“Not likely,” Kierkan Rufo had to add, fearing that Cadderly’s newest revelations would keep them all in the forest longer than the man desired.
“Oh, but there are,” came a voice from the side. An elf that none of them knew rose from the brush just a few feet away and smiled at Ivan’s glower and the others’ stupefied expressions.
“Pardon my eavesdropping,” the elf said. “Your conversation was much too interesting for me to interrupt, and I only speak now to tell you that there are indeed trees in Shilmista from the days of King Dellanil: a grove of huge oaks, west of here. The place is called Syldritch Trea, the Most Ancient Trees.”
“Did King Galladel go to Syldritch Trea when he failed in his attempt at the summoning?” Cadderly asked, already suspecting the answer but eager for confirmation.
The elf thought for a moment then answered, “No, I do not believe he did. But neither was King Dellanil in Syldritch Trea when he called the trees.”
“Bring Elbereth, I beg, and hurry,” said Cadderly, ignoring the elf’s last statement. “Shilmista’s day may not be past.”
The elf nodded curtly and was gone, disappearing into the surrounding brush in the blink of an eye.
“Ye cannot be thinking …” Ivan began slowly.
“Indeed I can,” Cadderly replied.
“He just said that Dellanil—” Danica started to protest.
“Don’t presume anything about the ancient forest,” Cadderly interrupted. “Perhaps, in that time, the trees called to each other after Dellanil began the enchantment. Perhaps the trees spread the summons throughout Shilmista.”
Ivan’s look reflected his doubts. Even Pikel, so hopeful when they’d first tried to awaken the trees, frowned.
“It will work,” Cadderly growled at them with such determination that even Ivan did not try to tell him differently.
Danica hooked his arm for support and gave him an approving wink.
Elbereth arrived a short while later, accompanied by Shayleigh and Galladel. The three had already heard of Cadderly’s latest revelation, and Galladel seemed displeased.
“Syldritch Trea,” Cadderly said as soon as they arrived, giving the pessimistic elf king no time to quash his momentum. “The summons will work in Syldritch Trea.”
“You cannot know that,” Elbereth replied, though the elf prince appeared intrigued.
“And we cannot afford to waste precious time,” King Galladel added. “You have seen the despair your false hopes have given us, priest. It would be better now for all concerned—if you continued on your way home.”
“Home.…” Cadderly echoed, aiming his remark at Elbereth. “Quite a concept, that. A place to be defended, perhaps. At least, that’s what I, who have never had a true home, was once told.”
Danica winced and gave Cadderly’s arm a jerk as Elbereth stormed over to stand before them.
“What do you know of it?” the elf prince demanded. “Do you believe it is with light hearts that we leave Shilmista?”
“I don’t believe you wish to leave at all,” Cadderly replied, not bending an inch under Elbereth’s cold glare. “And perhaps you need not. Perhaps—”
“ ’Ware his twisted tongue!” Galladel cried. “I understand you now, n Tel’Quessir,” the elf king roared, wagging an accusatory finger Cadderly’s way. “You have come to encourage us to continue this hopeless battle, to sacrifice us, that your own precious home might be saved.”
“The library is not my home,” Cadderly muttered, but his words were lost in the ensuing explosion of protests aimed at the king from Ivan and Danica, a “Hey!” from Pikel, and even a few stern words from Elbereth.
When things quieted again, Cadderly gave Galladel’s accusation not another thought. He looked at Elbereth, and at Elbereth only, as he made his case.
“The summons must work,” he said. “I believe in it with all my heart. This is no ruse, no deception to encourage sacrifice. It’s a hope that your home will not fall under our monstrous enemy’s shadow, that the elven dance will continue in this forest throughout my lifetime at least.”
“Syldritch Trea lies to the west and north,” Elbereth replied. “To get there, I will have to cross the enemy lines once more, and far deeper this time. If the summons does not work.…”
“You’ll not go alone,” Cadderly vowed, and he shot a glance Galladel’s way.
“He’ll not go at all!” the king growled.
“What say you, Elbereth?” Cadderly continued, holding the prince’s gaze from his father’s scowl. “Back on the paths of the Snowflakes you told me you would fight for Shilmista, that you would kill every invader without mercy. I have no home but I will go with you, fight with you and die with you if that must be, on this last chance for the forest.”
“As will I,” Danica asserted.
“Seems we’re going for another walk, me brother,” Ivan piped in, and Pikel’s head wagged in approval.
Elbereth looked around at all of them, his smile growing wider with each passing heartbeat.
“You have given me hope, Sha’Quessir,” he said to Cadderly. “I will read the words in Syldritch Trea, and let the forest decide its fate.”
“And yours,” Galladel snarled. “What will you do when the trees do not awaken? You will be caught in the open and vulnerable, surrounded by our merciless enemies. I hoped I would not live to see my son perish, but never would I have imagined that his death would come from his own foolishness.”
Shayleigh, for so long biting back her increasingly bitter thoughts, broke her silence at last. “Not foolishness,” she cried. “Courage. Many will go with you, Prince Elbereth, entrusting their lives to your hopes and to the forest.”
“That would not be wise,” Elbereth replied, but for purely practical reasons and not because of any doubts he had concerning the ancient summons. “A small band might slip through without a fight.”
“Then we shall meet your return,” Shayleigh promised. “With the trees of Syldritch Trea beside us, we will drive the enemy from our land!”
“I am still King of Shilmista,” Galladel, standing some distance from the conspirators, reminded them.
“You wish to come along and read the summons?” Cadderly asked, for he knew well that Galladel had no desire to do any such thing. Beside him, Danica gasped at his impudence.
“I could strike you down for that, human,” Galladel growled at him.
“I don’t think so,” Ivan remarked, his axe bouncing prominently on one shoulder.
“And you, dwarf,” spat the elf king. “When this is ended—”
“Aw, shut yer mouth and get in line behind yer son,” Ivan snapped.
Galladel cast a murderous glare at all of them, turned, and stormed away.
“How dare you speak to the King of Shilmista like that?” Danica scolded Cadderly, amazed, though obviously not as upset as her words made her sound.
Cadderly looked away from her, to Elbereth, more interested in what the prince thought. Elbereth said nothing, but his nod was one of approval.
“You have inspired my father’s hopes as well,” Elbereth said. “I do not doubt that King Galladel will be among those awaiting our return from Syldritch Trea, waiting to fight beside the forest itself to rid our land of the foul invaders.”
The elf prince and Shayleigh followed Galladel away then, with many plans to be made.
Kierkan Rufo didn’t know what to make of Danica’s approach, or of her grim visage. Sensing another telepathic intrusion from the wretched imp, Rufo had wandered off alone, away from Cadderly and the others.
“And so I shall return to the library alone,” the man said meekly to the approaching woman, “to tell of your bravery, and of Cadderly’s, and to hope that all goes well in this ancient grove of oaks, this Syldritch Trea that the elves speak of so reverently.”
“Your hopes for our success had better be sincere,” Danica replied. “You’re coming with us.”
Rufo nearly toppled at the announcement. “I?
” he balked. “What use could I be? I am hardly a fighter and am not … knowledgeable of the woodlands … in any way.”
“It’s not for your value that I insist you come,” Danica explained. “I fear the consequences of leaving you here.”
“How dare you speak such words?” Rufo groused.
“I dare not hesitate to speak them,” Danica retorted. “I don’t trust you, Kierkan Rufo. Know that, and know that you shall accompany us.”
“I will not!”
Rufo didn’t even see her move, but suddenly he lay on his back, looking up at the stars with a burning pain behind his knees. Danica bent over him and scowled.
“You will not be left behind, “she said. “Understand that, for the sake of your very life.”
By the time the sun began its ascent in the east, Elbereth, Shayleigh, and two score of other elves had found their way back to Cadderly and his companions.
“It is decided,” the elf prince announced. “We three—you, Danica, and I—shall go to Syldritch Trea.”
Pikel cleared his throat.
Elbereth looked to Cadderly and Danica.
“They did save your—our—lives,” Cadderly reminded the prince. “And I would honestly feel safer with the brothers beside me.”
“Why would you wish to come along?” Elbereth asked Ivan. “This journey could prove ill-fated, and even if it is not, the gain will mean little to you.”
“Me brother likes trees,” Ivan answered without the slightest hesitation.
Elbereth shrugged hopelessly, and Cadderly thought he saw the elf quickly dismiss an appreciative smile. “Then we five shall go—”
“Six,” Danica corrected.
Even Cadderly turned on her curiously.
“Kierkan Rufo insists that he come along,” Danica explained. “He fears being left alone in the forest with only the elves, whom he does not understand.”
The notion seemed absurd—Rufo had already been left with the elves—but when Cadderly looked to the man, he was nodding, if somewhat reluctantly.
“Six, then,” said Elbereth.
“None of yer own folk got the belly for it?” Ivan asked.
“Perhaps when all of this is ended, I should get in line behind Elbereth and King Galladel,” Shayleigh answered, before Elbereth could explain. She tried to cast a threatening glare but couldn’t hold it in the face of Ivan’s amused chuckle.
“The People will be there,” Elbereth explained. “All of them. Even my father. They’ll be near us, unseen in the boughs. They will give us the cover we require to allow us to get through to Syldritch Trea, and they will be ready to begin the final battle when the summons is complete.
“You must understand the risks,” Elbereth continued, mostly to Cadderly. “If the trees do not come to my call, then many, perhaps all, of Shilmista’s elves will die. In light of that, tell me again of your confidence in the ancient words.”
“If the trees do not answer, then my life, too, will be forfeit,” the scholar replied in defense of his claims. “As will Danica’s, which I treasure above my own.”
Danica glanced sidelong at Cadderly. He didn’t return the look, intent on Elbereth, but she knew he understood her approval of the change that had come over him.
They set off immediately after their morning meal, the company of six with a host of elves slipping all around them, clearing their path.
Kierkan Rufo was not pleased, though he was smart enough to keep his complaints silent. Merciless Danica had left him no choice, and so he had come along.
So, too, in Rufo’s mind, had Druzil.
Dorigen got the news of the elves’ departure not too long after. She sat in her tent in Ragnor’s camp, trying to decide what course to take.
“They tried once before to awaken the trees,” Druzil reminded her, hoping to ease her obvious torment. “Why should we believe their luck will be any better this time?”
“We would be wise to fear anything involving that young scholar and his resourceful friends,” Dorigen replied.
“We can catch them,” Druzil said, eagerly rubbing his plump hands together.
Dorigen shook her head. “Not again.”
Druzil’s bulbous eyes narrowed. “Have you lost your courage along with your barbarian lover?”
Dorigen’s answering glare stole the bite from the absurd remark. “My wisdom has grown with my failures,” she corrected. “Our last defeat cost me much prestige in this camp, and in Ragnor’s eyes. I doubt the ogrillon would lend me the soldiers to capture that crew—and that number, I fear, would be considerable.”
“He’s just a boy,” Druzil remarked, “and his friends as unlikely a group of heroes as ever there was.”
“He is a boy who nearly destroyed you in mental combat,” Dorigen reminded him, “and whose friends include an elf prince and a woman able to dodge lightning. Must I remind you of the mighty dwarves as well? Ogres, a dozen orogs …”
“Enough, enough,” Druzil conceded, not wanting to hear the disastrous battle recounted. “I only hoped that we might discover some method to regain our advantage. Their course might prove dangerous to us all. I had thought to lessen—”
“You’re correct,” Dorigen interrupted, rising with determination from her seat. “This is too important to be concerned with the petty squabbles of Castle Trinity.”
“You’re going to Ragnor?” Druzil asked. “What of the young priest?”
“I am,” Dorigen answered. “As for Cadderly, we two will look for a way to take him, as we had originally planned. If that way cannot be found, then he will die with the rest of them.”
She left the tent in a rush, leaving Druzil to sit alone on the small table with his private thoughts.
“People.…” the imp muttered.
NINETEEN
THROUGH THE LINES DANGEROUSLY
When you pass the duskwood tangle, get down to the left, came Druzil’s telepathic instructions. The soldiers have been instructed not to harm you.
Kierkan Rufo looked around anxiously, fearing that the cold sweat on his forehead would give him away. The others seemed unconcerned with him. They were all nervous, even Ivan, crouching and crawling along with the undeniable knowledge that monsters lurked all around them. They heard the cries of battle somewhere behind them and to the north, and they knew that Shayleigh and Tintagel were hard at work, keeping the pressure off their secretive band.
Rufo pondered the reference to the tangle of duskwood trees. Elbereth had mentioned the place just a short while before, saying that they would get beyond it soon.
Rufo was running out of time.
Danica crawled along, her crystal-bladed daggers held tightly in her hands. She saw Elbereth to the side, similarly crawling, making for a goblin guard twenty feet from the two Danica had chosen as her targets.
It had to be done swiftly and quietly; they could smell the goblins in the woods around them and wanted to avoid a fight if at all possible. An unfortunate three were in their path, though, and the companions had no time to go around them. Skirmishes were becoming too common around the group, echoing from both sides and behind. Shayleigh, Tintagel, and the other elves soon would be hard-pressed as the enemy closed in on that section of the forest, and Elbereth’s party had to get to Syldritch Trea without delay—to the misfortune of three goblin guards.
Danica looked over to Elbereth, who had taken position just a few feet behind his goblin. The elf nodded for her to go first, and Danica agreed, since her task would be more difficult.
She clutched her daggers, feeling the golden tiger sculpture in one hand and the silver dragon in the other. Crouching low, she crossed her wrists in front of her at waist level, with the dagger blades pointing up and out.
The goblins, backs to her, were only two strides away, talking easily, suspecting nothing.
Danica leaped between them. They managed to gasp just once before the monk, in a single movement, snapped her arms out wide, driving the daggers up under their chins. The goblin
s twitched; one got its hand weakly up to grab Danica’s wrist.
A cry to the side turned Danica around. Elbereth’s goblin stood facing her, its weapon dropped and its arms held out wide. The creature jerked, its face contorted in confusion. Elbereth’s sword came bursting out the front of the doomed creature’s chest.
Danica and Elbereth nodded to each other and dropped back into the brush, holding their positions for a few moments to ensure that no other monsters were about. Together they rejoined the others and explained that the way was clear.
“We should make the duskwood tangle without further delay,” Elbereth explained. “Syldritch Trea is less than a mile to the west of that.”
Elbereth paused, and a curious expression crossed his face as he regarded Kierkan Rufo, who stood trembling, with sweat rolling down his face.
“What is it?” the elf asked.
“If ye’ve not the belly for it—” Ivan began, but Danica hushed him.
“I cannot get him out of my thoughts,” a frantic Rufo admitted. The man looked around, his beady, dark eyes darting desperately, as though he expected all the monsters of the Realms to descend upon him. “He knows of our plans,” Rufo explained, trying in vain to keep calm. He stuttered through a few jumbled words then his control blew away. “He knows!” Rufo cried, and his volume sent the others into defensive crouches. “I have doomed us all!”
“Quiet him!” Elbereth whispered, and he slipped out a few steps to ensure that no enemies were nearby.
Danica and Cadderly took Rufo’s arms and eased him to a sitting position.
“Who knows?” Cadderly prompted, eyeing Danica, whose scowl gave Cadderly the distinct feeling that she would soon break Rufo’s head open.
“It’s not my fault,” Rufo declared. “I tried to resist him—the imp!—with all my strength.”
“Uh-oh,” Pikel muttered, echoing all their thoughts.
“You have tried to resist the imp, but you cannot,” Cadderly prompted. “In what way? You must tell me.”
“In my head!” Rufo replied, finally taking care to keep his voice to a whisper. “The imp follows my thoughts, learns things from me, no matter how hard I resist.”