Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2016 16:30:43 +0000
From: George Gauthier <georgegauthierdc@gmail.com>
Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 36

			Elf-Boy's Friends 36
			Endings and Beginnings
 			by George Gauthier

[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']

			Chapter 1. The Capital

The Corps of Discovery elected not to take a shortcut via a portal from the
Hot Lands back to the capital. Instead they flew in their three autogyros
the whole way, mostly over the plains paralleling the Eastern Mountains, an
area they had largely bypassed on their outward journey.

As the short grass prairie of the Hot Lands gave way to better watered tall
grass prairie they passed over the boundary markers which Artor Klarendes
had erected several years earlier. Their first real landmark in the
Commonwealth was the town of Harben, the terminus of the main line of the
newly completed iron road serving the Eastern Plains. It was around Harben
that the forest rangers and the elf-boy cum druid Dahlderon had arrested
the gang of poachers who had killed brontotheres for their horns.

Flying south they passed the fortified entrance to the strategic tunnel
through the mountains and the battlefield on the plains below where the
druids Dahl, Merry, and Owain had helped the war wizards Sir Willet Hanford
and Sir Rikkard and the Army of the Plains defeat the final invasion of the
eastern barbarians. That was the battle where young Corwin Klarendes had
won his spurs.

A hawthorn hedge enclosed much of the mountain range from the divide along
its crest to the foot of the mountains where they met the plains. That was
the boundary of the New Forest which covered an area of nearly one-hundred
thousand square miles. No works of man were allowed there in contrast to
the western side of the mountain range which had mines and sawmills, and
hunting lodges and resorts. The entire area was under the protection of the
forest rangers and the three druids in residence at Elysion.

Not just an expanse of trees and the animals and plants which sheltered
beneath it canopy, the New Forest was a magically sentient and self-aware
entity which encompassed all the life forms within its boundaries, both
animals and plants, ranging from the lowliest creepy crawlies scurrying
amidst the leaf litter on the forest floor to apex predators like bears,
wolves, and tawny panthers. These days it was the new home of the Snow
Elves and their protectors the white Kodiak bears. Magical beasts and fully
sentient the bears were the ursine equivalent of unicorns.

The Corps stopped at Elsyion to drop off Madden Sexton and the elf-boy
Dylan who would resume their duties as forest rangers. The pair got a warm
welcome from their fellow rangers the tall raven-haired half-elf Brandon
and his human cousins the brothers Garret and Lorn, two sturdily built
blond youths. They had been hard pressed to cover their assigned area while
so short handed. The three druids Dahl, Merry, and Owain were not always in
residence. At least Owain was back from his retreat at the stronghold of
the druidical order in the Great Southern Forest, the progenitor of the New
Forest.

Also there to welcome the return of the explorers were Lord Taitos
Klarendes and his spouse the shape shifter Sir Aodh of
Llangollen. Klarendes younger son Eborn was also in Elysion conferring with
his father on the family's business investments in the capital which Eborn
looked after. Artor the older son was in the capital. Like Finn Ragnarson
he was assigned to the headquarters of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth
and worked directly for the Chief Hand Baron Jarmond as one of the
government's most reliable troubleshooters.

After a celebratory meal featured sparkling wine and brandy, the visitors
stayed overnight to rest from their long journey. The next day they got
into their autogyros, hopped the mountains, and flew all the way to the
capital.

Drew Altair was ready to get right to work on a book about the
expedition. His regular reportorial duties at the news-paper could wait a
few more weeks. This would be his second book of travels, the first being
his best-seller about the expedition to the Far West years earlier with
Finn and the twins. All of Drew's books sold well and had won him no less
than five of the coveted Writer's Prizes.

True, his war books sold best of all, but Drew was sure that his new book
would do as well. How could the public not be interested in the thrilling
adventures of the Corps of Discovery while battling a dragon, raptors, a
plague of locusts, and a mosasaur. This book would transport the readers
vicariously to exotic landscapes to meet fascinating peoples like the
dwarves of the Cave of the Mountain River, or the Guardians of the Stone
ring. A book filled with stories about monsters, a landslide, a mine
collapse, and a mud volcano would practically sell itself.

Liam and Axel Wilde were eager to return to their duties at the Institute
for Wizardry and Magic. War Mage though he was in his own right, Axel had
no intention of giving up his day job as assistant to his mentor Sir Willet
Hanford. The war wizard was also Liam's mentor (and Drew's as well) which
made them colleagues. With two tours of duty to the war zone under their
belts, none of them would be rotating back to the war front. The campaign
against the trolls was in its final phase and would be finished without
their further direct participation.

The twins were the only ones who held no regular job, nor did they need
one, not with their wealth and lucrative investments in the burgeoning new
industries like iron roads, refrigeration, bicycles, and aviation. Not that
they were idlers. Far from it. They kept busy with their writing: revising
and updating their maps and guides for commercial travelers and writing and
illustrating their popular field guides.

Published under their imprint Gemini Field Guides, each volume described
some aspect of the natural world. So far the imprint had issued field
guides on land navigation, tracking, landforms, tree identification, song
birds, raptors (i.e. avian raptors like eagles, hawks, and owls), social
insects, and edible wild plants and most recently the identification and
care of ferns, cycads, and bromeliads, decorative plants near and dear to
their hearts.

All the boys agreed to hold off a few weeks on wearing the new style shorts
until the chain of shops which the twins owned could stock up on a garment
they hoped would set a fashion trend and draw a well-off clientele into the
shops not only for the shorts but for a whole spring collection which would
include a line of tight-fitting bicycle shorts like those worn by the
messenger boys in the League of Independent Towns.

The day after their arrival Finn reported to Baron Jarmond to give him an
oral briefing on the results of their expedition. Needless to say the Chief
Hand was pleased.

"Outstanding! Finn, you have done better than I dared hope for. Thanks to
what you and your friends have set in motion, the Commonwealth has every
prospect of realizing its grand strategy for the Northlands, the Greater
North Valentia Co-prosperity Sphere. I am eager to tell the High Council,
but I would like to have a written report to present to them. Do you think
you and Drew Altair can write it up and have it printed in three days?"

"No problem. Drew is working on it right now with Axel Wilde's help, and I
am sure Drew's uncle Poul will give it top priority in the print queue."

"Fine, fine. You do realize that there is a knighthood in this for you,
don't you? Sir Finn Ragnarson: how does that sound? And yes, I know you
Frost Giants don't care much for titles, but think of the knighthood as a
way for the state to burnish your credentials as one of a Dread Hands of
the Commonwealth. It will also make it easier for you to circulate among
the upper crust and to represent me when necessary."

"Well if you put it that way... "

"I do. You and Artor Klarendes are the most effective young Hands to come
along in more years than I care to admit. There are not many persons like
you two, those with the strength of character to be trusted with
plenipotentiary authority. You two have proven that you can be. Now what's
this I hear about you finally moving in with your friends?"

Finn nodded, knowing that Jarmond was just being polite. No doubt the
spymaster was already fully informed on the matter. The fact is that with
the termination of his assignment to Flensborg the capital of New Varangia,
the second homeland of the Frost Giants, Finn was finally taking up
residence in the capital with his friends at their residential hotel.

Even before the expedition left the hotel management had agreed to take
down a non-load bearing wall to incorporate yet a fourth suite of rooms to
those previously joined together to accommodate all nine friends and lovers
-- six of whom were members of the Corps of Discovery: Finn himself, the
twins Jemsen and Karel, Drew Altair, the War Wizard Sir Liam, and the War
Mage Sir Axel Wilde.

The three other residents were the naval officer Lieutenant Sir Nathan
Lathrop, the naval architect and inventor Karl-Eike Thyssen, and the
up-and-coming journalist Corwin Klarendes, like Drew a reporter for the
Capital Intelligencer. Indeed with the exception of Corwin Klarendes all
were now in residence. Nathan Lathrop had just recently been assigned to
the Navy's Bureau of Ships to work with Eike under its chief Admiral Van
Zant.

Their rooms were on the top floor of a three storey residential hotel and
looked out over a leafy square in front and spacious grounds out back. The
builders had taken advantage of the flat terrain of the city and the
prevailing south wind to cool the building. Wind catchers directed the
airflow downward and through the city's underground aqueducts where the
warm air gave up its heat to the cool earth and subterranean water. Natural
air pressure then forced the air back up into and through the building. All
done without machinery. Awnings blocked direct sunlight from wide window
openings which were not glassed in but set with wood lattices that afforded
privacy without blocking ventilation.

Pumps driven by vertical axis windmills raised water to a water tower and a
set of tanks on the roof. The tower served the water closets in each suite
and provided cold water for taps and showers in the apartments below. Tanks
painted black provided solar-heated hot water. In short it had all the
modern conveniences close to hand: hot and cold running water, flush
toilets, and hot meals prepared downstairs in the restaurant.

Like the rest of the common space the new rooms were comfortably but simply
furnished with extra sturdy furniture to accommodate a giant who stood
eight feet tall and weight six hundred pounds. The walls were hung with
watercolors or prints of the best illustrations from the many books the
residents had published. Shade tolerant house plants like ferns, cycads,
and bromeliads were everywhere.

The staff at the hotel watered and pruned the plants as necessary. Indeed
they took care of all housework. Chamber boys made the beds, cleaned the
rooms, did the laundry, and ran errands. Meals in the restaurant on the
ground floor were also included under the terms of their lease.

Now the twins and Drew were Finn's oldest companions and lovers so it only
fitting that over the next few days they helped the lusty giant inaugurate,
as it were, the bed chamber in his part of the common suite of rooms.

Drew went first, happily throwing himself into Finn's arms. The young giant
picked the boy up and hugged him close while Drew's slender legs circled
Finn's waist as the giant cupped Drew's shapely bum in his massive
paws. Finn loved to hold Drew's small body in his arms as he kissed him and
stroked and petted his arms, chest, and back and squeezed his butt
cheeks. Drew just loved Finn's body. Finn was so huge and strong and manly,
just what a bottom boy like him craved.

Drew was a young male totally oriented to his own gender as a bottom
boy. The human youth was a natural submissive, one who long ago realized
that he was a boy born to be fucked hard and often and by males who knew
how. He couldn't wait for Finn to really get down to business and impale
him on his prodigious member. His quim needed to be filled, and Finn's
prodigious member was more than up to the job. True Drew was too small back
there to accept the whole shaft, but that was more Finn's problem that
Drew's, wasn't it?

With Drew's legs bent upward, Finn lifted the boy high enough for Drew to
throw his ankles over Finn's shoulders while the back of his thighs were
pressed to Finn's chest and belly. The giant supported Drew's slight weight
on his arms -- at least till he got the boy settled on his cock. Slipping
it inside was awkward since Drew couldn't easily reach back there to guide
him in. They took it slowly and carefully.

For such a big guy Finn was a gentle lover. He did not batter his way
inside but let Drew set the pace and the degree of penetration. Drew also
did some of the work himself, lifting his body, letting it fall back onto
the cock inside him, basically fucking himself, though Finn helped with his
arms raising and lowering Drew bodily. It wasn't long before Finn climaxed
in Drew's ass, his big frame shuddering with the force of his
release. While he did go a little weak in the knees, he didn't let go of
his young lover or drop him to the floor.

With the twins Finn preferred to get them down on all fours and cover them
the way a stallion does a filly, all the while keeping his massive weight
on his own arms and knees rather than pressing down on the back and rump of
a boy less than a quarter his size.

Regardless of who went first with Finn, all six young males were glad to be
back in the capital with what in effect was their family. Sexual attraction
aside, you could not have better companions than those who shared those
rooms -- good people one and all.

Four days later, with the report of the expedition in hand the High Council
commended all of the members of the Corps of Discovery including the forest
rangers whom Axel had Jumped to the capital for the occasion.

In a simple ceremony, Finn was presented with letters patent that confirmed
him as Sir Finn Ragnarson, Dread Hand of the Commonwealth, Peacemaker,
Pioneer of Flight, Dwarf-friend, and Avatar of Thor. Finn had come a long
way since that day a decade earlier when he had arrived at Elysion as a
teenage peace envoy from the contingent of Frost Giants stuck in their
fortress in the highlands north of the Eastern Plains, having barely won a
desperate war with an army of centaurs.

			Chapter 2. Armageddon

The last of the roommates to come home was Corwin Klarendes, finally back
from the war. Corwin stood five foot four with a slender build and green
eyes that evidence the considerable admixture of eleven blood in his
heritage, though his close cropped blond hair was the product of his human
heritage.

Corwin was very much a changed boy since they had last seen him at the
finish of the eastern campaign which saved the Amazons and the
brontotheres. Then he had been eager to get to General Urqaart's
headquarters to report on the progress of the western campaign. He now wore
a haunted look on his normally cute face. The tell-tale sign of his war
weariness was that the boy was unable to engage in the kind of lively
banter and dark humor soldiers relied on to cope with the horrors of war.

And little wonder. Even in the face of inevitable defeat the trolls had
ignored the Commonwealth's repeated offers to evacuate and repatriate all
who surrendered to their oceanic archipelago. Instead the war had ended
suddenly in an apocalyptic slaughter and self-slaughter.

In this final campaign the Commonwealth had committed no less than five
field armies, three of them drawn from its own professional military and
one each from its new dominions in the Far West and its allies around the
western shores of the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. The conventional
fighting forces numbered just under two hundred thousand soldiers, naval
infantry, airmen, and sailors from the riverine flotillas, plus mercenaries
to guard the supply lines. It was the largest military operation since the
Formation Wars.

The allied forces were armed with the best weapons that the Commonwealth's
industrial economy could provide especially the new airguns as their stand
off weapon. Human infantry fought with the full size version with a bayonet
affixed to the end for close combat. Dwarves used the shorter carbine
version. So did the cavalry but without bayonets. Frost giants carried a
larger version suited to their dimensions. with its longer barrel to impart
greater speed to the bullet, their airguns packed a greater wallop.

The elves clung to their traditional long bows and not just out of
tradition. First, even going all out the manufactories could produce only
so many air guns. Second, long bows had greater range, and spent arrows
might be collected after a battle and reused whereas spent lead bullets
were gone forever. Finally archers could deliver plunging fire against
troop formations or over walls and fortifications.

All formations were backed by slingers who hurled fire globes from just
behind the line of contact over the heads of their own infantry to fall
upon the enemy and burn them horribly. These fist sized glass balls were
filled with one of two types of inflammable oil: a thick viscous clinging
liquid and a thinner more fluid oil which splashed around more easily. Some
slingers hurled glowing embers to set the oil alight. Originally thought up
by the shape shifter Aodh of Elysion, fire globes turned ordinary youths
into junior firecasters.

All but the elven forces were supported by batteries of horse drawn
artillery. Ballistas shot giant arrows directly at the enemy while
catapults lobbed incendiaries in a high arc.

The expeditionary force raised among the orcs had expanded to the size of
an army corps of three divisions. Volunteers from all over Valentia had
rallied to the cause drawn by the promise of a vast new land of their own
in Amazonia. Even if ultimately they had different war aims the two forces
had a common enemy and worked well together. The orcs subordinated their
ultimate territorial ambitions to the military needs of the alliance. They
did not try to carve out their new homeland by direct conquest and
occupation, trusting to the peace settlement to provide them with suitable
territories once the trolls were eliminated.

The orcs were armed the traditional way for close combat with lethal
looking long hafted maces with spiked or flanged heads though they carried
bucklers rather than the large round shields formerly needed to fend off
arrows. These days fetchers or masters of magnetism held a missile shield
over their ranks to deflect arrows or slung lead bullets or air wizards
raised shield of hardened air to fend off enemy missiles. In the past their
stand off weapons had been crossbows and slings. For this campaign they had
been supplied with the new air guns. Not just weapons of war, the air guns
were tangible proof of the Commonwealth's good intentions toward their
former foe.

Alongside the conventional military fought thousands of magic wielders of
all kinds, not just the Commonwealth's hundred or so war wizards but also
war mages of every sort: water, weather, earth, and air wizards. Even more
numerous were war mages with magical gifts effective in combat: fetchers,
firecasters, master of magnetism, lightning throwers, wielders of ball
lightning, and delvers.

Some were assigned as teams in support of particular regiments and
brigades. Others were assigned to specialist units. Most fetchers were in
the Army Air Corps. The strongest flew with wooden yokes while those whose
telekinetic powers were less strong flew the Navy's rigid wings for long
range patrols. Others propelled autogyros.

Scouts reconnoitered terrain, surveilled enemy movements, and carried
dispatches.  Most flyers supported the ground forces with bombing runs,
dropping incendiaries on enemy formations. Airmen might also attack enemy
cavalry with edged steel discs. Originally developed by the Navy for
cutting apart the rigging of enemy ships their sharpened edge were just as
effective in the anti-personnel role. The flyers did try to spare the
horses, less from mercy than from an expectation that afterwards they could
be rounded up and put to use by the victors.

Autogyros took commanders up for a bird's eye view of the battle area,
making command and control of the combined arms battle much easier though
it was clear that the armed forces needed better means of communicating
aloft with other aerocraft or with elements on the ground.

Other fetchers piloted and propelled autogyros with war mages in the
passenger compartment. As the autogyros orbited over head, well out range
of arrows and ballistas, the mages directed their powers against the troll
armies.

Firecasters threw great clinging balls of fire or streams of flame
preferentially at troll artillery and their crews. Lightning throwers
targeted the favorite weapon of the trolls, their war axes, to electrocute
them. A single bolt of lightning could jump from axe to axe to axe,
sometimes taking out a whole squad of trolls. Masters of magnetism disarmed
the trolls at the worst possible moment, yanking their weapons out of their
grip just as the battle lines clashed.

Sun mirrors were horridly effective engines of destructions. In a moment
their heat beams could turn a battalion of cavalry or infantry into piles
of ash. Earth wizards open chasms not so much to swallow enemy formations
as to separate them to allow them to be crushed separately.

Those who could wield ball lightning used the explosive technique Corwin
Klarendes had perfected by which explosive balls of lighting were hurled
into the midst of charging cavalry or infantry which burst with a flash and
an electric crackle either electrocuting or tearing apart horse and rider
or foot soldiers, leaving behind grisly piles of disjointed limbs, guts,
and charred body parts.

Corwin's technique was even more effective when delivered precisely from an
orbiting autogyro. On the ground a mage had to juggle three or four balls
of lightning at once since ball lightning served as both sword and
shield. That lead to fatigue. Attacking from above made things much
easier. A mage needed to create only one ball of lightning at a time and
then only for a brief moment, giving him a chance to recover his magical
strength before throwing the next one.

Many in the ground forces had particular gifts too which helped in
combat. Those who could see in dim light like a cat stood watch at night to
counter the infiltration tactics of the trolls. Troll sappers liked to
sneak up to the lines and garrote or slice the throats of dozing sentries,
as a way to instill terror. Those with the gift of Unerring Direction took
point when maneuvering into position, and they were better shots with air
gun or bow. Soldiers who could kindle fire set watch fires and made it
easier to set up camp at night by getting cook fires going.

Those who could Call Light could make balls of cold light hover over a spot
to reveal what the night might conceal. The trolls came to learn that it
was the Commonwealth armies which ruled the night. Stealth counted for
little in the face of delvers who could detect approaching troops on the
darkest of nights and alert the defenders till the commander gave the order
to light up the battlefield and give the infantry targets to aim at.

The war wizard's invoked all their magical gifts, but their biggest
contribution was the tactical flexibility they gave to the military with
their ability to open portals through which strike forces could pass to
attack the rear or the flank of enemy formations.

Also on hand were many healers, both magical and natural. Triage stations
routed the wounded to the appropriate level of care whether to a bonesetter
to put a cast on a broken limb or to a chirurgeon for life-saving
surgery. The worst cases went to a magical healers who had to husband their
magic, using just enough to stabilize the patient so they he would survive
long enough for his natural recuperative powers to finish the job with
supportive care from nurses.

The troll armies fought as determinedly as they ever had, displaying all
the tactical flexibility and innovativeness that had made them the hardest
foe the Commonwealth had ever fought. It was just too bad that all that
energy and cleverness was expended in behalf of the worst cause for which
sentients had ever fought on the planet of Haven.

For the trolls were engaged in a genocidal campaign to wipe out magic on
Haven by exterminating the races who could wield it: humans, elves,
dwarves, giants, and orcs. Denied magic themselves by some quirk of their
nature, their civilization had been swept up by a proselytizing new
religion which taught that its worshippers had a duty to wipe magic off the
face of the planet. Left unasked and unexplained, as often happens with
religious revelations, was the question of why these gods did not just do
that job themselves.

In the face of air guns and magic, the trolls traditional tactics were
ineffective. Fetchers could counter the arrow storms by which they weakened
their foes before fighting in close combat with long-hafted axes. The
trolls could not mask the movement of their forces at night or by terrain
thanks to delvers and aerial reconnaissance.

They did have one big advantage. The Commonwealth had to bring the war to
them, to fight on the tactical offensive, letting the trolls fight
defensively on ground and at a time of their choosing, hoping to weary the
Commonwealth armies, force a stalemate, and make them withdraw, which would
give the trolls a chance to recover, rebuild, renew their numbers and
ultimately take up the crusade once again.

Against any other state on the planet that might have worked, but the
Commonwealth was simply too strong. The rich farmlands of the great rift
valley easily supplied the foodstuffs the armies needed which were shipped
over waters controlled by the Commonwealth Navy. With an industrial economy
like none other on the planet, the Commonwealth had the means to forge the
new weapons of war that had proved so decisive in battle. And unlike the
trolls' old foes on their oceanic archipelago, the peoples of Valentia were
rich in magic.

It all came together in a great battle which broke the troll armies.  The
trolls attacked all along the front, but mostly as a feint to keep Urqaart
from shifting forces to support the elves, the main target of the troll
offensive. The elves were thought to be more vulnerable since they bore
only bows not the new air guns. The elves might throw out caltrops in front
of their lines to protect against a cavalry charge, but heavy infantry
could shuffle forward, avoid the points, and penetrate and break the elves
whose only other defense might be a line of pointed stakes planted into the
ground. In a fluid situation there was no time for earthworks.

The trolls advanced in a new formation with companies of soliders staggered
checkerboard fashion rather than as a solid line. Companies marched in
rectangles a dozen files wide and twenty ranks deep, pressed shoulder to
shoulder. Those on the outside of the formation locked shields while those
in the middle raised them over their heads and the whole company advanced
in step as if on parade, looking like a cross between an armored tortoise
and a centipede if such a thing could be imagined. The idea was that the
shields would protect the trolls from arrows long enough to close with the
elves and hack at them with their axes.

It might have worked but for Eike Thyssen's latest wonder weapon: the
magnetic cannon, something so secret he had not even told Axel about it
during his brief visit.

The cannon was quite unlike the air gun which was fired from the shoulder
and used compressed air to propel a single bit of lead downrange. The
magnetic cannon had a lightweight bronze barrel or tube fourteen feet in
length and open at both ends. It was mounted on two wheels and attached by
a hitch to a limber or ammo cart which was drawn by four horses who also
carried the four crewmen into battle.

The cannon's projectile was a reloadable steel canister packed with dozens
of the same lead bullets which the air guns shot. They were held in place
by a cardboard seal at the top or rather the front or business end of the
projectile. To prepare for firing the crew dismounted and detached the
cannon from the limber and rolled it into firing position. The gunner took
his position at the left rear, sighted along the top of the barrel, and
worked a crank to traverse the barrel right and left. The assistant gunner
stood to the right rear and elevated and depressed the barrel with a second
crank following the gunner's verbal instructions. The loader fed fresh
rounds into the back of the tube and worked a lever to close the breech,
really just four lugs which extended partway into the tube to keep the
shell from slipping out the back as the tube was aimed.

The gunner was a master of magnetism. Once he laid the gun he forced the
canister down the tube, accelerating it to high speed. Just as it exited,
he jerked the canister to a halt. The momentum of the lead balls inside
made them burst through the flimsy cardboard seal and fan out in a shallow
cone to wreak fearsome destruction. The lead bullets had so much momentum
they easily penetrated wooden shields. A single shell could take out a
squad or blast a hole in the new formation.

Typically they fired volleys of three to five rounds then reloaded the
empty canisters from the limber. A sixth shell was always kept at the ready
for self defense if say enemy cavalry showed up.

In the face of the storm of lead from the cannon in front and the rain of
incendiaries dropped from above by the Army Air Corps, the troll attack on
the elven lines disintegrated into a bloody shambles. The trolls panicked
and streamed back to their line of departure. That marked the last actual
clash between the armies though the allies continued their bombardment with
incendiaries and attacks by mages from orbiting autogyros.

A few days later, troll sounded horns and drums not for an attack but for
an act of racial suicide.

As Corwin related it:

"It was horrible. I watched everything from an autogyro orbiting
overhead. At the end the trolls turned their weapons on themselves,
refusing to live with defeat. First they killed their human and elven
slaves and hostages, then mothers took knives to their own whelps, then the
males killed their females and finally themselves. Bodies lay everywhere."

"They set fire to their capital intending to make it their funeral pyre,
but our weather wizards, firecasters, and fetchers put the fires out. The
firecasters stopped the flames while fetchers ripped roofs off so the
weather wizards could douse the embers with downpours from the
thunderstorms they called up, bringing the temperature of the still hot
embers below the kindling point of wood and paper. Otherwise the fires
would have started up again."

"We took very few prisoners, those too wounded to finish themselves off or
those who had been rendered unconscious by falls or a knock on the head. We
sent them through a space portal to their oceanic archipelago not so much
out of mercy as a warning to the trolls to keep to their islands lest they
find themselves the target of a war of annihilation. The trolls understood
that we could as easily transport an avenging army through such portals."

Not that the Commonwealth had any such notion. No, the druids had taken
care of the long-term problem with the trolls by unleashing an
anti-fertility plague on their males. It would not kill anyone, but it did
reduced the fecundity to below replacement levels. Within three generations
the trolls would number a small fraction of their current population in
their oceanic archipelago.

"We mostly buried the bodies in mass graves opened by earth wizards. In the
city which they had made their capital the bodies were either turned to ash
by air wizards with sun mirrors or turned to a cloud of hot gas by war
wizards wielding white fire."

"General Urqaart is as tough a soldier as they come, but he too was
profoundly shaken by the outcome. He urged me to report the story candidly,
to hold nothing back, to describe the full horror and the sheer waste of it
all. I promised that I would."

Axel embraced his friend and tried to comfort him.

"What you witnessed goes beyond anything the rest of us have seen of war,
and you know how badly it ate at our hearts. Our expedition helped heal
us. That and the passage of time. Perhaps a similar journey could do the
same for you or maybe you could go on a walkabout, say to visit the New
Forest and report on the Snow Elves for the Capital Intelligencer."

"Snow Elves?"

In the days that followed Axel and the others related their adventures in
the Northlands, how they had saved the river town stranded high and dry and
the trapped miners, and diverted the mud volcano. Corwin grew animated
listening to the stories of how the twins slew the dragon or how the forest
rangers had saved the frost giants from the mosasaur. He vowed that once
the air routes were opened he would visit the Cave of the Mountain River
and the Stone Ring, and the Fjordland too.

The company of his friends and their stories help lift Corwin's despond,
but only time would heal the grave wounds to his heart. In the meanwhile,
Corwin signed up for training as a combat medic. Next time he found himself
on a battleground he wanted to be able to heal and comfort the wounded, not
just strike at the enemy with his ball lightning.

			Chapter 3. Amazonia

Three weeks later when Axel Wilde reported for work, his mentor Sir Willet
Hanford told him about their new orders. They were to return to Amazonia
after all, this time not to fight but to help establish the peace. A peace
conference would designate the borders of the orcs' new homeland and reach
or rather impose a territorial settlement on the weak states surrounding
Amazonia, some of which had designs on the vast lands which the
Commonwealth had liberated.

"Why us in particular."

"Actually it's you they really want, Axel. Your status as a Peacemaker and
Orc-Friend will is indicative of the Commonwealth's good intentions. The
orc leader Janne Saari thinks very highly of you, as you well know. It was
your idea that the orcs should end their war against the Commonwealth and
join us in liberating Amazonia, thereby acquiring a new land of their
own. Your presence at the conference augurs well for its success."

"So who will be there besides Janne Saari?"

"General Juhan Enno, the commander of the orc Expeditionary Corps, a couple
of members of the orc council, General Urqaart, and four members of our own
High Council, one from each of the major races in the Commonwealth: a
human, an elf, a giant, and a dwarf. Their names are listed on our
orders. We will also be meeting envoys from the regional
states. Furthermore at Urqaart's invitation Lord Zaldor will participate as
the general's personal advisor. Urqaart trusts Zaldor's political nous more
than his own, blunt soldier that he is."

"Or claims to be. We both know that he is much more than that. From what
Drew and Finn and the twins told me he is an able diplomat in his own
right."

"True, but Urqaart would like to have two voices on his side at the
conference. That way they can double-team those who are of a different
mind."

Axel nodded. "That sounds like the clever strategist and tactician we know
him to be."

"Actually there will be four of you at the conference with the title of
Peacemaker. Drew Altair will cover the denouement of the war against the
trolls for the Capital Intelligencer. Young Corwin Klarendes is too
traumatized, I don't think that is too strong a word for it, to go back to
Amazonia any time soon."

"We leave tomorrow. First you and I and Zaldor plus the four delegates will
meet with the High Council so we will understand what they expect. Then I
shall open a portal from the conference room to General Urqaart's
headquarters -- the old HQ we visited in the past. The conference will meet
there."

Urqaart received the delegation in his office, greeting them by name and
sitting them down at the long conference table which filled much of the
room. Next he introduced Seerah, the Queen of the Amazons, the ally of the
Commonwealth in the successful eastern campaign. Urqaart then pointed to
the young officer standing by the map board at the end of the room and
said:.

"That is my intelligence chief Colonel Dentzer who will be briefing us
shortly. You remember him, don't you Drew?"

Drew grinned and said "Definitely, sir." but left it at that for the
moment.

Dentzer winked at Drew then assumed a serious demeanor as he awaited the
moment to start his briefing.

Ian Dentzer was a full-blooded elf, darkly handsome and graced with the
exotic looks, slender physique, and killer cheekbones characteristic of his
race. He looked far too young for his rank thanks to his elven blood which
made him seem like a youth in his late teens.

The young colonel looked impressive in a crisp uniform which sported not
only a badge for being Mentioned in Dispatches but also two wound
stripes. No doubt about it. Here was a blooded soldier.

The first order of business was a briefing from Urquhart's intelligence
chief which summarized what the allies had found from their initial aerial
survey of the conquered lands. More than a few towns had been put to the
torch but most were intact. So were farms and standing crops which stood
ready for harvest. Considerable damage had been inflicted on infrastructure
such as river ports, bridges, ferries, and such but not so much that it
would block reoccupation and resettlement. That news came as a relief to
the orcs who expected to move in first.

He also explained that scouts and autogyros were quartering the entire
region for holdouts and deadeners though only a handful had been found. It
was too soon to try to round up livestock like saddle and draft horses, but
the scouts did make sure that the animals would be able to graze, opening
stable doors and gates in corrals to let the animals run free.

Dentzer handed out maps to all the participants and asked the orcs in
particular to study them overnight and to select the territories which
looked most suitable to their needs.

The most promising region was in the northeast quadrant of Amazonia, an
area of mountains and intermountain plateaux measuring a quarter of a
million square miles. The region was not in the basin of the Amazon River
proper but to the north, three hundred miles up another major river which
ran roughly parallel to the Amazon. The orcs were not interested in the
steaming jungle terrain along the lower reaches of the river though they
insisted on freedom of navigation the whole length of the river to allow
for trade via the Great Inland Freshwater Sea.

Having made a tentative choice, the orcs asked for a quick look around. Sir
Willet would take them there via a portal but return immediately while Axel
would spend the day with them and then teleport them back. That would allow
the war wizard to confer with Urqaart on the demobilization of the
volunteer war mages who had been made warrant officers on a
hostilities-only basis.

Sir Willet flew high into the air lifting himself by the wooden yoke built
into his leather cuirass and opened a portal to a far away landmark. After
doing that twice more he arrived at the region in question. Opening a
portal for the inspection party, he let them step through then returned to
Urqaart's headquarters letting the portal close behind him.

Besides Axel and Jaane Saari the inspectors included a member of the orc
council, an aide plus a couple of body guards armed with air
guns. Mountains forested to their crests embraced a well-watered
plateau. Rich topsoil nourished a ground cover of grasses, sedges, and
flowering plants and gave promise of high agricultural yields. Axel jumped
the group to half a dozen locations in the regions: to the top of the
mountain ranges north and south, to the channel of the main river draining
the region, and to several locations on the intermountain plateau.

"This is perfect for us." Saari declared. "These cool uplands are very much
like where we lived in the Eastern Mountains, and the mountains on three
sides are well-timbered, enough not only for our own needs but for a
sustainable export business."

"The fact that the area was hardly settled in the past means that we can
start with a clean slate. No one wants to live in towns which the trolls
turned into charnel houses during their conquest and again during their
demise.

"Now it will take several years to get our normal crops of breadfruit trees
and earth apples established. That is why I have had farmers follow behind
our army to gather the wherewithal to establish the system of companion
planting that characterizes agriculture in the Amazon basin."

"Companion planting?" Axel asked.

Saari smiled. "I wouldn't expect a city boy like you Axel to be familiar
with the system. In a sense we orcs already practice it with breadfruit
trees and earth apples. In Amazonia farmers plant three main food crops:
maize, squash, and climbing beans in flat topped mounds of soil each about
a foot high and half a yard on a side. When the maize grows to six inches,
beans and squash are planted around the maize alternately."

"The three crops grow well together. Reaching for the sun the beans climb
the growing cornstalks, which eliminats the need for poles; the beans renew
the fertility of the soil; while the squash spreads along the ground which
blocks and keeps weeds down. We can also plant a fourth species though not
as a food crop but simply to attract bees for pollination."

"Of course not all orcs will be settling here. You can expect to see more
of my countrymen in the capital and elsewhere now that the difficulties of
yesteryear have been put behind us."

"I hope some of them open up restaurants featuring your national cuisine."
Axel enthused. "I have developed a real taste for it. And meeting orcs
regularly will help me keep up my hard won proficiency in your language."

"Excellent! You Axel Wilde are a bridge between our cultures. I hope more
citizens of the Commonwealth give our kind a second chance. Seeing the way
the Commonwealth is fighting this war against the trolls shows better than
anything else how idiotic our war hawks were to start a preemptive war
instead of negotiating over our grievances."

After hours of looking around Axel brought the party back to Urqaart's
headquarters. The return journey was quick since it was to a spot Axel had
earlier reached via a space portal, which meant he could get there in a
single jump. The inspection trip had taken the whole day and worn Axel
out. He felt like a jack-in-the-box whose spring had sprung.

The conference resumed after a two day break only this time it was a
plenary session presided over by the most senior of the four councillors
the long-serving foreign minister Baroness Lerna Munray, a giantess with a
commanding air. An old ally of Zaldor's and Urqaart's she was content to
let them carry the ball reserving the role of referee for herself.

Pointing to the maps hang on the walls of the conference room, Jaane Saari
indicated the area of highlands and plateaux which they had chosen for
their new homeland.

Axel suggested that the orcs annex a port at the mouth of the river as an
exclave and entrepôt within their tariff zone. Traders could
transship exports and imports between river boats to sailing ships and vice
versa. Saari accepted the suggestion.

Axel also pointed out that merchant traffic on a river running through
unclaimed or at least unsettled lands might attract river pirates and asked
Urqaart to offer the orcs surplus vessels from the Commonwealth's riverine
forces plus training in their maintenance and use. These were fast narrow
craft propelled by oars or a fetcher. They were equipped with two compact
catapults and either two ballistas or two of the new swivel guns which were
smaller versions of Eike's magnetic cannon. They sat atop pintle mounts and
were operated by a crew of two, a loader and a gunner, a master of
magnetism, who traversed and elevated the barrel manually.

The general agreed though Zaldor wanted it understood that the river would
be an international waterway open to peaceful navigation by all nations.

"Why not throw in aviation assets as well?" Drew asked. "We could turn over
surplus autogyros to get provide aviation services in the land of the orcs
just like we are doing in the Northlands? The orcs could use autogyros not
just to support their military but also to carry the mail, for scouting,
search and rescue, and for passenger and freight service."

One of the envoys of the coastal states bristled objecting to the military
advantage these measures would give to their soon-to-be neighbors.

"Why make them a present of a river navy and an air force? Anyway what
would pretty boys like those two know about navies and aviation much less
weighty matters of war and peace?"

Zaldor grinned, happy that the fool had fallen into his trap.

"The two young men of whom you speak are national heroes acclaimed by our
High Council which named them both Pioneers of Flight and Peacemakers Who
better then to advise on such weighty matters? As to why we would make the
orcs a present of a modest river navy and an air force, it's simple
enough. They fought as our allies and earned it with their sweat, their
blood, their courage, and their loyalty."

Urqaart agreed to provide the river craft and the aerocraft, though he
pointed out that future deliveries of autogyros and tools and replacement
parts would be through commercial contracts with the manufactories. Janne
Saari was pleased with this evidence of the Commonwealth's continuing good
will and gratefully accepted the generous offers.

Saari pledged that the orcs would stay engaged with the wider world, the
modern world which the Commonwealth was ushering in via its industrial
revolution, trade, communications, aviation, and cultural exchange.

His military counterpart General Juhan Enno pointed out that most of the
Expeditionary Corps would be released from the ranks and enlisted in the
militia. In the future the orcs would maintain only a small permanent
military establishment since they had no real enemies on their
borders. That was why they did not ask for the large magnetic cannons. The
Commonwealth arsenals would continue to produce them but only to reequip
its own forces with the new weapon system.

On the issue of demobilization of the Expeditionary Corps, it was agreed
that the Commonwealth would continue to pay the orc soldiers for three more
months to smooth the transition to civilian life as farmers and artisans
and tradesmen. In the years ahead more orcs would likely move from the
Eastern Mountains to their new homeland which was also open to immigration
by orcs from anywhere on the continent.

The amicable settlement with the orcs stood in stark contrast with the
wrangles with the neighboring states who had expansionary designs on the
vacant country which they viewed as a power vacuum. With the chairwoman's
connivance Urqaart and Zaldor put them in their place.

Zaldor dealt with the territorial claims. Pointing to the maps he traced
the purple line that ran from the borders of the new homeland of the orcs
south to the divide or watershed between the coastal lands and Amazonia. He
also pointed to two areas in the east, the land of the Amazons and the
neighboring brontothere reserve just west of it across the sea of
reeds. All three were guaranteed their territorial integrity. The
Commonwealth claimed all the rest by right of conquest and was prepared to
back it up with military might if it had to.

"In that connection," Urqaart noted, "I must tell you that there will leave
no power vacuum behind such as you imagine. We intend to retain two full
field armies in Amazonia backed by a riverine flotilla plus naval infantry
to deal with contingencies. Any and all contingencies. Have I made myself
clear?"

He had. The envoys didn't like it, but the Commonwealth was not
well-disposed toward the craven coastal states which had stood aside as the
trolls invaded Valentia and slaughtered the population of Amazonia but had
not even sent warning.

"One more thing." Zaldor announced after getting the nod from the foreign
minister.

"The Commonwealth will also annex a corridor along the line of rivers and
canals which the trolls used to gain access from the coast to the Great
Inland Freshwater Sea. In time we will expand the canals to allow full
sized ships to navigate to the southern coast of Valentia where our Navy
will establish a base for a new salt water fleet to guard the continent
from any further incursions from the Southern Ocean."

"But those lands rightfully belong to us!" two envoys protested.

Zaldor was implacable. He shook his head and said: "You lost those lands to
the trolls. We took them. Now they are ours."

With all political and military matters settled, Drew and Ian Dentzer had
the time to renew their friendship.

Drew Altair explained to the others that he and Ian had met more than a
decade earlier during his mission to the Far West with Finn and the
twins. At the time Dentzer was the chief cartographer for the Army of the
West and had just won his captaincy on the strength of a new technique
which made the contours lines invented by the twins ever more useful.

Dentzer's innovation was a graphical method for determining which parts of
a landscape, when viewed from a given vantage point, were masked from
observation by intervening terrain features. It involved drawing a terrain
profile to scale along a particular azimuth.

The technique not only helped scouts select the best vantage points but
also showed a commander where he might conceal his own approach or reserves
from enemy observation. It was a tremendous tool for an army, at least in
an area that has been fully surveyed and mapped. And you did not don't need
a magical gift to use this technique. A compass worked just as well as
Unerring Direction for determining an azimuth.

Ian also explained that he had won his colonelcy with a program he devised
to crack the written language of the trolls by having captives interrogated
via Mind Speech. It took both clever questioning and telepathy. An
interrogator would show a captive a picture or a word in the troll language
and peek at the image it brought to his surface thoughts. Gradually that
brought an understanding of their written language, making it possible to
read their documents. The trolls never used encryption, thinking their
unknown language was barrier enough.

Like all elves Ian was a really good-looking young male, with the willowy
physique, dark hair dark, fine-boned features, and green eyes typical of
his race. A six footer he stood a full foot taller than the diminutive
journalist. Thanks to regular sparring and swimming and field duty in the
war he was quite fit -- not soft and out of shape as you might expect a
staff officer to be. But then he was an elf.

For Ian this little auburn-haired beauty was just his type: short and
slightly built, impossibly cute, trim and fit, and with a strong streak of
exhibitionism. Ian had no use for clothes horses. Rather he liked a boy who
didn't care overly much for clothing, a boy who sought any excuse to take
his clothes off, or even better, not to climb into his clothes in the first
place. Pretty boys really owed it to the world to share their loveliness
with males who appreciated the fine lines on a young colt like Drew.

In bed Ian was a versatile lover, experienced in both roles, top or bottom,
thanks to growing up in a largely human city rather than one of the
secluded elven vales where he would have been expected to bottom for older
males for decades at least.

In Ian Drew found an enthusiastic partner whose favorite position was
seated on a sturdy chair while his partner straddled him, then sat on his
lap facing him, and slipped Ian's cock up his quim. The rider then did all
the work, posting up and down as if riding a trotting pony. That let the
young lovers gaze into each other's eyes, to kiss, and to touch the other
boy in all his erogenous zones.

To Ian's mind, the hard body of a boy was so much sexier than the soft and
yielding form of the female. Boys' bodies were all sculpted muscle and bone
and sinew, making for physiques that were strong and athletic and
acrobatic. A girl was all take and no give, but a boy could give as well as
take and even do both at the same time as when they lay head to toe and
sucked each other's cocks.

To hold his own with a boy it took another male. No none but another male
could know the male body better, especially the manly parts. That was why
boys were ever so much better at oral sex and manual manipulation. Boys
knew what to do with a cock and what they wanted done with theirs too.

A celebratory dinner marked the success of the conference though a couple
of the envoys were so disgruntled they had left early and did not
attend. They were not missed in the least.

The first course was an antipasto of cheeses, cold meats, and olives. Next
came a tossed salad followed by onion soup. The first substantial course
was spinach pasta with white sauce followed by a main course of roasts of
beef and lamb garnished with roast potatoes and carrots. Dessert was a fine
peach cobbler. Aside from a single celebratory glass of sparkling wine, the
diners stuck to chilled soft cider or cold beer.

Most of those at the table declined the garlicky side dishes which the orcs
were so fond of, but Axel rather liked garlic and dug right in. It was one
of the characteristics which had endeared him to the orcs in the first
place. He even got Sir Willet to try orc style cuisine.

"Not as bad as I expected." Sir Willet admitted, which drew wry smiles from
the orcs.

			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
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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.