"I had another task . It’s finished now." Evals smiled at the little elf. His courage was beyond comprehension. He was still functioning after staring at death nearly too many times to count. Evals knew Cosis had been pampered all his life, but not once had he complained about anything, even the lack of food. "I won’t be leaving you again until you are safely in the arms of your elven friends," he said.

Cosis couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t understand it. The Sirens’ Forest was normally such a melancholy place. "Did you..." He waved away the thought. As they rode, the idea itched his mind until he could stand it no longer.

"Evals, did you meet the Sirens?"

"Yes."

Cosis waited. Was that all he was going to say? "Why? What did you do?"

Evals scratched his stubbly beard. "Nothing really." He pulled the vial out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Cosis. "The Lake Mother asked me to give this to one of the Sirens, but she doesn’t need it anymore. I hope you’ll accept it as a token of our friendship."

"Thank you," Cosis mumbled and was silent, but inside he glowed. In all his fifty years among men he had never been called friend. He had been told he was a great priest, men respected him, even revered him, but none had ever called him friend. He wanted to find the words to tell Evals how much he appreciated the gift and what it meant, but none would come.

He almost had a thought formed when he noticed Evals frowning. He could see the Scout’s senses become more alert. Evals stopped, dismounted, and studied the ground in front of them. He cursed silently and jumped back into the saddle.

"There has been a large squad of Pychnies through here recently, and it looks like they are being led by a Mandogo. That means he is probably a Jinku. Luckily they aren’t going in our direction."

They rode quietly until mid afternoon. It was then Cosis saw the Mother Oak. His heart raced. After so many years he was about to be among his own kind again.

"Evals, this is where we must part company. That is the Mother Oak. It’s where I am to meet my people."

Evals saw the huge oak dwarfing the trees around it. He put out his hand. "May Lythael guide and protect you, Cosis. Be sure to tell your friends about the tracks we saw," he said as they clasped hands.

"Thank you for everything, Evals. You have taught me more in this short time about what we all share than I have learned in my lifetime."

Evals waved him away. "Get out of here before we both start crying." Cosis turned his horse and trotted towards the tree. Evals watched him disappear into the trees. He started to leave but his curiosity stopped him.

Cosis was the only elf he had ever seen. They were such a legendary race. He had to see what their warriors were like. He tied the roan in some brush where the horse blended well and began working his way towards the giant oak. He hadn’t gone twenty paces when he heard battle cries and the sound of metal biting metal.

Evals sprinted back to the roan, grabbed the Pychnie bow and all the quivers he had scavenged. He raced to the clearing surrounding the oak. The Pychnies were pressing in on a tight formation of green clad fighters. The towering hulk of a Mandogo led the Pychnies. The black man looked like Bagorda himself, his swords flashing as he accomplished his bloody work. Evals strung the bow and began methodically firing the arrows. His aim wasn’t very good with the strange weapon, but an arrow anywhere took the fight out of almost any man or Pychnie. Ten of his arrows found marks before the Pychnies realized they were being attacked from behind.

Five more arrows found marks before any of them could start towards him. Three more fell before he dropped the bow and charged towards the three coming at him screaming the banshee cry of the Gray Riders. The familiar cry shocked them into momentary paralysis.

Evals skewered the first Pychnie, ducked under the hastily thrown blow of the second, decapitated the third, and then gutted the second with a backhand slash. "Jinku woman, come and fight a warrior and leave those pups alone," he bellowed, his heart racing. He hoped one of the elves would have enough sense to put an arrow in the Mandogo’s back if the chance came.

Evals saw the towering figure shove his way through the few remaining Pychnies. The Jinku, a bloodstained scimitar in each hand, stared at Evals.

"A warrior. You are a jackal who kills his enemy from afar and in the back," the Jinku spat. The fighting stopped as the Pychnies turned to watch the fight. Evals grimaced. That could only mean the elves were done in and could be finished at the Pychnies’ leisure.

Evals laughed. "This jackal with only one tooth will have Jinku liver for dinner tonight, unless it is too yellow." The Jinku snarled and approached him, guard up.

Evals withdrew his dagger and swiftly initiated the first exchange. He drove the Jinku back momentarily because the Jinku was winded, but then the Jinku countered with a steady flurry of blows that nearly overwhelmed Evals. He had to give ground continuously to the stronger man. He only partially deflected one slash, and it bit into his hip.

The Jinku was blowing hard and couldn’t press his advantage. Evals attacked again. The Jinku gave ground barely stopping the vicious cuts and thrusts. Finally, the Jinku did what Evals was waiting for. He tried to surprise Evals with a kick. Evals ripped through the momentarily exposed leg with his dagger. The Jinku fell howling. Evals darted in and thrust his sword through the Jinku’s throat.

Evals charged the remaining Pychnies screaming like a madman. Their leader dead, they fled into the forest. Evals raced after them and caught one hapless fleer who had tripped. His agonizing scream spurred the others on.

Exhausted, Evals stripped off his outer shirt and tied it tightly to his throbbing thigh. He limped back to the carnage under the oak. He quickly dispatched all of the wounded Pychnies then went to the elves. He saw Cosis tending to the wounds of one. Another elf was helping him, but that elf didn’t seem to be in very good shaped.

"Are you all right?" he asked as he began checking the others.

"Yes," Cosis answered mechanically. Evals shook his head grimly. The Jinku had been very efficient. He joined the others.

"The rest are dead," he said. He saw the elf helping Cosis was bleeding from a chest wound. "Let’s have a look at that. Cosis can take care of your friend." He started to rip open the shirt only to have his hands slapped away. He raised his hands and looked at the elf. "Die then. That wound isn’t bad, but if you don’t take care of it, you will probably bleed to death."

"Faydael, let Evals look at your wound. He is a man of integrity," Cosis said tiredly.

"Yes, but he is a man," the elf replied.

Cosis turned his rage on her. "Yes, he is a man. He’s a man who saved our miserable lives, mine not for the first time. Now let him look at your chest so I can concentrate on Faydaen."

Angrily she ripped open her shirt and faced Evals. She was definitely female Evals noted as he examined the cut running down her sternum. While she glared at him, he finished ripping her shirt off and began making it into a compress and bandages.

"Hold that there while I tie it on," he said as he pushed the compress over the cut. She put her hand on it while still glaring at him. He tied it in place with an X shaped bandage. He couldn’t help but smile a little at the effect. He got to his feet and out of range quickly when he saw her fist balling up.

He went to Cosis’s horse, untied the bedroll, and cut a hole out of the center. He took it back to his patient. He tossed it to her and said, "That will do unless you want to wear one of your companion’s shirts." She said nothing but slipped the poncho on.

"Did they run off your horses when they attacked?" he asked.

"Yes. All except Elder Cosis’s," she answered, ice in her words.

"Did you happen to notice which way they went?"

She shook her head. Evals mounted Cosis’s horse and went after the roan. He returned the chestnut then found where the horses had been tied and followed their tracks. He hoped the horses wouldn’t go far since they were in unfamiliar territory, or at least he thought they were.

"How could you bring a man here?" Faydael hissed to Cosis when Evals left.

"It was bring him or never make it," Cosis said. He was feeling old, older than he had felt in years, and he was feeling shame, shame for his people whose deep prejudice was reflected in Faydael’s tone and thoughts. Evals had just saved them and the Sword, but all she could see was his being a man.

"It would have been better to have died, I think," Faydael said touching where her bandage was. Cosis just shook his head. The fight was gone from him. His homecoming, his moment of glory, the moment he had dreamed of for so many years was a total disaster. He had been met by ten youngsters who thought they were on an afternoon’s outing.

Cosis couldn’t understand why the other elders had allowed such an inexperienced group come for something as important as Kilaal’s Sword. Didn’t they understand what was happening? He stared through tears at the eight dead elves. Not any of them could have seen his twenty-first birthday. When he was satisfied he had done all he could for Faydaen, he said, "We should begin digging graves."

Faydael stared then at the crumpled bodies laying in the pooling blood that not half an hour ago had pumped warmly through her, gay, happy-go-lucky friends. "They’re all dead," she said hollowly as tears stung her cheeks.

Cosis wanted to scream "Of course they’re dead you stupid girl!" He wanted to shake her till her teeth rattled. He wanted to pummel her, but he buried the frustration. He would save it until they reached Eprium. Then he would let his wrath have full rein and woe to the idiots who took this task so lightly.

He pulled Faydael to his thin chest and let her cry out her tears. While she cried, he prayed as hard as he could to Lythael, begging her to convince Evals to take them at least to the Escarpment. Without the Scout, he knew they didn’t have a chance. Anger surged in him again as he thought of the children who had been sent to be his escort.

It was nearly dark when Evals returned. Behind him trailed nine of the ten horses. As he dismounted, Cosis saw the tight line in his jaw as he moved his wounded leg. He forced a smile at the priest as he squatted down by them.

"Well, old man, it looks like you are stuck with me for a little longer. How far am I going to have to take you before you and the Sword are safe? I’m beginning to think this is a full time job."

"We can manage ourselves," Faydael said defiantly. Cosis nearly slapped her but saw Evals chose to ignore her.

"I caught most of the horses. They didn’t go far. They’re as lost here as I am. If you don’t want to bury your dead, we can take them with us."

"What do you think we should do?" Cosis asked.

"I say consign their souls to the hereafter and leave their bodies. Digging eight graves will be very time consuming. Taking their bodies with us will slow us down. We can move constantly by switching horses if we leave them."

"NO!" Faydael gasped. "We have to bury them or take them. We can’t just leave them." Cosis nodded his agreement.

"Okay, but risking our lives for their empty husks doesn’t seem very smart. Those aren’t the people you knew. They are just empty shells. Their souls are gone as you well know." He got up and moved away from their little group. He hoped Cosis would see things his way. If the priest would agree with him, he would hog-tie the girl if necessary.

"He’s right," Cosis said.

"No, Cosis, we can’t do that. We have to bury them. We can’t just leave them here to be eaten like common carrion."

"Faydael, your brother is very badly hurt. He needs more help than we can give him. Wasting any time will almost assuredly mean his life. Even if we leave now and travel day and night I don’t know if we will get to Eprium in time to save him."

"I...Oh, I don’t know." She began crying again. Evals wanted to comfort her, but he had seen her look too many times. It was pure, undying hatred. He had seen it from men who were good people except for that one burning ember that more often than not destroyed their lives.

Daxlan had taught him never to hate anyone or anything. He didn’t even hate the Pychnies or Mandogos. He fought them to protect what was his and because he thought his ideas were right, but he knew they fought for the same reasons. When any on either side died, wives and children mourned the loss.

When hatred entered the picture, thinking became tainted. Evals saw too many good soldiers die because they let hate cloud their judgment. He sighed as he looked at Faydael. The worst part was not being able to help. A person had to work it out alone, and it happened so seldom.

"We’ll move away from here, Cosis, as soon as you have finished giving your dead their last rites. Death has a way of attracting death." He walked to the horses feeling a pair of brown eyes burning into his back. The rest of this trip won’t be very pleasant, he thought as he began checking cinches and bridles.

After Cosis was finished, Evals returned with two poles he had freshly cut and several blankets. He made a travois out of them and lifted the wounded elf onto it. "Faydael, you know the way, so you lead. Keep half of the spare horses with you. Cosis, you keep control of the other half. I’ll come up the rear with the horse pulling the travois."

Evals pushed them long into the night. When they were totally exhausted, he called a halt.

"How are you holding up?" he asked Cosis as the little priest groaned into his bedroll.

"I’m still alive, I think."

"Good. By the way, how far is it to where you said I needed to take you?"

"A week or so."

"That long. You better sleep well. It’s going to be a long week."

He started to ask Faydael how she was, but she turned her back to him as he approached. Evals just shook his head. He checked on their wounded companion. He wasn’t feverish, at least not yet.

Evals stared longingly at his bedroll, but stood stiffly and started away from the camp. He had a lot of work to do and not much time to do it.

He woke Cosis and Faydael when the horizon began brightening. "Let’s get moving," he said wearily.

Faydael flinched away from his touch, but jumped awake when she saw her brother wasn’t next to her. She looked around frantically and gasped when she saw him strapped securely into a much sturdier travois. She also saw that his bandages had been changed. She stared at the man leaning heavily in the saddle. Something deep within her stirred.

He said, "Faydael, you ride behind me and lead the travois horse. You can tell me where to go. Cosis, you bring up the rear with the other horses."

They rode the rest of the day, stopping only long enough to change horses. As they rode into the night, Evals suddenly saw the stars above them. They were out of Sirens’ Forest. He stopped them at the base of a mountain blocking the sky in front of them.

"Check your friend’s bandages, Faydael," he said as he walked over to Cosis and sat down heavily. "I haven’t seen any sign of Pychnies, but I have been dozing in the saddle, so I may have missed something. Do you think you and Faydael could take about a four hour watch. I need to get some sleep or I won’t be able to function at all."

"We can stand guard all night. You look terrible," Cosis said as he fingered the hilt of the sword he had taken from one of the dead elves.

"No, just four or five hours. The two of you will need sleep, too. If you hear or see anything unusual, get me up. Heroes usually end up killing more than just themselves." He wrapped his blanket around himself and was asleep before his chin hit his chest.

Cosis quietly moved over next to Faydael. She smiled at him. "Do you think we will make it back to Eprium, Cosis?" she asked after checking Faydaen’s last bandage.

"I don’t know. Evals has brought me this far. If it’s in his power, he will get us the rest of the way. And from what I have seen, there doesn’t seem to much that isn’t in his power." He looked at Faydaen’s chest slowly rising and falling. It rattled as he breathed.

"Why in Lythael’s name did the Elders send you youngsters to get Kilaal’s Sword?" he asked angrily.

Faydael couldn’t meet Cosis’s angry gaze. She looked at the ground. "No one really expected you to bring it. You have been gone so long, since before I was born, and you went south to be among men, and no one thought there would be any danger, and the ten of us needed to get away, and..." She couldn’t finish.

"The Elders didn’t believe my communications. They thought I was a doddering old fool. Their help in return for the Sword was a joke." He was saying it, but he almost couldn’t believe it.

"What were they going to do if I did arrive with the Sword?"

Faydael’s eyes sparkled as she looked down at her brother. A fierce grin crossed her face. "We will finish what our greatest uncle started," she said confidently.

"No!" Cosis cried.

Evals was on his feet, all traces of sleep gone, his sword in his hand. "What is it?" he whispered.

Faydael looked at him fearfully, but Cosis blushed. "I am sorry, Evals. There is nothing. I’m sorry I awakened you." Evals listened to the night for several minutes. Satisfied, he returned to his blanket.

Cosis saw the fear in Faydael’s eyes. "Men like him have been fighting since nearly the end of Kilaal’s War to stop the encroachment of Pychnies and Mandogos into their land. They have been protecting us the whole time, and you want to war against them.

"Do you think we could defeat them? And if we did, do you think we could stop the Pychnies when in their midst is the greatest wizard-priest who ever walked the earth? No, we can’t. We must ally ourselves with man if either of our races is to have a chance of surviving.

"They know the truth of it because they are losing men every day. You, at least, should be able to see it. You have lost many of your friends to warriors who should never have been where they were, but they were because Erridaba put them there. That should tell you something of his power."

Faydael wanted to deny everything he said, but she couldn’t. Faydaen was near death, and the others were dead. She shuddered at the thought of the grisly wounds the black man had so casually inflicted. He probably could have taken them all alone, and probably would have had the wild man not arrived.

She felt tears coming. It had been so fun. Riding to Sirens’ Forest had buoyed them all. Voeghaen had never been more amorous. She was sure he was going to propose. They had all been surprised by the arrival of the little man who introduced himself as Cosis, but their surprise had turned to horror as the trees exploded with vicious men. Her brave Voeghaen fell first, surprise on his face as the black man’s scimitars butchered him effortlessly. Only she and Faydaen had offered him any resistance and they were terribly outmatched.

The memories were too much for her, and she cried softly into her hands. Cosis patted her shoulder. "You couldn’t have known, Faydael, but the Elders, they should have. When we reach Eprium, they will be judged."

She leaned against him and was soon asleep. He didn’t need to worry about falling asleep, the fury inside him burned hotly. So the Council of Elders thought he was an old cracked pot. Well, at sixty-eight he was getting on in years, but he was no cracked pot, and he would make them rue the day they ever began thinking it. He hadn’t been the youngest elf ever to reach the Council because he was slow-witted or kind. There was going to be a new Council Head after he got there, and it wasn’t going to be any of those on the Council now.

When the quarter moon had moved a third of the way across the horizon, Cosis awoke Evals. Evals motioned for Cosis to get some sleep. The priest thought his head had barely touched his arms when Evals was rousing him.

"We don’t have all day for you to get your beauty sleep," Evals said smiling. Cosis tried to smile, too, but the kinks in his abused body complained too loudly. The best he could do was grimace. Evals helped him to his feet, then limped over and woke Faydael.

For four days they traveled through the rugged mountains on trails more suitable for goats than horses. For hours at a time Evals had to carry the back of the travois as they stumbled over landslides common in the shale mountains.

As they were crossing one slide with Evals again carrying the travois, Faydael’s horse slipped and the mountain gave way beneath it. Faydael jumped free as the screaming horse tumbled down the mountain followed by tons of shale that buried it when everything hit bottom. Before Evals could help her, Faydael stormed past him, mounted another horse and moved back into the lead.

Eventually, they left the mountains and entered the grass plains that would take them to the Escarpment. Faydaen’s energy waned. He became unable to eat or drink and finally lapsed into unconsciousness. Faydael worked futilely on her brother, trying to get him to at least swallow a little broth, but to no avail.

"How stupid of me," Evals said as he watched her. "Cosis, let me see that vial I gave you." Cosis handed it to Evals. He gently removed the tight stopper and sniffed. Yes, it had the same aroma as the broth the sprites and Jewal had given him.

"May I?" he asked motioning to the bowl of broth sitting next to Faydaen. Faydael nodded dejectedly. He dumped out all but a swallow then added a drop from the vial. He stoppered the vial then gently forced open Faydaen’s mouth, poured in the broth, and forced his mouth closed. The young elf did nothing, so Evals pinched his nose closed, too. Faydaen thrashed weakly but swallowed. Evals released his hold, but not before Faydael was on him pummeling him with her fists.

"Stop it! Stop it!" she screamed as she pounded on his head and shoulders.

Evals knocked her to the ground with a backhand slap and stood over her, glaring down in anger. "You stop. I was only trying to help."

Faydael met his eyes defiantly. Evals saw the uselessness of trying to reason with her and walked away careful to stay out of her reach. She smirked as she watched him go, but then she heard her name being called weakly.

"Faydael," Faydaen whispered.

"Faydaen!" she cried and hugged him fiercely.

"I need something to drink," he croaked. She quickly got him another bowl of broth followed by several others as he greedily drank them.

"They can thank the sprites for his life," Evals said to Cosis as he handed back the vial. "That is if they don’t think as poorly of sprites as they do men." Cosis’s reddening cheeks told him all he needed.