was never a proper time to bring strangers to Andur'Blough Inninness! Few outside the Touel'alfar were ever permitted to look upon the beauty of the elven valley, and those were only the rangers-in-training, or other unexpected guests given shelter in times of great distress, as Lady Dasslerond had done with Juraviel's human traveling companions, refugees all, when the demon dactyl had come upon them on the open road so many years before. That last unexpected and uninvited incursion had also brought the demon Bestesbulzibar himself to the elven valley, and the profound stain that the creature had left behind, the growing rot upon the beautiful ground, had led to... All of this, Juraviel understood, and only then did the implications of Dasslerond's uncharacteristically generous act that day on the open road ring true to him. Because of the presence of the dactyl in the elven valley, because of the stain and the growing rot, Lady Dasslerond had sent Brynn south to free To-gai, thus securing a potential escape route for the Touel'alfar should they ever be forced out of their valley.
Because of that stain, Juraviel had gone south with Brynn, whereas rangers would normally have departed alone. It was his presence that had saved the girl from the normally unmerciful - to humans at least - Doc'alfar.
And because of that stain, Dasslerond had taken Jilseponie's baby, and had raised him to be her weapon against the demon sickness.
All of it resulting from that one incident on the road.
With a helpless shrug, Juraviel realized that if what he had heard about the rise of Aydrian in the east was true, the implications had only begun to play out.
He looked over at To'el Dallia then, still visible though she had retreated somewhat, and he noted the curious, even stunned, expression on her face. As if sensing his stare at her, the female turned to regard him once more, and asked again, "What have you done?"
"I have brought our cousins home," Juraviel answered. He swept his arm out to the south, to the approaching band. "I give you Cazzira, my wife, and among those beside her is King Eltiraaz himself, who leads the Doc'alfar of Tymwyvenne."
The names meant nothing to To'el Dallia of course, except for one.
"Doc'alfar?" she echoed, hardly able to get the name out of her breathless throat, and so stunned was she that she apparently hadn't even registered the fact that Juraviel had just announced one of them as his wife.
Curious stares, some showing great alarm, and a cold wind followed Captain Al'u'met's every step.
The sailor from Behren was no less curious in looking back at the scenes around him, the deerskin tents and the blond-haired people. Giants they seemed! Though Al'u'met was not a short man, he surely felt like one in the southern reaches of Alpinador. At last the good captain understood so much more vividly the mighty reputation of the warrior Alpinadoran barbarians. Not a man in this small village had an arm thinner than the Al'u'met's leg, discounting the Bearmen who had accompanied him, an entourage which included Prince Midalis and Abbot Haney of St. Belfour.
It was more than a little intimidating to the captain, but Prince Midalis seemed to know his way about the settlement and was obviously recognized by most of the barbarians. Midalis held himself with regal bearing. He was in his forties, but still had the physique and energy of a man fifteen years his junior. He looked much like his brother, King Danube, though he had ever been of a leaner build than the somewhat portly king.
Both had the thick black hair of the Ursal line and the penetrating blue eyes, orbs that could shrivel most men under their intense stare. Midalis wore a beard, trimmed short and low on his strong jawline.
Beside him, Abbot Haney seemed a frail figure. Thin and well-groomed, the man walked with a much stiffer gait than did Midalis, the result of spending many, many hours seated at a desk, working with quill and ink rather than with heavy tools or weapons. He had gone bald on top, which made his forehead seem ridiculously high, and he had developed a laziness in one eye that made it droop a bit. Still, though the recent years had not been kind, the abbot carried himself with dignity and poise.
It struck the tall and dark-skinned Al'u'met how odd-looking a trio they truly were.
A large man, even by Alpinadoran standards, emerged from a tent near the back of the settlement.