Decieving Eyes,

Chapter 6

We travelled very quickly after that, seeking shelter underground when we could, the Dragons seemed to keep to the clouds and so far we had been able to keep a little ahead of them, but this was only as the result of the Eleven mages back at the capital working day and night to keep the clouds back to gain us some time. It was dark when the clouds finally reached us, and with them came the Dragons, their breath of flame lit up the sky a blood-red colour, a result of their red flames against the tar-black ceiling of the world. The sight truly chilled me, urging me to run, but like once before I stayed and stood my ground, at least twenty powerful male elves stood around me towering above me, their long but light swords swinging easily from their hands, some holding bows ready to shoot at any sign of attack or a signal from my uncle. The way I was clothed meant that goose-bumps pricked my skin, the result of the freezing night air of Elander, though warm in day it had freezing temperatures at night, but in my fear my mind did not register this, nor did it register my chattering teeth and numbing hands. My uncle stood next to me, his hand clasped reassuringly around my right upper arm, but it was to no avail, I was the only girl in the company, and stood at least two heads shorter then the smallest of them, knowing all this I knew that I would be the main weakness in the company and the main target for attack.

The Dragons landed heavily only meters in front of us; their feet crushing the ground under their large scales and claws the sound reverberated through my spine and shook the surrounding ground and wood, even felling a few trees. They were huge; glistening fangs hung from their upper jaws, the size of a human man each, their claws raked the ground underneath them, four claws on each foot, each enough to kill at least two people at once, and sharp enough to easily snap a sword in two. Their scales glistened beautiful colours in our firelight, their eyes were sharper then that of hawks and infinitely more fearsome, slits ran down the middle for pupils and a thin membrane covered them whilst flying, only now drawing back as they landed, their eyes were all colours with their scales forming a protective shape underneath, like that of a teardrop threatening to fall down their great elongated heads. Their tails were barbed and deadly, but at this time swinging mildly like a cats. On their backs rose several humps, each with their own rider sitting on a large padded saddle in between the neck and the first hump. They were indeed the most efficient killing machines ever created, so much so that I understood when the man standing on my left started to shake so much that his fine chain mail rattled nervously, after all, they were so magnificent and yet so deadly

In total there was five different Dragons, they had arrived and landed in an arrow formation, the largest Dragon centred at the point, it was humungous and a sparkling opulent purple, the Dragons rider clambered off agilely, climbing down its front right leg and landing nimbly on the ground, bowing mockingly to my uncle. He strode forward assessing our company and noticed the visible gap in the circle, having noticed this he bent down to look through a gap in the arms of the elves and smiled when he saw me standing heads below my company. The man himself was pretty unnoticeable, he was smaller then the elves, though standing at around six foot eight he was not short, and he was shrouded in a fur covered coat, presumably to keep out the wind whilst riding in the clouds, hiding his build. He smirked and strode forward, causing the elves to retreat at a command of my uncle, eventually he reached me and my uncle, I averted my gaze and stared wonderingly at the Dragons whilst the man knelt and kissed the back of my hand.
“Ahhh, what cute little company you keep Handred, don’t usually see you with women… if you could indeed call her that. I had no idea that you had a liking towards kids, if I had known I would have sent you my granddaughter. Alliances are good, my friend.” The man spoke in a harsh but youthful voice, showing no signs that he could be the age of a grandfather. I looked carefully at his face to see any tell tale signs of his age, whilst he stared at my uncle, I found none, but when he turned to look at me his eyes both shocked and scared me more then the Dragons had ever done, I gasped and collapsed with the vision of his violet eyes echoing around my mind continuously, filling it with the eyes of a demon. They had related the events to me after I had woken up and it shocked me, for I had not felt Handred’s attempt to keep me up with one arm, but after threatening to dislocate my shoulder with his effort to keep me up, he allowed me to fall and then picked me up gently. I imagined that if I had woken up at that point it might have been excruciatingly painful, I was grateful for my long spout of unconsciousness.
“What on earth is wrong with that girl?! Does she have a weak constitution or something?” I heard a voice echo around my head, it sounded like that of the man I had seen earlier, the vampire I remembered timidly, I cursed silently I had hoped he would be gone, but no such luck existed anymore. I heard one of the other men snigger only to be quieted immediately, probably the result of a sharp look from his superior. I opened my eyes slowly remembering the glaringly violet eyes, the thought made me shiver but I refused to faint again as looked at those cold eyes.

It hurt to look at those eyes that were frozen in time, untouched by age with unending stares linked behind them. Those eyes could stare endlessly for years, never once needing to stop to blink; they weren’t set in the faces of the dead, but something that was neither dead nor alive, their heart beat was slow and their blood ran thickly and slowly through their stone-like veins, though their blood wasn’t really their own, not anymore, they used the blood that they had shamelessly ripped from other’s necks. Their veins carved stone, like their teeth, works of art to a stone-mason. Their skin built up of layers, the bottom layers being the same shining and reflective metal as that of the Dragon’s scales, the top thin membrane being a layer of marble that shined smoothly and silvery in the moon-light that hung overhead in the night sky. Vampires; the practically invincible race that fed off the living and took their live-force, they were alive at the same time as being dead, the most detestable creatures to ever walk the earth.

The vampire stared back at me his eyes as hard as granite, though the power with which they stared burnt through my soul as a Dragon’s fiery breath would. His stare made me shiver and turn away to stare at the moving mountains that was the Dragons. They rested now; their riders had dismounted carefully and were now standing, watching their commander carefully as he chilled me to the bone. The Dragons were a range of colours, the biggest one was the gigantic, opulent purple one that the commander had arrived on, the purple was a shade so dark that in this light it almost seemed black, a sight that chilled you, numbing the senses and your mind in one glance. They were truly magnificent creatures even the green and brown Dragons looking fearsome, the red one was like the living incarnation of fire, burning at my eyes and freezing my veins. There was an orange one too, smaller then the rest and positioned at the back of the group, hiding in a submissive mood. Their riders stood near them, stroking their rich scales and murmuring softly to them, so quietly that no one except the Dragon’s themselves could hear, their conversations calm and private, just like their minds. The Dragons where the essence of royalty, the Elves and the Vampires the picture of nobility strangely they all slotted into the picture perfectly, all fitting, none stood out. Everything belonged, and yet, I belonged nowhere. Not alongside them, nor in the world of humans. I was a new species, belonging to neither race, land nor picture. I was alone. Maybe someday, another unfortunate soul would be put in the same situation as me, rising me from the of loneliness and granting me another link to the world around me, but maybe I would always be alone, the never ending days just rolling on in front of as I stand alone in the world and in my mind. Eternally damned to the hell of isolation.


Chapter 7

A night passed with me being unable to be near the Vampires. I kept my distance and watched from afar, they seemed to find this amusing, pointing and laughing at me, but all I did was play with my new skill, I examined the current of energy in my arms and summoned them to my palms lighting the small tickly fires, once one of the Vampires had seen as I was doing this; he had winced and backed off eyes filling with fear, I couldn’t help but smirk at this; now it was me that got the last laugh. I enjoyed the tickling sensation of the energy on my skin that I was almost always disappointed when I had used up the energy in my arms and they fell dead next to my body.
The next morning, as I sat next to a small brook watching the trout play in the water joyfully, I felt someone approach me from behind and laugh lightly.
“Hurts don’t it?” I turned around it was one of the younger Vampires; he was standing behind me, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk painted broadly on his face. “How’s you’re neck darl’?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you don’t mind can you leave me alone now?” I muttered back, I wasn’t in the mood to be taunted; I hadn’t noticed that I had my hand clasped protectively around my neck again, shielding the nine-year old crescent scar. The vampire smirked again and sat next to me.
“Sure you don’t. Don’t worry I won’t bite, not quite like the person that gave you this memento.” He muttered this whilst grabbing my hand and pulling it off my neck, he whistled low. “You got lucky! Hah, anymore and you would’ve been a gonna!” I winced but pulled the energy into my hand, lighting a small flame which burnt is stone-like skin. “Ouch! You bitch, what did ya do that for?!”
“Keep your hands off me. I won’t warn you again.” The Vampire bared his teeth at me and I studied them carefully; the lips were large, big enough to cover the five-inch long fangs, two at the top and two at the bottom, but they were strong in order to be able to pull back so that the vampire could open their mouth further, to a jaw popping distance for a human, a vampire’s mouth never closed properly, the four fangs closing in on each other so that two would line up, top to bottom, creating a column of tooth. The rest of their mouth was lined with short sharp teeth, crafted beautifully shining a pearl colour, these would grab the neck of their prey so that escape would not be a chance, even with fangs in the neck a human could still summon the will power to tear the fangs out, though it would almost definitely be excruciatingly painful and would cause a slow death 98% of the time. I had been lucky, though I’m sure it would have been painful if I’d retained my consciousness, I had lost it pretty quickly and had, as a result, felt no pain just the mind numbing fear that had never left me. And now I was hanging around vampires under a near constant cloud which always threatened to rain but never seemed to. A never ending nightmare that was slowly becoming my life.

The rain finally came one day, it was like someone had flicked a switch on the ever-darkening clouds, it didn’t merely rain; it poured, constantly and heavily. Through the night you could hear as the gigantic, heavy drops of rain stampeded the stone roof of our shelter under a cliff face. The dragons lay in the rain almost becoming fossils in the grey landscape and the dripping trees, the brown dragon blended in becoming a giant hill in the middle of the huge forest clearing. The days were miserable as we began our ride to the capital, the dragons flew above us, almost mournfully with their wings flapping wetly, they didn’t fly with the speed they once had, flying in the rain meant it was hard enough to just stay in the sky. We took constant breaks the previously dusty mud road was now a bog and it plated the horses legs and our lower trousers, mud flecked our faces having been kicked up by the horses in front and by the time we stopped to break we had just enough energy to make our food and sleep, no-one changed out of their filthy and soaking clothes, they just sat around the fire and dried their clothes off in the heat.


After what seemed like months of travelling, though it must have only been a few days or a week at most, we arrived at the capital only to find the rain feasts nearing an end. We were welcomed by an army of grandly dressed people all cheering and bowing; obviously our arrival had been planned and highly thought of. As soon as I was dismounted I was whisked away by a column of excited looking women to be cleaned and dressed in fine clothes, personally my idea of hell but uncle had said that ‘it would indeed help her to look a bit more like a lady, if not help her to act like one.’ I had thought that comment to be scathing and embarrassing but I guess he’d had enough of my near constant complaining through the last few days as the rain and the pain of constantly riding had taken it toll on me. My buttocks were sore from the hard leather saddle and my eyes tired from constantly scanning the grey scenery for any sign of life, my skin was also permanently wet and my hair ran in dirty rags down my muddied face, I felt like shit and pretty much looked like it too.

I dragged a hand through my hair as I sat in a copper tub filled with steaming, and now filthy, water. The elderly ladies had pushed me into the red stoned walled bathroom squealing that I needed to wash quickly and I could call for a re-fill any time as they had the water boiling already, I was already feeling cleaner but I knew that wouldn’t mean much to them, I would have to sparkle. That very word made me cringe, the only time I had stayed truly clean was when I had been confined to my room for rest before the journey, before then I had trained everyday at school and had helped at the farm, getting filthy at both places and having only a stream to bathe in no-one really stayed in their long enough to be truly clean. Evident to say disease and illness had not been unusual in my home town and we lost at least one person a year to sickness. But Elander was different, here women were expected to bathe for hours instead of being teased for it, they were supposed to be gentle and calm, only warrior women fought and they were rare and sparse. I had never seen one in my travelling across the country. I climbed out of the tub and wrapped a white towel around me, I winced shamefully as I saw mud-marks stain the pure material straight away, I stepped out of the door nervously and looked at the old woman crouched next to a wide, stone fireplace with a huge pot steaming over it.
“Um, excuse me?” the woman looked up and smiled broadly at me, revealing her mismatch of missing teeth. Her face was crinkly, her eyes fading a milky colour and more oval than that of pure elves, she was half human and very old, she was probably one hundred, give or take a few years.
“I’m guessin’ you’d need some new water then? Nothin’ to be ‘shamed of, you’ve been travellin’ hard.” Her speech was strange, it was guttural and hissing, the result of her age and missing teeth coming out freakish in a horror story way.
“Yes please. And thank you.” I smiled at her, purposefully well mannered; after all, she deserved it after her years. I watched as she rung a long rope which had a bell system along it and, almost immediately, two elven men walked in purposefully and picked up the large pot, either ignoring the heat or oblivious to it, they carried it towards the door of the bathroom. They paused as I stood out of the way of the entry and I did not fail to notice that one, he looked about eighteen or nineteen, blushed as he took in the way that I was robed. I tightened my wrappings and waited to hear the sound of water being drained out of the tub and the new boiling water sloshing into it, I also heard another bucket of water being poured into the tub, probably cold water to balance out the heat to I would not end up scalded, and then the men smartly stepped out of the room and motioned for me to go in as they left the main room.
I looked at the old woman again and found her smirking at me widely.
“You’re bright red darling; ignore the lad, all young men are like that. And now you can clean yourself in new water.” Her smile hinted at a mischievous past as she winked at me and pointed towards the door of the bathroom. “Imagine how many lads you can make blush when you’re properly clean and dressed.” Now that smile was lascivious and it made me feel the heat flood into my cheeks as if they were holding my small little magic flames. I turned quickly into the bathroom and shut the door to escape the humiliation of someone seeing my burning cheeks. I practically dived into the steaming water and let out a little squeal as the too-hot water hit my bare skin, if anything I was going to be burnt clean, but at least no-one would be able to tell the red cheeks that would, by now, resemble something along the lines as the same colour as red-berries.

I washed myself slowly, to be honest I enjoyed the feeling of the scalding water washing away the ingrained dirt of years, enjoyed the feeling that I was truly clean, that with this wash I was somehow washing away my past sins and starting life anew. It made me regretful when I stepped out of the tub, clean and refreshed a bright smile plastered on my face as I rubbed fretfully at my long hair, wondering in a panicky way whether it would act wildly or fall into a graceful flow down my back, I hoped for the latter. I dressed in the white finery that had been laid on a stool near the tub and felt the silk-smooth material cling to my bony frame, comfortable against the skin but far too revealing to feel secure; it made me feel naked as I stepped into the main room again and looked at the now snoring old lady. I finally took in my surroundings and stared openly at the large, open room. It had to the right of the room a large window, covered in a material that looked like glass but as I looked more carefully I noticed that it was flowing across the surface like water, it never stayed still. The walls were the same dusky red as that of the bathroom and the floor was a cool slate-tile affair that felt cool so I stepped on the large fur mat that covered over three-quarters of the floor. It was comfortable and once again it was white, everything that could get dirty seemed to be white in this place, the other walls were plain the same red material and the wall to the left had a small oaken door inlaid in it, the way the men had come in and also the way the women had dragged me in. behind me was an identical door, the door that I had just exited from, the room was bare except for these features and the fire and the rocking chair that the old woman sat on, an area of empty space that was strangely threatening to me; a person who had lived in conditions were there was never enough space, none could remain bare.
I tiptoed bare-footed past the old woman, careful not to wake her and stepped out of the main room into a stone-walled hallway with wooden struts every 5 feet. Doors linked off the sides almost every few metres. The corridor was dark, burning lamps lighting certain areas of the walls and floor, flickering shadows formed by a series of cobwebs and random swords and bows that cluttered the floor. I shivered, this was not my sort of place, it reminded me of the school at night and it wasn’t pleasant. My mind ticked back to that time and a whimper escaped my lips, primeval fear built up in my gut, I wanted to run, I wanted to scream. Pent up frustration came to light as a hand landed on my right shoulder, my body swayed uncertainly suddenly remembering it’s exhaustion and finding little reserves to keep itself upright. My mind went blank as I fell into the hard arms behind me.