by Bill Albert
“If you don’t move away now,” he said glancing at Gallif, pausing at her wink, then back up at him before continuing, “this officer and myself will go to the counter and let her deal with you alone.”
The tall man squinted as what he’d been told registered in his soggy brain. The hobgoblin guard had made it sound like a threat, yet the words didn’t seem to back that up. Or was it the other way around?
The little man was jumping up and down with a worried look on his face.
“King Giant you murdered,” he said with anger and pounded his fist on the table hard enough to split it in half. The table collapsed in the two guards, the bartender, waitress, and the dozen other customers all moved as far away as they could get.
“Can’t you kick him out?” Ganna asked the bartender.
“It’s his bar,” the bartender shrugged.
In that case, I think I’d like some dessert after all,” Ganna said, and the dwarf gave him his choices.
Reluctantly, Gallif stood to face the tall man determined to punish her for her legend crime. She stood with her feet squared off on the ground and her arms crossed. Instead of her cast weapons she had a leg from the table in each hand.
“I did not kill the King,” she said strongly to try and get him to back down.
“Proclamation, if still there, would did you say,” the tall man growled at her with his muscles tight. “You ready?” He asked over his shoulder. The only response he got from the little man was this week from a rusty hinge as the door was open and close. Drunk, angry, stupid and alone the tall man struck forward to punch Gallif into a wall. She easily ducked his attack and stepped forward to strike his knee with one of the table legs. The tall man stumbled a bit, but the table leg cracked into on impact.
“Oh, shit,” Gallif said and quickly slipped the remaining table leg from her left hand to her right. The tall man twisted and swung down to punch her again. This time his arm was nowhere near Gallif and she took the advantage and brought the wooden leg down directly on his wrist, then reverse the swing and smacked into his elbow on the way up. As he grunted in pain she swung completely around and struck the tall man in the gut. He screamed and wobbled, and she knew he was going to fall. She jumped back to where they had been sitting, grabbed the bag of food they had order for Luvin, and stepped out of the way as the tall man crashed down where they had been sitting. He fell onto the ground, decided not to get back up, and just started moaning in pain.
“How much for the dinner?” Keta asked the bartender Gallif as Gallif joined them.
“No charge,” he said giving them a comically obvious wink. Just as they exited the bartender called, “last orders, please.”
They quickly mounted their horses and rode out of town to where they were to meet Luvin. Before they reached that spot, he came out on the road to flag them down. Though we still had the body armor on the helmet was off.
“What’s wrong?” Gallif asked as she dismounted snow and handed Luvin his dinner.
“It’s not too serious,” he said quickly. “There was a group of kids, about 10 of them, who wanted to set up camp right next to where we were supposed to meet. I just felt it was best to meet you at another location.”
“Good thinking,” Keta complemented him.
“Well done,” Gallif said. “Find a quiet place to camp for the night and have your dinner. The clouds are coming in and the sons almost under the horizon. It will be too dark to write tonight. We’ll go around Daktara tomorrow and should reach Spring Field the next day,” she said handing Snow’s reigns to Ganna.
“Where are you going?” Luvin asked with a mouthful of biscuit. “I’m going to check those kids out, just to make sure they’re safe,” she said and walked off into the rapidly spreading shadows.
It didn’t take long for her to find the children that were camping. A group of 10 children, none of them older than 11, were never quiet and she picked them up as soon as she was over the next hill. They were huddled together intent on some projects and she stopped walking only a few feet away from them. They hadn’t detected her.
They had collected several branches and had stacked them in a pile. One of the halfling boys was rubbing two sticks together and failing at starting a fire. She smiled remembering the times when her and Veret, her brother, had tried to impress their parents the same way. After three failed attempts they had started blaming each other and mother had finally taught them how to do it correctly.
Suddenly one of the children noticed the stranger in the dark and screamed at the top of his lungs. The rest of the children jumped up and turned to face her. She was surprised and impressed they did not cry or tried to run away but stayed as a group to defend each other.
“You need smoother pieces of wood to start with. Heat and a little spark are not going to catch those bigger pieces. You smaller ones, twigs, and dried grass. Have plenty more on hand so you can feed it when it finally catches,” she said.
The children looked at each other for approval and when they all nodded, they scattered into groups to find the material she had suggested. By the time the sky was completely black, and with a few nudges from Gallif, they had a well contained and steadily growing fire.
Gallif patted the halfling on the shoulder and made him promise he would be sure to teach everyone the right way of building the flames.
Gallif sat down on her knees and was about to ask these children some questions when one of them came out of the crowd staring at her. It was a young girl, no older than ten, who had a cloth satchel slung over her shoulder. Gallif blinked several times and as the child came closer her face became easier to read.
“I know you,” Gallif said though she cannot remember the exact reason.
“You stayed with my family after the mountain fell,” the girl said. “You slept on our floor.”
“But that’s not the only place?” Gallif asked knowing the answer. “You were there at outbound when my cage was brought in.” The little girl smiled and nodded. “Aliala!”
Aliala laughed out loud and ran forward to her. They wrapped their arms around each other in delight and Gallif picked her up and bounced around several times
“I told you I knew her,” Aliala boasted to the rest of them after Gallif set her back on the ground. “They said they believed me, but I wasn’t sure they did,” she said to Gallif.
“What you doing here?”
“We’re rescuing someone,” Aliala said proudly.
“Who?”
“You.”
Gallif took a deep breath as she sat on the ground with her legs crossed. Aliala sat directly in front of her on her knees so they could see eye to eye. The rest of them surrounded her and Gallif felt the warmth and comfort of their protective cocoon.
“You didn’t do what they say,” Aliala said the boldly. “You didn’t murder King Paleth.”
“People say they saw me there.”
“Not you,” Aliala and the rest of them shook their heads. “A casting, and illusion, maybe even a shifter, but not you.”
“How are you going to rescue me?” Gallif spoke slowly and carefully. She did not want to discourage them, but at the same time, she didn’t want them to get into a dangerous situation.
Aliala pointed to a dwarven boy who looked just a year older than she was. She held out a hand and the boy passed her a cloth sack. She opened it, pulled out a torn paper, and handed it to Gallif.
Gallif slowly scanned the page and read the official proclamation declaring her as Fugitive Kind. As she finished Aliala handed her a wanted poster with a sketch of her own face on it. Her heart sank when Aliala passed her two more pieces of paper. One was for Luvin and the other was for Jakobus. They were not listed as Fugitive Kind but were still wanted for their involvement with her.
Aliala revealed the bag to be full of proclamations and wanted posters. She started grabbing them by the handful and tossing them onto the fire. Touched by their loyalty Gallif put a hand on her heart and smiled lovingly at the ch
ildren
“My parents taught me how important it was to ask questions,” Aliala said. “They taught me that sometimes the most powerful questions are the ones they can’t give you an answer to. Usually, it makes them think.”
“What are you asking them?”
“Is it possible the Giant Lords or lying?”
Gallif gasped and sat up. Even after everything that had happened and all the things, she had seen it was still a shock to hear someone else talk that way. Just a year earlier she would never have dreamed of questioning what the Giant Lords were doing. She had believed, trusted and followed them faithfully for so long it was a hard idea to believe.
“They are,” Gallif said looking at them hopefully the most important thing to remember is that not all of them have lied. Never, ever think that. Some of them are good and honest giants who want to peacefully lead the Land of Starpoint. Some of them, however, have lied to us. Some of them are incredibly powerful. They have secrets that they don’t want us to know”
“Big secrets?” A human girl asked.
“Bigger than Starpoint Mountain.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN: OPEN MASKS
After riding all day, and most of a star filled night, Gallif, Keta, Ganna and Luvin stood at the crest of a hill looking northward. In the distance, still at least two hours right away, was the city of Dakteria. It looks so quiet and relaxed in the morning light they all thought how nice it would be, if circumstances were different, to spend the day there relaxing.
Gallif was regretting never having visited the big city. Growing up her family had made occasional trips to Riverbend or Crystobel in the south but never here. She knew her parents had wanted to visit it and had imagined that Veret, back when he was only her little brother, would’ve loved it as well.
Keta and Ganna had both spent a great deal of time in Dakteria. They knew the town well and hope that, once whatever happened next was over, they’d be able to return there.
Luvin thought of the restaurant that he and Jakobus had spent the night at. It seems so long ago, and hard to believe it had actually happened considering the armor of the false legend he was wearing now, that’s all those people had wanted to hear from Luvin, the Dragon Rider. He had also not forgotten how much he had learned since then.
“You’ll be there before too long,” Gallif said to Keta and Ganna.
“Yes,” Keta nodded looking up at her. “We will stop at some of the militia offices there and tell them what we can of our story. Since we were temporarily attached to Mekon’s command will probably be provided with transportation to Spring Field tonight. That’s assuming he make it there safely.”
“I’m sure he did,” Gallif said confidently.
“When will you arrive there?”
“Tomorrow morning. Acrufix will present to me to the main gate.”
“I wish you well,” Keta said, and they shook hands.
“I hope we meet again under better circumstances.”
“I fear that may not happen for some time. It will not be easy to convince others of the truth about the elves. Or the giants, for that matter.”
“Hopefully your friend in the swamp will find a way to remove the curse.”
“I have faith in him,” Gallif said without a doubt.
“And I in you,” Keta said. “I thought world changed forever on the day the mountain fell. Now, I see that was only the beginning.”
“You must go,” Gallif politely urged him.
“You’ve done well,” Keta said shaking Luvin’s hand.
Luvin looked down at him and thanked him. He still wore Acrufix’s body armor, but the helmet hung from his horse’s saddle.
“Just remember, it is Luvin that is the true hero in that suit, not the legend.”
“Thank you, I’m honored.”
Without another word Keta and Ganna mounted their horses and rode off. As soon as they were on the main road, they picked up speed towards the town on the horizon.
Gallif and Luvin sat down on the shaded patch of grass and watch the figures shrinking in the distance.
“So, what’s it like?” Gallif asked looking at Luvin sideways.
“What’s what like?”
“That armor, is it comfortable?”
“Well,” he started stretching his muscles and repositioning himself. “It’s really odd. It feels like I’m wearing regular clothes, really. It’s only when I tried to move that I really notice it. It’s stiff when I move slow, but it seems like the faster I walk more flexible it is.”
“What about the helmet?”
“When I snap it on it’s like, nothing. I can’t feel anything, but I can see everything around me perfectly clear no matter which direction I look.”
“That’s a pretty impressive cast.”
“Yes, I can think of a few professors we used to know who would have loved to have worked on it.”
Gallif giggled and agreed. She remembered Professor Owermannillogg trying to add protective casts to a suit of armor and turning it into a pile of rust on the last day before she left the school. She always thought he was a funny, but strange little man and now really wished he were there with them.
“Can I try it on?” Gallif giggled as she asked the question.
Luvin smiled back and handed her the helmet as if it were made of thin, delicate, glass.
Gallif marveled at the fact that the helmet of Acrufix, who she had honored as long as she could remember, was in her hands. There was also some sadness in the feeling that it no longer brought pride to her. Acrufix, the Keeper of the Faith, was just a myth. A myth that’s no longer had any relevance to it.
“I’ll be glad when I can finally get rid of it,” Luvin said repositioning himself again.
“What are you going to do with it.”
“Throw it in the sea, melted into little nuggets, or maybe bury it outside of Outbound. I just want to be done with it.”
“None of us ever would have thought of that until just a short time ago.”
Luvin agreed and said, “We don’t need a Keeper of the Faith anymore. We need the truth.”
“Yes, and, I still feel there are many more secrets yet to be learned. More than we can imagine.”
With that she took a deep breath and slipped the cast helmet over her head. She gasped at just how amazing the difference was. Luvin had not been exaggerating. She shook her head from side to side but there was no obstruction from the helmet. The view it gave her was hard to describe, but everything around her just looked better, clearer, as if she were able to see in different directions at the same time in shocking detail.
She jumped to her feet, wobbled a bit, then looked down at her red cast boots.
“It’s like you are taller, isn’t it?” Luvin said as he rose and stood next to her. “Like everyone else must look up to you.”
She turned to him and found out that it did indeed seem that she was considerably taller than him even though she knew there was actually a few inches’ difference in their height.
“That’s astounding,” Gallif said in awe.
“I think that’s all part of the seduction of the suit,” Luvin speculated. “You look down on everybody else, you begin to think that you are above them in stature. Like you are superior to them.”
“Like you are giant,” Gallif added, “but still, deep down inside, you’re not.”
She looked at him and caught movement coming up from behind. She turned her head just a bit and saw six aquilus sneaking up behind them with swords in hand. They were moving carefully and deliberately, and she knew she would not of seeing them if it hadn’t been for the helmet. They paused, their muscles tightened, and prepared to strike.
With one hand Gallif pulled Luvin away from the attackers and spun him around so he could see what was going on. With the other she drew the flame sword and took a swing at the closest elf to her. Her actions were good, and she slayed the monster in half.
She could see that Luvin pulled his own flame sword, the one he h
ad inherited from Pate inside Starpoint Mountain and swung it at one of the beasts approaching on the left. She took two steps to the right and zigzagged the sword at the nails in that direction. The beast jumped back in surprise and she managed to remove his left arm. It fell back but she jumped forward and demolished it with one swift blow.
She saw Luvin’s target, wounded and limping, moving away. Luvin swung to one side and went to intercept the one that was running at her. He swung in an arc and managed to burn into his lower leg. It howled and fell back but Luvin continued to attack.
“Kill it, dammit, slaughter the thing!” Gallif yelled. She kicks up and hit another attacker square in the chest knocking it flat on its back. She laughed and its weakness and impaled it with her flame sword letting his death scream rang in her ears. She saw the final aquilus, on injured, backing away and was about to chase it down when Luvin jumped in front of her.
“Let it go, Gallif!” “No, it’s a monster, it deserves to die.”
Luvin used all his strength to reach up and yank away the helmet over her head. He tossed it onto the ground and refused to let her continue. She was tense, breathing heavy, and he watched the anger in her face suddenly drained away.
Confused, Gallif looked over her shoulder at the elf she had impaled. She realized that it was her flame sword that still burn its body and she yanked it free from the ground and tossed it into the grass.
“I couldn’t stop,” Gallif said holding back the anger and disappointment she had in herself. “It just started, it felt so easy, I wanted them dead.”
“We’ve all spent a long time hating them,” Luvin said quickly. “That kind of habit doesn’t go away easily.”
“It’s not just that,” Gallif shook her head. “Even before I knew the truth it never felt that way. I was thrilled, I was enjoying its death.” She turned and picked up Acrufix’s cast helmet and stared at its blank face.
***
The further north they traveled the heavier the traffic got even on secondary roads and they were forced to move slower. They gave Dakteria oh why do birth and, on the following morning, came out of the forest. It was still several miles to the Spring Field Gates, but Gallif figured it was close enough. They can ride openly and freely the rest of the way. She would have to give up her weapons to appear as a prisoner, so the flame sword and the frost sword were now strapped to Luvin’s saddle. She bet that the presence of Acrufix would ward off any would-be executioners who wanted to be part of the legend.