The Fires of Starpoint Mountain

by Bill Albert

  “It shouldn’t take us too long,” Luvin said as he snapped the helmet into place.

  “No,” Gallif agreed watching him. “There’s a steady stream of wagons heading towards the gates. I wonder what’s going on.”

  “I don’t know,” Luvin said adjusting himself in the saddle “some big proclamation or something?”

  “Are you okay wearing that?” She asked moving Snow closer to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. She quickly pulled her hand away and cursed at herself. They needed anyone watching to accept him as Acrufix. Her touching him would be a very unusual move, especially as a prisoner.

  “It feels weird. The usual cast takes a bit of getting used to, other than that I feel fine. Now that I know that the thrill and excitement of Acrufix is just a legend it doesn’t tempt me so much. I feel stronger.”

  “The strength doesn’t come from the mask,” she said knowingly. “Once we’re inside I’ll stay with you as long as I can. I’ll be watching your back.”

  “I know you will.”

  They were at a full gallop by the time they hit the main road and new in very short time they would be at the gates. There was a steady stream of carriages ahead of them going to and from the capital city, but they would be able to pass with ease.

  The first encounters of wagons coming towards them was with a caravan of three farm wagons. The beds were empty but Gallif could tell by the smell that they had once been filled with sacks of corn.

  The first wagon moved to one side to give them room as the driver stared open mouthed at Acrufix. His two children, a boy, and a girl, cheered at the legendary Elven killer, as he went by. The children in the second wagon stared at Gallif in disbelief and the mother in the third wagon grabbed her dorm and child and dived for cover behind some empty barrels.

  They passed too young, beefy men on horses, who were headed in the same direction. They recognized both individuals could just pass them and sped up to keep pace.

  A family of dwarves were walking a line along the road towards Spring Field and heard a commotion behind them. They looked back and jumped even further away as they saw who is coming. The two boys in the family smiled and waved at Acrufix, but the three girls fumbled on the ground for oxen anything they could find to throw at the redheaded prisoner on the pure white horse. The eldest daughter found a rock the size of her hand and belted it at Gallif, who dodged out of the way and kept writing.

  Four members of the hobgoblin militia were feeding their horses on fresh grass in a field when they saw what was going on. They quickly broke from their lunch, mounted the horses, and hurried to catch up with them soon to them took of spots on each side of Gallif and Acrufix. The other two cut in back and force the two beefy followers to fall out of the way.

  Gallif looked up to get a better view of the large wooden stand constructed just outside the gates. The green and as your flags were flying and there was a heavy presence of malicious security. There were also almost 300 spectators, humans, wars, goblins and halflings clustered outside. Whatever announcement the Giant Lords were making was going to be big. She couldn’t help but wonder what it was.

  ***

  Bordia the Blonde, the Official Speaker for the Giant Lords, sat back and gave a smile as wide as the Land of Starpoint Mountain. Assistant One was polishing the boots and making sure that the laces were all laced in the proper order. Assistant Two had a file and was making sure the curve of the fingernails matched each other. Assistant Three had a nearly 2-foot-long comb in his hand and was using it to make sure every hair was in the proper place.

  Bordia kept looking into the air and smiling as the three attendants were replaced by three others. Assistant Four checked to make made sure his teeth were clean, Assistant Five adjusted his Royal cuffs on his sleeves and Assistant Six made sure the green and azure banner across his chest was in the appropriate place and wrinkle free.

  Being the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords had its privileges and Bordia was always willing to tell anyone, whether they wanted to hear it or not, just how splendid those privileges were.

  Bordia had been well rewarded for his work handling the questions from the citizens after the fall of Starpoint Mountain. He had been promoted to the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords and had accepted it gladly. While he did the same job he had done before, and had the exact same responsibilities, Bordia have quickly adapted to his new position. Though absolutely nothing else had changed he now had a much longer, and more official sounding, title but he’d also got three extra attendants.

  The second set of attendants finished their tasks and stepped away to be replaced by the first three attendants.

  “You’re ready to stand, sir,” One said.

  Bordia continued to smile and stare, so the second attendant repeated the announcement.

  Finally, the third walked up to Bordia and yelled, “Up, big nose,” in his face and Bordia snapped to his feet instantly. Before he could say anything the other three returned and all six of them were giving him the finishing touches on his official look.

  “Two,” Bordia said looking at an attendant.

  “I’m Four, sir,” the attendant informed him with his voice shaking.

  “Whatever just make sure the robes aren’t dragging when I go in, so I don’t trip over them and hurt myself. Unless, of course, I’m lucky enough to land on you.”

  “Of course,” Four said and started checking the length of the robes.

  Bordia nodded and relaxed a bit. It wasn’t that he didn’t know their names, he just really didn’t care. It was much easier to remember them as numbers, most days, then it was to remember their names.

  Finally, his attendants guided him into another room, and he gasped as he suddenly came to face with the best-looking giant he had ever seen.

  “Hello, there, handsome,” he said to his reflection in the mirror. He smiled and winked to himself and then said, “perfect.”

  As they ushered him to the gates, he smiled proudly about what he was going to announce. The terror of the Land of Starpoint was over and they could all live without fear under the benevolent hand of the Giant Lords. It was going to be his greatest speech ever and he could hardly contain his excitement. He was filled with joy as to what he was to announce and, given the circumstances, saw no need to hide it. He also couldn’t help but think how, after that ugly human female had ruined his speech here planned earlier by killing the King, that death was still too good for her.

  He exited the gates and was escorted up the steps to the back of the stage. He nodded to his orchestra leader and dozens of horns sounded. Hundreds of onlookers outside stop talking and turned to face the stage. The door was opened, and he walked outside.

  He unrolled the proclamation as he spoke.

  “As the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords I bring you great news. The fear that we have been fearing since the fall of our beloved Starpoint Mountain, is over. As much you try to forget that terrible day, I am sure you will always try to remember the day that the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords, me, will now give you. As I am sure you are aware, any proclamation read by the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords, is officially sanctioned by the Circle of Ministers, the King of the Giant Lords, if he had not been sadly killed, the Royal Judges and the Royal Archivist before being cleared for the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords to speak so I shall.”

  One, Two, Three and Six were giggling uncontrollably. Four was to shocked to move and Five covered his ears for the rest of the speech.

  “It is hereby decreed,” he read the proclamation aloud, “that our time of terror is over. Justice has been served and our beloved King may now rest in his royal tomb. Gallif, the assassin, is dead. Killed, as a coward she was, in an attempt to lead a murder party against our beloved widow Queen. Rejoice!” He looked up expecting them to be smiling and cheering as his wonderful news.

  Instead, half the crowd was staring at him in shock while the other was watching a party of writers that are just entered the e
dge of the crowd. He leaned over to see them better. As the dust cleared, he saw four members of the hobgoblin militia escorting two horses to the front of the stage. On one horse was Acrufix, the Elven Killer, who would be honored for generations. The other was the redheaded female on a pure white horse that he had just officially pronounced dead.

  The riders came to a stop in front of the stage. Acrufix dismounted and approached the woman. He reached up, grabbed her by the collar of her red tinted armor, and pulled her off her horse. As her feet hit the ground two of the four militia rushed up behind her and cuffed her hands together behind her back.

  There was no sound from the crowd as, with a little struggle, Gallif was pushed up onto the stage.

  “I am Gallif of Starpoint,” she said boldly to the crowd and the Official Speaker of the Giant Lords. “I have been charged with the assassination of King Paleth. I plead guilty and demand the lawful process of execution.”

  For what seemed like an eternity to everyone who was there that day nothing happened. Finally, someone grabbed a stone from the ground and flung it at full speed it struck Gallif in the forehead and she fell back stunned as Acrufix and the four hobgoblins to drag her off the stage as the booing in the hissing in the crowd quickly grew.

  Bordia, the blonde, rolled up the proclamation and handed it to whoever was close. With the disruption from the crowd no one all those onstage heard him walk back to the door and yell, “I QUIT” before he left the stage.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: KINGS AND PAWNS

  The Second Minister drew from his long pipe, held the smoke in his lungs as long as he could, then blew it out slowly through his nose. He sighed in frustration that the noxious combination of grass and leaves wasn’t working like it usually did.

  There were two images that kept playing through his mind as he waited for the smoking to take over. One was the moment so long ago that he had come face-to-face with her inside Spring Field. He should have known there was something wrong then. Why had he failed to react? Was it because she was inside the capital city? It was rare that there were humans inside, even one that had saved the Third Minister’s life. Was it grief over the loss of the mountain? Part of him worried that, perhaps, it was from too much time smoking with the pipe.

  The other image that swam across his memory was of the smirk on the Third Minister’s face when they’d learned that she was dead.

  “Her loss is a serious setback,” the six Minister said as he took a draw from his own pipe. “She could have filled in some of the gaps in our theories. Unfortunately, without her, other than the designs from the factories out West all we have our theories.”

  “Sometimes theories might just be enough,” the Second Minister said slowly. “We must confront him on what we know.”

  “First thing tomorrow, at the beginning of the Council meeting.”

  “No,” the Second Minister said waving his hand back and forth. “He has something else up his sleeve. Some moved he was going to make just before we got the news.”

  “Do you think he was going to announce what the factories are building?”

  “No, but that is a part of it. He’s got something spectacular planned. A ringer maybe?”

  “A ringer?”

  “Sorry, I hear it’s a dwarf and expression. When you have someone to use as a surprise, someone who’s a very good, most often used in a sporting event,” the Second Minister said after sweet puff. “He’s going to recommend someone to King who is more than qualified, and most likely, someone will never expect.”

  “My spies tell me he has been contacting some of the older houses, Matri, Pentallion, Carney, and some of the others who live near Summer Down.”

  Those are older families from where he came from,” the Second Minister said expelling smoke.

  “They are very powerful families.”

  “Yes, but no history of kingship, or even the apparent desire for kingship. Perhaps someone from their family’s history. Older, forgotten giants.”

  “I say we do it at the very beginning of the meeting tomorrow,” the Second Minister shook his finger as the smoke finished clouding his mind.

  “No,” the Second Minister said calmly. “We will confront him, I’m sure we will, but not immediately. Let him make the First move.”

  ***

  The First Minister sat in his chair staring out into the Land of Starpoint. There was no breeze and casts outside prevented birds, squirrels, rodents, or even natural weather from affecting the inside of their chamber. Other than what came from the night sky there was no light source of any kind. Inside the Council room there was very little light making it difficult to spot the difference between chairs and shadows.

  It wasn’t the silence that had spread across the Land of Starpoint that bothered him on this night but the turmoil that lay underneath. Like a deep river, he knew the smooth surface was misleading and only hid the chaos of the waters below. As much as he wanted to stop but he feared that the maelstrom was about to reach the surface and become a torrent that could destroy all that he knew. Sometimes he caught himself wondering if that would be the worst. All things, natural or not, come to an end. Perhaps it was time for the reign of the Giant Lords to end.

  This did not bother him. Others took care of this land before the giants and others could afterwards. After all, he stopped being a giant a long time ago.

  Out of the corner of his high he saw movement as Kellis stepped out of the shadow. She walked to him, kneel to the floor, then bowed her head and waited.

  “It’s a very unsettling night in the world,” the First Minister said. “I suspect you will not make it any better.”

  “I have nothing to tell you on the matter of what happened with Gallif, my Lord,” she said keeping her head down. “Mekon, and several others, left Outbound is a caravan to bring her here. Mekon is the only one who arrived here with knowledge what happened after that.”

  “He has been a good and loyal agent of the Giant Lords. He has no reason to deceive us.”

  “There may be more to him than we know, my Lord,” she said in waited quietly while he considered it.

  “Stand and tell me more,” he said.

  She rose and looked him in the eyes before continuing. “He has dealt with her before. Some time ago he led an expedition into the northern ice fields trying to learn more about Zaslow. According to his own accounts they were attacked at one point in everyone but him was lost. She was a leader of a group that found him, save him, and help them off the ice.”

  The First Minister let out a brief chuckle before he spoke. “The woman who started off saving Giants may have been the one who started our downfall. How ironic.”

  “There are no other accounts of direct contact between Mekon and Gallif after that, but they have been in Spring Field at the same time and he was sent into the swamps to capture her.”

  “Which he did, but that is all we know about what happened there. Have you heard anything else about what happened in the swamps?”

  “No, my lord. He has said nothing about that. Whatever happened there he is kept to himself except reporting changes in the control of Gunter’s prison.”

  “I will speak with him tomorrow morning before the Council meets.”

  That may not be possible, my Lord,” she said regretfully.

  He looked at her oddly in his head tilted to one side. It was rare that she responded negatively.

  “I’m sorry, my Lord,” she said returning to the kneeling position and bowing her head. “Mekon seems to have disappeared.”

  ***

  The Third Minister, Krove, had spent the evening making sure the official proclamations of Gallif’s death were prepared for distribution. The next morning Bordia would make the official announcement at the Gates that their war on terror was over, the woman who brought down Starpoint Mountain was dead. He knew there would be much rejoicing and happiness all day. He was so excited he decided to send the writers with more copies of the proclamation out before dawn instead o
f waiting until after the official announcement. No reason, he figured, to hold off the good news

  After happily finishing that task, and large filling meal, he had one late-night meeting to attend to.

  “Mekon, you’ve done well,” the Third Minister said with a smile.

  “I failed to bring the prisoner to you,” Mekon answered in confusion.

  “She was only being brought here to be executed,” the Third Minister said quietly. “There was going to be no trial, just the usual formalities. Either way, this war on terror we had with an assassin is over. We can now take the land of Starpoint out of its period of grief and turmoil. We can face the future of peace and prosperity.”

  “Of course, my Lord,” Mekon said. Then his face turned sour. “My Lord, may I ask you a question?”

  Of course, my friend,” the Third Minister said leaning forward.

  “I’m still in shock over the death of our King. As an agent, I am sworn to protect the Giant Lords. So, I can work to prevent it from happening again, how is it done?”

  The Third Minister took a deep breath before speaking. As much as he tried to hold it inside it was obvious, he was going to enjoy telling the story.

  “I was looking over my shoulder to see the king as he spoke. He was on the stage giving a splendid speech about unity and going against evil…

  … She was on top of the wall, just over the guard posts, waiting. Suddenly she stepped out of the shadows and fired two arrows, like a coward she was behind them, and he collapsed immediately. I knew the arrows had to be poisoned from the how quickly he reacted. Before anyone could stop her, or even realize where she was, she fired again.”