The Eternal Flame by T. A. Barron

Author:T. A. Barron [Barron, T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, General, Legends; Myths; Fables
ISBN: 9781101641804
Google: 6RwygGplLKoC
Amazon: 0399242139
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2006-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

20 • Two Armies

With a loud crackle of green flames, Brionna fell through the portal. She landed on her hands and knees on the damp brown soil, but bounced to her feet with elven agility. Even as she shifted the position of her quiver of arrows, which had dug into the scar on her back, her deep green eyes scanned the surrounding terrain.

Mudroot’s rolling plains stretched in all directions. Under the clear mid-day starlight, the landscape of Malóch fairly glowed with a uniform brown color, broken only by the flickering green light of the portal, and by the darker shadows of mud-covered boulders. Yet Brionna knew that this land would soon be stained with a new color: the red of blood.

For these were the Plains of Isenwy.

From the portal where she stood, she had no difficulty seeing the two opposing armies that had already gathered. Only an unbroken swath of muddy flats, less than half a league wide, separated the two camps. Yet a gulf immeasurably wider separated their views of the world—which was why this battle would decide that world’s fate.

Fortunately, the portal was much closer to the army that included her fellow elves, as well as others who cherished the Avalon she loved—the Avalon of free and magical beings who tried, at least, to live in harmony and mutual respect. Immediately, Brionna recognized some elves she knew from Woodroot, as well as Waterroot. Among them was her childhood friend, Aileen, who was training to become a master woodworker. Catching Aileen’s eye, Brionna nodded in greeting. In response, her friend blew a kiss for good luck.

As Brionna blew a kiss in return, she wondered, Will we ever again drink hazelnut tea together in the boughs of your elm tree home? She then fingered her braid anxiously, knowing that it was impossible to tell.

She turned from Aileen, eager to view the other warriors in the free people’s army. But right away, she felt struck by how little they resembled warriors at all. She could see, milling about, forty or fifty of Lleu’s fellow priests and priestesses, all wearing the Drumadians’ greenish brown robe with a clasp carved in the shape of an oak tree. Unlike the elves, none of them carried bows and arrows; only a few even held swords or spears. By their sides (or, in some cases, on their shoulders) were their faithful maryths—squirrels, stags, does, hawks, dogs, lizards, owls, sprites, or tree spirits. Seeing all the maryths, who had originally been paired with Drumadians so that humans would never forget their basic connection to other living creatures, Brionna frowned, saddened by the limits of such a worthy ideal. And by the many deaths that those limits would cause.

Joining the elves and Drumadians were over a hundred women and men who had resisted the call of Belamir’s Humanity First movement. Although they seemed, for the most part, sturdier than the priests and priestesses, they were clearly not battle-trained soldiers. Many looked as if they had never fought with anything more dangerous than a plow, while struggling to dig furrows in some rocky field.

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