Devastating Hate (54 page)

“So what use am I at all?” she said, downcast. “I can produce a few gusts of wind, a fireworks display and an illusion or two.”

“And without those skills Milltown would never have been saved,” he reminded her. “Talent and imagination were needed to adapt the music spell to serve as a barrier in that way.”

“It was stupid, really. My ears were still ringing four circuits later.” Famenia smiled in spite of herself.

Simin put his arm around her. “Famenia, what you did was amazing. Between ourselves,” he said, giving a conspiratorial wink, “none of my pupils would have dared to do what you did. Jujulo's gift of humor is a weapon we'll often need to keep our spirits up. And anyway, it's always
a question of
how
a spell is employed. You have shown you understand that.” He gave her an encouraging hug. “You are well on the way to becoming an excellent maga. And things in Girdlegard will settle down, you'll see. It'll all come right in the end. The pacts the monarchs entered into with the älfar have already fallen apart. We all applied pressure to make that happen. You, too: you are the liberator of Milltown. Who's going to confront a sorceress with a reputation like that? We'll defeat the elf-slayers and their dark hordes!”

“If you say so, master.”

I don't seem to have completely succeeded in cheering her up, but she's looking a little more confident
. “Don't call me master. You are a pupil no longer.” Just as he was about to leave the room something else occurred to him. “Can you tell me what Jujulo was researching most recently? We always wondered if he really was only working on the entertainment side of his art.”

Famenia gave it some thought before answering. “It was not a secret. He had never wanted to turn lead into gold or to explore the depths of Tion's nether worlds, or to gain enormous power. He wanted to make the humans in his magic land happy; he loved to hear them laugh. He'd have wanted to make all of Girdlegard happy. That's what he trained me to do.”

That's just what I thought. A big kid at heart. I miss him.
Simin knew that Jujulo had sent out his best apprentices to learn from the world and give delight to those they encountered on the way. Their audiences had appreciated their little tricks and clever illusions. “As I said: we all need a bit of fun. It's a wonderful gift!” He tossed an apple over to her, but she did not catch it very adroitly. “Oh, I'm sorry. I thought, as one of Jujulo's best pupils you'd be a bit of a star at juggling.”

“No, I can't juggle.”

“But what did you do when you were traveling?”

“We did magic tricks. Not juggling.” Famenia grinned.

“I meant when you were out on your trials being tested, far away from the enchanted ground. Somewhere you wouldn't have had any magic source.” Simin was really keen to find out. “I expect you told amusing stories to entertain the humans you met.”

“I used this.” Famenia brought out her amulet.

“I don't understand.”

“It allows you to store the magic power you need. It may not be much but—”

Is that possible?
Simin strode back to where she was sitting. He ran his fingers over her talisman. It made his fingertips tingle and he felt the magic the amulet held. “Jujulo found a way . . .” he whispered. “He played the fool but he was cleverer than any of us!” he whooped. “Famenia! How many of these things did he produce?”

“One like this.”

“Only one? Oh.”
Got excited a bit too soon, didn't I?
He had been hoping that they could use the stored magic to confront and defeat the demon directly at the gateway. “That's a shame. Perhaps you know how he did it, though?”

“No.”

Simin's optimism faded as quickly as it had come.

“But there are lots of smaller ones. They just don't hold as much magic,” Famenia explained. She had kept him in suspense deliberately. “He made forty altogether. One for every one of us going out on tour. The amulets and rings don't last forever and they start to crumble eventually, but they can be used quite a few times. At least I think so.”

“Well done that magus! The fool was the wisest of us all.” Simin took her face in his hands and gave her a big fat kiss on her forehead. “He's given us the possibility of stopping the demon in his tracks. Him and you. I'll see you later on.”

With that he ran off into his study. Sleep could wait. First of all he had to redesign his spell.

Tark Draan (Girdlegard), Gray Mountains,

4372
^nd
division of unendingness (5200
^th
solar cycle),

spring.

“What's wrong with this idiot shrontz?” Shoggrok confronted the óarco currently held with chains fastened around some stalagmites. Its body was covered in deep cuts and it did not look as if it had any blood left. It was squatting on the ground, its eyes dull and lifeless. “Is it still alive?”

The horde of óarcos with Shoggrok looked up sheepishly at the imposing leader of the last of the Kraggash.

“Toboribar has ordered all his troops to go south.” Shoggrok had been given the task of gathering up stragglers and driving them out of the Gray Mountains. He took his work very seriously. Following the defeat at Sonnenhag and the treacherous betrayal by the black-eyes, every arm capable of wielding a sword was urgently needed. He pointed at the chained prisoner. “He belongs to the troops. Take the chains off; we'll take him, too.”

“But . . . he isn't one of us anymore,” one of them objected. “The demon has transformed him. He should have been dead ages ago, but he keeps hitting out and biting if we go near.”

“We really can't use him,” agreed another óarco. “He's completely insane. We ought to leave him here for the black-eyes to play with. Or the other way around.”

The captive made a wild lunge, screaming horribly. The chains went taut and forced him back. One of the stalagmites snapped in half. Even Shoggrok flinched, taken aback at the sudden show of aggression.

“There! Did you see that?” squeaked the first óarco. “He'll tear us to pieces!”

The mostly dead óarco hopped about in fury and tried to grab the Kraggash leader with its claws. Baring its teeth, it displayed black bile dripping from its muzzle. It was not about to quiet down.

Shoggrok drew his sword. “You are right. It'll cause more trouble than it's worth,” he grunted, striking out. “He stays here.”

Sparks flew as the blade clanged against the steel collar, then cut through the animal's neck so the head came away from the shoulders. One of the óarcos caught it, laughing. The captive's body collapsed to the floor.

But instead of blood, a silvery fog shot out of the stump.

Shoggrok jerked backward. “What's that?” He hit out with his sword at the shimmering mist, but to no effect.

they heard inside their heads. The óarcos all cowered away from the cloud.

Shoggrok had heard tell of the demon that the black-eyes had won over as their ally.
However did he get inside the óarco?
He stared at the corpse.

When he turned around again the demon had disappeared. And so had Shoggrok's horde of óarcos.

“Hey!” he yelled, furiously. “Where are you, you band of cowards? We've got to go south!” He found his warriors hiding in the nearest tunnel.

They started out on their march south.

When Shoggrok left the Gray Mountains that evening to join their prince, Toboribar, they came across the demon again. He was hovering
up and down in midair just ahead of them, and whizzing from right to left.

“Whatever he's up to, he looks like he's having fun,” laughed one of the óarcos.

“He's waving at the clouds,” chuckled another of them. They competed with each other to make the stupidest suggestions about what the demon was doing.

Shoggrok thought it looked more like the demon was not able to cross some invisible barrier, like a fly constantly buzzing into a windowpane. “Well, let's leave him to it.” He gave the order to break into a jog. “We need to get away from here before the demon gets inside one of us. That flashing cloud thing belongs to the black-eyes.”

The group moved away fast, leaving the mountains and the demon behind.

When I finished writing
Devastating Hate
and looked at the publication date of the previous volume, I realized that more than two years had gone by.

More than two years!

That's a very long abstinence from these rascals, but they've been given plenty to do.

It was important to base the action in several different parts of Girdlegard and to include other characters, humans and älfar alike. That is why the focus is not solely on Sinthoras and Caphalor this time.

If you are wondering why you don't learn much about the dorón ashont, I have to tell you that's exactly how I wanted it. It would have led to an imbalance if I had gone into more detail. And no, I don't intend to give them their own novel. It's obvious that they will play a role in the future stories as they have already with the dwarves.

You might assume I'd be taking the story directly on from here.

But I am sticking to my original plan and am going to jump ahead time wise: the next part of
The Legends of the Älfar
will fall in the lost period of 250 cycles between volumes three and four of the dwarf saga.

The action will take us deep into the caves of Phondrasôn, part of which will be familiar to my readers as the Black Abyss in the dwarf series. This is where Tungdil once disappeared and from whence a gålran zhadar emerged.

Many of the mysteries and secrets waiting in the dark caves and chasms will be revealed—Tungdil's own secrets among them.

If you want to know what happens next to Sinthoras and Caphalor and to find out more about Morana, try looking in the books about the dwarves.

What Carmondai, Virssagòn and Arviû get up to next might one day see the light of day in some shorter älfar legends—perhaps an anthology?

Do not worry: Carmondai has kept all his notes carefully and put them by for later.

Quite a few people have made major contributions to help bring this volume to print and I should like to thank them all.

Tanja Karmann, Petra Ney and Sonja Rüther have done another fantastic job as my test readers.

My thanks, then, to them and to my new editor Peter Thannisch and to Carsten Polzin from Piper Verlag. I would like to thank everyone at Piper for their support.

Further thanks to HellScreen, who are planning to bring the älfar to life in the virtual world at
www.albae-online.de
.

I can't wait!