by Ben Marble
"I don't believe you will be going anywhere Dragon Eyes,” The elf searched his face as if trying to find some hidden secret in his features. "We have been tasked to stop you. We will see what the value of you and your friends might be."
"You really want to risk becoming the enemy of the dragons? They won't take kindly to you stopping us from our errand." Xander tried to stare the elf down, but the elf did not move. "I know you don't fear me or my friends but what will happen when the dragons come for you."
"Trees will burn, dragons will die." The elf laughed darkly. "Woods grow back over time, but dragons don't get back up when they are dead." He returned Xander's glare. "We are not dwarves who cower under the ground and do whatever they can to avoid conflict. If your dragons challenge us, we will meet them blood to blood."
"What about the people you would lose?"
"People are lost every day. Better with a sword in hand then to roll over and die under the words of others."
"So, what do you want from us?"
"Your surrender. It would be unfortunate if we had to deliver your bodies to the dragons, with no explanation on how or why you were out here." The moonlight twinkled darkly in the elf's eyes. "I am not even sure on how long it would take us to bear your bodies back, it might be a season or two, because we really don't visit the cities that often."
"What happens when we surrender?"
"I really can't say other than your life will be spared."
"And who am I surrendering to?"
"Skies, but you would want to know." The elf crossed his arms and stood square shouldered. "I am Elmbane, at your service." There was a flourish bow that went with the words, but Xander knew he was being mocked.
"Brianne, what do you think?"
"I think we do no good to anyone dead."
"I'm worried we may be of too much use to someone alive." Xander looked back at her and she watched him waiting on his decision. He hoped that this would not be another bad choice. "Very well, we surrender.
✽ ✽ ✽
No blind folds were used as Xander and Brianne were rushed through the woods. The elves seemed to flit in and out of the shadows around them, some dancing from tree top, to tree top as easily as squirrels. Despite their rough garments that tended towards reds and yellows they still managed to disappear often into the woods around them. Xander was pretty sure the only reason that they could see the elves right now, is that they did not want the two apprentices to forget they were surrounded.
The marble was secure in Brianne's pocket. There had been a moment of fear when they were searching her when Xander thought they might take it away from Brianne. However, finding nothing resembling weapons on them the elves hadn't bothered to take any of their belongings. Their magic had been shielded and Xander resisted the urge to push against the shield to see how powerful it was. If he made such a move like it could be taken as an offensive act and he could find himself resembling a pincushion rather quickly.
Brianne walked next to him. He had no idea how she could appear so calm when they were essentially prisoners. It was up to the elves now whether they were able to contact the dragons. They were at the fey creature’s mercy, and they knew it. He was not sure how they knew the apprentices were traveling this way, but there was no doubt in his mind that when Elmbane had found them, he had already known they were there.
The trees abruptly stopped, and they found themselves in an elvish encampment. Elves did not settle down in any one place, but rather they moved around their woods and forests contantly. The homes looked like bunches of branches and vines that had reached up from the earth and been twisted as they grew into structures that looked like a small cabins or cottages. Once the elves moved on the plants would magically retract back into the earth leaving little or no sign that anyone had stopped or stayed in this area.
The buildings seemed to be placed half hazard about with no real directionm but radiated out from a definite center. In the center was a larger structure that dwarfed the buildings around it. The vines and plants that had grown to create it also formed several images of different animals and figures along the walls of the structure. A large group of elves milled around armed with bows, arrows, swords, or looking suspiciously like magic users. There was no doubt in Xander's mind this was where the elven leader lived.
The escort took Brianne and him straight into the building without stopping. There was no checking in with guards or announcing their arrival. This meant whoever lived inside knew that they were coming, and was prepared to meet them.
The building was one big room dominated by a large oak throne positioned in the middle of the room. The elven queen did not sit calmly and patiently as one would expect a monarch to. Instead she was positioned sideways in the chair with her feet hanging over one arm rest and her long black hair hanging down over the other side as she stared up at the ceiling. She was notwhat caught Xander's immediate attention. Nightfire stood to her side with his hands folded behind his back waiting patiently. A sinking feeling in Xander's stomach told him that they were well and truly trapped.
"May I present our Queen Lilyshade," Elmbane coughed politely and the queen spun to a sitting position so quickly and smoothly Xander would have missed it if he had blinked. Bowing politely Xander made sure he was as respectful as possible. His eyes however never left Nightfire who was looking less then pleased.
"These are the people who you wanted me to stop?" Lilyshade glanced at Nightfire. "They don't seem that troublesome."
"They are much more troublesome then they appear. My apprentice would tell you that if he wasn't dead. These people are his murderers."
"With all due respect, your apprentice attacked us." Xander stood straight, and from the wince on Elmbane's face, he realized this was a “don't speak unless your spoken too” type of moment. He had already broken the silence, so there was no reason not to barge on. "My queen, we just want to be on our way. We have no intentions of troubling you."
"Your masters trouble me." She gave a side glare to Nightfire, "Dragons trouble me. Whenever dragons are involved it's their troubles over everyone else's” Lillyshade floated to her feet and moved down in front of Xander. "Now I'm stuck between stopping you and making an enemy of your dragons, or I can let you go while Nightfire threatens me. I would put myself in a position where my enemy would be standing in the heart of my family. You see the problem?"
"I see one dragon threatening you. Surely if you're not afraid of my masters you aren't afraid of him?"
"Afraid no." Lilyshade stepped up and poked Xander in the chest. "Wary, yes. I am sure we could overpower him," she casually waved a hand in Nightfire's direction. "But how many elves would I lose in that fight? Are you and yours worth even one of my elves?” She blinked, “No, I think not." She bounced back up to her throne and sat. "Until I have made my decision you will be under my people's protection from Nightfire, and he will be under the same protection from you."
"I thank you for the consideration." Xander tried not to make the words sound as dry as his mouth felt. Nightfire did not need to have the elves make up their minds. He just had to make sure they were held long enough for whatever he had planned. That could be a couple of days, or a couple of weeks. They had to find a way to get out of here before they were out of time.
"Likewise," Nightfire gave a formal bow, but his eyes never left Xander.
"Good, now let's all eat and talk as friends, shall we?" Lilyshade jumped up and clapped and a group of elves entered with a bunch of chairs. Four other elves stepped forward, and a wave of energy moving more quickly than Xander could follow caused a line of giant mushrooms to grow. A cloth was thrown over the mushrooms and there was a serviceable table with seating in the room. It did not escape Xander's attention that there were three more places set then necessary for the queen, Nighfire, him and Breanne. He looked up questioningly and Nighfire gave a snarl of a smile.
"The queen is aware of your other companions. I imagine it might be construed as rude shoul
d they not choose to dine with us." There was a look of satisfaction on his face. There was nothing to do but to open the pocket attached to the marble and wait. Within seconds Chandler, and Sierra popped out causing several of the elves to hop back and reach for weapons. The Queen raised her hands calmly and the weapons were lowered. A moment later to Xander's surprise Ember popped out of the marble as well.
"Your awake!" Hope filled his chest, and despite the situation Xander grinned.
"I am, though just barely." Ember Sat down across from Nightfire's spot. "I apologize queen Lilyshade but I am still recovering, otherwise I would wait for you to be seated properly."
"Your excused, Nighfire has informed me of your condition." Lilyshade sat down and the rest of the group followed suit. This put the queen at the head of the table with Ember on her right hand and Nightfire on her left. Some of the elves took up the side of the table with Nighfire, while Xander's group sat on the side with Ember, this put Xander on Ember's right hand, then Sierra, Chandler, and Breanne. Despite the fact they were technically the elves' prisoners, the food that came out was fresh, hot, and in abundance. They still had plenty stored from the dwarves, but that was no reason to turn away the feast before them.
They dove in with little speech at first, eating roasted venison, fresh vegetables, and several types of flatbread. Xander spent the whole time watching Nightfire pick at his food, while the elven queen swiftly but carefully cleared her plate. Ember ate a couple plates of venison while the apprentices fought not to eat too much food. Xander had about cleared his second plate when Nightfire broke the silence.
"I apologize for the loss of your apprentice, Dell was supposed to capture not kill but apparently he was a little overzealous." The chaos dragon looked a little embarrassed. "I would love to know how your apprentices overpowered him. My understanding was order magic was unable to break through chaos magic without specific training."
"I would love to demonstrate to you how we overcame Dell's magic firsthand." The words were out of Xander's mouth before he could stop himself. The table went still as everyone waited for Nightfire's response. Lilyshade shifted uncomfortably as if debating whether she should stop the conversation.
"Alexander, you will apologize to Nightfire." Ember had a serious look on her face. "There will be no threats here from anyone." She did not look at the chaos dragon, but the implications of her words hung in the air.
"It's quite alright. The death of a friend is always a hard thing to bear. I am at least partially responsible for Michael’s death." Nightfire directed his words at Xander and the apprentices. "My intentions was for Dell to stop you and call me, so I could capture your group with no injury. As I said before he overstepped his duties, and the fallout was less then pleasant for both of us."
"I am sorry nonetheless." Xander tried to sound as if he meant the words when they left his mouth.
"Now, Ember, we could settle this in a calm manner without troubling the elves further." Nightfire leaned back and casually drew the attention to in the room to him. "You by now have figured out that you can't join the dream and talk to the other dragons. I have as much interest as you do in pulling others into our little war. If you surrender to me, I am still willing to grant..."
"I am uninterested in what you would grant me." Ember snapped. "Your kind is a scourge on the world and I intend to see them wiped out. There will be no deals."
The pause sat in the air for a moment and then Nighfire leaned forward, a dark look shadowing his features. "If you surrender, I will only hold you and your apprentices as long as it takes for my kind to make our opening moves. You then will be free to go, with your apprentices to oppose us, or join us as you choose. No tricks, my word on the shadow of my soul."
"I believe you intend to follow those words; but you know as well as I do if I were to surrender to you there would be no going back for me, or my apprentices." Ember gave a weak smile and Xander thought she looked the slightest bit frightened. "I appreciate your offer, but once again I reject it."
"I will add then; I will remove the magic from you I used to cut you off from the dream. You know even if you make it out of here, you may be thrown out just because of that spell. Please, let me handle this peacefully. We have a new world here. You can make the decision to help us end this war quickly with as little damage as possible."
"This world is already damaged." Lillyshade spoke up. "The trees have been stripped from the land. Several tribes of elves woke to find the earth they were tied too is now nothing but buildings and concrete. There are now elves living in human cities because they are unsure what else to do!" The elven queen looked at both Nightfire and Ember. "We will not be pulled into your species bickering again."
"Whether you like it or not, you are here, stuck in between two dragons and that was by your own choice," Ember sipped her water carefully.
"To be fair from the way Nightfire talked about your apprentices I didn't think they would be so easy to capture." Lilyshade shrugged. "I still haven't officially taken a side here, and I need to consider carefully before I take an action that may put my people into your grudge match. If I remember correctly, last time we picked a side it ended with a few thousand years of sleep."
"I don't think anyone intended for the sleep to be so long." Ember looked uncomfortable.
"And to think, it didn't even achieve the goals you hoped to accomplish." Nightfire smiled. "We are still here."
"What was the sleep supposed to accomplish?" Xander had all three sets of eye snap to him, and suddenly he felt very small.
"Well, your masters put everything in the world using magic, specifically order magic, to sleep in dimensional pockets. The also locked away magic itself, which is no mean feat." Nightfire gave a nod of respect to Ember. "Us chaos dragons were locked out of the spell, and we had to scramble and figure out something so we could sneak into those pockets so we weren't left out. Sadly, some of us didn't make it."
"They were stuck without magic?"
"They were stuck in a world with no magic, being creatures that depended on it just to exist. I imagine before they all died out those left behind were little more than mindless beasts who couldn't even fly and hunt properly." The chaos dragon shuddered. "A fate worse than just simply killing them off. Don't you agree Ember?"
"A fate for those who were intent on destroying everything." Ember's voice was steady and sure.
"A fate for those who were just trying to bloody survive. You forced the war, not us. You forced the sleep not us. Someday you will have to recognize that everything that has happened is your fault and you created your own enemies. We were happy to live alongside you and yours."
"But you wouldn't give up your practices that threatened everything. How could we sit still and let your kind risk the world with every single spell that slipped over your lips?"
"By recognizing our right to live as we had for thousands of years before you were hatched."
Both dragons were standing and glaring at each other. The anger between them seemed to be its own animal tearing at both the souls creating it. Their figures cut a stark contrast between Ember's small light-haired figure and Nightfire's dark, large muscled frame. Xander was sure that both were about to take their true form and start fighting when a small quiet voice broke the silence.
"Can you guys go fight outside, I'm hungry and I'm not full yet." Brianne instantly shrunk as the attention in the room turned to her. His fellow apprentice lowered her eyes to her plate and took a big bite out of a hunk of bread and tried to ignore the attention she had drawn.
Both dragons sat down and recomposed themselves, visibly embarrassed at their behavior. It was only a few minutes later when Nightfire stood back up and gave a quick bow to Lilyshade.
"I believe it's time for me to retire. I will be back in the morning to discuss further why you should back my cause." The large figure started to walk towards the door and several elves stepped in his way lowering weapons and preparing spells. Nightfire blinked and t
hen turned towards Lilyshade with a scowl on his face. "Why are you stopping me?"
"Well, since I haven't picked a side, I have to treat you as I do your enemies." Lilyshade stood up straight and for the first time she looked regal and in control. Gone was the distracted elven maid who had sat on the throne when they had walked in. "You will be escorted to your chambers for the night, where we will watch over you as carefully as we do everyone else."
It was hard for Xander not to laugh as Nightfire's Jaw dropped. He looked back and forth surprised by his predicament and finally bowed stiffly to Lilyshade. "Very well," he growled. "Lead the way to my chambers."
"And the rest of you," Lillyshade spoke as she watched Nightfire escorted out of the room. "I expect you to behave as well. You will each have your own individual space, but you are welcome to meet and discuss your situation as you choose. As for me, it is time for me to depart and discuss the situation with the other elven royalty." Lilyshade stepped down and a group of guards fell into a rough formation around her. She left through an exit in the back that either had not been there before and closed up as soon as she had passed through.
The rest of the elves in the room politely stood around the group and prepared to escort them as well. Xander nodded and stood up ready to leave along with the rest of the group.
"We have much to discuss," Ember's eyes were steady and forward. "Let's get to our chambers and make a plan." Chandler stepped in quickly as their master stumbled moving forward and lent his shoulder for support. What plan could get four apprentices and an injured dragon out of this mess? Xander wasn't sure, but he guessed that it was going to be a lot more trouble than they had already faced.
Challenge
The rooms they gathered in were simple. The elves must have grown their rooms at the last minute. Ember was sure that she could still smell the broken earth from the plants growing and several groans still cut the air as the vines settled together. The vegetation growing the buildings looked out of place for where they were in the Rocky Mountains, but she supposed it was part of the elven magic. The small tribe in what was now called Ireland where she had been hatched used similar plants and vines so they might be tied specifically to the elves.