“Can you arrange bunks for my people first?” Kestrel asked. “I want to get them settled; we’ve been traveling for a week to get here.”
“It’s impressive that you made it all the way here without trouble. Did you face many attacks along the way?” Casimo asked. He turned and motioned for someone to approach.
“We only were attacked once, outside Hydrotaz City,” Kestrel replied.
“Hydrotaz?” Casimo asked in confusion.
“We came through the human lands so we wouldn’t be seen by Center Trunk’s forces,” Kestrel explained. “Plus, I had another reason to go through Hydrotaz; I had to order supplies shipped to Oaktown.”
“You carry out trade with the humans?” Casimo asked in astonishment. “Aren’t you the reformer now!”
“Kestrel!” Belinda came in response to Casimo’s request for assistance with housing the new arrivals, and she flew into Kestrel’s arms, bustling past both Putienne and Medeina, the two surprised by the robust kiss Kestrel and the elven administrator shared.
“What a sight for sore eyes,” Belinda said. “Ranor will be delighted to know you’re here!”
“Belinda, release Kestrel for the moment. He’s brought all these newcomers. Would you arrange housing and meals for them while I show Kestrel up to the walls and we can talk about tactics in the coming battle?”
“Of course,” she said instantly, releasing Kestrel. She turned from him. “Oaktown newcomers, come with me,” she called loudly. “This way to food and beds!” She started walking briskly.
“Go on – follow her!” Kestrel told the elves from Oaktown, as they looked to him. “She’ll take care of you, and I’ll find you later,” he promised them. He turned to follow Casimo, and found that Putty and Remy and Medeina all followed along in his wake.
“Your allies, they are very useful!” Casimo said enthusiastically. He motioned to the imps who were flying at a high altitude over the city and the surrounding region, watching the movements of the Center Trunk forces.
They reached the top of the city walls just as the sun reached the western horizon.
To the west, the distant rise of the Water Mountains provided an uneven horizon for the glowing red and yellow disk of the sun to rest upon. To the east, long shadows from Firheng’s city walls stretched across the tops of the forest trees that were the front of the endless browns, yellows, reds and empty tree limbs that stretched to the end of their vision.
“We’ve been able to send scavengers out to gather food and nuts up to now,” Casimo explained as the group stood at the battlements and looked out. Putienne came and shouldered her way alongside Kestrel; he reached his hand out and grabbed a firm hold of hers, their fingers interlocking, and bringing them both a measure of comfort.
“With these new forces arriving, I doubt we’ll have much more opportunity for that,” Casimo continued to talk. “We can’t stay here much longer, I’m afraid, even with your forces here to help.
“There are too many of them, and we aren’t going to be able to withstand a continual siege. If they start coming in to try to breach the walls, we won’t be able to hold them off more than a time or two,” he confided. “I expect we’ll have to extract ourselves from the city and head north to Estone to find refuge.”
“Killcen!” Kestrel called upward. The group on the wall watched as one of the imps came swooping down towards them.
“How large was the new army that just arrived?” Kestrel asked.
“It is very big, friend Kestrel,” the imp answered as he arrived. “The tail is still marching in. It is probably two times the size of the army that was here before,” he gave the discouraging assessment.
As he spoke, a volley of arrows suddenly emerged from the trees outside the city, and too late, Kestrel recognized that several archers had stealthily climbed up along the tree trunks and slowly raised an entire squad into the branches.
He raised both his arms in a sweeping motion that projected a wide blue shield in front of the group upon the battlements, just three seconds before the arrows struck the shield with a series of dull clunks, and then fell straight down to the ground outside the walls.
A series of shout and exclamations rose from both the inside and the outside of the city, while Kestrel held the shield in place, mindful of how to do so without wearing himself down too quickly, thanks to the instructions Medeina had given him during their journey.
“Extraordinary!” Casimo said.
“I knew he could do that!” Putienne said proudly. “He’s done it before to help save me.”
“My word Kestrel, what is that about? What else can you do?” Casimo asked.
“I’ve learned a few things over the years,” Kestrel said modestly. “I’ve been favored by the gods.”
“Nicely put,” Medeina murmured.
“I hadn’t realized how large the force would be from Center Trunk,” Kestrel said.
“This must be everything they have,” Casimo responded. “We’ve got several men here who came from Center Trunk to join us. We’ll have to ask them.
“Let’s go see them now,” he suggested. He turned and started climbing back down the stairs, followed by the others. Kestrel went last, and he negligently waved a hand to dissolve his protective shield as he left the ramparts.
The group traveled through the crowded city streets to the guard base, where they assembled in Casimo’s office, walking through the familiar space of Belinda’s office to get there. Casimo sent a pair of runners out to bring in others to join them, and he offered a basket of fruit for the new arrivals to enjoy.
“Thank you,” Remy promptly said as he was the first to grab an apple.
Minutes later footsteps sounded in the hallway, and Belinda returned. “Your people are all settling into the same set of rooms you used to live in,” she told Kestrel. “It’s a bit crowded, but we’ll have no more than four to a room.”
“They’re up off the ground, the way elves should be,” Kestrel said appreciatively. “And they know each other pretty well after traveling together so long. Anything has to be better than sleeping on the ground in a human country! I don’t think they got much rest a night or two during our travels here.”
The door opened, and Hampus came bounding into the room, giving Kestrel a joyful, backslapping hug as the two reunited. “When I heard Kestrel was here, I knew we were going to win!” he told the others. “You should have seen him fight the monster that hounded us during our trip to Kirevee!”
“I see there’s no need to introduce you to the consort-presumptive, the could-have-been royalty who is our highest ranking nobleman,” Casimo said drily to Kestrel.
“No, Hampus, and Putty and I traveled a long way together last year,” Kestrel agreed.
“And we traveled a long way together too, though we didn’t take very long,” Captain Lim said from the doorway. “We ran from Oaktown to Center Trunk together,” he explained to the others. He entered the room and shook Kestrel’s hand vigorously.
“Thank you for coming,” Casimo said. “We’ve just received word that a large new force has arrived from Center Trunk, possibly twice as large as the forces that were already here assaulting us. Could Center Trunk have that much force, and what else might they have?” he asked.
“That must be two thirds of everything the palace has,” Lim said thoughtfully. “That plus the forces they sent down to occupy Oaktown and the Marches would mean they’ve emptied out the barracks and don’t even have anyone left to patrol the borders or protect the palace, other than token forces.”
“They don’t have any forces left in the Marches,” Kestrel reported with a grim smile. “We scoured them out and left a home guard in place around Oaktown and the villages,” he explained. “They were sent on their way back to Center Trunk; they should be there by now.”
“The princess will be furious over having her army defeated, especially by you,” Hampus said. “She’ll send them back, or she’ll send this army to the Marches after the batt
le here.”
“Unless they don’t win here,” Kestrel answered. “We need to develop a plan to win this battle.
“Would anyone from Estone come to assist us?” he asked Casimo.
“I don’t think the Doge would send his men to fight against elves in the forest, especially not for rebels who are fighting against the royal princess’s forces,” the elf commander replied.
Kestrel tried to imagine what tactics could best be employed.
“Where’s Arlen?” he suddenly asked, as he realized that the purple-eyed tutor on fighting and conflict wasn’t in the room. His advice would be useful, Kestrel was sure.
“He disappeared,” Belinda said quietly.
“We think he slipped out of the city just after the siege started,” Casimo explained. “He was here one night, and then gone the next morning, about a month ago. We never learned what happened.”
Kestrel fell silent, stunned by the apparent cowardice of the tutor he had learned so much from. Arlen had taught him every aspect of fighting like a human, had been a powerful tower of strength, and Kestrel could not imagine such an elf fleeing to leave his friends abandoned.
“Well,” he said after a long pause, “will they be likely to attack tonight? Have they launched night attacks so far?”
“Only once, the first night they arrived, and they learned not to try that again,” Casimo said grimly.
“We’ll think of something, now that you’re here,” Putienne told him confidently.
“Let’s take Kestrel and his friend to the mess hall for some dinner,” Belinda suggested. “There’s going to be time to develop a strategy later.”
Heads nodded around the room, and the group emerged from the office to join the other inhabitants of the isolated Firheng who were eating their meals as well. After the meal, the group drifted apart, with promises to get together in the morning to talk, leaving Kestrel with Medeina, Putienne, and Remy.
“They look so much alike,” the boy marveled again, as the four of them sat around a table in the nearly empty dining hall.
“Do we? Do you think so? She’s so beautiful,” Putienne said sincerely.
“And so are you,” Remy told her, blushing as he spoke.
“Tell us how spirits are here in Firheng,” Kestrel suggested.
“These people believe they can fight anyone,” Remy spoke up quickly. “And they don’t much care for Center Trunk anyway, it seems. They think they should have more freedom to do the things they’re used to doing, like trading with the humans from Estone. It’s like you wanting Oaktown to trade with Hydrotaz,” the boy marveled.
“It shows it can work, doesn’t it?” Kestrel prodded him.
“We saw that it can work. I guess they saw it too, didn’t they?” Remy agreed.
They all went to bed soon after that, their first night reunited. Putienne insisted that Kestrel take a room close to hers, forcing a shuffling of accommodations so that Medeina and Remy could also remain close to the two enchanted friends.
Chapter 8
“While you and I were in the Northern Forest, two strange elves showed up at the palace,” Hampus explained to Kestrel the next morning over breakfast. He was telling Kestrel an amazing story that was little-known outside the palace at Center Trunk.
Kestrel had arisen early, and walked through the familiar streets of Firheng, remembering the days of his own early training there, when he’d been newly plucked from an obscure, nearly normal life. He’d been sent to Firheng by Colonel Silvan, the spymaster of the elves. Kestrel had been trained by Casimo, Arlen, Artur, and even Belinda, taught to fight and act like a human in preparation for the spy missions Silvan had envisioned. The training had prepared him for Silvan’s purposes admirably, and in addition, had prepared him to become the agent of the gods, as Kai and Kere had jointly relied on him to bridge the alienation between the races while he led the ultimately successful effort to repel the invasion of the parasitic Viathin race.
After his stroll, he had entered the crowded commissary. The many refugees who had fled to Firheng were already rising from their cramped quarters and opening the new day with breakfast. It was there that Kestrel had met Hampus and Captain Lim, two prominent escapees from Center Trunk. Hampus had begun to relate his tale of flying from his fiancée, the princess Elwean.
“These elves spoke with an accent, different from the accents we heard in the Northern Forest,” Hampus said. “They presented artifacts they said they brought from the remains of my companions on the trip into the unknown east.
“I saw the things they brought, and they looked genuine to me. They had Gaylon’s bow, and Chowdor’s knife, and other personal effects, so I believe they had come from the place in the foreign mountains where disaster wiped our group out,” Hampus reported.
“They told stories of coming from a distant land of elves on the other side of the mountains, far from the Inner Seas. They said it was a different civilization from ours. They told Center Trunk how wonderful everything was in their lands, and Elwean believed everything they said. It all sounded wonderful to her, so much calmer than things seemed in the Eastern Forest.
“She’s never forgotten being kidnapped from the palace and nearly killed, you know, before you saved her,” Hampus said.
“These strangers were named Pollux and Castor,” Lim reported. “They said their nation had a very strong ruler, who made all the decisions and controlled the whole nation to make it work properly.”
“That appealed to Elwean, and so she began to listen to their advice. By the time I returned to Center Trunk after our trip, she had already displaced her father, putting him in exile as she seized control. Miskel and others were held captive, taken as hostages, or killed,” Hampus said. “And the more I argued against such actions, the colder she grew. I saw the way Pollux and Castor studied me, and I knew I had to run for my life finally.
“I’d learned so much here, and you held Firheng in such high esteem, I decided to escape here, since there was no word of you returning to Oaktown. And since then, things have gotten worse. The princess declared you a traitor and seized your lands, you know?” Hampus asked.
“I’ve been to Oaktown since I returned, and Center Trunk no longer has control of the lands in the Marches,” Kestrel assured Hampus.
“So what happens now?” Lim asked.
There was an eruption of shouts and screams in the large open room at the end nearest the open doors. The elves at Kestrel’s table stood to see what the problem was, and as they did, a voice shouted “Aha!”
“There he is!” an unidentifiable imp’s voice rang out, and a trio of small blue bodies came soaring just below the ceiling, passing above a wave of turning heads and craning necks as Mulberry led Acanthus and a companion towards Kestrel.
“I told you he would be here feeding himself, giving no thought to the starving imps who have done so much to keep him alive!” she pronounced.
“But we already ate breakfast,” Acanthus protested.
“Shhh,” Mulberry admonished him angrily. “You don’t need to say that, yet.”
“Would you like to say hello to your old traveling companion, Hampus?” Kestrel asked the imps mildly.
“It’s good to see you again!” Hampus said grandly, bowing to the imps. He reached up and surprised Mulberry by taking her hand and pressing it to his lips.
“How courteous,” the imp giggled. “Kestrel, take lessons.”
“You’re welcome to join our breakfast,” Kestrel told the imps. A crowd was gathering around them, for none of the ordinary elven inhabitants and refugees had ever seen an imp before.
“No, we were sent to fetch you to the wall. Odare took the early patrol this morning, and spotted something curious that we thought you should see,” Acanthus replied.
“We’ll be happy to join you,” Kestrel motioned to Lim and Hampus to follow as he left the table and began to follow the imps out of the room.
Both Putienne and Medeina joined the group as they walked
through the city streets. Kestrel looked at the two of them, and realized that seeing them made him think not of Moorin, but instead reminded him of Lark, and he wondered if the Uniontown noblewoman had reached her home yet. Whenever the battles in the Eastern Forest ended, he felt the desire to carry out his promise to join her in Uniontown and fight on behalf of her father.
“Up here,” the imps called as they reached the interior of the city wall. Kestrel and his companions climbed the ladders quickly, and came to stand between a pair of guard posts that were watching the besieging forces outside the city.
“What is it?” Kestrel asked as he looked out over the forest outside the city.
“Over there,” Odare replied as she came gliding to meet the new arrivals. She pointed to the left, and Kestrel saw a thin column of smoke rising from within the forest.
“It is unusual for elves to start a fire in the forest,” Kestrel agreed. It was not extraordinary, but it was unusual, although in the cool autumn weather, it was plausible.
“They shot arrows at me!” Odare said indignantly. “I was high in the sky, and they shot many arrows to chase me away from seeing what they were doing.”
“What were they doing?” Hampus immediately asked.
“They were hammering boards together to make a big table, or door, or something,” Odare answered. “I saw that much.”
“That doesn’t seem like something they’d need to hide,” Lim mused.
“No, and they shouldn’t have shot at me!” Odare said indignantly.
“We’ll keep an eye in that direction, to see if anything happens,” Kestrel said. “Would you go find Casimo and inform him of what we heard?” he asked the former Center Trunk officer, who obligingly left the ramparts on his mission.
Minutes later, Casimo arrived atop the wall, and joined them in staring out at the forest. The column of smoke thinned, then ended, leaving no indication of anything out of the ordinary.
“I’d like to plan a raid this evening,” Casimo told Kestrel. “With your abilities, I’d like for you to participate.”
“What do you have in mind?” Kestrel asked eagerly.
A Marriage of Friends (The Inner Seas Kingdoms Book 8) Page 10