 
Ahlea Warrior Girls:

## THE SACRED STATUE

by Tom Skerlets

© 2013 Tom Skerlets

Published by Tom Skerlets at Smashwords

ahleawarriorgirls.wix.com/ahlea

This ebook is licensed for free use. This ebook may be given away to other people.

# Table of Contents:

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

About the author

### I

"Queen ...?" AdAhlea Sym quietly uttered, while getting out to a large balcony from which the queens have been addressing the nation for hundreds of years. The queen was standing in front of a stone fence of a luxurious palace terrace, looking thoughtfully down at the square in front of the palace.

"Come, Sym, take a look," the queen said, without turning her head, "How did it come to this? Do you remember?"

At the foot of the palace walked the endless line of soldier troops, stepping firmly. Their gaze focused on the path that led them to the south of the Kingdom. At first glance, a powerful and numerous army that could bring a major shift in the battlefield, after it would join the troops that were already there. However, the queen was well acquainted with the actual state of those soldiers. AdAhlea, the supreme commander of Ahleyn army, knew the condition even more than she did.

The ranks were filled with wounded soldiers returning to battle, with young boys whose experience consisted of catching frogs along the banks of the Clean River, and of elderly men too old to remember much about their own childhood experiences. A crowd of people who were doubtfully ready for warfare fed up with horrors of war that they had seen or frightened by horrors of war they have had many opportunities to listen about and now were expecting the first time to see with their own eyes.

"I remember it slightly," Adahlea stated ironically. "Many years have passed since the war began. But did it ever matter how wars begin?"

"No, no. It matters only how they end. And it looks that this war will end with our defeat."

The Queen's words surprised the supreme commander of the Ahlea order. It was true; the situation on the battlefield has not been favorable for Ahleyn for the past few years because Waeryehen was on a long winning streak. However, when the duration of the war starts counting generations instead of years, its participants start to feel tired of it and often forget the origins of the actual conflict. Such tiredness and forgetting had spread through the plains, rivers, and mountains of two neighboring countries at war placed between the Great Mountains of Koron on the East and the Live Sea on the West. The will to end the fights nested firmly in the minds of all the inhabitants of these regions.

After many years, the warring parties had two weeks ago finally initiated a dialogue for which the Queen of Ahleyn and her "defense minister" were optimistic.

"I don't understand," stated AdAhlea, "Are we not close to the final peace agreement? The Waeryehens and we are both very tired of this war."

The queen lowered her head. An inconvenient truth is even more uncomfortable when it is communicated to another.

"It's true, we both want the war to end. An agreement has been reached, the terms of peace have been set... but I am afraid that we cannot meet their primary condition!"

* * *

"What could be important enough for you to drag me from the Front, in the middle of making plans for a counteroffensive?" Ahlea Dlora dared to ask the Supreme Council of her warrior order.

She stood in the middle of the magnificent great hall, the design of which she knew well. The place remained in high esteem. In this hall, she had undergone many ceremonies. The first and the one that she remembered most fondly was the initiation in the superior warrior order of kingdom Ahleyn, reserved exclusively for females. Then followed crossings to the next, higher ranks. Dlora progressed through the ranks much faster than the average member of the order did. At the end, she was promoted into PanAhlea, the highest rank for active warriors.

Every moment of the first ceremony, which marked the entry into the Ahlea warrior school, was an inimitable and indescribable experience for the blond warrior girl. Today, seven ceremonies and seven ranks later, Dlora considered the entire ceremony with a mixture of respect and a feeling that it was an unnecessary ceremonial show in traditional ceremonial robes. The ceremony had a powerful role in the admissions of new members. They would grow stronger feeling that they were joining something truly magnificent. All subsequent ceremonies, she felt, were useless fakery.

It was equally useless to ask her to return to the capital, without giving reasons and explanations. Dlora's full attention in recent weeks was focused on the battlefield. Her new strategy raised new hopes that the course of the war might change or that defeats could be discontinued. Her tactical moves were complex, detailed and too important. The consequences of her leaving the battlefield could make all efforts futile. It was enough for a respected warrior to address the Council with arrogance and without any hesitation.

"Let us put it this way" AdAhlea calmly replied, ignoring Dlora's tone. The nature of her youngest general was well known, "if you fulfill the task that is before you, there will be no need for a counteroffensive."

AdAhlea's words immediately changed Dlora's angry expression to one of focused attention.

"You are one of the few who knew", AdAhlea continued "that after the occupation of Yaraelen, the capital of our enemies, among others things that we did, we also confiscated Tarlaeth, the sacred statuette of Waeryehenians."

For five long years, the slender Ahlea warrior with blond hair and eyes tried to forget that word. Memories of events related to the stone figurine, that showed a man with wings and a lowered sword in his hands, were still memories of proud days when minor war casualties were insignificant in the mass of major military victories. But all of history written after those days was gloomy and a lot different. Always subconsciously and sometimes consciously, Dlora blamed the statuette for a reversal or cessation of war success.

"Again - I will point out that I was resolutely against it. Otherwise, I agree with all Queen's decisions, but it was an absolute foolishness to steal from Yarael Twenty-Seventh his most important toy and keep it as her little secret!"

Indeed, Tarlaeth was far more than a stone statue, besides being far honored symbol than any other throughout the known world. Nobody worshiped something so small and simple, as Waeryehenians did their statuette. They believed it was the one they should thank for their very existence and the existence of the whole world.

Other states also had their symbols of significant importance. Little southern state of Dholl, credited a plant called the flower of youth for its very existence. After all, Ahleyn was the name of a country, its religion, social order, warrior philosophy, and much more. One word indicating the whole sense and the existence principle of a community in which absolute power held the female, for the benefit of all members of the community.

However, admiration of Ahleyn members to Ahleyn itself could not be measured with admiration of Waeryehenians to one artistic reshaped stone.

"Dlora, let's not go there again. However, returning Tarlaeth is one of the main conditions for the end of the war."

"Oh, I thank the almighty All for that! I am willing to personally ride to Yaraelen and to return the statue."

"I believe you. But there is one problem. Tarlaeth was stolen last night."

Dlora was completely surprised by this.

"Stolen? But who...? Not many people knew that the statue was in our hands."

The fate of the statue was truly held in strict secrecy. Its abduction was a personal provocation by the Queen of Ahleyn to the king of Waeryehen. The Queen did not want to publicize such move before the people because there was a possibility that the citizens would find the act immoral. For her, it was joyful enough that the king of Waeryehen was also hiding before his people that he was no longer in possession of the statue and that he was holding a replica on a pedestal.

"Exactly. And your task is to find out who is behind this and to return the statue. But you must act quickly because the truce will not last long. Erdut is to fall. After that, Waeryehenians have a clear path to Blyst."

There was no need to remind young general about the situation on the battlefield. This was the first time in five years that she left it. But five years ago, the war was deep in the enemy's country, before Yaraelen, the capital of Waeryehen. Today, the enemy held the entire southern and eastern parts of Ahleyn.

She was too rejoiced by news of peace negotiations between the two warring sides, because she did not see a sure way to end a series of war failures, nor she was hoping that someone else had any revolutionary idea to reverse the course of the war. And now, this damned statue, so sacred to the enemy, stood again on her way, and on the way to final peace.

"It will not be easy," Dlora said, "I do not know where to start."

"Maybe your new partner has some ideas" AdAhlea prepared one more surprise. She turned her head towards a small door on the right side of the hall.

Dlora followed her gaze and saw a black-haired young girl, dressed in the standard equipment of the first level Ahlea warrior girl. Her dark complexion showed that she was from a coastal region, and her walk, so typical for an Ahlea warrior, could not completely hide manners of a girl from a noble family. Her posture showed youthful determination and courage but did not hide a clearly visible sense of respect for all the other women present in the hall. She tied her long hair in a ponytail. Standard tiara, one of the most recognizable symbols of Ahlea warrior girls, was much bigger than Dlora had and decorated with ornaments that symbolize the country Ahleyn, with the inevitable symbol of Ahlea order in the middle. The rest of the clothing and equipment was identical to what Dlora wore: a black leather vest, short skirt of the same color, boots, a sword on her back and a knife in a holster on her belt, decorated with ornaments.

"Dlora, this is Tenen, one of the best students of Ahlean warrior school in its history. She will assist you in this investigation."

Dlora watched the young warrior with an authoritative look. Finding no immediate faults with her assigned partner, she complained:

"I hope that Tenen doesn't mind, but the assignment requires someone with more experience."

"No" Sym responded decisively, "all experienced warriors are needed at the front, and I do not want to argue with you. You're wasting my, and especially your own time."

AdAhlea found the conversation finished. She turned, raised her hand and soon all members of the Supreme Council stood up and left the hall.

Dlora was uncertain what to feel about her new role. Ahlea warrior girl had to be ready to many other forms of action next to fighting in a war. In times of peace, they often maintained law and order. They also worked in hard labor activities due to their extreme physical abilities and skills. But in recent years, the young general was completely accustomed to command multiple units and to fighting war chest to chest.

On the other hand, somewhere in the depths of her consciousness, she felt rising pleasure. Successful resolution of this task could finally put an end to the bloodshed.

The new role of mentor was less joyful. She had lost confidence in the new warrior girls, seeing them too often killed just upon arrival at the battlefield. Dlora found their training insufficiently thorough and their behavior at the battlefield insufficiently professional. They were not concentrated, far to free from fear and anxiety... However, this investigation had much less risk than the war did, but she did not really feel like going into any action without full confidence in whoever it might be to watch her back at any given moment.

She already spent some time thinking about how her career might look like after she would finish her path of an active warrior. She knew that her age would no longer make her a candidate for a member of the Queen's personal guard after the war ends. She was not interested in peacetime police activity, and she did not or could not imagine herself sitting in some kind of council. The status of a Military College teacher she found most attractive, but this sudden appearance in a similar role did not offer her much pleasure.

"Well, then" Dlora finally turned to Tenen, when they entered a little, distinguished room behind the throne hall, where the Queen treasured the item stolen from the hostile nation, until it was stolen from her, "tell me, young trainee, what are your conclusions? And what, in your opinion, should be our first move?"

The young warrior held her answer for a few seconds, not turning her thoughtful, gloomy stare from the pedestal base, where the statue recently stood.

"This certainly could not be done without the participation of people inside the Palace"

"Exactly. But now we have an awkward situation. Officially, there is a very narrow circle of people who knew about the existence of the object that was in this room."

Though it stood in front of the nose of everyone on the court, and also most of those who came there just for a visit, a few of them really knew what was behind the tiny, barely visible door behind the Queen's back, while she sat on her throne. Dlora felt from the beginning that it was funny how all subjects who would come to adore the queen, actually also bowed in front of the most sacred object of their enemies.

"From what I heard, besides the Queen, only the members of our Supreme Council and you, as the person who led the statue transfer operation, knew about it."

Dlora really did not like to be reminded of it.

"As I said, this is the official list. And we cannot know whether any of the insiders shared the knowledge with anyone who is close to him."

"That's right. But it puts you on the suspect list."

The elder warrior did not resent such derogatory remarks of the younger one. The main characteristic of an Ahlea warrior was primarily an absolute loyalty to the queen, warrior order and the ideals of Ahleyn. Such behavior was one of the greatest and most beautiful values of the country. The nation could always place the safest bet on these qualities of the most famous Ahleyn warrior members, and no one ever thought to doubt them. That also included the enemies of Ahleyn. Such faith and security were the basis for Dlora to gain the trust for the investigation, although she could have been considered one of the main suspects, especially since she sometimes had a tendency to question the authority and to show doubt in decisions that others make.

Still, a scenario in which, for the first time in living memory of all living people, a traitor appeared inside the Ahleas, could not have been excluded.

"Yes, that is actually why they joined you in this investigation with me. For you to spend the part of the investigation which would establish my potential guilt."

"But, we can exclude this possibility for now, because it is easy to find witnesses on the battlefield who can say that you could not be here during the crime" Tenen closed this part of the discussion and continued, "So, our problem is the following: how to conduct an investigation among women who are all our superiors? Besides that, how do we examine the one with the highest possible authority, the very queen?"

"We don't, not for now" Dlora decided. She was pleased how her new partner came to similar conclusions, and noted the same problems, "even though, at least the members of the Council most certainly would not mind that we don't hesitate to lead the investigation into all possible directions."

"But we could search their quarters. Or check with the other warriors if they received some unusual tasks of the elders?"

"Good idea, but I am more concerned about the possibility that a third party was responsible for the disappearance of the statuette. Maybe someone accidentally discovered a valuable item was located here and decided to make a profit..."

"Uh, in this case, the statue could be already available on the black market. And that way it could easily get lost in someone's private collection... Worse, it could expose the inconvenient truth that Tarlaeth was in our hands for so long. This could further complicate the war".

Both warrior girls fell silent, and into their thoughts. Mentioning all possible developments, one more unpleasant than the other, grew anxiety for both girls and increased the dilemma in which direction should they start the investigation. Tenen finally made a proposal.

"We should go to the suburbs. There are parts in which the largest city scum gathers. Let's try to squeeze out something from all known informants among them, find out if there is a story about a big deal, a purchase of any valuable artifacts..."

"So, are you suggesting that we postpone the investigation in the palace?"

"That's right, for the time being. If it's still somewhere behind these walls, they will have a hard time to bring it out. We just ask the guards to raise watch and perform maximum checks on all who come out of the castle."

Dlora didn't waste much time to conclude that Tenen's proposal made sense. The girl apparently had, in addition to the enchanting looks that could certainly attract any man that she wanted, enough wisdom to achieve great warrior's career.

### II

The passersby on the street, near the pub "The old Bart," had a good laugh, looking at the scene of hard criminals running mindlessly out of the bar. Two beautiful white horses stood tied in front of the tavern, sending a clear information to people outside what was happening in it. Such noble and strong animals were reserved almost exclusively for the elite members of the Ahleyn army.

The suburb of Blyst, the capital of Ahleyn, was the exact opposite of other parts of the big city. The appearance, and even more a way of life of its inhabitants, stood out completely from all that could be seen in the rest of the kingdom. It was the only place where the most rebellious among male citizens, and a few disobedient females, were somewhat free to live and act as they wished. In exchange for this kind of freedom, those who chose to settle down there had to agree to all the inconvenience that this place had to offer. The absolute rule of lawlessness, complete disregard of authorities for their welfare, often life-threatening disrepair of buildings... This kind of life without rules applied they should not overdo the resistance to laws. Every major theft that could affect the rest of the kingdom would cause a rapid and relentless intervention by the regular army, and sometimes the very elite warrior girls.

It was the first thing that crossed to most minds of these shabby suburb inhabitants, seeing two Ahleas on the muddy streets: someone obviously committed a crime and it was almost certain that he would regret it very soon. The usual suspects ended up pressed against the wall. It was difficult to hide fear; nobody even considered performing some kind of foolish heroic acts. Only a couple of slaps were usually enough to make every one of them swear on his life and to all the loved ones, that he knew nothing. Frightened facial expressions, often scream and a few tears were convincing evidence that they were not lying.

Ahlea warrior girls were almost as equally known for their extremely honorable way of fighting, whenever it was possible, as well as for their extreme cruelty, whenever it was considered inevitable. All forms of torture known in the world were known to them. One rule, though, was clear: the cruelty could not be applied to anyone they desired, especially not in war activities. It was allowed only in dealing known and proven criminals. But in the suburbs, it was very difficult to find someone who did not belong to that group.

The investigation was long and hard. Just to save themselves from the pain, some of the examinees were ready to indicate useless information and to send Ahleas to other individuals who in fact did not know anything.

The trail finally lead them to All knowing Nob and the pub in which he was located.

Having most of the guests taking the advice and leaving the premises, Dlora pinned to the wall the guy marked as the one who knew most of the current affairs. She placed a knife under his chin and pushed it just enough to stretch the skin, but still not to cut it and spill any blood.

"If you need an information, just turn to Nob, they said" Dlora placed her face right in front of thief's eyes "but Nob is kinda quiet today!"

A bald old man looked at Dlora with bewilderment in his eyes, trying to figure out how to get out of an extremely unfavorable situation for him. A quick glance at the room where the girls had turned upside down parts of the inventory and some of the guests, to show their seriousness and determination, drove him to the conclusion that he could only choose between agreeing to Dlora's requirements and additional beatings.

"I do not know who robbed the palace, I swear!"

"But you must know something. Do you plan to sing it out or you want me to introduce you to all the methods of gathering information using only a knife."

"Okay, okay" Nob cried like a scared little girl. In the kingdom ruled by women, it was not clever to displease the most respected among all born women "An acquaintance of mine, Bryn, mentioned something interesting... it might be nothing, but..."

"Let me be the judge of that."

"He told me that his cousin bragged how he got an offer for a lifetime deal..."

"Oh, did he?" Dlora put on a smile, "and Bryn can be found at..."

"He lives in a small hut near the Grey bridge," Nob said, wholeheartedly hoping that a joyful expression on Ahlea's face means that she would not reveal everything that could be done with a knife.

* * *

"No! Don't let me go, I beg ya!" Bryn squealed like a baby. It was somewhat understandable for a man hanging from the bridge, about fifteen feet above the river, held only by one leg, with the arm of an Ahlea warrior girl.

Looking at this scene, and still vividly remembering a similar event in the pub, Tenen thought that her new partner might be trying to make her first task as fun as possible. Stories of heroic feats of this blond warrior girl were often retold in Ahlean warrior school. She knew all about how Dlora had to join the war immediately after the end of warrior training and how she was crossing from one warrior rank to another, faster than most warriors before her. In these stories, Dlora was presented as a charismatic, bold and a bit sassy warrior girl. Such notions developed in Tenen a great respect for this woman, but this kind of joy in the humiliation of criminals and creating a comic situation, she did not expect.

"Spit it out! Where is your cousin and what kind of business he deals with lately? Or, prepare to dive!"

"Okay, okay! Just put me back on the bridge!"

And Bryn spat it out. When Dlora dropped him on the dusty road, he stayed on the ground and told his story.

"So it was like this. Dlenn, my cousin, mentioned me a few weeks ago that he met someone with a higher rank. From the very palace, he said! I did not believe him. It sounded too incredible."

"Why?"

"Well, it was like... a person approached him in the middle of a night in the pitch dark, all in disguise and hooded, spoke to him softly, in a whisper. Told him where she was from, he could tell by her speech that the person belonged to the high society. Offered him a job."

Ahleas looked at each other. Darkest forebodings began to show true.

"He told me no more after I accused him of lying. But then in the next days, he started acting strange, nervous. And this morning I saw him loading things on the horse, along with two more guys. I approached him to ask where he got a horse; he didn't have it before, and he yelled at me, told me I was a fool for not believing him. And how I could've earned a lot in a job that he got. I mean, how was I to know? With him, you never know, when he tells lies more often than the truth..."

"Okay, okay! What happened next?"

"Well, then he calmed down and said goodbye to me. Told me for some time he will no longer be in the city, that he needed to move as far away from here."

"And? Where would it be for him, as far away from here?"

"I do not know."

"Would you still like to go into the river?"

"For Rheyn he went."

Bryn thus ended his story. With Dlora's permission, he ran from the bridge on which, after this episode, he did not dare to set foot again for a long time.

Girls knew they had to act quickly.

"They left this morning. That means they have about an eight-hour advantage," Tenen said.

"We'll have to go immediately and chase the horses as hard as they can go. Hoping that those three do not expect to have already been discovered."

"What about their client? Who could that be? And what are his motives? What plans does he have with the statuette?"

"Based on the information that this primitive provided us, we can't draw any conclusions. The three fugitives have all the answers."

* * *

Late in the afternoon of the same day, two warrior girls rode out of Blyst and headed along the old road to the north. Trusting their strength and endurance, they forced their horses to a constant gallop. The path to Blyst was well maintained and perfect for urgent travel, opposite to the southern roads, destroyed by countless army boots and wagons that crossed over them.

Dlora immediately noticed a big difference between the landscape in which she traveled in recent years and this on which she rode now. Tenen, who had lived her entire childhood in the seaside town Nellen, where one could not feel the war, and who trained in Ahleyn capital which was so far intact, took all this beauty for granted. Vast plains were in front and on the left, and a wide Clean river, one of the largest natural inspiration for the poets of Ahleyn, followed them on the left until they got to the intersection. The road to the right lead to the cities Derryel and Urryel, which were lost in recent, very bloody battles. Further ahead to the north was a dusty road toward Rheyn.

At first glance, it seemed that the war did not disturb in any way the idyll of villages located along the road, but closer observation, for which the girls did not have much time, revealed the actual situation. On the farm and on the surrounding lands all elderly women and very young children did the work. All male workforce and stronger women the war had embraced in its arms.

They rode all night, did not even think to rest until the morning. Then the horses, well loaded with military equipment, just had to take a break.

Dlora used this rest to bathe in a nearby lake. Her younger colleague, while preparing breakfast, could not resist staring into the tight, yet the visibly bruised body of the experienced warrior girl in the water. She did not feel concerned that her skin will surely one day look like that. On the contrary, she sensed a slight jealousy at all the battles that left those signatures. She felt a full sense of pride and was grateful to the All that she got the chance to belong to the great Ahlea warrior order and to serve the proud and unique Ahleyn society. It was her dream since her youngest days.

The will to prove herself as Ahlea was particularly strong because she came from a noble family. Although it was quite common for members of the aristocracy to join Ahlea warrior girls, people always believed that they could not be as good as the girls who came from lower layers of society. Rich woman's life, according to the majority opinion, shaped them too fine for all the hard challenges that life brought to warrior girls. Tenen struggled hard to prove the contrary, and she was quite successful in it. This task was the final award and a proof that she defeated all the prejudices, which she struggled with through the years, spent in warrior school.

Dlora tried at this same time to remove thoughts about the investigation, at least while enjoying the coolness of the water. She wanted to provide the greatest amount of pleasure to the body that had deserved it for so long. But in this way, she could only free the space for concerns about what was happening on the battlefield.

They passed already two-thirds of the way from Blyst to Rheyn, which was no more than four hours of the ride. They believed that the robbers did not worry about already been discovered and therefore were not rushing. Possibly, they have not even reached the city at the north of Ahleyn. Dlora also relied on their further peace of mind upon arrival at Rheyn, that is, that after a long time they would decide to take refreshments in one of the city's pubs. Riding further after breakfast, she thought, two Ahleas should arrive up to two hours after them. She hoped that they would be quick in finding the thieves in one of the bars before they would disappear in the dark city. Rheyn was known mostly for its high crime rate and people could very easy hide in it, especially those who found crime as their lifestyle.

Tenen was also familiar with the nature of the city in which they were headed. Soothing rebellious habits of that isolated place was one of the most common tasks for Ahlea warrior girl interns. She remembered how much she was looking forward to any news about the new rebellion or to the case of larger armed robbery in Rheyn. Its citizens could be compared with the ones in suburbs of the capital. However, the city from the north felt much more independence, showed a much greater willingness to resist the laws, government, and even the Ahleas.

Such behavior managed to awake small doubts in otherwise enduring convictions of a young warrior, that the social order existing in her country was closest to ideal and perfection.

"It would be nice to have this task shown actually easy and to immediately find Dlenn" Tenen started a conversation as soon as Dlora got out of the water, and showed that her thoughts are much like her older partner's, "otherwise the investigation could become quite a stretch."

"Yes. Although I do not look forward to meeting the damn figurine again."

"Yes, you had a quite turbulent joint past."

"I personally wore it out of Yaraelen to the queen in Blyst. And also, five years before that, I participated in the rescue of that... that... freak of the Queen's sister."

"At that time I was just a child and I do not remember those events."

Dlora's memories were still fresh. Those moments came back to her, detailed and clear as if they had just taken place yesterday.

"It would be the smartest thing to forget how one spoiled and arrogant princess managed to offend one king and his people so hard. So much that they wanted to decapitate her just two weeks after she married the king's son."

Dlora could not find words to describe and explain the extent to which those times were different from the ones that the girls were living in now. She was not sure anyone would believe that only fifteen years ago there was no sign of all this anger and hatred, worn inside the hearts of Ahleyn and Waeryehen people every day. It was hard to believe that these two nations were once considered brothers and that their two countries were closest members of a large Continental pact.

She also did not dare to use the ugliest part of her vocabulary for a member of the royal family, who she held the most responsible for all the evil that occupied her world. Although she fully believed that, there was no bigger and more complete fool than the queen's sister Trupya, in all known world. If she herself had not spent a short and very uncomfortable time with that woman, she would not believe that there could exist such an arrogant, selfish and wicked creature.

"Our Queen made a tough decision then. She sacrificed a powerful military and political alliance while remaining faithful to the ideals of loyalty that we all learn in our society. She sent Ahleas to save her sister from captivity in which she herself turned her married life, and to return her to her native country of Ahleyn, with a price of war against Waeryehen."

Tenen knew the story, but it was interesting to listen to the tone used by a direct participant in these events. Each new generation at Ahlea warrior school inevitably studied tactical simulation of queen's sister rescue operation. It was a truly brilliant action. Queen's sister was not a popular figure among her colleagues, but not for the same reasons that Dlora could not stand her. The whole school of Ahlea warrior girls was considered endangered by ambitions of queen's sisters to take control of the institution. The only person superior to Ahlea warrior girls out of their ranks was the queen. Princess Trupya wanted to adjust this rule a little bit, to control new generations of warriors who had just formed their skills and knowledge. It was assumed that this way she wanted to create her own faction of loyal elite warriors, if not to try to take complete control over the order.

Such efforts, of course, were not even the least well received within the Ahlea order. Their loyalty to the Queen was absolute. However, there was an ongoing concern that the queen is blind by her love for her sister and could finally give into Trupya's requests.

"Waeryehenians had no room for forgiveness for our insolent act" Dlora continued, "That was the beginning of the war. A war in which we were, at first, fighting with honor, winning battle after battle, and in four years, won their capital city."

"And then it all went wrong ..." Tenen added.

"Exactly. Madness reached its peak. Every war brings out the worst in people. An initial string of successes drew out arrogance from us. And it seemed to have grown with every next victory. Thinking about it today, I believe that it was not possible that we became so mad, that it must have been something supernatural. The evil forces that war inevitably awake, inviting them to create bigger and bigger madness..."

She fell silent for a moment, sinking deeper into her thoughts, and then realized that her companion was waiting for her to continue the story.

"After winning their capital, a kind of mass insanity came over us: We looted everything there could be looted, set fire to everything in the city that fired our jealousy for its beauty ... and among other things, we stole that damn Tarlaeth. Then it all went downhill. We lost capital, unprepared to the first counteroffensive. A stroke of defeats came around the entire front; we even lost some battles which seemed completely impossible to lose."

"One of the reasons was that the Waeryehenians had military reorganized themselves," Tenen said what she herself knew about the course of the war, "Among other things, their prince personally took command of the army. He demonstrated superior combat and leadership qualities."

"Oh, nevertheless, in spite of all sorts of other reasons, our series of unfortunate failures I consider completely unlikely, even to say impossible. In the following eight years of war, we started to lose parts of our own land. We are lucky that all those years of fighting made them also tired and now they want peace as much as we do."

"But for this statue, they are willing to continue the fight."

"Yes. Although it is only the size of two fists and does not look very special, it is a symbol of their nation's power, the reminder of the old days when they were the first people who drove the mages outside of their land" Dlora explained what she knew about the story of Tarlaeth to her young colleague.

Stories of moody and evil wizards who had complete control over the entire life on the continent in very ancient times already belonged to Tenen's generation to fairy tales used for educating disobedient little children and it was not easy to find too many adult people who believed in them.

"The king did not dare to tell people that the statue was stolen, and that was what the Queen especially enjoyed, a sign of great humiliation of Yarael Twenty-Seventh. The nations of both countries all this time believed that all this blood was shed for honor. Their honor was violated by the behavior of the queen sister, and ours was violated by her capture. I find it hard to believe that people can fight for such reasons so many years. But human feelings of honor and respect for their sanctities were always easy to be manipulated with."

Tenen was a little disappointed with Dlora's words. She had a high opinion for the ideals that older warrior mentioned and believed that the honor of her country and people, and all those things that society held sacred, needed to be defended with full power. In her eyes, the blame for a series of military defeats of Ahleyn army laid in the loss of faith in Ahlean values in the minds and souls of warriors on the battlefield. She thought that fear overcame these noble sentiments among the soldiers just after two or three defeats. Dlora's reflections, and even more the tone which she used to present them, were a confirmation of Tenen's fears. That was why she craved to appear on the battlefield as soon as possible, and with all her strength to try to renew people's faith in the struggle for the highest ideals of Ahleyn.

"And now, the statue was stolen again" Tenen again directed the conversation to their task.

"That is right. And I have no idea who might be the organizer of the robbery. I cannot think of many people who benefited from the continuation of the war. Both countries were devastated, resources are quite exhausted, overstrain by war is at its peak. And I do not think that Waeryehenians would do this, and then dictate peace by returning the statue because there is no benefit by this behavior. Unless there is some reason which we do not know."

"Maybe they want to totally submit us to their government, to fully conquer Ahleyn?"

"I doubt it. That would bring them only long-term instability. It would double their territory; it would become prone to frequent rebellions that could not be controlled. Anyway, we will probably find reasons where we find the statuette and the organizer of the theft."

After breakfast, for whose preparation Tenen received praise from her senior colleague, they hurried on toward Rheyn. Chances of reaching robbers before they arrived in the city were already insignificant, but they still believed it was important to get there as soon as possible so that they could find the robbers quicker and easier.

The fog that stubbornly refused to lift off from the road heightened the chill of the gloomy, completely overgrown Zal forest that stretched itself at the left side of the road, since the last intersection. These woods were the main reason why the majority of honest people avoided this area in the far north of the Ahleyn kingdom, including the city of Rheyn. Everyone knew that the creatures, which hid among these trees, could not be found in other parts of the world that people inhabited.

After three hours of riding, just when the fog finally started to rise, they saw the city in the far distance. From far it looked like all the other major cities in the kingdom, but both Ahleas knew that the differences in appearance, and even more in a malicious atmosphere that prevailed in it, would appear when they would get close to it, and especially when they would enter it.

However, the scene that they saw only a few meters in front of them, intrigued them more than their distant destination. In the middle of the road, where the trees grew closest to the road, two bloody human bodies and three dead horses laid on the ground. Traces of wild struggle and footprints larger than human were found everywhere around.

"What the hell is this" Tenen wondered, while quickly getting off her horse. She observed the mangled body of a man in front of her and very quickly she came up with an answer to her question. She learned in Ahlea warrior school that only claws of Zals leave wounds of that kind. And the forest, which stretched out from here all the way to the wild mountain land of Ro-oth, was named after these creatures.

"Damn... beasts..." they heard from the left side. One of the attacked men was still alive.

"What happened?" girls approached him. Dlora examined the wounds and quickly concluded that there was no hope for him.

"They watched us from the forest... dared not to attack because ... they saw that we were armed." it was clear even from the voice of the poor man that he reached his last minutes, "but then they saw the devil statue because it peeked from Dlenn's bag... and you know how those beasts are crazy for shiny objects..."

Ahleas looked at each other. They found people who they pursued, much sooner than they expected.

"Tarlaeth," Tenen said.

"They took Dlenn and dragged him into the woods. They will ... They ... will..." a man grabbed Dlora's shoulders and raised his head, sending a desperate look right into her eyes "eat... him... aliiii..."

His head fell to the ground. He died.

"Oh, damn," Dlora said angrily, "we need to go to the worst forest in the known world. The Zal forest."

### 

### III

Among the many legends about the origin of Zals, nonhuman animals from the mountains of Ro-Oth, the most popular one was saying they were actually people who were punished for refusing to live by the principles of Ahleyn. Nobody, of course, did take it seriously because it was not explained why residents of other countries on the Continent, which also did not practice that way of life, looked perfectly normal. According to other stories, they were robbers who escaped from the arms of law from all parts of the world and hid in the dark area of Zal forests and in cold, quite frightening mountains of Ro-Oth. The most possible and by far the least fun theory suggested that Zals have existed as long as people have, if not longer. The life on isolated and hardly accessible areas prevented them from developing in the same way that did residents of other, far more pleasant areas to live in.

Girls have soon experienced the inconveniences of the Zal forest, between the first trees. Almost unnaturally rapid changes in temperature, only a few rays of light penetrating through the dense foliage, overgrown bushes and sharp thorns on every corner ... and incredibly heavy air to breathe. According to folk tales, these ugly woods were a home to many terrible, monstrous, bloodthirsty creatures of various shapes and sizes. These stories were inevitably exaggerated, especially in the physical descriptions. However, anyone with experience of encountering wildlife from Zal forests, such as wild boars, wolves or ordinary rabbits, claimed that they looked more monstrous than animals of the same species in other parts of the world.

They have decided to leave the horses tied at the entrance of the forest. They tried to be as quiet and as fast as possible at the same time, in order to save a human life, even more so because this life had important information for their investigation. Zals could move faster than humans could if they wanted, but this group had one human member slowing them down. They had hoped to have Zals caught by surprise if they decided to stop somewhere in the woods to eat. Yet, they hoped to arrive before the start of the meal, because this time the main course would almost certainly be human flesh. It was considered a delicacy for these beasts; they enjoyed it, killing it first ritually in their lairs. Exceptionally, if they were terribly hungry, those hairy and primitive humanoids attacked people and fed with them on the spot. Dlenn, the robber in their hands, could only hope that it was not too long since the beasts had their last meal.

Girls pulled fur coats out of the luggage carried on horseback, for protection from scratches and cold in the dense, overgrown forest. Regular short clothing was completely inappropriate in such a place. It was designed for greater agility in combat and consisted only of the upper vest that covered only part of the body around the chest, and short skirts fastened around the waist belt. All clothing was made of solid, hard to rip leather of dark seals, dangerous animals from the Western Sea.

Just when it began to get dark, they spotted the troupe of wild bipedal creatures moving to the north, with a human prisoner, carried unconscious on one monster back.

Zals were very hard to distinguish one from the other. They were also very thin but had a very developed musculature. A body covered with fur over most of the chest, the back, shoulders and lower arms. Other, uncovered body parts were extremely humpy. Their face also revealed most of the subdermal bones, with the exception of thick fur under the chin and in the middle of the skull. The lower jaw was very pronounced, with the lower canines usually thrown out over the upper lip, or an entire row of sharp teeth bared between the gray-green lips. Big eyes revealed the tameless savagery and rage.

However, the monsters were somewhat familiar with the very simple form of communication, which consisted of only a hundred or so words. They combined it with a large usage of hand gestures to describe their primitive desires and needs.

This was Dlora's first encounter with hairy beasts after many years. Since the beginning of the war, she did not take part in great cleaning campaigns of the Kingdom north from the intrusion of these creatures. For these reasons, all Ahlea warriors were required to know their language, as well as their fight moves. The trainees from Ahlean warrior school were in charge of the operations during years of war. But their number and weaker combat experience was not impressive enough for Zals, which is why in recent years they dared not only to hunt in the southern, Ahleynian parts of Zal forests, but sometimes also in the more open areas of the Kingdom Ahleyn, and occasionally to attack people on the road next to the forest.

However, the fight with these beings of greater dexterity, but poor intelligence than most people, was the hardest and most valuable experience for all the girls who were preparing to become Ahlea warrior girls. Inhuman aggression and uninhibited ferocity were a good preparation and a test for their readiness for the worst kinds of fight, a lot better than regular skirmishes with street thugs. In these clashes, Tenen showed herself as the most talented member of the school. That was why she was somewhat disappointed with the fact that her first battle in a fresh status of Ahlea warrior girl would again be with these beings, although there was a great war as an option to fight in.

They counted ten Zals. It was very hard for them two to maintain complete quietness, yet keep up with them, in thick and thorny nature. From a distance, it was obvious that some beasts were already tired. Ahleas concluded that it would soon be time to rest. Indeed, the troupe leader soon yelled with a hoarse, harsh voice:

"Enough! No further! Rest! Food!"

The beast carrying the robber, who had just started to wake up, suddenly overthrow the human body from his back. Other Zals surrounded Dlenn within a second, showing savage, sinister smiles on their faces. They formed the inner circle from which he could not escape. They obviously enjoyed his fear. The man, driven by that fear, pulled his back on the ground, from one pair of savage legs to the other. He was mad by not knowing from which side the first attack would arrive.

Soon, he felt the first kick in the back, immediately followed by another in the abdomen, from the very Zal that he fell in front of after the first hit.

In moments like this, all their effort to imitate people was shown in vain. Monsters often watched from a distance, from the slopes of the Ro-Oth Mountain, the people from Ahleyn or Waeryehen who went hunting in the north, in the area of this wild country. They imitated all forms of behavior that could be seen among the members of hunting groups. Under this influence and role model, they tried to develop their own language. However, these were rare and very comical episodes, savagery usually prevailed as far more powerful, especially in the presence of great hunger.

The third Zal was getting ready to jump on the man, but he was stopped by the wild screams.

"No! Me first! Me!" the one who led the column shouted with his hard voice. The others frowned, but they obeyed. He caught the thief from Blyst, picked him up in the air and gave him a final, terrible grin before biting.

But at the very moment when he opened his mouth and showed his sharp teeth, a knife flew in and plunged into his neck.

Girls took great advantage of those moments when Zals were toying with their victim; they split up, approached quietly and unobtrusively to just a few meters from the beasts. Tenen even managed in just a few moves to climb on a tree that had its branches spread over the place where the furry creatures were standing.

His gargling lasted only for a second, but it was effective enough to completely surprise other Zals. Their confusion was the main ally of the two Ahlea warrior girls for a rapid, simultaneous and highly effective attack. Dlora jumped from a nearby bush, stuck a sword in monsters ribs with her first stroke. In the next second, one more Zal felt his womb dissolving from the same sword. At the same time, Tenen managed to jump from a branch to furry shoulders of a Zal below her, tightened her legs around his neck and broke it with a quick turn of her thighs. She stuck a knife in the chest of the next closest Zal, almost in the same second.

Next three rivals in the battle were more prepared to perform an attack on the girls but did not have enough skills to make some result out of the attacks or to save their lives. Soon they were lying down and losing blood all around the ground covered with leaves. The remaining two rivals no longer had the courage to perform anything other than resolute escape. They were far enough from warrior girls to quickly disappear in the nearest overgrown bushes.

The whole fight lasted only a few seconds. Deliberated robber did not fully realize what was happening until the battle was over. Speed and agility he had witnessed, and of which the Ahleas were widely known, along with fully exploited surprise factor, were sufficient to disable a much more numerous enemy. A grace that they have displayed in those few short movements, their fitness, and lightness of arm and leg movements could be easier compared to some dances than to a bloody struggle.

Tenen was prepared to run for other beasts, but then she heard Dlora's voice:

"Wait! This" here is badly wounded but will survive if we help him."

"Well, you help him, and I'm going after them."

"No! We are not splitting up! They could set up an ambush."

"But, they could also go back to surprise us. With reinforcement!"

"I said - no splitting up!"

Tenen frowned and returned the sword to its holster behind her back. She did not like her older colleague's decision. She considered herself sufficiently skilled and wise in avoiding an ambush.

Dlora didn't want to take the risk. Even when they soon found that the statue was in the hands of the two Zals that escaped, she didn't regret. She strongly believed that it was important to maintain caution in such a hostile environment. In her eyes, two warrior girls represented at least five times more power than one warrior did. A chance of catching these beasts actually was small, because of they very faster than humans, when running on their familiar ground.

She devoted her patience to treating the wounded robber. Healing the wounds lasted about fifteen minutes. While the robber was still visibly frightened and completely pale, Dlora concluded that it was time for answers.

"Who is paying you, lion heart?

"W-what?" Dlenn could not even concentrate from all the fears, but Dlora's pressure on the wound brought him back to reality.

"Who hired you to do the palace theft?

Only then, it occurred to him that these warrior girls were not a part of some routine rescue mission. He remembered that he was a persecuted individual before he became a victim of a kidnapping by Zals.

"Ouch! I do not know, I really do not know who it was!"

"Listen to me. Wounds that you already have on your body can hurt twice as much if we get them to reopen" with these words, Dlora put a knife to Dlenn's arms wound.

"No, no! I swear I do not know! I met the person only twice! Came to me in the night, on the street, both times. Wrapped in a robe, a hood covered the head. The first time offered a job. The second time we made secret plans to raid the castle. Paid me in advance! That's all, I swear!"

The fear on his face was a guarantee that a criminal is telling the truth. Partially healed, but still terrified, thief repeatedly thanked the girls. Then he obeyed their advice to go back the way they had come to this place and seek further medical attention in Rheyn. They told him to get lost for good and promise that they would put him in the toughest prison, to the hardest chains, if they were ever to meet him again.

They were not too happy about having to let him go, but the statue was the most important, and they had to go after it and against Zals together.

"I probably could have had the statuette in my hands by now" Tenen could not hide displeasure by Dlora's decision on desegregation "And besides that, we have not found anything that we already did not know."

Dlora took a deep breath and then exhaled. Although she had her back turned to the younger warriors, it was obvious the complaint made her angry.

"Yes, we did. We have received confirmation that the client was someone within the inner circle of people around the queen. Because of extremely rare people, no more than five of them, know the secret passages inside the castle."

After a short delay, Dlora turned, stood in front of her colleague's face, and with a very calm voice, but a very strict look, made a threat:

"If I see or hear just one more, the slightest sign of insubordination from you, during this investigation, I will make sure that you achieve not even one degree of progress within our warrior order, until the end of your career."

Tenen swallowed her pride and stopped herself from making a comment.

Girls moved on quietly to the north, following clues that two frightened Zals left all around, visible even in the dense dark of the gloomy forest. Night had already completely fallen to the woods, although it was very difficult to distinguish night from a day at any time in this eternal darkness, among overgrown trees, with unbelievably dense bushes. The cold was getting uncomfortable, fur coats provided less help any further minute.

They often ran into places in the forest that seemed to lead nowhere. It was as if the forest itself consciously built walls with thick leaves and solid branches of thorny plants. Many of these plants were difficult to name or find them similar to species from the southern regions. Thanks to Zal traces, in most cases they discovered places where one could find the passage. However, several times the girls had to use their weapons to unblock the way and to continue.

The search lasted all night and led them across the borders of their country, to the northeastern end of the forest.

"Now we have already stepped deep in Ro-oth. We're miles away from the northern border of Ahleyn" Dlora concluded.

In that moment, Tenen realized that she had crossed the borders of their country for the first time, without even noticing. The war, which lasted most of her life, did not allow most citizens to move to other countries, it blocked most of the land routes to Karnieg or Koron. It was much easier to travel over the sea, at least for those who could afford such an expensive transport.

"The traces lead us further to the north," Tenen added.

"Yes, to the Cursed mountain, the nesting ground of all Zal tribes."

Wild country of Ro-Oth was a most uncomfortable piece of the Continent, quite inappropriate for human life. It was interesting only to hunters, who also did not dare to set foot on its soil no other way, but in large, well-armed groups.

Most of the animals that one could encounter were too bloodthirsty. And Zals were a particular threat, because of their cruelty. Nature was very uncomfortable in any way possible. The land was actually divided into three areas: Zal forest, Cursed mountain, and Grall swamp. It was difficult to say with certainty which of these areas was more uncomfortable to move through or stay in.

"How in hell are we supposed to find a tribe that these two belong to?" Tenen presented a new problem.

"I suspect that the two of them will join the first tribe they would find."

Although Zal tribes were usually in war relations, each tribe was ready to accept members of their opponents, and these two would be especially expected since they carried such a beautiful and valuable item. Manic admiration of tools, weapons and various art forms that people used was a part of the typical behavior of these animals. Also a confirmation of the strong desire to be as similar to people, apparently resulting from a strong subconscious sense of intellectual inferiority.

Further travel during the morning proved to be somewhat easier, through the lowest hillsides of the great mountain range. Tracks were here easier to spot, because of daylight and despite all the rockier soil. However, even though they had the possibility of much more rapid progress, they maintained complete caution. There was always the possibility of encountering an ambush that persecuted Zals came prepared or meeting other Zal groups. The third option was an assault by some other wild animal, which eventually did happen.

Red Bear, a massive, but not too fast and agile animal, appeared almost out of nowhere, but Ahleas showed that they were ready for that kind of surprise. They managed to confuse him before it decided which one to attack. It soon felt both of their blades, on two opposite sides of the body. But it took nearly a dozen of deep stings for the animal to finally fall on the ground.

After these increasingly frequent rushes of excitement and the opportunity to test her combat and other qualities, Tenen regretted far less that this investigation prevented her from collecting first experiences on the battlefield. However, the desire to see this adventure ending was still strong, because she believed that only real war experience would make her feel like a complete Ahlea warrior girl.

Her companion was, on the other hand, hoping that this opportunity would not show to young Tenen in this war and that the war would soon end, but she was losing hope. The cursed statue has managed to slip away from her hands twice in one day. She knew that Waeryehenians would not have a lot of patience and that this, one in a series of short and fragile states of truce, might be interrupted at any moment if it had not been already.

As the landscape kept changing increasingly, the ground became steeper and rockier, they could no longer handle exhaustion. After all, they did not enjoy a single piece of sleep in the last two days, which they mostly spent in the saddle or on their feet, in very hostile environment. They felt the lack of concentration could become critical and they would not be fully fit for any kind of fight if it would happen soon.

"We will take a brief rest here" Dlora showed a hollow place under a larger rock, suitable for capturing a bit of rest and sleep. Tenen was instructed to be the first to close her eyes and let the body rest a bit, while Dlora decided to keep guard.

Unfortunately, just prior to their decision to hide among the rocks, a group of Zals spotted them. Beasts surrounded them slowly and attacked as soon as Tenen fell asleep.

Dlora reacted quickly, despite the surprise, but she managed only to wound one of them before the others knocked her to the ground. One of them hit her hard with his hand on the back. His claws nicked her skin. Tenen tried to rise, but she also quickly realized that the enemy had pressed her and she could not disable more than one. The narrow space between the rocks was very unsuitable for any kind of trick that she could draw.

Fortunately, these Zals did not behave violently. They seemed to have different plans, they did not intend to kill girls on the spot.

"Well? What do we do now?" Tenen asked at loud and immediately received a reply:

"Forward! See King Gru-kath!" one of the Zals ordered with short sentences, typical for these beings.

### IV

Fat Zal king was sitting on a rock and watching with a devious smile towards the oncoming troupe of Zals which was bringing two captives. The rock on which he sat was higher than all the other rocks around it, decorated with various objects that every human would consider garbage, collected probably from places where hunters left it behind or stolen from the southern ends of Zal forest. Under his behind, he had a torn and dirty pillow with a pattern that obviously provided great comfort to someone's head a long time ago.

Almost identical smiles to the kings were on faces of two savages who were hiding behind his back. Those were two Zals girls were seeking for. One of them was still wearing Dlenn's bag. But the statuette was now in the hands of a tribal king, as a reward for girls capturing service.

On the same rock, next to the king, stood four Zals, his personal guard. Without them, fat beast as he was, would not have any authority. Any other Zal eager for power, dominion or just for his shiny things could easily overthrow him from the throne.

A dozen more of these primitive creatures, mostly females, children and elderly, watched the incoming group from other rocks. Differences between Zals of same age and gender was impossible to spot. They were all equally creepy, used to chuckling, wild jumping when they were excited, and screaming with their deep, booming voices.

Their village was not much different from any other place on the Cursed mountain. Together with the royal rock, there were only other bare rocks. They represented Zal's chairs, tables, beds and everything else.

When the newcomers came quite close to his rock, the king leaned forward, in order to observe two prisoners more closely.

"Oh, beautiful warrior girls" he shouted, for the whole village to hear "shame to eat!"

The cheesy smile which he sent to the girls, especially to the younger one, provoked disgust in both. His ruggedness, decaying teeth, and quite a dirty mouth made Gru-Kath look much more repulsive than the other members of his species.

"They killed friends!" Zal who sat on the king's left side jumped "Must die!"

Kings Guard reacted at his tone. One of them approached, grabbed a shoulder of an angry new member of the tribe with his hand, and forced him to retreat.

"You promised..." disappointed Zal murmured sadly, watching the king's eyes with an expression of despair.

"Graaar! I am the king! I decide!" King suddenly raised his hands, with clenched fists.

A stone statue of a winged man clearly appeared in his right arm. Tarlaeth has finally revealed itself to the girls.

The king tried to express his rage by getting up on his legs, but he forgot that they could not carry him just as easy as in his early days, they could not handle the rest of the body anymore. Realizing that he turned out a bit ridiculous, he slammed his fists on the rock, luckily not damaging the statue. But he ran down the tray that stood in front of him, with milled bones of a bird. Human eyes could easily recognize that the platter was actually an old, rusty barrel lid. The round metal object jumped, rang and rolled off a cliff.

Others Zals on the rocks raised the tension by jumping and screaming crazy. The noise was hardly bearable. This kind of uncontrolled rampage of many monsters everywhere around would frighten almost anyone, but Ahleas were well educated not to surrender to fear. Girls have made an effort to stay focused in this environment of deranged beasts, ready to tear them apart. They carefully observed the allocation of hairy beasts on the rocks, especially the king's guards. They calculated which places were most suitable for break through and escape. Even considered the possibility of an attack, and even taking the statue out of king's hands.

Two savages who fled and joined the tribe, apparently thought that, in exchange for Tarlaeth, they earned the right to entertain themselves with some Ahlea flesh. The king decided to betray this deal. He was considering the possibility of keeping them as his personal toys that he could occasionally torture. But these two servants would probably provoke in his other subjects a constant desire to take over such a valuable prey, increasing so the odds of frequent riots. Another idea that he had was to give the girls to his most loyal servants, four personal guards. Their loyalty had to be constantly strengthened, bought every now and then with something.

But it was evident that other members of the tribe wanted their piece of the pie. Soon started a quarrel between several Zals about who would be the one to eat, torture or do some other nasty thing to the warriors. Two new members of the Zal tribe who had already witnessed the martial skills of these Ahleas considered all but their death completely unacceptable. Most other Zals found this accomplishment too large not to celebrate it with a grand ritual dance and good old prey torturing. After all, these prisoners were something really special. They were recognized as members of the warrior order which they often encountered at the southern end of Zal forests and always pulled the bad end in battling them.

"Twenty-eight" Dlora spoke out loud enough for Tenen to hear her in the middle of this noise and wilderness. Tenen nodded only once. She also considered the action maneuver listed under this number as the best to be performed at that moment. Ahlea warrior school fighting manual offered several hundred combat moves, divided into those for using individually, in pairs and in groups. It was the obligation of each trainee to learn them by heart, so they could immediately remember it when someone named the number under which they were listed.

"Now!" the elder warrior shouted. The Younger girl immediately pulled her arm out of the grip of the Zal who held her and started running towards the rock on which the king sat. Dlora got rid of her guard, hitting him in the nose with her elbow. Then she also ran, a few feet behind her partner. Gru-Kath's guards reacted quickly. They gathered in front of the king and stood to defend him. But Tenen suddenly stopped, just before she came close to their claws reach, and knelt down on one leg, bending her back down. The very next moment Dlora put her foot on Tenen's back, jumped in the air, flew over all four guards, performing a fantastic backflip with a twist and instantly found herself right behind the king. She immediately had her hands gripped around his head, ready to spin his neck.

"Nobody move!" Dlora yelled, "or you can say goodbye to your beloved king!"

The long lasting wild roar stopped and there was total silence. Tenen, however, soon found herself once again surrounded by the beasts. One intended to hurt her, with her own sword, but soon he lost both the sword and his consciousness. Other beasts did not dare to attack. They returned the second sword as soon as Tenen threatened to the Zal who was holding it.

The surprised Zals began to look at each other with confusion. Many of them began to think whether the king was worth saving or not. Tenen used a whole minute of mutual murmurs, to cautiously move closer to her partner and to give her a sword. Soon after that, Zals began to gather in small groups, ready to strike. The ugly fat ruler was obviously not fond or worthy enough to them. King's guards acted most confused, at first ready to stand in front of the crowd to defend the fat man who was always trying to please them. Then they looked at each other and concluded that it was not worth to fight against most of the tribe, and quickly turned to the other side, also ready to attack.

The first attack started from the Zala who was nearest to the girls, one of the two newcomers, the one who gave the Tarlaeth to the king. One could almost feel his anger in the air. Seeing Ahlea warrior girls creating problems to him again, he lost all control. He jumped sharply, but Tenen was ready to defend. A deft stroke cut the monster's head. The lumpy ball bounced off the rocks and rolled right in front of other beasts that were preparing to attack.

Such cruelty was supposed to compel others to stand back and rethink their attack. But it did not work, too many individuals in the crowd kept the desire for taking on the girls. They continued to approach, and thus returned to the courage of those who may have become insecure after a cut-off head scene.

Realizing at last that his tribe really did not care about his fate, Zal king was enraged.

"Raaaa! I am the king! The King!" even though he had Dlora's sword under his neck, he roared without control and suddenly threw an object which he held in his hand on a group of Zals which he still considered his subjects.

Dlora misread his sudden move and cut his throat in a flash. A moment after that she became aware of her unnecessary cruelty, but a new accident was about to happen.

Tarlaeth, a small stone statue thrown by a fat Zal, hit one of the former loyal guard's rights to the chest, bounced off to the side and hit strongly on rocky ground. The object that the girls have tried so hard to find and to retrieve momentarily broke in two.

But the biggest surprise was yet to happen. The huge surge of energy, followed by a bright bluish light, was released exactly from the place where Tarlaeth had dropped, and spread all around in a split second, to a much larger space than it could be seen from that place, miles around, in fact. All Zals, and two girls, briefly lost balance and fell to the ground. Once the phenomenon disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, everyone felt strong pressure on the body and headaches.

This was followed by panic, uncontrolled and the unrestrained rampage of Zals. Some began to insanely attack one another, others started to lose consciousness completely, and some were still decisive in attacking the girls. Ahleas recovered quickly, got up, and started to defend.

Opponents were luckily acting dazed and lost, unprepared for a joint attack, so they were easily defeated by the blade. In addition, losing consciousness continued and there were less vigilant enemies every moment.

However, a terrible pain would neither leave girls heads. Dizziness was getting stronger. Tenen lost concentration for a short moment and immediately felt sharp claws on her arm. The pain was immediate, strong enough for her to fall unconscious.

"Tenen!" Dlora shouted, stabbed the Zal who defeated her partner but then lost the battle too. One monster jumped on her back and she collapsed. A fall on a hard rock, which broke out the air from her lungs, together with the weight of the beast that was on her, prevented her to make any further moves. She felt monster's breath up her neck, and then she also lost her consciousness.

* * *

At the same time, far away from the cursed mountain and from the land of Ro-Oth, and even further from Ahleyn, the largest and northernmost island of the Magical sea, Island of Mages, inside a small, ruinous stone castle, a daily ritual of renewal was held.

The inhabitants of this island were the only ones who knew this ritual. He supplied them with a prolonged life for hundreds of years from now. There was twenty of them and they were not afraid that someone would find the secret behind their ceremony. For several reasons, it was not possible.

A gray island was covered mainly with dry, infertile soil, almost completely parched by tremendously strong and icy north wind, which constantly blew up its plains. Neither the toughest plants made no effort to sprout, although the wind sometimes carried seeds from distant countries.

Human foot did not set there for thousands of years. The cold North Sea, the dangers that wind brought and the ice, have deterred all brave attempts to go so far north. The only two-legged creatures who were able, thank their powers, to take this ground, were those for which the island was named, and to whom it had been the only home for so long.

The mages performed this quite monotonous ritual in the largest hall of the castle, just as awkward as all the other rooms were, for more than two hundred thousand times, day after day, for most of their lives. Surprisingly, it never started to get on their nerves. They had too much appreciation for life and tried hard to keep it, because they knew all the pleasures that it could provide, especially with the help of magic. But the full enjoyment of life they had not felt for centuries, this ugly and lifeless island could not provide it to them, and they haven't felt any other ground under their feet for a countless number of years.

Suddenly, in the middle of the ritual, wizards felt something strange and unusual for this ceremony, a powerful surge of energy passing through their bodies. They had experienced similar tremors while performing magic, they knew many rituals that had some influence on the body, in this or similar ways. But this was obviously something else. The ritual of renewal was not one of those spells and did not contain any physical effects on the body. Besides that, contrary to most others, this wave was incredibly pleasant. It filled the magicians with fantastic power, the kind that they had not felt for centuries.

It gave them back an old feeling of complete control over all the abilities that their bodies could provide, as well as a heightened sense of control over the environment. Ritual words stopped and all magicians stood for a while like stones. They looked at each other, or at their own hands and other body parts, partly confused, but mostly delighted by this incredible experience.

And then one of them enthusiastically put a smile and said:

"Magic of Tarlaeth is interrupted."

He turned to the window that showed south and to the distant Continent, for which they had strongly yearned for an infinite number of days. Then he strongly exclaimed "Liberation!"

As in a trance, other mages immediately followed shouting in delirium: "Liberation! Liberation!"

### V

"Tenen! Tenen! Wake up, damn it!"

The girl finally regained consciousness after her older colleague had already begun to slap and shake her. Immediately upon awakening, she felt strong pain, but also the pressure of fabric on her arm. Dlora bandaged her wound, using herbs that she wore sewn inside her belt, same as all Ahlea warrior girls, as standard equipment.

She turned around, remembering events that led to this situation. She realized quickly that the landscape surrounding them was different than the one she was in before losing consciousness. Dlora immediately solved her confusion.

"I've carried you here before the others Zals awoke. We are about a half an hour walk away from their village."

"Thank you," Tenen said and then realized that she feels a headache after the smallest movement of the jaw. The effects of those strange phenomena were not gone yet "how did you get us out of there?"

"At the end, we all fell into unconsciousness. I had a lot of luck. One beast had collapsed just before he finished me off, he had already overthrown me. I was one of the first to wake up. Several Zals woke up before me, but they have not noticed that I was still alive because I laid almost entirely covered with the one that almost finished me off."

While retelling events, Dlora constantly turned around, watched the surroundings with caution, apparently fearing a possible attack.

"I quickly... overcame those who woke up, and then threw you on the back and started running. By now they all probably woke up and went after us."

Tenen saw this as a message that they must immediately move on. She got up slowly and uncertainly, feeling besides a headache all the other consequences of the loss of blood. Education within Ahlea order was often extremely life-threatening for many trainees, and Tenen also had many scars to show. But she could not compare this situation with the previous experiences of wounds, fractures, and other miscellaneous income shocks.

"Oh, mighty All, I feel like my head is about to crack," she said with a grim expression on her face. Only then she clearly remembered the most mysterious event throughout that rush "Hey, what the hell happened there? The moment with the bright light and the... when everything went all... what was that?"

"I do not know, and right now, I do not care" Dlora gave a straight answer. Then she pulled out two halves of a broken statue from the inner pocket of her coat. Merged them one to another, as she was hoping they would magically be joined back together.

Tenen only then had the chance to see how Tarlaeth looked like. It showed a strong, long-haired winged man in a robe that completely concealed his feet. He was set on an oval base. His hands were laid on a handle of a lowered sword, whose tip also touched base. He had wings raised above his head, placed one just beside the other. They were geometrically perfect, completely symmetrical. The face was simple, but impressive, with a look that would inevitably cause respect to the observer.

The most interesting thing was that the statue broke into only two parts, about the same volume, although one would expect to break off, shatter and lose a few smaller fragments. But no, everything that was Tarlaeth was located within the two parts in Dlora's hands.

"I'll think about you later too" after a long period of observation, warrior girl returned chunks of stone under her coat. Escape was a thing of greatest importance at that moment.

"Zals are much faster creatures than us. They could catch us before we safely get back to Ahleyn" Tenen concluded. But her colleague had a backup plan.

"There is a large swamp southeast of here. It stretches all the way to Midbay. Zals are afraid of water. From there we will quickly end up in Pryor" once again Dlora impressed her young partner with the knowledge of geography. Tenen also remembered what she had learned from the maps. She also concluded that the easiest way out was toward the bay which was shared by four countries, including this wild Ro-Oth, and also their homeland, Ahleyn.

A few moments later they were on their way. They tried to leave as few traces behind, and still be as fast as possible. Hoping that Zals would conclude that they two escaped on the same route as the one they used to come here, and also that they would not remember to split into several search groups.

Going down from the hills of the Cursed mountain to the swamp was much more unsettling than climbing it from the direction of Zal forest. Due to the hard downhills and not so many walkable paths, they had to slow down too often. The pain that Tenen felt and the inability of normal use of her right hand, also made traveling much more difficult. The older colleague had to always go first, and at the same time to watch out how younger warrior was coping with dangerous pieces of road. Often she had to offer her some assistance.

After hours of walking and running down the bumpy parts of the mountain, they noticed that the environment was changing. A few larger and greener plants started to appear, the rocky ground began to share its place with dry and soon later a bit damp earth.

Just in that moments, when they could see first big ponds and tall grass in the distance, behind them they heard small stones rolling from higher parts of mountains. They turned and soon saw the first silhouettes of wild humanoids, deftly jumping from higher to lower rocks and rapidly progressing towards the girls.

They were still far enough to pose no threat for a few minutes. But the wild roar they could hear for a few seconds after the sight of them gave clear that they were quite angry, actually in a state of full madness. There was too many of them for Dlora to fight them herself, and to defend a partner who was not ready for combat.

So Dlora quickly pulled Tenen by her healthy hand:

"Fast! Now we must do our best to get to the water before they reach us!"

They rushed as fast as they could. Dlora was now pushing her younger colleague in front of her, not allowing her to slow down, no matter how tired and painful she felt. She was not even concerned if she or Tenen would stumble on a rock or slip on the rocks. The most important thing was to make the first step into deeper parts of Grall swamp. First puddles have already appeared under their feet, more and more shrubs was surrounding them, but that was still a terrain Zals could move on. And they were closer every second, and their roar was louder every moment. They knew that, if only one Zal would reach and grab one of them, it would soon be over for them both. Even if they would overcome him, the next second the rest of them would dig its claws and teeth into their tired bodies.

Pain in jaded leg muscles was already unbearable, breathing was getting harder and harder. Savage roar and deep gasps were now coming just from behind. Fastest among Zals was just about to grab Dlora's back...

Just then, the girls stepped in quite wet, muddy ground, and only a few steps later found themselves in the murky, green waters of the swamp. First Zal, along with a few of them also splashed his feet on the muddy ground, but before the actual water, he forced himself to stop. There was no more solid ground from which they could reach two warriors.

They sighed in fury, standing in one place, scowling at the Ahleas. Two of them were slowly moving further away, pulling feet out from the mud beneath the water. Dlora walked a bit backward, with her sword drawn out, in case that Zals would beat their fear and step in the water. But on the contrary, the beasts stood still and quiet, without any will to at least show their raging dissatisfaction. They swallowed the feeling of evident defeat, sending only looks of hatred and anger, as a message, which was supposed to mean that they would not have mercy on them if they would ever meet again.

Then the beasts turned around and started walking slowly back towards the hills.

As soon as she noticed that, Tenen stopped to regain at least some strength that she had lost. Dlora returned the sword to its sheath and also began to rest her body. She took a quick look at surroundings, remembering that this piece of nature was no less harmless. Then she devoted attention to her partner.

"Now we can slow down. We will no longer see those creatures" she comforted Tenen while she was examining the wound. The look of Tenen's injury actually said the opposite, that they could not afford them to slow down, young Ahlea needed better medical treatment than Dlora could provide. The swamp was also a place where the wound could easily pick up some kind of infection or additional disease.

The decrease of caution was also out of the question because swamp snakes and large lizards were able to surprise them after each wicker or any muddier part of water. The Grall swamp was named after the birds who found here a main habitat in certain parts of the year, and whose meat was one of the favorite dishes on the Continent. But the water was equally famous for wild animals that no one had any desire to eat or even meet.

The water itself had a certain uniqueness, an observer could find it ugly and beautiful at the same time. One could clearly see the disparity even from distance. Parts with high, thick and solid marsh grasses had a greenish color, which sometimes flew into brown, depending on the amount of sludge that was raised from the bottom. On the other hand, some cleaner parts were almost unnatural blue and bright. It was hard to find such colorful wetlands somewhere else.

Stretched for miles in the Southeast direction, straight to Midbay, where Prymor city, port of Ahleyn which they wanted to reach, was located.

After a few minutes of rest, they moved on. Dlora permitted a slower pace in the beginning, but soon she made an effort to make walking rhythm faster. Moving, further along, was becoming increasingly difficult, the swamp was deeper and the progression was slower. They felt the certain joy of escaping from hairy savages, but satisfaction after solving problems with Zals was replaced by concern for others who have accumulated.

Although they did not discuss it, they were both spinning similar thoughts: the knowledge of the existence of an intruder in the palace, the lack of information about who it might be, a long way they would have to cross to go back to the capital, the question of how Waeyehenians would respond to the state of their statue after the accident on Cursed mountain...

But Dlora's mind was most preoccupied with the occurrence within the moment when Tarlaeth broke, the flash of light that blinded them and the incredible impact of energy that passed them all out. It was now clear that the history of the statuette was a lot more interesting than they had thought, and that the story involved ancient mages as characters, from old and almost forgotten legends. Given that their world had not known any weapon or device that could produce such a brilliant appearance, there was no doubt that this was some kind of magic. Only the mages knew magic, and no magic, as far as they knew, had not been seen on the Continent since their departure, in ancient times.

They also shared some fear of the possible consequences. Dlora's headache was completely gone in the middle of that chase to the swamp. Other inconvenience, except the great exhaustion after all that action, she did not feel. It made no sense to ask Tenen if she felt any other inconveniences that might be caused by the unexplainable event. She was already exhausted enough because of injuries and running in poor condition. As time passed, it was more than obvious that wounded young Ahlea was progressing harder, and how her body is tilting down to the water. She was having problems with holding her eyes open, especially when the night began to fall.

When darkness completely covered the swamp, Dlora estimated that there were about halfway from the beginning to the bay. It was obvious that she would soon have to carry Tenen on her back, and that would make her lose the ability to react in time if some swamp beast attacks them. She was looking for a piece of land, at least a little bit dry, on which they would be able to rest during the night, but really none of it could be found in the sight of the place at which they were standing that moment. Besides, it was becoming more difficult to find areas shallow enough for walking.

Suddenly they heard wings flapping from above. Under the dim moonlight, they could glimpse a flock of dark birds. They were Gralls, feathered animals, nearly as big as an adult human. The first thought caused by their occurrence in Dlora was the famine, a feeling which up to this point she refused to think about, having all other problems that she, together with her young partner, was wrestling. She wished they had brought bows with arrows to this adventure, then she could have knocked one of these animals, pluck it and ease hunger with their meat. At that moment it would be just fine to eat it raw.

Just at that moment, one bird suddenly and abruptly started crashing down towards the girls. The next moment it fell into the water about three feet in front of them before Dlora even had time to take out her sword. Tenen was too exhausted, and not looking anywhere else but downward anymore, she did not notice that something was happening until she heard the splash of water.

When the bird emerged back and turned its body around on the water surface, the girls observed that she was hit by an arrow. That moment Tenen also pulled out her weapon.

"That is my catch, that there be no mistake" they heard a voice little further, from the right. Among the dense shrubs, in total darkness, they could yet see a female silhouette. A girl stood there, about Dlora's age, in high and dark boots and a bow in her hand.

When she made two steps forward and stood under the moonlight, they could clearly see that she was carrying equipment of a typical Ahleynian Grall hunter. In addition to the equipment, the sex also revealed that the person was from their country. Other kingdoms would not allow women to hunt, especially not in Ro-Oth.

"What are you doing here" Dlora called the unknown girl. She placed the sword back behind, and then grabbed Tenen since she almost dropped her sword and was ready to crash into the water "Gralls are usually further south at this time of year!"

The unknown girl also ran toward them, as soon as she realized that one of two Ahleas was wounded. She grabbed Tenen around her waist and completely took over her weight.

"My boat is there, in the underbrush, just a few steps away."

Indeed, in one small part of the swamp, completely covered with tall stems of marsh grass, which girls normally would not have addressed more attention to, there was a skilfully hidden boat of a bigger size. As soon as the girl pulled it out, they could see it was packed with everything that one would need for a longer stay in the swamp - food, clothing, and even accessories for the potential treatment of wounds and injuries. The front part was already filled with a dozen of killed Gralls.

"I am going to take care of the wound, I have grass that will surely help. You can help yourself with the food, there is a lot of salted meat that I have left, as well as vegetables that have not entirely lost its freshness, even though I have been here for five days.

Although a tremendous hunger was almost forcing her to savagely jump on food, Dlora still maintained her manners and started preparing pieces of food for her injured partner carefully with a knife, and then prepared a piece for herself. The food was really delicious and well prepared, even for a full-fed person to enjoy it.

While chewing a large piece of dried pork ham, Dlora took a longer look on the big hunting catch at the front of the boat. The girl saw it and returned to Dlora's earlier question:

"Wars are further south at this time of year too. You probably do not know it, but for years now, Gralls prefer to remain here in the swamp after breeding, because of horrors of war, instead of migrating to Ahleyn and other warmer regions. Less of them keeps coming to our country every year. They were always keeping away from people, cities, and roads. But the battles are fought on meadows and in forests, their natural habitats. That is why they tend to stay here for an entire year. It is unnatural, I know, but it is so. Therefore, more and more hunters decide to go hunting in these areas even during colder periods. What else can we do?"

Although her words and also her tone were full of frustration and disappointment for the situation she described, her facial expression and posture of this girl sent quite the opposite message. She was a self-confident, courageous, experienced and strong person, which among the fairer sex you could see raised only in Ahleyn. Dlora estimated that this girl was in her late twenties to early thirties, they belonged to approximately the same generation. She knew that this was a very important person in her village, which certainly contributed to the community in many ways, considering that she was not on the battlefield at that moment.

Their homeland based its strength and stability in the full usage of all the qualities that women carried. The basis of Ahleyn philosophy was the belief that women's virtues are far greater than those that men could provide. All male advantages were considered to be a double-edged sword, it was believed that to the same extent they could contribute to the betterment, as well as harm the community.

For this reason, the men were deliberately restrained in progress in every way. Overly ambitious were calmed down sometimes even with very brutal methods. Girls were, quite the opposite, watched from infancy and tried to accurately estimate which were the most competent among them, which were the ones that had obvious qualities and talents in any areas. They did not hesitate, if necessary, to separate those girls from their parents and place them in development institutions, because most of these schools functioned in some isolation. In them, the girls were divided from the rest of society until reaching the age of majority. Even for social activities such as hunting, young women of Ahleyn were attending specialized schools, leaving their community for three years, only to return with the perfect knowledge and skills in activities that were expected of them.

Ahlea warrior school represented a high point in the use of such methods of perfecting female population. But for the men, there was no place either in it or in any of the other institutions in the development and training. They could at best experience to be assistants to women who have completed those schools. Therefore, Ahleyn was occasionally experiencing rebellions of the male population. They were generally poorly organized and prepared, short and easily crushed. And also, because most men were sent to the battlefield, very rare in the last few years.

When she bandaged the wounds to Tenen who was asleep, showing also a great level of knowledge in that area, the owner of the boat went on with her story about Gralls.

"Yesterday I noticed numerous flocks flying from south to this region. As if those among them, who decided a few weeks ago to try their luck on the south again, has now once again been forced to return."

These words suddenly made Dlora worried.

"What? What are you saying? That the fights started again? Are you saying that the truce was broken?" Ahlea started raising questions with visible excitement.

"I do not want to say anything. I am just telling you what I saw."

Dlora had long feared that this would happen. Overflying birds could be no guarantee, but Dlora had previously concerned that the truce was too fragile. That is why she was building up detailed plans for a counteroffensive in the last days she spent on the battlefield. These plans now most probably failed, and the risk of eventual defeat had become quite probable. Darkest scenarios began to realize, and the only hope to establish a firm and lasting peace broke out along with statuette whose two parts were now located in pockets of Dlora's jacket.

She was wondering what was there even left to do in those moments. They finally had means of transport for the safe return of Ahleyn and docking to the Midbay port of Prymor, but a continuation of the journey from there to the capital, under new circumstances, represented a new heavy challenge. Parts of the main road connecting two cities were in the hands of the enemy, most of the side roads were also under occupation or siege. All the improvised alternate routes that Ahleynians were forced to build where they had not been before, over the raw plains, overgrown forests, and wetlands, made traveling a lot longer and harder for all citizens.

Dlora even considered the possibility of returning to the battlefield, joining their forces, by crossing through the hostile territory. For the Ahleyn army, even the smallest help was most certainly needed in those moments. After re-entering their country and rejoining their army, they would be able to have someone carry the statue to the Queen in Blyst, together with an explanation of what happened to it. But such action she did not consider the best solution, she did not know what would have happened if the enemy would capture them two and found their sacred artifact in their possession and broken. Besides, she found it her personal duty to deliver Tarlaeth to the queen and give her all the explanation, describe details around the unfortunate events. Maybe even personally take a new mission, together with the queen and the Supreme Council of Ahlea order to find a new solution for a seemingly hopeless situation that had befallen their country.

She was silent for a few seconds, staring glumly to the southwest. Briefly thought that was real all the same what she would do next, as it was best to sit into a swamp and stay there. To feed on mosquitoes and frogs, let everything else continue to happen without her when all she ever tried to do to prevent harm was not successful. Hide from the war, like Gralls, neglect her duties, when all those top-notch training and experience did not help her to save the country and its people.

Of course, she did not really mean it. Such thoughts were exactly the break that she needed to develop a new, completely crazy and bold idea. She suddenly turned her look to the left, to the southeast.

She decided to find the exit from this hopeless situation, where anyone would least expect her to look for it.

* * *

The long hallway of the Island of Mages castle echoed with the sound of Declavius' boots. One of the youngest wizards on the island quickly rushed toward the great ceremonial hall of the castle. He could not remember when it was the last time he was so excited, it might have been a dozen decades. Rumors that he was the chosen one had already reached him.

Construction of the castle was one of his first childhood memories, it was a few hundred years ago, and now he was likely to be the first one to leave it. Almost all the other mages have strongly remembered the Continent, but that did not stop them from still choosing him. It was not a surprise for him, he was never ashamed to admit that he considered himself a sorcerer with the most energy and potential, the best among them, perhaps with the exception of a few oldest and most experienced. His youthful energy was an advantage over older, those who had a better knowledge of the Continent. His ambition, the eternal desire to be the best one and constant ability to express the cherished characteristics such as treachery, insensitivity or vindictiveness, put him in the forefront of other youthful wizards.

In the ceremonial hall, near the south window, there stood mage chairman, accompanied by a few most respected colleagues, enjoying the view of the sea behind which were lands that they left a long ago. Some of them turned their heads as Declavius entered the room, but the majority remained to stare out the window into the distance. Declavius was not surprised with such behavior. Ever since they felt the spell breaking and magical disappearance of the barrier around the Continent, mages were showing signs of really childish, cheerful behavior. Some acted as if they wanted to immediately take off to the south, but retained enough caution to stay grounded.

"Finally, we welcomed the day when we would regain the possibility to return to the Continent and to start our revenge" chairman has finally shown that he was aware of Declavius' presence. He started speaking without looking away. Other magicians moved away so that the young wizard could come closer and take a look through the same window, "But before we all go back, we must make our return completely secure. The Damn statuette of Yarael must be completely destroyed because its power is still recoverable."

Old sorcerer put his hand on Declavius' shoulder:

"We have chosen you, Declavius, to go to the Continent and to neutralize, destroy the object whose name we do not pronounce, and who is the only human defense from our revenge."

Declavius' face lit up with happiness. He had, like all other magicians, remotely sensed that parts of the broken statue were in the possession of two powerful and very capable humans. But that did not worry him, he knew that no member of the order of Mages had no reason to fear no man in this world.

Half an hour later, accompanied by the looks of wizards from the shore of their island, Declavius flew on the wings of icy winds through the Magic Sea to the south, to the Continent.

### VI

"We shall do... what!?" young warrior asked, after a few moments of standing silent and surprised.

"We shall go over Midbay and directly to Waeryehen" Dlora replied calmly as if she was suggesting going on a picnic.

The boat sailed slowly, now on the sea, on its southern end closed inside a bay, directing to the southeast. Still in the company of a girl who found them in the swamp and provided them assistance. Tenen was just recovering from her injury, but the plan that Dlora proposed made her think that maybe she was still slightly hallucinating.

"We are heading straight into the country of our enemy?"

"Yes. And to meet no one other but their King, face-to-face" she paused to check the expression of her younger partner, to see exactly how crazy did she find this proposal. Then she continued" The journey will be long, but to some extent easier than returning to Ahleyn. The majority of the Waeryehenian army is located on the west, on the front line, and we'll go through the eastern side of their country, where we probably might only bump on an occasional patrol.

"Just an occasional patrol? All away to the capital? To the castle? To the throne? Really?"

"Well all right, it might be more difficult and complicated here and there, but we shall solve these difficulties on the way."

"On the way? And then what? We stand before the king and just return him the statuette, simply explain what happened to it? And expect him just to accept it, to forgive us everything and to declare peace?"

Dlora luckily had time, while Tenen was laying unconscious, to convince herself that this was the best solution under the circumstances. That was why listening to all parts of the plan like this, out loud from someone else's mouth, with a large dose of skepticism, could not reassure her.

Tenen did not expect to hear such bold ideas from the mouth of an experienced Ahlea. Dlora was appreciated as a daring tactician among warriors, ready for all kinds of unexpected challenges and surprises for the enemy, but Tenen saw nothing wise nor useful in going directly to enemy's king. Especially when they had nothing to bring but words which he most certainly did not want to hear, and his people's most sacred object that he most certainly did not want to see broken in two parts.

She felt that everything in this story was somehow upside down. She was the one that was supposed to behave foolishly, due to her younger age. She would expect from her older colleague to act more restraint.

Dlora moved closer from the bow of the boat more to the middle, where Tenen was laying just minutes ago, but now was in a sitting position. She looked directly at the young warrior 's eyes, with a look that built sudden trust even without words.

"I know the idea seems completely crazy, but I ask you to trust me. If we carry Tarlaeth in Blyst, our queen would most likely also conclude that the best thing to do is to send a peacekeeping expedition with a statuette in their capital city, along with the same explanations that we can give directly. It is possible that at least one of us would be a member of that expedition, perhaps even both."

The third girl in the boat looked at them both, paddling in a moderate rhythm. It has been hours since she received the order from an older Ahlea to drive them close to the shores of the country Waeryehen, at the southeast end of Midbay. She agreed without any doubt. It was what any citizen of Ahleyn would do when hearing Ahlea warrior girl telling him to do something. She did not even see a problem in the fact that she never visited this place that she was supposed to paddle to.

She admired these two girls, although she did not fully understand the details about the events they were mentioning. Obviously, it was something important. Confident postures of both warriors and their willingness to perceive such ambitious plans, made her, after a long time, disappointed again. She regretted one more time for not being selected for Ahlean warrior school, and for being destined to serve her local community as an expert hunter instead.

Tenen took a few moments to analyze Dlora's plan, to implement all reverse logic presented by older Ahlea. At the end, she concluded that the idea was just daring enough to succeed for those who would be capable enough to perform it and that the two of them, if nothing else, were at least crazy enough to try it.

A slight change of expression on her colleague's face was enough for Dlora to realize that she had decided to agree. She had always found important to feel the understanding of their associates for her decisions and actions. She also felt the pride to see a young intern from her warrior school being so bold. Of course that she was able and intended to perform this plan even without Tenen's consent. After all, the boat was already reaching the shores of the enemy country.

Tenen had pictured next generations of Ahlea warrior school, young students, to talk about her. A young and promising Ahlea who already on her first mission passed the most dangerous parts of the Continent, which most other heroines didn't get to see through their entire careers and lives: Zal forest, Cursed mountain of Ro-Oth, Grall swamp... and after all that she had decided to cross the entire kingdom which was at war with her nation, and to personally visit their king. That seemed like a really great story to be a leading character in.

Only a half of night had passed, when their Ahleyn compatriot docked her boat along the coast of South Midbay, near Kavarr, the only northern port of Waeryehen. All other ports were on the other end of the kingdom. Although they were in hostile territory, the landscape finally looked friendly again, as one they were they were accustomed to. After all, on the same coast, but on the other side of the border and the gulf of Stug river, there was a city in Ahleyn, Prymor, which they both had the opportunity to visit, and whose environment was quite similar to this.

They did not have much time to admire the landscape, nor they were able to do it in the dark. They jumped out of the boat, as soon as it had touched the shore, in a hidden woody cove. Back in the boat, they used the opportunity to thank the girl who offered them a life-saving help in most difficult moments. They agreed that she would immediately head straight to Blyst, and personally submit a detailed report on the events which older Ahlea warrior had described her. She got all the passwords necessary for passing all guards and for being received personally by the queen herself. They had complete confidence in her, it was clear that this was a girl with deep-set values, and with full respect and fidelity to the nation and the crown of Ahleyn.

The girl wished them for the All to be on their side along with their journey, and then slowly started paddling away.

"Are you ready?" Dlora Asked, as soon as the boat began to move away.

"Yes. Let's go" Tenen tried to sound as persuasive as possible, in order to avert her partner's suspicion in her health and ability to progress. She still felt some weaknesses, but also believed that it would gradually completely go away, despite the probability of getting tired along the way they were headed. She hardly felt the pain from her wounds, the girl who saved them proved herself to be a skilled healer.

They have decided to immediately start their journey and try to get close to the first inhabited area before dawn. It was obvious that they would have to do most of the journey to Waeryehen capital during daytime and they did not like that. Waeryehen enjoyed two years without fights on their own ground, public life functioned normally and they two could expect a lot of passers-by on the main road. Despite the war, the country recovered and restored quickly. Great credit for it was in the reorganization of authority that occurred when Waeryehenians lost the battle for their main city. Yarael Twenty-Seventh handed all war powers to his son, who was much more appropriate for that position. Prince was much more interested in military matters, better trained for combat activities and especially more vital than the old man on the throne. This way the king was able to pay more attention to civil matters and handling parts of society that did not participate in the war. His son, meanwhile, took a brilliant twist in the war results of the Waeryehenian army.

Girls have progressed with the greatest caution and silence, although they were surrounded only by pure nature and mostly forested landscape on their way. Although it was easy to find forest paths trodden by human feet, the girls would rather keep themselves away from them. They did not want to upset even forest animals, every possible complication and jam were undesirable for them. They hoped to find a farm as close as possible, yet not too close to Kavarr, where they could borrow some less conspicuous clothes from the owner. And if a farmer would have at least one horse that they could silently ride out of the barn, that would spare them a great deal of time. They did not have moral doubts about such actions, the task that they set themselves was too important.

But luck did not serve them well. The first trace of civilization, a well-rutted forest lane, appeared after a few miles of walk, as the first rays of the sun have already appeared. And another hour more had passed when they appeared on a larger clearing which beheld a lonesome farm.

A fenced part of the hill around the yard was quite large. Just below the hilltop, they saw a wooden house and barn made out of same material. The place was already quite close to a big city, but luckily far enough for them to snitch things and disappear before the owner would notice the theft and alarm the authorities in a nearby town.

"Look. The animals are already out" Tenen showed the hillside below the property. Indeed, there were even three horses already eating grass. This obviously meant that the owner of the farm, besides not being so poor, was also used to waking up early. Very soon he appeared briefly in the yard, carrying wood from the sheds to the kitchen. And from a distance, it was clear that he was a large, robust man who pulled his muscles daily in heavy physical work.

"Damn, the horses are completely on clearing. If the owner only briefly goes out again, there is no doubt that he will see us stealing it."

"I suggest we disable them all" Tenen immediately expressed her opinion "no time for tactics. We have to pick up some clothes anyway."

"All right. You take care of the horses, grab them as soon as I send you a sign from the property that I had disabled them. I'll take their clothes, bridles saddles" Dlora explained her plan and the very next moment she started moving toward the hill. She climbed through the woods, then the orchard that stood to the house on the right. Tenen was also crawled closer to the horses, to the nearest point from which they could not see her from the farm, then she laid down and waited in the tall grass.

She had a perfect view of the methods of sneaking up, used by one of the most experienced Ahlea warrior girls. Dlora used the method of progress in short but rapid episodes. She moved to one and the other hidden place at intervals of not more than a few seconds. She jumped over the fence on the right side of the house in a sudden run and almost immediately she stood leaning against the house. Then a short pause, followed by a run-up under the window. They both came to the same conclusion that the folks were probably eating breakfast together, as no one came out for long. Experienced warrior listened for a full minute under the window, and convinced herself with the help of the sounds that they were really eating. Voices revealed the presence of three persons: the owner, his wife, and their son, about seven years old.

Just as she got ready to make her move, to fly through the door to the room and to captivate everyone present at the table, something completely unpredictable happened. A chariot, pulled by two horses suddenly rushed from around the bend of a dusty road that was just below the hill and behind Tenen's back.

"Ahoy, landlord!" screamed the man who steered the chariot, holding the reins in one hand and happily waving his hat over his head with the other. He looked like a complete jolly - "Are we awake already?!"

"Oh, by All..." Dlora muttered quietly to herself. She could not believe this was happening at that exact moment. The next second farmer replied with "Ahoy!" directly out of the house. The coachman forced his horses to turn off the road and on the path that went up to the farm. Tenen, still lying in the grass, stared at this strange character with confusion, not knowing what to do.

"Tenen, horses! Quick!" Dlora yelled suddenly while going into action. She decided that no longer it made sense to delay. The crazy coachman was moments away anyway from seeing her crouched under the window with a sword. Indeed, a joker on the carriage suddenly pulled horses to stop, when he saw a slender feminine appearance that instantly disappeared into the house. At the same time, the younger warrior jumped out of the grass on her feet as soon as she heard the command and ran to the animals.

Dlora found herself in front of the table, so the family did not even have time to take off smiles from their faces. She placed the blade directly under farmer's neck.

"Nobody move," she ordered in a low voice. Her sharp look passed over the faces of everyone present at the table "Who is this lunatic yelling from outside?"

Head of the family, although a hefty male, remained silent and stiff as stone. His wife kept calmer to react.

"He is... he is our neighbor... from next hill. He has a habit... to stop by... this way..." women looked at Dlora with remorse, as she was apologizing on behalf of the man outside.

Dlora did not feel much pleased by woman's words. She was so angry that she wanted to cut off at least someone's hand, just to comfort herself for her plan had failed. Or at least to beat someone up really good. But such actions were out of the question. They were not taking this mission to take out their rage on innocent citizens, even if they were members of the hostile party.

"From this day on, remember that your neighbor almost made you lose your heads" she spoke out with fury, just enough to leave a trace of her anger. Then she started to pull herself back towards the door.

During this time, Tenen had already raced to the house on a horse, which she managed to take by surprise and to get on its back. The other two horses scattered within a moment, so she could not capture either one more of them, nor did she have the equipment to do that. Without a saddle or a bridle it was harder to control the animal that was not used to her, but fortunately, she was trained in her warrior school for these kinds of rides too. She dashed by the carriage and by the neighbor who created this whole mess, and who was now also confused by the events happening around him. She stopped the horse in front of the door. Dlora was behind her back in the moment and ordered her to go on.

"No clothes, huh?" asked Tenen silently while riding down the hill.

"No clothes, no horse equipment."

"Are we taking another horse?"

"There's no time! Ride on!"

The family soon came out and watched with disbelief the girls who rode on along the main road to the south. They seemed like they did not hear any of their neighbor's questions about what was happening.

And so the action of obtaining necessities for successful further traveling was completely ruined. It could not have turned out worse. Of everything they had planned, they got themselves only one horse. And it was a little stubborn one, apparently more often used for towing than for riding. Every few moments it showed the will to get rid of the double burden on its back. In those moments Tenen had to strongly pull him by the mane.

But now at least they had the possibility of a faster progress on their path. They could not hide their conspicuousness, which meant they needed to bypass main roads as much as possible because everyone who saw them was able to alert the authorities of their presence. And there was no doubt that the owner of the farm or his neighbor was about to do that very fast. They expected that very soon a chase patrol from Kavarr would go after them.

The big city itself they managed to go around. The road from Kavarr to the next big town, Kjell, was located in the valley, so faster and military horses that are more powerful. had an advantage over the one girls stole. And low-lying region did not offer many places suitable for hiding. They rushed next to several wagons with hay and a few groups of walkers on the main road. They all watched in amazement at the scene quite atypical for their country - two women riding a horse.

After half an hour they finally found a larger bushy area near the road where they managed to hide and wait for the posse to ride by. And in about an hour, that was exactly what happened. Six riders rushed their horses along the road in the direction of Kjell, obviously trying to reduce speed advantage that the girls had. Crouched in the bushes, with swords in their hands, ready for the possibility that the soldiers still remembered to stop and search the bushes, but fortunately, that did not happen. Even the horse remained calm and steady for those few important moments as if it consciously cooperated.

"We'll probably have to go around Kjell because these men will alert the city's army," said Dlora when they continued their journey.

Although not as much as her partner, Tenen also knew Waeryehen well. Trained as an Ahlea warrior girl precisely in the years of war with that country, that was why the part of the course was intended for meeting the enemy, including its geography, as well as the layout of the main roads. In this adventure, she had the opportunity to expand that knowledge. She knew well that there was no road which went around Kjell, so they would have to go around it through the plain, which spread to the east of the city or go to the west, over high mountains.

However, after they have ceased to fear of attack from the back, they let themselves to slow down. Tenen let the horse go slower, they were saving all the energy in their feet.

They still occasionally encountered travelers along the main road that connected the north of the country with the capital. Mostly walkers, sometimes a horse pulling a carriage. The conditions of those means of transport, people's clothes and the mood of passengers, gave them some view of a country trying to live a normal life, but can not quite hide the exhaustion by war. Exactly the same scenes were found on the roads in their land of Ahleyn, at least those that were not close to the battlefield. On those that were, it was of course even worse.

"It is time for me to congratulate you on the effort" Dlora concluded that the moment was finally good for two partners, after several days of joint activities, to exchange a few loose words. She was not most skilled at complimenting but considering that the younger warrior now rode behind her back, holding her by the waist, she was still easier to give her a few commendable words "I am very pleased with the skills you have shown. Your teachers would also be very happy."

"I know" Tenen joked, but still with a large dose of self-respect "Thank you. And you were a great teacher on this campaign."

"Well, thank you."

And so they rode on, talking to each other, getting to know one another. Tenen described her origin from a noble and wealthy family, which made her especially motivated to prove herself as a warrior. From her story, it became evident that she was a typical member of newer generations of Ahlea warrior girls, whom the war atmosphere had made even more fanatic and radical than their older predecessors. Their belief in the ideals of Ahlea order one could almost feel in the air around them.

Dlora remembered that once she felt almost the same, however, she seemed to have had a different, more moderate kind of eagerness and passion in her youth. Back then some beliefs could be questioned, it was allowed for them to have different views. She liked those times much more, they were more suited to her character.

She was far from doubting the system and the order in which they were born, grew up and lived. She was a faithful member of her order and her nation. But she preferred this loyalty to be judged primarily by her actions. She was becoming more and more hateful to strict fanaticism as she grew older. She saw too many useless loss of life on the battlefield, to still find a lot of sense in it. She based her success on wisdom, caution, and calculation, as much as it was possible. Such a principle did not exclude by any means willingness to bold and surprising solutions. On the contrary, this adventure proved that she had a sense for bravest actions.

She tried to pass this kind of thinking on her younger colleague, to transfer her at least some of nonsense that lays behind every war. To implant her a need for a calm approach to every situation, to explain to her that she could be very brave and very careful at the same time. But she felt her words just poorly penetrating the youthful mind, more willing to prove herself and eager for exciting adventures.

Several hours of cheerful conversation, of various life anecdotes and lessons learned, made this part of the journey look like a picnic. It was so until they arrived in front of the city of Kjell, which was about a half way from Midbay to the capital of Waeryehen. As they were able to see the roofs of the nearest town which Dlora already somewhat remembered from a siege years ago, it was time to leave the main road and the comfort that it offered.

"Getting off the main road to the left would mean going around the city to the west. Along the border with the land of Koron, or the river that divides these two kingdoms". Dlora expressed her knowledge of this area's geography, even though she was convinced that younger warrior girl knew a great deal about the enemy's kingdom. "That path is longer. Also, because of the river it leaves us fewer opportunities for retreat in case that the enemy finds and surrounds us."

The waters of the bordering river were too big and too wild to cross it easily and to find refuge in the kingdom of Koron. The country was neutral in the conflict and totally indifferent to events east of it, even though it was big and strong enough to run over both kingdoms at war in a large march of its troops.

"In my opinion, much better option is going to the east of the city" Dlora continued, pointing her finger to the right, towards the hilly areas "That way we can cut a shorter path to Yaraelen. But it is a much less walkable path."

The old and dilapidated road was located between the large trees and even bigger mountains, stretched through the north of the country like a spine. Highlands represented a great natural defense shield of the country in the first years of the war. Dlora was part of those Ahleynian troops that nevertheless tried to cut enemy's kingdom in half along this way. They managed, with lots of difficulties, to cross the mountains and for very long, for years, to keep Kjell under siege, but they failed in their conquest. Therefore she knew this region. She doubted that they fixed the road in times of war because something like that would take a lot of effort. It also meant that the animal which they rode would have too much trouble in going over the rocks and that the girls would have to use their legs a lot more. But the fact that this unpleasant road would lead them just before the goal consoled them. It would return them to the end of the main road, just in front of the entrance to the capital, Yaraelen.

Before she even got to express her agreement with the older colleague, Tenen suddenly jerked. She felt someone's presence beside the road, behind a canal with overgrown shrubs that ran alongside the road. The very next moment Dlora also heard a faint disturbing noise.

But it was too late. A dozen armed men suddenly erupted from the canal to the road on both sides. Exclamation "Now!", dropped by their captain, startled the horse that was carrying two Ahleas. His agitation prevented the girls from taking any kind of action. They were completely surrounded by a group of soldiers within a few seconds. Two of them came closer to the warriors, holding crossbows pointed right at them.

"Put down your weapons and get off the horse!" came the order from the head of the law enforcements of Kjell. Posse group from Kavarr obviously did a great job. Although the girls hid from them on the first part of the road, they rushed as fast as possible to inform the army in the next town, in order to have enough time to set up an ambush. Crossbows were a sign that soldiers realized they were dealing with Ahlea warrior girls, from the description of the owner of the farm where the warriors stole the horse. Nevertheless, despite the greatly executed ambush and seizure, the faces and movements of individual soldiers reflected fear and uncertainty before the famous rivals. They were not sure if all their available weapons were sufficient in case the girls decided to put up a fight.

Girls, after a few seconds of holding still on horseback and brown looking in the troop's captain, slowly came down from the horse, first Tenen, then Dlora.

"Listen" yelled Dlora for all to hear" we do not want trouble. We did not come here to fight. We are on an important mission.

"Silence!" confident commander yelled out. The Little officer obviously felt that he had the girls under complete control, so he could allow himself strictness even in talking with Ahleas "your lies do not interest me. When you find yourself behind bars, you are free to explain as much as you want! If you find someone willing to listen."

"We are serious. It is very important for both our countries that you let us go on with our business" Dlora tried again.

"Oh, you would like to go on? Well, you do not say" now the boy started to act theatric "and could I please ask you where exactly are you headed?"

Dlora only then remembered that the soldiers would not have liked the correct answer to this question. And she had no time to think up a convincing lie.

"I thought so. Take their guns!"

There was a brief and somewhat ridiculous pause, during which none of the soldiers did dare to take the first step towards the girls, to take away their swords and knives. It was a good sign for the girls, even after the first soldier finally made the move, that it was more worth getting into a fight with these soldiers than to spend precious time in captivity, in explaining their purpose and assuring that they had noble intentions. Two Ahleas just waited for soldiers to come close enough so that they could demonstrate their explosiveness and speed in drawing their swords.

But the fight was, just a split second before it was about to start, postponed by a strong gust of the wind from the north, followed by the appearance of a small light from the same direction. Everyone present at the site suddenly turned in that direction, shielding their eyes with their hands.

A very bright light-blue dot that suddenly appeared in distance rapidly started to grow. Soon they realized that the light was actually getting closer to them with an incredible speed and that it actually represented some form, difficult to recognize from that distance. A gust of wind was hardly bearable, some soldiers were losing balance, and the dust raised from the road was slicing the skin and entering the eyes. But the gap between them and the unknown body was quickly growing smaller for them to recognize a human figure through the dust. Although, a human figure like this or of any similar kind they have never seen before. The body was shining blindingly bright. It hovered in dark robes, with open arms, in a whirlwind of air currents, a few feet above the ground.

"By All, what is that?" Tenen wondered at loud. She already had a sword in her hand, just as well as her partner. None of the soldiers around them did seem to notice or care.

Her older colleague could not answer this question because something like this she had never seen or heard that anything similar existed among the human species. She was pretty convinced that people could not fly. In fact, the only one she heard that were capable of such things were the mages, but according to the legends, they have been expelled from the Continent hundreds of years ago and for some reason, they have never dared to return. Dlora believed that they had died on their island so this phenomenon for her was unbelievable.

The flying creature came quite near, and then suddenly stopped, still hovering in the air directly in front of a small group of armed men. From the beginning, he was sending a threatening, angry look. Although he still radiated light, it was slightly lower and they could clearly see a youthful, handsome young man, with quite human facial features and a middle long, carefully groomed beard. All of his visible body parts shone with such blue light that could not have been easily compared to anything in the world known to them.

The soldiers stood frozen and shocked. Several of them were not even able to hide their fear. The horse also got scared and ran away down the road in an instant, in the same direction from which the girl got on this site. Tenen, in addition to confusion, felt the urge to immediately attack the creature, before it was too late, and before he did something unexpected and surprising. Dlora, however, felt the need to remain cautious, although she feared that such thinking could cost them their lives.

"The statuette! I feel it! Where is it?" mage Declavius finally spoke. Most of the soldiers in all that great amazement and fear did not even register that they had no idea what this humanlike appearance was speaking about. But for the girls, some things became clearer after his words.

Even since they saw the light from the distance, troops captain carefully pulled himself back in the background, behind all of his subordinates. This way having acquired again a certain security, he dared once more to issue reckless and hasty orders.

"He is with the Ahleas! A mage! They plan to kill our king together! Kill him!"

Again for a few moments, nothing happened. In the minds of the members of the Waeryehenian force, there was a big fight going on. Fear of the unknown and magical was stronger than the sense of duty and respect for commands. After all, those were the less bold and less capable soldiers. The best of what Waeryehen had was far from that point, on the battlefield. However, one of the two with a crossbow finally dared to fire the arrow. The target was quite close enough to overcome it with a precise hit. The second man with a crossbow immediately did the same. Two arrows were launched within the same second.

But then, almost at the same moment they bounced off the invisible wall, just in front of a flying creature, turned around in the air, against all known rules of movement of the body in space, and ended up deep in the chest of people who shot them out. They ended up with perfect precision, right in the hearts of soldiers. It all happened in less than a second, almost faster than the human eye could have registered it.

All other soldiers now completely panicked. Several of them instinctively stepped back, feeling the need to start running. But it was too late. They soon felt a strange force taking them of the ground, lifting them into the air and beginning to rotate their bodies in all directions. At one moment it was spinning them around at one place, at the second it was shaking them, and in the third, it was stretching them all around the air.

Declavius was having a great time. For centuries he had no opportunity to feel the joy of using his powers on weaker creatures. On the island there were no other creatures besides wizards, nature was too inhospitable for their survival. And in fighting with other mages there was always the possibility that they would return him equally. He could only hit the rocks there. But this was much more comfortable. With ease he directed the winds around the bodies of these lesser beings, made swirled, fast enough and strong to tore shields and clothes from the bodies, and to tore the skin from their bones, even to break their limbs.

He was so much into juggling of bruised and half-living Waeryehenians to ignore the presence and the movement of two Ahlea warrior girls. While watching all this, they had carefully and quietly withdrawn behind the mage. With the help of a few hand movements and their secret signals, they agreed on a strategy for an attack. Tenen had a bold idea and took the time to present it as clearly as possible. Just like the numbers of action maneuvers, Ahleas were obliged to know by heart their sign language for alternate forms of communication during the fight. This language was luckily suited enough to fairly describe action moves. Thus Dlora managed to quickly understand it. She liked the idea, in the absence of a better one.

They decided to attack at the same time. They cast their swords in the very same moment as if throwing spears, taking them for the blade next to the handle. They were not worried by questionable moral of attacking the enemy behind his back because this opponent was simply too powerful to be overthrown in a fair and honorable fight.

Declavius sensed danger behind him, he turned and tried to defend himself. He directed the powerful wave of the wind towards the swords. Dlora's sword he managed to turn away. But Tenen's weapon brushed his head just above the left ear.

The Wind suddenly stopped, bright light surrounding the mage disappeared in the blink of an eye and he crashed to the ground. Together with him, bodies of soldiers who were raised in the air also fell down. Most of them remained to lie on the road lifeless, but some of them were still giving signs of life, as well as signs of great suffering and pain. Their commander, spared of wizard's torture and until that moment frozen in place from all the fear, finally felt controlling his legs again. He took advantage of the re-acquired ability to leave his dead and injured soldiers and to run away to the city in panic.

"Is he dead?" Tenen asked after they cautiously approached a downthrown wizard.

"How do I know if he's dead? I do not know what he is or what he looks like when he's dead" said Dlora nervously, though she knew this was most probably a mage. During warrior school training it was explained to her, as well as to her younger colleague, that such powers existed in this world against which it was not easy or possible to fight in traditional, physical way. They were told these forces had for long been hidden and silenced, but also that they should always be prepared to the possibility of their recurrence. However, she was still very surprised and unpleasantly alarmed by this event.

She glanced in the direction of the city, where a silhouette of a frightened Waeryehenian captain on the run was still visible.

"Well, every cloud has a silver lining. But that guy will alert the entire region all the way to Yaraelen. We have to go on."

"Should we not... finish... this one?" she pointed at the wizard with a sword which she just picked up from the ground.

"No, it is better not to touch him. If he is even still alive, we do not know how to finish him at all. Legends say that the mages were almost impossible to kill. If feeling more pain wakes him up, there is probably nothing that would save us!"

"In this case, I have nothing against us getting us as far away from here."

Dlora looked at a young warrior girl. The way she said it, completely calm, even with a small dose of humor, had a kind of relaxing effect. It was exactly what she needed in a chaotic situation of encountering the unknown forces. She admired the young girl and her very mature attitude. As if she encountered such events on regular basis, Tenen showed no fear of the unknown. Older Ahlea was now quite certain that she was joined with the best young warrior that the school could provide and with surely a future great of the order.

### VII

A narrow and rocky foothill of the Great Waeryehen mountains, with a dense forest growing next to it, was just spacious and walkable enough for the girls to progress through it at a faster pace. Unfortunately, they lost the horse. Fear of unusual phenomena chased him too far for the girls to catch him again. But it was questionable if they would even be able to quickly advance by riding it along this path. In certain parts, the old road was completely decomposed and very dangerous for the unwary feet, especially when the night fell. The desire for faster progress heightened the risk of injury in such conditions, but two Ahleas did not want to give much time for Waeryehenian army to prepare a new trap in front of the capital.

After confronting the wizard, there was no room for any doubt that the golden statuette which made them start this adventure, had a lot more interesting history than they could have imagined. They were now convinced that the old stories about incredibly powerful wizards were true, and also that whatever prevented them from appearing and using their powers on the Continent all these years, recently ceased to work.

"There is no doubt that Waeryehenian sacred statue has something to do with it. The mage had specifically asked for it" Tenen began to think out loud at one point.

"I think so too. It can not be a coincidence that the return of the first mage after all this time happened just two days after the Tarlaeth broke."

"I must admit, after this event, I see more meaning and purpose in going in front of the Waeryehenian king for answers."

Dlora was glad that her decision to bring the statue to the king Yarael Twenty-Seventh received confirmation of its purposefulness. Powers performed by that wizard, and even more destructive rage and evil which one could so easily read from his eyes, clearly suggested that every second in the search for new solutions against next magical attacks was precious.

But as they came near to the ultimate goal, after all, the night of long and rapid travel, they both started to think about how were they supposed to get into Yaraelen and then break they way through to the king. For the first problem, it made the most sense to jump out some passengers at the entrance to the city and try to get disguised in their clothes. Waiting for it to get dark and to attempt going over high, smooth and well-kept city walls, was a backup option, but it was a crucial waste of time they did not look forward to.

Darkness, fatigue, haste, thinking about previous events and planning future ones, all resulted in a new and again crucial drop of concentration. At one curve, just in front of the end of the roundabout route, quite close to where the old road was getting back to the main one, on their way through the thick bushes, they suddenly broke out into a clearing and appeared quite unexpectedly in front of a group of dark persons wrapped in clothes.

The first and the weakest rays of morning sunlight discovered ten silhouettes. They were standing in the dark, dressed in dark robes with hoods so that no part of their body could not be seen. They stood one next to each other, forming a wide circle with their bodies. Their arms were outstretched in front of them, they murmured quietly and perfectly matched. Their song sounded just as spooky as the whole scene looked creepy.

Two warrior girls suddenly pulled out their swords and prepared to attack before being attacked. The first conclusion for both Ahleas was that they ran into more wizards. This time their number was frightening and the girls realized that they two stood no chance against so many of them.

But the first reaction of masked characters reassured them. Most people in the mysterious circle retreated in fear and showed no offensive tendencies. Only a couple of them remained in their seats, just turning their heads, covered with hoods, to newcomers.

"Oh, look. Our Ahlean colleagues" said one of them, in a clear voice of an older woman. Then she reached up and removed the hood from her head, revealing her numerous long gray hairs and wrinkles under them.

The first face revealed, as well as all other that decided to show soon after, offered the explanation. Tattoos on their foreheads indicated them to be Waeryehenian priestesses. Moreover, the words of who took the hood off first indicated the same. She called out Ahlea warrior girls as colleagues because in their country they had the status of priestesses. But their ritual roles were minimal. because Ahlean religion did not require so much ceremony in expressing their beliefs.

Two warring countries shared very similar religious beliefs. In short, they both believed in All. They thought that everything that exists is, in fact, one, supreme Deity. Every living thing and inanimate matter, what exists and does not exist, had existed or had not and will exist or will not, is an important part of All. To live in harmony with All was a common philosophy. For all the restlessness that was brought inside the All by war, both countries blamed, of course, the opposite side. As in such cases, the justification for their war actions they found in the need to re-enter the harmony in All by winning.

Waeryehenian religious tradition had more ceremonies and the need to pay regular tribute to All. The fear of introducing discord through neglect of religion and religious rituals was much stronger than in Ahleyn. Kingdom of Ahlea warriors was convinced that there were no reasons for such concerns. By establishing a unique system in which complete control was in the hands of women, they believed to have entered a crucial element in the stability of All. In addition, they tended to bring balance in All by making a balance between mind and body. But Waeryehen was much better in remembering the time when wizards tried hard to take greatest possible control over All, thus entering imbalance and great discomfort, and poisoning their hearts with the evil that way. This nation tried to live in a greater connection with All and so to prevent a great evil from repeating itself.

Waeryehenians allowed women to be priests, although they had much less prestige and influence than their male colleagues. They had their own ranks and rates, and it immediately came clear to both Ahleas that they ended up here just in the middle of one of the ceremonies.

Two Ahleas looked at each other, and just as if read each other's thoughts, decided to leave their swords in their sheaths. There was no danger from Waeryehenian women of faith, they were known for their peacefulness. Quite the opposite to Ahleyn philosophy, they felt that any violence bring discomfort inside All, so acting violently could not possibly in any way be a stabilizer of great balance.

"We apologize for disrupting your early morning ritual. That was not our intention - Dlora decided to a completely peaceful approach. She believed that with the priests she could normally communicate.

"It is good to know" the same woman continued, apparently the oldest and most appreciated among them, "some of my sisters are too young to be able to master their fear. They heard too many terrible stories about Ahleas. I am somewhat older and remember that there is another side of your call and of your nature."

"I am sure you are interested in why we are here" continued Dlora and, without waiting for an answer, pulled out the two halves of broken statues from her jacket pocket and showed them for the priestesses to clearly see. She knew that this act would make a powerful effect.

After a short scream of one of the younger girls, there were few long moments of complete silence. Most of them covered their lips and widened their eyes in disbelief. It was clear that they were completely shocked by what they had seen.

"Is it..." a younger blonde gathered the courage to let her voice out "... is that Tarlaeth? The real one?"

"What is this? What are you doing?" a gray-haired leader took over the conversation.

"It is the real one, I assure you. While breaking in half it created such a show like no imitation could ever do. You would probably know something about it."

"What kind of game is this? Is this some kind of new war tactics to confuse opponents?"

Dlora was surprised by this unexpected loss of nerves of a Waeryehenian priestesses. The woman was obviously more aware than all other on the lawn what a condition of the statue meant.

"No, really, this is your holy..."

"You are lying! You are playing with us. It can not be" she rushed forward to Dlora, now with tears in her eyes. But Tenen, quite unexpectedly, stepped forward and slapped the old woman on her cheek.

Another brief moment of silence appeared. The act of a younger warrior girl briefly surprised even her older colleague.

"Get a grip, woman!" yelled Tenen, and then added quietly "the situation is obviously far too serious for us to lose control."

It worked. The priestess was holding her burning cheek and continued with a calmer voice.

"I do not know if this can be fixed! Protector of the Continent is neutralized! Now, nothing prevents the mages to re-enter the Continent and regain their dark reign..."

"Maybe you're wrong," Dlora said "One of them is already here. He attacked us near Kjell. We managed to escape, we might have even killed him. But he wanted us to turn over the remains of Tarlaeth to him. He seems to be the only one on the Continent for the time being."

"You mean that the others are afraid to come back before the sacred statue is completely destroyed? I do not know..."

The old woman went deeper into her thoughts. It was really hard for her to think clearly after a great surprise and sudden rush of panic a moment ago.

"Maybe there is a way. King Yarael is the only one who could know. He is the guardian of Tarlaeth."

Dlora was very glad to hear this. Tenen also had to smile.

"I am very glad to hear that. We were just headed to stand before him."

The old Waeryehenian priestess looked up.

"The arrogance of you Ahlea women never stops to surprise me! You planned to just walk right up to our ruler?"

"Well, something like that. And for now, it was going well for us. And now we have even found us, co-workers, to help us on the last and most difficult part of the journey."

And once again there was silence. The priests questioned their feelings and pondered if they could help the enemy warriors. Some of them still thought this might be a deliberate trap with the ultimate goal to assassinate the king. They still remembered the savagery of the Ahleyn army committed on their soil, especially in the conquest of their capital.

The leading priestess broke the silence. The same one that had acted unwisely just a minute ago now tried to offer a voice of reason.

"I know, my sisters, what you are thinking" she turned to the priests, "You do not see a reason to trust an enemy. Yes, it crossed also my mind that it may be a scam. But only for a moment. I remember former meetings with the Ahlea members in the old days when we lived in peace with Ahleyn. I got to know their positive, honorable side back then. That same side today I find on the faces of these two warriors. And I can remember every detail of our holy Tarlaeth. Its appearance is unique and special. I am convinced that these are the parts of it in her hands. Something tells me that they should be trusted and that we should act quickly so that together we can save our world!"

The woman specifically highlighted her last words, raising also her hands theatrically, leaving such a powerful effect on the end of an already impressive speech. A positive effect of her words, in the most suitable way for two warrior girls, one could immediately see.

* * *

The first steps along the main road, after the roundabout route, uncovered in the distance monumental towers of the city to which they were headed. Two Ahleas were now completely hidden under a fringe of thick cotton, faces covered with dark brown hoods. Their standard, black leather clothes they still wore underneath, as well as their weapons, which they did not want to separate from, thus ignoring all the priestess' attempts to persuade them. They knew from experience that Waeryehenian soldiers were very hard to talk to about a thing once they would realize that they were facing Ahleas. They agreed only to lower their swords a little bit, not to have suspicious lumps on the backs, and to put the jackets inside the luggage which was pulled by one priestess on a small wagon. They walked last in the column of women pilgrims.

A glance at the metropolis awoke Ahlea's nostalgic for their capital. Dlora was also re- reminded of the unfortunate days when she led her troops in an attack on the town, and soon later when she lead the first big retreat, also from that city. In that moment of coming back here, the memories were more vivid and more uncomfortable than ever. She noticed from a distance that the city fairly recovered from those days, and the walls around it had been rebuilt and now much higher. There was no doubt that the watch was well organized and armed.

Upon arriving in front of the main gate, they grew more fear of bigger searches. In case the war forced them to more caution, the guards could search the priestesses and find hidden weapons in disguised warrior girls.

"Girls, good day to you" one of the guards in front of a large gate addressed them cheerfully, before they even came close, "we always look forward to seeing you, but this time we were not notified to expect you.

"This is a special visit. There is no help from our regular pilgrimages and meetings with the authorities anyway. No one respects our calls for the establishment of peace. That's why we came to express a direct protest" old priestess replied in a very serious and stern voice.

"But it is against the rules! Without a special permit, no one is allowed to enter the city..."

"That's not true! We are responsible solely and directly to the king Yarael Twenty- Seventh. Who are you to stop us from meeting him? Only he can deny us meeting him!"

The soldier looked at them in confusion, not knowing how to respond to this. The woman's words had a certain logic, but he was also convinced that there is a counter argument which he could not remember so fast. His colleague decided to intervene.

"Let them in, you know that they are not dangerous. Let the court guard argue with them."

Dlora and Tenen sent looked each other with satisfaction, hidden from others under the hoods. Group of women in religious clothes continued on, over a wide wooden bridge above a narrow canal in front of the city walls, and under raised large metal gate at the entrance to the city.

That was not the only encounter with the city army, guards were standing in many places in the city, but there was no further contact before the castle itself. If a random soldier even noted that for this part of the year it was not common to see pilgrims from other parts of the capital, he did not bother to check why the priestesses were here.

The capital of Waeryehen was truly a mirror of the kingdom with whom Ahleyn was at war for many years. Waeryehenians did they best and managed to erase most of the scars from the days when the city was under siege, and later occupied by Ahleynian army. Dlora remembered that many houses at that time suffered great damage from projectiles from Ahleynian catapults, and now they all looked perfect again. They were all really high and made of brightest stone.

Wide streets were full of people uninterested in women in white uniforms. Tenen remembered that citizens of Blyst, the capital of Ahleyn, looked also carefree like this, while the war was far enough, and the news from the battlefield was good enough for them to be thinking about other things. She was angry because the Waeryehenians seemed too tired of war to comment the situation on the field. She wanted to jump out of the group of monks and ask some passer-by what the news was. Did Erdut fall? If so, whether the siege of Ahleyn capital began or the Waeryehenian army had not arrived before it yet? Luckily there were too many patrols on the streets of Yaraelen, for them to dare to reveal themselves in any way.

Almost from the moment of entering the city, towers of the luxurious royal palace were visible. As closer they got to it, the palace became more apparent and revealed more of its charms, shining in full splendor at the moment when the priestess came before it. Ten tall towers, white walls decorated with ornaments, hundreds of windows... for a moment girls dared to ask if whether this palace was more beautiful than the one inside which the throne of their queen was.

In front of the palace there followed a new test. The local guards, members of the king's personal guard, acted much more serious. The tall, muscular men with stony faces, in a completely calm attitude, greeted the priestesses under the stairs made of white marble, which led to the entrance of the palace, one on each side of the base of the stairs.

"We insist on being personally received by our king - the leader priestess addressed them, knowing that the guards probably would not be the first to speak."

"You were not announced. We can not let you in" the higher among them spoke out with a deep voice."

"These are exceptional circumstances. It is imperative that we meet the king."

"I have my orders, and I have to abide them."

"Fool!" The old woman expressed nervousness again "So, you are willing to suffer the consequences if it turns out that the king was ready to receive us."

"Of course. Until I get different orders, I have to follow the ones I have got" this human rock did not let himself to be confused. They seemed to have encountered an obstacle they could not overcome in any other way than by using force.

And then the woman put out a mysterious smile.

"Even if we force to try to go over you? You would make us have to overcome you?"

After those words, the guard just could not hide his smile, in spite of all his professionalism. The mere appearance of the fight scenes with tiny women had brightened his mostly boring everyday life. Dlora wondered and thought that the leader might have been signaling this way that it was time to take the action, to fight with men. However, she stayed still.

"Well, after that kind of force demonstration, I just might let you pass by" the soldier showed a dose of sarcasm which even he was not aware that he was capable of.

Priestess then slowly touched a tip of his nose with the tip of her finger, almost seductively, with an even bigger smile on her face.

"Oh, there are many things you have to learn about force, soldier."

The guard showed another smile, and the very next moment rolled over his eyes and collapsed to the ground with its whole weight. Even distant bystanders felt earth trembling under their feet.

Another guard quickly pointed his spear to the priestesses. Two others ran there from the front door, equally ready to fight.

"So guys, would you also like to confront your strength with our powers? Or will you finally agree to find out if the king is willing to receive us."

Weapons and bodies stood still for a moment. They were all upset, except the woman who performed the play and overcame a man almost twice larger than her, with just one touch, for the others in an incomprehensible way.

Finally, the closest guard gave a signal to his colleague by nodding his head, to run to the castle for a new command from the top.

* * *

"Welcome, holy women!" gray-bearded king Yarael Twenty-Seventh muttered angrily "could you explain to me what was the meaning of this little play you have performed outside?"

The throne room looked really grand. Thirty large painted windows omitted a handful of light inside. Therefore, it was possible to see here all the luxury of Waeryehenian architecture and art. Throne of the old king was on the end of the hall. The passage between monumental pillars that led exactly to it, was covered with the finest carpet that on the continent one could find. At the ornate wooden chair, carved by arms of the greatest Waeryehenian artists, Yarael sat surrounded by four guards, looking like a pretty tired old man but still very proud.

A labyrinth of corridors, only slightly less luxurious than this room, lead them here after the King finally agreed to receive the priestesses. Walking that way, Dlora managed to find out the secret of defeating that guard. The old priestess showed her a small cloth bag through the sleeve of her robe, pulling it out just enough that the warrior could notices.

"Crushed petals of Dreamy flowers" she whispered her "hardly visible at the top of your finger, almost without a smell, but if it enters your nose, it knocks you down in an instant."

Dlora was impressed and envious at the same time, as the priests of their rivals possessed such knowledge of nature and also for having access to such a powerful plant.

"You're lucky the plant is extremely rare. If it was easier to grow, we would have won the war a long time ago."

In the throne hall, the King showed such anger, which was truly unusual and rare behavior for him. The whole world knew Yarael Twenty-Seventh as a peaceful and mild ruler. He was blamed for being first and most responsible for defeats of his army in the early years, recognized as a result of his aversion to war. Everybody knew that the war was not his choice, he was forced to go into it because of anger of his people. It was caused by the behavior of the prince's wife, a young woman of Ahleynian origin, queen Natya's arrogant sister. The main author of a great shift in war and a series of spectacular victories, everyone knew, was his son. After the fall of their capital, Prince Yarael gained full control over the military and his father was left only to control civil matters, which the old man had enjoyed the most anyway. So his obvious rage at that moment, while standing in front of priestesses, was more uncomfortable. As the supreme religious leader he had the right to express anger at his subjects, and also to order any punishment for their misconduct. But the leading woman, who had caused this behavior with her little trick, knew the King for many years and was certain that he could always be reasoned with.

"Oh great Yarael, prior to explanations, let us greet you properly, in apology for our behavior. After that, you will be convinced that it was justified."

Although eager to hear an explanation of the reason for their unannounced arrival, the king, however, allowed the ritual act of honoring His Majesty by kissing his hand.

"Oh, okay, but hurry it up."

Each priestess had a duty to bow at his feet and kiss him in the arm. Gray-haired priestess turned her head to Dlora and gave her a barely perceptible nod that this was the ideal moment.

The old woman went first, and Dlora behind her, the remaining warriors stood in line behind them. After the first woman completed her duty, Dlora also took a royal hand with her right and, pretending to be kissing it, pointed a knife with her left hand in his belly and ordered quietly:

"Tell your soldiers to come out. We are not here to kill you."

Then she gently exposed her tiara under the hood, just enough for the king to see, but not the guards aside. And he easily recognized the sign of Ahlea order on the decoration.

The old man was completely surprised. He did not even dare to turn his view of a woman in front of him. After a short silence and hesitation, he concluded that his guards did not have enough time to react, if he would call them to act, Ahlea would pierce him first. Fear made him try to save his life by agreeing to what Dlora asked of him to do:

"My guard... leave me with the pilgrims to pray for peace."

The leader of the guard, a man on his right, looked at him with surprise.

"Your Majesty, this is highly unusual and..."

"That's an order! Get out now!"

In a couple of seconds, all the soldiers closed the doors to the hall behind them. Dlora then stepped back a little, so the king immediately dared to say:

"I should have guessed that assassinating me would be queen Natya's last, desperate move to save the state. But it will not work, trust me on that! after my death, my son will..."

"Your Majesty!" Dlora yelled out and then continued quietly "with all due respect... Shut up and hear us."

"Really, great Yarael, we guarantee that they are not here to kill you. You must listen to what they have to say", said the most experienced among priestesses. The old man decided to calm down because he knew the old woman for very long and he trusted her completely. Dlora went straight to the point:

"Our Queen could not fulfill your requirements for peace, because Tarlaeth, your precious statuette, was stolen from our castle. But the two of us managed to retain it and bring it to you."

"You brought the Tarlaeth? Let me see it!"

"Well, we did, but..."

"I want to see it! Now!"

Dlora reached her arm under her robe and pulled out two pieces of shiny stone.

"No!" the king screamed, "oh, no, no! The magic is lost, we are all in danger! How long had it been broken?!"

"Well, about ...two and a half days..." Dlora was totally confused by the amount of hysterical behavior. The king continued:

"Oh, by holy All! Quickly, we do not have much time! We need to run to the tomb of Yarael the First!"

King took two halves of Tarlaeth and moved quickly, no matter how old his legs already were, to the narrow staircase that was located to the right of the throne and lead down to the lower levels of the castle. Two Ahleas looked at each other, and immediately pulled down the robes they were disguised under and went running after the king. They did not want to miss the explanations behind this strange story.

### VIII

A long corridor rang under the tapping of wooden royal sandals, while the old man ran through the tombs of his ancestors. Statues of former kings were lined up on both sides of the aisle. Every single one of them, made in life size, was looking down at passersby, looking full of pride and courage. They were all named Yarael, with the addition of sequential number after the name. Behind each monument, there was a large plate with the body of the ruler that the statue portrayed inside laid down in an upright position. Between the plates, a bright light of a sunny day broke inside through large windows, painted with mosaic scenes from impressive Waeryehenian history, with kings in leading roles. And at the very end of the hall was the ultimate goal of an old man on the run: The tomb of the first and most famous Yarael.

Two girls in warrior outfits ran with the king on his both sides. They caught up with him quickly, while he was coming down the stairs. They did not want to ask questions, the old man already spent too much energy to stand further bothering. They wanted to see with their own eyes, where did Waeryehenian ruler rush so hard.

When he arrived at the end of the hallway, in front of a large stone door, he grabbed two handles made of pure gold. He expected them to open up. Despite the weight of the door, the mechanism used for their movement was very advanced and regularly maintained. But surprisingly, doors did not want to move even for an inch.

"No! Why? Why now?" The king was almost screaming. Dlora was forced to conclude after this kind of ruler's behavior, that the monuments behind them, as well as heroic stories about the kings, were a bit exaggerated. Tenen even thought for a moment that they should try and do something with their weapons. But it was clear that human power alone could not run over a massive stone.

At that moment they heard a powerful slam of another door at the opposite end of the hall. They turned and saw, the girls again and the king for the first time, a man floating above the ground.

Declavius, a young wizard, approached them, this time very slowly, but with much more fury on his face. A defeat which he suffered in the previous meeting with the Ahlea warrior girls filled him completely with even greater hatred to the entire human race. On his way to here, looking for two women who made him ashamed, he burned all breathing life that came in his way. He crushed to dust a few farms along the main road, along with its inhabitants. Passersby were burned in a terrible fire, even before they could make out from a distance what was approaching. Forests near the main road were still burning at that moment. Before reaching this hall, he ripped several cities and castle walls in just one second.

But before reaching his final goal, only a few seconds before the king, the girls and a broken statue that he sought to destroy, the wizard was able to soothe his madness. He wished, to afford a large and long, unbearable suffering and pain to a pair that had successfully stopped him before.

The girls took out their swords. Without thinking, they charged to the flying human creature, one warrior girl next to each other. In such a situation they had no other option than to attack, even though they knew that such an act was in vain. The invisible force threw instantly right on the tomb doors and pressed them strongly on it, holding one on each door leaf.

The king watched all this with a face of a completely terrified man. Tears and sweat mingled beneath his wide-open eyes. All the legends about the mages, every single and most horrifying detail, that his ancestors from generation to generation conveyed to him, had developed such fear inside this man, So in this moment of meeting his biggest nightmare, the fear was not possible to control.

"Thanks to you people" mage spoke, replacing the angry expression with a sinister smile. He approached the girls, and placed his face before Tenen's, so close that their noses nearly touched. "we the magicians had plenty of chance to learn patience. Now let me show you how patient we can be, while I torment you for hours!"

A powerful and very repulsive odor that was coming from the body of the wizard, as an additional product of magical force formed around him, the young warrior did not know what to compare with. Her colleague on the other hand clearly associated it with the memory of how burned human bodies on the battlefield smelled.

"But before I deal with you, I will first start with the direct descendant of the great mage Yarael! For his ancestor was the one who chased us out of the Continent in the first place - wizard spoke while turning his gaze to the ground. King laid there, completely curled up on the floor.

"Stay away from me, you bastard!" exclaimed Yarael Twenty-Seventh and then gathered the desperate courage to raise two broken statues, although he knew such act would not achieve anything. Indeed, the wizard just raised his hands and parts of Tarlaeth flew, just as they were launched with a catapult, from the king's hand to his. Evil wizard showed then even a bigger smile and began quietly to utter an incomprehensible spell in a forgotten language.

After the first words, the king lowered his head with a painful spasm and groans. How Declavius went speaking further and louder, the old king reeled and moaned more, apparently suffering increasing pain.

Both girls worked hard with all their strength to resist the supernatural forces holding them pressed against the stone. But it seemed to be squeezing them more and more painfully, the more they had tried to resist it.

Dlora had never felt so helpless and hopeless. She had stared death in the face at least a hundred times, but she never had this kind of feeling that there was nothing that could save her. This situation caused, after so long, the feeling that she almost had forgotten, called fear. Warrior girl could not remember when she felt it the last time. She thought that she beat it forever a long time ago, by containing a constant balance between courage and wisdom, and by knowing that there was no enemy who could not be beaten. But it was precisely this belief that she now rapidly started to lose.

Her young colleague did not let any kind of fear to overcome her. Tenen felt only anger and rage. She could not believe that already on her first assignment she ran into such force which even the greatest members of her warrior order could not defeat. She did not find this fair and wanted to somehow magically pop out of her skin, which she felt such pain in and beat the mage in an equal fight.

There was no salvation for the king. Luckily, his age and weakness rescued him from a long-suffering pain. He quickly died under the feet of a flying wizard.

Mage happily looked up at two warrior girls who still unsuccessfully tried to resist the force that held them fixed to the door.

"Patience, please. Just let me do the task that I was sent to do. It is the time that once and for all, we get rid of a threat posed by this ridiculous figurine."

He started a new set of magic words. Both parts of the stone statuette started to glow as they were made of metal and began to heat up. Declavius did not seem to feel the temperature change of the objects in his hands. It seemed that in any moment the stone would melt and pour out of his hands like a lava from a volcano. Holy Tarlaeth was coming to its end.

Suddenly, they heard the crack of a broken window on the wizard's right side. The tinted glass shattered all over the place and created an effective interplay of light. A strong black stallion burst inside the hall, with an armored warrior on his back.

The horse knocked the mage down with his feet. Wizard dropped two halves of a glowing statue and groaned loudly. It seemed that a surprise attack broke away the magic that protected Declavius' hands from the heat of the stone, suddenly he felt the pain of the red-hot halves. He quickly recovered and tried to get up to go on a counter attack for an unknown stranger, but the noble animal put his large front legs on his chest and pushed him to the ground. At least one rib was heard breaking.

Horseman got off and quickly bent down to pick up parts of Tarlaeth. Then he stood up again, just above the body of a stunned mage. Blackbeard young warrior in shining armor, full of Waeryehenian royal family symbols, looked at the mages with his heroic eyes.

"I am sorry, but your colleagues will have to postpone their return!" he spoke out in a firm voice.

After these words, a new spell started, but this time from the mouth of a young warrior. He connected both parts of the broken statue and they shone again, but this time with a more pleasant, clear white light, brightest exactly on the place where they were reconnected. The horse pulled away as soon as the mage started crying from the pain that was caused by reuniting the two parts of Tarlaeth. Declavius had just enough time before the man finished the witchcraft, to think that he might not be the one destined to become the greatest wizard of all time. As soon as the statue was fully restored, and the light went out, sorcerer's body burst into a dazzling flash of light, and the girls immediately felt the force that held them disappear, and landed on the ground.

"Well, you don't see things like this every day" it was the first thing Tenen said when she stood on her feet again.

Dlora stared at the figure of a young warrior that had a sad expression on his face when he laid Tarlaeth on the floor and came close to the King's dead body. He knelt down and started crying:

"Father!"

* * *

One could feel sadness in the air. All ministers, advisors, the whole royal escort, even part of the court staff, they all gathered to honor the dead king, brought by his son's hands to the throne room. Complete silence was disturbed only by the sound of footsteps or by an occasional sob of a subject who immensely loved the monarch.

His son was now looked at the throne chair with the dull and frowning look. Beside it now stood a quickly made catafalque with the old man's body. The chair which caused great respect in him until recently, where the first man in the kingdom was meant to sit, now looked terribly repulsive. Although he himself had controlled much of the kingdom for a long time now and was almost considered the first man, he did not hope to fully and formally take over the duty so soon.

Two Ahlea warrior girls stood next to him, trying to understand at least a little bit the feelings of a young and tall royal heir of the throne. Dlora was for the first time so close to the man who was behind most of the battle failures of her troops in recent years. It was inevitable to feel admiration for him, especially because he still stood there upright and proud, despite the great misfortune and sorrow. Tenen felt the same, although still keeping some contempt for the enemy leader.

None of the Waeryehenian crowd in the room was paying any attention to the presence of two Ahleas. It was really strange, considering that before such a short time and before current circumstances, any one of them would get quite excited or even completely start to panic. But now they did not feel any excitement. After seeing the king standing still with Ahleas, they were able to fully concentrate on their grief and sorrow.

"Although many immediate tasks of great importance await me after my father's death" the prince finally spoke, turning to Dlora and Tenen - you deserve to hear the whole story about Tarlaeth.

"Finally," they both thought to themselves. Since the beginning of this adventure that separated her from what she knew best, fighting wars, Dlora wanted to know what was so important in this unusual statuette which portrayed a person with wings and why did the repair of relations between two great nations depend on it. After all, they went through recently, she had raised some assumptions, and it was clear that the background of the story was much deeper.

"The story began with a mage called Yarael. He was one of the biggest wizards of his time. But, like all other wizards, he was not too popular."

"You are talking about your ancestor? First in the Yarael bloodline?" Tenen asked.

"That's right, I'm talking about the founder of our lineage which I will represent as number twenty-eight on the throne. At that time, almost all the wizards were arrogant, they felt untouchable and they fully belittled ordinary people. The more they wanted to know the All and to control it, the meaner and more distant from the people they got. They forced the nations and countries into wars, fueled evil, hatred, and anger. Their desire to rule over the whole Continent grew bigger each day. They plotted assassinations of rulers in all kingdoms and countries, with a plan to divide reign over them among themselves."

Girls knew the dark stories about the past of the Continent, and part of this was known to them. But Waeryehenian knowledge of the past was always better, and now it became obvious why was it so. The prince was telling a story that he himself heard so many times, in such tone that made him look as if he was there and experienced those events.

"Yarael was different. He kept a lot of friends among the people and always felt comfortable in their company. His motives for knowledge of magic and a stronger connection with the All were noble. His wish had always been to exploit this knowledge for the benefit of mankind. So he decided to confront the other magicians."

"And he obviously succeeded" added Dlora.

"Yes, he totally surprised them. At the beginning of mage conspiracy he replaced the murdered king of Waeryehen on his throne, he united most of the Continent in the fight against mages. He managed to win the bloody battles with the help of the people, and with his knowledge of magic, to banish the demons off to the large island to the north."

Tenen tried to imagine the scenes of these ancient battles, assuming that they were much more dramatic and bloodier than those that occurred in her time. Youthful fearless and curious by nature as she was, she immediately wanted to somehow find herself in those days, although she still awaited the first real battle in her time.

"In the end, he created a magical statue, Tarlaeth, which would destroy any mage that would again set foot on the Continent. At the same time, he had renounced his mage status in a magical rite and converted himself to a common man. On his grave, he had carved witchcraft that would restore the magic of Tarlaeth in case it got damaged somehow. All of us who came from his lineage had learned in detail about these ancient events so that we could take the responsibility in the events that something wrong ever happened."

"Unfortunately, you were the one generation to see it happen."

"I have a feeling that this was not by accident. Tarlaeth is an object made by powerful magic, which also radiated magic needed to create a shield against magicians. Therefore he possessed a certain strange life essence and some form of its own mind. This awareness was nourished by the energy generated from the All. And in recent years it drew a very strong and very negative energy from all the horrors that this long and terrible war had generated inside the All. This way it created such a strange, vicious circle. It's magic, with the help of negative energy, prevailed and caused an imbalance inside the All, thus provoking even greater evil in the world. We could say that at the end it caused its own breakdown and thus made it possible for the wizards to come back, although that was the exact thing it was created to prevent."

New king saw on the warrior girls faces that they did not fully understand what he was trying to explain. He tried to simplify.

"This is the case with all the things that we find sacred, even those that do not have a real power. Although believing in them makes us proud, more connected and more powerful and it drives us forward in life, it also tends to make us blind and blunt. It can pull out the worst in us and feed with it, it acts as a recipient of negative energy which it then re-emits back into the world. This way evil grows bigger. So I think that it is never good to be too infatuated in believing anything and that every belief should be questioned."

While Tenen, as a faithful follower of Ahleans ideals, was skeptical of this advice, Dlora was totally impressed by the words of Yarael Twenty-Eighth. They were fully in line with its thinking.

"Unfortunately, my father was never too interested in our inherited obligation. He never bothered to learn the witchcraft for Tarlaeth recovery by heart. Too bad, just because he shared the greatest virtue of the first Yarael because he most loved to deal with ordinary people and their well-being, he hated to have to deal with war and with tales of magic and this he paid with his life. But I have always been more responsible than the father. I memorized all words, every letter of the witchcraft in my earliest youth, and luckily I had returned from the battlefield at the right time to hear from the priestesses what was happening down there."

All three were briefly lost in their own thoughts, but the silence was soon broken by Tenen, who felt the need to share her conclusion.

"I do not know if it is more unfortunate that we are capable to battle savage wars for so long, or that we are capable of forgetting the terribleness of evil that can be awoken by it."

Dlora and young Yarael seemed to be equally impressed with her words.

"Regarding this, I have to take a big part of the blame for this war, and therefore I will be the one who will immediately put an end to it" prince made a promise.

"You will proclaim peace?" Dlora said, feeling a big relief, even before she got an answer.

"Of course. The objectives of the war have long been forgotten, and also the cause can almost nobody remember anymore. Anger and hatred became our sole driver. And we have just learned that those are the feelings that we have to shut down in order to prevent the worst from happening."

"In addition" Dlora added "In the future, we will together have to make a big effort to maintain peace, stability, and respect for each other. These are our only guarantee of the security and defense from the Mages and from their threats.

### IX

A vast crowd that had gathered on both sides of the road, from the Ahleyn capital entrance, all the way to the queen's palace on the hill, applauded the two heroines who rode on horseback toward the castle. All residents of Blyst, and also newcomers from other Ahleynian cities, wanted to welcome and greet two Ahleas who were responsible for the end of many years of war. They were followed by the honorable platoon composed of other Ahlea warrior girls, and right behind them was the rest of the armed forces who had recently returned from the battlefield. Shouts "Hail the Ahleas", "Long live the Queen!", " No more war!" echoed through all the streets and neighborhoods of the capital that was finally able to breathe freely from the threat of war.

The sudden announcement of peace, imposed from the mouth of newly crowned King Yarael Twenty-eighth of Waeryehen, sounded like a most beautiful song for everyone's ears, instantly spread through Ahleyn and in just two days it caused immense joy and celebration.

Shortly after that news, stories started to spread about two warrior girls who had all by themselves broken all the way through to see the Waeryehenian king and persuaded him to cease all fighting. As it usually happens, every next teller that carried the story further, added an occasional decorative detail which made their adventure seem all the more extraordinary, even more than it by itself was. Several dozen explanations appeared of how they managed to do all this, none of which was too close to the truth. Some mentioned a mage, some said there were even more of them. Others described how two warrior girls killed several dozens of Zals, maybe even hundreds, almost with their bare hands. Most of these stories were recognized as a set of fabrications, but some of the more fantastic ones had remained in people's memory.

"Well, it is time, once again, for congratulations," Dlora said to her partner while riding a horse when they almost had approached the door of the palace, and when their hands began to ache from all the waving to the crowd "such a welcome after the first task! You are free to withdraw and live like a folk hero."

"Oh, not by a single chance" countered Tenen "I finally realized what it means to be Ahlea warrior girl. For me, the adventure is just beginning."

The girl took a short break, stretched a slight smile and then added:

"Maybe you could withdraw. I mean, considering your age."

Dlora frowned, equally slightly:

"Try and mention my age once again, and feel free to forget every chance of experiencing new adventures."

* * *

At the same time, the queen was watching the joy of her people, from the same balcony which this story had started from, and waited for the two warrior girls to rides into the palace, to receive the highest honors. Next to her stood the most important persons in Ahleynian kingdom. Her advisers, ministers, and members of the Supreme Council of Ahlea order, led by AdAhlea Sym, the Queen's favorite companion. Eyes of the Queen and AdAhlea met occasionally and then exchanged satisfied smiles. But the supreme Ahlea knew that the queen's heart was not completely happy in those moments.

When Dlora and Tenen were dragged out of theft investigation by a crazy adventure, when every trace of these two Ahleas was lost, AdAhlea did not just stay sitting by. She pressed the court service to explore all possible relationships within the house, and to dig all hidden secrets. Not one person who had in recent months marched through the castle was not spared of detailed examination. And very soon an unpleasant truth saw the light of day. Sym immediately transferred it to the Queen. She assured her that the all the evidence of a conspiracy that took place behind their backs and involvement of certain persons were unbeatable. Sym now expected the Queen to pull a crucial move. That was why the supreme Ahlea had a very serious look on her face, when their eyes met for the tenth time, as a sign that the queen could no longer wait, she had to take her responsibility.

A little more to the left on the terrace, among high officials, there was the queen's sister Trupya. She was also surrounded by several dignitaries and proudly showed off. She acted as if she had some, actually a very great credit for ending the war. Without the slightest trace of moral shame, she acted as if all the horrors of war, which had crashed on the peoples of the two countries, were not launched from her arrogant and cocky actions. Obviously, she felt that everyone eventually forgot about the events that lead up to the bloodshed, from the time when she was a young wife of a Waeryehenian prince.

Indeed, other dignitaries laughed along with her and kept waving their head affirmatively to any of her words, as if they knew nothing about it. Status of a Queen's sister was always a sufficient reason for such behavior in her presence. Some of them were clearly exaggerating in their acts. Of course, what they really thought about Trupya they kept strictly to themselves, hid it even from each other, for their safety. In their eyes, she was really just a spoiled, self-arrogant woman, from which an artfully concealed, but very sick jealousy towards her older sister, drew out the worst possible acts.

Queen Natya slowly approached the company that had gathered around her sister, and she discreetly asked her to dissociate from the people on the terrace so that they could speak privately. Trupya rolled her eyes, showing that she does not see the sense in this hassle, but still followed the queen into the interior of the castle. As soon as they ended up on the opposite side of gorgeous white curtains, queen unexpectedly changed her facial expressions and began to speak strictly:

"Did you really think this would work?"

"If what would work, dear sister? I do not know what you mean" Trupya found herself surprised by the attack, but acted even more stunned than she was. However, she immediately guessed what this could be about, so she slightly shivered.

"Did you really think that your role in all this would not be found out? You thought you were smart enough to organize a large theft without leaving a single trace that would lead to you?"

"What? I... I can not believe that you..."

"You thought you were smart enough to forge a large plot and come up with a plan to take over the throne? My throne!"

"I assure you..."

"Silence!"

Queen's furious scream, torn out of control as a result of a huge disappointment, startled everyone from the terrace outside. For a moment they all looked at the inside, but then they quickly continued the conversation, guessing that the ruler certainly did not want them to show too much interest in this conversation.

"There is so much that I have done for you" Natya continued much quieter "today when I remember all the consequences of my decisions taken for your good, it gives me the creeps. It breaks my heart! Although I always knew your true nature, a sense of duty to you as an older sister made me blindly do so many things that I should have never done. I never hoped that the consequences would be so horrible. But today, after so many dead, so much crippled and so many unfortunate people, it is so hard to live with me. And for what? For a damn stupid woman who after all that has even dared to prepare a knife for my back!"

The younger member of the royal lineage was not quite paying attention to sister's words, so full of despair and uttered through tears. She was too selfish to realize her sister's sorrow, and also too preoccupied in her mind, now full of fear. Suddenly it became crystal clear what she put at stake on her daring plan, and how little she spent thinking about the possibility of failure. Obsessive desire to escape from the shadow of her sister and again to feel the power which she had recklessly gambled away soon after she married Waeryehenian prince, blinded her and made her careless. Or maybe the real truth was that she was never capable enough to successfully perform something like that?

Someone in her small circle of court accomplices had obviously squealed. They surely knew everything by now, the plan to take over the throne, as soon as Waeryehenian army completely would close the circle around the capital Blyst and began to besiege it. Then the members of the regular army, especially the men, eager to change the social order, the ones which were known that they could be bought, would carry out a rapid and sudden attack on all members of the Ahlea warrior order. Some Ahleas would be called to express their loyalty to the new government, but if they would stubbornly refuse to do so, they would all be eliminated. Queen Natya would be overthrown from the throne, and her sister would take over her role. She would then offer to surrender her country to her husband, the leader of the enemy forces, she would admit his victory, allow control over Ahleyn and persuade him to let her rule as a vassal. And who knew, one day she might be able to seduce him again, rebuild failed marriage and then become empress of the alliance between the two countries. This ideal scenario seemed quite a sufficient reason for removing her sister, whose life has unfairly given her so much, just because she was born first. And now it all fell apart for ambitious Trupya.

The fact that her sister forgave her numerous great sins in the past did not help her feel better. This time she felt that she would not be forgiven.

They stood there for a while silently. Trupya did not look up from the floor, and Natya could not take her eyes off her as if she hoped to hear some words that would explain everything, prove that it was all a big mistake... even though she knew that it was not possible. Finally, she watched her sister with eyes open wide. She sighed once more and then she slightly yelled:

"Guards!"

Two Ahleas that stood next to the door appeared in front of her.

"Take my sister in her chambers. Lock her and make sure that does not come out of it until her old age."

Only then, when the firm soldier hands held her by her wrists and started to drag her out of the room, the young woman started to cry and sob, trying to get the last bit of compassion for the person she was closest to in the world, and whose love she sold all out.

"No! I am sorry! I am so sorry! Please! Sister!"

Natya did not look back. With her eyes closed, she listened to all her sister's pleas and apologies until they ceased to echo through the castle, after having heard a crash of closing the door to her room, which from that moment became her dungeon.

Just a minute later, the queen was again standing among high society and looked at cheerful people. Expression of happiness and joy on her face was obviously fake, everyone knew it. Recovering from such disappointments can last for years. Even forever. But she also felt inescapable duty to be happy together with her people in those moments when they finally felt relief and resolved the fear of war and evil. She knew there was a big job ahead of her and that it would not be easy. A path to complete reconstruction of society and the country would be long and difficult. Rebuilding trust between the two neighboring countries would have to go very slowly. Going back to well-being like before the war might remain a dream that she would not see happen in her lifetime, although she had many more years ahead of her. Looking into a joyful crowd, praying to the All to give her wisdom and to prevent her in the future to make foolish decisions that she had made in the past, among them being probably the biggest to keep a Waeryehenian sanctity.

But some comfort and security she saw in the fact that she had a large and sturdy circuit of capable assistants that had been prepared to provide unconditional support at all times. The elite class of her Ahlea warrior girls would again have to, after a long time, get used to peacekeeping activities, but she was sure they would do it fast. Thanks to the adventure with Tarlaeth, she was convinced to the superior quality and experience of the older Ahlea generations, as well as the potential of the new ones.

###

### THE END

### About the author

Tom Skerlets is an acknowledged Croatian writer and illustrator.

He wrote many short stories of science fiction genre for domestic collections and webzines, as well as many comic book scripts. He is best known for doing comic stories about famous Croatian athletes, Janica Kostelić and Goran Ivanišević.

His illustrator work includes comic series about football supporters and various short comics. He illustrates book covers, mobile apps, promotional posters and flyers... he is the official illustrator for "The bear detectives" children book series.

He also works as a designer. He designs print books, ebooks, logos, stationery....

"Ahlea warrior girls - The Sacred Statue" is his first book in the English language. It is a self-translated, self-illustrated and self-designed work, published on Amazon.

He also translated into English Jure Karamarko's novel called "Designer", a book about the life of football fans.

Goodreads profile: www.goodreads.com/skrky

Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/tomislavshkrljac

LinkedIn profile: https://hr.linkedin.com/in/tskrljac

