Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:49:31 +0000 From: George Gauthier <georgegauthierdc@gmail.com> Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 16 Elf-Boy's Friends 16 The Troll War, Part VII of VII Explorers by George Gauthier [The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends'] Chapter 1. The Expedition The corps of discovery to the Barren Lands headed out from Flensborg on a line of march toward the south and west moving at an easy but deliberate pace. At first they passed hamlets and villages laid out in the expansive hexagonal grid that the Frost Giants favored. Hamlets were comprised of six farmsteads grouped around a shared hexagon in the center called the commons, mostly used by for grazing by their milch cows. A small barn housed a pair of giant aurochs shared among the villagers and used as draft animals for plowing and hauling timber. The commons was also the site of the wells, the threshing floor, the meeting hall cum schoolhouse, the playground and athletic fields. Each farmstead housed and provided a living for an extended family that might number more than a score who lived in one or more houses which faced onto the ring road surrounding the commons. Behind the houses lay the barns, chicken coops, rabbit hutches, stables, granaries, and other outbuildings and then the fields, orchards, and woodlots. Farmers grew grain for their own needs rather than for market. The woodlots yielded firewood or charcoal. The orchards provided the makings for apple cider and the potent peach brandy for which the Frost Giants were justifiably famous. A village was simply a hexagonal cluster of such hamlets with perhaps a tavern, a blacksmith's forge or a general store or even an infirmary though often with practitioners of natural medicine like midwives, herbalists, chirurgeons, or bonesetters rather than a magical healer. Even the outlying settlements had read the news of the expedition in the latest issue of the news-paper out of Flensborg. Folks waved and wished them well. Farmers let them water their stock and set up camp in fallow fields where the droppings of the horses would help their crops grow. A week's march beyond the frontier of settlement took them into lands not considered part of New Varangia. That was where the twins started mapping and drawing terrain sketches in earnest. Drew helped by lifting Jemsen or Karel up into the sky for an unparalleled perspective. Even Axel got to go up for a look around. With a fetcher around, there was no need for the clumsy and hazardous box kites the twins had used years earlier as army scouts. The country thereabouts was a rugged plateau with old growth forests which alternated with open glades and meadows which they usually skirted around the edges rather than push straight across. The ground of the meadows was frequently soft and even soggy. Meadows in woodlands often originate as ponds which eventually fill in with sediment. Over time first grass then shrubs and finally trees take root and the meadow disappears. The whole area teemed with game, never having been hunted over by the centaurs who apparently had set it aside as a nature preserve, a breeding range where their preferred game species could reproduce unhindered by the cull of the hunt. Population pressure would induce the surplus animals to migrate to the centaurs' hunting grounds, replenishing the population of game animals there. Looking through the eyes of a osprey circling overhead, Dahl spotted a herd of elk grazing in a meadow not far from their line of march. Via mind speech he directed Karel who was scouting ahead of the main column to the elk. It wasn't hard for a hunter of his experience to bring down two of them. The twins' gift of Unerring Direction made for uncannily accurate archery, and their enhanced vitality gave them doubled strength to draw a more powerful bow. Karel waited patiently by his kills till the column came up to his position then helped the cook and his helper dress the carcasses. There was enough meat for even the bottomless appetites of Frost Giants. "Don't get me wrong, Karel," Axel began, "but the way you killed those elk wasn't very sporting on your part or Lord Dahlderon's either." Karel smiled indulgently, marking his friend's remarks down to his youth and naivety. "There speaks the city boy in you, my young friend. Of course it wasn't sporting of me to shoot elk like that, but then Jemsen and I never claimed to be sportsmen. We started as market hunters for meat and hides. We kill game at need and never for sport." Axel nodded, saying. "I stand corrected. I guess my city ways have not prepared me to be an explorer." "Don't worry about that, Axel. You are a plucky sort with a good head on your shoulders. You'll do just fine." The next day as the explorers rode past a pond Sir Willet spotted something strange. "Is that really a beaver with a green coat? Dahl, would you do me the favor of holding that creature still so I might examine it?" Dahl nodded and took control of the animal, projecting a reassurance that the strange two-legged creature approaching it meant it no harm. The wizard and his aide dismounted for a closer look. As they approached the beaver a movement in the trees caught Axel's eye. It was a tawny panther which had been stalking the beaver but had now turned its attention on the interloper who threatened to snatch his rightful prey from him. The panther gathered itself to spring upon the wizard whose attention was focussed on the beaver with the green coat. Axel shouted a warning though he knew it was too late. The panther would be upon the wizard before anyone could react, anyone except Axel himself. The boy invoked his gift and Called Light englobing the head of the predator with a sphere of cool blue-white light, thereby scrambling its brains. It fell heavily to the ground its limbs flailing and twitching uncontrollably as it wailed piteously. One of the giants stepped forward and speared it, putting an end to its misery. "The poor creature!" Sir Willet said with genuine regret. "If only I had spotted it sooner, I could have invoked my fetching power and chucked it into the pond. A dunking would have done it no lasting harm, and it would have lived to hunt another day." "Anyway, thank you Axel. You likely saved my life just now or the very least prevented a serious injury. That was quick thinking on your part. Fast reactions too." "I have been practicing on moving targets, namely those pestiferous pigeons which perch on window ledges everywhere around the institute. Their droppings are a menace to public health. When they dry out they crumble into dust which gets blown about so you can take it into your lungs. Yuk!" "Indeed. If only we could get rid ourselves of the pigeons." "String fine wire an inch above the windowsills. The wire will cut into their feet which will discourage them from perching where you don't want them to," Jemsen said. His facile assurance was met with raised eyebrows. "Hey, if you ask a lot of questions, you can learn all sorts of things, about pigeons for instance. When we were in the Far West I noticed such wires on public buildings and asked about them." It turned out that the beaver had a normal brown coat after all. The green color was just a coating of pond scum that had settled on its back as it clambered onto the land. Which was fine with Sir Willet. He was still cross about the Army's stubborn and wrongheaded stance against his recommendation for brown as the basic color for camouflage. At day or so later, the explorers came upon a great wall that barred further progress. An earthquake long ago had split the earth for many miles, lifting the bedrock to the south by more than three hundred feet [100 m], creating a nearly vertical escarpment. The stone wall extended east and west as far as the eye could see. "How far do you think this escarpment runs Finn?" the twins asked. "That is what I want one of you to find out. Drew, can you Lift one of the twins to twice the height of the escarpment so he can gauge the lay of the land?" Since it was Karel's turn to go aloft, Drew lifted him straight up for six hundred feet [200 m] and held him there, turning him left and right according to the hand signals they had used for mountain climbing. When Karel returned to the ground he reported that the escarpment extended as far as he could see with vertiginous cliffs along its entire length. "So what now?" Axel asked. I suppose Drew could just lift all of us and our wagons and mounts over the escarpment though it would take a while what with six wagons and nearly twenty horses." "Bad idea. That would create a single point of failure." Dahl pointed out. "If anything happened to Drew, the expedition would be stuck. Fetching is not one of my strengths. I can lift myself by my sandals but not much more." Sir Willet cleared his throat "You forget Dahl, that if anything happened to young Altair I could handle things just as well with my strong fetching powers, but your larger point is valid. We need a better way to get up and over the escarpment, one that does not depend on magic. Clearly what we need is a road, and I am just the man to provide it. I'll use white fire to blast a ledge slantwise to the top. Now that bulge in the wall over there looks like a good spot. Drew, can you Lift me up so I can get a better look at it?" Sir Willet could have lifted himself by his sandals, but having Drew do it was safer. Sir Willet would not have to split his attention between maintaining his balance and the surveying the terrain. When Sir Willet got back down he went over by the wall of rock and took a stance. Pointing upward he called out: "One road coming up!" The wizard shot a stream of white fire along the face of the wall, blasting a ledge slanting all the way to the top. Nothing was left of the stone removed by the blast save dust rising into the sky with the superheated air. Invoking his powers as a fire caster, Sir Willet then cooled the surface of the roadway, dispersing the heat into the the air. The road was plenty wide enough for their mounts and wagons. It surface was smooth, but the natural grain of the rock afforded decent traction. "When we return I'll create a second road further along the wall. You always want a back door." Sir Willet explained. The members of the expedition variously marched or rode or drove up the road and set up camp atop the escarpment. Now they were really heading into the unknown. Still, so far, so good. Early the next morning, not three hours after they had set out, the scouts returned to the main body with a report of a huge metal box filled with rubble just sitting on the ground with nothing to show how it got there. When the explorers reached the location of the artifact Sir Willet provided the explanation. This is not a box but a vehicle, an ore carrier used by the ancients. There must be a mine nearby. "Where are its wheels?" Karel asked. Sir Willet shook his head. "The old tales agree that the ancients employed vehicles that floated a few feet above the ground to transport heavy loads, much like we do today with our iron roads. These ore barges were not true flying machines. they could rise less than the height of a man, but that was enough to pass over almost any kind of terrain: soft ground, a marsh, a river, a grassy plain, a sandy desert, it was all the same to such vehicles. The ancients didn't even need roads just a trackway cleared of boulders and trees. Even after so long you can trace its route." "What made it float?" Drew asked. "Even a powerful fetcher could not hold up such a weight long enough to transport it any great distance." "The ancients had made great advances in natural philosophy [i.e. science] and the mechanical arts [i.e. technology] and had harnessed lightning to do all manner of wondrous things the way we use wind and water to propel ships, run pumps, grind wheat, hammer iron, or saw logs into boards." "So how did these vehicles move? There is no fixtures to hitch draft animals to the thing, no seat for a teamster, or any way to steer the thing." Jensen noted. "These vehicles were self-propelled and actually guided themselves to their destinations. They were said to draw power broadcast through the air, as hard as that is to believe. The power must have stopped suddenly, stranding the ore carrier here." "It is sad to think how far we have fallen since the days of the galactic empire of old. This ore carrier must be one of the machines they could bring through their space portals to Haven. What they could not transport was the industrial civilization that created their machines. When their power sources failed, they could not be replaced. The ancients knew that would happen which is why they devised a way for their descendants to use magic to make life safer and easier." "I like to think that with our advances in natural philosophy and the mechanical arts civilization on Haven has already made a good start on the long road back to the stars." "That is all very well and good, Sir Willet," Finn said, "but getting down to practicalities can you tell us what the ore in the carrier is? Is it something we ourselves could use with our current techniques and abilities?" "Good question. Now I am not much of a natural philosopher. Axel, you have a keen interest in such things. What can you tell us about that bit of ore you were handling just now?" Axel was acutely aware that all eyes were on him. "Er, I cannot tell much by its look, feel, smell, and taste, but it is likely an ore of an alloy used to strengthen iron and or aluminum. The hull of vehicle itself is shiny yet mere aluminum could never bear such a heavy load." Hammer in hand Finn gave the hull a tentative tap which produced nothing more than a dull clunk. Frowning, the giant hit it again, a good deal harder. The metal rang like a gong, loud though not unpleasantly so. "If I had to guess," Axel continued, "I would say the barge came along this trace from the east and was headed toward the pass between those hills. Let me take a few mineral samples for later analysis in an alchemical laboratory in the capital. Meanwhile why don't we send out the scouts to look for the mine?" "Excellent suggestion, Axel." Sir Willet said while Finn nodded to the scouts to take off in the direction the young aide had indicated. The rest of the company settled down to an early lunch to await developments. It was sunny and warm but not hot with a refreshing breeze blowing from the west. The scouts returned within the hour. They had found an open-pit mine with a digging machine of the ancients sitting idle at the bottom, where it had ground to a halt long ago, deprived of the broadcast power it needed to operate. The pit was shaped like an oval about two hundred yards on its long axis and about eighty feet deep. When the corps of discovery arrived at the pit they saw that a herd of brontotheres forty strong was gathered around the rim. The great beasts had long used the deep pool of water at the bottom for bathing. Unfortunately one stretch of the spiral ramp around the sides of the pit had slumped under the weight of a pair of young bulls. The beasts had slipped all the way down to a muddy area at one end. Three other brontotheres at the farther end of the pit had been left stranded at the bottom. For all their great strength, there was nothing that the herd could do to help the five stranded in the mine. "We must help those poor creatures!" Axel said to Sir Willet, distressed at their plight. "I agree, Axel, but how?" Sir Willet replied to his aide. "I suppose Drew and I could lift the three at the bottom, but those two stuck in the mud up to their bellies are another thing. We might break their legs if we just yanked them up." Jensen should his head. "No. We must be the first humans and giants they have ever encountered. First impressions are everything. So we should all pitch in as a way to make friends with the brontotheres just as Aodh's people have always been friends with them in the East. Here is what I have in mind..." In a few sentences, Jemsen outlined his plan, which the others adopted and put into action at once. First Dahl projected mental imagery to communicate their good intentions to the brontotheres. Brontotheres were intelligent and used mental imagery as well as vocalizations and body language to communicate with each other. Dahl told them that they should not be alarmed at what the strange two-legged creatures were up to. The druid also reassured their own mounts and draft horses that the huge beasts were no threat to them. Finn and a party of six giants and two human teamsters climbed to the bottom of the pit carrying ropes to rescue the pair stuck in the mud. Sir Willet and Drew levitated via their sandals and sailed through the air circling around to demonstrate their ability to the herd. Their flight produced grunts of amazement from the brontotheres who had never seen anything like it. Dahl told the first of the stranded beasts that the little red-headed human would lift her up a couple of feet to let her get used to the idea of levitation. Though nervous at first the creature calmed down as Drew raised her several feet into the air, moved here back and forth, then set her down again. The tricky part was persuading the creature to walk up to the break in the ramp and let Drew mount it as he levitated both of them across the gap. A collective gasp rose from the herd as Drew sailed across the gap and set the first of the rescued brontotheres safely on the ramp beyond the gap. Calling out happily, she rejoined her comrades at the top. Sir Willet and Drew took turns with the next two brontotheres who gave them no trouble having seen how well things had gone with the first. Soon all three stranded beasts were reunited with the herd. "Didn't I tell you Axel, you and Liam, that I could lift brontothere into the sky. Now you've had a chance to see it for yourself." "So I have, and I'll be sure to tell Liam next time I see him." Drew nodded, his pretty face taking on in insufferably smug look though for only a moment; his wink brought a grin to Axel's face. At the muddy area the human teamsters took advantage of their light weight to crawl and wriggle across the mud to the mired beasts where they tied ropes around the barrels of their bodies and limbs. Finn and the giants alternately pulled and eased on the ropes to rock the brontothere back and forth to free it from the grip of the mud. The trapped animal caught on to what the giants were trying to do and shifted its weight in time with their tugs. Once its legs were only loosely gripped by the mud, it lay on its side and let Finn and his giants haul it across the slick muddy section to dry ground. The young bull got to its feet, tired but none the worse for wear. Then it was the turn of the second brontothere. By that time, Dahl had joined them at the bottom and invoked his earth magic to create a ramp by which the brontotheres could climb out of the pit, their rescuers walking up behind them. The herd of brontotheres then did a strange thing. One by one they walked by each of the two-legged strangers, looking at them closely and registering their scents. "It's so they will recognize us if our paths cross again." Dahl explained. "Brontotheres have keen eyesight, an excellent sense of smell, and long memories." Finished with their memory exercise, the brontotheres raised their heads and trumpeted a call loud enough to be felt physically. "Gentlemen, it seems we have just been made Brontothere-Friends." They all shook their heads bemused. `Does this mean we can added Brontothere-Friend to our titles?" Karel asked more than half-facetiously." "And what about a distinctive tattoo?" Jemsen added, helping the joke along. "Not hardly." Dahl replied, "A tattoo would mean nothing to other brontotheres or even our huge new friends here. Still, if you twins really are hankering for an unprecedented fourth tattoo, you'll might try making friends with say goblins or orcs." "Oh, very funny." "Er, Lord Dahlderon," Axel began tentatively, "why not tell the brontotheres about the road down from the escarpment? I'll bet they would like to extend their range to virgin lands." "Good idea. It does you credit, Axel, that it was you who thought of their welfare. As a druid and defender of the planet's biosphere, I should have thought of that myself." With Finn's assent, the explorers backtracked to their campsite and pointed the brontotheres to the road down from the escarpment. Dahl projected an image of the war wizard creating the road. The brontotheres dipped their heads to thank him. The animals went into a huddle then split into two groups. Most of the younger brontotheres took the road down from the escarpment to explore the new lands. The older ones elected to stay in their old range which would be so much less crowded now that the herd had split in two. Or was it into three parts? The two young bulls rescued from the pit stationed themselves close to their new friends with two legs. From their mental imagery Dahl realized that these two intended to travel with the giants and humans and the four-legged creatures the smaller bipeds rode. The same age and lifelong friends, the young bulls were up for an adventure. And they would serve as ambassadors to other herds of brontotheres, vouching for their bona fides. "They really want to travel with us?" Finn asked, incredulous. "Yes they do," Dahl replied, "and with you Finn in particular. They recognize you as the leader of our herd of two-legs, our matriarch as it were." "Oh, very funny. Well if these two are bound and determined to come along with us, I don't see how we can refuse. Brontotheres pretty much go where they want to anyway, don't they." "A lot like Frost Giants!" Karel joked. "At least we can tell one from the other without green and blue sarongs." Finn noted. "That one's hide is a darker grey. I don't suppose they have names." "No, not exactly but there is no reason we shouldn't give them names. Let's think on what we should call them and talk it over around the campfire this evening." "Sounds like a plan." Finn agreed. "Now all we have to do is get Finn mounted atop a brontothere." Axel assured Drew in an aside, "just like we talked about that day with Liam." Chapter 2. R&R The explorers' axis of advance was southward, but the actual line of march often detoured east or west to get around hills or marshy ground or dense woods. They did not find any more artifacts of the ancients, but what they found was enough to confirm that the so-called Barren Lands were anything but that. This was a fine well-watered land with arable bottomlands and lush pastures, hardwood trees for timber, and mineral wealth just waiting to be exploited by the ever expanding population of Frost Giants and their allied races: humans, dwarves, and elves. One particularly interesting find was a system of caverns carved by water in a region underlain by limestone. The caverns were a geological wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites and curtains of stone and still lakes the light of the sun had never touched. No doubt dwarves would welcome a chance to settle there. Axel, Dahl, and Sir Willet called light and lead parties that penetrated the caverns far enough to get some idea of their extent and layout. The twins' gift of unerring direction allowed them to draw rough maps of the areas the explorers had reached. Meanwhile Finn bonded with his new friends the brontotheres Tyr and Hodr, the names of the planet's two moons in the original language of the Frost Giants. It was Sergeant Sven Ingersen who pointed out that their grey hides were much the same color as Haven's two moons, one of which was notably darker than the other much like Tyr was compared to Hodr. Having watched how horses allowed humans to sit astride their backs the brontotheres soon let Finn mount them. He settled himself where their necks joined their shoulders which gave him an excellent view of the surrounding terrain with his head fourteen feet above ground level. Finn knew that the brontotheres would cooperate with him but not take orders. Certainly they would not tolerate any sort of tack or harness like a bridle and bit and reins or even a hackamore and spurs would be both useless and insulting. Instead, with Dahl's help, Finn worked out a series of verbal and physical signals to let the brontotheres know which direction he wanted them to go, when to stop, and whether to stay close after Finn dismounted or go off on their own to graze and browse. Tyr and Hodr were soon engaged in a friendly rivalry to see which one of them Finn would mount that day. In time Dahl resolved the competition by offering himself as a second rider, choosing Hodr as his mount while Finn favored Tyr. Not for nothing had Dahl as a journeyman druid taken the brontothere as his totem. The young druid was the first true rider of a brontothere having once lead the charge of a herd of brontotheres against a small army of Amazons. That made Finn the second brontothere rider. The teamsters devised a leather harness which went around Tyr's forequarters and made it possible for Finn to brace himself with strap and stirrups when he flung his war hammer Mjolnir. In return for their serving as mounts Dahl provided treats like wild fruits and vegetables flash grown to ripeness even if out of season. Finn regularly checked the pads of their feet for sharp stones which might work their way deeper over time and cause trouble. The brontotheres were curious about their new friends and stuck their noses into everyone's business, looking on intently as the cooks started a fire or prepared dinner or while the giants tended to their gear or sharpened their weapons or the teamsters curried their horses and checked the frogs of their fee. Brontotheres were curious in a way that reminded everyone of the twins, though without their endless questions. The horses themselves held little interest for the brontotheres which regarded them as dumb animals rather than near sentients like themselves. The horses were just as glad that the brontotheres gave them a wide berth. Dahl's assurances were all well and good, but the great grey beasts were so huge, they intimidated by their sheer size. whatever their mellow dispositions. When the explorers ran across other herds of brontotheres Tyr and Hodr acted as their ambassadors projecting reassurance that the strange two-legged creatures with them were harmless as well as interesting beings to be around. There was always something new with these curious creatures, not least the fact that they somehow managed to totter around on only two legs without falling over. Finn recognized that the constant travel had worn everyone down, so he called a three day halt to let them rest and recuperate. For a campsite Finn picked a sunny spot on the shore of a lake. Its placid waters were fed by a creek originating in the hills to the south. The teamsters caught a goodly mess of fish while the twins's hunting skills provided meat enough for the length of their stay. The twins offered to launder the uniforms of all of the explorers, but Dahl told them to just drop them in the stream and weight them down with stones. Invoking his magic, he excited the waters to bubble and churn and remove all the soil and sweat in moments. The twins hung the garments to dry in the warm sun. Except for Finn and his frost giants and Sir Willet, they all spent the next three days skin-clad, going about as nature had made them. After chores, there was plenty of time for leisure activities like swimming and running and tossing the Zinger around. Axel and Drew and Dahl joined the twins in a game. Soon all five youths were running and jumping and lunging and darting left and right, trying to to snatch the Zinger out of the air before it could touch the ground. The game might have been invented purposely to show off the beauty of the youthful male body at its athletic best. Is there anything more beautiful than the nude body of a young male in motion? All five of the youths were absolutely scrumptious though they differed considerably in type. Preternaturally lovely, the young druid was the raven-maned filly of the bunch. Standing barely an inch over five feet, he was slender yet muscular with strong shoulders, a ripped torso, flat belly and narrow hips. He had one of those impossibly small waists you could almost put your hands around and a pert rump, with small but firm and shapely buns. Tanned, taut and toned, thanks to druidic magic, his strength was triple what his size might indicate. Then there were the two scouts. Identical twins of medium height and with a well-defined musculature, they were lithe and boyishly handsome and very blond, utterly alluring with their slender physiques and youthful features. Except for the corn silk blond hair the twins might be taken for elves themselves. Incessant chatterboxes with an insatiable curiosity, they were a pair of palomino colts, boisterous and rambunctious, exuding good health and sex appeal. At only eighteen Axel was very much the youngest of them. Axel was more than a hand shorter than the twins, slightly built, and boyishly cute, with fair skin and hair the color of copper. Drew was an impossibly cute twink with spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns reaching below the ear lobe plus straight eyebrows with almost no curve to them. They framed a fine-boned face with a high forehead, chiseled jawline, and a perky nose slightly turned up at the end. He was slight in build, standing only five foot zero and weighing but a hundred pounds, yet his tiny frame was easily twice as strong as it looked, enhanced by the same druidical healing magic that had lengthened his life and prolonged his youth. Finn longed to join them. It had been far too long since he had spent quality time with his lovers, as all of them were except Dahl, but as expedition leader he felt he had to comport himself with a degree of decorum. So he had to pretend not to see his four lovers saunter past a copse of trees on the grassy verge of the lake seeking a quiet spot to pair off for fun and frolic. Dahl too was sitting this one out. Jemsen and Drew had been lovers since the centaur war in New Varangia, but Axel was still new at juggling multiple boyfriends. His first serious relationship had been with Liam, who was now off with the Navy. Then he took up with Drew where all three shared rooms and beds back in residential hotel in the capital. Axel had an occasional fun fling with Aodh, but the young vir visited the capital infrequently, limiting their chances of getting together. The twins lived just down the hall and since they were already involved with both Drew and Liam, well one thing lead to another. After many days of chastity in the close quarters of the tent they shared with the teamsters, all four were more than ready for some fun. Out in the open, away from the others, they gave themselves fully to their longings. Their couplings were enthusiastic, energetic, athletic, and loud. Even the normally shy wizard's aide let himself go once Karel's naughty foreplay got him fired up, greedily swallowing Karel's cock to the hilt, his pouty lips gripping the shaft, working it as his head rose and fell stimulating the blond boy to a long overdue orgasm which filled Axel's mouth with gism. Then they switched roles, with Karel licking and slurping and sucking Axel's cock. Later Karel put Axel on all fours then mounted him, thrusting into him with a sudden total impalement, drawing a gasp from Axel. As Karel pumped away, Axel moaned as his body shuddered and spewed which set Karel off as well. They sank to the grass in post-coital lassitude. Meanwhile Drew and Karel went at it hammer and tongs with unflagging stamina thanks to their magically enhanced vitality. Perennially endowed with the physical constitutions of teenagers, sex drives and all, the pair explored and enjoyed each other's body in all the ways it was possible for two males to engage in sexual congress. Sometimes one was on top, then the other or they lay head to toe provide mutual oral service. After which, they cleansed their sweaty bodies at the outlet of the stream that fed the lake, stretching out in the sandy shallows as the waters laved and cooled their overheated bodies. Later everyone enjoyed out of season tangy apples and sweet pears magically ripened by the druid. Chapter 3. Confrontation The next day Finn motioned for Dahl, Sir Willet, Drew, and Sergeant Ingersen to join him and started off by saying: "So far we haven't run into danger, but the closer we get to the Barren Coast, the more I worry about an encounter with trolls. The low cliffs on the coast are no real barrier. Their ships could make an amphibious landing in one of the shallow coves. It would be easy enough for military engineers to chop stairways out of the soft chalk of the cliffs and to rig cranes at the top to lift up supplies." Dahl nodded. "That possibility was one reason we had to explore and map these regions. With the twins, that job at least in in good hands. You can count on my druidic ability to see through the eyes of birds to warn us ahead of time of the approach of any hostiles." Sergeant Ingersen noted: "My giants are stout lads, but they did not sign up for a war. We are an exploration team not a combat patrol, so I would much prefer to avoid a fight." Finn nodded his agreement. "Our entire party numbers only forty, half of them Frost Giants. We are here to show the flag not to hold ground. There are no military objectives here anyway. So if we are forced to fight, let us do so but disengage as soon as we can and withdraw northwards to safety. To that end, let me explain how we should form up for battle." "In a fight, our twenty-one giants would form a shield wall with the teamsters and scouts on their left to support the heavy infantry with their repeating crossbows plus the twins with their powerful longbows. They would fight from the backs of the wagons with the horses hitched and ready to pull back at the right moment." "You Dahl and I would station ourselves on the right flank mounted on our brontotheres while Drew and Sir Willet would support the left. We magic users should be able inflict so many casualties on the enemy that he won't want to close with our shield wall." Dahl nodded. "It is a good plan. Between us we have a powerful fetcher, a war wizard, and druid, and an avatar of a thunder god. All four of us can raise missile shields of different kinds against archery. Offensively Sir Willet can cast flaming streams or great clinging balls of fire, Drew can smash their heads and bodies with his steel spheres, I can invoke earth magic of many sorts, while you Finn can smash them with lightning bolts and your war hammer." "Indeed" Sir Willet agreed. "Don't underestimate the psychological effect of combat magic. Flame weapons typically induce panic in enemy forces. Their formations disintegrate and they become easy targets for our own missile weapons. And yanking eyeballs out of their orbits induces visceral horror in enemy troops. Finn's lightning bolts from the sky induce a sense of helplessness in an enemy, making him inclined to veer off and let us go rather than press an attack." Sir Willet also pointed out that like Drew he too could blind the front line of enemy soldiers by yanking their eyeballs out of their heads. All in all they were satisfied that their powers would make any enemy force think twice about pursuing and let them withdraw. The last thing any of them wanted was a pitched battle in the middle of nowhere. It turned out though a pitched battle was exactly what they got. The very next day Dahl's avian spy in the sky spotted a company of trolls feating on the haunch of a brontothere they had killed and butchered and roasted on a spit. Generally about six feet tall, trolls were heavy boned and muscular with hairy bodies and bear-like muzzles equipped with tusks. Behind the feasting trolls were five more brontotheres who were pinned against a cleft in a cliff by caltrops strewn on the ground and by troll guards armed with fire globes captured from a naval vessel they had taken. The glass spheres held an inflammable oil which would cling to their hides and burn them horribly. Finn called a council of war. All agreed that despite odds of nearly five to one, they must not only free the brontotheres, they must afford them a part in the victory. With four magic wielders in their ranks, the risks were acceptable. Now Dahl was one of the most powerful magic wielders and the planet. He might have destroyed the trolls all by himself, whether by setting a tornado on them, or making them deathly allergic to the brontothere flesh they had gorged on, or by turning their bones to powder, but he deemed it fairer to let this be a victory won by the whole team. Powerful as they were, the other magic wielders would likely have needed the protection of the shield wall of the Frost Giants and the archery of the humans rather than do it all by themselves. Drew's whirling spheres could take out only so many foes a minute. No way he could kill two hundred in the time it would take for the trolls to close with him. Similarly balls and streams of fire could do only so much. And even a Frost Giant who was an avatar of a thunder god could be overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. All of which reflected what Sir Willet always said, that war wizards were force multipliers for the military. The allies formed a battle line comprised of the twenty-one Frost Giants in the center and on the right. The six wagons manned by human teamsters armed with crossbows and the twins with their long bows formed up to their left. The line reached across the saddle of the ridge overlooking the enemy camp. The slopes on either side anchored their own flanks and their elevation forced the enemy to attack uphill. The trolls formed up in a triple line considerably longer than that of the allies and engaged the explorers with archery, shooting hundreds arrows. Those in the center shot either directly at the shield wall or in a high arc, knowing that the shields of the Frost Giants could not simultaneously offer cover to both direct and plunging fire. The trolls on the right and left of their line fired at an angle, trying to slip past their heavy wooden shields and hit the giants in the side. Drew and Sir Willet used their Missile Shield to send many of the trolls' own arrows back at them. At his end of the line Dahl invoked his druidic power to change the wooden shafts of the arrows to dandelion seeds. The arrowheads lost momentum and fell harmlessly to the ground. Finn's own magnetic power was less flexible than the powers of his magical colleagues so he contented himself with making the arrows sent his way fall short. Nevertheless some of the arrows struck home, mostly in arms or legs. The plunging fire of the trolls was largely ineffective thanks to the helmets and cuirasses that protected the giants. Frustrated with the poor results of their archery, the trolls marched closer, brandishing their axes. That was when Dahl invoked earth magic, tapping the water table to turn the ground under their feet into a muddy quagmire into which they sank to their knees. Dahl then drained away the excess water turning the ground back into hard clay which held their legs fast. The ground was so hard the trolls could not free themselves with their axes. Caught fast but undaunted, the trolls screamed their defiance and their hatred of the magic that was being used against them, magic that was far stronger than their old enemies in the archipelago had ever brought to bear in their earlier wars. The archers in the wagons targeted the trolls on the left, skewering them with crossbow quarrels and war arrows. With their enhanced strength the twins could draw bows nearly as powerful as those of the trolls. The Frost Giants on the right unlimbered their slings and flung stones or lead bullets at the trolls with enough force to penetrate their armor though not always their heavy shields. That was only the beginning of the trolls' ordeal. Sir Willet cast clinging balls of fire which took a heavy toll, one matched by Drew's whirling spheres. On the right Finn raised his hammer to the sky which answered his call with a tremendous clap of thunder. Then Finn rose up into his stirrups and flung his war hammer at the troll commander, smashing his body apart, only to call Mjolnir back into his outstretched hand, utterly astounding the trolls. This was their worst nightmare, powerful magic they had no way of countering, not even with odds in their favor of nearly five to one. Invoking his magic as an avatar of the thunder god Thor Finn called lightning down on the troll's store of fire globes igniting them and burning the trolls guarding the brontotheres. Using his control of magnetism, Finn swept the ground in front of the trapped brontotheres clear of the steel caltrops. Dahl sent mental imagery to tell the brontotheres that they were now free from that threat. Free to charge. Which is just what they did sounding their battle cry. Dahl's and Finn's mounts Tyr and Hodr joined in. Finn used the strap on the haft of his hammer to extend his reach, swimming the hammer in vicious arcs left and right to smash any troll within reach. Dahl contented himself with stopping the hearts of trolls who tried to hamstring their huge mounts with their axes. Between them the seven brontotheres rolled up or really stomped down the whole left flank of the trolls. The brontotheres did not stop there but kept going till they had gored and stomped every single troll, even those already lying dead. Axel patched up the five frost giants and humans who had caught arrows. Only one wound was serious. The others were grazes to their shoulder muscles or arrows through their calfs. Axel cleaned the wounds, disinfected them with fiery spirits, stitched them up, then bandaged them, all the while cajoling the wounded to put them at ease. The young medic had a fine bedside manner. One unfortunate human driver took an arrow to the gut, a wound far beyond the ability of natural medicine to deal with. Dahl invoked his druidic healing magic to rebuild the man's damaged viscera, remove the filth and blood from the abdominal cavity, and prevent infection. Two of the wounded would thenceforth ride the supply wagons, but there was plenty of room, since the corps of discovery had depleted more than half their supplies. Axel packed up his field medical kit and put it back in his saddle bags. Axel knew very well that battles were rarely so one sided. Finn summed things up. "The great advantage of annihilating the enemy in every encounter is that no one reports back to their commanders about our tactics and capabilities whereas with each battle, we learn more about how to fight trolls. For the trolls, it is always their first battle." "And their last!" Karel noted. "Their tactics are deficient from any point of view." Sir Willet noted. "The trolls should have refused battle and maneuvered to fight us on ground of their own choosing, perhaps by blocking our route of march and forcing us to attack them. Their fanaticism is a weakness." Drew opined: "That is the root of all their problems, their fanaticism. Their whole belief system. Whatever gave the trolls the notion that magic was something reserved by the gods for the gods alone? Surely if there really were gods who felt that way, they would to do something about it themselves, rather than ask mere mortals to fight their battles for them. And since the gods have done nothing about mortal magic on Haven, who is to say that they do not approve of it?" "And isn't it an implicit denial of their power to claim that that deities needs the help of their worshipers? That is tantamount to blasphemy isn't it. And isn't it megalomaniacal for any mere mortal to think the help his gods need should come from him in particular?" "It makes you wonder if there really are any gods up there in the sky." Axel opined. "I suppose some of the cults are inoffensive enough, but it is hard to credit the existence of the strange deities so many profess their faith to. In that connection a certain thunder god comes to mind. No offense, Finn." "None taken, Axel." Nevertheless when Axel turned away to attend to his mount Axel stumbled as Finn startled him with a tremendous clap of thunder from directly overhead. No, Finn had not taken offense, but the opportunity was just too good to pass up. Axel nodded to show that he realized that he practically asked for it with his blasé comment about a certain thunder god. The giants dragged the bodies of the trolls into a pile which Sir Willet turned into a funeral pyre. he kept it burning till little remained but disarticulated bones. Each of the Frost Giants helped himself to a troll war axe, adding it to his normal panoply of sword, spear, and kukri or long knife. Finn called lightning to melt the remaining axe blades into a useless lump of iron and steel. The company of explorers made camp an hour's march from the site of the battle, away from the stink of battle. The newly freed brontotheres trumpeted their thanks then went off to rejoin their herd and also spread the news that there were two sorts of newcomers in the land. The hairy ones who looked like bears on two legs were the bad guys; the others the good guys. The next morning Finn asked Dahl to reconnoiter the whole area, not just their proposed line of march. There must be other trolls around and probably in greater numbers. Through the eyes of an osprey Dahl looked out over the whole region all the way to the Barren Coast where the trolls were making an amphibious landing. They had not simply run longships up on to the beach. Instead they had towed floating piers and anchored them in place affording an easy way to unload passengers and freight from their supply ships, mostly captured sailing vessels. Workers had cut a dozen stairways in the soft chalk of the cliff face which was only about forty to sixty feet high at that point. At the top troll engineers erected cranes to lift supplies and wagons. Trolls in their tens of thousands were already atop the cliffs -- soldiers and settlers and females too though unaccompanied by whelps. On the flat tableland above the cliffs farmers were marking out fields and villages, lumberjacks were cutting timber for houses, a corps of engineers was building a road and a fort. They must have had an advance party at it for weeks with no one the wiser. It was clear that the trolls intended to assert a claim to the Barren Lands by physical occupation. Once established their colony would swell from natural increase and further immigration. In time the Barren Lands would become the kernel of a new troll empire on Valentia, an empire with no room for Frost Giants, humans, elves, and dwarves all of whom would ultimately be exterminated. But that dreadful future was not to be. The Navy had arrived to thwart their plans. Out to sea a naval battle was raging between the High Seas Fleet of the Commonwealth and a much larger covering force of troll longships protecting the landings. The troll longships outnumbered the Navy more than three to one. Powered by oars their longships were more maneuverable than the Navy's sailing ships. On the other hand, naval vessels were larger. Their higher freeboard made it difficult for the trolls to board from their low slung longships. Moreover the Navy's fully decked ships were equipped with ship-to-ship armaments not just the crews' personnel weapons. With the wind in their sails, naval vessels were faster in the long run and had much greater endurance. "Our force is too small to take on tens of thousands." Finn declared. "We should retreat to safer ground and await the outcome of the titanic battle at sea." Sir Willet and Dahl agreed though the druid added: "I am going to contact someone in the fleet to find out what is going on and to ask whether we can help in some way, perhaps as observers." Dahl reached out with with his magical senses seeking a person whose mind he had touched in the past. That was the most reliable way to carry on Mind Speech with someone who did not have the gift himself. In short order he found the contact he was looking for, Sir Willet's protege the young war wizard Liam who was serving aboard the CS Petrel along with his lover Nathan Lathrop. Liam reported that battle was going well. As usual the trolls pitted their oared longships against the Navy's sailing vessels, trying to close with, grapple, and board their enemy and fight it out in hand-to-hand combat. The Navy used speed and maneuver to stand off from troll longships and attack them with ship-to-ship armaments like ballistas and catapults. Engineers at the Bureau of Ships under Admiral Van Zant had developed a new and safer incendiary weapon to replace the hazardous fire globes which were safe enough for infantry who fought on dry land but always a potential fire hazard at sea. The new weapon combined an alchemical liquid and a powder, neither of which was inflammable by itself. Sailors added a glass jar of the powder to a small keg of the liquid at the last minute just before it was sealed then flung by a catapult at the enemy. Whether by the shock of the launch or the impact when the keg hit an enemy deck, the glass jar broke allowing the two substances to mix. They reacted vigorously, fizzing and churning and igniting the mixture which burned much hotter than the inflammable oil of the fire globes. The conflagration generated combustion gasses that burst the keg apart and spread flames everywhere. Nor could the fire be put out with water. Catapults of a new compact design were installed on all ships. Even small ships like the Petrel had room for six, three to starboard and three to port. That gave her a powerful incendiary broadside. With their slings sailors now flung volleys of lead bullets at the enemy instead of fire globes. The Navy's new ballistas were likewise of a compact design based on recurved bows. A ship the size of the Petrel could fit three of them on her foredeck and two on her quarterdeck. Yet they shot the same giant arrows as the bigger weapons they replaced. And the new ballistas are fitted with wooden shields to protect their crews. All major naval vessels also had magic wielders aboard whether it was a full-fledged war wizard or a weather wizard, water wizard, firecaster, or fetcher who attacked the longships in their characteristic ways. The weather wizards set waterspouts on the longships while water wizards disrupted their formations with whirlpools. Contrary to popular belief, whirlpools cannot suck ships under but can swamp vessels like longships with their low freeboard. Fire casters threw streams of fire, turning longships into infernos while fetchers smashed great holes in their hulls either by flinging ballast stones at them or dropping them from above. Those with gifted with control of magnetism could tear a longship apart by ripping the nails out of her hull or simply push against the nails to keep the enemy from closing with a naval vessel, thwarting the boarding tactics of their foes. Poor defenses against arrows had long been one of the fleet's greatest weaknesses since long bows outranged the sailor's slings. Placing magic wielders aboard naval vessels solved the problem. For protection from troll archers, Fetchers raised their missile shields. Those like Sailing Master Crawley gifted with control off magnetism could make arrows veer off. The crews of the ballistas were protected by the greater range of their weapons and by rectangular shields newly affixed to the frames of the compact ballistas. The trolls had equipped a score of captured sailing vessels with a boarding ramp at the bow. They called it the crow after the large spike at the end which resembled the beak of that bird of ill-omen. Pivoted at the base and weighted at the front, the end of the crow could drop onto the deck of a naval vessel literally nailing the two ships together. The decks of these special boarding vessels were just as high as the decks of naval vessels making access easy. It was a good idea in principle, but the trolls were not very skilled at maneuvering fully rigged ships in combat. Anyway, the Navy's fetchers had a tactic to counter the new threat. Fetchers wielded steel disks against the rigging of the boarding ships. Shaped like a discuss but with keen edges the disks cut apart lines, sheets, shrouds, hawsers, and cables thereby rendering the ship inoperable, an immobilized hulk on the water that could be dealt with later. The water wizards in Commodore Dekker's squadron had devised a clever tactic of their own inspired by the way dolphins would pace fast moving ships by riding the bow wave they generated. The water wizards realized that they could hold the trolls at bay with a similar wave by raising swells to push the longships away from the naval ship. If the swells were driven at the right angle, then the combined vector of the swell and the forward motion of the longship made it keep pace with the naval vessel, holding it at a constant speed and at a constant distance. That made them it an easy target for the Navy's catapults and ballistas with understandably devastating results. The technique also let the water wizards husband their strength instead of exhausting themselves by raising great waves to sweep over troll longships and send them to the bottom. Dekker's squadron had perfected the technique months earlier in maneuvers against a couple of captured longships in the roadstead of the Scilly Isles. Dekker's report to the Admiralty came to the attention of Admiral Tregaron, commander of the High Seas Fleet. He soon had his ships practicing the bow wave standoff technique during maneuvers. It promised to make naval battles even more one sided in favor of the Commonwealth. The new tactics and armaments paid off handsomely in the Battle of the Barren Coast. Only a handful of longships got away to carry news of the catastrophe. Nevertheless, the trolls were prepared to accept huge losses at sea to hold off the Navy long enough for their soldiers and settlers to establish their colony ashore. For the Navy, winning the sea battle would be only a partial victory unless they could destroy the landings as well. Liam told them that for their own safety, Dahl and his party should seek high ground, well away from the coast. <Why do we need to get to higher ground?>" Dahl asked Liam via Mind Speech. Liam replied: <Because once the Navy defeats the troll covering force at sea, our water wizards will push a gigantic wave against the coast to destroy not only the landing ships and piers but also the occupation army and settlers atop the cliffs. The wave will crest three hundred feet (100 m) and carry away everything for several miles inland. So get out of there while you can.> <How long do we have?> <I'd say maybe three or four hours judging from the way the battle is going.> <Three or four hours is plenty of time to get clear.> After listening to Dahl's running commentary, Finn turned to the twins and asked: "Where would be our best direction of march?" "Well, we are already five miles from the coast." Jensen said. "That might be enough but let's add a margin for safety. That is where we should head for," he added pointing to a bluff about four miles off. "Sounds like a plan." Finn concluded and ordered them to head for the high ground. In the fullness of time the Navy swept the seas clean of the troll longships though not without grievous losses of their own. In the melee some longships got close enough to naval vessels for the trolls to grapple and board them and slaughter their crews. Sailors who jumped into the sea to swim to safety made easy targets for troll archers. At one point the Petrel collided with a longship. A score of trolls managed to scramble aboard from the wrecked longship and attack the crews of the ballistas on the foredeck. The sailors had time to get off only one shot at the trolls before they took up their bucklers and cutlasses to face the boarders. In command on the foredeck, Nathan came into his own in that fight, flinging handfuls of electrum sparks left and right at the faces and arms and legs of the trolls, stunning and distracting them with the electric jolt and nasty burns the sparks delivered. That made them easy opponents for the blades of his ballista crews and the other sailors who rallied to Nathan and cut the boarders down in short order. The young ensign found himself Mentioned in Dispatches for a second time. The fleet commander Admiral Tregaron reflected on two officers who had help make his lopsided victory possible. First was Admiral Van Zant, Chief of the Bureau of Ships. The fighting admiral had accelerated the refitting of the deep water fleet with the new weapons: the new incendiary and the compact ballistas and catapults. And earlier Van Zant had donated ships to three of the smaller allied navies which had thwarted attacks on the Far West. In the same vein Commodore Dekker had validated his two step promotion by taking up the suggestion of his water wizards and developing it into a valuable tactic for the fleet. The new equipment, clever tactics, and above all the powers of the mages had made it possible for a fleet of fifty-seven warships to crush an enemy numbering more than two hundred, not counting transports. This surely validated the Commonwealth's policy of mobilizing the magical gifts of its populace. The military applications were obvious but the civilian ones no less so for fostering rapid economic development that generated the greater revenues that allowed the Commonwealth to fight this war without raising tax rates. After the naval victory seventeen water wizards concerted their powers to push the sea against the coast. It started out as a long low wave, but in the shallows the front of the wave slowed down from friction with the rising bottom letting the back of the wave catch up to it, which raised the crest of the gigantic wave to three hundred feet. It first bashed the trolls against the cliffs then surged onto the tableland above where it smashed the soldiers and settlers like the fist of any angry god. The destruction was total, the death toll in the tens of thousands. From their perch on the bluff, the explorers watched through far-viewer tubes at the utter destruction of the troll invasion. The receding waters uncovered a scene of devastation with dead bodies and broken equipment everywhere. In places the land itself was scarred, the topsoil scoured down to bedrock. Dahl related all this to Liam, a report Liam relayed to his captain. After assuring Liam that his friends were just fine Dahl signed off. It had been a momentous day in the history of the the Commonwealth of the Long River and the other civilized states around the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. This might be the end of the Troll War or at least the turning point. The explorers returned to New Varangia by a more westerly route, which let them explore still more of their new dominions. At a strategic point Finn affixed a small bronze plate to a prominent outcrop of rock, taking formal possession of the Barren Lands for New Varangia and the Commonwealth of the Long River of which it was a part. It was their land by right of discovery and conquest. Let no one say otherwise. At the face of the escarpment Sir Willet created a second inclined road by which they descended to the known lands. At the bottom Finn and Dahl released their mounts Tyr and Hodr from their service wishing them well in finding mates among the brontotheres who would no doubt soon join them in the new range below the escarpment. In easy stages the expedition made its way back to Flensborg where the expeditionary corps made its report to the Frost Giants. Drew wrote a pair of articles for the local news-paper highlighting the contributions of the locals. That helped the twenty Frost Giants attract brides to go with the homesteads they could established thanks to the grants earned by their service. The teamsters and scouts were awarded substantial bonuses too. The consultative assembly of the Frost Giants passed an ordnance that put brontotheres under legal protection. They could be neither hunted nor taken into captivity for any purpose. Looking ahead to the coming decades when the giants occupied and developed the Barren Lands they petitioned the druids to recruit those gifted with mind speech to facilitate communication with their new neighbors, whether by a resident druid or perhaps a couple of unicorns looking for new vistas to explore or even giants, humans, elves, or dwarfs with that magical gift. In time there might be more brontotheres willing to partner with riders just as they had done with a druid and an avatar of a thunder god. What an army they could field then. Talk about heavy infantry and heavy cavalry! Dahl, Finn, Drew, the twins, and Sir Willet and Axel returned to the capital of the Commonwealth where they reported to the Chief Hand and the Council. Islon Mewalal, the Tahsildar of Nancowry was gratified with the outcome of the war, but cautioned the Commonwealth that Valentia might not have seen the last of the trolls. The trolls would be cautious but only for a while. They now knew that they were no match for the Commonwealth in a stand up fight. Not yet anyway It might take ten or twenty years, but they would be back perhaps focussing their attacks on the Western Seaboard which lay beyond the Great Barrier Range or on the lands in the eastern sector of the continent. Dahl confided that the druids had been working on a long term plan to end the threat of the trolls without endless warfare. From tissue samples taken from prisoners, Owain and Merry hoped to develop a biological control. It would not be a deadly plague to kill them off but infectious agent that reduced the sexual potency of male trolls to below replacement levels. It would spread surreptitiously to the entire population before the trolls realized what was happening. By the time they did, it would be too late. Over generations their population would crash. It would take several years to develop the anti-fertility disease and test it on captive trolls turned over to them by the Navy. The druids had to be certain that it would affect only trolls, but now they had the time to do the job right. The naval victory would give the world a respite from devastating troll invasions. When all was ready, the druids would sail to the archipelago. Weather wizards would assure them a safe passage across the tempestuous waters of the outer ocean. War wizards would be aboard to raise a concealment that would let them approach, disperse the agent, and get away undetected. Finn's leadership of the expedition won him promotion from journeyman to Dread Head in full. Initially Finn was assigned to Flensborg though as the threat from the trolls receded he might be posted elsewhere. Drew wrote articles about the expedition for the Capital Intelligencer illustrated with his own dramatic sketches depicting the charge of the brontotheres, a thunder god directing smashing the shield wall of the trolls with lightning bolts, and a gigantic wave crashing onto the tableland to destroy the troll colony. The government published an official report of the expedition largely based on Drew's journal and official documents. Drew traveled to the naval base at Alster and interviewed the principal naval officers in the High Seas Fleet for a book about the great naval victory. It won him a another Writers' Prize for journalism. Drew dismissed the rivals who grumbled that he was monopolizing the annual literary prizes. Let them cultivate sources in the military and go in harm's way as he had done time and again. That was how he got his scoops -- fair and square and all open and aboveboard. Liam and Nathan were among Drew's best informants. Both were on detached duty from the Petrel to the southern Annex of the Institute of Wizardry and Magic. In Nathan's case it was to train his newly manifested delving power. In Liam's case it was to train with the naval infantry in amphibious tactics and landing on contested shores and ports. In the naval infantry, the Navy had a small army of its own which allowed it to intervene anywhere on the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea to sort out all sorts of problems from border disputes to political upheavals in the bodies politic of the Commonwealth's allies and neighbors. For that purpose Liam was attached to the office of the commandant of the naval infantry, General-at-Sea Sir Deane Chard. The twins, Drew and Axel and Sir Willet resumed their comfortable lives in the capital. The long drought in their love lives was over, though the youngsters did have to make do with fewer partners. Finn was stationed at Flensborg while Liam was at Alster with Nathan. So it was just Drew and Axel plus the twins. Not that the four of them did not give a good account of themselves. They tried their hardest to make up for both lost time and missing company. The only cloud on the horizon was uncertainty of what would happen next. In these parlous times it was very likely that they would be off on another adventure sooner than they cared to. Author's Note This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or just a few of the original characters. Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive. Comments and feedback welcome.