Clanfather: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy Adventure Series by Jack Bryce

Author:Jack Bryce [Bryce, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

With the taste of victory fresh on my tongue, I learned a horrible truth from Jarl Strumma and Baroness Leiec: Mith-Ahannan had fallen. Its pillared halls of wood and stone—once alive with the crisp scents of Liandrenn Forest—had been torn down, burned, and left a smoking ruin.

Only a few of the Woodland Folk made it out to report the dire news in Wealdhaven, and they all left soon after…

“They passed like shadows,” Jarl Strumma said in his deep, rumbling voice. “It is the end of Elvendom in our lands.”

Anuina…

I sat motionless, and it took me some time before I gathered myself, for my mind bathed in the memories I shared with Anuina—how we met in the Janneskog Woods, how I freed her from Athagort’s clutches, and the sweet time we spent in moonlit Mith-Ahannan… all reduced to a pile of rubble.

At length, I swallowed, trying to rid myself of the lump of grief in my throat, and I looked up at Jarl Strumma.

He sat at the head of the table. To his right was Ydbrad Ydbradson, and Jarl Firak and Baroness Leiec were here, too. They had doffed their armors and now wore tunics and cloaks, but there had not been time to wash away the blood and dirt of battle. In the flickering shadows of the windowless council room in Wealdhaven’s keep, they looked like a Tribunal of the Gods with their stern eyes and sharply lined faces.

I wanted to speak, but my mouth wasn’t opening.

Instead of my voice, Roswitha’s cut the silence. “Where is Silver?” she asked. “Where is the Konungur of the Yfthanweligers?”

Jarl Strumma sat back. “We do not know. The men we defeated here today are a part of his army. I believe he left them here to contain us while most of his army marched south on the Elvenway to Liandrenn. He may be there now. Who can tell?”

“Have the Beastfolk returned?” Roswitha asked.

I sat up, nodding. It was a good question; if the Blooded One had returned Liandrenn to Khal-Had’s possession, then the Beastfolk should roam these lands again.

“We have seen none near Wealdhaven,” Captain Ydbrad replied. “But we have been contained in Wealdhaven for—” he thought for a moment “—for over a fortnight. Who knows what roams in the woods now?”

That was true enough, but if Khal-Had returned in force, we would have seen his Satyrs and Fauns by now. There was a chance I was wrong, but I needed to risk it…

I sat up straight. “I will be roaming in those woods,” I said.

All eyes turned to me.

“I am going to find Anuina,” I said. “Whoever wishes to, may join me.”

“I will join you,” Leresah said without hesitation.

“As will I,” Roswitha said. “Always.”

Jarl Strumma narrowed his eyes. “Where will you go?” he asked.

There was only one place. If the Beastfolk had not yet returned, then perhaps Anuina still held that holy place that Khal-Had hungered after.

“I will go to the Willow of Liandrenn,” I said. “If it has fallen, I will restore it.

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