Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2016 16:30:43 +0000 From: George Gauthier Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 36 Elf-Boy's Friends 36 Endings and Beginnings by George Gauthier [The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends'] Chapter 1. The Capital The Corps of Discovery elected not to take a shortcut via a portal from the Hot Lands back to the capital. Instead they flew in their three autogyros the whole way, mostly over the plains paralleling the Eastern Mountains, an area they had largely bypassed on their outward journey. As the short grass prairie of the Hot Lands gave way to better watered tall grass prairie they passed over the boundary markers which Artor Klarendes had erected several years earlier. Their first real landmark in the Commonwealth was the town of Harben, the terminus of the main line of the newly completed iron road serving the Eastern Plains. It was around Harben that the forest rangers and the elf-boy cum druid Dahlderon had arrested the gang of poachers who had killed brontotheres for their horns. Flying south they passed the fortified entrance to the strategic tunnel through the mountains and the battlefield on the plains below where the druids Dahl, Merry, and Owain had helped the war wizards Sir Willet Hanford and Sir Rikkard and the Army of the Plains defeat the final invasion of the eastern barbarians. That was the battle where young Corwin Klarendes had won his spurs. A hawthorn hedge enclosed much of the mountain range from the divide along its crest to the foot of the mountains where they met the plains. That was the boundary of the New Forest which covered an area of nearly one-hundred thousand square miles. No works of man were allowed there in contrast to the western side of the mountain range which had mines and sawmills, and hunting lodges and resorts. The entire area was under the protection of the forest rangers and the three druids in residence at Elysion. Not just an expanse of trees and the animals and plants which sheltered beneath it canopy, the New Forest was a magically sentient and self-aware entity which encompassed all the life forms within its boundaries, both animals and plants, ranging from the lowliest creepy crawlies scurrying amidst the leaf litter on the forest floor to apex predators like bears, wolves, and tawny panthers. These days it was the new home of the Snow Elves and their protectors the white Kodiak bears. Magical beasts and fully sentient the bears were the ursine equivalent of unicorns. The Corps stopped at Elsyion to drop off Madden Sexton and the elf-boy Dylan who would resume their duties as forest rangers. The pair got a warm welcome from their fellow rangers the tall raven-haired half-elf Brandon and his human cousins the brothers Garret and Lorn, two sturdily built blond youths. They had been hard pressed to cover their assigned area while so short handed. The three druids Dahl, Merry, and Owain were not always in residence. At least Owain was back from his retreat at the stronghold of the druidical order in the Great Southern Forest, the progenitor of the New Forest. Also there to welcome the return of the explorers were Lord Taitos Klarendes and his spouse the shape shifter Sir Aodh of Llangollen. Klarendes younger son Eborn was also in Elysion conferring with his father on the family's business investments in the capital which Eborn looked after. Artor the older son was in the capital. Like Finn Ragnarson he was assigned to the headquarters of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth and worked directly for the Chief Hand Baron Jarmond as one of the government's most reliable troubleshooters. After a celebratory meal featured sparkling wine and brandy, the visitors stayed overnight to rest from their long journey. The next day they got into their autogyros, hopped the mountains, and flew all the way to the capital. Drew Altair was ready to get right to work on a book about the expedition. His regular reportorial duties at the news-paper could wait a few more weeks. This would be his second book of travels, the first being his best-seller about the expedition to the Far West years earlier with Finn and the twins. All of Drew's books sold well and had won him no less than five of the coveted Writer's Prizes. True, his war books sold best of all, but Drew was sure that his new book would do as well. How could the public not be interested in the thrilling adventures of the Corps of Discovery while battling a dragon, raptors, a plague of locusts, and a mosasaur. This book would transport the readers vicariously to exotic landscapes to meet fascinating peoples like the dwarves of the Cave of the Mountain River, or the Guardians of the Stone ring. A book filled with stories about monsters, a landslide, a mine collapse, and a mud volcano would practically sell itself. Liam and Axel Wilde were eager to return to their duties at the Institute for Wizardry and Magic. War Mage though he was in his own right, Axel had no intention of giving up his day job as assistant to his mentor Sir Willet Hanford. The war wizard was also Liam's mentor (and Drew's as well) which made them colleagues. With two tours of duty to the war zone under their belts, none of them would be rotating back to the war front. The campaign against the trolls was in its final phase and would be finished without their further direct participation. The twins were the only ones who held no regular job, nor did they need one, not with their wealth and lucrative investments in the burgeoning new industries like iron roads, refrigeration, bicycles, and aviation. Not that they were idlers. Far from it. They kept busy with their writing: revising and updating their maps and guides for commercial travelers and writing and illustrating their popular field guides. Published under their imprint Gemini Field Guides, each volume described some aspect of the natural world. So far the imprint had issued field guides on land navigation, tracking, landforms, tree identification, song birds, raptors (i.e. avian raptors like eagles, hawks, and owls), social insects, and edible wild plants and most recently the identification and care of ferns, cycads, and bromeliads, decorative plants near and dear to their hearts. All the boys agreed to hold off a few weeks on wearing the new style shorts until the chain of shops which the twins owned could stock up on a garment they hoped would set a fashion trend and draw a well-off clientele into the shops not only for the shorts but for a whole spring collection which would include a line of tight-fitting bicycle shorts like those worn by the messenger boys in the League of Independent Towns. The day after their arrival Finn reported to Baron Jarmond to give him an oral briefing on the results of their expedition. Needless to say the Chief Hand was pleased. "Outstanding! Finn, you have done better than I dared hope for. Thanks to what you and your friends have set in motion, the Commonwealth has every prospect of realizing its grand strategy for the Northlands, the Greater North Valentia Co-prosperity Sphere. I am eager to tell the High Council, but I would like to have a written report to present to them. Do you think you and Drew Altair can write it up and have it printed in three days?" "No problem. Drew is working on it right now with Axel Wilde's help, and I am sure Drew's uncle Poul will give it top priority in the print queue." "Fine, fine. You do realize that there is a knighthood in this for you, don't you? Sir Finn Ragnarson: how does that sound? And yes, I know you Frost Giants don't care much for titles, but think of the knighthood as a way for the state to burnish your credentials as one of a Dread Hands of the Commonwealth. It will also make it easier for you to circulate among the upper crust and to represent me when necessary." "Well if you put it that way... " "I do. You and Artor Klarendes are the most effective young Hands to come along in more years than I care to admit. There are not many persons like you two, those with the strength of character to be trusted with plenipotentiary authority. You two have proven that you can be. Now what's this I hear about you finally moving in with your friends?" Finn nodded, knowing that Jarmond was just being polite. No doubt the spymaster was already fully informed on the matter. The fact is that with the termination of his assignment to Flensborg the capital of New Varangia, the second homeland of the Frost Giants, Finn was finally taking up residence in the capital with his friends at their residential hotel. Even before the expedition left the hotel management had agreed to take down a non-load bearing wall to incorporate yet a fourth suite of rooms to those previously joined together to accommodate all nine friends and lovers -- six of whom were members of the Corps of Discovery: Finn himself, the twins Jemsen and Karel, Drew Altair, the War Wizard Sir Liam, and the War Mage Sir Axel Wilde. The three other residents were the naval officer Lieutenant Sir Nathan Lathrop, the naval architect and inventor Karl-Eike Thyssen, and the up-and-coming journalist Corwin Klarendes, like Drew a reporter for the Capital Intelligencer. Indeed with the exception of Corwin Klarendes all were now in residence. Nathan Lathrop had just recently been assigned to the Navy's Bureau of Ships to work with Eike under its chief Admiral Van Zant. Their rooms were on the top floor of a three storey residential hotel and looked out over a leafy square in front and spacious grounds out back. The builders had taken advantage of the flat terrain of the city and the prevailing south wind to cool the building. Wind catchers directed the airflow downward and through the city's underground aqueducts where the warm air gave up its heat to the cool earth and subterranean water. Natural air pressure then forced the air back up into and through the building. All done without machinery. Awnings blocked direct sunlight from wide window openings which were not glassed in but set with wood lattices that afforded privacy without blocking ventilation. Pumps driven by vertical axis windmills raised water to a water tower and a set of tanks on the roof. The tower served the water closets in each suite and provided cold water for taps and showers in the apartments below. Tanks painted black provided solar-heated hot water. In short it had all the modern conveniences close to hand: hot and cold running water, flush toilets, and hot meals prepared downstairs in the restaurant. Like the rest of the common space the new rooms were comfortably but simply furnished with extra sturdy furniture to accommodate a giant who stood eight feet tall and weight six hundred pounds. The walls were hung with watercolors or prints of the best illustrations from the many books the residents had published. Shade tolerant house plants like ferns, cycads, and bromeliads were everywhere. The staff at the hotel watered and pruned the plants as necessary. Indeed they took care of all housework. Chamber boys made the beds, cleaned the rooms, did the laundry, and ran errands. Meals in the restaurant on the ground floor were also included under the terms of their lease. Now the twins and Drew were Finn's oldest companions and lovers so it only fitting that over the next few days they helped the lusty giant inaugurate, as it were, the bed chamber in his part of the common suite of rooms. Drew went first, happily throwing himself into Finn's arms. The young giant picked the boy up and hugged him close while Drew's slender legs circled Finn's waist as the giant cupped Drew's shapely bum in his massive paws. Finn loved to hold Drew's small body in his arms as he kissed him and stroked and petted his arms, chest, and back and squeezed his butt cheeks. Drew just loved Finn's body. Finn was so huge and strong and manly, just what a bottom boy like him craved. Drew was a young male totally oriented to his own gender as a bottom boy. The human youth was a natural submissive, one who long ago realized that he was a boy born to be fucked hard and often and by males who knew how. He couldn't wait for Finn to really get down to business and impale him on his prodigious member. His quim needed to be filled, and Finn's prodigious member was more than up to the job. True Drew was too small back there to accept the whole shaft, but that was more Finn's problem that Drew's, wasn't it? With Drew's legs bent upward, Finn lifted the boy high enough for Drew to throw his ankles over Finn's shoulders while the back of his thighs were pressed to Finn's chest and belly. The giant supported Drew's slight weight on his arms -- at least till he got the boy settled on his cock. Slipping it inside was awkward since Drew couldn't easily reach back there to guide him in. They took it slowly and carefully. For such a big guy Finn was a gentle lover. He did not batter his way inside but let Drew set the pace and the degree of penetration. Drew also did some of the work himself, lifting his body, letting it fall back onto the cock inside him, basically fucking himself, though Finn helped with his arms raising and lowering Drew bodily. It wasn't long before Finn climaxed in Drew's ass, his big frame shuddering with the force of his release. While he did go a little weak in the knees, he didn't let go of his young lover or drop him to the floor. With the twins Finn preferred to get them down on all fours and cover them the way a stallion does a filly, all the while keeping his massive weight on his own arms and knees rather than pressing down on the back and rump of a boy less than a quarter his size. Regardless of who went first with Finn, all six young males were glad to be back in the capital with what in effect was their family. Sexual attraction aside, you could not have better companions than those who shared those rooms -- good people one and all. Four days later, with the report of the expedition in hand the High Council commended all of the members of the Corps of Discovery including the forest rangers whom Axel had Jumped to the capital for the occasion. In a simple ceremony, Finn was presented with letters patent that confirmed him as Sir Finn Ragnarson, Dread Hand of the Commonwealth, Peacemaker, Pioneer of Flight, Dwarf-friend, and Avatar of Thor. Finn had come a long way since that day a decade earlier when he had arrived at Elysion as a teenage peace envoy from the contingent of Frost Giants stuck in their fortress in the highlands north of the Eastern Plains, having barely won a desperate war with an army of centaurs. Chapter 2. Armageddon The last of the roommates to come home was Corwin Klarendes, finally back from the war. Corwin stood five foot four with a slender build and green eyes that evidence the considerable admixture of eleven blood in his heritage, though his close cropped blond hair was the product of his human heritage. Corwin was very much a changed boy since they had last seen him at the finish of the eastern campaign which saved the Amazons and the brontotheres. Then he had been eager to get to General Urqaart's headquarters to report on the progress of the western campaign. He now wore a haunted look on his normally cute face. The tell-tale sign of his war weariness was that the boy was unable to engage in the kind of lively banter and dark humor soldiers relied on to cope with the horrors of war. And little wonder. Even in the face of inevitable defeat the trolls had ignored the Commonwealth's repeated offers to evacuate and repatriate all who surrendered to their oceanic archipelago. Instead the war had ended suddenly in an apocalyptic slaughter and self-slaughter. In this final campaign the Commonwealth had committed no less than five field armies, three of them drawn from its own professional military and one each from its new dominions in the Far West and its allies around the western shores of the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. The conventional fighting forces numbered just under two hundred thousand soldiers, naval infantry, airmen, and sailors from the riverine flotillas, plus mercenaries to guard the supply lines. It was the largest military operation since the Formation Wars. The allied forces were armed with the best weapons that the Commonwealth's industrial economy could provide especially the new airguns as their stand off weapon. Human infantry fought with the full size version with a bayonet affixed to the end for close combat. Dwarves used the shorter carbine version. So did the cavalry but without bayonets. Frost giants carried a larger version suited to their dimensions. with its longer barrel to impart greater speed to the bullet, their airguns packed a greater wallop. The elves clung to their traditional long bows and not just out of tradition. First, even going all out the manufactories could produce only so many air guns. Second, long bows had greater range, and spent arrows might be collected after a battle and reused whereas spent lead bullets were gone forever. Finally archers could deliver plunging fire against troop formations or over walls and fortifications. All formations were backed by slingers who hurled fire globes from just behind the line of contact over the heads of their own infantry to fall upon the enemy and burn them horribly. These fist sized glass balls were filled with one of two types of inflammable oil: a thick viscous clinging liquid and a thinner more fluid oil which splashed around more easily. Some slingers hurled glowing embers to set the oil alight. Originally thought up by the shape shifter Aodh of Elysion, fire globes turned ordinary youths into junior firecasters. All but the elven forces were supported by batteries of horse drawn artillery. Ballistas shot giant arrows directly at the enemy while catapults lobbed incendiaries in a high arc. The expeditionary force raised among the orcs had expanded to the size of an army corps of three divisions. Volunteers from all over Valentia had rallied to the cause drawn by the promise of a vast new land of their own in Amazonia. Even if ultimately they had different war aims the two forces had a common enemy and worked well together. The orcs subordinated their ultimate territorial ambitions to the military needs of the alliance. They did not try to carve out their new homeland by direct conquest and occupation, trusting to the peace settlement to provide them with suitable territories once the trolls were eliminated. The orcs were armed the traditional way for close combat with lethal looking long hafted maces with spiked or flanged heads though they carried bucklers rather than the large round shields formerly needed to fend off arrows. These days fetchers or masters of magnetism held a missile shield over their ranks to deflect arrows or slung lead bullets or air wizards raised shield of hardened air to fend off enemy missiles. In the past their stand off weapons had been crossbows and slings. For this campaign they had been supplied with the new air guns. Not just weapons of war, the air guns were tangible proof of the Commonwealth's good intentions toward their former foe. Alongside the conventional military fought thousands of magic wielders of all kinds, not just the Commonwealth's hundred or so war wizards but also war mages of every sort: water, weather, earth, and air wizards. Even more numerous were war mages with magical gifts effective in combat: fetchers, firecasters, master of magnetism, lightning throwers, wielders of ball lightning, and delvers. Some were assigned as teams in support of particular regiments and brigades. Others were assigned to specialist units. Most fetchers were in the Army Air Corps. The strongest flew with wooden yokes while those whose telekinetic powers were less strong flew the Navy's rigid wings for long range patrols. Others propelled autogyros. Scouts reconnoitered terrain, surveilled enemy movements, and carried dispatches. Most flyers supported the ground forces with bombing runs, dropping incendiaries on enemy formations. Airmen might also attack enemy cavalry with edged steel discs. Originally developed by the Navy for cutting apart the rigging of enemy ships their sharpened edge were just as effective in the anti-personnel role. The flyers did try to spare the horses, less from mercy than from an expectation that afterwards they could be rounded up and put to use by the victors. Autogyros took commanders up for a bird's eye view of the battle area, making command and control of the combined arms battle much easier though it was clear that the armed forces needed better means of communicating aloft with other aerocraft or with elements on the ground. Other fetchers piloted and propelled autogyros with war mages in the passenger compartment. As the autogyros orbited over head, well out range of arrows and ballistas, the mages directed their powers against the troll armies. Firecasters threw great clinging balls of fire or streams of flame preferentially at troll artillery and their crews. Lightning throwers targeted the favorite weapon of the trolls, their war axes, to electrocute them. A single bolt of lightning could jump from axe to axe to axe, sometimes taking out a whole squad of trolls. Masters of magnetism disarmed the trolls at the worst possible moment, yanking their weapons out of their grip just as the battle lines clashed. Sun mirrors were horridly effective engines of destructions. In a moment their heat beams could turn a battalion of cavalry or infantry into piles of ash. Earth wizards open chasms not so much to swallow enemy formations as to separate them to allow them to be crushed separately. Those who could wield ball lightning used the explosive technique Corwin Klarendes had perfected by which explosive balls of lighting were hurled into the midst of charging cavalry or infantry which burst with a flash and an electric crackle either electrocuting or tearing apart horse and rider or foot soldiers, leaving behind grisly piles of disjointed limbs, guts, and charred body parts. Corwin's technique was even more effective when delivered precisely from an orbiting autogyro. On the ground a mage had to juggle three or four balls of lightning at once since ball lightning served as both sword and shield. That lead to fatigue. Attacking from above made things much easier. A mage needed to create only one ball of lightning at a time and then only for a brief moment, giving him a chance to recover his magical strength before throwing the next one. Many in the ground forces had particular gifts too which helped in combat. Those who could see in dim light like a cat stood watch at night to counter the infiltration tactics of the trolls. Troll sappers liked to sneak up to the lines and garrote or slice the throats of dozing sentries, as a way to instill terror. Those with the gift of Unerring Direction took point when maneuvering into position, and they were better shots with air gun or bow. Soldiers who could kindle fire set watch fires and made it easier to set up camp at night by getting cook fires going. Those who could Call Light could make balls of cold light hover over a spot to reveal what the night might conceal. The trolls came to learn that it was the Commonwealth armies which ruled the night. Stealth counted for little in the face of delvers who could detect approaching troops on the darkest of nights and alert the defenders till the commander gave the order to light up the battlefield and give the infantry targets to aim at. The war wizard's invoked all their magical gifts, but their biggest contribution was the tactical flexibility they gave to the military with their ability to open portals through which strike forces could pass to attack the rear or the flank of enemy formations. Also on hand were many healers, both magical and natural. Triage stations routed the wounded to the appropriate level of care whether to a bonesetter to put a cast on a broken limb or to a chirurgeon for life-saving surgery. The worst cases went to a magical healers who had to husband their magic, using just enough to stabilize the patient so they he would survive long enough for his natural recuperative powers to finish the job with supportive care from nurses. The troll armies fought as determinedly as they ever had, displaying all the tactical flexibility and innovativeness that had made them the hardest foe the Commonwealth had ever fought. It was just too bad that all that energy and cleverness was expended in behalf of the worst cause for which sentients had ever fought on the planet of Haven. For the trolls were engaged in a genocidal campaign to wipe out magic on Haven by exterminating the races who could wield it: humans, elves, dwarves, giants, and orcs. Denied magic themselves by some quirk of their nature, their civilization had been swept up by a proselytizing new religion which taught that its worshippers had a duty to wipe magic off the face of the planet. Left unasked and unexplained, as often happens with religious revelations, was the question of why these gods did not just do that job themselves. In the face of air guns and magic, the trolls traditional tactics were ineffective. Fetchers could counter the arrow storms by which they weakened their foes before fighting in close combat with long-hafted axes. The trolls could not mask the movement of their forces at night or by terrain thanks to delvers and aerial reconnaissance. They did have one big advantage. The Commonwealth had to bring the war to them, to fight on the tactical offensive, letting the trolls fight defensively on ground and at a time of their choosing, hoping to weary the Commonwealth armies, force a stalemate, and make them withdraw, which would give the trolls a chance to recover, rebuild, renew their numbers and ultimately take up the crusade once again. Against any other state on the planet that might have worked, but the Commonwealth was simply too strong. The rich farmlands of the great rift valley easily supplied the foodstuffs the armies needed which were shipped over waters controlled by the Commonwealth Navy. With an industrial economy like none other on the planet, the Commonwealth had the means to forge the new weapons of war that had proved so decisive in battle. And unlike the trolls' old foes on their oceanic archipelago, the peoples of Valentia were rich in magic. It all came together in a great battle which broke the troll armies. The trolls attacked all along the front, but mostly as a feint to keep Urqaart from shifting forces to support the elves, the main target of the troll offensive. The elves were thought to be more vulnerable since they bore only bows not the new air guns. The elves might throw out caltrops in front of their lines to protect against a cavalry charge, but heavy infantry could shuffle forward, avoid the points, and penetrate and break the elves whose only other defense might be a line of pointed stakes planted into the ground. In a fluid situation there was no time for earthworks. The trolls advanced in a new formation with companies of soliders staggered checkerboard fashion rather than as a solid line. Companies marched in rectangles a dozen files wide and twenty ranks deep, pressed shoulder to shoulder. Those on the outside of the formation locked shields while those in the middle raised them over their heads and the whole company advanced in step as if on parade, looking like a cross between an armored tortoise and a centipede if such a thing could be imagined. The idea was that the shields would protect the trolls from arrows long enough to close with the elves and hack at them with their axes. It might have worked but for Eike Thyssen's latest wonder weapon: the magnetic cannon, something so secret he had not even told Axel about it during his brief visit. The cannon was quite unlike the air gun which was fired from the shoulder and used compressed air to propel a single bit of lead downrange. The magnetic cannon had a lightweight bronze barrel or tube fourteen feet in length and open at both ends. It was mounted on two wheels and attached by a hitch to a limber or ammo cart which was drawn by four horses who also carried the four crewmen into battle. The cannon's projectile was a reloadable steel canister packed with dozens of the same lead bullets which the air guns shot. They were held in place by a cardboard seal at the top or rather the front or business end of the projectile. To prepare for firing the crew dismounted and detached the cannon from the limber and rolled it into firing position. The gunner took his position at the left rear, sighted along the top of the barrel, and worked a crank to traverse the barrel right and left. The assistant gunner stood to the right rear and elevated and depressed the barrel with a second crank following the gunner's verbal instructions. The loader fed fresh rounds into the back of the tube and worked a lever to close the breech, really just four lugs which extended partway into the tube to keep the shell from slipping out the back as the tube was aimed. The gunner was a master of magnetism. Once he laid the gun he forced the canister down the tube, accelerating it to high speed. Just as it exited, he jerked the canister to a halt. The momentum of the lead balls inside made them burst through the flimsy cardboard seal and fan out in a shallow cone to wreak fearsome destruction. The lead bullets had so much momentum they easily penetrated wooden shields. A single shell could take out a squad or blast a hole in the new formation. Typically they fired volleys of three to five rounds then reloaded the empty canisters from the limber. A sixth shell was always kept at the ready for self defense if say enemy cavalry showed up. In the face of the storm of lead from the cannon in front and the rain of incendiaries dropped from above by the Army Air Corps, the troll attack on the elven lines disintegrated into a bloody shambles. The trolls panicked and streamed back to their line of departure. That marked the last actual clash between the armies though the allies continued their bombardment with incendiaries and attacks by mages from orbiting autogyros. A few days later, troll sounded horns and drums not for an attack but for an act of racial suicide. As Corwin related it: "It was horrible. I watched everything from an autogyro orbiting overhead. At the end the trolls turned their weapons on themselves, refusing to live with defeat. First they killed their human and elven slaves and hostages, then mothers took knives to their own whelps, then the males killed their females and finally themselves. Bodies lay everywhere." "They set fire to their capital intending to make it their funeral pyre, but our weather wizards, firecasters, and fetchers put the fires out. The firecasters stopped the flames while fetchers ripped roofs off so the weather wizards could douse the embers with downpours from the thunderstorms they called up, bringing the temperature of the still hot embers below the kindling point of wood and paper. Otherwise the fires would have started up again." "We took very few prisoners, those too wounded to finish themselves off or those who had been rendered unconscious by falls or a knock on the head. We sent them through a space portal to their oceanic archipelago not so much out of mercy as a warning to the trolls to keep to their islands lest they find themselves the target of a war of annihilation. The trolls understood that we could as easily transport an avenging army through such portals." Not that the Commonwealth had any such notion. No, the druids had taken care of the long-term problem with the trolls by unleashing an anti-fertility plague on their males. It would not kill anyone, but it did reduced the fecundity to below replacement levels. Within three generations the trolls would number a small fraction of their current population in their oceanic archipelago. "We mostly buried the bodies in mass graves opened by earth wizards. In the city which they had made their capital the bodies were either turned to ash by air wizards with sun mirrors or turned to a cloud of hot gas by war wizards wielding white fire." "General Urqaart is as tough a soldier as they come, but he too was profoundly shaken by the outcome. He urged me to report the story candidly, to hold nothing back, to describe the full horror and the sheer waste of it all. I promised that I would." Axel embraced his friend and tried to comfort him. "What you witnessed goes beyond anything the rest of us have seen of war, and you know how badly it ate at our hearts. Our expedition helped heal us. That and the passage of time. Perhaps a similar journey could do the same for you or maybe you could go on a walkabout, say to visit the New Forest and report on the Snow Elves for the Capital Intelligencer." "Snow Elves?" In the days that followed Axel and the others related their adventures in the Northlands, how they had saved the river town stranded high and dry and the trapped miners, and diverted the mud volcano. Corwin grew animated listening to the stories of how the twins slew the dragon or how the forest rangers had saved the frost giants from the mosasaur. He vowed that once the air routes were opened he would visit the Cave of the Mountain River and the Stone Ring, and the Fjordland too. The company of his friends and their stories help lift Corwin's despond, but only time would heal the grave wounds to his heart. In the meanwhile, Corwin signed up for training as a combat medic. Next time he found himself on a battleground he wanted to be able to heal and comfort the wounded, not just strike at the enemy with his ball lightning. Chapter 3. Amazonia Three weeks later when Axel Wilde reported for work, his mentor Sir Willet Hanford told him about their new orders. They were to return to Amazonia after all, this time not to fight but to help establish the peace. A peace conference would designate the borders of the orcs' new homeland and reach or rather impose a territorial settlement on the weak states surrounding Amazonia, some of which had designs on the vast lands which the Commonwealth had liberated. "Why us in particular." "Actually it's you they really want, Axel. Your status as a Peacemaker and Orc-Friend will is indicative of the Commonwealth's good intentions. The orc leader Janne Saari thinks very highly of you, as you well know. It was your idea that the orcs should end their war against the Commonwealth and join us in liberating Amazonia, thereby acquiring a new land of their own. Your presence at the conference augurs well for its success." "So who will be there besides Janne Saari?" "General Juhan Enno, the commander of the orc Expeditionary Corps, a couple of members of the orc council, General Urqaart, and four members of our own High Council, one from each of the major races in the Commonwealth: a human, an elf, a giant, and a dwarf. Their names are listed on our orders. We will also be meeting envoys from the regional states. Furthermore at Urqaart's invitation Lord Zaldor will participate as the general's personal advisor. Urqaart trusts Zaldor's political nous more than his own, blunt soldier that he is." "Or claims to be. We both know that he is much more than that. From what Drew and Finn and the twins told me he is an able diplomat in his own right." "True, but Urqaart would like to have two voices on his side at the conference. That way they can double-team those who are of a different mind." Axel nodded. "That sounds like the clever strategist and tactician we know him to be." "Actually there will be four of you at the conference with the title of Peacemaker. Drew Altair will cover the denouement of the war against the trolls for the Capital Intelligencer. Young Corwin Klarendes is too traumatized, I don't think that is too strong a word for it, to go back to Amazonia any time soon." "We leave tomorrow. First you and I and Zaldor plus the four delegates will meet with the High Council so we will understand what they expect. Then I shall open a portal from the conference room to General Urqaart's headquarters -- the old HQ we visited in the past. The conference will meet there." Urqaart received the delegation in his office, greeting them by name and sitting them down at the long conference table which filled much of the room. Next he introduced Seerah, the Queen of the Amazons, the ally of the Commonwealth in the successful eastern campaign. Urqaart then pointed to the young officer standing by the map board at the end of the room and said:. "That is my intelligence chief Colonel Dentzer who will be briefing us shortly. You remember him, don't you Drew?" Drew grinned and said "Definitely, sir." but left it at that for the moment. Dentzer winked at Drew then assumed a serious demeanor as he awaited the moment to start his briefing. Ian Dentzer was a full-blooded elf, darkly handsome and graced with the exotic looks, slender physique, and killer cheekbones characteristic of his race. He looked far too young for his rank thanks to his elven blood which made him seem like a youth in his late teens. The young colonel looked impressive in a crisp uniform which sported not only a badge for being Mentioned in Dispatches but also two wound stripes. No doubt about it. Here was a blooded soldier. The first order of business was a briefing from Urquhart's intelligence chief which summarized what the allies had found from their initial aerial survey of the conquered lands. More than a few towns had been put to the torch but most were intact. So were farms and standing crops which stood ready for harvest. Considerable damage had been inflicted on infrastructure such as river ports, bridges, ferries, and such but not so much that it would block reoccupation and resettlement. That news came as a relief to the orcs who expected to move in first. He also explained that scouts and autogyros were quartering the entire region for holdouts and deadeners though only a handful had been found. It was too soon to try to round up livestock like saddle and draft horses, but the scouts did make sure that the animals would be able to graze, opening stable doors and gates in corrals to let the animals run free. Dentzer handed out maps to all the participants and asked the orcs in particular to study them overnight and to select the territories which looked most suitable to their needs. The most promising region was in the northeast quadrant of Amazonia, an area of mountains and intermountain plateaux measuring a quarter of a million square miles. The region was not in the basin of the Amazon River proper but to the north, three hundred miles up another major river which ran roughly parallel to the Amazon. The orcs were not interested in the steaming jungle terrain along the lower reaches of the river though they insisted on freedom of navigation the whole length of the river to allow for trade via the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. Having made a tentative choice, the orcs asked for a quick look around. Sir Willet would take them there via a portal but return immediately while Axel would spend the day with them and then teleport them back. That would allow the war wizard to confer with Urqaart on the demobilization of the volunteer war mages who had been made warrant officers on a hostilities-only basis. Sir Willet flew high into the air lifting himself by the wooden yoke built into his leather cuirass and opened a portal to a far away landmark. After doing that twice more he arrived at the region in question. Opening a portal for the inspection party, he let them step through then returned to Urqaart's headquarters letting the portal close behind him. Besides Axel and Jaane Saari the inspectors included a member of the orc council, an aide plus a couple of body guards armed with air guns. Mountains forested to their crests embraced a well-watered plateau. Rich topsoil nourished a ground cover of grasses, sedges, and flowering plants and gave promise of high agricultural yields. Axel jumped the group to half a dozen locations in the regions: to the top of the mountain ranges north and south, to the channel of the main river draining the region, and to several locations on the intermountain plateau. "This is perfect for us." Saari declared. "These cool uplands are very much like where we lived in the Eastern Mountains, and the mountains on three sides are well-timbered, enough not only for our own needs but for a sustainable export business." "The fact that the area was hardly settled in the past means that we can start with a clean slate. No one wants to live in towns which the trolls turned into charnel houses during their conquest and again during their demise. "Now it will take several years to get our normal crops of breadfruit trees and earth apples established. That is why I have had farmers follow behind our army to gather the wherewithal to establish the system of companion planting that characterizes agriculture in the Amazon basin." "Companion planting?" Axel asked. Saari smiled. "I wouldn't expect a city boy like you Axel to be familiar with the system. In a sense we orcs already practice it with breadfruit trees and earth apples. In Amazonia farmers plant three main food crops: maize, squash, and climbing beans in flat topped mounds of soil each about a foot high and half a yard on a side. When the maize grows to six inches, beans and squash are planted around the maize alternately." "The three crops grow well together. Reaching for the sun the beans climb the growing cornstalks, which eliminats the need for poles; the beans renew the fertility of the soil; while the squash spreads along the ground which blocks and keeps weeds down. We can also plant a fourth species though not as a food crop but simply to attract bees for pollination." "Of course not all orcs will be settling here. You can expect to see more of my countrymen in the capital and elsewhere now that the difficulties of yesteryear have been put behind us." "I hope some of them open up restaurants featuring your national cuisine." Axel enthused. "I have developed a real taste for it. And meeting orcs regularly will help me keep up my hard won proficiency in your language." "Excellent! You Axel Wilde are a bridge between our cultures. I hope more citizens of the Commonwealth give our kind a second chance. Seeing the way the Commonwealth is fighting this war against the trolls shows better than anything else how idiotic our war hawks were to start a preemptive war instead of negotiating over our grievances." After hours of looking around Axel brought the party back to Urqaart's headquarters. The return journey was quick since it was to a spot Axel had earlier reached via a space portal, which meant he could get there in a single jump. The inspection trip had taken the whole day and worn Axel out. He felt like a jack-in-the-box whose spring had sprung. The conference resumed after a two day break only this time it was a plenary session presided over by the most senior of the four councillors the long-serving foreign minister Baroness Lerna Munray, a giantess with a commanding air. An old ally of Zaldor's and Urqaart's she was content to let them carry the ball reserving the role of referee for herself. Pointing to the maps hang on the walls of the conference room, Jaane Saari indicated the area of highlands and plateaux which they had chosen for their new homeland. Axel suggested that the orcs annex a port at the mouth of the river as an exclave and entrepôt within their tariff zone. Traders could transship exports and imports between river boats to sailing ships and vice versa. Saari accepted the suggestion. Axel also pointed out that merchant traffic on a river running through unclaimed or at least unsettled lands might attract river pirates and asked Urqaart to offer the orcs surplus vessels from the Commonwealth's riverine forces plus training in their maintenance and use. These were fast narrow craft propelled by oars or a fetcher. They were equipped with two compact catapults and either two ballistas or two of the new swivel guns which were smaller versions of Eike's magnetic cannon. They sat atop pintle mounts and were operated by a crew of two, a loader and a gunner, a master of magnetism, who traversed and elevated the barrel manually. The general agreed though Zaldor wanted it understood that the river would be an international waterway open to peaceful navigation by all nations. "Why not throw in aviation assets as well?" Drew asked. "We could turn over surplus autogyros to get provide aviation services in the land of the orcs just like we are doing in the Northlands? The orcs could use autogyros not just to support their military but also to carry the mail, for scouting, search and rescue, and for passenger and freight service." One of the envoys of the coastal states bristled objecting to the military advantage these measures would give to their soon-to-be neighbors. "Why make them a present of a river navy and an air force? Anyway what would pretty boys like those two know about navies and aviation much less weighty matters of war and peace?" Zaldor grinned, happy that the fool had fallen into his trap. "The two young men of whom you speak are national heroes acclaimed by our High Council which named them both Pioneers of Flight and Peacemakers Who better then to advise on such weighty matters? As to why we would make the orcs a present of a modest river navy and an air force, it's simple enough. They fought as our allies and earned it with their sweat, their blood, their courage, and their loyalty." Urqaart agreed to provide the river craft and the aerocraft, though he pointed out that future deliveries of autogyros and tools and replacement parts would be through commercial contracts with the manufactories. Janne Saari was pleased with this evidence of the Commonwealth's continuing good will and gratefully accepted the generous offers. Saari pledged that the orcs would stay engaged with the wider world, the modern world which the Commonwealth was ushering in via its industrial revolution, trade, communications, aviation, and cultural exchange. His military counterpart General Juhan Enno pointed out that most of the Expeditionary Corps would be released from the ranks and enlisted in the militia. In the future the orcs would maintain only a small permanent military establishment since they had no real enemies on their borders. That was why they did not ask for the large magnetic cannons. The Commonwealth arsenals would continue to produce them but only to reequip its own forces with the new weapon system. On the issue of demobilization of the Expeditionary Corps, it was agreed that the Commonwealth would continue to pay the orc soldiers for three more months to smooth the transition to civilian life as farmers and artisans and tradesmen. In the years ahead more orcs would likely move from the Eastern Mountains to their new homeland which was also open to immigration by orcs from anywhere on the continent. The amicable settlement with the orcs stood in stark contrast with the wrangles with the neighboring states who had expansionary designs on the vacant country which they viewed as a power vacuum. With the chairwoman's connivance Urqaart and Zaldor put them in their place. Zaldor dealt with the territorial claims. Pointing to the maps he traced the purple line that ran from the borders of the new homeland of the orcs south to the divide or watershed between the coastal lands and Amazonia. He also pointed to two areas in the east, the land of the Amazons and the neighboring brontothere reserve just west of it across the sea of reeds. All three were guaranteed their territorial integrity. The Commonwealth claimed all the rest by right of conquest and was prepared to back it up with military might if it had to. "In that connection," Urqaart noted, "I must tell you that there will leave no power vacuum behind such as you imagine. We intend to retain two full field armies in Amazonia backed by a riverine flotilla plus naval infantry to deal with contingencies. Any and all contingencies. Have I made myself clear?" He had. The envoys didn't like it, but the Commonwealth was not well-disposed toward the craven coastal states which had stood aside as the trolls invaded Valentia and slaughtered the population of Amazonia but had not even sent warning. "One more thing." Zaldor announced after getting the nod from the foreign minister. "The Commonwealth will also annex a corridor along the line of rivers and canals which the trolls used to gain access from the coast to the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. In time we will expand the canals to allow full sized ships to navigate to the southern coast of Valentia where our Navy will establish a base for a new salt water fleet to guard the continent from any further incursions from the Southern Ocean." "But those lands rightfully belong to us!" two envoys protested. Zaldor was implacable. He shook his head and said: "You lost those lands to the trolls. We took them. Now they are ours." With all political and military matters settled, Drew and Ian Dentzer had the time to renew their friendship. Drew Altair explained to the others that he and Ian had met more than a decade earlier during his mission to the Far West with Finn and the twins. At the time Dentzer was the chief cartographer for the Army of the West and had just won his captaincy on the strength of a new technique which made the contours lines invented by the twins ever more useful. Dentzer's innovation was a graphical method for determining which parts of a landscape, when viewed from a given vantage point, were masked from observation by intervening terrain features. It involved drawing a terrain profile to scale along a particular azimuth. The technique not only helped scouts select the best vantage points but also showed a commander where he might conceal his own approach or reserves from enemy observation. It was a tremendous tool for an army, at least in an area that has been fully surveyed and mapped. And you did not don't need a magical gift to use this technique. A compass worked just as well as Unerring Direction for determining an azimuth. Ian also explained that he had won his colonelcy with a program he devised to crack the written language of the trolls by having captives interrogated via Mind Speech. It took both clever questioning and telepathy. An interrogator would show a captive a picture or a word in the troll language and peek at the image it brought to his surface thoughts. Gradually that brought an understanding of their written language, making it possible to read their documents. The trolls never used encryption, thinking their unknown language was barrier enough. Like all elves Ian was a really good-looking young male, with the willowy physique, dark hair dark, fine-boned features, and green eyes typical of his race. A six footer he stood a full foot taller than the diminutive journalist. Thanks to regular sparring and swimming and field duty in the war he was quite fit -- not soft and out of shape as you might expect a staff officer to be. But then he was an elf. For Ian this little auburn-haired beauty was just his type: short and slightly built, impossibly cute, trim and fit, and with a strong streak of exhibitionism. Ian had no use for clothes horses. Rather he liked a boy who didn't care overly much for clothing, a boy who sought any excuse to take his clothes off, or even better, not to climb into his clothes in the first place. Pretty boys really owed it to the world to share their loveliness with males who appreciated the fine lines on a young colt like Drew. In bed Ian was a versatile lover, experienced in both roles, top or bottom, thanks to growing up in a largely human city rather than one of the secluded elven vales where he would have been expected to bottom for older males for decades at least. In Ian Drew found an enthusiastic partner whose favorite position was seated on a sturdy chair while his partner straddled him, then sat on his lap facing him, and slipped Ian's cock up his quim. The rider then did all the work, posting up and down as if riding a trotting pony. That let the young lovers gaze into each other's eyes, to kiss, and to touch the other boy in all his erogenous zones. To Ian's mind, the hard body of a boy was so much sexier than the soft and yielding form of the female. Boys' bodies were all sculpted muscle and bone and sinew, making for physiques that were strong and athletic and acrobatic. A girl was all take and no give, but a boy could give as well as take and even do both at the same time as when they lay head to toe and sucked each other's cocks. To hold his own with a boy it took another male. No none but another male could know the male body better, especially the manly parts. That was why boys were ever so much better at oral sex and manual manipulation. Boys knew what to do with a cock and what they wanted done with theirs too. A celebratory dinner marked the success of the conference though a couple of the envoys were so disgruntled they had left early and did not attend. They were not missed in the least. The first course was an antipasto of cheeses, cold meats, and olives. Next came a tossed salad followed by onion soup. The first substantial course was spinach pasta with white sauce followed by a main course of roasts of beef and lamb garnished with roast potatoes and carrots. Dessert was a fine peach cobbler. Aside from a single celebratory glass of sparkling wine, the diners stuck to chilled soft cider or cold beer. Most of those at the table declined the garlicky side dishes which the orcs were so fond of, but Axel rather liked garlic and dug right in. It was one of the characteristics which had endeared him to the orcs in the first place. He even got Sir Willet to try orc style cuisine. "Not as bad as I expected." Sir Willet admitted, which drew wry smiles from the orcs. Author's Note This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.htm This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or a few of the original characters. Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.