Fate Rides Wicked: Volume I of the Lerilon Trilogy (33 page)

“Yesterday, one of my men got into a bit of a scuffle in
the bar. Some property was destroyed and some sailors’
egos were damaged but all in all it came out all right. In
other words, nobody died or suffered serious injury. Such
news has reached the king by now and I need something
from you.”

Entil smiled. “Name it, My Prince. It would be an
honor to do you a favor.”

“Make the renewal of the treaty between your people
and Quel conditional on him accepting my proposal later in
the day.”

“I’ve been empowered to do as My Lords ordered, but
my judgment says to do as you say, even outside of the fact
that you outrank me. I will do it.”

“I have two conditions. One is you must talk of me as a
commander, not as a prince. The other is you must refer to
us as a delegation, not an army. Agreed?”

The thrandril nodded and Tych smiled. Lendril stood
up from the bed and said, “Let us go eat.”

The expedition paused at the top of the hill to wait for
Flandroke and Ubilitare. The thrandrils smiled at the sight
of the pemilons arriving with fresh horses. The expedition
took the fresh steeds and a third pemilon took the tired ones
away.

The delegation from Greenhaven rode with the
expedition since they shared the same destination. They
held on a bit tighter, ready for the speed that they charged
off at as soon as Tych gave the word. By night they had
traveled three quarters of the length of Quel and set up
camp within sight of the glow of one of Quel’s coastal
towns.

As morning arrived, they charged off to the east again,
the sun at their backs, and reached the edge of Greenhaven
at mid-morning. Here they pulled up and waited.

The border between the two kingdoms appeared
suddenly and quite plainly. On their ride the trees had been
all sorts of fall colors and leaves covered the ground. At
the edge the forest became dense and the green of the
leaves seemed too green to be real, almost an unnatural
color, without being unpleasant to see.

Entil rode to the front of the group. “Aquendar always
has admittance into our land, but the other humans must get
individual permission from me to enter. There are only ten
of us allowed to let you past the barrier. Aquendar, go
ahead and enter.”

He said the same thing to each human, having learned
his or her name the night before. Once they all waited in
the land of Greenhaven, the others entered and they moved
slowly towards the village. As soon as they came within
view of the first houses, Tych stopped them. “Dismount
and change into your finest,” he told the group. The
thrandril delegation continued into the village.

Tych and Lendril put on the royal white cloaks and
capes, which bore the silver, green and brown symbol on
them. Silver lined the edges of the capes and the collars of
the cloaks. The magicians found their finest cloaks, each a
different color, Quez wearing the green of magicians of his
race. The human spell casters wore every shade and hue
and in Blard’s case on the same cloak. The soldiers and
warriors put on their most-intact armor and dress boots
obtained in Quelak.

Decked out in this finery, they mounted the horses and
finished the ride into the village. The houses and huts
stood everywhere from on the ground to on the highest tree
branches strong enough to hold them. Walkways and
ladders formed a web above them. Everybody except for
the daril races felt strangely uncomfortable that nobody
seemed to be around.

The discomfort left as they reached the center of the
village. No trees stood in the center and the canopy of
leaves broke. One side of the area sported all sorts of
vegetables and fruits in a giant garden. In the rest of it
stood every thrandril. They pulled up just inside the
‘courtyard’ and waited. The gathered villagers began to
sing, and this is what they sang:

Before the Efres rose
to meet the Andarins
Before humans came
to live and work on Li
Good and Evil chose
other planes to live in
And on Li their names
were never heard
Then great storms
and sadness brought
the uplifting of
the Efres as the
arrival of Evil
and that which
it needs, Good, came
to serve the endarils

Tych, the King, will
end our days of sorrow
He will be a child of
Li, the wise and hopeful
sang

But our despair grew
worse as Rangdor crossed
the barriers that kept
only Happy and Sad known
In rage at his inability
to give life to only Evil
children, he brought humans
to destroy us on their own.

We honor thee, Tych,
with songs of praise
and hope, for only
your incredible Good
and darilian enchantment
can liberate and
join all of Li
into a Good family
Tych, the King, will
end our months of sorrow
He has yet to tap
powers, to this day,
incomplete

Evil will never fully
be banished again
But Good will soon
rule the fate of
Li, the continent
of many races, the
Kingdom of the
endarils, the first race

May Tych and Lendril
live the next two
thousand years in
a land unified, a
continent in peace,
where Evil exists
only to define that
which is Good

Tych, the King, will
end our years of
happy and sad
He will bring, with
the help of all that is Good
triumph over Evil

Welcome to Greenhaven
home of the youngest
surviving daril race

May your stay here
be filled with laughter,
joy, and happy memories.

As the last note carried through the forest, the zenith
sun broke through the hole in the canopy, dazzling them as
the thrandrils held up gems and reflected a myriad of colors
around the grove. Only the daril races had seen this kind of
display before, but it still amazed them every time they saw
it. The other races stared numbly at the beauty of it. The
neftir realized the danger of concentrating light in gems
since they lived off mining, so they knew this had to be a
rare, well-choreographed event.

After half a minute of the display, the thrandrils
covered the jewels and put them away. As Tych braced for
more ritual flattery, two tall thrandrils approached them.
They wore capes and cloaks exactly like Tych’s, but green
with silver lining. The tri-colored sphere sat in the same
places it did on the endarils’ royal finery. Tych and Lendril
dismounted and stepped out from the horses to be
welcomed.

The two thrandrils dropped to one knee when they
reached the endarils and bowed their heads. They started
into a greeting reserved for endarilan royalty. “Welcome,
Lord and Master, Gift of Li, Child of a Conscious Unified
Mind, and Son of Greentree...”

Tych cut them off. “That is enough Queen Oakfeld and
King Bralef, Children of the Endarils, Rulers of the
Thrandrils and Greenhaven. Stand up and consider
yourselves part of my family, my brother and sister in the
great body of Li. There is much to discuss and my
companions and I desire only to enjoy our stay here as any
other guests would. Therefore, please, no more songs.
They are beautiful but embarrassing.”

Lendril leaned forward and quietly said, “Don’t listen
to him. He loves the royal treatment, so give us one.”

Bralef looked at his queen and laughed. “Our Lady, at
least, realizes we plan to spoil these honored guests. Come
my friends and rulers, we will feast.” For the first time
since leaving Polentak, everybody ate the richest, tastiest
food on Li.

After the haven fell silent with darkness and fatigue,
Tych and Lendril sat alone under the stars with Bralef and
Oakfeld on a platform high up in the trees. The royal house
also reached this height, only a bridge away from where
they sat. A magical glow still emanated softly from the
leaves of the trees, casting a soft green light on everything.
Both moons passed by overhead during the summer
months, and Greenhaven never became truly dark.

Tych trusted Bralef’s sense of the world and considered
him to be the wisest man he knew. The king had reached
1151 years of age, one thousand and one years older than
Tych. The old ruler seemed to always have a solution for
every problem and a history to every situation. Therefore,
when Tych told him of his powers, the king took a deep
breath and told him, “The great sigh in the structure of the
universe that made you what you are carried unknown
effects. It brought all of the mental energy in Li into a
huge, powerful cry. Many people fainted, some died of
heart attacks, others just got a headache. A few more
powerful people recognized it but dealt with it very well.
You, on the other hand, retained all of that energy in the
moment of your conception. Before you even started to
grow, you were no longer an endaril alone.

“Rangdor quakes at the thought of somebody like you.
The dragons are not creatures of the mind, and he dares not
tangle with them lest they thrash him. He knows the
limitations of the dragons, but to him you are a mystery.
He cannot begin to fathom the power you may or may not
hold inside you, nor refuse to listen to the prophecies that
predict his destruction. He has withdrawn and now his
armies go with him.”

“No, Rangdor did not withdraw voluntarily. A few
seasons ago, Lendril and I were rescued by a member of the
Guards of Buhlaht.” The king and queen were amazed that
any daril had relations with a dragon, much less that they
had fought Rangdor together as Tych described to them.
After assuring them it really happened and that he made
allies out of the gold dragons, he asked, “Why didn’t the
mental energy of all those good creatures crush Rangdor?”

“Because they came in a wave not unlike that of a light,
steady breeze, with no force.” Seeming to want to think
about what he had just learned, Oakfeld returned to Tych.
“The sigh came about because of Corl’s magic to protect
the valley. He concentrated so much energy that it didn’t
settle right away. When it did, it shook the foundations
which separate time and space from the realm of the mind
and for a moment the two touched. Since the magic
centered over your valley, the break happened there and the
effect was felt there,” answered Bralef.

By now Lendril’s interest had been piqued by the
answers to Tych’s questions, so she asked, “Do you know
why I have the powers I do?”

Queen Oakfeld responded, “To what powers are you
referring?”

Lendril told them of the battle with Fear and how she
walked right through energy that stopped the two most
powerful magicians on Li. She told them of all the times
the strength of Tych’s energies had been channeled through
her and the calming effect her presence seemed to have on
his ability to control his power.

Oakfeld laughed a little. “You covered all the powers
we were told you would possess. That trip you made down
here fifty years ago came about because Corl wanted to
consult with us about your abilities. He trusts our wisdom
in the same way you do. Let me tell you about Lendril.
She is a gift from Lendela to Tych. Our God knew Tych
would come soon and that the journey through life would
be rough because of the awesome nature of the powers he
possesses versus the form he lives in. He gave you two
gifts.

“The first is for Tych’s benefit. Lendela made you,
Lendril, so that your body would use whatever energy it
needed whatever way it could. If it doesn’t need the energy
around it, your body will shield you from it and it won’t
harm you. In battle, when you’re tired, it uses it to
rejuvenate. When large amounts of it are around you, the
energy is conducted away, or fed to the one you love, as he
needs it or taken away if it would destroy him. He made
you a regulator for Tych’s systems in this way.

“The second is a purity of good. Evil can only harm
you physically; your mind and soul are immune from it.
You will only feel fear to the point it serves a good
purpose, for it is an evil emotion. It is the same with all
other evil emotions that might taint you. You cannot be
harmed by the energy of evil, so you cannot channel evil
energy to Tych.”

Oakfeld leaned towards the two endarils. “Lendela
made you a matched pair. Lendril keeps Tych under
control and allows his powers to reach maturity without the
energy harming him. Tych physically protects Lendril
from evil and gives her strength when she needs it.
Individually you are vulnerable, but as a pair you are
perfect. The love between you transcends emotion or
attraction and it is an unbreakable link. No two creatures
will ever love each other the way you two do. Each of you
will grow in power until you can compensate for your
weaknesses, but you will never be truly apart.”

Tych grunted. “Why didn’t Corl tell us all of this?”

Bralef shrugged his shoulders, which unnerved Tych
because thrandrils hardly made this human gesture. “I
don’t know. He explained it all in detail to us when you
visited fifty years ago. He must have somehow known you
would be coming here this early in your growth.”

“I’ve heard enough. Let’s talk about this arrangement
with Quel...”

The royalty spoke well into the night. They knew they
had a week of rest and pleasure ahead of them, so they
didn’t worry about being tired.

The next day, Bralef and Oakfeld surprised them once
again. At dinner, Bralef stood up and said, “I have a
presentation to make. Aquendar please come down here.”
The warrior pushed out his chair, stood up and walked
down the length of the table to their seats. “In gratitude for
your assistance two years ago with destroying the forangen
assault, we would like to present you with a gift only we
can give.”

Oakfeld stood, pulling a bow and quiver of arrows from
under the table as she did so. The bow stood only a foot
shorter than the horse master and the quiver would swallow
Tych’s arm. The queen said, “Both the bow and the arrows
are enchanted, both by the way they are made and magic
we placed on them. The quiver will automatically
replenish itself overnight and there will always be one
arrow. You will be able to pass it on for generations to
come, because the magic and strength are eternal.”