Mira's Hope by Erin Elliott

army to reckon with as well. This is where an army of elves
would help.”
    Galena bit her lip as his words soaked into
her mind. He was right, she knew he was, but she couldn’t help
feeling abandoned. He would be staying behind and she would be
leaving. She didn’t know if she would ever get to see him again.
Mira had not given her any guarantees that she would be able to
make it past the cave, only that she would be stronger if she did.
She blinked back the tears as this thought occurred to her.
    “What made you think this up?” Elenio asked
quietly.
    “After taking on a group of torlics to save a
village from them,” Tark said, shrugging nonchalantly. “You see
that I’m right, don’t you?” He looked at them pleadingly. “I’ll
start with this village, teaching their blacksmiths how to create
weapons and then I’ll train whoever is willing to learn. We would
leave some behind to protect their villages, but I want as many to
come with me as possible when the time comes to go to
Blackwell.”
    Galena shuddered at the mention of Rau’s
domain. She’d grown up hearing horror stories of that place and was
not looking forward to approaching the tiny island just off the
shores of Tomiro.
    “You two could send more elves this way with
instructions to recruit as many along the way as possible. If we
want to be free from Rau, we all have to be willing to fight. I’ll
stay in this village until we have collected as many elves as
possible and have trained them.”
    Galena felt the tears starting to make trails
down her cheeks as she listened to what Tark was saying. She
glanced at Elenio who was looking stonily at the floor. She felt
his own sadness and resignation wash through her.
    “We’ll miss you brother, but you’re right and
wise for thinking about it. To be honest, the thought had crossed
my mind, but I can’t leave Galena,” Elenio murmured.
    Galena looked startled when she heard this;
she hadn’t realized he’d been thinking the same thing. The thought
never crossed her own mind, because she was focused on retrieving
the Sword of Lumina.
    “I can check on you with mirror waters. Morgo
explained them to me. You won’t be able to see me, but I’ll be able
to see if you’re okay.”
    Tark’s head snapped up, his eyes meeting her
own. “Show me Taura and Silva before you leave.” His longing was
evident upon his face.
    Why she hadn’t thought of doing that very
thing before now, was beyond her. She really needed to start
thinking about others more than herself.
    Thinking of a mixing bowl, Galena watched as
the wood from the floor pooled up and began to rearrange itself.
When she was at last satisfied with its shape, she created an end
to the stack of slivers, separating the bowl from the floor. She
summoned water into it and looked into its clear depths. According
to what Morgo said, you just had to focus on an object or person.
When the underground elves had been searching for her, Mira
instructed that they be on the lookout for battling torlics and
they would find her, because they had no idea what she looked like.
In this case, Galena focused on Taura and instantly, she was there
in the water. It was like looking through a window, with the
exception of no sound. Taura sat on a low stool, their tiny
daughter sitting between her legs while Taura braided her hair. She
appeared to be talking the whole time, although they couldn’t hear
what she said. They watched as Silva’s face broke into a huge grin
and her shoulders shook with laughter.
    Tark covered his face with his hands
releasing a ragged breath and moaned.
    Galena cleared the water and reached over to
embrace her brother in a hug. “I’m sorry it took me this long to
give you comfort. Forgive me.” She stroked his head as he continued
to cover his face, his breathing ragged from trying to stifle the
tears he shed.
    He nodded and wiping his nose on his sleeve,
he looked up.
    Galena wiped the tears from his face and
smiled at him. It