The Cleric Quintet: In Sylvan Shadows

 

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!"

Cadderly was excited by the thought, but he saw that he and Elbereth, and perhaps Pikel, were the only ones holding out much hope.

"You father does not believe that," Danica reminded the elf prince.

"He would not approve of your actions," added Shayleigh.

"How can we leave until we have tried?" Elbereth asked. "If we fail, then we shall go along with Galladel's plans, and what have we lost? If we succeed, if the forest comes to life, if great trees walk beside us as allies . . ."

Tintagel and Shayleigh managed somewhat hopeful smiles. Danica looked to Cadderly, doubting, but ready to support him in whatever manner he required.

"I am ready to show you the words," Cadderly said determinedly. "Together we shall find the song of Dellanil Quil'quien and implore the trees to our side!"

The three elves took their leave then, and Cadderly, visage set firm, took up the ancient book and flipped it open to the appropriate passage.

Danica wanted to tell him of the futility, wanted to warn him of the dire consequences his failure might have on the elven host's already weakened morale, but looking at her love sitting so stern and determined as he pored through the book, she could not find the words.

None of them noticed Kierkan Rufo quietly slip away.

*****

The elves will depart? came the telepathic voice, revealing the imp's excitement. What defenses will they leave behind? And what of young Cadderly? Tell me of Cadderly!

"Leave me alone!" Rufo screamed back. "You have gained enough from me. Go and question another." The angular man could sense the imp's distant laughter.

"The elves will depart," Rufo admitted, hoping to mask the more important news with something the enemy would discern soon enough in any case.

And that is all? came the expected question.

"That is all," Rufo replied. "A few may remain, just to slow your advance, but the rest will go, never to return."

And what of Cadderly?

"He will go with them, back to his home, the library,"

Rufo lied, knowing that to reveal anything else would invariably lead him into the middle of another conspiracy.

Again came the reverberations of the imp's distant laughter. You have not told me all, came his thoughts, but you have revealed more than you intended simply by trying to hide that which you cannot. I will be with you, Kierkan Rufo, every step. And know that your unwillingness to cooperate will be revealed once our conquest is complete, once you face my mistress. I assure you that she is not a merciful victor. Go and reconsider your course and your untruths. Think of the path that lies ahead for Kierkan Rufo.

Rufo felt the connection break, then he was alone, stumbling through the woods, a haunted man.

*****

Danica was glad of the change that came over Cadderly, whatever the outcome of their desperate attempt. She knew that Cadderly was a sensitive man, frustrated by the violence that had been forced upon him and by the destruction of so many wondrous things, both in beautiful Shilmista and back in the Edificant Library. Danica didn't doubt Cadderly's willingness to fight back however he could. They stood in the same glade that the elves had used earlier for council, wanting their attempt to be private in case it failed, as Galladel had predicted. Watching Cadderly and Elbereth in their preparations for the ceremony, the young scholar tutoring the elf on particular inflections and movements, Danica almost allowed herself to believe that the trees of Shilmista would awaken, and that the forest would be saved.

Tintagel, Shayleigh, and Pikel, beside Danica, seemed to hold similar, though unspoken, hopes. Ivan merely grumbled a stream of complaints, though, thinking that they should all be out "clobbering orcs" instead of wasting their time calling to "trees that ain't got ears!"

Several other elves appeared when Elbereth began the song, an even-paced, melodic chant that sounded appropriate under the mystic evening canopy.

Pikel nearly swooned and began a dance, graceful by dwarven standards, but a bit strained in an elven wood. Still, Tintagel and Shayleigh couldn't help smiling when they saw the would-be druid, his green-dyed and braided beard bouncing about his shoulders with every twirl.

Then Galladel stepped between Shayleigh and Danica, his scowl threatening the magical aura as surely as would a goblin attack.

"Do not disturb them, I beg," Danica whispered to the elf king, and to her surprise, he nodded gravely and remained quiet. He glanced over to Pikel and frowned, then turned his attention back to his son, who was fully immersed in the ancient song.

Danica watched the elf king's eyes well with tears, and she knew that Galladel looked upon an image of himself centuries ago, that he recalled that time when he had failed to awaken the trees at the cost of many elven lives.

Elbereth's song reached out to Shilmista; Danica could not understand the words, but they seemed fitting for the forest, almost otherworldly and even more purely elven than Daoine Teague Feer had seemed. Those elves, many now, gathered around the small glade's fringes did not even whisper among themselves, did nothing but hear their prince's enchanting call.

A wolf howled somewhere in the distance; another took up the call, and another in response to that.

Then, too suddenly it seemed, Elbereth was done. He stood in the center of the glade, Cadderly moving beside him, and they, and all those about them, waited with held breath for Shilmista to respond.

There came nothing, save the howl of the wolves and the lamenting keen of the evening wind.

"Trees ain't got ears," Ivan muttered after a long while.

"I told you it would not work," Galladel berated them, the anticipation of the moment stolen by the wide-eyed dwarf's comment. "Are you finished with your folly? Might we get along with the business of saving our people?"

The look Elbereth gave Cadderly showed only remorse. "We have tried," the elf prince offered. "We have tried." He turned and walked slowly away to rejoin his father.

Truly perplexed, Cadderly stood in the middle of the glade, moving the beam of his light tube across the words of the ancient book.

"It was worth the attempt," said Danica as she and the dwarven brothers came over to join him.

"Worthy indeed," came a tittering voice that they recognized at once. In unison, they turned and spotted Hammadeen the dryad, standing beside a pine opposite from where Galladel and the others had just departed.

"What do you know?" Cadderly demanded, heading for the dryad. "You must tell us! The trees did not respond to the call, and you know the reason."

"Oh, they did hear!" Hammadeen replied, clapping her hands happily. She moved behind the pine and was gone, reappearing a moment later behind another tree many feet from the volatile young man. "They did!"

"Have they begun their march upon our enemies?" Cadderly breathed, hardly daring to believe.

Hammadeen's laughter mocked his hopes. "Of course they have not!" the dryad chirped. "These trees are young. They have not the power of the ancients. You are in the wrong place, do you not understand?"

Cadderly's crestfallen look was matched by Danica's and Pikel's expressions. Ivan just grumbled something, huffed, and stormed away.

"But the trees in this region of the forest have heard the elven song," Hammadeen offered to brighten their mood, "and they are pleased by it."

"Lot o' good that'll do them," the departing Ivan chided.

Danica echoed the thoughts of the remaining three perfectly when she whispered, "How pleased will the trees be to hear the crack of orcish axes?"

Hammadeen stopped laughing and faded into the pine.

The four companions were on the trail south later that same night, joined by Kierkan Rufo. Many elves accompanied them, though the fair folk did not walk the straight trails, as Cadderly and his friends had been told to do. Rather, they dipped in and out of the shadows to the sides, wary though weary, and those who were not riding often kept to the trees, crossing silently among high and intertwined branches.

Shayleigh found the travelers and dropped from her horse to walk beside them, but her presence did little to comfort them, particularly when it became apparent that she could not look Cadderly in the eye.

"They are fighting again, behind us," the elf maiden said, "as it shall be all the way out of Shilmista."

"Stupid orcs," Ivan muttered, and that was the only response forthcoming from the group.

"This time it would seem King Galladel was correct," Shayleigh went on.

"We had nothing to lose," Cadderly replied, a bit more sharply than he had intended.

"But we did," said Shayleigh. "For word has spread of our failure. All the elves know that Shilmista would not rise beside them. Our hearts are heavy. Few will remain beside Elbereth as he continues to hinder the enemy."

Both Cadderly and Danica started to say something, but Ivan promptly diffused their stubborn enthusiasm.

"No, ye won't!" the dwarf insisted to the two of them. "Ye won't be staying, nor will me or me brother."

"Oo," said Pikel sadly.

"This ain't our place," Ivan roared on. "And there ain't a thing we can do now to slow them monsters down! Too many of the damned things!"

Shayleigh left them then, and Danica and Cadderly couldn't even muster the strength to bid her farewell.