Upon arrival to the manor, Tracou forced everyone to douse themselves in water to get the dust off of them. Because that made it easy to use magic again, Tracou could dry everyone, making the process last only a few minutes. With that done, he ushered everyone into the study. They could at least sit comfortably there, with multiple chairs. Tracou and the elves sat on the bench, with Mirthal in the middle, while the other dezmek sat in chairs across from them.
Out the window, bits of gray still floated downward.
To think that this could happen. He had first kissed Mirthal here. That night had been the best in his life, but mere days later he sat here, heart thudding for entirely different reasons. Compared to the warm lighting he had created that night, the haze outside created a malaise that extended even inside his manor.
"So what are we going to do, Lord Vartanian? Do you have a plan?" Elira asked, the words squeaking out of her mouth.
Tracou grimaced. "No. Do either of you?"
Elira shook her head. Stepan, however, puffed himself up.
"I don't have a plan," he boasted. "But I can tell you where those men are. I sent Tsova out to scout when I saw the dust."
"Tsova?"
"My familiar!"
"And you still have a connection to it?"
"Tsova's been my familiar since I was about your age. She's outlived normal seagulls a few times over by now. Our bond is stronger than that dust!"
If that seagull had been Stepan's familiar for that long, it was possible that the bond had solidified past being active magic. The concepts of active and completed magic were not ones that had been covered by his tutor and were not relevant to magical scholarship in Dezmer at all. Maybe a magical connection that lasted for what was likely at least thirty years could become 'complete,' even though it was to another living creature.
These were things Tracou would have to think about later.
"Okay then, where are they?"
According to Stepan, the Winleans were several miles away from Ergakan as they spoke. The ones on land had no dust to spread, so some had to be on ships. The Winlean infantry force followed the gray.
More importantly, the Winleans numbered at maybe one hundred men. Had those been dezmek, the number would have been pitiful. But that amount of humans approaching them made Tracou want to vomit. Two elves and three dezmek couldn't do anything against numbers like that without magic. His own village had less than two hundred people and a portion of those were children and the elderly.
But Stepan wasn't finished yet. The majority of the humans headed their way were, according to Stepan, "definitely pirates and other criminals." They weren't wearing armor and they just ambled along without discipline. Only perhaps ten men wore armor.
At the pace the Winleans were going, they would arrive in about two hours.
After he translated everything, Tracou let out a long breath.
"So what do we do?"
"We'll need to move quickly. Hiding in those magical buildings of yours is one thing, dezmek, but what will you do if the Winleans set up camp? I don't think you're ready for a siege," Pendaer said.
He was right. Tracou would be fine in his manor for a while, since he kept his food in storerooms in the building, but the others didn't typically have that much food in their homes. When he repeated what Pendaer said to the others, Stepan nodded forcefully.
"This elf knows what he's talking about."
Tracou translated it automatically, only realizing what he had done after the last word flew past his lips. Eyes wide, he turned to look at Pendaer, who gazed at Stepan in utter shock. Then, with the smallest hint of pleasure on his face, Pendaer turned away from him.
"He's not very friendly," Stepan said, punctuating his sentence with a stray 'heh.'
That line Tracou didn't convey.
"If the Winleans won't be here for over an hour, we can at least tell people to gather something to eat for... hopefully what will only be at most a day," Tracou said, speaking quickly. "But it means that we'll have to do another sweep to make sure no one is outside."
"We can do that," Elira chirped. "You and the elves can come up with something while the two of us make sure everyone gets back in their houses. I'll even give the announcement."
Stepan heaved a sigh. "I wanted to be part of the planning... Fine. Maybe this time I can convince others to join us."
Elira placed her wand at her throat and, before she could speak, Tracou muffled the sound around Mirthal and Pendaer's ears. Gather food from the storehouses for an hour, then hide. A simple advisory, but hopefully effective.
Stepan and Elira left to help with the gathering efforts.
With them gone, Tracou pressed against Mirthal's side.
If the Winleans didn't slaughter them today, they would endure days of hunger and then die at the hands of the Winleans or of starvation. Hopeless.
Tracou forced a breath out and sat up straight. If he gave himself time to breathe, time to think about the situation as a whole and not what needed to be done next, he would end up wallowing in misery. That quagmire would claim him even before death did.
"So," he said, voice thick. "A plan."
Silence. Tracou had never prepared for this sort of eventuality. Mirthal had probably studied famous battles or something of that nature, but that would have involved armies. Elvish armies, at that. Pendaer had likely only been trained in how to keep one person safe. None of them had the experience necessary to even begin to know how to tackle this problem.
"Well," Tracou began, shakily. "We can't attack them."
"We don't have enough time to prepare pits for them to fall into, either," Pendaer pointed out. "Even mine isn't finished. Why didn't you do anything, dezmek?!"
Guilt tore at him. Pendaer had been right; he had failed and they would all die.
"I... I don't know, I—!"
"Now isn't the time, Pendaer. Yell at him later," Mirthal said. Then he shifted his gaze toward Tracou. "Do you think we can negotiate with them? We can't attack that many humans..."
Pendaer shook his head. "We don't have anything to offer them."
"We have me," Mirthal said as casually as if he was talking about exchanging two mules for a horse.
Both Tracou and Pendaer let out cries of indignation and, instead of worrying about how they had done that at the same time, began to speak over each other.
"Your highness, are you out of your mind? You can't use yourself as a bargaining chip for the lives of some dezmek!"
"No, Mirthal, don't be stupid! This is my problem, not yours! Besides, they might take you and kill us anyway!"
Mirthal went quiet, his eyes distant.
It was one thing if Ergakan was destroyed because of Tracou's incompetence, but Mirthal could not lose his life over something so stupid.
Pendaer cleared his throat. "Let's look over our assets."
Tracou jumped at the chance to help him change the subject.
"We have you two, who can use bows and swords. Then we have three dezmek, possibly more, who can't do anything. Our magic is restricted to indoors, so it's basically useless."
"That's it, is it?"
"We have horses, I suppose. Oh, and Stepan's familiar."
"Useful as a seagull is as a scout, it wouldn't be an effective combatant. An irritant at best."
"You can use magic indoors..." Mirthal mumbled to himself.
Catching this, Pendaer and Tracou exchanged a look.
"Yes, not that it does us much good," Tracou said.
"The magic can't go outside, I guess, but..." Mirthal slowly focused on Tracou. "You can send other things outside."
Tracou cocked an eyebrow, turning his whole body to face Mirthal.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you could, say, throw rocks at them. But not really throw them. More like... magically fling them. You could hurt them pretty badly with enough force. Maybe even kill them."
Rocks hurled at an enemy would indeed wound them, but it couldn't be that simple. First of all, they would have to open up holes to shoot rocks or other things through. That would expose their previously only slightly dust contaminated homes. Then again, small holes wouldn't introduce much dust if they were opened and closed quickly. Aside from that was the question of usefulness. Sure, they could launch rocks from their homes, but that required the humans to be nearby.
"That's not a bad idea, Mirthal, but if the Winleans started to avoid the houses we wouldn't be able to attack them anymore. We could probably get one good strike, but who knows where, exactly, they're going to come in from. They might not even be in one big group."
"Mm... that's true," Mirthal sighed. "If we had a way to funnel them in between some houses at all once, we could handle most of them."
"How could we funnel them? We can't build fences in less than two hours."
"Dezmek, is there a part of your village where we could potentially drive these humans into with houses on either side?"
"Yes, there's a cluster of houses around where Serpouhi lives now."
Tapping his foot, Pendaer asked Mirthal a question in Elvish. Mirthal replied with one word that sounded like it dripped with confusion. Pendaer clicked his tongue.
"I have an idea," he said, eyes closed. Despite having an idea, he didn't seem to be pleased with it. "I will meet the humans, wearing a cloak so they can't see my ears. One of them is bound to speak Aodehsh. I'll tell them, ugh, something and get them to follow me as a group. I'll lead them in between those huts you call homes and then you dezmek can pummel them with rocks. Barbaric!"
This offer of Pendaer's didn't initially make sense to Tracou. The idea that Pendaer, of all people, had suggested something that required so much sacrifice on his part blindsided him. Pendaer! The same Pendaer who had refused to bend his ears so he could help find Mirthal in Dorssur.
Going up to the humans by himself was dangerous. Stupidly dangerous.
He had known Pendaer for months know, almost as long as he had known Mirthal. They had spent more time around each other, if one tallied it up, as well. Pendaer still refused to use his name, and yet...
Tracou's throat tightened.
"You would do that for us?" he asked, words strained.
"Not for you, dezmek," Pendaer hissed. "I'll do it for the prince."
Oh. That Tracou could understand.
Beaming, Mirthal clapped Pendaer on the shoulder. He said something to him in Elvish, but, before Pendaer could respond, he shifted his attention to Tracou.
"We have a plan now, don't we?"
"We do, but... What if we miss some? There are one hundred men out there. Let's say we get ninety of them. That would still leave ten."
"They're humans, dezmek, not some force of nature! Seeing so many of their group killed will make the rest scatter."
Tracou pouted, annoyed to have to admit to himself that Pendaer knew more about this and might possibly be right.
If he could have his way, Tracou would have rather had a plan with no holes in it. One that he could be sure would go off without a hitch. This situation was too dire for them to fail. Unfortunately, they had to do something. Now. No time to think, no time to hem and haw about details.
He stood up. "Okay, we have a plan. Let's get ready and go."