Jarl snarled and shook his head. It had been like this for days now. Once the little girl had gotten used to her captivity, she had gone from nice and silent to loud and jarring. The wolverine had barely had any good sleep in the last few days as the girls questioning grew more insistent.

“Do you really need this rope?” Veronica asked him, pulling at the rope that was tied around her waste and held by the Shadruul.

“We wouldn’t if you hadn’t tried to escape three times already!” he barked at her. He was irritated from the questions and from the amount of walking they were doing. The horses they had stolen from a group of Dark Humans had been spooked by a leopard snake briefly after they had entered the dark lands. They had bucked off their riders and taken off, leaving them to trek the rest of the way to the castle on foot. Having never even been to Umbra’s Veil himself, Jarl wasn’t sure how much farther they had to go. At the time he was just happy that the horses had given them a good head start ahead of Faro so he could complete his mission before he arrived. Now he was regretting not going back after the horses. They had been very helpful to get them swiftly around Mournfall Lake and through Zeliran land unnoticed. They would have helped whisk them to Umbra’s Veil now, but he had decided forward was better than backwards.

“Not like I have anywhere to go now!” Veronica shouted back at him, her tone deep with sass. “Like, what? I’m going to run and hide behind that rock spire over there? Or that one there? Or that…”

“Please! Just stop talking!” he snarled at her. “Can we just…please… walk in silence?”

The silence that followed lasted maybe fifteen seconds before she spoke again. “So you’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

Jarl hung his head. He wished he didn’t need the girl to attract Faro to Umbra’s Veil. But if there was one thing he knew about Faro in his travels with him as a disciple under Eli, it was that the insufferable do-gooder couldn’t resist rescuing someone in need. And a tiny wolverine taking down a giant lion of a man in open combat just wasn’t an option. Their last fight had proved that. He needed Faro to follow him into unknown territory where he could lay a trap for him.

“I’ve told you, child, we’re going to the land of Dark Elves. We’re going to Umbra’s Veil.”

“Yeah? But like, why?” she asked, either unaware how annoying she was, or very keenly aware and was dead set on annoying him to death.

“That is for me to know, and you to never find out,” he said for what felt like the hundredth time in their journey. He didn’t know how someone had the capacity to talk so much. The truth was that after Eli had turned on them all, and the dark magic had turned him from dwarf to wolverine, he had been scared and ready to run away. Instead, when Eli had commanded them all the stand at attention, Jarl had been unable to refuse. He didn’t know what dark magic was bound to him, but he was no longer of his own volition when it came to Eli. His mind grew cloudy and dark when the new ruler spoke, and he found himself obeying against his will.

The will of Eli had been for him to hunt down Faro and kill him, and then go to Umbra’s Veil and try to recruit more dark magic users to their cause, or steal any secrets he could from Umbra. Of course the existence of Umbra’s Veil was all hearsay. No one who was alive was known to have left the Veil. Some didn’t even believe that it existed. The rumors in Jarl’s home kingdom, Underoth, had been that the great king, Umbra of Zelira, had gone mad on his quest for dark power and just simply blew up the entire region of the dark lands. This had created a lot of myth and legend about what lay within the dark abyss.

Unfortunately for Jarl, the Dark Mage Eldryn and the new High King believed that Umbra was still alive, and they wanted him recruited to their cause. Jarl hoped that if the evil elf king was still alive he would just simply kill Faro for him upon arrival. Given his luck in killing the lion so far, something told Jarl he wouldn’t get off that easy. Still, Eldryn had given a letter to deliver to the elf king, and Eli had forbidden him to open it. It was for the elf king’s eyes only.

“You know, my grandfather is a powerful mayor. He’ll be sending an entire army after me. He’ll be so upset that you are taking me away from my studies of Solana,” she stated this as if it were simply a fact, and that studying was the most important thing right now.

Jarl just chuckled at her. “You think the mayor of a ramshackle little town like that has command of an army? That's hilarious, child.”

Veronica didn’t appear to like the sound of this, and folded her arms and hung her head to pout. Jarl didn’t care if he’d upset her. She was just a means to an end. Plus, if it meant that she stopped talking for at least five minutes, he would keep insulting her intelligence all day long.

“Boss.” The statement came from the Shadruul that accompanied them. There were no more words that accompanied the simple phrase, just a long, sharp claw pointing out into the distance. Jarl followed the line of the Shadruul’s finger, and saw it. The mist that covered the dark lands and seems to be casting them in eternal night time was covering what was being pointed out, but Jarl could just make it out through the mist.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“I’ll be damned,” he said. “There really was a castle here.”

Through the mist Jarl could just make out the outline of a dark spire rising up into the gray mist. As they took a few more steps, other towers’ silhouettes came into view. The wolverine smiled. Even if he couldn’t control himself around his new High King, being on his good side and completing his mission would sure make his new life easier.

“Good eye, Rotung,” he said, still feeling weird using the thing’s name. Commanding and traveling with the Shadruul had taken some getting used to. He had never seen anything like them before, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know where they came from. It was just all a part of the world that he was forced to live in now.

Jarl flinched when he heard the voice. “Great. We’ve found an old, creepy castle. You know they probably don’t even live there, right? We’ll have to find the dungeon they dug during the scourge,” Veronica said in her adamant, matter-of-fact way.

The wolverine felt his eye twitch. “Double-time until we get there. Come on!” He sped up, knowing that the sooner they got there the sooner he could get Umbra to lock this annoying child in the dungeon and get some silent time away from her.

Rotung, the Shadruul pulled on Veronica’s string, and the mismatched trio quickened their pace towards the shadowy kingdom in the distance.

***

Many hours later they were getting close to the castle. As they were able to see clearer through the mist, they could see that the castle was in ruins. The mist made the whole structure look brown and dirty. Large pieces could be seen missing from the towers, and those same pieces could be seen littering the ground around the base of the structure.

“What a dump,” Veronica said, to no surprise of Jarl. “I told you this place isn’t habitable. They are all either underground, or dead!”

“Fine,” Jarl snapped back at her. “I told you we will either see them in the castle, or you will start digging to find them!” He turned to glare at the little girl, who stared him right back in the eyes, unphased.

“We don’t have a shovel,” she shot back, her mouth curling into a half smile.

Jarl smiled back at her. “You have hands. You can dig.”

Her mouth fell open at the audacity of the thought of this, and when she closed it, Jarl hoped that the shock would keep it closed for good - or at least for the next ten minutes.

The trio kept walking, examining the ruins as they plodded their way closer. Jarl wasn’t sure what to expect when they got there, but it sure wasn’t what happened next.

They all walked side-by-side, and approached a large, wide rock formation. It appeared to be some type of old, short wall of some sort. Not that he was tall, but it came up to Jarl’s shoulders, and it took all of his strength to pull himself up on top. The Shadruul pulled Veronica up, and all three of them got to the top. Jarl expected to see a broken drawbridge leading to the castle, but instead he got a jolt that sent shock waves through his body. It was as if gale force winds were trying to push him back.

Instinctively, he clung to the Shadruul, using the bulk of the rock monster to anchor him down. Veronica quickly did the same. Rotung used all of their strength to pull the trio forward until they made it to the edge of the wall. With a mighty grunt and a leap they jumped the short distance down. Jarl felt the jolt of the ground through his legs, but it was somehow much more padded than he had expected.

Surprised, he looked down and saw grass. Green grass, as far as his beady little eyes could see. He rubbed his eyes with both his paws and looked again. The meadow of grass and white flowers wasn’t the only thing that had changed. Tilting his head back, he looked up in awe. Where there had been ruins of a once-magnificent castle, now just stood the magnificent castle, fully intact. The mist was gone completely, and the sun penetrated the scene. The shining white stones were almost too bright to look at after all of the darkness they had just waded through.

“What the fuck?” Veronica said loudly.

Jarl turned to her quickly and snapped, “You watch your mouth, girl!” The sentence had left his mouth before he could stop it, and a moment of sadness hit him. He was speaking to her like his own children back in Underoth. A momentary lapse of strength that showed weakness, and he ensured himself he would not make again. Veronica just stared at him in shock, not sure what to make of the parental snapback her captor had just made at her. “It’s obviously some sort of spell,” he said, trying to push past the comment and move the conversation along. “The true veil is the illusion of the destruction, I suppose. Keeps people out.”

They moved their way through the grass. Veronica bent down and felt it with her hand, chuckling a little under her breath, and picking a small white flower as they passed it. Rotung gave her rope an extra yank and sent her sprawling forward, almost falling.

As they neared the castle, there was, in-fact, a drawbridge over a moat, but this drawbridge was perfectly in-tact. It was made of strong, wooden planks, its chains running up through the castle wall where a crank could reel the bridge straight up if needed.

They paused at the mouth of the bridge, unsure whether it was safe to cross or not. On the other side of the bridge they could see that they were no longer alone. Two elves wielding spears and clad in green were standing on either side of the entryway. Jarl tried to size them up and see if they would be welcomed, or if he should brace for a fight. He decided that their posture seemed a little lax for warriors who were looking for a fight.

Waving the other two along, Jarl lead the way across the bridge. As they approached, the elves didn’t change their positions. When they got within calling distance, Jarl decided it was best to introduce themselves and their business.

“Ho there friends! We seek council with the great King Umbra. Would it be possible to gain an audience with him?”

The elf on their right relaxed his spear grip and broke out into a slow smile as they approached.

“The great King Umbra welcomes all honored guests, my friend. Welcome to Mireholm!”

The name surprised them. To the rest of the world, this was known as Umbra’s Veil. They obviously had the right place because they said Umbra was here. Jarl exchanged a quick glance with Rotung. Shrugging, Jarl took the first step forward and through the gateway into the kingdom of Mireholm.