Gods of the Forevergreen
Part Four
The rain had not abated all night, and now the ground had turned to a thick mud on the farmlands surrounding the city walls. A heavy curtain of water blurred the vision of the human guards patrolling by the little creek that flowed out from under the city. The nightsight sap would not help them this night.
“Perfect weather,” Dart breathed. “The High Ones themselves are helping us.”
“Let’s keep our heads,” Sunstream said. “This is a bit of luck we can’t afford to waste. We move at dawn, not before. And we stick to the plan, understand?”
The elves all nodded. The seven were perched high in the trees overlooking their destination. There was nothing to do now but wait.
Soon the blackness began to lift, and world faded into lighter and lighter shades of gray. A soft colourless glow was beginning to play across the heavy stormclouds.
**Now,** Sunstream sent. **Until we’re inside the city, we only locksend.**
They dropped down to the forest floor. Stealthily they crept to the edge of the farmlands. Dart and Kimo led the way, blessed with the keenest eyesight in darkness. Wavecatcher followed, the strongest swimmer of the company. Windkin, Sunstream, Quicksilver and Yun brought up the rear.
They crouched in the wet grass and crept closer. When the guards passed near they flattened their bellies to the muddy ground and waited. In the sheeting rain, with the rising sun in their eyes, the guards could not distinguish the elves from the normal rise and fall of the land. Once the guards moved on, the elves began to crawl again.
They reached the edge of the creek and Dart and Kimo hung back while Wavecatcher led the way. He shaped his long tail and slid into the water, not unlike a river otter. Dart and the others followed, trying to make as little noise as possible. Once again the rain worked in their favour.
**I know it’s tempting to crawl on the bottom, but try to swim,** Wavecatcher sent. **Try not to disturb the mud.**
**Easy for you to say,** Windkin shot back. **We weren’t all born with fins.**
**Try it like this, Windkin,** Yun sent. **Let your legs float and move with your hands.**
**Heads up, landers, ** Wavecatcher sent. **The guards are coming back.**
They all went still in the water, immersed up their nostrils, as the shadows of the guards fell over the creek. Then the shadows retreated, and the elves continued their progress up the channel.
**We’re almost there,** Wavecatcher sent. **When it comes time to dive, everyone grab on to the ankle of the one in front of you. Dart, you take my tail – above the fins, please.**
**I think I hear the guards coming back,** Kimo sent.
**I can’t hear a thing in this rain,** Yun retorted.
An arrow sank into the water right left of Dart’s shoulder. Instinctly the Wolfrider leapt back, splashing loudly. Angry human shouts followed, then a second arrow, narrowly missing Sunstream.
**Grab on, everyone,** Wavecatcher sent. **Deep breaths!** The moment he felt Dart seize the base of his tail, he arched his back and dove down to the bottom of the pool. Dart almost lost his grip, but hung on tight, while Kimo held Dart’s left ankle fast. Arrows pierced the surface all around them as Wavecatcher dove into the darkness, navigating by the subtle push and pull of the current.
**Don’t dawdle,** Windkin snapped.
Wavecatcher reached out, feeling for the errant rock he had struck on his first dive. Gradually his fingertips found the familiar cracks and ripples that signaled the outer edge of the tunnel into the city walls.
**It gets tight in here. Pull your arms in. Hang on with two hands, Dart.**
**Why –ahhh!** Dart clutched Wavecatcher’s tail tightly as the mer-elf plunged into the tunnel with three sharp strokes of his tail flukes. With his hands held out in front to guide him, Wavecatcher led the way up the tunnel, labouring to support the combined weight of the elves in the chain.
**Can’t breathe–** Windkin gasped.
A distant light moderated the darkness. Wavecatcher grinned and swam faster, jostling the train and bumping Dart against the narrow tunnel walls.
**Hey, watch it, fin-wrist.**
**Faster!** Windkin snapped. **Can’t breathe!**
They could now see each other as Wavecatcher climbed steadily towards the light. Suddenly he broke the surface of the water and leapt high into the air. His warrior instincts well-honed, Dart released Wavecatcher’s tail as the momentum yanked him up out of the water as well. Instantly Wavecatcher shaped his legs back, and he landed on the edge of the pool.
Now their luck had run out. These spring-guards weren’t sleeping.
“Demons!” one cried, reaching for his sword. But Dart was faster. He hauled himself out of the water and drew his own sword, slung on his back. Two bounding steps and he plunged his blade into the human’s abdomen. Kimo was fast behind him, and now he dispatched the second guard. The other elves surfaced in the pool, already reaching for their weapons. But the work was already done.
“Shall we send to Spar?” Kimo asked.
“No!” Sunstream shouted as he crawled out of the pool. “We can’t chance alerting Door. Now we don’t send – even lock-send – unless it’s a matter of life and death.”
“We’d better hurry,” Quicksilver said. “It won’t be long before those lumps outside let their friends inside know we went up the spring.”
Kimo and Dart took up the front positions, armed with their troll-forged swords. Quicksilver and Yun guarded the rear as they advanced down the torch-lit tunnel.
The gentle rainfall had become a torrent, loud as thunder on the roof, when Spar eased herself into wakefulness. Slowly she became aware of the pair of arms wrapped snug about her waist, the nose pressed against the nape of the neck, the delicious heat against her skin.
She felt confined. She opened her eyes, then chuckled softly as she realized why. They had both bundled up tight under Door’s large caftan when the east wind grew cool in the night.
“Mm, Fenn...” she whispered, shifting in his arms. Door’s only response was to cling to her more tightly. With some small difficulty Spar managed to roll over to face him. “Fenn,” she repeated, a little louder.
His eyes flickered open and slowly focussed on her. “Mm... good morning, my precious mate.”
“Good morning yourself, old bird. But I have to get up.”
“Why?”
Spar cocked an eyebrow. “Why do you think I might... first thing upon waking?”
Door’s brow furrowed for a moment. Then he realized. “Oh. Yes. Of course.”
“So... if you’ll let me go...” she tried to wiggle away, but Door held her fast.
“You’ll come back?”
“Of course.”
“Promise?”
She laughed. “Promise.”
Door released her with a tight of great reluctance, and Spar shimmied out of the caftan. She seized her own woven robe and threw it on, then padded out of the bedroom, very much aware of Door’s eyes following her every step. She paused at the door and flashed him a flirtatious grin before opening the wooden door and slipping out into the throne room.
Strange, Arua and the other women were not sleeping on the cushions surrounding the throne as always. Spar shrugged it off. Perhaps they were needed elsewhere.
She went to the room designated for bathing and used the chamberpot, longing once again for the simplicity of forest life. She went to the large earthware jug to wash, and found it almost empty. The servants hadn’t filled it as they always did. Shrugging, she reached down to the water line and splashed herself with what remained. She donned her robe again and padded back towards the bedroom. She wished she knew where the women were. On her return trip the throne room looked somewhat more ominous in its emptiness.
A hand reached out from around the corner and seized her. Spar was lifted off the ground and slammed hard against the wooden door that led out the main corridor. Spar found herself staring up at Kamara’s glaring visage. He held a black-bladed knife in one hand. The other pinned her to the door by her hair.
“What–” she began.
“There can only be One God here,” he growled, swinging the knife down.
Spar pressed her hand against the wooden door. Instantly a long spire formed out of the door and plunged into Kamara’s left side. Kamara cried out in agony and staggered back, dropping the knife.
“Fenn!” Spar cried, breaking away. Now bleeding profusely, Kamara still had the strength to lunge for her as she ran past.
“You will not–” he caught her arm and yanked her back. Spar turned and sank her teeth into his hand, but this time Kamara held firm, pressing down so hard she was certain her arm would snap. His other hand crushed her throat.
“YOU!”
Kamara looked up, and his hold on Spar loosened slightly. Spar twisted in his grasp. Door stood in the bedroom doorway.
“My lord–” Kamara stammered. “Almighty–”
“YOU DARE HURT MY MATE?!”
Kamara dropped Spar to the ground. “She is a demon, Almighty! She has bewitched you!”
Spar scuttled back across the floor, away from Kamara. He was weak from blood loss, but still standing. “I am your high priest! I am of the Geo’kali! You must trust me–”
“YOU ARE NOTHING!”
The floor shook, and Spar struggled to her feet. Waves and ripples ran through the stone, converging on Kamara. He staggered back as the rock rose up around him. “No! No! Listen to me! I’m the only one who can protect you! Door!” The waves of rock drove him back against the stone wall. “Doooor!” he wailed.
Door made a gesture. Sharp spines of rock punched through Kamara’s back and out through his chest. The man howled in agony, before his shouts turned to gurgles. He fell slack against the spines.
“Door!” Spar ran towards him. But the look in his eyes stopped her in her tracks.
“Worms...” he growled low. “Ungrateful, murderous... WORMS!”
“Door!” she shook him. “I’m not hurt. It’s all right. You saved me.”
“They dare stand against me? They dare hurt you?!”
“Door, you’re scaring me.”
“Animals! Worms! They hurt my mate? They hold us in this... this stone cage! They are the ones who should be in cages!”
They heard the drumbeats in the distance, competing against the thrumm of the rain.
“The alert,” Door murmured. “A call to arms.”
“Sunstream and the others! They’re here.”
A smile crossed his face. “Yes. Perfect timing. They shall be witness to it.”
“To what? Door – talk to me!”
“The cleansing this city sorely needs.”
He rose up on the air, and Spar found herself levitating as well. The stone roof peeled open, and the rain sheeted down on them as they floated up out of the ziggurat.
“What are you doing?”
“Do not worry, Sohn. No one will ever hurt you again.”
The elves met little resistance as they raced up the tunnel towards the city. Two wiry human youths who were easily incapacitated without deadly force seemed their only barriers.
“Listen to the rain,” Kimo said as raced to keep up with Dart. “It’s even louder.”
“That’s not rain!” Dart growled. “It’s drums.”
They ran faster, until at last they came to wooden door blocking their way. Dart pushed the door hesitantly. It did not budge. “Locked. Or barred.”
Quicksilver moved to the front of the line and took hold of the little woven tassel that hung just above their heads. She pulled on it hard, and the door slowly creaked open, swinging inwards.
Quicksilver peeked through the open door. They had taken the cave tunnel all the way to the base of the great ziggurat. High above on the ascending steps of the ziggurat, men beat brass gongs and leather drums, creating a man-made thunder. A man, not broad-shouldered and pale like the guards, but smaller and darker-skinned, stood on the great terrace, flanked by humans likewise dressed in cloth and feathers.
“People of the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho!” the man shouted, his voice shrill with alarm. “The enemies of our God Door have come. Even now they may be among us, disguised as pure-hearted men. We must strike down these creatures before they can harm our Almighty!”
“This isn’t good,” Quicksilver murmured.
“Hear me,” Aina continued. “Loyal people – loyal servants of Lord Kamara and our Almighty. I... I bring you news from the Sky Spirit. He bids us destroy the evils ones who dare infiltrate our city – he–”
The ziggurat shook. Hiding behind the door, the elves felt the shock wave rush under their feet. The topmost level of the ziggurat shivered and began to stretch like melting wax. The roof split open, peeling away, and Door emerged, his long robes blowing in the wind. A moment later, Spar followed, floating on the air like a leaf caught in an updraft.
“There she is!”
“Let’s go!” Sunstream cried. “We don’t have time to waste.”
Door rose high in the air, floating over the terraces were Aina now cowered, completely out of his depth. “Humans of the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho, hear me!” Door shouted. “I am your living Sky Spirit. I am the Door through which you all must pass! No longer will I talk to your through the mouths of lackeys!”
Sunstream and the others slipped out through the door and crept down the narrow dirt lane. No one was watching the walls. All eyes were on Door.
“Now I say - Down with the Geo’kali and all their kind! They no longer speak for me, or my mate!”
“No!” Aina cried. “We worship you! We and the Lord Kamara.”
“Kamara is dead!” Door raged. “He dared raise a hand to my mate – my Goddess Redcrown! I have dealt with him and I will deal with you now!”
“No!” Aina turned and ran.
“Death to the Geo’kali!” Door commanded. “Death to those who have enslaved me!”
Rock rose up under Aina’s feet. A long tongue of stone extended from the terrace, lifting the cringing man high into the air, then throwing him down among the crowd.
“Door!” Spar cried as she hung suspended in the air. “Stop this!”
Now the humans were restless, clamouring forward towards the ziggurat. The even elves moved with them, pressing closer to the great pyramid. The humans were chanting, pumping their fists in the air. Some cried out in support of the ruling caste, but the bulk of the people joined Door in the chant “Death to the Geo’kali!” Mobs of farmers and labourers threw themselves on the spot where Aina fell and tore his body to pieces. “Death to the priests!” the people cried. “The Almighty wills it!”
Someone turned and saw the elves as they crept down the street. “Demons!” someone cried.
“No! True spirits. Servants of the Almighty!”
“Curse it,” Sunstream swore as suddenly all eyes were on them. He drew his dagger. “Let us pass, five-fingers!” he commanded. “Our quarrel is not with you, but with those who hold our friend!”
“Yes! The spirits have come to help us!” a woman shouted.
“They have come to rid us of the priests!”
“Death to the Geo’kali!”
“Here’s a priest!” someone shouted, and the elves turned. A mob of nearly ten Ulu-roa dragged a be-feathered priest forward and cast him into the muddy lane. “Kill the priests!”
The assembled humans fell on the priest, pummelling him with stones, staffs, even their own fists. Sunstream gasped in horror, but Dart yanked on his arm. “Let’s go, Sunstream, while we have our chance.”
The elves streaked through the crowd as those around them cheered and hollered for the blood of the ruling caste. Door now dropped down to the ziggurat terrace, and was shaping the flat stone into an undulating wave. The priests and musicians scattered, but great spikes of rock rose up and impaled them in turn.
“No more priests!” Door vowed. “No more mouthpieces! No more gibbering monkeys and crawling worms! I need no keepers to protect me – no keepers to betray me! Betray my mate! Die, now, traitors!”
Spar continued to hang in the air, helpless.
“Spar!” Sunstream shouted. “Windkin–”
“On my way,” Windkin flew up from the ground, bound for the suspended elf.
“Flying spirit! Sky spirit!” shouts from the crowd greeted him as he flew up to Spar. She was drenched, her robes flattened against her body. She struggled in the air, but something held her in place.
“Spar. Are you hurt?”
“No. But you have to help Door, Windkin. The human chief tried to kill me, and Door lost his wits again.”
“Yun and Dart’ll help him all right – with an arrow in the heart.”
“No! Don’t kill him! You can’t.” **Sunstream, don’t let them kill Door!** “Windkin! Get me down from here.”
Windkin encircled her waist with one arm and tried to fly her away. But the invisible hand held Spar fast in place.
Down below on the terrace Door turned away. “You!” he glared up at Windkin. “You’ll not take my mate, flying rat!”
An unseen hand struck Windkin, throwing him away. The Glider spun in the air wildly before he righted himself.
**Fenn, let me down!** Spar sent. **Please. I’m afraid.**
**Don’t worry, Sohn. I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re safest up there.**
**But I’m afraid for you!**
**Me? I am their Almighty. They cannot hurt me.**
The surviving priests and their bodyguards now charged Door, weapons raised. Door gestured and spires of stone shot out at them.
Sunstream led the charge up the ramps of the ziggurat. Few opposed them, and those who did were easily dealt with. Most brawny Hoan-G’Tay-Sho guards were now in active flight as the Ulu-roa exacted their vengeance with every weapon at their disposal. The greatest danger, though, was the shaking temple itself, so overwhelmed by Door’s rockshaping that it trembled like a leaf.
“This whole thing will come down at any moment,” Yun shouted.
The fleetest of the Ulu-roa had outpaced the elves and now swarming around the Glider. “To me, true believers!” he crowed. “We will build a new world together.”
“This is madness,” Sunstream swore. **Door! I am Sunstream, Master of the Palace! Listen to me. End this war.**
Door laughed. “Ah! My mate’s friends, you have come at last. Come, see what a reception I have prepared for you.”
**This cannot go on. When humans are aroused to bloodlust there no end to their hatred. They will turn on us next. You must stop this, now!**
“Stop? My cleansing as barely begun! The old ways will die, and a new world will be created. Oh, Spar!” he turned and smiled up at her. “What a world awaits our future children!”
His back turned to the terrace doors, he did not see the Ulu-roa raising his hardwood high overhead.
**FENN!** Spar cried. **Behind you.**
“Die, false god!” the man shouted, swinging the club down. Door turned and the blow that should have crushed his skull clipped him on the side of the forehead instead. He toppled over, while the loyal Ulu-roa turned on the would-be assassin and felled him under a rain of blows.
His powers failed, and the force holding Spar aloft vanished. She cried out, but Windkin swooped in and caught her in his arms before she could drop far.
“I’ve got you. Don’t worry.”
“Take me to Door!”
“What?”
**Curse you, take me there! Now!**
Windkin could not ignore the urgency of her sending, and reluctantly he made for the terrace. The Ulu-roa bodyguards clustered around Door nervously, eyeing the blood that streamed from the blow to his head.
“He bleeds.”
“He is not immortal.”
“He is not Almighty.”
“What do we do? What do we do?”
“He’s a demon! A Hoan-G’Tay-Sho demon! Kill him!”
The elves reached the terrace. “One side!” Dart shouted, and the terrified Ulu-roa drew back. Dart, Kimo, Quicksilver, Yun and Weavecatcher formed a defensive circle around the fallen Glider while Sunstream dropped to his side.
“Is he dead?” Dart asked.
Sunstream bent down and listened for Door’s breathing. “No. He’s just out.”
“Well, let’s finish him now!” Yun snapped.
“No. No killing. Enough blood’s been spilled already.”
Windkin and Spar dropped down onto the terrace. Spar broke away from Windkin and fell at Door’s side. “Fenn? Fenn! Can you hear me?”
“Fenn?” Windkin wrinkled his nose. He glanced at Sunstream, who could only shrug.
“What are you, creatures?” one of the humans demanded. “You’re not gods. You’re not demons – what are you?”
“Spirits,” Spar said. “Spirits of wood and water and air. But spirits are not gods. We can bleed and die just as you can.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Sunstream said. “Windkin, take Door. Carry him out of here. We meet back in the trees.”
“No,” Spar clasped Door’s hand tightly. “I stay with him.”
“Windkin can’t carry you both. Come on, Spar. We can’t linger here.”
“I won’t let anything happen to him,” Windkin promised. “But Sunstream’s right. We can’t treat him here.”
Spar reluctantly left Door’s side and joined Sunstream. Windkin struggled to lift Door, then took off, the Glider cradled in his arms.
“We’re leaving,” Sunstream said to the humans. “Let us pass.”
“Will you take our god from us?” one asked.
“We must. He belongs with his own kind. He is ill and needs healing.”
“Will he never return?”
“I don’t know. But we must leave now.”
Slowly the humans drew back, making a path. The seven elves sprinted across the twisted rock – now frozen without Door to keep it flowing – and made for the city walls. No guards stood on the wooden ramparts, only cheering peasants. Dart and Kimo kept their swords raised, though it proved they had no need of them. They reached the rock wall and crawled up through the narrow crevices between the jagged spires.
They climbed down the rock wall, cautiously moving from handhold to handhold. When they dropped down on the soft grass outside the wall, they found the farmlands littered with corpses. The call to arms had already spread outside the city, it seemed.
“Let’s go,” Sunstream said. “Into the trees. Who knows how long it will be before the humans decide to hunt a different kind of prey?”
**Windkin. Come here,** Sunstream sent. **Follow my sending.**
Spar sat down on the nest of branches and creepers and drew her knees up against her shoulders. Yun sat down next to her. “You all right, Spar?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t look all right.”
“I’m fine.”
“Gutchucks! What did that Door do to you?”
“Nothing!” Spar snapped. “Wood rot – why does everything think he’s a monster? He’s not the Black Snake, for Freefoot’s sake!”
“He’s held you captive for six days!”
Spar got to her feet. “You don’t understand anything!”
Windkin appeared through the trees, still carrying Door. He set Door down on the wide branch, and Spar rushed to his side. “Fenn? Fenn? Are you all right? Come on, Glider, wake up.” She slapped his face lightly. “Wake up.”
Door’s eyes slowly opened. “Spar... is that you?”
Her face brightened. “There you are. Don’t try to sit up. That five-finger clipped you good.”
“Where...?”
“Outside the city. With my friends. Don’t worry – you’re safe.”
“Must return... unfinished business...”
“I wouldn’t worry,” Sunstream said dryly. “The humans are finishing matters for you. There is a war raging inside your rock walls. I don’t know who will be left alive by nightfall.”
“I must return... my people need me...”
“They aren’t your people, Fenn,” Spar said. “They’re five-fingers. And you’re an elf. They belong to their world, and you to yours. To ours.”
“No... this is not what I wanted,” he slowly sat up, Spar supporting him. “I wanted to restore the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho. For years they cared for me... I cannot abandon them. I owe it to them to restore what they once were. My vision was beautiful... I stumbled on the way – I must finish what I started – and you must help me.”
“No,” Sunstream shook his head. “We are returning to our home. Our way is not to interfere with humans. Little good ever comes of it.”
“The humans need time to heal,” Spar said. “And so do you. Come back to the Palace with us. You can see Aurek – Egg – and Tyldak.”
“No. Never. She lives there.”
“She’s changed so much,” Spar insisted. “She’ll never even know you’re there. Her spirit sleeps, trapped inside the crystal walls. It take a sending scream to wake her up.”
“You don’t have to fear Winnowill any longer,” Sunstream said. “And there is so much to be learned, and so much to teach, in the Great Holt.”
“It’s too much...” Door shook his head. “No. Not now. Not yet.”
“You can’t go back to the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho.”
Door continued to shake his head. Panic was taking over his eyes now.
“Leave us alone for a while,” Spar said. “Please? We need to talk together, the two of us.”
Sunstream nodded, and the elves reluctantly moved away, leaving Spar alone with the injured Glider. “His headwound isn’t bad, but I’d still feel better patching it up with some salve,” Quicksilver murmured. “I wonder if he knows which of these plants works well for warding off infection.”
“I can’t believe we’re just leaving him alone with Spar,” Yun grumbled. “He’s already mucked with her brains enough.”
“Spar doesn’t seemed ‘mucked,’” Sunstream said. “She seems... calm. Confident. But different.”
“Do you think she Recognized him?”Quicksilver wondered.
“No,” Dart shook his head. “Her scent would be different, if she was with cub. Kimo and I would be able to tell.”
“Maybe they haven’t answered Recognition’s call yet,” Wavecatcher said.
“Oh, they’ve answered something all right,” Yun sniffed. “See how she’s hanging off him? I always knew she was insatiable, but this is going too far. I don’t remember any of the elders rutting with Winnowill in the old stories.”
“Though she tried her best with my father,” Sunstream quipped.
“I don’t like it,” Yun said. “You know how impulsive Spar is. She’s gotten herself in over her head.”
At length Sunstream returned to Spar and Door. Spar was thoughtfully chewing dark green leaves. She then applied the leaves to Door’s headwound and bound them in place with a strip of cloth torn from her caftan.
“What are those?” Quicksilver asked.
“They come from that tree over there. The humans call them ‘broadleaf trees.’ The sap helps keep the wound clean. Door told me.”
“The women... who served me, they always used these,” Door said.
Sunstream sat down next to them. “How are you feeling, Door?”
Door looked at Sunstream. He frowned. “I know you.”
“Yes,” Sunstream smiled. “We met at Blue Mountain. I was only a child then.”
Door shook his head. “I won’t go into the Palace. And I won’t let you take my mate away from me!”
“Door,” Spar said softly.
Sunstream looked at Spar. Spar gave him a helpless shrug.
“Door won’t leave the Forevergreen,” Spar said. “And I won’t leave Door. He can’t survive on his own.”
“What do you suggest? You two just... stay here?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. For now. Maybe... in a while, we’ll go to Sorrow’s End or even the Evertree Holt.” **Door needs to re-enter our world slowly. Too many elves around will only push him back into his shell – or worse, set off his temper.**
**It’s that temper I’m worried about. He almost flattened that stone temple – what will he do if you misstep.**
**He would never hurt me. I know that now.**
**How?**
She smiled. **Because he’s mine.**
**You did Recognize him!**
**No... not quite. I can’t begin to explain. But...**
Sunstream nodded. **You don’t have to.**
The other elves gathered around as Spar told them her plan. “We’ll make ourselves a little tree-home some distance from the city. See what happens. In time... when Door feels ready... well, we’ll see.”
“You can’t just stay here in the jungle all by yourself,” Windkin said.
“She won’t,” Yun spoke up. “Wavecatcher and I will stay too, won’t we, Wavecatcher?”
Wavecatcher blinked. “Uh... yes, of course.”
“Yun?” Spar asked.
“You’ll need help hunting and keeping safe. Four stand a better chance than two. And we can keep an eye on Glider here.” She narrowed her eyes at Door. “You hurt my friend and I’ll settle you properly, understand?”
Door got to his feet unsteadily and glared back. “You understand nothing!” he growled.
“Yun, Door,” Spar cautioned. “Enough.”
Wavecatcher slowly shepherded Yun away from the Glider. “I wouldn’t mind staying here a while,” he said cheerfully. “The waterways here are so different from those at home.”
“What will I tell the others?” Sunstream asked. “What will I tell your father, Spar?”
“Tell him... I’m travelling my own path for now, but that it will cross his again soon enough. Tell him this is something I must do.”
**But is it something you want to do?** he locksent.
**Yesterday I would have said no. This morning I would have said I wasn't certain. But now... yes,** she decided at length. She glanced back at Door, now standing at the edge of the tree branch, staring down at the forest floor in wonder. She smiled fondly. “Hardly what I expected,” she murmured. “But when it is ever?” she added wryly.
Windkin slowly moved towards the solitary Glider. “Door?”
Door turned. “The flying one. Are you Egg’s son?”
Windkin shook his head gently. “Tyldak’s.”
“Of course. You have his eyes. Have you come to help me restore what was lost?”
“Some things shouldn’t be restored, Door.”
“Does the dream end here?” he asked forlornly.
“Time to dream a different dream. Come with us to Sorrow’s End. The Mother of Memory can help you. We don’t need the Palace; it’s only two eights-of-days away on the wing.”
Door looked away. Windkin understood. “Then I’ll stay here with you, at least until you are settled. A lot has happened to the Gliders since Blue Mountain fell.”
Door nodded distractedly. Spar returned to his side and he brightened slightly, but his gaze still strayed back to the distant city.
“It was a good dream, Door,” Sunstream said, drawing closer to the three elves. “One my mother believes in with all her heart. Elves and humans can live side by side. But these two human tribes cannot exist together in peace. How can they accept us if they cannot accept each other?”
“They are all I have ever known of the world without.”
“I know. But their world is rotten. And we have neither the power nor the right to cleanse it for them. This is their battle, not yours. But perhaps... in time,” he offered gently. “Time is one thing we ‘spirits’ have in abundance.”
The nine elves journeyed through the jungle through the day and into the night until they came to the plateau where the Palace had deposited the elves only two eights-of-days earlier. When Sunstream called the Palace Door hung back in the trees, unwilling to venture too close to the crystal structure that housed Winnowill’s soul. Sunstream did not mind Door’s relutance; after Winnowill’s Egg scheme and Haken’s invasion of the Palace, he was relieved to see an ancient elf who had no ambitions for ancestral elf magic.
Skywise was overjoyed to see his daughter alive and well, but his relief was shortlived when he found Yun intended to stay behind. “I’ll be home before you know it,” she reassured him. “Think of it as another quest with the Wild Hunt.”
“Tell Ahdri I’ll be home before Mother Moon shows her full face three times,” Windkin told Sunstream. “If she wants to join me, tell her the Forevergreen is as beautiful as the day I first soared over it. But I doubt she’ll come,” he added softly. “She’s certain the day she leaves, the entire village will fall to pieces.”
“Spar?” Sunstream asked one last time. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’m sure.”
“If you need me–”
“I’ll call. Don’t worry. I’m not a cub anymore.”
“You were never a cub. That’s why I’m worried.”
Spar pulled a face.
“You know your mother won’t like this,” Skywise warned as he closed the crystal door behind Sunstream.
“Wavecatcher and Windkin can be trusted to keep Spar from losing perspective, or Yun for that matter.”
“And Door? He needs a healer by the sound of it.”
“We can’t force him, Skywise. You know that.”
“You know,” Dart said as the Palace lifted off the ground, “once again we’re leaving Door behind because we don’t know what to do with him.”
“No,” Sunstream said. “This time is different. This time Door has a voice.”
Door watched the Palace disappear into a blur of light. A few minutes later Spar climbed up into the tree to join him. “Come on, old bird,” she said. “We have work to do.”
“Work?”
“We need a shelter up before daybreak. You’re not in the city anymore,” Spar prompted. “No Ulu-roa slaves to fetch you food and drink. Gotta learn to fend for yourself.” She held out her hand. “Come on.”
Door took her hand hesitantly. “But, you’re not leaving.”
She smiled. “No, Fenn. I’m not going anywhere.”
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts