The Last Elf of Lanis

by Hargan, K. J.

  Yulenth approached a captain of the Weald army.

  “It looks bad,” Yulenth said. “If they take but one bridge, their numbers will spill onto our shore until they have all three.”

  “If that happens,” the captain said, “then all the Weald is lost.”

  Human archers on the northern shore peppered the garonds with arrows and supported the troops hacking at the heavily armored garonds trying to push their way across.

  As human or garond fell from the bridges into the water, evil fish, churning the river below, tore their bodies to pieces.

  “Marowdowr!” Yulenth exclaimed.

  On the south side, the garonds had no bow and arrows, but they did have a few machines which would launch large stones over the river into the human ranks, crushing with blood curdling screams.

  “We have to destroy the bridges,” Yulenth called to the captain over the din of battle.

  “My Queen?” The captain asked Alrhett.

  “Yulenth is right,” she said. “It is better to destroy our beautiful bridges than lose all our lives.”

  “But how can we do it?!” The captain yelled as another large missile struck close by. “If we destroy one they surely will focus all their efforts on the remaining bridges and take them. As they try to take all three, we have kept them at bay.”

  Yulenth gnawed on his knuckle. His brain worked furiously.

  “Have you any oil?” Yulenth shouted to the captain as an idea struck him.

  “Yes,” the captain said. “Mostly rendered oil, for lanterns-“

  “Perfect!” Yulenth cried.

  Then with hasty instructions, he and the captain gathered several men to spill as many barrels of oil as they could on their sides of all three bridges.

  The oil made it very difficult for the humans to hold their places on the bridge. But, the brave and stalwart soldiers did their best.

  The garonds felt the weariness of the humans and the growing strength of their numbers, and they pulled back to their side of the river to make a final rush. All was momentarily quiet.

  “Now is our chance,” Yulenth whispered to himself. He turned to a battery of archers, and hissed, “On my signal, and only on my signal. All three bridges must burn together at the same time or all is lost.”

  Yulenth made his way down to the middle bridge and yelled across to the garond warriors preparing for a massive onslaught that would almost certainly take all three of the Bridges of Rogar Li.

  “We have had enough of your murders and violence!” Yulenth cried to the garonds on the other side. “This is our land and we will keep it! You vile beasts go back!” Yulenth raised his fist, and then aggressively dropped it. “Now!”

  At his command, hundreds of arrows wrapped in oil soaked, flaming cloth struck all three bridges. The fire was immediate and explosive as the bridges were very dry.

  The garonds rushed forward to try to put out the fire, but it was too late. The Three Bridges of Rogar Li burned like a harvest bonfire.

  On one side the humans cheered, on the other, the garonds bellowed and snarled in rage.

  The captain slapped Yulenth on the back. “Who would have thought of burning arrows,” the captain said in wonder. “Such a mind you have.”

  “Yes,” said Yulenth. “But, now everyone will do it. Maybe not such a great idea for just anyone to employ. What I’d really like is to get a look at those stone throwing devices over there.”

  “I’ll send the Messenger Guild to fetch you one,” the captain laughed, then turned to organize his archers to shoot as many garonds as tarried at the river’s south shore.

  “The judge sends for you,” Matclew apologetically said to Alrhett. And, the four of them walked back to Rogar Li.

  At the Great Hall of the Judges, Alrhett and Yulenth were ushered in. The hall was empty of spectators. The seven judges scowled down at the accused.

  “Bring in Lord Stavolebe,” Judge Summeninquis intoned.

  Stavolebe, flourished into the hall as though he were an actor playing an important part.

  “Tell your account, Lord Stavolebe,” the Judge instructed.

  Stavolebe cleared his throat, then spoke with an affected accent, “We found her with a sword and spear, standing over the freshly killed body of Lord Argotine, with whom you may recall, she had many ferocious disagreements.”

  “Only the facts,” Summeninquis gravely said.

  “Well,” Stavolebe said. “That is all. Except. The Glaf was robbing the body when we arrived.”

  “A lie!” Yulenth cried.

  “Silence!” Summeninquis somberly shifted. “You may be the hero of the moment, but I am not so sure the people of the Weald will be so enamored with you once they realize how difficult their lives will be without the bridges to cross the Bairn.”

  “And what lives would those be left?!” Yulenth said in genuine astonishment. “Have you seen the humans the garonds have spared? Maybe some left for slave labor, possibly those who conspire with them-“

  “I will not tolerate this!” Summeninquis boomed.

  The hall was quiet, except for a whispering breeze that carried the smell of the burning bridges.

  “Have you any defense?” The judge asked Alrhett.

  “None that will satisfy you,” Alrhett said with dignity. “I am innocent. Lord Stavolebe has actually spoken the truth. But, I, nor Yulenth, did no violence to Lord Argotine.”

  Outside, the murmur and rattling of the great doors could be heard as the people of Rogar Li tried to get in. Judge Summeninquis appeared agitated. His plan to try and sentence Alrhett and Yulenth in secret had been discovered. Now great loud knocks came on the door, and the sound of an angry mob could be heard from without.

  “Court is adjourned until tomorrow!” Summeninquis banged his gavel as the doors burst open.

  “I tried to hold them back, your honor!” Matclew cried with a satirical smile, as the judge and his cronies scurried out of the hall.

  Alrhett and Yulenth were escorted by the crush of adoring citizens to the royal palace, which now was stuffed with humble furnishings, which the people of Rogar Li had brought to their Queen’s home.

  “We may not have the people to protect us at all times,” Alrhett said to Yulenth.

  “Let us trust them,” he said holding her. “Now let us rest until tomorrow.”

  Late that night, Alrhett woke with a start. She shook Yulenth who was loudly snoring in a deep sleep.

  “Someone is in here,” she whispered.

  Yulenth shook himself awake.

  “Matclew!” Alrhett whispered. Yulenth carefully rose from their bed. He peered into the gathered shadows of the cloud filled night.

  “Hallo?” Yulenth quietly said as, suddenly, a cloaked figure leapt on him.

  “Matclew!” Alrhett cried.

  Yulenth held the cloaked man’s arm. A blade dully gleamed in his hand.

  “Matclew!” Alrhett screamed, as Yulenth struggled with the assassin. Then, Yulenth smartly stomped on the intruder’s feet, causing him to cringe in pain.

  Matclew and Drepaw burst into the room with lanterns and swords drawn. The assassin pushed Yulenth away and leapt out a window.

  They rushed to the window to see him leaping from tree to tree, until he was out of sight.

  “Are either of you hurt?!” Matclew said.

  “No, thank god,” Yulenth wearily answered.

  “I think it best if one of us stays here in the room,” Matclew said closing the window.

  “I’ll guard the main door and seal up the other,” Drepaw said.

  Matclew settled down on the wooden floor with his drawn sword by his side, despite Alrhett’s protests that he at least sleep on some pillows. Then, they all drifted off to a light, troubled sleep.

  The next morning, word of the assassination attempt had spread among the people of Rogar Li, and angry, protective citizens loitered outside the palace with swords and spears.

  Yulenth woke to find Alrhett softly whispering t
o a sparrow that excitedly twitched and hopped up and down on the window sill.

  “I just don’t believe it,” he heard her say. “Well, tell them to keep looking.” The sparrow flew away in the blink of an eye.

  “Marshaling the troops,” Yulenth said with a playful smile.

  “Yes, I am, as a matter of fact,” Alrhett said with a mischievous smile, which left Yulenth puzzled.

  “Matclew!” Alrhett called.

  Matclew entered from the outer room, where he spent the morning after waking.

  “Yes, My Queen,” he answered.

  “Go tell the court I am ready,” she said. “And please ask the citizens of the Weald to be polite and well behaved. We cannot give those who conspire against me any cause.”

  Matclew nodded and excused himself.

  The morning dragged on without Matclew’s return. “Maybe we should just go up there,” Yulenth said to Alrhett. She thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

  As they left with Drepaw faithfully by their side, a cluster of armed citizens attended them. Alrhett stopped them.

  “Good people of the Weald,” she said. “We do not want to antagonize the court. Please go to your homes. We will be safe, in the plain light of day.”

  The armed group muttered, but left for their homes. Alrhett, Yulenth and Drepaw continued on to the High Court. Yulenth suddenly became alarmingly aware of the lack of citizens going on about their daily business on the ramps and flattened branches of Rogar Li.

  “Where is everybody?” He asked. No one had an answer.

  At the doors of the High Court, Drepaw gained admittance to the court. After a few moments Drepaw returned.

  “Please come with me,” he said to Alrhett. “You must remain out here,” he said to Yulenth.

  “The nerve,” he huffed. Alrhett and Drepaw entered the massive carved wood doors.

  Yulenth waited alone, without even guards posted outside the court. It seemed he was waiting for an eternity. He began to feel very uncomfortable. It was unnaturally quiet, and he thought of the assassination attempt the previous night.

  “Hello,” the Mage said, suddenly at his elbow.

  “Gaaah!” Yulenth jumped. “You’ll make a fellow’s heart burst, sneaking up like that!”

  “I did no sneaking,” the Mage plainly said. “Listen to me most urgently, Yulenth. Your life, and your wife’s life, at this very instant, is in great danger.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Yulenth muttered. “Where is everybody, anyway?”

  “They’ve all been confined to their homes, so that the conspirators may work unhindered,” the Mage answered.

  “Well then, I better get in there,” Yulenth proclaimed. “Help me with these doors.”

  “Never mind the doors,” the Mage said with urgency. “Mind these,” he said pointing to a group of five masked men advancing with drawn swords.

  Inside the court, Alrhett noticed Matclew standing, red faced and ashamed as though he had just been reprimanded. He looked side long at Alrhett as if to warn her, but remained fearfully silent.

  Summeninquis and his six judges sat with arrogant authority at their high bench.

  “You were not summoned to this court,” Summeninquis said with a deep, sneering voice.

  “Yes,” Alrhett said. “And, I apologize for my brashness, but I am eager to clear my name.”

  “The name, Alrhett, Queen of the Weald,” Summeninquis said, “is synonymous with ‘traitor’. Why if I want one of my brethren to know that I feel he has cheated me at cards I call him an “Alrhett”. If I want a merchant in the food stalls to know he has shorted me in my agreed upon purchase, I call him an “Alrhett”. If I see a mother woefully neglecting her child, unto the child’s endangerment, and I must remove that child from that mother’s care, unless that child dies due to her neglect, I call her an “Alrhett”!” Summeninquis rose in his anger. “You come when we call you. You stay if we do not. You are less than a citizen of the Weald, and you are fortunate to have the very life we allow you at this very instant!”

  The silence after Summeninquis berating was deafening.

  Alrhett regally rose. She looked the Great Judge of the Weald directly in the eye. Her face was pale with anger, and for a woman who had seen over fifty summers, she suddenly appeared as youthful and as beautiful as an avenging angel. Light seemed to stream from her very body.

  “My name,” she said, “was given to me by my grandfather, then King of the Weald, and it means in the older tongue, ‘Great Strength’. I am a daughter of an age old line of Kings who stretch back to the times when elves numbered more than men, and honor was more precious than gold. I have not betrayed my name, my family, my title, or my people. I have, however, fled when outnumbered by evil, conspiring men, to protect my only child. I defy any parent to do differently! I grieved for my people and this beautiful land to leave them in the hands of arrogant, loathsome, wicked men like you. I have returned, and your days of power are over. And know this, Summeninquis, Great Judge of the Weald, Alrhett, Queen of the Weald, will NOT be spoken to with disrespect!”

  With her last words, the very earth trembled with rage. The massive trees and the court violently swayed with the earthquake. From outside the court doors, a brilliant, blinding light flashed as they splintered into pieces. Yulenth and the Mage rushed through the debris with five armed, masked men behind them.

  “Alert! Alert!” Yulenth cried. “Assassins after the Queen!”

  Matclew and Drepaw drew their swords, and they were magnificent. They slashed, cut and parried, and quickly, amongst the wreckage of the Great Hall, five assassins lay dead in pools of their own blood. Matclew ripped the masks off their faces.

  “Lord Faronrall, Lord Habannage!” Matclew exclaimed.

  “Lords!” Drepaw exclaimed. “Every one of them.”

  Summeninquis and his cronies crawled from their high bench and scurried out a secret door.

  “We must make for the safety of your palace, My Queen,” Matclew cried.

  “You will never make it alive,” the Mage breathed. “There are even more conspirators then these along the way.”

  “What do you suggest?” Yulenth asked the Mage.

  “There is a small house I know of nearby,” the Mage said with urgency. “We can hide there until, under the cloak of night, we can steal back into the royal palace. I shall try to marshal as many sympathetic men as I can.”

  “Lead on,” Alrhett commanded.

  The Mage led Alrhett, Yulenth, Matclew and Drepaw out and through the trees.

  The damage to the city from the earthquake was astonishing. Some of the more towering trees had collapsed. Houses, halls and markets hung shattered between the broken limbs and ramps of Rogar Li. The citizens of the capitol were actually fortunate to have been confined to their homes, so the loss of life was less than it might have been. But the stillness of the city was eerie. The cries of those trapped or pinned echoed through the swaying trees.

  “Here,” the Mage said, leading the group into a humble house carved into the knot of a rotund pine. “Do not answer the door under any circumstances. Wait until nightfall. I may not be able to return for you, so go when you feel you can.”

  As soon as the Mage left, Yulenth could see through a crack in the curtains of the only window, fifty or more masked men charging up to the Great Judges Hall with swords drawn.

  “It is as he has said,” Yulenth exhaled. “There are too many of them searching for you,” he said to Alrhett. Matclew and Drepaw took turns watching out the window, waiting for the night to fall.

  All the rest of the day, the sounds of rescue, and the search for Alrhett resounded through the imprisoned city.

  As night fell, restlessness settled on the fugitives.

  “We will be safe behind the fortified doors of the palace,” Matclew said.

  “It’s only a matter of time before they find us here,” Yulenth agreed. They searched the small house and found three winter cloaks, two black, and one b
right blue.

  “You take the blue one,” Yulenth said pulling it around Alrhett shoulders. “So we will be able to find you if we are separated.” Then he pulled the hood over her head.

  “You two take the others,” Drepaw said, and Yulenth and Matclew pulled on the hooded cloaks.

  “Quickly and silently,” Matclew said as he cracked the door open. Outside it was still and gloomy.

  Matclew hid his drawn sword underneath his cloak, while Drepaw could not draw his for fear of revealing himself.

  They stole out of the house onto the ruined runways of Rogar Li. It was dismayingly quiet, not even the night birds sang or rustled in the branches.

  They made their way down a level. They had two more to descend, and a long stretch to arrive at the palace and safety. Alrhett thought she heard something and pulled at Matclew’s cloak. They all halted in fear. The limbs of the trees of the city swayed in the night breezes. The sky was covered with clouds, the city was so unsettlingly still. Very few lights burned in the windows of homes. The whole city seemed to be terrified and powerless.

  “There she is!” a murderous voice boomed through the trees.

  A roar of some seventy or more armed men went up. Alrhett, Yulenth, Matclew, and Drepaw ran for their lives.

  “Watch her! There she goes!” The vicious cries rang through the still city, afraid to aid their queen.

  “Quickly! This way!” Matclew cried.

  Down broken ramps in the dark they fled. It seemed the men were on all sides of them. Drepaw pulled Yulenth down a ramp separating them from Alrhett and Matclew.

  “No! No! That way!” Yulenth cried. But ten men were already on their heels. Up a ramp, Yulenth and Drepaw ran. Yulenth looked over the side and could see the black cloak of Matclew and the blue cloak of Alrhett fleeing down another way.

  Yulenth leapt over a railing onto another causeway. Overhead, he heard Drepaw exclaim, then the clash of sword on sword rang out as Drepaw was overwhelmed and slain.