she must be feeling, after seeing another one of her children being struck by an arrow. It appeared as if the Redwolf soldiers were torn between joining the growing battle around them, and protecting those few who were still on the tournament grounds unarmed. There were enough of them present on the archery range that the attackers, and the other angry people seemed weary, and were staying away from that particular area.
Hyden felt it in his blood, like a gritty tingle, before he saw the elf’s magic working. It was such a sudden and powerful thing, that he was drawn to it reflexively. The elf had opened the top of Little Condlin’s shirt, and was pulling the arrow slowly out of him with one hand. The other hand was making a slow, circular motion over the boy’s chest. A place, deep inside the child’s skin, was glowing a reddish orange color. The glow moved along the arrow’s path, out towards where the shaft protruded from his collar. They eventually could see that it was the arrow’s sharpened steel tip that was glowing, and it was still glowing when it came free of the flesh.
Harrap and Uncle Condlin shouldered their way into the huddle forcefully. Talon was nearly crushed, and went hop flapping into Hyden’s lap for protection. Little Condlin was staring with a wide eyed, terror-filled grin, and looking up at the elf that had just magicked him.
“Thank you,” he managed to get out of his mouth, before his worried father scooped him up into his arms. Tears of loving relief streamed down the Elder’s face as he wordlessly toted his boy back to his mother. Seeing that his son was also all right, Harrap went back with the others. His terrified people needed him more than Hyden did at the moment.
Some of the Elders of the Skyler Clan began negotiating with a knot of Redwolf soldiers. The Elders wanted the clansmen to be protected, and their possessions guarded, while they gathered up their belongings and prepared to depart the festival. They also wanted a safe passage guaranteed, at least until they were in the foothills of the Giant Mountains. The guards wanted to comply. The amount of gold the clan offered them was more than sufficient, but the Wildermont soldiers were far too honorable to shirk their duty for handfuls of coin. They did, however, send a man to find a certain commander, who was greedy enough to agree to such a quasi noble and profitable undertaking. The Skyler Clan was asked to wait there, where there was little fighting going on, while a few of the Redwolf guardsmen went with some of the Elders to protect the clan tents and other belongings. The rest of them huddled together on the archery range amid the Wildermont soldiers while around them chaos ran rampant.
Just a few hundred paces away, a sizable battle raged on. Hyden watched as swords, fists, daggers, and even farm tools were used openly to kill and maim. Men were dying right there, in the rich, green grass of the sacred Leif Greyn Valley. A lot of the kingdom’s folk were involved. Hyden saw the Golden Lion of Westland flying from a flagstaff amid one group of engaged fighters. A small band of Valleyan horsemen displayed their kingdom’s shield and stallion on their breasts proudly, as they tore into the Westland flank. An organized troop of Seawardsmen, with the rising sun emblem of their kingdom painted on their shields, was tangled in with the rest of the mob. The bulk of the combatants were common folk though. They were fighting right there among the trained soldiers, and dying in droves. Hyden realized then, that he didn’t see the Blacksword banner of Highwander anywhere anymore. He scanned the area around the tournament field, paying special attention to where those first arrows had been fired from. He didn’t see the banner anywhere. They had started all of this, or at least tendered the spark to flame. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. Hyden realized that other than the one time out on the Ways that the two Highwander men had harassed him, he hadn’t seen any people from that kingdom at the festival at all. He searched his mind for another instance where he had seen the Highwander men, but could only come up with the large encampment his Clan had spotted south of the festival grounds on their way here from the egg harvest.
It occurred to him then, that Shaella’s group had been camped very near that area. She was the one who had sent the two rude Blacksword soldiers scurrying away in the Ways. Had Willa the Witch Queen started this? He asked himself. Or was it something else? Hyden knew very little about kingdom folk and their strange ways, but he knew that spilling all of this blood on the sacred ground of the Leif Greyn Valley was a violation of some ancient pact that all the races of the realm had made with the dragons. At least that’s what Berda the Giantess had told him once.
“I am Vaegon,” The elven archer said. The elf put his hand out and placed his palm over Hyden’s heart.
Hyden recalled that the gesture was the elven equivalent of the kingdom men’s handshake, and mimicked the action.
“Hyden,” he said, as he held out his hand. He was confused by the events taking place around him. The elf’s strange eyes, yellow, where a human’s were white, unnerved him as well. He had never looked into the eyes of an elf from this close before, and was surprised by how wild they looked.
“Hyden Hawk!” Vaegon corrected, with what might have been a smile on his fair face.
One of the other elves gently picked up Talon and offered him to Hyden.
“This is my father Drent.” Vaegon nodded towards the elf that was holding the hawkling. “And this is my brother Deiter.” He indicated the third elf.
Hyden placed Talon on his shoulder, and then made the stiff arm greeting gesture to the other two elves in turn. He noticed that Drent, the father, looked as young as either of his sons. The only discernible difference Hyden could see, was that his hair was a silvery blue, the color of deep ice, where the two brothers’ hair had a tint of gold to the silver. All three of the elves were a hand span shorter than Hyden was, and though they were a bit on the thin side, they moved with an obvious strength and grace.
“I am honor bound to you now Hyden Hawk,” Vaegon said, as if the words tasted slightly bitter. “You saved my life. I am at your service.”
Behind Vaegon, Drent nodded proudly at his son’s acceptance of his honor debt. Deiter’s expression showed plainly his disgust at the idea, and Hyden couldn’t meet the elf’s frightening narrowed gaze.
Not sure what was happening, Hyden fumbled for his words. “You…Uh…You saved my cousin’s life. You… You owe me nothing.”
“Your cousin wasn’t going to die, Hyden Hawk,” The elf said, matter-of-factly. “I merely quickened his healing, and saved him the pain of having the arrowhead removed with a blade.”
A gurgling scream rose above the surrounding clamor and drew all of their attention. The number of people still fighting near that end of the archery field had decreased dramatically, but only because so many now lay dead, or dying, on the grass. At one end of the battle, a blood soaked man in merchant’s clothes was on his knees. He was clutching what looked like a young girl’s broken body. Another man stumbled aimlessly around the carnage, carrying a severed arm in one hand, and a small dagger in the other. His head and face was covered in blood, and he appeared to be lost. Some of the Redwolf soldiers waded in, braving the smaller numbers of combatants, to try and separate the fighting groups, but the effort seemed futile at best.
“They will not stop until there is no one left to kill,” Vaegon said sadly. Hyden could tell that the elf was speaking about more than just the skirmish before them. He meant that this was only the beginning of something far bigger, and more destructive.
“The arrow that almost killed you, was loosed by men flying the Blacksword of Highwander,” Hyden said.
He wasn’t sure why it mattered. He just figured that the elf would want to know who had tried to kill him. He noticed then that all the contempt had faded from the elf’s expression.
“You’re sure of this?” Vaegon asked, without turning his eyes from the fighting.
“I saw them on the rise, there.” Hyden pointed to the place beyond the targets, where he had seen them. He noticed for the first time, several dark plumes of smoke rising up from the Ways beyond.
Vaegon said something to his brother and father in the elven tongue, and then he listened as his father responded. While they spoke, Hyden looked towards his people. It seemed that they, and the three elves, were the only factions in all of Summer’s Day that were not fighting.
“Fare thee well Hyden Hawk,” Drent said, with a slight bow. “I hope we see each other again in better times.”
Dieter didn’t say anything to Hyden. He scowled, as he gave his brother a quick hug. There was no mistaking that the look was for the human that his brother now owed his life to. The two elves wasted no time starting off towards where Hyden had pointed out the original attackers. Vaegon gritted his teeth as he watched them go.
Hyden was about to explain to the elf that his people needed him, that he had to help them gather up their
