"Its even fowler smelling than I remember" Raven offered, the first to light his wand as I led us into the caves.
My group of warriors copied the motion, holding up their elegant magical conductors into the air as they spread out into the first of the enormous chambers. Scorpius was the only figure who paused on the flat rocks to stare out into the night. A breeze wafted through the trees of the haunted Romanian forest, dancing through his beautiful hair and rustling the folds of his elegant attire. Aurora placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him towards the stream of wizards now entering the cleft in the crags.
Inside were a winding series of passageways that formed a matrix like series of tunnels. These fed down and farther into the mountainside depths. Ancalagon and the other great wyrms departed to hunt for food while my troupe trained, but would return when we needed to depart. I nodded into my mind and merely began to follow Mercury into the gloom. The little feline ball of fluff led the way, but not before moving to Scor to nuzzle his leg fondly first.
"Ugh, is that bat guano?" Izanami cursed, her expensive shoes slipping in the muck. She waved her wand and her heels were swiflty transformed into rubber boots.
"Stay close everyone. There are many side passageways and it is easy to get lost."
For the most part, those newest to the order grouped together with whom they knew socially, gossiping and sharing what excitement joining the Jade Rabbits would mean for each of them. As we continued through the underground I heard whispered skepticism amidst their chatter too, but that was to be expected. I had dumped a lot onto them in one night after all.
To my surprise, Mizuki and Aurora came to find me at the head of the group, complimenting me for my achievements at such an early age. They were much older than I and amongst the most crucial players key players in my game. To have their reassurances brought me more peace than I thought possible.
"Why have you brought an entire flock of followers to my cave! I teach you one spell and you use it to create an army for yourself!" Niime cursed as the twenty two of us flooded into the dank, bone strewn section of tunnel system that housed Niime's hut and mushroom gardens. Without pause I raced up to the darkling Yaga and pulled her into a fierce hug. She swatted at me crankily, although had difficulty suppressing the smile that curled on her lips. She'd doubtless not been hugged in twenty or so years.
"Leave off me cretin. You'll dirty your dress." She chastised. "How did you get like this anyway?"
The Yaga sniffed at me animal like, her smile morphing into a scowl "Little whore! You smell like a boy." She hissed into the cave for everyone to hear.
"What a funny old witch you are Niime. I am a boy aren't I? You on the other hand smell like nettles and piss. Any reason you never clean up around here old hag?" I teased rudely, scowling back at her for the comment about my smell. The others all thought we were merely bantering with each other, but i noticed Scor's cheeks tinging pink in the low glow of the firelight and mushrooms. He knew exactly what the witch had meant by the smell of boy.
"Grandmama." Vivienne whispered from the back of the group. She stepped forward just as the Yaga turned to her kin. A moment passed as they observed each other.
"This little tramp knows me for less than a month and I get a hug from her. You, my granddaughter, greet me with but one word after thirty years of absence?" Niime questioned coldly. To my enormous surprise the tall Vivienne ran headlong to her grandmother. We watched the two tall dark elves embrace and a strange intimacy pushed the rest of us into awkward silence.
"Sorry about last time lad. I may have been a bit rough. The idiot with the green eyes hasn't abused the blood oath has he? I'll cut his throat if he's misused you." The Yaga crone asked of Raven as she withdrew from her granddaughters embrace.
"Hello again… Niime. I'll have you know Al would never abuse anyone."
"No? Then why are there a score of you here? According to the silly Lizard there were only eight of you when I summoned him two days ago. This is more people than i've seen in seventy years. I haven't beheld so many faces since the days I lived in Halvetheim." She noted, motioning her head towards the elegant stairs behind her hut. They were flanked by carved pillars of limestone with statues of tall warriors carved in front. Doubtless the steps descended into one of the great Svalta cities that lay underground.
"Niime, these are those most loyal to me. To my cause. We have great plans to—"
"—Plans to whaaaat? Shit in my stew? What does a band of fontling human babes think they're going to accomplish in the span of their short little lives? Hmm?"
"Maybe if you didn't interrupt me… old hag… you'd find out." I gritted out bitchily, forcing a strained smile at her.
"I liked you better as a boy Albus." She was smirking pettily my way. "You're much too beautiful like this. No wonder you smell like boy. Was it one of these fine fellows that you entertained tonight? Hmm?"
Max, Markus, Agi and Lorcan exchanged hushed snickering. I spun around to stare at them in annoyance, silencing the idiot boys with a glare.
"You think you're so funny don't you?"
"Why have you come then? If not to play word games with me." The witch continued, dropping a heavy log into the fire and sending embers and ash into the air. She sat and hauled a cauldron to heat before her, casually tossing pieces of dried meat and herbs into the metal container with her sharp talon like fingers.
My mouth fell open in shock for all my rabbits to see.
"Are you senile? YOU asked me here? Summoned me really! To make sure I wasn't turning people into slaves with the blood spell YOU taught me. To inspect the quality of my work! Didn't you? I brought them to assuage everyones fears. Now, after Ancalagon has dragged us here on your orders, you ask ME why i've come?" I yelled at the witch.
"They don't smell like slaves to me. You've done the magic well enough." She grumbled, waving me off as though I were a simpleton. The aged yaga continued to rip the leaves off of a strange red herb, tossing the leathery material into the boiling liquid.
She finally did chance a suspicious look up at her granddaughter then, spying the vial that glinted around her neck.
"Even you joined this fools quest eh? Vivi?"
"I have pledged myself to the two princes. That much is true."
"Bahhhhhh. Let me see this other prince then. I want to meet the boy the dragon saw through Albus's eyes. This Scccooooorrrpius everyone seems to love so much." She spat grouchily into the fire. "The rest of you can get comfortable. Since you've made the journey, I might as well hear out your plans. Perhaps i'll even teach you a few things while we're at it."
Scor stepped forward and placed himself to the Yaga's right just as the others used makeshift spells to turn animal bones into chairs or to clean off the logs and soften the rocks. The bird like woman stood again and grabbed my idiot by the chin, turning him this way and that. She scrutinized him as though he were an apple at the grocery store that might be bruised or blemished. Her feathered cloak shimmered as the inky black plumes caught the light.
"Great goddess he's beyond beautiful. Just like you. No wonder you keep him around." Niime joked, staring into his eyes. He smiled at her and closed his lids, merely waiting for her scrutiny to pass. She raised a brow over his lack of concern.
"You not afraid of a Yaga boy? Half of these babes quake down to their boots to behold a darkling blood witch. One of the Thriteen Yaga! I can smell the fear on them plain enough as though they were still eight and being read stories about me by their nannies. Especially the older ones. Yet you close your eyes while i have you right in my claws?" She hissed, digging her sharp nails more firmly into Scor's skin.
"If Al trusts me with you, I have nothing to fear. If Vivienne has not moved to protect me, I do not need protection." He exclaimed simply.
"Your trust in your whore princess is perhaps given a little too freely—"
Scor moved so fast that even Niime did not react in time. The white wand was jammed upwards into the Yagas throat like a dagger, keeping her from finishing the insult. In his left hand flashed the platinum unicorn blade that the Valois patriarch had just gifted him. Paladin's razor edge glittered ethereally in the dim crackle of the flames, its tip placed menacingly against the woman's heart.
"I find your crass crank irritably distasteful… crone. Do not insult Albus again to my face. Alright?"
The room stilled as everyone waited to see what would happen. The smoke from the fire shifted blue as a laugh bubbled forth from the wrinkled witch. Her eyes bulged suddenly with sickly frenzy even as her visage took on a wretched ecstasy. She quite simply looked as though she were about to destroy the boy in front of her. Instead she froze.
"Clever clever." She droned, peering more closely at the Scorpius shape in front of her. It broke apart into a crimson red pile of sand as the real Scor reappeared behind the crone with his wand held this time at the back of her head. "But you should look down at your feet." We all stared at where the old woman pointed. There, coiled around Scor's ankle, teeth bared and ready to bite, was a viper. It waited only on a twitch from its Yaga mistress.
"HA! You see how he fights for you? I didn't even threaten you, merely leveled an insult! I would keep this one very close if I were you Albus. Why is there no shackle on him i wonder?"
"He's shackled to me in other ways, as you very well know." I corrected, annoyed that she had mentioned the lack of blood oath to my group. I hoped they had not guessed at her implication but I was certain many were clever enough to figure it out. Nobody had been exempt from the oaths but Scor. I had hoped nobody would notice. I might have to make him swear now if only to placate the rest of the order.
She sighed, changing the subject much to my relief.
"I thought you to be the only one I'd be teaching. I don't intend to play school hen to all you chicks. Not for nothing."*
"Not for nothing. Shall I sing and dance for you? Or perhaps its treasure you desire?" I asked, ready to withdraw the sacred objects i'd brought along for tonights outing.
"I doubt very much you have anything that would interest me, Kthurst (Prince)"
"What do you know about these Niime?" I asked, pulling the black grimoire from my robes. That did get her attention. She squawked and reached for the object in my hand but Vivienne, Lorcan and Lysander as well as Scor and Charlie drew their wands at the old woman. She hissed distastefully, eyeing us carefully in the gloom of crackling shadows.
"I could kill half of you before you'd dented me. Even you fontlings."
She nodded at Ariana and the two sets of twins.
"What you possess here is of extreme value. Those books were written by the goddess herself. Before she even split herself into two. Understand? Ashera herself penned those words. Touched those pages with her divine hands."
"So it goes. In truth I found and read this one the night I met your brother's son."
"You what? Sylvarion? How did you?" Niime sputtered before catching herself. "You're much smarter than you look girl."
Niime smiled at me. It it had been my dark elf guest Syl who'd shared the Yaga's identity. Vivienne confirmed that her grandmother was indeed sister to the the Dark Elf King.
"Yes, well, there was a reason you liked me wasn't there?"
"I'm fast forgetting it." She joked. "Now… how much do these chickedy chicks know about all this myth, I wonder? Hmm?"
"What they know and what they believe are two different things. Until tonight I doubt any of them had met a true dark elf. Now they have met one of the thirteen Yaga. I should think their minds are opening up to all sorts of possibilities."
I looked up to search the new recruits and their faces. The older wizards in particular were taking in the scene with avid interest.
"If you have read that book and were not driven insane or flat out incinerated… you are a fontling as certain as rain. If you read Perceus's book then you are a Peverell."
"If I can read this one?" I asked, retrieving the pink tome next. She bleated at the sight of it.
"You have two of the Goddess's volumes?"
"I have four. All on my person."
"You lieeeee!" She hissed, almost spitting in my face. Her hawk like eyes almost rolled back into her head.
"He read that one already, although I'd wager from the amount of time the book was open that his mind only processed ten percent of the contents. It nearly killed us to crack them open. I happened to be in the room for it." I motioned to Scor who proffered the blue book in front of her.
"Avalon…" She whispered in shock. "And Rhoyne."
"Indeed."
"We have Hecate's as well."
"Are you just showing off your treasure to this old Yaga? Am I the only one you can boast to who even knows what these are?" She chuckled. "To be honest if you weren't under the protection of that giant wyrm outside, i'd reconsider killing you and your friends just for the privilege of stealing them. These relics hail from the very age of dawn."
"As does this." I challenged, withdrawing my sword Exalted from my side. The witch beheld the jewel Sol and tears began to form in her eyes as her fingers danced delicately a hairs breath from Sol's surface. I could tell her thoughts were racing but this time she gave no hint or glimmer away of her ancient knowledge.
"We have a memory of a duel we'd like you to watch. Its between Scorpius and I. I want you to see our martial potential and I want to know if you can train the rest of my friends here. Teach us as much as you can about martial magic. I also have developed a dread fascination with blood magic if you'd be so generous as to teach me some of that as well."
"In exchange for what? I know you wouldn't trade such artifacts for mere lessons. Even from a master."
I cracked open the pink book on my knee and Scor leapt back in fear. Viv and Niime also flinched.
"Are you crazy boy? You think you're a Rhoyne too?" She cackled. I smiled and looked down at the first page bravely. The entire room began to shift as pink light erupted from the Tome's aging parchment. Faeric script poured into my eyes as laughter and crying and whispering words of love echoed into the cavern. A hailstorm of glowing butterflies exploded from the object, swarming the room with their fluttering iridescent wings. I could feel my whole body on fire as my skin glowed pink like the time Scor and I had fallen into the fountain. I shut the book when several spells and foundational knowledge on the nature of Love magic had entered my mind. It was like a drug to experience, yet I dared not keep the book open for too long.
"NOW THAT IS INTERESTING!" I yelled through the rush. My heart was racing into the now darkened cavern.
'Can you hear me Lily?' I asked into my sister's mind.
'Al?' She returned quietly.
'Thats not the half of it. I'll tell you more about it when we're alone. For now stay alert.'
"No, not for these artifacts great Yaga but in exchange for an opportunity to restore your people to the topside world. Their days of hiding may be at an end if i can achieve my other goals."
Whispers erupted amongst some of my royal inductees, frightened that I might dare to invite the dark elves back into the magical world.
"Syl… you and your brother the Prince can vouch for me. Can you not? Your majesty..." I shot into the dark cave.
The darkling boy emerged from the shadows, he and his royal brother had been hiding at the top of the hidden stairs. The Yaga bowed in surprise at the impromptu visit from her nephew the Prince.
"I wasn't expecting to see you two so soon. When Syl said it was urgent that I meet you at the entrance to Halvetheim I knew it must be important."
"Thank you for traveling from the capitol, Prince Sylvarion. We had much to share with you." Scorpius offered. Bowing to the prince of the Dark Elves.
"My Jade Rabbits. I present to you the future King of the Svaltalfar. Sylvarion Argetlam - Silver Lance. The one who gifted me with the wand excalibur."
Gasps again from my new orderlings. I pulled the wand from my robes and held it aloft to the prince who had gifted it to me. He withdrew it and placed it to his ear as if listening for a story it might tell.
"Majesty. I am Raven of house Greengrass. I am acting field marshal and vizier to Albus, the seventh prince. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Alexander offered, extending a hand courageously towards the six and a half foot tall handsome figure. Alex blushed which did not go unnoticed by our new guests.
"We are well met. Young Vizier."
"Markus, Izanagi, Izanami, Lorcan and Lysander, step forward please." Alex added imperiously. He will do well in charge.
"Majesty, i would present you with the heirs to some of the most powerful and prominent families of the wizarding world. All now allies of Al and Scor's."
I witnessed an exchange of pleasantries and bows although everyone including Sylvarion looked confused at the point of this meeting. The old royalty of the wizards had all but enslaved the wood elves and sought to do the same with the light and dark elves. There was no great love between our peoples. In fact it was fear of the royals that had driven the Svaltalfa under ground in the first place.
"I wanted you here so i could assure you that we mean no harm to your people. If my princes's goals reach fruition, we wanted to assure you that we would maintain the peace between our realms. Perhaps there might be room for even more of a cooperative detente between us, should Albus and his order one day lead the surface world."
Niime finally spoke up. "You want to force my prince to side with you? You wish to have him order me to teach you lot? For free?"
"Meeeee? I would never dream of such a thing, teacher. That your granddaughter and nephew are already predisposed to me and that they are here… is mere coincidence."
"Doubtless, whore" Niime smiled. "Fine… fine! I will teach your band of rabbits to fight, although I smell battle on a few of you already." She added, pointing first to Sorenson and then to Gideon and Charlie. Gideon lay half asleep against a log, unfazed and unafraid by any of this. "You will all come here regularly when time permits so that I may train you. Or my sister Yaga Kuvaru will train you at her camp beneath your forbidden forest. It is closer to your school if memory serves."
Sylvarion approached Scorpius then, a hush overtaking the cave as the crackling fire became the only source of sound.
"You were broken and dying when I met you, Ljosalfar fontling. Do you know what this prince did in order to bring you back?" The imposing dark elf asked in english. I had half expected him to speak in faeric.
"I… was told… your highness. I'm not sure I truly understand... but I was told."
"Then you may be as smart as your friend here. Albus risked his life to heal you. You would not have survived the injuries of your fall that night had he not sung a galdrar for you. In truth if he was not a fontling of the Rhoyne it most likely would have killed him. I hope you thanked him greatly for his troubles."
Guilt sank into Scorpius's face as memories of our fight the next morning must have rushed back. His ring had almost hit me in the eye when it bounced off the stone floor.
"I have yet to express the depths of my gratitude. Maybe one day I will have the means to show him."
Sylvarion nodded before turning back to me. We all discussed our ideas, our goals, our plans and hopes after that. The members of the order got to know each other and the dark elf who would be contributing to their education. Finally, with plans to visit Niime during the next full moon, we departed, making the journey back to the forest and then on dragon back to the now quiet Palace gardens.
"What a night! Scor can you believe we got everyone to join?" I sighed in relief and astonishment as our door closed shut behind us. I turned back to face him but before I could do or say anything else, I felt crushing lips descend against mine. Scor tore at my clothes hungrily as my eyes shot open in surprise. To my further surprise I began kissing him back with a need that matched his. I wrenched open his shirt, ripping the buttons off in the process. He didn't care or notice until my hands splayed against his bare chest. I turned back against him and felt his hand unzip my dress with ease.
"He was right, I never thanked you for your healing song." He whispered into my ear, his lips twisting into a smile as the fabric fell to the ground.
"So you're going to thank me now?" I teased.
"Over and over In truth."
A shock of pleasure ran through me as we lost ourselves in the early hours of morning.
Editor here. I' rushed to get this chapter out so hopefully there aren't too many mistakes. I have to pester the author to go through his story archive and retrieve the material every week so I can get it up to publishable standard. He wrote at least another hundred pages but he's busy being a fabulous bish in NYC... so it's up to yours truly to make sure the story gets finished. Anyway please leave some feedback if you're enjoying the boys and their little love story