Elf Killers (3 page)

"O cac!" whispered Oisin at the sight of a huge brute meandering out of the cave into the light. At once he let fly another arrow, quietly dropping the big fellow in his tracks. At once two sows appeared, one after the other. Oisin kept shooting, felling them, too. A half grown kid ran out with a whimper and knelt by one of the sows. Oisin quickly got him before he could make any more noise.

"Faf-ny-oyd-fy-phn?" said another brute as he stepped out and saw the others.

Oisin's last arrow went high and got the troll in the throat, sending him into a frenzy of staggering about, gurgling. Olloo rushed up behind and began stabbing with all his might. After seven stabs, the brute fell. Olloo came down on him with bug-eyed fury, plunging his dirk to its hilt in the brute's chest. By the time he'd managed to yank it out, all the Elves had been cut free.

"Are you all right?" said Oisin, still in whispers.

"I feel better at last," whispered Olloo with a look of wild-eyed triumph. 

Doona and Lilee were still squatting by the spit, staring out with wide glassy eyes as if they were still tied. Olloo hurried to Doona's side. "Doona?" he whispered. She paid no attention, as if she had not heard her name at all. When he tried to take her hand, she yanked it away and appeared as if she were looking about for somewhere to escape to. Kieran knelt by Lilee and got the same sorts of responses from her.

"We've got to go now," whispered Oisin.

Olloo took Doona firmly by the hand and ushered her after the others. Kieran tried it with Lilee only to have her try to bolt away. He sprang up and grabbed her, steering her after Olloo and Doona. Feena, the littlest survivor, also had a haunted wide-eyed stare. She grabbed Kieran by the leg and wouldn't let go. Off they went, jogging into the timber holding hands, crashing into brush and snapping sticks, sounding for the world like some behemoth centipede, but dutifully managing not to utter a sound. 

Oisin took them far away down the length of a hogback, his mind numbed from all he had been through, struggling to decide how far to go with them before stopping.
"
We're making so much racket, even the owls have gotten quiet,
"
he thought as he shifted his rattling quiver,
"
but we have to get away from the caves as fast as we can, so we don't dare slow down to be quiet, until we're far enough.
"
Soon he picked a spot where the hogback swept down to the side of a creek. Except for Doona, Lilee and Feena, everyone began talking at once.

Oisin stood before them in the blackness with his finger to his lips. "Please, we're not really safe here," he said. "There are still a few of us unaccounted for..." He faltered as his eyes brimmed over.

"They began with the little ones..." said a voice.

"Yea," said another. "Feena only lives because she bit that first brute you shot. They thought it was hilarious and grabbed up Renny..."

"Oh no! It was Renny! Poor little girl...!" cried Oisin with a sob as wails of anguish broke out amongst the survivors. After only a moment of struggle with himself, he spoke up, "This place is dangerous. If we get through this we'll be the only Elves to visit the Marfora Siofra and live to tell it. “We must get as far away from here as we can, as quickly and as quietly as we can. In order to do that, we have to bear our grief in silence."

The talking stopped at once as they began making their way along the bank of the creek, staying out of the water in order to listen for trolls. Before long they began hearing purple-ribs far below them in the timber, and soon they could make out each other's outlines as a hint of deep purple lightened the sky in the east. "I think it might be safe to rest and talk quietly," said Oisin as he turned and spoke to everyone. "I would guess that the trolls have passed by without seeing us, trying to be back by light. But we need to be alert to every single thing around us." 

"It's all right Doona," said Olloo as he sat in the leaves next to her and took her hand. "You're safe now. Won't you talk to me?"

Doona stared at him, wild-eyed and haunted, jerking free her hand just as she had done by the fire, as she once again looked about for a place to run and hide.

Oisin looked up and came over to sit beside them. "Doona's soul has flown away," he said.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"She's not talking to you because her soul is gone. It was terrified out of her and is hiding out there somewhere. That's all. Use your head and be easy with her and it will soon feel safe enough to come back to her."

"But what if it doesn't?"

"It will if you're not impatient with her and don't scare her..."

"I wouldn't do those things."

"Then you can trust that it'll soon come back to stay. Right now I just need you to keep hanging onto her and be easy with her, so that we can keep going. We might even be lucky and find a safe place to be before it gets dark again."

"Well why not just make for the camp at all speed? I'd bet we could easily make it all the way there before dark, especially since the trolls have no idea where it is."

"I wouldn't know about that, Olloo. Where do you reckon they all were last night?"

"Hunting I'd imagine," he said with a shrug. "How would anyone know...?"

"All of them?" said Oisin, shaking his head. "There were so many gone that nobody else has ever gotten away with what we just did. Think about why no one knows where their caves are. I'm guessing that they found our camp. Besides, we can't be sure that they don't know where the camp is since they ambushed us as close to it as they did. And why did they jump us before dark? They never do that. Getting ready to make a raid on the camp might be a reason."

Olloo gave a tense sigh as ravens croaked from the tops of the maidenhair trees along the stream.

"Look. Let's say I'm wrong. Let's say they haven't discovered it yet. Do we really want to be the ones to make certain that the beasts know where our people are?"

"But how would...?"

"Do you think the trolls could possibly overlook our tracks between here and there? They'll come straight for us, wherever we go. And we don't have much time, either. They'll be on us by dark, this evening. Anyway, if we head for camp, so will the trolls."

Olloo took on a look of dread. "What are you saying?" he croaked.

"I'm saying that we can't lead the Marfora Siofra straight to our camp right when Faragher plans to leave. You should have seen all of the caves. If they ring the camp, there won't be very many survivors, particularly if they catch everyone trying to board the ships.”

"So we can't go straight back as long as there's a chance that the trolls would follow us," he said, pausing to gently pat Doona's hand before looking up. "I see that, but what about us? How do we spend the night anywhere without being butchered?"

Oisin sighed, stood up and stretched. He nervously cast about at their surroundings and squatted again. "You know where Ubh Ollmhor is?"

"What, that giant pile of tumbled rocks at the foot of Mount Sliabh?"

"Yea. If we head straight there, I'm pretty sure that we can hide in a place which I remember, and might even get there before dark if we're lucky."

"And then we can take our time and sneak back to camp when the trolls have turned their attention somewhere else, right?"

"Well, I suppose we could..."

"What do you mean?" said Olloo with sudden alarm. "They'd wait, wouldn't they?"

At his sudden change in tone, Doona drew in a breath as if to spring to her feet. Olloo put his arm around her and talked to her in soothing tones while Oisin stared at the backs of his hands, now and again glancing warily at the foliage.

"Surely they've sent out search parties," said Olloo in as soft a voice as he could manage.

"Oh undoubtedly. And I'm sure they searched high and low. And when they couldn't find us after so long of a time... Well, think about this, how much chance would you reckon a party of children and two youths would have against the Marfora Siofra? How long would you hunt? Besides, don't you suppose our disappearance would make them fear for their lives, particularly if they found Aedan and saw how near to camp we'd been attacked?"

Olloo listened to the calls of the pewees and tanagers far up in the maidenhairs and looked at his knees. "All right," he said with a resolved nod as he straightened up, "Doona and I are all ready. Show us the way to Ubh Ollmhor."

King Faragher let go of the fold of canvas with a sigh and trudged to the far end of the marquee and sat heavily in his great chair, just in time for the sound of hooves to gather outside. Directly, Neron entered and tramped up to the throne.

"You don't have to say it. I saw. I'm very, very sorry, Neron."

"Do I have time for another quick sortie...?"

"Did you find where Aedan fell?"

"Almost straight east, not above five furlong..."

"That's almost on us. And you didn't come back immediately and tell me?"

"I felt that there were lives at stake..."

"There sure are. I've given the order to embark in about an hour. Where did you have in mind for your sortie?"

"I can see that it doesn't matter now. We felt like we were abandoning them by turning about at the great tree. We wanted to search closer to the Great Rock Wall."

"Then you were already out of hope,” said Faragher as he stood up and clapped Neron on the shoulder. "Let's set sail now, so that the rest of us don't run out of hope."

Neron nodded and looked at his feet. "Why, that doesn't give us enough time to break down the camp," he said, suddenly looking up.

"We shall just have to leave it. Besides, there are a few who've decided not to go."

"That's madness! They'll all die."

"No doubt," said Faragher, "but we can't force them..."

"Why not? They'd see that it was for their own good sooner or later and be grateful."

"No they wouldn't. They'd find a way to resent it for the rest of their lives."

Neron looked up to see the pain on Faragher's face and merely nodded. "I'll go tell Nessa and the boys and help with the boarding of the ships," he said.

"Thank you."

The black night sky had taken on a faint deep purple as Gnydy tramped up the slope. He could hear the icky-icky frogs calling from the spring up by the Hooter Cave just beyond. "Ha!" he said, pausing to toss his head from side to side. "I'll proud-show Dyr for rear-end-firsting my-face in-front-of the brutes and hoo-hoo-flabber-toomphing. I'll-get the first-champ of grab-up-squeaker." On he went, very nearly to the top. "Humpf. Odd I smell-no yum-sniffs. I should. Why that-be? Maybe I-do."

Right away he saw the campfire and found that the spit had burnt in two, dropping Renny into the coals, so that all that was left were her charred bones. "Boof!" he hooted as the hair stood up on his arms. He wheeled this way and that to find two dead troll-brutes, two dead sows and one dead kid and no Elves. "Ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot!" he cried, beating his chest with his fists. He ran to the edge and peered down to see Dyr and the other brutes coming. He stood up grandly on a rock to drum his chest and begin again, "Ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot! Squeaker-meat burnt! Rree-gafi's head's burnt-off! Grab-up-squeakers, grab-up-squeakers, grab-up-squeakers all-gone!"

Dyr was there in short order to shove Gnydy off his rock onto the ground and take his place. "Ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot!" bellowed Dyr through his red beard full of teeth, "Gnydy!"

Gnydy looked sullen from beneath his beetle brow, down on his elbows.

"Gnydy!" roared Dyr.

"Ay-ooo..." cried Gnydy as he scrambled to his feet.

"Ay-ooo!" howled Dyr as he sprang up and down once to plant his feet and pummel his chest. "Dyrney-brutes!"

"Ay-ooo," cried the multitude before him down the slope as they began bobbing up and down, chanting, "Ay-ooo, ay-ooo, ay-ooo, ay-ooo..."

"Ay-ooo, ay-ooo, ay-ooo," cried Dyr before abruptly changing to, "Ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot, ooot-ooot..." as he sprang from the rock to land amongst his brutes to join their rhythmic jumping and chanting, "Ay-ooo, ay-ooo, ay-ooo..."

Suddenly they all stopped dead still as Dyr drummed his chest once more. "When this come-up-sun night-sinks, we-will jump-bite the grab-up-squeakers and bite and cut and bite and cut them until they-beg to-burn before we head-smash them."

And with that there was a great stamping and roar of assent.

Chapter 3

It was now broad daylight as the Elves continued making their way along the side of the stream, listening to the bellbirds beginning their ringing calls far and wide throughout the tall dewy timber. The creek sparkled here and there from the first direct sunlight to find its way through the trees. Oisin bid everyone not to make undue noise as he led them into the cold water. They waded a short way downstream until they came to a tumbled pile of shale boulders which made up the bank on the far side. "Everybody follow me," he said before he clambered up onto the first black stones. "Just make certain that you don't string any telltale sand or mud out onto the rocks." Soon they were well away from the stream, wading through the last of the maidenhair ferns, back into deep shade.