“Understood. When will you be moving?”
“Two more of our party are travelling by more mundane routes from Leefs’elm. We’ll be waiting for them to get here before we make any decisions on that.
What might be an idea whilst we wait for them is to contact our field commanders and let them know I’m on my way. No doubt that will please most of them.” He was thoughtful for a moment, “I’m assuming they have Farglobes.”
“Yes, at the main camp.”
“Good, we need to speak to them and get a better picture of the situation to the north.” After a moment he continued, “Would you get a message to Mor Drek as well, I want Westrom here as soon as possible.”
“Westrom?” Luda blurted.
“Westrom may not be the most inspirational officer I know, but he’s definitely one of the best I know at organisation. That’s a skill that we’ll be needing very shortly.”
Several at the table nodded at that. Sellig sent for a runner, and they quickly put together the messages that needed to be sent. As the youngster left to take them to the tower used for Farglobe communications, the others started to sit slightly more relaxed.
Collett had to admit, it really felt good to actually be doing something pro-active for a change.
Reunion
The next few days passed quickly, as Tamala spent much of her time with the senior magic users of the university. Collett found his temper shortening rapidly as he tried vainly to contact the commanders in the field with the Boraan army, to no avail.
Those he spoke to regarding the lack of communication could offer no explanation, they knew that a Farglobe had been sent with the forces to the north, but no amount of trying could gain the attention of them.
The third day since travelling from Dwarfhome brought no better news for the irritable Islander, until a sleek Helmer Fastship was sighted heading for the harbour. Collett practically sprinted the distance to the stables and commandeered one of the university’s mounts.
Riding briskly through the streets of the port city he could hardly contain himself at the thought of having Dorrin and Farsighter back with them. The experience that Farsighter would bring, along with the quick thinking and all-round ability of Myriana’s cousin Dorrin, were things that he sorely needed at this moment.
He entered the port itself and strained to see the Helmer as she approached. He was not disappointed when he saw the ship coasting toward one of the nearer piers, two figures stood on her prow.
Raising himself in his stirrups he waved both arms above his head. Both figures on the ship saw and returned the wave with raised arms of their own.
He reached the pier they were pulling alongside and leapt down from his mount.
“Dorrin, Magron!” he could see that both men had moved to the side of the ship and were waiting for it to come to a complete stop and the gangway to lowered.
“Avrim, where’ve you been?” Dorrin couldn’t resist poking a little fun at his friend, “We thought you’d have caught up weeks ago. Didn’t you use Luda as a battering ram then?”
Collett laughed loudly, “Believe me, he wanted to try.”
The crew had got the gangway lowered by now and the duo on the ship hurried down and threw their arms around the man on the dock.
“Damn, it’s good to see you again. We were unsure of exactly what happened, but Asrak led us to believe that you were all still alive at least.”
Collett signalled one of the guards at the end of the dock. “Before we carry on, let’s get you some mounts and back up to the University.”
“You’re basing yourself there?” Dorrin asked.
“Temporarily, we’ll be moving north as soon as we get organised.”
“I think getting indoors sounds like a plan to me,” Farsighter indicated gathering clouds that pointed toward one of the seasonal storms of the area starting to build further out over the Middle Sea.
“Agreed.”
A pair of horses were speedily acquired, and the trio rapidly made their way back to the solid buildings of the University. Stood on the steps waiting for them were Tamala, Luda and Vorston. All three raced down the steps to greet the two new arrivals. Luda’s bearhugs even lifted Farsighter off the ground as he spun the old Ranger, laughing.
Tamala was equally as excited, but exercised a bit more restraint, only giving them a quick hug before stepping back and joining in the laughter caused by the giant Lord Holdur’s antics.
They headed back into the building and showed the newly arrived pair through to the food hall where refreshments were ordered. The food was just simple bread, cheese and cold cuts, but to Dorrin and Farsighter anything was better than the ships rations they had been eating for the previous several days.
They told their own story of what had happened since they had last seen each other in Mid’gra, before the others brought them up to date on their own adventures. It didn’t take too long for them all to get up to date, allowing Collett to start telling them of their current plan.
“So, you’ll be wanting me to co-ordinate with the Rangers?” Farsighter pushed his chair back a bit and stretched, refreshing muscles after their ocean trip.
“Yes. We’ll be needing as much information as possible.” Collett glanced at both men, “and I’ll need Dorrin to act as my second-in-command.”
Dorrin spluttered on the mouthful of warm mead he had just taken, “Second-in-command? There’s no end of officers senior to myself.”
“True, but none of them have as much of a grasp as to the importance of what we’re trying to do as you. If the situation arises, I need to know that your orders will be followed.
As such I’m giving you a field promotion to Colonel. The Gods only know if it will stand once we’re done, that’s something you’ll have to take up with your cousin.”
Dorrin nodded, “I can see the logic, but there’s no way Myri will let it stand. She’ll knock me back down just to see the look on my face.”
“Probably,” they all chuckled at the statement.
“Speaking of Her Majesty, you can’t be happy at her plans in Galorn.”
“That’s putting it mildly, but she’s right. I still can’t think of a better idea. We’ll just have to trust young master Ironsson to keep her safe and make sure her plan works.”
Now that they were all back together, arrangements were quickly made for Tamala and Luda to take ship to the southwestern shores of Leefs’elm. As it turned out, the Helmer Fastship in the harbour had orders to make themselves available should the need arise, so a quick series of messages between the captain and Collett had that organised in short order.
As to their own arrangements, mostly that was getting horses and trail rations, again something that was sorted rapidly.
By this time they had missed the early tide of the day. The Helmer captain suggested that as the late tide would be close to sunset, they may as well wait for the following day to start their journey.
This led to a slightly sombre evening meal that night. Sellig joined them as they ate, noting the mood. Conversation was muted as they prepared for the next legs of their journey.
“Lady Tamala, is there anything we can be doing at the University to aide you?” the head of the council asked.
Tamala considered it briefly before replying, “I had a quick glance at your library yesterday, it might be an idea to set some of the senior students or tutors to searching for any texts that refer to source magic.”
“I’ll do that first thing in the morning. I’ll also ask to give some thought to the students, as to whether any of them may be suitable to it as well, though I’m not sure what we need to look out for.
Hopefully we’ll get some idea from any texts we do find.”
“That would be much appreciated My Lord.”
“Anything else that you can think of?”
“Not right now. If we come up with anything else once we reach the Seers, I’ll try and get word to you.”
Sellig just nodded his agreem
ent, allowing the rest of the meal to pass in silence.
Early next morning saw Tamala and Luda stood at the side of the Fastship, waving farewell to the others. Collett waited for the ship to clear the harbour before turning to the others.
“Time to get moving ourselves. Sellig informs me that the main camp of the army is about two days south of Holdur, so we should be able to make it within the week.
I’ve left word for Westrom to be sent straight on to us as soon as he arrives.”
They had already loaded their travel packs onto the saddles of the horses they had been provided with, so there was no need to return to the University. Instead, they headed straight for the northern gate, ready to swiftly get on the road heading toward Holdur.
Legacy
Cal woke early. A habit he doubted he would ever get out of. He threw back the blanket that had covered him while he slept and crawled to the mouth of the small tent he was using. He had actually become so used to sleeping in the open, even in the mountains, that erecting a tent each night was quite a novelty.
Sticking his head out of the tent flaps he saw several dwarves were already up and about. Some of them had probably been on sentry duty through part of the night, but others already appeared to have gathered some wood for the fires and breakfast preparation was already under way.
He saw movement against the sides of Astridson’s tent but nothing from Myriana’s yet. He pulled himself out from under the canvas and stretched, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air.
They had been on the trail nearly a week now and had left the mountains behind them. The rising foothills were receding into the low rolling hills that covered much of northern Galorn. Cal still wasn’t entirely sure what he was expected to do whilst he was with the Queen, but he had rapidly caught on to the fact that part of what she wanted was to simply have someone of a similar age that she could talk with.
Their first night on the trail he had been drawn into a conversation that seemed to be purely about the kind of simple everyday worries most young women would have, whilst during the second day she had started asking him about ideas for her coronation. He had stumbled through both conversations, but by the fourth night he thought he had figured out why she was doing this.
Whilst he and his companions had been facing many dangers to try and rescue the Queen, Cal always thought they would eventually succeed and for the most part he had older, more experienced companions to fall back on.
He had to remind himself that despite the way he had seen her handle herself, Myriana was actually younger than he was. To have this much thrown on her shoulders must be a terrible strain, and part of her way to address the issue was to draw him into conversations about the trivial. Trying to take her mind off of these things.
It made sense to him, whether he was right or not was a different matter. Having stretched he leaned back into the tent and picked up the scabbard containing his mystical blade.
It felt strange to know the power that it contained, but he still didn’t really know how to best use it or whether its flaming ability was controlled by circumstance, rather than something intentional. Even so, whilst it may not be flaming at this present moment, he knew that should Collett or Farsighter ever hear that he neglected to practice with it each day he would be in real trouble.
He made his way to a clear area behind the tents and began to run through the exercises he had been shown. Despite the cool air he quickly worked up a sweat, though this didn’t bother him. As he flowed from one stance to another, he felt refreshed, as if the process were empowering his mind and body at the same time as ingraining the moves that would eventually become instinctual. He knew from talking to the others that this was what all good swordsmen strove for, and he was determined to attain that level of proficiency himself.
As he finished going through the exercise routine, he was surprised to hear the sound of clapping coming from behind him. He turned to see Myriana watching from a log a few yards back and flipped his sword up in salute.
“You can be very quiet when you want Your Majesty.”
Smiling, she stood. “Thank you. I dare say Commander Collett would condemn you for not realising I was here.”
“Probably,” Cal returned the smile, “before pointing out all the mistakes I made during the exercise.”
“I was sent to see if you wanted any breakfast.”
“Sent?”
“Well, politely asked, but it amounted to being sent.” She stuck her tongue out at the look on Cal’s face, “Sometimes I think these dwarves forget that I’m a queen.”
“Unlikely Your Majesty.” Cal laughed in reply.
“Maybe. I want to have a talk with Franc before we get to my uncle’s estates as well. How much do you know about the Lighters?”
“Not as much as I would like. While we stayed with them I got the distinct impression that despite it all they were hiding something.
Agorel for a start, I’d swear the canyon where its situated is much larger than we were led to believe.”
“Oh?” the young queen leaned forward as he spoke.
“It was always misty, so you could never see one side from the other. And on the occasions I went for a stroll, or was taken to see the Light, we seemed to walk for much further than what we’d seen would allow.
It was a very strange place. It almost had a makeshift appearance to it, as if it wasn’t meant to be permanent.”
“Interesting. I definitely need to have that conversation.”
They returned to the centre of the tents, to where food was being prepared. Cal took the opportunity to wash in a bowl of cold water provided, before joining the others. Astridson was set beside the young queen, helping himself to a bowl of hot porridge.
“Morning,” he greeted the young man from Fallon’s Glen, “Practicing?”
Cal nodded is acknowledgement, “It’s helps stretch after sleeping on this rough ground.”
They all chuckled at that before Myriana addressed the Lighter. “I need to know something.”
“Majesty?”
“How much assistance can we expect from your people?”
Astridson’s face clouded for a moment before he responded, “I’m afraid very little at the moment.”
“I get the feeling there’s a reason behind that.” Cal’s voice sounded curious as he spoke.”
“There is, how much do you know of the Lighter people?”
Both Cal and Myriana shook their heads, Myriana answering, “Not much. I know most of the old tales, but not much more. Cal?”
“I don’t even know most of those. Before travelling to Agorel I only knew a few legends about your people, but most of those seem to be vastly different to the reality of what I saw there.”
“That’s true. Most of the legends you know are just that, legends. But some of them contain a grain of truth.
We used to live in a city, like men do, but something happened. What exactly that was I can’t tell you, most of the true history of that time is hidden even from ourselves.
Certainly there are still some who know the truth, I would certainly guess that the Light knows what happened. Perhaps a few of the other elders, but we youngsters aren’t told it.” He smiled ruefully.
I do know that there is some sort of prophecy, amazingly from roughly the same time as your own,” he indicated Myriana, “which tells that the city will rise again when the Spire sees the light.”
“Spire, could that mean Needle Spire?”
Astridson nodded at Cal, “That’s what a lot of us think, but what ‘sees the light’ means we have no idea. Several of us have made the trip to Needle Spire over the years. Whether they succeeded in gaining access or not we couldn’t say as none of them ever returned.”
“Sounds like the start of a good ghost story,” Myriana had the grace to look slightly embarrassed by her outburst, whilst the other two burst out laughing.
“It does doesn’t it? We are told as children that it is our legacy to lend the
support that will change the world. I like to think that this is exactly what we are doing right now but would have preferred it if our support numbered more than one of us.”
“Well, whatever support your people can offer will be gratefully received by this Queen, if by no-one else.”
“Thank you, Majesty.
I’m not entirely sure, but I get the feeling that whatever is meant by this legacy, its something which is going to come to light soon.”
Command
It had taken seven days to reach, but Collett and the others could at last see the main camp of the Boraan army. They had crested a large hill to find it laid out before them, although rising smoke had alerted them to the fact it was close several hours before.
Collett looked about to see where the nearest sentries were, and immediately his command head started screaming in his mind. He couldn’t see a single sentry on either the hill they were on, or any of the nearby ones.
Down closer to the camp he could see some, but there was no way they were providing anything like enough lead time if they saw anything. The camp itself looked lax, he couldn’t see any troops exercising or practicing, and even the layout looked scruffy, for lack of a better word.
They carried on down to the camp itself, halting only a few yards short of the first tents when someone finally challenged them.
“Can I help you?” The tone of the sentry’s voice said quite clearly that he was going to be anything but helpful.
“As it happens, yes.
Firstly, would you go and get your commanding officer. Secondly, you can go and grab the first two companies you come across and drag them all back here in full kit so I can let them know which direction to take their patrols.
Oh, thirdly.” His voice suddenly reached the kind of volume that parade sergeants the world over would recognise, “you can complete all of that in the next ten minutes and then get your scrawny arse, along with every single member of your troop, up onto the tops of the hills behind us were you might stand a chance of seeing an enemy approaching!
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