the elvish question 4

 

The Elvish Question

Chapter 4

 

Our excellent breakfast had been a good start to the day, and Chessina and I were thoroughly occupied as we flew to collect Priestess Silavara. Oh, please, take your mind out of the gutter, Chessina was continuing my lessons in spoken Abyssal. If you ever get the chance to learn Abyssal, don't take it, unless like me you really need to. Some, alright most, of the concepts discussed by demons are unspeakably vile. No, I'm not going to give any examples. If you really want some, take the most vile thing you can think of and make it at least three times worse.

"I've been thinking, Chessina." I remarked, wanting a break from my Abyssal lesson. If the concepts weren't bad enough, the multiplicity of tenses the language required for all the insult modes made my head spin.

"Did it hurt, Castamir?" Chessina replied with mock sympathy.

"Yes, but I'm unspeakably brave," I said, and continued before Chessina could interrupt, "I remember that on the trip to the elvish city the journey didn't take as long as it ought to have done. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ley-lines that Harmon mentioned occasionally."

"What are ley lines?" Asked Chessina.

"They are lines of magical force that lie across the landscape. Sometimes they follow the lines of roads and sometimes they don't. I will look in Harmon's notes when we get home to the tower. I also need to check the maps of the dwarven kingdom. I really don't want to get lost in the mountains."

"I've heard tales that dwarven women have beards, is this true?"

"Some do and some don't, Chessina. Thinking back, it was the noble-women who had beards, but no moustaches, only male dwarves have moustaches. Dwarven noble houses have a tendency to produce few children and Harmon wondered if there was a connection."

"Are dwarven women attractive?" Chessina asked, rather too carelessly I thought.

"I wouldn't say they were necessarily unattractive even though they are all a trifle . . . chunky," I replied, "some had rather sweet faces. In answer to the question you didn't ask, no I've never had a dwarven mistress. Dwarven women prefer men who are much stronger than I, and who have beards. I much prefer being clean shaven. So I won't run into any old flames." I was rewarded with a blinding smile from Chessina.

The flight home wasn't as tedious as it usually was as I was fully occupied with my lessons. Chessina made them interesting enough that I didn't feel like jumping off the rug. As well as vocabulary and grammar, I was learning the fine art of insulting demons. With all the vile things I could now call them, it was great fun.

As we came close to the tower I said to Chessina, "It's a nuisance having to go and ask Priestess Silavara to come with us, as I really want to look in Harmon's notebooks and check on the maps of the dwarven kingdom."

"Silly," replied Chessina, "why don't I go and ask her. She quite likes me now, and Arcana told me I won't upset Silavara's familiar."

"Will you be alright going through the forest, love?" I asked in some concern.

"Of course I will Castamir." Chessina replied forcefully. "Even if I leave the path to the Priestess' cottage, which I have no intention of doing, and a forest creature attacks me I have various spells as well as my own claws to deal with it. Please don't try to coddle me."

"You're right of course, it's just that I love you so much. I worry about you." I said contritely.

"Before we do anything, we need to go and see Elizelle, our foster-daughter." Said Chessina.

"Yes, and I can send a letter to Dragovar letting him know how his great-niece fares." I replied.

We spent more time than I had intended holding Elizelle and talking to her carers, mother and daughter Aria and Vella and Elizelle's wet-nurse Nilla. We had both come to love the infant in the few weeks she had been with us.

 

oOo

 

I was deeply absorbed researching in the library so I jumped slightly when Chessina kissed me on the cheek.

"I'm sorry, love. I must have been so absorbed that I didn't notice the tower's chime announcing the approach of a magic user." I said contritely. "Did everything go well with the priestess?"

"Yes, Castamir," Chessina replied, "Silavara agreed to come with us. Apparently Silavara's goddess Silvana has a few bones to pick with the Elven Court, and the priestess would be grateful to have the towermaster there backing her up when she does so. Silavara will be here first thing in the morning, she wants to give her familiar owl the chance to go hunting tonight. Ulula is a sweetie, she doesn't mind me at all now, Arcana was right. Did your researches lead anywhere?"

"Yes, your suggestion about looking in Harmon's journals was invaluable love, it's all there," I said Chessina turning pink at my praise, "The difficulty with ley-lines is finding them in the first place and then synchronising with them. My connection to the tower will help with that. Once synchronised with the ley-line the spell to travel along them is a simple one. Harmon also recorded the spell he used to find the elven city when we went last time. Unfortunately, that spell is extremely complex and I won't be able to learn it in time. I'm very glad Silavara agreed to accompany us."

"Have you eaten, Castamir?" There was an edge to Chessina's question.

"Uh . . . no I haven't."  I replied guiltily.

"I didn't think so," Chessina said, shaking her head at me, "I've instructed the kitchen servants to prepare dinner."

I closed Harmon's journal and followed Chessina out of the library. Come to think of it, my stomach was grumbling rather.

 

oOo

 

Next morning Chessina was supervising the servants packing for our journey while I was packing what magical supplies and nick-knacks that I thought advisable. The chime for an approaching user of magic sounded and I went downstairs to check if it was the priestess and let her in. On finding it was her I opened the door and ushered her into to the vestibule.

"Good morning Silavara, you are well I hope?" I enquired. As I spoke Chessina came down the stairs followed by the servants with the luggage. I knew it wouldn't be too much. Chessina wasn’t the sort of woman who packed for a journey as though she was an army preparing for a campaign.

"I am quite well, thank you Castamir." Silavara looked composed as she almost always did, with her owl perched on her shoulder and firmly dozing. "Chessina, I trust that the incident yesterday didn't discommode you unduly?"

"Incident?" I said, somewhat sharply, turning to Chessina as I did so.

"It wasn't worth mentioning, love." Chessina replied, glaring at priestess Silavara.

"Still, you might tell the tale to while away the hours of the journey." I said, in a rather flat tone of voice. As I spoke I had unrolled and enlarged the rug. We got on it, I lifted it and we flew out of the tower, the door shutting behind us.

"I am sorry to be the cause of domestic disharmony, Castamir," said Silavara, sounding more contrite than I had ever heard her before, "Chessina had a minor disagreement with one of the forest creatures. She suffered no harm and wouldn't even have had that problem if she had remained on the path."

"Perhaps you ladies will regale me with the complete story when I have got us on our proper course." I  said, somewhat acerbically. I searched for the ley-line for some minutes, it was harder than I thought. Once I had found it, synchronising wasn't that much more difficult than doing so with the tower. I was sure I would improve with practice. That done I muttered the spell that Harmon had written in his journal; the speed increase was immediate and profound. Without jar or jerk the rug was now going faster, much faster. According to Harmon's writing, the speed had increased approximately seven times. In addition there was somehow some . . . distance between us and the rest of the world. Distance is not the correct word, but I don't know another. A footnote in the journal suggested that we might be 'out-of-phase' with the universe, but that was a matter for another time. While doing all this, I had caught snatches of whispered conversation between Chessina and Silavara. Chessina was explaining to the priestess what I was doing.

I turned to my two passengers and said, "And now ladies, we will discuss this . . . incident. Would you care to begin at the beginning?"

"If you insist," sighed Chessina, "I was on the path to Silavara's cottage when I heard a baby crying off to the right in the forest. At the same time I felt a magical emanation, I knew it was some kind of charm magic. You know I'm good with charms."

"Yes you are." I conceded.

"I thought this needed to be investigated, so I went into the forest. I was however on my guard." Chessina said forcefully. "As I got closer to the sound, I saw a creature up in the tree. It was similar to a small bear in build but with a face that was more like an ape. It cried like a distressed baby, and I know babies can't climb trees so I rocked it."

"Rocked it?" Priestess Silavara sounded puzzled.

"It was something I developed after Castamir explained about inertia," Chessina continued, "I cast featherlight on a rock, use a movement spell on it to get it moving in the direction of my target, cancel the featherlight and then crunch. The creature fell out of the tree, dead. I checked it was, went back to the path and carried on to Silavara's cottage. It's as I told you Castamir, hardly worth mentioning."

"I overreacted, my apologies, Chessina," I said, "I worry about you due to the fact I love you." I was rewarded by a blinding smile.

"What was that creature, Silavara?" I asked, "I've not heard of it before."

"They are called mimics," replied Silavara, "I know, original name. They mimic the cries of the young of the creatures they hunt. They have innate magic that detects the distress call of the prey creature's young and mimic it. Then drop from a tree or other high place to attack their prey. They are quite rare, and even rarer now."

"Does that distress you?" I enquired.

"No. Personally speaking I think them rather horrible creatures." Silavara replied. "In the web of life however, they merely use their abilities to take prey, as other creatures use their abilities to defend themselves. This ability works quite well with unintelligent creatures but those with some intellect might notice that this is wrong season for their young to be around, or think that partway up a tree is not a place their young might be. Such as Chessina. I don't myself think that this method of ambushing prey is a successful one. The increasing rarity of mimics seems to bear this out."

"What is the web of life?" Asked Chessina.

"All living things are connected," Silavara stated. She had gone into lecture mode, I guiltily recognised it as I often spoke similarly. "Not just the fact that sunlight makes plants grow, plant eaters eat the plants and meat eaters eat them. The oak tree for example; dozens of creatures live on and around  it. Many others live off the creatures that do. If there was a plague and all oak trees died, dozens of other creatures would die off too. The web can stand some disruption, but not too much. I try to keep humans from breaking too many strands in the areas I protect. In any case their fields and farms allow other plants and creatures to flourish. The elves however, despite their claims to harmony with the forest, are breaking too many strands. I am accompanying you to the Elven Court to persuade them to stop."

"If they don't?" I posed the question.

"Then my goddess will bring forth her power." Said Silavara with finality.

Conversation paused for a while after that until Silavara spoke again. "Castamir, your name, it isn't local is it. Where does it come from?"

"It comes from a very ancient, and almost forgotten language, Silavara," I replied. "Wizards tend to change their names on becoming apprentices so that their original names can't be used against them."

"Wizards are cautious, you've told me this many times, Castamir." Said Chessina.

"Chessina, my love, wizards are downright paranoid, and rightly so." I said.

"Do the names Harmon and Dragovar come from this language?" enquired Silavara.

"Yes they do. I was fortunate, Harmon let me choose my own name. Some apprentices get saddled with names they really don't like." I replied.

"Like Pondichook." Said Chessina, giggling.

"Or Ildefons, or Frigemar. Frigemar, of course!" I exclaimed.

"The Royal Librarian?" Queried Chessina.

"That explains why he so dislikes mages." I said, "I've never seen him cast even simple spells. If he was apprenticed but was no good at magic, or lost it somehow, that would make anyone bitter. He has my deepest sympathy."

Inwardly I shuddered. Apart from losing Chessina, losing my magic was the worst thing I could imagine. Chessina broke into my melancholic reverie.

"Castamir, if wizards change their name for protection what about Vellera? Everyone at court is familiar with her name, won't that put her at risk?"

"You're right Chessina, it will. I hadn't considered that." I said. "You know that I really don't like to  interfere with people's thoughts, but Dragovar and I will have to 'encourage' people to only remember Vellera's new name."

"And this is why I am somewhat . . . wary of wizards, Castamir," Silavara said dryly, "I am however glad to see that you find wielding such power distasteful. I hope Dragovar is as conscientious."

"He is." I replied confidently.

"Instead of using magic to alter minds, why don't you just pretend the princess has had an accident and cannot be brought back from the Place of Waiting?" Silavara then enquired. "She won't be much at Court and people will forget the princess and only see the Towermaster's other apprentice."

"That's brilliant, Silavara, thank you." I replied fervently. I really do hate to tamper with people's minds.

"What gave you the idea, Silavara?" Chessina asked.

"Many creatures pretend to be dead to fool predators into leaving them alone." Said Silavara. "Animals have been messing with each other's minds far longer than people have."