Chapter 9: Val

"Wait a minute," I said in confusion. "What do you mean that Magus guy wants me? Why?"

She lightly shrugged. "I do not know the answer to that. He never entrusted his reasons to me."

I started to say something else, then I stopped, the full realization of what she had just said hitting me. I took a step away from her as I became aware of the danger she represented. "He didn't trust his reasons to you? So you... work with him?"

"I used to," she idly replied. "But that was until..."

"Lucas!" a women's stern voice came out of the night behind me. "Step away from her!"

"Fantastic," the dark elf said in a sarcastic tone. I looked over my shoulder. Atheria was standing behind me, an arrow readied in her bow. She looked grim, her eyes narrowed with determination.

"She is evil, young Lucas," Atheria said, her eyes never leaving the dark elf. "Whatever she is telling you is a lie. Step away from her and I will do us all a favor!"

"Atheria, wait!" I instructed, blocking the dark elf with my body, trying to make sure that Atheria wouldn't have a clean shot.

Atheria did not reply and she did not back down. Her aim didn't waver in the slightest.

"Put your weapon down!" I told Atheria.

"I have sworn to protect you," Atheria reminded me. "Killing this abomination will certainly protect you and the rest of us."

"Oh yes, protect him," the dark elf teased, wrapping her ebony arms around my stomach and resting her head on my shoulder. "He needs so much protection from me."

"Atheria, we have to hear her out."

The elven warrior scowled at me. "Fine. Then let her talk and afterwards I will kill her."

"No one is killing anyone," I said. "At least, not until we get to the bottom of this."

"I will say what I have to say," the dark elf said, "but not with her around."

Atheria shook her head. "That is simply not going to happen. I will not leave you alone with him for a second longer."

"Afraid that someone else will seduce him?" the elf that was hugging me retorted. "Yes, I saw what the three of you did in that cave. Got me very hot and wet. I almost joined in."

Atheria's bow dropped down, her azure eyes giving venomous looks to the dark elf. "Very well," she conceded. "But you are making a grave mistake, young Lucas. I shall remind you of that when I bury your corpse, which is all that will be left of you if she has her way."

She stormed off back to the campsite, fading away into the shadows of the night.

"Okay, she's gone," I told the dark elf. "You can stop hugging me now."

"But why?" she asked. Her hands reached lower and grasped my cock through my pants. "This is so much more fun!"

"Say what you have to say!" I said, pushing her away.

"Very well," she pouted. "The Magus Dred is searching for you and he wants you alive. Those were the instructions he gave to his lieutenants. Even now, his minions and spies are searching for you."

"And you don't know why because he never told you."

"You have a firm grasp of the situation that I already told you about."

I let her remark slide and asked, "So then, back to the part about you working for him."

"Oh, yes, I did work for him. I was a lieutenant and his head assassin. And his lover."

"And what happened to make you not work for him anymore?"

"I found out that he planned to send me on a suicide mission. He wanted me dead and out of his way."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Perhaps he was tired of having me as a lover. Perhaps he wanted someone else to be his lead assassin. After all, that's how I got the position. Dred sent him on a mission that the Magus knew he would never return from, simply so I could gain the position." She shrugged, as if unconcerned with such trivial details. "Who knows what his reasons were, he certainly didn't tell me why he wanted me dead."

"So how did you find out?"

"His second-in-command, he has a fondness for me. Always trying to get in my pants. He thought that telling me Dred's plans to get rid of me would finally get him into them. Which it did not, that ugly toad. I trusted him, but I still needed to be sure. I checked with Dred's lieutenants that were loyal to me, and sure enough, he had conveyed to them that he would be sending me on a mission that I would not be returning from. I escaped from the Dark Domain before he could send me out to get myself killed and I started trying to track you down. I figured if he no longer wanted me, then I would do my best to make sure his plans never reached fruition. It was only pure luck that I saw you and your lover getting attacked by those thieves. I was almost ready to come to your rescue when that bitch elf showed herself and saved you. So I followed you three to the light elf city. I tried a few times to get you alone so that I could speak with you, but there was always someone else around or too close for me to try and talk to you."

"You were in our room in Quelanas!" I said, snapping my fingers as I remembered the night I woke up and thought someone else was in the room with me.

"That is true. I had hoped to lure you into leaving the room, away from your lover. I could not risk her waking up, seeing me, and then alerting all the light elves in the town that I was there. And all those other times I used my magics to call out to you, that was me. One night that I used that spell, you did indeed wander away from the camp, as I wanted you to, but you ended up walking right over to where that elf bitch was at!" She let out a growl of frustration. "I wanted to strangle you for not cooperating with me!"

I was silent after that, taking in all that she told me. She was quiet too, regarding me with her crimson eyes.

"I have told you all that I know," she said at length. "Stay safe and watch out for the Magus's spies." She gave me a wink and a little wave, then started to walk away into the night.

"Wait," I said. "Where will you go?"

"I do not know yet," she told me. "Perhaps back to the underground, where my people dwell. Perhaps I will find a home here on the surface."

"Listen," I said, not believing what I was about to say, "I know that you staying with us would create some problems, but I think we could use you."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "You do not know what you are asking," she said. "You have already seen the hatred your pet elf feels towards me, and the fury the dwarf will feel will be just as much as hers. And your beloved will despise me just as much as the others."

"They won't do anything to you," I insisted. "Benthor is indebted to me and will listen to what I tell him, or at least, that's what he says. And I can control Atheria. I think."

She laughed slightly. "Listen to you, you are not at all sure you can control those who would kill me."

She walked back up to me, gliding her body seductively across the distance between us. "But I will stay, because I think that you would die protecting me before you let any of them harm me."

I thought about that for a moment, then nodded my head. "You're right. They'll have to go through me before they lay a hand on you."

Benthor pushed me out of the way with a great roar. His battleaxe raised high, he charged at Valandaria, the dark elf.

"Benthor, no!" I cried out, scrambling to my feet to try and stop him.

Val simply stood there, hands on her hips, a small smile on her ebony face. She didn't look at all concerned with the dwarf charging straight for her. When he was close enough, she plucked a thick handle out of the top of her boot and sidestepped the charging dwarf. She cracked the whip she had tucked in her boot, wrapping the end around one of his ankles, and then she gave a tug on the handle. Benthor fell flat on his face.

"Want to try that with me?" Atheria asked Val, her twin blades gleaming in the rising morning sun.

"Enough!" I yelled. "Both of you, stop!"

I stepped between Val and Atheria, both my arms raised. Benthor was unwrapping the whip from his ankle while Gianna stood nearby, watching us all.

"She's here to help us," I told them.

"You do not know the dark elves, Lucas," Atheria stated, her voice as cold as the steel of her blades. "They cannot be trusted."
"Th' first time I agree with th' skinny elf," Benthor said, climbing to his feet. "She's right, Lucas. Ya can't trust any elves, but th' dark ones are especially bad."

"I trust her," Gianna spoke up. "I trust her because Lucas does. And that's enough for me. Lucas is the one we all should be listening to, because he's the one we've gathered around. This is his journey, his quest to find what he's looking for. It should be his decision who should and shouldn't help him along the way. And when he decides that he wants someone to help him, we should be offering him our support, not fighting among ourselves."

I looked into Gianna's eyes, silently expressing my gratitude for her support. She briefly smiled at me.

"The girl's got a point," Benthor said. "How does one so young get so smart?"

"She nearly has the wisdom of an elf," Atheria remarked. "Very well, I will follow Lucas's instincts. But I will follow my own instincts as well." She glared at Val. "I will be watching you."

"I am used to being stared at," Val told her, "but it is usually by males," she added with a wink. She blew a kiss at Atheria.

I shook my head in wonder. This was going to get very interesting.

We set out for Ogden, which Atheria told me was a small village about a half day away. Atheria led the way, of course. Val followed behind her, then Gianna and me, with Benthor bringing up the rear.

No one said much of anything in the morning. Even Benthor, who talked both of my ears off the day before, was strangely quiet. Gianna gave me looks of concern, but I shook my head. I had some things I needed to think about. She seemed to understand that, and so she took my hand in hers and simply held it as we walked.

We decided not to break for lunch, since we could have a warm meal in Ogden, instead of eating hard tack. We took one brief break, then resumed our travel. It was after this that Gianna felt the time had come to start telling her what was on my mind.

"I'm thinking about what Val said," I told her after she had asked what was on my mind. "She said that that Magus Dred guy is looking for me. He has some of his guys out looking for me."

"What does he want with you?" Gianna asked.

"I don't know for sure. Maybe he somehow knows that I'm not from here."

"Val doesn't know?"

"No, he never told her why he wants me. But here's the thing: If the Magus is as bad as you and the others say he is, and if he wants me, then it can't be for a good reason."

She nodded, agreeing with me. "It would help if we knew why he's after you."

"It would, but we don't. Sweetheart, I think this puts to rest the discussion we had last night."

She looked at me in concern. "What do you mean?"

"I've got to find a way to get home as soon as possible, so Dred can't get his hands on me. I admit, after our talk, I was really tempted to just stay here with you. But what Val told me changes that."

"I know," she said with a scowl. "I don't have to like it though."

"You can still come with me," I offered.

"I know that too. But that world you told me about, I would feel so lost there."

"That's how I felt when I came here," I reminded her.

"I'm sorry, but I just don't know," she admitted.

"You can think about it, it's not like you'll have to make a decision right this second."

I heard noise up ahead and I looked up. We were coming up on a dirt road, and a large group of men in armor were marching down it. They carried blue and white banners, exactly like the ones I had seen being carried by the army of men I had witnessed when I first arrived in this world. Val, seeing the men, quickly ducked behind some rocks, hiding from them. Atheria approached the road, waiting for the men to come near. By the time they had approached her position, Gianna, Benthor, and I had joined her alongside the road.

"Greetings, fair elf," one of them said. He had been marching alongside the core group of men, who kept marching on while he stopped to speak with Atheria.