The Floodgate - Elaine Cunningham [32]
You found us quickly."
"Our scouts brought word of humans in the forest pass," offered another, younger elf. "Several hunting parties. The latest had only three men, but unlike the others, they found and followed the karasanzor's path."
A deep foreboding came over Andris. "Were they dressed in white, and did they wear medallions like mine?"
The elf leader and Kiva shot identical quelling glares at their companions.
But Andris took his answer from the glint of surprise in the young elf's eyes.
So Matteo had come looking for him. That was not completely unexpected, but it was distressing nonetheless. There was no friend whom Andris valued more and no enemy he would rather avoid.
"We remember Akhlaur," the elf spokesman said. "We remember the raid on your village. Later, many of us lost friends and kin to Akhlaur's swamp monster.
We want nothing to do with Halruaa or with People who love the humans enough to live among them and their foul magic."
"Do you love the boar, the river eels, the swamp dragons?" demanded Kiva.
"If you intend to hunt a creature, you must first stalk it and observe its habits. I know Halruaa better than she knows herself."
The elf folded his arms. "So?"
"Knowledge is a deadly sword. I offer it to the People of Mhair."
"We're to hunt wizards, are we?" demanded the elf leader with knife-edged sarcasm. "With what? The weapons of the jungle?"
"With their own weapons," Kiva countered. "We will fight with wizardly magic."
The elf sniffed derisively. "You might as well offer to bring sea-going ships into the jungle! What value are weapons we cannot use?"
"I can use them. I am a wizard," Kiva said. She grimaced, then amended, "Or so I was, until the laraken drained away my spells."
A moment of profound and respectful silence fell over the elves. "You have faced the laraken? And it took no more from you than your human spells?" demanded the speaker.
"I am weakened," Kiva admitted, "but I still live."
"How is this possible, when the monster ripped so many elves from life so swiftly that they left holes in the very fabric of the Weave?"
"My wizardly magic was strong," Kiva said. "The laraken drank and was satisfied. What was taken from me can be restored."
The elf leader glanced at the ghostly jordain. "And the karasanzor?"
"He is called Andris. He also survived the laraken. He is a jordain, a name humans of Halruaa give to their lore-masters. He is also a battlemaster, resistant to wizardly magic and skilled at fighting against it"
The elf looked puzzled. "He is these things, you say?"
"Yes. Is."
Andris was not sure what this cryptic exchange meant, but he noted that Kiva had neglected to mention his elf blood. He ached to claim what kinship he could. Before he could speak, Kiva stabbed him with a glare, eloquently and unmistakably warning him to silence.
The elf spokesman was not yet done with his questions. "Let us say that you have these weapons of magic. Let's assume that we could prevail against the humans. Why would we want to fight them again, when peace was so hardearned and long in coming?"
"Because if we don't, Akhlaur could return."
Stunned silence met her words. Andris felt as shocked and skeptical as the elves looked.
"All these many years," Kiva went on, "the laraken's source of strength was a trickle of water from another world, a world full of magic-an endless supply of magic. The laraken escaped into that world. So did Akhlaur."
Horror startled Andris into speaking out of turn. "Why did you help it escape?"
The elf woman's glance flicked over to him. "Why would I lead an army of magic-dead warriors against the laraken, except to destroy it? It was my intention to enter the Plane of Water once the laraken was destroyed, to face Akhlaur. But Tzigone did not hold the laraken, choosing instead to waste her spells attacking me."
Andris thought back upon the confusion and chaos of battle. The laraken had broken free of Tzigone and rushed back to the spring just as Kiva conjured a large, bubbling gate. When Kiva fell, it was within arm's reach of this gate.
Perhaps