by Philip Smith
“What gave it away?”
“Lucky guess.”
“Ha! Well, anyway, as we became acquainted, Eöl asked me if I’d be willing to help him and a few others do what little we could to keep the Shahir’s forces out of the Wild. I agreed.”
“So where’d the nickname come from?”
“Duelmaster? Well, let’s just say it was a well-earned title, and the fourteen Sharadhen Cavalry officers I took on at one time would agree!”
“Fourteen?” Paige said dryly. “Really?”
“Okay, so five. Wasn’t that many off!”
“Sure….”
The dryad feigned being shot in the heart with an arrow, then laughed, smacking the princess on the back good-naturedly.
“I like you, Princess,” he chuckled. “I feel you and I will get along splendidly!”
“Likewise.” Paige smiled.
Duelmaster wiggled his eyebrows, then dropped his tone. “Though, not so sure about these other pixies,” he said mockingly. “Lot of weirdos in this crew, if you get my drift.”
“Perhaps, but you’ve done a very good job at keeping to yourselves, it would seem”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, ever since I was a little girl, I’ve heard about dwarves and elves, of course, but I’ve never seen one, let alone met them all in the same place! The Wild hasn’t had any magical creatures or races other than men in centuries, my Papa said.”
“He’s not wrong,” Duelmaster admitted, taking a swig from his wineskin. “Not in this age, anyways. But the Wild is the gateway to the rest of Eirensgarth, so if we want to protect our own people, this is where the fight had to happen. And believe me, it’s a lot harder to hide a giant in the Wild than you’d think.”
“Wait, is Twostaves an actual giant?” Paige asked, astonished. She looked at the huge, lumbering individual ahead of her. One of his giant staves thumped on the ground as he walked; the other was strapped to his back with the round shield. She hadn’t considered him as an actual giant, just a very tall man.
“Aye! And a curious one, indeed! A little strange in the head, if you ask me, which no one ever does, but a real chipper fellow when he wants to be.”
“Are giants always that small?” Paige asked, keeping her voice hushed.
“Gracious, no, princess! Lowland Giants are much smaller. Word is, back an age or so ago, the really big giants in one clan started mating with the humans instead of eating them, and this is what you get after a thousand years of that kind of nonsense! Twostaves came from a wealthy lowland family in the east, on the edge of the Great River. Lowland giants had a few small clans about there back in the day, and Isaac was the son of the Bear clan-master.”
“So what’s royalty doing out here?”
“Not much different from you,” Duelmaster said in a hushed tone. “Lowland Giants, if you didn’t know, are the most hospitable and jovial creatures you’ll ever meet. When Twostaves’s family discovered a hunting party in the woods, of course they invited them to their castle for a feast. The hunting party was headed by none other than the Shahir himself. Isaac was weary of these strange men and their strange manners, but his father insisted on upholding tradition and showing them hospitality.”
Paige’s pointed ears perked at the mention of the Shahir.
Duelmaster kept talking, his voice hushed. “As the night waxed on, Isaac’s unease grew, so he excused himself from the festivities to take a walk on the roof. He fell asleep under the stars at about the second hour, and that’s what spared his life. When he awoke the next morn, all was unusually quiet. Upon entering the castle, he found every member of his house butchered, and the ‘guests’ gone with every article of gold and silver in the castle. Grieving, he buried his family, took up his father’s two massive staves, and left his forest home. He met up with us early last spring.”
“How dreadful!” Paige gasped.
“Tell me about it.”
“That’s got to be a heavy load to carry,” Paige mumbled, looking at the little giant.
“Well, he’s used to that,” Duelmaster said with a slight chuckle.
Paige punched him in the arm. “Don’t be so cruel!”
“I didn’t even mention how horrible his cooking is. Only thing the poor twonk can make is muffins, which, somehow, are incredible. Might explain the gut.”
The sun slowly sank low into the horizon, and Paige could hear the chorus of huffing and puffing escalate. One by one the men’s backs began to round as their shoulders slumped under the weight of their gear, and even in the chilly breeze several began to show tell-tale rings of sweat around their collars and blotches on their sleeves where they’d wiped the perspiration from their eyes. Paige saw Dinendale at the front of the men keenly looking about them for a place to camp. Paige turned back to the dryad, sympathy in her blue eyes.
“Do you all have stories like that?”
“Most. Broadside was beaten until he gave up a dwarf mine to the army of the Shahir, barely escaped with his life. Robert can’t remember anything from his childhood, but the hermit who raised him said the Shahir killed Eöl’s family when he was a baby. Jesnake was a little different, in that he was exiled from his people because of a human.”
“Wait, really? His own people exiled him?”
“He’s a western elf. They’ve long been bred to hate all that is human.”
“But why?”
“That is an entire history lesson for another day. But Jesnake has a better heart than the rest of his kind. They tossed him out when he openly objected to putting a young human captive to death. He met Broadside and Dinendale several years ago and was one of the founders of this band. Poor idiot.”
“What about Dinendale?” she asked. The dryad grew grave, and she feared she’d overstepped the bounds. But he answered, a sad smile on his lips.
“Din? He’s probably the most unfortunate of us all. He was a fun-loving fellow when we met him; he banded us together out of his thirst for adventure and untamable spirit. But he hasn’t been that way for a long time.”
“Why not?”
“When something you love is taken from you, you have two choices. Fight for it, or cave in to despair. You handled your loss one way. Din… he’s handled it in his way. Can’t blame him. But he’s not been the same as he once was.”
“What was taken from him?”
“A very dear friend,” Duelmaster whispered. Paige was about to ask more, but suddenly Dinendale stopped at the head of the column. The rest of the group eagerly welcomed the halt after hours of constant walking. They had reached the edge of a small ravine. With a cliff on the left, a gully on the right, and thick shrubs all over, it was concealed from the rest of the path quite well.
“Anyone have an objection to camping here?” Dinendale asked.
“Let’s call it a day, guys,” Robert said. They dropped their packs in a heap near a large shrub off the path and began a chorus of yawns and groans. Paige spread out her elk-hide blanket-roll between two redberry bushes, her thighs and feet aching from the long hike with her heavy pack. It was chilly, and she was glad to have the warm fur sleeping bag that Twostaves had supplied for her. The others had the same idea, each having picked a bush to sleep under.
“Someone start a fire, will you?” Broadside yelled from a rather small bush.
“You do it,” groaned Robert from his pile of gear.
“I’m kind of in the middle of taking a—”
“For land sakes, Broadside, we have a woman with us now!” Twostaves scolded.
“… Sorry.”
“Won’t a fire be seen?” Jesnake asked, diverting the conversation. Paige noticed he seemed to be the most cautious of the group.
“Nay,” Duelmaster said. “The gully shields us from the rest of the valley. The wind is blowing in the opposite direction of our enemy’s travel, so they won’t see the smoke either.”
“Well, someone get one going quick! My toes are about to freeze off,” Twostaves said.
/>
“If you’d worn the moccasins like I told you…” Dinendale gave a slight smirk. Paige rolled off her bedding and began to gather dry wood for the fire. She had a full armload by the time she got back to where Robert and Jesnake were attempting to use flint and steel while having a heated argument. Duelmaster jogged over to where she stood and took the sticks she held.
“Allow me, princess,” he said with a joking smile. She gave him a look, pulled the sticks closer to her chest and marched over to Robert and Jesnake’s quarrel.
“You have to hold it at a sharper angle!” Jesnake insisted.
“Like I told you, I’ve got this!” Robert spat back.
“Oh, my apologies. I hadn’t noticed the warmth spreading through my fingers. Oh, wait! There isn’t any, because you haven’t started the bloody fire!”
After several moments of no fire and all squabbling, Paige let out an exasperated sigh. She marched over and grabbed the flint from Robert and drew the dagger she’d found in her pack. In one fluid motion, she produced a spray of sparks that lit the dry kindling. She stood, noting Robert and Jesnake’s genuine slack-jawed surprise. Someone started to clap, and she turned to see both Duelmaster and Dinendale applauding her. She shrugged.
“If men would just get things done instead of trying to prove who’s right, we might actually get a fire going,” she sassed.
Robert huffed but didn’t argue further. They quickly set to making a meager supper of bread, dried fish, and some candied nuts. By the time the meal was over, Paige felt the waves of exhaustion hit her like a stormy gale.
“We should all get to bed,” Robert yawned, apparently feeling the same storm washing over him. “It’s going to be an even longer day tomorrow.”
>>>O<<<
Paige opened her eyes and yawned. She pulled herself out of the elk hide bag, stifling the long groan only a person’s stiffness can produce. Looking about, she noticed that Duelmaster was up and Jesnake was re-starting the fire from still-warm embers. No sounds disturbed the cold mist of the mountain morning, save for Broadside’s loud, obnoxious snoring.
“It’s a wonder we weren’t attacked; I should have thought they’d have heard that sound from miles away,” Paige muttered to herself.
“If I thought we would be in any danger, I’d have made him sleep on that cliff.”
She whirled around and saw Dinendale sitting cross-legged on the ground a few yards away. He held a buckskin cloth in his right hand, polishing his large broadsword. She fleetingly thought that the cloth looked an awful lot like the leather scroll she kept tied around her waist, but since that was still intact, she felt a quick relief wash over her. Dinendale gave her the briefest hint of a smile as he worked.
“How long have you been up?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Sun-up.” He tested the blade’s edge with his thumb. Finding it sufficiently sharp, he breathed on the sword to reveal the smudges he’d missed. Satisfied, he sheathed the blade. “I’m off to get some fresh meat with Duelmaster, if you want to come with. ”
“Shouldn’t we be getting on the road?” Paige asked, lips pursed. Dinendale shrugged.
“We do, but we also need to conserve the cured foods as long as we can, so we should eat fresh meat whenever possible. Besides,” he nodded at the crew. “They wont be packed up and ready to move out for another hour at least.”
“Well then being with you two beats sitting around here,” she said, pulling herself to her feet and stretching. She walked over to where the packs were stashed and drew out the bow Jesnake gave her yesterday. After carefully stringing it, she picked up a quiver of arrows and joined Duelmaster, who was teasing Jesnake for the amount of time it took him to get the embers lit.
“Coming along, princess?” the dryad asked. Paige smiled back and nodded, strapping her quiver across her back. She paused for a moment, looking down at the bow. Only a few mornings before, she’d done the same thing with her papa. She tried to stop thinking about it before the throbbing pain settled into the pit of her stomach, but it persisted. She quickly bit her lip and finished getting her gear together. Dinendale joined them a few moments later.
“I saw some fowl heading a little east of here,” he said, stringing his own bow.
“I could go for a fat hen before setting out!” Duelmaster exclaimed, almost giddy. He looked at Paige and winked.
“Duelmaster doesn’t believe in eating plants,” Dinendale explained.
“You wouldn’t understand! It’s like eating a cousin or your favorite pet!”
“But Duely, you had a pet cow last year.”
“Okay, so bad example! No need to drag Mincemeat into this. She was a wonderful cow!”
It didn’t take long before they heard the rustle of bird wings overhead. Duelmaster motioned them to stop. He stretched out his arms and lifted his head to the sky. Dinendale nudged her.
“This is one of his favorite tricks,” he whispered, setting three arrows on his string. After less than a minute, a fat partridge landed on Duelmaster’s outstretched arm. As the seconds passed, several more joined it. When five had settled on the dryad, Dinendale drew his hickory bow and aimed.
In a blink of an eye, four of the five hens dropped without a sound, two skewed on one arrow. The one lucky bird made it to the safety of the trees.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Paige sputtered in astonishment.
Duelmaster grinned. “Since dryads are truly wood sprites, the animals sense no danger. Comes in handy every now and then.”
Dinendale scooped up the four fallen birds, removing the arrows from their carcasses with a single deft movement. He stuffed the fat hens into his game bag, and the three continued hunting. For another quarter of an hour, the only sound was the quiet padding of their moccasins on the forest floor. Duelmaster managed to nail a jackrabbit at thirty paces, which enticed approving glances from both Dinendale and Paige.
After a brief breakfast of roast hens seasoned with some wild garlic Broadside had found, Paige and the Brotherhood geared up and started back down the forest’s natural path. Leaving the ravine in their wake, they continued in the same manner as the previous day. The mountains became steeper as they moved into late afternoon, which meant the sun was gone much sooner in the day now. The daylight stayed about the same, but no sun meant no heat. The chill of the air began to creep onto her skin as the day dragged into twilight.
A few hours after leaving their campsite behind, Paige fell into pace with Jesnake, his mail armor jingling softly as he plodded along. The tall western elf was breathing as if he were taking a waltz in a garden, despite the great elevation and steep path. His ebony bow was strung at his side. Paige had never seen a more magnificent bow in all her life. The deadly beauty was inlaid with a silver vine on both arms of the weapon, capping the ends of the arms in beautiful inlay. She admired the still beauty projected by the wooden limbs, the dark wood looking warm in the fading light of the mountains.
“You admire my ‘bringer of anguish’?” he asked.
She jumped a little at his unexpected voice but nodded. “It’s a beautiful weapon. It must have cost a fortune!”
“I made it. The tree grew next to my dwelling when I was a lad.”
“Just where do you call home, Jesnake?”
His eyes gained a distant look, and it took a moment for him to reply. When he did, his voice was quiet.
“My people live in a great valley we call the Albamaugh. It is a beautiful place far west of anything you would know about. It never snows, but ’tis never too hot. The fields are gold with wheat, surrounded by mountains on all sides.”
“It sounds wonderful,” Paige said. She recalled the story Duelmaster had briefed her on earlier and felt a pang of sympathy tug at her heartstrings. “Why did they make you leave?”
Jesnake’s eyes appeared to mist over for a moment as he looked up at the sky through the branches above.
“Unlike your kin, mine decided to put up a fight first. When the Sharadhs landed on
the shores of this land, we were the ones living where their farms and cities lay now. Our cousins to the south retreated further into their forests, but my people stayed and fought. One by one, our armies were decimated, our cities plundered, until we were all but wiped from the history chronicles. But a band of twenty managed to escape.”
“And they headed west? Are there so few of you now?”
Jesnake chuckled. “My dear, that was nearly a thousand years ago. We have grown since then. Our city of Liennen is a rival to any you would ever find in the east.”
“And will you try and take back your homeland?”
“A homeland four generations have never known? Not my idea of a rational life goal. Even still, from the day I entered this world, I was taught to hate the human race for what it did to my ancestors so many years ago.”
