The Brotherhood (The Eirensgarth Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  “As much as I desire revenge, that isn’t what this is about,” Paige answered. “Olivian is still out there, and I have to get her back.”

  “So you would ask us to march on the greatest force in all the kingdoms of men?”

  “Whether you come or not is immaterial to me,” Paige insisted. Robert had a slightly worried expression on his brow, but he didn’t interject. Paige continued, “I’m going with or without anyone; I am my sister’s only hope.”

  “And just where would we be running off to save your poor damsel of a sister?” the elf demanded. Paige bit her lip, took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

  “They’re taking her to Aschin.”

  The elf’s gaze hardened. She saw the corner of his mouth twitch.

  “Indeed?”

  “Yes. She’s being taken there by a man called Feridar.”

  The elf’s fist clenched.

  “The crown prince has your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you intend to storm Aschin itself?” he asked. When she nodded, he shook his head. “That’s a good one, that’s really good. You should be a jester.”

  “And you should be a Burgess,” she spat. The elf looked amused. Paige felt her heart start sinking. She quickly looked to Robert.

  “Damsel in distress, a black-hearted prince, and a matter of honor—seems like our kind of adventure, Din?” Robert asked, staring the elf down. Dinendale barely blinked.

  “It would seem so,” the elf muttered.

  “I know it’s a lot to ask, but Robert says you know the layout. That you’ve been to Aschin before?”

  Paige saw Dinendale’s jaw clench as he turned his gaze to her own. His eyes were cold and unfeeling, a sort of steeled deadness only a life filled with anger could forge.

  “Do you?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Do you understand how much it is you ask?”

  “I can’t pretend to know what happened to you there,” Paige rushed, “or the things you had to endure, but—”

  “But nothing, Alatarian,” Dinendale hissed, knuckles popping in the fist he was clenching. “You are a fool if you think you can waltz right in to the dungeons of Aschin and then just slip away with your prize. That prison is a hell, and Hell does not give up its dead.”

  “It gave you up, didn’t it?”

  “I clawed my way out. That shouldn’t have happened at all. It was a miracle.”

  “Which is why with your help, the more chance of success—”

  The elf leapt up from the table. “If your sister even makes it to Aschin, she’ll be dead within a month. The prince often tires of his playthings. He’ll toss her in the trash pile the moment he’s done with her.”

  “I can’t just leave her to that fate!” Paige also stood. “I already told you, I’m going one way or the other, so I really don’t give two Cops whether you come or stay here and let that Empire walk all over these lands and its people.”

  “You want some help? Some advice from someone who’s been there? Cut your losses. Head out and find a new life for yourself.”

  “Like you?” Paige spat. She was angry now, beyond any notion of feeling desperate by this point. “I can’t leave her to the hands of that barbarian! She’ll be tortured, and it’s my fault! He knows I have it!”

  The elf glared at her, his brown eyes flashing.

  “He knows you have what?” he growled.

  Paige realized she’d said too much. She looked at Robert. He shrugged his shoulders and mouthed the words, “Go ahead.” Paige took another deep breath to steady her nerves.

  “They attacked my home because of this,” she explained, reaching into her shirt to pull the leather scroll out, “and if she’s still alive, who knows what he’ll do to try and get it?”

  The eyes of all of the warriors were glued to the ancient scroll. The elf reached out. Paige hesitated a moment before handing it to him. He gazed at it as his brow furrowed.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “My Papa...” Paige started, but she stopped, fearing she would start choking on any words to follow.

  “Your father was the outlander chief?”

  She nodded, and the elf looked over to Robert, concern and worry etched into his face.

  “Alaire?” he asked. Robert bowed his head.

  “So much blood for a single piece of leather,” the hermit muttered.

  “Whatever is written there, brother,” Jesnake said softly, “it was worth dying for, and sending half an army to retrieve.”

  “Of that there is no doubt, Jesnake,” Din replied, glaring at the scroll. “And Feridar knows you have it?”

  “Yes,” Paige choked. “He saw me with it right before… before….”

  “And that’s why we need you,” Robert interjected before Paige lost control of her voice. The elf looked up at him.

  “So for all we know, if she’s still alive, Feridar could be using her as bait to draw this young woman out?”

  “Aye,” Robert said. “And you know what happens to people in Feridar’s grasp. We have to break her out. You’re the only one who knows the inner halls of the Keep. Without knowing that, we might as well knock on the front door for all the good it will do.”

  “They had only laid the foundation and structural walls,” Dinendale said. “There’s no guarantee I’ll recognize anything even if we manage to get inside.”

  “Curse it, Din! That’s still a better knowledge than any of us have!” Robert blurted. “And that girl? Olivian? This young lady’s sister? She’s going to be trapped there until she starves to death or he gets that scroll. Is that what you want?”

  “Of course not,” the elf snapped, pain seeping into his hard eyes.

  “Don’t let Feridar keep doing this. Think about what happened last time.”

  Dinendale rubbed his brow, a look of pain and exhaustion etched into it. “That was different—”

  “No one left behind. That was what we said,” Robert muttered. “She may not be our family, but can you in good conscience leave her in the clutches of that man knowing what you know?”

  The elf turned and stared at Paige for what seemed like an eternity. The only sound around them was the occasional pop of the dim torches and the sound of the last few remaining crickets serenading the forest around them. Dinendale looked hard at Robert, as if he had said too much, then over to the dwarf.

  “Broadside?”

  The dwarf perked up, eyes alert.

  “Is there a pack that will fit me in that pile?” Dinendale asked, his eyes glancing over to Paige.

  “At last! Some action!” Duelmaster whooped.

  The others chuckled and began to scurry around like ants on a forgotten breadcrumb. Paige felt gratitude and relief wash over her like a hot bath. For the first time since the massacre, she felt the tension ease a bit. Robert offered his hand to support Paige as she sagged to the table in relief.

  “Pack up, then head to bed,” Dinendale said mirthlessly. “It will be an early morning tomorrow. Call your cots, gentlemen.”

  With that, he moved to the far end of the room and began picking arrows out of a barrel and inspecting them. The others quickly addressed their own packs and began pulling blankets out and tossing them on the circles of cots, stoking the coals in the basins as they passed them.

  “You alright?” Robert asked, beaming. She nodded, looking back towards where the elf was stuffing arrows into a leather quiver.

  “More than I can say,” she assured, giving Robert a quick hug of gratitude. “I’ll be right back. I just need to go say a personal ‘thank you.’” Paige turned back to follow the elf to the far end of the stockade. The moss beneath her feet seemed extra spongy, or maybe it was just that she felt so much lighter on her feet. She approached the elf who had just finished tying the retainer cord on his quiver and was now picking out a bow from a stack to his left. He looked up, his blank expression boring into her.

  “Can I help you?” he asked in a calm, even voice.


  “Actually, I wanted to ask you the same question,” she replied, looking him straight in the eye. “Seems to be a lot to do, and I’m ready to do what it takes to get going.”

  “I can pack my own bag, thanks,” he muttered, testing the arm of a small yew bow.

  “Well, then, I guess I’ll leave you to it,” Paige said awkwardly after a few moments of silence. “But I wanted to tell you personally how grateful I am—”

  The elf waved her off.

  “You can tell me how grateful you are once we’ve broken into Aschin,” he said. “I haven’t done anything yet.”

  “You said you’d help, and that counts for something to me,” Paige insisted, shrugging. The elf grunted but didn’t offer any further conversation.

  “I suppose I’ll see you in the morning then,” Paige asserted. The elf nodded and cinched the yew bow to the quiver with a set of leather thongs.

  “Get some rest, Paige of the Alatarians,” he said quietly. “We’ve got a long way to go, and if we’re going to make it before winter snows start settling in, we’ll have to make good time early while it counts.”

  Paige nodded and walked back over to Robert, who was adding the finishing touches to a giant nest of quilts piled up around his cot. He motioned to the cot next to his own, which had several of its own quilts stacked on top of it.

  “Saved you a cot,” he offered. “You’ll want to bundle up; those coals will help but it’s going to get frigid by dawn’s first light.”

  After taking time to remove her moccasins, Paige unfolded the quilts gratefully and crawled in between them. She folded and placed her moccasins at her head so they would at least be warm in the morning. The other fellows were also stashing their gear near their cots and settling in for the night. Paige lay her head on her makeshift pillow and looked over at Robert, whose head was only an arm’s reach away, burrowed into his quilts.

  “Robert?”

  “Mhm?”

  “Thanks.”

  Robert looked up and smiled his jagged tooth smile from behind a molehill of patchwork blankets. “Happy to help.”

  “Wake me as soon as you’re up,” she demanded, lips pressed in a serious line that meant business.

  He chuckled. “As soon as I can,” he promised.

  Chapter 6

  Into The Wild

  A sleepy sigh escaped her lips as Paige allowed her eyes to adjust to the morning sun. Warily, she wondered why it was so quiet and peaceful. For a moment, she feared the men had abandoned her altogether. A gruff sneeze dispelled her fear. Paige looked to her left where the men stood at the large table, packs at their feet, ready to be hefted. Loaded with provisions, they stood chatting in low voices.

  Calebna, the Duelmaster, looked her way and grinned. “At long last, the sleeping princess awakens! And I didn’t even have to kiss her!” The others chuckled as Paige’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  “How long have you been ready?” she demanded. Twostaves looked at the sunlight streaming through the willow branches all around them.

  “About an hour,” he answered casually. Paige leapt up, flinging the toasty quilts away in haste.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” she fumed, indignant and embarrassed.

  “We decided you needed the rest,” Robert said, shifting his pack.

  “But you said you’d wake me when you were ready—” she started, breaking off as she noticed Robert’s smug look.

  “No. I said I’d wake you when I could,” he replied, “and I couldn't bring myself to interrupt your much-needed slumber. Need I remind you that you’re still recovering? The trail is gonna be rough and long. You’ll thank me in an hour.”

  Paige stomped over to where they were standing. Jesnake held out her leather pack tightly bound with a cord of sinew. It now contained blankets, a quiver of arrows, an unstrung bow made of a hickory sapling, and a bundle of food that Paige hoped might last her a week. She begrudgingly took it from him, still fuming over being the cause of their delay. In haste, she slipped the pack over her shoulders and cinched the waistband snugly around her.

  “Let’s move out,” Dinendale jerked his head in the direction of the forest. After treading carefully down the tree, they set out to a slow gait as they waded through the thick vegetation of the forest. Hiking through the dense growth did not lend itself to much conversation, at least on Paige’s end. Uncertain around her new friends, she opted rather to study them and get a feel for how they meshed together as a unit. Twostaves and Broadside jabbered boasts or muttered complaints as fast as they could think of them, specifically to each other. When they weren’t talking, Paige could only hear the soft tread of leather-soled boots and moccasins on the forest floor, and the sound of birds hiding high above in the shadows of the trees. At one point, a strong, fierce-looking hawk flapped high over head, silver feathers glinting in the sunlight as it soared on the warm winds just under the canopy.

  After several hours of hiking, Paige fell into step with Duelmaster.

  “So, exactly where are we going?” she asked.

  The tall fellow looked at her and smiled. “Well, I figured we’d go for a bout around the pond and then have a spot of tea in the shade of a large oak.” He grinned.

  “No, seriously. I know the destination, but I’ve never been out of the Wild. Are you sure we’re headed in the right direction?”

  “I hope so!” Calebna winked. “But to answer your question, Aschin is in the southeast near the fork of two rivers. We must pass through a long, narrow valley that twists its way through the mountains to get to the fortress. It’s a long journey and would be easier if we could go in a straight line.”

  “And I assume there is no road?”

  “I’ve heard there is one now,” Dulemaster said. “They just finished cutting a road from Franghal, an old mine the Shahir saw fit to ‘liberate’ about two years ago. But I’d wager it has far too many outposts and patrols along it to make it a viable route. We may wind up finding it eventually, but for now we will have to use the valleys and passes through the mountains.”

  They continued walking along as the sound of cookware clanged against a pack. She jumped over a particularly large tree root, taking the hand Duelmaster offered in assistance. She smiled at him, his toothy grin poking out from his tanned complexion.

  “So, what’s the story behind all this?” She gestured to the solemn group. “I’ve never seen men of such varied races intermingling, let alone cooperating in this way.”

  Duelmaster smiled. “The group has its flaws. Well, all right, the only big flaw is our insufficient supply of pleasurable company.”

  Paige chuckled. “I’d noticed. But I’ve never heard of elves and dwarves getting along at all, much less working together.”

  “We all have our own stories, our own reasons for joining the band,” Calebna said, shifting his pack. “Me, I was born far to the northeast. My father and mother were of different heartwood.”

  “Come again?”

  Duelmaster snickered.

  “As I’m sure you heard earlier, I am a dryad—a tree nymph. My mother was as kind as the soft maple, and my father as strong as the weathered oak.”

  He dug around in his wild hair for a moment and pulled something out of the tangled mess, handing it to Paige.

  “Is that… is that a twig?” Paige asked, slightly off-put. She held up a tiny twig with a single green leaf growing off the end. Duelmaster laughed.

  “Told you! Tree nymph! Gotta keep those branches trimmed if I’m going to pass for a human in these parts.”

  “Do all of you grow like real trees!?”

  “Sort of. We also have big families. I had two brothers, you know!” He paused. His expression grew more somber. “One was killed trying to stop a party of settlers from clearing the forest that was once my home. My other brother has not spoken to me for several years. Last I heard, he was in the south, past the Vidla-Dûn river, somewhere in the great plains. Why he went there is beyond me; that place is disgusting,
flat for miles. You can see your enemy coming from a great distance. Where’s the challenge in that?”

  Paige shrugged.

  Duelmaster continued, “After my home was destroyed, the rest of my family slowly disappeared. I migrated south, trying to find a new place to be miserable. One day while I was resting near a brook, pondering what would become of me, I spied a slightly chunky fellow picking mushrooms.”

  “So you met Robert?”