A sleek black panther ran by his side, eyes fixed on her target. Her teeth were bared, her body tensed to spring. Auum could see the humans clearly now. They stood in a circle among a tangle of vines, not knowing which way to look. The warriors, each flanked by two mages, were shackled by their fear while their charges were lost in concentration, trying desperately to cast before it was too late.
‘Serrin!’ yelled Auum. ‘Draw back. Please.’
But they would not hear him. A mage cast. Flame lashed into the forest to the right. Tree trunks were scorched black, branches and leaves were turned to fire and ash. Creatures screamed and ClawBound pairs cried their fury. The panther by Auum leapt.
Auum dived headlong, bursting through the veil of liana in front of the terrified group of men. He could feel the panther next to him, smell her raw scent. One of the mages opened his eyes to cast and screamed instead, seeing what approached. Right before his eyes, Auum and the panther collided.
The beast’s weight spun the TaiGethen out of control. Auum crashed flank on into the mage and the warrior standing by him, knocking them to the ground. The panther’s claws missed the mage by a hair and she yowled in fury. Her shoulder struck the ground and she ploughed into the mud, scrambling back to her feet in an instant.
Chaos fell on the tiny circle of Calaian rainforest. Auum rolled across the bodies of the humans he’d just saved, hands and feet pushing away while he called for them to put up their blades. Elyss flew straight over his head, cannoning into two mages and knocking both to the ground. Malaar turned a forward roll in the air, landing in front of Auum, trying to shield him from man and ClawBound alike while he got to his feet.
He saw paws swipe at enemies and heard a human cry of pain. The white-painted faces of Bound elves loomed into his vision, lips drawn back over sharpened teeth and snarls issuing from throats. The pairs crowded in, seeking clear targets as the TaiGethen cell tried to cover every angle and simultaneously protect themselves from the humans, who would have no idea who was attacking them and who, confusingly, was defending them.
Malaar and Elyss pushed the humans back, shouting for quiet, calm and stillness. Whether the humans understood the words or not was doubtful, but at last some of them were beginning to grasp the situation. A mage barked something at the warriors and both put up their swords.
Auum bounced to his feet and deliberately faced the ClawBound, who circled them, menacing and furious. He tried to meet Serrin’s eyes, and when the tall, tattooed former Silent Priest stopped in front of him he wondered if he and his Tai were about to die alongside the humans: Serrin’s eyes were barely elven at all.
‘Do not do this, Serrin,’ said Auum, holding out his hands to placate his erstwhile mentor. ‘All this will do is kill more elves.’
Auum was aware of the Claws positioning themselves for an attack. The Bound elves with Serrin stood back to let their leader decide the fate of them all. Serrin let his eyes travel over both man and TaiGethen, settling once again on Auum. The yellow irises inside bloodshot whites surrounded pupils which bored into him. Auum could feel the contempt radiating from him.
‘Serrin, please. I know I cannot stop you from killing these strangers, but I would be forced to try.’
Serrin growled, and Auum shuddered at the sound. His life and those of his Tai rested on how much of his old mentor had survived the last hundred and thirty years. Serrin clicked his tongue and motioned with a hand, and the Claws surrounding him gathered to spring. Elyss gasped. Malaar’s hands moved reflexively.
‘Don’t touch your weapons,’ hissed Auum. ‘Serrin, hear me.’
Serrin was studying him the way a predator studies new prey, weighing up risk and reward. The Bound elf’s fingers were latticed together, the long sharp nails itching absently at the backs of his hands.
‘Serrin, you know me. I am Auum. I am not trying to protect men. I am trying to save elves.’
Serrin hissed out a breath.
‘I need you to leave these enemies with me. They will steal nothing and they will never set foot in the rainforest again. This I swear, as I stand before you and Yniss. Call off your Claws. The deaths of these vermin are not worth the retribution we will suffer within the walls of Ysundeneth.’
When at last he spoke, Serrin’s voice was rasping and quiet.
‘Too late.’ He licked his lips. ‘Others run unchecked.’
Auum’s throat was dry. Around them, the rain fell harder still. Perhaps Serrin smiled, or perhaps it was the ghost of a memory.
‘Wherever men defile, we cleanse,’ said Serrin. The Bound elves in the abruptly tight space began to hum a single flat note.
‘Yniss preserve us,’ whispered Malaar. ‘There must be forty groups of men and slaves in the forest at any one time.’
‘At least,’ said Elyss.
‘Serrin, please, listen to me,’ said Auum.
The humans were growing nervous behind him, detecting the desperation that had crept into the voices of their unexpected saviours. Serrin stared at Auum for an eternity before he inclined his head.
‘Thank you.’ Auum took a breath. He had one shot at this. ‘I respect your tasks as set before you by Yniss. I love you for your diligence, and for the understanding and forbearance you have shown across the long years. You know my desire to see every human dead or fleeing north across the Sea of Gyaam.
‘But for every man you kill today, ten elves will die in the slave cities. Your actions cannot be justified under Yniss. Not until we are strong enough to liberate them all.’
Serrin merely shrugged.
‘That day is eternally distant,’ he said. ‘We will wait no longer.’
‘And those elves you abandoned on the riverside today. What of them?’
Serrin looked nonplussed.
‘They are free.’
‘They are not.’ Auum knew his tone was pleading but there was nothing else left. ‘I thought the same. But they have to go back.’
Another shrug. ‘They are weak.’
‘No!’ Panthers growled and the Bound elves’ flat humming ceased. Serrin’s eyes widened. ‘They are strong, stronger than you or I, and worthy of saving. If they do not return, they sentence hundreds to death. And so they are returning to face death themselves to save their fellows, while your slaughter of twenty humans today means two hundred elves will die. That is the measure of their sacrifice. And now you will render it pointless.’
‘They had a choice.’
Auum’s anger overcame his caution and he advanced on Serrin.
‘A choice? Whether to let those they love live or die? Yniss preserve me, that is not a choice.’ Auum gulped a breath. ‘Damn you, Serrin, you know I am right. You waited and watched for so long. Why act now?’
‘Because we cannot free them. But we can free our forest.’
‘Damn the forest! These are elves not the branches of trees. Our people, with their souls in torment. We swore to free them. Have you no compassion? No mercy?’
Serrin frowned. Then he shrugged for a third time.
‘No.’
The bulk of a panther thumped into Auum’s hip, flinging him sideways and out of the ClawBound’s way. He raised his arms in front of his face, turning his head just in time to avoid collision with the broad trunk of a banyan, and fetched up in a heap with the panther sprawled across him but already moving away. Auum scrambled to his feet. He was just four paces from the humans but it might as well have been four hundred.
Serrin strode forward and stabbed the fingers of his right hand through the nearest mage’s neck. One of the warriors reacted fast. He was up, blade in hand, his mouth open to shout an order. It never came. A leaping panther locked its jaws around his skull.