Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 17:23:45 +0000 From: George Gauthier <georgegauthierdc@gmail.com> Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 21 Elf-Boy's Friends 21 Gifts by George Gauthier [The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends'] Chapter 1. Elysion "I am so gratified, Count Klarendes, I mean Taitos, that you invited me and my aide Axel to vacation in your beautiful valley. As a man of middle years and weary after my fourth war against the eastern barbarians I welcome this chance to unwind and recharge in the country. As for Axel, the boy has weathered his first set piece battle better than I expected, which I attribute to the resilience of youth." "I am not so sure it is just that sir," Axel ventured. "That barbarian was the first man I ever killed. It bothers me that it doesn't distress me as much as I think it ought to. I hope that does not mean that I am a callous person, indifferent to the loss of human life." "It speaks well of your character that you are concerned about your muted reaction. A first killing affects some less visibly than others, but it always leaves its mark on your psyche." Sir Willet assured his young protege. The druid Dahlderon nodded. "As an empath, I can gauge a man's character better than most. Sir Willet is right. You have a good heart, Axel." Coming from two of the people he respected most, their words eased the boy's moral concerns. Jemsen noted that when he and Karel had registered their first kills against the Black Riders on the Western Plains their reaction was similarly muted. "Maybe it was because the Riders were so clearly the minions of evil. They attacked our party of five, me and Karel, Dahl, Merry, and Balandur and would have slain us out of hand, my brother and me, merely for being in the company of their true quarry. We were lucky to drive them off and come out of it alive. Everything happened so fast, Karel and I could not spare a thought for misgivings ahead of time. Afterwards what we felt mostly was relief at our own survival rather than regret at their deaths." "If I have any regrets about killing it is for our part in the war between the Stone Mountain Dwarves and the humans of the maritime republic of Brax who were misguided rather than evil. On their army's march to battle, Karel and I picked off officers from ambush, decent ordinary men who had mustered with their neighbors in the militia and went off to fight what they had been told was a just war against aggression. I would much rather have put my arrows into the instigators and provocateurs who stampeded the good people of Brax into a wholly unnecessary war." "The instigators did get their comeuppance in the end." Karel pointed out then explained what happened. "Once the citizens of Brax realized how they had been deliberately used and mislead by foreign agents to foster a race war they rounded up the hotheads and outside agitators and gave them swift justice. Clever wordsmiths and orators, these men acted as their own advocates in court, hoping to talk their way out of trouble, but their self-serving pleas fell on deaf ears. "Surely you cannot blame us?" they argued. "We have no man's blood on our hands. We are not men of the sword but men of words." The judge turned their argument back on them: "Yes, too many words and those ill-chosen. Guilty as charged. The sentence is death!" "That swift judgment and equitable reparations for damages satisfied the dwarves and laid the basis for the peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial trade that continues to this day." "Anyway, Lord Dahlderon, that is, Dahl," Sir Willet continued, "I look forward to the day you teach me to create space portals myself. The campaign in the north showed how useful they can be in warfare." "Be patient a while longer, my friend. Once we druids get the kinks out, we will train all of you war wizards in its use. Portals can make all the difference in our coming war to reclaim Amazonia from the genocidal trolls. They will save many lives in our own forces and those of our allies." "I don't suppose there is any commercial potential in portals for long distance travel, is there?" Klarendes asked. "Hardly," Dahl replied. "Portals are transitory, existing only while the druid or wizard actively engages his magic. Portals that occasionally pop up here and there are never going to replace reliable conventional means of travel and transport. Anyway as the network of iron roads stretches across the length and breadth of the Commonwealth, it will transport freight, passengers, and armies well enough. So if you are looking for another lucrative investment in an emerging industry, I am afraid portals are not it." "Speaking of investing, Axel," Klarendes continued, "I heard from Angus McFarden that shareholders in a new company have set up a street lighting operation in his native town of Grayling. Your innovation is catching on all over. At least you got in on the ground floor in the most lucrative market of all -- here in the capital." "Not just the capital any longer but also the towns in entire capital region." Axel corrected. "Our service was more reliable than that of some of our competitors so we won those contracts too." "As a result the profits are considerable, and since I can easily get by on my salary as Sir Willet's aide, I have been building a tidy little fortune, which I am now looking to invest for the long term, given my own potential longevity. I may soon be asking you for investment advice, Count Klarendes, if that is all right with you." "Any time, Axel. You'll want to keep a goodly sum handy in a savings account for liquidity and divide the bulk of your remaining funds into several investments rather than put your entire nest egg into just one. Diversification protects you against catastrophic loss if any particular investment goes sour. Not every venture succeeds. Also don't invest in anything you do not understand, especially complex financial instruments, which are definitely not for the unsophisticated and the unwary. I avoid them entirely myself." "You certainly sound like you know what you are talking about sir." Klarendes nodded. "We like to think that a head for business runs in the family as much as our magical gift of firecasting." "Which reminds me. Dwarves have always run street lighting businesses in their own caverns even if the streets are really tunnels or naturally eroded galleries. More recently firecasters among them are setting up home heating businesses on the same subscription model. For a monthly fee a firecaster will visit a home two or three times a week and heat up the walls or pyramids of small boulders in parlors and bedchambers. The heat they give off takes the chill out of the air at those chthonian depths." "Anyway your street lights are not just a public amenity, they are a deterrent to crime. The city watch reports a drop in assaults and robberies and rapes which they attribute to your street lights." "Not that street crime ever amounted to very much in the cities of the Commonwealth. What footpad wants to find out that the easy mark he has targeted has a magical gift that can kill him in an instant? There must be a dozen magical gifts that can be used in self defense, including Ensign Lathrop's electrum sparks. Even Calling Light can be fatal if you englobe a man's head." "What looks like a helpless young woman on the street might be a magical healer who can stop a man's heart with a thought or a firecaster who can turn him into a human torch, or someone with control of magnetism who can snatch the knife out of his grasp and plunge it into his heart." "Or" Aodh noted, "that pretty boy negotiating the streets of the capital on his way home from Twinkle Town might be a wir who could morph into a jaguar or a dire wolf and tear out his throat." "You are sitting there looking puzzled, Lord Sexton. Klarendes observed. "Please, just call me Madden. I was just wondering what Twinkle Town was." "Ha! Why don't you tell him, Karel." Smiling the twin told the ranger: "Named after the cute twinks who are its most notable denizens, and of whom Jemsen and I are prime exemplars, Twinkle Town is a district or rather a cluster of drinking and dancing establishments favored by those who fancy pretty boys and by pretty boys who favor being fancied." "It's fabulous." "If you say so, my friend," Madden replied equably. Chapter 2. Earth and Air Some days later much the same group gathered for a midday meal under the pergola in the ornamental garden of the manor. "Roof leaking, Taitos? Madden asked looking up at the gently sloped roof three stories above their heads where men were at work. "Not yet. This is preventive maintenance rather than a repair job. The roofers are re-laying the tiles in that section. Some have cracked and others have worked their way loose." Just as Karel walked out to the garden to join the rest of the group the pile of loose tiles the roofers were replaccing slid down the sloping roof and started to fall on him. "Karel look out!" Jemsen yelled pointing. Karel spun around and looked upward, reflexively throwing an arm up to shield himself from the falling tiles. Even with his enhanced speed and reflexes he could not jump clear. But the heavy tiles never hit Karel. Instead they encountered an invisible shield and slid to the side before shattering on the ground." "What just happened?" Karel asked, bewildered. Jemsen answered: "It looked like the air above you turned solid though still transparent. From the refraction of the light we could just make out a shield of air shaped like a lens. That is why you are still standing instead of stretched out on the flagstones broken or dead. Please don't give me another fright like that, Karel. I couldn't bear losing you." The two brothers embraced, physically reassuring each other of their continued well-being. Everyone knew how terribly close the twins were. "It must be a second magical gift manifesting itself." Sir Willet offered. "I agree." Dahl said. "And I think I know both why and why now. Magic has been getting stronger over the centuries. We always say that people have a single magical gift but quite a few these days have two or ever three gifts. Your aide Axel is a good example: Unerring Direction, Calling Light, and Eidetic Memory. Now Karel's second gift would have manifested itself eventually and likely rather soon, but I believe his enhancement years ago with druidic magic has speeded up the process and the emergency brought it on a little early. I suspect that in time all those whom we druids have enhanced will manifest other gifts." "So what is my new gift exactly?" Karel asked. "You are an air wizard." Sir Willet told him authoritatively. "Is that like a weather wizard?" "The two gifts are related but not the same. You won't be able to command the elements like rain or hail or fog or frost. Nor can you summon a thunderstorm the way Sir Rikkard did up north and use its torrential rains and lightning against an army or launch a tornado against a foe." "An air wizard controls the atmosphere but not the weather. For starters that means you will be able to communicate the way we do with infrasound since that involves direct manipulation of the air column. I can teach you how myself. We use an aural version of the heliograph code you already know." "As we saw just now you can harden air to form an impenetrable shield. Air wizards can also create a bridge of air solid enough to walk on to let you cross rivers and ravines or to go from roof to roof though you cannot hold it long enough to march troops across." "Full-fledged tornados are beyond you, since they are part of a weather system, but air wizards can call up dust devils which form on the ground not up in the clouds. A dust devil can be used tactically to toss dust or sand in the faces of an enemy archers or to disrupt the flight of their arrows shot. You can also call up a stronger type of whirlwind called a landspout which is not associated with a thunderstorm and has a characteristic tubular shape rather than the funnel of the tornado." "Yours is quite a rare gift with many uses most of which do not readily come to mind. It has been ages since I read anything on the subject. You really need to consult the records on air wizardry in our library at the Institute. Axel can guide you." "I'll check out the library then, but what about a second gift for Jemsen?" "I suspect it won't be long in coming." Dahl assured him. "You got yours a little early because of the accident. So for a while, you will be one up on him." "But I don't want to be one up on Jemsen. We aren't rivals. The notion of sibling rivalry just doesn't apply to us. We are partners and teammates. Not to mention lovers, comrades in arms, life partners, soul mates and each other's best friend." Just be patient, the both of you." Dahl soothed. "That's good advice, Karel." Jemsen assured his brother, ruffling his hair, then impulsively kissing him. "There, is that settled?" Karel nodded and smiled. In the end, it was only a few weeks later that Jemsen came into his gift. It started out in a small way when the twins were flinging the Zinger around in a nearby park. A more aerodynamic version of the pie tin with which the sport originated, the Gemini Zinger had been a runaway commercial success since its introduction some years earlier. Profits from its sale contributed significantly to the twins' growing fortune. Held face down and flung with either a forward or back hand motion, the disc would sail gracefully over to another player who had to snatch it out of the air and return it or pass it on to a third or fourth. The game required a lot of running, jumping, reaching, and stretching as well as speed and coordination, so it was good exercise as well as a lot of fun and a terrific way to display the youthful male body in motion. Passersby stopped to marvel at the twins's physical beauty. Of fully human stock, the brothers were slender hard-bodied youths of medium height, with cute fine-boned features their heads crowned with close-cropped cornsilk blond hair. They were quite a sight the two of them, their delectable bodies nude, glabrous, and all shiny and slippery with sweat, as they ran and jumped and strained and tumbled to the grass in an athletic and inevitably erotic display of the young male body. At one point Karel called to one of the onlookers asking whether he cared to join the game. "I only wish I could, my friend, but I can spare only a few minutes right now to watch since I have to catch a street car to get to an appointment. Another time." "You know those blond boys?" the man standing next to him asked. "Not only do I know them, I have known them, if you take my meaning." "You lucky dog! They are exquisite, the both of them, whoever they are." "You mean you don't recognize them?" "I'm new in town." "Well even if you don't know them, you must have heard of them. Those are the famous twins Jemsen and Karel." "That's them?" "In the flesh! If you had looked more closely you would have seen the three small blue tattoos on their left shoulders which marked them as elf-friends, dwarf-friends, and giant-friends, the only living humans to be so honored." "Actually I was paying more attention to those pert rumps of theirs with their firm round cheeks and the deep cleavages that promise so much delight. Anyway how did you meet them, at this Twinkle Town I have heard of?" "Not at all. It was at a public lecture by an eminent natural philosopher, a certain botanist whom friends of theirs had once run into, who was expatiating on the geographic extent of the various plant kingdoms on the planet." "Plants have kingdoms?" "Kingdom is a term meaning regions where the types of plants are distinctly different from those in other regions. Some are as large as half a continent. You see, with the twins you get brains as well as beauty. I count myself lucky to be in their circle of acquaintance, though I cannot claim to be a close friend." The men settled down to watch the action. The twins executed some fancy moves like reaching behind the back to catch the Zinger or sailing it between the legs. Their tosses were pitched off to one side or downrange forcing the next player to fade back or run over to where the tin was headed, stretching to reach it or even jumping to snatch it in midair. Naturally all this action was accompanied by jokes and smiles and laughter. Boys will be boys, especially exuberant ones like Jemsen and Karel. Jemsen flipped the aerodynamic disc off to one side forcing Karel to scramble to snatch it out of the air before it touched the ground. Karel tried his best but realized that he couldn't quite get to it. So he invoked his gift and called a gust of wind that lifted the Zinger just enough for him to grab it in midair. "Hey! No powers!" Jemsen complained. His brother just laughed. A little while later while Karel was running across the grass to intercept the Zinger, Jemsen said fervently under his breath, "Trip. Just this once dear brother be clumsy and trip." To his surprise Karel's rear foot hit an ridge of turf that suddenly reared up a few inches, enough to trip him and send him rolling to the grass only to bounce back up unhurt. "No powers, yourself!" Karel shot back. "What made you say that?" Jemsen asked. "As if you don't know! It's your new gift, silly. You must have felt the surge of magic when you made the earth shift just enough to trip me. There see. Now why don't you flatten it down before someone else trips over it?" Jemsen's face screwed up in concentration as he willed the earth to subside. Smoothly and without fuss the lawn shifted once again and lay perfectly flat. "Does this mean that I am an earth wizard?" Jemsen asked. "Let's ask Sir Willet." The war wizard took them into the laboratory and then onto the practice field and ran Jemsen through a set of tests. No doubt about it. Jemsen was an earth wizard all right. "So what can I do with earth magic?" Jemsen asked. "Lots of things, not necessarily connected to military operations, though with the coming war in Amazonia that will be where you are most likely to use your gift. It takes some training which we can give you here at the institute, but the first trick an earth wizard masters is to create a shield out of a short wall or column of earth to protect him from enemy arrows or lead bullets." "In the Barren Lands we all saw Dahl use earth magic to create a quagmire to entrap the trolls. They sank knee deep then were held fast when Dahl drained the water away, leaving the lower limbs of the trolls caught fast in hard clay. You need to learn how to sense the water table and the different types of soil." "Another trick it to raise earth berms about chest high to shelter troops from missiles or to create defenses for a marching camp. Berms are also useful in civilian life as fire breaks or levees against floods and even to divert lava flows from erupting volcanos. You need open ground like plains, meadows, and fields for berms. It is much harder raising berms in woodlands. First the roots of the trees hold things together. Then what you get is less a berm, an earthen wall, than a dreadful tangle of trunks and limbs and leaves, rather like a windfall caused by a storm." "Still you can undermine and topple single trees across roads to block cavalry and supply trains. The last thing that comes to mind is that you can pepper a field with gopher holes to disrupt a cavalry charge much as caltrops do. Or if you really want to go all out, call up a minor earthquake but be careful, the shock might do unintended collateral damage or harm innocent folks. You could easily do more harm than good." "So you see yours is a powerful gift which complements your brother's gift of air magic nicely. In war you two are a double threat with air and earth magic, In peace you are powerful assets for the civil authorities during natural disasters. Just think how a jet of air could blow a wildfire away a town or a dike could redirect flood waters. Looking back on your careers and what you did with only the modest gift of Unerring Direction, I expect great things from you as wizards." "At least now we can hold our own when our friends are called to the colors or go off on other adventures. I mean Drew is a fetcher powerful enough to lift a brontothere into the sky, Liam is a genuine war wizard, Finn is the avatar of a thunder god, and now Aodh has his killer screech and poison claws and a body stronger than ever. Well, we two were very much the also-rans in the power department. Not that anyone ever said so." "I should hope not. Your accomplishments speak for themselves." Under Sir Willet's tutelage, the twins explored the use of their newfound powers. It was unusual for a single war wizard to train three wizardly proteges at once, especially since Willet also had two non-wizards as proteges as well, Drew Altair and his own aide Axel Wilde. Willet's friend Sir Rikkard kidded him about the "harem" he had collected around him, five sexy youths who went about "skin clad" as often as not. The teasing was all in good fun. Rikkard knew that Sir Willet Hanford was a thorough-going ladies' man, one who consorted exclusively with the female half of the species. Yet the five youths were a harem of sorts, at least with each other. All were involved with one another. Drew, Liam, and Axel shared a suite of rooms in a residential hotel not far from the Institute. Just down the hall from them the twins had a suite of their own. Also Finn Ragnarson and Nathan Lathrop stayed with them when they were in town. Willet had a fond regard for all of them, looking on them as favorite nephews whose charm, intelligence, and cheery personalities brightened a life never blessed with sons of his own. Long before his divorce his wife had publicly chided him for being married more to his work than to his spouse, which was true enough. A consuming fascination with magic was something of an occupational hazard for wizards like Sir Willet. With Axel's help, Karel's research in the library paid off when he read of a particularly powerful application of air magic: the use of sun mirrors as weapons. Sun mirrors were sheets of dense air with surfaces as shiny as mirages. They could be formed in the sky in any shape. Guided by his gift of unerring direction, Karel could angle one or two flat mirrors to bounce the sun's rays into a parabolic mirror focussed on a target, creating a powerful beam of heat. This was a truly devastating weapon, whether as an incendiary or in the "anti-personnel role" as army terminology chillingly put it. Unlike white fire though, it only worked on a clear day when the sun was at least an hour above the horizon. One drawback was that an air wizard on the other side could deflect the heat beam away from his own forces with a flat sun mirror. This was why sun mirrors were often used indirectly for their incendiary effect to set wildfires in grasslands and forests to block enemy troop movements or to destroy supply dumps. In one particularly notable incident, a Commonwealth air wizard won the thanks of both sides for refusing to direct a heat ray at enemy troops as his commander asked him to. The commander was anxious to spare the lives of his own men who would otherwise have had to make a frontal assault on entrenched troops. Instead the wizard drove the enemy out of their field fortifications by boiling the water in a nearby pond. He then call a wind to push the cloud of superheated steam toward the enemy entrenchments, forcing the troops stationed there to withdraw lest they be scalded. Caught out in the open, the troops were vulnerable to Commonwealth cavalry. Also their retreat had opened the supply route they had been blocking, so a fight no longer had any purpose. Instead the enemy sought terms to prevent a useless effusion of blood on both sides. They were allowed to march to their own borders, under arms, banners flying, heads held high, on their parole not to participate in hostilities for the remainder of the war. The wizard's clever tactic won a victory as decisive as a battle of annihilation but without bloodshed. Moreover the Commonwealth's forbearance in sparing the lives of the enemy troops lead to peace feelers which quickly ended a war that would never have started in the first place but for misunderstandings and a failure of diplomacy, not to mention misdirected ambitions on the part of the enemy elites. Using sun mirrors air wizards could set forts on fire unless the other side had a firecaster who would put the fires out. Even without sun mirrors they could attack almost any kind of building, even those with storm shutters over the windows and stout doors. All buildings had openings for ventilation which would be all an air wizard needed to thread his influence inside and batter doors and shutters open from the inside out. Once air was circulating freely jets of wind would fling loose objects around like shrapnel at those cowering inside. Back from the wars himself Drew happily resumed his love life with the twins. That first night Karel won the toss and joined Drew in his bed chamber. What Drew liked most about male love was that boys have hard bodies, all firm muscle and bone and sinew, not soft and yielding like those of the opposite gender. Nothing was better than to wrestle a boy in bed, grappling with his strong body, so much like your own, to join with him in a passionate embrace, filling his holes or letting him fill yours, thrusting and pumping till you both climaxed in an orgasm of epic proportions. Drew never had to work to arouse either of the twins. With him as a lover their cocks sprang up hard even as the young auburn-haired beauty sank to his knees. Boys know cock better than any female ever could. Drew in particular always looked so damn cute when he knelt before one of the twins, the very picture of submission, hands along his flanks, using just his tongue and his lips on the cock of the boy whose maleness he was worshiping. Or vice-versa; the twins were versatile and did not mind switching roles. Drew always started with a kiss on the head of the cock he was servicing, a light peck at first, then a smooch. Then his tongue went to work, twirling around the glans, poking the tip into the slit, tapping the knob with little flicks with the tip of his own tongue, targeting the sweet spot. Karel liked him to open his mouth and take in just the head and let it soak there for a minute, to let it get used to the sensations of moisture and warmth, to let the shaft feel his pouty lips close around it possessively, proprietarily. Jemsen liked to slip further back sooner than his twin, but he never forced the pace out of consideration for his lover. Afterwards the boys would lie quietly in post-coitial lassitude, half way to true sleep which came to them soon enough. They looked like sleeping angels spooned together. Early one morning Jemsen found his brother strapping himself into a flying yoke, a pair of goggles pushed up on his forehead. "What's with that flying yoke and goggles, Karel?" Jemsen asked his brother. "You're no fetcher." "Maybe not but I got to thinking that I might be able to fly anyway by calling a whirlwind to support me by pushing against these batwing extensions the Air Corps has added recently. See how these struts fold out and lock in place with the fabric stretched taut between them?" "Don't worry Jemsen," Drew assured him. "I'll be standing by to catch Karel if he falls. The tricky part is that unlike the other flyers, Karel will be balanced atop a whirling column of air on take off and then move forward on a jet of wind from behind." "Wish me luck brother," Karel said as he adjusted his goggles then concentrated and invoked his gift to call a dust devil which filled his wings then lifted him off the ground. Once he got up a hundred feet he channeled the winds aloft into a jet to support and propel him. Karel flew high enough to give himself time to recover if he slipped up and fell. After a shaky start climbing to altitude, the flight went reasonably well. No fancy maneuvers but the flight proved that air wizards could fly using the batwing extensions to the yokes. Their flight capabilities were limited compared to those of fetchers. An air wizard could not get airborne with a load of fire globes or caltrops. A test flight with Jemsen proved that carrying someone in the tandem rig was risky, best left only for the direst of emergencies. Also any wingmen would be advised to stay well clear of the jet of wind that propelled the air wizard and kept him aloft. In recognition of Karel's accomplishment, a squadron leader pinned silver wings to the breast of Karel's uniform, informally enrolling him as a member of the Army Air Corps. He might not be able to drop bombs, but aerial scouting was definitely within his capabilities. Two days later, orders made it official. In his latest scoop Drew wrote a report for the Capital Intelligencer describing this latest accomplishment by one of the Pioneers of Flight. He also wrote wrote a short article about it for his professional journal "Magic". Now the batwings were a terrific idea, but Karel knew that he wouldn't always have a yoke with batwings handy. It wasn't like with wizards like Sir Willet who had a short yoke incorporated into his leather armor. They could take off any time they cared to. So for Karel, flight might be useful on future adventures but only rarely. Then Jemsen had an idea. "You know that expression folks use to describe a really fast runner? They say he runs like the wind. That got me thinking. Why don't you try calling a jet of wind at ground level to push you from behind? I'll bet you could run really fast. And with your enhanced strength and fast reflexes you could manage to stay on your feet, actually running not just getting pushed along." "Better wear something to protect your feet and your army greens and goggles as well to protect you from the sand and gravel your wind will kick up as well as the grass or brush you will be running through. Maybe even wear a helmet." Karel did suit up for the tests as his brother had suggested including the helmet and went out to the track early, when he would be alone. His first couple of runs proved the concept at speeds double his normal pace. Then he went faster testing how fast he could run safely. It was a lot like running downhill full tilt, where a runner's legs could hardly keep up with his body. It took the fast reflexes of a magically enhanced physique to keep coordinated and not let the jet wind bowl him over. Now when humans run at a fast pace, like horses in a gallop they are actually airborne very briefly, just after they push off with the rear foot and before their front foot touches the ground. It was this principle that let Karel almost literally fly along the road with five yard strides. After several cautious trial runs Karel tried to see how fast he could go if he really pushed it reaching a pace of a mile a minute, one he felt he could keep up for half an hour or more. Speed like that could be used not only to get someplace fast but as a combat multiplier. The runner could capitalize on his momentum to quadruple the power of a slash with his kukri as he rushed past his target. There was little a foe could do to counter such a fast attack especially if the runner called a crosswind to jink to one side or to spin his foe around. At a mile a minute, Karel knew he had better not run into an obstacle like a tree or he would break every bone in his body. He soon realized though that he could use a jet of wind as a brake or to turn him aside to avoid a collision. Karel actually liked running with the wind better than flying with batwings. Sure you got a terrific view from above, but basically you were just hanging there while the winds did all the work. On the ground, Karel's speed owed just as much to his physical powers as to magically called winds. And talk about a runner's high! Best of all, Karel realized that there was no reason why Jemsen could not join him and match him stride for stride with Karel providing the push for both of them. He could visualize how effective the pair of them could be, launching spoiling attacks by rushing from ambush or behind a Concealment to lop off the heads or arms of enemy officers or to slash open their bellies. Same with quick slashes at their necks of cavalry mounts forming for a charge. Then the Army's main attack would fall on the enemy before they could recover from the surprise. After practice at slower speeds, the twins were soon running shoulder to shoulder down the track at a mile a minute, faster than anything else on two legs. Or on four legs, for that matter. If they cared to, the twins could run down the fastest horse. Now that was a game changer, as all their friends agreed when Karel told them of his new found ability. The twins' psychic link and their gift of unerring direction had always told them where they were in relation to each other. Since the twins had never been any real distance apart, usually within sight or at least shouting distance, they were not sure how far the link might work, but it did allow Karel to propel both twins while running separately, say on converging courses to hit a foe from both sides at once. Sir Willet was impressed. He pointed out that though other air wizards and perhaps some weather wizards might copy Karel's flying technique with batwings on yokes, they would not be able to run with the wind at their backs as he and Jemsen could. Only a few war wizards could control a jet of wind and also had druidically enhanced vitality for the strength, stamina, and reflexes such running required. Karel nodded then got to wondering about enhanced beings like Aodh and Axel and even Nathan, persons who were not war wizards. Maybe they could pair up with an air wizard and practice coordinating their running. It would take a lot of training for those without the twins' psychic link. Drew got another scoop for his news-paper, much to the chagrin of the Capital Intelligencer's increasingly frustrated competitors who were starting to wonder whether Drew's true gift wasn't to be on the scene whenever big news broke. Chapter 3. Expedition to the Hot Lands "You want us to reconnoiter the Hot Lands. Why? We've been there and done that twice before and published maps of what we found." Jemsen challenged Baron Jarmond, Chief Hand of the Commonwealth, reminding him: "Our first crossing was with Balandur's expedition. On our second we lead the Frost Giants from their redoubt north of the Eastern Plains all the way across the Hot Lands to the Western Plains then onto to New Varangia. What is there left to learn? And why return now?" Jarmond answered with: "This time we are not concerned about geography or cartography. We want you to scout an armed incursion. A expeditionary force of some size is making its way south towards our ill-defined northern borders. Now we have always counted on having no enemy to the north since an army would have to cross the Hot Lands which lie on the Equator." "So we are sending a small force to intercept it and find out who they are and what they are doing there and to make sure they respect our territorial claims in that region. One task of our new expedition will be raise cairns to clearly mark our border there for the first time. The main job though is diplomacy. We don't need military or diplomatic problems in that quarter." Jarmond went on to explain that the expedition would include a troop of cavalry, a flight of six tactical flyers for scouting and close air support plus their ground crews, as well as workmen, quartermaster, and logistical units amounting to another hundred. The three hundred or so men in the military units would be under their own officers, but as a Hand of the Commonwealth Artor would be in over all command of the expedition and serve as the Commonwealth's envoy. The twins' gifts both old and new and their experience in the region made them logical choices as expedition members reporting directly to Artor. Sir Willet and his aide Axel Wilde would go along on the expedition as would Drew Altair in his capacity as a reserve ensign in the Army. Drew had finished his assignment as a war correspondent covering the seizure of the Ashokan Archipelago a group of islands in the southern reaches of the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. The twins had thrown him a welcome back party. Unfortunately their friends Liam and Nathan Lathrop were already back with the Navy patrolling the seas between the isles and the coast of Amazonia. "You should be all right, with a firecaster, a fetcher, a war wizard, an earth wizard, and an air wizard able to call on both offensive and defensive powers if anything untoward presents itself." "That is all very easy for you to say," Jemsen objected. "but for us it has been one tough mission after another. Haven't Karel and I earned some down time? But no. Once again we are being asked to tear ourselves away from our comfortable existence and head out into the back of the beyond. Anyway why go to all this bother with an expedition? Why not send out long range aerial scouts on those rigid wings Nathan Lathrop invented?" "I only wish we could, but we had to transfer our few flying wings and their pilots to the Navy so they could conduct surveillance of the seas around the newly seized islands and the coasts of Amazonia. Besides, you can only tell so much from the air. We need people on the ground to talk to and maybe negotiate with these interlopers as well as workmen to set up the border cairns." "All right. " Jemsen conceded. "Let's hope the incursion is not another threat this time coming from an unaccustomed quarter. We have too many irons in the fire, too many commitments with armies in the Far West, New Varangia, the Western Plains, the Eastern Plains, and now our forces in the Commonwealth proper are mustering for the invasion of Amazonia." "Jemsen is right." Karel seconded loyally. "The Commonwealth is overstretched and overcommitted." "I can understand why it might look that way to you, but our situation is actually better than you think. From a military point of view we have avoided a long ruinous war in the West against the Despotate of Dzungaria. The conclusion several years ago of a general peace among the Commonwealth, the Confederation, and the Despotate kicked off a series of revolutions. First was the technological revolution when iron roads were built across the drylands of the Despotate to ship phosphates and other mineral fertilizers to river ports. Next was the agricultural revolution when the minerals shipped by barge sweetened the sour soils of the entire region tripling crop yields." "With that came land reform and a social revolution which saw the abolition of serfdom and tenant farming, transforming the formerly downtrodden and unproductive rural workforce into prosperous yeomen farmers. The big landowners gave up most of the estates but held on to some of their better acres and their urban real estate and their investments in the new industries. In return they were relieved of the burden of local governance. And they don't have to worry about when the next insurrection or peasant rebellion will happen. You can't very well have a peasant rebellion without peasants and landlords." "All that was followed by a political revolution as the old aristocracies and oligarchies gave up power to the democratic revolutionaries inspired by the Despotate. The end of the threat of violent revolution and class warfare let the states out there dismiss their mercenary armies and disband their secret police. The threat from the trolls hastened all these changes." "Everyone is a winner; there were no losers." "I have it on good authority that, as their crowning achievement, Lord Zaldor and Marshall Urqaart will very soon conclude a pact whereby the Despotate itself will join the Commonwealth as an associated state. I don't see how things could have worked out any better for us and for everyone who lives out there. In the very near future, the Far West will be a source of strength, not a drain on our resources." "Incidentally those newly unemployed mercenaries will soon be working for us. Now I realize that mercenaries are not very good as strike forces. They generally try to avoid pitched battles and the mass casualties that go with them. Unlike citizen armies, mercenaries are interested first and foremost in force protection, but that attitude is just what we need for the garrisons we will leave behind the advancing armies to hold strategic points and also as escorts for supply convoys." Actually Jemsen and Karel had been following developments in the Far West, but the twins had to keep their role as two of the "young peacemakers four" a secret. The twins and Drew and Finn Ragnarson had been the catalysts for all these changes during their mission out west years earlier which lead Zaldor and Urqaart to conclude a secret alliance with the Despotate to bring about just the reforms Baron Jarmond had outlined. When they discussed it later, Karel speculated that even Jarmond might not have been let in on the secret, so closely held as it was. But then maybe he did know and did not want to give that fact away. Not for nothing was Jarmond the Commonwealth's spymaster. Drew thought so too and told the twins as much. "Of course Jarmond knows. The Ruling Council wouldn't keep something like that from him. They couldn't if they tried. He would find out anyway. As they say, the walls have ears, though in Jarmond's case those ears belong to the air wizards in his employ." Karel nodded and confirmed that eavesdropping by air magic was one more trick he had read about in the library, adding: "Eyes too. Jarmond's spies sometimes read lips through far-viewer tubes when people think they are safely out of earshot in a courtyard or garden. I got that one from Balan." "You don't think Jarmond spies on us too, do you?" Karel asked. "Why not?" Drew snorted. "He probably sets spies on his own mother." Of course Baron Jarmond did no such thing. His spy network was directed at foreign threats and agents and operated internally only for that purpose. The Commonwealth had no secret police for the reason that it had had no subversive elements or internal threats save high level corruption, and organized crime which were handled by the regular police. A few days later the principal members of the expedition set off, traveling upriver from the capital. Their riverboat took advantage of the prevailing wind from the southwest to make good time against the southward flowing current. They debarked at the port closest to the tunnel through the mountains. Passing through to the other side they rendezvoused with the military contingent dispatched from the northernmost fort on the Eastern Plains. It was just as Jarmond had said it would be, a full troop of cavalry, flyers, and support troops. The supply train included several tanker wagons. Water was scarce in the Hot Lands and a mounted force consumed a lot of it in a day. Like humans horses sweat to cool off. That caused Axel to wonder why they weren't mounted on camels. His mentor Sir Willet shook his head and explained. "Give thanks for small mercies, Axel. You have never been up on one of those beasts. They have tempers, they bite and spit, and they smell bad. The worst part is their gait which makes their rider lurch and sway in the saddle in a way that can easily make you seasick." Sir Willet's first assignment with the Navy was also his last for just that reason: chronic seasickness. This was an affliction healers could not fix since it was just the body working normally with the inner ear and the eyes sent conflicting signals to the brain. All the principals were dressed in army greens except Artor who wore the buff uniform of a Hand of the Commonwealth including the white kepi adopted a few years earlier. Since they would travel mounted, the twins left their quarterstaffs behind, bringing only their bows and quivers. They also carried kukris for close work as did Drew and Axel. Drew wore pouches on his belt with his steel spheres and soporific darts which could put a foe to sleep. For this trip he hung a circular wooden holster from his belt. Borrowed from the Navy it held one of their steel discs. the size and shape of a discus only with a keen edge all the way around, in naval combat it was used by fetchers to cut apart the rigging of enemy vessels. Both services had adopted it as for use against enemy flyers. In addition to his kukri Axel had a pouch for his sling and lead bullets, and also two boxes of nails that Sir Willet might fling at a foe with his fetching powers. Sir Willet carried a straight saber in a scabbard hung from a his belt, as did Artor though they were more badges of office than weapons. War wizards and firecasters were weapons in themselves. "Ours is only a small force but one that is powerful in both offensive and defensive magic." Sir Willet pointed out. "For example, just think of all the ways our magic can defend against arrows or lead bullets." "We fetchers have our missile shield, a sphere of awareness of fast moving objects within a certain range. A powerful fetcher can not only stop a volley of arrows, he can send it back to where it came from. Mages gifted with direct control of magnetism and even Finn Ragnarson with his lesser control of the planet's magnetic field can deflect arrows away from them. And air and earth wizards like the twins can create shields of their titular elements. Have I left anyone out?" "Us." Jemsen said referring to himself and his brother. "You mentioned our elemental shields, but you overlooked the simplest defense against arrows which is sheer distance. You are perfectly safe even in full view of the enemy if you outrange their archers and can engage them while they cannot engage you. Long bows far outrange crossbows, and with our doubled strength we twins can pull heavier bows than most other humans, while our Gift of Unerring Direction helps us hit our target at greater distances, so we don't have to trade accuracy for range." "Druids also have unique ways of dealing with arrows. Their reflexes are fast enough to let them snatch an arrow out of the air and use it to bat away a second, though their speed and reflexes provide no defense against a volley even for oneself much less for a large party." Axel pointed out. "In that case our friends the druids transform the shafts of arrows into puffs of dandelion seeds." "Dandelion seeds? Why dandelion seeds?" Axel asked. "They are very light and their feathery bristles catch the wind and bring their flight to an abrupt halt, then the seeds disperse as loose airy puffs. The loss of the shafts deprives the arrowheads of both momentum and guidance so they fall harmlessly to the ground." "Sir Willet, you also overlooked those with white fire, like yourself and me." Artor Klarendes pointed out. "We can raise a rectangular screen of white fire maybe a dozen years in width to block and disintegrate arrows shot at us. And if we push the screen all the way to the enemy lines, turn it to the horizontal, and pancake it to the ground, the white fire disintegrates a squad of archers as well." "How awful!" Axel shuddered. "True, Axel," Sir Willet affirmed, " but death by white fire is so quick that it is painless." "Except for the anguish and terror in the hearts of those watching their doom approach!" "Only too true, though it is a doom they could have avoided by not trying to kill us in the first place." "Maybe so, but wouldn't it be better if you could emulate that air wizard Karel told us about who used his powers in a way that spared lives while winning the battle nevertheless." "It would indeed. Axel I charge you that from now on in our councils of war you raise just that point and put us to the test to see if we can be as clever and as humane as that air wizard of old. Your feelings are proof Axel, that despite your worries, you are not at all callous. You have a good heart, never doubt that." Sir Willet had strong feelings for his aide, the boy who worked at his side daily and had made himself an integral part of Willet's life. If he had had a son, he would have wanted him to be just like Axel except inclined to give him grandchildren someday. Chapter 4. Oases The expedition first passed through a region of grassy plains punctuated by gallery forest along the streams. Fortunately it was the dry season. During the rainy season travel was difficult because the ground became water-logged and spongy. Low-lying areas might even be covered by shallow flood waters. The transition to the Hot Lands was gradual but soon they were traveling through a region much hotter and dryer than the Eastern Plains. Little rain fell on this short grass prairie. The sky was perpetually sunny except for occasional thunderstorms. The maps that the twins had made during their earlier crossings helped the expedition locate sources of water. Most of the marked watercourses were intermittent streams or seasonal ponds which dried up completely in the dry season with only a few permanent water features: ponds and sweet water springs fed by runoff from nearby hills. Once the expedition left the mapped regions, they had to find water for themselves own. One day flyers scouting ahead reported that they had found the interlopers encamped a few miles ahead, near enough that the expedition would reach their location the following day. The strangers had circled their wagons as a defensive fortification called a laager. Their draft animals were bizarre shaggy beasts with two humps. "Some kind of camel," Sir Willet observed "though with a steady level gait unlike the rolling gait of the one-humped camel called a dromedary. You might not get seasick riding one of them." The strangers wore loose fitting robes and straw hats for protection from the sun. Most were unarmed though they were accompanied by a small force of mounted men, mercenary guards by the look of them. When they reached the laager Artor sent a herald forward seeking a parley. The herald arranged for the leader of these unknowns to confer with Artor and his mages plus the three military officers in charge of the various army units. Artor introduced himself, his mages, and officers to their leader, a man of middle years with an aquiline mien his face and arms burned dark by the sun. He met with them alone. "Greetings Lord Artor, my name is Dayub. I am the leader of an expedition surveying the Hot Lands looking for places to settle. We call ourselves the Medkari. Our homeland is overcrowded so many of us went looking for new lands -- unoccupied lands you understand. Our intentions are peaceful. We do not seek to dispossess anyone. Our small force of guards is purely for protection from bandits." After a moment to gauge how his words had been received he continued: "Actually we were surprised to encounter anyone at all in the Hot Lands much less an armed force large enough to challenge our own modest expedition. Is the Commonwealth of the Long River contesting our right to settle this vacant region?" "No, not at all. We have never claimed the Hot Lands. One of the tasks of our own expedition, beside finding out about you, is to mark the northern boundary of the Commonwealth of the Long River. Indeed I have already set men to building cairns along the border which lies about four days' march south of here along the low escarpment where the mountains and the Eastern Plains end and the Hot Lands begin." "So you are welcome to settle the Hot Lands though I find it hard to believe anyone would really try to live here. The temperatures aside, surely there is not enough water for any sizable population." Artor said. "Not from the occasional rainfall, no. The Hot Lands lie under and in a sense themselves create a permanent area of high pressure which can be measured with a box barometer though I am told weather wizards can sense it directly. "Indeed we can." Sir Willet confirmed. "The permanent atmospheric high overhead blocks winds carrying moisture from the outer oceans and the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. That is why the Hot Lands are not only hot from their equatorial location but also dry, getting only enough rain to suport the short-grass prairie we see all around us." "You have the right of it, Sir Willet, but the Hot Lands occupy a vast depression which under which lies a vast aquifer charged by the rains which fall on surrounding regions. Our plan is to drill artesian wells to tap that aquifer and create a patchwork of oases across the Hot Lands. We have enough drilling equipment with us for one final well having drilled four others already in as many locales, but it's a start. Given a reliable supply of water crops will grow well here and we could raise livestock too for dairy and leather." "In that case, Dayub," Artor summed up. "I see no reason why peace cannot reign between our peoples. Our row of cairns will simply mark an undefended boundary between friendly neighbors." "Indeed Lord Artor. In time we expect a trade route will develop across the Hot Lands with caravans stopping at our oases as they go, which would provide yet another source of livelihood for my folk." "And of import tariffs for us." Artor admitted. "We would place a customs station at the border as we do on all trade routes leading to the Commonwealth. Tariffs are one of our chief sources of revenue, better than most taxes since only a few actually pay them." "Though everyone eventually pays for them in the price of imported goods." Dayub pointed out. "True," Artor shrugged, "but as a wise man once put it, taxes are the price we all pay for civilization." "He must have been a tax assessor." Dayub observed. Although Dayub was not empowered to conclude a formal treaty, he assured Artor that their leaders would respect the border. The Hot Lands were vast, though not every location was suitable for an oasis. That was the purpose of the survey to find shallow basins with rich soil that could be turned into oases scattered across the short grass prairie in that region. Those who had never been there assumed that a region called the Hot Lands must be a bleak expanse of sand or gravel as in a true desert, but such was not the case. "This very spot where we have camped will make a fine oasis. We can drill wells near the rim of the basin so water from the artesian wells will flow by gravity into impoundments, spillways, irrigation channels, and watering troughs, with the excess collecting in the center as a pond and a reserve of water for contingencies." "We Medkari love water and green things so the shores of the pond will become a pleasure garden, planted all around with shade trees and ornamental shrubs. We will also plant trees on the periphery of the fields as windbreaks. Then it will be a matter of laying out a town and fields. This can become a fine land for our people. This oasis alone could support several thousand of us." Jemsen pointed out that the top of the aquifer lay four hundred feet below the surface. "Our delver has told us as much, but how is it you know this, Sir Jemsen?" "Simple. I am an earth wizard. Like a delver I can sense what lies below the surface though unlike a delver I can actually do something about what I find." "In fact, why don't I help you with some of the heavy work here especially the well and the dikes for the water impoundments. Just set up your rig up as normal but instead of laborious drilling I will open the shaft for you. All your men need do is connect successive sections of pipe together and feed it down as I extend the shaft deeper into the earth till you hit the aquifer. And since it is an artesian well, you won't even need a wind driven pump. I can also raise berms or dikes for those impoundments and even dig a deep basin for that pond you are planning so it will hold more water as a reserve for emergencies." "And as an air wizard I can get rid of the dust and grit from construction and blow it downwind." Karel offered. "I don't know what to say except thank you. As a sign of the new friendship between our peoples I think we should name this new oasis Amity." That sentiment brought nods and smiles from the Medkari who knew that they had now found not only a new homeland but neighbors, friends, and potential allies. That evening, the Medkari and their guests celebrated with a feast featuring chunks of roast goat and beef in a tasty stew of mixed vegetables and tubers over a bed of curried rice. At the conclusion the Medkari offered toasts, raising cups of sparkling date juice, their non-alcoholic version of champagne. Surprisingly dry to the taste, its bubbles tickled the nose when you drank it, though the beverage did not produce the pleasant buzz that champagne did. Drew and the twins and even the normally more reserved Axel also got the chance to act as personal ambassadors of good will, as it were, during brief but torrid affairs with some of the younger males among the Medkari. Under those loose robes of theirs they were endowed with fine hard bodies. They wore robes as protection from the equatorial sun, not because they were body shy. The youths were happy to strip to the buff to swim in the as yet shallow pond in the center of the new oasis. Young males among the Medkari were indulged while young, their youthful affairs with those of their own gender regarded simply part of growing up and a way of keeping their attentions off young females before they were able to support a family. Soon enough most of them would settle down to a traditional domestic existence. Drew got another story for his news-paper, the Capital Intelligencer, and glad he was for the chance to write about good news for a change. The trouble with being a war correspondent was that even in victory you were writing about terrible things that shouldn't have happened at all in a well-ordered world. War was sometimes necessary but it always involved slaughter and destruction. The twins were glad for the chance to apply their new powers constructively rather than for war. By winning the gratitude of the Medkari, the twins had help to forge a friendship between the newcomers and the Commonwealth, one that secured their own northern border and helped a friendly power fill the power vacuum that the Hot Lands constituted. In time the new trade route would allow commerce with the northlands of the continent of Valentia, something which could only benefit all parties. Artor's generous diplomacy was in keeping with the traditions of the Commonwealth as the benign hegemon of the continent of Valentia. The contrast could hardly be starker than between the Commonwealth and the predatory eastern barbarians or the genocidal trolls. Author's Note This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead though admittedly the Navy of the Commonwealth bears more than a passing resemblance to the Royal Navy of Richard Bolitho and Horatio Hornblower. 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.htm 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, will appear 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 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.