Blind Rage - Chapter 6

Chapter Six

(Due to time dilation and the elves’ adamant refusal to wear watches, a proper time stamp is not available. Sorry.)

Stout Hart forest, Rhyndarhim Provinces, Lissand

Erick dropped into a shadow portal as soon as he was back in Lissand. He wasted little time moving along the forest floor to Forest Heart, the thickest and tallest tree in the province, which served as the residence of King Finrod.

Erick thought of seeking counsel with the king first, or of talking to his father Larin. But instead he sought out Darryl, the captain of the guards who had escorted Erick on his first and only werekin hunt.

The elder rhyndarhim was one of many authority figures who Erick had come to distrust in Stout Hart. It bothered Erick to have to come back for advice, but among his choices, Darryl was the least likely to say something like, “I told you so.”

Darryl was awake in his room, reading from a scroll under the light of many free floating magical flames. The tree trunk made the far wall of his quarters, and the writing hutch was molded from living wood.

Darryl sensed Erick as soon as he slipped out of the shadow portal, and he began to roll up his scroll without offering a greeting.

Like most of the rhyndarhim elves, he was gifted with telepathy, and the degree of his skill as a telepath is what qualified him to be a captain of the guards. He was so strong that it wasn’t possible to fool him with diversionary thoughts. His mind could pierce every lie to find the truth, and the king trusted him as an adviser on many occasions.

Which is why Erick came to him for advice.

Darryl set the scroll at the back of the hutch and ran his fingers over the protection rune in the corner of the smooth white writing surface. The floating flames followed him as he got up from the three-legged stool in front of his hutch. Behind him, the stool hobbled under the hutch before the desk began to recess back into the tree.

The guard was dressed in a white pixie-silk sleep tunic for the evening, his fading periwinkle hair left unbound over his shoulders. Without his armor or his typical stern expression, he almost looked like a different person to Erick.

While Darryl regarded Erick with an impassive slack expression, the black elf thought over everything he’d done and seen on Earth.

Erick looked away from the guard, shamed by his silent confession.

Darryl surprised him by pulling him into a loose embrace. This was also somewhat awkward, because Darryl was shorter than Erick, and he was resting the side of his head on Erick’s chest.

Patting Erick’s back, Darryl spoke in daoine sidhe. “There will be no punishment. We won’t need to bother seeing the king.”

His accent was harsh as ever, but the tone of his voice was gentle. “Tomorrow morning I will collect some spare collars from the charms guild.”

Pushing Darryl back, Erick said, “But I need more than a few spares, Darryl. The orc is running free without his collar, so I need to leave—”

“You need rest, Erick,” Darryl said. He raised his hand up to rest it on Erick’s shoulder. “You’ve not slept since arriving on Earth. That isn’t healthy.”

Erick tried to object again, but the guard compelled him to give in to the drowsiness that he’d been ignoring. He slumped over onto Darryl, falling asleep a few seconds after he’d closed his eyes.

***

The next morning, Erick was shaken awake. His limbs still felt far too heavy, and he frowned once he recognized Darryl standing over him.

Instead of his royal uniform or armor, Darryl was dressed in clothing more typical of one of the rhyndarhim guild houses. The loose dark brown pants and off-white shirt were deceptively light in appearance.

But between each of the plant fibers, the cloth was interwoven with fine wires of mythral, which on a mineral chart would make it something like a third cousin to titanium if it existed on Earth. However, mythral was one of many metals that only existed in Lissand.

In effect, Darryl was wearing armor from his shoulders to his shins. His horse leather boots were just the skin of a horse that had died from old age, and they provided about as much protection.

Sitting up on the cot, Erick recognized that he was in his own room. His black bear-skin armor and cloak had been put on the stand across the room.

He was dressed in a sleep tunic, and he discovered with some dismay that his hair had been braided in pleated rows.

This was a sign that Mari, his sister, had come by for a visit during his sleep.

The fact that Darryl was watching him with an amused smirk stung even worse.

Erick clenched his hands, but something felt wrong. Looking down, he realized that he’d lost his prosthetic finger. The spell to animate it was so easy that he could usually keep it running in his sleep. But once he’d given in to the fatigue, he’d lost his hold on the spell.

He was about to ask where it was, and Darryl reached into a wrist pocket on his tunic to retrieve it. The guard said nothing as he passed over what looked like a slender black fabric bag.

Erick quelled an angry thought over being forced to sleep. He needed the rest, and he’d been running on fumes for many days.

Finding and stealing food had been easy on Earth, but allowing himself to rest in the hostile alien environment wasn’t possible. He’d kept a healthy color by eating regularly, but the longer he went without sleep, the harder it became to cast spells.

His knowledge of magic had been telepathically gifted to him, so the spells came as second nature. But he had no appreciation of their cost on his body and mind.

These were all things that Darryl had tried to explain before, and Erick ignored him, too enthralled by his newfound powers. And again the rhyndarhin captain was right. Erick couldn’t go back to Earth without resting first.

He was so exhausted that even the effort of reattaching his false index finger was beyond him. A more complicated portal spell was certainly out of the question. Thinking back on the previous hours, he felt amazed that he hadn’t killed himself porting back to Lissand.

Darryl listened to Erick’s thoughts without comment. He stepped back from the cot, moving across the quarters to pick up one of the Earth boots that Erick had stolen on his first day in the humans’ plane of existence.

Erick asked, “Is Finrod mad?”

“No, Finrod has been informed of your return, and he asked me to assure you that you aren’t in trouble.”

“But, what I did...”

Darryl shrugged. “You’ve dealt with the problem in a novel way, and balance has been returned to our world.” He turned the boot over to examine the tread, and his face relaxed in a look of interest while he continued to talk. “You’ve caused chaos and mayhem on Earth, but that’s not our problem, is it?”

Erick shook his head, allowing himself a faint smirk. “I might be arrested on Earth, though. I think that depends on whether or not I will be allowed to take back a supply of werekin collars.”

Darryl nodded. “I know, and I’ve already got the charms guild making a supply of collars.” He held out the boot. “Do these come in brown?”

“Yes, I think so.” Erick looked toward the door, and then back at Darryl. “This isn’t what I was expecting. I thought you would put me on trial and stick me in a tree. Instead, you’ve escorted me back to my room, and this...it’s hardly an interrogation.”

Darryl laughed, shaking his head as he set the boot aside and settled himself into a sitting position on the floor. “Did you think that’s what this was?”

Erick nodded. “I did. After all, I screwed up pretty badly.”

Darryl sighed, shaking his head. “You didn’t do so bad, Erick. You captured one of the stray werekin children, and you got rid of the cursed orc. Your method of dealing with the orc was not what I would have chosen, but it did restore the local balance. The orc tribe was appeased, the werekin packs went back to their land, and all is right in the world.”

Erick relaxed, slumping his shoulders. “I guess all I need to worry about now is figuring out how to achieve a balance between the werekin and the humans.”

Darryl’s expression was dubious as he said, “Good luck with that.” He shrugged and sat up. “In any case, let’s make your transition to your new home easier with a quick lesson in modern English.”

“Oh, right!” Erick was expecting something to happen and relaxed to make the transfer easier. The size of the telepathic imprint caused a thump at the back of his head, and he became drowsy.

He realized Darryl was smirking, and he tried to scowl. “You knew that was going to happen.”

Laughing, Darryl nodded as he got to his feet. “I’ll bring food the next time you wake up.”

Erick had something curt come to mind. But he yawned, lay back on the cot and closed his eyes. He didn’t have the energy to fuel a temper tantrum.