Discworld and Member Articles
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Written by Mynona
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Thursday, 25 August 2005 |
Why The hike to the mountains took another two weeks, when Lasaret suggested that they’d make camp early the others thought that she had gone over the line. This was the, in their eyes, legendary ‘we’ll walk until you drop and then some’ elf and she suggested that they’d stop at noon.
“Don’t look at me that way,” she said. “this is a meeting place. Now we have time to polish your knowledge in fighting.” She smirked “You didn’t honestly think that I’d let you rest just because we make camp early?” She smiled at the collective groan that the others emitted. She set up some targets for Sela to practice on and showed Ari some basic movements with the sword before she herself practiced against Rame. After an hour or so, they had lunch after which Lasaret showed some things she could do with a sword. She made some parts of the elven swords dance. It was a show of grace, speed but foremost a dance of death. It reminded the three humans that a sword, no matter how pretty no matter how good a swordsman, was a weapon; a tool for killing.
Why The hike to the mountains took another two weeks, when Lasaret suggested that they’d make camp early the others thought that she had gone over the line. This was the, in their eyes, legendary ‘we’ll walk until you drop and then some’ elf and she suggested that they’d stop at noon.
“Don’t look at me that way,” she said. “this is a meeting place. Now we have time to polish your knowledge in fighting.” She smirked “You didn’t honestly think that I’d let you rest just because we make camp early?” She smiled at the collective groan that the others emitted. She set up some targets for Sela to practice on and showed Ari some basic movements with the sword before she herself practiced against Rame. After an hour or so, they had lunch after which Lasaret showed some things she could do with a sword. She made some parts of the elven swords dance. It was a show of grace, speed but foremost a dance of death. It reminded the three humans that a sword, no matter how pretty no matter how good a swordsman, was a weapon; a tool for killing.
That night Lasaret stood further from the camp then she usually did when on guard. She wanted a chance to talk to the dwarves without them seeing the humans and vice versa.
“You are early elfling” come the unmistakeably dwarven voice.
“Something came up Camnad” she told him.
“What?”
“That’s for the king to know. I have three humans, in the clearing, which are going with us”
“They are not! Humans are not allowed in our tunnels, and they are not supposed to know of us.” he said accusingly.
“They know about me, and they need to come with us. I’ll explain it to the king and I take full responsibility for them” the dwarf looked angry but he knew that the king valued this elf as a friend.
“All right, they can come, but you are going directly to the king to explain this!”
“I’ll go and wake them up and bring them here.”
They were led blindfolded into and trough the mountain. Camnad was as annoyed as usual when Lasaret managed to duck when the roof became low despite the lack of sight. It had become a game between the two and Lasaret had yet to lose. Camnad didn’t like the elf and he didn't care to hide his thoughts. The other dwarves led ‘their’ humans with a little more care. As they arrived at the dais with the throne Lasaret bowed deep to the king while the dwarves took pried in the fact that they didn’t need to.
“Why have you brought humans into my caves, elfling.” Draktin’s displeasure with that was evident in both his voice and his choice of words.
“I will tell you when we are in privet, your highness.” she said submissively. The king glared at his friend.
“Only because it’s you, elfling.” she loathed the way he referred to her race instead of her name.
“Leave, show the humans here to a guestroom while I speak to the elf.” the dwarves left hesitantly with three confused humans in tow.
“Care to tell me what this is all about elf?” the words acidly spoken. The king most obviously wasn’t pleased with her actions.
“You know about what happened to me.” she stated. “Do you know about the Singer and the Creator?”
“Yes, they are the elfin gods, are the not?” interested against his will but not yet sated. Lasaret sighed and wondered how she would say what needed to be told, momentarily hiding her face in her hands.
“Can we take this somewhere more comfortable, please?” she used his own words against him.
“No.” he answered, making it perfectly clear who it was that was in charge. “Quit trying to avoid it and tell me, now.”
“The Singer showed himself to me and asked me a favour.” The king snorted at this.
“Gods do not ask favours.”
“You are right, of course. Well the Singer told me that the moredhel are preparing for war. They have gotten a sign from their gods and will attack when winter has passed. Your highness knows how my people reacted to the idea of living moredhel and the humans don't know of them either. The Singer told me what I had to do to convince both people and we, that is Rame, Sela and me, have to succeed if our races is to continue to live in freedom. Your highness has seen what the moredhel can do and is one of the few that will actually understand what kind of threat they pose.”
“I knew you wouldn’t, friend.” That epithet, so small but so important, meant that they were friends again not king and foreigner. They did eventually move to more private quarters where they keep talking for a long time. Lasaret knew that the humans would be in good hands and she decided not to worry about them until after she had slept.
Meanwhile a group of three humans were led through the dark tunnels of Molachaar. They were a race that had never been seen in, and never seen, the caves and not many dwarves had seen a living human. Their walked ended in a rather small and bare room and the blindfolds came of. Three persons stared at four dwarves.
“I guess she wasn’t lying then.” Ari said. From the other two there was only silence.
“You are allowed to stay here until something else is arranged. The elf has taken responsibility for you and assured me that you will behave.” The dwarves left and looked the doors for safety. It wouldn’t due to have humans walking around freely in the maze that was Molachaar, they could both cause trouble and end up in it. Inside the chamber three people contemplated the last turn their lives had taken.
“They can’t leave us like this!”
“It’s not that bad,” Sela said. “we got water, something that may be food,” she pointed at a plate with something that looked like a cross between a fungus and oatmeal. “and we are together” Ari, for a change, didn’t say anything. His usually overactive jaw muscles had been put to rest while he sat, utterly relaxed, on the stone floor.
“I’m an important person; they have no right to leave me like this. I demand to be released!”
“Shush, be quiet. They have done nothing wrong. We have been treated fairly. You saw that they put a blindfold on Lasaret too. We have food, water, company and shelter. What more can you ask?”
“They can’t do this.”
”They can, this is their city. Lets go to sleep, I’m sure Lasaret will come tomorrow.” With that she went to bed, a soft bed by her standard, nice with the just right amount of springiness. As she had predicted they were awakened that morning, or what they assumed was morning, there was no certain way of telling how much time they had spent in the darkness that was the dwarven world. They were led to an impressive looking meeting room where a dwarf and Lasaret sat and talked in hushed tones.
“We brought the humans your highness” etiquette gets much more important in the presence of strangers.
“Good, you may leave.” The king studied the humans Lasaret had talked about “I trust you slept well” Sela opened her mouth to speak but Rame cut her to it.
“You locked us in!” His eyes were shot with red and his demeanour somewhat wild. Lasaret looked at her friend apologetically while Sela looked embarrassed. Ari still hadn’t snapped out of whatever had caught him yesterday.
“We had beds, food and water. And each other, for this I thank you” A Brief pause. “Your highness?” she added hesitantly.
“Please forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Draktin KumDrost, and as you guessed, the current king of the dwarves.”
“How long has he been like that?” Lasaret asked and indicated that Ari was the ‘he’.
“Since we entered our room.” Sela answered. The boy’s father wasn’t coherent enough to follow the conversation. Lasaret nudged her friend.
“Look at his aura.” The aura in question was a dark brown with hints of black, red, yellow and a silvery blue.
“It can’t be” the king answered.
ooooooo
Five hours later found Lasaret, Rame and Sela on the mountainside facing the wastelands. Rame was finally calming down, he had gotten a panic attack during the conversation. Claustrophobia was the cause and leaving the mountain was the cure. Neither Rame nor Sela knew anything about the said impossibilities about Ari’s aura and Lasaret wouldn’t speak about it. What she did talk about was their mission.
“We need to travel stealthily, the wastelands are home to the moredhel or the dark brothers as they also are called.”
”The who?”
“The moredhel was elves but they turned away from the light and chaos now reins them. If we meet them things can go very wrong, understood?” the humans looked scared and Lasaret pitied them.
She had dragged them away from their homes into a desert populated by a race of mad elves that wanted them all dead. What could she and two humans do to stop an entire race from waging a war against every living thing. They were only mortals after all, nothing special about them. There must be a chance that they could make it, mustn’t it? Would the Singer have sent them on a mission that was doomed to fail? The future wasn’t very bright from where she was looking, neither for them nor for anyone else. Lasaret was careful not to show her doubts to the others, she needed them to be able to perform their best and adding pressure to them wasn’t a very good idea. A small voice in her head she had chosen to ignore kept saying ‘but’.
As she stood on guard that night more doubts came to her, they weren’t going to make this. She didn’t care whether or not she died but the two humans were under her protection and, by the look of it, so was the rest of the man- and elven kind. Many thoughts like these travelled her mind, although se was determined to fulfil the mission she was severely doubting the outcome. Small dots of light, much the same manner as in her vision, had began their strange dance in front of her. This time the blinding flash of light was absent, something that Lasaret was grateful for since it would have been a dead giveaway. She fell to her knees as her gaze fell to the ground.
“Stand up and look at me, child.” The elfish poured into her mind and sang in her ears. It was her language, she had been denied to use it since no elf spoke to her and no other beings speak it. She did his bidding and the look in his face was sad. He was just as beautiful and perfected as she remembered.
“Why are your doubts so great? You must know that I would never have sent you if there wasn’t a chance that you’d survive. You have to trust yourself and those around you, child, is that really so hard?”
“Father, if you know that I doubt you also know why I do it. This is too much, for me, for them.” Lasaret became sad because she knew that she was making him sad. Another ‘person’ she let down. Another thing that weighted her already guilty conscience.
“You won’t let us down” he placed his hand on her shoulder and once again her whole being was flooded with peace. A peace that this time was tainted with reassurance.
“Thank you father.” it was barely audible but he heard her.
“You’re welcome. We are here for you. We wouldn’t send you out on a mission like this and leave you. There is another thing; the dark brothers have the crown of King Dastonya. It resurfaced and it is this that is their holy sign. I’m afraid I must ask you one more thing of you. You must retrieve the crown.”
“I understand, Father, but how, where and when?”
“Shhh. Calm down child. It’s not as impossible as it might seem.” She looked at him with doubt written on her face.
“You aren’t making this any easier you know.” She mock-whined at him and he smiled in response.
“You’ll know what to do when you need to do it.” He gently placed a soft kiss on her forehead. As feelings overcame her, tears started to fall. A silken hand brushed them away.
“You will do fine, child. Never forget that you are our child, you are not all alone.” With that he dissolved into the tiny lights once again and left an emotionally exhausted Lasaret behind.
The crown of King Dastonya. It was the original crown of the elven royal family. It had been lost when Dastonya was murdered and it was generally believed that Astuke had stolen the crown, but as no one wanted to remember, the deed that allowed the theft the theft too had been suitably forgotten. The crown was a legend, if they returned with that they had to believe. She saw the reason for reliving the dark brothers of it’s care, not only would the elves believe in their existence, the moredhel themselves would loose their holy sign. Anything that went against the dark brothers was good for the rest of the intelligent races.
By the time sunrise rolled about, Lasaret was tired. She could have woken one of the others but they needed to be in top shape and she did have more keen senses then she. The night’s meeting had left her wondering how they were supposed to solve this new complication.
That afternoon the humans got their first glimpse of the wasteland. It was dry and barren, the ground dusty and broken in the sun. It was hot, unbelievingly so, and water was sparse. Lasaret could see a gathering of tents far off in the distance and guessed that they were heading that way. She didn’t know more about this country then the other two. The last time she was here she wasn’t in a state to collect information.
The days went on, floated into each other in one long row of hot, dry and lonely hours. Lasaret even discarded her trademark obscuring cloak and hood. They mostly moved at night but the heat of day was unavoidable. Lasaret ate less then the others and worked more, she hadn’t slept since they left the mountain, she had even turned her self healing of to save energy. The others were in a slightly better state.
One night they found water, they camped there knowing that they’d meet big trouble if anyone saw them there. Lasaret gave in to her body’s desire and prayed to her gods for the first time in her life. In Landarin only members of the priesthood was allowed to pray, if you wanted to ask the gods anything you went to a priest or priestess and they would contact the gods for you. She felt the Singer’s peace surround her and her fatigue, hunger and pain melted away. She could almost see his face light up in a smile as she thanked him. She owed the gods a lot, more than she thought was possible to repay if you were mortal. Her only regret was her inability to do something for her friends.
Lasaret’s fear came true when a patrol of moredhel found them. Lasaret was very afraid, as the patrol came closer she woke her two companions up. There was no way they could run away so they stayed their ground. Lasaret was at loss about what to do but as the moredhel was upon them Sela kneeled and pulled Rame with her down. The leader stepped forward.
“Why aren’t you at camp?” They thought she was one of them. What about the humans, she glanced at them and saw them kneeling as slaves. Humans was used as slaves by the moredhel, how did Sela know how to act?
“I was sent to retrieve these slaves.” Lasaret mimicked their accent as good as she could and hoped that they’d buy it. “The chieftain sent me” she added for good measure. She suddenly had the perfect excuse to get near the chieftain and it was probably he that had the crown.
“Ah” the leader answered. “Go over to the other side of the creek!” He commanded them, and he looked very angry when they didn’t obey.
“I beg your pardon, sadie” She used an elven term for warrior and hoped that they used it as well “They do not speak our language very well, they have not been slaves for long” Lasaret said. She went over to the still kneeling forms and kicked Rame, while silently asking for forgiveness, repeated the phrase and pointed as to indicate where they should move. Again Sela caught on faster then Rame and after bowing she dragged the confused man with her in the indicated direction.
“Why would the chieftain want untrained slaves?”
“They are new.” She said and let the moredhel draw his own conclusions from that. “I still have some time to teach them.”
“Would you mind some company, we are on our way back.” the moredhel suggested.
“I’ve gone too long without company to decline that kind of offer.”
oooooooo
Ari had been dropped of in a suite that was much more luxurious than the one they had previously occupied, when the dwarves had ushered his dad and the others from the mountain. They had said something about claustrophobia, whatever that was, but he was content. He had never felt this good for as long as he could remember. Despite the gloom and occasional dark the tunnels and caves spoke to him, even the stone did. He reverently put his hands on the wall and lost himself in the sheltering feeling the solid stone emitted.
“Human!” He was startled by the sudden exclamation. He turned around and saw a young looking, who really knew with these creatures, dwarf had popped his head through the door.
“Did you have to scare me like that?” He asked. He did not enjoy being made fun off.
“I’m sorry but I knocked and when you didn’t answer the door I thought that something might have happened.”
“You did?” That was a scary thought. He had no recollection of hearing a knock.
“I was sent here to take you to the drest.”
“Drest?”
“He is the spiritual leader, do you call them that?” The dwarf struggled with the language that was mostly unknown to him. He had never talked to a human before, let alone met or seen one. He was nervous and had much rather stayed well away from ‘it’. But no, he had to be a the wrong place at the wrong time and so the drest had told him to fetch the human. The stupid thing would probably get lost down here before long.
“Come on then.” The dwarf added impatiently. Ari, who still was a bit unfocused from his connection with the mountain, finally understood what the dwarf was trying to say.
“You want me to come with you to a priest?”
“If it’s that what they are called” the dwarf said uninterested and started out the door. Not waiting to see if the Ari followed him, or rather not caring if Ari followed him. Humans were weak; they had no connection to the earth. The older male human had been allergic to the caves, that that kind of thing, decease, could even surface only served to show the faults in the breed. And what’s with the length, it’s just inconvenient, you’ll end up hitting your head in the tunnel roof. The dwarf didn’t notice that Ari followed him full of confidence and not caring about the dark.
Ari followed what the stone told him. It was like a murmur deep inside him whispering about sediments, ore, bedrock, landslides, stalagmites and volcanoes. It spoke of the dangers but also the safeties of the underground city.
“Ah the Human.” The drest said without getting any sign that said human had heard him
“Human” he tried again “Human!” at last he got a reaction from the boy who looked at him surprised.
“How did I get here? Where is here? Who are you?” The voice of earth had diminished when he turned his attention to living, breathing beings.
“Ignorant human!” The drest screeched. “I’m the drest, don’t you know anything?”
“I’m sorry but I have never met a dwarf before I got here yesterday. How did I get from my rooms to here?” He started to investigate here with more curiosity. It was a rather small cave but it was very beautiful. It held more light then any other chamber or tunnel he had seen in Molachaar, maybe this was the case because the walls held intricately carved images. When he looked closer, he saw that it was one big image of war, it made it seem like you were trapped inside a battle with both enemies and friends surrounding, nearing and almost suffocate you. The images of, he presumed, long dead warriors was almost alive in the slight flickering light. Among the highlights and shadows he could swear he had seen at least two of them move.
“If you are done with that could we maybe begin with why you are here.”
“I followed him.” Ari answered indicated at his guide who had conveniently disappeared when the drest was otherwise occupied.
“You don’t know why you are here?” He stared Ari in the eye, which under the circumstances meant that he had to tip his head backwards in a rather odd angle.
“No” Ari said, still confused.
“Don’t you dare look down on me, human.” Ari silently wondered how he else he was supposed to look at the shorter, in lack of a better word, man. “You are an inferior race” the ‘man’ drawled on and Ari laughed at him.
“What is that is so funny!?”
“Inferior means smaller don’t it?” Ari asked still laughing. He was finally catching up with the conversation. “I was with the king and then he and Lasaret said something about ‘it can’t be’ and something about an aura. But about then my dad panicked and the others departed quickly.”
“No, that can’t be right. You must have misheard the king and who was it?”
“Lasaret, she’s an elf” he answered and asked at the same time.
“Don’t mention her again. She’s evil, an abomination!” The dwarf almost ranted.
“Why?”
“An elf shouldn’t be underground, and she knows it. Yet she comes every so often, claims to
be a ‘friend’ of the king. The king has no friends” he sounded bitter “Now leave” he said not noting or not caring that Ari didn’t know his way back. But as it turned out it didn’t matter, Ari followed the ‘voices’ in his head and they directed him to the suite.
After a disturbed sleep Ari arose restless and more tired than he was before trying to sleep. Images of the strange carvings haunted his mind and wouldn’t let him rest. Both them and the ‘voice’ urged him to the chamber. It was something he had to do in there but he didn’t know what. So once again following the ‘voices’ he stepped out into the giant underground maze that Molachaar is. He reached the chamber and slowly he started to trace some of the carvings with his fingertips. He was so engrossed in what he was doing he never noticed the dwarf that found him. The first thing he noticed was two chain mail clad dwarves that held spears to his throat. The drest that had spoken to him earlier stood beside them and looked furious.
ooooooo
“Will they do our bidding?” One of the moredhel asked, Sorgul the leader, but Lasaret saw it as the rhetorical question it was.
“Yes, but be careful. I don’t wish to deliver them harmed in any way, but make sure they do as you say. They need training.” The only answer that she could give them considering that they were more or less captured by the darkbrothers. She just hoped that the human wouldn’t let her, or for that matter themselves, down.
The moredhel made camp around theirs and Lasaret was glad that elves and darkbrothers were so much alike. Her looks couldn’t give them her away and she did her best to act like the others, that now were supposed to be the same as her. Most darkbrothers had dark hair and eyes but a few were fair like Lasaret. The lack of differences unnerved Lasaret to no end. Was she really so alike these violent ‘creatures’, she didn’t like it but they were kin.
That night she started ‘language class’ with the two unfortunates.
“You need to learn the most basic words so that you can follow any commands they give you.” Lasaret said.
“You speak human!” A moredhel called Fasur said.
“Yes. The one who taught me this trade insisted on it. It takes the humans off guard and makes it easier for me to break new ones.” She answered. It was pure nonsense spun from air but she thought that Fasur had as little knowledge about training slaves as she did herself.
“Don’t you speak human?”
“No! It’s a filthy language.” He stated haughtily. He turned and left.
“Do we have to do what they say?” Sela said timidly.
“I’m afraid so. Let’s begin to teach you two elfish.”
“I can’t do that!”
“Do what, exactly Rame.”
“Anything they say!”
“You can and you will. You two are slaves, or rather, are posing as slaves. We need to get into the moredhel camp and this is the only way to do it. Sela seems to understand what to do, just follow her lead. You have to be able to pull this off if you want to go back over the mountain, if you want to survive. Now ‘Na’dhek’ means left and ‘Sa’dek’ right.”
It was an odd time for Rame and Sela, they submitted, or at least acted submissively, in front of the moredhel. Sela acted very well and it was almost as she could read the minds of the moredhel and Lasaret. She carried out their wishes before they knew they wanted it. Her previous line of work was most certainly an asset. Rame, on the other hand, had a harder time acclimatising, he wasn’t used to submitting and he was no good at reading people. Sela saved him many times by turning their attention to her rather then the faults he did. She was careful as well as graceful and Lasaret got compliments for her.
Lasaret had difficulties with being hard on the two. She came from a society in which everyone strived towards a common goal and the only ones that was able to order someone else around was the queen and the priest and priestess. Societies built on slavery stagnate and dies since the one that have time to do some thinking don’t because they don’t have to. Why find an easier way to lift a stone when you can get more slaves instead. In the end, there won’t be any more slaves and the countries around you will have surpassed you. Slavery was against everything Lasaret believed, and had always, believed in and now she had to pose as owner and trainer of two slaves. And she had to treat them moderately bad to avoid suspicions. She suffered with them as well as for them.
Sela hated how easy it came back for her. She had used her body to please men during many years, many more than she wanted to recall. Being good at what she had been doing required a sense of reading people. To know what they wanted, reading the moredhel was harder then she remembered reading customers to be, she blamed differences in cultures rather then a failing memory. She had talked to Lasaret who had helped her out with some of the major differences in body language. Since Rame wasn’t doing a very good job she set her mind to being perfect if anything sever happened she could take the blame and she wouldn’t be punished as hard as Rame who had been making small mistakes from the very start.
Rame was confused, he had a hard time learning elfish and had to rely on Sela for translating, something that was frowned upon by the darkbrothers as well as Lasaret. He didn’t know how to behave submissively properly and he couldn’t understand how Sela managed to be one step ahead of the others all the time. He seemed to be four steps behind. He tried to keep himself in the background but his futile attempts only made him stand out even more.
During the first few days the pace had been excruciating and it had taken it’s toll on the two humans-now-slaves. Lasaret had managed to get the pace down by reasoning with the leader, Sorgul that she didn’t want to spoil the chieftain’s slaves and he grudgingly agreed to take it slower. This didn't keep them from their goal, however, and soon, too soon, they reached the camp. Lasaret didn't ask for it but the war party ‘escorted’ them to the chieftain’s tent, or rather, pavilion.
Two fierce looking guards pulled themselves to attention where they stood on either side of the entrance as we came nearer. Sorgul was obviously important; of course they had to end up with someone that the chieftain knew. They couldn’t back down now, not in the middle of a camp filled with , as soon as it was uncovered who and what they were, enemies. Lasaret was convinced that her last moment had arrived, they had stayed alive because they had fooled the moredhel that their chieftain had ordered the slaves, and now their ploy was going to be revealed.
“Sadie Sorgul, I trust your mission went well. Please wait here while I talk to Fristaret.” He did a short bow and entered the tent. He returned with the chieftain, to Lasaret’s horror. She and ‘her’ slaves backed off to the side, as it was obvious that he wanted to speak with the warrior.
“It’s nice to see you again, son. What have we here?” He turned his to Lasaret who bowed. But it was Sorgul that answered.
“She says she has slaves for you father” It was obvious that he doubted her word. His father would have said something wouldn’t he.
“Oh, yes. I didn’t expect them to be here so soon” He rose an inquiring eyebrow.
“I was closer than my employer knew.” She hoped that he would swallow the lie. It was too much luck to just accept it without hesitation. First the managed to convince the moredhel that they were indeed master and slaves and secondly, that the chieftain actually had sent for slaves. It was too good to be true and it was they that had to pay when they run out of luck.
“Well don’t just stand there! Get them inside.” He said and went inside confident in his role as ruler that they would follow him. Lasaret eyed the humans.
“Behave!” It sounded like frustration but it was equal parts concern and prayer. They entered the gloomy darkness the tent provided. I shiver went down Lasaret’s spine on the thought of what happened the last time she had been in a tent with a darkbrother.
oooooooo
The air in the tent was hot and stale as it pressed against skin and lungs. In the semi-darkness, the humans could see only the rough outline of the things in it as the followed Lasaret and their new ‘master’. The ground was covered in furs and thick carpets so that none of the wasteland sand was visible. Colours and styles clashed horribly with each other and Lasaret figured that most thing were loot from enemies as well as allies. Obviously, the chieftain was proud of the things he had acquired since he showed them off in this way.
The round tent had a screen made of thick fabric running across it, efficiently parting the tent in two. In the opposite end of the half circle, they’d just entered a low dais held a wooden throne. Wood was scarce in this dry land and, by the look of it, valuable. The chieftain seated himself on the throne and as Lasaret bowed the ‘slaves’ kneeled with their hands behind their backs and their gaze down.
“Who are these fine specimens?” Fristaret asked.
“This is Sela,” she nudged the still kneeling form with her foot. “and this is Rame.”
“New?”
“Yes, we’ve only had them for about a month. There are some gaps in their training but nothing major. I hope we have pleased you.”
“Yes, you can tell your master I’m very pleased.”
“Thank you. May I stay here for a little while? The trip was long and I would like to rest before heading back.”
“Of course, Sogul will show you where you can rest. Feel welcome to stay as long as you like.”
“Thank you yet again, you are most gracious.” Sorgul indicated that they should leave his father to his new slave and however much Lasaret loathed leaving her friends with the chieftain moredhel, she wanted out of his sight even more.
Sorgul led the disguised elf to a tent in the outskirts of the tent town. As they passed he sourly pointed out important places, as where to get food and water and where to go if she needed anything else. The tent she was assigned looked very much like the one she had been held captured in so many years before, but there were differences. There was a carpet to substitute a floor, two blankets and a fur for a makeshift bed and some pillows to make sitting more comfortable.
Lasaret spent about a week walking around the camp. It looked like she was merely taking walks to keep boredom from conquering her but in fact she was spying and planning, and while doing the latter she also fought despair. During one of these walks, she met Sela, a distressed Sela.
“Are you two all right?” Lasaret felt guilty for leaving them and not being able to help them.
“Yes, but not for long.” She did a deep study of the ground around her dirtied, shoeless feet.
“What?” The elf was almost too afraid of the answer to ask.
“He’s planning to do something tonight and Rame won’t make it.” It took Lasaret some time to figure out what Sela meant by this.
“Have you found any trace of the Crown?”
“The one sitting on a silk cushion on a gold engraved pedestal next to his ugliness’ bed? No, haven’t seen it.” The elf sighed.
“You know, sometimes I even like you. We’ll have to leave before something bad happens and I have a feeling something bad is going to happen soon.”
“Things are already bad, they are about to get worse. His ignorance holds court every afternoon. We are to stay in the back, with the crown, while he does.”
“I’ll fetch you two in the middle of the afternoon then.”
“Oh no! I’m late, I have to hurry but we will be prepared. See you!” With those words she disappeared behind a turn and ran towards the main tent. Lasaret was left trying to figure out the best course of action. Stealing the crown wouldn’t be hard, getting it and the humans out of tent would be children’s play. Getting the crown and the two humans back to the mountains, preferably alive, that would be the hard. Very hard.
Back in the relative solitariness of her tent, Lasaret sank to the floor, closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought about the upcoming day and what would follow. At the moment they were safe, or at least as safe as you can be when you are surrounded by enemies that are unaware of your location. Things would change drastically when two slaves ran away from their presumed master with the most important object in the entire culture of moredhel and Lasaret was the one who was supposed to make this happen without casualties on their side. They needed a distraction, but where to find one in a desert?
The black bag with the distraction was at her side, so was her sword but it was not it that was most important tonight, no it was her knife. The good thing about a tent is that you can move your home with you wherever you go, the bad thing about tents are that with the help of a sharp object, you have fiftieleven doors and/or windows in you tent. As she made an ‘instant door’ in the back of Fristaret’s tent, she prayed in her mind, not for her own safety but for the safety of the others.
Lasaret quietly entered the semi-gloom and her eyes fell on the crown. She ignored it in favour for searching for her friends. They were chained to the ground and while Sela looked as she always did, a bit subdued maybe but fine, Rame looked horrible. It was like he was the sole survivor from a one-man civil war and Lasaret’s heart broke. She ran over to him and held him close as she took their chains off. She couldn’t believe that she had done something that had hurt another living being to this extent. She quietly spoke to him.
“I’m so sorry Rame, I never meant to leave you like this. I shouldn’t have brought you…”
“Lasaret” came an urgent whisper from behind. “We don’t have time for this now, we need to go.” This actually managed to shake the elf back to what they were doing and she left picked up her bag. She collected something from it and handed it to Sela with the order to put the crown in it.
Lasaret moved closer to the flap that differed the bedroom from the throne room of the moredhel chieftain with the distraction securely wrapped around her arm. She focused on the snake and willed it to bite the man on the dais. The snake was poisonous but not lethal. The elf wanted to poison the whole camp as this was the only way to secure an escape but she hoped that by incapacitating the leader the others wouldn’t know what to do or, even better, squabble amongst themselves. The distraction wouldn’t last long, not with the chieftain’s son still in camp, but maybe they’d get enough time to make it to safety. She doubted it though, she would do her best to keep them alive but the odds were against them.
After Lasaret had released the snake the silently made their way to the artificial door, she led them trough quietly and headed out of the camp. The best way to stay unnoticed is to hide in plain view but this is rather hard when you are accompanying the leader’s pet slaves. It just doesn’t happen. To their big surprise they made their way trough without getting caught, even the outer line of guards, but on the other hand, they were looking for people that was going towards the camp, not leaving it.
Two weeks later three exhausted figures stumbled into a hidden cave that led to one of the doors of Molachaar. A displeased looking dwarf open the door to find two worn out humans and a wounded elf. An elf that merely seconds after seeing the dwarf and the presumed safety fainted. To the humans’ faint interest, since they were to tired to be surprised, she wasn’t taken to the same room as they. The didn’t linger on the thought since, honestly, thinking requires energy however good or bad you are at it, and the only thing they saw was a bed and the only thing they felt was safe.
ooooooo
Lasaret opened her eyes and took in the rough stone ceiling she didn’t recognise. Her first thought was that they had somehow gotten captured since her last memory was that of the wastelands open skies, but that idea was soon forgotten as she didn’t think the moredhel had any caves or dungeons to put their captives in. The only ones that she knew did was the dwarves, so they had made it to safety. But then why was she here and not in her usual room. The thoughts came slow because of exhaustion and being kept in such small quarters. Draktin knew this, she was sure, so once again she was back to why she was in here.
Had something happened to Draktin? Or was it something else? She couldn’t remember anything that could explain her current predicament. She heard boots in the distance, the slowly came closer until they stopped in front of her door. A small square of light appeared as the unknown opened a hatch in the door allowing some of the artificial light seep trough.
“You’re awake. Stay there while I open the door.” Silently Lasaret complied. She was curious about this new situation but she hurt too much to willingly move anywhere. She wanted to heal herself but she couldn’t do that this deep down.
The guard, or so she assumed, had brought shackles with him, or maybe it was a her it’s hard to tell with dwarves. That she hadn’t predicted.
“Hands behind your back.” Lasaret rolled over to her front with a muttered curse about the moredhel. As the guard readied the shackles she realised the she was the one they were intended for and she panicked. She was not going to be bound like that again, neither by friend nor by foe. Fear gave her strength but not enough and soon the dwarf had her pinned to the floor, much to Lasaret's dismay. By the time this occurred the elf was trembling and was starting hyperventilate. The guard was experienced enough to notice that something was wrong and she saw the look of terror in Lasaret’s eyes.
“What?” The guard asked, an elf the proudest of the races, was on the floor shaking obviously scared of her.
“Ch-chains” Lasaret managed to say and stared at the offending items.
“Yes, I need to put them on you.”
“Please n-no no no n-no.” The elf was begging.
“But...” The guard started and Lasaret eyed her warily.
“I am… weak. I was injured and cannot heal. You saw I can’t even fight a dwarf. No chains, please.” Even whispering the words took a great deal of the precious little strength Lasaret had. The dwarf seemed to understand and did let her up without the chains.
“You have to promise you won’t run.” Lasaret nodded carefully. Slowly she stood despite the protests from her body.
“Promise.” She uttered her voice broken from exhaustion and the aftermath of the fear she felt earlier.
She was led or rather she leaned heavily on the poor dwarf, something that wasn’t particularly comfortable for either of them, to the main cave. Draktin sat on his throne looking every bit the king he was and surrounding him was subjects and guards. Lasaret was brought before him and she saw an embarrassed Ari standing with the other two off to the side. When the guard stopped she allowed herself to gently slide to the floor sitting cross-legged.
“Is this how you show respect, elf?”
“I’m sorry for the rudeness your highness but I’m to tired to follow protocol.” Her shoulders and head drooped.
“Isn’t she supposed to be in chains?” An anonymous dwarf said.
“She gave her word that she wouldn’t run.” The guard supplied.
“Well look at what that got her.” He sneered.
“Would someone please tell me what this is about?” A dwarf dressed in the garb of priest stood before the throne.
“Ari, that human,” He pointed at said person. “was found in the Cave of Hatori.” Lasaret noticed that she could actually hear the dwarf pronounce the capital letters. He continued. “That is a major offence but since Lasaret here,” He spat her name. “took full responsibility for the humans’ behaviour during their stay here she is the one to be punished.” The drest looked very smug, at last he would be rid of the freak of nature, also known as Lasaret.
“Why?” was Lasaret’s only response.
“Why you are to be punished?” The glint in the drest’s eyes was menacing.
“No, why did he do it?” She turned her head towards Ari.
“That is of no importance.” He said self-absorbed.
“Maybe not to you or to this case but it is to me. I don’t object to you right to sentence me but I would like to know why Ari did it. Please you highness”
“Very well, Ari?” The king said before the drest could object. After all it was his old friend who sat so pitifully on the floor.
“I had to,” The young man said. “the voices told me to.”
“Voices?” The drest asked scornfully. “You must be missing more marbles than we thought.”
“Yes” Ari’s voice face took on a dreamy expression. “They tell me about the caves and about stone. Can’t you hear them?” He looked genuinely surprised. Lasaret turned to him once again.
“No, Ari, we can’t. You have something called an earth-aura, it means that you can ‘communicate’ with the earth. The voices is the earth talking to you being drawn to your aura. If the drest had done what he was supposed to, you would have known this. You need training to learn how to handle this gift but I guess that isn’t going to happen now.” Lasaret swayed where she sat. She really needed a little sleep, some food and a bit of healing.
“Why Strom, didn’t you tell him about the aura? I told you no, I gave you an order, and you disobeyed. Maybe it isn’t she who’s supposed to be on trial here. This whole mess could probably have been avoided.” To say that the king was mad would only tell half a tale. “Please tell me you told him about the chamber.”
“I did.” The drest answered, what he didn’t count on was Ari saying the opposite.
“He didn’t.” The silence that followed was deafening.
Sela stood by Rame’s side during the trial. She became terrified when she saw how broken the usually proud elf was. Lasaret who had saved both her and Rame several times this last few weeks, she reluctantly admitted that Lasaret was the one who put them in danger in the first place but that was besides the point, was treated as a criminal for a crime committed out of ignorance. Well ignorance is never a good thing to blame, but it wasn’t blame she was after, she wanted an explanation. Ari looked like he was going to break down and cry. From what Sela had gathered, he blamed everything on himself even if it was obvious that the drest, what was that again, was the one to blame, at least in Sela’s book. Ari committed the offence, there was no question about it, but he did it because he was misinformed or not informed at all.
Rame nudged her in the ribs when he thought that she had been spaced out long enough. She gave him a look that said ‘I’m angry don’t mess with me’ and continued to rant.
“Sela,” He hissed. “we can go now.” She almost gave him ‘the look’ again before her brain registered what her ears had told it. She watched as no-one stepped forward to help Lasaret and did it herself.
Two days, or something that felt like two days, later Lasaret was on her feet again. She was not well but definitely better then before. She and the king had decided that Ari needed to go to the chamber once again. And in secret Lasaret had always wanted to see the Chamber of Hatori. She had even made it possible for the other humans to see it too. She had a feeling that something important was to happen and she didn’t want them to miss it. She owed them so much.
The chamber was much as Ari remembered it but now another drest accompanied them. He was glad that Lasaret and his father was allowed to come, the stone talked to him but comfort from something living was much more real. The drest began to talk as they filled the chamber.
“The carvings on the wall is a battle scene from the Hatori war, the last great war amongs the races. This is said to have happened several millennia ago but neither our nor the elven lore can confirm this. What we do not understand is whom we are fighting against.” More light was brought to the chamber and it was now fully lighted.
“Have you asked the humans?” Rame added.
“The humans only arrived to this part of the world about two and a half thousand years ago. You are young both as a race and as habitants here.”
“Is that why you hate us?” Ari asked.
“No, we dislike humans for driving us out from where we used to live and forcing us to hide because you are scared of new things. I’m ashamed to say that so are many of the elves too. After all, they are the reason we are here now. A human is wise and thoughtful, humans in plural is a dangerous easily frightened animal who often resorts to violence ” Lasaret answered.
The carvings were intricate, if you stood close enough you could count the hairs in their beards yet at the same time they were sloppy enough to look alive. As if they only had been caught in a moment and needed something to get them started again. Ari slowly closed in on the wall facing the door. He reverently began to follow the line of a helmet with his finger. He continued down the chain mail, followed the sword until where it crossed an enemy’s spear. He followed the scene around the room, up and down, along weapons and fighters, he even touched the imagined ground and the sky. As he came nearer the man he started with something changed.
A horn was heard, its deep tone rolled over the battlefield where it should have echoed in a small cave. The sound of metal against metal, it was war something that hadn’t happened in the kingdom for many, many years. Rame looked at the fighters again and this time they really were moving, but not in the way one would suspect. They didn’t fight as much as morph into others.
“What happened?” Draktin asked.
“I don’t know,” Came the quiet response from the elf as she pointed at a banner. “but that is the coat of arms of the elven royal family. This is no longer the war it was, it looks more like the war that is coming.”
oooooooo
Sela and Rame sat huddled close to each other as well as the fire in an attempt to curb the loneliness as much as the cold. It was strange how it could be so hot one since of the mountains and so cold on the other. As if that wasn’t enough Lasaret had led the straight trough the wild and they hadn’t seen another, at least moderately, intelligent creature in two weeks. It was a long and lonely time for both humans who were used to and craved company. Sela developed a whole new respect for Lasaret when she realised that this is how the elf lived all the time, or even worse, they were three Lasaret was one.
Rame missed his son, who was left under the tutelage of several dvarves including the king himself, and his wife who he hadn’t seen in a long time and who had to be wondering where the rest of her small family was up to. As a matter of fact, he figured, her situation was worse than his. He knew where he was, in the forest he silently admitted, and where Ari was, although his wife probably was warmer and ate better food she had now idea of where they had disappeared to.
As he sat closed to Sela he realised that he didn’t know anything about the woman. So he took the chance to break the silence to get to know her better. He knew that she had worked in the capital before but not with what. A nagging voice in the back of his head wanted him to ask if she was married but he silenced it with the image of his stern looking wife. In the beginning he had lusted for Lasaret, which was understandable, since she was everything he had dreamed of in a woman but the appeal has rapidly diminished when she hadn’t given him a second look and it had vanished without a trace after Lasaret’s confession of race. He shook his head to get rid of the image and to force his unruly thoughts into submission.
“So,” He said to get her attention and to find a way to express what he wanted to say. “what was life in our glorious capital like?” Sela very nearly laughed him in the face but restrained herself and let the mirth out as a mad twinkle in her eyes.
“Well, glorious it might have appeared to others but not to the major part of those who live there.” Rame looked at the person beside him as if she had sprouted an extra head. He had been brought up to honour the King and the country and by default the capital too. How could she say things like that? In his mid the capital was a grand city with wide paved boulevards, gardens, blindingly white marble, noble men and women and it was the home of the higher arts. Who gave this woman the right to criticise this? Was her contempt for the capital a way of showing her dislike for the king? Was she maybe a rebel that wanted to overthrow the government?
“Why did you say that?” Sela could almost see his idea of how and what the capital was in his eyes and in the way he talked.
“If you know how too look you’ll find the answer. Don’t let your dreams stand in the way of reality. It’s everyone’s right to dream, and most people do, but only a fool thinks the dream is real.” Lasaret sat on the other side of the fire facing away from her two companions. Not because she was rude or because she wanted to give them privacy, no it was a simple case of keeping her night vision. This was hostile lands, but se enjoyed their conversation. Rame had no idea who he talked to. She had been looking forward to this conversation since they left Molachaar and now it had arrived.
“What are you talking about? I thought that a citizen in the wonderful city would have seen some of it’s splendour but maybe it was you who was blind.”
“Don’t judge others by your standard. Besides what’s so special about Rayde? Sure the King lives there but he seldom leaves his palace and when he does it’s not to visit the likes of us. No, I hate to disillusion you but the capital is home to the same thing every other town and city is. The only thing we’ve got more of is the people who try everything in their power to get more power. The lie, cheat and bribe their way to the nobles.” Rame was white and started shaking with shock. Lasaret moved to them.
“I… we… need him alive for this mission. Couldn’t you’ve told him in a softer way? It’s not his fault he’s lived a sheltered life. I doubt he’s even seen one of your profession before.” Lasaret smiled as she said that, some people might have become angry but Sela was oddly proud over her previous line of work. As Lasaret uttered the last statement Rame collected himself enough to get curious.
“What did you do for work? Librarian? Artist? Dancer? A nurse perhaps? Or in the temple?” he was genuinely interested in an overly honest puppy-dog kind of way. Didn’t he learn anything? Life must be a lot easier on the other side of Rame’s eyes.
“I worked at a brothel.” Confusion was written over his whole being.
“A brothel!”
“What did I just tell you about the need for keeping him alive… and moderately sane, although I’m not very sure on the last one considering what we started with.” Lasaret mock scolded Sela. Rame was to far gone to notice her dig at his expense.
“Is there a brothel in Rayde?”
“She worked in one of many, Rame.” Lasaret added softly, not keen on letting Sela carry the whole burden of Rame’s lack of knowledge. “As a matter of fact, the first time she met me she thought I was just another customer of many.”
“But you’re a woman! Besides, what did you do on a brothel?”
“I was looking for her, in the same way I came looking for you. Wearing my cloak I might add.” Both women were glad to be able to distract him. Holes in the soul can make as much damage as injuries to the flesh, if not more. Do enough damage to the spirit and it might
decide not to live anymore. It kills as surely as a cut of head but in much more hidden ways.
In that precise moment a forest troll decided that the three living, but not for long, lumps of flesh would make a good dinner. Forest trolls are smaller than their cousins, the mountain troll, but make it up with agility and speed. Their skin is though and hard to cut through and they can take an enormous amount of damage without slowing down.
Lasaret shot up into fighting position, sword in hand, but she knew this was a worthy opponent. She moved forward to met it and fight it away from the others when the beast took a small step to the left, parried and swayed to the right only the straighten up and fall forward with a resounding thud. It acted drunk, not a normal state for a being just capable of figuring out that roof over your head meant that you didn’t get wet if it rained. She looked back and saw Sela standing frozen with one hand in front of her.
“I…I…” Lasaret looked back on the body and slowly as well as carefully turned it over. There in the right eye sat one of Sela’s throwing knifes.
“Good throw, very good throw.” Lasaret admitted. Sela still stood with her blanket pooling around her feet looking at the creature she had killed.
“I…I… killed it.”
“Yes you did, and thanks to you we’re not going to become dinner, breakfast and lunch to our friend here.” Lasaret pulled the troll out of sight and wrapped herself in her blanket and promptly fell asleep. She was shaken awake by an angry Rame.
“Aren’t you supposed to stand on guard?”
“First; we are more than one person in this group. Second; forest trolls fights fiercely to keep their hunting grounds. No other troll or animal may hunt on them. As we killed him there was no other dangerous animals in the vicinity.” Lasaret congratulated herself on not losing her temper although she had been awoken rather abruptly only to be shouted at. She was not a morning person and sometimes, but only sometimes, she pitied the ones that had to wake her, but on the other hand they deserved some kind of punishment.
“And you couldn’t find the time to tell us this before you fell asleep?”
“No.” She looked over to where Sela was. “Here, I think this belongs to you.” It was Sela’s throwing knife, the one that had been stuck to the hilt in the troll’s skull. She looked at it repulsed but made no move to walk over and get it. “It’s the same knife as before the throw. You knew when I started teaching you that it’d come a day when you had to kill with them. That day just came sooner than you thought.”
“I’ll never touch a knife again.” Lasaret looked sad.
“When we are threatened we resort to using things we know. You know how to use your knives; next time you’re threatened you’ll throw another one, just because you can.”
ooooooo
It was a split company that walked the forest that day. Rame was angry with Sela for trying to taint his vision of the perfect city. Sela was sad and thoughtful about what Lasaret had said. She also felt tainted by the kill. Lasaret didn’t stay in one place long enough for any of the others to distinguish what mood she was in. She looked calm and collected but inside she wondered how her companions would handle what happened. They needed to be able to trust each other, and wile this is usually possible with someone you’re angry with, there needed to have been a certain amount of trust from the beginning. Something she doubted there had been. But if this was the case what to do? They were approximately three weeks from Landarin and if she read the weather right the snow was on the way. They had been lucky so far but she had a feeling that was about to change.
True to her feeling, as if only to prove her right, the snow came that night. It was a blessing within a curse. In the relative warmth of their snow hut they had to be close. They were forced to talk about their problems. Lasaret decided that it had to start somewhere and with the risk of sounding a bit cliché she said.
“This can’t go on.”
“What?” Rame asked, Sela was quicker on the uptake as usual.
“We aren’t finished yet and to be able to do that we need to trust each other.”
“Well I for one can’t trust a liar.”
“I don’t ask you to.” Lasaret supplied.
“Sela lies.”
“No she doesn’t. I know that you like to the ink that the nobles are just that but in truth they aren’t. They are just humans, no more no less.” At this Rame looked horrified but after a while a small thread of understanding wormed its way trough.
“Lets say that you two are right, but what gave you permission to destroy the one thing I believed in? If the nobles aren’t behaving better than peasants why do we have to listen to them? Why are they in charge?”
“One tends to see what he wants to see instead of seeing that which really is there. We are going to have to visit the capital and when we get there we need you to see the truth. As for the other part of your questions: the nobles are those in charge because they are born to it. It doesn’t make them better than others. It just made them luckier.” Sela, who until now had been quiet, decided that she wanted to join in.
“Lasaret may I ask something?”
“You may, and I’ll even try to give you an answer.”
“I’ve had the same dream for the last three nights. Is that normal?”
“I’d say no, but tell me what is it about?”
“There was this very beautiful elf she had red hair and green eyes, not unlike yours actually.”
“I’ve dreamt about her too. She said something about ‘stop being foolish.’” Lasaret had her own suspicions about the identity of the dream elf.
“Did she happen to tell you her name?”
“No.” they answered in chorus.
“Well I think you met the Creator, one of the elven gods.”
“That’s preposterous; I don’t believe the gods exist. Especially not elven gods.” Rame seemed greatly disturbed by the subject.
“The Creator does exist. And if I may ask, why don’t you believe in the gods?”
“Humans are rational beings and with science we don’t need god.”
“The gods do exist.” Lasaret argued. “We need gods and the gods need us. The gods created us and leaves us mostly alone but they are there and they are ready to help if needed be. The gods need us because while they created us it’s our belief that keeps them alive and give them power. Science as you said, helps you to understand the world but it doesn’t explain it.”
“Whatever, I know that I don’t need any god.”
“You will, some day.” Sela felt forgotten at put her mind to
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