The Dark Glory War (22 page)

At the table sat four elves. From their eyes I guessed they were Vorquelves, yet these elves were well dressed, even fashionably so. They appeared to be clean, right down to their well-trimmed fingernails. They had parchment before them, quill pens and ink, so I guessed they were literate. They watched us enter and one of them, a red-haired male, directed us to a pair of open seats in the front row.

Resolute moved to one of two chairs set facing the bar. In the one to his right, between him and the table, sat a female elf whose white hair was a match for his. Her eyes were a copper color that seemed to shift a bit, as if currents moved through the molten metal trapped in her orbs. She did not turn her head toward Resolute, but dropped her hand on his after he sat.

The red-haired elf stood and spoke quickly in Elvish, before reverting to the common Mantongue for our benefit. “You have been brought here by Resolute because he is on trial. He has been charged with malicious conduct. Against this charge he maintains a defense of grave circumstance. In short, he claims what he did was not an offense because of the urgency of his mission.

“I am Amends. With my three companions we have brought this charge against him and will try it. Seated next to Resolute is our Truthteller, Oracle. She will determine the right of things here. If she offers no ruling, then we will decide what shall be done.”

I frowned because it sounded that the people making the charge would also be deciding whether or not Resolute was guilty of it. That hardly sounded fair. I glanced at him, but he just looked at Amends.

Amends glanced at the parchment in front of him. “You were present when Resolute had an exchange with Jentellin of Croquellyn.”

I nodded. “I was, but I don’t understand Elvish, so I don’t know what they said.”

“No matter. Was Resolute disrespectful?”

I scratched at my forehead. “He was angry, but with good cause. Disrespectful, I don’t know.”

The redheaded elf snorted sharply. “Is not a display of anger at a gathering such as that rude, and is not rudeness disrespectful?”

“Shouting ‘fire’ might be rude and disrespectful, but if the building was burning, it would be welcome.” I pointed an open hand toward Resolute. “He’d seen what we saw at Atval. He saved my life, and he brought forward the fact that Aurolani creatures were in Oriosa. I make the two things the same.”

Leigh smiled at me. “Well said.”

“Thank you.”

“If you please, men.” Amends frowned at us. “It was not your impression Resolute’s action disrupted things?”

I signed. “We had been told that we were to discuss what happened at Atval with no one, so the politicians could work up to a discussion of things. Resolute forced the issue, which meant it couldn’t be lost or forgotten. What he did might not have been desired by some, but it was the right thing to do.”

Resolute nodded slightly, but Oracle remained still and silent.

Amends looked at Oracle, waiting in silence that was only broken by a drunk and a slattern laughing as they searched for something that apparently was lost within the folds of her skirts. The black-haired female hissed them to silence, but still Oracle said nothing.

Amends nodded. “Well, there apparently is no untruth in what we have been told. The whole of the truth has yet to be determined, so we shall retire to do that. Resolute, you will remain here until we return.” The four of them got up and walked toward a back room.

Once the door to it had closed, Resolute slipped his hand from beneath Oracle’s and crossed to the bar. Leigh and I walked over to him as he ordered three tankards of ale.

The bartender only drew one.

“I want three. One for me, and one each for these men.”

The tallow candles imparted a golden glow to the bartender’s bald pate and the tips of his pointed ears. “This ale isn’t for the likes of them.”

I held up a hand. “We appreciate it, Resolute, but it’s not important.”

“Likely it’s sour and tastes of wormy-wood.” Leigh sniffed indignantly. “I’ve already had more than my fill of bad ale in my lifetime.”

The bartender narrowed his emerald eyes. “A man might fall for that trickery, but not me.” He turned to other customers and ignored us.

“So, Resolute, what was all that about?”

The elf licked foam from his top lip, then leaned back on the bar and hooked his elbows on the edge. “Vorquelves tend to bunch in various groups. Amends and his type, they’re the appeasers. They think that by being nice and polite, they will be able to influence men and elves into liberating Vorquellyn. Me, I’m just out for justice. I’ll shame anyone I can into freeing my home. When I can’t do that, I go out and kill things. Others, well, you saw them outside and back there. They’ve surrendered, they’re the dissolute. They have no hope and have forever to wallow in self-pity.”

He raised his chin and pointed at Oracle. “Then we have her and her kind. Mystics in the way I’m a warrior. They see things, bits and pieces of a puzzle, that tells us our home will be freed. Don’t see it fast enough for me, though.”

“Amends and his cabal have power over you?”

“No, Leigh, though they would like to think they do. All they really can manage is to turn me out of the Downs, or refuse to trade with me. They’re angry because I spoke harshly to Jentellin, and they were hoping to enlist his aid.”

“Resolute, take your friends home.” A lean elf in stained grey leathers stood in the middle of the tavern room and pointed a ringer toward Leigh and me. “We don’t need them here.”

“Easy, friend.” Leigh gave the elf a full smile. “We’re just here helping a comrade.”

“I’m not your friend,man.” The way the elf said the word boosted anger through me. “Either you get out of here now, or there will be trouble.”

Leigh’s smile faded. “Oh, we leave here at your command, then you and your friends fall on us outside? Is that the plan?”

The elf clawed fingers back through matted brown hair. “I’ll thrash you here.”

I shook my head and stepped between him and Leigh. “No, you won’t.”

“I can handle him, Hawkins.”

“I owe you from earlier, remember?” I turned and met the elf’s sapphire gaze without flinching. “What’s your name?”

“I am Predator.” He gave me a crooked smile. “I lead the Grey Mist and we own the Downs.”

“Good, then you can convey my message to all your people. If you or any of the Grey Misters touch a Norrington, I’ll give you a lot of time and pain to think on why that was wrong.”

“Nicely said, Hawkins. I appreciate it.”

I turned back toward Leigh to nod at him, fully knowing what would happen. Leigh’s widening eyes told me a punch was incoming, so I ducked my head and let Predator’s right fist flash over my left shoulder. I stepped back quickly and jammed my left elbow in the elf’s ribs. I got theoof I expected, but as I pivoted on my left foot and brought my right fist around to double him over, he slipped past my punch.

I sidestepped right, again cutting him off from Leigh. Predator’s right hand flashed in again. It glanced off my left cheek and hurt, but wasn’t anywhere near enough to put me down. My left arm came up and I got a handful of his slender arm. I pulled him forward, then pivoted to the left. I hit him with an open hand over the heart and dragged him over my right hip. Leigh danced back as the elf crashed down.

Predator scrambled back to his feet as Leigh appropriated the chair Resolute had vacated. The elf came in more slowly now, more respectful, which was his mistake. I feinted with a low, slow left hand, then brought my right hand around and down in a big roundhouse right. I caught him in the side of the jaw and spun him around. His legs got all twisted up. He slammed against the bar and rebounded, hard, to the floor.

Two other grey-clad elves started after me, but a loud elven voice split the hoots, threats, and cheers. I spun and looked at Oracle. Her hand rested on Leigh’s arm and she spoke in a clear firm voice. I couldn’t understand her words, but the effect they had on the elves was nothing short of mind-numbing. Many sagged in chairs or against the bar and began to weep, while others stared at Leigh in amazement.

Amends and the others came out of the back room, their faces pure masks of astonishment. “Did you hear it all, anyone? Two verses?”

Resolute walked past me and knelt before Oracle, resting his scarred hands on her knees. “I heard it. It is burned into my memory.” He repeated what she had said, but in hushed and reverential tones, then glanced back at me.

“My translation will lack something, for in Elvish what she has said is as lyrical as it is hopeful. In your tongue it is this:A Norrington to lead them, Immortal, washed in fire Victorious, from sea to ice.

Power of the north he will shatter, A scourge he will kill, Then Vorquellyn will redeem.“

My mouth went dry. “What does it mean?”

Resolute started to answer, but Amends cut him off. “It could mean much, and it could be nonsense. We will deliberate and decide. If this is meant to be heard outside elven councils, we will speak.”

Resolute stood and gave Amends a wolfish grin. “Decide right, Amends. We all heard this and we know the justice of it. You speak, or I will, and I think you know I will be heard.”

The Vorquelf’s prophecy conspired with other events to push the royals at the Harvest Festival to consider taking action. The strongest motivating factor came through a series ofarcanslata messages sent to the Okrans delegation. They reflected a very serious situation developing in Okrannel.

Not being a magicker, my understanding of how anarcanslata works is decidedly simple, but here it is. Using a very powerful spell that, as I understand it, takes a long time to prepare and involves the use of fairly rare and expensive ingredients, a piece of slate is split down the middle to create two tablets. The tablets themselves are linked, such that what is written on the face of one appears in reverse on the other and vice versa. To read the message, thearcanslata is held up to a mirror. The transmission of the message is instantaneous and only goes from one of the paired slates to the other—no eavesdropping is possible. I have been told the magickal Law of Contagion is at play in the production and use of the slates, and the spells to send messages back and forth are not easy to wield.

The messages from Okrannel said Aurolani pirate activity from the Ghost Marches and Vorquellyn had increased, and that fortresses in the mountains were reporting increasing contact with Aurolani creatures. The city of Crozt on the tip of the Okrannel finger had been raided by pirates and some had even been seen in the Svarskya Gulf. The implication was that the Aurolani forces were making a push at Okrannel, and if nothing was done to help defend it, the lower half of the Crescent Sea and all the nations touching it would be vulnerable to attacks.

The reports from Okrannel told everyone what they had to do, and the elven prophecy provided them a focus around which to organize how they were going to do it. Already in Yslin there existed enough ships and elite troops—the royals’ various Bodyguard units—to send a strong relief force to Okrannel. At the same time the nations of the east would send troops north toward Fortress Draconis and the western nations would launch their fleets to scour the Crescent Sea of Aurolani pirates.

The prophecy made it clear that Lord Kenwick Norrington would lead the expedition, and everyone knew a core of sub-leaders would be vital to the expedition’s success. The various royals decided they would surround Lord Norrington with a circle of heroes who could lead. Though, to me, most royals seemed more interested in having their nation’s representative forced into that circle. The honor would be in the going, not necessarily in the fighting itself.

Lord Norrington made certain Nay, Leigh, and I were present during the debates that determined the force’s composition. From the questions he asked us after the various sessions I got the sense he was using us to figure out where the balance point was between politics and efficacy. Where politics undercut the ability of the force to fight, Lord Norrington would offer objections, or make requests that reestablished the balance.

For example, it was suggested by King Stefin of Okrannel that envoys should be sent to Gyrvirgul to enlist the aid of the Gyrkyme, but Jentellin objected strongly, claiming the Gyrkyme were nothing but beasts and should not be included. Now I would have thought the usefulness of creatures that are, in essence, winged elves, would have been obvious, but Jentellin said that elves will in no way have anything to do with a force that included Gyrkyme in it.

I guess I understood, then, the elven objection. Back when Kirun ruled Aurolan, he captured a number of noble elven warriors and compelled them, through magick, to lie withAraftü as a husband lies with his wife.Araftü are savage, bestial creatures, with fully fledged human bodies, but wings instead of arms and legs that end in claws and talons. In some stories they are said to have comely faces, and in others are said to be hags, but all are female, and theseAraftü laid several clutches of hybrid eggs that hatched and created the Gyrkyme. The elves consider the whole population of them nothing but rapeget, and no more accept them than I imagine men would accept the offspring of a sheep that had been covered by a shepherd.

Panqui were another species of creature that was deemed too bestial to be effective, so they were not included in the force. The Spritha were seen as being too small to be effective and too carefree to be suitably martial. And dragons, well, no one wanted to involve dragons no matter how much they might help. The question of dragons trusting men after Atval was an open one, but the reasons for leaving them out ran deeper than that.

It seemed obvious to everyone that one of the goals of the Aurolani forces moving at Okrannel had to be the recovery of the piece of Kirun’s DragonCrown that had been stored there. The DragonCrown had allowed Kirun to control an army of dragons. A single piece would allow a powerful enough magician to control at least one dragon, so an ally could potentially be turned into an enemy in the blink of an eye.

Aside from men and elves, the only other species allowed into the force were the urZrethi. The urZrethi are small-statured creatures, proportioned as are human children. Their flesh takes on mineral colors, like the green and black of malachite, the black of coal, or the red of cinnabar. The one who joined the inner circle, a female named Faryaah-Tse Kimp, was a sulfurous yellow, with black hair and eyes that showed red where there should have been whites. Despite being slender, small, and very childlike, she had a weight to her that belied her form.