by Clark Graham
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.
A Meeting at South Fort
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 were 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.”
Next in was Ermort and Ives, they just gave the Elf a knowing bow and he acknowledged them the same way.
King Mortimer entered the room. He had traveled the furthest to get there and had only made it that morning, thanks to the Valkyrie of the Hidden City giving him and his commanders a ride on their horses.
Fawn entered next. Gilead was taken aback by her beauty. “I did not know that an Elf woman had been left behind,” Gilead said.
“I am Fawn of the Valkyrie, not an Elf. I do have some Elf ancestors in my line, however,” replied Fawn.
“I thought that all of the Valkyrie had died off,” he exclaimed. He was ignoring the part about Elf ancestors.
“Not dead, just hidden,” Fawn explained as she moved on.
Sarchise was right behind Fawn, he gave the deep bow of the Dwarf, which totally confused Gilead. “I am Sarchise, sixth born to the King of High Mountain, Prince to the King of the Mountains of Iron.”
Gilead stared at him for the longest time and then said, “You are the tallest Dwarf I have ever seen.” Everyone around started to laugh, which only confused him more.
Amlius knew he was not going to be well received so he just walked past Gilead and sat down.
"Elf Slayer? What is he doing here?” Gilead protested.
The Governor replied, “He is one of the leaders of this land now, and his voice will be heard.”
Gilead just shook his head in disgust.
and went and sat down at the end of the table.
The Governor started talking, “We are meeting here because the Elves have requested our help in their time of need. We here will decide if we will or will not help the Elf, and if we do help, what form will that help take.” The Governor turned to Gilead, “It is your turn to speak, and tell us of your needs.”
Just then the door opened and three Elves entered the room. It was Fannor being helped by two of his men. He sat down against the wall and not at the table. His men sat next to him.
Gilead looked over at Fannor, but Fannor just nodded at Gilead to indicate that he had the lead on this.
“We need more tents and food to feed us while this crisis is happening. We need troops to reinforce ours,” Gilead replied.
“How about we move you to the Lost City, if the Valkyrie would allow it,” Amlius proposed as he watched for a reaction in Gilead’s face.
The reaction was not long in coming as there was fear in Gilead’s demeanor. “The Lost City, it has been found? No, that will not do at all.”
Sarchise knew what Amlius was doing, but he did not agree with tormenting the Elves, “The Valkyrie would not want to share at this point I don’t think, they are happy in their new home. Better would be to let them occupy the city of Santera. It is mostly intact after the last Gremlin war.”
“What of the cities of Tyrolis and Tarlina?” Gilead asked.
“Those cities have been destroyed,” Amlius explained. “You not be able to occupy the Caverns of Santera, because there are Dwarves living there now, and the last living Ornamac tree has a stone Dwarf fortress around it, so that is out also.”
“Dwarves in the Westwood, the peace treaty does not allow for that,” Gilead protested.
“The full extent of the treaty was never kept by the Elves, the history of the Dwarf and Elf wars is recorded in the vault under the silver throne.” It was Sarchie’s turn to torment the Elf. He changed his mind about the Elves when Gilead said that the Dwarves were not allowed in the Westwood.
Gilead scowled at Amlius. “So have all the secrets of the Elves been told to everyone?”
Amlius just shrugged his shoulders. “The Elves left; their secrets were not important anymore.”
Gilead was getting very upset. Fannor noticed this so he cut in, “Your terms are acceptable. We are guests here and subject to your will. Our people will start to relocate to the city of Santera as soon as they are able to move again. If we can ask that you keep the tent city up for a temporary staging point for those still arriving from the Far Shore, we would be most grateful.”
The leaders nodded their approval so the Governor said, “That will be agreeable to us. How about the second part of your request, the use of troops?”
King Therin spoke up first, “I have five hundred warriors just outside the city. They could be on your ships tomorrow morning.”
King Mortumer also sp
oke, “I can have a thousand warriors here but it will take a week.”
The Governor also replied, “I can only spare two hundred Royal Scouts at this point.”
“There are one hundred Valkyrie horse women just north of the city. They also can be in ships by morning,” Fawn said.
Gilead was overwhelmed by the generous offers of help. He just looked around the room, speechless that the races of Elvenshore would come together to help out the Elves, who had not always gotten along with those races.
Also grateful was Fannor; it was he who spoke first. “Your offers are overwhelming. I thank you for each and every one of them. Having fought these monsters briefly, I know that the taller you stand, the easier it is for these beasts to kill you. Our ships can only hold about two hundred and fifty of you. I would like to fill those ships with Dwarves. It will be hard for the Trolls to hit the Dwarves without bending over. They will have less power in their clubs if they do and it will cause less damage. The swords of the Elves are great at slicing, but the skin of these beasts is too thick for that. The battleaxe of the Dwarves is a power weapon that, when swung hard, penetrates very deep. Stories of the last Elf- Dwarf war told of battleaxes going through breastplates of steel.”
“That is agreeable,” King Therin said. “I will send Sarchise with an army of two hundred and fifty warriors. When more ships arrive, we will send more. Sarchise is our best general. He has led our armies to victory against impossible odds.”
“Thank you very much,” Fannor said, but his stamina had run out so his men helped him out of the room.
A Parting of Ways
“At least we get one more night together before you leave.” Fawn was holding onto Sarchise’s arm as they looked out across the bay and to the Stormy Sea beyond.
“One interrupted night in the Mountains of Iron, five nights on the road accompanied by an Elf, what more can a new wife want?” Sarchise asked.
Fawn just sighed.
Sarchise went on, “The good news is that we have been invited to spend the night in the guest quarters of the Governor’s mansion.”
Fawn smiled, “That’s sounds nice.”
Amlius walked up while they were talking. “I will spend the night here at South Fort and then will accompany you back as far as the Ornomac tree,” he said to Fawn.
"Yes, I will enjoy your company," Fawn said.
Amlius went on,“I have been having a reoccurring dream of Valkyrie and singing. Perhaps you can explain it all to me on our journey home?”
“Perhaps not,” came her short reply.
He was not surprised by her answer. By her refusal to talk, she had told him as much as if she had explained the whole story in detail. He smiled and walked away. There had been a time when he had lead the Valkyrie on an expedition and often wondered if he had been seduced in his sleep by one of them.
“Don’t you think you should tell him”? Sarchise asked.
“Some secrets you don’t tell. Besides when I saw the look in his eyes at my answer, I realized he has guessed it anyway,” she said.
“I would have liked to know if it was me.”
Changing the subject she said, “I will go and visit the Hidden City while you are away, my mother is ill and I want to visit her.”
“I hear the Queen is also ill, maybe you can visit her while you are there?” Sarchise commented.
She had not yet told him that the Queen and her mother were one and the same. He had enough to deal with being a Prince to the Dwarves; that little piece of knowledge would have to wait. “Perhaps,” she replied.
While Amlius was walking away, an Elf stopped him. “My Captain would like to speak with you, “ the Elf said.
Amlius recognized the Elf as one of the guards that had helped Fannor into the room at the meeting. When they arrived at Fannor’s tent, he was laying down. It had been really stressful for Fannor to go to the meeting.
Fannor looked up at Amlius and smiled, “I am glad you came.”
“I didn’t think any of you would be allowed to talk to me,” Amlius responded.
“I was against your banishment, but I was only a Sub Captain at the time. Those in power don’t listen to Sub Captains. You did what you had to do. Your brother was developing even more creatures and the creatures he had developed had turned against the Elf and were killing us.”
“I understand,” Amlius said, “After that ‘Elf Slayer’ comment from Gilead, I thought that everyone returning would have the same attitude.”
“Gilead is not patient, that is why I was felt I had to show up at the meeting. It is good I did, especially because you were baiting him.”
“I was,” Amlius admitted.
“You mentioned the Lost City. Was it found?” Fannor asked.
“Yes, the Lost City of the Valkyrie has been found. The evil inside of it has been destroyed and the Valkyrie have moved back in to it.”
Fannor then asked, “What of the secrets of the Elves?”
“We were searched to find the answer to what evil possessed the Lost City. The true secret of the Elves is that the history of the Dwarf and Elf wars is a lie. The Elves found Vil Loree and attacked it along with a group of Gremlins. They killed the Dwarf King, but they also killed two Elves that lived in the city. When they realized they had killed their fellow Elves, they left the city untouched. They then signed a peace treaty with the Dwarves and the Valkyrie that had them delete their history of the wars. The Elves then changed the Elf history. All this was done to cover up the deaths of the two Elves,” Amlius explained.
Fannor had a look of disbelief on his face, “How could you possibly know this?”
“We have found the graves of the two Elves that were killed,” Amlius said simply.
“Where are these graves?”
“Vil Loree,” Amlius knew that there was going to be a reaction to that remark.
Fannor eyes went open wide, “The Golden City? They found the Golden City? Tell me, have you been there?”
There was a big smile on Amlius’ face, “Yes, the Golden City has been found, and yes, I have seen it. I was allowed to help look for it and I was there when it was found. There were four of us that found it, a Human, an Elf, a Dwarf and a Valkyrie.”
“Tell me,” Fannor was still star struck. “Is it as beautiful as they say it is?”
“More beautiful; words cannot adequately describe it. I will take you there when you are feeling better,” Amlius promised.
“We are allowed to visit it?” To Fannor, this was too good to be true.
“Yes, it is an open city to all the races in the land of Elvenshore.”
Amlius could see that Fannor was tiring, so he excused himself to let him rest. When he turned the corner he came across Gilead. Amlius tried to walk away but Gilead asked him to stop.
“I am sorry, I was wrong in what I said to you when we first met. I had only heard about you and assumed that you were evil. Fannor explained the circumstances to me. Now I understand how hard it was for you to do what you did, but you and many others felt you did right,” Gilead said.
“What do you feel?”
“I still have all of the teachings of my childhood to wade through, but I am seeing things in a different light now that I have met you,” Gilead replied.
Amlius nodded and said, “I understand.” Then they parted ways.
The Calm Amidst the Storm
The Far Shore
“We have a message from Vil Mawe; the seven ships have returned,” Istuin reported. “There was no one from the land of Elvenshore in them, but news from that land is that the Gremlins have been defeated in another war and the people of the land are considering our request of sending help.”
“It’s just more that will come and die. I don’t know why Lanor even asked for help.” Kolis was looking out the balcony window as he did often. It was dark and there were no Trolls yet coming toward the walls.
Istuin continued, “A rider reported that Vil Harben is burning. They cannot make it bo
th here and there tonight. The people of the village refused to take that road when they fled because it went too close to the mountain. They started overland about a week ago. They should be coming into Vil Mawe any day now.”
Kolis sighed, “unless the Trolls caught them out in the open.”
“Yes, unless the Trolls have caught them, but there is no indication of that.” Istuin understood the Chancellor’s frustration, but his down and negative moods were not good for those that were left in the city.
“How are the evacuations progressing?” Kolis asked.
“The seven ships should have gone back out tonight at sundown, so that should leave around eleven hundred who are still to be evacuated. Of course we are adding wounded to that number nearly every night, so we are not gaining very fast. The shipwrights are saying that the two ships will be done in a few days, so that will help a little.”
“It is good news that Elvenshore is taking our refugees. Is there a limit to those that they will take?”
Istuin responded, “Not yet, the leaders of the land are meeting to discuss it.”
Kolis thought for a minute and said, “Send out a rider to try and find the people of Vil Harben, I want to know that they are safe.”
“Yes, Sir,” Istuin said and then he went out to find a rider.
Darnic and his men rode to get a closer look at the destruction of Vil Harden. They had been following the group of villagers and were making sure that they were getting to Vil Mawe in safety. So far the monsters had not tried to follow the group.
“They will be attacking the Capital next,” Darnic said to no one in particular. “The further the beasts get from the mountain, the less time they will have to do their mischief during the night.”
