The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 142: The Great Woodlands

Chapter 142: The Great Woodlands

"I think I can help..."

There was silence following Annalise’s statement as no one expected her to say something like that out of the blue and only after several long seconds had passed, did someone break the silence.

"Don’t tell me you can teleport all of us to the Capital City on your own?" Leela stared at Annalise in complete amazement, her words caused the four men to also look at Annalise with equal amounts of amazement and curiosity. They all seemed to be looking at her with expectations filled in their gazes that were trained on her.

"Of course, not!" Annalise quickly shook her head to deny the misconception they all got from her previous words. "I still haven’t tried the teleportation spell yet as I never find the need to use it before this. So... I can’t teleport all of us to the Capital City."

The sighs that followed her confession almost sounded as if they were all pretty disappointed. And if their sighs weren’t enough then the look of disappointment on their faces answered her suspicion.

"Then how are you planning to help with something that you have never done before?" It was one of the men from Sky Castle who raised the question. Thankfully, he didn’t sound off after the little disappointment he just received from her answer.

Annalise took a deep breath before she replied, "Though I don’t know how to use a teleportation spell, I know how to make a spell powerful enough to get what I want." A part of her was more than aware that she should not be revealing her newfound powers to strangers who weren’t even her true companions but the current situation demanded her to step in and help.

The silence that followed her words this time around was way different than the one from the previous time and the look that Leela gave her made it pretty clear that the girl had already guessed what Annalise was implying.

"What does... that mean?" Ezra asked as he exchanged glances between Annalise and Leela. His men appeared just as confused as him.

A small twitch appeared on Annalise’s lips as she turned to face Ezra and answered his question, "What I mean is that you will be teleporting all of us to the Capital City of the Mortal Realm."

*****

A group of men stood in front of a huge magical ward at the very edge of the highest peak of the Great Woodlands. This forbidden land was located between the Seelie Empire and the real Seelie Realm and had been off-limits to anyone other than the Royal families of the two realms and the Seelie Empire.

"Is the core of the magical ward down there somewhere?" A man with dark blue eyes and short black curls moved toward Valerius and asked while looking at the energy wall that was quite visible to them but its visibility wasn’t good news, it only meant that the ward was growing weaker.

"Right. We have to go down into the depth of this valley and find the core of the ward so that we can progress with our task. We don’t have much time left on our hands. We need to hurry." Valerius informed the group of men who had followed him to the Great Woodlands on the order of the Mer Queen.

The clock was ticking and their enemy was making his/her move even more openly and fearlessly. None of them could bear the consequences of delaying the task of reinforcing the magical ward of the Seelie Realm.

And besides all these... his brothers and his wife were waiting for his return. He needed to finish his job as soon as possible to return to the side of his most beloved people in the world.

"Yes, My Lord." The men answered in unison before they all headed down the cliff to the depths of the dark valley where the core of the magical ward lay hidden.

The path down the cliff wasn’t easy, to begin with, but it only started getting harder as they progressed downward. The deeper they went, the darker it became. White fog was filling the area with the strong smell of humidity, and green moss that was covering the rocks and tree trunks.

It seemed to have rained heavily a while ago and it only made the area more peculiar. The ground was wet and covered with dried leaves, broken twigs, and slippery mud, making it hard for anyone to walk down the steep mountain cliff. The only person who didn’t seem to be having any problems was none other than Valerius.

"His aura is really something, ain’t it?" One of the muttered in a barely audible whisper to his nearby companions who all spared quick glances at Valerius who was literally floating down the cliff.

"He should be someone of really high status. The level of his powers is too high for him to be someone normal. And most importantly, his aura..." It was their leader who answered as they all finally seemed to have reached the bottom of the cliff without any casualties.

"The fog is thicker here. It’s almost impossible to see anything." One of the men stated as he tried to brush away the fog that was making it hard for him to even see his companions properly let alone the area around them.

Before anyone could have spoken in response, a bright light made all of them close their eyes. When their eyes sights finally adjusted to the brightness, they all realized that it was coming from a moonstone that was hovering over Lord Valerius’ outstretched palm. The white fog seemed to be recoiling away from the brightness which finally helped them look at their surroundings properly.

"This is the place where the core of the magical ward lay hidden, we all need to be careful during our search. There are going to be things and traps here protecting the core of the ward from any intruder. Be on alert." Valerius ordered as he took the lead and headed toward the south.

The guards from the Mer Court immediately fell in line as they all followed behind their leader and Lord Valerius. All of them had their weapons ready to fight anything that was going to stop them from reaching the core of the magical ward.

"How are we going to find the core? This place is too big, it will take us weeks to search the entire valley on our own." The man leading the mer guards, Skyler, spoke as his deep blue eyes roamed through their dark surroundings. Even though it was still noon and the sun was singing brightly in the sky, the depth of the valley was filled with darkness that could only be found in the middle of a cloudy night.

"I have my way to find that place. The real trouble is the traps waiting for us." Valerius answered as he took a sharp right turn and entered a narrow valley that wasn’t even there just a minute ago.

The guards shared glances among themselves before they all stepped inside the valley and followed the dark fae. It was around ten or so minutes later when the valley finally started spending from the sides and soon enough a view appeared in front of them that was one of its kind.

"Don’t touch them!" Valerius’ sharp warning stopped one of the guards who was about to brush the tip of his index finger over the petal of the huge pink glowing flower that was growing between two big rocks.

The guards once again shared looks among themselves before they all looked at Skyler for help. "My lord, is something wrong with these flowers?"

Instead of answering the question with words, Valerius flicked his fingers and a stone went flying straight toward the flower that the guard was going to touch before he got stopped. Loud and sharp gasps of surprise and terror filled the air when everyone watched the flower suddenly opening a huge jaw and engulfing the tiny stone as if it was some sort of prey the flower had been waiting to feast on for ages.

"Didn’t I just say that this place is dangerous? Don’t let your guard down just because you are going to see such beautiful but dangerous things on your way to our final destination. One little mistake can result in a huge loss and I want to avoid any casualties in this trip of ours." Valerius made sure that his gaze lingered on every single man that was present there with him. They needed to know exactly what they all were dealing with.

"Did you all hear Lord Valerius? Make sure to not repeat such silly mistakes from here on. We are on a mission that Her Majesty trusted us, let’s not let her expectations down." Skyler did the final job of bringing his men on track.

"We understood!" The guards responded as they all once again stepped into a proper line.