by Sean Hinn
“Well, seems like an easy decision, isn’t it?”
Trellia nodded. “It is. And that’s why you need to suggest it. Get people in the habit of following your advice, and if it’s good advice, they’ll be happy to keep following you.”
Aria curled a lip. “Seems a bit manipulative, Trellia.”
The Vicaris scoffed. “Aria, welcome to leadership. If you thought it was something different, the joke’s on you.”
Aria nodded. “I’ll trust your wisdom on this, Trellia. But it doesn’t sit quite right with me.”
“Good enough.”
The elven women returned to the group. Shyla handed them each a wooden bowl of vegetables and nuts.
“These’re good!” she said happily through a full mouth. “Whatcha call ’em?”
Aria looked into the bowl.
“Well, these are beans, and this is lettuce. These here are–”
Trellia nudged the princess from behind.
“Ah, right.” Aria addressed her companions. “Everyone, a moment please?”
All eyes were on the princess.
“Ah, well. So, it looks like there’s a storm coming, and–”
“What storm?” Lucan interrupted.
Aria pointed to the east. “Well, if you look at those clouds, it seems like–”
“Looks like more ash to me,” J’arn said.
“Yep,” Lucan agreed.
Aria cleared her throat. “Ah, well–”
“I’m about tired of all this ash, if you ask me,” Lucan said. Shyla and J’arn nodded. “Bad enough we have to–”
“Lucan not-Thorne!” Trellia shouted. “Aria is trying to speak! Is a woman’s voice not sufficient to command your attention?”
Lucan blanched. “Well, no, I mean, yes, I just–”
Shyla elbowed Lucan in the ribs. “Might just wanna shut it, Luc.”
Lucan shut it.
Aria smiled at Shyla. “Yes, well, thank you. Um, what I meant to say, is that there’s a storm coming, and given the weather, the temperature I mean, it’s probably going to snow.”
Aria continued, gaining confidence as she spoke. When she finished explaining their options, she hesitated for a moment, and Shyla chimed in.
“Well, seems to be nuthin’ fer it. We ride all night, that ain’t so bad, is it?”
Aria nodded. “Yes, that’s what I was going to–”
“Seems a good idea to me, Shyla,” J’arn agreed. “I’m fine with it, so long as ye think Wolf can handle it.”
“Oh, he’ll be fine, wontcha, Wolf?”
Wolf worried over an elusive itch, ignoring the question.
Lucan voiced his approval. “Fine with me, too. Good plan, Shyla. I’m not all that tired. Feeling great, in fact.”
“I agree as well,” Mikallis said, glancing to Lucan. “Best we avoid the notice of men.”
“What do you think, Aria?” Shyla asked.
“Well, as I said, that’s what I was going to suggest–”
“So, it’s decided,” Lucan said. “I’ll take point again, unless anyone objects.”
“I do,” Mikallis said. “If we’re to ride in the dark, I think it’s safest if I lead.”
“On that I agree,” Trellia said. “No offense, Lucan, but an elf sees better in darkness.”
Lucan shrugged. “Works for me. I’ll bring up the rear, then.” Lucan glowered at Mikallis. “That all right with you, Captain?”
Mikallis stood and began gathering bowls, not bothering to reply. Shyla and J’arn took their leave as well. Trellia and Aria shared an exasperated look as Lucan leaned in, whispering.
“It’s a good plan, Trellia. Your idea, correct?” He shot a wink to Aria. The princess was red with frustration.
“Oh, just go away, you idiot!” Trellia barked.
Lucan stood, laughing. “Gotta work on that leadership stuff, Aria. A fine effort, though.”
Aria shook her head.
Trellia stood, offering her princess a hand up. “He’s right, you know.”
“Shut up, Trellia.”
XXXX: THE MAW
Ferris nudged his sergeant awake.
“Sun’s up, Sarge,” he whispered. “Well, somewhere.”
Jade sat stiffly. “Ugh. All right. Who’s up?”
“Just us. Wanted to talk to ye for a bit.”
Jade rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stood, following Ferris to the mouth of the cave.
“Anything from Mama?”
Ferris shook his head. “Quiet all night. Look here.”
Ferris led Jade from the entrance onto the narrow ledge. The grey, overcast light of morning revealed Papa’s carcass to the left, covered in a thick layer of frost. He pointed to the right, towards a thin trail of blood leading away from the cave and down the hillside.
“Not much,” Jade said meaningfully.
“Aye. Not much at all, considering.”
“Safe bet Lux missed anything vital.”
“We all did,” Jade agreed. “Tough ol’ thing.”
“There be something else.”
“Aye?”
Ferris nodded to the cave. “Ye’ll want to hear it from Nova. She talked to one o’ them gnomes last night. The female.”
“Thinsel.”
“Aye. Might be we’ll need to turn back.”
Jade frowned.
“Let her tell it.”
Jade turned into the cave. “Up, ye sons’ o dung! Get up!”
Groans emitted from wrapped lumps huddled in half-erected tents. Kari was the first to emerge, followed by Lux.
“Sleep any?” Jade asked the new scout.
Kari shook her head. “Not much.”
“Aye. Ye’ll sleep tonight.”
“What’s to eat?” Lux asked sunnily.
Jade and Jasper approached.
“Whatever ye make,” Jasper replied. “Your turn, Lux.”
Lux frowned. “Ah, Sarge, ye know I can’t cook.”
“Then ye be in luck. Ain’t no fire,” Ferris said. “Set out some dried stuff.”
Lux moved to comply. Jasper joined him.
“Ferris tells me ye talked with the gnome woman,” Jade prodded Nova as she approached.
“Name’s Thinsel,” said Thinsel, limping painfully behind Jade. Oort followed unsteadily.
“Ye should be restin’, lady Thinsel,” Jade suggested. “Ye spend too much time on those feet, ye’ll lose a toe to be sure. Ye should take more rest as well, mister Oort.”
“Been restin’ all night,” Oort croaked. “We need to speak with yeh.”
“Aye” Jade nodded. “But first, are ye well? Both of ye?”
The pair nodded. “Cold, sure as stone, but well enough,” Thinsel replied. “Us gnomes are made o’ hardy stuff.”
“How’s the leg?” Ferris asked Oort.
“Bleedin’ stopped. It’ll heal. Now, we need to tell yeh–”
“Eat first. Then we’ll talk,” Jade snapped. “Go on, now. Fill them bellies.”
The Greykins nodded, following Ferris to where Lux and Jasper prepared breakfast. Jade waited until they had walked a few paces.
“How’s the arm?” she asked Nova.
Nova sighed. “It ain’t great, Sarge. Got me a bit o’ fever.”
Jade moved to feel the scout’s forehead.
“Aye, but not bad. Not yet. Eat.”
“Don’t feel like eatin’.”
Jade glared. “Didn’t ask what ye felt like.”
Nova nodded. “Aye, Sarge.”
The eight shared a meal of salted whitetail and mead. Oort and Thinsel devoured their share.
“Ye can have a bit more if ye like,” Lux offered.
Thinsel shook her head. “No, thank yeh,” she said through a full mouth. “This here’s plenty.”
Oort nudged his wife. “Speak for yerself, woman. I’ll have a bit more.” Oort took the offered slice from Lux, tearing it in half. He offered the larger half to Thinsel.
“No, you eat it, Oort.
Yeh lost so much blood.”
“Take it, Thinny.” The couple’s eyes met. Thinsel took the meat. She patted her husband gently on his thigh.
Jade waited until they had their fill before speaking.
“All right, what have ye to tell us?”
Oort and Thinsel exchanged a glance. Oort nodded.
“Well, yeh must not be angry with us now, understand,” Thinsel began. “We ain’t Elders.”
Jade nodded.
Thinsel continued. “But the Elders be up to somethin’, somethin’ dark. The lady Cindra told us–”
“Cindra?” Kari asked. “Cindra Sandshingle?”
“Yup. One and the same,” Oort said. “Yeh know of ’er?”
Jade shot Kari a look, silently bidding her to hold her tongue. “Continue your tale, Thinsel.”
Thinsel and Oort together shared the tale over the course of the next hour. They began with their daughter’s trial and ended with their arrival at the cave, leaving out no detail, save their daughter’s name. The dwarves listened in rapt attention, without interruption.
“So yeh see? Yeh must tell your king,” Oort pleaded. “Afore they send th’army up to G’naath. They be comin’, don’t they? That why yer here?”
The scouts knew better than to reply; they all looked to Jade. The sergeant looked to be boiling in rage.
“So, it be as Lat told it.” She spoke to her scouts, ignoring the Greykins for the moment.
“Just like,” Jasper agreed. “Dark magic. I knew it.”
“Aye, ’cept he were also right that it be only a few in G’naath responsible for this mess,” Ferris added.
Jasper shook his head. “Says these two.”
“Yeh call me wife a liar, dwarf?” Oort protested.
Jade intervened. “No, but we do not know ye, mister Oort. And the tale ye weave be a tangled one.”
Thinsel put a hand on her husband’s knee. “Miss Jade, we know it. But ain’t no point tellin’ yeh a lie. If yeh wanted to kill us, yeh sure as stone wouldn’ta shared yer food with us. We speak true.”
“I believe ‘em,” Lux said.
Jade’s expression remained impassive. “Would the two of yeh wait here for a turn?” she said to the Grekyins. The couple nodded. “Scouts, outside,” the sergeant ordered.
The six gathered on the narrow ledge.
“Speak your minds,” Jade ordered.
“I be with Lux,” Ferris announced. “Ain’t no reason for ’em to lie.”
“Plenty o’ reason,” Jasper disagreed. “Could be leadin’ us into a trap.”
“Don’t be daft, Jas,” Nova argued. “These two? Marchin’ in the dark, half-froze, no food, straight through Mama’s territory, just in case they come across a squad o’ dwarven scouts?”
“I hear ye, Nova, but ain’t it odd? Findin’ ’em up here, all alone? Now?”
“More than odd,” Kari agreed. “But just makes their tale more believable.”
“Can’t say as I believe every word,” Nova said, “but I think we oughta see where this leads. They know Sandshingle. Can show us a way into G’naath, maybe.”
“They won’t wanna go back,” Kari said. “Least I’d guess as much.”
Jasper spoke up. “Do we wanna go? If Sandshingle’s been captured, she can’t help us. If she be dead, she can’t help us. Assumin’ she could ever help us at all.”
“Cap said we need to get her that axe, Jas,” Jade said.
“Aye, he said that. ’Cept I ain’t so sure it weren’t just him tryin’ to get our little barkeep outta harm’s way.” He turned to Kari. “Not that it ain’t a worthy cause, mind.”
“She’s a scout now, Jasper,” Jade warned. “Ye’ll not diminish Kari where I can hear ye.”
“Didn’t mean it like that. Only mean to say that I ain’t sure this Sandshingle lady be worth the trouble.”
Five sets of eyes turned to Jade. A decision was expected.
“Fury help me, but I find myself agreein’ with Jasper. Say we sneak into G’naath, and don’t get ourselves killed tryin’. Say we find this Sandshingle woman. Say we free her. Say we give her that axe. Then what? Seems to me like the smart thing to do right now is to get back to Belgorne, tell King Dohr what we know.”
“Well, that ain’t right,” Kari said, tone defiant.
Jade frowned. “Pardon?”
“It ain’t right, Sarge. If we take Oort and Thinsel at their word, Cindra Sandshingle be the only one in all o’ G’naath tryin’ to help Belgorne. We’re just gonna let ’em kill her? That ain’t right.”
“She may already be dead, Kari,” Lux reminded her.
“Aye, and she may not be. And she meant somethin’ to my uncle, sure as stone. To your captain.” Kari directed the last at Jasper.
Jasper folded his arms. No one spoke for a turn.
“Well?” Jade asked Jasper.
He frowned. “Well, what? We’re goin’, obviously. Fury.”
Jade eyed each of her scouts. No one argued the point.
“Nova,” the sergeant said, her voice stern. “Ye will return to Belgorne with Lux. Tell Cap what’s what, then King Dohr.”
“Sarge, I don’t–”
“Ye need medical attention for that gash, Nova. Ye won’t keep up, and if Thinsel be tellin’ it straight, Lux won’t be able to fit down that crevice anyhow.”
“Sarge–”
“Nova.” Jade’s voice bore an edge. “Ye have your orders.”
“Fury!” Nova was livid. “Aye, Sarge.”
“Back inside.”
The scouts sat again with Oort and Thinsel. Jade spoke first.
“Can ye show us where that crevice be?” she asked.
Oort and Thinsel looked to one another, trading a silent message.
“Why?” Thinsel asked plainly.
Jade considered whether to tell them the entire truth. She decided against deception.
“Thinsel, the army of Belgorne marches on G’naath. We already knew your people had caused these tahrquakes, or at least we suspected as much. We have lost two thirds of our number. Tens of thousands of dwarves are dead. We have been sent to find Cindra Sandshingle by my captain, by this woman’s uncle,” she gestured to Kari, “to stop this war before it kills us all. Kari’s axe has been dipped in the blood of our former king, and we mean to bring it to Sandshingle. It may help. It may not. But you two are the only gnomes who can possibly lead us to her, and we need your help.”
The Greykins remained silent, considering what they had just heard. Oort spoke.
“I am sorry for your people, miss Jade. Truly.”
Thinsel nodded her agreement.
“Then will ye help us?” the sergeant asked.
Thinsel and Oort nodded as one. Thinsel spoke. “Oort can show yeh the way,” she said. “But I canna make the walk. My feet.”
“I can take ye back to Belgorne, Lady Thinsel,” Lux offered. “Nova and me be leavin’ for there shortly.”
“No!” Oort objected. “I’ll not leave my wife.”
Thinsel turned to her husband.
“Oort, my love. Yeh hafta help ’em.”
“Not without yeh, Thinsel Greykin.” His voice quivered.
Thinsel shook her head. “I canna go. I’m sorry, Oort.”
“Then I won’t be goin’. I’ll go with yeh to Belgorne. I can tell ’em how to find the crevice.”
Thinsel took a breath. “No, Oort. Yeh canna. They’ll never find it. Yeh must lead ‘em. Yeh know as much.”
“Dammit, Thinsel! We almost lost each other, I ain’t gonna leave yeh!”
Thinsel took her husband’s face in her hands, wiping at the tear that formed at the corner of one sad, grey eye.
“Oort. Do it fer Shyla. So she has a home to come back to, someday. Yeh must go, and I canna. And them at Belgorne need to know the truth about what the Elders been up to. We got jobs to do, my love. For our girl.”
Oort ran trembling fingers through his wife’s yellow hair. “I love yeh, Thinsel Greyki
n.”
“I love yeh, Oort Greykin.” Thinsel turned and kissed his wrist. “My brave, brave husband.”
“Mister Oort.” Lux spoke reverently. “I will protect your wife with me life, on me honor.”
Oort took his wife’s hand and turned to Lux. His voice rode a current of shadow. “See that yeh do, sir.”
“She’ll be safe with me scouts, Oort.” Jade stood. “Ye can bet a bag. Lux, Ferris, pack the gear. Kari, help him, and watch how he does it. Jasper, get a new bandage on Nova. Let’s get movin’, scouts. Mama’s still out there, and I wanna be well outta her territory ’fore sundown.”
The scouts went about their tasks without delay. Jade knelt beside the gnomes.
“Ye do your people honor, Oort and Thinsel Greykin.”
Oort beheld his wife. Thinsel turned to Jade.
“Sergeant, if yeh let harm come to my Oort, yeh won’t hafta worry ’bout no Elders. Nor any demons.”
Jade swallowed, nodding.
If half the gnomes are as tough as these two, we’re about to lose a war.
~
A light snow began to fall as the Greykins said their goodbyes, and the scouts split ways. Thinsel was strapped securely to Lux’s back; Nova took point for the team heading east then south, leading the three back the way the scouts had traveled the previous day. The team heading to G’naath walked together, relying on Oort’s memory to guide them.
That memory had quickly proven faulty. The gnome had spent much of the previous day in a haze of unsteady consciousness, having awakened near to noon when the sun briefly broke through the overcast sky. The light snow continued to fall; tracking the gnomes’ steps from the day before was impossible. The scouts relied on their combined knowledge of landmarks and the mountainous horizon to make their way slowly towards G’naath, but as the snow continued to fall, they could only be sure they were traveling east by gauging the elevation on either side of their path.
Oort tired often. Jade called several brief halts to allow the gnome to catch his wind, mindful of the gnome’s difficulty. He marched in the front rank beside Jade; Jasper and Kari followed in the second rank, no more than a dozen paces behind. Ferris took a rear-guard position, pausing at times to listen for Mama or some other threat, then rushing ahead to keep pace. The going was excruciatingly slow, and as the day wore on the mood of the company darkened. Occasional breaks in the falling snow allowed them to see thin streams of smoke rising from the valley to their left; Jade knew these to be more of the random fires that had ignited spontaneously for the past three seasons. There were more than she was used to seeing; she was grateful for the weather. Without the snow, it would be only a matter of time before one of the short-lived burns caught and became a wildfire. They continued their march, and near to noon, the cold and fatigued travelers reached a plateau surrounded by tall pines. Jade called for a rest.
