Demonkin

by Richard S. Tuttle

  The dwarven king nodded in agreement, and Garth turned and walked away. Kalina hurried after him and caught up to him in the tunnel.

  “Bitsy was awfully secretive,” Kalina said softly. “Is something the matter?”

  “I am not sure,” admitted Garth. “We will find out soon enough.”

  When they arrived at Karicon’s chamber, the door was closed. Garth knocked loudly on the door and heard someone moving about inside. Bitsy settled on Garth’s left shoulder and Sparky landed on his right shoulder. Garth glanced at the two fairies questioningly, but neither of them spoke. Garth knocked again on the door, and Karicon finally opened it.

  “I was not expecting company,” Karicon said nervously as he glanced at Garth.

  The dwarf saw the two fairies on Garth’s shoulders, and he gasped involuntarily. Garth immediately knew something was amiss. He pushed his way into the small chamber and looked around.

  “Where is Morro?” asked Garth Shado as his eyes looked around the room.

  “He is not here,” the dwarf replied nervously.

  “I did not ask if he was here,” scowled Garth. “I asked where he was.”

  Sparky leaped off Garth’s shoulder and landed on the Door, which Karicon had tried to hide by piling clothing on it.

  “Come in and close the door,” Sparky said to everyone. “I have something to say that should not be said in public.”

  Kalina moved past Karicon and the dwarf closed the door. Everyone stared at Sparky, waiting for an explanation.

  “Morro and I snuck into the mystery valley,” declared the fairy. “We spent days in there mapping everything. Morro has recorded everything on paper for you to see.”

  Karicon quickly reached under the table and brought out Morro’s map. He meekly handed it to Garth, who was staring unbelievably at the fairy. Garth glanced at the map and his eyes widened. Kalina moved close to Garth and also stared at the map. For several long minutes, the room was silent. The anger that had appeared on Garth’s face when the fairy had made his statement began to fade.

  “This must have taken days to record,” Garth frowned. “Did I not say that no one was to enter the valley without my permission?”

  “You told the dwarves not to enter the valley,” Sparky replied hesitantly. “Do not be angry. It was perfectly safe, and we got all the information you wanted.”

  “Perfectly safe?” questioned Kalina. “I can hardly believe that.”

  “What are these extra numbers for?” asked Garth.

  “Those are the extra Doors,” grinned Sparky. “They are stacked near Door number twenty-four.”

  “So they are not being used,” Kalina remarked with a raised eyebrow. “That is interesting. Are we sure that these are Doors?”

  “I checked the number on each one of them,” Sparky said.

  “Can we get to those spare Doors?” asked Kalina.

  “You cannot,” answered Sparky, “but Morro can.”

  Kalina looked at the fairy questioningly.

  “And where is Morro?” Garth asked again.

  “He is in Alcea,” declared Sparky.

  “You had better explain yourself,” Garth scowled.

  “Morro stole Door number twenty-five and took it through Door number twenty-four,” explained Sparky. “He knows that Kalina wants to be able to reach Alcea, and he wanted to please her.”

  “Taking a Door to Alcea does not open up a portal that we can use,” frowned Kalina. “We would also have to have the matching Door where we can access it.”

  “It is right here,” Karicon said sheepishly as he pulled the clothes off the Door. “Morro set up a code of knocks before he left. The Door is locked just in case something went wrong.”

  “Like letting the Federation know that we have discovered their portals,” grumbled Garth. “What were you all thinking? Do you have any idea of the damage that might have been done? Not only will all of the Doors in Alcea be compromised, but they will use the extra Doors to attack the horse countries. The only thing stopping them from doing that now is that they might inadvertently warn Alcea about the Doors.”

  “Does the Federation know that Morro has stolen Doors or used one of them?” Kalina asked.

  “They do not know,” promised the fairy. “The stack is so high that the soldiers will not notice two of them missing.”

  “Unless someone comes to inspect them,” sighed Garth. “Or they decide to use Door number twenty-five for some reason.”

  “But we have a portal to Alcea now, Garth,” Kalina said with a smile. “That is worth a great deal to us.”

  “Only if they don’t notice the missing Doors,” retorted Garth. “In addition to warning them of our knowledge, the loss will also tell them that we have penetrated their hidden valley. There is an awful high risk in keeping the Doors.”

  “You can’t be thinking of putting them back?” balked Kalina. “The link to Alcea is priceless.” Kalina turned to Sparky and continued. “Why is Morro capable of getting the Doors and we are not?”

  The fairy fidgeted, hoping Garth would ask a different question, and he could ignore the one from Kalina.

  “Speak,” Garth growled at the fairy.

  Sparky looked imploringly at the dwarf.

  Karicon shook his head. “Morro made me promise not to reveal it. You had better answer the question.”

  Garth glanced at the dwarf and then returned his glare to the fairy. Sparky sighed anxiously and nodded his head.

  “Morro has a magical artifact that halts time. It is an hourglass, and while the sands are dropping, only he can move about. It doesn’t last very long, but long enough to grab a Door and either carry it away or go through Door twenty-four. That is what he did tonight. I was supposed to go with him, but something must have gone wrong. One minute I was in his pocket, and the next I was on the ground next to the stack of Doors. I am sure that he made it, though. The soldiers were not alarmed, and he was no longer in the valley.”

  “Where did he get the hourglass?” asked Kalina.

  “From the Mage,” answered Sparky. “It is an amazing thing. We used it to map the entire valley. That is why I said it was safe for us to do so.”

  “We?” questioned Kalina. “You used the hourglass as well?”

  “Just a couple of times.” The fairy nodded. “Near the tunnel entrance it was too far for Morro to run across. I used it and levitated him to a ledge above the camp. When he had thoroughly mapped the camp, I used it again to get him away from the camp. We were very careful.”

  “Where does Door twenty-four go?” asked Garth.

  “Mya,” answered Sparky.

  “It will take him days to get the Door to Tagaret,” mused Kalina.

  “If he survives to get there,” frowned Garth. “He is Dielderal. We have our people looking for Dielderal in Alcea. Most of them might not even ask questions before they slay him. He is more likely to die than succeed.”

  “Don’t forget the hourglass,” interjected Sparky. “He can trigger it and get out of trouble. He will make it. I am sure of it.”

  “We will know in a couple of days,” sighed Garth. “We might as well move that Door to somewhere where we can keep watch on it. Wherever it is, I will be sleeping next to it.”

  “You take care of that,” said Kalina. “I need Bitsy to send a message.”

  Chapter 24

  Summit

  The Federation general dismounted in front of Orkare and Son in Olansk. He glanced up and down the street while the squad of soldiers escorting him dismounted and formed a protective shield around him. Nodding to the junior officer in charge of the detail, the general turned and entered the carpentry shop. The proprietor looked up from his work and saw the general. He wiped his hands on his work apron and hurried over to the desk to tend to the general’s needs. The general slid a piece of paper across the desk and watched the proprietor read it.

  “You understand that there must be secrecy regarding this requisition?” asked the general.
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br />   Orkare looked up at the general and nodded vigorously. “Of course. I have already done work for the First Corps, General. I never gossip about my work, and certainly not when it involves the army.”

  “As it should be,” replied the general. “I need this order filled as quickly as possible. Push all other work to the side until this shipment is ready.”

  “It shall be as you wish,” assured the shopkeeper. “What about delivery?”

  “My men will pick up the shipment,” answered the general. “How soon can you have it ready?”

  “About a week,” mumbled the shopkeeper as he reviewed the requisition. The amount listed was quite generous, and Orkare was very pleased.

  “I need it in three days,” replied the general. “If you are not capable of…”

  “Three days,” the shopkeeper nodded vigorously. “I will work day and night on the order.”

  “The specifications are tight,” warned the general. “Working quickly should not excuse the need for accuracy.”

  “Have no fear, General,” stated the shopkeeper. “I am known for my accuracy. Every detail will be exact, and the order will be ready in three days. You have my promise.”

  “Then I shall not delay the start of your work,” the general said as a farewell.

  The general exited the shop and mounted his horse. His personal detail promptly mounted and surrounded the general as the group moved through the streets of Olansk and exited the city.

  * * * *

  King Arik and Queen Tanya entered the library in the Royal Palace in Tagaret. The king nodded to the assembled group and approached Alan Markel.

  “Counselor,” began the king as he handed a list of names to Alan, “I need fairies sent out to these people. The message is that their presence is required in Tagaret. Unicorns will be sent for them within the day. Nothing more is to be said to them.”

  “Nothing about how long they will be away from their homes?” asked the counselor.

  “Nothing,” repeated the king. “Handle it directly after this meeting.”

  “I will see to it,” vowed Tedi’s father.

  The king gazed over the audience, checking every single person in the room before nodding to Zack Nolan, the head spy master of Alcea. Zack Nolan exited the library and returned moments later with a dark elf. Zack closed the door and stood in front of it so that no one could enter the library unannounced.

  “I would like to introduce all of you to Morro,” the king said. “He is a Dielderal elf, and he arrived from Zara a few days ago. Tell us what the current situation is in Zara, Morro.”

  The dark elf was nervous as he looked at all the high-ranking people in the room, but the king had warned him of what was to come. He rolled out a map of Zara on the table and everyone crowded around to get a look. Morro began the presentation by identifying each of the countries of Zara and explaining their relationship to the Federation. He tried to give them a feel for the geography of the continent and the natures of its peoples. He included a brief history of the land, ending with the misery of his own people in Elfwoods.

  Morro went on to describe the Council of War that Garth had set up, but he did not name the resistance leaders, although the king had assured him that everyone in the room was to be trusted. His natural tendency for secrecy demanded that he be vague where the details were of no importance to the audience. He ended the presentation by detailing the scope of duties for each of the Alceans sent to Zara.

  “I know much of this information is already known thanks to the fairies,” King Arik stated when Morro was done, “but I think the refresher was needed for our discussion today. As you all know, the ships to and from Zara have stopped sailing. That means that our fairies can no longer hitch rides aboard the ships.”

  “How then did Morro get here?” interrupted General Gregor.

  “A good question,” grinned the king. “Morro came through one of the Doors set up by the Federation. He also brought us a present. Advisors, we now have our own Door to Zara. Thanks to Morro, we now have a link between Tagaret and Tarashin, the land of the Zaran dwarves.”

  The room filled with gasps as people understood the impact of what the king was saying.

  “Knowledge of that Door will remain with those in this room,” reminded the king. “We have not yet used the Door, and we will not until tomorrow, but it means we have a new avenue to pursue. With the ability to move forces between the two continents, we might need to rethink our strategies.”

  “Do we know where the Zaran Doors are now?” asked Prince Oscar.

  “We do.” The king nodded to Morro.

  The elf took another map from his pack. It was a crude map of the mystery valley that he had recreated from memory, but he felt that it would be sufficient for this meeting.

  “There is a hidden valley in the Barrier,” Morro explained as he unrolled the map on the table. “There is an entrance tunnel off the Blood Highway that is guarded by Federation troops. They also maintain an illusion covering the entrance as well as one over the peaks of the mountains. Both approaches are warded by magical spells, but the dwarves have cut a secret door into their valley. That is how I gained entrance to it. The numbers on this map indicate the numbers of the Doors. As you can see by Door number twenty-four, the spare Doors are stacked there. There are thirty pairs of Doors altogether.”

  “How large is the army presence in the valley?” asked General Gregor.

  “It is a full army,” answered Morro. “Ten-thousand men and a company of black-cloaks.”

  “A brute force entry through the Federation tunnel would accomplish little,” the general mused out loud.

  “A covert entry through the dwarven mine would work,” stated Zack Nolan, “but only for the bottom half of the valley. Once we reached the halfway point, we would be in a full scale war.”

  “Wouldn’t a full-scale war be worth it in the valley?” asked Wylan. “If we can destroy all of their Doors, they have no way to attack Alcea.”

  “For now,” frowned Queen Tanya. “They obviously have the ability to make more Doors, and we do not. All we would accomplish by destroying their Doors would be to forestall the invasion.”

  “And we would lose the advantage of knowing where their Doors are in Alcea,” added the king. “They would be more clever in concealing them the next time.”

  “We could take the valley for ourselves,” suggested Konic Clava. “We know the location of all twenty-four Doors here in Alcea. We could send soldiers through every one of them and overwhelm the Federation army in the valley. Wouldn’t the Federation then have to worry about Alcea invading them? Perhaps they would not be so eager to come here.”

  “No.” General Gregor shook his head. “I think Garth is right about this. We need to let the Federation attack us and then destroy it completely. That is the only way we will have peace. They have the ability to make more Doors, and they have supremacy of the seas. We cannot stop them from reaching our shores, and delaying them does not help us much. We need to figure out how to crush a superior force so badly that they are no longer capable of waging war.”

  “I agree,” King Arik said with a nod.

  “They also keep the Doors locked on their side,” interjected Morro. “I had to unlock Door twenty-four to come here.”

  “Interesting,” Queen Tanya said. “I watched K’san lock Door nine on this side sometime ago. I still have the key for it. Will they even be able to use it now?”

  “I am sure that the Doors will be checked before the invasion,” answered Zack Nolan. “As there are two Doors in each city, it would be rather simple for them to come through one Door to unlock the other. I do not think that is a viable method of shutting Doors down. We need to disable the Doors on the Zaran side.”

  “Even if we remove all of the Doors in the southern half of the valley,” frowned Rut-ki, “we do not eliminate a single city from their attack. Look at how the Doors are arranged. One through six are duplicated by nineteen through twenty-four, an
d seven through twelve are duplicated by thirteen through eighteen. They are perfectly arranged so that any half of the valley still gives them their full capability.”

  “Except for the number of soldiers they can feed through the Doors in an hour,” added General Gregor. “It would have been nice if we could have eliminated their access to one of our provinces. That would allow us to concentrate our men on the other provinces.”

  “Are our people in Zara any closer to discovering the method of attack?” asked Bin-lu.

  “Not that I am aware of,” answered Morro. “We do not know if they plan to use all the Doors at once, or attack one province at a time.”

  “That is critical information,” stated General Gregor. “Our defense must be geared towards their plan of attack. If we use trickery to defeat one army, we cannot afford for word of that to spread back to others.”

  Everyone nodded thoughtfully, but no one had any suggestions for gaining the information needed. Spurred on by the lull in the conversation, Prince Garong addressed the dark elf.

  “What of the Dielderal?” asked the Elderal prince. “Are they united now?”

  “They are,” replied Morro. “Prince Rigal of Glendor explained the errors in our histories. King Elengal and Prince Saratoma are joined in the effort to fight the Federation, as are all of the Dielderal in Elfwoods. There are still some Dielderal in the Federation cities working with the Federation, but their number is small and insignificant. When will the Elderal people learn that we are no longer enemies?”

  “That is a closely guarded secret,” replied King Arik. “While I trust the Elderal, there are far too many ears in Alcea for such information to become commonplace. We do not want to alert the Federation until the Dielderal are safe.”

  “That will be soon,” stated Morro. “The liberation of the reeducation centers will occur within the month. I am anxious for our elven brothers to know that our people are no longer split into factions.”

  “I apologize for my people,” replied Prince Garong. “I heard about your arrival from my scouts. They were confused when you showed up with Valon, but they will not try to harm you again. I also would like to announce that the Dielderal have rejoined the fold, but I agree with Valon. Now is not the time.”