The Princess' Harem -
Chapter 101: Eryndor’s Power
Chapter 101: Eryndor’s Power
Arden, with trembling body, climbed out from behind the statue base, holding the heavy stone tablet like it was his life. He wiped dirt from its surface, his fingers tracing the carved lines under the faint moonlight that now reached the courtyard.
"Here," he pointed with shaky but clear voice. "The map ends... here. But the words... ’Where moonlight pierces the heart of the Sentinel Stone’. It must be a landmark. Straight west, through the Whisperwood..."
He stopped, looking at the dead horses around them. Two were gone, and the others were scared and had run off, their ropes broken.
"We take what we can," Joel said grimly, already moving towards the horses that had survived, somehow protected by a broken wall. "Reyes, help me. Kaley, get Thomas onto the spare horse. Prince Rayne, Princess Viana..."
His eyes took in Rayne’s clear pain and Viana’s tired, dust-covered face. "Can you ride?"
"Can and will," Rayne pushed himself upright, wincing badly.
Viana just nodded, helping Joel and Reyes secure Thomas as best they could onto a strong horse. The guard was pale, breathing slowly, but awake, his eyes wide with pain.
They moved with desperate speed. The quiet of the ruins now felt heavy, like the calm before another storm.
They managed to find four horses—Joel, Reyes, and the injured Thomas shared mounts, while Viana, Rayne, Arden, and Kaley each took one.
Kaley helped Arden up, the scholar still carefully holding the tablet as if it were made of fragile glass.
After enduring the vast, dry expanse of the desert, where the ancient Ruins of Al’Khar stood, Viana and her group began their journey westward. They rode away from the cracked earth and endless sand, heading towards the edge of the desert.
There, the landscape slowly changed as they entered the Whisperwood, a place where dense, ancient trees began to replace the open, arid plains.
***
The moonlight, shining through the high tree branches, lit the path in changing patterns of silver and dark. The air was cool and thick with the smell of pine and wet earth, a sharp change from the blood and smoke they left behind.
They rode for few hours, putting distance between themselves and the deadly quiet of the desert. Rayne bit his lip against the shaking ride, each hoofbeat sending fresh pain through his bruised ribs.
Viana kept looking back, checking the shadows behind them, listening for any sound of chase. Arden held onto his horse and the tablet, his face showing both fear and strong will.
Kaley rode close to him, his own face tired, the effort of using his spirit shields earlier clearly costing him much. Thomas slumped between Joel and Reyes, his breathing rougher with every bump.
They reached a small clearing where a huge, old stone, easily twice a man’s height, stood leaning among the trees. Moonlight shone directly onto its flat, moss-covered top—the Sentinel Stone.
Viana stopped her horse, which was breathing hard. "Here. Arden, is this...?"
Arden slid off his horse, then stumbling slightly as his legs stiff. He hurried to the stone, comparing its shape and place to the carving on the tablet.
"Yes! This is the place! The heart... where the moonlight pierces..." He looked around quickly, his voice rising with a frantic edge. "But... then what else? There’s nothing here!"
A wave of hopelessness threatened to wash over them, it was cold and heavy. They were hurt, bleeding, exhausted, and the promised safe place seemed to be nothing but an old, empty rock.
Then, the air changed.
It wasn’t a sound, nor a sudden light. It was a sudden, deep stillness, as if the forest itself stopped breathing and every leaf unmoving.
The moonlight gathered on the Sentinel Stone seemed to brighten, to pull inward, becoming a bright pool of pure silver light. And from that focused light, a figure stepped out.
He seemed made of moonlight and shadow, moving with impossible grace. He was tall and lean, and moving smoothly, making the air around him ripple.
His hair was the color of spun moonlight, falling straight to his back, framing a face of such unearthly, ageless beauty it looked carved from white stone. His eyes, when they opened, were the deep and endless silver, holding wisdom and sadness in equal measure.
He wore simple, white tunic that blended perfectly with the moonlight, yet there was a clear feeling of power and ancient presence around him. This was Eryndor.
Viana gasped, a sound of pure relief, letting out a tension she hadn’t known she was holding. Rayne’s painful grimace softened into stunned recognition, his jaw dropping slightly.
Joel and Reyes froze, their hands dropping from their weapons, awe replacing their readiness for battle. Arden just stared, his scholarly mind briefly overwhelmed by the impossible, unable to understand what he saw.
Eryndor’s gaze swept over them, seeing the blood, the wounds, the tiredness, the fading life in Thomas. His face, calm yet deeply saddened by the violence they carried, settled on Rayne first.
Without a word, he raised his hand.
A soft, warm light, like sunlight through leaves, came from his palm. It washed over Rayne.
The prince felt a sudden, strong warmth spread through his bruised side. The sharp, grinding pain dissolved into a deep, calming comfort.
The throbbing ache in his head vanished, the cut on his temple closing without a scar, leaving smooth skin. He took a deep, clear breath, the tightness in his ribs gone.
Eryndor’s hand moved towards Viana. The burning from the dust in her eyes vanished, replaced by a soothing coolness.
The small cuts and bruises she had collected faded from her skin. The deep tiredness that had threatened to pull her down lifted, replaced by a gentle, refreshing energy that hummed just under her skin.
He turned to the injured guard. The soft light covered Thomas. The terrible wound in his thigh stopped bleeding, the torn flesh visibly mending, closing, with color returning to his pale face.
His breathing grew deeper and steady. Joel and Reyes felt their own small aches and the bone-deep tiredness from the light melt away under the elf’s kind gaze, leaving them feeling strangely light.
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