Council of War (7 page)

"Yet you are tired enough at midday to stop on this island," the water witch said compassionately as she stretched out her hand towards the fairy. "Come with me, and I will give you some nourishing food."

"I would appreciate that," smiled Squirt as she walked onto Haditha's hand. "Perhaps you could watch over me while I sleep, too. I am always afraid that I will get eaten by a lizard or something."

"You will be safe in the mine," promised Haditha.

The water witch carried Squirt into the mine and set her down on a small table built from driftwood. The first room in the cave was a large round chamber that the dwarves used to use for gathering at the start of the day. There were ledges etched into the wall to hold tools, but no implements had adorned those shelves in ages. There were several stone stools that had survived the years, and Squirt saw two of them had been moved towards the makeshift table. The fairy sat down on the table with her back resting against a stone cup. Its cold surface felt comforting on her back after having the sun beat down on her for so long.

"I hope you like seafood," Haditha said as she squatted near a concave stone on the floor. "I got some fresh clams this morning."

"That would be fine," Squirt responded, "but I am more thirsty than hungry. Do you have any water?"

"Of course," Haditha responded as she rose and approached the table. "I just have to figure out how to serve it to you."

Haditha reached towards a second cup on the table and then stopped. She shook her head, realizing that a cup would be too large. She returned to the other side of the chamber and began chipping away at a clamshell to make a small cup, but Squirt's eyes remained focused on the other large cup on the table. The fairy's eyes narrowed as she looked around the room. Two soiled stone plates sat on one of the ledges on the wall. It became obvious to the fairy that more than one person occupied the cave, and she glanced at Haditha's back suspiciously.

"How did you manage to get here?" Squirt asked innocently. "This is quite far from where the Remora went down."

"I was lucky, I guess," Haditha replied. "Did everyone else make it safely to shore?"

"Four were lost," answered the fairy. "In addition to you and the captain, Loman and Tyroma were unaccounted for. Everyone else made it safely to shore."

"That is wonderful news," Haditha said happily as she brought the fairy some water in a small shell cup. "I am amazed that so many survived."

"Did someone rescue you?" asked the fairy.

"No," Haditha answered. "I just ended up here."

"Kalina will be pleased to hear that you have survived," offered Squirt.

"There is no reason to bother her with such news," the water witch said slyly. "She has no further need of me, and I should probably return to the Endless Swamp. If you must tell her, just say that I am fine. I have no need of being rescued."

"It would not be much of a bother to rescue you," the fairy smiled mischievously. "They will need to come this way in any event to rescue Captain Gomery."

"Captain Gomery?" Haditha responded haltingly. "Whatever do you mean? Have you found him?"

"I have," grinned the fairy.

Haditha's eyes darted nervously around the room., but it was her sustained gazing towards the rest of the mine that confirmed Squirt's suspicions.

"I knew that he loved you very much," Squirt stated, "but I was not sure that you also loved him. I can now safely say that you do."

"You are not going to take him away from me," scowled Haditha as she realized that the fairy was onto her deceit.

Squirt, slightly afraid that the water witch might try to imprison her, jumped to her feet. "You do not have to fear the Knights of Alcea," the fairy said reassuringly. "They would never force anyone to serve them. I am sure that if the captain wishes to remain with you, they would not care, but they do at least have the right to know that you both survived. There was much sadness surrounding the loss of both of you."

"Better that they think we are dead," retorted the water witch. "They do not need our help."

"I said that they would not command his return," frowned the fairy. "Why are you so hostile?"

Haditha's face softened and tears welled up in her eyes. She sat down on one of the stone stools and put her face in her hands.

"You think that he will leave you?" Squirt asked compassionately. "Is that the problem?"

Haditha sobbed and nodded. "They will not need to command his return," she said softly. "He is driven by the need to do good. Once he has a way to contact Garth and Kalina, he will arrange to rejoin them."

The fairy stared at the water witch a long time before responding. "Perhaps," she agreed, "but I think you judge him too harshly. There are causes for which a man would willingly give his life, and I think saving Alcea is one of those for Captain Gomery, but that does not make his love for you any less than what it is. I know that he cares enough for you to put your life before his own. Can you not share his love for you with a cause that is dear to thousands?"

The water witch wiped her eyes and stared at the tiny woman on the table. "You make it sound so simple," she said softly. "How can you know what he cares about and what he will do?"

"I have served the captain for many months," answered Squirt. "I know him perhaps better than he knows himself. Humans are often confused about the ways of love, but love is like breathing for fairies. In a way, the captain also loves Garth and Kalina. He will be happy to let them know that he is alive and safe because he knows that they worry about him. He will gladly return to them if they need his expertise, but he will be very hesitant to leave your side. I think you already realize this, and that is why you are upset, but I think you are looking at things wrongly."

"How is that?" asked the water witch.

"You see his devotion to Alcea as a competitor to his affections for you," replied Squirt, "but they are really two different kinds of love."

"What is the difference?" frowned Haditha.

"His love of you is the love of a man," explained the fairy. "He would rather spend the rest of his life with you than any other person in the world. He wants you to be happy, and he wants to be by your side to witness that happiness. His devotion to Alcea is of another kind of love. It is the love of an ideal. For the captain, Alcea is more than a mere country. It is a way of life that has long been denied to the world because man is prone to corrupt such ideals to satisfy his own selfish desires."

"So it is different," shrugged Haditha. "That hardly changes anything."

"But it does," persisted the fairy. "It changes everything when you are comparing his love for you to his love for Alcea. There is no competition there. You cannot see that because you have never experienced Alcea. You can only compare it to what you have experienced, and that is the Federation and those corrupt countries that preceded it. You have to try to imagine a world where everything is as you would want it to be."

"You make Alcea sound like some dreamland," countered the water witch.

"In a way," smiled the fairy, "that is exactly what it is. It is not perfect in everyway, but it is the greatest civilization that has ever existed. I do not know how much Captain Gomery has told you of his homeland, but Alcea is more than a nation of humans. King Arik is the leader of the fairy people as well. We call him the Bringer. He is also the leader of unicorns, dragons, elves, and dwarves."

"I cannot imagine such a thing," admitted Haditha.

"That is precisely my point," grinned the fairy. "I truly believe that if you had experienced Alcea, you would offer your life to protect it because it is something special that should never be destroyed."

Haditha did not respond, and Squirt decided to let the water witch dwell upon what was already said. For several minutes the chamber remained in silence. Eventually Haditha rose and patted her shoulder.

"Come on," she said brusquely. "I will take you to Gomery so that you can get some sleep. I know that you won't sleep before seeing him."

Squirt grinned and leaped onto Haditha's shoulder. The water witch lit a torch and entered the mine. She started walking through a maze of tunnels, but she appeared to know where she was heading. At each branch of the tunnels, Haditha chose the one that led downward.

"He said this morning that he wanted to explore the deepest depths of the mine," explained Haditha. "That is why I chose not to join him. I do not handle things well underground."

"I am sure that I can find him alone," offered the fairy. "I do not want to distress you."

"You have already done that," chuckled the water witch. "No, I want to be there to see Gomery's reaction to you. You just hang on and enjoy the ride."

Haditha continued downward until Squirt felt as if she were a league under the surface of the island. Eventually they entered a huge chamber. The floor of the chamber had a long, wide crevice that stretched from one end almost to the other. Lining the crevice were hundreds of piles of clothes. Half of the piles were topped with silver jewelry and the other half had mining tools atop them. Captain Gomery was kneeling near several of the piles.

"Haditha!" the captain greeted his lover. "I thought you weren't coming down today?"

"I brought a friend of yours," Haditha said as she moved across the chamber to Captain Gomery.

"Squirt!" smiled the captain. "How ever did you find us?"

"She has been searching ever since the attack," answered Haditha. "She must be really devoted to you."

"Fairies are amazing creatures in general," grinned the captain, "but Squirt is amazing even amongst the rest. I am so glad to see you."

"I am thrilled to find you both safe and alive," replied Squirt. "What is all of this?"

"That is what I was wondering," answered the captain. "It is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. This chasm appears to be bottomless. I have thrown a few rocks into it, and I have yet to hear one hit bottom. And all of these piles lining it are most mysterious. They appear to be clothes of a fashion, but they must be ancient. I tried exploring some of the piles, but they are so old that the fabric just turns to dust when I touch it. Who would have built such a display and why?"

"It was the dwarves," Haditha declared. "The Isle of Despair used to be a rich gold mine. The dwarves were imprisoned here to mine the gold. I had never heard the story of what had happened to them, but now it is clear."

"Clear?" questioned the captain. "How can this puzzle make anything clear?"

"I heard a story a long time ago from another water witch," Haditha said. "Actually I heard many stories, but this one in particular is pertinent. It seems a dwarf once tried to commit suicide by diving into the water. He was rescued and returned to the island, but his rescuer was curious about why the dwarf had stripped naked before jumping into the water. The answer was most enlightening. It seems that dwarves will not commit suicide with their clothes on. It somehow offends their culture."

Captain Gomery gasped. "Are you saying that hundreds of dwarves committed suicide here?"

"So it would appear," nodded the water witch. "It is sad to think that people can be driven to such ends, but the Empire was a harsh master."

"That explains the riddle of the wall carving," Captain Gomery said as he rose and took his torch to a section of the wall where a message had been chiseled into the stone.

"What does it say?" asked Haditha

"The vein is played out," read the captain. "There is no more gold to fulfill the quota, but you will have no need for punishment. While life may be precious to some, we can no longer abide under such misery. Let this be the end of it all. It is signed King Drak, and there are some funny carvings underneath it."

Haditha walked to Captain Gomery and stared at the carvings. Squirt also peered at the strange symbols, but no one could make any sense out of them.

"That is so sad," frowned the fairy. "I can not imagine such pain and misery that the entire tribe would willingly throw themselves into a bottomless pit."

"I can," scowled the captain. "It was not long ago that such despicable rulers held sway over parts of Alcea. Whoever drove the dwarves to this end should be made to suffer for eternity."

"It was a long time ago," stated Haditha. "Dwarves have been extinct for hundreds of years."

"Dwarves are not extinct," retorted Captain Gomery. "They still live in Alcea, but I am sure that your Emperor has plans to change that."

Haditha started sobbing and turned away. Squirt leaped onto the captain's shoulder.

"What did I say?" the captain asked the fairy.

Haditha whirled around and glared at the captain. "My Emperor?" she shouted. "The Emperor of Barouk is no friend of my kind. We have been enemies of the Empire for hundreds of years. I know where this display of aggressiveness is leading. Why don't you just let the fairy take you back to the others? I have lived by myself for a long time, and I can do so again."

The captain moved so quickly to embrace Haditha that Squirt fell from her perch. She fluttered down to the floor of the chamber and watched as the lovers embraced.

"I never meant to refer to him as your Emperor," apologized the captain. "I meant Zaran. Forgive my stumbling words. As for leaving you, I have no desire to do that."

"Even if duty calls?" asked the water witch. "I saw the fire in your eyes a moment ago. You are not done with this fight."

"Perhaps not," admitted the captain, "but I have no need to leave right now. I will not deny that there might come a time when I will feel the need to lend a hand, but you must not look at that as a lack of love for you. In fact, I was hoping that when the time came, you would come home to Alcea with me. If that does not appeal to you, then I will return here to live out my days with you."

"So you still feel the need to help the Alceans?" asked Haditha.

"I do," nodded the captain. "What kind of man would turn his back on those who are depending upon him? Would you even care to know a man who could turn his back on those in need? I certainly would not."