Elvenshore: 03 - Elf's Bane (9 page)

Captain Verian had to work his way up in the ranks, starting out as a foot soldier and proving his worth over and over again to gain rank. His promotion to Captain had been one of the happiest of his life. It was har
d to see someone given outright what it took him years to earn. Verian didn’t like Istuin and had told him so several times.

After seeing how brave the young Sub C
aptain had been he was now regretting being so harsh to him. Istuin, in Verian’s opinion, had just proved his worth.

Verian was older than most of the officers. He had a wisp of gray hair, on his otherwise blonde head. It was unusual for an Elf to have any gray at all. It made him look older and made Verian wonder if he had been passed up for command a time or two because of it. At this moment it didn’t matter. Bellios had not made it out of the town and now as the senior officer present, it was up to Captain Verian to get what was left of the Elf regular army back to the capital.

The Human horsemen’s willingness to take his wounded back for him was an enormous burden lifted from the Captain. Dragging back the wounded with them while on foot would have been a huge hindrance to the army and would have cost them a lot more time in getting back. He was wondering if he could make it even now without getting caught and slaughtered on the road.

Captain Verian formed the army into ranks and had them move out. They did so with the Trolls still in the town of Morgus Tier, smashing and burning the town.
He tried would look back once in a while in sadness to see flames rising up.

The troops were tired so the marching was steady but slower than Verian had hoped it would be. He tried to coax them to move faster but it was just not in them, after the last few days of battling the enemy, to do so. As the sun dispelled the darkness, the
morale of the troops improved and the speed of the marching also improved a little. Still Verian knew that if the Trolls were coming this way, they would catch the Elves on the road in the night. They didn’t stop for meals. The troops ate what they could as they marched. Water was also passed out to the warriors and they walked.

When darkness began to fall Istuin came up to Verian, “
Sir, I can stay behind with fifty men to slow the enemy so the rest of the army can escape.”

“No, it would only take the Trolls a few minutes to cut their way through fifty men and they would be upon us soon after that anyway. We will stay as one unit and fight as one unit.”

“Yes, Sir,” Istuin said to Verian and went back to the ranks.

When the time had come that Verian thought the Trolls would be upon them, he had his men hide in the brush on both sides of the road. It was then, in the far distance, that he noticed the fires in the town of Morgus Tier had been relit. The Trolls had not completed the task of destroying the town.
Hoping that the Trolls would be at the their task of destruction all night, Verian formed his army back up into ranks and once again marched on.

It was a joyful sight for the troops to see the walls of the Capital City in the early morning sunlight. Not a lot of them had thought they would see the city again when they realized how large their enemy was and had bloodthirsty. The army marched boldly up to
the gate as it opened up to allow them in.

Verian was greeted by another officer and dear friend of his. “I am so glad to see you, when I saw that the town was burning I feared the worst.”

“We have returned, but a lot fewer in numbers than when we left,” Verian replied. Our leaders are gone. We never did find Bellios and Armurous was badly wounded. The beast will soon be upon us, so we can only hope that the walls of the Capital hold a long time.”

“Yes, we can only hope.”

“Have the Humans left?
”
Chancellor
Armurous asked. He was in pain and the drink that the healer had given him was making him groggy. He was sleeping most of his days away now.

Kolis was looking out of the balcony window in Chancellor’s chamber, “Yes
, they left this morning.”

“Is it night?” The throne was in the center of the room. It was an exact duplicate of the one that
the Elves had left behind on Elvenshore, bu
t
Armurous could not see out of the windows from where he sat.

“Yes
, night has fallen,” Kolis replied.

It took Armurous a few minutes to concentrate
. He struggled to remember what he wanted to ask, then he finally remembered. “Are there any more ships that can be made usable?”

“Just two, the shipwrights looked at all of them and are going to take
what they need off the others to repair the two. It will take some time, but I think with the Trolls breathing down their necks they are motivated.”

Suddenly, through the cobwebs in his head the
Chancellor
remembered something. “The troops, have they made it back?”

“No
, they have not, but do not worry, the monsters have returned to Morgus Tier and are finishing what they started last night. The town is ablaze again.”

Armurous relaxed on the throne
. “Good, let them burn it, it was a bad place to build a town anyway. Why build on sacred ground?”

Kolis smiled at that, “I would like some of that drink the healer has given
you. It has improved your sense of humor.”

The Chancellor laughed despite the pain. “Did we have the wagons back from the coast?” he asked at length.

“It was hard to get Mauric to give them up, but I was able to persuade him,” Kolis said, as he fondly remembered holding his sword to Mauric’s throat.

“Good, we will get the wounded in them and send them to the coast in the morning.” Armurous
hesitated; he knew this next part was not going to be well received. “I want you to put me in a wagon with the rest of the wounded. I am no good here.”

Kolis
turned from the window to look at the Chancellor, “You will need to appoint an army commander to be Chancellor in your place then, or that will make me Chancellor and I am no politician.”

“No need, you will do just fine. You steer a mean team of horses
; just pretend the government is a team and steer it accordingly.”

“Now I really want some of that drink.”

They both laughed, and then Armurous grew serious. “We built a paradise of music, art and literature here. We built beauty in all we did, the buildings, the sculpture, even the cobblestones were made precisely. An Elf utopia and then we ruined it all by one stupid decision.”

Kolis looked back out the window, ”I hope there are some of us left to rebuild.”

 Darnic Tewl and his men had been out all night. They watched from a distance as the monsters destroyed the last of the building at Morgus Tiel. He had watched their destruction before, but the last time he did it was his village that the beasts were gleefully destroying. He knew it would go on all night. The monsters were running out of Elf communities to burn, there was only Vil Harben, Fernar Darus and Vil Mawe left to go.

Aron came up to him, “I now understand the hopelessness of the battle when you were driven to the swampland the first time.”

“I am concerned,” Darnic replied. “They have not attacked our villages, are they going to finish off the Elves and then go after us?”

"Will we fight them if they do start destroying our villages?" Aron asked.

"No," came the short reply.

"Then what does it matter?"

Darnic was satisfied with that. "You are right."

Kolis sa
w
Armurous and the rest of the wounded off and then sat there to watch the wagons leave through the gate. He then met with the surviving officers of the battle of Morgus Tier. There was just one senior officer, a Captain, the others were Sub Captains and Leaders.

Chancellor Kolis said to the Captain, “What is your name?”

“Captain Verian.”

“You are now Commander Varian as you are the only high ranking officer that has fought these beasts,” Kolis said.

“Thank you, Sir,” replied Verian. He was tall like most of the Elves, with a strong jaw that gave him a look of determination. Blonde, shoulder length hair extended out from under his steel helmet.

“Now, what do we need to win this war?”

Verian was downhearted. “There is no way to win, the more men we put against them, the more they kill. We are just targets for their clubs.”

“Then how do we delay the Trolls from attacking the sea coast before we can get people on
the ships to Elvenshore?” The Chancellor was upset, but he would not show it because he wanted to hide the severity of the situation from his subordinates.

“We only need enough men in the Capital to keep the walls shored up during the attacks. I suggest we send the bulk of the army to Vil Mawe. It has no wall, but if we dig a ditch and fill it full of oil, every time they come upon us we can light it up and have fire separate us from the monsters. It is th
ere where we can make our stand. The monsters walk fast but they will only have a couple of hours to do their mischief. By the time they make it to the coast, at the Capital, they will have around four hours.”

The Chancellor liked the idea. “Very well
. Appoint an Under Commander and leave him in charge here at the capital, then take the bulk of the army with you and shore up the defenses around Vil Mawe. I want regular reports back so I will know what is going on at all times.”

“
Yes, Sir,” Verian said. “I will appoint Istuin here as my Under Commander and I will take my leave.”

“Very well,” said the Chancellor.

Istuin was dismayed. To be declared as Under Commander was an honor, but in this case it looked more like a death sentence. It was not as though Verian and he got along; Verian could not stand him and Istuin knew it. To Istuin it looked like Verian had found the perfect way to get rid of his adversary.

Elvenshore
 

The third of the five Elf
ships were unloading. Ermort and Sarchise watched them from on top the wall of the fortress city. They had two more in the harbor waiting to dock.

“Tell me more about this Gilead
; what is he like?” Sarchise asked.

“He is an Under Captain, which is a low officer in the Elf army. He was in the Calvary, but their Calvary got cut to pieces their first time out
,” Ermort answered.

Sarchise
was weary after his journey from the Mountains of Iron. His wife and he had ridden hard to get there, picking up Amlius on their way. It had been a long time since he had seen another Elf, other than Amlius. It seemed strange to watch shipload after shipload of them disembarking.  “Is there any further news from the new arrivals?”

“We are getting reports from the Elves that one of their fortress cities is under attack, and that the Trolls have destroyed a village and massacred the inhabitants. There w
ere only a very few survivors. There are also a lot of rumors about their Chancellor going missing. All of our information is over a week old before we get it however. By now they could have won the war and will be wanting their people back momentarily,” Ermort surmised.

“By the description of these Trolls that we have
heard, I doubt that.”

Fawn joined the two men on the wall
. Ermort gave her a respective bow, and Sarchise gave her a kiss. She put her arm around him as she looked out over the harbor. “Our ancient enemy returns. I wonder how that will bode for us and all of Elvenshore.”

“The wars were a long time ago. Now that we have peace in all of the land, I think that they will join us in our peace,” Sarchise replied.

Ermort smiled, “At least up until the time that they find the Dwarf cities and forts in the Westwood.”

“True,” Sarchise replied
. “That might come as a little bit of a shock to them.”

There
was the sound of a trumpeter echoing through the city. “It is time for the meeting of the leaders of the land,”   Ermort said. The three of them headed down to the Governor’s hall to be in attendance.

The Governor was standing next to his chair at the far end of the table when the three of them entered the room. Amlius had come in behind Sarchise as he didn’t want to be the first person that Gideon laid eyes on.

Gilead had been meeting with the Governor, so he was already in the room when the meeting was called. He had wanted to be there to greet all of the leaders of the land in hopes of finding solutions to most of the Elves current problems.

King Therin was the first to enter the
room, Gilead bowed low, the common greeting of the Dwarf, The King bowed in response. “I am Gilead from the land of Far Shore. Thank you for coming, King,”

“I am Therin son of Kyle, King of High Mountain. I
bring greetings from the Dwarves of High Mountain,” responded the King.

“Thank you, oh gracious King.”