Page 11 of The Dragon King
I waited to spot the enemy, refusing to engage in battle without understanding their numbers or formation.
General Ezra continued to stare ahead.
Then someone appeared through the trees, starting as a shadow before the light of the torches struck his face. The only evidence that he was an elf was his pointed ears, but the rest of him looked human. He was thick and muscular, much bigger than any of the elves who stood behind me. He was dressed in black armor that blended in with the darkness around him. He had long black hair that was combed from his face—and a long scar down the center of his eye.
He stopped at the line of torches and looked straight at us, like he could see in the dark.
General Ezra took a step forward.
My hand went to his shoulder, and I steadied him. “Allow me.”
He threw my hand down. “I’m the general of Riviana Star, and you follow my orders.”
I lowered my voice. “I remember your wife asking me to handle this—not you.”
He said nothing, but his eyes did all the talking.
I walked forward and broke the line of trees.
The dark elf immediately shifted his gaze to me when I emerged, and that arrogant smile slowly faded as I drew near. The disgusting glee left his face, and he turned serious once he realized he faced more than the elves.
I stood several feet away, my face visible in the torchlight.
He stared at me with wide eyes, his skin the color of stone in the mountains, his eyes dark and lifeless. But he was tall and burly, a creature that existed off meat instead of seeds and berries like his relations. “You’re cursed.” His voice was deeper than I expected, like the hum from deep in a mountain. “Cursed just like us.”
“Yes.”
He glanced at the army behind me before he looked at me once again. Then he changed his tongue, speaking in the language of death. “Scion hueim ahieu schiem buros.” The Death King has conquered Riviana Star.
I spoke back in the same language.Yurot ahugn viuah Riviana Star. Buffios niuiss vitti zurois cuaoloum.I have not conquered Riviana Star. I’m an ally of the forest.
“Impossible. Queen Eldinar would never accept aid from a necromancer.”
“She fears you—so she must.”
A smile moved across his face. Not a normal smile like a child could wear, but a demented one, a mad one. “As she should.”
“What do you want in the Realm of Caelum, Alaric?”
His eyes bored into mine as if he was hypnotized by my stare. “To be the God of Caelum. To make Riviana serve me on her knees. To banish Queen Eldinar and every elf who has ever supported her to an eternity in the underworld. That is what I wish, Death King.”
“That’s quite ambitious.”
He smiled again. “Not as ambitious as you.”
“And how do you intend to subjugate a god?”
He stared at me with that same smile. “Riviana may be invulnerable among us, but in Caelum, she is touchable. She is vulnerable. I will chain her wrists and her ankles. I will fuck the pussy of a god and take her crown.”
I didn’t fear this creature. Not his size or his ambition. But his words were vile…and made me sick. I remembered my wife’s tears when she told me what happened to her. And I would never forgive myself for what happened to Calista because I felt responsible for her tragedy.
His fingers moved to his temple. “When she cursed us, she bestowed upon us a gift, a gift to attack with the mind.” He tapped twice before he lowered his hand. His smile was wider than ever. “She may be physically superior, but her mind will break under my hold.”
A rush of fear moved up my spine. We were thousands of leagues across the sea from my homeland, but some of these dark elves must have left the forest and moved elsewhere throughout thelast thousand years. It was too much of a coincidence. “Why haven’t you used this ability against Queen Eldinar?”
“Because it doesn’t work on mortals.”
That meant it would work on me. Or Khazmuda.