Tamosmed stepped away from the forge, taking a break from tutoring the karnuq smith. It was then he heard giggling…infuriating giggling.
He turned to see Princess Finnakynne, of all people, flying around the karnuq village. She was hovering over one of the big bumblebee soldiers, waving her hands to make a ball of grass and dirt spin around. The bumblebee soldier was using her front legs to roll the ball around while a bunch of karnuq children chased after her.
Tamosmed was not about to let a disaster happen to a bunch of the Tower Keeper’s children, so he marched on over.
“Princess Finnakynne, just what do you think you’re doing here?”
Princess Finnakynne whirled around. Her face fell when she saw him. Tamosmed’s suspicion only grew as the pixie went completely silent, the worst possible sign. He immediately began eyeing the ball.
“Ah, no! I didn’t trap it or anything! I’d never hurt Bumbly like that!”
Tamosmed crossed his arms.
“Then tell me exactly what you’re doing here.”
Princess Finnakynne flew down so she was hovering at eye level. She took a deep breath…and then bowed her head.
“Tamosmed…I’m sorry!”
Tamosmed was frozen for a good minute. Of everything she could have said, those were the words he expected least.
“What are you talking about, Princess? Just what is it that you’ve done?!”
Princess Finnakynne shook her head with an anguished expression.
“No, I’m not doing anything. I’m saying sorry…for everything I did before. Especially giving you that volatile charcoal without warning you. That was…wrong of me…and…I’m…sorry.”
Tamosmed glared at her.
“What are you going on about, Princess Finnakynne? You refused to take any responsibility for that, you tried every trick in the book to convince me it was my fault. Why are you bring that up now?”
Princess Finnakynne let her head droop.
“That’s…after that battle Beely had with the spiderkin, I realized that…well…mischief just isn’t really fun. Not for me, not for the people I tricked. So…I’m trying…well, something else. So…I’m sorry. I won’t bother you again, Tamosmed. And I won’t hurt Bumbly or these kids.”
Tamosmed narrowed his eyes, his chest blazing with fury. But…he took a deep breath to calm himself and a moment to organize his thoughts.
“…to sabotage the forge of a black elf smith is the greatest insult that can be paid. My people have gone to war over such things. By all accounts, I should not forgive you, ever. I should hold you in contempt for as long as I draw breath.”
Princess Finnakynne bit her lip. Tamosmed took another breath and exhaled it slowly.
“But…I, too, am trying something different. I have defied my father, my forgemaster, and all the traditions my people have held dear. I have only succeeded because of your and your mother’s help. And I, too, have mistakes I must atone for.”
He looked her in the eyes.
“If you are serious about this…I will judge you by your actions from now and not from before. But mark my words, Princess Finnakynne. If you betray my goodwill, if you harm the Tower Keeper or his people, there will be a reckoning.”
Princess Finnakynne’s eyes widened and then she nodded. She replied with a whisper.
“I understand. Thank you…Tamosmed…”
Tamosmed didn’t trust himself to reply any further, so he turned and walked back towards the forge. He did steal a glance to see the bumblebee soldier fly over and tackle Princess Finnakynne, tickling her until she was laughing once more. He turned away. He supposed if he was trying to forge a new destiny for his people, then he’d give the pixie princess a chance to do the same.
Plus, he did not fail to notice that the bees that were calling him “evil one” were happily playing with the evilest one of them all…
Aldatrad hummed to herself as she looked over Belissar’s copy of his deal with Queen Vanieskon.
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“Wow, Queen Vanieskon was quite generous, wasn’t she? She didn’t even include the normal confidentiality clauses…oh, I see. She wants the rest of us to see this, then?”
Aldatrad smiled and shook her head.
“I don’t know how you did it, but you truly charmed the pixie queen of all people, Tower Keeper Belissar.”
Belissar didn’t remember charming Queen Vanieskon at all, unless it was when he sent her some swirled honey? In any case, he focused back on the negotiations.
“So, that agreement’s good?”
“Shockingly so. Everyone believes Queen Vanieskon has you under her sway, so they’d be surprised she gave you anything at all, much less unrestricted support.”
Aldatrad then grinned.
“This works great for us, Tower Keeper. My uncle can’t be seen as less generous than the pixie queen when dealing with a family friend. In fact, we’d best sweeten the deal for you, so our signatory can show his care for his family. He should be grateful to us for the consideration.”
“So we’re going to protect Belissar? I can start helping again?!”
Aldatrad turned to her with a smile.
“No. Viryaskog and the green elves will, but you, my daughter, need to listen to the wardmaster. She does not issue orders needlessly.”
Tarwantrad glared at her. Aldatrad’s smile softened.
“And you already are, Tarwantrad. You protect the nexus door on your side, if the Hunger reaches it the Tower Keeper will be cut off from us entirely. You enable all the support he receives from the rest of the Compact.”
Tarwantrad still frowned but let out a sigh.
Aldatrad then giggled.
“Which is why we will now get as much support as we can. If you’d entertain my opinion, Tower Keeper, I think we should modify the unlimited military support clause. We green elves lost most of our warriors in the battle with the Hunger, we wouldn’t be as much use to you as the wardens or even the pixies so that clause might end up providing you with very little. In exchange for restricting that promise, we should offer you the expertise of our farmers, gardeners, and forest tenders, which make up the majority of our people.”
Tarwantrad crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, but Aldatrad just smiled at her. Tarwantrad thought for a moment longer before her eyes widened.
“Ah…because we’re already supposed to defend Belissar as part of the new compact, so our warriors still have to help him anyways if he’s in danger?”
“Exactly. Rather than promise him what few weapons and fighters we have for attacks he may or may not plan, we’ll give him what we do have in abundance.”
“That does sound better, doesn’t it? What do you say, Belissar?”
Belissar, this time, did know how to respond. He returned the elves’ smiles with one of his own.
“Farmers and gardeners and forest tenders sound great, actually. I’d like as many flowers for my bees as I can get.”
Aldatrad giggled again.
“Then we shall use this as a start. You should know, Tower Keeper, that we green elves were more in tune with the world than many other of the fair folk, particularly the other elves. We would give nearly anything to return. Thus…you may ask us nearly anything you wish.”
Belissar was finding these negotiations far more pleasant than the others he had participated in…
Aldatrad returned to Viryaskog and handed over a proposal bargain to the green elves’ representative, her uncle Herading. Herading was delighted an agreement had been reached so quickly and took the scroll with joy. He proceeded to read it right away.
And now, after having finished, he groaned and held his head. Meanwhile, his brother and Aldatrad’s father, roared with laughter.
“I told you it was a mistake to send Aldatrad. You knew full well she would side with Tarwantrad and her friend.”
Herading glared at the other man.
“That’s why I sent her, Ornetrad! I wanted to show our sincerity!”
Ornetrad chuckled and shook his head.
“You’ve attended too many silver elf tea parties lately, that’s far too much politicking for us. Aldatrad may speak politely, but she doesn’t care for such gestures. And you gave her the perfect opportunity to express her displeasure with your caution towards the boy. If anything, she probably thought you were trying to use her and Tarwantrad to make him more agreeable to negotiation…which would make her even less pleased with you.”
Herading made a dramatic sigh.
“What was I supposed to do, Ornetrad? Embrace a complete stranger, a human at that, in a matter that would decide the fate of all that remains of our people?! We haven’t even known this boy for a decade, not even a year! Things haven’t just moved quickly; they’ve moved with positively reckless haste!”
Ornetrad took a deep breath.
“Well, that much is true. I can understand why you hesitated to trust our fate to a young human we barely know, Herading. But it’s also true that my granddaughter met him face-to-face, walked through his dungeon, breathed its air, and then found him trustworthy. We trusted her with a dungeon, we should have trusted her with this. We have no excuse for falling behind the pixie queen in that regard. And that’s before I even mention Nenavann trusted the boy with Erynmor’s legacy…”
“I know, you don’t have to tell me you told me so again. I guess you can make fun of me all you wish as our people give up all we have just for a breath of the world’s air. That now we all must pay for my caution and Aldatrad’s displeasure.”
Herading shook his head as Ornetrad just smiled. The two sat in silence for a moment before Ornetrad spoke again.
“So…we’re really going back, then? We’re really going to try and fight the Hunger directly?”
Herading slowly nodded his head.
“The wardmaster, the pixie queen, and the founder of the Circle all have declared as much. That’s a good chunk of the Compact’s might and all the experts on the Hunger. I fear with what little strength we have, we are caught in the flow either way.”
Ornetrad rubbed his chin.
“Perhaps so…or perhaps not. My family has already befriended the human key to all of this, Herading. Perhaps it will not be bad for our people to do so as well? His strength is in bees and a beehive’s strength is in flowers. If we give Tower Keeper Belissar our full support, we could do much to strengthen him. For the first time since Erynmor fell, we have a chance to play a key part in our own survival, maybe that of the Compact’s as well.”
Herading sighed and hung his head.
“Well, I suppose we will have to hope that’s the case, one way or another. Once our people return to our true home…I think there will be no going back. We will have to win, or we will perish altogether…”
Ornetrad gave a shrug.
“Well, given what the wardmaster said about the state of the wards…that was already true. The only difference is that now we might just have a chance.”
Herading could only give a weak smile in response.