Chapter 19

Amri and her band of elfin soldiers had come to the farmer's cabin seeking the young "Bayla" as her brother had called her. Knowing of a woman matching the appearance of Bayla infuriated her. 'The child must have survived,' she thought. If the child had survived it would ruin everything she had been working for all these years.

She hated Bayla for stealing the farmer's heart from her and wanted revenge. When having her killed didn't open his heart to her she sought full vengeance. She planned to find the elfin kingdom and destroy it slowly. The best way she thought to do that is was to get in good with the royal family. Discovering the successor to the throne had not been married, she seduced him with tonics and potions until he married her. The birth of their son proved to be a disappointment for her as he had been born in the image of an elf, not human as she had hoped. She began poisoning her husband then to prevent any further heirs.

She had planned to kill him and her son to assume the throne herself but she had discovered the elfin law would prohibit her from doing that, so she kept them both alive. As long as her husband lived she could rule in his stead. She had been ruling the elfin kingdom for about thirteen years, since she began giving her husband an elixir to keep him too ill to rule himself. She had thought that would be enough to relieve the hatred she felt for the elves, but it hadn't been. She wanted them destroyed. She had spent every waking hour on the subject of their ultimate downfall.

'If Bayla's daughter lives, then she will destroy me.' She thought to herself. She arrived at the cabin only to find it empty. Things were neat and tidy and left in place. It didn't look as if they had abandoned their home so she thought they must have gone to the village for the day. She would wait at the cabin until night fall for their return.

She wandered through the cabin absently looking at trinkets and treasures that lined the bookshelves. She picked up a book from the table and read its title "The Rise and Fall of Humanity" by Dirks Sebastian. She snorted a disbelieving laugh and returned the book to the table. She meandered down into the cellar and found countless bottles of wine lining the walls in their racks. Herbs were hanging from the ceiling joists to dry and in one corner stood a pile of linens cut into pieces to be put in a quilt. Just below the staircase she found a closet door. Inside the closet she found several hand made coats of exquisite craftsmanship. She admired the detail in the stitching and design and then suddenly realized they had been made by an elf. She ripped the coats from their hangers and tossed them to the floor in a fit of anger revealing the hidden passage way the farmer had taken earlier.

She ordered her soldiers to take the passage to see where it would lead.