Tomas said nothing.
‘If I might be so bold, should you decide to undertake Pug’s charge, it would be most useful if you could discreetly deliver a message to Tandarae, Lorekeeper of the Regent’s Meet. He will let you know if we can return as honoured survivors of a hopeless battle, or if we would be executed for desertion in the face of the enemy.’
‘That information would certainly prove useful before showing your faces in E’bar,’ Tomas agreed. ‘Until then, what are yourplans?’
‘I would like to return to my brother on Sorcerer’s Isle. He’s quite enthused about the opportunity to learn from other cultures. I must confess I am more dubious than he, but his enthusiasm about the things he has learned from a human warlock named Amirantha is intriguing. And while my arts don’t plumb the depths of dark mysteries as his do, I am always looking to improve my craft.’
‘A wise choice,’ said Tomas. ‘Though you are certainly welcome to stay in Elvandar, should you wish it.’
Just then the curtain moved aside and Aglaranna, Queen of Elvandar, entered. ‘Greetings Laromendis.’ Coming from the court she wore a simple, but regal gown of sky blue cloth, trimmed with white at the collar and cuffs. Her only jewellery was the simple gold circlet embedded with a ruby gem, which held back her mane of auburn hair.
Laromendis stood without thinking, then bent a knee before the Queen, bowing his head. ‘It is a joy to see you again, My Lady.’
‘Please, rise,’ she bid him.
He did, but would not sit in her presence. He was as overwhelmed by the Queen as he had been the first time he had come to this court. She was as powerful a presence as her husband, but in a completely different fashion. Tomas evoked ancient fear and a need for obedience, impulses that could be battled and overcome. Aglaranna overcame the senses with her beauty and majesty. There was nothing challenging in her nature and that made her irresistible. Softly, the Conjurer said, ‘If possible, My Lady, Lord Tomas, it might prove useful if the Regent Lord could be persuaded to visit Elvandar.’
‘We have already extended such an invitation,’ said Tomas.
‘Perhaps you should be a little more insistent, Lord Tomas.’ He studied the queen, her flawlessness, her wonderful reddish brown hair and finely sculpted features. She possessed a type of beauty he did not find attractive in the women of his own race; he preferred a more robust looking female, and by taredhel standards the Queen was small, almost petite. Yet her beauty was something that transcended the merely physical, defied the logic of attraction; it was the same beauty he found while walking in the sacred grove; if Home had a soul, it was Elvandar, and if Elvandar could be embodied in a single being, it would be the Queen.
‘If you will excuse me, My Queen, Lord Tomas, I will use this clever creation to return to Sorcerer’s Isle.’
The Queen gave her consent, and the Conjurer removed the device from his belt pouch, thumbed a switch and with a faint humming, was suddenly gone.
Aglaranna looked at her husband and said, ‘What word does he bring from Pug?’
‘Dire warning, and a request for us to reach out to the taredhel.’
She moved out of her chair to kneel before her husband, girlishness lingering in her fluid grace. She rested her head on his knee, as a child might to a parent, and said, ‘What are we to do with our newly returned cousins?’
‘That is the problem, my love’, said Tomas, stroking her hair. ‘They have not returned, and I don’t think they ever will. Like those of the ocedhel who remain across the waters, they feel no need to come here.
‘We shall endeavour to respect their independence, and we will try to be friends.’
‘An alliance? You don’t sound hopeful.’
Tomas said nothing. He knew in his heart that the Star Elves posed the gravest threat to Elvandar since the coming of the Tsurani invaders; a threat greater than the army of the Emerald Queen, even more than the Dasati invaders.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Strategy
PUG SIGNALLED FOR SILENCE.
Kaspar, one time Duke of Olasko and now General of the Army and First Advisor to the Maharaja of Muboya said, ‘Pug has asked me to take over conducting this next bit of business.
‘As I understand it from what Sandreena saw,’ he nodded to the newly minted Mother-Bishop of the Order of the Shield of the Weak, ‘and what Kendra said about his captivity, we have two tasks.