Chapter 3
“Waging the War of Shadows”
Aggitha, Chief Stewardess Haydee and many of the orchard’s workers had departed earlier that morning to bring apples to the city. As for Aylith, she was to return to the War of Shadows. She waited as a sprite servant brought her horse to her. “Thank you,” she told him as he handed her the reigns. She turned to her host and told him, “Thank you, Franklin.”
“Aylith, I enjoy your company. You need never thank me for it.”
“So be it, but it is my solemn wish to thank you... and Aggitha and Haydee and all the others who bless this place.” She said to the servant, “And I thank you, as well, Jefree.”
“Why?”
“For tending my horse and bringing it to me.” She leaned down and pecked his cheek.
The little he-fay chuckled and told her, “I thank you!”
Franklin dismissed his servant, “Thank you, Jefree.”
When the sprite departed, Aylith told Franklin, “Aggitha suspects that I am an agent of the Eye and Ear.”
“Yes,” Franklin already knew, “but I have not told her.”
“Perhaps you should.” Aylith mounted her horse.
Franklin pondered for a moment then looked up, “Aylith.” She waited. He told her, “You risk your life for all. I shall proudly tell her so.”
Aylith choked, “Thank you.”
Franklin smiled and caressed her hand. “Do what you must. We shall await your return.”
Aylith nodded then rode off.
In the wilderness that was home to monsters: Holy Dame Elleeay, dark elf and warrior-priestess, rode amongst a column of Her Majesty’s knights. She and those she commanded wore black clothing and armor and were mounted upon black steeds. They were the knighthood of the Uncanny Court; all of them tall, proud and strong.
The nymph’s lustrous black hair was plaited into four long braids; two dangling from her temples and two behind her pointed ears. Like the knights she commanded, she was armored, but in leather: a corslet, bracers and boots worn over a blouse and form-fitting trousers.
Holy Dame Elleeay suddenly spotted something perched in a tree: an archer! An arrow zipped into her bosom! She grunted when struck, her eyes rolled back and she dropped limply out of her saddle. “Madam!” a knight leaned to catch her, but she was already dead.
“There!” another pointed. He drew his bow and an arrow as a nymph garbed in camouflage dropped from branches and darted into the depths of the forest. The mounted knights gave chase!
“Twaylee!” Aylith could not find her.
“Here!” Twaylee waved. She was holding the reigns of their horse.
Aylith mounted, as did Twaylee behind her. They ducked as arrows zipped past them! The woods crashed and thundered as their mounted pursuers charged with reckless fury!
“Murderer!” a knight accused.
Aylith wove her horse through the forest with great and desperate haste! Arrows flew past. The False Queen’s knights were still with her! “Hold on!” she urged Twaylee.
“I am!” the littler nymph squeezed Aylith’s waist.
Coming out of the woods, they splashed across a creek and raced across a grassy field.
The Dark Knights chased their enemy into a thicket and there, they lost her! They soon found her trail and followed, but she kept ahead of her tracks. For all their vengeful determination, Her Majesty’s knights had lost their quarry.
Elsewhere in the Land of Monsters: Thousands of orcs, goblins and ogres helped tens of thousands of dark elves dig and build where a great fortress was to be.
“This quest is boring,” Twaylee complained. She and Aylith went around planting watchers and drawing a map.
“We must know this place.”
“Why? The dark elves have built fortresses in the Land of Monsters before.”
“Yes, but this effort is grand and in great haste.”
“Why?”
Aylith sighed and shook her head. “We are here to know the layout and to discover the answer to your question.”
“Vellizar should have sent wood elves to do this.”
“He did. He never heard from them again.”
Twaylee shivered when the Wild Hunters came to mind. They were the False Queen’s rangers, renown for slaying unheard and unseen by their victims. Even the wood elves were hardly a match for these killers! Twaylee painstakingly looked around and listened. This quest was no longer boring... but she still did not wish to be here!
Aylith and Twaylee were at the bow of a ship, watching it cut through the water, when the littler nymph remarked, “We are not returning to Avalon yet.” Aylith said nothing. Twaylee surmised, “We are going to... Fay Umbra?” Aylith stared down at her but did not answer. Twaylee giggled, believing she had discerned their secret destination.
Fay Umbra: to the elves of the Blessed Court, it was the realm of the False Queen Nicnivin. To the loyal subjects of the Uncanny Court, however, it was the Land of Exile; a vast colony for which to prepare for Her Majesty’s return to Elfland.
Below short, black hair were narrow, pointed ears and a long, sharp face with green, slanted eyes. Long, slender limbs, fingers and toes were the outgrowth of a small trunk. Though delicate, the creature was male, as was evident by its smooth, hairless, olive nudity.
He was a sprite, a dark elf... and a conscript serving in the Dark Army of the Uncanny Court. He wore neither clothes nor armor. His hands wielded a spear-sword: a two-edged short sword, nearly half the length of which was hilt. The Queen Fay Nicnivin was his sovereign and he was Her loyal and obedient foot soldier.
The sword-boy stood guard... unnoticing the tall (a full head-and-shoulders taller!), golden-haired nymph behind him... until she seized him in a headlock! She snapped his neck. The uncircumcised victim twitched and urinated as she lowered him to the ground.
Twaylee was nearby, her knife in a guard’s back.
The two companions of the Eye and Ear were on the grounds of a palace with a dome atop its middle and six towers at its six corners. The tops of the towers were glowing, sending what was seen by watchers planted in Avalon to the prying eyes of the Uncanny Court. Aylith and Twaylee scaled a wall of the palace and each of them pounced and killed an archer.
Inside: A sword-boy told the one with him, “She kept squeezing my head with her thighs.”
The other chuckled, “You said she was most delightful!”
“Dween, my friend, surely you understand that often the worst is the best. Bad is so often very good.”
Dween laughed, but pled, “Let us not speak of such things, for there are no nymphs to play with.”
“Fret not, for we shall return to the city, soon enough.”
Unbeknownst to the two, a nymph was behind them– but she was a greater nymph– and a high elf!
Twaylee was nearby, lowering a guard to the floor, when she suddenly heard thumping, grunts and groans.
The companions tiptoed, darted and crawled past guards and other dark elves until coming to a solid door that had a blue crystal set where a knob would be. “Twaylee.”
The little nymph nodded and rolled out her tools. She dealt with the lock while the greater nymph stood guard. Soon there was a click. “It is open.”
The two came into a round room lined with eight other doors. The lock-crystal of each was either blue, yellow or red. Aylith wondered, “Which one?”
Twaylee pointed at a door with a red lock-crystal and claimed, “That one is the way.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the Luminance Chamber is below the dome of this palace and that would be in the middle. The middle of this palace is that way.”
“Are you so certain of your sense of direction?”
Twaylee rolled her eyes and sighed. “I am not guessing.” She pointed, “The Luminance Chamber is that way. All we need discover is how to get there.”
“Open your door.”
; Twaylee nodded and went to work.
Two sword-boys guarded a corridor... when suddenly knocked into each other and pressed to the floor!
Twaylee was nearby, cutting a throat. She held her gagging, thrashing victim as he sunk to the floor. She then stabbed him for good measure.
A curious guard found them! Aylith chased him around a corner. “No,” he pled. “No!” He screamed... until the snap of his neck silenced him.
The intruders continued on until finding a locked door. It was guarded by a sword-boy... until Twaylee hurled a knife into him! Aylith wondered, “Do you ever miss?”
The lesser nymph giggled. She was too fond of the praise to confide that her aim was not always true.
Twaylee carefully removed the yellow lock-crystal then picked the lock. She then opened the door and saw it was to a winding stairwell. She asked her companion, “Shall we go up or down?”
“Twaylee, my dear, you do not know?”
“The chamber is ahead of us, not straight above nor below.”
“We must make haste.”
“I know. Shall one of us go up and the other down?”
“No. We stay together.”
The two pondered which way they should go. Aylith finally decided, “We shall ascend.”
“Why?”
“Because a choice must be made.”
“An intuitive choice or a mere guess?”
“Tell me, Twaylee, do you feel which way we should go?”
“No.”
“Then let us ascend and be either right or wrong.” Aylith’s choice brought them to the highest floor of the main structure of the palace. They peeked over a railing at the main hall below. Twaylee complained, “Though we know where we are, we do not know where we are.”
“Yes. That is why we search, Twaylee.”
The two roamed the floor and its corridors when Twaylee realized, “There are no guards up here at all.”
“Yes. This floor is not the way. We must make haste and descend!”
The two ran back down the winding stairwell and continued on until they reached its very bottom.
Two sword-boys guarded a door that had a red lock-crystal. The one dark elf said to the other, “I have often pondered what is behind this door.”
The other rebuked, “Do not dare even wonder what we guard! Our lady forbids us to know! Oblige her will even in your very heart and mind.”
“I shall never seek. I merely wonder.”
“And that is naughty itself.”
A tense quiet followed. The rebuked one then assured, “I shall honor our lady’s will and be content not to know.”
The other nodded.
The two heard the click of the door behind them being opened and they snapped to attention. Out came the towering Lady Jinnayiss and her sprite disciples, Lady Edweena and Lord Yendle.” “Milady,” the little he-fay addressed Lady Jinnayiss, “I am amazed her agents are able to get so close to the secrets of the enemy.”
“The Order of Assassins knows the art of silence and shadow as we do the art of divination. Their genius should not surprise you.”
“But milady, it does!”
The tall nymph chuckled and kissed the little sprite. “Perhaps you are the wiser to be amazed.”
The lesser nymph insisted, “Milady, neither of us are wiser than you!”
“Oh? Do you believe I learn nothing from you?”
Aylith and Twaylee were hidden and watching. They ducked as Jinnayiss and her two little disciples passed them. Twaylee whispered into Aylith’s ear, “We have an opportunity to slay Jinnayiss the Sibyl!”
Aylith whispered back, “That is not our quest. We have found the Luminance Chamber. Let us make haste.”
The two sword-boys continued to guard the door... when a knife suddenly flew into the neck of one of them! The other spotted a blond lesser nymph lunging at him! She tackled him to the floor. He screamed when stabbed! Twaylee shoved and twisted the dagger…until its victim went limp.
“The door.” Aylith urged. She drew her sword as Twaylee unrolled her tools.
A score of sword-boys hurriedly appeared. They were surprised to see a blond, fair-skinned nymph picking the lock to the “forbidden door” and a tall such nymph facing them, sword drawn and poised to fight!
One of the he-sprites reminded, “We must protect the secret!” The little dark elves attacked! One jabbed at Aylith, only to suffer a gory chop to the neck! Another shrieked when stabbed and another gasped, groaned and retched, his entrails pouring out of him. Aylith jabbed, whirled, parried and swiped. Dark elves yelped, screamed, grunted and groaned... and fell at the high elf’s feet. “More will be coming!”
“I know!” Twaylee was still picking the lock. There was a click. “It is open!”
The two ran up a flight of winding steps and into a round, spacious, brightly illuminated chamber. Glowing from the middle of the room was a large, white globe resting on a stone pedestal. “The light does not hurt one’s eyes,” Twaylee was amazed. “The glow is so warm and soft. I feel like I can know everything! I like it here!”
Above the globe was a skylight that was a lens rather than a window. All that was seen by enemy watchers planted in Avalon poured in from there. Aylith pulled out her small pick and smacked the glowing globe, cracking it. She went around and struck the other side, then another. The globe, thus also the light of the room, flickered and dimmed. Aylith struck once more– and the globe shattered! “We are done. Let us depart.”
Twaylee sighed. She had liked basking in the gentle, empowering light!
The companions left the now dim chamber and the sprawled bodies of those who had fought to protect it. They hid as more guards rushed past. One spotted them! Aylith snatched the littler elf and snapped his neck. His fellows went on, unnoticing.
Aylith and Twaylee snuck away and followed their trail of undiscovered dead guards. Soon they were out of the palace and off its grounds. They disappeared into the forest and headed for the coast with great haste. So long as they remained in the realm of the enemy, danger and pursuit were imminent.
Her Majesty’s Order of Assassins was commanded by Lady Gledriss: dominatrix, assassin and Dark Seductress. She was the feared and mysterious Lady of Assassins... and the disciple and underling of Mistress Morganna, founder and chief of Her Majesty’s Order of Seductresses.
Gledriss knelt and bowed before her superior, “Milady.”
Morganna laughed, “Must you always kneel and bow?”
Gledriss smirked, “You are my lady.”
“You tease me for my rank? Should I punish you for your mockery?”
“Only if your chastisement shall be loving.”
The two greater nymphs giggled, embraced and kissed.
“Love without me?” Vivien, Lady of Enticement, arrived.
Morganna answered, “If you are not here then it shall be without you.”
“I am here,” Vivien hugged and kissed the other two. She mentioned, “The oracular globe for Avalon was destroyed.”
“Yes, I know. All watchers in communion with it are now lost to us.” Morganna looked at Gledriss, “Replacements must be planted that we may watch our enemies.”
“I shall issue the command for my agents to do so.”
“Good.”
Vivien mentioned, “It was Aylith who did it.”
Gledriss perked up, “Aylith?”
“Yes.”
Morganna urged her friends and underlings, “Let us walk in the garden.”
The three strolled among flowers and trees and were crossing a little bridge when Lady Vivien claimed, “Holy Dame Elleeay was persuading the southern tribes of monsters to join us. Her assassination is deemed an ill omen by them. They shall not join us. This Aylith has denied us perhaps a hundred-thousand of their warriors.”
“Perhaps,” Mistress Morganna considered, “but perhaps not. They are not so friendly with their northern kin.” r />
Gledriss reminded, “She attempted to assassinate the Voice of Nicnivin!”
“Yes,” Morganna remembered, “and she failed to do so.”
“Aylith is too troublesome to be ignored!”
Morganna told them both, “This Aylith serves the designs of Vellizar the Gray Elf. Though she is among the best of his agents, he shall plague us whether she lives or dies. Let us vanquish the Eye and Ear itself and not seek vengeance upon one who merely obeys another.”
“To defeat the Eye and Ear is to vanquish its members!”
Morganna stared into Gledriss’s eyes and accused, “Aylith vanquished your friend, Dame Vorla. Tell me this does not anger you.” Gledriss answered with shamed silence.
Morganna peered into Vivien’s eyes and said, “You asked Holy Dame Elleeay to do as she did. She perished fulfilling a task of your design. Do you forgive this Aylith for foiling your grand scheme?”
Vivien bowed her head. The heart and mind were naked before the gaze of Mistress Morganna, Lady of the Dark Seductresses. “Forgive me.”
Morganna told them both, “Her Majesty’s Order of Seductresses does not serve personal vengeance. We are but one of Her many legions. Let us fight as good soldiers and not as petty, arrogant fools. Blessed be Nicnivin.”
The other two hailed, “Blessed be Nicnivin!”
“This Aylith has not escaped my attention. She is a formidable soldier in this War of Shadows. As a matter of war, not of vengeance, she must be destroyed.”
Gledriss wondered, “You have imagined a way to do so?”
“I have pondered alone, but my design shall be our design. Together we shall plot her doom.”