(Redone for the sake of Chichix. Any better to your liking? ;D

Chapter IX

The cry came to Zaknafein's ears as sharp as any weapon could come to his heart.

"Drow!"

Zaknafein swallowed hard, trying to gulp down the guilt that came into his mind with the hearing of the word. The drow beside him came down from the crest of the hill, flooding over the grass like a wave of evil.

No one but Zaknafein seemed to pay any mind to the call. No one stopped and no one felt the dread that poured into Zak's heart. He stopped, his feet faltering. One drow leapt pass him, glee and triumph on his face. There was no doubt who would be the victors this dark day.

"Zaknafein!" a drow called. The weapons-master turned his head, looking at the drow who had called his name: a young drow a few feet to his left, his hair braided in an unusual style so that twisted white locks rained down his back. "Hurry or no kills will be left for you! Today is the day we please Lloth!"

The young fighter smiled encouragingly at Zaknafein, not understanding why the weapons-master had stopped his run.

"Today is the day we pleased Lloth," Zaknafein whispered to himself grimly. He unsheathed his swords and followed his kin down the hill.

*** *** ***

"Run!" Aniyia screamed at the frightened people. "You will not live if you don't run!" Her words poured life into the frozen merchants, stiff with fear. Aniyia pushed one of the men in front of her.

"Take your children and go, Mera," she ordered him sternly, like a mother admonishing her child. "There is no time to waste here."

She moved on quickly, knowing that few would survive this assualt. She remembered her past, when the drow had attacked many years ago when she was only a child. She knew what the evil of the dark elves would bring upon the innocent people she loved. Aniyia would not let the destruction of the drow haunt her again.

"The elves!" a small girl cooed breathlessly near the side of a wagon. Her small arm rested gently on the curve of the wagon wheel. "Mama, look at the elves!" The girl turned, her wide eyes looking for her mother.

"Mama?"

Her mother was no where to be seen, but Aniyia was quick to react.

"Come, dear," she said in a soothing voice, offering her hands to lift the child up. The small girl trusted the old woman and did not hesitate.

"Where's Mama?" she asked as Aniyia placed the small girl comfortably on her hip. "She's missing the elves."

Aniyia struggled to push her way past the frightened people. She had had no reason to flee before. Her own self was in danger and that was all. Now she was in charge of a child...one who had many years ahead of her to live.

Aniyia ran to the center of the camp where the crowd was thinner. People all around her were fleeing to the woods, seeking some sort of refuge from the drow who were just beginning to spill into the camp.

The little girl glanced over Aniyia's shoulder, still fascinated by the elves. She suddenly gave a jerk in Aniyia's arms. The woman did not stop though, keeping her fast pace that so defied her age.

"Aniyia, wait!" The old woman obeyed, sensing the urgency in the girl's voice. "Mama is there!" Aniyia turned her head to get a view. The girl was right...but there was nothing either of them could do.

The drow were beside the mother before any of them had had a second to absorb the horror around them. Aniyia sword the drow's sword flail out, sweeping along the throat of the woman.

The girl screamed, a high-pitched cry that shattered the world around them all. Ears of elves perked up at that scream.

It was the scream of a child.

*** *** ***

Sapek spun around helplessly. He was caught in the densest part of the crowd, an unwilling man in the tug of the fleeing people.

"Dessaven!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Dess, where are you?!"

He dug his foot into the ground, his heel pushing into the soil. He would hold his ground and wait for his wife. The pull of the crowd fought him only for a moment. Soon the people were going around him, too scared to concern themselves with him.

He looked around hurriedly. Where was Dessaven? He had been beside her when the drow had first appeared, but then the men and woman running had separated them, driving them away from each other. The last thing he had seen of her was of the fear in her brown eyes and her hands tight on the back of Nevina.

He had to find her.

Sapek turned frantically in his place, feeling the elbows of those passing him drive into his stomach and side. He was searching in vain, he knew, but at least he must try.

A scream of death came into his ears from an all-too-close position. The drow had begun their killing. There was not much time now.

"Sapek!" The man's eyes widened instantly and he turned to see his wife, Nevina in her arms.

Sapek pushed through the crowd, his arms outstretched to reach his wife and pull in her into the safety of his embrace.

"We need to hurry," he said urgently. Dessaven only nodded, and they let themselves feel the tug of the passing people, joining them in their mindless run from the bloodthirsty drow.

*** *** ***

Aniyia was in the forest now, but her energy was quickly leaving her body. Much of her strength had gone into the magic of the ceremony, and now she was being forced to run for her life and for the life of the child she held in her arms. It was that thought alone that kept her going.

She heard the voices of the drow follow her, their light footsteps barely audible. She knew that they were taking no care in stealth. Otherwise, she knew without a doubt, that they would come upon her in silence, leaving her dead before she even could tell she was being followed.

The girl shuddered in her sobs. Aniyia felt the girl's tears rolling down her bare arm, her sleeve ripped from some unknown time in her escape.

"Shh," Aniyia whispered, putting a soothing hand on the back of the girl's neck. "Soon we'll be safe." The girl nodded, trusting in the wisdom of the woman.

But Aniyia did not feel the certainty with which she had spoken the words. In fact, she knew that it was fear that was consuming her mind. They would not escape.

*** *** ***

Zaknafein let the body fall from his blade, relishing in the sickening sound as the cold metal came free from the dead weight of the kill. Blood stained his swords, a testament to the power he had within his marrow.

"Good hunting!" a drow called to him, finishing up a kill of his own. Zak saluted him with a darkened blade. The moonlight came free of a cloud above them, and the cold moon shone down its radiance upon the blade.

Zaknafein staggered back, his eyes wide in horror. He nearly lost his footing in the darkness of the camp, nearly tripping and falling to the bloodstained ground beneath him.

He looked at his swords again, twin angels of death.

What had he done?

*** *** ***

Sapek and Dessaven had made it to the forest. They ran on, following those before them. They could only trust that their predecessors knew the way to safety.

"How far will the follow us, Sapek?" Dessaven stammered, gasping for air. Nevina was screaming in her arms.

Sapek shook his head, tightening his clutch on Dessaven's hand. "I don't know," was his reply.

Did it even matter? They would run for an eternity, never ceasing, as long as they escaped the drow.

Sapek heard the dying moans of a man behind him and he knew that the drow were not far. Many of the people in the merchants' caravan were ahead of them, nearly free from the pursuing drow.

"Dessaven," Sapek panted, still running. Dessaven didn't even glance at him as he tugged at her hand, pulling ahead slightly. "Go with Nevina and keep running."

Dessaven's head flashed to her husband, her eyes sharp and intense. "Where are you going?"

Sapek turned his head to glimpse behind him. The shadows of nightly attackers were nearly invisible as they blended with the umbrage of the trees. The drow were swift in their hunt.

"I will hold them back," Sapek promised her. "There's no chance that you will make it to safety unless I give you more time."

Dessaven shook her head firmly, struggling to keep her husbands strong pace. "I will not leave you behind."

"Think of Nevina, Dess," Sapek pleaded, stopping suddenly, and drawing her close. They had such few precious seconds. "Go for her."

Dessaven stared into his clear eyes, so sure of his decision. "Find us when this massacre has ended," she breathed, tears lining her beautiful eyes.

Sapek smiled at her, kissing her passionately on the lips. Then he pushed her away sternly, hearing the drumming of drow feet marching towards them.

"Go!" he shouted at her. Dessaven spun on her heel, her long hair falling out of the scarf that had bound it so that it flowed behind her in waves of darkness.

She did not look back.