Ahren sat quietly in the corner, watched Jelninolan as she slowly and patiently began to unpick the leather bands He thought over Uldini’s words. It was true, they really had been chased from one place to the next. They had defeated the Fog Cats in Deepstone and had fled so the villagers would be free of further danger. Then they had been hunted by Swarm Claws. Cut-throats had been after them in the large trading city of Three Rivers on account of falsified wanted posters that had been hung up around the place. And to top it all, they had fallen victim to an ambush half-way to the elf forest, organised by a High Fang, an intelligent servant of the Adversary. It was only here in Evergreen that they had found a little peace, and this was the first time they would be continuing their journey in a leisurely way.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by a hand clipping the back of his head. Jelninolan looked at him sharply, then pointed tellingly at the tangled armour.
‘If I’m going to the trouble of sorting this for you, then the least you could do is look and learn’, she said testily.
The High Priestess had never been stern towards Ahren and it took him a second to recover from the shock. The look on his face, it seemed, caused the elf to laugh out loud. She tickled his cheek and her look softened before she turned her attention once again to the armour.
‘You wanted us to treat you like an adult. Uldini is over a thousand years old and still gets a rap on the head from me. So, don’t be surprised if I put you in your place when I think it’s deserved’, she said absently as she pulled at the bands in concentration. Ahren nodded in agreement and wished for the first time he hadn’t insisted on being treated differently within the group.
‘But I didn’t know something like that would happen’, he said, trying to defend himself.
The stern look reappeared in the elf’s face as she looked at him again.
‘You demanded the right to ask questions and to receive answers. The only question I heard was if this present were magical. Then you started to play around with it.’ She stopped speaking, but her summary of the situation made Ahren feel as if he had behaved like a three-year-old.
He harrumphed and addressed the elf as Uldini always did when wanted to get on her right side.
‘Sorry, Aunt Jelninolan.’
The red-haired woman had freed Uldini from slavery and had begun teaching him at the time the Arch Wizard’s talent had been awakening when he had, at the tender age of nine, accidently unlocked the secret of immortality. He had been imprisoned in the body of a child ever since, and Ahren was convinced that the wizard’s deeply sarcastic behaviour was as attempt to counter his outer appearance.
Ahren was heartened by the effect of his familiar address because Jelninolan gave him a warm smile.
‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. Better not let Uldini hear you say that, he’s the only one who addresses me like that. He hides it well but there’s a jealous streak in him. I’m sure you don’t want to spend the rest of the time until your Naming being a potted plant’, she whispered conspiratorially.
Ahren swallowed hard. He decided to change the subject and not to address her like that in future.
‘What’s this band for?’ he asked and pointed at one of the leather bands, which had a stylised wavy line engraved on it.
‘That’s the water band, sometimes also called the hip band’, Jelninolan answered. ‘That’s the first one we have to untangle, then the fire band and the cloud band will loosen themselves.’
The priestess and Ahren spent the best part of the morning going through the various panels and bands, and it struck the apprentice that every piece and connection had been well named. With every new piece he asked about the deeper meaning behind the name and discovered that the elves had woven a story into the armour. Once you knew the story and used the order of the individual motifs, it was much easier to figure out how to assemble the armour.
Ahren was deeply impressed by the stunning nature of the pictures and the intricacy of the story. The water band, for example, represented the river and its various levels, not to mention its relationship to the sun and the rain. This was reflected in its dependency on the sun and cloud bands. All of the bands were dependent on several connections and when you understood the story, then you began to make sense of the armour.
Ahren asked question after question until finally all the knots had been undone and the leather panels lay cleanly on top of each other.
‘Right, let’s get on with it. Best if you put your shirt on or the armour could really chafe your skin when you’re wearing it’, Jelninolan said mischievously and indicated his naked torso.
Ahren’s face went a deep red and he ran into the hut so he could throw on a fresh linen shirt. Evergreen spoiled its inhabitants with its mild temperatures and pleasantly warm sunshine, and so Ahren had completely forgotten that he had been sitting there half-dressed. He came out of the tree house again and found the elf still sitting cross-legged with a smile on her face and the present, which they had untangled together, in front of her.
Ahren still hadn’t got used to the natural way the elves followed their own inclinations wherever they found themselves. They had been sitting there for quite a while on the path in front of the house and any elves that had passed them had acknowledged them with nothing more than a polite nod. Ahren had seen elf craftswomen and men asleep in the communal square so it was little wonder that no-one had taken a blind bit of notice of their little disentanglement game on the path.
Jelninolan giggled when she saw that Ahren was still blushing.
‘I’ve seen many more exciting things over the centuries than the chest of a mere boy, you know’, she commented, laughing at his timidity.
Ahren scratched his head in embarrassment and he wisely decided not to pursue the matter.
‘We should finish this before the others come back. Uldini wants us to set off immediately and my mishap has cost us a lot of time’, he simply responded.
Ahren was well aware that he was using one of his failings to distract from another, but his time as Falk’s apprentice had shorn of him of any false pride he may have possessed in the past.
Ahren’s master had allowed him to make as many mistakes as he wanted so long as he made the effort to learn from them in the future. ‘Don’t pick to pieces what you don’t understand’ was one of the many pieces of advice he had taken to heart and tried to follow.
Jelninolan nodded and gingerly lifted the first layer from the pile.
‘Step into it with your left leg and be careful not to touch the other bands’, she said in a concentrated voice.
Ahren nodded enthusiastically and a feeling of joyful anticipation came over him. Keenly and carefully he followed the elf’s instructions and after a remarkably short time all the leather panels were in position. He realised that the main part of the work lay in the preparation. Once he stepped in and followed the order of the segments, then the bands did the rest of the work, pulling and lifting the individual panels into place.
Ahren turned around in a circle, moved his shoulders, tried a leap into the air and dropped into a crouching position.
The leather panels worked in perfect harmony with his movements, sliding elaborately over and under each other so that his body was always protected by at least one layer of leather. Of course you couldn’t compare it to Falk’s solid knight armour but on the other hand you could hardly feel any weight and he was certain that it would prove less of a hindrance travelling through the forest than the simple leather gear he had worn up to now.
The leather panels were dyed a greenish brown which would be useful as camouflage in the forest if he didn’t want to be seen. His face was a picture of happiness as he gave the elf priestess a little bow.
‘Thank you for this wonderful present. It almost feels like a second skin.’
Jelninolan bowed briefly in return and her voice took on a formal, almost ritualistic tone.
‘Presented with joy, received with thanks and to be us
ed with harmony’, she intoned.
Then she straightened up with a smile and patted his cheek again.
‘Now you really look like a Forest Guardian. We would have made you a new bow, but an adult elf bow takes several moons’, she said regretfully.
Ahren stroked the leather in wonder. ‘It doesn’t matter’, he answered absently.
‘When you’re finished stroking your armour, there are more things to be packed’. It was Falk’s stern voice, and the grey-haired man appeared from around the bend in the path.
Ahren disappeared guiltily inside and began to pack up the group’s possessions.
‘Surely you could have left him another few minutes with his new toy’, said Jelninolan to the old Forest Guardian in a reproachful voice.
He shrugged his shoulders and looked contentedly after his hardworking apprentice while he leaned in towards Jelninolan conspiratorially. ‘At that age you have to keep bringing them back down to reality. That dreamy look in his face reminds me of the dangers of all those silly stories of valour and hunting griffins’, he said airily. Then he became serious.
‘Our undertaking is dangerous enough as it is for his young shoulders. He has come some way already, but he still has much to master. I want to hammer as much as possible into that skull of his before things get really uncomfortable, or he stops listening’, he added quietly.
Jelninolan placed her hand on his strong arm and pressed it gently. ‘You’re concerned for the boy and only want what’s best for him. I’m very proud of you. You’ve found your centre again since that time, and looking after him has done you good’, she said in a warm voice. ‘Do you know what he wanted as reward for saving the Voice of the Forest?’, she continued and looked at him expectantly.
Falk shook his head and the high priestess looked deeply into his eyes. ‘Only one thing – that we would lift your banishment from Eathinian. That shows you’re doing a good job.’ She emphasised this with a smile.
Falk had listened intently to her words and now stood stock-still. ‘He did that?’ he asked incredulously. ‘And what have you decided?’ he added fearfully after a few heartbeats.
Jelninolan shrugged her shoulders and looked at him innocently. ‘You know what the elders are like in these matters. I spoke on your behalf but in the end it’s a group decision.’ She gave him a quick hug and then continued. ‘First, be thankful for your apprentice’s loyalty. Everything else will take care of itself.’
Falk nodded. He was moved as he looked over at the young man who was hard at work. ‘We would like to head off today if it were convenient for the young gentleman.’
‘Yes, master’, called Ahren respectfully and redoubled his efforts. Falk gave a satisfied grunt and Jelninolan looked at the old man sternly. He stared back at her defiantly for a few heartbeats, then mumbled, ‘I’d better give him a hand, or this will take all day.’
Chapter 2
It wasn’t long before they had packed up all their belongings and made their way down the tree, Falk unceremoniously misusing the free hanging ribbons of fabric as a slide. In the beginning Ahren had found it bizarre that everything in the elf settlement was folded, knotted or woven together out of fabric, even the walls of the houses. But in the meantime, he had become used to it, and he was surprised to find that he missed the feathery bounciness under his feet as soon as they were back on the forest floor.
A large group of elves had turned up to send them off and Ahren saw laughing and merry faces all around him. Culhen was smothered by a gang of elf children and it pained Ahren that he was taking the young wolf away from his new playing partners. The animal had everything he needed here, and for a second he was tempted to leave Culhen behind. But the thought of heading off into the wilderness without the wolf at his side was too much to contemplate and he rejected the idea in an instant.
They now had considerably more things to bring with them than before, partly because Jelninolan was travelling with them, and partly because Uldini and Falk had gathered together additional equipment. Ahren was amazed by the little mountain of gear and was relieved when Falk produced two pack horses and gestured to his apprentice that he should load them up. For a moment Ahren had seen himself weighed down with an enormous rucksack, puffing and wheezing as he trudged behind the others while his master explained that this was a part of this training. So he quickly got down to work and loaded the two good-natured animals.
Jelninolan had joined them but Ahren couldn’t see any travelling clothes on her. She was still wearing the same pale green linen clothing as in the morning. Somehow, Ahren found this disappointing.
He knew that the elf priestess had fought alongside Uldini and the Paladins in the Dark Days, and had assumed that Jelninolan would appear as a resplendent heroic figure, sparkling with magical items and heading off into the world on an armoured Titejunanwa.
Instead, there she was, sitting on a piebald mare and looking, but for her pointed ears, for all the world like the farmer’s wife from next door. Even her magic staff looked like any normal stick.
‘You’re not riding an elf-charger?’ he asked as politely as he could.
Jelninolan laughed and shook her head so wildly that her red hair flew in all directions.
‘Estelian never leaves Evergreen. In fact, neither does any Titejunanwa. After all, they are the custodians of the forest’, she said airily. ‘Only when the elves go to war, then the Titejunanwas stand by their side.’
‘And what about Selsena?’ he responded. He’d seen the unicorn for the first time in the Eastern Forest of Deepstone when she had saved him from a Blood Wolf’s attack – Culhen’s mother, in fact – and he also had Selsena to thank that he had succeeded in freeing the whelp from the curse of the dark god. She had been Falk’s companion for decades, even though a bitter dispute between them had kept them apart for years.
‘She is a special case’, said the elf, and was about to continue but Falk intervened.
‘The old girl has always had a stubborn streak and doesn’t take a blind bit of notice of what others say or think.’ Then he tilted his head as he always did when he and the unicorn communicated silently and said in a resigned voice, ‘I should have known’.
With her mane billowing in the wind, Selsena galloped out from the trees, her silver eyes fixed on Falk and a wave of disapproval streaming out of her.
The Titejunanwa could only speak telepathically with Falk, but she could sense others’ feelings and transmit her own to them. And at the moment she was expressing her feelings towards Falk’s sarcastic commentary in no uncertain terms.
The Forest Guardian turned and stood awkwardly for a couple of heartbeats before tickling the animals head, above the protective bone plate, from which protruded one long spiral horn and two small curved dagger-like ones. They were arranged one beneath the other and Ahren had seen what havoc the mighty elf charger could wreak in the heat of battle.
Nothing of her fighting strength was evident now as Falk’s devotion towards her transformed her displeasure into a wave of blissful contentment. Ahren stepped up to the animal, two paces in height, and put an arm around her neck.
‘I haven’t seen you since you helped us combat the Warden of the Weeping Valley. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for your help yet.’ Then he pressed himself against her and she reciprocated his affection.
‘Any chance of you finishing your group hug and sweet-talking? There’s a dwarf waiting for us out there and we still have to find the place of ritual for the Naming. Unless of course you want to carry on canoodling until a certain bad-tempered godhead has awakened.’
Uldini’s little tirade ruthlessly ended their joyful reunion with the unicorn. Self-satisfied, the little figure looked spitefully at the group and was greeted with scornful looks in return.
‘What?’ he asked innocently. ‘Someone has to keep a clear head here or you’ll spend the whole day patting each other on the back.’
He turned dramatically to face the assembled elves and cal
led out in a magically strengthened voice: ‘dear friends, sadly the time has come for us to leave you. We shall take good care of Jelninolan. For your part, please spread the tidings throughout Evergreen that the time of the Thirteenth has come, and we shall soon need the strength of the elves to succeed against HIM’, he intoned formally.
‘Complaining about us and then immediately going all sentimental during a little farewell speech’, murmured Falk, loudly enough for everyone in the group to hear.
The others sniggered and Uldini spun angrily around to face the old Forest Guardian.
‘I was speaking not only to the elves but also to the pages of history. My words will find their way into every relevant historical document. Not everyone is content with a ‘let’s get this job done’’, said the Arch Wizard sulkily.
Falk gave a disinterested shrug of his shoulder. ‘I thought it was the right thing to say at the time and it hit the nail on the head’, he responded drily.
One of the older elves stepped forward before Ahren could ask what the pair were arguing about now.
‘We have discussed young Ahren’s wish and reached a decision. We, the Eathinian folk welcome into our fold the Guardian of the Forest known to us as Falk, once he has fulfilled the task that has been bestowed upon him.’ Then he placed his hand on his heart and made a gesture towards Falk. A wave of similar gestures rippled through the crowd of elves and Falk responded with same gesture. There were tears in his eyes. A gentle wind wafted through the solemn silence that held everyone in its charm, and it almost seemed as if the forest itself was giving the Guardian her blessing.
Finally, Jelninolan embraced the old man and Ahren too couldn’t resist the impulse. The silence was broken by the joyful laughter of the forest folk. All the elves congratulated Falk, Selsena whinnied and sent her triumphant feelings out into the world while Culhen jumped around the group, barking happily.
The Naming Page 2
