The Dream Spheres - Elaine Cunningham [149]
Arilyn suddenly drew breath in a sharp gasp. Her eyes shut as she struggled against the pain of her burns. When she had mastered herself, she opened her eyes and regarded the somber, watching elves.
"You have your sign," she said in a faint, ragged voice. "Do as the elf lord bids you."
A forest elf came forward, a small female, brown as a wren. "Go with the others," she told Danilo brusquely. "I am a shaman and will heal her." She looked to Foxfire to help her move the wounded half-elf. The warleader shook his head and nodded to Dan.
Danilo carefully eased Arilyn into his arms and followed the shaman out of the room. "You expected that to happen," he said softly.
She nodded once, with great effort, and turned to Elaith. The moon elf followed at Dan's side, his eyes intent on Arilyn. His inscrutable calm was gone, shattered by the sacrifice his "princess" had made for the elven folk, the family of her human love, and for him.
"You did not get the Mhaorkiira, but you have your answer," she said. "Are you content?"
An expression of wonder suffused the elf's face. "All these years," he marveled. "The things that I have done. I am beyond regret-beyond redemption, or so I thought."
"Sometimes the difference between a rogue and a hero," she said carefully, "comes down to who is telling the tale. Ask these elves who I am. They will speak of the moonblade. Ask humans, they will say assassin. It could be the same for you."
"You're talking too much," scolded the shaman.
Arilyn's eyes drifted shut. "Needed to be said."
Danilo left her with the fierce little elf woman and returned to the main hall. Since Elaith did not seem to want to discuss what had just happened, he left that conversation for later and sought out Foxfire.
"That was a noble gesture," he said. "A rare kindness to offer a stranger."
The forest elf gave him an enigmatic smile. "I have seen you before, once, in a battlefield near my forest. Arilyn called all the elfshadows from her sword. Yours was among them."
"No longer. That bond is broken."
"Changed," Foxfire corrected. "Never broken. She has need of you."
This surprised Danilo. "How so?"
"Arilyn is courage. Never have I seen an elf who embodied courage so completely. However, she is half-elven, and so there are some qualities she lacks. Music and light laughter-these are as important to the elven soul as starlight. These she finds in you. See that you give them to her, and I will always name you a friend."
There was truth in these words, and also the answer Danilo had long sought. He raised one hand in the elven pledge. Foxfire laughed and extended his hand for the salute that human comrades exchanged. They clasped wrists, then joined the others in preparation for the battle to come.
Twenty
Arilyn and the forest elves took to the rooftops. It felt odd, but amazingly right, to be back in the familiar company of her friends. The band took to the new challenge with ease, making their way across the uneven line of roofs as surefooted as squirrels.
They crept up to the Thann villa and circled the place where the tren attacks were to come: the garden shed with the false door that led into the tunnels. They got this in their sights and waited.
The night was dark, with a slim, fading moon and a thick mist. When the tren emerged from the shed, they blended into the shadows. Even to Arilyn's heat-sensitive eyes, they were little more than a cool blur.
"No one but elves would have seen them," the half-elf mused as she fitted her first arrow to her bow. "Oth wasn't expecting this."
At her side, Foxfire nodded and raised his bow. On his signal, all six elves fired.
The arrows dove in like silent, deadly falcons. A faint, rumbling cry drifted up to them, a sound that was abruptly and wetly silenced.
"We got at least one," Arilyn said.
"Two," the forest elf corrected. "There are three more. We should pursue?"
"No need. Listen." There was a faint hiss as the surviving tren dragged their slain kin beyond range. "They eat their own rather than leave evidence of their presence," she explained.