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Home » Great Library at Hoeth » Book of Tales » Tales of Si'anelle » A Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Fourteen: The Daughter of Arhaindir MoonhandA Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Fourteen: The Daughter of Arhaindir Moonhand
| A Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Fourteen: The Daughter of Arhaindir MoonhandA Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Fourteen: The Daughter of Arhaindir Moonhand |
| - by Lady Si'anelle |
As she cast her eyes over the expanse of the plowed field Jean-marie saw at once that Peledym Ashleaf, Nimine Starbrow and Cedwyn Brighteye were not here. Though her heart was eased when she did see that Ae'thenal was safe and whole and with the Banepearl in her hands. Except that the Wood Elf enchantress Taileth Mistborn was at her side and by the absent quality of her expression she was most thoughtful about some matter. However whatever it was upon her mind Jean-marie did not care so long as the enchantress did keep it to herself. The next event was a one she could predict and did not in any measure cause her to be surprised. For even as the giantess Sebekneru was hailing them to demand why they were here, the Lady Si'anelle did guide Finaith to where Ae'thenal was standing in the field. Their eyes but for one another alone as the distance between them closed.
The Lady Si'anelle's dismount was untidy made, and she may have fallen save that Ae'thenal did lay a hand to her arm to steady her. Then as they stood each facing the other, as if no other persons existed within all the World save themselves, they both closed their hands upon the Banepearl. Of a sudden Taileth Mistborn jerked as if she had awoken from a dream and cried out, moving towards the pair a step, her hand outstretched as if she would prevent this tryst. Except that it was as if a shrieking wind did rise up that did cast up dirt and small stones from the field, and the very air itself did glow with motes of dark toned gold while the ground shook hard once as if an earth elemental had shifted in its sleep.
Now occupied with calming her mare Cloud Jean-marie did also struggle to still the furious beating of her heart within her breast. All about her the women of Araby were blinking dust from their eyes and making nervous speech to one another, while T'amsine did have her work well cut out in indeed in attempting to return Nadimar to the authority of her hand upon the bit in his mouth. Except that Jean-marie was amazed when Bronwyn did ride past her on Rascal as if nothing was amiss to herd the enchantress Taileth Mistborn away from the Banepearl's servants with Ironfang in her hand. Not wishing to be at a lack in her duty she did make Cloud follow, even though the mare was most unwilling to be so ruled at first.
Raising her voice she did command power to raise a minor warding spell against the enchantress and did suffer it being dispelled as the enchantress displayed her own craft. However her act did serve to warn Taileth Mistborn off, for in truth she could predict that the enchantress did not want a full fledged magical contest between them this morn.
"Fool," Taileth Mistborn did cry out to her, "Young fool, are you so blind with your bag of fairground tricks that you cannot see that which does lie plain before your eyes."
With that insult, 'Young', that she did so hate flung in her face Jean-marie did at first see no more than the normal events that did play out about her. The giantess Sebekneru loudly comanding T'amsine to quit the borrowed Elven steed she rode as she did stride across the field. And the Araby woman's reply as she did make Nadimar snort and prance, "Have you no soul my sister? - this is the finest horse than any I have ever ridden in my life."
But as Sebekneru gave in impatient answer, "You ain't a horse thief anymore; git down before I come and haul ya off;" Jean-marie saw at last that which Taileth Mistborn had spoken of. The moment held as if frozen within a sphere formed of glass as her eyes now fell upon the Lady Si'anelle. Standing tall and at her ease and with the Banepearl resting cupped in her paired hands the she-Elf was terrible and fair to look upon, all wasting and sickness gone from her slender frame as if they had never been. And also beautiful and terrible fair Ae'thenal did attend upon her, fingers quick and sure as she did work to adjust the straps and fastenings of her ancient bronze armour so that they would not pinch and bruise now that her friend was no longer frail and thin.
"At last the Bretonnian maid does see," Taileth Mistborn cried out before she laughed. A bitter enough sounding laugh. And while the enchantress pointedly did ignore the way Bronwyn was dogging her steps with Ironfang still in her hand she did draw the closer. "The wicked thing does restore them both and make them more fair than the most perfect of Elven-kind; - what say you to that Jean-marie d'Quenelles?"
Save that Jean-marie was not about to be cowed by Taileth Mistborn for all that she was the older and more skilled of the pair of them. The memory of her true vision did blaze within her mind, of how a maid, perfect made and fair, dressed in a white gown had come to her while she was within her chamber. And had shown her how the future might be should she be so daring as to quit her father's castle on the eve of her wedding feast and ride to await a different destiny at Athel Loren's mossy and ancient boundary stones.
"Where is the foulness that you do speak of enchantress?" she did sharply give in answer. "I see no more than a loving friendship warded by the Lady's hand."
Now a proof was given. With her violet eyes upon Taileth Mistborn, Aethenal did rise from her task and slip her fingers into the neck of her white tunic that she wore beneath her breastplate. Drawing out a white tearshaped jewel upon a fine silver chain; and that white jewel did blaze with a pure light so that it was as if a nimbus was about the she-Elf as she stood beside her friend. Before this Jean-marie had not seen that most perfect gem, though now she could well remember the soft near silent whisper of it at those times when she had layen awake at night beneath the stars, her bedding laid out next Ae'thenal's.
"By the Lady's grace," soft she did say before she did bow her head, knowing in her heart that beyond all proving her gifted vision had been true. Nearby she heard Bronwyn breath both Sigmar and Isha's name in her own fashion before Ae'thenal's hand did close over the Tearstone, its pure light blazing out from between her fingers and she tucked it back beneath her tunic.
The enchantress stepped nearer her hand tight about her staff, her chest rising and falling as she breathed deeply as if to steady her resolve. "Save that it is not a ward against the wicked object that you do now hold Si'anelle of Avelorn," Taileth Mistborn now did say, even though it was plain enough on her face that seeing the Tearstone had also had an effect on her.
"Are you so certain?" was the Lady Si'anelle's reply to that. "My dear friend and I are but frail flesh, and yet we do still prevail Taileth Mistborn." And soft she did say, "Isha," once, capping the Banepearl's flaring dark flame with her own pale bare hand while her eyes did blaze with agony.
"A pause," now Taileth Mistborn did softly say, her hand rising as if she did intend to reach out and lay her hand gentlly upon the Lady Si'anelle's arm. "A pause in which neither can yet best the other; - my Lady Si'anelle pray do remember that." Trembling the enchantress's hand fell away. "I am not thy enemy," was her final word before she hastened away with her hands pressed to her face, to stand alone among the furrows of the field where she wept in silence.
Bronwyn did know she was no woman of letters, nor even an approximation of a learned woman, her years as a footloose mercenary had well seen to that. There were things here that Jean-marie might well have the skill to explain, save that her own practical lessons in human nature were telling her that Taileth Mistborn's tears were honest in their flow and that her words, 'I am not your enemy', were not a lie. Putting up her sword she returned it to its scabbard on her back, her eye the while on Jean-marie who seated upon her mare Cloud was watching the enchantress weep.
"Go to her if that is what you wish to do," she did tell her in an undertone as she did make her dismount from Rascal. And with a nod Jean-marie did also make a dismount, walking now to where Taileth Mistborn stood weeping, while her mare Cloud did follow behind wickering and nuzzling at her hair.
The two she-Elven of Avelorn were standing silent close together hand in hand, the Banepearl cast aside from them to lie in a furrow as if it was a dark seed sown to birth a daemon, except that Bronwyn was well used to that careless seeming act of theirs. Loud on the morning air she could hear Sebekneru arguing with T'amsine and her Araby women in their own language. In between cycles of that quick, darting and heated speech, the giantess pausing to roar orders at Helene the Orcslayer in the common tongue. Or to tell Lu'uk to go again and scout the woods for Orcs. In this Bronwyn did not envy the mute wolf woman her task for all her feral skill.
Softly Bronwyn cleared her throat with a polite cough, she could guess well enough that the Lady Si'anelle and Ae'thenal had been bespeaking one another. On any other morning she would have been content to leave them alone together, given that the past several nights and days had not been kind to them both. Except that thirty paces away one of the best war captains that she ever had known was ordering her warrior women to face an Orcish attack with some urgency; and that fact could not be ignored.
"I do not idly overlook our present danger Bronwyn," quietly the Lady Si'anelle did say to her as she turned her head, her violet gaze fever bright and haunted.
"So you have not won a release my Lady?" was her reply. That haunted gaze laying a chill touch upon her heart, causing her to hang her head and sigh.
"Taileth Mistborn's tears are not for nought," was Ae'thenal's comment as she stood her friend's slim pale hand still in her own. Despair was alive upon her face and Bronwyn could not tell the reason; save that Ae'thenal might have indeed suffered more in the night than a chill and uncomfortable bed beneath the stars that the mossy dirt upon her cloak bore a witness to.
"However these things do not matter in this hour sweet Ae'thenal," the Lady Si'anelle now did say as lightly her hand rose to trace her cheek. And in reply Ae'thenal nodded her head and sighed before signing with her free hand that her friend did have her leave to speak for them both.
"The Orcs alone are not the danger Bronwyn of Nuln," the Lady Si'anelle did begin. "For even now the Undead host does shamble its way along the old Dwarf road and shall soon come to a place where the road does wend its way between two chains of hills which serve to contain the road within a valley."
"I do know this valley," she did say without a thought to question how the Lady Si'anelle had come by her knowledge. It would be the Banepearl's work, though how much trust might be placed upon it that was another matter. Except that the description was true, a valley that was not so narrow but not so wide, and at one end the beginings of the forest that was the boundary to Sebekeru's lands.
"The Orcs must be swift defeated here before the Undead do attain the valley. For once they do enter the forest moving out to flank this field while the Orcs are undefeated all shall be lost." The Lady Si'anelle's hand rose while she spoke sweeping wide to demonstrate this danger and Bronwyn nodded. She knew the lie of this land and could see how they could be caught by that circumstance. Shambling or not, once the Undead found the remnants of the old road among the trees they would be here soon enough.
"You forgetting I'm the prince who rules this land." Bowing her head towards Sebekneru Bronwyn moved her hand in invitation. The absence of loud voices about them for the past minute meant that the giantess was satisfied with her preparations, which also meant that Sebekneru was not going to stand idle and be denied a place at a council of war held by guest-holy Elven. "Stick it Bronwyn," was Sebekneru's response to her invitation to join them as she strode into their midst.
"Heard ya plan Elf," said the giantess without preamble. "For somebody whose never seen that valley you got the situation pretty well off pat. Only....," And here she jabbed a huge finger at the Lady Si'anelle, ".......... how do I know ya right about those Undead coming here that you Elves are so set on?"
"More than Elven have spoken of it Sebekneru," replied the Lady Si'anelle to that. Yet another event that she knew not a thing about was Bronwyn's thought as now she folded her arms and set her ears to listen more closely. "The captive Goblin did speak at length upon this." And here Bronwyn did most carefully note the way that Ae'thenal seemed to be the more tense as she laid her eyes upon the giantess.
With a sharp sniff Sebekneru curled her lip in response, "And Elven gave out a translation, so I'm still not satisfied."
"Your wood-mage Lu'uk shall soon make a return Sebekneru." Bronwyn saw the giantess's eyes harden behind the eyeslits of her helmet when the Lady Si'anelle did say that. "Until then I shall be at work with the ordering of my own troops." And here the she-Elf did formally incline her head saying, "My Lady the Princess Sebekneru," to the giantess's further amazement before she turned to reclaim Ae'thenal's hand. Holding it close within her own while they did walk away together towards where Taileth Mistborn now stood leaning upon the arm of Jean-marie d'Quenelles.
"So where's your 'troops' anyway Elf?" roared the giantess after her. Even as Sebekneru's finger jabbed out again for a second time, the sound of a horn blown clear upon the breeze did reach their ears. And at that sound Bronwyn saw clear enough the small quiet smile that did for a moment brighten the Lady Si'anelle's expression.
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