The feel of the breeze on their faces came as welcome relief to the two elves who had spent weeks wandering the dark ways of the Path of Starless Night. This journey had taken much longer than their original trek under the mountains, when they had been heading to the south, for Belli'mar Juraviel and Cazzira of Tymwyvenne were determined properly to mark those paths leading through the Belt-and-Buckle, leading from Tymwyvenne to To- gai, the land they hoped now to be securely the province of Brynn Dharielle. For while Juraviel had left the ranger in the southland, he had not done so with a light heart, and he was determined to keep track of her progress in freeing the To-gai-ru from the conquering Behrenese.
Despite that burning curiosity and his deep feelings for Brynn, Belli'mar Juraviel hadn't regretted his decision to turn back to the north. His responsibility was, first and foremost, to his people, the TouePalfar, and to his home, Andur'Blough Inninness. Lady Dasslerond had sent Brynn to the south to free To-gai because she had thought the To-gai-ru more sympathetic to her people than the Behrenese, and because she feared that the stain of the demon dactyl, the rot that had begun to infect precious Andur'Blough Inninness, might force the Touel'alfar on that southern road in the near future.
That need seemed much lessened to Belli'mar Juraviel now that he had come to know Cazzira so intimately, however. Not because the stain of the demon dactyl was any less dangerous to his precious homeland, but because he had found the race of the Doc'alfar, the lost cousins of the Touel'alfar. And as his relationship with Cazzira had grown, Juraviel had come to understand and believe that the elves of Corona would indeed reunite into one community.
The two races were different, physically. Though both were about four feet in height, and lithe of build, the Touel'alfar were possessed of translucent wings. And while the Doc'alfar had dark hair and very light skin, the result of living in their dark and foggy homeland bogs, the Touel'alfar had colors more reflective of the daylight, bright hair and light eyes and skin glowing with the warmth of the golden sun.
But now, over the months, Belli'mar Juraviel had come to look deeper into Cazzira, beyond their physical differences, and had come to see a soul that was very much akin to any of the Touel'alfar. They were one people, of one heart, and with mostly superficial physical differences that would fade over time as their communities rejoined.
That was Belli'mar Juraviel's hope, at least, and his plan. And so he had come back through the mountains, to the northern slopes near to the Doc'alfar land of Tymwyvenne, with Cazzira by his side, and with a third elf, not yet born, growing within Cazzira's womb.
"This is not the same tunnel that we entered with Brynn those years ago,"
Juraviel remarked, squinting as he surveyed the region, his eyes unaccustomed to the light - even though it was late afternoon and the sun was already beginning to set.
"But we are near," Cazzira assured him, and she pointed to the northwest, to a distinctive mountain peak that looked somewhat like the wrinkled face of an old man. "Close enough, perhaps, so that the scouts of Tymwyvenne are looking upon us, their deadly weapons readied to strike at you should you make any untoward movement against me," she added, flashing Juraviel that mischievous grin of hers.
"Let them attack, then!" Juraviel cried dramatically, and he flung himself against Cazzira, crushing her in his loving hug, the both of them laughing. He pushed his lover back to arm's length, his golden eyes locking with hers, which were no less distinctive and startling, the lightest shade of blue that contrasted so starkly with her raven locks.
How deeply did Belli'mar Juraviel love this Doc'alfar! And in looking at her, every time he looked at her, he knew that Lady Dasslerond would come to see the beauty of it all, and the benefit of rejoining their long-lost cousins.
Sometime later, with the moon Sheila shining brightly overhead, the two elves moved along the lower slopes of the foothills, Cazzira leading in a generally westerly direction. They would not make Tymwyvenne that night, she had explained to Juraviel, but she was fairly certain that they would see the magnificent woodwork of the elven city's great gates early on their second day of travel.
They set camp in a clearing up above the bogland and skeletal trees that marked the region of Tymwyvenne, taking little care to conceal their campfire. For they were in the realm of the Doc'alfar now, secure from any intruders save Cazzira's own people.
The night was quiet about them, with only a gentle breeze blowing. A bit of a chill carried in on that breeze, but it was nothing their generous fire couldn't defeat.
"You will press King Eltiraaz to send us off immediately to your people? " Cazzira asked as the two lay side by side, staring up at the moon and the stars.
"Better that you and I make the first journey to Caer'alfar," Juraviel explained. "Lady Dasslerond will be no more trusting of your people than your King Eltiraaz was of me when first I ventured onto your lands. It is my Lady's duty to move with caution concerning the welfare of her people, and I would expect no less of her." He rolled to his side so that he was facing Cazzira directly, looking into her light blue eyes, which had so captured his heart. "But you will melt her caution," he said quietly.
"Together you and I will forge the bond anew between our peoples, to the gain of Touel'alfar and Doc'alfar alike.
"To the gain of Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou alike, you mean," Cazzira teased, using the Doc'alfar names of the respective races, and pointedly and playfully putting her own people first. She moved her hand onto Juraviel's shoulder as she spoke, and he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm back, pinning it.
"Touel'alfar and Doc'alfar!" he demanded.
"And if I refuse?" Cazzira countered.
"Then I shall have my way with you!" Juraviel replied. "Unless of course, the wondrous sentries of the Doc'alfar are about, ready to spring to your defense!"
Cazzira laughed. "The same wondrous sentries who managed to capture Belli'mar Juraviel on his first pass through their land, and with ease!"
"Aha!" Juraviel said dramatically, pointing one finger into the air. "But how do you know that was not my plan all along? To get captured so that I could steal from your people."
"Steal?"
"Your heart, at least."
"My heart?" Cazzira echoed incredulously. "Could you be so foolish as to believe that I have any romantic feelings toward you, Belli'mar Juraviel?"
With great dramatic flourish, Juraviel rolled away from Cazzira, clutching his heart as he went. "Ah, but you have shot an arrow into my heart!" he cried. "Mortally wounding - "
"I had thought to do the same," came a third voice, startling both from their play. Juraviel increased his roll and twisted about, coming swiftly to his feet, while Cazzira propped herself up on her elbows.
Both relaxed when they saw a familiar figure enter the firelight, that of Lozan Duk, who had accompanied Cazzira on the initial capture of Juraviel and Brynn Dharielle. He looked much like Cazzira, except that he was a bit broader in the shoulders and his eyes were dark, not light. The Doc'alfar scout spent a long moment studying the pair, his expression curious and obviously amused.
"Your journey to the southland was successful, I presume," he said. "Has the ranger Brynn unified the To-gai-ru tribes as securely as Juraviel and Cazzira have unified themselves, I wonder?"
Cazzira scrambled to her feet and rushed across the clearing to wrap her dear old friend in a great hug. Juraviel followed her over, taking Lozan Duk's offered hand in warm embrace.
"You have been gone too long," Lozan Duk said to Cazzira. "Our land has seemed empty without you. We have found so much less fun in hunting intruders." As he finished, he turned his smile and his gaze over Juraviel.
"Too long, indeed," Cazzira agreed. "I cannot wait to look upon Tymwyvenne again!"
"But you mean to stay only a short while," Lozan Duk prompted, glancing from Cazzira to Juraviel and back again.
"And how long were you spying upon us?" Cazzira asked.
Lozan Duk laughed aloud. "When first I came upon you, and recognized that Cazzira and Juraviel had returned, I wanted to rush right in and welcome you, both of you," he explained. "But then it seemed as if I was intruding on a personal time, and so I started away, prepared to return in the morning."
"And then you heard my mention of returning home, with Cazzira," reasoned Juraviel.
Lozan Duk looked at him earnestly and nodded. "You speak of momentous things, Belli'mar Juraviel of the Tylwyn Tou."
"I hope for momentous gain, for my people and for yours," Juraviel replied.
Lozan Duk really didn't have a response for that, so he just paused for a bit to consider his dearest of friends, returned to his side. For many years, he and Cazzira had been hunting partners, and partners in just about everything else. There had never been anything romantic between them, so there was no jealousy in his eyes as he considered her now, just gratitude that she had returned.
That expression of gratitude fast shifted to a look of curiosity, though.
"There is something..." the elf started to say.
Cazzira's smile gradually widened, until the whole of her delicate and beautiful face was beaming in the moonlight.
Lozan Duk's jaw dropped open and his eyes followed Cazzira's gaze down to her slightly swollen belly. "You are... ?"
"I am," Cazzira replied. "It will be the first child born in Tymwyvenne in a quarter of a century, unless other births occurred during my absence."
"No others."
"And it will be the first child born of Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou parentage in..." She paused and looked over at Juraviel.
"In more than the longest memory of the eldest elves," he answered.
"But what does it mean?" Lozan Duk asked, a simple question that held so many layers of intrigue for all of them. Was this child to signify a union of the peoples, a reunification of sorts? Or was it to become a bastard child of both races, accepted by neither? "It will mean what we make it to mean," Cazzira said determinedly. "The child is a product of love, true and honest love between Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou. Let there be no doubt of that."
Lozan Duk shook his head slowly as he considered his surprising friend, and gradually his gaze shifted over to Belli'mar Juraviel, this surprising visitor to his land.
"What says Lozan Duk concerning the child?" Juraviel asked bluntly, not sure how to read that expression.
The other elf took a long moment to consider the question, to digest all of this startling news. "If you make Cazzira happy, then you make Lozan Duk happy, Belli'mar Juraviel," he said at length. "She is my friend - as true a friend as I have ever known - and I stand beside her in all of her choices. She has chosen Belli'mar Juraviel as her companion in love, and has chosen Belli'mar Juraviel as the father of her child. That is all that I need to know about the truth of Belli'mar Juraviel's heart." He looked down at Cazzira's belly and smiled warmly. "Any child of Cazzira will be a beautiful creature."
"As will any child of Belli'mar Juraviel," Cazzira added.
"Then the child is doubly blessed," said Lozan Duk, and he held out his arms, and Cazzira fell into a welcome hug.
From the side, Belli'mar Juraviel nodded hopefully.
Lozan Duk led the pair away soon after, moving quickly along the trails leading toward Tymwyvenne. They met other Doc'alfar along the way, and all greeted Cazzira and Juraviel with open arms.
As did King Eltiraaz when at last the companions came before his gleaming wooden throne in the great hall of Tymwyvenne. He rushed down from his royal seat to embrace Cazzira, and welcomed Juraviel back with a warm handshake.
"So much we have to share," he said, returning to his throne. "I wish to hear every step of your journey to the south, and hope that all went well, and is well, with Brynn Dharielle, this extraordinary human that has made the Tylwyn Doc reconsider our actions against human intruders within our borders. You will be pleased to learn, Belli'mar Juraviel, that not another human has been given to the bog since you and your companion passed through."
Juraviel was indeed thrilled to hear that news. When first he and Brynn had encountered the Doc'alfar, it was behind an army of zombies they had created from human intruders, giving the people to the bog in a ritual that put them into an undead state.
"The humans are not without merit," Juraviel replied.
King Eltiraaz nodded, his thorny crown bobbing. "But they are a volatile race," he said. "They lack the stability of the Tylwyn folk. Even now, my scouts are out to the east, where momentous changes have come over the kingdom of the humans." He gave a great sigh. "I do not pretend to understand them and their frenzy, but perhaps we will learn.
"But enough of that," King Eltiraaz went on. "Your tale will be a long one, I trust, since you've walked a road for years. Begin at the beginning, if you will!"
Cazzira was smiling, and even started to speak, but when she turned to regard Juraviel, and when King Eltiraaz likewise looked at the Touel'alfar, they saw he wore a troubled expression.
"What is it?" the Doc'alfar king prompted.
"What changes in the east?" Juraviel asked.
King Eltiraaz and all the Doc'alfar looked at him curiously, as if they did not understand why that could possibly matter. "The human kingdom shifts often," Eltiraaz said. "I doubt - "
"Please, tell me what you have learned," Juraviel pressed, for a nagging feeling of dread filled him, and a sudden great fear for his friend Jilseponie. "Is not Danube Brock Ursal the king of Honce-the-Bear?"
"He is dead, from what we have learned, though you must understand that even my scouts most knowledgeable of the ways of the humans do not understand the subtleties of their language."
Juraviel held the elf king's stare and fought hard to keep his breathing steady. Something within was telling him that those friends he had left behind were somehow involved, and probably not for the good.
"King Danube is dead," Eltiraaz went on, "and his wife, Queen Jilseponie - "
"Jilseponie? Queen?" Juraviel blurted. It made sense to him, of course, for before he had left Andur'Blough Inninness with Brynn, the Touel'alfar had heard rumors that Danube had been courting Jilseponie every summer.
"Yes, her name was Jilseponie," King Eltiraaz explained.
"Was? Is she not still the queen?" The panic was evident in Juraviel's tone.
"Upon Danube's death, she left the great human city," King Eltiraaz told him. "From what we have learned, she is not in the favor of the new king."
"Who is this king?"
"Aydrian," Eltiraaz replied, and Juraviel sucked in his breath.
"Yes, and apparently he is a new addition to the royal line," King Eltiraaz explained. "He is not of the blood of Ursal, but of that of Wyndon."
Belli'mar Juraviel felt as if the whole world was sliding away from him at that awful moment, felt as if he was receding into some surreal dimension. Aydrian was king? He knew in his heart that Dasslerond had never planned such a thing, and that if this really was the Aydrian he had known in Andur'Blough Inninness, the child of Elbryan and Jilseponie, then something had gone terribly wrong.
"You know of him?" Cazzira stated as much as asked.
Juraviel hardly heard her. "I beg of you, King Eltiraaz, learn more of these events, for they hold great consequence, I fear, for my people."
"How so?"
"If this Aydrian is who I believe, then my people are either more intimately tied to the humans than ever before, or they are in more danger from the humans than ever before," Juraviel honestly replied. "I must learn more of this new human king, and quickly."
Cazzira put her hand on his arm, and when he glanced at her, he realized that the desperation must have sounded clearly in his voice. He looked at her helplessly for a moment, then turned back to the Doc'alfar king. "And I fear that my time here is short," he went on. "I must be away, as soon as is possible, to my people." He looked back at Cazzira, who nodded. "I pray you allow Cazzira to accompany me, and perhaps others of your court."
King Eltiraaz wore a curious expression. "I thought that we had long ago agreed on a decidedly more gentle approach to heal the ancient breach between our peoples. Such a meeting cannot be forced, we agreed."
"If Aydrian is king of the humans, then I fear for my people," Juraviel admitted. "And I ask King Eltiraaz to aid us in this, what may be our time of need."
"And so doing, endanger his own people?" the Doc'alfar king asked without hesitation, his tone growing more grave.
Juraviel conceded the point with a nod. "I must go," he said. "And I pray you do not hinder me."
"Then you must tell me more of this Aydrian," King Eltiraaz insisted.
Juraviel considered the question for just a moment; he could not deny that it was a reasonable request.
"I will tell you all that I know, of Aydrian and his parents," he agreed.
"And of your fears," the Doc'alfar king added, and Juraviel nodded.
"And we will tell you of our travels to the south, through the Path of Starless Night, through the lair of the dragon, Agradeleous, and across the wild grasslands south of the mountains," Cazzira put in. She looked at Juraviel, whose expression showed less patience with that prospect.
But then Cazzira added, "And we will tell you of other developments that may sway your decision concerning Belli'mar Juraviel's journey home, and what role I, and others of our people, might play in that journey."
Juraviel understood her reasoning then, and he knew it was sound. Cazzira was going to leverage their love and their coming child, to try to force her king's hand in opening up the dialogue between Touel'alfar and Doc'alfar.
"Yes," Juraviel agreed. "We have much to share with you. And I beg of you to send your scouts out wider while we speak, to learn all that they can learn of King Aydrian and the affairs of the humans."
"Which humans, Belli'mar Juraviel?" King Eltiraaz asked. "Those to the east, or those to the south?"
Juraviel, who had considered himself out of the tales of Brynn Dharielle, took a long moment to ponder that question, for he realized that if the Aydrian he knew was indeed the new king of Honce-the-Bear, the implications might prove far-reaching indeed. "Perhaps both," he replied.
"But for now, let us learn of the dramatic changes within the kingdom to the east."