by J Battle
'I can sometimes listen to suggestions, my dear, and don't forget, I will be expecting my due reward in addition to that respect when I return.'
'Of course, my Lord. That is only right.'
'I will expect to find you lay on your bed with a band over your eyes, and your body naked and ready to receive your master's passion.'
Esmere fought to hide the shiver that ran through her body.
'Band over my eyes, My Lord?'
'To stop you giving me those nasty, angry looks of yours. I don't want reminding of one who went before you.'
'She must have hurt you so, to be still so concerned?'
'Hurt! You can't hurt a Trytor. You should know that.'
She bowed her head, but remained silent.
Just then, there was a noise at the door, and Orther popped his head around its edge.
'Sorry to bother ye, my Lord, like. But, begging your pardon and all that, but we ain't, so far as we can see, and we've looked, haven't we there Harld? Yes indeed, we've looked everywhere, and we cain't find it, my Lord. 'Cause we don't know where he keeps it, so, Harld here, he said we could ask you to, you know, if it don't be too much trouble, and begging your pardon once more to be sure, if you could give us some money, then we can be off about doing your business, like, if you can, like; if it be not too much trouble, Mr Lydorth.'
Lydorth leapt from his throne. 'Go!!' he yelled as he landed on the massive gray slabs of the floor.
The door slammed behind them, and the Trytor and the girl were left alone.
'When will you go, my Lord, outside?'
'I think it will be tomorrow before those fools can organise everything, don't you think?'
'Yes, my Lord.' replied Esmere, whilst her mind raced.
*********
'We should go and hide in our tree-house and have a few smokes, and a few more laughs,' suggested Gorge, as he walked along the harbor wall with Sam and Tom.
'Ah, that's a grand idea. It's ages since we done it all together,' agreed Sam.
'Well, let me see. I have to be somewhere before the sun settles, but I have some time I can spare with ye,' said Tom.
'Would that be the fair Julienne who will be occupying your time, there Tom?'
'Now Gorge, you know I can't speak of such; not in front of Sam, leastways.'
'No need to worry none about me, there Tom. I knows what you're talking 'bout, and that's for sure. And she sure is pretty, that Julienne, and I don't mean no offence by saying that.'
'You're alright there, Sam, and I agree with you. There ain't a prettier girl in all of the valley.'
'Why is she wasting her time with you, then Tom?'
'Ah now, Gorge, you know the girls always like me.'
'Come on, then. Last to the tree-house has to stand on one leg and whistle like a pluck-bird!' yelled Sam, as he set off up Main Street.
Tom gave Gorge a quick shove to slow him down, and then he ran after Sam.
Gorge watched them go, with half a smile on his face. It slipped away quickly when it struck him that this might be the last time for a while that the three of them would be together, if they would ever be the same again.
With a sigh, he began to follow them.
Chapter 64 BobbyJ
BobbyJ slung his bag over his shoulder, and he smiled at the weight of the Stone.
'Right, my dear, I'll be off and on my way, now the sun's rubbed the sleep from his eyes.'
'Fair thee well, BobbyJ, and you won't go forgetting me now, will you?'
He smiled once more and put his nearly human hand against her smooth cheek.
'Now that would be a thing, if a man could forget one such as you, my dear, and I can't see that happening in this lifetime'
Her eyes glowed as she returned his smile. 'Be careful now, and avoid meeting people if you can. You're coming closer to what you one day shall be, and they might not take it well.'
'Don't you worry none about me, as I'll be cutting across country, and there won't be many roads, nor people to use them. And, if I do happen to come across someone who looks at me funny, well I'm sure I know well enough what to do.'
'Will you ever come back this way again, dearie?'
'Mayhap I will, if I have much to say about it, and will I find you here if I do?'
'Now, that's another question altogether, my dearie. I wander where the urge takes me, for I'd not witness much here by the side of the road. So, I may be near, or I may be far. If I sense your Stone, and I'm close enough, then I may return, to see if your vigour remains, if nothing else.'
'Goodbye, my dear. I'll see you in my dreams for sure, if nowhere else.'
He turned and began to walk up the slope of the hill, his limp hardly detectable now that neither of his legs retained much of their human shape.
Ellaine Woewearer watched him go for a moment longer. She searched within herself for some regret at the loss of his company, and his passion, but there was little enough to be found.
In her long, long life there had been many to fulfil his role in her bed, so regret at the loss of the latest was hardly likely.
But the Stone; now, that was another thing entirely. She’d certainly miss its generosity. And how wise was it to let him walk away with it? What would come of that?
There were shadows of the future that were sometimes visible to her, but on this, she was blind.
She turned and began to walk slowly down the hill; taking her time as she went. She had plenty of time to spare, as she didn't expect the next traveler to come along the road for an hour or so.
And when he did appear, in the distance, with his long ungainly stride she would be waiting there for him.
*********
Crawlord Elstar bustled along the coast road, ignorant of the pounding sea to his left, and the gentle green slope to his right.
All he was concerned with was speed. BobbyJ, or whatever the human was called, had a good start on him, and he had to catch him before he left the road, or else he'd never find where he'd gone.
He was so focused on his task that he hardly noticed the young lady who stepped into the road directly before him.
'Pah! Move out of my way or be trodden to dust!' he snapped; hardly slowing.
'My Lord.' She held one hand out as if that could stop the onrushing creature bearing down on her, and somehow it did.
'What?' Elstar glared down at her, as he came to a stop.
'Elflord, forgive the impertinence of a poor human female, in stopping you when you are about your important business.'
For some reason, Elstar seemed to get stuck on the word 'Elflord.' Such a title should have been his by right, if he had achieved his aim and secured the Wellstone. He could see his triumphant entrance to the fellhall, with the Stone glowing incandescently in his hands and Blodness clinging to his arm. If only; if only; if only.
'My Elflord, I believe you seek the Wellstone, for it is your right, sure enough. I saw the man, he was here on this very road not a day since. I was sitting and resting my feet, and I spied him, though he did not see me.'
'You saw him? Which way did he go? A day you say? A day ahead of me; I can make that up if you get yourself out of my way.'
'Nay, Elflord, you misunderstand me. He was here on this road, but he is no longer. He's left the road, to go who knows where?'
Elstar looked up the hill. 'So he's gone up there?'
'Nay, Elflord, you must look to your left, for that's the way he took, in a little boat, I saw.'
Elstar turned to the sea, as if he had never even noticed it before.
'He's sailed across the water with it? What land lies south of here, woman?'
'Why, it be Fairisle, across the water a ways there, Elflord.'
'So, he's gone to Fairisle, has he?'
Without another word, he spun on his heels and began to race back the way he came.
Now he had even less time to waste, for he must reach the fellhall before the Elflord and all of the other Elvenfolk set sail for Fairisle.
Ellaine watched him go; her face impassive.
It wouldn't do, she thought, for the crawlord to acquire the Stone and take it out of easy reach. In the hands of a man, she could always bend him to her will and gain access to the Stone when the years again began to weigh on her slim shoulders.
If the Elvenfolk had the Stone, she would have to subject herself to their arbitrary and nasty whims.
Even for the Stone, she was not prepared to do that.
Of course, the Stone was on its way into the hands of the Trytor. What would that mean for the world? For the Trytor had never expressed interest in Magic before, and the last of them surely had no knowledge of such things.
Was it a mistake she’d rue one day, to let the Stone leave the hands of man?
‘Ah, am I not Ellaine Woewearer?’ she whispered.
She turned away then, and she began to hum a little lilting tune. Then she smiled and began her song.
'He's gone now, and he'll never return
He's gone now, because they never learn
The tears will wash away the pain
'till a memory is all that remains
He's gone now, and he'll never return.'
Chapter 65 Giants
'Why are we doing this again?' said Aarvarn, as he shifted the great rock to a more comfortable position on his belly.
'For the Lady-woman of course. Less you want her to give you a bad head again.'
'That was some trick of Magic, or something. I ain't never had a bad head from drink; not never.'
'Well, she said we was to help, and we were to pick up heavy things for them, and that's what we're doing.'
'Now, Raarvan, tell me this for nothing. What's this 'heavy' thing she kept talking about?'
'Heavy is when something don't want to be got off the ground, less you give it a good tug.'
'So, this here rock, it's heavy?'
'It's not a rock. A rock is something you can hold in yer hand. That's a boulder, 'cause you wrap your arms around it.'
'What is it if it's too big to wrap your arms around?'
Raarvan put his boulder down on the ground and scratched his head as he considered his old friend’s question.
Then he nodded as the answer came to him.
'Then it be a mountain,' he replied as he bent to pick up his boulder.
'Ah, I see. Looksee; that little man there, next to the Lady-woman, he's waving at us. What's he want, do you think?'
'I reckon that be where he wants us to put the boulders.'
Alice smiled as she saw the Giants approach, carrying the massive rocks as if they weighed next to nothing.
‘Thank you so much for your help. We couldn’t have done this without you. Now, Mr Jackspring here, he’ll tell you exactly where to drop those rocks for the best effect.’
‘Don’t you know, Lady-woman, these ain’t rocks? These be boulders, don’t they Raarvan?’
‘Well, thank you very much for putting me right there. Mr Aarvarn. Mr Jackspring will show you where to put those boulders.’
Aarvarn nodded his great head and grunted, then he turned to the small, thin man in a leather jerkin and heavy pants.
‘Where d’you want this then, little man?’
Mr Jackspring gave Alice a quick nervous glance.
‘I…if you…begging your pardon, like, if you’d just drop it over there, just before the end of that there wall, on this side, so’s it blocks the channel that diverts water from the river to the reservoir. And if your friend there, he can put his rock next to yours, and leave just a little space between it and the bank, ‘cause we want to reduce the water flowing into the reservoir, but not stop it all.’
Aarvarn looked at Raarvan. ‘Did ye catch what he said there? There were too many words for me, and his voice was too quick and sharp.’
‘I didn’t catch them all, but I reckon all we need is to know where we put the boulders, and if we get him to just point, then I reckon we won’t have to listen to anymore words.’
‘I think you could have said that, and not said so much.’
‘Put it where he points.’
‘That be better. I reckon if a person could only say a hundred words a day, that’d be better.’
‘What if you use all your words, and you can’t ask to be fed?’
‘I’m a Giant; I don’t ask, I just eat.’
They dropped their boulders where they were directed to, and then they turned to return to Hesselton.
‘Gentlemen, if I may ask you for a little more help?’ Alice blocked their path, which, for anyone else, would have been an unwise thing to do.
‘It be time to eat, Lady-woman, so, if helping you means eating, then ye can ask. If it don’t, you’d best wait.’ Raarvan began to walk around her.
‘Of course; how rude of me not to offer you a meal? It must be an hour or more since you last had something to eat. We can talk whilst you eat, if you don’t mind.’
‘If I be eating, I don’t mind nothing when I'm eating.’
A little while later Alice had them sitting outside the Stay Awhile tavern, each with a hogshead in one hand, and a hog's body in the other.
'Now, gentlemen, if you forgive me for talking to you whilst you eat, I have something important to discuss with you.'
She paused then for a response, but all she got was a considerable amount of crunching, interspersed with unfeasibly loud slurping.
'I have reports that a large body of Giants, or I should say a great number, as a large body could be just one Giant. I've been told that these Giants are moving south, in a great line that crosses the countryside, and they are eating and trampling everything they pass.'
Raarvan nodded. 'Ay, that's what we do, us Giants. Don't we, Aarvarn?'
Aarvarn was not currently in a position to comment, so he burped just so he'd have some input to the conversation.
'Of course, that is what Giants do. Now, if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, we are happy to have you fine Giants staying with us, and we can manage to find the food to feed your wonderful appetites, at least for a few weeks more. But, we cannot hope to feed dozens or even hundreds of Giants. In a matter of days, they would leave us starving and helpless in the face of the severe winter that we will see this year.'
Aarvarn nodded, in a non-committal, 'get on with it' way.
'So, I would ask you, if you are able, to go forth and meet this force of Giants...'
'A group of Giants is called a percussion,' said Raarvan. 'Ain't it, Aarvarn?'
'I just call 'em a group. Can't say per... whatever it be.'
'So, if you could go out and meet this 'percussion' and tell them that you have explored this whole area and that there is nothing for them here, and they shouldn't waste their precious time by coming this way, and they should carry along up the coast where things will be much better for them.'
Aarvarn glanced at Raarvan, and then back at the remnants of the pig in his hand.
'Talk to Raarvan, will you, Lady-woman, 'cause you talk too fast, and you use too many words for me, and I am eating.'
'Lady-woman; ye can't expect us to go and deceive our own people that way. We be Giants, and they be Giants, so that's that.'
Raarvan nodded and looked around himself for something else to eat.
Alice watched him closely, but said not a word.
At last, he looked over to her and said, 'We've finished the food you brought, Lady-woman.'
She made no response, other than the folding of her arms.
'And we've nothing left to drink,' offered Aarvan, as he waved his empty hogshead.
Still she remained resolutely unmoved by their plight.
'And we're still hungry,' said Raarvan, in an 'oh she doesn't understand the situation' sort of way.
Then she stepped a little closer. 'Do you like being hungry?' she said, softly.
Aarvarn shifted uncomfortably on his massive buttocks.
'I... I don't... What's she mean there, Raarvan?'
'She...what do you mean Lady-woman?'
'This is what it will be like for you, when the other Giants come and eat all our food and trample our crops. Not only will we go hungry. You also will not have food to eat, so you'd best be happy to go hungry.'
'I don't like being hungry,' said Aarvarn, his great face awash with concern, 'less it be peckish; I don't mind being peckish, when I sit down to eat.'
'There'll be nothing to eat. Nothing at all.' Her words were calm but cold, as were her eyes as she studied the enormous creatures before her.
'Raarvan, I don't like this. Make her stop.'
Raarvan lumbered to his feet, with a considerable amount of groaning, and even the odd creak.
He towered over the diminutive figure of the young woman, but she held her ground.
He stood there for a moment, with his boulder-sized fists clenching and unclenching, and a scowl on his broad face as he worked through the thought processes that would generate his next actions.
Then he grunted and hrrumped and snorted.
He finished with a sound which could have been a sigh, or mayhap a groan.
'Come on there, Aarvarn. Get yourself on your feet if ye can. We've got some walking to before we eat again, I reckon. Am I right there, Lady-woman?'
She smiled and nodded.
'Come on Aarvarn, we've got some Giants to talk to.'
'Giants? Are they here already? What are we going to say to them?' He was on his feet by then, and he was shoving a well-sucked thigh-bone into his belt.
'We're going to lie to them, Aarvarn, so you best let me do the talking.'
As the pair lumbered across the wharf to Main Street, Alice's shoulders slumped a little as the stress of dealing with the large, dangerous and unpredictable creatures was relieved, if only for the time being.
Chapter 66 Boys
'Now, this is the thing, lads, ain't it?' said Tom, as he stretched.
'Ay, it is that,' agreed Sam.