“Lord Declan, might I present our headman, Lentin Cobblink, and his wife, Rhine,” Armond said.
Declan nodded at them but stepped forward to touch Nira on her arm, then shake Armond’s forearm before turning to the Cobblinks.
Stacia stepped up to Nira and hugged her, then turned to meet the officials, as Armond continued to name important people.
Behind Nira, she heard Bett whisper to Lottie, “She doesn’t dress much like a lady.”
“Because I’m more of a warrior than a lady,” Stacia said turning to Bett, who instantly went red with embarrassment.
“A warrior with the ears of a wolf,” Nira said to Bett and Lottie, but also warning the rest of the crowd.
“Milord, you’re here much earlier than expected?” Armond asked, his tone very deferential.
“Things are heating up fast back on Earth,” Declan said. “I need to take care of several things here as fast as I can.” Then he suddenly turned and looked back up the street behind the welcoming crowd. Oddly, Lady Stacia looked the same direction at exactly the same time.
Nira turned and looked, as did most of the others. She gasped in shock. A massive black-furred creature stood in the middle of the street, a slim, black-suited figure with long silver hair and silver eyes standing hipshot in front of it, arms crossed. She had the pointed ears of an elf and the coloring of Winter.
“Princess,” Declan said in an easy tone. “Is your mother done with our agreement?”
The elven woman laughed. “I hold you in too much esteem to attempt such a foolish method of attack. Mother still abides the accord you struck.”
“Good to know. To what, may I ask, do we owe the honor of your unannounced visit to my Realm?”
“Your realm?” the elf asked, eyebrows up. “You are hardly here enough to warrant ownership of a realm.”
“Well, we’re thinking it’ll make a nice retirement spot, but in the meantime, we’ve got Vorsook to fight and all that,” Declan said.
Nira knew exactly who this was, and her body clenched with dread. Princess Neeve, the Black Frost of Winter. And Declan was speaking to her as if she were just a citizen of Idiria.
“I will be most wroth if you two get killed by the Others… before I can kill you myself,” the Black Frost said.
“Oh snowflake, that’s sweet, but we’re not as young as we used to be. Fighting us now is a whole order of magnitude different,” Stacia said. She stood in a loose easy stance, weight balanced on both feet equally, hands folded over the back end of her weird weapon.
“I should hope so. I want a challenge when it’s time,” Neeve said haughtily.
“Yeah, yeah, talk, talk, talk,” Stacia said. “Either throw down or tell us why you are here.”
“So rude,” the elven princess said, although she wore a tight smile. “Mother is intrigued by your fascination with the disgusting vegetation of this island. You shipped so much of it to Idiria and now you’re here, at its source?”
“Spies couldn’t figure it out?” Declan asked. “You’ve seen me use it on Earth, Neeve. What’s the big mystery?”
“It has a limited use for storage, but that barely offsets its unpleasantness,” Neeve said. Nira had been looking closely at her black clothing and now she realized she’d seen its like before, only bronze-colored, not black—it was dragon skin.
“Not unpleasant at all to use, but then, neither is iron,” Declan said.
A look of disgust filled Neeve’s face. “I give you the courtesy of a direct question rather than the slinking of spies and you answer me with cryptic statements.”
“You want a direct answer… I can make weapons of it… Can’t you?” Declan asked.
Neeve frowned. “Such things would be of limited use against our forces. Your machines are more viable.”
“Again, Vorsook, snowflake. Not everything is about you,” Stacia said.
The elf frowned. Behind her, the giant thing that Nira thought must be a troll shifted its stance and growled softly. “How can wood, even magically sensitive wood, be useful against the Others?”
“I’m not giving away my secrets, Princess, but I’ll give you a broad hint—C3. Command, Control, and Communications,” Declan said, his words only making the elf frown deeper.
The black-furred giant suddenly turned and looked away to the north. It grunted and Neeve turned to it in surprise. Then she turned back to Declan and Stacia.
“A dragon is approaching, a big one?” she commented.
“Multi-tasking, your frostiness,” Stacia said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“You are meeting with the dragons,” Neeve stated.
“Just one. And the Speaker too. Just a little chat; nothing to worry about. Now, we’ve been polite, but I must ask you to leave,” Declan said.
“Or?” Neeve asked with deadly smile.
Suddenly she sank up to her knees in the ground and was unable to pull free. The troll also sank at the same time and it roared in fury but seemed unable to escape.
“Tell your pal to chill out. There’s an Earth elemental holding you both in place. He won’t ever be able to pull free,” Declan said. “Neeve, if I wanted you dead, you both would have sank so far underground that your dear mom would never find you.”
All humor was gone from the elf’s face, but she turned and spoke sharply to the giant in Elvish.
It stopped moving. Declan smiled and suddenly both the elf and the giant were lifted back up to solid ground. The troll instantly turned and moved both hands. A tear ripped through the air behind it and an opening formed, showing a snow-filled forest. “You have a few tricks, boy, but don’t think they’ll save you when I finally come for you both,” the elf said, turning and stepping through the magical opening. The troll followed and the doorway to elsewhere collapsed with a snap.
Declan turned back to the crowd. “Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. Things are speeding up, Armond, and I needed to take care of this now.
