Malfiess volunteered to stand first watch.
“You two fought the skrike today, so you need rest more than I do,” he told the women with a grin. “Get some sleep. You've earned it.”
The rest of the journey saw only good weather and sunny skies. Ten days after their fight with the skrike, the three elves stepped out of the shelter of the forest and stood staring across miles of grassy fields that ended at the foothills of the Calvara mountains.
“Oh my,” Chase murmured as her eyes were drawn up to the towering peaks that loomed across the horizon. “I had no idea that the mountains were so huge. Magnificent.”
The summit of the mountain range was wreathed in clouds, as if the peaks were wearing fluffy crowns. Sunlight gleamed on their flanks while a cool wind blew over the elves from the north as they stared up at the bare, jagged slopes.
“You've never seen mountains, Chase?” Malfiess asked her.
“Not like these,” she replied as she continued to stare upwards. “I once passed the base of the Landorals, but compared to these, they were mere hills.”
“That's true,” Ethmira agreed. “The Calvaras are possibly the highest mountains in the world. And they extend for hundreds of miles to the east and west of us. If we can't find Diane somewhere in the foothills, we won't be able to travel much further northward.”
She took off her pack and pulled out a roll of waterproof parchment. She opened it and her companions looked over her shoulders as she stared at the map.
“See here? The entire range acts as a natural barrier, cutting off this province from the Northlands. The only way to reach them is by using a portal, and those no longer function, of course. I'm worried about the Northland people. They are now cut off from the rest of the world.”
“Have you ever been there?” Malfiess asked her as she rolled up the map again.
“Once,” Ethmira replied. She put the map away and slipped her pack over her shoulders again. “When I was still in training as a young ranger, our teacher took all of us through a portal to see the Northlands for ourselves. She wanted to impress upon her students how different our people really were, depending on where they lived in the world. I was impressed to say the least. The elven settlements up north spend most of the year blanketed by snow and ice. The summers are fleeting and so they must grow and harvest their crops quickly, and lay in a lot of food for the long dark winters they face every year.”
Chase shivered at the thought.
“Why even live in a place like that?” she wondered. “Surely the world is large enough for them to move south and enjoy the kind of climate that we do.”
“That was my question as well,” Ethmira said as she looked across the fields of long grass at the distant mountains. “In fact I asked one of the Northlanders exactly that.”
“And? What was the answer?”
“He said that the land had shaped his people and had made them stronger because of it. They did not fear the cold and the darkness that they faced each year. They embraced it. I personally didn't understand that and I still don't. But I do respect their choice.”
“A strange people,” Malfiess said thoughtfully. “But strong and resolute. I have met several of them as well. They sent a delegation to Alderthal a few years back and I spoke to some of them. It was educational and it opened my eyes to the true size and diversity of our world.”
“I'd like to meet them as well,” Chase told them. “They sound fascinating.”
“Maybe you will, one day,” Ethmira said with a smile. “But for now, we must focus on the task at hand. Malfiess, what do you think? Should we head straight toward the mountains or travel more obliquely, along the edge of the foothills? This is your quest, after all.”
Malfiess shook his head as he contemplated the distant slopes.
“Let's take a break before deciding, shall we?” he said as he took off his pack and laid in on the ground. “I have to give this some thought. And both of your opinions matter as well. We are all partners in this venture and we should agree on a plan before we continue our journey.”
Both women removed their packs and sat down on the grass as Malfiess did the same. Chase took a long drink from her flask and listened as the others discussed their options. She was willing to bow to their experience and follow where they would lead. Whether they headed into the foothills directly or skirted their edges did not matter to her. The entire journey was an adventure for the younger ranger, a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from Ethmira and to explore more of the world. The reasons for the trip were dire, of course, but it was still an incredible experience for her and she was relishing every moment of it.
“Do you still believe that Diane will contact us now that we have reached the mountains?” Ethmira asked the councilor.
She reached down and snapped off a long blade of grass. Then she put it in her mouth and nibbled on it as she watched Malfiess.
He stretched out his legs and leaned back on his elbows, watching as the distant clouds raced past the jagged peaks of the mountains.
“Believe it? No, not really. It was just something that I hoped would happen. I told you everything that was said when I met her. All she told me was that if I needed her, I should travel to the north. Well, we are about as north as we can go unless we climb the Calvaras and that is impossible to do.”
“Yes, that's true. So we are left with few options, it seems,” Ethmira mused. “Which means that our choice of direction now is basically meaningless. Still, the decision is yours to make. Give it some thought as we rest. It's just past noon, so we have a lot of daylight ahead of us. Take your time.”
The three of them took the opportunity to eat some dried meat and some fruit that they had picked along the trail the day before. All of them had refilled their flasks earlier in the day from a small stream and they drank their fill as Malfiess contemplated their options. Then Chase lay back on the sweet grass and watched the sun sail slowly across the sky overhead as Ethmira continued to stare at the towering mountains.
A short time later, Malfiess stood up and brushed off his trousers. He smiled down at the women as he picked up his pack.
“I think that the best choice is a combination of what you suggested,” he told Ethmira. “Let's head straight toward the mountains until we run up against the foothills. Then we can turn to the east or west and continue from there. We can agree on which direction to choose once we reach that point.”
Both rangers got up and scooped up their packs. Ethmira smiled at Malfiess and then slipped her pack over her shoulders.
“As good a choice as any, I suppose,” she told him. “Chase? Any objections?”
“None. I agree,” the younger woman said. “We are moving forward on faith and hope alone now, so let's at least keep moving and see what happens.”
“Well said,” Malfiess chuckled. “Although my faith is wearing thin at this point. If our situation wasn't so desperate, I'd be tempted to turn around and head back to Illistra. The thought of spending some time tending to my little garden is becoming more and more appealing, especially if we cannot repair the ley lines and we are stuck traveling around on foot.”
“Don't start planning your retirement just yet, my friend,” Ethmira said with a grin. “We haven't exhausted all of our options just yet. Now, let's move forward. The day is wearing on.”
She set off toward the mountains and Malfiess waited a moment before he sighed gently and began following her. Chase settled her pack more comfortably on her back and took one last look at the high peaks before she lowered her eyes and focused on the ground ahead of them. The tall grass hid many holes and snags and she needed to concentrate on the task at hand. The future would take care of itself.
It took the rest of the day for the three elves to reach the Calvara foothills. As the ground started to rise slowly, the grass thinned out and the trio began walking on loose dirt and bare rock. The sun was edging down toward the horizon in the west and their shadows were getting long an
d thin.
Ethmira stopped walking and looked back at her companions.
“This is as far as we should go today,” she told them. “Night is falling and travel will soon be too difficult if we cannot check our footing. Let's set up camp while we can still see what we're doing.”
The others agreed and they all quickly gathered up as many dry sticks and grasses as they could find before the sun disappeared. Just as the first stars appeared in the sky, Ethmira had built a campfire and the three of them sat down around it and opened their packs.
“It's much cooler here,” Chase observed as she chewed on some stringy dried meat. “The breeze is blowing down on us from the north.”
“Yes. It's a hint of the biting cold that awaits anyone should they climb toward the peaks above us,” Malfiess told her. “I can't imagine why any elf would want to face such conditions. What would be the point?”
“To say that they had done it, I suppose,” Ethmira said with a shrug. “Some would consider it a challenge worth taking, the chance to conquer the highest mountains in the world.”
“Would you?” Chase asked her curiously.
“Me? No, of course not,” Ethmira replied with a laugh.
Her face glowed eerily in the flickering light from the fire and Chase thought that she looked distant and otherworldly against the darkness behind her.
“There are enough challenges facing all of us in our daily lives without seeking more just for the thrill of it,” Ethmira added. “I know that humans used to do such things, before their race was decimated by the dragons, but I've never understood it.”
“Nor I,” Malfiess agreed. “I have no wish to climb higher than where we are right now. If Diane is up there somewhere, then we will never find her, because attempting to climb those slopes would be madness in my opinion. We will turn either to the east or the west from here when we set off tomorrow. Does anyone have a preference?'
Chase shook her head and Ethmira grinned at the councilor.
“The choice is yours to make,” she told him. “Go with your feelings or your instinct. Or take a guess. Whatever you decide will be acceptable.”
Malfiess sighed and then blinked rapidly as a gust of cold air swept his hair across his face.
“Apparently the Calvaras don't want me intruding on their privacy any further,” he joked as he ran a hand through his long mane. “Fine then. We'll head east toward the sunrise in the morning. I've always been uplifted by the dawn, so that's as good a direction as any other.”
“So be it.”
Ethmira stood up and looked past the glow of the campfire at the darkness that pushed in around them.
“I'll take first watch,” she said to the others. “Get some sleep and we'll see what the morning brings.”
The morning brought a glorious sunrise, the first one that the three travelers had seen clearly in weeks, without the forest blocking their view.
“Ah, doesn't it lift your spirits?” Malfiess asked the rangers as he gazed at the horizon with a broad smile.
“It pleases me that I don't see any sign of rain,” Ethmira responded dryly. “That certainly gives my spirits a boost.”
Chase chuckled as she knelt down by the fire and rearranged her pack. She had stood the middle watch, pacing around the border of the camp as her companions slept. The night had seemed especially dark to her, but she felt that it was the proximity to the mountains looming over them that had been weighing on her, not any specific threat. Now with the dawn, she was as uplifted as Malfiess seemed to be and she was eager to continue their journey.
Ethmira kicked dirt over the small fire and made sure that the embers were completely cold before she hoisted her pack and faced the others.
“East, you said,” she told Malfiess. “Are you still set on heading in that direction?”
“I am. Perhaps it's just the joy of watching the sun rise over the horizon, but I have a good feeling about our chances of finding Diane that way.”
“Good. Let's hope that your feelings are correct. Are we all ready to go? Then follow me.”
The trio set off again, walking along the border of the mountains where the ground was free of grass. They could see their footing better that way and they wouldn't have to worry about twisting an ankle by stepping into an unseen hole. All of them had eaten lightly and drunk several cups of sweet tea before they left their camp, and they were energized and refreshed. It promised to be an interesting day.
As the sun rose and the three elves walked at a steady but unhurried pace to the east, flocks of birds began to pass high overhead. Chase watched them as they flew by and noted that the birds were heading down from the north toward the forest.
“Do they live in the heights?” she called out to Ethmira, pointing at a flock of large birds that were flying in a v formation.
Ethmira glanced up and nodded.
“Yes, I assume so. There are species that prefer to live in isolation, safe from predators that threaten the birds that nest among the treetops. I suppose that they fly down to the forest every day to feed and then return to their nests in the evening. It's an interesting adaptation.”
“Clever,” Chase observed.
“If you like living in the cold,” Malfiess said with a smile as he looked over his shoulder at her. “Given the choice between the freezing slopes of the Calvaras and living in the forest, I would probably choose the latter, predators and all.”
“If you were a bird, you might see things differently,” Ethmira teased him.
“If I were a bird, I would have already found Diane and this mission would be over,” he replied.
“If she actually wanted to be found,” Chase added. “How can we know for certain?”
Malfiess had no answer for that and the three of them continued on their way, the birds still swooping down the slopes toward the south.
The day began to warm up and the elves increased the pace of their march as they warmed up as well. Malfiess kept looking to his right at the mountains, as if searching for some sign of the human they were looking for. As the sun rose to noon, Ethmira called for a halt and the three of them sat down on the edge of the grassy plain to rest and eat something.
As Chase ate a piece of dried fruit, Ethmira took a drink from her flask and then looked at Malfiess.
“I think that we've reached a point where we must talk about what we will do should we fail to locate Diane,” she told him. “Frankly, I'm beginning to believe that this may be a fool's errand. What that human really wanted to achieve when she visited you in your home may not have been what she led you to believe.”
“What else could it have been then?” Malfiess asked. “Why bother even appearing to me and holding out a sliver of hope? To encourage me to wander around the foothills of the Calvara mountains? I am one elf, Ethmira, and not even a very important one. Yes, I am a member of the Council of Elders, but as you learned yourself when you left the Council, we are all replaceable. My death or disappearance would have no impact on our society. None at all. So why dangle the hope of aid to me in the first place? It makes no sense.”
“It makes no sense to us,” Chase told them. “But we are not human. They think differently than we do. The humans that I met when I journeyed to Earth were courageous and selfless and I admired them greatly. But they said and did things that confused me. Their reactions to certain things, such as threats to themselves or to their society always seemed to be filtered through values that I could not comprehend.”
Ethmira and Malfiess were listening closely and Chase felt a little self-conscious.
“Do not misunderstand me,” she added hastily. “I am not judging them. But while we elves put our people and our society ahead of our own safety and well-being, many humans seem to filter their responses through their own personal interests. And I was never able to completely understand that point of view.”
“I know what you mean,” Ethmira said thoughtfully. “But I am not sure that I agree completely. Certainly Simon O'T
oole was nothing like that. He risked his life for his people over and over again. Many of the deeds that he performed to save his race happened out of their sight and have never been spoken of. And yet he did them all the same. He fought not for glory or fame, but because it was the right thing to do. He certainly did not fight to save just his own life.”
“Ah, but you saw the best of humanity,” Malfiess told her. “Our records tell the same story of that wizard. I know because I have read them all. But Chase may have a point, as much as I am reluctant to admit it. If Diane lied to me about being Simon O'Toole's student, perhaps that is why. Using his reputation of selflessness and bravery to bolster her own would have been a clever way to gain my trust.”
He grabbed a handful of grass on the ground in front of him and ripped it out angrily.
“Damn it,” he hissed. “Have I been played for a fool by her? Has this all been a waste of time?”
“Seeking to aid your people when darkness threatens them is never a waste of time, Malfiess.”
The elves gasped in unison and turned as one to see a cowled figure standing no more that a dozen feet away. With a graceful gesture, the stranger pushed back her hood to reveal her face. It was a human woman. Her long black hair ruffled in the breeze and her eyes, one green and one blue, looked calmly at each of the elves.
“Diane!” Malfiess exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. “It's you!”
The woman smiled in response.
“Yes, of course it's me. Who else were you expecting? Didn't I tell you to look to the north if you ever needed my aid? And so you have.”
Both Ethmira and Chase hurriedly stood up as well and Diane narrowed her eyes as she looked at the older woman.
“This is Ethmira,” Malfiess said quickly. “And Chase. Both rangers, as you can see.”
“I know. I am honored, Commander,” she said with a slight bow toward Ethmira. “I never expected to meet the hero who aided Simon in his many battles against the dragons. And it is good to meet you as well, Chase. I know of your efforts to aid the people of Nottinghill Castle. They still sing your praises for helping them defend their home, and rightfully so.”
The Fall of the Elves Page 12
