Chapter 66

Departure Karn’s squad had done their job well. Mustaffa’s army had been slowed enough that Kel Tora’s troops were able to get into position outside the forest. Kel Tora’s battle formations subdued the enemy squads that had been forced through the small opening between the forest and hills with ease.

With the loss of their leader, the enemy suffered a period of mass confusion until the higher generals regained composure. During the disarray, Kel Tora’s leaders ordered two elven divisions into the forest to flank the enemy and fire arrows into their ranks. In the time gained by this tactic, Kel Tora was able to seize one last advantage. Unlike any of the other lands Mustaffa’s armies had besieged, Kel Tora had working catapults.

The battle lasted until the middle of the following morning. When the conflict ended, the once-lavish green strip of land was stained red with blood. Over twelve thousand men had lost their lives and almost three thousand more lay wounded. At the mouth of the gully, between the steep hills and the forest, bodies were stacked almost three deep.

Fires burned sporadically across the battlefield as red-gray smoke billowed past the highest treetops. There was a heavy, damp chill in the air that foreshadowed the coming of winter.

Opal had awoken gradually. Atop the hill, she gazed at the tiny flakes of snow that swirled from the heavens. Her mind struggled to clear the fog that continued to pollute her head. When her eyes at long last focused, the sun stung them.

She rolled over and stared out at the battlefield. Before, it was filled with men, and now, it was filled with bodies. By the gods, they’re all dead. Such carnage. Did anyone survive this?

Before Opal tested her legs, she tested her magic. With just a simple thought, clear, sparkling water appeared in her cupped hands. As she finished the first, she created a second handful of water, and then a third. She felt as if she had not drunk for days.

Before she finished the third handful, she remembered what she had done. Karn…he’s dead. She spat out the water in her mouth and separated her hands. Karn’s dead…

Opal opened a portal and crawled through it as fast as she could. In a blink, she was deposited on the field.

Once on the battlefield, she stumbled through the piles of the dead in search of Karn. The smell was horrible; a mixture of blood, burnt flesh, and smoke crept up her nostrils. If it were not for the sheer panic that controlled her body, Opal would have vomited at the gruesome sights she saw. Bodies and parts of bodies covered the field. It will take days to sort through them all to find one man, she thought.

Hours passed. Blood stained her feet and legs to her knees, and she still had not found Karn. Off in the distance, past the opening to the field, Opal spied a group of men doing exactly what she was: sorting through the dead. Not willing to waste another moment, Opal transported herself to them through another portal.

The men seemed less than surprised by the purple vortex when it opened and Opal stepped through it. She recognized some of them—Kel Tora’s generals and advisors. As she looked about, she came eye to eye with Duke Essex and his royal guards.

It appeared that the duke had also fought in this battle. His armor was dented. A slice opened the side, and his fine silk cape was tattered and bloody. Yet, when Opal stepped to the monarch, he bowed to her as if he were at a formal function.

“Lady Opal, I’m delighted to see you.”

“Have you seen Karn?”

“Opal, I want you to know that we owe this victory, in part, to you. Your magical lightning bolts destroyed hundreds of Mustaffa’s men and scared off twice as many.”

Opal blinked. She had seen the spell as a failure since it had missed Mustaffa. Duke Essex’s words of assurance helped ease her heart, but only for the briefest instant. “My lord, have you seen Karn?”

“My deepest condolences, Opal.” Essex bowed his head. “Witnesses say he was felled moments after defeating Mustaffa.”

A sick feeling twisted Opal’s stomach into a knot. She needed to find his body and repair it before she returned his soul to it.

I know Karn will love me again when he sees what I did. The duke will tell him, and he will understand. He will love me.

“Where is he?” she asked impatiently.

“I’m afraid I have no clue where Karn’s body is, Lady Opal,” Essex replied.

“I do,” another soldier said as he approached.

“Lieutenant Hart,” the duke said with a smile. “Good to see you. You look to have fared well.”

“I’m alive.”

“I am pleased. So, what say you?”

“Karn… The elf took his body off the battlefield before the battle ended,” Lieutenant Hart explained. “She said something about taking him to a lake in the forest outside of Kel Tora.”

“Elf?” Opal did not understand.

“Yes. Tala, his lover.”

“Lieutenant Hart—” Duke Essex began.

“No—I…” Opal summoned a portal behind her. “I have to go.”

The purple glare from the magical vortex lit the snowflakes and made them sparkle. The wind surged and whipped the flakes through the gully and across the battlefield until the portal closed, and Opal was gone.

***

Now at Kel Tora’s gates, Opal ran into the town. She called out and pleaded for help from anyone who would listen. Someone had to know where the lake was, but no one would answer her.

Opal cast another spell, one that located things, and when a body of water appeared in the distance, she sprinted out of town, her heart in her throat.

She followed the pull of her spell, straight down the path away from town and into the forest. The lake is not far. She prayed she was not too late. There’s still time to return Karn’s soul to his body. I know there is.

When she at long last arrived at the lake’s shore, she spotted a beautiful elven woman, her arms crossed, still as a statue, along the water’s edge. This must be her. This must be Tala…

A small fire burned on a wooden platform in the middle of the lake; it captured Opal’s full attention as she navigated the tall weeds that surrounded the small body of water. The firelight flickered then grew dark as the makeshift raft broke up.

Opal used what little energy she had left to conjure a simple spell that lit the dark lake and its surrounding area with a pale yellow light.

Tala’s voice cracked as she announced, “You’re too late.”

As Opal approached the water’s edge, the young elf looked away, but not before Opal could see that she was crying.

“W-what have you done?” Opal said as her eyes once again fixed on the platform in the middle of the lake; its pieces had already begun to sink. She could not believe her eyes. She knew exactly what the elf had done, but she needed to hear her say it.

“We were lifemates,” Tala whispered.

“You had no right to burn his body!” Opal lashed out, enraged.

“We were lifemates.” Tala showed Opal her necklace. “It is my right, human, my right to give him a proper warrior’s burial.”

The realization that all was lost was too much for Opal to handle. Her heart twisted into a pounding mass of misery.

Then it hit her. Opal realized she had been misled into taking Karn’s life.

Those bastards, they used Karn to kill Mustaffa and me to rid themselves of Karn. Opal dropped to her knees and began to sob deeply.

“I could’ve returned him to life,” she cried heavily. “I only wanted to help him.”

“Help him? You-you murdered his family.”

“What?” No one outside of the High Council should have known that. “Who are you?”

“Your kind stole his soul. I gave him life and love when you offered him nothing but death.” Tala’s words struck her like a biting snake.

“I was going to bring him back to life,” Opal repeated as she wept.

“A life you stole from him? No, I’ll make sure his memory never dies,” Tala whispered as she placed her hand on her stomach.

Tala walked away to a tree that stood tall at the path to the lake, reached into a crook that was not much higher than her head, and grabbed the leather scabbard of Karn’s sword. She tucked the weapon safely under her arm and walked off in the direction of Kel Tora. Opal did nothing to stop her.

“I hate this land!” Opal screamed in grief-filled rage. “I hate it!”

Opal pounded her fists in the moist soil. Exhausted, she buried her head in her arms and curled into a ball. She prayed for the numbness to come. She welcomed it, no matter its form—even death.

Little did she know that deep within her grew a new spark of life.

THE END