Chapter 47

Years, decades and well more than a century passed, and at some point I realized that none of my children in Aston or Sicels would be alive anymore. For some time, I’d had to accept the idea of longevity since I still looked like I was in my thirties and my physical condition was excellent. Well, that was more likely because of daily exercise than anything else. I teased my women that I had to keep in shape or otherwise I would not be able to keep up to them.

By now, Snorri had managed to develop a method that allowed us to produce paper, since that was a constant need. Luckily he also had several students who were eager to learn his ‘magic with things’. I was happy for him. In general, our little community thrived in several ways.

Time passing also meant a new generation that started to take responsibility for things quite eagerly. My eldest son, Balder, was one of them and I was quite happy to see him as a balancing factor and I did my best to stay out of his way. The new generation also started to think of our previous life more or less as a little adventure, not much different than moving your home from one place to another - or like building a new home that could be a major inconvenience but not much else. The play that Hanna had written was considered an exaggerated description of that adventure and I was the funny guy who a gave a face to those things. Nothing more.

Of course, the people who lived through all those things could have confirmed those stories, but I asked them not to. Those days were in the past, and even if it was good to remember the past, I didn’t want to wallow in it. I was happy if those in charge would take over running things and generally I was very happy with my life - even though I still missed the excitement of hunting. Getting close enough to touch an angry sea lion wasn’t quite the same, however much fun it might be.

Then, without any warning, I noticed that the warrior inside me was fully awake again.

I had never forgotten that part of me, but during this long, peaceful period there had been no need for the warrior to react. Until now. I knew that, at the moment, I was more powerful with my magic than I had been during that battle at sea long ago. Would I be more powerful than a group of Magicians who shared their power and used lots of stimulants to increase their skills? Most likely I would not be. Ever. They could always add more Magicians, but there was only one me. I had studied all the books on magic that we had here, and I had written some more books myself.

The most important part of the natural use of magic was that you could not gather nor use more magic than your skills allowed you to. It seemed that some, if not most of us, might be able to increase the amount of magic we could hold if we used all or almost all the magic we had. Most of us never did that. There was no need - and the Elves, especially, saw no real point in doing that.

I thought about what I had sensed, and then I had a long discussion with Snorri about what he expected technical developments to be in the Kingdom or in places close to it. His ideas and visions gave me a whole lot more to think about, and, as a result, I made some more trips to the highest hills of this island. I needed to keep myself in shape, I said. In addition to those trips, I did some more research into magic as though I intended to write another book. Well, I did some tests and made notes. Some of them even made sense. Which made me make some more tests - all in secrecy.

Even though I had learned a lot more about magic, the way the magic skills occurred in different people was still a mystery - or at least something that could not be fully predicted. Some of those skills - if not all - were at least partly hereditary, but their strength and style varied - and sometimes totally new skills occurred. At least two of my children were able to sense living beings, but it was still different. My daughter, who had some of that skill, could differentiate birds from a distance while I could barely sense birds.

The important thing was that if I could have this skill set - why couldn’t somebody else? Like one of the Trolls?

It was easy to remember what had awakened the warrior in me: It was same kind of feeling you can get when you get exposed to the sun, even if you keep your eyes closed and head covered. You can feel - or, in this case, sense - the power of the sun on your skin and body even if you can’t see it. What I had felt had been like a combination of a Magician and a Troll - and as soon as I had sensed the magic it had been gone. It was almost like a light coming from the Sun had been directed towards us with a huge mirror, and the moment the light hit us it stayed pointed on us for a moment before it the mirror was turned away or covered. Quickly.

I could have blamed myself for being lazy and allowing us to get comfortable here. To stop worrying about the Magicians, Shinies and Trolls when we settled here. I could, but it would have been useless. Instead, I started preparing for the inevitable. That kind of checking from a distance could only mean a one thing: Somebody had come to look for us and, after finding us, didn’t come to say ‘Hi’. To me, it meant that ‘this somebody’ would be back, and most likely he wouldn’t be alone.

The Elves weren’t the only ones with a long memory.

I estimated I had at least a few months to get us prepared, most likely something like half a year, but no longer than that. When I thought about that, I could not stop a sigh coming out of my mouth. One of the changes that had happened among us was that now everybody who was over twenty-five could have had her or his say about things.

I had stopped attending those meetings decades ago.

It was almost two months later when the next meeting took place. I had considered informing certain people about what I had sensed, but, after some more thought, I had decided against it. Hinting about it would not change anything. Instead, it might work against me.

The meeting seemed to last forever and there were times when I would have really wanted to stand up, shout and stop the meeting. I didn’t because I thought it was important that all those who wanted would have their say. After all, I had been one of those who had insisted that change take place. If somebody wondered what I was doing there at the back of the room looking like I was sleeping, they didn’t say anything. After all, I was that odd but funny older guy.

The daughter of Ceveneth, who sat at the front of the room, was a smart young woman and usually quite capable in keeping the discussions short and on topic. Unfortunately, she also knew that herself.

””Young woman, may I remind you that I have been given the authority to call a meeting at any time. Not only that, I have the authority to order an emergency ruling for the next six months if I see it necessary.””

””Yes - and if we decide that you have misused that authority you’ll lose it for good!””

Calling Ceveneth’s daughter ‘a young woman’ - which she really was - had obviously pissed her off. Good. Some of this young generation had guts. I smiled at her.

””I know. I insisted that rule be added myself. Now, I order an emergency to make plans for relocating our community. We need to have everything ready in two months.””

””You can’t be serious. We have just...””

””Young woman! I’m deadly serious, and I’m certain that there are a few of us, besides me, who were able to feel how we were sensed in a way the Magicians used to do it. What the others probably don’t know is that it came from a ship and as soon as they were sure of what they had found, it stopped.””

Now I could really feel everybody looking at me and it wasn’t just because of the amount of magic I had used. Even if I was quite certain that nobody else in that room could have used half as much. I looked around, but none of the younger generation wanted to meet ‘that crazy man’s gaze’. I sighed.

””There’s more! The Magician who did the sensing was a Troll. One of the Ugly People. I’m certain of it. Now, I ask Ylva to oversee things regarding this relocation. She has organized it before and she can help you. Plan to take everything the horses can carry or that can be put on a carriage. Nothing bigger. Now, you can end the meeting once you have written down that the emergency ruling is in place for the next six months or until the relocation is over. Thank you.””

Then I turned and walked out of the room. I had not feared this meeting but I feared what I would be facing next - my own family, because I would need to tell them everything I had thought and planned. I already knew they would not like any of it. I didn’t like it myself.

It took those doing the sensing three and a half months to come back. I had expected them I bit sooner, but, when I saw all the ships, I knew why it had taken so long. It doesn’t take that long to get three ships ready and leave. But it takes a few weeks longer to get ten ships ready and filled with crew and soldiers. Most likely, it would have taken them more than four months to get here if they had been using the kind of ships we had had, but these new ships looked like they had been built for speed - and warfare.

I couldn’t help feeling bad for Elise and her friends - even Princess Keitha. Most obviously they or their offspring had failed with their mission of keeping the Trolls and Magicians under control. I hoped that at least some of them had had a chance to escape the Kingdom. Ten ships full of Troll warriors and Troll Magicians meant that something had clearly changed in my old home country. A part of me felt that I should have seen this coming; I should have stayed there and taken care of the problem - even if the sensible part of me tried to tell me that it would not have been possible. Back there, the Elves had been the balancing force between the humans and the Trolls. Just as they had been in Elonia.

When the Shinies and the Magicians decided to get rid of the Elves they considered useless, they also doomed themselves - maybe even the whole world.

””Well, those do not look like traders to me, either.”” Tofi lowered his spyglass and pulled away from our hiding place made from larch branches. We both had some larch twigs attached to our clothes when we got to our horses and started moving south along the coast to our next protected observation site. I had no idea how much guns had developed over the years, but I didn’t want to take any chances, or risk any lives if I could avoid it. I felt that they were constantly trying to sense us and I hoped that harvesting almost all the larches we had planted here would give us protection for a while - and that it would also keep those boats away a bit longer. Even if we were almost ready, an extra day or two would help.

””Stian, do you know that several of the younger generation started suggesting that you had finally gone crazy?””

””They have their right to think that way. I don’t mind that.””

Tofi was silent for a moment but then he asked the question that must have been hanging there. ””Your family... - how are they taking this? I mean, what did they say when they heard...”” He wasn’t able to finish his question.

””You mean when they heard that an integral and absolutely essential part of my plan is that I stay behind and sacrifice myself for them and everybody else? I’m sure you can guess.””

””Yeah, I can - but is it really true that there’s no other way?””

””Trust me Tofi, I really hoped that there could have been. However, I’ve been through all the needed magic with everybody who has been really - meaning really - studying magic and none of them could find any holes in my reasoning. Even Kara had to agree, but she did manage to give me a good shiner before that. Besides, we all know that I’m the only one who’s powerful enough to do this, and, even for me, it will be hard.””

I took a deep breath. ””However, thanks to Snorri, I’m sure that I can make those Trolls regret their decision to come after us. That much I owe our friends back home. Now let’s move to the second spot to check the ships again.””

It took the ships two days to find our settlement, which gave me some solace. First, it told me that those larch branches and twigs were working and I didn’t need to use my magic to disturb their sensing. Second, it gave us an extra day to gather all the things we needed. Finally, because of their first act, there wasn’t much need to convince people that they should be leaving instead of fighting - as some of the men had suggested.

When we took the fluyts apart, we had saved the best cannons and used our ponies to drag them to the high cliffs on both sides of our home bay. They were partly hidden and protected, but you could probably find them from the sea if you had a good spyglass and knew what to look for and where to look. Most obviously they knew, because two ships moved closer and turned their sides towards the coastline and opened their gun ports.

The warrior in me just had to admire what he saw. Both ships started firing almost at the same time, from twice the distance our cannons would have been able to shoot - even with the enhancements that Snorri had made to them. The extended range wasn’t the only thing that was a shock to several people, since the power of the explosions when the projectiles hit those cliffs was something nobody had seen before. There were several explosions and once the smoke had disappeared we were able to see the tops of those cliffs were mostly gone.