The Prince's Mark

The Road to Dezmer - Twenty Six

"Fine."

Tracou made another briefing to his villagers. This ability to communicate throughout an entire village with just one person would have made quite a few battles in Elvish history end differently.

Once finished, Tracou put on his coat and opened his front door.

Both Pendaer and Mirthal had weapons, two different kinds in fact, but Tracou had nothing

"Tracou, why don't you take that stone knife with you?"

Tracou vigorously shook his head. "They'll just use it against me. I'll bring my wand; it amounts to the same thing, anyway."

One had considerably more cutting power than the other, making it a much better weapon. Then again, if Tracou would stay inside of a building then he should be fine. They had to move.

Outside, the dust had built up to the point that it burst up into the air whenever their horses' hooves hit the ground. How much of the Winleans' ships had been devoted to carrying the powder? That, plus people and food... It was a wonder none had sunk.

Then again, maybe they had. A force of a mere one hundred people could not have been intentional.

Fresh footprints led west, towards Terel. In the distance, Mirthal could hear the frantic panting of a small family. They spoke to each other, a feminine voice offering soothing words, but he didn't understand them.

He tried to put them out of his mind.

A sprinkling of villagers rummaged about outside, gathering rocks and anything edible. Most were middle aged, old enough to have adult children but not old enough to need help. Silent, they worked in pairs. Some worked jerkily and jumped at every sound, while others with blank faces moved as if they had invisible strings controlling them from the heavens. Watching them worried Mirthal more than it was worth.

Gray. Even above the powder in the air, thick clouds had gathered.

It was suffocating. The inside of his nose and even his throat would be coated in gray soon enough.

When they arrived at the cluster of houses, they found Stepan waiting outside for them. Tracou dismounted and darted over to him. They spoke rapidly, the words passing their lips in little white puffs.

Three homes sat on both sides of the road, each with another house's width in between them. Due to the gray, these buildings had reverted to their basic shack structures. A few dezmek would be able to fit into each of them and hopefully could launch enough projectiles that the threat would collapse.

Pendaer dismounted, catching Mirthal by surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"If I approach them on foot, I'll be less threatening. That older dezmek said that they were walking, after all."

"Oh... I hadn't thought of that."

Tracou trotted over to Pendaer, Stepan trailing behind him.

"Pendaer, when you lead them here, Stepan will have his seagull familiar waiting on the side of the road on your right. Once you go past it, we'll start the attack. Okay?"

"Yes, fine." Pendaer waved an unsteady hand back and forth. "I'm going." With that said, he began to walk.

"Come back in one piece!" Tracou called after him.

"Be careful," Mirthal said in Elvish.

Pendaer hesitated briefly, stopping in the middle of the road, before puffing up and going on his way again. Mirthal and Tracou watched, standing silently for minutes on end, as Pendaer dwindled to a speck in the distance.

Would he really be all right? In other circumstances, Mirthal would never send someone so abrasive as a lure.

"Mirthal."

Glancing downward, Mirthal's eyes met Tracou's.

"Serpouhi, Stepan, Elira, and I are going to be in four of the houses here. Let's go inside, okay? Stepan said that the Winleans are coming closer."

That would be the safe thing to do, of course. But he wouldn't be of any use stuck inside a house when he couldn't help pelt rocks at people.

"I'm going to wait outside."

"What?! Don't be stupid!"

"I'm not going to wait out in the road, Tracou. If too many of those humans survive the attack, Pendaer might get hurt. So... I want to wait outside so I can help him."

Tracou glowered up at him and opened his mouth to chastise him again, but Stepan said a few words which made him reconsider his approach.

"If you die I'll hate you forever."

With a chuckle, Mirthal leaned down and took Tracou's hand. Before Tracou could react, he peeled his glove off and kissed his mark.

"Tch, don't kiss me there."

Mirthal straightened up again and cheerfully put Tracou's glove back on. "If I kiss you on the lips, I'll get dizzy."

Stepan spoke up again, his voice sounding urgent. What he said made Tracou grimace.

"They've nearly met Pendaer."

"Then you'd better get inside."

"Stay behind the houses, okay?"

"Okay."

Reluctantly, Tracou moved away from Mirthal. They nodded to each other and Tracou left, going into one of the homes. Stepan waved at Mirthal and gave him a hearty Dezmerian "good morning," before entering a different house.

Hopefully this plan would work.

After getting the horses into a barn, Mirthal now had to decide where he would hide. If he moved down the road, towards the direction Pendaer went, he could spring up from behind if something went wrong.

But then he would be behind Pendaer, which might not help him. Bodies could stand between him and Pendaer.

Tracou had told him to stay behind the houses, which Mirthal decided was the right way to go. At least that way he would have some kind of shelter. Normally he would stick out like a sore thumb, since anyone walking up the road would be able to see him at the right angle, but the world was gray. All he had to do was cover himself in powder and he blended right in. Peering down the lane, Mirthal rubbed the gray into his hair.

He waited.

With the sun hidden, he had no way to gauge the passage of time. It felt agonizing.

Tracou must be vibrating with anxiety.

With each minute that passed, Mirthal became closer to matching that concern.