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  After the shearing, Erin was directed into a pen with many other captives. She did not recognize most of them. Captives were prodded into a cart with high sides and a grated floor until the cart was full. The captives’ hands were bound with leather straps to crossbar in the cart.

  Because Erin was the last of her load in the cart, she was on the outside edge of the back row. She could see that the captives in the cart were a mix of men and women. They were all bald, hairless, and sunburned, and without any identifying features were hard to distinguish from one another. My riders? I can’t tell. She wondered if she looked like the others.

  A clutchman wearing a heavy metal bracelet took hold of the drunglet that was pulling the cart and started forward. Erin heard the clutchman say something to the drone; she again picked out the words “bracelet” and “obscuring field.” Oh! They are taking us in this cart through the field where everything is obscured, where they create illusions to prevent people coming near their city, Erin realized. This is where Alec used stakes and ropes to get us across, but this cart is how they will get us all through it.

  She knew when they entered the obscuring field. The world changed; everything she could see became fragmented and spun. Hollow noises rang and shimmered within her head. The sky swam above her and below her. Her mind rebelled and she wanted to flee. Her restraints held her in the cart. She felt other bodies thrashing and trying to flee also. She could not tell where the ground was. She felt one of the others disgorging the contents of his stomach and felt a warm fluid as it pelted her. She also lost control of her bodily functions and joined with the others in disgorging everything. Finally, Erin’s mind returned to normal. Her body felt like it had been beaten and torn. We must be through the obscuring field and in the heart of the elf lands. She was untied from the cart and dropped onto the ground with the others. She could not stand up and lay in a pile with the other captives. The clutchman turned the empty cart around and led the drunglet back towards the camp.

  A second clutchmen let them lay for a few minutes before he directed them to a strapline. Erin was still dizzy, but the pain from the band was too intense and she stumbled to the strap and took hold of it. When everyone was on the strap, the clutchmen started down the road. She held firmly to the strap and followed the other captives.

  ✽✽✽

  Alec was annoyed that it was taking so long to return to the dragon quest. Everything had gone well on the trip home – he had even had a few moments to see the children and tell them the story about their mother’s fight with the dragon. The problems had started after the final portal stop when the axle on the cart broke. Theland carts were prone to breaking down, and he had fixed many an axle, so that wasn’t a problem; but this time it took an unusually long time. To save weight and increase the cart’s speed, the driver had not included a hoist. The extra time that was required to jack up the cart, remove the axle, repair it, and then reinstall it, had delayed their arrival. Alec knew that Erin and the riders had been trapped in the gorge and was aware of their fight against the elves, but there was nothing he could do to speed his crew’s arrival.

  Alec was still hours from the gorge when he felt Erin go silent. He turned to his cart driver. “I am riding on ahead of the cart to help them. Come along as quickly as you can.”

  He recognized the gorge from Erin’s mental image of it. Now he slowed and moved cautiously. Without Erin, he could not sense elves. A short distance within the walls of the gorge he reached a rock barricade blocking his trogus; he dismounted and scrambled over it. On the far side was a tangle of bloody bodies, being picked over by ravens and axlets. Most of the bodies seemed to be elves, but from their uniforms several clearly were Theland riders, pecked-out eyes staring mutely at the sky.

  Alec ran to the bodies with a terrible feeling in his heart and began tugging through them, looking for any sign of life. “Erin,” he whispered. “Erin.” None of them were alive, and none of them were Erin.

  Under several elves he found Rand, the lead rider, lying face down, sword still in hand, a spear shank protruding from his back, his elf ring still on his finger. Alec carefully removed the elf ring. He must have been attacked from the rear and overrun by those vermin, to be at the bottom of the heap with a shaft between his shoulders, Alec thought angrily. His emotions welled up, but he was beyond tears. Here were people that he had laughed with, cried with, and ridden with, and now they were dead.

  But they weren’t Erin. He was relieved that he did not find her, but, at the same time, deeply saddened by the fate of the riders. But no Erin. Maybe she lives.

  Now Alec began a more thorough search of the area. A few paces up the gulch was a large pile of clothing. Looks like an elf cull, he thought. They stripped their captives, like they did to me. He pawed through the heap, and finally was rewarded – Erin’s favorite riding jacket, torn but not blood-soaked, was in the pile. Clutching the jacket, he stood and look up the winding gulch, where tracks of dozens of bare feet led onward. Several paces further he found Erin’s weapons, her ring and a small red rock lying in the dirt beside them. That’s the little pebble that Leon gave to her, just before we started this goddamned quest. He picked it up and cradled it in the palm of his hand.

  The elves have captured Erin. Tears welled up in his eyes. I must free her. Should I follow them now, or wait for the rest of my crew to catch up?

  On the one hand, it would be best to follow while the tracks were still fresh. On the other hand, his cart could not cross the rock barricade or traverse this gulch, and his crew would not know where he had gone. But the need to do something – anything – was overpowering.

  A few of the still-saddled trogus milled around the edge of the gorge – some had been killed in battle, and apparently the rest had run off. What a waste of trained animals, and their tack, Alec thought. One of the trogus spotted him and came over, mewing. He recognized the beast as Erin’s – would it let him ride it?

  Alec made the decision to follow the tracks, and gingerly mounted Erin’s trogus. It sidled a bit, not moving forward, when Alec felt a trickle of dark energy. He looked around to investigate. Over by the side of the cliff. Alec slid off the reluctant trogus and walked over to the cliff-face where he could see a recent rockslide. He felt the bit of dark energy a second time.

  “Is someone there?” Alec shouted.

  ‘’Yes here!”

  Alec started at the faint, but familiar, voice.

  “Colin?!”

  “Help me; I can’t get out.”

  “Where – where are you? Can you move?”

  “I’m okay – I’m trapped behind these rocks!”

  Focus. Quickly he created a hole in the rubble and Colin came scurrying out of the hole like a large rabbit.

  “Alec! I am so glad to see you!” Colin said, leaping to his feet as he cleared the rocks.

  “Colin! What were you doing in there?”

  “I was escaping from the elves!” He clasped Alec’s arm. “Where are the others?”

  Alec gestured over his shoulder at the pile of bodies, near the barricade, marked by the growing cloud of ravens circling overhead.

  Colin winced. “Awful, awful.”

  “What happened? Where is Erin?”

  “I don’t know. We were fighting the elves.” Colin looked down, ashamed. “Erin was fighting the elf mothers, trying to twist their lines, and I was providing Erin with dark energy, but I lost my focus and lost control of the energy. The energy rebounded on me and everything went black inside my head and I could not even focus my eyes to see.”

  Alec shook his head in frustration. “My fault. A weakness in your training,” he said. “I taught you to avoid instabilities but not how to manage them. I should have realized there would be a time when you would need to know how to do that.”

  Colin continued, “When I could finally see, Erin was fighting the elves. She needed more dark energy. I tried to focus but couldn’t. So I grabbed my sword and tried to join the fight. Three of the el
ves were between me and her. One of the elves had climbed up on the hillside and dropped rocks and knocked her down. The last I saw, she was laying still on the ground, surrounded by elves. I thought she was dead. All the other riders had collapsed, and the elves were overrunning the path, so I climbed up to this cave. The elves saw me and were right behind me, but finally I could focus and so I created a rockslide that closed the entrance. I heard the elves outside talking. The elf mother knew I was alive and inside the cave, but I guess they thought it was too much trouble to extract me, so they left.”

  Alec put his arm around the young man’s shoulders and stared up the gorge. “I think they captured Erin and most of our riders. I am going after them. You wait here for the rest of my force. They killed Rand, and about a quarter of our riders.”

  “Not Rand!”

  “My cart and my crew will be here soon. They will not be able to get past the barricade. Here’s what I need you to do. Round up as many of our trogus as you can and collect the weapons and gear from the fallen. Perform a proper departing ceremony for our slain riders and then go back to Freeland City with my crew and inform the Queen of what has happened.”

  “All right.”

  “I will take Erin’s trogus and follow the elf tracks.” Alec grasped the young man’s arm. “Here: take Rand’s ring. I will keep Erin’s ring – she will need it when I find her.” He slipped the ring on his little finger. “Good journey to you.”

  Colin took Rand’s ring and swallowed hard. “Good journey, my brother.”

  7 – Joining the Mothers

  Alec felt the slight twinge in the two rings before he felt his trogus stumble and start to fall. That was just enough warning to allow him to dismount before the beast collapsed on top of him. He landed roughly and looked around. Three warriors were approaching him with short spears. Those are elf spears, and those must be elf clutchmen. A mother must have made my trogus fall. The clutchmen’s intent was clear. They intend to finish me. Alec stood and faced the three men. Focus. Alec collected dark energy. He imagined a rock in the center of the chest of each of the three and released his focus. Each of the three staggered once and collapsed, bleeding from the chest, quickly becoming lifeless.

  He heard a commotion in the bushes. A woman had watched the fight and was fleeing. An elf mother. Alec grimaced. She tried to coerce me, but my rings saved me. Alec picked up a small rock, focused again, then released the focus. This time the rock sped towards the woman and slapped her in the back of the head with a loud crack. The woman collapsed into the bushes. Alec carefully walked up and prodded her with the blunt side of his sword. The stone had knocked her out, but she was still breathing. Alec saw the elf ring on her finger and took it. Then he pulled both of her hands behind her back and focused. Her hands were enclosed in a metal band.

  His quarry subdued, Alec carefully scouted around a little further. Just over the knoll he saw a small camp, where three people were quietly working. He approached, but they continued to work without acknowledging him.

  “Who are you?” Alec asked one of the three, in Elvish.

  “I am the mother’s head drone. We are preparing the camp for her. She told us to do our work quietly because she had to kill an intruder and did not want us to make any noise to alert him.” Having answered the question, the drone stood silently with its head down, waiting for instructions. The drone clearly wasn’t sure of Alec’s position, but knew that Alec’s status was above his, and therefore required respect.

  Alec had an idea. “Do you have any of the neck bands?”

  “Yes, Master. They are in the mother’s trunk.”

  Alec went into the tent and found the bands. He did not like to use them, but he needed information from the elf mother that the drones would not have. He took one from the trunk.

  Alec returned to the mother. He could see that she was awake and in pain. Alec slid the band around her neck. His ring would protect him from the mother’s coercive abilities in case she was able to touch him.

  “Tell me what is going on. Why are you here?” he asked.

  “You orb!” she spat. “I would not tell an animal anything.” The mother snarled; then she writhed and rolled on the ground in utter pain.

  “Good for you. Now, what is going on?”

  The mother rolled on the ground for a few moments more, writhing in pain, before she started to talk. “We are performing a cull among you wild orbs. We need to collect about a thousand of you.”

  “Why?” Alec knew that the elves occasionally took a few people from Theland or the neighboring area in Gott to turn into slaves but hadn’t heard of a large cull since he had arrived in this world.

  “Because! We need more breeders in New Haven! Our breeding program has fallen short. We need more orb pups to turn into drones. We have increased the number of domestic female orbs that we keep alive, but they are very slow. No amount of pain or coercion can convince them to speed up their pupping process. It continues to take almost a full turn of the seasons to produce a pup! So we need to collect more wild orbs to make up for the shortfall. We haven’t had to do a large cull to procure wild orbs in many many years. But because you orbs are so slow to breed, we need at least a thousand more a year until the breeders catch up with our needs. We are even bringing in females from the wild orb cull, if they look like they can breed, because it takes so long to grow new domestic breeders.”

  Alec knew that the elves raised people like livestock, ‘domesticated orbs’ to be turned into slaves. Through coercion, cruelty, and pain from the elf neckbands, the orbs were turned into mindless drones, there to serve the elf mothers’ every whim. But why the dragon? He had never seen the elves use a dragon for anything but battle.

  “How does the dragon fit into the cull?”

  “The dragon is our herder. It goes into a village and frightens everyone. After a bit of mischief and mayhem the wild orbs flee their walls; they are such weaklings that it is easy to scare them. Then it is simple for us to round them up and cull out the ones we want.”

  “And the ones you don’t want?”

  “Pah!” she spit into the dust. “We kill them, of course. If they are not fit to be breeders or drones, then they are of no use to anyone.”

  “The one you keep – the cull – where are you taking them?”

  “We don’t like to stay out here in the lands of the wild orbs any longer than we have to. So unclean. We take them into our lands, to our city, New Haven, for domestication.”

  “If you hate it so, and are not helping with the cull, then what are you doing out here?”

  “We know from long experience that some of the wild orbs that are not part of the cull will try to follow and free the suitable ones that we have collected. Our traditions require a few of us to follow along behind the cull routes to stop and dispatch any orbs who are foolish enough to follow. Like you! I sensed you long before you came in sight!” The elf woman sniffed in disgust.

  “Unfortunately, I was stupid,” she continued. “My head drone neglected to bring any amulets with him on this trip to diffuse your dark energy. Amulets were part of the assigned equipment, and I can’t believe that my idiot drone neglected to bring ours! The other two mothers have their amulets, but I do not – and I did not go back for them, because I did not think I would encounter a solitary dark energy wizard like you. When I get home, I will punish the drone severely for the omission. If my clutchmen had their amulets, then they would still be alive, and you would be dead.”

  “Dead – not a part of the cull?”

  Even though she was on the ground at his feet, the mother threw back her head and glared at Alec. “It is too much trouble to include you stragglers in the cull, even if you might be suitable, so we just kill you.” She sniffed. “But you won’t last long either. The other two mothers are supposed to meet up with me later today, and they will finish the job off. They will sense you long before you know they are coming.”

  Alec pushed a little dark energy into the elf mothe
r’s collar to make her writhe. She needs to be a little more submissive, not glaring at me, he thought. The woman snarled and winced.

  “Tell me!” Alec commanded, choosing his words carefully. “How can I get across the elf lands to New Haven to free the captives?”

  “You cannot free them! You cannot get to New Haven. Even if you manage to cross into the elf lands, our obscuring field will prevent your entry.”

  “I have been through the zone.”

  “Hah! No wild orbs have been through the obscuring field unless they are part of a cull. If you did manage to get across it, maybe that was before we returned it to its full glory. Someone made it through the zone about five or six years ago while it was weakened. We had to reestablish it. The only way to pass freely through the zone is to wear a special metal bracelet that is specially coded for the zone. We only allow a few clutchmen to have the bracelets. All others – we mothers, and our drones and culled orbs – must be guided by those clutchmen. No one without a bracelet can tolerate the forces within that zone – it affects one’s brain and makes them experience the most intense disorientation – a jumble of sights and sounds. But the bracelet will diffuse the effect and protect the clutchmen. No one can get in or out without a clutchman for a guide.”

  Alec stood deep in thought for a while. I must find and free Erin, and our Thelanders, but this woman is right. I cannot charge blindly towards the elf land. That is what they would expect. A glimmer of an idea came to Alec, and he walked back over the knoll towards the drones in the elf camp. Should I do this? What if it doesn’t work? What about our children if both their parents are lost? What if Erin has already escaped and is home and safe? Or – what if she is already dead? But he had no better ideas.