Between the Shadows

When Fallon got back to the tent, he realized that he still held the energy in his hand. He stored it safely in his pouch. He ducked inside the tent and roused Alpen from a deep slumber. After a moment, Alpen signaled that he was awake. After checking on Fallon's boy, they stood outside the tent in tree shadow.

Drindl told him about the gathered warriors and the energy. Alpen silenced him with a gesture of his hand, then looked up at the tree canopy and listened. He heard the quiet rustle of the warrior's hooves as they prepared for battle. "When did they take the energy?" Alpen asked with an insistent voice. When Drindl told him, Alpen paused to calculate, then said, "We don't have much time."
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Fallon was so tired when Alpen shook him awake. "It's time already?" he mumbled. Something in Alpen's tone of voice jerked him awake and he sat up in his bedroll.

"Sarten's planning something," Alpen whispered. Fallon wanted to ask what and how he knew but Alpen gave him the battle sign. No explanations.

Fallon turned toward Drindl's bedroll. "My son," he said with concern. Alpen whispered that he was OK, then gave the battle sign again for silence. The three gathered their bedrolls and pouches. Drindl carried Erthen who slept peacefully.

They walked with the gait of warrior ghosts, making little sound. They circled at the edge of the clearing and the trees and made their way to the river. Now that they were out of their bedrolls, they had to turn their eggs frequently to ward off the cool night air.

"Bebe and Alithea? Do you know where they are in the tent?"Alpen asked. Fallon nodded and held up his hand to signal a few moments. Alpen and Drindl crouched in the tall reeds as Fallon retraced his steps to the tent and listened for the sound of any guard patrol. He jerked the rawhide string several times before he got a response from Alithea. He tapped out the most urgent code before his message, "Now. Leave. You. Bebe. Now. Leave. You. Bebe." With a stick, he propped up the tent wall to make a small opening above the ground. Bebe rolled out first, then Alithea. Fallon signaled silence and they followed him to the river. They saw Alpen and Drindl crouched in a circle. 

An Evening's Pause

He was distracted by a touch on his arm – Alithea. She showed him the corner of the tent where she would be sleeping. She held out a string made from Ibik hide. "I will tie this around my hoof after we eat. I will leave a piece of string under the tent wall. Before the sun goes down, tap out that Erthen is all right. I will sleep better."

Fallon was not a first time dad and was patient. He was used to her rythms and familiar with her anxiety just before the birth of their baby. The women prepared a light meal and Altiss ushered him out of the tent. He didn't see the faerie.

He rejoined Drindl and Alpen. Both of them assured Fallon that the egg was fine. Fallon felt more confident taking the egg pouch for the overnight vigil. Freed of the pouch, Drindl took Erthen to a nearby hill to watch the sunset.

As the rim of the sun sank below the hills, Fallon left the tent. Staying low as he moved through the reeds near the river, Fallon approached the big tent in the dim light. He found the Ibik string and pulled. He felt Alithea's hoof move, then the string grew taut. He tapped out that Erthen was happy and their egg was warm and goodnight. She acknowledged with a tapping of affection. Fallon circled away from the tent, careful to stay out of sight of the guards.
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Drindl was stirred from his slumber. He disentangled his arm from Erthen's sleeping frame and stood, then followed the whisper outside the tent. "Sarten wants all the warriors without eggs," the voice said. The moonlight filtered through the half-naked trees as they walked toward the rear of the camp. Drindl saw a few warriors outside a large tent in a clearing between the trees. He was led to a tent where there were thirty to forty warriors packed tightly together. Someone handed him some energy. He was confused and surprised that there was any left. He turned abruptly as Sarten entered the large tent and walked to the table.

Sarten held a piece of energy into his mouth and surveyed the warriors. "Eat and let us be done with these bothersome Glades and their foul eggs." Sarten put the energy his mouth and the warriors followed suit. Drindl was so alarmed that his mouth was dry and he couldn't swallow. He looked around and saw a small urn being passed. He held up his arm to signal the warrior that he needed a drink when Sarten saw him and called out to him. Drindl ejected the energy in his hand and answered, "Sir! Drindl, your faithful warrior here." He had never been spoken to directly by the leader.

"You shake like a child at the sight of Sprints," Sarten taunted and looked to the others. Drindl blushed with shame. "Tonight is not a night for children," Sarten said. "Go back to sleep in your tent and dream of little Faeries." The other warriors laughed. As Drindl shuffled past his companions on his way to the exit, he was poked and pushed. He was relieved to make it out of the big tent.  

The Big Tent

Fallon turned back to Sarten. Alpen grabbed his arm and handed him some gulath. "The women have been in there for an hour. They will have eaten their last meal." The leaf pocket held Ibik meat and plants. Fallon took the meal and nodded his thanks, then stooped to kiss his boy. Being separated from his mother and father in such a short time was too much and he let out a howl. Alpen turned quickly and said, "A rabbit!" He held out his hand and the boy waved to Fallon and excitedly followed Alpen after the invisible rabbit.

Alithea's eyes grew wide when Fallon entered the tent. "Is everything all right? What are you doing here? Where is Erthen and our egg?" she asked. Fallon assured her that their boy and the egg were safe with Alpen. She was astonished that he was to be the translator. Altiss shushed them and led Fallon to a seat between the two tribes of women.

There was no food left but there was water. He listened and translated. The sound of the Glade language bounced around in his head like rocks. His tongue struggled to make some of the sounds when translating. Sometimes, the Glade women rolled their eyes. Another time, they laughed at his pronunciation.

During the negotiations, there were many deferences to status, to dignity, to each other's children. Taking turns and rules for this and that, the preparation of food with respect for each tribes tastes and ceremonies. Warriors would not waste such time on idle niceties. After several hours, the light dimmed in the great tent and they had not reached an agreement. He was relieved when Altiss asked him to leave the tent until negotiations resumed in the morning. A fairy flew in, settled on Altiss' shoulder and leaned toward her ear. She waved Fallon away. Neither fairy nor Fae were allowed in the tent during negotiations.

Bargaining Begins

By the late morning of the next day the warriors had strapped Ibik skins to the frame. The energy had worn off and the work was not as coordinated but they got the skins stretched and tied. In small groups the women from both tribes streamed into the valley. Alpen’s mate, Bebe, unwrapped her egg sling and handed the pouch and both eggs to him. Drindl was too young to take a mate. Fallon’s partner, Alithea, carried her egg pouch wrapped around her waist and their young boy sat atop her shoulders. He shifted onto Fallon’s shoulders as Alithea transferred her egg pouch to him.

After the women filed into the two separate huts, those without eggs joined the two huts with skins. They left an opening for the Listener to join the women. She would meld the discussions with her language skills. 

From the Glade camp Tall One descended and met Sarten. Each man held his sword in one hand, the other arm bound to his belly with the tribe’s banner. Where was the Listener?

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Sarten and Tall One performed the customary ritual of warriors before negotiations. Fallon scanned the hill for the Listener. His boy squirmed around on his shoulder when he saw  the Sprints on the hill. He banged his heels against Fallon's chest trying to urge his dad up the hill to see the giant spiders. Concerned for Drindl's safety, Fallon glanced around. The young warrior stood with Alpen. He didn't seem bothered by the sight of the Sprints. Must have been the energy he had eaten yesterday. 

One of Sarten's aides came over to him. Sarten needed him to translate. Burdened with an egg pouch and a boy, Fallon asked if Sarten could find someone else. Where was the Listener, he asked? That's why Sarten needs you, the aide said.

Tall One's lower jaw jutted out in defiance as Fallon drew closer. His boy thought they were going to see the Sprints on the hill and made grunting sounds of displeasure when Fallon stopped. Sarten told him to ask Tall One where the Listener was. Fallon tried to concentrate, shifting between the ugly syllables of the Glade language and the mellifluous cadences of his native Jade language. Tall One said the Listener was sick from eating purpury berries. Fallon thought he was lying. There were no berries that had ripened this early in spring. He told Sarten who wanted another Listener to translate negotiations between the women of the two tribes. No, Tall One said. There is no one else. He pointed to Fallon and said, "You translate." When Fallon relayed this to Sarten, he agreed. Fallon protested that he had an egg and a boy to take care of. 
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"Your companion can take care of your boy and your egg," Sarten said. He waved Fallon away.  Altiss pulled back a flap of skin on the treaty hut and called out to Sarten. He told her to wait a few moments. He turned back to Fallon and was insistent, "Hurry." Fallon hurried to Alpen, in the opposite direction from the Sprints, and his boy jerked up and down on his shoulders in protest. Fallon and Alpen inspected his egg pouch. No way could he keep three eggs warm.

"I could carry the pouch," Drindl offered.

"Have you ever done this before?" Fallon asked. "You have to rotate the egg every ten minutes while you are awake. When you sleep in your bedroll, you can't turn. 'Egg sleep' we call it." Drindl assured him he could do it and Alpen said he would tie Drindl down so that he could not turn over in his sleep. Alpen offered to take care of the boy.

Fallon transferred the egg pouch to Drindl's waist and made sure it was secure. He put his hands on Drindl's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "You are my brother now." Drindl nodded.

Negotiations

Sarten looked at the opposite hill where the Glade army camped, then he scanned the valley for a neutral place where they could set up the bargaining tents for the women of both peoples. The spot had to be vulnerable to both sides and defensible in case of trickery. Each tribe would need access to the river that ran through the valley. Each day the course of the water grew wider as the snows melted near the glacier. Sarten pointed to an untreed area that was visible from each warrior camp. "We will begin tomorrow when the sun throws no shadows."

Fallon turned to the Fae warrior and gave her the instructions. She nodded, then placed the egg in her satchel and retreated up the hill toward the Glade camp.

Sarten said, "You have not eaten energy. Tend to Drindl. We will build a bargaining camp for the women." Fallon knew how quickly that would happen. They would be as one carpenter with 300 hands.

Fallon bent next to Drindl's relaxed body. His head was turned to the side, his cheek against the ground. Fallon saw that his eyes were glazed but nictating. He tried unsuccessfully to rouse the young warrior.

"He saw one of the Sprints up on the hill," Alpen said as he walked up the hill. "Some childhood nightmare? Maybe his first time consuming energy."

Fallon recognized Alpen's coat and unwound it from Drindl's feet. He used his arm to keep Drindl's hooves from making contact with the ground and gave the coat to Alpen.

"Have you ever seen this before?" Alpen asked. 

Fallon shook his head no, then looked up at Alpen, hoping he might confide his fear. "Do you think the Glades will keep their word?"

"Trust but verify," Alpen joked and walked up the hill.

Fallon removed his shirt and laid it under Drindl's feet. His face looked uncreased, like the smooth eggshell he broke out of when he came into the world. He leaned close to Drindl's ear and sang him the birth song that he had sung to his own children when they were ready to come out of their eggs. After a few minutes, he saw the first sign of response at the corner of Drindl's mouth.
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As Drindl awakened, Fallon waited patiently. He let the young warrior's hooves down to the ground. The others were far enough away. When Drindl could stand, Fallon gave him some water that Alpen had left. "Alpen and I are worried about you," Fallon said.

"I saw the Sprints on the hill," the words rushed a bit fast and Fallon urged him to drink. Drindl continued at a slower pace. "I was young when the Fae attacked us at Caphis." A bloody battle, Fallon remembered. It was only his second and he had fought the fear as the Sprints slashed their way through the Jade village.

"I had fallen as I ran from the Sprints," Drindl continued. "My mother tried to protect me. I watched as the raspy hairs from the legs of those beasts whipped her body. I tended to her but the wounds festered and she grew feverish. I helped my father bury her. She was with egg. My father never forgave me. He said I should have been more careful when I ran. My mother and the son or daughter of her egg would be alive."
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A Peace Offering

The soldiers moved away and conferred. Some looked at the advancing Jade army. A tall figure joined them, then turned toward Fallon. He raised his throwing axe and Fallon breathed deeply in anticipation of the killing cut of the blade.

“You said you had lost the energy,” tall man challenged Fallon. He turned to the others. “This is trickery.” 

“They step as one. Their arms and heads move as one!” Fallon threw the challenge back.

Tall One lobbed something up to the Fae warrior seated high up on the Sprint. “Tell me,” he commanded. A few moments later, Tall One caught something in his hand and Fallon heard the woman, “It is so. They move as one.” Tall One turned toward the valley and held the glass to his eyes. After a moment, he called to the others, “cut him down and clean him up. Today we will bargain.”

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The ground thundered beneath the feet of the Jade army as they moved down the hill. Altiss, the Faerie Queen, swept through the air above them and relayed what she saw to Sarten, who sent the stream of information  through the ground and into the minds of each of the warriors. Eight Sprints - hideous but lethal. 

Drindl drew back. His fear fought with the energy. “You’ve never seen one?” Alpen asked. Drindl stared at a Sprint on the crest of the hill. The slicing mandibles opened and closed. The six legs had snakes growing out of them. Drindl stood frozen, mouth agape, terrified by some childhood nightmare. Alpen had mentored several bantams in previous battles. This was new. The energy was magnifying some craziness in Drindl’s mind. 

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Sarten tapped on the mind web between warriors. He was impatient. Alpen turned to the warrior on the other side of Drindl. Together they lifted the bantam warrior from the ground to disconnect him from the warrior mind web, then laid him on his cloak on the dewy ground. A nightmare that powerful could infect the rest of them. Alpen tied his own cloak around Drindl's feet, carefully wrapping the young warrior's hooves so they would not make contact with the ground. Alpen turned his head toward the top of the opposing hill but still there was no advance from the Glade army. In case of a trick, the flanks of the Jade force split left and right in a wide circling movement that would slash through the Glade army in a pincer attack. 

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From the line of Glade warriors atop the hill, two figures emerged and began to walk down the hill to meet Sarten's forces. One figure was Fae. Alpen recognized the sinuous walk of a warrior. As they descended the hill, the Jade line readied for battle. Fallon! As soon as Alpen recognized him, the news traveled instantly through the mind meld. As they neared, the Fae warrior crouched in a signal of surrender as Fallon advanced toward his fellow warriors.

Fallon smiled as he approached Sarten and waved to Alpen. Despite the temptation to hug Fallon, Alpen did not break rank. Fallon spoke gibberish to Sarten. The Glade language with its ugly syllables! Sarten raised his sword to slay the devil that inhabited Fallon’s body. Fallon stepped back, his face creased in panic and confusion.  He spoke in the formal cadences of their fathers, the ancient warriors, “Sarten, my lord, it is I, Fallon, who fought with you at Pilates and Caphis.”

Sarten lowered his sword and held out an arm to embrace Fallon. “We thought you were dead. Then you speak in the Glade language as a man possessed. Go, take care of Drindl whom we have left behind. You have captured this Fae warrior?”

Fallon turned toward the crouching figure. “No, she comes as a sign of Glorin’s sincerity.” The sound of the Glade leader’s name was as ugly as the man himself. 

“They want to bargain?” Sarten scoffed. “What use have we of Fae? We do not use those foul Sprints in battle.”

“She bears the details of the truce,” Fallon said. As he turned, Sarten saw the wounds of capture and interrogation.

“They have put their language in your head,” Sarten said. “Have they also taken your loyalty? In a short time the Ibik herds will thunder through this valley to their breeding grounds. Food and hides for all, but not enough for two peoples. What truce?”

 “It is true that you can slaughter them all,” Fallon replied.  “That would gladden my spirit as fair retribution for their crimes to me. But certainly some of our warriors will fall in the coming battle.”

“It’s a trick, a delay,” Sarten countered.

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“No, the wives of the Glade warriors are in the camp ready to bargain,” Fallon said. Women talked. Warriors warred.

“Their eggs...” Sarten said. His eyes squinted as he looked into the heart of Fallon's words.

Fallon spoke to the Fae warrior in the Glade language. She reached into her satchel, withdrew an egg and held it out to Sarten with both hands. It was twice the size of a warrior’s fist. “The son or daughter of Glorin,” Fallon said. 

The warriors on either side of Sarten stared at the egg. They all had eggs of their own at home. It was a powerful sign of truce making. The spring generation of both Glade and Jade peoples would hatch in the next two weeks.

Sarten did not take the egg. A warrior did not handle another warrior's egg, friend or enemy. Sarten lowered his head as he deliberated. Fallon glanced left at Alpen standing in rank and mouthed a silent questioning "Drindl" to his friend. Alpen shook his head and made a gesture with his hand that Drindl would be all right. Alpen's eyes went wide as Sarten said, "We will bargain."

Fallon looked from Alpen to Sarten. What had caused alarm in Alpen?

The Warrior Camp

Photo by Егор Камелев on Unsplash

The deep voice hauled Fallon to his feet and pushed him out the tent. He winced at the contact with his scarred shoulders. The Listening woman was gone. Pale gray spread across the eastern sky. Fallon was in the warrior camp! 

To his left, a Fae warrior sat astride a Sprint, a spider like creature at least ten feet tall. Its eight long legs were covered with barbed hair that could cut through tall meadow grass. They had strapped several Ibik hides around the oval body to deflect a wounding sword stroke from below. 

The creature fidgeted below its Fae rider. She had not melded her will with the Sprint. Fallon looked about him. The warriors, their attendants and apprentices moved about in preparation for battle but not with the one melded mind of those who had consumed energy. He was confused.

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“Strap him to the Sprint,” deep voice said and pushed him forward to a group of soldiers. “He will lead us into battle,” he laughed. How did he understand the speech, Fallon wondered? The Fae rider held the head reins taut so that the 4’ mandibles did not slice them all.

The smell of the spidery beast made Fallon vomit. They lashed his outstretched arms and legs into the harness a few feet below the sex gland of the creature and the pasty liquid oozed onto his head. His only consolation was the certainty of his death. His belly was well within range of the killing stroke from one of his fellow warriors. 

The army moved forward and up a rise of rock and spring wildflowers. Hanging from the front of the Sprint, Fallon watched the flowers fall as the beast’s legs stepped through the grass. To his right and left he counted eight of the Sprints. He couldn’t see all the warriors but guessed that there were at least 8 dozen.  The Fae would use the Sprints as battle stations, launching their arrows and throwing axes as the two armies approached each other.

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The sun had cleared the hills to their right when they reached the crest of the hill. He raised his head to look at the far slope. His vision was blurred by sweat, blood and sex paste but what he saw advancing toward them caused his heart to leap with joy. From his soul erupted a maniacal laugh and he looked down at the soldiers below him. “They will slaughter you,” he called in a hoarse exultant voice and gesticulated with one unbound hand. “ Look, they move as one. One mind. One sword! They have eaten energy!”

Two soldiers turned to look at him. “How do you know our language?” One said. Fallon tried to shrug and felt the bite of the bird’s talons in his shoulder muscles. “You might as well kill me now. They will cut you down. Every last one of you and your hoary beasts. They will cut my ties and I will stand victorious on the putrefying body of this hell creature!”

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