A Desperate Attempt
"Our sincere pardon," Danica said quietly when she and Cadderly entered the small glade beyond a thick grove of pines that blocked the outside world. Here the elven leaders gathered Galladel and Elbereth, Shayleigh, Tintagel, and several others that Danica and Cadderly did not know. Their faces were grim indeed, and though Galladel said nothing immediately about the interruption, both friends could see that the elf king was not pleased by their appearance.
"I have translated the work," Cadderly announced, holding up the book of Dellanil Quil'quien for all to see.
"Where did you get that?" Galladel demanded.
"He found it at Daoine Dun," Elbereth explained, "and has it now with my permission."
Galladel glowered at his son, but Elbereth turned to Cadderly. "You have not had time to read the entire tome," the elf prince remarked. "How could you possibly have translated it?"
"I have not," Cadderly replied guardedly. "I mean . . ." He paused to search for the correct way to explain what he had accomplished, and also to calm himself under Galladel's imposing stare.
"I have deciphered the meanings, the connotations, of the ancient runes," Cadderly continued. "The symbols pose no more difficulties. Together we can read through the work and see what secrets it might provide."
Some of the elves, Elbereth and Shayleigh in particular, seemed intrigued. Elbereth rose and approached Cadderly, his silver eyes sparkling with a hint of renewed hope.
"What value do you expect to find within those pages?" Galladel asked sharply, his angry tone stopping his son in midstride. An expression of confusion crossed Cadderly's face, for the young scholar certainly hadn't expected that reaction.
"You bring us false hope," the elf king went on, his anger unrelenting.
"There is more," Cadderly argued. "In this work, I have read a most remarkable account of how King Dellanil Quil'quien awakened the trees of Shilmista, and of how those trees crushed an invading force of goblins!" With the parallels to their present dilemma so obvious, Cadderly didn't see how that news could be met with anything other than joy. But Galladel seemed less impressed than ever.
"You tell us nothing that we do not know!" the elf king snapped. "Do you think that none among us has read the book of Dellanil?"
"I had thought the runes ancient and lost to understanding," Cadderly stammered. Danica put her hand on his shoulder, and the young scholar appreciated the much needed support.
"Lost now," Galladel replied, "but I, too, have read the work, centuries ago when those runes were not so uncommon. I could decipher them still, if I had the mind and the time to do so."
"You did not think to awaken the trees?" Elbereth asked his father in disbelief.
Galladel's glare bored into his impertinent son. "You speak of that act as though it were some simple magical spell."
"It is not a spell," Cadderly put in, "but a summons, a calling to awaken the powers of the forest."
"Powers that are no more," Galladel added.
"How can you - " Elbereth began, but Galladel cut him short.
"This is not the first war that has come to Shilmista since I began my reign," the elf king explained. He seemed suddenly old and vulnerable, his face pale and hollow. "And I read the account of Dellanil's battle, as you have," he offered sympathetically to Cadderly. "Like you, I was filled with hope on that long ago occasion, and filled with belief of the magic of Shilmista.
"But the trees did not come to my call," the elf king continued, drawing nods of recognition from two other aged elves sitting by his side. "Not a single one. Many elves died repelling the invaders, more than should have, I fear, since their king was too busy to join in their fight."
It seemed to Cadderly as if the aged elf's shoulders sagged even lower as he recalled that tragic time.
"That is a summons for another age," Galladel said, his voice resolute once more, "an age when the trees were the sentient sentinels of Shilmista Forest."
"But are they not?" Shayleigh dared to interject. "Hammadeen bade us to hear their warning song."
"Hammadeen is a dryad," Galladel explained, "much more attuned to the flora than any elf ever could be. She would hear the song of any plant anywhere in the world. Do not allow her cryptic bidding to bring you false hope."
"We have few options," Elbereth reminded his father.
"The summons will not work," Galladel insisted, his tone showing clearly that he considered the conversation at an end. "You do have our thanks, scholar Cadderly," he said, somewhat condescendingly. "Your efforts have not gone unnoticed."
"Come," Danica whispered into Cadderly's ear, pulling him by the hand back out of the glade.
"No!" Cadderly replied, twisting from her grasp. "What will you do?" he snapped at Galladel. He approached the elf king, sitting directly across the glade, pushing right by the shocked Elbereth on his way.
"I have heard many admit that the force opposing Shilmista is too great for the elves to defeat," Cadderly went on. "I have heard that no help will arrive in time or in sufficient numbers to save the forest. If all that is true, then what will you do?"
"That is what we have gathered here to discuss privately," the elf king replied sternly.
"What have you who have gathered here decided?" Cadderly shot back, not backing down in the least. "Are you to run away, leave the forest for the invaders?"
Galladel stood and met Cadderly's determined stare with one equally unyielding. Cadderly heard Danica rushing to corral him, then heard, to his surprise, Elbereth intercept her.
"Most will go," Galladel admitted. "Some" he spoke the word callously and looked pointedly at Elbereth as he uttered it - "wish to stay and fight, determined to hinder and punish the enemy until they have joined their elven kin in death."
"And you will go . . . to the Edificant Library?" Cadderly asked. "Then away from there, to Evermeet perhaps?"
Galladel nodded gravely. "Our time in Shilmista has passed, young priest," he admitted, and Cadderly could see that the words pained him deeply.
Cadderly was not unsympathetic, and he did not doubt the truth of Galladel's claims, but there were other ramifications to their actions that the elves apparently had not considered, most prominently the fate of the region. "As an emissary of the Edificant Library, I can assure you that you and your people will be welcomed there for as long as you wish to stay," Cadderly replied. "But as one who has seen what befell the library, and now Shilmista, I must beg you to reconsider your course. If the forest falls, then so, too, shall the men of the mountains, and of the lake region to the east, I fear. The enemy must not be allowed so easy a victory."
Galladel seemed on the verge of exploding. "You would sacrifice us?" he growled, his face only inches from Cadderly's. "You would give the lives of my people, that a few men might survive? We owe you nothing, I say! Do you believe it is with light hearts that we surrender our homeland? I have lived in Shilmista since before your precious library was even constructed!"
Cadderly wanted to argue that Galladel's own claims proved that Shilmista, then, was worth fighting for, and that every possibility, even the attempt to awaken the trees, should be exhausted before the elves fled their homes. The young scholar couldn't, though. He could find nothing to throw against Galladel's outrage, nothing to diminish the elf king's ire. When Danica again came to him and pulled him toward the glade entrance, he did not resist.
"I thought I could help them," he said to her, and he did not look back at Galladel.
"We all wish to help," Danica replied softly. "That is our frustration."
They said nothing more as they walked slowly away and heard an argument raging behind them within the ring of pines. When they were back at the campsite with Kierkan Rufo and the dwarven brothers, the weight of the world seemed to bow Cadderly's shoulders.
They were surprised an hour later, when Elbereth, Shayleigh, and Tintagel came to join them.
"You are certain that you have the runes deciphered?" Elbereth asked sternly, his jaw firm and eyes staring hard at Cadderly.
"I am certain," Cadderly replied, jumping to his feet, suspecting what the bold elf prince had in mind.
The expressions splayed across the faces of both Shayleigh and Tintagel revealed their discomfort with this meeting.
"What was the council's decision?" Danica asked of Elbereth. She rose beside Cadderly and looked hard at the elf prince.
Elbereth didn't retreat from his stance. "By my father's word, my people will depart the forest," he admitted. "We surrender the ground in exchange for our lives, and never shall we return."
"It was not an easy decision for Galladel to come by," Tintagel offered. "Your father has witnessed the deaths of many elves these last days."
The statement stung Elbereth, as Tintagel, obviously not pleased with Elbereth's intentions, apparently had hoped it would.
"Their deaths will have been in vain if the enemy is handed Shilmista," the elf prince declared. "We have options still, and I'll not leave until they are exhausted."
"You plan to awaken the trees," Cadderly reasoned.
"Oo oi!" piped in a happy Pikel, who dearly wanted to see such druidlike magic.
All three elves cast a disconcerting look the round-shouldered dwarf's way.
"Oo," Pikel chirped, and he lowered his eyes.
"With your help," Elbereth said to Cadderly, "we shall recapture the magic of days long past. We shall turn the forest against our enemies and drive them back to their mountain holes!"