Prologue

1

From the depths of the night,2

The riders were born,3

From the shadows of their lairs,4

They waited for their chance…5

Men that had ceased to be men,6

Tainted with their evil rage,7

A power that could conquer all,8

They rode out into the night,9

Blending into the shadows,10

Becoming one with the darkness,11

Being things of the dark themselves.12

They rode to death, destruction,13

To bring Elves and Men to their knees,14

To show the world the havoc;15

What a King’s mistakes can bring.16

By: Anonymous17

Prologue:18

Soft, golden ringlets graced a porcelain face; thick lashes making steady, shining blue eyes seem twice as wide as they truly were. Her soft, rosy lips were drawn up in soft laughter, and she had a voice like a gentle harp playing its harmonic tune. Tossing back her head merrily, she sent her soft laughter to the wide open, clear blue sky, cradling the little newborn in her arms. By her side crouched a tan-skinned, black-haired, blue-eyed young Orcai captain, cradling his spear just as gracefully as his wife cradled the baby.19

“Elraya shall be her name, after my Grandmother. I can already tell by those gray eyes of hers that she’ll be able to make men tremble in their boots,” He joked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, drawing her in a quick, warm embrace. Nodding her head, she let out a slow sigh, turning her gaze to the fiery sky.20

Shadows danced along the path, thrown by the setting sun. “Ithyl uta nair,” He whispered softly, cradling the spear between his two leather gloves. Shoving past him, she closed her eyes against the dread.21

“Please don’t speak in that language in front of your daughter…I do not want her to know of Orcai or Duar or even that her father was involved in any of this. She should just not be exposed to such evil.” Pleading, she looked away, tears in her eyes.22

“Please, Tyia…I just…” Her eyes met his, closed and with the thick lashes forcing back the moisture he knew to be there. “I do have a right to know where my daughter is.” Looking up at her, he drew her into a tight embrace, watching as she momentarily set the baby down.23

     “Nyatu, I…do care. But, you understand it, right? What…I want you to do? I’m sorry…I just want the best for our daughter.” Tyia’s bright blue eyes met his, moisture making them blurry…eyes that were bright with affection and sorrow.24

“It would have been best if I was not in her life? I just don’t want my daughter to say on every Father’s Day… ‘I wish I had a Daddy that I could thank for being there’…I don’t want her to be without a father, Tyia. Tell her…that I gave her this when she was born.” Nyatu clutched something in his rough, rugged hands, settling a necklace over the baby’s neck.25

“Truly, I wish I could see you, Tyia. I do. But as you said, I suppose it is best for the baby. This way, she never has to live with the humiliation of knowing what her father was…but what about you, Tyia? My position and reputation won’t keep you safe forever…you remember what they said. Any half-bred found would be killed…and even if she wasn’t killed life would be miserable for her, and you. Are you sure you could cope with that existence?” Tyia forced her legs to stop shaking sweeping the baby into her arms.26

“Positive, Nyatu. I’m glad you understand…I just hope I’m not being selfish.” Eyes suddenly hard and black as obsidian glinted in the soft firelight of the setting sun, the warmth there overtaken with a spell of cold cruelty. They had both tried to find ways to escape it, but knew that Nyatu could never escape what he had been born as, as much as they might wish for it. 27

“I am sorry for all the hurt I will cause you, Tyia…but never let that stop you from making a better life for our child than what she was born in.” The rays of the sun threw shadows across his back, and her last image of those hard eyes that had been soft just a minute earlier played through her mind…why oh why did she have to get involved with the Orcai and Duar?28

Orcai…a name to bring fear to the stoutest heart. The black riders, Elvin Princes during the day but poisoned with the greed of their forefathers, which become demons by night. Wherever they go, they bring a whirlwind of death and destruction. Nyatu had tried his hardest…he truly had…for me, for the baby…I suppose none of it was supposed to work out…drat it! Why did he have to involve me in his affairs…in the affairs of the Orcai and Duar?29

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she finally forced her gaze away from the form rapidly disappearing in the night. Cradling the baby to her chest, she choked back tears to sooth the little one to sleep with a lullaby… “Listen to the wind, my child. Listen to the stars, how they sing. Everything will be alright, my child. Happiness and harmony may the sunshine always bring.”30

The necklace around the little one’s throat sent off a ray of brilliant sapphire light that exploded in the darkness of the setting sun in its last fiery minutes before night extinguished it. Gray eyes gazed steadily, eyes that seemed to pierce through Tyia’s soul as she sighed one last time, softly…a sigh that strayed into the breeze and was forgotten.31

His obsidian eyes flashed with hardness, but in the depths of his soul he felt not an ounce of the hatred for the world his eyes showed…Tyia…my sweet Tyia…a single tear slipped from his cheek, splashing onto his wrist. His feet seemed to be frozen as he tried to make himself walk away from his daughter, his wife…walk into a bleak future of riding…eternally riding in the night at the will of his Orcain blood and the evil Duar.32

“I truly am sorry…Tyia, if only we could take it back…make a life for Elraya.” His wishes seemed so useless, so faraway and bleak…surreal things that scarcely had any reality left in them. And yet as he looked up at the crescent moon peeking up from the dim horizon, he could not help but feel hope spring into his heart. While his family was alive, there was always hope…even if his daughter’s last glimpse of Daddy had been a man with stirring Orcain blood.33

“I’ll make up for it,” He vowed silently, gazing into the night. A little more than three feet in front of him, the lake rippled gently, smoothly, flashing lights reflecting in the pearly depths of clear water. Surreal, ethereal shadows of great trees seemed to reach up from the waters, branches trying to rake his eyes out, like long, blade-like fingers. He could feel his fellow Orcains, felt their blood stirring from their veins as night began to rein.34

They would be gathering, soon, once night was in its darkest depths…once stars were dotted across the vast indigo horizon, glistening with hints of veiled majesty…a mysterious aura would then hang in the air, enveloping night in playful shadows. A slight smile played on his lips as the Orcain blood began to take over, his past vows forgotten as night’s rein began to appear…this was what he had been born for. The night was his home, and he belonged in it.35

His hard obsidian eyes gleamed with a light of cruel pleasure as the howling of the wind met his ears. Other eyes flashed out from the shadows, cloaked forms prowling out to join him on the riverbank. His own dark cloak twitched in the wind, folding around his dark, shadowy form softly. A full smile of dark pleasure played on his lips…everything of his past was erased from his mind…all memories of that one moment he had spent with daughter, watching her steady gray, attentive eyes…the hurt of Tyia in that last moment when she made him go away…everything was forgotten as he went out to join his brethren of the night. 36

Tyia moved through the silence of the night, cradling the baby. Everything was so peaceful…so quiet. Tears still dripped from her eyes, but her voice was firm and her hand still as she smoothed the baby’s wild curls. It had only been an hour since he left, since she had seen the final change in those soft, enchanting blue eyes…seen them sparkle in the sunset like cold, hard obsidian, the dull gleam of the stirring Orcain blood visible in the last moment.37

If there was a way he could escape what he had been born as, she would help him…but she couldn’t. Many of his kind tried so hard to escape their fate when they were in the right mind, and yet they all fell prey to the Orcain blood in the last moment…they could never fight long enough to say those simple words to their beloved. Another tear slipped from her cheek on her damp hand…another useless tear cried for someone that would not listen.38

Leaning her head back, clutching the baby to her chest, she could almost imagine the screams of pain ringing in her ears…could feel the scent of burning wood tickling her nose…if the Orcai joined…every Elf would fall…their would be slavery…as she drifted out of her daydream she still smelt the burning wood and heard the cries. They jolted her back into the realm of reality. It wasn’t a dream…somehow, the Orcai had managed to draw its remnants back together into the dark army it had been. Tattered and torn, they had crawled away from the war to lick their wounds, and some, like Nyatu, had tried their hardest to forget all about Orcai and to make a life in peacetime…maybe peace wasn’t meant to be.39

Now she could see them, dark, wraith-like forms that thrived off the darkness, sweeping through the depths of night. Clutching the baby to her chest, she turned around, feelings the icy claws of fear and doubt wrenching at her heart…thoughts ran through her mind, incoherent and blurred, as she tried to get to her feet. For the baby’s sake, she would remain calm. There was no way to escape, nowhere to go…for the baby’s sake she would be strong…maybe there was still hope.40

The baby had started wailing, small fists thrashing in the air as if, in her puny, fragile mind she could already grasp the concept of evil, as if she knew that she could well be living in her final minutes. Singing a soothing lullaby, Tyia descended the stairs from the rooftop, feet picking out the safest path of the winding staircase.41

Nyatu noticed something familiar about the pale, frightened eyes that gazed at him from the darkness of the rooftop, and the other pair of steady, attentive gray eyes, but as soon as the recognition had flashed through his mind, it was forgotten. Wielding his saber in one hand and the blazing torch in the other, he motioned for his brethren to move forward, the taste of flesh on his tongue and the sickly sweet smell of the slowly burning skin tickling his nostrils pleasantly. Nyatu let out a howl of pleasure as he and the other Orcai circled the house in a slow ring, brandishing torches and sabers.42

Eyes smiling with cold pleasure glinted with their hard light in the fiery depths of the flames, eyes that looked hungrily at the descending woman clutching her baby. In the depths of his dark heart, Nyatu turned his upward to look at the single ray of sunshine…felt a prompting in his heart to at least spare the life of the baby…even if they thought him weak for doing so. “Spare the baby…I can sense something about her that is dangerous, understand? Do not touch a hair on her head.” Heads nodding eagerly, hungry still though they had recently feasted, they gave a last, wild howl, charging the house. 43

Tyia moved from the darkness of the doorway, unsure of what to do. She did not want herself and the baby to be caught at the mercy of the fire…as foolish as she knew it to be, in the innermost depths of her heart, she wanted to think that Nyatu would come to his senses, would conquer the Orcai blood in him. Tears spilling down her cheeks, she clutched the baby to her chest, feeling the baby bury its head in her chest. He had to understand, to come to his senses if at least for a moment…it just made sense that he would.44

Forcing her head up to look at the obsidian eyes of a dark wraith-like figure, she choked back her tears, chin thrust up defiantly and baby Elraya cradled gently in her arms. She faced the Orcain man that had once been Nyatu, speaking softly so she didn’t frighten the baby. “Kill me…but do not kill the baby. Spare her life, please…” She did not have a pleading tone to her voice, because she would not plead with evil, but something in her voice still must reach him…he must remember who she was…he must.45

Yet his eyes flashed at her with their hard, cold light, piercing into the depths of her soul and shattering the hope she had built, hope that had acted as a fortress to protect her heart against the realization of the dark truth. Already, he had forgotten whom she was…forgotten that Tyia existed. When he spoke, his voice was hard…46

“They cannot keep back their hunger as I can…if the baby were thrust into my arms, they would be sure to eat her.” Eyes flashing with rage, Tyia clutched the baby tighter to her chest to smother her cries. 47

“You may not remember me, Nyatu, but I remember you…look into my eyes…your men are not so hungry that they would not let my baby live…and if you can find mercy in your heart, at least le me live as a slave.” She could not help but begin to plead, staring deep into his eyes and trying to conjure the faded memory of what they had once looked like.48

“Alright…I could use someone to build me a fortress…or rather an army of slaves to do it…” His lips were curled into a smile. “Now that I feel the return of my Orcain blood, not even daylight will get in my way…our nation will rise, greater than the rest, and one day Duar will make me King.” He was too ambitious, his voice ringing with certainty that his dark visions would come true. Yet he spoke too casually about death and slavery, as if it was another matter of the day. The chilling indifference was almost worse than the eagerness that she could sense in the others.49

Releasing her breath in one last satisfied sigh, she lifted the sapphire necklace from baby Elraya’s neck…she had almost forgotten it. Placing it softly in her silken cloak, she met Nyatu gaze for gaze. “May I keep my baby?” She was surprised at how soft she was speaking, how hopeful it was…how soft and weak she was being. Her mother would be mad at her…and yet even if this was a different man from the one she had loved, she could not help but feel something of the sort for him…in the depths and shadows of his mind, there was the clouded recognition of who she was, one last corner of his mind that still somehow managed to escape the shadows.50

“No you may not…I’ll take her from you, thank you.” It was somehow different from the offhand, flat tone he had been speaking in, a vicious snarl that wrung through her head. Another man was emerging from the frozen depths…a man that would do anything to find out why he was being so soft. Snatching her into his hands roughly, he felt a shock go through him as the baby started screaming, squirming to get back to her mother.51

Tears splashed more rapidly down Tyia’s face than they had previously, and at that moment when she felt the terrible heart-wrenching anguish and grief collide with the horror she felt at giving up the baby so she could live, a spear thudded into her back and the hilt of a saber. “Get in the back, woman! We’re marching, and if you’re left behind or trampled you’ll be Orcai food.” Shrugging off Tyia’s gentle grip on his shoulder, Nyatu left her behind, clutching the baby to his chest and forgetting about her again.52

Bent over in grief, sobs wracking her body, she ignored the pain that went through her spine as a saber’s hilt thudded on her head. “Move,” The Orcai behind her snarled. For the sake of the baby, for the one shining hope that one day she would tell her the truth, Tyia forced herself to oblige, she watched the Orcai march forward and fell into pace at the back with the hard, steely eyes of another Orcai watching her back, marching into the night.53