Chris Evans - The Light of Burning Shadows

“Renwar!” Konowa said.

“I hope so,” Rallie said, emerging from around the rocks and walking toward Alwyn. She stopped a few paces away from him and smiled. She ignored Her Emissary. She was looking at the Star. “You’ve been away a long time, haven’t you?”

The Star gleamed in Renwar’s hands.

“Away with you!” Her Emissary shouted. “The Star is Hers!”

“Rallie, what’s going on?” Konowa asked, taking a few steps forward.

She raised her hand to stop him. “This is no longer our fight, Major.”

Konowa took another step. “Renwar! Free the Star! Her Emissary only wants it for Her designs. You must know that.”

Private Renwar looked at Konowa with eyes shining blue starlight.

“I…I know,” he said.

“Then do as I command. We can defeat Her Emissary.” Muskets grounded as soldiers began to load another round.

Alwyn raised one hand while keeping the other on the burning Star. “No, you can’t defeat him. I…I have struck a deal.”

Her Emissary laughed. “You see, Swift Dragon, you were defeated before you began.”

The import of what Renwar was about to do struck home. Renwar was going to break the oath. “Wait! Her forest is still out there, and it’s growing. And my elves! We came here for them. I have to save them. We have to save them. The Star must stay here.”

Renwar looked down at the Star. “And who saves us, Major…? Who saves us?”

Konowa’s heart ached. He felt the eyes of every soldier on his back. Why was the answer never simple? Why did it always have to hurt this much? Tears flowed freely down Konowa’s face. Anguish filled every part of him until he couldn’t breathe. “I will. I swear it. One day the oath will be broken, but not here, not this way. You know that. A deal with Her Emissary is a fool’s deal.” He turned to look at the Iron Elves behind him. “You all know that. We can’t break the oath, not this way.”

“They deserve better,” Alwyn said. “We all do. Would it be so wrong to end the suffering? Why not us, Major? Why not end this?”

Konowa wiped the tears from his face. “Because we’re soldiers. And before this oath we took another one. We swore to defend the Empire…to protect the people we love. That’s an oath that we can never break. No matter what the cost. We give our lives so that others may live. It’s not fair, but it was never supposed to be.”

“That oath is for fools!” Her Emissary said. “The deal is done.”

Konowa suddenly realized something. “Renwar, you cannot trust him. Why would he allow you to break the oath for all the Iron Elves? Think about it. It’s a trick.”

Alwyn looked at Her Emissary, then at Konowa. “You misunderstand…you both do.”

The shades of the Darkly Departed reappeared to stand around Alwyn. Konowa recognized the soldier Meri, and Regimental Sergeant Major Lorian. More and more shades appeared. Their hands reached out to Alwyn, and Konowa heard their cries in his head. “Save us…save us.”

“You’re a good man, Alwyn Renwar,” Rallie said, her voice radiating calm. “You know what you have to do.”

Every soldier in the Iron Elves watched the Star in Alwyn’s hand. Their fate rested in a ball of blue light none of them understood, just as it had before with another Star.

“You struck a deal with Her,” Her Emissary said.

Alwyn turned and looked at Her Emissary. “Yes, with Her…not with you.” Black frost fire shot from his hands and enveloped Her Emissary in a sheet of twisting black flame. Her Emissary screamed and tried to grab for the Star, but its body was torn away in a gale of flame until nothing remained.

Alwyn calmly looked up, his eyes staring at something only he could see. He lifted the Star up to the sky and let it go. Blue light cascaded outward in waves. Konowa raised his arm to protect his eyes as the light flared like a million suns, then vanished.

When Konowa lowered his arm, a massive tree stretched skyward, its limbs wide and strong. Energy pure and clean radiated from it, washing away the remnants of the ancient power that had poisoned this land for centuries. From deep within the sarka har, Her Emissary screamed as the Jewel of the Desert began to push back against Her power. Her Emissary’s vice broke with inconsolable rage at Private Renwar’s deception, and Konowa wondered, perhaps fear at the rise of a new force.

Konowa wanted to find a way to feel glad, to feel something, but nothing came to him.

“Renwar? What have you done?”

The soldier lifted his head and walked forward. When he emerged, the shades of the dead clustered around. His eyes no longer reflected the blue Starlight, but were now gray. The acorn against Konowa’s chest flared in recognition of a power it understood.

“Alwyn’s dead,” Renwar said, his voice now an eerie match to the former Emissary’s.

Konowa shook his head. “I made a vow, and I will keep it. The oath will be broken and one day you will all be free.”

“I know that,” Renwar said. The shadows continued to hover around him.

Dread filled Konowa. What had Renwar done? He looked around him at the Iron Elves. Konowa looked down at his own hands and called forth the frost fire. It sparked to life as it always had. “You didn’t break the oath,” Konowa said.

“Yes, Major, I did,” Renwar said.

“I don’t understand,” Konowa said. “What oath did you break?”

“Don’t you see, Major,” Rallie said, smiling sadly as she looked at Alwyn. “He did break the oath, only not yours, and not those of the living. He’s freed the dead.”

Konowa looked at the shades. He tried to call them forward, but they ignored him. “Why?”

“She must be destroyed if the oath is to be broken. I could not save you as you live, but I could save those already gone. Now it is up to you to finish the fight.”

The Iron Elves stood in stunned silence. Konowa realized that in a way he never expected he had achieved what he wanted. The power of the oath’s magic remained.

“But what of my elves?” he asked.

“She searches for them still, though she has not found them…yet.”

It was small comfort, but it was something.

“Renwar, I-”

“Alwyn’s dead,” Renwar said.

Rallie held up her hand before Konowa could reply. “Then who are you?” Rallie asked.

Renwar turned to look at her. “I’m all that remains.”

“Who are you?!” Konowa shouted. “Tell me who the hell you are!”

Renwar closed his eyes for a moment. A cold clarity gripped Konowa. The shades pressed closer around Renwar, their hands resting on his shoulders. When Renwar’s eyes opened again, Konowa already knew the answer.

“I am Their Emissary now.”

Arr An aromatic, if bitter, bean grown in hot climates that when dried and then boiled in water creates a drink that awakens and revives.

Bayonet Typically a ten-inch piece of steel shaped like a dagger and attached to the end of a musket. Used primarily for close-in fighting as a stabbing weapon.

Bengar A large, carnivorous predator weighing up to eight hundred pounds and usually sporting black fur with dull red stripes, large fangs, and a short tail. The full extent of its range is unknown. One male of the species, Jir, has been adopted as mascot of the Iron Elves.

Black powder Also known as gunpowder, it is a mixture of coal, sulfur, and saltpeter that when ignited by a spark creates an explosive reaction. Used in muskets and cannons.

Blood Oath Oath taken by the Iron Elves pledging loyalty to the regiment. Due to Major Konowa Swift Dragon’s possession of an obsidian acorn from the Shadow Monarch’s Silver Wolf Oak at the time of the oath, all the soldiers are now bonded to the regiment and increasingly under Her sway, in death and beyond.