Legends of Belariath
Gliriel
Nilan's Journey - Part I
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?", the near 7 foot tall dark elf woman roared as she jumped up out of her throne. I knew I was in trouble now... our Matron, Melvanistra, she had a habit of... I would say killing the bearer of bad news, but killing would be too easy. I had to think quickly, even Ra'Shad and Filraen were getting up with their fiery red eyes. These two men had kept the Qu'ellar running in her absence, when Kirva took our beloved Matron to her, then sent her back to the land of the living. They were at least as vicious as the woman before me, I knew this. I was never going to leave this room alive unless I thought of something. Quickly I scrambled up to my feet and before I even realised it I blurted out "I will rectify the matter myself Honored Matron!". Melvanistra grinned, the sight alone made me shiver, me, a worn assassin with the blood of dozens of men, women and children on my hands, this woman terrified me. Ra'Shad and Filraen, who were no more of a comforting sight to behold slowly backed into the shadow like good little lapdogs, but everyone knew their power and that this was just a charade to fool the politicians of the underdark.
"So... you will... rectify the matter, won't you Nilan? And... how do you propose... you do that, hmmm?", she said, looking slightly bemused at the thought. "I will re-enter the keep my Matron, through the sewers, and I will slay their king.", I know I must have been sweating like a pig and sounding much less confident than I wanted to appear to be, but Melvanistra waved her hand in a sign of approval and sat back down. "Now leave my sight, before I throw you into a pit of myrlochar!", I could hear her grinning as I stumbled out of the throne room. Surrounded by insane men and women everywhere, myself included... but she... was different. All three of them are terrifying only to behold, as if Kirva herself was leering at you through those eyes. Which would... in hindsight, be a less odd a gift for the Spider Queen's chosen than I had originally thought.
By now you must be wondering what news I had even brought to her. Well, another assassin and I had been set to spy on a small kingdom not far from our headquarters. They had refused to give in to our demands and as such their claim for protection had been made void. Melvanistra then sent us to find out the magnitude of their fighting force for a possible sacking of their petty little kingdom. Well, we did find out. That was problem number one, the fighting force... let's just say it outnumbered us in such a way head on combat was not an option. The second bit of bad news was that while we were trying to get this information back to our Qu'ellar my little colleague decided to go on a killing spree in a tavern on the way, and he got toasted by the owner of said tavern. So I had to inform her that frontal assault was not an option, and that one of her men had just been turned into a crisp.
I went to my barracks, grabbed my equipment, and headed out again. I took a horse, not normally a dark elf does, riding a horse, but time was of the essence. I knew if this took any longer, Melvanistra would throw me into a pit of myrlochar, she was NOT kidding about that - I knew it. I made my way towards the stables and grabbed the darkest, fastest steed there. Each time I wandered around my Qu'ellar’s base I marvelled at how self-sufficient it was. Smiths, enchanters, alchemists, all there, and what we had in surplus we traded - at a very low price, threatening with death helps haggling - for other things like food, horses, anything imaginable a Qu'ellar might need. I saddled up and hopped onto the horse, spurring it into a gallop and dashing out of the compound.
It was a two-day journey by horse. I knew by nightfall I would have reached the now ruined halls of Mairenburg, the underground dwarf city that we ourselves destroyed. Rumor had it that with the dwarves gone a pack of trolls and goblins had taken over the large, once lit and now dark halls. I arrived there as I had guessed, at dusk. I was not intent on travelling in the dark, that and small groups of humans came here to raid our patrols. Normally unsuccessful, however the fact I was but one and they usually came per dozen motivated me to wait ‘til dawn. I tied my horse to a tree and set up camp, slowly drifting off into a semi-aware-sleep...
A few hours later I sprung awake to the sound of voices in the distance, actually, they were nearer than I would have hoped... I had no choice but to hide, somewhere, and all my escape routes were blocked. I looked behind me and scrunched up my nose... The only hiding place were those blasted halls. Well, I'd rather take a few humans down than fight a horde of greenskins. I dove behind a boulder and grabbed two medium crossbows from my pack and put a bolt in both, aiming them at the distant sounds that grew ever nearer... after a bit of calculating and guessing I let both bolts fly, obviously they found their mark - how could they not - for two distinctly different cries of utter pain could be heard. I grinned... cattle to the slaughter. I drew my two katanas from my back and lied in waiting ambush...
The sounds grew nearer and nearer, until the men found my campsite. To my dismay, I should have taken my chances with the greenskins. There were as many as
9 men left, four of them carrying their two wounded comrades, and maybe more lurking in the shadows. Not even I was enough of an assassin to pull THIS off alone. With that, I nimbly skipped off of the rocks I was waiting on and silently dashed into the dark halls. Just my luck though, a rock slipped from under my foot and tumbled downhill with me, making a lot more sound than me in the silence. The men shouted and I knew they were headed my way, I had no choice but to run further down the dark halls. At times like this I always praised my heritage, for those fools needed torches while my eyes were quite enough to see clearly. I rounded what must have seemed like dozens of bends, and ran across tens of halls when I finally lost them... panting and sweating I rested my weary bones against the stone walls of the dwarven hall.
That was when I heard another sound... hrmpf... goblins, those idiot humans must have made so much noise they found them. Well, that suited me fine, they could slaughter each other and then I could get out of here safely. My train of optimistic thought was rudely interrupted though when an arrow flew straight past me, narrowly missing it's mark. "Damnit! They found me too!" I thought, obviously the humans were having equally bad experiences judging by the sounds of fighting and cries of pain coming from down the other way. I dashed off into the nearest corridor, and to my dismay saw the glowing eyes of goblins, orcs and trolls down that way as well, I dashed into another corridor, and another, and another... until suddenly I stood in the middle of a small hall, and all four exits were blocked by the foul greenskins.
Now, you must be wondering how I am writing this, if I was in such an extremely dire situation. Rest assured, a dark elf assassin is never caught completely off guard. And neither was I, I simply reached into my pouch and quickly worked down a small vial of clear blue liquid as the goblins loomed closer and closer... and know what? I turned invisible. Yes sirree. Of course, invisibility is nice, except this potion was known to have rather nasty side effects, but at least they weren't quite as lethal... usually anyway. Well, truthfully, most dark elven die a few hours after drinking the potion, the alchemists have no idea why, they just now that they drop dead suddenly. But I digress. The greenskins were dumbfounded to see their prey vanish before their very eyes, and as they stood scratching their ugly little heads trying to figure out what was happening I simply crept out, and silently went out the way I came. I went back to my camp and decided to ... move it a bit further away from Mairenburg, meanwhile making a mental note to call for an exterminating team to sweep through there to get rid of those foul beings.
The next morning I woke up, still alive... well, if you can call it such. My head was throbbing and I think I must have thrown up a dozen times, it wasn't a pretty sight. But I lived, and with some herbs I fixed up I was quickly feeling well enough to travel on. I cleaned up my campsite, clearing any sign I had ever been there and saddled up again, riding onwards to my destination...