the unwanted elves 15 cliffie bonus

 

Unwanted Elves

Chapter 15

 

I led us to the throne room partly from memory of the rough direction, partly by taking the widest way and partly by following the milling elven nobility. The royal wizard rushing to see the king, as I am sure she had would be very troubling to the elves. In the same way that when an ant nest is disturbed the ants rush to the centre of the nest, the queen, the agitated elves rushed to the throne room. They were better dressed than ants but behaved in a similar way. Indeed, the elves were so disturbed they didn’t really seem to register that we were human. We walked purposefully and no one questioned us.

The route we took went several times through the living wood of the tree, elven magic deforming it to conform to the fancy of the elves that had wrought it long ago. When we reached what I remembered was the door to the throne room we were questioned. Two armoured guards in front of the closed door levelled their pole arms at us.

“Halt, humans. You may not enter!”

Although the pole arms, and I have no idea what kind they were, as far as I was concerned a pole arm is a sharp thing on the end of a stick, looked to have a lot more twiddly bits on than the dwarven ones I had seen, they seemed sharp enough to be troublesome, so I stopped.

Chessina spoke imperiously, “The Towermaster and Circle Guardian are here for their audience with the king and Royal Wizard. How dare you delay them, stand aside.” Using her charm ability the guards looked a little confused and moved their pole arms to a non-threatening position and opened the door. A strong willed person can overcome a charm, these elves obviously were not such.

As we passed through the doorway I saw from the corner of my eye Silavara twitching one finger and the guards staring in horror as the shafts of the pole arms sprouted leaves.

 

The throne room was a scene of marginally organised chaos, the king whom I recognised from my previous visit was seated on his throne deep in conversation with Tancyfrwys who punctuated her speech with waving arms. An ever changing constellation of elves in glittering garments swirled around the speaking pair, while a door behind the throne opened to admit three elves in robes of the finest. Of the two women, one with pale hair I recognised as the queen, the other with hair so pale it was silvery and greatly resembling the queen I presumed was the princess. The male elf, who was unknown to me was very handsome, even for an elf. Indeed I had never seen a more perfect face. As far as I could tell, his face was absolutely symmetrical. No face is absolutely symmetrical, at least no natural face. Even with the illusion dispelling ointment, I couldn’t tell if his features were magically enhanced, but I was certain they were. Was this merely vanity, or was he hiding his true visage for some reason. Chessina spoke to me via the spell.

“Castamir, the demon detector has got warm, so there is a demon present but I can’t tell who. The small stone is moving vaguely about.”

“The tree is saturated with magic, that may be interfering with the device.” I replied similarly, “If both you ladies could keep your eyes peeled I’d be grateful.”

Ulula was making very low noises of distaste, much the same as she had done near Chessina before we got her soul back. Silavara glanced at me and nodded infinitesimally at Pretty Boy. I would do well to watch him.

 

We approached the throne, the constellation parting before us. I bowed to the king, while not taking my eyes off Tancyfrwys.

“Your Majesty,”  I said, “Tancyfrwys, perhaps you would be so good as to introduce us.”

The king jumped, startled, noticing us for the first time.

“King Sereneryr, I am constrained to introduce, the Towermaster and the Guardian of the Stone Circle. The other is an apprentice.” Tancyfrwys spat out. Was it my imagination, or did I hear elven tooth enamel crumbling.

“What do you want?” The king asked, rather rudely.

“A philosophical question indeed, majesty. But I am here to discuss the current border dispute.”

“And I am here,” Silavara added, “To discuss the compact with Silvana and the Balance.”

“There is no border dispute, we have dealt with trespassers, nothing more.” The king sneered.

“King Beremar of Ezustry and King Thorogar of the Dwarven Realms beg to differ.”

“We care nothing for their opinion.” The king’s sneer was more pronounced, if possible.

“That would mean outright war.” I stated.

“The feeble forces of the short lived tribes are of no concern to us.” Yes, it was possible for the sneer to be more sneery, if that’s a word.

The silver haired elf woman leaned over and touched the king’s shoulder.

“Father, it would do no harm to discuss this.”

‘Father’; that would make her crown princess Ariannaith. I don’t remember meeting the Princess when I was here with Harmon, but she did remind me of someone. Come to think of it I don’t recall the Princess being there when I accompanied Harmon to the throne room when we first arrived.

“Castamir,” Chessina whispered, “I was watching the other elves body language. When you mentioned war, the silver haired woman was saddened, but pretty boy was overjoyed. I gave a slight nod in response.

“Very well.” The king replied, grudgingly.

He gestured to Tancyfrwys to precede him and was hurriedly followed by his daughter, she moving adroitly to avoid having her arm taken by Pretty Boy which meant he was somewhat off balance allowing the queen to sweep past him after her daughter. I stepped briskly in front of Pretty Boy, whom I assumed was the princess’ betrothed Prydythaur. This blocked him from going through the door allowing me to usher Silavara and Chessina after the queen. I smartly stepped after the ladies leaving Prydythaur to bring up the rear. I was glad to be wearing the ring giving some protection from bladed weapons in case Pretty Boy decided on a spot of treachery. I didn’t know how he fitted into the situation so I thought to keep him off balance metaphorically as well as literally.

A short corridor brought us to a substantially smaller room than the throne room. Although the decor was similar to the throne room, that of restrained elegance, this room was much more home-like and intimate. The floor, wall and ceiling were living wood, of course with wide windows looking out onto the city/forest.

We were followed in by an elf taller than most and very spare in build with white hair and the faintest of age lines on his face. His clothes, while still sumptuous, were sober compared to the rest of the court. He bowed to the king, queen and princess, gave a nod to Tancyfrwys and ignored Prydythaur completely. My opinion of him went up immediately.

The king threw himself, petulantly into an armchair, which looked slightly out of place, even though it was clearly of elven manufacture. I suppose that as elven anatomy is very similar to humans there aren’t too many ways to make an armchair, given that form follows function. The queen seated herself on an ornately carven wooden chair. The other elves remained standing while the queen gestured to us to be seated on other wooden chairs. They were remarkably comfortable, the cushioning charms similar to the ones on some of the chairs in the Tower.

“Very well,” the king snapped to me, “What have you to say?”

“I would like to know majesty, the identities of those I would be speaking in front of. Perhaps you would perform the introductions again Tancyfrwys?” Normally I would have said that Tancyfrwys looked daggers at me, but we were far beyond that, and I would have said that she was looking great swords at me.

“Your Majesties, Crown Princess Ariannaith,” Tancyfrwys began, I glared at her and she didn’t quite dare add Pretty Boy to the list of people we were to be introduced to, indicating that they were of higher status than us. I could feel Chessina’s irritation at what she felt was a slight to Silavara and me, but the etiquette of the situation wasn’t clear cut so I signalled her not to make as fuss. Chessina whispered to me, “Alright master, but you should know that whoever is the demon is in this room with us.”

“Thank you, good to know.” I replied.

“May I introduce the Towermaster and Guardian of the Stone Circle. Towermaster, Guardian, may I introduce Her Majesty Queen Saillegwyn, and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Ariannaith. May I also introduce Royal Chamberlain Blaithamlwg and Royal Bard Prydythaur.”

Chessina seemed to have been forgotten and I wondered what she might do about that. I did notice that when speaking to Prydythaur, Tancyfrwys’ voice became softer. So, the rumour about their mutual relationship might be true. I had wondered if I should gently suggest that the bard be excluded, but as Chessina had told me that the demon was currently in the room with us I wanted it to hear what went on here and Prydythaur was the most likely candidate.

The King and Queen I had met before as well as Tancyfrwys. I had a vague recollection of Blaithamlwg, which all pointed to Prydythaur, who Ulula had disliked on sight. 

In what I took to be an attempt to inject some kind of normality into the proceedings the queen made a slight gesture and shortly an elf entered the room via a second door. The newcomer was dressed somewhat plainly but in rich fabrics, so I took him to be a servant.

“Bring refreshments.” Said the queen. The servant bowed, and left. The queen turned to us and asked, “I trust your apartments are satisfactory?”

“With regret no Your Majesty.” Said Chessina, with what I recognised as false sympathy in her voice. “My Master, the Priestess and I were surprised at the accommodations provided. I’m sure we all commiserate with Your Majesty that your kingdom has suffered such a decline that the quality of lodging has fallen so far from the... hospitality my Master experienced on his previous visit.”

“My apologies for the oversight, it will be corrected.” Said the Queen in a flat voice, and turned to the chamberlain who nodded. She than favoured Tancyfrwys with a meaningful look.

Servants now entered, the one originally summoned and a female elf both carrying trays with decanters, glasses and plates of dainties. After depositing these on various tables, they left, making hardly a sound as they walked.

“All right, let’s get on with it.” The King said, sounding distinctly peevish. “You want to discuss things, what do you have to say.”

“If you read this, Your Majesty it will save tiresome explanations.” I said, drawing a piece of parchment from one of my robe’s inside pockets and handing it to him. As the king was reading it, Prydythaur spoke for the first time. I wondered if it were to make his presence felt so he didn’t appear as a fifth leg on a horse.

“Your elvish is remarkably poor.”

“One has to make shift as best one can.” I replied, “After all you seem incapable of learning other languages. An unfortunate affliction. Tell me, were your people cursed by the gods that you can learn no other languages?”

He spluttered at this and then lapsed into offended silence. This was broken as the king was making inarticulate noises first of shock and then of anger. When he reached the bottom of the page he sprang to his feet and made his first comprehensible utterance for a while.

"Copy 2 of 17! This is intolerable! Who has them!"

"Apart from the one you hold, no-one. If you don't agree to our terms, or anything happens to us, one will go to King Beremar, one to King Thorogar of the Dwarves, one to the Archon of Agerak and others to various princes and kinglets. Three have been translated into Abyssal and I even translated one into orcish for the Overking of the Orcs, whoever that is this month."

Chessina had been watching the group as I was speaking. She glanced at me with an infinitesimal nod; she had noticed a reaction in one of the elves when I mentioned Abyssal.

“This is blackmail!” The king yelled.

“Yes.” I replied calmly. “The only question is will you accede to it and accept our terms?”

The king’s face became what Chessina had once described as “one of those interesting colours that mortals turn”, being a cross between scarlet and puce. Before he could bellow out what I presumed was his total undying rejection of the entire concept, his daughter touched him on the arm.

“Might it not be wise father, to hear the Towermaster’s proposal. You can always say no.”

I sensed the merest wisp of magic from the princess’ hand. Was that a charm spell by touch? My attention was distracted by Prydythaur starting to move towards the king opening his mouth to speak. Whatever he was going to say was replaced by an inarticulate grunt as he tripped and fell flat on his face. Had he just tripped over his own feet or had Chessina helped him on his way by means of a trip cantrip? The smugness I felt radiating from her gave me the answer.

As the king was distracted by Prydythaurs departure from the vertical, the princess tightened her grip on his arm and he visibly calmed down.

“Very well, daughter, merely listening commits me to nothing. And if you can’t stand unaided, remain seated!”  This last was to Prydythaur whose attempts to stand were thwarted by Chessina. He obeyed the king’s command with barely repressed fury.

“My proposal is simple your majesty,” I began, “firstly, an immediate cessation of hostilities against any and all settlements, and then discussions to determine a permanent border delineating elven lands from non-elven lands.”

“But we need to be able to remove non-elven influences from An Gwyth Meer, the Great Forest,”  the king protested, “Their activities greatly disrupt the Balance.”  He continued sententiously.

At this point Silavara spoke up.

“As do you.” Silavara said, heatedly.

"We do not disrupt the Balance!" protested the elven king.

"Yes you do!" the priestess snapped back, "you promote the breeding of the prey animals you find tasty and they outbreed their food supply. They then turn to other foods reducing those for the creatures that normally live on them. You also encourage those predators you find fun to hunt. They then over predate and drastically reduce or even eliminate the creatures they prey on. All mortals disrupt the balance, but unlike humans who confine their activities to the margins of the forest, you disrupt the deep forest, putting the entirety of an Gwyth Meer at risk."

Taking a moment to compose herself Silavara continued.

“The Balance teeters on the brink of catastrophe and it pains my goddess Silvana to see her realm so wantonly abused. This is why I have come.”

“Our gods hold sway here!” Prydythaur piped up. This pronouncement was less impressive than it might have been as it was delivered seated cross-legged on the ground.

"I know of the compact between Silvana and the elven pantheon, but you stretch the compact until it creaks." Silavara reposted. “And to allow demonic influence to run unchecked in the forest is insanity.”

“There is no demonic influence in the forest.” The king declared, didactically.

“Do you call me liar to my face, king Sereneryr” Silavara intoned, her voice cold and her expression hard. “The towermaster and I were forced to kill an unfortunate bear that had been twisted and sent mad by such influence.”

“I know nothing of this.” Said the king sounding a little uncertain.

“There have been many reports of such things, father.”

“I have seen none such.” Said the king.

“You sent all the reports away unread.” Replied princess Ariannaith.

“This sounds suspicious,” I whispered to Chessina. “Can you check these people for charms?”

After a few moments Chessina replied, “The king and queen are both charmed, I think there has been an attempt to charm the princess as I could sense a faint echo, but if so, she threw it off.”

“I myself have been menaced by such a creature, when walking in the forest.” The princess said. “I might not have been able to kill it without the help of Cyfaill”

“I have forbidden you to see him, you are betrothed to Prydythaur.” The king was going a funny colour again.

“No father, you forbade Cyfaill to come to the city, we met in the forest. Besides you and mother agreed to the betrothal, not I. I would go to a wedding ceremony only over his dead body.” Said the princess looking on the seated Prydythaur with contempt.

“She doesn’t like you,” Said Chessina, turning to look down on Prydythaur, “we don’t like you either.”

This earned her a beaming smile from princess Ariannaith.

 

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