by Linda McNabb
‘I don’t think we’re going to have to wait,’ Bryn said as Falh came into sight and walked towards them at a strolling pace.
‘There are dozens of hunters nearby,’ Falh told them as he reached them and he looked at the jetties. ‘Is there a boat leaving for Melva soon?’
‘One should be going in about five minutes according to the board,’ Bryn said and pointed to a wooden board outside a small shack.
‘Is there anything that would lead Terac or the other hunters there?’ Falh said, digging into his pocket and bringing out several silver coins.
‘No, I made sure the trail went to where the boats leave for Jakar,’ Bryn assured his brother and Falh nodded approvingly. ‘Dyahn found me just in time. I’m still amazed how she knew I was under the jetty.’
Falh didn’t comment and pretended to be looking for more coins. Obviously he didn’t see the need to tell Bryn about Dyahn’s newly acquired skills. Kheron appeared to be about to speak out but Falh grabbed hold of his son’s arm and took him over to the run down shack.
‘What do we do with the horses?’ Dyahn asked with a frown as the others made their way to the jetty.
‘They can come with us,’ Bryn told her. He untied the animals and led them onto the wooden planks. People had started to board the large, ugly, wooden boat which was tied to the jetty and Falh and Kheron re-joined them just as they reached the boarding plank.
‘Five people, three horses,’ the man at the end of the plank said as he unrolled the scroll that Falh handed him. Rhonan almost laughed as the man had it upside down but his father nudged him quickly and he kept quiet. ‘Headed for Melva?’
Falh nodded and they were allowed to board. They took the horses down the opposite end of the boat to the rest of the passengers and sat on one of the rough wooden benches that were nailed to the deck.
‘There’s Uncle Terac,’ Rhonan said with a gulp as he saw his uncle coming down the street.
Everyone looked and then Falh pulled them back around a stack of bales tied to the deck.
‘And mother is with him!’ Dyahn exclaimed.
‘Which means he know exactly who he is looking for, elf stone or not.’ Bryn’s sigh said things would never be the same again.
‘Shouldn’t we find a way to get her away from him and take her with us?’ Rhonan asked, peering around the bales and noticing that his uncle was holding firmly onto Elezan’s arm. ‘She doesn’t look very happy.’
‘We can’t risk it,’ Falh said tensely. ‘He won’t harm her.’
Bryn didn’t look happy about it but he made no move to leave the boat.
‘He’s following the trail,’ Bryn said as they all watched nervously. ‘As long as this boat gets going soon we’re okay.’
They watched nervously as Terac walked up the second to last jetty and then paused. He stared out into the lake for a full minute then turned and walked quickly back down to the beach. He started to look up and down the beach and Rhonan was sure he would see them. Terac stared hard at their boat as they all shrank behind the bales as best they could and he started to walk towards them.
‘Has he seen us?’ Dyahn asked with a wobbly voice. Rhonan was worried too and he reached back for an arrow, ready to take aim if he had to.
‘I don’t think so,’ Falh replied as he peered around the bales. ‘But Elezan did.’
Terac had reached the beginning of the jetty when the last traveller boarded the boat and it was shoved off into the lake with a long pole. He frowned as he stared after the boat and then turned away, striding off down the beach. Elezan had a happier expression now but she was careful not to let her brother see where she was looking as she smiled at them.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SHALDOH
The boat trip wasn’t a fast one as unseen oarsmen below deck propelled them slowly across the calm lake.
‘Do you think any of them are hunters?’ Bryn asked as they arrived in Melva and watched everyone disembark on an identical jetty to the one at The Crossing.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ Falh replied as he led the horses across the broad boarding plank. Within a few minutes they were riding out of the small village that spread along the lakefront. Then they rode West through the countryside, following a narrow path that seemed more of a goat trail than a road. Up ahead in the distance a range of huge mountains rose like a wall and the late afternoon sun sank behind it. The whole countryside was plunged into shadows.
‘Welcome to the Shadowlands,’ Bryn said with a wave of his arm across the base of the mountain. ‘Shaldoh isn’t far now.’
After another half an hour they turned sharply from the road, straight towards a clump of huge prickle bushes. Rhonan knew these bushes were to be avoided at all costs, as just a scratch from one was enough to cause severe illness and fever.
‘What are we doing?’ Rhonan asked as they came within a few paces of the vile bushes.
‘Don’t worry,’ Falh said kindly. ‘It’s just an illusion.’
Rhonan tensed as the horses walked into the bushes but the stinging branches brushed past harmlessly. The bush seemed to stretch for many paces but eventually they came out the other side. A well-worn road led towards a forest in the distance as the dusky gloom of early evening set in.
They were barely half way to the forest when a group of elves emerged from the trees and began walking slowly towards them. They stopped a short way from the trees and blocked the path. Rhonan frowned to see that none of them appeared to be trying to conceal their identity in any way. All of them had varying shades of red hair and either blue or green eyes and their ears and chins were pointed.
Falh rode ahead slightly, with Dyahn on the back of his horse, and nodded a greeting at the men.
‘Welcome home, Falh,’ the tallest elf said respectfully. Then he looked at the others and hesitated before he continued. ‘Only you and your son may enter. You know the others can’t come into Shaldoh. Especially the human children.’
‘Every elf has the right to be protected by the clan,’ Falh said firmly. ‘We have come to request an elf stone.’
‘Bryn already has one,’ another elf, shorter by several heads than the other, pointed out. ‘And he chose hunters over the clan.’
‘But my son doesn’t have an elf stone,’ Bryn said as he pulled his horse onto an angle so they could see Rhonan. My children are also half-elven. Why would they hunt their own kind? He has the right to protection from the Shadow Hunters.’
‘You were told never to return!’ A deep voice, slightly shaky with age, silenced them all. Everyone turned towards the trees where a wizened old man stood leaning on an ornately carved white cane. His long red beard hung to his waist, partly covering his dark blue velvet tunic. His face was heavily lined and piercing blue eyes stared unblinkingly at Bryn.
‘Chief Corbyn, your son has brought his children with him.’ An elf pointed to Rhonan and Dyahn.
‘Why have you brought half-breeds to Shaldoh?’ Corbyn demanded bluntly. ‘Take them away – now!’
‘Father, my son has the right…’ Bryn started to protest but his father interrupted.
‘Your son is a hunter,’ the old man declared firmly and slammed his cane into the hard packed earth. ‘He has no rights here.’
Bryn fell silent and stared at his father for a full minute then he dismounted and handed the reins to Rhonan. ‘Should I send him back into the forest then? Is that what you want?’ Bryn asked quietly. Rhonan knew his father wasn’t about to send him out into the forest on his own but he could see that Dyahn was concerned.
‘He is not welcome here,’ an elf shouted from behind Corbyn. ‘And neither are you.’
‘So we let him wander the woods, and his elf trail will lead every hunter straight to Shaldoh,’ Falh added with a shrug.
‘If you won’t give him an elf stone he will eventually be caught by the hunters…’ Bryn paused for a few seconds, ‘and he knows exactly where Shaldoh is now. How many of you want to be put in the king’s dungeons?
’
There was a heavy silence as the old elf considered the options. His hand gripped his cane tighter as his face drew up into a frown so deep that his eyebrows almost covered his eyes.
‘You leave me no choice, Bryn,’ the old man said with a heavy sigh. ‘But things are not as simple as you might think. We may not have an elf stone to give your son. Shaldoh has problems of its own.’
The old man turned and walked off, waving the elves back to the village. Everyone dismounted and followed the old man into the village.
Elves hurried back and forth at their daily tasks in the fading light and more than a few shot curious and apprehensive glances their way but none dared to challenge them again. There were more than the normal amount of animals in the village. Cats, dogs, even goats and birds seemed to be everywhere. It wasn’t until Rhonan saw a small blue dragon in the arms of a young girl that he realised that most of them were probably pet-rocks.
‘Why aren’t the people disguised like you, father?’ Dyahn asked and Rhonan wondered why he hadn’t thought of the question himself. It seemed to be tempting fate to have several hundred undisguised elves in one place.
‘The entire village is protected by a large elf stone,’ Bryn said, pointing ahead into the distance to a stone, which sat on a pedestal in the very centre of the village square. ‘Instead of changing the appearance of the people it alters the surrounding lands so that only those who know of Shaldoh can even see it.’
‘For now,’ Corbyn said cryptically.
Bryn looked disturbed by his father’s comment but before he could ask any questions, a muffled snuffling and creeling sound drew his attention. ‘What’s making that noise?’
‘Oh, Tryx is awake,’ Rhonan said with a grin. ‘We found her in the forest.’
Rhonan opened the backpack that the little dragon was in and gently lifted her out. She immediately began wriggling around and snuffling for signs of food.
‘You brought a dragon to Shaldoh!’ Corbyn’s eyebrows rose so high that they were momentarily lost in his wiry red hair.
‘She’s only a baby,’ Kheron said defensively.
‘Her name is Tryx,’ Dyahn told them all proudly.
Where band? Tryx said, trying to lean forward to nudge against Dyahn’s loosely hanging shirt. Dyahn lifted the hem of her shirt to assure the dragon it was still there and Tryx settled back to be held by Rhonan without complaint.
‘Where did you find her?’ Bryn asked, equally as shocked as his father, but also delighted. ‘I’ve never seen one with such colourings, or one that spoke.’
‘In the forest near home,’ Dyahn replied. ‘She’s just like a kitten.’
‘A rather big kitten,’ Falh said dryly, but he was leaning closer and examining the tiny horns that had turned yellow in the last day. ‘The more she is fed the quicker she will grow.’
‘At the rate she’s been eating she’ll be at least forty hands high. She ate everything we had and all the berries we could find,’ Kheron told them.
‘We promised her mother we would take Tryx home,’ Dyahn added.
‘Her mother?’ Corbyn queried, looking around and scanning the sky.
‘She died,’ Rhonan told the old man.
The sight of a golden dragon being carried through the village was more than most people could ignore and they stared openly at the new arrivals.
‘Is it a pet rock?’ one boy dared to come close enough to ask. ‘Why did you make it gold? I’ve never heard of a gold dragon.’
‘No, it’s real,’ Kheron said with a look of pride. The boy looked amazed and a little jealous as his mother dragged him off down the street.
‘Come, I suppose I should feed you before we decide what is to be done,’ Corbyn said, looking a little less cross than he had a short time ago. ‘We have missed you, Bryn.’
He led them to a small cottage and they all followed him inside. The living room was small and seemed even smaller by the time they had all crowded into it. Rhonan hung back near the doorway as Tryx didn’t appear to like the overcrowded room.
Corbyn bustled around putting some food on the table and beckoned them over to join him. It was an awkward meal. Rhonan barely picked at his food. His grandfather seemed to stare at both he and Dyahn for most of the meal but did not say anything. His expression was slightly angry, and a bit curious as he seemed to be trying to decide if he wanted to speak to the half-humans or not.
A sudden, urgent knock at the door made Rhonan jump. An elf, taller and skinnier than any Rhonan had so far seen, came striding into the room and stopped next to Corbyn. He glared at Bryn before bowing low to the clan chief.
‘I have returned from my quest, father,’ the elf said respectfully. ‘I must speak with you urgently – in private.’
‘We will discuss this here, Joahl,’ the old man said firmly. He stood up from the table and walked slowly over to a large armchair. Then he looked hard at Bryn. ‘What your brother has to say concerns you as well.’
‘What quest was Joahl on?’ Bryn asked as soon as the old man sat in an overstuffed red chair by the fire.
‘One that is of importance to the whole village,’ Corbyn replied shortly. He turned to look at Joahl and his eyes held a spark of hope that chased away the last traces of his anger. ‘So, Joahl. You are the last of the searchers to return. A replacement elf stone for the village was not found in the south, west or east. Did the north fare any better?’
Joahl stood in front of his chief, all traces of his urgent need to see his father had fled and he was left looking helpless and subdued. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed. Finally the tiny spark of hope in Corbyn’s eyes died and he nodded sadly as he stood.
‘We will have to evacuate the entire village and disband the clan.’
CHAPTER NINE
DISBANDING THE CLAN
Nobody spoke in the stunned silence that followed Corbyn’s statement. Bryn sank onto a chair and his face was slack with shock. Corbyn remained standing and his eyes glazed over with tears as he made an effort to regain control of his emotions.
‘Disband the clan?’ Bryn was the first to break the silence and the disbelief in his voice stripped it of all emotion.
‘What choice do we have?’ Corbyn asked and shrugged in defeat. ‘We don’t have any more elf stone to make protective stones from. The one that protects the village was struck by lightning and is badly damaged. So do we wait for it to break apart and be ruined or carefully divide what is left of the stone and all go our separate ways. There would be enough to keep most families safe for many generations.’
‘Can’t we just stay in this village and divide the stone anyway?’ Joahl asked, clearly disturbed by the idea of leaving the village. ‘Surely we can’t live among the hunters!’
‘Where did you get the rock from?’ Dyahn asked boldly. ‘It can’t be the only one.’
‘It was already here when the village was built. That’s why we settled here in the first place. Before that we spent our lives in hiding as best we could. There were also several smaller elf stones, which we used for making pendants but they have all been used.’
‘I think we should call a village meeting,’ Falh suggested. ‘Let the village vote on what is to be done.’
Corbyn nodded sadly and turned to leave the room. ‘Only a few of the villagers know of this problem. It is time we told them all. Joahl, call the meeting for tomorrow morning.’
Nobody followed Corbyn and after a few minutes of awkward silence the rest of them filed back out into the street, stunned by the events of the evening.
‘You broke father’s heart when you chose the hunters over us,’ Joahl told Bryn with no kindness in his voice to soften the words.
‘He is the one who made me choose,’ Bryn said with a sigh.
Joahl simply glared back then walked off down the dark empty street. Just a few lights from the windows of other cottages let them see the way as Falh led them to his cottage.
They spent an uneasy night there and
headed for the village square as soon as they woke. News of the meeting had spread quickly and most of the village was gathered outside a large building, which obviously served as the village hall.
‘I’m not leaving Shaldoh!’ a woman shouted as Corbyn approached slowly with Falh a step behind him. Rhonan and Dyahn were trailing a good dozen steps behind. They were trying to stay unnoticed, which was hard since the dragonet was running along beside them.
‘Tryx has grown an awful lot,’ Dyahn commented as she watched the dragonet attack a stone in the dirt and yank it free. ‘I’m sure she wasn’t that big yesterday.’
‘I doubt she’d fit in the backpack now,’ agreed Rhonan. ‘She’ll be as tall as us in a week.’
Elves were filing into the hall, even the children, but when Rhonan and Dyahn tried to enter their way was barred.
‘We don’t want hunters in here, or dragons,’ a stony faced man said bluntly.
They turned away from the door and leaned on the wall a short distance away. Arguing voices started up immediately.
‘I think we’ll be able to hear what they say anyway,’ Rhonan commented.
‘We’ll be all taken by the hunters if we have to leave the protection of the village,’ a voice said loudly.
‘We can divide up the stone so there is enough for each family,’ Corbyn said calmly.
‘We want to stay in the village,’ came the firm reply. ‘I don’t want to end up in a dungeon at the castle for the rest of my life.’
The room erupted into argument again and someone pulled the wooden doors shut, leaving Rhonan and Dyahn alone in the village square. They wandered off and sat down against a well that stood not far from the black, shiny elf stone. It was balanced on top of a goblet shaped stone and Rhonan stared at it. He could see where the lightning had struck, causing many cracks to streak down the rock. A dozen designs, similar to the one on his father’s elf stone, were scratched onto the side of the large black stone and the cracks ran right through them.