The Sorcerers Academy had always existed on the plot of land next to Jewlian Castle, although what used to be a short walk several hundred years ago was now significantly longer due to the vast size of each complex. Jewlian Castle and the Sorcerers Academy had grown up together as Kentar’s influence had increased. Kentar began with the founding of Jewlian over a thousand years ago, which at that time had consisted of little more than a few families in a fishing village banding together for protection.
One of the founders of Jewlian had been Vizcom the Clear. He was known far and wide as the most powerful wizard of his generation. His power and reputation drew a number of apprentices to his tutelage. At one point, Vizcom had so many apprentices that he decided to found a magic-user academy as it were. It was his dream that the Academy would forever be a place where people with magical talent could come together to be with their own kind. And for his predecessor’s efforts, Rafa was eternally grateful. The Sorcerers Academy was a powerful place. Even the citizens of Jewlian gave it a wide berth. From the outside, it looked like any other place of learning with marble buildings, old trees, and green lawns. Inside the walled complex was the highest concentration of magic potential in all of Tellus.
Rafa and his two aides easily passed through the castle gate and made their way to King Benjin’s throne room. Rafa asked the two aides to sit outside in the waiting room by the enormous throne room doors while he walked down a long hallway and entered the throne room through a smaller side door. Rafa opened the door to find the King surrounded by twelve of his trusted lords, all talking excitedly. Rafa shut the door as quietly as he could and stayed in the background, listening.
The captain of the City Watch was saying, “A ship from Sena arrived three days ago and the captain sent his sailors into our city for shore leave. The ship was crewed by the dregs of the earth, but my port master let them dock as is our custom. Unfortunately, they did not return the courtesy to our fair city: the number of bar brawls went up significantly, one of the sailors killed a man and has claimed self-defense, one of the sailors allegedly robbed a silversmith of an entire set of tableware, and finally, another of these sailors is being held for raping the daughter of a wealthy bazaar merchant. The captain of the ship claims his men are innocent and is requesting permission to leave our port immediately. Two of our galleons are the only thing holding the ship in our port.”
Murmurs went up around the room as everyone made a comment about this outrageous list of crimes. “Burn the boat with everyone in it and send the ashes back to Sena.”
“Kill the entire crew as an example and sell off the ship.”
“These things happen in any large city. Let them go and we will be all the better when they are gone.”
King Benjin looked around the room searching for a solution. He finally spotted Rafa standing over by the side door and held up his hand for silence. “Ah, Rafa. I’m so glad you are here. Come closer and give me your counsel on this case.”
Rafa bowed his head in submission and walked over to stand on the right side of the King. Everyone remained silent as Rafa cleared his throat and began, “Trade with our neighbors is critical to the future of Kentar. We cannot be perceived as unfair and unjust or ships will not come to our ports to trade.”
The King said, “But we can’t just let these kinds of crimes go unanswered either.”
“Of course not, your Majesty. I recommend we try the one sailor for murder and the other for rape in our court of law. I further recommend we search their entire ship to look for a set of silverware. If any of the sailors are found guilty, then we will punish them accordingly and have the captain of the ship publicly whipped in the city square.”
The King nodded his head. “That sounds reasonable. Certainly no one could argue we were being too harsh on these sailors from Sena. And if all of the charges are false, or can’t be proven, then we will let the ship go on its way.”
Everyone around the throne room murmured their agreement with this verdict and Rafa said, “That is justice, your Majesty.”
The King turned to the rest of his advisors. “Very good. Do as Rafa suggests. What is the next order of business?”
Rafa jumped in before anyone else could make a sound. “Your Majesty. If I may, I have a matter of critical importance to bring before the Crown.”
“By all means, my friend.”
Rafa turned to address King Benjin. “You no doubt remember the letter we received from the King of Armena ten days ago?”
“Do you mean the letter we got from the King of the elves? The elves who you said left Glenmyr Forest three hundred years ago? Yes, I vaguely recall that letter, since it is all I have thought about since you brought it to my attention. I am now forced to choose between abandoning a logging town critical to the expansion of Kentar and a possible conflict against an adversary that I didn’t know existed ten days ago.”
“Yes, I throw myself at the mercy of the Crown for my poor judgment in that matter. However, it is worse than you think because the decision concerning Endwood has already been made for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the logging town we established inside Glenmyr Forest has been destroyed by the elves of Armena.”
Gasps went up from the lords gathered around the throne. The King replied, “How is that possible? We sent an entire battalion of soldiers with the settlers.”
“Let me explain. The captain of Endwood showed up at the gates of Jewlian the day before this one and told me what happened. Apparently, the settlers and soldiers established the town and logged the forest for nearly a moon’s turn until four elves showed up at their front gate. The elves explained that Glenmyr Forest belonged to them, and that by rights, we had to abandon Endwood and return to Kentar.”
The King turned a light pink and raised his voice a notch. “Their King’s letter said as much. By what right do they claim ownership of Glenmyr Forest? We haven’t heard from the elves to the east in over three hundred years. We thought they were gone; there can’t be more than a few outposts left. Why do they need the entire forest?”
“I do not know what to tell you, your Majesty. I do not know what gives them the right to be so bold.”
“Seems to me that they don’t have any claim to the forest, and if they did at one time, then they lost that claim long ago.”
“I agree with you completely, your Majesty, but it gets much worse. Captain Sheval listened respectfully to the elves’ complaint and told them he would consult with the Crown of Kentar. He further said that he would give them an answer in a moon’s turn, but apparently that was not good enough for the elves. The elves became hostile and attacked one of Captain Sheval’s soldiers, saying that humans were selfish and that they would destroy the entire town.”
The King’s color and anger raised another level. “By all the gods in the heavens, what gives these elves the right to attack my lawful soldiers?”
“You have not yet heard the half of it, your Majesty. The elves were driven off, but Endwood was attacked ten days later by two male giants. These giants killed scores of our citizens and soldiers and took most of Endwood’s food stores.”
“That is most unfortunate, but it doesn’t sound like that attack was the work of the elves of Armena.”
“I believe it was, your Majesty. If you will allow me to bring in two witnesses to testify before the throne?”
The King nodded his ascent, and Rafa sent for the two aides that walked over with him from the Sorcerers Academy. The large throne room doors opened and the two aides walked silently up to the dais. The more senior of the two wore a white robe with a good deal of purple trim around the wrists, neckline, and down the front. The junior Sorcerer wore a mostly purple robe with a good amount of white woven into it. Both Sorcerers stopped at the bottom of the dais and waited for Rafa to speak.
“The two of you were called to the town of Endwood by the emergency signal that is given to every captain, were you not?”
Bo
th men responded together, “Yes, my lord.”
“Will you tell the King what happened when you arrived at Endwood?”
The senior Sorcerer said, “Of course, my lord. Your Majesty, we teleported into Endwood to find it under attack by two male giants. The giants had broken through the town’s defenses and were destroying and killing at will. The lieutenant who summoned us gathered his routed troops; together we were able to wound the giants enough to make them leave.”
Rafa said, “And what was the state of the town when the fight was over?”
“Several score were killed and even more were wounded. Some were soldiers and some were innocent loggers. During the battle, in addition to stealing most of the town’s food, the giants ripped the roofs off many homes until they found a young couple to carry off into the woods.”
The King leaned forward with quiet anger and said, “For what purpose?”
“Presumably to eat them. There is no way to know, your Majesty.”
Rafa asked, “And was there any evidence that the elves were behind this attack?”
“There was no clear evidence linking the elves to the attack, my lord, but if you look at the circumstantial evidence I believe you can conclude that the elves used the giants to attack Endwood.”
“And why do you say that?”
“After the battle was over, the lieutenant who summoned us found his captain lying face down in the mud. Captain Sheval had been shot in the back through the heart.”
The junior Sorcerer pulled something wrapped in a cloth out of his robes and walked up the five steps to stand before the King. He said, “At first we suspected Captain Sheval was killed by friendly fire.” The junior Sorcerer unwrapped the cloth and let the entire court see the arrow inside. “But if that were true, then the fletching on this arrow would be the standard Kentarian white instead of the black that you see here. Also, the placement of the arrow was too precise. Friendly fire would likely not have hit the good Captain through the heart.”
The junior Sorcerer turned to his left and handed the arrow and the cloth to one of the lords on the dais. He then retreated down the steps and stood beside his more senior companion.
The King did not say a thing, and the silence endured. The King put his right elbow on the arm of the throne and rested his head in his hand, apparently deep in thought. Rafa turned to the two Sorcerers and said, “Thank you for your testimony. You may take your leave.”
Both Sorcerers bowed low and said simultaneously, “Yes, my lord.” They turned on their heels and walked back through the long throne room and out the huge doors. As the huge doors closed and a resounding thud filled the chamber, Rafa turned back to King Benjin and said, “The worst is yet to come, your Majesty.”
The King took his head out of his hand and said, “What could be worse than this?”
Rafa said, “After the giant attack, Endwood was damaged, but still intact. The Lieutenant who summoned the Sorcerers assumed command of the battalion and gave himself a field promotion to captain. In his testimony to me yesterday, he said that five days after the giant attack, the elves came to the edge of the woods in force.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that more than four hundred elves appeared on the edge of Glenmyr Forest and attacked the town of Endwood directly. They rained arrows down on the town and broke through the wooden barricade. Our troops tried valiantly to repel the invaders at the cost of their own lives. Our citizens fled into the woods with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Most of our soldiers were killed covering their retreat. After the massacre was over, the new captain gathered everyone he could find and started out on foot for the city of Locus. The Captain left his refugees and soldiers in Locus in order to travel to Jewlian by himself to offer me his firsthand account. I can arrange for you to speak with Captain Campbell tomorrow, if your Majesty would like?”
Rafa expected an emotional outburst, but King Benjin simply waved his hand dismissively and said, “Never mind that. We need to send a scouting party to Endwood to see if this captain’s story is true.”
“Your Majesty, it has already been done. I took the liberty of having two of my Sorcerers teleport to Endwood to see if they could find out what happened.”
“And what did they find?”
Rafa turned to the huge throne room doors and said, “Bring in the body.” The doors opened and two guards came forward carrying a gurney between them. The guards advanced slowly with their burden between them. They marched up the stairs to the dais and laid the gurney down on the ground ten feet from the King. Lying in the gurney was a large, dead elf dressed in immaculate chain shirt armor with plate mail covering the shoulders, elbows, and hands. Everyone stared at the dead elf, soaking in every detail. The elf had a large scar on his left cheek that crossed the side of his face. The surcoat that covered his chest was white with what looked like the black silhouette of an evergreen tree in front of the rising sun.
Rafa waited until everyone had looked over the corpse before he said, “The scouts that I sent to Endwood did not find much, but they found this body underneath the logs of a collapsed house. My scouts found the town abandoned and said that many of the buildings were destroyed. They said nearly all of the evidence of a battle had been hastily removed. This warrior elf was the only body, human or elf, that they found. Presumably, the elves hastily removed all of the evidence to obscure their role in this massacre. They overlooked the body before you only because it was buried under debris and out of sight.”
The King lunged to his feet and said, “Get this thing out of my sight!” The King walked behind his throne while the guards hurried to pick up the body and remove it from the room. When the body was gone, the King turned to Rafa and the rest of his advisors and said, “What am I to do about this outrage? I will not let this injustice stand. Do you hear me? No one has the right to attack my citizens and my troops without cause.”
Rafa remained silent, not wanting to say too much. It did not take long before one of the other noble advisors spoke up. “It is an act of war, your Majesty.”
Another nobleman added, “We must raise an army and go out to meet these elves. Honor demands it.”
The King raised his hand and drew it down in a cutting motion. “Bah. How can we do that? Glenmyr Forest is rumored to be dense woods and quite large in scale to match. We would be fighting the elves in their homeland on unknown ground.”
General Donell took two steps forward and spoke boldly to the King. “Your Majesty, we will crush them because our cause is righteous. I have never been defeated in battle, and I have fought wars with much less justification than this. Let me raise an army and hold the King’s banner high. Let me crush these elves who have wrongly attacked one of your towns without provocation.”
The King liked what he was hearing but was still cautious. “How will you proceed on unknown ground?”
General Donell said, “We will send scouts far out ahead of the main body. They will not take us unaware. It is likely that the Library of Jewlian has ancient maps of the Old Elf Empire. We will investigate the cities we knew existed in the past. No doubt most of the cities will be abandoned, but the elves must be hiding somewhere. We will eventually find them, your Majesty, and when we do, we will make them pay for this injustice.”
Rafa spoke up one more time. “Your Majesty. I ordered the Captain of Endwood who reported to me yesterday to remain in the city in case we needed his services. I recommend that we send Captain Campbell to the frontier with General Donell. He has obviously fought these elves before, and he knows the terrain better than anyone else in Kentar.”
The King raised his arm and pointed it at Rafa, with a smile on his face. “Very good, my friend. Assign this Captain to General Donell’s staff. In the meantime, prepare the Sorcerers for war. They will march with the army out to our eastern frontier. I don’t want anything left to chance.” The King moved his hand and pointed it at General Donell. “General, raise an army as quickly as you can and ma
rch it out to what is left of Endwood. Search the woods for these elves. We will have their explanation or we will have their blood. But I will have satisfaction for the massacre of my countrymen.”
The General took a step forward with a look of pure determination on his face and went down on one knee, with his head bowed low. “Yes, your Majesty. It will be done as you command.”
The King called a close to petitions for the day and told everyone to leave the throne room so that he could think. Rafa smiled on the inside as he walked briskly away. Everything had gone exactly as planned.
Chapter 79: War in the Heavens
Invictus, father of the elves, left his realm in the heavens by himself and went to Evona’s citadel. Things had gotten out of hand, and he needed to speak with Evona before things went any further. He felt sorry for the Krone guards he saw as he flew over Evona’s kingdom, misguided as they were, and knew he was partly to blame for what they had become.
Invictus flew through Evona’s domain and landed light as a feather well away from the door to her citadel. He strode confidently forward. Guarding the door were two dracoliches. No doubt they were powerful weapons who served their queen well, capable of destroying anyone unwelcome who approached the door, but as they moved their massive frames to block his path, he put them down with a thought. The doors were enormous and magically sealed from the inside by the goddess herself, but Invictus merely reached out his hand and pushed the doors open as if they were on a revolving hinge.
Evona herself sat high upon the throne, and upon hearing the door swing open, she looked up with her entire army of followers behind her. Demons and dragons, vampires and devils, beholders and Krone closed in around Invictus with impressive speed. As her followers encircled him, Evona stood up from her throne and yelled, “Wait! Let him approach.”
Do the Gods Despise Us? Page 30
