Across the Fray Read online

  Across the Fray

  By B.T. Narro

  Jon Oklar:

  Book 5

  Final

  Copyright 2021 by B.T. Narro

  Cover and Map by Beatriz Garrido

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is coincidental. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the copyright holder.

  CHAPTER ONE

  A woman hovered high above the fortress. I seemed to be the first to notice her. I had felt her mana above me before I glanced up, expecting to find Failina. I was wrong. This was not a human or a demigod.

  Michael came to my side and joined me in glancing up. “A fine time for her to show up,” he muttered sarcastically.

  We had just fought Rohaer’s army back last night. Our fortress needed many repairs, but they were manageable so long as we had time.

  We didn’t know when Rohaer would strike again.

  They had not come to collect their dead, most of whom were scattered outside our broken-down walls. Some of our soldiers had suggestions about how we could use the bodies of our enemies as a barrier against those who still lived—a wall of fire they’d have to cross the next time they wanted to get to us. And there would definitely be a next time.

  While most of these comments were made just to vent some anger, the bodies were a real problem. A sickness was spreading across the southern kingdom, a pox that seemed fatal to most who caught it.

  For all we knew, the infection could already be spreading among our archers and mages. I could heal it away, but getting rid of a sickness that severe took investigation and a great amount of effort. We didn’t have time unless people were showing symptoms. We had to prepare for the next attack.

  The elven woman floating above seemed to be looking around for someone in particular. As she lowered herself into our fort, she drew more looks. The intense wind spell that kept her afloat kicked up dust and forced most of us to shield our eyes as she landed.

  The bothered expression on her face told me she was not here to help us. We were just people in her way, her elven eyes peering right through us humans.

  “What do you want, Eslenda?” I inquired.

  “Where is Souriff?” she asked, her tone as cold as mine.

  “Why?”

  Eslenda ignored me as she walked toward the tent where our leaders were meeting. I didn’t know if she sensed Souriff with the other demigods within, or if she guessed they were there because of the size of the tent.

  Last night’s battle still felt more like a nightmare to me than it did reality. It wasn’t so much the fighting that seemed unreal but the betrayal after we were successful.

  Harold Chespar, and the foot soldiers and sorcerers he had brought here, were a large reason why almost all of us had survived Rohaer’s attack on our meager fortress. Even before we could claim victory, however, many of Harold’s men attempted to kill our king. One of them was the brother of Kataleya, Alecott Yorn. Hadley and Kataleya had stopped him before I could get into the king’s tent, where I had to heal a grievous wound Alecott had given the princess because she had stood in his way.

  Harold’s army was bigger than ours. The reason for this was not because of better leadership. It was because Harold had deep pockets, while our king had spent everything he had on getting us this far in the war. Up until two years ago, our king was just a rich noble. He’d led a rebellion against the corrupt king at the time and succeeded in dethroning him. After it was over, our king was unable to continue paying for the army he’d recruited. They disbanded. He could’ve taxed the people of Lycast to keep his army whole, but the people in his kingdom had already been sucked dry by the corrupt king and were likely to rebel if forced to give more so soon. So King Nykal recruited us instead: We were eight young men and women—nine, including Hadley—who had an affinity for sorcery and only needed food, shelter, and a tutor to become great.

  Harold claimed that our king had put all of his focus and coin into us, his small group of sorcerers, and that he didn’t care about his kingdom. It couldn’t be further from the truth. We still had hope against Rohaer because of this small group of sorcerers.

  Our king, Nykal, might not have the coin to pay for an army as large as Harold’s, but he had the support of everyone else whose loyalty hadn’t yet been bought.

  Rohaer had to be stopped at all costs. This was something Harold and his people didn’t seem to care about as much as their desire to coronate him as their new king. We had to stop Valinox and his massive army from getting into Lycast, where they would pillage and fortify, spreading the corruption that was dteria all across our land and slowly destroying our forces until there was no longer enough of us left to stop it.

  As we—Nykal’s small army—now remained in Rohaer and would hold back Valinox, Harold marched his men back north, probably to fortify the castle in the capital and claim kingship over Lycast. It would leave us wedged between him and Valinox.

  I wondered if Harold was greedy enough, or perhaps stupid enough, to sabotage our supply lines during his return trip. Without them, we would surely need to fall back. That would bring Valinox to him, something he clearly didn’t want. As big as Harold’s army was, even he could not stand against Valinox and his sorcerers without us. If Harold had even an ounce of intelligence, he should know that he had to work with us rather than against us, even if he wanted our king dead. However, that meant we had to work with him as well.

  Harold and his traitors were the lesser of two evils, and we could find a way to deal with them after Valinox was dead.

  Michael and I followed Eslenda toward the main tent in our fort. We walked near the interior of the southern wall, its ramparts sitting mostly intact amid the rubble. Byron was in command of repairs, but with all of his men stopping to watch this elf strut across the blood-soaked dirt, he, too, paused to watch and wonder what the hell she was doing here, now of all times.

  There were no guards outside the tent where our leaders met. None had been needed after the betrayal was over, but I was starting to wonder if that was still true. I stayed close to Eslenda as she made her way to the front of the tent, still ignoring my presence.

  I would’ve thought Eslenda and I had become close enough to call each other friends after everything we had been through in Curdith Forest. We had fought together on more than one occasion against enemies I thought we shared, but she had not come to help us during any of our recent struggles against Rohaer.

  “Souriff, I must speak with you,” the elf said as she lifted the front flap of the tent.

  “What is it?” I heard Souriff respond from within.

  “Not here. It is urgent. Please come.”

  I had heard enough after that. I was standing right behind Eslenda as she turned around.

  “Whatever you have to say to Souriff, you can say it here,” I told her.

  “This is a private matter between the demigod of dvinia and her elves.”

  Her elves? I thought. I wanted to inform Eslenda that, first of all, Souriff had been putting her efforts toward helping us humans for the last year and that nothing was going to change that. Second, Eslenda hadn’t been privy to the information Airinold had shared with us about the history of demigods and the possibility that they may not be born from a god. Basael might merely be a powerful being whose hunger for control had done nothing to pacify his quarreling offspring.

  The more I had learned about the demigods, the more I believed that what Airinold told us was true. There might be nothing godly about them after all. It was still easier to address them as such, because they certainly weren’t mortal in the same way t
hat we were, but “demigod” was a bit too flattering for beings like Souriff.

  Eslenda looked at Souriff in a way I had never seen Eslenda look at any of us. It was the first time she had appeared humble.

  “What’s wrong?” Souriff asked, then gave a glance and noticed the gathering crowd around us. “You can tell me here.”

  Eslenda lowered her voice and spoke in Elvish. She didn’t say much, uttering no more than ten words to my untrained ears. Then she stopped and looked at Souriff as if it would be enough to convince her of whatever she wanted Souriff to do.

  When Souriff’s stern features remained unchanged to the elf’s obvious plea, Eslenda spoke again. This time she included Souriff’s name in her short statement.

  Souriff straightened to stand as tall as I was. She appeared proud as if not only beckoned for duty but eager to prove how capable she was. I had hardly seen this side of her. She usually gave us attitude as she dealt with our requests, not only in her voice but in the way she often glanced past us, as if eager to be done with whatever we requested of her.

  Souriff gave a single nod, and Eslenda grew a smile.

  “Give me a moment,” Souriff told the elf.

  “I will be waiting.” Eslenda lifted herself into the air with wind, not showing a care in the world about the disturbance it caused us on the ground below her.

  She had been a powerful elf when I had first met her, no doubt capable of lifting herself with wind, but she had never flown in front of me before. She had probably never practiced the skill—landing was the hardest part, anyway. Now that had changed, clearly. What was even clearer was that she didn’t care what happened to us here. She obviously meant to take Souriff away from us, and it seemed like it was going to work.

  I wanted to yell at Eslenda as she flew off. How could she have claimed to want to stop dteria—it was the very reason she’d fought beside us—and now she couldn’t even pretend to care about our cause?

  Michael, after witnessing everything I had seen, had decided to step into the nearby tent of our leaders. “I think all of you would like to know that Eslenda seems to be taking Souriff away.”

  “What did she tell you, Souriff?” I asked as her two siblings hurried out of the tent first.

  She ignored me, turning instead to them.

  “What does this elf want?” Airinold asked.

  “Her people are dying from the pox,” Souriff said. “I need to help them. I’m going with her to Evesfer.”

  “For how long?” Airinold asked before I could. I had grown to trust him and his sister Failina. Even though Airinold had no ability with sorcery ever since he had almost died within Gourfist’s body, he had made up for it with a strong resistance to the dteria of his brother Valinox. But more than that, he had brought order to our chaotic situation by standing with me and a few others in the front lines when Rohaer attacked.

  “The pox has spread across their entire country,” Souriff answered. “It will take months for me to get rid of it all.”

  “The war could be over by then,” Airinold replied.

  “I know. You’ll have to finish it without me.”

  “Souriff, no,” Failina objected.

  I glanced up to see that Eslenda had not flown far. She was hovering, no doubt waiting for Souriff to join her in leaving us. Now the elf was headed back down. She landed rather roughly.

  “Souriff is not to be toyed with any longer by you humans,” Eslenda announced to our large group of hundreds. “You have already done enough.”

  “What could you possibly mean by that?” I asked in frustration. “We’re trying to stop Valinox and his spread of dteria, something you once fought for.”

  “If that is your only concern,” she replied, “then why did you and Failina protect Airinold when Souriff attempted to kill him?”

  I felt a needle down my spine. “You were there?”

  “Of course I was.”

  “And yet you did nothing to help us!” I said. “Gourfist could’ve killed one of us. Why would you stand by and watch?”

  “I arrived at the end, when Gourfist was already dead and Airinold was reborn. I watched all of you fight to spare him when Souriff was the only one who wanted him dead. He created dteria, and yet you and Failina defended him. Now he is here with the rest of you, witches and dark mages among you—I can smell the dteria over the stench of death. Lycast is no better than Rohaer.” She glanced at Souriff. “Our demigod had no choice but to join you to fight against Valinox, but mankind is lost. You are doomed even with the help of Souriff. The elves are not. We die without her.”

  “Souriff, this is your fight,” Failina said. “With us.”

  “While I don’t agree with everything Eslenda said,” Souriff replied, “it is true that I am needed.”

  “The sick are dying as we speak,” Eslenda said as she touched Souriff’s back.

  Souriff nodded. The two of them took off, leaving us all staring up in shock.

  “Wait,” I muttered. It might’ve been too late for her to hear me, but it wasn’t too late for me to catch up.

  I wrapped dvinia around my waist and hurled myself after them. Once in the air, I corrected my trajectory with another push of my mind on the sorcery around my hips and thighs.

  “Wait!” I yelled.

  Eslenda and Souriff turned in the air. Both appeared disappointed to see me.

  “I want to speak with Souriff alone,” I told Eslenda as I hovered in front of them.

  Eslenda glanced sideways at Souriff as if I was nothing but an annoyance.

  “Just a moment,” Souriff said, and Eslenda appeared surprised. “I won’t be long,” Souriff added.

  “I will be waiting, demigod.” Eslenda spoke respectfully, then let herself down to the ground.

  I pointed at a clearing below and hovered over, landing near the beginning of the forest that surrounded our fort. The same men charged with building our fort had cleared much of the dense woods before I had arrived. It was here we had dug trenches and set traps for our enemies—Valinox’s men, who Souriff and I had fought back together.

  It wasn’t much of a surprise that she was ready to give up everything she had been working toward. She wasn’t that much different from Valinox. She was arrogant and incredibly strong. She wasn’t like Airinold or Failina. She cared little about humanity, just enough to ensure we weren’t all destroyed or enslaved by dark mages loyal to Valinox. She even shared Valinox’s narcissistic trait. She didn’t want anyone else to be as powerful as her. But there was one important thing that made her different from Valinox. She had stood with us, until now.

  “I know you are leaving,” I said. “I’m not going to try to change your mind, but you still have a chance to do something good for us before you go.”

  “What can I do for you, Jon?”

  I was surprised that she seemed eager to help. Perhaps she felt guilty about abandoning us after all.

  “If what Airinold told us is true, you didn’t create dvinia, but you did connect yourself to mana in some way to make dvinia more accessible to us.”

  She nodded. “I do believe his words to be true. It was too long ago that I thought I created dvinia, but the more I have pondered on it, the more I believe it already existed in some form before I changed mana to my will.”

  “With that being the case, there must be something you can tell me about dvinia.”

  “Something like what?”

  “Something that will give me a better chance against Valinox. Something that no one has discovered yet.”

  “There is nothing like that,” she answered quickly, as if by reflex. “If that is all you have to ask, then I cannot help you. I’m sorry, Jon.” She looked over her shoulder at Eslenda waiting a good distance from us.

  I didn’t believe Souriff. “You haven’t shared any secrets with me because you have the same problem as Valinox. You don’t want anyone to become as powerful as you are, but Valinox has already surpassed you and your siblings. He is a bigger threat
than I could ever be to you. Help me take him down, even if you won’t be here to do so yourself.”

  “Like I said earlier,” she replied, “I connected myself to dvinia centuries ago. The only intricacies to dvinia that I could possibly remember from that long ago would be methods of dvinia that I used frequently. I have forgotten the others, and there must be a reason for that. They aren’t useful.”

  “But the only other spell you use besides the base spell is Grab, which is just a slight variation of the base spell. Meanwhile, I’ve seen your sister create a snowstorm. I’ve even witnessed Leon make a tornado from wind, and he’s no demigod. There must be something more you can do with dvinia if these people can create those kinds of spells with other schools of magic.”

  “The base spells of those schools require three notes while dvinia requires four,” she answered coldly. “Five, if you alter the spell to cast Grab. Dvinia is inherently more difficult than the other schools, which means variations are going to be harder as well. You can already do so much with dvinia, as can I. You can block arrows and fire. You can throw people high enough to kill them upon landing. You can even fly. What more could you want from one school?” She sounded offended.

  “Souriff?” Eslenda called.

  Souriff replied in Elvish. By her tone, I guessed that she told Eslenda she was almost done with the annoying human.

  It grated on me. Getting Souriff to help us with anything had been like pulling teeth, but I still expected this conversation to be different. She was leaving us. If she wanted her brother to be stopped, she should take at least a few moments to tell me something I could use against him.

  “There has to be something,” I said. “What about through the use of the note A?”

  “What about A?” she asked skeptically.

  “Why is it not used in any spell? What does it do?”

  Charlie had wanted me to experiment with casting three octaves of the note: lA, A, and uA. I had done the same earlier with D and G, which taught us a lot about each note. Casting the three octaves with D had turned my mana into a solid state. It had fallen to the ground and looked like chips of ice, blue and translucent, though the mana had changed color when I touched it, glowing red, then orange, then finally back to grayish blue. It had taught us that the notes of D harden spells of mana.