Authors: R.A. Salvatore
Unless, of course, the wood of those clubs, a variety that Juraviel did not know, carried a few special properties of its own.
Flanked by Lozan Duk and Cazzira, Juraviel walked along the carpet to stand before Eltiraaz.
The King of Tymwyvenne sat very straight on his throne, staring hard at Juraviel, his expression stern and regal, his shoulders perfectly squared. He had his hands on his lap, holding a gem-capped scepter fashioned out of that same strange
wood.
“You will tell King Eltiraaz your tale, Belli’mar Juraviel of the Touel’alfar, from the very beginning of the road that brought you to our lands,” Lozan Duk explained. “And of why you walk the trails with a living human beside you.”
Juraviel winced a bit at that last statement, further confirmation that the Doc’alfar’s contempt for humans was nearly absolute. He pushed past his emotions, though, and did as instructed, relating his tale from the battle with the goblins south and east of Andur’Blough Inninness—whose whereabouts he had no intention of disclosing—to the night of his and Brynn’s capture.
King Eltiraaz listened intently to his every word, sometimes tilting his head to the side, as if he wanted to ask a question. But he remained silent and patient throughout the tale.
“Long have we known that our kin, the Tylwyn Tou, remained in the northland,” Eltiraaz said after Juraviel had finished. His voice was both regal and melodic, a great baritone that seemed strange to Juraviel, coming out of so diminutive a creature. “Yet no less is our surprise in seeing one, in seeing you, walk into our lands. Know that you are the very first of our lost brethren to look upon Tymwyvenne.”
“I am truly honored, King Eltiraaz.” Juraviel thought it appropriate to bow at that solemn moment.
The King of the Doc’alfar nodded, then looked to Lozan Duk.
“King Eltiraaz wishes to know why you were in the company of a human,” Lozan Duk asked.
Juraviel looked from the king to the other male, curious as to why Eltiraaz had not simply asked him himself. “Brynn Dharielle is a ranger,” he explained. “Trained by the Touel’alfar. It is a practice that we have employed for centuries—taking in human orphans who show promise and training them in the ways of the Touel’alfar, that they might serve as eyes and ears for my Lady Dasslerond in the wider human world.”
“Why not just kill every human who wanders into your domain?” Cazzira asked, and Juraviel noted, in all seriousness. “They are lesser creatures, and if a threat, should be eliminated.”
“We view them more highly than do you, perhaps,” the Touel’alfar replied, trying to remain civil, knowing that Brynn’s life might be on the line here. “We have come to see the humans as valuable allies at times, if often a bit troublesome.”
“More than troublesome,” said Cazzira.
“Rangers are not like other humans,” Juraviel stated clearly, aiming the words at King Eltiraaz. “They understand much more about the world than their clumsy kin. They are expert warriors, and with the temperament and instilled discipline to use their fighting prowess wisely. They are friends to the natural world, friends to the Touel’alfar, and surely no ranger would be a threat or enemy to the Doc’alfar.”
“How do you know?” asked Eltiraaz.
Juraviel started to echo the question, but caught himself, understanding it, and replied, “Rangers who do not show the proper temperament and judgment are not
allowed back out into the wide world.”
“And your companion has passed these tests?” Eltiraaz asked.
“Brynn is as fine a ranger as has ever walked out of Andur’Blough Inninness and Caer’alfar.”
“Then why does she need the company of Belli’mar Juraviel?”
The Touel’alfar took a deep breath and considered the question, and considered how much he should reveal to Eltiraaz and the others. He had already spoken the name of his valley, his Lady, and his city, and sensed that he should trust these kin somewhat, but how might they feel about a human heading through their lands on her way to begin a war?
“Brynn Dharielle was selected among the To-gai-ru of the wild steppes south of the great mountains,” he explained.
“We know of the To-gai-ru,” Eltiraaz replied.
“Then you know that they are not like their kinfolk,” Juraviel said. “They are more attuned to the land and to—”
“A few of our soldiers are of To-gai-ru descent,” Cazzira said, and her grim tone reminded Juraviel of the type of “soldier” to which she was referring. He looked at her, wondering how deep her enmity truly ran, and was taken in again by those exotic eyes of hers, shining icy orbs layered with emotion and thought.
He shook off his revulsion and focused on an interesting question: how had any To-gai-ru come to the land of the Doc’alfar? And how did the Doc’alfar know of Brynn’s people? True, the To-gai-ru settled the land only a hundred miles or so south of this region, but on the other side of supposedly impassable mountains. Or perhaps, not so impassable?
But how to bring the conversation to that point, to where he could even begin to hope that these captors would allow him and Brynn to go free at all, let alone tell them of a possible way through the mountains?
“Have you found no redeeming qualities in the To-gai-ru?” he dared to ask. “Are they no more than the other humans to you?”
“Should we look, Belli’mar Juraviel?” King Eltiraaz asked. “Is it your word to us that the To-gai-ru can be better trusted by our people? Do you believe, perhaps, that we have erred in judging them so harshly?”
Juraviel saw the potential trap, particularly in that last question, but he knew that he had to hold fast to his principles, both for his own heart and for any chance that he might find in getting past those fierce people. “I believe that you should look, if that is what you desire,” he said. “It is my word to you that the To-gai-ru are more attuned to the ways of both the Tylwyn Tou and Tylwyn Doc, if the Tylwyn Doc hold at all to the old ways of our people.”
“More, perhaps, than the Tylwyn Tou, Belli’mar Juraviel,” King Eltiraaz replied, “if the Tylwyn Tou have come to befriend the humans.”
Juraviel conceded the point without any countering statement at all, for indeed, during the old times when the races of elves were united, they had no contact with anyone who was not of
the People
.
“I would not say that you have erred, King Eltiraaz. That is not a judgment for me to make. In my own land, we preserve our secrecy with equal ferocity; a human who cannot be trusted is treated in the same manner in which we would deal with a goblin who wandered onto our land. Well, perhaps not as harshly as that—we would kill the human more quickly and mercifully.
“But not a To-gai-ru,” he quickly added, though he had no idea if he was speaking the truth or not, since no To-gai-ru had ever wandered anywhere near to Andur’Blough Inninness, except for those taken in as rangers-in-training, of course. He felt that his reasoning was sound, though, and so he continued. “My Lady Dasslerond would hold back on the killing blow against a To-gai-ru until the intruder’s intent could be discerned.”
“By then, it is often too late,” Cazzira remarked.
“Too late for what? We fear no threat from anything short of an invading army.”
That set all three of the Doc’alfar back on their heels a bit, Juraviel noted.
“Perhaps your clan is more numerous than our own,” King Eltiraaz said after a short pause and a glance at his two kinfolk. “We are not numerous, and thus we take threats against our land more seriously.”
“Or you are more quick to judge intrusion as threat,” Juraviel dared to say, and Cazzira at his side sucked in her breath sharply. Juraviel started to modify the statement, to make it seem less an accusation, but he stopped himself short, letting King Eltiraaz weigh the words.
“Perhaps we must be,” the king said a short while later. “And I doubt not that we will hold on to our ways, Belli’mar Juraviel. They have served us well through these centuries, have kept Tymwyvenne alive. I care not enough for the clumsy and bumbling humans to risk a single Tylwyn Doc life, and if I had to destroy the entire human race to safeguard my people, then I would do so, without hesitation.”
“And what of a Tylwyn Tou who inadvertently wandered onto your land, good King Eltiraaz? Would such an unfortunate—or perhaps fortunate—distant cousin be similarly executed, or would the King of the Doc’alfar think that preserving the life of a relative was worth the risk to his people?”
King Eltiraaz stood up out of his throne, his gaze set grimly and sternly upon Juraviel. “Is there a threat to my people, Belli’mar Juraviel?”
Juraviel squared his shoulders and matched the king’s unblinking gaze in intensity. “No.”
A long, long silence ensued, the two standing there, Eltiraaz a step higher than Juraviel, and thus, looking down at him. But in truth, that height difference did nothing to diminish Juraviel in this contest of wills.
Finally, after several minutes of the locked stares, Eltiraaz turned to each of the others, left and right, then declared, “There is no threat.”
Juraviel held firm his gaze and determined posture, though in truth, he wanted to blow a long and deep sigh. So he was not to die there, it seemed.
But that wasn’t enough.
“And what of Brynn Dharielle?” he asked. “She is To-gai-ru, and even more
than that, much more than that, she is a ranger, trained by my people in the ways of the Tylwyn Tou. She sees the world as a Tylwyn Tou sees the world, and is more kin and friend to my people than to her own.”
“So you say,” Lozan Duk put in.
Juraviel looked at him, and he only shrugged in reply, as if his words were spoken in all simplicity and honesty.
“I do say,” Juraviel answered, and he turned again to face Eltiraaz directly. “Brynn Dharielle is no threat to you or your people. Indeed, she is, or would be, a friend to Tymwyvenne, if you choose to allow it.”
“I need no humans for friends, Belli’mar Juraviel.”
Juraviel nodded and conceded the point. “She is my friend,” he said then, and somberly. “I ask of you, King Eltiraaz, to allow my friend to leave with me. On my word, she is no threat.”
“I have not yet said that you could leave,” the King of the Tylwyn Doc reminded.
Juraviel did blow that sigh, and he nodded.
Soon after, he was back in the small room of peat with Brynn, sitting there silently in the soft light of the glowing torch. Brynn had immediately started to ask him about his visit with the king when he had first returned, but Juraviel had waved the question away, not wanting to discuss any of that. For the first time in his long life, Belli’mar Juraviel felt perfectly helpless in determining his fate, and he did not like the feeling at all.
The rest of that day passed, and the next, and the only contact came from the zombie waiter delivering their food.
On the second day after his visit with Eltiraaz, though, Juraviel was summoned again from the peat cave, escorted again by Lozan Duk and Cazzira to the same throne room, where King Eltiraaz sat waiting.
“I have considered your words, Belli’mar Juraviel,” the king greeted. “And I find that I believe you.”
Juraviel did not reply or make any sign at all, not sure exactly what that meant.
“I will have your word that, once you have left here, you will not disclose the location of Tymwyvenne.”
“I will not.”
“And I will have, from you, the location of Caer’alfar,” King Eltiraaz went on.
Juraviel rocked back on his heels, chewing his lip as he considered the request. “King Eltiraaz, I am similarly sworn to secrecy by Lady Dasslerond,” he answered.
Beside him, Cazzira and Lozan Duk bristled.
“But this is not equal footing,” King Eltiraaz replied. “Now you, a member of Tylwyn Tou, know of Tymwyvenne, but none of us know of Caer’alfar.”
“King Eltiraaz, if one of your people wandered to our lands and was captured, you would not expect, nor accept, that your subject would betray the location of Tymwyvenne, even at the cost of his or her own life.”
“And do you accept similar consequences for yourself and for Brynn?” the king came back without hesitation, his voice rising more than Juraviel had previously
heard.
“I do, if that is your judgment,” Juraviel answered just as quickly. “If that is your decision, then I damn the fates, and not King Eltiraaz and his people, in bringing me here. But I do argue against such a course. Perhaps there will come of this a rejoining of our peoples, or at least a growing understanding of each other. A distant alliance, long overdue.”
King Eltiraaz stared at him sternly for some time, then broke into a sudden, tension-breaking burst of laughter. “You would willingly die, and without judgment, I believe.”
“I would!”
“And that sincerity makes me believe you even more, Belli’mar Juraviel, friend of Tymwyvenne. Nay, we will not kill you, or hold you any longer as our prisoner. Though I would be pleased if you would remain for some time as my guest.”
“And I would be pleased to do so, King Eltiraaz of Tymwyvenne,” Juraviel answered formally, and with a bow. “But not alone, and not while my companion, my friend, sits in a prison of peat. You say that you believe me, and well you should. But I’ll not accept anything from you—not my own freedom, not your invitation—without a free Brynn Dharielle at my side.”
“And if we kill her? Are we then enemies?”
Juraviel took a deep breath. “We are,” he declared, and he couldn’t believe the words as they came out of his own mouth! How could he take such a chance when so much might be at stake for the Touel’alfar? Surely, this offered friendship could blossom into something wonderful for his people. Given that, was he acting in the best interest of Caer’alfar—and did he have the right to act in any other way?—by so protecting Brynn?
He didn’t honestly know, and he found that he didn’t honestly care.
“Go and bring the human woman,” King Eltiraaz instructed Cazzira and Lozan Duk. “Allow her to bathe and feed her well. It seems that perhaps we have made two new friends this day.”
It took all the willpower Belli’mar Juraviel could muster to remain upright at that wonderful moment.
“Y
ou are not the first human permitted to walk through our lands,” King Eltiraaz said to Brynn when she—fresh from her bath and with her clothes wonderfully cleaned—and Juraviel met with the King of Tymwyvenne later on that day.