“And other things, as well.”
Aedan cleared his throat uneasily. Over the past eight years, he and Sylvanna had grown very close, something he had not imagined would be possible when they first met. For one thing, he had not expected to know her long enough, but she had returned to Anuire with them, accompanying her brother, Gylvain, and they had both stayed, together with the halfling, Futhark, and the elven escort that had brought them from Tuarhievel, a group of about a dozen warriors.
It was part of an alliance concluded between Lord Tieran, acting on behalf of the then still-uncrowned Emperor Michael and Prince Fhileraene of Tuarhievel. The elves were to act as the emperor’s personal guard, initially to ensure his safe return to Anuire and, later, to demonstrate to all that the elven kingdom of Tuarhievel had formally allied itself with Anuire and thrown its support behind Emperor Michael.
It was an unprecedented agreement and one that from the outset had been certain to arouse the ire of extremists on both sides, such as Rhuobhe Manslayer and Lord Kier Avan, Duke of Avanil, who had about as much use for elves as the Manslayer had for humans. Since Avanil and Rhuobhe, the renegade province the Manslayer had carved out for himself in the southern region of the Aelvinnwode, shared a common border, there were frequent raids back and forth by the Manslayer’s warriors and Lord Kier’s knights, and the skirmishes were as constant as they were violent. Indeed, if not for Kier on the south and Arwyn of Boeruine on the north of Rhuobhe’s borders, the Manslayer would have spread his violent hatred much farther through the empire.
why then, Aedan had wondered at the time, had his father negotiated this unusual alliance? And why had Fhileraene agreed to it? The answer lay, as his father had always taught him, in a consideration of the possibilities.
For Fhileraene, there were certain advantages to the alliance that were not immediately apparent on the surface, but became clear upon some consideration. Fhileraene knew that he could not hope to stand alone against the humans and the goblins of Thurazor, as well. His great-grandfather, the Manslayer, did not share that particular problem.
While Rhuobhe was beset on both sides by the Duke of Avanil and the Archduke of Boeruine, he was separated from the goblin realm of Thurazor by the province of Boeruine and the Five Peaks region. He could afford to concentrate on waging his war of constant skirmishes solely on the humans.
Fhileraene, on the other hand, was virtually surrounded by his enemies-the goblins of Thurazor to the west, the savage giants of the Giantdowns to the north, and the feral minions of the awnshegh Raesene in the mountains of the Gorgon’s Crown, to the east. He enjoyed good relations only with his neighbor to the northwest, the province of Dhoesone, which needed its alliance with Tuarhievel because it was an isolated outpost of the empire that was surrounded by demihuman realms.
Fhileraene understood full well that such alliances were imperative to keep his borders secure against his enemies. In order to help ensure the survival of his realm, Fhileraene had to be adroit in his political maneuverings. The alliance he had agreed to with Lord Tieran was a case in point.
By his signing of the treaty, Fhileraene had clearly signaled the elven kingdom of Tuarhievel’s formal recognition of Michael’s birthright as successor to the Iron Throne, and this had turned out to be no small thing, as Lord Arwyn had taken steps to consolidate his own position in the year they’d been away. He had managed to induce the provinces of Talinie, Brosengae, and Taeghas to recognize his claim to regency.
Lord Rurik Donalls governed the windswept province of Talinie, and with the goblin realm of Thurazor abutting his northeastern borders and both the Aelvinnwode and the lawless Five Peaks region to his southeast, the Earl of Talinie desperately needed the protection and support of a strong warlord like the Archduke of Boeruine. His northern province was sparsely settled, with the only city being the wellfortified capital at Nowelton, situated on the coast and to some degree protected from the fierce storms of the Miere Rhuann by the rocky cliffs of Dantier Island.
Most of Talinie was covered by thick forest, except for the narrow band of rocky plain along the coast. There were no teeming cities like Anuire in Lord Rurik’s domain, nor even large villages like Seasedge, but the residents of Talinie were a tough and hard-bitten lot, mostly hardy woodsmen and rough miners who carved the coal out of the highlands. The Earl of Talinie could not muster a large army of warriors, but the men he had were tough and seasoned fighters accustomed to frequent skirmishes with goblin raiders and the bandits of the Five Peaks region. Together with the knights and men-at-arms of Lord Arwyn, they made a formidable force.
Then there was the province of Taeghas, which had gone over to Boeruine.
Lord Davan Durien, the Count of Taeghas, ruled a relatively poor province from his hold at Stomispoint, on the coast just south of Boeruine. Taeghas possessed a wide variety of terrains, from coastal plains to moors, from lowland forests to the Seamist Mountains, which separated the province from Avanil. The small seaport town of Portage at the tip of Finger Bay was devoted primarily to fishing, and the remainder of the residents of Taeghas were tenant farmers and herdsmen.
The periodic raids by trolls who came down from the Seamist Mountains, attracted by the produce of the farms and the sheep and cattle of the herdsmen, meant that Lord Davan, like Rurik of Tahnie, needed a protective alliance with a warlord like Arwyn of Boeruine.
Finally, there was Brosengae, situated where the Straits of Aerele flowed into the Miere Rhuann. Brosengae was cut up with large bays and swampy bayous that
