Merrat ghosted up beside him. She spoke in common elvish.
‘Do you understand me?’
The man nodded.
‘Good. Then listen. This land is ours. This city is ours. We shall not yield it. Go back to your army. They will leave or they will all perish.’
The man started, amazed he was to be allowed to live. He mouthed words but no sound came. Ephran poked him with the blade that already carried his blood.
‘Run,’ he said. ‘Before we change our minds.’
Howling fear, relief and agony, he ran away, back the way he had come.
Pelyn turned to Grafyrre. ‘Where did you come from all of a sudden? Thank you, by the way. We were in a spot of trouble there.’
‘We saw the magic and the fires,’ said Grafyrre. ‘Katyett was concerned for your safety.’
‘This is the same Katyett who left the city a couple of days ago, is it?’
‘There is only one Katyett,’ said Grafyrre evenly. ‘And we have come to get you out too. We need all the Al-Arynaar out. Others are at the barracks. Let the city go.’
Grafyrre and Merrat began to move.
‘Let it go?’ Pelyn fell in beside them, beckoning the others to follow. ‘Why? What about the entire population? Men are slaughtering them. I’ve just seen it.’
‘We have plans,’ said Grafyrre. ‘And we cannot think to mount an attack any time other than the night. Not with mages able to fly.’
They ran across the Path of Yniss and turned west, heading out of the city in the direction of the Ultan.
‘What difference does the night make?’ asked Pelyn.
‘Men cannot see in the dark.’
‘Can’t they?’ Pelyn checked to make sure that Grafyrre wasn’t having her on. ‘Well. That’ll help.’ ‘Best way to deliver poison. Are you sure no one else has worked this out?’
‘Why would they? Thousands of years of bow skills have adapted well here on Calaius,’ said Auum.
Takaar shrugged. ‘We must adapt to our surroundings.’
‘And we haven’t employed animal poison either.’
‘Hard to believe.’
‘Not really. You can’t hunt with poison, can you?’
‘Lucky I had the time to investigate it then. Give this a go, anyway. And don’t breathe in through your mouth. Not a good way to die.’
Auum tied off the tiller and took the bamboo stem from Takaar. He looked down its length. Takaar had polished the rough inside smooth. The tube was about three feet long. Perhaps a little more. Takaar handed him a dart. It was made from the thick thorns of an elsander, which were particularly dense and sharp with small barbs on one edge.
Auum pushed the dart into the tube and put the tube to his mouth. He breathed through his nose and puffed the air out sharply through his mouth as Takaar had demonstrated. The dart flew fast and straight for about fifteen feet before dropping into the coastal waters of the Sea of Gyaam.
‘Hmm.’ Auum passed the blowpipe back. ‘Let down by its range.’
‘Let down by its user,’ said Takaar.
He loaded a dart in the pipe and blew it three times the distance Auum had managed. Auum raised his eyebrows.
‘I’ll keep practising.’
‘And imagine it tipped with yellow-back poison. Or a larger dose of taipan venom is very effective if you can pierce neck or eye, say.’
Auum tried not to look too hard at Takaar lest he slip out of this period of lucidity into one of the more negative and destructive moods to which he was prey at any given breath. Takaar had spent increasing amounts of time in what Auum had come to consider to be silent introspection. That wasn’t worrying in itself as it didn’t threaten the small boat. Other moods were not so passive.
‘How much frog poison do you need for a barb or arrow tip?’ Auum asked.
‘The scarcest molecule.’ Takaar rubbed thumb and forefinger together. ‘An amount vanishingly small. What I have in that one pot is enough to kill hundreds, maybe thousands. Contact is all that you need.’
Takaar’s expression was fierce.
‘The rainforest has bounties we still know nothing about. Man thinks he can rule the lands of the elves. He is sorely mistaken.’
‘With your help, we can send them back across the ocean, never to return.’
‘Back?’ said Takaar. ‘None are going back.’
Just at the moment Auum began to believe, he saw Takaar’s eyes dart left then right and his body tense. ‘You’re alone, aren’t you?’ he said, demanded.
‘You know I am,’ said Auum.
‘I see.’ Takaar nodded to himself. ‘Does anyone know you came to get me?’
‘What? Yes, of course. In fact I was ordered to come and find you.’
Takaar made a dismissive noise. ‘I doubt that. A TaiGethen never travels alone. It is an insult.’
Auum didn’t want to ask but felt he had to.
‘What is?’
Takaar’s eye blazed. ‘I am Takaar! I have the ear of the gods. I break bread with Yniss. I am the first Arch of the TaiGethen and saviour of elvenkind. And in our hour of greatest need, I am sought by a lone warrior.’
Takaar held up one finger.
‘One. Am I really so unimportant that I am granted but one guard? Was that the decision of the Ynissul wise? The priesthood? Katyett? Or perhaps I am merely to be thrown at the enemy should I be fortunate enough to make it alive.’
‘That wasn’t how the decision was taken,’ said Auum and instantly regretted his words.
‘Oh? And how was it taken?’
Auum considered fabricating something but Takaar was waiting for falsehood. He heard the truth unfold with increasing incredulity.
‘I am bodyguard to Priest Serrin of the Silent. We witnessed desecration at Aryndeneth. I was forced to spill the blood of men within its dome. Senior Ynissul in the priesthood have betrayed us. We had no time to seek the advice of Katyett or Jarinn or Llyron. So Serrin journeyed alone to Ysundeneth to make a report and warn the TaiGethen. I travelled here. To find you.’
Takaar settled back against the gunwale about halfway towards the bow.
‘So you two sat in the forest and decided it all by yourselves?’
‘It was and is the right decision,’ said Auum carefully, hanging on tight to his temper. ‘And one Katyett will embrace when she hears of it.’
‘You don’t know much about the history between us, do you?’
‘Does it really matter? The elven race, or at least the civilised elven race, is at risk.’
‘What matters is that I am summoned on a whim by two elves who’ve seen a couple of bad things in the forest. This is not a home-coming that is going to inspire a reignition of the harmony, is it?’
‘I’m bringing you back to help save lives, not to pander to your ego,’ muttered Auum. And then he shrugged. ‘The Takaar of Hausolis didn’t care for glory or for worship. Just to win. Maybe you’ve changed even more than you and I think you have. So if you don’t like it, if it’s too low for you to stoop, you can always leave and go home. I’m not dragging you to Ysundeneth against your will.’
Takaar nodded. He turned his head as if listening to something else before, quite calmly, rolling backwards out of the boat. Auum cursed.
‘Just couldn’t quite keep your mouth shut, could you?’ he said to himself. ‘Fool.’
The boat sailed on under the favourable wind. Auum put hard about, heading to the shore some hundred and fifty yards distant. The beach looked sandy and easy. Thirty yards beyond it was the rainforest. They were about midway between Tolt Anoor and Ysundeneth. Still a long way from where they needed to be.
Takaar was a very strong and graceful swimmer. The incoming tide helped his pace and his strokes were smooth, his kick light and rapid. While Auum had to make continual adjustments on this leeward tack to avoid spilling too much wind from the tatty sail, Takaar powered straight in. He beat Auum to the beach comfortably.
The fishing boat ground up the sand and Auum leapt out of the prow, pausing only to drag the craft above the high-tide mark. Takaar had run straight into the forest and disappeared from sight. Auum knew only where he had entered and followed him in, his sight adjusting fast to the dim light beneath the canopy.