3 When Darkness Falls.8 (86 page)

Kellen looked around the tent. The Elves all nodded.

"Then we take a day here to make our dispositions. Tametormo, bring your Twelves and ride with me on to Stonehearth. From there I shall head south and east into the High Reaches. Any of you may find me along that route."

* * * * *

DID I do the right thing
? Kellen wondered.

He rode Firareth a little away from the camp, out beyond the pickets. It was already dark, and he conjured a ball of Coldfire. The ball of azure light turned the snow around him a brilliant blue.

Above him the sky was bright with stars. Meriec was probably right. Winter must be almost over.

It was going to be a glorious spring.

He was actually surprised when Shalkan came trotting up to him. He hadn't seen Shalkan for several days — since the two of them had slain the Prince of Shadow Mountain, in fact — and he certainly hadn't seen him lurking around the edges of Kellen's makeshift army as they'd ridden through the Delfier Valley. But still, here he was. The unicorn looked, as always, composed and imperturbable.

"I didn't expect to see you here," Kellen said.

"We aren't finished with each other yet," Shalkan replied.

"I guess we aren't," Kellen said. "So… Cilarnen is going to be Arch-Mage of Armethalieh."

"So I heard," Shalkan said. "Nice of you to tell me."

"I haven't seen much of you lately."

Shalkan snorted rudely. Kellen sighed. The unicorn wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. But it wasn't his fault. He hadn't really been that accessible. Not to a unicorn, anyway.

"I'm sorry," he said penitently. "I'll try harder to make myself available."

"You'd better," Shalkan said meaningfully. "I still have to keep an eye on you, you know."

"It's not like I can get into that much trouble out here," Kellen pointed out. How was it that Shalkan could manage in only a couple of words to make him feel as if he'd never been anywhere or done anything — and still needed looking out for?

"You're going to Stonehearth tomorrow. And trust me, Sarlin will bear watching."

Sarlin? Oh
. "The Lady of Stonehearth. Cilarnen mentioned her. Don't worry. I won't get into trouble." No point in wondering how Shalkan knew something he'd only decided a few minutes ago. Kellen had long since realized that unicorns had their own sources of information.

"See that you don't."

"So… do you want all the details?"

"It would be a nice gesture on your part," Shalkan said grumpily.

Quickly Kellen told the unicorn all that he'd discussed with the Elves under his command, about splitting the army up into a number of small mobile units, in order to cover the whole of the Wild Lands more swiftly and efficiently.

"Thought that up all by yourself, did you?" Shalkan said, when he'd finished.

Kellen sighed. Shalkan snickered.

"It needs to be done," Kellen said.

"It does," the unicorn agreed. "And afterward. What then?"

After Sentarshadeen. After the funeral.

"I don't suppose I've thought that far ahead," Kellen said.

"You'll have to eventually," Shalkan said.

"I know," Kellen said.

"Go to bed," Shalkan said. "You'll have a busy day tomorrow."

* * * * *

TWO days later, Kellen and his troop rode up to the gates of Stonehearth.

He was relieved to see that the village appeared to be in good shape. Cilarnen had told them of the devastation the Demons had caused here several moonturns before, and the southern route had been the main line of march for the Demon Army on its path to Armethalieh. But Stonehearth seemed to have escaped.

The gates were already open as he and his Knights approached. Several Centaurs trotted out through the snow toward them, a young blonde Centauress in the lead. She must be Sarlin, the Lady of Stonehearth.

Kellen reined in Firareth and waited for them to approach.

"I greet you in the name of Andoreniel, King of the Elves," he said, when she reached them. "And I bring you good news:
They
have been defeated."

"'They'?" Sarlin only looked puzzled. And worried.

Despite himself, Kellen smiled. No need not to speak
Their
name anymore, lest it draw
Their
attention.

"The Demons. They have been defeated. You are safe now." Now a look of joy suffused Sarlin's features. "Herdsman be praised! Then… you are Elves?"

Kellen reached up and pulled off his helmet. "My Knights are Elves. My name is Kellen Tavadon. I — "

"You are from the human city! You're the one Cilarnen went to look for! Did he find you? Is he — "

"Cilarnen is safe and well," Kellen said. "And he is a great hero. And a friend of mine."

"Oh, I knew he would be!" Sarlin gasped, rearing up on her hind legs in her excitement. "Can you — Will you come in? All of you? Will you tell me about him?"

"Gladly," Kellen said. "We need your help, as well."

"We will do anything," Sarlin said fervently.

* * * * *

THEY stayed three days at Stonehearth, using it as a base as they swept the surrounding area, looking for signs of the Enemy.

They found one or two, wounded stragglers from the party they had slain. They also found a pack of Ice Trolls, dead of sunlight when their magic failed them. They burned all the bodies.

Kellen found himself glad of Shalkan's warning. Sarlin — whether because Kellen was Cilarnen's friend, or because she was simply relieved that the Demons were gone — was just a bit… fervent. Kellen found himself rather uncomfortable in her presence. But there was little to be done about it, save make certain that he was never alone with her, and that was easy to arrange, as the addition of fifty Elven Knights — and their mounts — crowded the Centaur Village almost to bursting.

One thing Kellen did find very useful in his time at Stonehearth was that Sarlin — and the rest of the village elders — were able to provide him with detailed information about other villages in the area, something the Elven maps he had brought with him sorely lacked. As Kellen had hoped and expected, they were little more than a day's ride apart — at least for Elven destriers — and Sarlin assured him that every village and farming community in the area would be as happy as Stonehearth had been to host them, out of gratitude for the news they brought.

On the third day, Kellen and his Knights moved on.

* * * * *

FOR sennight after sennight, the Elven Knights rode across the Wild Lands. After the first few villages, Kellen left the others to their work and rode out with Mirsil and his Twelve to find one of the other bands of riders. His plan had evolved; now fast-riding skirmishing units criss-crossed the Wild Lands, rarely more than half a day's ride from one or another of Kellen's bands of searchers.

It was a method of solving the problem of cleansing the Wild Lands that the Elves would never have considered for themselves. Kellen had come up with it almost without thought; another gift of his Knight-Mage skills.

And everywhere they went, they brought with them the news that the Demon Army had been utterly routed.

Sometimes it seemed that they did not need to bring the news at all. As the sennights passed, even though they moved farther east and north, spring was rapidly approaching. Even the enormous blanket of snow that had fallen over the past hard winter was melting away — now the ground was visible in places, with the first shoots of spring grass pushing up through the dead growth of the year before — and the trees were setting their first leaves.

They encountered stragglers from the Demon Army constantly, of course. Hundreds of them, overall. But their enemies had only had a few days' head start, and had wandered, disoriented, with no clear plan. Kellen's strike forces dealt with them quickly and efficiently, and while there were a few casualties — both in villages, and to the Elven Knights — not one of the Enemy that they faced survived, nor got as far east as the High Reaches.

And at last, Kellen and his Knights reached the Border of the Elven Lands.

To Honor the Fallen

IT WAS THREE moonturns, almost to the day, since they had left Armethalieh, and winter was over. It was hard, now, to believe that the ground had ever been covered in snow, and that Kellen had ever spent his days and nights worrying about freezing to death.

There was no longer any need to worry about fodder for the horses and mules. Grain would have been better, of course, but the ground was covered with lush thick grass, and after an entire winter of dry fodder, the animals took to it greedily. With the little grain they had left — and the fact that they took the last part of the journey east by easy stages, having, so far as the Wildmages could tell them before they left, scoured the Wild Lands of the Enemy — they did well enough.

As Redhelwar had asked, Kellen had sent him regular reports. And in fact, he had much to report.

Every sign of the blight the Demons had spread — both to the land and the people — was gone. As Meriec had prophesied back at Stonehearth, the wild creatures had indeed returned to their old ranges — Kellen had seen several herds of deer already, as well as birds of every description — and the farmers reported that the flocks and herds were all being, well,
fruitful
. The births of twin lambs and calves had become the rule instead of the exception. And apparently the crops were going to do well, too — though Kellen wasn't sure how anyone could tell this early in the season. But that was what everyone told him, so he dutifully wrote it all down and sent the information along to Redhelwar.

Idalia would have been so happy to know all these things.

* * * * *

"YOU should dismiss us, you know," Tametormo said, as they reached the boundary of the Elven Lands.

"I… er, it would be good to know your thoughts, of your courtesy," Kellen said.

In the days and nights of their journey north, he had come to rely upon Tametormo as his Second. Their relationship lacked the easy familiarity of the one he had had with Isinwen, or the close rapport he had shared with Ciltesse, but he trusted Tametormo to advise him on the things a commander needed to know.

He'd been lost in thought — not thinking of very much, aside from being alert (as he always was) for possible danger on the road ahead, and wondering what he would
do
with himself once he got to Sentarshadeen. He rode at the head of the column of Knights; in less than an hour they would cross the Border, and be back in Elven Lands again.

At last.

"We will enter the Elven Lands, and go beyond Sentarshadeen, to the place where Redhelwar gathered us together to await Andoreniel's word. There, I am certain, he awaits us now. But the time for the army is past. I do not believe that any of us here calls Sentarshadeen home. For my part, I long to see the plains of Ondoladeshiron again. So, when we arrive there, Commander, dismiss us, that we may go home," Tametormo said.

"I… yes. Of course. I thank you for your courtesy in telling me that which I did not know," Kellen said.

"You are a great leader, Kellen Knight-Mage," Tametormo answered. "And I and my House shall honor you for that until the end of our days. Your name will never be forgotten, so long as the trees grow and the stars burn. But you will never be an Elf."

And I will never understand Elves, either.

* * * * *

IT took them another half day to teach the place that Tametormo had spoken of, and just as he had said, there was a camp waiting there for them.

It was small. There were no Healers' pavilions, no row of tents for the Engineers, Armorers, and Artificers. No separate camp for the Centaurs and the Mountainfolk. There were only a few animals waiting in the horselines, though Kellen saw wagons of fodder and a proper herd of remounts grazing out in the meadow.

Most of the Elven Army, it was obvious, was already gone.

Kellen led his troops around the edge of the camp, to the flat plain beyond. Redhelwar rode out to meet them.

He looked at Kellen expectantly, and Kellen was suddenly very grateful for Tametormo's words of advice. He turned Firareth about to face his command. There was a momentary flurry as the Elven Knights elegantly re-ordered their ranks, regarding him expectantly.

What should he say?

"It has been my honor to command you," Kellen told them, standing in his stirrups and pitching his voice so that his words could be heard clearly. "You have done all I have asked of you, and done it well. I dismiss you now. Leaf and Star go with you."

There was a moment of stillness. And then, as simply as that, they were no longer an army. The Elves broke ranks, heading quietly for the horselines to unsaddle their mounts.

Kellen turned to Redhelwar.

"And I dismiss you, Kellen Knight-Mage. Our work here is over. In a day or two, those you have commanded will go to their homes, when they and their horses have rested. These tents will be struck, and in time, there will be no sign that there was ever an encampment here. Which is as it should be.