“That spell?” I blinked hard, trying to get the color out of my eyes. My mind immediately turned to when I was back in the Agrian hall and that enchanted barrel of mead. “Ahrad said it wouldn’t be that potent. How long have I been here?”
“You were brought here by Ahrad and an Agrian girl just past noon and we have been trying to break you from this influence ever since.” She told me to close my eyes as she put a sheet of linen over my face. The magic trickling out of it was warm and refreshing, especially with the cold air in mind.
“So, I’ve been unconscious for that long? I suppose—no, I know that that means it was stronger than Ahrad told me it was.”
“He said he was under much stress, Erland. His judgement was impaired and you should not hold that against him.” The alf removed the linen and I was again able to see Kaihar smiling back at me.
“I wasn’t going to, I just wish he didn’t drink that ale before he told me how to get past it. I suppose it’s also my fault for taking a tankard before checking for safety.”
He began to frown as I said that, and after a second of it sinking in, he clenched the platform and his teeth. “Hopeless fool,” he finally let out. The alfess jumped back when he shouted, and he took a breath as he gave her some instruction. “I am sorry, you have done a very good job breaking this curse, but I must discuss some…personal issues right away. I must ask you to leave.” She quickly acknowledged his request and left.
As soon as she was gone, Kaihar snapped his attention back at me, his eyes piercing me like Aegir’s claws. “Get up on your feet and explain yourself,” he yelled at me, rising to his feet as well. I jumped to my feet like my bed had become thorns, but I must admit he filled me with so much fear I could neither look at Kaihar nor stand straight up.
He grabbed me by the shoulder and forced me to look at him. “Is this the same willpower that led you to make this mistake? Look at me and do not cower from my rebuke,” he ordered sternly.
It took some time, but I was finally able to stumble out, “I-I’m sorry.”
“I am not looking for apologies, maarika. I am looking for accountability. Tell me, was your will so weak that you had to put a taste of your home to your lips, knowing this would indeed put you into harm’s way and possibly take away the opportunity to continue to have that for the rest of your life?”
“No, sir, it was all Ahrad’s idea.”
For but a moment, Kaihar grew angrier at me, looking deeper into my eyes, seeming to hope he could pressure me into saying otherwise. With a deep breath, his face loosened and he stepped away from me. “Erland, by accepting that, do you know what you did to him?” I shook my head, not knowing if “vengeance on Reokashothi” was what he was implying. “I suppose that is only natural, then. You have only met with us alfar since autumn. You see, Erland, ale and mead are a far greater vice to us than to you Midgardians. They bring warmth and comfort and even nourishment for your kind, but for us, any of this is accompanied by addled madness. Ahrad has long suffered from this and held to the excuse it gives him ‘inspiration.” The snowfall picked up a small amount and fog rolled down. “Erland, what possible reason did he give you for this?”
I wiped some slush out of my hair and face as it sunk in what had happened. My friend, Ahrad, was an alcoholic in ways I could barely dream to grasp. How many drinks had he taken by the time I was reunited with him? I shook my head as I failed to think of just how much there was still in him. He had been down in that Agrian cellar since early that morning, and no doubt he was waiting for me down there. No doubt Ahrad had taken as much ale as he wanted. The notion of getting Reokashothi to stop abusing me sickened me now, but I forced myself to make that intent clear to Kaihar. “He told me he’d help me tree top Reokashothi, that it was the only way to get her to leave me alone.”
“Maarika, do you not remember what I have told you about her? That she is a weed at seed? You doing the same thing to her will only sow more of the same, and tree topping her is the swiftest path to that end.”
“But Ahrad told me if I could do a better joke on her than she’s done to me, she’d leave me alone.”
“And I will lash his tongue choicely for taking advantage of you like that, there are many things he left out which would have swiftly revealed the folly in this and taken his opportunity to sneak some ale away. Have you ever considered that the wit involved is in the eye of the beholder? Or that you yourself are subjected to the rule of leaving her be by her own wit? Did it occur to you she would perhaps try to tree top you to regain her position? What of all the other alf children? Do you suppose they would just leave you be as well and not desire your lofty throne of grass? By what did you expect to really gain from this childish game? A game partook by dogs to see who may eat the single morsel of poisoned meat? You are a Shaloor adult, Erland. Show yourself greater than their foolishness, not equal in it.”
Kaihar’s words were much kinder to me now. He was still yelling at me, but I could tell it was more from concern than wrath now. Still, he made me feel guilty about all of this. He was right, it was a kids’ game, done to have fun with each other, not to exert dominance. I was silly to take it seriously. I remembered Alodia just then, and my other reason for going. “You’re right, I’m sorry. But that wasn’t my only reason for going. I was also worried,” I muttered embarrassedly.
“About what?”
“You mean ‘who.’ You see, last night, a friend I made among the Agrians was supposed to meet up with me to tell me if they were planning anything, but she didn’t come. I thought something bad had happened and I needed to make sure she was all right.”
He sat down beside me. “This Agrian, would her name be Alodia?”
I nodded.
“Then she is the one that aided Ahrad in bringing you back here.”
My attention snapped back to him. This meant surely that she knew about the alfar. “She is? What is she doing here?”
“Currently, she is being held in our custody. She is treated well, but she is still our prisoner for the time being.”
“What? Why? She’s my only ally among the Agrians, a contact.”
“Or a traitor from what you know, or unable to be trusted with the knowledge of us who live in this valley. But even then, Erland, she was revealed to be a traitor to the common eye of the Agrians and has no other home.”
“But, if she went that out of her way to help me, doesn’t that prove her trustworthiness?”
“As many of us have also said, Erland, but it is still safer for the time being. I have yet to speak with her.” There was a pause, and Kaihar sat there watching snow build up on his feet.
Watching him do that made me shiver harder, so I reached up to grab a branch and make a veil. The life of the branch flowed smoothly from my fingertips and covered my whole body. I felt very satisfied that I succeeded in not breaking the branch. “Erland,” Kaihar broke the silence, “I would like for you to speak to her. There are things I feel you are best to tell her.”
Suddenly, I felt concerned. Kaihar had just gone from saying he was going to talk to her to now requesting that I do it. This must have meant there was some secret or such he needed to tell her, but couldn’t find the dignity or strength to say it himself. Still, it was possible he just didn’t know the words in our tongue and simply needed someone more fluent. “What is it?”
He looked at his hand. “She was a silver miner, wasn’t she? I can tell she must have breathed in much silver at a young age by the tint of her skin.”
“Yes, she was. What does this have to do with the alfar?” The answer struck me like a plank after I’d asked the question. That rendezvous point we agreed upon, Alodia said it was going to be a mining ground, but it was canceled for suspicious reasons. The people who first went there said there were alfar living there that were scaring people away. “Kaihar, you aren’t actually saying you forced people to leave that field? Why?”
He frowned and nodded. “So, she told you t
hen? It wasn’t our first option. At first, we were just trying to keep them away from the sacred trees. We were willing to let them dig for the ores. All that we tried to do at first was keep them from chopping most of the trees down.” He rubbed his hand against the tree to his right. “A vision to tell them the trees were hallowed here, a trail of breadcrumbs to lure them to spots with less of the trees there. That is what we did…until svartalfar appeared. We could not take the risk of them continuing to be there. If we did, we would be the ones responsible for any deaths the svartalfar brought about.”
I looked away from him for a moment. I supposed it made sense; they were worried bloodshed would ensue, so they strove to protect them. “But why do you want me to tell her? You know all the details, so can’t you explain it better?”
“I do not know your kind as well as you do, though. I fear that anything I say will only infuriate her.”
“But, she’s an Agrian. You know how little my people like hers.”
“And yet you have been able to speak with her and even trust her regardless. It is this that proves my claim.”
I thought about that for a moment and then agreed. As I stood up to speak with Alodia, my attention was once again drawn to the stone, which dug into my hand as I leaned against it. I thought to myself, “Whatever you mean, you will have to wait a short while,” and then I tucked it into my pocket to consider it later.
* * * *
Alodia was in the southern portion of the valley, sitting under a birch with a few alfar standing guard. In her lap, she held a plate and an elderbear steak. It was good to see she was enjoying it. She’d need to get used to alf cuisine if she was going to live here. The crunch of the snow beneath my feet alarmed her to my coming. “Erland,” she greeted me happily, placing the plate on the ground beside her and standing up. “You’re avake.”
“Yeah, I know. The alfar said I was under a very powerful curse…Alodia, do you know—” I paused, not sure if I should continue just yet. I wanted to get off the topic of that curse because I was still somewhat shaken from what I’d seen, but I didn’t think I knew just how to tell her she was in the midst of the race that forced her to move into a position as maid of Solas.
“Do I knyow vhat? Erland, have you lived vith elves so long that you have forgotten how to speak our home tongues?” She tilted her head.
“N-no, I just wanted to ask you if you now know I was telling the truth back in Solas’ hall and not just being crazy.”
“Of course I do.” She gave me a confused smile. “I must say, though, I did nyot expect them to look or act in this vay.”
I giggled. “I know, it does take some getting used to, but I’ve learned to manage.”
She then sat back down to eat her steak and invited me to sit beside her. We both watched the snow fall around us and sometimes through the branches, but I doubt we were thinking the same thoughts. I was thinking mostly of how calm she was about all of this. At least, that was what her body language was telling me. To be honest, I was expecting more bewilderment or at least some questions about what was going on, but she was yet to show or ask any. Perhaps this was just what she was like after the few hours she’d been here. Either all the shock was gone in that time or this was how she responds to shock.
I thought again of what I was going to tell her. She told me rumors of alfar living in that area led to them stopping the construction of a mine there. It was because of that that she had to find a different job with Solas. I couldn’t help but think of what she would say if she knew the alfar were responsible. But I knew what I’d do. I’d swear vengeance on the alfar for bringing such pain on me. The thought of someone doing that to my friends pained me too much, so I decided to lie to her. “Alodia, the alfar told me something about that mine you said you were going to work in.”
She looked back at me. “Yes? Did they really do vhat the rumors say?”
I looked at the ground to try to conceal my hesitation as remorse. I couldn’t go through with lying to her. She was my friend too, and lying to a friend would be just as painful as someone else cursing a friend. I committed to telling her now, so I had no choice but to tell her the truth. Of course, I didn’t have to tell her everything, just what the svartalfar did. “Actually, they told me svartalfar had entered the area, they went around killing people and probably making all of those accidents happen.”
“Is that so? Vell, that’s good to hear.” She gave a sigh of relief.
“I beg your pardon?” I asked, confused at her maintained calm. Wasn’t she mad at the svartalfar or anything?
“That’s good nyews for me. Erland, do you knyow just how many years have passed that I thought my way of life was changed on account of a silly rumor? Nyow you tell me there vas good reason for it. In fact, I’m glad I vent to vork elsevhere, or I vould have been killed by dark elves vithin months. And tell me, vhat vould you have done then? Your only friend among the Agrians brought down to Hell years ago?”
Now I was bewildered. “Alodia, don’t you get it? It’s because of them that—” A strong wind interrupted my argument. It came with massive snowflakes coming down thicker than fog and dug into my skin. We both rushed to cover our faces and keep the cold out.
“What you care for will be dragged down to my halls,” a voice whispered through the wind. I pulled my arms away from my face to try to get a look, the snow still struck against me, but it didn’t hurt. There, standing in front of me was Aegir. When standing, he was twice as big as when sitting, and I could see him through the snow perfectly. “With your folly and my servant as my net, all shall be taken from you,” he quoted himself from before and then walked off to the east.
Terrified, I paused to think about what was in that direction. I sprang to my feet when I realized. “Ahrad,” I cried out.
“Who?” Alodia asked, not removing her cover to look at me.
I ran off after Aegir. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any time to lose.”
The snow kept picking up its pace as I rushed to Ahrad. The trees started to become difficult to spot ahead of me, and I seemed to be chased by images. The lantern demons from before swam at my side, sometimes even swimming straight through trees and boulders. “What you care for will be dragged down to my halls,” said one with teeth the size of my arms, “with your folly and my servant as my net, all shall be taken from you.” It quoting Aegir only made me run faster for fear. It seemed like I was still in that vision, these things doing things impossible for anything I’d seen before. Surely this must still be the influence of the illusion; it still hadn’t been broken completely.
I fell down as I slipped on some ice and slid until I hit snow. My tailbone ached from the fall and I couldn’t stand back up. Instead, I settled for climbing onto the snow and sitting down until it recovered.
My nose was running continuously and my eyes teared up from the blustering of the wind, so I had to constantly wipe them off to see clearly. That was still difficult from the snowfall, but it had at least slowed down enough that I could see reasonably far. I was back at the river where I had agreed to meet Alodia, but not in the same place. Behind me was a hill where the water traced its way around and more of the trees were chopped down.
I strained my eyes to see farther and I think I saw Ahrad coming at me. My thought was confirmed when he did run up and whispered loudly at me. “What are you doing here? You have to hide,” he said urged. He twitched his head back from where he came as if he heard something. “No, there’s not enough time, I’ll hide you.” And with that, he pulled out his gambantein and waved it at me with a flash.
When the flash left, there were branches all around me in the shape of a bush.
Ahrad then returned his attention to where he came running from, pointing his gambantein and drawing a sword into a combat position. He stood still for a short while, and I looked on at the fog and white with him. If it weren’t for Freyr’s blessings, I surely would have missed what was approaching. In the distan
ce were two gray blurs leaping like shadows and becoming clearer in appearance as they drew closer.
If it weren’t for the fact that it seemed like Ahrad also saw them, I would have thought they were mirages like the demon fish, but that didn’t stop them from filling me with dread. Aegir was coming, and maybe he already came with these things. “Ahrad, please, you have to get away.” I reached out from the bush illusion, which now felt prickly. “You’re being chased by—”
Ahrad interrupted, “Yes, by svartalfar. Now keep quiet or they’ll be after the both of us.”
“But—”
“But if you don’t stay quiet and they find you, I won’t be responsible for what they do to you.”
The two shadows of the svartalfar emerged and were almost completely visible. They were stubby things that were black and wrinkled. I couldn’t see any more detail of them than that because it was too foggy to distinguish and they moved too quickly around Ahrad. One leapt at Ahrad from the front and Ahrad was able to parry the sword, but the other then rushed in from behind and ran the sword through his stomach.
I gasped as he fell to the ground and fell off the sword and fought down the urge to scream in fright. But this didn’t add up. Aegir had said it would be by his hand that something would be taken from me, and more importantly, it would be dragged down to his halls. Yet Ahrad just received a fatal blow from a svartalfar. Was he not the target of Aegir’s curse? Whatever the answer was, now was not the time to think about it. With any hope, I could vanquish these fiends and save him.
Another flash of light came from his gambantein and he held his finger to his lip to shush me. The svartalfar looked down at the ground, confusedly and then annoyed. “Bah,” one of them spat, “another illusion.” I looked back at Ahrad, who was obviously there. He must be using an illusion only on those two.
“It sure is the slippery one, is it not?” The other said in response, “Is this worth chasing it?”
“Of course,” the other said as he swung his sword around him in an attempt to find anyone invisible, “he took away our chance of adding more Agrian head to my collection.”
Across the Kolgan Sea Page 10
