Tales of Eldelórne Page 13

  Fionna was the one to blush now realizing he had bathed all the blood off her naked body and tended to her wounds while she was unconscious. She looked at her hands and realized he had done an excellent job of it too. Then she realized he must have done the same thing for Roevash and the whole ordeal turned into a horrible daunting task. She knew it could not have been fun. Especially knowing his only kin were both half dead.

  “Does sleeping together ... does that work?” she asked.

  “Yes, It does. We heal very fast, especially together. Did you also never know this?” He looked utterly baffled at her.

  She rolled onto her back and pulled off the bandage to inspect the claw wounds above her knee. There were only thin pink lines where the skin tissue had mended perfectly together. Her ribs were still a little sore, though. Fionna didn't feel so self-conscious anymore as she gazed at Eijlam lying next to her in bed.

  “Then you, ... asking me to sleep with you, that was to heal me?” Images of the stumbling, pale, thin form of EJ flashed in her head, “...and to heal you as well? I mean, back in papa’s house.”

  “Yes, my love, I can understand how you would feel such desire for me as to fear for your maidenhood,” he razzed her in perfect dramatic form.

  “Uhhhh, gods!” Fionna grunted at the thought. “You have no shame whatsoever,” she poked him in the chest with her fingertip.

  “Ugh, I am stabbed by her truth.” He feigned pain in his heart as he fell dramatically onto his back. His sparkling pale hair spread out all over the soft pillow beneath his head. He smiled playfully.

  “Roevash is not so lucky as you." Eijlam suddenly became very serious; his eyes on the ceiling.

  “He is half-human, so he will need healing for much longer. I will stay with him now... He should never be left alone.” He gave her a forlorn look. His eyes welled up with tears just thinking about the damage his brother had sustained while fighting to save them.

  “Can I... should I ...sleep with him too,” she asked, feeling fear of the unknown.

  Ej gently assured her, “Yes, my beloved. Your Edhellen warmth will help Roevash heal as well.” He rolled over to cradle her face in his hand and look at her nose to nose again.

  “Edhellen always live close to one another for comfort and healing. You should never sleep alone if it can be helped.”

  “I would never have thought it proper,” she stared back at him so close. “I wonder what humans think of us,” she added.

  “You have lived among the humans too long. I do not care what they think. We are kin, and it is proper to help one another. Especially in such despair,” he looked hurt, “to make the healing faster... I hope he will wake soon,” he worried about his brother.

  She could see he was distressed and wondered if there was still a question whether Roe would even survive. She was afraid to ask.

  EJ stared up at the rafters setting his mind on thoughts of his brother. She hugged him, snuggling on his bare chest. He loved that her hair tickled his face. EJ smiled as he rubbed her shoulder lovingly and hugged her. Her sore back flared, and she grunted in pain.

  “You need more care, my Fionna,” he looked concerned. She cuddled closer, realizing the sober truth of his words.

  “I was scared when I first met your brother,” she changed the subject, purposely distracting EJ from worry.

  “He is so ... giant.”

  “It was like that even as small ones. The others in our village were not always kind because Roe is half-human. He could be cruel to me, as well. I think because he felt at times like a monster, he acted like one, but I could never stay angry with him. He is my brother.”

  “Roe met his uncle. He was from Darjalia. His father died before he could find him. They brought him to see his fathers gravesite, and the stone had your mother’s name on it. They were hand-fasted in love.”

  “That is good for him to know.”

  “He told me this just recently, after I discovered you were his family, and he had a mother… your mother. Have you thought about her very much? Since your return…”

  “I try not to,” EJ said soberly.

  “Roe understands her leaving was not your fault EJ. He takes the blame, as the elder son, for not paying enough attention to see her condition.”

  “I know how he wishes things had been different between us. Maybe the future will hold more joy.” EJ weakly smiled while taking a resigned breath.

  Fionna leaned over and kissed him solidly on his pouting lips. A thousand unspoken words passed between their eyes. Ej then remembered the rings Master Farghal had sent with him. He had been mindlessly fidgeting with them as they spoke.

  “Here, my love...” He slowly slipped one off his left thumb and slipped onto hers. It seemed to size itself magically and fit secure.

  “Your papa sends these for us.” He showed her his matching one; also on his left thumb.

  “I think he knew I was going to ask for your heart.”

  EJ kissed her softly, wanting to linger in that moment forever. Putting the ring on her finger brought them back to where they had started, and their betrothal made them both smile. Forehead to forehead they glowed with love for one another.

  “So, are you going to get up and make me breakfast gwennig bess,” EJ whispered as he used the word, wife to tease her, but he only managed to look cute.

  She laughed, “Yes, my bennig.” She tried to put on a dutiful face as she called him husband. He delighted in her words as he followed her out of bed.

  “I have no intentions to make my beloved ever toil alone,” he said, and he kissed her again. They both smiled and took care of each other as it would always be between them.

  +++

  The kingdom was not well where Roevash stood on the edge of the plains. He could see dark clouds boiling unnaturally to the east over the mountain range. He had returned to the fellowship of his uncle as a changed man. When they saw his healed eye, they had to believe his report of the beautiful elven Queen Galbraeth.

  It had been nearly a whole year and a half since he entered the domain of Caras Eldarhon and returned. His uncle, though still alive, was starting to show his age.

  “How old are you uncle,” Roe asked by the night fire.

  “Oh, I am only 880 years. I have a little ways to go yet,” Calan said, but he was feeling the pain of his bones, “I am slowing down a bit.”

  “A man such as you should be living in a warm castle with many fat women and naught this constant warring to worry the mind,” Roe added loudly.

  All the men laughed at that.

  “Ay that we could, but the evil sorcerer Surmanos has risen to power with a full army of fierce hiisi mutants. I have heard reports of the people of Renoble and their exile to Duns Baroth. If it were not for last-minute aid of Ettenfahls’ warriors and the skills of the horsemen of Renoble they surely would have all perished. We too will be called to fight soon...” he trailed off.

  “Pray then, tell me a tale of my father, dear uncle, so that I may pass this time with you happily,” Roe pleaded as he took a sip of something warm from his metal tankard.

  “I will say this nephew, your father was known best as a strong, imposing but fair man. He was the commander and noble leader of many in his age. As a boy he was not kind enough to his younger brother,” Calan smiled reminiscing. “He sent me many times on a challenge to catch the elusive water snipe on the edge of the river late at night. I was told it was a test of manhood.”

  Everybody around the fire listening moaned and chuckled knowingly.

  “One evening I spied a fair crop of hair on the other side of the river and with a shower of pebbles sent another young boy screaming in fear to his mother's bosom!” Calan laughed raucously at the memory.

  Roevash just smirked to himself. In those days elven youths played at a rebel war against the human boys across the river, and it was a serious affair. It was a bad night when EJ came back bloodied with the brazen human hot on his heels.

  “I did the same tr
ick to my younger brother,” he confessed, trying not to think on it. “I am glad no harm ever came of it considering the true monsters of those dark days.”

  “Ay," the men all agreed, shaking their heads thinking of their own families. The sound of clanking tankards could be heard around the campfire. The men drank up in agreement as they waited for the next battle to find them.

  +++

  Fionna and Eijlam crawled up into the huge soft bed and lay on each side of the unconscious Roevash. They pillowed their heads next to his shoulders. Gently reaching across his bandaged chest, they locked hands.

  “Goodnight my love. You will have much-needed healing as well,” Eijlam whispered, and they both tried to find rest with their wounded kin.

  Much to Fionna’s displeasure, the men took turns guarding their commander, and there was one in the room watching around the clock. “This is going to be hard to explain,” was all she could think.

  Clarion’s Call

  Chapter Eighteen

  The men of the fort trusted Fionna. She sometimes translated for Eijlam when he had trouble communicating. EJ's strange eyes always startled people upon first meeting. He was very foreign and exotic looking to men. Eijlam never felt the need to hide his ears or the fact he was Edhellen, and as EJ had warned her until she assured them he was Roe’s brother, they were not sure if he was female or male. To Fionna, he was so obviously all-male, and she could not understand the confusion.

  In the dim candlelit room, EJ’s face looked sweet as he cuddled into his brother's arm. She tried to imagine how growing up as an elf would have been.

  “How different,” she said to herself as she drifted off to sleep and dreamed of elvenkin.

  This first crucial part of the healing sleep went on for three days, and the men were starting to be concerned. The elves never moved. They checked for breathing, but their breath was so slow and shallow it was difficult to monitor. Fionna was the first to awake. She blinked her eyes wide and felt disoriented for a moment. Then she asked for water.

  The young guard poured her some and brought it to her. She was suddenly glad a soldier was posted there on watch duty.

  “Is there something I should know about you, Fionna?”

  She was startled to hear the low familiar rumble of Roe’s voice as he spoke in the common tongue. He was lying flat on his back, still unable to move.

  “Are we somehow kin ... or should I be curious ... to find you in my bed?”

  “We are betrothed...” it came out in more of a whisper as she tried to speak through long, desperate gulps of water.

  Roevash’s left brow moved upward. “What!” He closed his eyelids groaning from the discomfort of any physical movement.

  “I mean to say, Eijlam and I are betrothed,” she said meekly, her forehead cringing in concern at the pain she had just caused him.

  “Good ... embarrassment would be too much work right now.” His labored breath was short, and he coughed.

  “Do not speak,” Eijlam said still half asleep, “you had a punctured lung and many bones broken. This cannot be quick to mend.”

  Not moving Roe spoke in their mother’s tongue, “Long have I prayed to the Lords… to hear my brother’s voice by my side and feel his comforting coil about my thigh again.”

  Ej smiled and winked at Fionna, and she blushed.

  “Fionna is wizard, not elf,” EJ gently chided, changing the subject for her sake.

  “I know,” said Roe, “there is a lot ... we need to teach her...”

  He gasped for air, trying to calm himself in the great joy his heart felt at having them there.

  “Can I have permission to remove myself... to the washroom?” Fionna asked bluntly to the commander while trying to remain civil against their teasing.

  “I am sure of it,” EJ agreed, answering his brother, his eyes playfully narrowing as he smiled at her.

  “I am still here ... in the bed listening...” Fi informed them, trying to break into their conspirator's banter. She decided to leave them babbling and scheming to themselves.

  “Gods never-ending,” she stumbled out of bed on sudden wobbly legs from three days lack of use.

  “Only halfway back from death and they are just like little boys. I swear,” she loudly mumbled as she tromped away to her private room.

  “I love when she does that,” Eijlam beamed proudly.

  “I am sooo, delighted... she is yours brother.”

  Roe’s brow furrowed a little as he tried to keep from laughing, but his body gripped him in nauseating pain. He let out a moan. Neither one of them could move yet, so the brothers fell back into the healing slumber.

  +++

  The line of devastation raged forth as the mutant legions of the sorcerer Surmanos swept out across the land. They were killing and eating everything in their path. The Rangers fought hiisi and mutant ogres in guerrilla combat north along the edges of the dark mountain range. They cut down many small bands and stragglers who meant to join the greater army lessening their numbers as best they could.

  “The tower of Hennin Sharon has been brought down and the wizard destroyed!” Calan announced to his men.

  “It is not a comfort that the wizards fight among themselves,” Roevash commented, busying himself with sharpening the edge of his sword while resting in front of a campfire.

  “Just the one they called Souhrjn. He was found to be consorting with Surmanos,” his uncle said excitedly. “The others, all the wizards, have blessed this day and joined the side of men in this war.”

  “That is good news indeed,” Roe said, looking up at Calan.

  Some of the men mumbled to each other, starting a chatter around the camp.

  “Uncle, what is the meaning of your second name?” Roe asked casually trying to divert Calan from the stress of the oncoming battle, if even for just a moment.

  “The Darjal’n always hold second names as a matter of title. The name Isokian is the estate where your father and I were born. The land is a mountainous acreage that hangs above a rich valley far to the northwest in the Skald Mountains. It was once called, land of the Iso Aoki for the distinctively noisy river that flows through the place, and falls into the valley below,” Calan looked soft as he reminisced.

  “The word “ian” was added to the end. As you know in the Elvish tongue, that means “son of” and my brother and I are sons of that beautiful place.” Calan continued by reciting the long record of their lineage.

  Roe could see his uncles face light up at the memories of it.

  “I wish for you to visit there someday Roevash. You are our only heir, and the estate would be yours if you so choose it. You could even call yourself by our second name if you so desire. It is rightfully yours.”

  Seeing Roe become serious in his thoughts, his uncle sought to change the subject.

  “Do the Edhellen have second names?” Calan looked at Roe expectantly.

  “Not as such... well, sometimes. The names our mothers give us can change throughout time. Names are influenced by deeds of bravery, prowess with weapons and sometimes just for handsome demeanor. I will never have to suffer the latter one,” he grinned at Calan.

  “Oh my boy, you break the hearts of women by just one single gaze upon you. Do you not see it in their eyes?” Calan laughed much to Roe’s delight. Moments of levity were so few these days.

  “It is something to consider good uncle,” Roe said, and then he saw a teasing look flashed in his uncle's’ eyes as he took his words in the wrong intention.

  “I mean to say, I think I would like to see someday the place where my father and beloved uncle call home.”

  Roe sat with a smirk on his face, knowing they were not going to let him off so quickly on the topic of women.

  “Ay Roe, my sister, would fancy some private time with you,” a younger man named Jonas shouted across the fire pit. “Then we could be brothers in law...” He wagged his eyebrows, and the whole encampment started hooting and roaring in laughter.

 
Roe just grinned at the man bashfully. “I am still too young for such things as... women.”

  The guys in their fun could hardly believe Roevash had never known the special comfort of a woman. A whoop went up as they vowed to remedy that in the very next town they came near. They couldn’t see the blush on Roe’s face in the dim campfire light as he busied himself polishing his sword.

  “You are half Darjal’n,” Calan asked his nephew in real curiosity, “does that not count for anything in such matters?” Then he leaned in to speak privately as he quietly confessed, “Even I have felt the tenderness of a good woman now and then.”

  Roevash tried not to look shocked, so he just smiled and shook his head; trying to think of a way to change the subject. Much to his relief, and sadness, he looked up from his cleaned sword just in time to see the signal lights up on the mountain ranges suddenly blaze across the dark skyline.

  “So, the sorcerer’s craving for domination upon all of Ainghaille has begun in earnest.” Roe grimly stood up and sheathed his weapon into the scabbard that hung over his left shoulder.

  The men solemnly looked on into the black boiling darkness that had covered the sun and turned the day into night. Roevash could feel his skin crawl at the smell of the thick air that filled with an evil stench. In the distance, he could hear the drums of the organized march as it began.

  “Then... TO WAR!” His uncle cried out to the men, and they all rose up to fight.

  +++

  Roevash was able to sit up for a short time after another night of healing sleep, but he was still frail. He drank sips of water and went back into the slumber.

  Elves would not take food during this time, which was the opposite of how humans handle convalescence. After finding this out, Fionna suffered from the thought that she was most likely the reason EJ had experienced so much illness when he returned from Ilmatar.

  In her ignorance, she had only made it worse for him by stuffing him with soup when he was still in a stupor. He was too polite and incapable of communicating, so he just swallowed everything she gave him on a spoon. In shock at what she had done, she decided it would be best if she stayed away from Roe.