Chapter 7

Once back in Kelethin, Tamalain had a moment of doubt about which way to proceed. She knew that if she asked a merchant about the Trade Houses, she would become an instant target, but what about the Fay. How did they fit in all of this, she wondered. She came to a decision, and asked a Fay guard for directions to the Royal platforms. He cheerfully directed her on her way.

Walking it took Tamalain two hours to reach the Royal Platforms at the highest levels of the city. The Fay had increased the size of the city ten fold. it was a maze of ramps and bridges if you did not know the ways of it. The Elven that acted as messengers for the Trade Houses noticed her arrival at the Royal Fay Court. Several sent runners to report her presence to their employers.

When she entered what appeared to be the Royal Court, she asked an older female Fay in the anteroom if she could meet with the chamberlain. The Fay, her bright solid blue eyes looked her up and down, her fine gossamer wings fluttering asked, "And who is it that wishes to meet with her might I ask?"

Tamalain smiled and answered, "Captain Tamalain Arrowmark, formerly of the Upper Pass Village and Guard commander for the Upper Glenn's Farming town in the Butcherblock Mountains. I have a number of questions concerning the status of the Elven and the Trade Houses in the Greater Faydark and in Kelethin."

What reaction of the Fay Tamalain was not expecting. Instead of the normal bureaucratic brush off, she got this instead.

The Fay woman slowly came to her feet, wings fluttering violently enough to stir the air, with a look of pure joy and excitement. "You're her, you're her, oh my goodness, I never expected to see you here, oh my, I have to inform her highness and her kids. Please, don't go anywhere, wait here..."

She took off running. She was almost managing to fly up the ramp to the upper chamber to announce Tamalains arrival. Tamalain could hear her excited voice and the sudden, "What, Her? She's here now? I'm not presentable, what do I wear, how is she dressed, is she alone?"

She heard another, younger sounding voice ask what the excitement was all about. "It is her, the Dragon killer, the Hero! She is downstairs right now," said the voice that must have been the queens."

Several squealing Fay children raced down the ramp trying to be the first to meet her. Tamalain heard their mother, the queen yelling, "No running on the ramps!" It didn't slow them down in the least. The four children charged into the anteroom, coming to an abrupt halt and just stared at her. The youngest about five years old it seemed was unable to stand still for even a second. She was bouncing up and down, giggling, and clapping her hands in excitement. The next in age, a boy of about eight was grinning from ear to ear and had a book with a ink covered quill in his hand.

Next was a girl, about fourteen years old, just looked at her in total adoration. The oldest, a boy of about sixteen came to a stop and his jaw fell open as he looked at her. Even with his eyes being a solid green with no whites, she could see they had gained the now patented Tama Glazed look. His eyes never made it all the way up to her face.

The Queen of the Fay hurried down the ramp trying to straighten the hem on a hastily donned dress. Her wings kept catching the hem and her ladies maid was unable to get it straight with her moving around so much. The queen entered the anteroom and just started talking in an excited voice. "Dragon killer, oh my, oh my, it wonderful to meet you, you saved us you know! The evil Lord of theirs promised that he and the hoard would eat us all and burn the wood down. Thank you for stopping them!" She slid up to Tamalain and wrapped her arms around Tamalains legs in a hug, weeping in joy. "Our race owes you its continued existence. We have no idea on how to repay or honor you." She finally stopped talking long enough to look up and she just came to a halt. "How do you stay upright with those monsters on your chest?" she asked in a mixed state of awe and fear.

Tamalain was now totally lost. With the reaction her presence caused and the last remark, she started to laugh softly. Seeing the sudden look of hurt at that, she quickly knelt down and said, "I am not laughing at you your highness. I am laughing at this entire situation. I came here to see if I could gain information about the Trade families without them knowing."

The queen huffed at her, stood up straight in a regal manner, "Are they acting up again? Well I will just have to call a meeting and remind them of the contract that was drawn up on their continued presence in the Faydark and the rules and restrictions contained therein." The Queen had gone from excited teenager at a concert to all business in an instant. The three younger caught the change and backed away, the eldest just continued drooling on his shirt. The oldest daughter pulled him away towards the chairs along the wall.

"Chamberlain, call the Trade Family heads in, some of them seem to be misbehaving, again."

"Yes Ma'am," said the older Fay that had been at the desk." She left the room only to return a few minutes later. "The Representative are informed and I told them now, not at their convenience."

"Very good Heatherbrook," Turning back to Tamalain, "Miss Arrowmark, I will have to ask you to stay out of sight behind that alcove there. A word of caution, one of the Family heads can sense camouflage and invisible, so that means of hiding is not advised."

"The alcove will be fine, and thank you for the warning that is how I was thinking of hiding while observing." Tamalain entered the alcove and found the opening to the chamber behind it. The room was small, only about four feet on a side, but it was pitch black. Even the walls where blacked out to improve the concealment of the observer in the room. She found a cloth face cover on the single low shelf next to the viewing slot. She picked it up and found it to be a fine black silk. She gave it a sniff and it seemed clean enough. She placed it over her face so that only her eyes showed. She stepped back just far enough from the viewing slot so that she could see the entire room, but couldn't be observed in return.

Tamalain waited quietly in the hide and the Elven men and women started to arrive. There were thirty Elven in the room once they all had arrived. The Fay Queen entered the room in full Royal Regalia and had an old box carried in behind her. The box caused a stir among the Elven.

Tamalain heard one of the women remarking, "This is serious, the Queen brought the rage box." That caused a stir and several of the men that matched the descriptions given by Ravensclaw began to look uneasy.

The Fay Queen started her diatribe. "When the fires had finally burned out, those that remained behind signed a charter with the Fay folk on your remaining in the Faydark. The Charter has a number of provisions in it concerning the return of the Elven that fled the fires. The chief of these being that the Trade families would neither impede nor impair the return. Yet several of you have been actively doing just that." She looked the group over and by the looks and body language; she had her guilty parties singled out.

"It would seem that some of you have been paying Kobalds to disrupt Caravan traffic from the Butcherblock side, and feeding and controlling the spider Queen on the Faydark side. I have here a report I just received a few hours ago from Colonel Bogey of the Royal engineers. It would seem the Bridge of over the Quanet River had been deliberately sabotaged to impede travelers. Also he reports that the Spider Queen and much of her brood met a messy end at the hands of a Ranger patrol." She observed the three that she knew were the guilty parties. "I have also been given intelligence that there is a planned to assassination attempt of the Elven High council on its return to the Faydark." All three of the guilty men had gone a deathly pale color.

"I have to wonder, why they would ride when they could just port in with the bell. Is there a plan to block or destroy the bell in the works as well?" She saw that one of the men was about to become ill, so she threw out the next part. "And what is this about a Thousand Platinum Bounty on Captain Arrowmark's head? Who is the idiot that is threatening the Dragon Slayer? She would not like hearing about that, or maybe," with a sly, sadistic look, "she already has." One of the three vomited on the floor as he passed out in shock and fear.

Tamalain took that as her cue to come out of hiding. She set the cloth back on the shelf and stepped out of the alcove. The other two men saw her and tried to flee the room, only to be stopped at the sword points of four of the other Trade Family Leaders.

Tamalain looked at the gathering a minute before speaking. "Now, as I suspected it was only a few members of this group that had actively worked against the day of the return. Now that the plans of the troublemakers have been exposed, you will do something about them. Now ask this with all due seriousness, are any of them related to the Thornbreak clan or part of the group they headed up?"

The head of the Trade Families stood looked at the three with scorn. "All three of their Houses had allied themselves with the Thornbreak clan prior to Thadious taking over. Once that insane monster began his reign of terror, they did the smart thing and broke away. So far as I and the other have any knowledge, they never re-aligned with them."

Tamalain nodded her had then gave a grim smile. "Then they may continue living until you decide what must be done with them." She looked at the leader of the group, "You need to act now or be ready to face the entire Elven Army as it come marching in to put a stop to the plots and plans. You leader, personally needs to go to the Upper Glenn's and meet with the Jordan Trueshot. You must convince him that all the plots and plotters against the return are being dealt with. Please do this; I don't want to fight our own people."

The coalition leader looked at the three, "All contracts with your Houses are suspended until such time as your families can show innocence of this plotting. Your Majesty, I must ask your leave, I have an urgent message to deliver."

"Go Master Arrowline, you have a duty to fulfill, safe journey and good luck to you."

Without another word, he left the Royal Court and was on his way to save his people from destruction. The rest looked at the three Elven that had been causing trouble. One woman spoke up, "What other plots and plans have you three been hatching. Would some of them involve seizing the road Inns and other business along the way? I received word via the city guards that two parties of bandits met unpleasant demises at the Swayback Inn in the last few days. Are you behind that as well?"

As soon as she said two groups, Tamalain began to worry. She made her decision, "Your Majesty, I must return to the Swayback Inn a quickly as I may. I left three Cadets unattended there and I think they could be in trouble."

"Go Dragon Slayer and Hero. Please, feel free to stop by anytime. I want to hear about the mighty battle you fought from you personally."

Tamalain bowed and left, nearly at a run. It took her three hours to reach the lift she needed, then cast SoW and was off like lightning.

At the Swayback Inn, things had stayed quiet after the destruction of the second group of bandits. The Cadets spent time caring for their horses, practicing with their weapons, and hand-to-hand combat skills. The one area they left alone as ordered was mana skills. It was late in the day when they had just set down to eat dinner when Captain Arrowmark burst into the Inn. She almost seemed frantic about something.

"I heard there was a second attack, were any of you hurt?"

"No ma'am, we are all fine. There were only eight of them and the fight lasted little more than a minute," reported Ravensclaw.

The worry dropped away from their Captains face and she relaxed in her chair. "That's fantastic, anything else to report?"

"The horses are rested and ready to go, all gear cleaned, serviced and ready for use, study on the history of the Combine Empire is on going. We have a number of questions for the instructors on several points on our return to class."

"Excellent. I need food and a good nights rest. Stopping civil wars, and insurrections is a tiring business."

The Cadets very much wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but decided letting her eat first was the wiser course. Maybe she would talk a bit after dinner, they hoped.

After Tamalain finished eating and seemed more relaxed, Mersinis decided she had to know what happened while she was away, "Captain, could you tell what you did while away? How will it impact events out here away from the city?"

"Right now, I don't think it is open for public discussion. Once things are resolved, then you might hear all the gory details. The only part I will mention as it is personal, I owe a drunken Dwarf a shaving for what he did, he sat on me and farted."

All three cadets remained silent and decided they did not want to know how a dwarf could have been in a position to sit on her.

After dinner and relaxing for a bit, she gave orders for the morning. "We will be saddled up and on the road at first light. We are almost three days behind on our patrol route and need to make up as much as we can without overtiring the horses."

Ravensclaw got up and asked the Inn Keeper that they are woken one hour before first light. He assured them they would be up on time and the horses fed and watered before they rode out.

Tamalain nodded in approval then told them she was off to bed. The night passed with no bandits, highwaymen, robbers, or thieves, just a noisy drunk that wanted to sing all night. The Inn Keeper found him next morning tied up, gagged, and hanging upside down by the stables. Nobody asked, nobody told.

Captain Arrowmark and the cadets ate a quick hot breakfast at the insistence of the Inn Keepers wife. Once they had their horses loaded and ready to ride, Captain Arrowmark placed the cadets in a point and break formation. "Ravensclaw, you take point at thirty yards ahead of the rest of the party. Keep an eye out for dangers that could threaten the rest of us. Mersinis, take the middle slot, should he call danger, stop, and pass back the warning via hand signs. Ren'retere, you will be with me in the rear until rotation. Got it?"

"Yes Ma'am," they replied.

They rode at a steady trot for two hours when Tamalain had Ren go up and have Mersinis relieve Raven. He would fall back to the rear with her. They continued this the entire morning without incident, when just before Tamalain was going to call for a break; Ravensclaw singled danger and fell back to Mersinis in the middle again. Several scruffy looking Elven ran out onto the path brandishing long knives.

Tamalain and Ren'retere closed in and drew their bows.

Ravensclaw and Mersinis drew their swords and remained mounted. "Let's see if these poor fools can see the danger they are in," said Tamalain. She fired one arrow at the ground just in front of the bandits. They took immediate notice and saw that they had no chance of surviving this encounter if they pushed it. The five bandits quickly vanished back into the brush, leaving the patrol alone. Tamalain pulled out a note pad and made note of location, time, and numbers.

"We'll pass this information on to the city guard at the first lift. They will be better able to deal with them than we could. We would not leave any survivors." She said this last loudly enough that the hiding figures that she could see with infravision heard her.

"Mersinis, take point, Raven with me for debriefing."

They continued at the pace that had been set and soon the outermost western platforms came into view. The cadets tried to keep an eye out for danger, but the view above kept drawing their attention away from the road. Tamalain called a halt and pulled the group back together. "You have done well up to this point, but you have allowed the city above distract you from the dangers on the ground." She pointed off to the right and half a dozen mobile skeletons were shambling towards them. She then pointed to the left were a small band of Orcs where camped. "The skeletons will not bother us if we move along. They are more interested in the Orcs as prey." They rode quickly away from the impending fight, the skeletons charged the camp, raising a ruckus that could be heard quite some distance away.

It as only a few minutes later they arrived at a guard outpost. "What is your business here folks," asked the Sergeant in charge. Tamalain intended to report this guard's lack of decorum and respect. He did not salute nor acknowledge her rank over him.

"Training patrol Sergeant, Captain Arrowmark commanding." He still did not respond as he should have, but his eyes lit up at hearing her name. She saw that and knew this guard was corrupt. "Thinking about the thousand plat bounty are you, try to collect and your widow will forever wonder what happened to you. You will find if you ask, the bounty is no more, and the three that instigated the problems are being dealt with harshly."

The look on his face went from avarice to fear. He had heard about what the Captain had done about the dragons, he was up against the deadliest fighter ever born. He stepped back into his shack and closed the door and windows. He knew his time out here was at an end.

"We will report this to the Fay guardians at the lift station. They will deal with him and the Orc camps that have sprung up." She then singled all three of them to move ahead. She suspected the guard might try something against her.

As they started to ride way, he threw the door open and charged out with a short bow in hand. He tried to nock the arrow he carried, but it slipped. He fumbled with it a second before getting it in place. He had not seen Captain Arrowmark pull her bow, string it while on horse back, pull an arrow, nock it while waiting for him to quit fooling around. Once she saw he had his arrow set, drawn, and aiming at her, she released hers. She was not aiming to kill, merely to injure, and scare the crap out of him.

Her arrow smashed into his bow, just above the handhold. The impact caused his bow to shatter as if it were a new bow on its first pull on the tiller. He fell to the ground screaming, holding his hands over his face from the slivers that had embedded themselves in his face, arms, and upper body. The Captain decided to leave him at his post and rode on to catch up with her cadets.

They arrived at the Western lift less than an hour later and Captain Arrowmark met with her counterpart. The Fay was excited about meeting her but became all business as she reported the events of the last three days.

"We knew about the first group of bandits from the filed report, but had not directly heard about the second. As to the bunch that tried to waylay you, they have been hiding out in that area for a few weeks now, but had not tried anything to warrant our interest. Now they have."

"What about the corrupt guard I left rather messed up, but alive."

"He will be dealt with soon enough. He is part of the Three."

"Good enough Captain. I must be getting along. We still have some miles to make up."

"Have a safe journey Captain Arrowmark, Hero to the Fay."

Tamalain remounted and they rode quickly on-ward for the rest of the afternoon. Tamalain called a halt when they came upon the Waymeans Inn, Tavern and Bath. They gave the horses a good brushing and rubdown, checked for loose shoes or trapped stones. One of the remounts had picked up a small stone in its right fore-hoof. Ravensclaw was able to remove it and did not see any swelling or cuts. Once the horses where fed and watered, they went into the Inn.

This Inn was much higher class than the Swayback. The room cost was three times what they had been paying before. They were not given chance to check in before they had a problem, or maybe it should be said the management had a problem. The Elven at the counter looked at them in disgust then began ranting.

"We do not want your kind her lady, take the brats, and leave now before I call he guards to remove you." The Cadets started to edge away from her when she singled them to stay put.

Tamalain looked at him in a manner that seemed a bit confused. "Our kind, and what is it you find objectionable about us?" she asked.

"You are from the outside, we only serve true Elven here, not you cowardly flat-landers. Now get out wench before I have to teach you what for."