DemonWars Saga Volume 1

by R. A. Salvatore

  Elbryan and Pony exchanged nervous glances, then looked back to the resolute man, truly empathizing with his desires.

  “This is a discussion for later,” the ranger said calmly. “We do not know how strongly the monsters remain entrenched in Caer Tinella.”

  Tomas snorted. “You got in,” he said. “How much more devastating might the raid have been if all of our warriors were there to fight beside you?”

  “Devastating to both sides, I fear,” Pony replied. “We stung the monsters and freed the prisoners only because of the element of surprise. If Maiyer Dek had seen a greater force approaching, he would have ordered every one of the captured men slain, and the defense of Caer Tinella would have been more stubborn by far.”

  Tomas snorted again, not wanting to hear the negative posturing. By his thinking, if Elbryan and Pony, their little unseen friend Juraviel and Roger Lockless, could exact such a toll, then he and his warriors could finish the task.

  Elbryan and Pony looked to each other again, and silently agreed to let it go at that. They understood Tomas’s feelings, recognized that he had to believe that his home was not lost to him, and they both trusted that the man was sensible enough to listen to their argument if skirting the town and running to the south seemed the more prudent move.

  Belster O’Comely, fearing mounting tension, led the discussion in another direction then, pondering the fate of the monstrous army across all the lands. “If we’ve been hitting at them so hard here, then it seems to me that others are taking them down, as well,” he said. “Ho, but I’ll be back in the Howling Sheila in Dundalis in the next spring, I’m betting!” he finished, then filled and drained his mug once again.

  “It is possible,” the ranger said earnestly, his optimism surprising Pony. “If the monstrous army disintegrates, the King will wish the Timberlands quickly reclaimed.”

  “And Sheila will howl again!” Belster roared, for in his drink-induced state, he had forgotten all pledges to live out his life quietly in the safety of Palmaris. His excitement brought others over to the campfire, most bearing foodstuffs and beverages.

  The conversation took a lighthearted turn then, became the retelling of anecdotes from happier times, before the monstrous invasion, and what had started as a serious wait for important information became a sort of victory celebration. Elbryan and Pony said little, preferring to sit back and listen to the chatter of the others, often looking to each other and nodding. They had already arranged a meeting with Juraviel at the break of dawn in the meadow by the pines, and after they heard what the elf had to say, after they came to understand the truth of their enemy’s strength in the two towns, they could make their decisions.

  The night deepened, the fires burned low, and most of the folk retired to their bedrolls. Finally, only an hour before the dawn, the scouts returned, led by an exuberant Roger Lockless. “All the giants are gone,” the young man proclaimed. “Every one! Driven off by the powries—and they hardly even put up a fight!”

  “They did not want to be here in the first place,” Pony reasoned. “They prefer their holes in the steep mountains of the Wilderlands.”

  Tomas Gingerwart gave a shout of victory.

  “And what of the goblins?” Elbryan asked calmly, interrupting the celebration before it could begin. He didn’t want Roger’s excitement to steal the moment and lead Tomas and all the refugees down a course to absolute destruction. Even without giants, the remaining powries might prove too formidable.

  “There was a fight and some were killed,” Roger replied, not missing a beat. “Others went scattering into the forest.”

  “And still others remained with the powries,” Elbryan reasoned.

  ” Yes, but—”

  “And few, very few, powries were killed?” the ranger pressed.

  “The goblins who remained will flee at first sign of battle,” Roger said confidently. “They only stay because they’re afraid of the bloody caps.”

  “Armies have won great victories inspired purely by fear,” Pony said dryly.

  Roger glared at her. “They are ready to be taken,” he said evenly.

  “We are a long way from making such a claim,” the ranger was quick to reply, pointedly cutting off Tomas Gingerwart with an upraised hand as he spoke. Elbryan rose to stand before Roger. “Our responsibilities are too great to make such a quick judgment.”

  “As you made when you went into Caer Tinella alone?” the young man spat back.

  “I did what I thought necessary,” Elbryan replied quietly, calmly. He could feel the gazes of many people settling on him and Roger, and any conflict between them would obviously prove a source of great discomfort. These people had come to trust and love Roger Lockless, and he had truly done much for them in the weeks of their exile. But if he was wrong now, if he was letting his desire to lead the folk to victory overrule good sense, then all of his previous exploits would be for naught, for all of the refugees would likely soon be dead.

  “As did I in rescuing the thirty captured soldiers!” Roger said forcefully, and loudly.

  “All by yourself?” Pony had to put in.

  Elbryan put up his hand, quieting Pony, quieting all about him. “It is too early to make the judgment of whether to attack the towns or circumvent them,” he announced. “We will know more, much more, with the light of day.” The ranger, thinking and hoping that the discussion was finished then, turned and started away.

  “We take back Caer Tinella,” Roger Lockless declared, and there were more than a few agreeing calls. “And Landsdown,” the young man went on. “And when we have the towns in our possession once more, we send word to Palmaris, that the King’s army might reinforce our position.”

  “The Kingsmen will not come this far north,” Pony argued. “Or at least, that is not something upon which we should stake our entire existence. Not yet. Not while Palmaris is under threat of invasion.”

  “How can you know?” Roger asked sternly.

  “I served in the King’s army,” Pony admitted. “In the Kingsmen and in the Coastpoint Guards. I understand their priorities, and I can assure you that measured against the value of Palmaris, second city of Honce-the-Bear and the gateway of the Masur Delaval, Caer Tinella and Landsdown are not among those priorities. If Palmaris falls, then the way is open all the way to the King’s seat in Ursal.”

  That took a bit of Roger’s bluster away. He fidgeted for a few moments, thinking up a retort, but before he could deliver it, Tomas Gingerwart cut in. “We are all weary,” the man said loudly, commanding the attention of all nearby. “It is said that good news can be as tiring as bad, and either as tiring as a week of hard work.”

  “Oh, true enough,” Belster O’Comely agreed.

  “So our spirits are heightened, our thoughts hopeful,” Tomas went on. “But the ranger and Jilseponie are correct. This is not the time to decide.”

  “Our enemies are disorganized and reeling,” Roger argued.

  “As they will remain, for another day at least,” Tomas answered bluntly. “We’ll not attack the towns in the light of day anyway, so let us get our rest now, and hopefully we will see things more clearly in the morning.”

  Elbryan locked gazes with Tomas and nodded, sincerely grateful that the man had taken such levelheaded control. Then he motioned to Pony and the pair walked off, heading for the pines and the meadow, and a clearer picture of what remained of their adversaries.

  Roger Lockless waited in the camp for a short while, then, when no one was paying much attention to him, he stole away, on the trail of the ranger and the woman and, he knew, their private scout.

  He caught up to Elbryan and Pony in a meadow lined with pine trees, and blushed deeply, reconsidering his course, when the man and woman embraced each other and kissed passionately. Roger breathed easier when they broke off the clench.

  If he had examined his feelings a bit more closely, and more honestly, Roger would have realized that the kiss bothered him more than it should have, that not only
did he not wish to spy on such a private moment, but especially not one involving this beautiful woman. But Roger wasn’t capable of that level of introspection where these two newcomers were concerned, not yet, and so, seeing the embrace finished, he crept closer into position, and was not surprised in the least when a melodious voice came down to the pair from the branches of a nearby pine.

  “Fortune favored us this night,” Juraviel explained. “For the giants are gone, all of them, and a fair number of goblins, too. The only better scenario would have been an open brawl between the giants and the powries.”

  “But that did not happen,” Elbryan replied. “Thus, we must assume that the powrie force is still considerable.”

  “Indeed it is,” Juraviel confirmed. “Though their leader has been roasted!”

  “The folk wish to attack Caer Tinella, to reclaim it as their home,” Pony put in.

  “Is that not correct, Roger Lockless?” Elbryan added, recognizing that the young man was about.

  Roger went even lower to the ground, put his face right in the grass.

  “I do grow weary of this one’s spying,” Juraviel remarked, fluttering down from the tree.

  “Well, come out, then,” said Pony. “Since you wished to hear what we would say, you should at least join in the conversation.”

  Roger told himself repeatedly that there was no way these three could see him, no way that Elbryan and Pony could know, without doubt, that he had followed them.

  “Stay with your face buried in the grass, then,” Elbryan said with a chuckle. “I am against the attack,” he offered to Juraviel.

  “And with good reason,” the elf replied. “If the war was still a stalemate, then we might consider striking such a blow. But I doubt that Caer Tinella serves as anything more than a temporary home for the powries and few goblins that remain. Certainly, it is not a supply base for any coordinated monstrous force. I see nothing to gain by attacking—the thought of reclaiming and holding the town at this point is purely foolhardy—and everything to lose. Let us not underestimate the strength of the force remaining in Caer Tinella.”

  “I.think it wiser to skirt the town and flee to the southland,” Elbryan added.

  “It is likely that the road south will prove open all the way to Palmaris,” Juraviel replied. “Though how long it will remain that way, I cannot say.”

  “Convincing the townsfolk to abandon their homes will not be easy,” Pony explained.

  “But we shall,” Elbryan assured her. He looked in the direction of Roger Lockless as he spoke, thinking that the proclamation might at last bring the lad from hiding.

  “Perhaps you cared not for your own home!” the young man said, jumping up and storming across to face the ranger. “But we are loyal to Caer Tinella!”

  “And so you shall return to Caer Tinella,” Elbryan said calmly. “This war will not last much longer, and as soon as the region about Palmaris is declared secure, then I expect the King to send the army north.”

  “And what will they find?” Roger said, moving right up to the much larger Elbryan. “Burned-out skeletons of our homes?”

  “Rebuild,” Elbryan calmly replied.

  Roger scoffed at the notion.

  “Our own home of Dundalis was sacked years ago,” Pony said. “Then it was rebuilt, by Belster and his companions. And now it has been sacked again.”

  “And so it shall be built again,” Elbryan said resolutely. “Houses can be put back up; people are forever lost.”

  “My own family was lost in such a raid,” Pony said, taking the young man gently by the elbow.

  “And my own,” Elbryan added. “And all of our friends.”

  Roger’s visage softened for just a moment as he regarded Pony, but then he pulled away, anger again filling his eyes. “Tell me not of your grief,” he snapped. “I know all about losing family and friends. And I am not afraid now. The dwarves are in Caer Tinella, my home, and so I shall go there and get rid of them, every one! You delayed this, but after the success of our attack, you cannot stop it. The folk will follow me, Nightbird,” he said, poking himself in the chest. “You think yourself the leader, but it was Roger Lockless, not you, who rescued the prisoners in the last raid, just as it has been Roger Lockless all along, feeding the folk, stealing right from under the big nose of stupid Kos-kosio Begulne. Me!” he yelled, poking his chest again. “And you will not steer them away from Caer Tinella. They will follow me.”

  “To their doom,” the ranger said evenly. “Is this about Caer Tinella, Roger, or is it about who leads?”

  Roger waved a hand at him dismissively. “We’re not done with this, Nightbird,” he said, spitting the elvish title with contempt, and he turned and walked back across the field.

  Pony started to follow, her face tight with anger, but Elbryan held up his arm to stop her. “He is young and confused,” the ranger explained. “He thought he had his place carved out among the folk, and then we came along.”

  “He was never formally a leader of the group,” said Juraviel. “That lies more to Tomas Gingerwart and Belster O’Comely. Roger was, rather, working outside the limits of the band. Your arrival should not have affected that role.”

  “In his own mind, he was the hero of the group,” Pony reasoned.

  “Heis indeed,” Elbryan corrected.

  “Agreed,” said Juraviel. “But he does not understand that there is room for others.”

  “Roger Lockless!” Elbryan called loudly.

  Roger, at the far edge of the meadow, stopped in his tracks and turned about.

  “This must be settled, here and now,” the ranger called. “For the good of all the folk.” Even as he spoke the words with determination, though, his expression revealed his trepidation. “Give Juraviel your sword,” he instructed Pony with a weary sigh.

  The woman considered the request, and the look on her lover’s face. “Now is not the time,” she replied.

  “It has to be,” the ranger said. “Give Juraviel your sword.” He paused and looked from Pony to the approaching Roger, trying to get an even deeper measure of Roger’s motivations. “And be gone from here,” he added to Pony. “You should not be a witness to this. For his sake.”

  Pony slid her small sword from its sheath and handed it to the elf, all the while staring Elbryan in the eye. “If you hurt him …” she warned, and she turned and walked into the cover of the pines.

  Elbryan was wise enough to worry when Pony left a threat unfinished.

  “Be careful,” Juraviel cautioned. “There may be grim consequences if you take all of the man’s dignity.”

  “I hope it does not come to that,” Elbryan said sincerely. “For I do indeed fear the consequences. But this split cannot continue between us. We cannot ask folk in so desperate a situation to make a choice between Roger and me.”

  “You think Roger will listen to you?”

  “I will make Roger listen to me,” Elbryan assured him.

  “You walk a fine line here, Nightbird,” the elf said.

  “A line that you and Tuntun showed me well,” the ranger replied.

  Juraviel nodded, conceding the point. “Make him start it,” the elf advised. “If it is to happen.”

  Elbryan nodded and then straightened as Roger, bold as ever, strode defiantly to stand right before him.

  “I grow weary of our bickering, Roger Lockless, who claims leadership of the group,” Elbryan called. “In the last raid on Caer Tinella, we showed that we can work well together.”

  “We showed that my priorities, and not your own, are for the betterment of the folk,” the young man replied.

  Elbryan took the insult in stride, recognizing the frustration behind it. “We both served valuable functions in the town,” he said quietly and calmly. “You freed the prisoners, and for that, all of us, myself included, are indeed grateful. And I defeated Maiyer Dek, a blow from which our enemies will not soon recover.”

  “But I could have accomplished my task all the more easily if
you were not there!” the young man said accusingly. “Yet did you even ask me to go? Where my skills were the ones most needed, did the great Nightbird even inquire if I might be interested in the mission?”

  “I did not even know that they held prisoners,” the ranger replied honestly. “Else my plan would have been greatly different.”

  “Yourplan,” Roger spat. “Since you arrived I have heard nothing but your plans!”

  “And are we not better off?”

  Again Roger spat, this time on Elbryan’s feet. “I do not need you, Nightbird,” he sneered. “I wish that you and your strange little friend would just disappear into the forest.”

  “But not Jilseponie,” Juraviel noted.

  Roger’s face turned red. “Her, too!” he said unconvincingly.

  Elbryan realized that it would be better to get off of this delicate subject. “But we are not leaving,” he said. “Not until the folk are safe in Palmaris, or until the army has marched north to reclaim the towns. I am a fact of your life, Roger Lockless. And if I am put in a position of leadership, one that I have earned through my work in the northland and through my experience, then know that I will not abandon that position for the sake of your foolish pride.”

  Roger moved as if to strike out, but held his anger, though his face continued to flush.

  “My responsibility is to them, not to you,” Elbryan calmly explained. “There is a place for you among this band, a very valuable place.”

  “As your lackey?”

  “But know this,” the ranger went on, ignoring the foolish comment, “I will argue against any fight for Caer Tinella at this time. Fleeing from the area is the proper course for the folk, and I expect and demand that you will support me in this decision.”

  Roger eyed the man directly, obviously surprised that the ranger had presumed to give him a direct command.

  “I will accept nothing less from you, Roger Lockless.”

  “You threaten me? As did Pon … Jilseponie with her stupid curse?”

  “I tell you the truth, and nothing less,” Elbryan replied. “This is too important—”