W
e're doomed, we're doomed." Inkermon kept rocking himself back and forth as he sat under a tree. Yimt looked at him and made a noise and turned away.
"So much for his creator," the dwarf muttered, sitting down on the ground and idly running his fingers through the dirt.
Teeter and Scolly were both sleeping, their snores a source of great interest to the elf who stood guard over them. To a being who could walk through a bed of crisp autumn leaves and not be heard, Alwyn figured, the soldiers must have sounded like a herd of muraphants.
"Do you think Miss Red Owl is right?" Alwyn asked. The moon was slowly sliding down the sky, but dawn was still a couple of hours off. The heat of the forest had returned, but it wasn't as humid as before. Alwyn was trying and failing to direct his thoughts to everything but what he had seen in the clearing and having no success. Even the pain in his chest wasn't enough to distract him.
"What, that we're bespelled and all that? I'm not sure how to break it to you, Ally, but we ain't actually elves. That stuff only works on
them
."
"What about that oath we took in the vines? I didn't
say anything, but I think I felt something happen, you know? And I saw one
of…them."
"One of who?"
"One of Hersit was horrible. And it had a black ear
tip, you know, one of the tainted ones, sort of like Kritton and the major."
Yimt steepled his fingers. "Rakkes come in different shapes and sizes, Ally. You sure you didn't
mix up seeing Kritton and one of them beasties? People see all kinds of things
in battle when they get worked up."
Alwyn shook his head. "No rakke shot those arrows. And you saw what happened to Alik and Buuko. They're gone…but they aren't,
not really, just like Meri."
Yimt sighed and rubbed his beard. "Now I'm not saying nothing by this, but you are a bit of a sensitive fellow, Ally. You take things to heart a bit faster than the rest of us. You're
the only one that thinks he saw Meri, or this black elf, and for all I know,
Alik and Buuko were buried somewhere else and all that stuff out there was just
a bit of a show."
Alwyn felt his face flush. "What, you think I'm
lying?"
Yimt lifted up the leaf-and-moss bandage on his head and scratched at the raw skin underneath.
"Did I say you were a liar? I just said you've seen things the rest of us haven't. Maybe what they say is true, or maybe they're playing at games. Just because they get their wind up about the Shadow Monarch and all that doesn't
mean we have to."
"But what about Meri and the others?"
Yimt stopped scratching for a moment. "I'm not saying there ain't no such thing as ghosts, I just don't know that I buy into the rest of it is all. Maybe you really did see him, or his shade. Did he still have that snuffbox in his eye socket? Now if he had that, I'd
say it probably was him. I doubt many ghosts go around with one of them tucked
into their skull. Good stuff, too, I meant to ask him what brand it was."
Alwyn stared at Yimt. Yimt stared back, one hand still half under his bandage.
"How can you not take this seriously, Yimt? She said we're
bound to an eternity of serving in the regiment. An eternity."
Yimt rolled his eyes and patted down his bandage. He looked around and snapped a small twig from a nearby bush. He started rubbing the broken end against his metal teeth. It made a high-pitched noise.
"Whether I take it serious or not doesn't really make a difference, now does it? If it's true, I don't see what getting all worked up about it will do, and if it ain't,
then there was nothing to worry about in the first place."
The elf guarding them raised his eyebrows as Yimt dug at something stuck between a couple of molars. Alwyn nudged Yimt and motioned toward the elf.
"What?" Yimt asked. He looked over at the elf, pulling the twig out of his mouth and waving it at him.
"Just polishing the silver," he said cheerfully, and went back to brushing his teeth.
"Trees," Alwyn whispered, "they really, really like
trees."
Yimt pulled the twig out of his mouth and looked at it closer.
"What, this? It's just a little branch, no harm. And that ain't no tree no how,
more a really tall bushy weed, if you ask me."
"And what if they see it as a baby?"
Yimt paused in his oral hygiene and gave it some thought, chewing on the end of the twig as he did so. The elf appeared to be gripping his bow rather tightly.
Finally, Yimt pulled the twig back out and jabbed it into the ground.
"Grow tall and proud, O weed of the forest," he said, blowing the twig a kiss.
"A most interesting blessing," came Chayii's voice as she leaped down from a tree to stand beside them.
"I was not aware dwarves cared for the trees of the world."
Yimt nodded solemnly. "Oh, that we do, Miss Red Owl, that we do. Why, if you'd let me grab my shatterbow over there, I'll show you how nice I've kept the wood polished." He made to get up, but the elf guarding them lifted his bow ever so slightly and Yimt settled back on the ground.
Alwyn cringed. Yimt might just charm them straight into eternal shadow.
"It is a most curious weapon, and well kept, but the
mixing of iron and wood has killed its spirit. I am saddened by the loss, as I
am for all the brothers and sisters that died to make the other weapons you
carried."
"Killed its spirit? Not in the least." Yimt stuck out his chest a little, clearly proud of his shatterbow.
"Lil' Nipper there fires as true as the day my aunt bought it, and that was more than fifty years ago. Sure, it doesn't
have quite the distance it once had, but after fifty years what can you expect?"
Chayii reached behind her back and brought forth her bow. Alwyn had that strange feeling again that someone, or something, was there with them.
"This was given to me by my
ryk faur
, He Who Brushes the Sky, over one hundred years ago." She flexed the bow in her hands. It bent and then sprang back like a new sapling.
Yimt nodded his approval. "As an admirer of form, I feel safe in saying you're
both in fine shape."
They'll find us in tiny little pieces
. Before Alwyn could apologize for Yimt, Chayii laughed. She sat down in front of them, lightly jabbing one end of her bow into the earth beside the twig Yimt had just planted. Alwyn noticed the bow wasn't strung and wondered what kind of string the elves might use.
"I will show you," Chayii said, placing her hands in the dirt to either side of the bow and twig.
Alwyn barely jumped this time as the elf answered his unasked question.
"Show us what?" Yimt asked.
Alwyn shushed him and pointed to the twig in front of them. It began to tremble, and then tiny green shoots sprouted from it. They waved about in the air for a moment like a many-headed snake, and then began to grow upward, twining themselves together as they climbed up the bow. When they reached the top they uncoiled from the bow itself so that they hung down straight between the ends, where more green shoots had wrapped themselves. Slowly, gently, they began to tighten, spinning themselves into one incredibly fine string. The vines gleamed silvery green as they spun themselves together, bending the ends of the bow closer together until the vine string was taut. Chayii brought out a small wooden blade and lightly parted the newly grown bowstring from the twig and lifted the bow from the dirt, handing it to Yimt to inspect.
"It's as warm as fresh bread," he said, running his hands lightly over the bow. He placed a couple of fingers on the string and pulled back, grunting in surprise.
"That's incredible! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have
believed it. Ally, give this a try."
Alwyn looked at Chayii, who nodded her approval. He took the bow from Yimt and immediately felt the warmth in the wood. He felt something else, too, or maybe heard something. Whatever it was, he liked it. He wrapped his fingers around the string and pulled, or rather, tried to pull, the pain in his chest too much.
"The draw weight on that would put Lil' Nipper to shame," Yimt said, shaking his head.
"That's some mighty fine magic."
Alwyn handed Chayii back her bow.
"What you call magic we call being one with the
natural order. To understand the life around you is to be part of it, and it a
part of you."
Yimt nodded noncommittally. "And you're doing a damn fine job of it, too. Now, I hate to be rude after all the help you gave us, especially in saving young Ally there from death's door, but I was wondering if we might grab our kit and be on our way? We've got a job to do and Major Osveen will have my hide if I'm
late."
Chayii looked pensive at the mention of the major's name. A lantern went on in Alwyn's head.
"The major is an elf. You don't happen to know him, do you, ma'am?"
She gave a wistful smile that made Alwyn regret asking.
"I did, at one time. It has been many years since I
last saw him."
Yimt slapped the ground with the flat of his hand. "He's a wild one, no doubt about it, but a damn fine officer, and I've seen a bunch. You'd
think that witch of his would tame him, but she seems to do the opposite. Two of
them fight like a pair of razorback dragons in a sack."
Chayii's smile vanished. "Witch? What witch?"
Alwyn tried to catch Yimt's eye, but the dwarf was off on one of his tangents.
"An elfkynan witch, to be exact. Miss Visyna Tekoy, pretty little thing, too. Got some power, put on quite a light show a week or so back. You know, give her a bow and arrow and a set of those fancy clothes you have and you'd be hard-pressed to say she wasn't
an elf."
"The elfkynan are not elves," Chayii said. The ice in her voice was crystal clear to Alwyn, but Yimt remained oblivious.
"Elves would not leave a forest untended like this. The land grows strange and
an illness pervades it…"
As Miss Red Owl talked, Alwyn couldn't help but think she sounded an awful lot like Miss Tekoy, but he kept that to himself.
"…they have forsaken the stewardship that is their
birthright. These forests are yet children in this world and should not have
been left alone to fend for themselves."
"Children? There must be trees in here hundreds of years old," Alwyn said, looking around him in true awe.
"There are Wolf Oaks in the deepest parts of our home that were there when the light of the first morning rose over the
mukta ull
," Chayii said, a reverential tone in her voice.
"Oh."
Chayii turned back to Yimt. "You said they fight?"
Yimt chuckled and nodded. "The major and Miss Tekoy?
Only when they see each other. It was like that when I was courting my sweet
Amag. We used to squabble over everything."
Alwyn looked at the dwarf in surprise. Yimt, married? He'd never mentioned anything about a sweet Amag before.
"Does she goad him to act against his better judgment?" Chayii asked.
"Not exactly. More like they both have ideas about what's the right way to do something, and neither one is the same. Always on about the Empire and nature, too. This is evil, that is backward, bit of a bore really. I gather she wants him to be more elfish, you know, like you lot, while he would just as soon polish his musket. He may be an elf an' all, but unlike her, you put a bow and arrow in his hands and I think he'd
probably use it to start a fire."
Yimt was going to get them all killed yet. Alwyn watched Chayii, looking for the first sign of trouble, but all she did was sit there. She brought a hand to her face and wiped away a tear.
"He's a good officer," Alwyn blurted out. He was surprised to hear himself say it, but it was true. The major got off his horse whenever he could to walk among the men, checking to see that things were in order, but also to see that they were taken care of. They barely saw the Prince, and too much of their sergeants, but the major seemed to know when to show up, and when not to. Looking back on it now, the flogging of Corporal Kritton didn't conjure up the same dark feelings it had before. If he ever saw that elf again, he'd gladly finish the other lashes.
"Ally's telling you the truththe major is one of the better ones. In fact," Yimt said, coughing politely and looking again at his shatterbow on the rock in the clearing,
"he's expecting to see us at Luuguth Jor. We were on our way there when them rakkes attacked us, but I'm guessing you know all about what's going on. If you'd care to come along, you'd
get a chance to see him, and the witch, too. Maybe you could talk some sense
into them. Seems like they could be a nice couple if they could see eye to eye a
bit more."
"Perhaps they have different opinions on the Eastern Star," Chayii remarked.
Alwyn avoided Yimt's look. The dwarf blinked a couple of times and then sighed.
"That was supposed to be a secret, but as it's out in the open I don't
suppose there is much point in denying it."
The elf rose from the forest floor in one fluid motion.
"We will accompany you, Yimt of the Warm Breeze. Prepare your men for the road; we travel at once." With that, Chayii walked into the forest and disappeared from sight. Bird calls rang out and the trees around them rustled in response.
"You heard the lady, let's get cracking," Yimt said, jumping to his feet and helping Alwyn to his.
"Inkermon, make yourself useful and get Teeter and Scolly up. And you ain't doomed until
I
tell you you're
doomed."
Inkermon quit mumbling and did as Yimt said. Teeter and Scolly were quickly roused, and the survivors of Three Section were soon armed and ready. Alwyn had to sling his musket over his right shoulder. His chest was in agony despite whatever spells or potions the elves must have used to heal him, and he seriously doubted he could make it all the way to Luuguth Jor.
"Drink this," Irkila said, appearing at his side and handing him a gourd.
"It will lighten your feet for the coming journey."
"What is it?"
"
Rok har
tree's
blood."
