by Jaxon Reed
This was practically the same advice Mnester had given the king. He felt very proud of himself that Gnósis offered an identical resolution.
Gnósis continued.
“Before then, encourage the king to mate within his class and produce an heir, one of his own flesh and blood. That too will go a long way in resolving the problem. It places one more barrier between the Hoplitē and the throne. It resolves the ultimate issue, which is one of succession.
“That is your primary problem, and the one which you must solve first.”
Mnester bowed, gratefully. He turned to leave.
Before he made it two steps, Gnósis halted him.
He said, “Know this, Mnester. Should the child live, and grow, and gain in skills and knowledge, he will become the most powerful elf alive. Perhaps the most powerful one to have ever lived. He will be of the ancient Hoplitē battle form with a modern mind. That is a phenomenal combination. We have never seen the like before. And, he will have a legitimate claim to the throne. If he lives and makes it back to the Great Tree to claim a place in our society, he could disrupt everything we hold dear.”
Mnester paused, thinking.
Finally, he said, “So, is it safe to wait?”
The ghost smiled, and his eyes looked very, very old. They were timeless. Eternity reflected in his face. The same eyes had watched this kingdom from the Beginning. Gnósis had counseled kings and ministers alike down through the ages.
Once more, he shared his wisdom with the living.
He said, “You should do nothing, save trying again to assassinate him when the time comes. But ff the child grows and returns to claim his birthright, there will be little anyone can do to stop him.”
He paused, and an eternity of wisdom shined in his eyes.
“Sometimes, Mnester, we must let the Fates take their course. I have learned that they have a way of getting what they want, regardless of what we desire. Whether the boy becomes our next king may not be something we can decide for ourselves.”
-+-
After days on the road, and a couple more enjoying the pleasures of the palace in Menos, the entire team finally rolled back through the gates of Phanos.
Lady Lexa had been feted as the belle of Menos, and among the nobility widely seen as responsible for the team’s stunning success in taking out Ludge.
The team members might have taken offense at that sentiment, had they known about it. Meanwhile, they had become celebrities among the Queen’s Guard, and found themselves wined and dined without ceasing for the rest of their stay in the capital city.
At the height of her popularity at court, Lexa at last secured an offer of matrimony from Lord Reginald with a formal bid to combine their estates. The marriage date was set one month hence, giving both adequate time to make all the arrangements.
She remained in a decidedly cheerful state all the way home, even when a sounder of felboars attacked their small caravan, some the size of oxen. The team jumped out of the back of the wagon and killed all the pigs in a matter of minutes. Tawny’s Scattered Lightning spell took down the most.
Percel was glad to replace the feral cave hog he’d abandoned in Melody, and everyone agreed the felboars would probably taste better. He set about examining the carcasses for the best ones to keep and cook later.
“I say!” Pediford said from his perch on the driver’s seat. “The younger ones won’t taste as gamey.”
Privately, Percel agreed with him.
Out loud he said, “How do you know?”
Pediford straightened his coat and lifted his nose. He said, “A butler must be prepared in all things, Lord Percel. Including the preparation of meals from local wildlife while traveling.”
Percel smiled and grabbed two dead piglets.
They made it the rest of the way home without further incident
The Dungeon Corps members bade Justen, Lady Lexa and Pediford goodbye at Headquarters, unloading all their bags on the street in front of the doorway.
Toby grabbed one side of Choster’s sarcophagus while Erik and Percel struggled with the other end. They almost dropped it before Tawny cast a spell of levitation.
She smiled at Erik as he protested that they had it in hand, then gently pushed the stone coffin through the door while it floated through the air.
They were given a warm welcome when they finally made their way inside.
Dunken came out to shake hands and slap backs.
The cooks and waitstaff smiled at the sight of Toby, then frowned at Percel as he pulled out two dead piglets for them to prepare.
After speaking to friends and acquaintances, and filling in Norra and Clencher and everyone else on all their many exploits, the team managed to pull away and head for their beds.
Dunken diverted them before they made it to the bunks.
“You’re all senior members now. You have your choice of private rooms. Come along, I’ll show you.”
He led them up the stairs and the young people dutifully followed.
Percel smiled watching them, then headed to the kitchen to see how his piglets were coming along.
At dinner the team came back down. Everyone gathered at their table and they had to retell all their exploits.
Percel finally got to sample his piglets when a serving wench brought them out. Toby reached over and grabbed one for himself, much to Percel’s chagrin.
Everyone noted Toby took part in conversations now. Norra leaned over to Clencher as they watched from a nearby table.
She said, “I thought the big one was daft. He seems normal.”
Clencher nodded and said, “They healed him.”
“Who?”
“Tawny and Nessa, with a mana core the elves’ mother left behind. You didn’t hear that part of the story?”
“I guess not,” Norra said. She looked at the girls, impressed. “They’re coming along nicely. I helped train them, you know.”
A couple hours later, the crowd around their table finally died down and Percel suggested they go visit Dankers, the quartermaster.
Dankers met them at his window and asked if they had any gold they would like to deposit.
Everybody chuckled and they began emptying their magical bags on the counter.
Dankers’s eyes bulged at the sight. He pulled out a ring from a drawer with a counting spell enchanted on it, and began figuring up their receipts.
“Is there anything you want to buy with your deposits?” he said.
“Nothing right now, I think,” Percel said. “Unless you happen to have a Ring of Protection?”
Dankers smiled at this. He said, “Not at the moment, I’m afraid. We had a weak one last month that came from a deep run in the crypts. Someone looted it off a troll down there.”
“Well, we’ll look at upgrading our equipment later. Right now, I’m knackered. I hear my bed calling.”
He kicked the sarcophagus on his way to the stairs, still lying on the floor from where they had left it.
The stone lid slid off the top and Choster sat up, rubbing his eyes.
He looked around the room, stifling a yawn, and said, “I think I’ll go find a thief to feed on.”
With a Poof! he turned into mist and rushed under the door and out to the street.
Percel chuckled and walked up the stairs.
That left the four young people alone.
Toby said, “Let’s go for a walk,” and pointed to the courtyard.
It was deserted, and relatively dark. The two couples split apart. Erik and Tawny headed for the sword practice area while Toby and Nessa walked over to the magic side.
Erik reached for Tawny’s hand, and she slipped into his grip. They walked in silence for a while until reaching the wall on the far side of the courtyard.
“As you grow old,” Tawny said, “I’m still going to look like this. Decades mean nothing to elves.”
Erik smiled at her in the dim light.
He said, “Looks like I’m getting the better end of the
bargain.”
They held each other tight and kissed.
On the opposite side, Nessa reached up to hold Toby’s hand. He took it, reluctantly.
He said, “I don’t think it’s going to work, Nessa.”
“What? Why? Of course it’ll work. I . . . I love you!”
“I will live long after you die.”
“I don’t care! I want to be with you for however long we have together!”
Toby shook his head and said, “You should go back to the Rectory when our year is up.”
That stopped her. She indeed had commitments as a Cleric, after all.
“Well, maybe I’ll leave,” she said with a note of stubbornness edging her voice.
“You should stay in the Rectory. It’ll be safe. After our year with the corps is up, there are things I need to find out. Things I need to learn.”
“Such as?”
“Such as why did my father abandon us? And where is he? Also, it occurs to me that among all the elves in the world, I am probably unique. But what does that mean? And why were all the others like me simply killed, with no effort to heal them?
“To find the answers, I will travel to places it will be difficult for you as a human to go.”
Nessa peered through the dim light to the far wall, where she could make out Tawny and Erik kissing passionately in the shadows.
“He’ll probably go with you,” she said. “And he’s a human.”
Toby sighed, a deep rumble from his huge frame.
He said, “Yes. And we’ll have to figure that out when the time comes. For now, let’s remain close. But, I don’t want you to give your heart away. Especially since I cannot return it.”
She looked up to his eyes in the darkness, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
She knew he was right.
-+-
The next morning city guards came through the front doors, hauling two rough and dirty prisoners along with them.
“Careful with this one,” the first guard said, holding a skinny man with fiery red hair and orange freckles across his face. “Fast with his knife, he is. Cut a lady’s purse in Allred Platz last night, and would have gotten away if a kind stranger hadn’t tripped him up.”
Dunken said, “And you are?”
“The name’s Esdmon,” he said, shrugging his shoulder to get the guard’s hand off.
“Are you good with that knife?” Dunken asked.
He shrugged again. “Pretty good.”
“Very well. We’ll take you. And who is this?”
A bedraggled and dirty young woman wearing a long dark purple dress glanced up at the sound of Dunken’s voice. She had shoulder-length black hair and bright red lips. Her face looked very pale, almost stark white in contrast to her hair.
She did not say a word.
The guard accompanying her said, “Her name is Esmerelda. We caught her casting illusion spells on tourists, tricking them out of gold.”
Before anyone could say anything else, the door crashed open and half a dozen guards herded three dwarves into the room.
The dwarves were cut up and beaten black and blue, with swollen lips and bruised faces. One limped from an apparent stab wound that had not yet been healed. All of them wore ripped and torn clothing.
One of their guards said, “This lot destroyed a pub last night. They said the bard insulted their race with his song.”
“An’ he did, too!” the first dwarf growled. One of his eyes was swollen shut. The other glared at everybody in the room.
Dunken looked at the ragtag assortment of criminals and misfits crowding into the common room.
He smiled, and held out his arms.
“Welcome to Dungeon Corps!”
The End
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