Second section of my third attempt at a book

I hope this helps to illuminate the story more, this still is only a small piece, and no where near the whole extent.

Ban walk in front of the elf as they make their way down the cave. They had heard the man cursing the darkened cave behind them and the conversation with his men. Ban had leaned next to her ear and whispered for her to be quiet, breathing in her scent. She smelled of green earth and untouched forests after a good rain. It felt good to be close to her, to breath her deep into his lungs and taste the warmth of her body on his tongue. He had felts her eyes on him as he breathed her in and he turned away from her quickly and led the way down the hidden path through the mountain.

The darkness presses in all around them as they traverse the dark path, Ban can barely see the walls around them in the dark and keeps one hand against the left hand wall to guide them through the few twists and turns. Her hand is a pleasant warmth in his right and it feels good to hold it. He can feel her eyes on him again and is unsure as to how much she can really see. Her people were said to have very good night vision after all that is where he had gotten his. The elf blood in his veins was a great asset to him. He wanted to talk to her to fill the silence but dared not to in fear of giving them away, let ‘milord’ think them disappeared into the forest or some how climbed the mountain, he would never find the secret cleft then. So he suffered in the silent darkness, guiding her through the dark passages.

He remembers the day he had first found this way through the mountains, it was a day after his sisters death, he had found it while searching the cave for a safe place to hide her body, so that the King’s guard wouldn’t find her and desecrate her grave. He had left her grave unmarked but on his heart he had marked the spot so he could visit it. He had been half blind with refreshed tears when he had stumbled upon the cave, a draft coming from the back of the cave had given him clue as to the existence of the passage but it took him hours to finally find its source. He had lifted his sisters body up, still in the ripped rags of her dress with dried blood making it stiff as he carried her through.

For another day he was lost in the dark passages with only the cold, decaying corpse of his sister to keep him company. To fill the silence he would talk to her as if she was still alive, speaking of their haunted youth and of his life since he’d last seen her a year before. He was wondering about his sanity when he had stumbled into the bright sunlight. The brightness of the sun burned his eyes and he had fallen back into the soothing darkness of the passage until his eyes had adjusted and he came blinking out into the light of a warm summers day. He had seen the trees stretching out before him in the vale, a vast green ocean opening up before him. The warmth of the sun brightened his spirits and he ran laughing with his sister in his arms, her limbs stiff as he swung around in circles.

Remembering his purpose there he had walked solemnly into the green darkness of the forest and walked until he had found the clearing at the bottom of the bowl formed by the mountains to either side. He had decided that his sister would have liked this place and he laid her against one of the trees and began to dig. He dug deep and wide enough for his sister to lay at peace. His work done he had gone to the mountain spring and bathed his sweaty, dirt ridden body and clothes then had used the frigid water to wash away the markings of his sweet sisters rape. Her face had looked warped and twisted from the beating they had given her and tears had begun to flow from his eyes as he redressed her in her tattered clothes.

Ban had carried her to the grave he had dug her and laid her in its depths, kissing her brow one last time. A tear fell from his face and landed on her face making it look like she was weeping to. Turning horridly away from her he had climbed out of the dirt and vision blurred with tears threw the dirt on top of her, hiding her beauty from the world forever.

Ban is brought back to the present by a breath of warm air on his ears. “What do you think of Ban of House Valorn? Fore I see tears waiting to be shed in your eyes.” Her voice whispered into his ear with another breath of sweet warm breath.

He looked at her a moment then back to the darkness in front of him and saw the first shimmers of light before them. Seeing the exit to the vale and knowing them safe he answers his voice choked from the memory. “I was remembering how I came to find this place the first time. My sister, younger by a year, was raped and left to die by some of the King’s Soldiers, I found her as she breathed her last breath and came out here to find a safe place to bury her.” He chokes holding back the tears, he had already shed enough tears for her. “I found the cleft and these passages by sheer chance, I wondered for hours carrying her body before finding the way through. There is a wooded valley beyond that is untouched by man as far as I can tell. The mountains form a sort of bowl and there is a clearing in the bottom of it where I laid her to rest.” At the last of his words they passed out of the mountain into the dim light of dusk. The clouds still hang threatening over head but the rain has ceased for the time being.

Ban hears the elf maid gasp beside him at the beauty of the place and turning to her sees the wonder enter her face. She wanders out to the trees and touches its bark, a shiver runs through her body and she stands away from it. “You were right Ban, this wood knows not the savage hand of man or the cruel bite of axe. You may be the only man alive to ever set foot in this wood.” She lays her hand onto the tree once more and closes her eyes muttering. When she opens her eyes again her eyes glow the same green as the leaves and needles of the trees in the wood. “It still holds your sister safe, it holds her as a sacred trust, and is happy that you trusted one you loved so to its protection., none has disturbed her not even the wild animals that walk the wood. This is a very ancient forest, it may have stood here since the Birthing of the World.” She takes her hand away from the trees bark and the green glow fades from her eyes. A smile brightens her face and her smile seems brighter and warmer then the sun. “Oh Ban I knew you would be able to help me, my people will be safe here I just know it. We’ll mark your sisters grave with great honors as she helped you to find this place and we will turn this wood into a beauty to behold so great that men and elf alike will weep to look upon it.” She turns back to the wood with tears of joy on her cheeks as she talks and Ban just stands by the mouth of the cave and watches her, his face growing dark.

She turns back to him and some of the joy leaves her face when she sees his own dark expression. “What is it Ban? Aren’t you happy that my people can return and find safety and happiness again?” Her voice almost sounds hurt at his reaction to her happy speech.

Ban looks out over the treetops spreading on for what seemed like forever into the horizon his thoughts awhirl, depression setting in deeper and darker. “If you bring your people to this place then I will lose my sister. They will see what I am and hate me for the same crime that the king, and his decedents have hated my family, for our birth.” He looked into her face and watched it crumble. “Only it won’t be because of some perceived threat, it will be because to your people mine are an abomination and should be hunted down and killed wherever they are found. SO you see I won’t ever get to see my sisters grave again. Even if your people do build a monument for her they would lay my dead body next to hers and honor the spot as the grave of the last half blood.”

The elf maid looks deeply hurt by what he said. “But we have learned a great deal from our suffering under the Dark Elves, we would see you as a savior and place you in high honor with our own returned lords. The hatred the elves once felt for the half bloods of our past has been washed away by the blood of our own precious children, burned away in the fires of our torture. I swear we hold no ill will towards any in this world, we wish only to live in peace.” She had walked up to him while she spoke and now took his hands in her own looking deeply into his eyes, hers full of pleading. “You could come with me, to the other world with me to tell them of this place. The dark elves wont even know your there. They barely bother to set a watch on us any more. They think us cowed and to weak to do anything any ways. Please.”

Trying to ignore the plea in her eyes and voice Ban looks up to the darkening sky and motions to the woods. We should make camp, I wish to see my sisters grave and it has been a hard day. Lets get some rest then head down to the clearing.” Without waiting for her to reply Ban walks past her disappearing into the green darkness of the trees. He finds a likely spot and starts to build a small fire pit, digging a wide shallow hole in the floor of the forest he gathers together the dry needles underneath the wet and builds up a small pile of wood and kindling. He snaps his fingers over the dry wood and it starts to burn merrily, first a deep blue then lightening to a mixture of orange, red and yellow. A few minutes later the elf maid walks into the circle of light and warmth given by the fire and Ban can see that she had been crying. Feeling bad for what he had said he looks up to her eyes and admires the deep green color, and the way her dark hair brings out the color, almost like the bark of a tree. “I’m sorry, I’ve had a very trying day today and I’m not thinking very well, we’ll talk about it again tomorrow, after I see my sister.” She looked down to him and a small smile crosses her lips. “Are you hungry?”

A frown creases her brow as she looks down at him confused again. “Yes, but I didn’t bring any food with me and I never saw you carrying a pack. So what are we going to eat, pine needles?”

Ban holds up his hand and smiles at her, snapping his fingers a little dark hole appears in the air in front of him and he reaches his arm in and grabs the cloth there. His smile broadens as she gasps when he pulls out the heavy pack, filled with food and cooking utensils. “How did you do that? The elves have never been able to do anything like that.” Her voice was awed and full of wonder.

Ban looked at her with a wide grin on his face. “They never were able to, its one of the things that come from mixing the bloods, my ancestors inherited most of the magicks of both races, and developed some that neither had. This is one of them, we can create holes in the fabric of the world, making it possible to hide things of import in a safe place and be able to reach it from anywhere. The greatest of the mages could make ‘holes’ big enough to pass themselves through. The Valorn family only one of them.”

She watches him for several minutes as he pulled out pots and vegetables and other spices to make a vegetable soup. As he chopped some carrots in with a knife he keeps in the pack she spoke again. “If your capable of making these ‘holes’ as you put it, then why didn’t you just do it back in the forest, or in the cave. We could have been here instantly and been a lot safer.”

Ban’s smile wilts as he picks up another carrot to add to the soup. “I’ve never tried, I don’t know if I can make a portal large enough to take us both through. My father told me I would probably be capable of doing it, but I have feared what would happen if I tried and failed.” He cuts in the last of the carrot and stirs the heating water adding spices. “Even if I make one big enough, it may not have enough power to take me to where I want to go. It could close as I try to pass through and then I would be lost in the ether space.” He looks across the fire at her, slowly turning the soup. She watches him to as his hand slowly turns the spoon around and around in a circle. He takes his hand away and uses it to prop up his head as he stares up at the darkened sky, the spoon continues to move in its slow endless circles on its own.

“How can you do it?” She suddenly asked after some time of silence. The sound of the night and the steady stirring of the spoon the only sounds.

He turns back to her as if surprised that she was there, he had become lost in his own thoughts and almost forgotten her. “How can I do what?” He looks at her puzzled and takes the spoon back in his hand to taste the soup.

“How can you use magick so blithely for such common things and not use it to defend yourself? Why not turn it against your enemies and make them stop?” Her voice becomes heated near the end of her question and she clenches her hand in a fist at the last.

He looks down to the spoon that had been stirring the soup on its own a few moments before then back up towards the mountains. Where on the other side ten Kings Guards were hunting him at that moment. “Well I don’t because my father taught me to never use my magick as a weapon unless I have no other choice. Don’t you know the law of three?” He looks at her quizzically the soup forgotten for the moment.

She looked confused again. “The law of three?? What in the green world is that? We know nothing of it.”

“Well the law of three is the law that rules all things, for each thing you do, be it good or evil it shall come back to you times three. Especially if magick is thrown in, depending on the thing that you do controls the severity of the return effect.” Ban could see the confusion and more questions in her eyes. “Lets say that I were to use magick to hurt someone, not kill but just to cut them or make them break a limb, then the law of three would return it to me in kind. Maybe not as a broken limb or cut but as some thing bad happening to me or someone I care for. The sorrow we give others will only worsen our own lot.” He remembered the soup and hurriedly stirred it removing it from the flames before it could boil over into the fire. After the boiling calmed he brought another spoon full up to his lips and tasted it. Satisfied with the flavor he deemed it done and served up two dishes, one for himself and one for her. He dug a couple rolls out of the pack and handed her one.

She took a cautious sip of the broth and sighed. “This is very good.” She uses her roll to sop up some of the broth and chews on it thoughtfully for a moment. Swallowing she asks another question. “So when someone does something evil, or with bad intentions it will come back to them three times as bad? Then what of the dark elves? Why aren’t they made to suffer for what they have done to my people?”

Ban eats his soup while he thinks about the question, mulling it over in his mind considering how best to answer her question. “Well that would have to do with their perception of the universe and what constitutes right and wrong, good and evil. To them what they do is justified and in all rights to their own personal morals. To them your people are evil and they are good.” He can tell he had lost her again and tried another tact. “Like what happened with my people when yours and the humans were slaying us. It was terrible to us that it was being done, but to them it was the right thing to do. They saw us as the evil as we saw them as the evil. If something is right and good to ones own morals then there will be no negative effect. A good part of how the law of three works is through our own guilt at an action. I see harming other living beings, no matter what they have done in the past, as being wrong unless in last defense of my own life. If I were to do something to cause harm to those men, when I knew that I still had a way out of it, then I would punish myself and the energy coming back to me would make it even worse. Do you understand. Perception is the difference between one deed and another.” He can see that she understood but was still frowning about it. He also notices that she has finished the soup he’d given her and so he picks up her bowl and his own to wash them in the stream he knows is near by.

When he returns he finds her laying down near the fire shivering as she sleeps. Smiling he reaches down to his pack and pulls the bedroll off of it and lays the blanket over her sleeping form. She snuggles up in it and a smile forms on her lips. The lines that had creased her face while awake were gone as she sleeps her face smooth in the peace of her rest. Smiling Ban sits down in the roots of a the tree behind where he had made the soup and falls asleep himself, her sleeping face the last thing he sees in his minds eye as he drifts away.

. . .

Commander Burns slams his hand into another tree in the forest surrounding the cave where the damned Valorn had disappeared in. The sun had set an hour before and the search for the mans trail had failed. The man appeared to have just disappeared into thin air. “Damn him!” Commander Burns yelled out hitting the tree again with his gauntleted fist. “Where the devil did that man go!” His men cowered underneath a tree watching the sky restlessly, none wanted to catch the eye of their commander when he’s in this bad a temper. Fouled hunts always soured his mood. He looked up to the sky himself and watched the invisible clouds move in the dark sky. He rubs his beard deep in thought and looks back to the cave.

Then it comes to him, like lightning striking he realized what had happened. “The cursed man went through the damn mountain. There must be some kind of passage or cleft in the back of that cave and he’s on the other side. Probably laughing his damned head off at our stupidity in clomping around these blasted woods in search of a trail that doesn’t exist.” He turns back to his men and starts to shout. “Get in the cave you bloody fools, there’s some kind of hole in that damned rock and he crawled through it to the other side. I want that passage found and I mean NOW!”

They all jump at first shocked at being ordered to search the cave for some kind of passage then the night is lit up by a lightning bolt and they all jump and run for the cave’s entrance as the rain pours down again in a torrent. The commander shakes his fist at the damned storm then walks back to the cave and ducks into the darkness.

His men were huddled around the torches as Esmond tried to light them with damp flint and steel. “Sir,” Esmond looks up to him. “The torches wont light, my flint is to wet to strike a spark.” His voice was scared as if he feared his commander’s reaction to his failure.

Burns digs in the pocket in his pants beneath the steel armor and tosses the flint to Edmond. “Then use mine you dim wit. Gods do I have to tell you how to do everything, next you’ll want me wiping your arse for you.” Edmond barely catches the flint in the glare of another lightning bolt and hunkers down to light the torches. Burns’ flint was dry and struck a good spark on the first try. His eyes are dazzled for a moment by the flame of the torch, then his eyes readjusted and he looks around them. The cave was fairly small, about medium sized as caves go. No more then ten feet across and half again as deep. It shouldn’t take long for them to find this some how hidden passage out.

It took far longer then the commander would have thought to find the damned passage and that by accident when he noticed one of his men’s torches moving and flaring at a certain spot. Using the torch as a reference he was able to find the cleft in the rock that had folded in on itself, hidden by the sameness of the walls around it. He orders his men to start going down the tunnel and Edmond pipes up. “Sir, we’ve been chasing the man all day, we should camp to be well rested to search out the passage in the morning.”

Burns looks over at the tracker, his eyes cold. “So you want to camp is it. What about the rest of you, are you tired, want to camp?” All the men around him nod and mutter their agreement. “I guess you all want your mommies to, your all weak. It’s night and he has worked harder to run from us then we have to chase him down. He’ll feel safe in the supposed secrecy of his passage, we can come on him unawares and take him.” He glares at each of his men in turn his eyes settling on Edmond. “Your all weak, craven, bastards, not fit for the names your Father’s gave you. So go on and make camp here, get all the rest you want. Your going to need it because when I come back with the bastards head I’m going to take each of yours and hang them on the walls along side his.” He walks towards the cleft in the rock and looks back at them. “I’m going now, your best be rested and gone before I return, unless any of you cravens aren’t as tired as you thought and want to come with me?”

They all followed him grumbling under their breaths, thinking he can’t hear them, but Commander Burns hears, he is descended from the royal houses of old he has better hearing then the others could possibly know. It was his family that landed first from the Ancient Land and began the work of taking this land over in hopes of rebirthing the greatness of Atlantis. But then the other families had trickled in and lastly the thrice damned Valorn’s, with there great ideals and piety. They began to try and take over what the Burns’ had started and failed miserably, leaving it wide open for the Cloren’s to take the lead and force the land into one. Now he bides his time until the Cloren’s were unawares, then he would strike taking what should have been his.

First he would deal with this last of the Valorn’s gaining a seat of high honor in the Kings council. Then it would be time for him to begin to take the thrown, slowly gaining the alliance of each of the tribes sworn to his family and their allied houses. Then when the time was right he would displace the King and take the thrown for himself and his family. At last his families dream, and greatest ambition would come true, to rule over a new Atlantis.

To think these cravens were all that the King had sent him to deal with this last of the Valorn. In the end they don’t matter, they can all die as long as he takes Valorn’s head then his plans could be brought into fruition. He laughs into the darkness around him and his men cower farther back from him. They fear him and well they should he could fry them where they stand and they know it.

Again, is this to much?