Visitors to the Green were rare.
Nestled in the western shadow of the great Baffin Range, the village was hidden away in the middle of Barrenjuck Green, the oldest forest in Avalyne. It was also the only community of size before one reached the distant fishing town of Lenkworth. Shielded by the mountains and flanked by the Brittle Sea, the people of the village were of human stock but had managed to remain untouched by Balfure and his armies. Consisting of farmers, the folk of the Green found no reason to venture beyond their borders, particularly when they heard the tale of travellers who spoke of all the trouble that was happening in the rest of Avalyne.
Even after the outside world had invaded their lands seven years ago and tortured one of its own, the villagers continued as they always had, indifferent to the world-changing events taking place beyond the Green. They were after all, a village of produce and livestock farmers, who maintained their prosperity by selling their goods to other lands and retreating back to their own, seeing little reason to be neighbourly when such thing only invited trouble.
During the war, they had remained largely unscathed. Their geographical location made invasion by Balfure’s forces difficult. Aside from having to cross the formidable mountains, known to have the highest peaks in all of Avalyne, an invader would then have to enter the Green to reach the village. The forest was old and dense, with a reputation for being haunted (though that would have done little to deter Balfure). However, the locals believed that the spirits of those killed during the Primordial Wars had found their resting place in the ancient trees, and that was enough to discourage visitors.
Respecting the village’s desire for isolation, the High King after his ascension, established the Watch Guard who would watch over the lands of the Green, ensuring that no unwanted incursions would be made into its territory. It was in keeping with a promise he had made to one of its people, whose courage and charity had led to a devastating personal cost after his life had been saved.
Seven years ago Dare, Aeron and his friend Braedan were pursued into the Green by Balfure’s evil Disciples. Forced into unfamiliar woods after Braedan and Aeron led the enemy away, he came upon Furnsby Farm, owned by Tully and Keira, a newlywed couple who spent their days growing vegetables and rearing cows. Tully, who was often considered too inquisitive for his own good, gave Dare refuge, despite his wife’s reservations about becoming involved in non-Green affairs. Tully agreed to take Dare out of the wood, as he was more than familiar with the dense forest that had caused many a traveller to become lost to fatal consequences.
The effort to lead the Disciples away from Dare resulted in Braedan’s death and Aeron barely escaping alive. Unfortunately, in resuming their search for the exiled King, the Disciples were able to track the future King to the Furnsby farm and found Keira there instead. Stubbornly refusing to surrender the King’s whereabouts, she was subjected to the Disciples’ dreaded torture of the Blinding Curse.
When the blood of the desert burrowers, a small worm-like creature native to Abraxes, was administered to a hapless victim, it had the terrible effect of burning out the victim’s eyes and brains beneath the flesh. It was forced upon a victim in small doses until the extreme pain or fear of blindness produced the desired results. Keira's courage proved more than a match for the Disciples, but her refusal to yield had agonising consequences.
It was hours before Tully would return, but when he did, it was to the discovery that Keira was almost dead and her sight near lost. Dare had raced back to the farm as soon as he learned that the Disciples had entered the Green and found the couple in their desperate situation. A situation he was painfully aware he had brought upon them. Arianne, who was to meet him at the edge of the Green, ferried Keira back Eden Taryn as quickly as she could. Only the healing skills of the elves could save Keira’s eyesight, but she would bear the scars of her torture from that day onward.
Despite this, however, the couple bore no enmity toward the King who had brought the Disciples into their lives. In gratitude, Dare promised that no invader would ever set foot in the Green when he became King. It was a promise he held sacred and upon ascending his throne, fulfilled by the establishment of the Watch Guard whose duty it was to watch over the Green and its gentle folk.
*****
Everyone noticed the rider from Carleon.
Garnering curious stares from the locals as he rode through the small community to deliver his message, the messenger knew his instructions. Deliver the news, wait for a message if there was one to be received and then leave immediately. He was to disturb nothing in this small community beyond the duty he needed to perform. Once he had left the Green, the town of Tumbur which sat at the foothills of the Baffin Range would be the only place he could stop for rest before crossing the mountain and returning to Carleon.
Although the presence of the visitor drew much interest, the locals knew for whom the messenger had come. There was not one person in the village who did not know the High King’s connection to the occupants of Furnsby Farm. The couple had been deemed foolish by most of the village for becoming involved in the whole business with the Disciples in the first place, but there was no denying the courage displayed by Keira Furnsby or the admiration she so rightly deserved for saving the King.
The messenger gave his news to Keira when he was met at the door to their home. Keira gave her response immediately, aware that it was a long ride to Tumbur and he would have to make it again if she made him wait for an answer. It had been more than a year since she and Tully had last travelled, and she knew Tully would very much like to accept the King’s invitation. Despite the fact that Tully enjoyed his life in the Green, Keira knew he liked to travel and would be thrilled to see what had become of the world since Dare had become King.
Sending the messenger on his way after telling him that the Furnsbys would be in attendance at the King’s celebration, she left the house in search of her husband. Putting on her boots and her cloak because the air was cool this morning, she made her way to the east paddock where she knew Tully was working. Today, the spring calves were finally old enough to leave their pens and she knew that Tully would like to keep an eye on them as they took their first tentative steps into the world.
‘Tully!’ she called out to him as she neared the paddock, her red hair escaping the hood of her cloak and blowing over her face.
Tully Furnsby had been watching carefully the calves sniffing at each other in interest, trying to make sense of the world outside their confinement, when he heard his wife's call. Leaning against the fence, he glanced over his shoulder to see her approach, wondering what she was doing here. She was a small woman, petite in her stature, with freckles across her nose and brown eyes. Life on a farm had made her strong, although not even to withstand torture by the Disciples, he thought sourly.
‘Is everything alright, Keira?’ he asked as soon as she was near enough. ‘You're not feeling poorly, are you?’ He launched into the familiar tirade of questions that was sure to annoy her, he realised belatedly.
‘Tully,’ Keira’s expression darkened, wishing he would not treat her as if she were made of glass. ‘I’m fine. I would tell you if I wasn’t.’
‘No you wouldn’t,’ Tully countered, perfectly aware that she’d keep silent him because she didn't want to worry him. He knew he should not be so over protective. Ever since the Disciples, Tully blamed himself for what happened to her though he would never admit it out loud. Whenever she had a bout of sickness or woke up screaming in the night from a nightmare, he cursed himself again for letting this happen to her. He wished he could show her how much he admired her for withstanding the torture and how strong she was but all that ever came out was his worry.
‘We are pair. aren’t we,’ he smiled at her.
‘We are,’ Keira agreed, leaning over the fence to kiss him on the cheek.
‘So what’s happened? Did you need me for something?’ he asked, guessing that whatever the reason for her presence here, it wasn’t urgent.
‘I do,’ Keira nodded, reaching into the folds of her cloak to produce the invitation delivered to by the man of Carleon.
The envelope was very fine and did not appear to be stationery common to the village. Farmers were very sensible with their parchment, preferring function over elaboration, and they certainly wouldn’t use one that gilt with gold. If they even used it at all. In the Green, the fastest way to pass news was to go to the market and tell Mrs Birdweather about it. After that, everyone in village would know.
‘What’s that?’ he asked.
‘This,’ Keira said smiling, ‘is an invitation from Dare to visit him and the Queen in Sandrine. It appears that he is having a party and wants us to attend.’
As always, Tully’s first thought when considering such a trip was how Keira would manage it, because Sandrine was such a long way, away. Despite the fact that it was seven years in the past, Keira had not recovered as she ought and occasionally she had strange turns, but he also knew that a change of scenery might also help the situation.
‘I told the messenger we would go,’ Keira declared in case his hesitation was due to his usual concerns about her.
‘You did?’ he asked with some surprise, and he felt himself relax in light of that revelation. If she felt well enough to go then he wouldn’t argue with her. She’d only get cross with him if he did. Keira didn’t like being reminded that she wasn’t as well as she should be. ‘Then we’ll go.’ He grinned. ‘It would be nice to see Dare and that lot again.’
It still felt odd though, calling the King of Carleon by name or to think of him as the War Dragon. To Tully, he would always be Dare, who had appeared on their doorstep needing help, and who showed them that there was no such thing as hiding from evil if evil was determined to seek them out.
‘Yes, it would,’ Keira agreed, grateful that he had offered no protest.
‘I wonder what the celebration is about,’ he mused, not expecting an answer.
Keira knew, but she kept it to herself for now.
‘I suppose we’ll find out when we get to Sandrine. The why doesn’t matter much as long as we get to see our friends.’
‘You’re right as always, Tully,’ Keira agreed, and was glad to be going on a trip to see their old friends again.
*****
Unlike the messenger, who was required to cross the Baffin Range to deliver the invitation to the Furnsbys, the invitation sent to Kyou, the Weapons Master of Carleon, did not have as far to travel. At that very moment, the dwarf of Iridia was in the city, helping to reinforce the city’s fortifications after years of neglect and damage from Balfure’s attacks.
During the war with Balfure, Kyou had been like most of his people, forced to maintain a nomadic existence in the distant mountains of the Jagged Teeth or fall under the yoke of the Shadow Lord. Balfure had swept through their ancestral home of Iridia in the Starfall Mountains with his Berserker army and enslaved the Warlords of Iridia, the very greatest of the dwarf craftsmen. Intending for them to build him weapons of terrible cunning and ingenuity, Balfure's plan was to subjugate the dwarves and use their continued survival to bend the warlords to his will.
His father Atrayo had been the greatest of the Warlords, but he refused to aid Balfure in his thirst for conquest. Balfure did not let him live long enough to regret his decision and his death served as an example to the others, who yielded reluctantly.
Kyou and the rest of Clan Atrayo had fled Iridia and took to wandering until they arrived at the mountains of the Jagged Teeth. Reputedly the home of ancient Order of Enphili, Kyou had expected to find it abandoned, since no one had seen or heard of any of the mage from the Order in many hundreds of years. It did not take them long to discover how wrong they were. Living in isolation within his tower was the wizard Tamsyn, the last of the Order.
Tamsyn, who had been in deep sleep since the Primordial Wars, awakened to a world that was bedevilled by a new threat, and so offered the dwarves sanctuary in the Jagged Mountains, using his not so inconsiderable powers to shield them from Balfure's sorcery. In the meantime, he told Kyou, who was a young, vengeful youth, to have patience, that vengeance against Balfure would come in due course. He just had to wait. A change was coming.
That change came in the form of a bedraggled looking human who just happened to be the exiled heir to the throne of Carleon.
Dare had sought out House Atrayo in the Jagged Mountains because to unite the scattered dwarf clans of Iridia, he needed the voice of Atrayo’s son to speak for him. A grand alliance was being forged—the greatest that Avalyne would ever seen—and it was an army that would need weapons. It was a chance to avenge both their fathers and reclaim their kingdoms. Kyou joined Dare, because more than he wanted revenge, he wanted what his father had died for—the freedom of his people. Thus when Dare left the Jagged Mountains, Kyou left with him while the rest of his people set to work giving the future King exactly what he wanted.
The greatest weapons ever forged.
*****
‘Master Builder to the Court of Carleon!’
Kyou looked up from the parchments laid out on the table before him. They were the plans of the work that needed to be conducted to the western wall of the city, the one that had been hit the worst during the siege of the city when Balfure had first taken Sandrine. Reconstructing these would allow him to conduct the rest of the improvements he had been asked to carry out on the city by Dare. Dismissing the city craftsman named Gwyn who had been his partner in misery for much of this, Kyou turned around and was unsurprised to see who was approaching him.
Only the elf would be so bold to call him by the title. In truth, there was a whole set of rituals that required performance by his people before any dwarf could assume the title of Master Builder and Kyou had done none of it. As a result, he did not feel himself worthy of the title, despite what Dare and this upstart elf might think.
‘Must you persist in using that infernal title?’ Kyou glared at the elf with his hazel eyes.
‘Yes Master Builder,’ Aeron replied, amused by the grimace that crossed the dwarf's face. ‘I bring you tidings from the King.’
Kyou snorted in annoyance and turned back to his plans. ‘You may tell his Royal Highness that the wall must be rebuilt before I will add any weapons to it. If it cannot take the weight, it will be of little use to him. We are working as quickly as we can and if he persists in hounding me, I shall return home and he can finish it himself!’
‘I will tell him that if you like,’ Aeron rolled his eyes sarcastically. ‘However, he did not send me here to request an update regarding the progress of the work. I offered to come here in place of one of his riders.’
‘Oh?’ Kyou stared at him. ‘And what would he want of me if not to know how his fortifications fare?’
‘To invite you to a celebration,’ the elf declared, always amused that Kyou's temper could make him jump to foolish conclusions. After all these years of friendship and camaraderie between them, Aeron wondered if 'disgruntled' was the dwarf's natural state. ‘It appears that there is an important announcement forthcoming. The Queen has summoned her mother and mine to attend. Meanwhile the King has sent riders to the Green and the Jagged Teeth.’
‘Ah.’ Kyou absorbed the news and scratched the stubble on his cheek at what the announcement could be. ‘Do you have any idea what this news might be?’
‘Not really,’ Aeron confessed. ‘I know that Arianne required an audience alone with Dare while we were in discussion about the deployment of men to deal with the trouble in the Northern Province.’
‘Ah!’ Kyou exclaimed with a note of triumph in his voice. ‘It’s a baby then.’
‘A baby!’ Aeron exclaimed, wondering how the dwarf had made that leap. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Let us examine the evidence—a celebration involving the Queen’s kin and the gathering of their friends, the closest that the King has to family, not to mention that we are speaking about the most serious man we have ever met, choosing to celebrate some grand news? What else could it be?’ He gave Aeron a look of amusement, wondering how an thousand year old elf could be so naïve at times.
‘Well, I suppose he did seem rather cheery after the fact,’ Aeron mused. ‘Grinning ear to ear as a matter of fact. It was rather unnerving.’
Kyou rolled his eyes once again and muttered, ‘Aeron, you are in sore need of female company.’
*****
If an invitation was sent to the tower in the mountains of the Jagged Teeth, there would have been no one to receive it.
A week before the first of the riders had set off Tamsyn, the last mage of the ancient Order of the Enphilim, had left his secluded retreat to ride with all haste to the Wanderer’s Wood of Eden Taryn so as to take counsel with Queen Lylea. The journey was long, but such was the urgency of the situation that he dared not stop for too long.
What he had seen in his Scrying Pool would not allow him the time.
Following the Yantra River as far as he could, he turned inland and took refuge at Angarad, the home of the men and women who considered themselves the greatest warriors of Avalyne. While Tamsyn knew of a few elves who might disagree with them, the Angarad had kept Balfure out of their lands even if that achievement had come at a bloody cost. It had also stunted the growth of the kingdom as the business of Angarad for the next thirty-five years became dependent on servicing the war effort.
Gaining a fresh mount at their capital city of Wyndfyre, Tamsyn set out again. This time, with the great Baffin Range flanking his southward journey and did not stop until he reached the city of Cereine, now once again apart of the kingdom of Carleon.
After the fall of House Icara, Carleon had been broken up into city states under the occupation by Abraxes. It was usually Balfure’s habit to kill the ruling families and replace its rulers with puppets of his own. As it had been with House Icara, House Paden was also brutally purged. However, while Balfure had unintentionally left Dare alive, in the case of House Paden, he had allowed the survival of Selkirk, House Paden’s youngest son.
Selkirk, who was born with a weak leg that left him hobbling and a speech impediment that had him stuttering most words appeared to be of little consequence to Balfure. It suited the Shadow Lord’s cruel sense of humour to leave the seemingly frightened boy in charge of the city. Except that while Selkirk might appeared outwardly feebly, there was an agile mind beneath the surface that was soon able to manipulate the situation enough to ensure that his people enjoyed some freedoms under his rule.
Dare saw this when he came to consult with Selkirk, and so he regarded the Lord of Cereine with the respect he was due. Enlisting Selkirk’s aid to build his alliance, Dare had presented Selkirk to the rest of the Alliance as someone who had his full confidence. For that respect, Selkirk had put the full support of Cereine behind the exiled King until Dare was able to win his throne and reunite Carleon. After the war, Dare legitimized Selkirk’s standing as the head of House Paden and also made him Lord of the Northern Province, providing him an army to defend the realm from the remnants of Balfure’s Berserkers.
Selkirk’s gratitude towards the King ensured that Tamsyn was provided with the hospitality of his house before he resumed his journey once more.
Within two days of leaving Cereine Tamsyn arrived at the court of Eden Taryn, home of Lylea, the High Queen of the elves.
It was not for nothing that Lylea held such a high station among her contemporaries. She had been a young woman during the Primordial Wars, when the Celestial Gods battled Maelog, or Mael as he was known later, for the future generations of Avalyne. Tamsyn had been intermediary between elf and the gods, revealing their will to the Immortals as they battled Mael and the dark things that god had spawned to rule Avalyne.
Even then she had been unique among the elves, for none had the prescience she possessed. Her father Antion was the product of an elf woman and the Celestial Enphilim. To the elves he wasn’t just the High King but a demigod, and Lylea inherited that reputation. Her position as High Queen was never challenged. Not even when she chose to take mortals as her consort for the brief duration of their lives. While most attributed this to Lylea having no desire to rule with a king who might claim lordship over her, Tamsyn knew she had other reasons.
The city of Eden Taryn was not as lavish as Eden Ardhen, which had stood for thousands of years before its destruction by Balfure’s Berserkers. It was an infant thirty-five years old, and although the elves had constructed a beautiful city among the woods, it had none of the grandeur of its predecessor. The city was built upon the branches of the Great Tree, nurtured by the elves to achieve its immense size so that it could take the weight required to bear it.
Tamsyn ascended the great winding staircase that coiled around the tree, leaving behind the forest floor. Its branches were thicker than most tree trunks and it spread across the sky until only a single stream of light could penetrate the dense canopy of leaves. He had been greeted at the curtain separating the world from the Veil by the Queen’s guard, and suspected that by now Lylea would be awaiting him. This would be the first time they had seen each other since the wedding of the Queen Lylea’s only daughter, Arianne.
He wasn’t sure how he would be received now that they would face each other alone.
*****
When Tamsyn had first met Lylea her father had died fighting a Primordial. The young woman was called upon to lead her people as High Queen and it was a role she had not expected to take so soon. Not even betrothed, Lylea was expected to lead a war that saw the elves as foot soldiers to the gods. Their immortality was granted to them as a way for the Gods to keep as many of them as possible alive for the battles ahead.
It was longevity that had come with a bloody price.
The war against Mael and his Primordials had already raged for two thousand years by the time Lylea became High Queen. Even with her prescience, she was young and unsure, certainly impressionable enough to take the guidance of a mage who as was as new to his role as liaison as she was to being Queen. While he was far older than she, he had the appearance of a man in his fiftieth year, with dark hair and equally dark eyes and while he never considered it, he might be thought of as handsome.
Certainly Lylea had found him so, and while he should have known better, he indulged the attraction, even consummating it. So much so that by the time he realised the folly of what he had done, she was deeply in love with him. His realisation coincided with Mael’s banishment to the Aether and the destruction of his Primordial army. The surviving elves, and there were not many of them, were weary of battle. Choosing to retreat behind the Veil where they could rebuild their civilisation without any interference from the new races the Gods were preparing to inflict upon them, Lylea had asked him to go with her.
While Tamsyn cared for her deeply, he was conscious that she was a young woman even for an elf, and probably would be better off sharing a life with her own kind, as opposed to a mage who could be called on to serve his masters at any given time. There was also a part of him that feared what it meant to become a husband and a father so he had taken the coward’s way out. Instead of telling her any of his fears, he retreated to his tower in the mountain of the Jagged Teeth and there he had remained, in a deep sleep lost to the world.
When he was awakened by the intrusion of the dwarves some two thousand years later, he learned that Lylea had never taken an elven husband. Her consorts were almost always human and usually coincided with the birth of a child, the last being Arianne. Although proposals had been made to her, she accepted none of them, and Tamsyn wondered if it was because his betrayal had soured her on the experience for all time.
At the wedding of Dare and Arianne they regarded each other for the first time two millennia, even though news of his return must have reached her ears through Arianne and Dare. He could have tried explaining himself, but she treated their past association as little more than an old friendship from long ago. Not once did she acknowledge that once upon a time, they had made each other burn beneath the light of the stars.
*****
‘Mage,’ Lylea gazed down at him from her single throne, elevated on a raised platform, resting atop the wooden floor upon which he was presently standing. While she now had the appearance of a woman in forties, she was still no less dazzling than she had been as a young woman. Possessing the same mahogany hair as Arianne, Lylea wore hers up instead, with delicate strands brushing her long slender neck. Her cheek bones were high and gave pronouncement to her elfin features as she stared at him with blue eyes lacking their usual warmth.
Although her personal guards were present, there was no one else in the hall and the emptiness of it made him uneasy. There was too much unspoken between them and the substances of it lingered in the air, waiting to choke them at any moment. However, Tamsyn remembered he was here for a reason that had nothing to do with their turbulent history.
‘My Queen,’ he replied with a bow. ‘I am sorry to impose upon your realm but…’
‘I have seen it too. I know that my daughter’s life is in danger.’ She cut him off abruptly, her voice hard, and he knew that it was not usual for her to speak this way for he noted one of her guards shifting his gaze subtly in the direction, noticing the difference.
‘Then you have seen the portents,’ he said grimly, ignoring her aloofness when he knew she had cause for her hostility.
‘Yes,’ Lylea nodded immediately thinking of the impending doom hurtling towards her youngest and perhaps most beloved child. ‘I have felt the growing malice coming from the north for some time now, but its source is unclear. I had hoped would not manifest itself so soon after her marriage. It does not please me to tell my daughter that her happiest day may soon be her darkest.’
‘Nor does it please me,’ Tamsyn spoke in sympathy. ‘Both she and her husband are dear to me and this news will surely send them both into panic. However, we must make haste to Sandrine and tell her while we still have time.’
‘We have less time than you think,’ she declared, rising from her throne and descending the steps to the floor. Approaching him, she held up her hand revealing letter gilt in gold. ‘The announcement has gone throughout the lands of the kingdom. It is what the Enemy has been waiting to hear.’
‘I feared this,’ Tamsyn grimaced. ‘He has been waiting since Balfure’s end for this moment. It has allowed the people of Avalyne to grow complacent with peace.’
‘And nothing puts anymore more at ease than the arrival of a new Prince,’ the High Queen reminded. ‘A mother to be should not be embarking on any quest, not so soon,’ she said unhappily.
‘This is no mere quest,’ Tamsyn pointed out quickly. ‘To strike at the most vulnerable place there can be is evil of the foulest kind.’
‘I know,’ Lylea turned away from him, not wishing to see just how much this pained her. With a human for her father, Arianne had chosen to take up the choice that none of her other children had done by giving up her immortality. While Lylea understood her daughter’s reasoning, she would never come to terms with the inevitable end that Arianne would face. However, this evil now threatened to take her daughter away even sooner than that. ‘I wish this did not have to be Arianne’s burden alone. She should share it with Dare.’
Her pain made Tamsyn wish to offer her comfort, but painfully aware that any gesture he made towards the High Queen would not be well received, instead he remained contented to simply agree with her. ‘I wish the same too, He loves her more than anything in this world and would allow nothing to harm her or his unborn child, but he is just a man. The Enemy has no reason to keep him alive if he becomes inconvenient. Arianne is an elf with powers of her own, she may be able to guard against the Enemy and not be led astray by its machinations. If we were to allow her husband to know the Enemy’s plan, he would be determined to protect her by going himself and that is something we cannot allow.’
‘Perhaps we do not have the right to make that choice for them. Perhaps assuming what is best for them is wrong.’ She turned around and stared at him directly.
Tamsyn swallowed thickly, aware that her question was not merely statement but a barb at an old grievance. He ignored it for now, because that was too big a subject to delve into now when there were real matters of urgency to contend with. As it was, he felt guilty keeping secrets from Dare. The young King looked to him for counsel, had come to him for help to restore order to the world. Through those shared trials, they had become friends.
After a moment, he answered her. ‘I love them both dearly too and my heart aches in fear at the danger that Arianne will face, but it must be done this way. If she were to fail in the undertaking we would face a danger far worse than any we could possibly imagine. This could mean the resurrection of powers so dark that no army in Avalyne can withstand it. No race will survive.’
‘So is she to go alone in this peril?’ Lylea demanded. ‘When we dealt with Bal