Part Seventy-five
Tsuki and Dale said goodbye to each other on the road. They had found no time for anything more private or proper, and so they stood with various Elven and Orcish guards on patrol and Moon-shadow and Nightmare loaded with packs. There was no point in traveling light. They might go directly from their meditations into battle of some kind or other, and so they had weapons, armor and survival gear with them.
They did not kiss within sight of the others, though many knew how they seemed devoted to each other. They embraced. Tsuki said, "We shall see each other again."
Dale said, "Be safe."
"Trust in yourself, Dale, and in me. It will be good if Laurel can aid us, but we must make the attempt with or without aid. If our faith in each other is strong, the Wizards will not break either of us and we may narrow the possible locations for the stronghold." Tsuki added then in a whisper, "You have my love."
"I," Dale said. His brown furrowed and his eyes turned down. "I want to see you again."
Tsuki nodded. He knew. He had every confidence that Dale cared about him, but he understood was not yet ready to speak his feelings, or at least to name them love aloud. It would not have been an easy thing for Dale, even if Tsuki were an Elf.
"Go now," Tsuki told him.
Dale did not leave, but moved only to grasp Nightmare's lead. He waited and watched Tsuki climb into the saddle atop Moon-shadow. Tsuki looked once more to the Wood and to the railed platform where friends watched and then road south. Dale saw that Tsuki left and then strode quickly north, leading Nightmare after him.
They each traveled one day, and so Tsuki took up a position in the ruins of the ancient city near Eldsbridge and Dale camped in the wetlands immediately north of the Silver Wood.
In the time it had taken them to travel, Laurel had also been at work. She did not know of the most recent findings, but she understood there were plots against Orcs and likely the free peoples and that she had friends in danger. The King himself had seen to Kato, and though the Halfling had fallen into a deep slumber and had not yet wakened, he still lived and his body had been made whole. Assured that she could do no more for Kato but avenge him, Laurel used her ability to move through the city to attempt to get to the seeing stones.
Beryl said they were in the possession of the king and likely in the ancient tower. A visit to the city's libraries had confirmed this, though Laurel had needed to have some of the scrolls translated by the aged Men who worked in the dim rooms deep within the city, as they had been written in older dialects.
She had confirmed what Beryl said of the stones and learned the Mannish names of the places they had been kept and thus the names Men gave to the stones themselves. The stones were certainly within the tower and there were two. One believed tainted because the Steward had been driven to a most dramatic manner of taking his own life and the other not believed so tainted because the present king had resisted corruption, though, tongues loosened by ale in various taverns within the capitol said that a mind had been overtaken by that stone, only it had not been the King.
It seemed to Laurel that none of the stones might truly be tainted, for it greatly depended on who tried to wield their power, but even if the one Beryl named the Sun stone should be tainted, there might be a chance Laurel could remove the taint. Something with affinity for the sun should serve her, or rather, she might serve it righteously.
The entrance to the tower was in the private district where only the nobility and their guards and advisors were granted access. Laurel had access to this area, but gaining entry to the tower room proposed a challenge. She was only meant to enter the area to visit with the Ladies of the court. Laurel did not know what Dale had written of her, but though she was not even a current member of any Witch Circle, the women treated her as a peer so far as she could determine and often asked polite questions about how her people fared or how the Lady of the Shield Arm or the Horse Lords' King's fiancée had seemed and often asked about the Elves she had traveled with or visited.
Only a few times had these meetings seemed troubled or confused. A Lady who was wife to a noble from lands further south had asked if being a Witch was rather like being a Wizard, and that had been difficult to answer without introducing controversy. Laurel was of the opinion that these noblewomen were often well educated, but that their education was focused on few subjects, usually to include managing of servants, embroidery and etiquette and they were scandalized to hear that any females traveled without escort.
They made Laurel appreciate how unlike other nobles Lenaduiniel's family were. Or, perhaps, it would cause scandal even among Elves if they knew of all her adventures, branch walking alone for days hunting Orcs and such.
Royalhill's wife, the Lady of the Shield Arm was often subject of gossip and admiration alike, as she also did not seem much like these courtly Ladies.
"Well, you see, the fashion among my people, apart from the common folk of course, is for those in the Circles that govern our people, as I was before I departed and became companion of Tsuki, Apprentice to the Brown, is to wear gowns of a rather looser cut, so as to give less definition to the waist and disguise our figures from those not privileges to see us undressed and the colors signify…"
"When would anyone see you undressed?" a Lady asked.
"Well, a husband might, the one you are bound to in love and to bear children to. I know we are not the only women to have husbands."
"And your husband sees you fully unclothed?" she whispered to Laurel. "Are you married?"
"I do happen to be wed; my husband is not of my people, but a wise scholar from the east who became a refugee in the west. He is very learned and…"
"Are they not somehow different from Men in the west?"
"You married a Easterling?"
"He is very wise and knowledgeable and my people value knowledge perhaps more than nobility. We shall have clever children in the future, I hope. I assure you, he is quite comparable to western Men when unclothed, I practice healing, so I have had occasion to see other Men undressed." That seemed scandalous to them in itself, so Laurel continued, no longer caring, "how do you have children if you never appear fully unclothed to your own husband?"
"There is no need for nakedness, there is only need to rearrange nightclothes."
"I see. My people must seem so unenlightened," Laurel said bitterly.
"Such displays are for tavern maids…"
"Or Elves…"
"Hush, hush, do not speak ill of Elves here…"
"Or Orcs!"
"Hush now! Orcs? It is indecent!"
"All this talk of Orcs is making me feel faint," Laurel said, excuse me, please." She escaped the Ladies and wandered slowly toward the tower, hoping that if she was found, she might give some excuse that made her seem a stupid lost woman and not a powerful Witch attempting to gain access to the King's ancient Elven communication devices."
Tsuki sat in the ruins of the ancient City of the Stars, in what remained of an upper story of a stone building, overlooking the debris and the river beyond. He had been as far as this place in serving Royalhill during the war, the Steward's son. He had joined the company of those Southern Rangers after their previous captain, also a son of the Steward, had departed on some secret mission and had shared in the dishonor of defeat when they had been forced to retreat from the city.
The stone Dale held had, legends said, once been housed in a grand domed building. The wreckage made it hard to tell, but Tsuki did not think he was in that building itself, but in one that had been near. The dome had been razed completely long ago, and its seeing stone lost to the river. Tsuki contemplated the pale Moon Stone before him, set on a scrap of velvet that had been some old garment belonging to Beryl which had been slashed beyond repair in battle. He thought it might have made sense to send Dale south, but it did not really matter where the stone was kept or used, they would work in any place. They had only separated to make an attempt at learning the Wizard's location by triangulation. Tsuki had an Elf-drawn map of the area spread at his right side.
If he touched the stone too soon, he risked being caught up by the minds of multiple enemies, but too late and Dale might be left to that doom.
Dale had backtracked only enough to find a tree to climb and so he sat
perched upon a bough, the deep blue Star Stone balanced between his thighs.
It was beautiful in dappled winter sunlight; he could see the spark at
the center. The stone seemed to ask him to touch it. As long as it did
not touch his skin, he was safe. Dale squinted and looked up to gauge
the time of day by the position of the sun. It was time, he thought. Tsuki
and he had agreed upon a time of day to begin, but Dale knew it was seldom
two people read the time exactly the same. He decided to begin then, even
if he should have to wait for Tsuki.
Maybe Laurel would be able to help them. He hoped His Lady accepted the letter and treated Laurel well. Laurel was accustomed to nomadic camps and nature and not to vast, towering, stone cities. Dale had never been to such a large city as the Capitol, but he had heard stories of it and knew it must be wilder than Newhaven, in its way.
Dale touched the stone with the fingertips of this right hand, and as soon as he had, thought to draw his hand away from it, for he perceived through the stone that Tsuki had not yet touched the Moon Stone, but a voice seemed to speak to him in Vale Elven and Dale desired to hear any words in this dialect and wrapped his fingers tightly about the stone.
"Ghost of the Vale," the voice called, "you shame your ancestors with your perverted life. Die. You should have died with us, Son, but you wounded our spirits by surviving Orcish torture and clinging to this soiled life. You should have killed yourself when you avenged us on the Orcs. Despair of life now and die."
What was this voice, Dale wondered. His father? There was something he was supposed to know…remember. The mission.
"Child, will your spirit across the sea and sample no more suffering and death."
"Mother?"
"Dale!" This voice was unlike the other, clear, so clear and sharp it seemed to sever the sounds of the other as they strove to reach Dale's ears. "Dale! He speaks to you in the language of the mind. He is not Vale Elf, but The Sea, who retreats now against two of us."
"Tsuki? Is it another trick?" Dale was no longer conscious of holding the stone or looking into it, but only of seeing Tsuki clearly at the center of edge-blurred vision, seated against ruins of an ancient Mannish city, and in the instant he was in those distant ruins, Tsuki was near also, as if the ruins were set beside the edge of the wood in some ether. "This is strange magic."
"Our minds are met within the enchanted crystalline structure of the seeing stones, though our bodies remain as we left them. You might view the connection between the stones as threads in a spider's web, each one connected to the others until the many connecting threads form a network. When we use the stones, we are also connected."
Dale trusted he was truly speaking to Tsuki, and as he felt the trust, Tsuki's voice became more what Dale was accustomed to and less like the Vale Elven of his oldest memories and thoughts. Tsuki's wizard-influenced common speech and informational tone was soothing then to Dale.
"Would one stone be center point of this web, or would the connecting threads overlap to form this seeming point?"
Tsuki felt relieved that Dale was focused on their work. He had not perceived the Wizard's words, but he had known the Wizard was connected to Dale through the stones and attempted a spell. "Dale, control your thoughts, as if in meditation. What you think while using the stone becomes as spoken language to others."
"Tsuki is beloved was thought as if in whisper and drown out by, "I recall that Beryl and you spoke of one stone being set above others, and that the different stones had particular properties."
"I recall that also, but which might stone holds which power was lost to history." Tsuki paused, shifted focus as he perceived something along a separate thread from that which connected him to Dale.
"What is it?" Dale asked, not seeing what Tsuki saw, but perceiving Tsuki's thoughts in noticing something.
"Another user, perhaps experienced with wielding these stones; he is cloaked now."
"Wearing a cloak?"
"In a manner of speaking. He has made himself hidden from me, as if wearing some artfully camouflaged Elven cloak against my gaze."
"A Wizard?"
"No. The Sea still holds a stone, as does the Sky. I can detect their presence. It would seem they are connected, but idle, perhaps able to perceive us, without taking noticeable action.
"I do not perceive them at all."
"Interesting."
"Tsuki! Dale!"
"Laurel! She is here!"
"Dale, I see you."
"Yes, I see you too, and also Tsuki."
"Yes, we are each connected to the other two by this ethereal net," Tsuki said, or rather thought.
"This is strange magic."
"That's what I said! Like a spiderweb of meeting minds, so Tsuki says, complete with sticky traps and warning strands; tred carefully."
"I shall focus my thoughts."
"If I reach out…they are idle now…I might assault their location. They are still connected."
"Could the Wizard not simply release his stone to be rid of us?"
"The connection between the seven stones is open at all times. We might still peer out at his location. That is why Beryl urged us to keep the stones covered when not in use. One would have to shut the stone away to keep others from accessing it, but then they would have no means of direct defense against an assault sent along the connecting thread and would gain no information for themselves. It is so tempting, the urge to learn our plans. Such a puzzle, to determine who is weakest and most vulnerable to attack. Perhaps the Vale Elf…"
"Perhaps I am weakest," Laurel thought, the stones are all accounted for now, and so they know I must be in the capitol. There must be important information to be gathered here, if my mind might be overtaken, secrets of the King perhaps. Information about the Halfling who survived the Assassination attempt."
The Sky showed himself to Laurel in establishing direct connection.
"Laurel!" Tsuki called perceiving the connection and the assault sent along the connecting thread.
"Tsuki, I do not see, what…?"
"I know. I just figured it out. Control your thoughts."
Laurel focused on protecting her mind and steeled her will. She had known the consequence of her previous thoughts and thought them, but now the assault came toward her, she had to replace thought of fear and weakness with strength of will.
Dale saw Laurel's form move, closer to him. The edge-blurred vision of the windowed tower room with two pedestals seemed to meld into the edge of the wood. Laurel spoke, directing her thoughts only to Dale. "Kato told me something in a moment of consciousness." The rest of the information followed, carried by her words. The Sea appeared as an aged Easterling with a bald head and golden skin, tall and thin of frame, with long, gilded fingernails, and dressed in deep blue robes.
"Dale, he is meeting my every assault. We need stealth," Tsuki thought.
Dale had not perceived that there was a struggle between Tsuki and The Sea. Tsuki seemed to sit as still as he had before. He did understand Tsuki's meaning between the focused thoughts. Dale should be cloaked. If he was cloaked and tred carefully the Wizard would not detect him if Dale should be able to make the direct connection to the stone he held.
Cloak.
It draped over him as he willed, for all that existed in this ether was projection of will and thus whatever he willed existed here, unless another will overtake him.
Dale fixed the picture of the Sea as Laurel had described him in his mind. Dale then perceived the Wizard as he had perceived Tsuki and Laurel before. Dale did not then perceive the Sky, but he could still see Laurel, and the self she projected through the stone's enchantment stood with staff in hand, incanting and blocking assault of many small moving things that Dale could only describe as Wizardry.
All of Laurel's most powerful offensive spells were made of heat or flame and it seemed to her the sky had erected between them some fireproof wall, and though it did not stop him from sending swarms of small machines against her, she was as yet unable to exploit any cracks in the wall, if there were any.
Tsuki still did not appear to move, but even so, assault waves and fell beasts summoned by the Sea were met with opposing types of attacks and were neutralized before they might reach Tsuki, and so it was evident Tsuki was doing something, and quickly.
Dale crept toward the Sea, focused on the vision of him, reminding himself that the fell beasts would not see him within the cloak, but…they might scent him, Dale thought. The moment Dale conceived of it, the demons scented him and alerted the Wizard, and so he was then able to perceive Dale's action, though he could not actually see through the cloak.
"Dale!" Tsuki called.
The Sea's great, fiery pit demon stomped toward Dale on thick hooved limbs, and Dale felt small and unable to move. Everything smelled of sulfur and smoke. Dale feared that fire was a means to final death, even for one who was immortal.
"Dale! It is a projection of the Sea's will! It is only as real or powerful as you allow yourself to believe. I believe you are stronger than him!"
The demon moved closer, whip snaking to one side and then to another, as if seeking Dale's flesh. It spoke in some harsh language, "I am Death."
Dale grinned and drew his sword. There was a flash as the demon reached Dale's position, and then, only the demon remained.
"Dale!"
The Sea perceived his demon and a cloak, but not the Elf. It seemed as if Dale had retreated into his body and left no defense. Now, the Elf was easy prey, separated from this other one who was beginning to truly vex the Sea.
"He is beaten, retreated to the flesh and defenseless," Tsuki said. "I am grieved. I fear I cannot sustain my defense much longer. I cannot hope to defeat you without Dale."
The Sea summoned his pit demon back to him, in preparation for a renewed assault upon Tsuki, who seemed helpless without his companion. The pit demon returned to the Wizard.
Rocky crags, stairs upon stairs, rubble of buildings, ancient mosaic showing the phases of the moon cracked and overturned on a side, a mountain-fenced valley beyond, with smoking volcanoes in the north and an inland sea surrounded by fallow grain fields in the south.
Tsuki smiled a little mischievous half-smile that caused the Sea to worry.
The demon laughed, drew its sword and began hacking at the Wizard's defenses from within. "I am Death!"
The Wizard realized too late that Dale had not been defeated but entered the body of his demon and brought it over to his will. He had allowed the Elf access to his location and mental defenses in allowing the demon to return. With Dale's help, Tsuki's next assault shattered the last of the Wizard's will and had access to the stone. It was the Wind Stone, seemingly amethyst and through it Tsuki viewed the Wizard's location.
With Tsuki's assault successful, Laurel viewed the Wizard's location indirectly, through the Sun Stone and the Moon Stone.
"Retreat now," Tsuki spoke to Dale, who still wore the guise of the large fiery demon. "Cover the stones. We must assault the Wizard in body and stop his plans."
Dale saw Tsuki and Laurel whisper to each other and then ran, sending his mind back into his flesh.
Dale drew his hand from the Star Stone and quickly lifted a corner of his cloak to cover it. Using the fabric to handle the stone, he tucked it into a pocket within the cloak and then stood. Balanced on a tree limb, Dale whistled to Nightmare, below.
Seeing the horse's acknowledgement, ale took off toward the Elven settlement to the south, running and leaping along the grey canopy of winter branches.
The Sea perceived his loss and was then even more determined to not have his plans completely thwarted by two queer Rangers and their companions. He called on his magics to make his will known to all his minions. "destroy the perverted alliance between Elves and abominations! Drive them all across the river and to the mines or slay them! Do not let any of their parties penetrate our defenses! We must succeed!"
The command was heard by Forhrondo and Khyarhrondo of the Rómendar and soon the order was passed to their host.
The Elves and Orcs heard a great battle cry from within the Silver Wood and took up their weapons and defensive positions.
Even as the full host of Rómendar came from hiding and marched toward the Elven settlement, Tsuki and Dale raced to reach there with news.
Annavala saw the glorious conquest of the west had begun and watched from the branches as her people marched, clothed in bata cloth, and bark, and armed with bows, spears and stabbing blades.
Laurel struggled to catch her breath, back pressed to the inside of the door to her room at the inn, praying to the Lady and Lord that they might guide her in helping Tsuki, for she did not believe, even upon Moon-halo, she could reach him in time to be of bodily aid.
Lenaduiniel blew upon her wooden whistle, it had only recently become hers, and gave a limited range of notes that combined with varied note length and order could communicate a series of coded commands over the din of battle. The Archers, spear carriers and sword carriers would now know to assemble along a predetermined defense line, and the young and those assigned to be their wardens would make their way to shelter.
Lenaduiniel turned then to Ugarit, "I release you now," she said, "the Orcs will not take orders from Elves in battle and so there is little need for translation; go where you will, to Marduk, or Duma, or to the place our young shelter with Tashmetum. Galadhiel is escorting the young to the river now, and would allow you to join them."
"What will you do?"
"Gwindor is gone with the swords, Denelas with the bows, and Galen with the spears. I shall remain to hear reports and to dispatch orders, and to guard this house, if necessary. It is not our way for females to enter offensives in time of war, but for them to guard the home, and so I shall. Fei is nearby to record what will come. I suppose we wait for Dale and Tsuki to return."
"There is no other place for me to go. Marduk will not order the females to battle, but to hold the camp and guard the little ones. I also must wait."
"At that, Duma came up from the main ladder, hair braided and damp and smelling strangely of nuts. He had been to the bathing pavilion to witness Elven battle preparations and had taken part in some preparations. He continued to fasten the buckles on his armor-like garments, once he had reached the raised platform on which Lenaduiniel and Ugarit waited.
"You smell like Elf food," Ugarit hissed.
"Then none of those Dark Elves shall scent me as an Orc," Duma said firmly. He paused half a beat and then spoke to Lenaduiniel, "Word from Dale or Tsuki?"
No. We cannot know if the timing of this attack is evidence they have angered the Wizard or coincidence."
"Denelas said I might join the archers, but I knew that if Dale did return we should set off after the Wizard. Beryl is waiting also. He has gone to his daughter's house to fetch the last of his armor and weapons."
"Galadhiel and Gwindor have found their place in our defense, as have I, and Laurel and Kato are gone, but perhaps you, Beryl, and Fei shall join Dale and Tsuki and be our secret company of rescuers."
"I doubt it shall be secret with a Wizard for enemy," Ugarit said, "And Marduk will not allow you to go without some Orc."
"Have you found a place for Tash to be sheltered?"
Ugarit shook her head. She was a little surprised that Duma accepted that she would go with him. With Dale-Chieftain, that was.
Some whistles came and Lenaduiniel made a gesture for silence and climbed to the higher platform to listen. She blew a signal for the message to be repeated once and listened. She waited for her whistle to be heard and for the message to come. She heard and understood the second time.
She turned then and called down softly to the others. "Our scouts have reported sighting the enemy, it is a great host and their number cannot yet be estimated, as they wear camouflage that hides them against the trees."
"I can hear many whistles and drums signaling," Ugarit said. "The Orcs say that Elven archers must honor their agreement and hold off enemies for a time, while they prepare a defense."
"They will dig," Duma said, understanding some of the message.
Shortly after, another climbed the ladder. The lower part of the house was unguarded and Lenaduiniel left it to those female Elves watching other houses to signal if there were enemies about. There was little more to protect, but their own lives, and Ugarit and Lenaduiniel had their daggers on them, and bows and arrows prepared on the table.
Alqua reached the platform and wiped her hands over her skirt as if to straighten it; her clothes were filthy. When Dale and Tsuki had ridden out, a new stage of preparation for battle had begun. The Elves had allowed the Orcs to make delvings and earthworks for defense, so long as they did not fell whole trees, and had even cut branches so that the Orcs had wood to make war machines. The soiled clothing was evidence that Alqua had been in the trenches.
Lenaduiniel climbed down to greet the other Elf.
"We should have been hanging lanterns and holly and making toasts; instead we have been taking branches from trees and giving over lamp oil, glass and wood to Orcs to make machines of war."
"It is significant to Witches also," Fei said quietly from his seat at the table.
"Solstice. I did not even think," Lenaduiniel admitted.
"That is just what I meant," Alqua said. "We cannot make merry while we also prepare for war."
"The days will get longer now, though it will not be quite apparent for several more days and not be equal again to the night for some months. We fight for our people and home in winter, and hope to have stores to last."
"store to last are often a cause for winter raids," Ugarit said, "Not this one I think."
"What does it matter?" Duma asked, "if they are wanting food, or controlled by a Wizard or have personal animosity toward other races?"
Lenaduiniel laughed sadly, "We may have often asked the same of Orcs, but it does matter. I see it now. It matters if we are to consider diplomacy. One must understand the needs and beliefs of their adversary to hold discussion with them."
"They do not march on your wood to discuss," Ugarit said.
"Still, we must prepare our defense and give battle where challenged but still be prepared to negotiate if the opportunity comes. Is that not what we have learned from each other?"
Ugarit shrugged.
"It is one thing," Alqua said.
"You want a bath. I will go to the bathing place with you and guard while you wash. If the defense line is breeched, you will have no bath for a long time, unless we are driven to the river."
Alqua gave a nod to Ugarit in agreement. Trusting an Orc to guard her as she stripped and bathed did not seem the slightest bit strange anymore.
"Do you have some flower oil? It should only be smart to disguise my scent when near enemies."
Duma laughed and Ugarit glared at him for it. He fell silent quickly, having learned long ago to do so when he had been a pet. "Take these." He reached over his shoulder and drew two knives from his quiver. He offered these to Ugarit, who looked at the knives suspiciously.
"I have knives."
"These are better."
"Elven."
Duma growled. "I made them."
"Only halfelven then," Ugarit said, pronouncing 'halfelven' remarkably well for an Orc. She took the knives and flipped both into the air and caught the handles. They were well balanced. "Are they sharp?" She stabbed toward Duma immediately and grazed his left arm, making a cut just above the elbow; he had not flinched or tried to avoid the attack in any way.
"It stings a little."
Ugarit licked Duma's blood from her new knife and then lifted her skirt to change it out for the old one strapped to her thigh. When she had done that, she put changed the second of the matched pair Duma had made for the older blade on her belt. She gave the used knives to Duma. "Take these. Please protect Lady Lena and Tashmetum while we are gone, Duma. I will probably save your life again in the future to make up the debt."
Duma made a wordless reply and Alqua laughed. When she and Ugarit were on the ground below the raised portion of the house she said, "You desire to marry Duma."
"What would make you say that?"
"What you did with the knife seems an Orcish way to ask a male to plant bulbs with you."
"Is that one of your 'euphemisms'? What are bulbs?"
"No. Female Elves do invite males that interest them to plant bulbs in the fall. I know you are learned in some herblore. Bulbs are those," Alqua made a grasping gesture with her hand, "rather knobby parts below the stem that some herbs and flowers sprout from. After Elves go out to plant bulbs together, they will soon marry. Something about watching another grasp the bulbs causes interest to spring up within the male. I have never seen a couple that went on such an outing fail to marry by the time those bulbs sprouted in the spring. Surely licking his blood from a knife and then placing it on your thigh is more clear a signal than inviting him to plant bulbs?"
"Duma is a stupid silly half-Orc and…I have given the clearest signal possible and been refused."
"Recently?"
"Not recently."
"Duma greatly desires to marry you. I have seen it moments ago in his eyes. It was not there in the past, for I looked in his eyes directly the day we met, but now, it is clearly manifested. Thought, I have seen time of war hasten a male toward marriage or cause him to hesitate in pursuing. He may not act soon, but he does desire you."
"I must make certain he survives and has some part in defeating
our enemies."