Anchorite and the The Heart of Effie. Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY. SAVING THE HEIRS

Lairiel laid under the fallen walls of her native folt. The house was destroyed just a few minutes ago by a strange, invisible, but very powerful force that came from somewhere above and caught the girl by surprise. Lairiel was choking from the dust and dirt thrown into the air, but could not get up: it seemed that she broke her leg and several ribs, which was a complete unexpectedness: the elven bones were very strong and could hardly be broken by any blow. Now Lairiel could hardly breathe and it was incredibly painful. This caused tears to come out of her eyes, and a cry involuntarily burst from the chest.
There was real hellish chaos going on all around. The earth crackled so strongly and palpably, as if something under the forest was bursting open, ready to get out in an impatient boil. The roots of the trees were breaking out, lifting blackened leaves and clods of earth into the air, and like lashes they spread through the forest, flinging enemies hundreds of meters away, throwing them to the ground and against mighty trunks. Unseen creatures, as if woven from plants and earth, rose up as an army in all their greatness, standing up to defend the Enchanted Forest. Mighty animals came out to the borders of the forest to help hold back the onslaught of the enemy and tear to pieces those who encroached on their home.
The inhabitants of the forest was falling dead, cutting off to the ground from the branches of the still-surviving trees, screams were spreading everywhere, instilling icy fear. There was a terrible smell of burnt sulfur in the air. Not far away, another unexpected and very peculiar explosion occurred, as if something invisible, but huge in size crashed into the soil at high speed, creating a new wave of earth shaking underfoot and uprooting at least a dozen trees in the area.
Only at this moment did Lairiel begin to clearly understand how vulnerable she found herself in. Now the she-elf could not even move independently. And even more so to save yourself from a dangerous enemy. Clearing her throat, Lairiel screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a cry for help. Someone should have heard her. But rumble came around again and again, and it definitely drowned out any other sound.
“Holy Five...” the girl whispered, watching the forest die.
Any attempt to move or stand up resulted in unbearable pain, as if millions of needles were piercing the body. The thought flashed through her head that here, under the rubble of her native folt, the royal daughter of Taurebeleg would meet her end very soon. However, along with this thought, something in the flesh flashed here. Just right in front of Lairiel. Someone's silhouette.
“You’re alive... Oh, thanks the Five, you’re alive...” a familiar voice was heard. It was Arron.
The vampire appeared as if out of nowhere and immediately began to lift Lairiel from the ground. Arron did not immediately understand that the princess was not able to get to her feet on her own.
"We need to get out of here as soon as possible!" the vampire shouted, throwing Lairiel’s hand over his shoulder. "Grab onto me tighter. I'll take you away from here..."
"We need to find my father and brother!' the girl shouted in response.
"We need to run! While we can!" Arron did not let up. The vampire looked at the girl in total perplexity. She clearly did not know the latest news.
"This is my home! My family is here!" Lairiel repeated like a wind-up.
"THEY!" Arron thundered, throwing his hand up with his index finger extended. "Taurentius hybrids! And his entire army! They destroyed everything. There is no home here anymore! Not for you, not for anyone else! If we don’t run away, we’ll also perish forever! Grab me now!"
"Father. Brother. We need them..."
The vampire gave Lairiel no chance to finish. He realized that this argument was meaningless, just a waste of time, so he threw the exhausted she-elf over his shoulder onto his back and rushed away with vampire speed, barely dodging another air strike from above.
"Aron! My father. My brother... We need to find them!" Lairiel continued to scream with all her strength. However, Arron did not listen to her at all. The vampire ignored such an important request from his friend and didn't cared at all. It seemed to be. Lairiel even hit him on the shoulder with her fist in despair, but the blow turned out to be useless: Lairiel had no enough strength in her hands right now.
A huge black creature flew into the air. At first, in a hurry, it was completely unclear what this next monster was: huge wings, clawed scaly paws, a head with something like crooked antlers, powerful beak on a formidable bird head, similar to a hawk's one but of gigantic size. Lairiel, looking up, at first thought it was a dragon. Certainly dragons no longer existed on the lands of Abaddon for a long time; these creatures existed only in legends and children's horror stories. The dragon could not appear in the Enchanted Forest.
Nevertheless, this huge flying creature, having risen to a decent height above the forest, began to mercilessly spew fire. Arron swore loudly, barely dodging a falling tree engulfed in flames and slightly changing his trajectory. The vampire was clearly in a panic that moment and was simply trying to get away as quickly as possible.
Arron developed such a speed that everything around him turned into blurry spots. It was Lairiel's first time riding on a vampire's back, and the speed took her breath away. When the movement finally stopped, the girl could not get over it for a long time. Her head was spinning and for the first few minutes the princess couldn’t even understand where she ended up this time.
Arron carried Lairiel out of the forest, and now the two of them stood at the massive stone ruins, and the Enchanted Forest was visible only somewhere on the horizon. Even with a clouded mind, even from afar, it was quite obvious that the forest was blazing with black and red flames, and the eerie sounds of crashing and echoes of desperate screams seemed to fill everything around.
"How did you get out of the forest?" the girl asked, collapsing to the ground from the vampire’s shoulders. Her voice creaked, and her cough would not leave her alone. "My father…"
“The King of the Forest is dead,” Arron said somehow without even much regret, lowering his stern gaze and frowning. “And all his protection disappeared too. It's all over, Lairiel. For them, it's all over. For us, not yet."
Lairiel was numb with horror. With a sinking heart, she looked at Arron for at least some hints that he was telling a lie, but the vampire, looking at her friend, nodded unequivocally, adding some words.
"I'll leave you here. We are on the opposite side of the forest, nothing threatens you here. I will return as soon as I find my brother and yours. Need to hurry..."
Arron quickly clung to Lairiel and hugged her tightly, causing her to let out a muffled groan: either she was in pain because of the injuries she had received, or this burning feeling flared up in her chest as phantom pains.
“Everything will be fine,” the vampire whispered and kissed his friend on the forehead. “We can handle it, Lairiel. We can and will! To spite all these damned creatures! I'll be back soon. Take care of yourself."
Then, without wasting another second, Arron rushed back to the forest like an arrow, leaving the discouraged Lairiel in terrible solitude.
Screams were heard everywhere. Very close. Not far away, silhouettes rushed through the forest in terrible agony. The world around was literally dying. Everything turned into a chaotic hell.
Nevertheless, the vampire allowed himself to stop for a while and, raising his head, stared at the flying beast, which was still hovering over the forest, circled as if choosing where to direct a new stream of deadly fire. It was an unknowable fire-breathing bird of unthinkable size. In his long life, Arron had never seen such monsters. The situation was completely out of control. Breaking away from this pointless observation of the winged creature, the vampire again ran, shouting the names of Calder and Aegion.
Someone very large and strong knocked down Arron. The giant hit the vampire on the ground with such force that he almost fell through it. About a dozen ogres and hunters attacked Arron, appearing as if out of nowhere. Without ceremony, being in an extremely furious mood, the enemies were determined to take the lives of everyone who got in their way. Arron, thanks to his vampire nature, was perhaps not stronger, but certainly more dexterous and resourceful. He dealt with the hunters immediately, because they were human in build, and it was much easier to bite a human neck than to even pierce the thick and rough skin of an ogre with fangs. Having barely dodged the giant’s new blows, in one jump he found himself on his back, pushed off from it and in the next few seconds turned the necks of four hunters into a bloody mess.
A tenacious and strong hand grabbed the vampire and dragged him back. It was an ogre, which with its entire mass fell on the branches that were in the way, causing a terrible crash to be heard. The monster let out a roar, anticipating murder, merciless and senseless, but so necessary for some reason. Another second - and Aegion appeared from somewhere above. Flying past the crown of the fallen tree, he cut off the ogre's hand with one swing of his sword. The giant roared even louder than before, but the roar did not last long: a couple of shots from a bow - and the arrows killed this beast. The ogre fell onto the crown that he had previously crushed. The rest of the ogres also fell from the sharp enchanted arrows of the king's son. Nevertheless, that was not the end at all. The last ogre, a real monster, twice the size of ordinary giants, approached the fighters. At that same second, Calder appeared from the crown of a fallen tree. He, obviously, had also dealt with someone recently, since he was all smeared with dried blood and definitely not his own.
Aegion arrived to help along with Calder. The vampire brothers pounced on the largest ogre and, using distracting maneuvers, took turns trying to unbalance him in order to attack and tear off his head. Aegion fired several arrows at the giant, but the arrowheads could not pierce his skin. The elf rushed towards the enemy, distracted by the vampires, and wanted to hit the giant in the leg. The attempt was unsuccessful. A swing of a huge leg - and the elf flew to the side, and his sword slipped from his fingers, disappearing into the crown of a smoldering tree.
Another explosion thundered: the ogre fell to the ground. Aegion, throwing several arrows, hit one of them right in the monster’s eye, and then dived into the smoldering crown, trying to find the sword. A fire broke out not far away - and charred dead hybrids rained down on the ground. A flying creature spewing fire was heading towards the place where the friends fought with the last ogre that attacked them.
“Where are you, in the name of hell...” whispered Aegion.
The blade flashed. Very close. All he had to do was reach out and grab it. New flashes. The fire was getting hot. Forehead was wet and sticky with sweat. The ogre was still lying on the ground. The elf sought to the aid of his vampire brothers in one leap, thrusting his sword into the neck of the giant lying on the ground and pulling the blade towards himself, as if cutting very stale bread. This movement was given to Aegion with painful effort - he even screamed, not because his strength was running out, but from a feeling of horrible rage. For everything these uninvited guests have done to the Enchanted Forest. With a royal home.
Both vampires pulled the ogre's head in the opposite direction from the neck: with their joint efforts, the powerful enemy was decapitated. And at the moment when this happened, Arron and Calder approached each other with such rapid speed, as if they were ready to start a new fight. Nevertheless, they preferred warm hugs to fists.
"Why are you still here?!" Arron exclaimed, looking indignantly from Calder to Aegion. "Let's quickly go away. Oriel is waiting for us at the eastern borders of the forest!"
"They killed my father!" with incredible anger, which, it seems, had never been seen in the voice of the young elf before, Aegion said, pulling the blade out of the giant’s neck. "And then they destroyed my house, destroyed the Enchanted Forest! I won't rest until I cut all their throats. This forest is my land! I don’t want and won’t leave! I am the heir to the royal forest! Now my duty..."
"You are the heir to the ruins! Cruel and unfair! But it is true! We will take revenge! We will give you back your home! And Oriel too! But this will not happen if Taurentius hybrids, his giants or this flying creature kill you!" Arron shouted.
"Go. I'm not holding you! And I'm staying! I will not leave the forest under any circumstances!"
"Aegion! For the Five’s sake! Your father is dead. But your sister is not yet! For her sake. Go before it’s too late!" Both impatience and pleading were heard in Arron’s voice. The vampire could carry the weak Lairiel out of the woods, but this trick would not work with Aegion now.
Calder, who had remained silent, let out a terrible scream, but not even a split second would have been enough for him to come to Aegion’s aid. Out of nowhere, a tall, strong vampire appeared behind the back of the young forest prince and sank his teeth into his neck, literally biting off part of the flesh and immediately spitting out a scrap of bloody meat and skin on the ground. Aegion only had time to gasp, clutching his wound with his hand, and then collapsed to the ground, face down.
The killer was the vampire Trion, a minion of Taurentius, and the brothers Calder and Arron knew him very well. Including the fact that this enemy was a born vampire. Therefore, such vampires were always stronger than those who became bloodsuckers through infection of bite. Therefore, knowing his brother's inevitable reaction to what had happened, Arron grabbed Calder by the shoulders with all his might, holding him back and repeating through gritted teeth.
"We can't handle him. Do not dare!"
Calder, though distraught with shock and fury, understood the dangers of an undefeated enemy. Nevertheless, Arron still feared that his brother would not cope with his emotions, so he held him tight.
Aegion did not move. Calder let out a wild cry, unable to escape his brother's strong arms. A grimace of horror and rage appeared through the gushing tears. Trion, having carefully wiped the elf’s blood from his face with his hand, looked at the vampire brothers with a slight grin, as if they were some kind of frivolous theatrical production. Trion then cast a disdainful, arrogant glance at the dead Aegion, shaking his head and pushing the dead one away with a rude movement of his foot.
"Have you really traded your entire family, your race and your ideals for this piece of meat? How reckless and...", Trion turned his gaze to Calder, who was devouring him with a burning gaze, and added, "...and pathetic... Well, nevertheless, you are my brothers. Black sheep, but still brothers. Even though you betrayed vampire's race by getting involved with the elven scum. With murderers. Oh, yes! Did you think I wouldn't find out that this elf killed Ehreon? Did you think that a puppy who imagines himself to be the ruler of other people’s lives could get away with this? You have no reason to think that I am a scoundrel. I only avenged my sworn brother's life. Your brother to, by the way. You would have done the same in my place, if you still had even a drop of dignity and honor. Now get out of here while I generously let you go. Soon there will not be a single soul left in this forest resisting Taurentius. On the other hand, go over to his side. On the right side. And go back to your roots."
Calder wanted to interrupt this pretentious speech and curse it, but Arron leaned against his ear several times, whispering:
"We will avenge his death. Moreover, for all the other deaths. I promise. But not now. Oriel is waiting for us. We're leaving..."
Obviously, Trion heard what was said, and these words made him laugh. He smiled, nudging Aegion's body with his foot again, as if checking to see if the king's son was truly dead. There was no doubt: Aegion suffered the same fate as his father.
"Taurentius will appear here soon. He will come here and take what is his. You're right, Arron. Take your whiny brother away. Save your lives while you can. I warned you."
Then, turning around, Trion walked away so quickly that from the outside it seemed that he had magically simply disappeared into thin air. Arron let his brother go, although he feared that he would rush in pursuit of his enemy. However, Calder stood still. Even his hysteria suddenly stopped, tears stopped flowing from his eyes, and the mask of hatred fell from his face, leaving not a trace. Now there was nothing but a cold insensitivity.
"Calder! Let's leave! Now!" Arron exclaimed desperately.
Calder looked at his brother, breathing heavily. Approaching the dead Aegion, he lifted the elf from the ground, carefully taking him in his arms, and then with a new nod he let his brother Arron know that he was ready to go.
Arron did not know why his brother was dragging the body of the mutilated Aegion along with him. So that Lairiel would see her brother's body and feel worse? Alternatively, to make him buried outside the horror that is now happening in the forest? But the natives of the Enchanted Forests were supposed to rest only where the bloodflowers bloomed. The only reason for Calder's decision that seemed more realistic was Calder's emotional attachment to the king's son. Arron knew what it meant to lose a close friend, so he did not torment his brother with unnecessary questions. The vampires left the forest and soon found themselves in the place where Arron had recently left Lairiel.
The princess seemed to be unconscious: she was lying by a large stone, right where Arron had left her, but she did not move, and her eyes were closed.
Arron immediately checked his worst assumption and, fortunately, it were refuted. Lairiel was alive, though she gave no sign of life. However, it was also for the best. The poor girl lost her father, her house, and the opportunity to watch her dead brother here and now - it would have broken her totally.
Calder held the elf’s body as if it were the most precious thing he had left in his life. Would a distraught vampire never let go of his friend again? Arron tried to find the right words, but they did not go into his head.
"Now what? Why did you bring his body here? Aegion is dead! Hey, do you realize it?" said Arron.
Calder shook his head but said nothing. He laid the body of the bloody elf next to Lairiel, for some reason carefully examining the wound, watching the torn neck.
“We’ll head to the Wall...” Calder said confidently. "You, me and the royal heirs. There we will come up with a new plan. We’ll figure out a way to get back at the bastards who did this to them."
"Aegion is dead! The heir of Taurebeleg, the only one who could inherit the magic of the elven king, no longer breathes... and never will. You should get over it, Calder!" Arron shouted, hoping to sober up the clouded mind of his clearly insane brother.
"Before the attack on the forest, when you left us alone, Aegion drank my blood. Just a few drops. Blood that leaves the body in at least two days. The king's son died with vampire blood in his body. Today death will not receive the king's son. Aegion will soon breathe again. Don't know when but it will certainly happen."
Arron couldn't say a word. As if rooted to the ground, he looked at his brother in horror.
"I know, I know!" Calder seemed to read his brother’s thoughts and began to make excuses. “But when he drank my blood, we could not imagine that an attack on the forest would begin. No need to understand this anymore. We did it and there's no way back!"
"Why did it even occur to you to feed the elf vampire blood?" Arron exclaimed indignantly, as if we were talking about a total violation of all sorts of laws. Actually, that's the way it was.
"I saved him!" Calder squeezed out through his teeth. “I saved the king’s son, albeit inadvertently. It’s a great luck, and don’t say otherwise! Do you think it would be better if Aegion died?”
"We don’t know what will happen if we turn a being of the elven race into a vampire! Perhaps you did not save Aegion, but created a monster!" Arron shouted at his brother in horror.
This horror was not unfounded. History has never known cases like this, but for many centuries, there have been legends that turning any enchanted creatures into vampires will lead to an inevitable catastrophe. That is why, for centuries, vampires turned only human beings, and had no right to leave enchanted creatures alive.
"Over there!" Calder shouted, throwing his hand out towards the forest. "There are monsters there! Aegion will not become a monster! He will live! He won't die! We can handle everything else!"
"He will inherit the strength and power of his father. But at the same time he will become a hybrid of an elf and a vampire. Will this touch his soul? Will his mind change?" Arron whispered to himself.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Calder snapped, realizing that there was no point in sitting and waiting for Aegion to awaken now. The royal son was still bloody and dead, and his wound on his neck had not become any less disgusting.
Arron lifted Lairiel from the ground. The girl was overcome with heat: her skin was so hot that the same warmth came from her body as from the flame of a large fire.
“It seems Lairiel is dying...” whispered the vampire.
The thought flashed to save the she-elf the same way as Calder saved Aegion. Just a few drops of blood into half-open lips, while the royal daughter’s heart is still beating. Probably, if death is still close to the girl, such a decision will be reasonable. Arron loved Lairiel very much. That’s why he understood his brother. The last thing you want is to let people dear to your heart die.
"So, to the Wall?" he said uncertainly, casting a worried glance at his brother.
"Perhaps the wall will let us through. Probably it won't. But this is the only place left where we can take a break. Where the remaining royal offspring will be safe. Yes. We're definitely heading towards the Wall, brother."
Calder also picked up Aegion's body from the ground.
"Well, let's make it the way we did in childhood? The race?" he suddenly smiled. But this smile was filled with fatigue and confusion, it emanated a terrible doom and fear. However, it was still a smile.
Arron nodded. Another second - and there was no one left at the stone ruins. Now only the forest, once alive and prosperous, continued to die under fire and destructive explosions, leaving no chance of salvation for those who did not have time to escape. The huge winged creature, flying several more times over the forest and spitting out a column of fire a couple of times, gracefully soaring upward, rushed into the distance, disappearing over the horizon and leaving the Enchanted Forest in the grip of fiery death.