Ireheart held her hand tightly. “Stay here,” he begged, stroking her cheek.
She sat down again, and held his hand until he fell asleep.
She smiled, while a tear of despair escaped from her eye. She had betrayed her great-grandmother and yet felt enormously blessed. She had never felt such happiness.
S irka was waiting for Tungdil outside the tent. “Do you feel up to another meeting?”
He nodded and she led him to Mallen’s tent, where the blond Idoslane prince was standing in front of a map of Girdlegard. Around the table sat the kings and queens of the human realms; neither dwarves nor elves were present.
Mallen came over and bowed to Tungdil. “I want to show my gratitude and respect,” he said. All the other men and women rose to their feet and followed suit. For Isika, Ortger and Wey it was also by way of an apology for things they had said in the past. Their consciences were not clear.
Tungdil heard the news about the dwarves’ advance under Ginsgar Unforce. It was of no concern to him. “There’s no time to think about Alandur. The important thing is the diamond. We cannot leave it in alfar hands.” He told them what the unslayable had purportedly said. “I am sure he was not lying. He has made a pact with the thirdlings and presumably he knows very well what is waiting on the far side of the tunnel. When I was fighting the thirdlings Bandilor told me they had been negotiating with the monsters on the other side. In the worst possible scenario there may be an army already waiting for the tunnel into Girdlegard to open.” Tungdil pointed to Alandur on the map. “I don’t approve of what Ginsgar Unforce has done. But I can understand why he has done it. He is acting like any dwarf would who sees no difference between elves and atar.”
Mallen looked at him. “I will have Ginsgar told of your disapproval, Tungdil Goldhand. I hope Xamtys will move soon and recall the rebellious warriors. There’s nothing that I can do.”
Bruron’s expression was similarly rueful. “I am in the same situation. My best soldiers are in Toboribor. I won’t be able to stop Ginsgar.”
“It’s regrettable that some of the elves Ginsgar will kill aren’t actually involved in this atar madness. But it can’t be helped.” Tungdil bit his lip. “Don’t get me wrong but you all know what is at stake.”
Flagur entered the pavilion in full armor. “I have heard what is happening.” He did not look happy at all and his light pink eyes reflected his dissatisfaction. “From now on allow us to support you. We shall escort you to the west. Our mounts are better than any of Girdlegard’s horses, so we can get to the island ahead of the alfar. Unless he can fly.”
“No, he can’t do that,” Lot-Ionan confirmed.
“Not yet, anyway,” added Rodario. “As long as he hasn’t accessed the diamond’s power or got to the magic source.”
“Let me have just one night’s rest,” Tungdil requested. “We’ll set off in the morning.”
“How many men should we take?” asked Flagur.
“How many will you need to destroy a creature that did for thirty elves and upwards of a hundred orcs all by itself?” Tungdil would have loved to know exactly what had happened in the caves. And what the diamond had been doing in the hands of that sleeping beauty.
Flagur looked up. “We’ve seen a few of them where I’m from, but none anywhere near as dangerous as this one. Best if we take our rune master along and a dozen of our foremost warriors,” he decided.
“A dozen?” Rodario was surprised. “You don’t think you might be underestimating the opposition? There are still three monsters on the list. He’s bound to have them with him.”
Flagur only smiled, but his smile said more than any flowery assertions.
Isika pursued Tungdil’s train of thought. “Just now you said the stone was lying on the alfar woman’s chest and that she herself looked as if she were dead.” She turned respectfully to the magus. “Do you know what this might signify, Lot-Ionan?”
“I can only hazard a guess.” He thought hard. “The unslayable siblings escaped from Porista to the caves of Toboribor by magic shortly before the Star of Judgment struck. Either their spell didn’t work as planned or else it exacted a physical tribute that she was not equal to. I have read about magi being totally incapacitated if a spell goes wrong. It’s extremely hard to revive them. Maybe by means of this diamond.”
“It would explain her coma. But could she bear children in that state?” Isika looked round the circle. “I mean, these beasts must come from somewhere, even if they only fully turn into monsters after bathing in the magic source.”
“And what if the male alfar had been struck down in the same way but had managed to free himself?” Rodario suggested. His eyes glinted with enthusiasm. “Maybe the two of them were found in the caves and the surviving orcs down there seized on the beautiful alfar and mated with her, overcome with animal lust. They violate her again and again, besotted by her beauty. Then the alfar wakes up, kills the orcs, makes common cause with the thirdlings and sends the misshapen bastards out into Girdlegard to serve his evil ends.” He stopped for air, his eyes fixed on the far distance, actor that he was. An actor planning his next stage appearance. “And then, in order to create a pure being of his own flesh and blood, he takes the alfar beauty himself and impregnates her, creating the young one we saw on the island. A child born of siblings, purer than any other alfar and part of the highest dynasty. What a plot line.”
Mallen smiled. “Your imagination is getting the better of you, my theatrical friend.”
“Call it a variation on a possible truth, because we’ll never find out what really happened. I don’t suppose the unslayable is going to sit down and explain it all to us,” Rodario admitted. “I think it’s a tremendous story though.”
“Well, it fits in with what the alfar are like,” said Tungdil, tired now. “I must get some rest, if you don’t mind. Pray for us all tonight.”
The pavilion door-hanging flew aside and a dwarf came in and bowed to the company. His face was burned by the sun, his armor coated with dust and he smelled of sweat, horse and muck. “For the sake of Girdlegard, help the fourthlings!” he gasped, handing Prince Mallen a leather pouch. “I am Feldolin Whetstone of the Thyst Finders fourthling clan. I bring a message from the Brown Range. We are being besieged by incredible creatures.”
“The size of two dwarves, wearing armor, and their eyes shining purple?” asked Sirka, to everyone’s astonishment. “Voices like the whistle of the wind and the rumble of thunder at one and the same time?”
“By all the gods, you’re describing Djer n!” Rodario exclaimed. “Andokai’s bodyguard: a mountain of steel with many times the strength of a human.”
Mallen took out a written account of the events at the pass and a sketch of the creatures laying siege to Silverfast. “More friends that look like enemies?” he remarked.
“It’s the acronta,” replied Flagur. “We got them to create a diversion so our own army could circumvent the dwarves without being seen. We didn’t want a battle, because it would have meant killing dwarves. But they are Ubar’s children, just as we are.” The ubari grinned at the messenger, who had only just noticed him and was utterly terrified. “They won’t harm you.”
“The acronta,” repeated Tungdil. “How many of them are there?”
“We don’t know. But the army that protects us against some of the larger fiends has about three thousand sword-bearers.”
“Ye gods,” muttered Rodario. “Three thousand of them? What kind of creatures do you have in the Outer Lands if you need so many acronta to deal with them?”
“I never claimed life was easy in Letefora.” Flagur flexed his muscles in a display of strength that would have made any orc go pale with envy. “But that’s nothing compared with what will issue from the Black Abyss. To vanquish them we would need thousands of acronta.”