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“Nice speech,” the elf sneers. “Now, are you going to surrender, or are we going to kill you?”
“Neither. I’m going to fight.”
And then the temple makes its move.
The bubble that’s separated this room from the ocean suddenly disappears, and the water crashes into it.
The elves are completely startled. They are swallowed into the wave of water, and their weapons go drifting.
Immediately, I attack. I dive straight for the one who was talking, and I plunge my stolen sword into his chest before he even knows what I’m doing. A cloud of blood begins to form as I pull the sword out.
Three down, two to go.
The two remaining elves have recovered, and they’re trying to swim at me. But they’re scared and awkward, holding their breath. They aren’t at home in the water, or this temple. The first one makes an attack, but I dodge it easily, swimming over him. Before he can block, I bring the sword down on his neck.
I'm still pulling the sword back out when I feel the last elf’s blade cut into my ribs. I wince, startled by the pain. But I have something to fight for. I have a reason to win.
I pull my sword out and swing it in a deadly arc straight into his chest. I let go of it, allowing his body to float away. Using my feet and the arm on my uninjured side, I swim for one of the passages. Meanwhile, I press down on the wound as best I can to keep it from bleeding.
Eventually, the tunnels slope up. Until they were filled with water, I had never thought about their height, but it’s enough that finally, my head pops up above water. I drag myself up and start walking again. I recognize this tunnel, and it’s only a few more turns until I step out onto the beach again.
It’s getting a little harder to walk, but I need to make sure that there are no other elves out there. If there are, I’d find some way to fight them. I don’t know how, but I’d find it.
But it’s okay. There aren’t any others. Laiken has the rest handled, and the ones who managed to get into the temple are done with.
Somehow, I like to think that Laiken could tell I stopped the elves who had gotten past him. That it gave him strength to know that the temple was safe. That he had something to protect.
After all, that’s what got me through this. Knowing that I had something to fight for. Someone to fight for.
Laiken rises out of the water. He’s severely injured. All over him are wounds and patches of dark, bluish blood. He even seems slightly paler than usual, his very color drained and weakened.
Still, he walks with a certain confidence, and he’s made his humanoid face. He isn’t retreating or running away. The battle outside is over. I can tell that much just from looking at him.
“Are there any more?” he asks, looking at me. “Is it over?”
“It’s over,” I tell him.
And the very moment I say it, he collapses down onto the hot sand. All of his strength has been completely spent.
I kneel down over him and caress his wounded body.
“It’s all over.”
27
LAIKEN
Slowly, the world comes back to me.
I’m in my bed, in the temple. Penny must have carried me all the way here. I try to stand up and immediately feel that my body is covered in both wounds and bandages. My wounds have been treated with various balms.
It must have been Penny. She must have done all of this for me.
She walks into the room carrying a tray with food and some kind of ointment on it. She sees that I’m moving and immediately sighs in relief.
“I had no idea when you were going to wake up,” she tells me. “Are you feeling okay? Is there anything I can get you?”
I look at her and smile. “I’m feeling better than I ever have.”
