Jennifer raised an eyebrow and he added, “Who happens to be our future son-in-law.”
Darkenstar said, “Well spoken, so, when’s the wedding?”
The wedding.
Seawan gave his daughter away; Yvette and Ingrid were, of course, the bridesmaids. Reginald tossed the coin for best man, Lionel lost, good naturedly.
The ceremony was held inside the Townsend house, and the festivities, a grand affair, were held out in the open. Jennifer wore a shimmering gown and Jason the robe of an elven lord. Jason’s step-parents were there, also Lengowyn and his whole clan, together with Derek, Julia and family. The mayor and most of the townspeople turned out to wish the happy couple as they rode along the road on Aries back to the Longfellow farm for a night alone.
Jason carried his bride over the threshold and set her down once they reached the bedroom. They undressed slowly and embraced gently. They gazed at one another for a small eternity then Jason said, “How about that kiss, it’s something I have dreamed about.”
Their lips came slowly together. They stayed transfixed for a second eternity, and then their bodies rose up and hovered over the bed. The kiss ended and they both looked down at the bed. She looked at him from under her eyebrows and asked him, “Can you read my mind?”
“Can you read mine?”
“Wow!”
Then they slowly drifted down towards the bed…
Chapter seventeen.
Dardwyn.
Jason woke to a hammering on the door, Jennifer sat up next to him, they said in unison, “Yvette!”
They dressed hurriedly and as they opened the front door they saw Yvette. His sister said without preamble, “They have found Lucas.”
The Meeting.
Yvette, Jason and Jennifer approached the Townsend house. Elven soldiers patrolled the grounds.
They entered by way of the repaired front door and walked through into the lounge. Eleven figures were present, seated around an oval table. Seawan and Silvern sat at one end with Deerfoot and Darkenstar, next to them sat Lengowyn with Helga on his left. Derek and Julia, with their eldest sons, Reginald and Lionel, sat on Seawan’s right. Jason and his companions pulled out their chairs in silence and seated themselves, thereby completing the circle, except for an empty chair between Seawan and Silverfoot.
Darkenstar spoke first, “Lucas has betrayed his own kind.”
He turned to face Seawan who said, “He has betrayed us all,” and then he added, “Allow me to introduce Dardwyn, son of Langhobe, leader of the dwarves.”
A head appeared and then the top part of a body as a young dwarf stood up on the chair, he leaned on the table with both hands, regarded the company and smiled. Then he said, “Hello, I’m Dardwyn.”
Seawan said, “Dardwyn has escaped from Lucas’ lair. It is a reopened mine where his people are kept prisoner, forced to mine for coal. Lucas has a giant workshop where steel from scrap yards is converted into armour, axes, spearheads and javelins.” He added after this news had sunk, “It seems he is building an army, he is also making explosive bombs, lead balls filled with black gunpowder and iron shards.”
Yvette asked Dardwyn, “How did you escape, do they know you are missing?”
He sat down on the table’s polished surface and swivelled around to face her. “I got out without being seen through a small tunnel, which ends behind the hill. It is at this moment being widened by my brothers, wide enough for a man to crawl through. They won’t miss me though, goblins are stupid, we all look the same to them with coal dust on our faces, and they can’t count anyway.”
He chuckled then his visage altered as he regarded the gathering. “Lucas has mated with female goblins.” This produced a gasp from all except Jennifer and Jason’s parents. “They have produced hundreds of eggs and the results are flying monsters. The first to hatch have already reached full-size.”
Lengowyn asked, “What do they look like, these monsters?”
Dardwyn’s features altered once more as he spoke. “Horrible. They look like giant scaly toads with big bug eyes, and when they transform they look like dragons, some of them have wings, but they take time to develop. We call them harpies, because of the head; it’s covered in sharp quills.”
Helga asked, “What about the rune stone, do you know where it is?”
“He keeps it by him.”
Jason asked him, “Do you know where this black powder is kept?
He nodded, “Below the smelting room in a sealed vault.”
“Is it locked?” asked Yvette.
“No, just tightly sealed.”
“How do we get to it?” asked Jason.
“There is a trapdoor behind the throne and then a stone stairway.”
Lengowyn leaned forward. “Is there another entrance to this place?”
“Yes, at the front.”
Jason asked him, “What about the front entrance, is it a barred gate, does it have a portcullis, how wide is it?”
“Two heavy wooden doors, guarded on both sides by the goblins of course, but it’s not big enough for a harpy, you see they can’t transform inside, the chamber is too small or should I say they are too big.”
Derek asked him, “As big as a troll?
He shook his head. “Twice as big or bigger even, massive they are, I only saw the one in its transformed state.”
Jennifer asked, “Are there any trolls inside the chamber?”
“No, but there are two downstairs in the smithy, they work the bellows and haul the coal from the mine for the furnace.”
Darkenstar asked him, “Dardwyn, how many goblins did you see there?”
“About two thousand, maybe less, they’re camped along the side of the hill, just below the mine entrance.”
“What about trolls, did you see any in the goblin camp?”
“I counted over a hundred; they will be throwing the bombs, which are attached to a chain. They swing them round then let go; they go a long way too. I’ve seen them practicing with blocks of stone tied up with rope.”
Silvern asked, “Have you actually seen a, er, harpy, one that actually flew?”
“Yes, I’ve even seen a full-grown harpy carrying a sheep in each of its claws, great big wings it had.”
Jason asked, “How do they fight, do they have weapons?”
“I think they will fight with their talons in flight and they are unbelievably fast, lightning reactions, they appear to dematerialize and then re-appear somewhere else. They possess talons like the eagles have, long too, cut through cast iron they can. A careless goblin threw a javelin past one; it reached out and slashed it as it went by, cut it into five pieces.”
Lionel asked, “Are they armoured?
“They don’t need it, covered in chitin they are, slits for eyes, nothing can penetrate.”
Jennifer said, “It appears they are hard to kill?”
Dardwyn grinned wickedly. “Not really, not if you get them before they change.”
Yvette asked, “What are they like before they transform, are they just as fast?”
“No, they are slow in comparison,” he paused then glanced at each of them as he said, “You see, this is when they are vulnerable. If you can get inside the chamber you could surprise them. They are also covered in small chitin scales, but I believe a werewolf could rip them off and kill them.”
Jason asked, “How big did you say the tunnel was, big enough for a male werewolf?”
“Er, no, you would have to transform after you leave the tunnel.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And where is the tunnel exit?”
“In the main room, behind the throne, in a storeroom,” he said, and then he hesitated.
Jason leaned forward, “And?”
“The main room’s always full of harpies; it’s where they are fed, by Lucas.”
Reginald glanced in Yvette’s direction before he asked, “Will they attack a werewolf?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think they’ve seen one unless Lucas has transf
ormed for some reason.”
Yvette asked, causing Reginald’s jaw to drop, “Would they transform when we appear, how much time would I have before it became full-size?”
“No, as I said, they would not transform there, the chamber is much too small. The last one who did exploded, not before it devoured half-a-dozen goblins who had been baiting it.”
Darkenstar said, “So we have to kill them before they escape from this room, through a double door that is guarded, but not locked or barred. So how many are there in this room?”
“About fifty.”
“I thought there were more?”
“Yes, there are many more, they will be in the adjacent rooms, eating or sleeping.” He slid off the table and onto his chair, he turned to them. “Whether they attack you or not, you must kill them all before they get outside, there they will transform and if you are planning to attack, no matter how the battle fares for the goblins, you elves and werewolves will all perish, eventually.”
“Then we have no time to waste,” he said and turned to Lengowyn, “We had better get organized,” he turned to Dardwyn, “Let’s hope that tunnel is ready.”
“You don’t know much about dwarves do you,” he said and hopped off the chair.
Outside the house, Reginald and Lionel confronted Jason, Jennifer and Yvette. Lionel asked, “What do me and my family do?”
Yvette took his hands and pulled him to her. “Julia will be with us. Do you and your siblings still have the goblin’s spears and their axes?”
“Yes!”
“Then get yourself some elven armour and join the ranks,” she added, “If you think you are capable, then ask Seawan to issue you with bows, if you can all shoot arrows as well as you fire a shotgun, then you and your family will be most welcome.” She added once more, “And the answer is no, you are not coming with us.”
Chapter eighteen.
Confrontation.
After two days and nights forced march, guided by Dardwyn, the elven army, numbering two thousand, formed on top of the hill, facing the mine. The werewolf contingent, led by Darkenstar and Lengowyn had already deployed, under the cover of night, on the other side of the hill, near to the tunnel.
Facing Seawan’s forces was the goblin army, with the trolls in the rear ranks. Before Jason, Yvette and Julia could deploy with this information one of the soldiers called out, “Someone’s approaching, and they’re holding a white flag. It’s a goblin in disguise.”
A pale-looking human dressed in goblin rags approached Seawan. He gazed about him and leered, “Where’s yer werewolves then?”
Seawan drew his sword; he left the point pressed against the goblin’s chest. “What do you want here; you have a message from your leader I suppose?”
He eyed the sword. “I have a flag of truce.”
“Get on with it,” said Jason.
“Oh, are you a werewolf then, cos’ you’re not an elf.”
Seawan let his sword drop. “The elves have no more use for werewolves, they can’t be trusted,” he indicated Jason, “and he is half elf, half human, now speak or die.”
The creature looked to Helga, dressed in her white hooded robes, “You know we have your precious stone.” The goblin cringed as the sword rose up and prodded his chest. He said, hurriedly to Seawan, “My lord Lucas wants the witch Helga to grant him the power to use the rune stone. She is to come with the boy Lucas, wherever he is.”
With that he scurried away. Helga approached Seawan and said, “There are no powers to be granted by me, Seawan, even you know that and Chanteline will not grant longevity and healing powers to anyone who embodies evil.”
Jason asked, “What is Chanteline, to be exact?”
Helga smiled. “It came from the sky one morning and landed before me as I was searching for mushrooms. It spoke to me in my mind, ‘Take me, guard me and I will reward you’. I was but a child then and I believed in magic and elves and all innocent things a child believes in, so I kept it with me.
I came across a family of river elves one day as I wandered alone, I was hungry and they fed me. I grew up amongst them and I kept the stone hidden from them. I reached adulthood and after that I never aged, and one day the eldest asked me if I was a witch. I could hear their thoughts and they were concerned for me. So I showed them the stone.
They were dumbfounded at first and then told me of the prophecy, that a child would appear amongst them, a guardian of the spirit Chanteline and bless their lives.”
“I realized then that I had found Chanteline, and that it had given me long-life. In turn it granted the elves long-life and later, as I came to know the were-people after the victory over the goblins, the elves all agreed that the werewolves should benefit from longevity too.”
Jennifer said quietly, “And now Lucas has it and will try to use its powers for evil.”
Helga removed her hood, smiling, and said, “Chanteline chooses whoever she deems fit to possess the gift of long life, and if I am not mistaken, she can reverse these powers of her own free will.”
Silvern paled slightly and said, “I believe Lucas has changed in these past months.”
Jason asked, “How?”
She replied, “Dardwyn said, when we asked him to describe Lucas that his hair was grey and his skin heavily wrinkled.”
Helga stepped back, her hand to her mouth. “If he realizes he is dying, then he will destroy Chanteline and release those monsters on the world.”
Silvern said, “I hope he doesn’t, for that will be the end of civilization.”
Seawan said, “If these monster interbreed, the whole planet will suffer, it could be they breed as fast than goblins.”
Jason asked, “Did Dardwyn say what the gestation period of the goblin females who laid the eggs was?”
Silvern said, “Four weeks.”
He asked her, “What else did he say about Lucas’ offspring?”
“That they are hermaphrodites.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, “Lucas told him so.”
“So, they are like earthworms?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear.”
Helga said, “I will go to him, maybe I can reason with him.”
Jason said, “No, he will kill you.”
Jennifer said, “I have a better idea, I will go with Jason, disguised as Helga. We may be able to retrieve Chanteline and if we can, kill Lucas.”
Yvette asked her, “What about these harpies.”
Jason told her, “The room where the powder is kept isn’t locked, we can use the it to destroy the whole mine and the harpies with it.”
Yvette asked, “How shall we accomplish that?”
He answered, “I’m not at all sure, maybe you can. The trapdoor is behind the throne, if we manage to dispose of Lucas you can make your way to the next level and then to this powder room you can…” He paused then said, “You will think of something, I am sure.”
Yvette smiled, she came closer to him and said, “Your confidence in me is inspiring, and I admire yours too, so let’s go and get this maniac and his pack of monsters.”
While hiding behind the soldiers shield wall, Helga removed her garb and Jennifer clothed herself with it, hiding her bow and numerous arrows amongst its folds along with her sword. The ranks parted and Jason and Jennifer made their way down into the valley.
Yvette watched them go, she turned to Julia and they made there way over the hill where they removed their elven armour and clothing. They transformed as they ran along the ridge, out of sight of the goblin spies. They ran on into the distance and when it was safe enough they made their way down into the long valley and circled round the huge hill that housed the mine and climbed up its rocky surface to their rendezvous with Lengowyn and Darkenstar and their people, over six hundred strong.
Jason, dressed in elven robes, led Jennifer up a narrow path, carved out of the hillside, towards a cave opening. He held her close to him to give the impression he was supporting her. Th
ey arrived and faced a massive door. The same goblin, still in human form - which enabled him to speak English - greeted them, “Welcome, Witch,” he said and peered at Jason, “Where is the werewolf child?”
Jennifer whispered, “He died fighting your army, a troll took him apart before he could transform.”
Jason asked him, “Do you fear a half-elf, I am only here to escort the lady Helga, as she has suffered greatly since you took her life-stone.”
Silvermoon. A Tale of a Young Werewolf. A YA Novel. 12-18 Page 15