Part Eighty-Seven
Lain and Loriol walked together after their baths to the Treeweavers hearth-share. "Gwende is preparing supper," Lain said as he wove his fingers into Loriol's. "Carver's wife was one of her ropewalkers and was slain by Rómendar."
"I saw Carver. I saw…when he died."
"They had a child, a son, and so I am to have an adopted nephew of sorts. Gwende wanted to care for the child and asked me to tell him that he would come to visit our house, and today Gwende and my brother were to explain to him that his parents were killed in battle."
"Lain." Loriol stopped and felt Lain pull on his hand. "Maybe I should not go to your house today."
"Loriol, you must not feel bad that you survived and the Carvers did not. You survived, that is something to be proud and joyful about. We will lament the Carvers of course and honor them best by being a loving family for young Lathe who was left behind. Let us go to supper and show Lathe that we can be merry even when the Wood has been attacked and burned and we have lost ones we loved. I think that you can think of a song or story that will make him laugh."
"But to laugh now?"
"It is not wrong. Remember when Rosenrod and Gildenmund were those who died and there had been no battle here yet? Gwindor said we must remain Elves and celebrate that we survived, even as we honored the dead. Loriol. I am so happy that you survived."
Loriol looked at Lain, smiling at him. "Lain, I do not think I do feel happy just yet, but I am sorry I was cruel to you. I should never have claimed I did not love you. It was a lie."
"I know."
"When you smile that way I really do feel better. It is not that I wish to be sad."
"Of course not. Let us go to supper. You have been eating as much as bathing I am sure." Lain pulled at Loriol's hand but Loriol did not budge. There was an Orc standing now behind Lain.
Lain saw the shift in Loriol's expression as if something hateful were there. He turned to look over his shoulder and gave a start. Lain did not know this Orc. It was probably a Northerner one, because it was tall, but thin, and had a bit of an upturned nose rather than a flattened one and wide pointed ears, a bit like those of Ugarit or Duma who were each partly Northerner.
It was North. He smiled, baring fangs at Loriol, and spoke in a voice as smooth as an Orc could manage, "Rorii, you look a proper Elf again. Fairest of the Fair. I said you were too pretty to be an Orc."
Lain had understood many words as Ugarit pronounced them and had found he understood some other Orcs when he was running messages, but he did not understand this one well. Loriol knew North's voice and knew exactly what he had said. "My thanks for that," he said to the Orc in flat tone. He believed North had actually done him a kindness then, but now he suspected the Orc was not trying to be kind at all. He made Loriol's skin prickle uncomfortably. "What are you doing here?"
"We do not need Elves to guard us. I am about my business. Breaking no rules. I am on my way to wash. Tending the pyres makes one hot and dirty."
"You smell so much like an Elf I would swear you have had four baths already."
"Three. It is dirty work."
"You keep to your side of the baths."
"Do I stop and stare? I go about my business." But he was staring.
Lain saw it as well. The Orc was looking at him. Loriol stepped between them.
"Is it your pet?"
"He. An Elf is not 'it'. Do not even look at him." Loriol put his hand on the handle of his knife.
"Your friend? He is very fresh, but we do not play with such things anymore."
"I do not wish to even hear of it. If you come near him again I will kill you."
"I am just talking. Breaking no rules."
"I will kill you," Loriol hissed. "Go to Dog, now. If you come near this one, I will kill you, and I will tell the Orcs why, and they will laugh and not ask that I fall on my sword. I say back off. If you challenge me, I will slit your black-blooded throat."
"Loriol, let us go. Forget this Orc. His words cannot do anything."
Loriol moved when Lain pulled at his hand and walked quickly away with Lain close at his side.
North watched them go. They headed for the tree-house near the little house North had been watching. The two elves stopped beneath the platform. North could only hear whispers, but they spoke Elf-Speech, and he did not understand any of it.
"Did you see how it looked at you?" Loriol demanded.
"How? Did he want to eat me?"
"I do not think that is as true as Orcs claim it is. They say they will eat us to frighten us more, because it amuses them. No. North did not want to eat you."
"You know that one? Why are you upset? There are many strange Orcs here, but they cannot hurt us. You know."
"Lain, if you see that one, just go away and stay among Elves. Do not go walking alone."
"Loriol, I am not a child! You know that I ran messages during the battle. I used no sword or bow and I did not have to kill anyone, but I was in unsafe places and I hopped over the dead and sometimes I hoped over one who was injured and kept running because I had something to do and I did not have the skill to save their life."
Loriol put his hands on Lain's shoulders. "Lain, it is all right. I am sorry. Listen now. That Orc did not want to eat you. It wanted to play with you."
"Play?"
"It means something like sharing, but the opposite of sharing. Do you understand?"
"You mean the 'spoiling'?" Lain whispered.
"Yes."
"But if you spoil me first, he might not be so interested anymore!"
Loriol shook his head. "No, Lain, do not even jest. Elves have truly suffered it. It has happened. Orcs have done it to them."
"Like Dale?"
"Yes."
"But Dale likes Orcs now."
"Dale is mad. Dale is an Elf and we should love Dale, but he is mad."
"But, the…we are not supposed to talk of it."
"What?"
"Our Lord said not to talk of the treaty."
Loriol quirked a brow; he had not heard that. "It was done for political reasons, but it does not mean that all Elves and all Orcs can be safe near each other. Please, just promise if you see that one, or one who looks at you the same way, you will get away."
"I will. I promise. I really will."
"Now, go up to your family."
"But…"
"I will join you soon."
"Where are you going?"
"Just there."
"No one is supposed to see," Lain whispered, looking at the guest house.
"I will be careful." Loriol waited until Lain had climbed up to the platform and then looked around for watchers. It was becoming dark and there were branches enough to cast shadow if not shade. It did not seem anyone would be able to see him enter the house. Loriol went to the door and let himself in.
North watched Loriol go into the little house.
Arë was with Gwende, but Alqua was with those who were staying in the guest house when Loriol arrived. She and Ugarit were seated close by each other on Ugarit's bed. Tashmetum was on the floor playing with a vast collection of jewels and precious stones. Setsugekka was beside a bed, on which Dale slept. Fei was working at their table. Duma was at Arë's usual place by the fire, reading apparently.
"Do you know Dog's Bitch?" Loriol asked loudly, as soon as he had shut the door.
Duma turned his head and looked at the Elf inside the door but the others only glanced and then returned to what they were doing, deciding that Loriol was not speaking to them. "Loriol."
Loriol went to the hearth and sat on the edge of the stone surround, near Duma's stool. It was Duma, but he looked different than Loriol had expected. He wore no black leather and instead had on some slim dark grey linen trousers and a white linen shirt half open at the front laces. His hair was loose and combed without a tangle or braid, such as Elves would only wear at home or when they knew only other Elves would be present. It also seemed strange to find him studying a scroll. Actually, Loriol saw, he had been writing. "You are hiding?"
"It was Beryl's idea, but it seems a good one. I may be washed, dressed, and sitting up straight, but I am actually quite sick. It is for the best we do not have Orcs at the door asking us to show proof that the Wizard is dead, or that there was a weapon, or that we know what came of the weapon. We do not have proof, and I have little strength to argue why they should believe our claims."
"Injured I would have expected. What is this sickness. Do you all have it?"
"No. Dale and I only. Bloody Wizard curse. Dale got it much worse than I. Don't know how I made it off the mountain. All liquor and mad determination I suppose. I slept for several days apparently. I have felt like all my innards are not working properly since. Pissed blood one day. Watery stuff came out of every hole another day. I get fevers or chills. Yesterday I could not breathe and turned an exceptional shade of blue, I am told. It has been quite nasty, and I know about nasty, I used to be pet to a fool over-sized Goblin."
"What is this writing?"
"Helping Fei write something in Elven, but my Elven is very bad. In Goblin, to make a word mean more you just add 'zzz'. One Elf. More than one Elfzzz. In Elven, to make a word mean more you have to change the sound, like to make 'hill' from Common Speech into Elven you render it 'amon' but more than one hill is 'emyn'."
"Of course. You just shift the vowels. That is all."
"Yes, easy if you spoke the language all your life. I have trouble remembering which sound shifts to which. Fei says in his language they do not even change the words to make them mean more! It is understood 'contextually'."
"How would you know if it was one or more?" Loriol asked.
"By the other words around that word."
"I do not understand."
"Exactly! If Dale would wake, he could do this. He studied such things with Elves after they found him and he spoke the language when he was young, so the sounds seem right or wrong to him without thought."
"Alqua is here."
"Yes," Duma growled.
Loriol turned his head slightly and watched the females. It almost seemed activity that should be done in private. Even allowing that the interior of the house was not a public space…it still seemed on the very border of appropriate. They should have perhaps waited until the candles were doused. Then, Loriol was not very knowledgeable about what was appropriate for two females. He mainly knew what he should not do with a male until the candles were doused.
"What is it?" Loriol asked.
"For days I have watched this. They are driving me to madness."
"Is it…?"
Duma shook his head. He whispered. "Ugarit felt very bad about the killing she did, even though they were all fell beasts and villains that we slew. She let the noblewoman embrace her, and that was strange, but now they do this, sit and whisper and touch each other all the time. But I feel too sick to complain. Ugarit is supposed to be mine now."
"How is that?"
Duma sighed. "Marduk was her Chieftain and he said if I did a certain thing that he would give her to me. And, she wanted to be given to me, so she helped me to do the thing Marduk expected, not that we have good proof. So, now, she is mine. I think it is like betrothal, but Orcs do not have such customs. It is rather like being married, but not exactly that either. Maybe like what common Men and their women do: live in the same house without ceremony."
"Did you say vows to each other?"
"No."
"If Elves say vows to each other, even without ceremony or witnesses, they are married."
"You look married. It is something in the eyes, isn't it?"
"Oh. That. It means taken, but not always married yet."
"Which?"
"Married. Do you know Dog's Bitch?"
"I know all the Orcs that were pets in the Mines."
"Was that one?"
"Yes. I know him. North. He is Dog's pet now. Did he do something to you?"
"He did something that was kind in a way, but then today we saw him and it made my skin crawl. I think he wants to play with Lain."
"I doubt it." He coughed and looked at his scroll. "How would you say 'Demon' in Elven, is there a word for such a creature?"
"Do you mean 'Balrog'? Did you see one? Truly?"
"I have seen two in my life. I got the stone for this ring…" Duma lifted his left hand and then remembered what he had done with the ring. "actually, I gave Ugarit the ring. I saw the Demon the day I found the stone. Diamond. Very hard. Colorless. I cut it to a round shape."
"Why do you not think North wants Lain. I saw how he looked at him."
"Did he say something?"
"Yes."
"To Lain, or to you?"
"To me. He asked if Lain was my pet and he said Lain was fresh and other things."
"And did he say anything to you that was not about Lain?"
"Yes. Only the mad things North Usually says. 'Rorii, you are too pretty to be an Orc.' 'Rorii, Fairest of the Fair.'"
"And this makes you think that he wishes to play with Lain?" Duma asked skeptically.
"Me? But…"
"You are not understanding, because you only get this skin-crawl when he speaks of Lain, because you feel he threatens Lain. You do not feel he threatened you, so you think North does not want to play with you, which is true, in a way."
"I do not understand."
"North does not want a pet or toy."
Loriol shook his head.
"North likes to be a pet."
"My pet?"
"Apparently."
"I feel a little sick. Why should I want an Orc for a pet? To play as Orcs do?"
"You should not is what I say."
"Why would North want me to…?"
Duma shrugged. "Some Orcs like Elves. You can give me a theory why it is so. Orcs call Elves 'pretty' as if it is insult."
"But should it not be natural for a person to find those of their own race attractive?"
"Orcs are not natural. Some do see attractiveness in Orcs. For example, Dog, who Elves would think ugly, is pretty for his breed. He had dark straight hair. He has large yellow eyes. He has a greenish complexion. He is small. Those are the traits of one who is most purely Mine-Dweller breed, so he is the ideal of a Mine-Dweller. North is almost the ideal of a Northerner. His color is a little off, too ashy. It should be slightly more blue than grey. Ugarit's complexion is very very close to what is thought ideal for Northerners, but she is a little darker, because she is actually half Westerner. As one who is mixed, she is beautiful. Her dappling is perfect! You would not see her standing under a tree in sunlight or moonlight. Some who are mixed have a blended pattern on the skin, or the pattern of one breed with the coloring of another. It is not thought as advantageous."
"But there are Orcs who think Elves pretty?"
"There are those of every race that think Elves pretty. You are the First Race. I know you are a very pretty Elf, so North must know. You are tall and not too broad. You have dark hair, not as common as brown, but thought attractive, and you have the grey eyes which are ideally Elven. And your skin is pale without being white, radiant, and without any uneven pigmentation."
"And my ears?"
"Perfect for Sylvan Elves."
"Duma, would North hurt Lain?"
"He might if he believed he could get what he wanted in doing it. He probably would not do it, considering Lain is an Elf and it would bring more trouble than just you challenging him."
"But, could he really think I would want to play with him?"
"I do not know. North is very Northerner. To be honest, our breed is known for cruelty. You are likely safer with a Westerner. They actually are frightfully Mannish, though they hate to hear it. You should tell Dog."
"Tell him?"
"Go to Dog and say that he needs to train his pet better because North came to you looking for his next Master, but you do not want Dog's cast offs. Maybe North wants you to do it, so Dog will give him more attention. Arë tells us what she sees out there. I think Dog is still very worshipful of Marduk. It could be bad, if other Orcs see it, because they will stop seeing Dog as a Chieftain of his own and thinking him only a Leader under Marduk, rather than believe Marduk is something above other Chieftains, which is what they want. Dog needs to act less worshipful of Marduk. Is it true he lost his eye?"
"I was there. It was the left one. I have not seen him since the wound was fresh."
"Alqua and Arë said he took their Leader's sword." Duma put his hand to his head and then stood quickly. He waked to the table, placed the scroll upon it, and then lurched toward his bed, the other side of Dale's from that Ugarit and Alqua sat on. Duma flopped to the bed, brow wrinkled and eyes shut. Setsugekka laid a hand to his forehead.
"I'd smack Dale up for not waking, if I did not know he was suffering worse than I," Duma groaned.
North watched until Loriol left the guest house and then went to find Dog. His Chieftain was seated, below the Elf-Lord's house, fletching arrows. Dog had some advantage in that he had come into the wood at the same time that Duma, Ugarit and Dale had, and so all the Elves knew him on sight. There were other Orcs they had come to know my sight or name in the course of battle, but the Elves also tended to be wary of them. Dog had sat here making arrows before battle and been trusted, and so no one seemed to mind his presence now.
"Did your lover believe find your offer convincing?" Dog asked as North crouched at his knee.
"I do not think he is a smart Elf. He thought I wanted the young one. Still, Rorii went straight to that little house as soon as the other was safely among Elves."
"They must be there," Dog said, emphasizing what he had discussed with North and a few of his other Orcs previously. "The Swan took Tashmetum there, after staying so long with Lady Lena. Ugarit must have returned, and the others. They are hiding, but not from the Elves."
"Deceitful," North said, grinning.
Dog was petting North's hair as Bau approached. She crouched before Dog and bowed her head until the Chieftain acknowledged her. "What did you find?"
"All the horses as you described, without gear, but all tethered together among those of the Men, yet separate from them."
"Yes, crafty Elves are hiding them. Hid the horses among the others and hid Death-shadow Clan in the little house. If they had destroyed the Wizard and weapon and brought proof, they would not need to hide. They must have failed or returned in weak condition."
"Maybe failed and weak," North said.
"Master," Bau said to dog. She meant the word as his name, as she was his loyal Leader Orc and not a pet. "I saw something when I went to look at the horses. I do not know if it is important to you."
"What did you see. Anything might lead to proof of what we wish to find."
"Some of Jareth's goblins were there. I saw them. They carried the same corpse passed the Men three times, pretending to be going to and from the Pyre as they spied on the camp and horses. I think the Men became suspicious. They chased these Orcs until some Elves arrived to talk about the matter."
"It is that pit-runt Snagrat!" Dog spat.
"The little Mine-Dweller that used to run with Razh-Razh's Band and entertained the Westerners when the Clan was gathered? Snagrat? What could it do?"
"He was with us when we tracked 'Dale-Chieftain'. Snagrat knows the horses also. I saw he went over to Jareth soon after he took the whip."
"Many Goblins went to that one," Bau said plainly.
Dog knew it was true. "All cohorts of Razh-Razh who waited for a time to break with our Clan. We should kill Snagrat. We should be crafty. Do not make it appear he was a threat to us."
"Maybe we could have an Elf do it."
"Maybe a Man?" Bau asked.
"It would be best if Jareth did it," Dog said.
North laughed.
"Orcs have been lurking near the horses," Gwindor reported to his brother and Sister who were gathered with Galadhiel, Galen, and four Dwarves for a meal. "The Men suspected they were hungry and chased them off."
Lenaduiniel understood Gwindor's message. Orcs had taken notice of the horses kept among those of the Guard of the Lady of the Shield Arm. They were likely searching now for the place the horses' riders were hiding.
As Lenaduiniel was still in thought, one of their messengers came from below. "There is a Wizard in the Wood," she reported near breathlessly.
"From what direction does he come?" Gwindor asked.
"West. From the river. Some who had gone to check the waterworks saw him. They were not scouts, My Lords, and lost sight of him. He is believed to be in the Wood now, heading this way."
"What color?" Greenleaf asked.
"Grey I was told."
"But there is no longer…" Greenleaf whispered.
"Could it be Tsuki, somehow…?" Lenaduiniel asked.
"Our Elves know his face, much as I would like to see him."
"If your friend was a Wizard, he may arrive seeming much changed," the Dwarf said around his meal.
"If it is a Wizard, we should go," Greenleaf said. He vaulted from the platform of his tree-house to the ground. His Dwarven friend went grumbling and the Elf called up, "It will be faster if you jump. I would catch you."
"It may be one of the Blue Wizards altered or in disguise," Lenaduiniel said quickly to Gwindor. "Whatever the case, we must find him. Perhaps we would be match for a Wizard."
Galadhiel went with them also and they found their brother and the Dwarf running to the west of their Wood.
If four Elves looked for a person within their own wood, that person would be found, even if they were clothed in dull winter shades. Lenaduiniel spied the Wizard first, because she happened to be the one to scan the area he was in, and not because others were unable to see. He was clothed all in grey as the messenger had suggested, from slightly bent, pointed hat to the cuffs and hem of his robe. He moved in a manner that was purposeful yet unrushed and did not stop when he saw the Dwarf and Elves but made a small change in direction to approach.
The Grey saw the arrows trained on him, but continued until he stood a short distance from the Dwarf and Elves. "Put away your arrows. I should be known to children of the Elf-King as one who allied with them against a Necromancer and made visits to their Wood to study birds."
"You are not the Grey I knew."
"No, but I am now many things that one was."
"I knew you as The Brown," Gwindor said, peering at the Wizard's face.
"Yes. I was until recently The Brown."
Gwindor, who had known The Brown looked upon this Wizard, and though many things about his appearance seemed the same, many had also changed. "But you are not still the same. Have you died?"
"There was no death. I was blasted from the sky and buried in snow,
but did not die. What you see is not so much transfiguration or reincarnation
as re-consecration. For a time there was no need for a Wizard to meddle
in politics, but now it seems there is a need, and little cause for a
Wizard to study the fauna, so I am become The Grey. It happened sooner
than I expected but not quickly. Now, I must see Dale Maple."