As they got closer, Tanis stared in disbelief at the sight before his eyes. “Is that you, Little Shoulders?” he called out.
“It isn’t Huma of the Lance.”
There was some appreciative laughter from the elves behind the funny man. Tanis, however, said nothing.
“Well,” said Scowarr with gentle sarcasm, “based upon your hearty laughter at my little joke, I now know for certain that the image before my eyes is that of my dear, ever-so-humorless friend, Tanis.” At this, the half-elf proffered a small grin.
“Of course, I could be mistaken,” Scowarr went on, hope playing on his thin features.
“You were right the first time,” said Tanis with a hint of playfulness. Yet when the torches from the mob had come close enough, Scowarr could see the hard expression on the half-elf’s face.
“I was worried about you,” said Scowarr, the elves behind him suddenly quiet and patient. “I haven’t seen you since the battle. I feared something had happened to you.”
“Not to me. You passed out, and I left you with friends. Or should I say admirers?”
“Good friends,” the funny man said emphatically, waving an arm at the elves crowding close behind him.
“So I see,” Tanis said. “But what are you all doing here when you should be resting for the battle that is sure to come at daybreak?”
“We’ve come in search of Kishpa,” said Scowarr.
“If I see him,” Tanis said shortly, “I’ll tell him.”
“Where’s Reehsha?” demanded someone from the back of the mob. “What are you doing in his house?”
“A woman was attacked under the pier,” explained Tanis. “A human soldier did it. I brought her here.”
“Did he kill her?” a shrill voice asked.
“No. But she was hurt.”
“Yes, but where’s Reehsha?” insisted the elf at the back of the mob.
“I am here,” the old fisherman called gruffly from the window. “Now leave us be.”
“Who is she? Who got hurt?” several curious elves asked at once.
Tanis didn’t answer them. Instead, he reached out and touched Scowarr’s shoulder, noticing the new clothes but saying only, “Remember the dwarven woman who tried to help us at the seacliff?”
“Of course … oh … not her?”
Tanis nodded.
Scowarr wearily rubbed his eyes. “I feel terrible,” he said to no one in particular. “Just terrible.”
“She’ll be all right,” said Tanis.
“What’s her name?” someone called out.
“Yeblidod,” Tanis answered without thinking, and then a moment later realized the enormity of his mistake.
“She’s Mertwig’s wife!” several elves exclaimed at once.
A stocky elf, holding a torch and standing behind Scowarr, shouted, “This must have been where Mertwig was going with Brandella. And if Brandella is in there, I’ll wager Kishpa’s there, too!” The elf rushed forward, trying to push past Tanis and into the shack. The half-elf grabbed him, accidentally knocking the burning torch out of the elf’s hand. The torch soared over the rocks onto the beach, and the damp sand extinguished it with a sizzle.
“You can’t go in there,” Tanis said sternly.
“Who are you to stop me?” The speaker displayed a belligerence more typical of humans than elves, Tanis thought.
“Someone who cares for Yeblidod,” he said simply. “She’s sleeping now and should not be disturbed.”
“I don’t know you,” the villager shot back. “For all I know, you attacked the poor woman and—”
Before he could finish the thought, Tanis leaped at the elf with a savage cry. He went straight for the elf’s throat with his bare hands. In a mad scramble to try to stop him, it took six elves to pull Tanis away from his nearly strangled victim.
The elves had thrown Tanis to the ground and were preparing to beat him into senselessness when Scowarr shouted, “Stop! He’s my friend!”
Reluctantly, the elves did as their hero commanded. Tanis stared at Scowarr as the half-elf rose to a sitting position on the hard ground.
The funny man gave him a crooked smile in return. “What can I say? They like me.”
Tanis smiled in return. He was glad they did.
“You know,” said Scowarr, “the one thing you can get without a lot of trouble is a lot of trouble.”
Many of the elves laughed at his cleverness. Tanis merely nodded. For his part, Scowarr shook his head with resignation. He leaned down close to Tanis and complained, “You are the most difficult audience I’ve ever had.”
“What about all those arrows?” Tanis reminded him.
“Second most difficult audience,” the funny man amended.
While they were still close, Tanis took his chance. In a low but insistent voice, the half-elf whispered, “Get them away from here.”
Scowarr looked at his friend with a questioning glance. He didn’t know who or what Tanis was really hiding in that shack, but there was no question in the funny man’s mind that something strange was going on.
He was very curious about the game the half-elf was playing. Scowarr pursed his lips as he stepped away from Tanis and considered his options. He wondered if the villagers would heap still more glory on his little shoulders if he discovered whatever Tanis didn’t want found. He also wondered what Tanis would do to him if he betrayed the half-elf’s trust. The lure of glory was strong, but Scowarr didn’t want to be a dead hero. Besides, he had done rather well for himself by following Tanis’s lead. He decided to do it again and hope for the best.
“Come, fellow soldiers,” Scowarr announced. “We’re wasting our time here. The dawn will break soon, and let us not break with it. We must be ready to fight the humans with or without Kishpa. Are we not brave?”
“We are brave!” the mob cried out, stoking their own courage.
“Are we not strong?” His voice rose several notes.
“We are strong!”
“Are we not ready?” Scowarr raised a fist on the last word.
“We are ready!”
“Then let us prepare to fight.” He paused, then, “To the barricades!”
“To the barricades!”
A great cheer went up, and the mob quickly scrambled down the rocky path toward the beach. Scowarr marveled at the effect he’d had on these elves. He almost—but not quite—hoped that he would die this day so that he would never have to face his ordinary life again when the praise and honor stopped. He lingered behind as his followers hurried away.
“You did well,” said Tanis gratefully when they were alone. “You have my thanks.”
Little Shoulders bowed his head in acknowledgment. “It was my pleasure to help you. But there’s just one thing.”
“Yes?”
“You must tell me what’s going on,” Scowarr pleaded. “Why wouldn’t you let anyone in the shack?”
Tanis was about to tell him when a figure crossed in front of the doorway behind them, blocking the light. Scowarr squinted to see who stood there as Tanis turned to look, too.
“I’m glad I saved your lives,” Kishpa said weakly from the doorway, the light streaming out into the night from behind him. “I seem to have made the right choice.”
16
To Keep a Promise
A beautiful woman appeared next to Kishpa, the light throwing mysterious shadows across her magnificent face, partially hidden by her cloud of black curls. She held one of the mage’s arms to keep him from teetering on his unsteady legs. Scowarr was delighted to have found Kishpa, but he was overwhelmed by Brandella.
“Who is she?” he whispered to Tanis.
“A woman who will not be forgotten,” the half-elf replied.
“Huh?”
“Never mind.” Then, aloud to the mage, Tanis said, “I assured Reehsha and Brandella that you would recover.”
The wizard narrowed his eyes. “So they said. Did you know, or were you merely guessing?”
“Do
es it matter, as long as I was right?”
“Perhaps it does,” Kishpa said thoughtfully. “But there is no time now to ponder the question. Come in, both of you, and tell me what is going on in Ankatavaka. I must know everything.”
Tanis and Scowarr started for the door, but a shouted warning from the direction of the village caught their attention. They all turned to see what the trouble was. The mob that had followed Scowarr had apparently flushed one of the human soldiers out of hiding and was pursuing him. Kishpa, like the half-elf, could make out that much with elvensight, although they both doubted that Scowarr and Brandella could catch much detail. Tanis saw that the soldier was big, his long legs giving him a loping stride.
Tanis tried to focus on the man’s face. The distance and the darkness, however, proved to be too great. Yet the human was the right size, and he had been spotted near the beach. It might be him, Tanis thought. It might be my father. Without another thought, the half-elf bolted in the direction of the human.
Brandella would have to wait. Old Kishpa would have to wait. Everything would have to wait until Tanis kept the promise that he had made to Yeblidod—and to himself.
“Where are you going?” shouted Scowarr.
Tanis didn’t answer.
The others at Reehsha’s shack shrugged and headed into the cabin. All, that is, except Brandella, who lingered in the night air watching Tanis recede into the darkness.
While Reehsha went to tend his boat and Scowarr slept huddled on the floor, Mertwig paced, trying to decide how to ask Kishpa for help. He wanted to give his wife a beautiful, delicate glass ball that the famous Piklaker had created. Unfortunately, the price was far beyond his means. But if Kishpa would merely vouch for him, the artist would be honor-bound to let him buy it.
Mertwig was a proud dwarf. Asking favors did not come easily. Finally, though, he managed to ask, “How long have you known me, Kishpa?”
Kishpa, resting on the wooden bench by the door, his red robes pulled around him against the cabin’s chill, raised an eyebrow. “My whole life,” conceded the mage. “You know that. Why do you ask me such a question?”
Mertwig drew a breath, made a decision, and plunged on. “Because I need you to speak on my behalf.”
“To whom?” the mage asked warily.
“To Piklaker.” The dwarf tried to look resolved, but his weak chin failed him. It wobbled with his nervousness.
“I heard you were eyeing his wares,” said the wizard dubiously. “You really shouldn’t—”
“No lectures!” interrupted the dwarf with sudden temper. “I simply want you to tell the artist that I’m good for the price of a certain glass trinket.” He spun away from the mage, crossing his short arms before his chest. “There, I said it.”
“That ‘trinket,’ ” the mage said sarcastically, “is worth more than what you earn in a year.”
Mertwig turned back. “So what? It has value. I can always sell it later if I can’t pay for it. Besides, I’m not asking you to buy it for me, I’m just asking you to tell Piklaker that you vouch for me.” His voice took on a pleading tone. “If you do that, old friend, he’ll let me have it.”
Mertwig saw Kishpa glance at Brandella, looking for her guidance. She nodded. Mertwig knew that Brandella didn’t consider it her business, or Kishpa’s, to decide what was right or wrong. The mage’s duty, the weaver would feel, wasn’t to judge his friends but to give them what he could and let them make their own choices; if Mertwig wanted to put himself into debt for his wife, then that was his decision. As long as he wasn’t asking Kishpa to foot the bill, she would see no harm in what Mertwig was suggesting, the dwarf knew. But Kishpa would likely have a different view, Mertwig worried. He wished he’d never embarked on this conversation.
Kishpa frowned at Brandella’s reaction.
“I don’t know …” he said slowly. “This is a matter of honor. If I vouch for you and you can’t pay, it will make me look like a fool to Piklaker—to the whole village. Don’t you see that? Don’t you see that you’re asking me to risk my own reputation? I would do it if you needed food, a roof over your head—something serious. But you want to buy a foolish, useless bauble.”
Mertwig stamped his foot, then looked over to where his wife still slept. “Don’t tell me about foolish and useless,” the dwarf countered heatedly, keeping his voice to a hissing whisper. “What about your collection of ridiculous spells? How much have they cost you?”
Kishpa’s face showed his fatigue, and the long sleeve of his red robe shook as he drew his hand across his eyes, tangling his shock of black hair. Obviously, he didn’t wish to argue. He simply sighed and tactlessly replied, “The difference is, I didn’t buy anything I couldn’t afford.”
The two, facing what could be death in battle on the morrow, stared across a widening chasm in their longtime friendship. Mertwig barely held his temper. “I’m telling you, I have to get that glass ball for Yebbie, especially after what she’s been through tonight. She deserves it! Besides,” he added plaintively, “I told everyone I was going to get it.”
Kishpa appeared to be battling between his head and his heart. His gaze didn’t meet Mertwig’s. “I … I wish I could help you.”
“By the gods, if anything goes wrong, I’m the one who’s going to look like a fool! Not you!” said the dwarf, his voice suddenly stone cold. “Just tell Piklaker that I’m good for the debt. I’m not going to beg.”
Rising wearily from the bench to put his arm around Mertwig’s shoulder, the mage tried to break the tension. Kishpa’s red robes seemed almost garish against the earth tones of Mertwig’s stained clothes. “Please. You’re making too much of this,” the wizard said, his pained face a sudden portent of the old man he would become. “There’s no reason for you to get angry with me. We simply have a different way of looking at things. I can cast a spell for you and create the—”
“No,” the dwarf said petulantly, throwing Kishpa’s arm off his shoulder. “I said I would buy the glass ball for her. That glass ball. I promised her. I keep my promises. Will you help me or not?”
“No.”
Tanis saw the human soldier make a sharp turn into a narrow street. The mob of elves saw him, too, and followed, screaming for his blood. Tanis, behind the elves, feared they would reach the human before he did.
“He ducked into the stable!” came a cry from ahead.
The stable was right next to the smithy, and Tanis knew where that was. Rather than follow the elves, he circled behind the stable, hoping to catch the human as he tried to slip out the back way.
He wasn’t the only one who had that thought, however. A small band of elves broke off from the mob and rushed to the rear of the stable. They got there before Tanis, and it was they who came face to face with the human.
Three of them were carrying weapons, while the fourth held the torch, which cast dancing waves of light on the determined faces of the angry elves. The human’s face remained shrouded in shadow. Tanis heard the rapid breathing of the combatants and the crackling of the torch as he rounded a corner. He sprinted to join the group.
The fourth elf was the first to fall, the human’s sword impaling him in the chest. The torch and the elf fell as one to the ground, the light quickly extinguished in a pool of blood, dying along with the one who had held it.
In the sudden near-darkness, the red moon casting a weird glow over all, another elf charged the human, swinging a battle-axe. The human sidestepped and slashed with his blade, cutting a deep wound in the elven fighter’s side. The elf screamed, dropped his weapon, and fell in a heap.
The remaining two elves held back warily, seemingly hoping to keep the human at bay until the rest of the elves could join them. The human rushed the two villagers who stood in his way.
Despite the blackness behind the stable, Tanis’s elvensight showed him the back of a tall, powerful human bringing his broadsword to bear on a young elf who was clearly overmatched. Next to him, another elf crumpled to the ground, his rig
ht leg nearly cut in two.
The main contingent of elves had heard the sounds of battle and would join their fellow villagers soon. The human had to be aware of that. He intended to quickly dispatch the remaining elf who blocked his path.
Except Tanis was there to stop him. The half-elf left his feet and dove at the human as the soldier’s sword came down at the hapless young elf. Tanis hit the human behind the knees with his shoulders, knocking him off his feet. The human’s sword skittered out of his hand as they both went down, rolling over each other several times in the dirt.
The human ended up on top, quickly pinning Tanis’s shoulders to the ground. The soldier reached for his belt and pulled a long, thin-bladed knife from a sheath. Tanis looked up at the man who was about to kill him.
At the same moment, blood began to spurt from the human’s mouth. The tip of a sword protruded from the front of the man’s throat as he dropped the knife and fell, dead, on top of Tanis.
The young elf whom Tanis had saved only a moment before stood over the pair, retrieved his knife from the human and wiped it on the back of the dead man’s shirt. Then he shoved the corpse off Tanis with one push of his leg and extended a friendly hand to the half-elf.
Tanis was grateful on two counts: He was alive, and he had not been denied the chance of killing his father.
The dead human was a stranger.
The inky gray light of the false dawn was diminished even further by a fog that began to blow in from the Straits of Algoni. In the murky light, the tense citizenry of Ankatavaka watched and waited. The villagers who had survived the battle of the day before stood on the ramparts on the east, south, and north sides of the town, fear their constant companion. The day before, they had been emboldened by Kishpa’s presence. If that hadn’t been enough, two brave strangers—the bold human, Scowarr, and his enigmatic half-elf companion—had joined their ranks. The pair had made a difference in turning yesterday’s battle.
As the new day broke, however, the elves discovered that Kishpa had disappeared and that neither Scowarr nor Tanis had taken positions on the barricades. They feared they had been abandoned. Worse, they feared that their cause was hopeless. Word had spread that the humans now had magic-users on their side. It seemed as if the beleaguered defenders of Ankatavaka had little chance of surviving. The humans were likely, indeed, to drive them into the sea, just as they had promised they would. Many of the elves were privately considering taking fishing boats and fleeing while they still had the chance. The closer it came to sunrise, the less private the talk became. When they plainly heard the humans breaking camp and preparing to attack, the elven defense began falling into disarray, with loud arguments and occasional fistfights.
Tanis the Shadow Years Page 10