for the lack of blood in my system. I could hear my father crying over me and my dead mother. I made a gesture that I was still alive by moaning a little. He called off the war by showing the dead Montange lords body. He rode the life out of a good mount to take me here to this very room.

"Here the Elves did a heart transplant. Each one had given a sufficient amount of their heart to me. Therefore I was from then on to be wholly Elf. I cannot die unless, like you have learned, I am killed either in attack or in defense. My twin brother would be 18 with me this year. He died in that foolish war of land and pride. You see that is what they did to you. They gave of their own hearts to save your life, even as a stableboy."

At the mention of her brother Alex turned and fled toward the locked door, pounding on it, realizing how much of the truth about her had been revealed. Even in that small period of time she had gotten so much pressure off her soul that she regretted telling him as much as she did. He would probably go back and tell Lorien and Ronaldo of their secret if she did not stop him.

Chapter 4

She collected herself and strode back over to him as Diego once again entered with an important looking scroll in his grip. They talked long through the night mostly of the secret that must be kept a secret. At the changing of the guards, around midnight, they returned to the vast courtyard to get their mounts. Three came out of the darkened stable to their masters. One did not have a saddle though, nor a halter or reins. That one was Diego's

Tári, was the first to move forward. She stopped in front of Diego who praised her. He then leapt onto her back with such grace and ease that Alex and Jon were sure he was born for the young looking horse. She was, as Diego said, fifteen years old, which is old for a horse. She was the colour of the clouds before a summers rain storm.

Diarmid was the second to move. He paused to allow Alex to gather her breeches. She had changed to mens garments a few moments before speaking with Jon. She was more comfortable in the garments of men.

Jon's mount was a frisky two-year old who would have preferred the warmth of her stall, but was honored to be serving tonight for the king. She was the colour of the spray that rises off a waterfall as it dances in a cool breeze, basking in the brief freedom before rejoining the water.

The man who had saddled them stepped out into the light of the moon. When Diego saw him he motioned a "Thank you". Diego later told them he was both deaf and mute. But he liked to be called by the name of Elessar. And although he was deaf he would know when to saddle which horse and for whom.

When they finally neared the borders of the forest separating the provinces of Devilair and Eärendur, Diego suddenly jolted to the left as if he had been shot. He took off in a gallop so fast it was difficult for the other steeds to keep the pace. As they started dropping off, first Jon then Alex, they looked behind them and realized the reason Diego had made a mad dash in a wide cut circle back to Eärendur. They were being pursued by the men of Devilair. Alex warned Jon not to try to stop them for he would only get shot at by their archers.

Their horses too saw the danger they were in and without any signal from their riders, turned tail and made for the haven. They reached their destination momentarily after Diego had arrived. Eärendur had turned from a peaceful, remote sanctuary to being a war machine.

Archers lined the walls and were firing arrows into the sea of men and horses that came crashing upon the walls of Eärendur. Alex and Jon had barely made it through the gates when they clanged securely closed behind them.

Diego, they learned was in the war room, studying the ways the old members of the war committee had won previous ones. When they caught up to Diego in the War Conference Room, they found that the mute stable man could run quite a speech. Which they listened to with the greatest amount of awe.

They also learned that Elessar had worked for Ronaldo and had sources at the enemy Castle but assured everyone that he had kept Eärendur a complete secret. Though not many supported him they agreed with Diego's ideas yet scorned them if Elessar said he liked an idea or suggested one.

All the while the Elves were arguing who was right or wrong, the men of Devilair had won an entire section of the main wall and were slaughtering the Elves. As the War Committee of the Elves Continued fighting, Diego left the room with Alex and Jon tagging behind him.

They followed Diego around a few corners and stopped when he turned around to speak to them.

"Those in there have not studied the old ways. They will be killed eventually."

Chapter 5

As he was about to continue, they heard screams and swords clashing in the room they had just left and heard footsteps coming towards them. Then all was still. Diego hissed for them to get along the wall and stay there.

Alex could feel the urgency to do so also and shoved Jon into the wall with all her might as a rain of arrows swept past them and into the throats of the Devilair men as they turned the corner. As they themselves fled the corridor, they came upon Raven with an armed force of archers.

The four of them, Alex, Diego, Jon and Raven, left the force with a quick word to continue firing when they were out of sight. They stumbled out of the corridor and into the fresh air to find their horses ready and waiting for them with Elessar waiting at their sides to keep them calm.

They four of them rode out the back gates with a small force similar to the one they had just left behind. They charged the men of Devilair and fought with such rigor they were taken aback.

As soon as Alex saw Diego go down, she fought with such an adrenaline rush that both she and her foes were astounded. Never had she hewn so many men as Ronaldo's broadsword came crashing down for Diego's throat, Alex caught the attack and threw it back into his defenses.

Raven too had seen his king fall. He pulled the remaining arrow screaming from the bow. As he leapt down, the arrow struck its mark. The assassin in the tree opposite to his fell down as Raven landed and caught Ronaldo's back on his dagger. He stepped over the figure he had momentarily killed and crouched beside Alex and Diego. Jon joined them shortly afterwards.

" He'll need all the medicine and healing power I can give and find for him.", was all Raven said as they gravely carried their unconscious king to the back entrance of Eärendur.

When they arrived, Eärendur was cleaned out of Devilair men. So they arrived in peace. When they got to the king's bedroom, Raven summoned servants and disappeared. Alex thought he left to revive his spirit, but when he returned, he was armed from head to toe.

He carried four bulging quivers on his back, stuffed with more than they would normally hold, scores of arrows were in his mouth so he gave her a quick nod and continued on his way, numerous knives were strapped to his chest and waist, and Jon followed behind him with his own bow and array of quivers, arrows and knives.

Jon was almost at a run to keep up to Raven's brisk and angry strides. She heard the bow strings twang and the screams of both horses and masters as they watched the Elven terror they had awaken and unleashed before their very eyes.

As Diego lay unconscious, Alex fell into a tired sleep. When he did regain consciousness, the War was over with more than three quarters of the men from Devilair dead and the rest either in captivity in Eärendur or safe in Devilair. He called for Alex and Raven. Diego had Raven usher everyone out of the room so he could be alone with them.

"My dear Alexandra Mithril. I know it is my end. You nor I can deny or stop that fact. ...cough... I give to you this necklace. It was forged so that every Elven King, when he passed on would also pass his spirit and lifelong memories, whether good or ill, into the make of it. That way the next King in line could keep the old ways and memories alive and always with them. Each link holds a memory, one memory...cough... you Alexandra Mithril, will be the next King and first Queen to wear this chain... Keep... It ... Alive ...".with that he sighed, fully relaxed and slumbered. From whence he would never awaken. There was a faint chime that only she could hear and she knew he had passed his spirit into the necklace.