For some unexplained reason, Michael had assumed that the Fay Woods would be free of danger except for the presence of the Fairy Folk, but he now realized that these woods were hostile to human life even without the fairy’s direct involvement. This was the natural state of the planet Home; the way all of Glastamear was before the elves had made it safe enough for humans to survive.
So far as he could recall from his years of study under William, none of the other children of the elves had ever killed a human. Only other humans and many types of wild animals killed humans. There were many accounts of the Fairy Folk, the Naiads of the Tidelands, the Dwarfs of the Deep, and the other children of elves standing aside and letting humans get into serious trouble, even when doing nothing resulted in death of the unfortunate humans. The naiads watched as ships sank against their reef, the dwarfs were known to make dangerous traps for anyone who entered their forbidden underground homes. The Fairy Folk especially were known to deliberately lead the unwary into danger and watch as they suffered the consequences.
If the account of priests and knight protectors perishing in Fay Woods were true, the Fairy Folk did not have to directly intervene. The natural state of the woods was a threat to any human without the Fairy Folk’s protection.
Michael held the branch of welcome he’d been given by Morgan aloft and sampled the minds of the nearby creatures using the mage thought-talk. None of the animals thought of him as food or a source of danger. He knew they would ignore him as long as he carried this branch of the Red Flower Tree. He was also certain that anyone without one would be a meal.
It was late afternoon and growing dark in the autumn light below the forest canopy. He cast night surgery to improve his vision and continued to walk toward the manna signs of the healers and fairies. Fay Woods seemed magical and beautiful, a fitting home to the few Fairy Folks who had remained in Glastamear when most of their kin moved to another continent. He realize it would have been difficult to give up their home and relocate to the other side of the planet; however, most of the children of the elves had thought that the plague of humankind was so appalling that they abandoned their long-time homes.
It was nearly midnight as he approached the barrow where the fairies lived. Several healers came towards him to guide him to their encampment. They had the strong manna of master healers. When Michael met the group, he bowed and introduced himself.
“Greeting Master Healers of Briarton, I am Michael, apprentice to William of Hearthshire.”
A gray haired woman in front, returned the bow and replied, “You are much more than an apprentice Michael, the fairies call you elf-blood, and we can see your manna is stronger than any ten of us combined. I am Gwen, Grand Master of the Great Hospital of Briarton. The title is a hollow thing with the hospital destroyed, but we cling to the old things that can give us comfort. My friends are Master Howard and Master Steven, formerly the heads of Surgery and Trauma Care. We are delighted to see proof that at least one other healer survived. We were beginning to think we might be the only ones left in Glastamear.”
“Sadly, a great many are dead, but many of those who still live are gathering at a place of safety where Lord Guild Master Hampton and Guild Bursar Childs are rebuilding. I think there will be about a hundred counting your 37. All of the healers of Snowport escaped and, also some healers from Northport are at the sanctuary. Also Master Bradley and his six apprentices are already headed to safety. Have the fairies treated you well?”
“They have welcomed us, but they are having trouble feeding us. Most of the things that grow in Fay Woods are not proper food for humans, and Fairy Folk do not let us kill any animals for food. We’re not starving yet, but our food is mostly pulverized acorns and nuts, which lacks many needed nutrients. Most of us will not live through the winter on this diet. Of course, the fairies also prohibit fire for good reason, but that further limits our diet, and each night gets colder as we near winter.”
Michael took off his heavy pack and said, “I’ve brought all the food I could carry, including several bushels of apples. I’ll get more for our journey so please distribute and use everything to rebuild peoples’ strength before our trek to the coast. I also know a spell to heat food without the need of a fire.” The healers were astonished at the weight he had carried; it was more than the weight of a good-sized man. They split up his load and headed to their camp, which was next to a spring fed creek. They had no shelter and only the clothing they had on at the hospital when they fled.
Master Gwen introduced him as Michael Elf-Blood, a healer who would take them to a safe place where the guild was rebuilding. He helped to distribute the food, and cooked a big pot of vegetable and barley stew using the spell fireless heat. He cast a powerful warm blanket spell to dispel the nighttime cold that gripped the camp. By the time the introduction and the meal were finished, it was dawn.
Morgan appeared as the healers sat talking about what had happened at the Briarton Hospital and their escape through the ancient tunnel. This time Morgan appeared as an insubstantial outline of a young woman rather than the solid form Michael had seen in the forest.
“Michael of Gripton’s promise, we have spells to teach you and a place of travel to show. Please follow me into our home.”
Michael followed the glowing form toward the huge mound that was the home of the Fairy Folk. The spirit of Morgan said two words in old elfish, forest vapor, and asked Michael to repeat the words of the spell. When he did, Michael’s body dissolved into a tenuous vapor vaguely in the shape of a man. His clothing fell to the ground because this form had too little substance to support it. He followed Morgan through a crack no wider than his finger into the mound that was home to all the Fairy Folk who had remained in Glastamear. The interior was a huge dome lit by glowing blue-green floating balls. The dome was covered with frescos of astonishing beauty, and the walls were covered with friezes that illustrated many ancient myths. They were carved in white marble with a myriad of jewels forming the eyes and ornamentation of the elfish and fairy figures. Michael was struck dumb in astonishment at the beauty.
“Michael Elf-Blood, you are the first human to ever see our home, but truly you are more elf than the ignoble human fire mages who surround our woods. We are proud to take part in the beginning of your epic song. Please come with me, we have many things to teach you.”
Michael spent three days learning the spells of the Fairy Folk. He learned to change his weight and his form, he learned to talk with animals and control them through the gifts of pleasure he could put directly into their minds. He learned how to speed crop’s growth so that any field could produce three crops a year even in the far north. He also learned how to make trees grow so fast they seemed to appear directly from a nut or seed within a single week. In addition, he learned the opposites. As the ancient tales claimed, he could wave his hand to cause a field of grain to die. He could reform his body into an ambush lion or a dragonfly or almost anything else he could imagine. The fairies also explained that he had such a huge store of manna he could become a dragon for several hours if needed, and that was something they could not do. For the first time he understood the astonishing power of the elves who had created his kind, for they could preform all of this magic and much more.
Early on the third morning, Michael realized that he had eaten nothing for three days but was not hungry and asked Morgan about that strange state.
“Michael Elf-Blood, you are taking your energy directly from the planet Home. The difference between your current weight (less than one hundredth part of your normal body) and your normal weight provides energy. The elves call this difference a gravity gradient. If you keep forest vapor in place, it will give your body all the energy you will ever need. Fairies have no need for food in such an inefficient process as eating to gain energy; however, your friends outside our home barrow are growing hungry again. You have learned much, but it is now time for us to show you to the travel room that the dwarfs left for you. You must begin the next verse o
f your epic song.”
Morgan led Michael out of the barrow through a different crack than the one he had entered. They followed an underground passage decorated with elaborate and beautiful dwarfish carvings for several hundred paces. Two giant statues of dwarfs stood guard with gigantic bronze hammers. One of them spoke in a deep bass tone in the ancient elfish language.
“Welcome to the central travel room that Gripton asked us to prepare for the elf-blood. We recognize you because only the elf-blood would be a guest of the Fairy Folk inside their home. Only the elf-blood would be led to this room. You may travel to any of the eight locations that Gripton had us prepare.”
Morgan said, “I will not enter your travel room, but you are always welcome in our barrow. If you choose, you can bring others to this place and to the other rooms using whatever spells will make that possible. Anyone you choose to assist can travel to any of the other travel rooms in Glastamear as long as you hold their hand and say the spell fast travel to and name the location. We know you wish to get your friends to Black Sand Beach; one of the rooms is there.”
Michael was dumfounded at his luck. He had been dreading trying to get thirty-seven healers through the cordon of knight protectors and through the three-week journey to safety. He entered the room and the walls glowed with dwarfish light. The floor was covered with a map of Glastamear, but it was a map perfect in its terrain detail but more than two thousand years out of date in other ways. The cities of men were absent, only a few human village were shown because this ancient map was made before humans became numerous. He noticed it showed vast forests and swamps in areas that were now farms and villages.
He recognized many of the travel room locations; they were once elfish floating castles, dwarfish subterranean towns, Fairy Folk barrows, and Naiad beaches. Now most were empty of their occupants. It was fortunate that one of the few still occupied was at Black Sand Beach. Another was at a location high in the Mountains of Min, close to the Great Mother Temple of Min where the Red Dragon had given fire magic to the Bagger Chief Perry. Most travel rooms were in locations now taboo to humans and completely empty of people who might notice his arrival. However, none were located on Mitchell Island near the Village of Rock Point. There was no sign that the islands near Glastamear were occupied by any of the children of the elves in ancient times. Before the elves brought the cod, halibut, salmon, mackerel, and other human food fishes, there was no reason to become a fisherman. Michael spent time memorizing the map so that he could travel to any location from any other travel room.
Gripton’s gift of the travel rooms was an astonishing advantage since Michael would be able to travel to almost any place in Glastamear much faster than the fastest messenger of church or crown could travel. The question Michael had to solve was how to get the thirty-seven hungry healers waiting for his return into this travel room so he could transport them safely to the room near Black Sand Beach.
Chapter 31
Michael recalled how he had reached the healers in the cave near Briarton using earth spells he had learned from the dwarf’s book. He used his soil sense to see that the travel chamber was about fifteen paces below the forest floor, but giant trees were all around and their roots formed a solid tangle above. He knew that the fairies would be upset if he killed any of the trees of their home forest, especially giant trees right next to their barrow home. He walked back along the passage through which he entered until he detected an area with few roots; there was a clearing above.
He began to carefully use the spell excavate to clear a passage only large enough for him to crawl through. When he finally broke through into the dim light, he was showered with dirt and leaves. He climbed out into a clearing where a forest giant had been killed by lightning a decade earlier. He cleared an area around the opening and converted his tunnel into a series of stone steps with an opening large enough for a tall man to stand upright. He activated the spell torch to set up a series of lights that would burn for several weeks. After the passage was ready, he cast stone dome to protect his passageway from the chance entrance of animals until he returned.
Next, Michael went back to the map room and said the spell to travel to Black Sand Beach. He had no idea where the travel room was located in relation to the beach, and didn’t want to bring the healers out into the dangerous Great Black Thicket. In a blink of an eye he was standing in a pitch-black room with an odor of seawater and decay. He cast torch to light the chamber. It was another dwarfish room, but there was no map on the floor. The only way to travel out of here would be to already know the location of other travel rooms or to know enough magic to figure out how to get out.
Michael’s earth sense told him he was under a cliff about ten-paces deep. On one side of the room a heavy stone door opened into a passageway. He walked over to the door and found it moved easily at his touch. Two stone dwarfs with giant hammers stood on the other side.
“Welcome elf-blood,” one said in a bass voice in ancient Elfish.
Michael wasn’t sure if they could understand a request, but he asked the effigy, “If I bring some healers through this passage, will you leave them alone and let them pass?”
“Only if you hold their hand. Without you, we will smash them flat and enjoy the diversion.” The deep voice laughed. Michael could only wonder what these strange effigies really were. They clearly were not alive, but they could move, answer questions, and even laugh. His dwarf spell book did not mention them.
Michael followed the passage, thinking thirty-seven trips through the travel rooms would still be a lot faster than travel on foot or horseback. The passage led to another stone door, which opened easily even after two thousand years of disuse. It revealed a panorama of black sand and sea. He was not far from the tower where the Naiads had housed him on his first visit. He transformed the cliff a short distance from the doorway into a stone staircase that led down to the beach and walked onto the black sands.
He reached out to Obert with mage thought-talk, and soon Obert and many other naiads were swimming to the beach. At the water’s edge, Obert greeted him and said, “Welcome, Michael Elf-Blood. I see your magic is growing; your manna has more than doubled since we met. You also discovered how to travel the Dwarfish Ways. No naiad can travel in that manner; it is a skill of only the dwarfs and elves.”
Obert continued, “Bradley of Briarton and six others arrived yesterday. Lady Agnes of Northport hospital and Lady Marsha of Snowport have returned after their trip to the Village of Rock Point, and they are here as well. Have you visited the fairies in Fay Wood, and have you rescued more healers?”
“Greetings my friend Obert. I have indeed been with the Fairy Folk in Fay Woods and traveled here by the Dwarfish Way. I want to bring thirty-seven more healers of Briarton Hospital through to the beach so that we can travel to our refuge the next time my fishing ships return.”
“Thirty-seven, congratulations on your success. We will prepare a banquet for all of you. We have traded for fruits, vegetables, and other human foods for our healer guests, so there will be plenty of food until the next ship arrives. However, our guest tower will be much too small for so many. A storm will be here tomorrow, part of a four-day great ship-smasher storm; it will be extremely uncomfortable on the beach with winds so strong they can fling a man through the air like a leaf.”
“I should have them all here by sunset. Please let Master Bradley know of my success. Master Gwen is the leader of the group who’ll soon arrive. With your permission, I can use dwarfish spells to make a large room within that granite cliff so that they can avoid tomorrow’s storm.”
Master Bradley and his apprentices and Ladies Agnes and Marsha joined the naiads and Michael on the beach. After an exchange of greetings and an update by Michael, everyone gathered to see Michael use dwarfish magic to make a new temporary home for the refugees. It took about two hours, but when he was done, Michael was proud of his work. He had made much more than a simple cave. It had three substantial rooms, one for the men and o
ne for the women for sleeping and a third common room with an area for cooking and stone tables for eating. He made ventilation channels and enchanted parts of the walls with torch for light. He used fireless heat to make an oven and stove, and to provide a heat source in the center of each room.
Michael also made two bathrooms, channeling a spring to provide water to the kitchen and the baths. He even added a heavy iron door, pulling the iron directly from the ground and forming it as a copy to the door of the Hospital of Northport. The healers went about gathering reeds for bedding and driftwood for furniture. Since it might be a several weeks before the fishing boats returned, he was satisfied that the Briarton healers would be comfortable until they could leave for Rock Point.
When he had finished, Lady Agnes said, “For the first time I understand what you truly are Michael. I have seen Gripton’s promise at work. It would have taken five scores of humans many weeks to make this shelter. You are an elf with a human body.”
Once Michael had finished the refuge, he hurried back to the travel room and transported himself back to Fay Woods. He climbed the stairway he had built and removed the stone dome spell. He hurried through the woods to the settlement of the healers and explained how he planned to get them to Black Sand Beach and that a banquet awaited.
The laughing, wisecracking group of healers followed him into the travel room and one by one he transported them to Black Sand Beach, where Lady Agnes, Lady Marsha, and Master Bradford waited to take them to their new quarters. Before the last trip, Michael sealed the passage to the surface, and then traveled back to the beach to join the banquet that the Naiads had provided.
The Pogrom of Mages: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume One Page 14
