from the King Leroy. The general untied the message and gave the warrior hawk some food as a reward. He quickly scanned the note in utter disbelief. In essence, the king did not recognize the new nation because the elves did not do so. The people of Landen had a strong relationship with the people of King Ciel and believed, as did the elves, that the so-called 'high elves' were traitors. The king had already made a pact with the elven king not to have any dealings with the dissenters. The general crumpled up the note and threw it to the ground. As he sat there musing over the bad news, his horse ate the letter as it grazed for food.
'Well, I suppose I should have expected that reply,' he said shortly. 'They believe you all to be traitors and will not get involved unless it is on the side of the woodland elves.'
'That is not good news at all. Are you still planning on sending a message to King Derek?' Bronwen asked patiently.
'No, my hawk has informed me that he saw King Ciel's messenger owl, returning from the Forest of Aran. I believe that they too have made a pack with the elves not to recognize us. Our last hope remains with the dwarves,' Yukio said dejectedly. I really believed the people ofLanden would have joined with us.
He tied two messages onto the legs of his faithful messenger. One was for King Kasim and the other was for King Jarvis. He instructed the bird to disregard delivering a letter if King Ciel's owl was seen in the vicinity of either dwarven kingdom. He did not want to give away too much to the ever-expanding alliance of the elves. The general knew that he could not waste any more time worrying about his diplomatic mission. It was clear that the elves were planning an attack on the high elves very soon. If it came to a war, he wanted to be prepared. He needed to take the troops that were waiting for his return and head straight for Mount Quang. He would need to send a couple of the high elves ahead to deliver the warning about those plotting against them.
'Do not worry, General Ibreshri; the high elves cannot fail. We have the goddess Kana on our side. She will not allow this treachery to stand,' said Bronwen consolingly.
'I know. We will win this battle. If it is to be war, we will be victorious,' said General Yukio boldly.
CHAPTER 7
As Yukio's hawk soared high above the Blaine River, the wind changed directions so that the prevailing wind was from the south. The smell of war was in the air. The warrior hawk was heading south to his next quarry and had been strongly instructed to avoid the Forest of Renshaw at all costs so this head wind he was fighting was exceptionally brutal. He was also told to fly as high as possible and to hide in the clouds whenever possible. Not only was he attempting to avoid the eyes of the elves, but the men of Landen and Aran. General Yukio had suspicions that the kings of men had made alliances with the elves. This meant that they knew everything King Ciel did. He was also concerned that there may be an attack on the capital of Alanderas being planned by these conspirators. He had left Queen Daria with her blessing to go and protect their newest ally. The general was determined to reach Queen Kira and the high elves before any real threat could be posed by their neighbors to the south.
The hawk was ordered to gather intelligence on its way to and from his destinations. The hawk's sharp eyes could see beasts and people gathering on both sides of the banks of Blaine. He could not risk descending to a lower altitude just to see exactly who it was that was preparing for war. Yukio's faithful bird knew that delivering his messages to kings Kasim and Jarvis was of the utmost importance. He needed to not only deliver Yukio's requests, but he also needed to bring back answers from the dwarven monarchs. The support of those two powerful leaders was vital to the safety of the high elves. If they had allies south of their enemies, they could crush them with relative ease. King Edric had assured General Yukio that all of the dwarves would be behind this new nation.
After flying for many miles in a southerly direction, the warrior hawk turned west to head toward Mount Adem. King Kasim would be the stronger of the two potential allies by virtue of his location. The mountain kingdom of Adem lay to the south and a little to the west of the Black Forest. They would be able to draw the attention of the elves to their southern border if King Ciel decided to attack the high elves. Yukio was going to appeal to the strong dislike the people of Kasim had for elves in general. He knew that it was going to be difficult to persuade the dwarves to ally themselves with the new nation because of who they were, but the general knew that by appealing to what they did believe in would win them over in the end. They revered Mistress Kana as a goddess and would do whatever she asked of them, so that was the strongest point in their favor.
The fortress of King Kasim Thokrog gleamed in the moonlight as the home guard stood at their posts. The silver and gold that was inlaid into the fine craftsmanship of the walls and towers was the source of the shimmering. The bulwarks were made of a substance that looked jet black and appeared to be as smooth as the scales of a fish. The width of these impressive barriers was equal to ten dwarves laying head to toe. There were several hidden stations where the guards hid themselves to keep watch night and day without being seen. An outsider would never be able to find them even if they were right on top of them. Commander Giles Bobrilir stood stoically on one of the parapets keeping watch on this clear cool night. He was in charge of the defenses of King Kasim and of his majesty's personal guard. He also had the sharpest eyesight of any living dwarf according to the stories told in Adem. This night was one of the first times that he proved his natural ability to his men.
'Captain, a warrior hawk is approaching! Prepare the archers!' barked Commander Giles in his gruff voice. He had seen the bird long before any of the bowmen could even see the speck in the night sky. He had a very suspicious feeling that this bird was a messenger bringing tidings they did not want to have any part of. He was prepared to shoot it out of the sky if it dive bombed them or made any other aggressive movements. If the unknown messenger proceeded on his current course, they would let it live and see what it was brining to them. The hawk was making for the front gate. This was the appropriate approach to any dwarven dwelling according to their customs.
'Sir, where is the beast?' asked the Captain. 'I do not see anything out there, Commander.' Has Bobrilir lost his mind? None of us see anything in the sky.
The eyes of the home guard turned skyward to search for their quarry once more. After a few moments, a black dot appeared low over the plains. It was approaching rather fast and headed directly toward the main gate. The guards were impressed with their leader and his amazing eyesight. They could not believe that he could see so clearly at night.
'Captain, keep the archers trained on that hawk while I go down to retrieve the message. If the creature takes an offensive posture, kill it. If it approaches in a peaceful manner, let it live,' ordered Commander Giles.
'Yes, sir!' said the captain as he snapped to attention. 'Archers, you heard the orders. Do not lose sight of that bird.'
The dwarven captain turned to tell his commander something, but he was already gone. Not only did their leader have amazing sight, but he was also the most agile and silent dwarf. As the captain searched for Commander Giles, he caught a glimpse of him approaching the front gate. He reminded the archers of their orders again and told them to be careful to not hit their fearless leader if they had to shoot the messenger bird.
The hawk landed lightly on the ground right in front of the main gate as instructed by General Yukio. He waited patiently for someone to come retrieve the message tied to his leg. The general had tied both messages for the dwarven kings. One was the color red to indicate that the note was for the king of the red mountain, Mount Adem. The other was colored white to indicate that this note was for King Jarvis of the snow-capped mountains of Mount Carrick. The dwarves liked to color coordinate their correspondences so that they would not get confused. King Edric had informed Yukio of this method and told him how to follow this protocol to ensure those who received the messenger bird would remove the appropriate note.
Commander Giles opened a hidden door in the wall on the west side of the gate. He scanned the open field for any signs of a possible ambush. He did not see anything aside from the very patient bird waiting to deliver its message. Right away the commander noticed that the hawk had two letters that were color coordinated. This puzzled him because this clearly indicated that the message was from King Edric because his people were the only ones who knew the dwarven system. They had not heard from their distant ally for quite some time. A note for each dwarven king of the southern realms had a special significance. He did not know what it could be and decided to waste no more time. He walked up to the bird that then outstretched his leg to indicate to the dwarf to remove the
