“It was just a bird.” Alister admonished the elf.
Kataard remained silent as Trian explained, “The rook was Kataard’s familiar. They were connected in a special way.”
“I received power from him and he held a portion of my life essence.” Kataard bemoaned.
“Enough about the damned bird!” Trian exclaimed, deeming his brief explanation satisfactory enough.
Kataard backed away from the Warlord and the Supreme Commander.
“What do we do now?” Alister asked.
Trian paused a moment. “I would like to have gleaned some information as to the layout of Seebaul’s camp from the boy, but it will not matter. With this stone, we can find it.”
Alister grinned, “Then we will prepare the troops and move into the Tilsaw before sunrise. You will come with us, wizard.”
Kataard’s stared open-mouthed at the Supreme Commander.
Trian smirked, “He would be useless going up against Seebaul. Until he has a pearl in his hands, he would do nothing but hinder us.”
“What good is he, then?” Alister questioned.
“Kataard has his uses, and once he has the red pearl, he will be restored to his former glory. Then he will fulfill his purpose. Turning to the wizard he asked, “How many trolls have you summoned?”
“Ten.” Kataard answered. The elf was too distraught to even consider correcting the usage of the word troll that he so despised.
“Send for them. I will take them with me.” Trian advised.
“What are your plans?” Alister asked.
“We are going after Seebaul. You will carry the gem and lead a full command of soldiers up after Seebaul. I will make sure that you know how to use it. We will send the trolls after them too. I will assume my true form and fly overhead to swoop down upon them until the soldiers are close enough that I have to change back.”
“Won’t the magic confuse you?” Alister asked.
“The magic of the Tilsaw will prevent me from finding Seebaul’s sanctuary, but it will not prevent me from following you. We are magically linked, so that I can find you anywhere. You will be my eyes leading me to the Elf Lord. Once we reach him, I will burn his sanctuary to the ground. We will massacre Seebaul and everyone with him. All that will survive will be the Pearls of the Elf Lords, and the stolen Dragon Gates that he has hidden. Once that is accomplished, we will no longer need to be concerned about Kadoola or the Emperor. Both will fall to the new order of the Dragon.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tessa stepped outside of the hut, where she had done her best to bandage Natis’ hands and treat his other wounds. She found Jordan, Megan, and Landis waiting outside. “You need to let me tend to your bruises.” She said to Jordan.
The Prince-Regent rubbed his swollen face. “I will be all right.”
“How is Natis?” Landis asked.
Tessa shook her head, “He will live. Most of his wounds are not as serious as they look. His hands are badly damaged. I cannot guarantee that they will ever fully recover.
“Without his hands, he will have little power as a mage.” Landis said.
“I have done all that I can do.” Tessa insisted.
“I know you have. Thank you.” Landis replied.
Tessa looked off in the distance. She saw Seebaul and Trevor Kahn standing on the ledge overlooking the darkened valley below. Nearby, she observed Doogal sitting on the ground, looking out in the same direction. Shadow was lying beside the thief. Doogal was absentmindedly scratching the large hound behind her ears.
Tessa walked over to join him. “I think that Shadow might be tempted to run off with you when you leave.”
“If what they are saying is right, then I doubt if any of us will be leaving this place.”
Doogal’s choker was gone from around his neck, revealing the vicious scar on his neck. It was the first time that Tessa had seen it since their first meeting. “Did you lose your choker?”
Doogal shrugged his shoulders and tugged at his tunic. The move was an instinctive reaction that he had developed to try to hide the old wound. Catching his actions, he dropped his arms to his side. “I wear the choker to hide the hangman’s scar. Not much reason to do so now.”
Before she realized what she was doing, Tessa ran her finger across the scar. “It is not that bad.” Tessa commented. “I see no reason to be ashamed of it.”
Doogal was startled by the feeling of the Ranger’s caress, but he did not move. This was the first time that Doogal had ever permitted anyone to touch his scar. He missed the feel of Tessa’s finger the moment she pulled her hand away. “I do not hide the scar out of shame. I do it to conceal my identity. There are many who know the description of The Hangman only as a half-elf with a scar across his neck. Wearing a choker, or a kerchief, has helped to hide my identity more than once.”
Tessa did not respond. Instead, she quietly took a seat on the ground next to the thief, and looked out in the distance to where Doogal’s eyes were fixed.
“They are coming, should be here by sunrise.” Doogal estimated.
Tessa looked back over her shoulder, “We have sixty or more children up here. Only a handful of them are big enough to use a sword, if we had any to spare. That leaves us with one Elf Lord and eight trained fighters, plus Reldoor, and maybe the princess. Not much against an army.”
“You are forgetting your dog.” Doogal reminded her, “Besides, some of those fighters have faced worse. They are legendary. Still, the odds do not favor us.”
“Why did you return with us?” Tessa asked.
Doogal did not answer.
“I am serious, Doogal. You have no stake in this fight. You got your revenge against the man you were after. You have no family here, and no ties to this community. You could have left, and nobody would have blamed you.”
Doogal nodded, “Do not think that I did not consider it. I thought about it every step of the way back here. This is a fool’s fight. But a man has to have something to fight for, or else he does not have a reason to live. I poured every bit of my being into seeking revenge for years. Now I have no one left to get even with. It seems to me that these children, and this group of people, are worth fighting for. Those Westlanders don’t have any real reason to remain behind either, unless you buy that story about the magical pearls and all that. I figure that if they are willing to make this their line in the sand, then I can do the same. If I must die, then at least I will die in grand company. And I have sort of come to appreciate some of the company here.”
Tessa realized that Doogal was now holding her hand. She did not pull it away. “You are a good man, Doogal.” She spoke with fondness.
Doogal spotted movement overhead. He looked up in time to see a raven fly by. The black bird landed on a branch sticking out over the hillside nearby. The bird looked his way before crying out, “Caw.”
Doogal chuckled, “You say that I am good, but the raven knows best. They seem to follow me wherever I go, always announcing the presence of death when I arrive. And why not, they are omens of death, and I will always be The Hangman.”
Tessa squeezed the half-elf’s hand. “Is that all you see when you observe the raven? If so, then you do not know your own elven heritage. While humans view the raven as a symbol of darkness, the Delowe’ view it as a positive omen. It is a sign of transition, a symbol of hope. Many elves see its reputation as a trickster as a representation of wisdom and knowledge. Perhaps the raven should be a symbol to you of your new life, now that your quest for justice has ended.”
“A new life that will probably be over by this time tomorrow.” Doogal suggested.
“Enough talk about dying.” Weslocke said as he approached the two half-elves. “I have faced worse situations, and somehow found a way out. We must have confidence that we shall do the same this time.”
Seebaul ended his conversation with Trevor and called out to everyone, “My friends, gather around. I have a plan.”
“What did I tell you?” Wesloc
ke said with a grin.
* * * * *
After gathering the companions together, Seebaul led them away from the camp and into the trees. As they approached, Katryn appeared, waiting for them. Landis rushed to embrace her, something he had been unable to do the first time they met in this forest.
“There is no time for that now.” Seebaul chided the reunited lovers. “Katryn, take us to the gates.”
Katryn reluctantly released her hold on Landis. Without speaking, she closed her eyes, clutching the green stone around her neck. The darkness around them shimmered for only a moment, and then it became apparent to all that they were not standing in the same location. The camp, which had been in view only moments before, was gone. They were now standing in a clearing at the edge of a towering cliff. Dense forest lay in all other directions before them.
Weslocke looked up at the wall before them. By his estimation, its wide, circular base rose a good thousand feet above the valley. “I could see this from the camp. It has to be at least a two hour hike deep into the forest from where we were to get here.”
Seebaul grinned at the dwarf, “You are correct.”
Seth looked up at the narrow cliff. “This is called the Tilsaw Needle.” Looking to Seebaul, he said, “I thought that no one was permitted in here but you.”
“That was then, this is now.” Seebaul answered. “Everyone take a seat.” Seebaul instructed. When all had found a place to sit down in a semi-circle around the Elf Lord, Seebaul said, “It is time to leave this place.”
“And go where?” Jordan asked, “Even if we can leave by another route, there is no way that we can outrun an army with sixty children to care for.”
“Not unless you can move us magically, like Katryn did when she brought some us here.” Trevor added.
“That is exactly what I intend to do.” Seebaul answered.
Landis squeezed Katryn’s hand in his, “How can Katryn take us anywhere? She will die outside of this forest.”
“One thing at a time,” Seebaul interrupted, “our safety is not what is important here. What Trian wants is what I have hidden in the depths of this cave.” The Elf Lord pointed to the cliff wall behind him. As everyone watched, part of the hillside vanished, revealing a cave a little taller than a man’s height and about twice a man’s width.
Megan gasped at the sudden appearance of the opening, “How…”
“Magic, of course.” Seebaul interrupted her. “This cave has been concealed to all but me for longer than I can remember. Even when the Delowe’ lived here in force, they did not know of its existence. The Needle is believed to be a sacred place for the elves, and none would dare set foot here without permission. Other than Katryn, you are the first to see it.
“Inside this cave is where I have hidden the four Dragon Gates and the red and black pearls. This is what Trian is seeking. If he succeeds in finding this location, and taking the pearls from my staff and the Sword of Alexon, then Trian will be able to reopen the portals to the Dragon Realm. I cannot permit that to happen.”
“We can take the pearls with us.” Weslocke suggested, “The gates are useless without all four of the pearls to unlock them.”
“That would only slow him down,” Seebaul disagreed, “Trian will never stop hunting the Pearls. You have seen what he has already done here in the Eastland. He will wage war everywhere until he succeeds. We must stop him here. And I must find a new location to hide the Dragon Gates.”
“How can you move the gates?” Jaylen asked.
“I don’t see how you even got them into that cave.” Trevor added.
Seebaul grinned, “It is not like I picked them up and carried them. I moved them with magic. My gate has been hidden here for centuries. Over the centuries I have tracked down the others and brought them here. Only the one that had been buried beneath Sedau had eluded me. Thanks to our adventure there nearly two decades ago, I was able to retrieve it, as well as three of the four missing pearls.” He pointed to the sword at Landis’ side, “I left the white one with Weslocke.”
“You knew that I had the sword?” The dwarf asked.
Seebaul grinned, “Of course I did. It is easy to locate the pearls, if you have one,” he held his green staff out before him, “and you know how to search for it. I planned on eventually getting around to taking it, but things got a little busy here. Besides, I knew that it was in good hands.”
Motioning to the forest, he added, “I was confident that the magic of the Tilsaw would prevent the discovery of the pearls and the gates forever. I am afraid that I was mistaken.”
“What do you intend to do?” Jaylen asked.
“Move them again.”
Landis clenched his forehead as he considered the faults in the Elf Lord’s plan. “Even if we can move them, what is to stop Trian—or anyone else—from tracking them down someplace else?”
“I will hide them better this time.” Seebaul stated. “I believe that I have come up with a way to conceal this cave between dimensions, hiding it inside of the magic of the Tilsaw, and moving that magic elsewhere, so that their location is double protected.”
Natis—who had been sitting among them in silence, while rubbing his heavily bandaged hands together—spoke for the first time, “Intriguing, but impossible. You are talking about putting magic inside of something physical, and then putting that inside of itself.”
“In a sense, yes.” Seebaul agreed.
Weslocke struck his forehead with the palm of his hand in frustration. “I do not even know what to be confused by.”
Seebaul continued, “All I intend to do is to remove this cave from its location, and take it—along with a portion of the natural magic of the Tilsaw Forest—and plant it somewhere else, where it can be better protected.”
Landis cocked his head to one side as he looked at the cave entrance, “How can you take a hole out of a hole?”
Seebaul giggled, “I can do no such thing.”
“But…”
“But nothing, Landis. I would be moving the cave, but replacing it with the matter from where it would be going. Basically, what I am talking about is as simple as digging a hole in one place and putting the dirt from that hole into another hole, just on a much grander level of space and distance. At the same time, we will be moving the contents of this cave to the new cave, which just happens to be exactly the same one.
“And we will be taking a part of the magic of the Tilsaw with us. No harm will come to this forest. It will be the same as it is now. Anyone traveling into the forest will be affected just as they are now. But we will plant a portion of that same magic in the new land where we put this cave.”
Weslocke shook his head. “Trevor, knock me out and wake me when this conversation is finished.”
The Sword-master laughed at the dwarf’s remark.
Natis frowned, “Do you realize what you are attempting? You risk tearing the very fabric of this world with such magic.”
“The risk is not that serious,” Seebaul refuted the mage, “I will admit that something on this scale has never been accomplished, but my abilities have been honed over thousands of years. I have thought this through carefully, and I am confident that it will work.”
“Why not just project the pearls and the gates into a realm that no one can reach?” Landis asked.
“I would have done that long ago if it were possible. The magic that created them is tied to this world. I have tried zapping them out of existence many times, only to have them pop back up somewhere else in this world. Hiding them between dimensions in this realm is the best that can be done.”
“Where do you intend to move them to?” Jaylen asked.
“Sedau.”
“Sedau?” The Westlanders all echoed the name at one time.
Weslocke groaned, “We had to fight hard enough to keep one group of evil bastards from opening one Dragon Gate that was in Sedau, now you plan on putting all four in that wretched place.”
“Not in it, but in the forest n
ear it.” Seebaul corrected. “And the children can live there in peace.”
Jordan was appalled, “You want to put those kids in the ruins of that cursed city?”
“Sedau is no longer cursed.” Katryn spoke up. “I healed the land.”
Natis stared at the blonde female, “You are responsible for the change that has occurred there?”
“Yes.” Katryn affirmed.
Seebaul took a deep breath, “Let me start from the beginning.”
“We don’t have that long.” Weslocke interrupted.
The Elf Lord grinned, “Not that beginning… one from your recent past. Following the night that Katryn and I left some of you in Sedau, we traveled east. Katryn was pregnant, so we could not travel far. So we returned to Sedau and took shelter there until she gave birth. We were there when the miners from Birhirm collapsed the tunnels to block access to Bytoron’s lair. That was unnecessary, for I had already removed the gate.
“Once they had finished, Katryn took it upon herself to heal the land from three centuries of ruin. She wanted the place where she and Landis had last been together to be more than a cursed plot of ground.
“When I returned, I found Sedau to be completely transformed. Katryn had used her healing powers to turn it into a lush valley. Unfortunately, she had spent so much of her energy accomplishing this, that I was afraid that she would soon die. And Seth was not yet two years old. Together, we returned here to the Tilsaw. That was when I discovered that the magic of this forest helped to sustain Katryn. It is my belief that if we transfer the magic of this forest to the forest around Sedau, that we can hide this cave there forever, and Katryn can continue to live a normal life there.”
“How is all of this possible?” Weslocke asked.
“I am an Elf Lord; my magic is quite powerful.” Reaching into another pouch, Seebaul removed a palm-sized, oblong red stone. “This ancient stone is carved from the wing of a fossilized dragon. It is magical in nature. I have combined my magic with it to create what you might call an enchanted lock. If we place it over the cave opening, it will seal the hillside into a barrier existing partly between realms. Once that is accomplished, we can transport the contents, although it will require great magic.”
Elf Lords: 02 - Last of the Elf Lords Page 15
