The Last Satyr: The Company is Formed Part 1
One Way In

Yet the king was immediately interrupted.

“No, Father! Don't tell them!” said a tall, young man with pale blue eyes who had remained and now stepped out of the shadows to argue. “Do not offer to help this magician and wizard. We answer to our own keeper only!”

“He is not giving orders,” answered King Grendel.

“But he is! You already said so. He has ordered you to give him six horses or he will not take away the evil thing that plagues us. And he has ordered you to let a forbidden elf pollute your chambers with his presence. He orders you! Reverse the situation, Father! Turn the tables! This keeper of elves has placed himself in your power. Use that to your advantage. Force him to grant concessions from the Gray Elves!”

“What concession would you have?” demanded Ronthiel. “To cut trees beyond your own borders? To search for gold? I have seen the works of your civilization!”

“You see, Father?” said the blue-eyed son. “This is why you should have had the elf removed. We have heard this silly talk before. It is useless to our ears!”

“If I do anything against the elves’ keeper,” Grendel reminded him. “There will be war.”

“Then let there be war!” said the son. “It shall happen someday, anyway! Our population grows while theirs diminishes. It is only right that we should take over their land as they disappear! And what better time than when their keeper is within our power?”

“If the elves decrease,” said Graybeard to the king in reply. “Then no war is necessary. Just let them disappear as he says.”

“They live too long to suit our needs,” the son with blue eyes, like chunks of ice, said in answer. “You speak of war, but you bring no help. Do you bring men, armor, and weapons? No! Instead, you bring boys and ask for aid. Or, rather, you extort it! You threaten us with retaliating elves and a monstrous creature that won’t leave until we give in to your demands!”

“The threats you perceive were put in place by me,” Graybeard’s eyes met the son’s, glinting like forged steel, “in case some fool like you got the idea to seize me by force. Do that and see what happens!”

“This fool is ready to take that chance!” declared the son. “You have fooled our guards, and you have fooled my father, but you do not fool me!”

“If you are no fool, you will stand back and shut your mouth,” Graybeard warned. “But if you are a fool, strap on your sword and go out after the fell creature that besieges your country. It won’t be far. By nightfall, it will be just beyond the gate. So which will it be for you—dying a foolish death or following the wisdom of your father?”

The blue eyes fell silent and turned away.

“I have spoken,” the man said over his shoulder in leaving.

“And, by doing so, given away your true heart!” called Ronthiel after him.

“Seems like he’s in a hurry to replace a quieter conversation,” Marroh quipped in observation.

“Do not blame my son for his actions,” said King Grendel apologetically, “for the last spy who failed to return was my eldest son and his only brother.”

“King Grendel, do not let your son’s loss be in vain,” warned Graybeard, “or be the cause of even more death in a war that benefits only your enemy, as Lolth would be greatly pleased if you took your son’s advice.”

Grendel stood up again, tall and straight.

“The threat is not the elves but Lolth and her drow,” he said. “Long I have waited for a plan of hope. My fear is only that you bring it too late.”

“Time will tell,” said Graybeard.

“But, at least, the time has not been wasted,” said the king. “We have spent these last twelve years mastering horses and raising many more. We have horses enough for our own men plus the satyrs, and you shall have your choice of six of them. Black, they will be to match the night and swift to carry you far by day while the drow bat guard sleeps.”

“Make one a pony,” piped up Marroh.

“And one shall be a pony,” Grendel agreed.

“You made mention of a way into Lolth’s lair,” said Graybeard.

“There is one possible way,” said Grendel, “though it is a faint hope of one. We had been entering Lolth’s underground cities before by the old dwarf mines that fill the Mithril Mountains, but these all now stand guarded and the way in is shut.”

“But you have a plan?”

“A diversion,” said the king. “There is a great cavern called the Deep Hai near the ancient mines. It is one of the drow’s own entrances and one from which they plan to march out from against us. The entrance of the Deep Hai is so large that light enters it, enough for horses and men to see by. If the officer in charge of the drow guard there thought he was being assaulted by a massive frontal attack of our people, he would call up his reserves to the defense there. If so, those that stand guard over the nearby mines would be called up to the defense of the Deep Hai cavern.”

“Allowing us to sneak past behind them from within those mines,” concluded Graybeard. “That sounds like a dangerous plan for you.”

Attacking drow underground at the Deep Hai was not a good plan, as the drow held the advantage of the chosen ground and fought on their own terms.

“We will call off the assault once the numbers of the defenders grow or we lose light to see by. That won’t be long,” said Grendel. “We can give you perhaps an hour.”

“An hour will have to do.”

“Shall I add men of my own to your company?”

“No. Seven shall be enough.”

“Who is this seventh?”

“One who does not require a horse,” said Graybeard. “How soon can you create this diversion?”

Ronthiel’s crow would not require a horse, the boy realized. He must be the seventh. Yet it had not come back to join them. How would it replace them? And what good would it do if it did? Report their deaths?

“I shall send out the order to raise the men at dawn. We shall be one day behind you.”

“And when do I leave with my company?”

“You shall leave at noon tomorrow. Tonight, you and your company shall dine at my table.”

Graybeard nodded and turned to the boy.

“Do you approve?” he asked.

The only idea the boy approved of then was to be someplace else, though leaving here to run was not a good plan. Graybeard said the creature that hunted him would be outside the gate tonight, so he certainly wasn’t going out there. So, in his heart, he approved the plan, although, in mind, he did not. The last thing he wanted was to enter the mines again, especially if there were drow about. Goblins were bad enough but drow were worse than worse. Yet there was no choice. Graybeard and the king were in agreement, and they both knew better than him.

The boy nodded his approval.

Graybeard took note and turned back to the king.

“We shall accept your hospitality and all that you have offered.”

As they left, Amien congratulated Graybeard for thinking to use that black blooded creature following them as a means of getting them their horses and the king’s cooperation.

“Sometimes friends can appear from where you least expect, even unintentionally,” replied Graybeard of it.

The boy though was still thinking of how Graybeard had said it followed him and would be arriving outside the gate tonight.