CHAPTER 42

There was no way to accurately tell without a weaver. That was one of those silly damn toys they sold in the cities, to little elf kids, and something that Hoop had never paid a great deal of attention to. He knew they were very decorative, usually with phony feathers and little beads but, the point of them escaped Hoop for a very long time. It was not until Taylya had told him what they were for that he sort of got it, even if he never figured out exactly how they worked. At the moment, he kind of wished he had one.

Hoop pointed up to the sky, specifically at Crummy Ass, and he remarked, “is it me or is it just getting smaller?”

Taylya put down her binoculars and looked back at him with a very irked expression, “if you would pay attention, sometimes, then maybe you would already know the answers to those stupid questions you’re always asking.”

He knew exactly what she was talking about, “I never got the sense of holding some little damn circle up at the sky to tell what time of year it is. That’s what’s stupid Tay.”

Chan looked away from his area and he weighed in, “I don’t know. Seemed common sense to me. See if the gas giant is getting bigger or smaller. Seems easier than reading a German clock.”

Hoop sounded hostile as he told the Chinese captain, “shut the hell up Charlie, you’re just saying that cause you don’t like watches.”

“Dude,” Charlie replied as he held up his wrist and pointed, “I got a Rolex.”

Taylya’s hostility was not like Hoops. She was not pretending, “would you both shut up! You already know what’s out there.”

All of them knew what was out there but only Taylya seemed to be all that concerned about it. Hoop reached out and took her binoculars away and she sneered at him for doing it. Hoop acted as if he did not care, “you’re going to get an ulcer.” He thought about it and then asked, “do elves get ulcers?” When that did not work he told her straight, “you know why we’re here now Tay. Ok? Those fart knockers can’t hear us up here. We got canopy, we got rain, and most important…”

Taylya cut him off with her own serious reply, “and they shouldn’t be out right now Hoop. You know that.”

Anders stuck he head out of the split in a branch where he had made his own little nest. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes and grouchy, “how do you two get any sleep around each other?”

It was Charlie who replied, “I don’t think sleep is what they do.”

That drew a sneer from Taylya but, she tried to be pleasant when she looked back at Anders, “there’s another patrol out there. It’s the third one in as many hours.”

Hoop was quite snotty when he said, “yeah and they’re all going the other damn way. They ain’t even snorted in this direction.”

The elf was quite firm when she replied, “if they’re at the bottom of this tree, we are not out of range of their staffs.”

“Oh great,” Chan groaned, “you mean we climbed eleven stories for nothing?”

Before Tay and Hoop could go back at it, Anders yawned and said, “you two should really get a room.” He perked up like he was really awake, “oh wait. You did get one and that’s why we’re here. Cause you two morons were stupid enough to rent from Ian.”

Hoop snarled, “and that only mattered cause you was stupid enough to take his damn money, ass wipe.”

Chan tried to be rational, “hey guys? Can we like, maybe, get past all this. If I had something I was nervous about, it would be more like, why did Avery not give a shit that we all took off. Anybody think of that?”

Anders was not impressed, “when did he ever give a shit about what we were doing?” As an afterthought he pointed out, “I mean as long as we weren’t putting our nose in his business.”

Taylya was still a little ticked off about the situation, “I didn’t tell any of you to come. In fact, I think the words I used were do and not.”

Hoop blew that off, “like we’re going to let you come out here alone?”

“Doesn’t seem to matter now,” Anders replied as he began pulling his gear together, “she wasn’t with Horshen. We should have just went back to Merlin, guys. This is a wild goose chase.”

Hoop rolled his eyes and replied, “yeah like that’ll work smart guy. If we don’t produce that little girl then Ian is not going to forget your little part in all this. I don’t think he was going to cut us some roses with that big blade of his.”

Chan slapped his forehead, “dude, he brought a knife to a gun fight and you’re worried about it?”

“No you stupid gook bastard,” Hoop shot back, “he brought two fucking Orc’s with grenade launchers is what he brought. You seen them bastards shoot. They can fire with each hand, from the hip, at the same damn time. I didn’t feel like going up against that with my little, piss ant, three oh eight, all right?”

“Enough,” Taylya put her hands up. “I know where Camiceau is, all right? There’s only one place she would go that makes any sense. All we have to do is go there.”

Anders was nearly done with his housekeeping, “so what are we still hanging out up here for?”

“Orcs dumb ass,” Chan said.

“Goddamn it,” Hoop spit, “they’re going the other fucking way. They never go up in the triangle.”

Chan quickly replied, “they’ve never been this close to it ether.”

Again Taylya had to stop the childish bitching, “do you all mind? I will leave you and that is a promise. We can’t go just yet because the sisters might not be so receptive. We have to wait till Creu-Knas is low in the east.”

Hoop sighed in resignation and got comfortable as he told them all, “oh how Disney is that.”

“Do you want to keep your balls or not,” Taylya snapped. Hoop decided that he did not want to reply this time around. No one did and the silence definitely remained after they climbed down from their perch since they were moving tactically and had an excuse. None of them wanted to admit that they were all on edge at the moment. They were all professionals at this, lived with danger as a normal state of affairs, and there was simply too much going on right now that was far from normal.

It was a while before the next word came. It was from Anders who was walking point as they would lazily and randomly cross the trail they had been paralleling for quite some time. He went to a knee and snapped his finger, then pointed diagonally down the trail in front of him. He used his flat hand to line up what he had detected and when Hoop could not see it, with some frustration, Anders finally just burst out with, “oh fuck it. They already see us.”

Anders stepped out on the trail with his hands held high and his weapon swinging from it’s sling in front of him. He looked annoyed as he waited for the sentry post to decide what they were going to do. After a minute of inactivity, Anders got bored and yelled at them, “would you just go get Falajhilha already! Tyngnef et Dyfodis?”

It took some time and, as Anders stood in the middle of the path, hands held to his side, he never once saw anyone in the sentry post actually move. Someone obviously had because, in under a half hour, a single person that was rapped in brightly colored, scarf like, clothing came walking down the path towards him. She stopped many paces away and then un-rapped just her face before asking, “Anders, what are you doing here?”

Anders kept his hands lazily to his side but, he did slightly raise his left hand and smiled as he waived, “hi Fala. How are things?”

The woman looked off into the far woods, behind Anders, and then said, “why did you and your people come here? Did Balfour send you?”

Anders stumbled with his words, “no, maybe, hell I don’t know what you’d call send, ok?”

“I can guess why you are here Anders,” she did not sound happy, “and if that is what you came for then go back now.”

Before Anders could make a fool out of himself even more, Taylya decided to intervene. She came walking out of the tree line and joined Anders in the road. She told Fala, “I think you now know you were correct in your assumption. I think you can now guess that I’m not leaving till I get what I came here for.”

Taylya’s presence did make an impression. The woman in scarves looked as if she had a very hard choice to make. She also looked as if she did not want to make it. She finally snapped at Tay, “why did you come here elf?”

Taylya slowly walked towards the human in scarves and she talked as she did, “I’m not leaving till I see her. That much is certain. This is causing a lot of problems for us and I am not going to let it continue, is that clear, human?”

“I have made a promise,” Falajhilha said sternly.

Taylya did not flinch, “so have I, Tylwythen Deg. We are at an impasse it would seem. Our choices are that we must fight, or, we can be reasonable. You know who I am so you know I have cause. You also know I won’t hurt her. Your promise can be kept.”

“Elves lie,” Falajhilha snapped back.

“I was the one who sent her to Nordhalt in the first place,” said Taylya. “If you don’t believe me then go ask her. You don’t have too though, because she’s already told you that much. You would have never come out here otherwise.”

It looked as if things were about to go completely wrong. Hoop had already flipped the action lever on his AK to full automatic. He was pretty sure if this broke out into a fight then he was going to have to hose down some local flora that was likely filled with snipers by now. Then the fairy just gave way and Taylya called everyone out. Hoop and Chan came out of their cover and joined their friends in the path. That was when Hoop saw that his guess was correct. Many more of the Tylwythen Deg came from their own cover, all were armed, and their were even more than Hoop had figured.

Hoop slowly raised his hands and asked, “are we prisoners now cause, if you’re like, all needing a man slave, I figure I’m available.” Taylya gave Hoop a nasty look and he dropped his hands as he told her, “I’m just saying.”

“You are guests,” Fala told them.

Anders was still nervous, “in some places that does mean prisoner.”

Fala was nasty about her reply, “not in my home.”

As they walked forward on the trail, Taylya asked her host, “no blindfolds?”

“What’s the point,” it was clear the woman was agitated, “two of you have already been here. You all know what we do. You found us with no trouble, why should I bother?”

That peeked Anders interest and he looked at his comrades and the escorts who had them surrounded. He then thought about what Fala had just said and he asked, “what do you mean two of us? I thought I was the only one who…”

“You thought wrong Vinny,” Fala replied with this same nasty little snide tone she had been using since she first came up the trail. Anders was more concerned about her attitude so he dropped the entire subject.

Everyone else did as well. They saw the little valley on their right. The encampment that was down in it, nestled between two very large trees, was of the semi permanent kind and very busy. It was also full of bright color from the cloth that was being dried on lines after having been dumped in vats of die. It was a contrasting kind of sight and one that easily captivated the eye after one had been stomping around the forest for a while.

The group stopped at the biggest of the large trees. The roots had formed any number of shelters and Fala left them in one. Several small fires were going and some food was stewing over one. Fala invited them to eat as she began to leave. All she said when questioned about her departure was to, “just stay here.”

The only other thing that Fala did was leave some guards behind. None of the operators thought too much of it since they were left armed. Chan even noted it was just like any other number of useless protocols that any organization might follow. He felt safe enough so he relaxed and then asked the big question, “all right Hoop. Which one was she?”

Hoop knelt down by the fire and took a nearby ladle so he could taste the stew. As he blew on the liquid to cool it down he answered Chan, “what the fuck you talking about Charlie?”

“Two of us?” Chan nodded towards the door and then clarified, “she said two of us have been here. We all know Anders has. Taylya doesn’t qualify and I know I haven’t so…”

Hoop looked up from the stew, “you accusing me of something Charlie?”

Chan just shrugged and smiled, “well you are the, in your own words, the horny little peckerwood? Was that what you called it?”

Hoop decided he was not going to try the stew. He stood back up and squared off with the PRA Captain and said, “I know I ain’t never been here, and I know you ain’t no horny little pecker head, head not wood, so what were you really doing here Charlie?”

“It’s ok Hoop,” Chan replied, “I don’ think it would really surprise Taylya.”

Again, Taylya snapped at them, “would you two shut up already! I’m getting sick of your little school boy routines.”

The conversation ended when Anders kneed Hoop in his side and then pointed towards the entrance. The figure that walked into the little enclosure was dressed pretty much the same as everyone else in this place. They could only see who she was when the hood came off and the blond hair flowed from underneath. The points of her ears were peaking through the strands and the girl looked to Taylya with some concern and she said, “what are you doing here?”

Taylya did not respond. She ran over to her sister and hugged her despite Camiceau’s protests. Then Taylya slapped the little girl across the face and sternly told her, “I should you be asking you the same thing! This is not what we planned!”

Camiceau took the slap in stride and defiantly said, “I did what I had to. It wasn’t safe with the gnomes anymore. Nobody would even think to look up here. Hardly anybody even knows where here is.”

Hoop joined Taylya and said, “we did. If we can find it then sure as hell your Daddy has got soldiers that can.”

Anders added, “you really want all these girls to get blown away Cami? If the Noveus-Faeyu come in here, after they snatch you out, Spitfires are going to drop every piece of ordinance they got on this place. Do you want that?”

“What?” Cami looked at him like he was ridiculous, “so cute but so little brains. Daddy wouldn’t dare do anything like that. This place is protected. Nordhalt isn’t. Besides, I think Father is a little too busy with other problems right now. I made sure of it.”

Chan suddenly became both confused and alarmed, “what did you do?”

At first the little girl would not answer but, when Taylya demanded one she got it. Cami looked as if they were all stupid, “On the way up here we ran into these Americans. Not like you guys, those Ranger guys with the funny clothes.” She pointed to Anders, “the ones we were supposed to meet. Well, two of them had led some Orcs right to Falajhilha and the caravan I was traveling with. After it was all over with, me and Falajhilha came up with an idea to keep them out of here. I knew it would give Dad a lot of fits.”

Hoop stepped up to the little girl and angrily asked, “did you set up our eL-Zee? The one that you and Anders was supposed to meet them guys at?”

“What?” Cami looked very offended, “no? Why would I do that? I even helped them out, honest.”

Taylya had not put the pieces together just yet but, she was growing very concerned, “Cami, how did you help them? What did you do?”

“Falajhilha gave me a scroll,” Cami admitted. “I gave it to those two idiots that were lost.”

Hoop looked to Chan, “did they say anything to you about some scroll?”

Chan just shrugged, “not a word. They were just happy as hell to get extracted.”

Taylya figured that much was irrelevant. She waived them off and then asked Cami, “what was on it?”

Cami only shrugged, “it was what they came up here looking for.” She then looked to Anders and asked, “they wanted prisoners, right? They were never going to find them the way they were going about it so, Falajhilha marked out an Orc nest that was so easy enough that even they could find it. We figured they’d go home after they got what they came for. I knew Daddy wouldn’t like it so…”

Hoop became even more confused, “why would your daddy even care about a few prisoners? I seen the Noveus-Faeyu do a lot worse to Orcs.”

“No,” Cami slapped her forehead and then looked at Hoop like he was a child, “they’re never going to take one alive, you idiot. I told you, we sent them to a nest, you know, a nest?”

Taylya backed off with a shocked look on her face, “oh my god.” When the others demanded to know what was wrong, Tay ignored them and asked Cami instead, “who told you it wasn’t safe in Nordhalt?”

Cami just shrugged, “it was Horshen. Why? You were the one who told me I could trust him.”

Taylya became even more concerned and, even to the point of being frightened. She backed off from everyone and became silent and reflective. Hoop watched her and had to ask about it. When the others did as well, Taylya told them point blank and with no small amount of alarm in her voice, “we’ve been set up, right from the start.”