Chapter 2
Navara
The twin crescent moons hung like beacons in the dark sky, drawing Manu’s gaze from his position atop the mountain. Snow flurries teasingly swirled around him in their mischievous dance. A few caught on his lashes. He lifted his face to the moons and closed his eyes.
While standing in the cold and ice atop the towering mountaintop, he allowed himself to forget his obligations, promises, and the hundreds counting on him to keep them safe.
He could even forget that evil crept like a plague across the land, moving ever closer to his doorstep.
But only for a moment. That second of freedom, however, gave him the ability to keep going.
Manu opened his eyes and scanned the snow-covered mountain. It was harsh terrain, even for someone like him, who had been raised in such brutal conditions. The weather kept other elves—and humans—away. The majority of those who dared to venture into the Dangerous Peaks were never seen again.
He saved those he came across. Yasmin had been one of those. He’d never imagined that years after saving the human, they would be thrown back together, or that he would join the Defense Intelligence Agency and a Dark Elf to fight the malevolence that had been moving in the shadows for too long.
A biting wind whipped up around him, pulling him from his thoughts.
Manu tucked his gloved hands into the pockets of his fur coat.
The high collar that fastened together protected his lower face from the frigid climate, but there was no escaping the bone-chilling cold altogether.
The snow reflected the dim light of the moons, allowing him to see everything.
Movement to his right caught his attention.
He scanned the next mountain slope and spotted something moving amid the dense cluster of evergreen limbs laden with snow.
A moment later, he saw the wolvite. Manu tensed at the sight of the creature’s creamy coat, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the missing top portion of the animal’s left ear.
The wolvite swung its head toward Manu and stood still as stone.
He had tangled with the beast before and barely come away with his life.
It hadn’t fared much better—Manu was the one who’d damaged the animal’s ear.
While their encounter had left them both severely wounded, the wolvite could’ve killed him but hadn’t.
For some reason, Manu had also held back.
They’d both walked away, and from then on, gave each other a wide berth.
Long, forlorn howls erupted a short distance away.
He had long suspected that the wolvite was the leader of his pack.
It wasn’t long before others trotted out of the trees to join the male.
He counted ten of their white coats. And they all stared at him.
Just when Manu thought they intended to come after him, the leader trotted away, and the others followed.
Manu released a breath, but he didn’t relax.
The moment he let his guard down was the moment one of a hundred different animals could end his life—if the weather didn’t get him first. What would happen to his people then?
That thought had been weighing more heavily upon him since he agreed to hide the children Yasmin and Ravi had claimed as theirs.
The couple had been compelled to get the kids out of Rannora after a bounty was placed on them across Shecrish—all because they had finally shuttered the Shaldorn Stronghold.
That was how the entire mess had begun. As a child, Yasmin had been tricked by a Moon Elf named Gita to go into the mountains.
Once they reached Shaldorn, Yasmin had been enslaved, only to endure years of torture.
But she managed to do what no one else had done before: she’d escaped.
Manu had found her on the brink of death, nursed her back to health, and brought her out of the mountains to the edge of the rainwood.
He hadn’t expected to ever see her again.
Yet, somehow, the leader of the DIA, Durga, learned of Yasmin’s time at Shaldorn and forced her to take Ravi to the stronghold so he could stop the sale of a device intended to be used against the dragons across the border.
But Yasmin and Ravi weren’t working alone.
A Dark Elf named Dain—going against the Counter Corruption Division and acting on his own—had put one of his agents, Arya, undercover.
When things went badly, Manu and Dain joined the trio to help win the day.
It had come at great cost, though. The Masters—those responsible for erecting Shaldorn and all the kidnappings—wanted all of them gone.
Their names had been leaked, and they were all being hunted. Everyone but Manu.
He considered himself lucky since the others were in hiding. It didn’t stop them from continually attacking the Masters, though. Manu wanted to help more, but so far, nothing else had come to the Peaks. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could say that, though.
The mountains used to be isolated, but since Shaldorn, more and more elves risked traveling into the area.
He came across small bands of mercenaries at least once a week.
They were usually too intent on surviving the unforgiving weather to notice him or anyone else.
So, he let them wander deeper into the Peaks, knowing they would die either from the weather or an animal attack.
Since they were there looking for his friends, he didn’t lose any sleep over it.
But the mercenaries kept coming. More and more of them.
During Dain’s last visit, he had said the bounty on him and the others had gone up.
And worse, the children had been added to the list. It was a ruse to draw out Ravi and Yasmin, which was why Manu had the young.
The only reason Yaz and Ravi were able to keep fighting was because they knew the children were safe.
But how much longer could Manu ensure that? How long did he have before a mercenary found their way to his home?
He rubbed his eyes and blinked against the cold.
The flurries turned to sleet as the wind changed and began to howl.
Tiny shards of ice pelted the exposed skin of his face.
Because it was expected, he had taken up the mantle of leadership after his father’s death.
Who would step in if something happened to him?
He hadn’t taken a wife, nor had he chosen any of the infants brought to Navara for his own.
He had considered it once, but he hadn’t been ready for the additional responsibility.
It was enough that he had his entire tribe to look after.
Besides, with as much time as he spent out patrolling, the baby would be watched and cared for more by others than by him. How was that fair to anyone involved? Yet now, he wondered if he should have taken an heir. If he died without one, the line would be broken.
At least, the line they counted.
He had watched animals give birth, but elves and humans on Zora couldn’t reproduce.
No one knew where the infants came from or who brought them—and, honestly, few questioned it.
It was just how things were. It was by that quirk of fate that Manu had landed in his father’s arms. Any child could have been given to the leader and his wife, but it had been him.
Manu perused the mountains, taking in the valleys, slopes, and peaks.
Years of guard duty had trained his eyes to see farther, look deeper.
If he weren’t looking, he probably would’ve missed the lone figure picking their way down the slope, hunched against the icy storm.
Their clumsy, gangly steps told him the individual was an outsider.
They probably wouldn’t make it through the night.
He took one last look at the sky studded with billions of tiny pinpricks of light.
His friendship with Ravi and Yaz had given him new information, including that the Dragon Kings hadn’t vanished as everyone had thought.
They had been on another world. But they were back.
Was one of the stars above him their world?
Or perhaps one was where he had been taken from as a baby.
All his thoughts about that and who would lead after him made his mind turn to questions he hadn’t had before. Like, had he been born, or was he created? Had he been taken from his mother, or had she given him up? Had he been wanted? Cared for? Loved? Was he missed?
Those weren’t thoughts that should be going through his head when there were so many other things for him to worry about.
Manu took one last look at the figure on the slope before turning and making his way back to Navara.
The entrance to the city within the mountain was well hidden, making it nearly impossible to find by anyone other than his tribe.
Dain and Arya were the only two Dark Elves he allowed to travel by shadows into Navara, and that had taken drops of their blood as well as special magic that had drained him for days afterward.
Manu broke into a run, vaulting over boulders and leaping down the slope before bounding back up again.
He cleared several peaks until he slid sideways down an incline to the edge of a valley.
He stood and made his way to the base of the next mountain.
His steps slowed when he reached the wall of rock.
He removed his glove and flexed his cold hand before pressing it against the stone.
A heartbeat later, twin bronze beams of light no larger than his pinky nail ran up from the ground before taking right angles and intersecting at the top to outline the door.
The moment the lights touched, the rock shimmered and faded, allowing him entry.
It returned to its solid form after he’d stepped inside.
The tunnel quickly widened to a pathway as he walked deeper into the mountain.
Another ten steps, and the path diverged to a dozen others that would take him anywhere he wanted to go within the hollowed rock.
Manu took a track to the left, crossing one of the many bridges over the river that ran through the mountain on his way toward his home.
At first glance, things looked as they had for generations, but all he had to do was look deeper to see the unrest that had settled over his people. The Masters’ reach had stretched even to them. Few might know the Masters by name, but all knew the malevolence was growing.
And though he hated to admit it, some citizens were against him sheltering the humans, even if they were children.
It troubled him that there were those who would happily toss the young out and not think twice about it.
A month ago, he would’ve sworn none in his tribe would act with such callousness, but times had changed.
Which was why no one outside of those in the manor and Jalall, his closest friend, knew they were there.
There was prejudice against humans across Shecrish—even in the Dangerous Peaks.
He hurried home so he could have a moment to himself before returning to his duties. Once he was in his quarters, he shut the door and locked it with his magic before leaning his hands against the wood and dropping his chin to his chest.
The future had never been more uncertain than it was at that moment, and he feared it would only get worse.
He straightened and unfastened his coat to shrug out of it before hanging it on a hook.
It had been almost a week since he’d heard from Dain.
Their group was growing larger thanks to new allies, but, unfortunately, that meant more bounties.
Thankfully, a new location to the south along the coast had been found for them to live.
Manu went to the sink and turned the spigots before splashing water on his face.
He looked at himself in the mirror as he dried off and noticed the lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there the year before.
He wasn’t getting any younger, and it was his responsibility to think of the future of Navara.
Except there wasn’t any time for that now. He’d let it go for too long and had put everyone in an untenable situation.