watching me closely.
“I’m very sorry about what happened to Miralissa, too.”
Silence.
“She has a daughter, doesn’t she?”
“How do you know that?”
“She told me.”
“She told you.… She trusted you people so much … she respected you, she didn’t think you were really that bad. She should never have left the House of the Black Moon. None of us should have.”
“I…”
“Just get that Horn, Harold. Just get it. Prove to me and my kinsmen that Miralissa was not mistaken. Now go, you’re bothering me.”
That was it. Who can ever tell what’s going inside these elves?
“Harold!” he called to me.
“Yes?”
“Will you get it?”
“Yes, I’ll get it.”
“No doubt or hesitation?”
“No doubt or hesitation,” I answered, after a pause.
He seemed satisfied with my answer; at least, he didn’t say another word about it.
“We don’t have to worry about the Firstborn any longer,” said the elf, leaning on his new weapon.
“But we do have to worry about Balistan Pargaid and his men; there are more than twenty of them,” said Milord Alistan, checking to make sure that his sword left the scabbard smoothly.
“And Lafresa,” Kli-Kli reminded him. “She’s worth twenty warriors.”
The fool was right: Lafresa was dangerous, especially now, when we didn’t have Miralissa with us.
“Let’s go, but quietly, it’s not very far to the gates now,” the dark elf warned us, and set off along the track.
We walked through a grove that consisted of nothing but golden-leafs, trees beyond compare with anything we’d seen before. The huge, ancient trunks were more than fifteen yards around, the crowns of the trees soared so high that they seemed to prop up the very sky. Here and there orange roots protruded from the ground, each of them four times as thick as a grown man’s thigh. The sun’s rays pierced the golden crowns like arrows, flying down through the morning mist that had still not dispersed and striking the ground. This was how I had pictured Zagraba in my imagination—majestically beautiful.
“That woodpecker’s working hard,” Deler croaked admiringly.
“Quiet!” Egrassa hissed, listening to the sounds of the forest.
The wind quietly rustled the murmuring crowns of the golden-leafs, and the woodpecker continued with his tireless search for food, setting the forest ringing with his
“There are men … nearby.”
The elf leaned the krasta against a tree, set a new string on his bow, and took an arrow out of his quiver.
“I’ll go to check … if you hear any noise, be ready.…”
“Eel, go with him,” Alistan Markauz ordered.
“Yes, milord. Harold, will you lend me your crossbow?”
“It’s loaded,” I said, handing the Garrakian the weapon and two extra bolts.
“If everything’s all right, I’ll whistle,” said Egrassa.
The elf and the man disappeared into the dense undergrowth of gorse. For a long time we heard nothing apart from the sounds of the forest, and everyone listened to the trilling of the birds and the rustling of the branches. Eventually we heard a faint whistle in the distance.
“Forward!” ordered Alistan Markauz. “Kli-Kli, don’t get under our feet.”
“When do I ever get in the way?” Kli-Kli grumbled. “That’s what Harold does.”
I laughed, but didn’t say anything and picked up the elf’s spear.
Egrassa and Eel were waiting for us in a shady meadow surrounded by a neat circle of golden-leafs … with three men lying at their feet. Two of them were dead. The elf’s arrow had easily pierced the chain mail of one of Balistan Pargaid’s soldiers and stuck in his heart. The other, who was still clutching a small ax, had taken an arrow in the eye. The third man was alive—squirming on the ground with a crossbow bolt in his leg.
“Who have we got here?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out, milord,” Eel said, clearing his throat and handing me the crossbow. “Egrassa killed the first one straightaway, the second one grabbed an ax and got shot in the eye. The third one tried to run; I had to shoot him in the leg.”
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Alistan Markauz asked sharply, turning to the prisoner.
The man just wailed and clutched at his wounded leg.
“Why do you ask, milord, as if you didn’t know?” Kli-Kli asked in surprise. “These are Balistan Pargaid’s dogs, you can tell from their faces!”
“He’ll tell me everything he knows,” said the elf. He stepped on the man’s injured leg and the man howled and lost consciousness.
Hallas took out a flask of water and splashed some in the man’s face. No response. He had to slap the man hard on the cheek. The man shuddered and opened his eyes.
“And now we’ll have a talk,” said Egrassa, holding his crooked dagger to the man’s chest. “How many of you are there?”
“What?” said the man, licking his lips.
“How many of you are there?” Egrassa repeated, pricking the man with his dagger.
That worked.
“Three, there were only three of us! Don’t kill me, milord! I’ll tell you everything!” the man babbled, staring wide-eyed at the dark elf and obviously taking him for an orc.
“Where are the others?”
“They all … went away.”
“You’re lying,” said Egrassa, pressing in the dagger.
The man squealed and yelled.
“I’m telling the truth, they all went and left us here on guard! I haven’t done anything, honestly! Don’t kill me!”
“Perhaps this goon really doesn’t know anything?” Deler boomed.
“Of course he does! Egrassa, you leave him to me and I’ll soon shake him out of his trance!” Hallas suggested, rolling his eyes furiously.
“Where did they go?” asked Egrassa, ignoring the gnome.
“Into the burial chambers, they all went into those burial chambers cursed by the darkness, milord orc!”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“How many men went down there?”
“Ten.”
“He’s lying,” said Kli-Kli, performing simple calculations in his head.
“That’s not important.… Did the count go with them?”
“Yes, milord.”
“And the woman?” I blurted out.
“The witch? She’s with them, too. It was all her idea! She was the one who decided to go down there!”
“Why did they go?”
“They didn’t tell us. Me and the others were just supposed to stay here and wait for the rest of them to come back. That’s all. I don’t know anything else.”
