Elf Killers (8 page)

Chapter 6

Dyr sat on his favorite rock in front of the Hooter Cave, watching his subjects milling about as they began their night (troll day). He was particularly fond of this rock because it allowed him to keep a careful eye upon his multitude by gazing out across them as if they were altogether unimportant while imposing his endowments upon them at the same time.

"Dyr," said Gnydy with a sly look as he came up from behind. "It be grow-moon, grow-moon and big-moon-rise and still-no Rre-gafi-ni-oow-fn, no Fnadriph, no Dofan-ay-yr-pi.”

Dyr ignored him as he continued, "Something be tumble-down. I nod-said those young grab-up-squeakers be-more hee-hee-think than just ho-hums." He crossed his arms with a nod.

He quickly looked at the ground as Dyr turned about and said, "Then you take your hee-hee-think and ay-ooo, ay-ooo some Dyrney-brutes and go-find Rre-gafi-ni-oow-fn, Fnadriph and Dofan-ay-yr-pi. Now." He thrust out his chin beneath his beetle-browed blue eyes and thumped his chest as if he were running off a misbehaving dog. "Ooot-ooot!" 

As Gnydy scuttled away to hoot up his brutes, Dyr turned aside to peer down at Fnarry-irrny as she put a half cooked leg of Elf on a spit and stamped out to the fire with it and then returned to their spot to pick up bones and fling them out where everyone else had to walk on them.
"
What a bad-breath bristle-dog,
"
he thought.
"
What a gravel-growl butt-bite. Poor Drf-nyri-fyrri. I sad-wish she could still-be my-sow. Poor-poor dead-thing. Next-time she die, I'll scratchy-chin think-think before I hee-hee-grab some Fnarry-irrny. And poor-poor little dead Ganf. No-be way-back from the land of the dead. Did Fnarry-irrny head-smash little dead Ganf? No way to ever-can nod-think.
"
He gave a heavy sigh and stepped down from his rock. 

"Dyr!" barked Fnarry-irrny, as she looked up from the green hide she was chewing on to soften. "Will you be sneak-leading tonight's hunt-grab or do you scratchy-head-nod to-be a dirt right here-for me to trip-over?"

"You finger-point me to jump-answer? Here-be your jump-answer, I jump-crawl for nobody, nobody, nobody. I be Thunder-man, and I be Thunder-man for you. And if you poo-hoo-think that one, you can-just humpy-doodle off to some stinking-little hole where I'll never-see you again." 

"Humpy-doodle off? You want me to no-be big-sow?"

"I like my rock. I be Thunder-man. I want no more growl-bite. If you be big-sow then you big-big-big-nod that I be Thunder-man. And if you can't do-that, then go be sow for some piddle-brute.” 

Fnarry-irrny sat there wide-eyed, working her mouth.

"I see-that you have plenty-to-say," said Dyr with hard cold eyes. "So champ-bite this, Fnanar no-be on this spot again. No sleep. No champ. No hum-de-dumdle choice."

The Great Strah covered most of the Eastern Continent, known to the Elves as Lobhadh at that time, with a carpet of big bluestem grass, six to eight feet tall nearly everywhere, criss-crossed with shifting paths tramped by the deer, elk, aurochs and strike falcons. Oisin hurried the children through the grass, urging them to be quiet as he made straight east by the moon for the only safe place Radella knew of.

Lilee cried out as she stubbed her toe on a rock, tripping her onto her hands and knees. She sat up to rock back and forth, holding her foot.

"I know that hurts," said Oisin as he squatted down to wait on her, "but Radella said that strike falcons are easily roused at night. We have to be as quiet as we can. At least we've got enough moonlight to avoid worse things."

Lilee stuck out her tongue him when he looked away. "I'm all right now," she said. "I'm ready."

"I'm glad you weren't hurt any worse than that," he said. "And I've let us string out dangerously, somehow. They're not all caught up with us yet. We all need to keep a much closer eye on the little ones."

"No kidding," said Doona. "I'd allow they'd make an easy snack for a shawk spoogh."

Oisin certainly noticed her agreement. "Yea," he said. "In fact I think we should pair up each of the younger ones with someone older before we go on."

"Hey," said a girl as she sat down with her two littler sisters. "You really need to slow down. We've been trying to catch up with you all, the whole way out here. The youngest kids just can't keep up."

"I'm sorry, Roseen," said Oisin, “but we have to cover ground as fast as we possibly can. It could be the very end of us not to get a safe place before the sun rises."

"Yea?" said Kieran, cocking his head. "So where is this 'safe place' you talk about? All I've seen is grass and the rock Lilee just kicked."

Oisin very nearly told him to shut up but quickly thought better of it. "I beg your pardon," he said. "In the panic to get where we need to go, it seems that I overlooked telling anyone. Radella told me about a great rock straight east of here in the Strah called Carraig Faire, where we could be out of the strike falcons' reach. She said she thought we could get there before light if we hurried. It's safe, but it's not much. There's no water and no shade. All we'll have is what we climb up there with."

"Well," said Kieran with a wise glance at Doona, "that sounds inviting."

"At least if we get up there we'll have our lives," said Doona. "You can be strike falcon meat if you must, Kieran."

"
I should've known better than to have challenged anything her precious guide under the lore master had to say,
"
he thought.
"
She practically worships him.
"

On they went as fast as they could possibly manage, through the calls of the crickets, here and there nearly running, following paths when they could, but mostly flinging grass from their faces, yet hard east, every step of the way, if Oisin could manage it. With the tall grass, they could see nothing at all any fair distance away from them, so that they would have lost their way altogether had it not been for the moon, which had by now been westering for some time.

Little Rory was stumbling along with everything he could muster as his big sister doggedly towed him through the grass. He bravely refused to whimper, but he had stumbled and fallen so many times that he was sniffling and his knees were terribly sore. Suddenly they both fell. Rory landed down in the black shadows with his hands astraddle what he thought was an enormous cow-pile. With a hiss, a great black paddle reared up from the middle of it and bit him on the cheek. "Creena!" he shrieked.

"Snake!" she screamed as it raced across the backs of her legs like a vanishing coach whip.

Oisin was there at once, claymore in hand. "Did anyone get bitten?"

"Cheek!" sobbed Rory.

"Let me see," he said, taking him into his lap and taking out his folding knife. "Cac! No light! Damnu air!"

"Here!" whispered Doona as she knelt before them with cupped hands. "I'm supposed to be able to.” Directly there was a violet point of light hovering above her hands, bright enough to see by.

"A mage light!" said Oisin. "Only my father can do that." He made cuts at once, sucking and spitting into the grass. Presently he shifted Rory to Creena's lap and stepped aside with Doona. "You surely can't boil water without fire, can you?"

Doona shook her head.

"Well, I can't do anything with this slainte ollmhor except have him chew some. I can't make the hot poultice."

"Maybe I can't boil water without fire," she whispered, "but you know that I have the very magicks in me which you've seen me use. Please let me try to save his life."

"I've seen you use them to draw out the poison from wasp stings. This thing was a huge snake. I saw it get away. You could die..."

"Please..."

Oisin squeezed shut his eyes and nodded. 

When he opened them, Doona had already taken charge of Rory, and Rory was in convulsions. Soon she was in convulsions of her own. Oisin tried pulling her away, but she clung all the tighter. Suddenly, she gave a great gasp and slumped over. Oisin scooped her up, his heart pounding with fear. But when he turned her over he was elated to find that she and Rory were both breathing normally. They each appeared to be in a deep sleep of exhaustion. He closed his eyes and held her to his chest for some time, until a movement in the grass beside him made him look up to see a wide-eyed Olloo with Kieran beside him, seething with jealousy.

Oisin laid Doona beside Rory and stood up. "They're both going to be fine. Who knows how long they'll need to sleep, but when they wake up, they'll be as fit as they were."

"You're sure?" said Olloo.

Oisin nodded.

Kieran glared at Olloo and Oisin before planting himself firmly by Doona's side to hold her hand.

Olloo rolled his eyes at this. "How are we going to get to Carraig Faire before dawn?" he said.

"You take Rory and I'll take Doona."

"What about Kieran?”

"Well, someone has to help us get them up onto our backs," said Oisin, "and he can spell us off, too."

Larks tinkled far overhead. Olloo noticed the very faintest glow in the east through the gently waving heads of grass, but kept it to himself. "I'll declare," he said as he gave Rory a heave to reposition him, "if the shawkyn spooghey can live with snakes like the one back there, they're pretty tough."

"You can count on it," said Kieran, "but if we're actually going to try living out here in all this grass alongside them, the day's coming when we'll get to find out just how tough. Don't you wonder if this whole idea isn't madness? Think about how long we've lived near the Elf Killers simply to avoid what we're rushing off to do. Does that sound at all safe to you?"

"Not in the least," said Olloo, pausing so that Creena could take the hat that was simply not going to stay on Rory's head. "But it's not as if we had any choice."

"Yea? Well why didn't we just return to camp when we had the chance? We could've left this cursed place with everyone else. Instead, we're trapped here forever. And surviving the strike falcons is going to be harder than surviving the Marfora Siofra, truth to tell. Even the trolls are afraid of the strike falcons. Big favor our good friend Oisin did us, aye?"

"What's the matter with you? You know very well that we'd have led the trolls straight there on our tail. And there would have been far less escaping them there than here."

"Go on! The trolls couldn't possibly have killed or captured everyone. If they could, why didn't they do it years ago?"

"What does that have to do with anything? If they found our people on the beach with no escape other than the sea, and the ships weren't ready yet..."

"Yes, yes. I can see that. It would have been very bad..."

"And our fault," said Olloo.

Kieran looked away as he shook his head and walked on in silence.

Creena tugged at Olloo's sleeve and pointed into the grass.

"Shh," he whispered, bending down to her ear as he walked. "I see it. I'm watching it." Soon he and Creena stopped and squatted.

"What are you all stopping for?" said Kieran, who had just started to lag.

"There's something in there," said Olloo as he heaved Rory into a different position. "It's been following us. Go get Oisin. He's gotten clean out of sight. Start out real easy. Don't run.”

"Now?”

“I'm watching the spot. Go on.”

Kieran slinked warily away as Olloo strained to make out details through the grass. A nearby field sparrow sang out its first declaration of the day.

Oisin appeared almost at once, bow in hand. "Where is it?" he said as he nocked an arrow. “What did you see?”

"Right through there," he said, pointing into the tall grass. "I saw it until just now. It's been following us and stopping every time we do. It's one whopper of a bird, but if it's a shawk spoogh, it's 'way smaller than I was led to believe... There he is. See?"

"My. He's the biggest thing with feathers I've ever seen, and he certainly is watching us. But you're right, I thought they were bigger than that," he said, craning his head from side to side. "I also had the impression that they were white with black crests and wings. It's getting light enough to see that this fellow's streaked with different shades of brown. I'd lay odds that he's half grown."

The bird suddenly ducked out of sight as Kieran quietly approached, carrying Doona.

"Has she stirred?" whispered Olloo.

Kieran nodded and stayed silent, trying to see what they had in the grass.

"There he is," whispered Olloo. Oisin drew his bow.

"What if you make him squawk?" said Kieran. "Sorry to spoil your shot, but what if its cries bring the parents? It is growing light, after all. And did you see your big rock when you laid out Doona in the path, up yonder?"