Chapter Eighteen: In All Directions

Tranith Argan: Book 4

---

Felanar and Kara prepare to go their separate ways, and Alessa wonders what she will do.

---

As the weeks passed, the ships of the Erenár began to gather in the ports of Elaria. Word came from Dolen that he was on his throne and that his people were anxious to avenge the death of Gram, his father. Just give the word and the armies would begin marching, but they were already gathering. The mines were being emptied of workers as each dwarf wanted to fight. This news came from an Erenár captain, and it was these water elves who provided the communication Felanar needed to get his plans ready for operation.

One distraction from his planning was his noticing Alessa often spending time with Aren. She and the Findáran knight leader went for long walks in the woods and they seemed happy together. Had this been going on for a long time, Felanar wondered? He spent only a little time in Elaria in recent years and for all he knew Alessa and Aren had grown close during that time. Yet if that were true, he thought, why did she kiss me in the caverns of Mount Majestic? Why did Kara insist that Alessa was in love with him, and why did Alessa act as if she were, only to now back off? Were these walks Aren's idea alone or did she suggest it?

Every time he felt like confronting Alessa with these questions he stopped himself. He had already asked her about her feelings, had he not? She stayed noncommittal every time. What was the point in asking again? She was allowed to be friends with anyone she chose, and if she chose Aren, well, that made sense from her position. He was a prominent knight of her people. Then just as quickly as such rational thoughts calmed him, emotions surged within him and started the process over again.

What Felanar did not know were the nature of the talks Alessa and Aren were having.

“He treats me as a child, Aren,” she said to him on one of their walks. “He will not allow me to go on the mission even though I have been to the western lands and proved my ability to survive and thrive!”

“I have great trust in your abilities, Alessa,” said Aren as they strolled, “for I have seen them for myself. I would be glad to have you accompany me on my journey.”

“Even though I am female?” asked Alessa sardonically.

“I have but five hundred seasons to my name,” he said, “and perhaps this infuses me with a youthful acceptance of the new. It is the old way of our people to protect the women and let the men do the work, but it is not my way.”

“Nor mine!” agreed Alessa.

“Your father loves you and wants you to be safe. We all thought you dead during your disappearance. It greatly upset me so I can imagine how it must have affected your father. I do not blame him for wanting you to be safe.”

“But how dangerous could this mission be?” cried Alessa. “We sail to High Point, where we are not expected, we set fire to their ships and we sail back. How is this not safe?”

“They will defend their ships,” Aren simply said.

“Let them,” scoffed Alessa. “They will not stand against us.”

“You speak as if you are going on the voyage,” said Aren.

“I intend to, if you'll allow me to join you.”

“If it were up to me, you would come as I said, but I would not defy your father.”

“Then I will have to convince him,” said Alessa with determination.

“I hope you succeed,” said Aren with a smile.

“Thank you, Aren, you have been a real friend.”

“I will always be your friend, Alessa.”

“I know,” she said quietly, and in that moment her mind drifted toward Felanar.

As for Felanar, among the activities he spent his time planning, an important one was to guide Kara on what she was to do in Tranith Argan.

“You will be in command,” he said to her over lunch in Llarand's home one day, “so you must act like you are in command. Llarand will lead the support you need in a show of strength in case there is opposition, but I do not think this will be the problem. Ravesfel will listen to Llarand and step down, of this I am sure. Should he resist, well, that is what the band of elves accompanying you is for. He will listen either of his own free will and a sense of shame, or at the point of a sword and an array of archers. No, the issue comes up once you resume ruling on the throne. There will be resentment, on both sides, between you and Ravesfel.”

“And with Anarth,” said Kara.

“Yes, and with Anarth,” agreed Felanar, “but here you must work especially hard to overcome your feelings. My instinct tells me that he wants what is best for Argan. Convince him that you are working with that aim, and you will have an ally. Use his vanity to your advantage. Give him prominent assignments that make him feel useful but are harmless. Let him be the image of our rule since the people trust and care for him. Not Ravesfel. With Ravesfel you should work with Llarand to shunt him aside. He can be counselor, for that is his appointed role, but no more. Even there I would discount much of his counsel until we see if he can be trusted.”

“He cannot,” said Kara.

“Perhaps,” said Felanar, “but let us see in time what may come of him. In the meantime, you have access to a band of Findáran knights. I have spoken with Llarand and he has agreed to let them stay as long as you feel it is necessary for your protection. They will be at your command and will be loyal only to you. There is nothing Ravesfel could do to corrupt them. Trust them and use them as you see fit.”

“My time should be spent preparing for war, should it not?”

“Yes, both to shore up the city's defenses as well as to prepare an army for an invasion. Work with the Duke of Irular Istan to get more than a token force this time. Arrange to shore up the Golden Lakes district's defenses. If Tain is still the Captain of the High Guard of Argan's army, replace him. Confer with Anarth to see who is suitable as a replacement, use your instinct, and check with Llarand. Do this early on so that the army can get used to a new captain. Needless to say, Ravis should be replaced as well.”

“I will do this all,” said Kara. “I would do more than that, of course.”

“I know you would, sister, and you have shown me already your worth on the battlefield. I will not order you this time. Instead I will let you use your judgment. If you think Anarth is proving trustworthy, and you think Ravesfel can be kept out of the way, then lead the army forward. I will not insist you stay in the city. However, it is critical that the city be left with strong defenses to guard against Vélakk's trickery. I will not be there so it will be up to you to decide where you can be of most use, at home in Tranith Argan or with me on the battlefield. Use your best judgment.”

“Alas,” said Kara, “you know this will make it impossible for me to come, for now you have put the responsibility on my shoulders and you know how I will be forced to do what is right and not solely what I wish to do.”

“Even so, sister, even so,” he replied with a grin.

“If I were to lead the army,” she thought out loud, “it would cause problems in the ranks, I think. They would view me as inexperienced and would think back to the last battle and the reports of it that must have returned to the city. No, as much as I would like that, it is best that one of the army's own do the leading, someone they know and trust. That is best. Besides, I would rather be third archer on the left than the head of the army. Give me a sword and bow and let me fight and I would be happy.”

“So says the fisherman's daughter from Brindledown,” Felanar chuckled, and Kara's face relaxed into a wide smile.

Two months after the council, Felanar and Dalonír met to discuss their plans. Aren was ready to set sail, Kara and Llarand had already left for Tranith Argan, and Felanar wanted to be on his way to Dragon Island. He and Dalonír had never spent much time together. As a child, Felanar felt a little intimidated by Llarand's son and felt more comfortable with the approachable Alessa. His rise to adulthood had reinforced those feelings toward Alessa and overlaid them with affection and love. With Dalonír he had experienced only respect and acquaintance, but now they were spending much time together making plans and researching dragon history. They were almost ready to depart.

“I have found this scroll in our archives,” the elf said, handing a smoothly rolled paper to Felanar. “It is written in classic Findáran, so I will have to translate it, but note the illustrations.”

Felanar took it and unrolled it until he saw the first inked illustration. It showed an elf riding a dragon with other elves looking on and laughing. There was nothing fearful about the picture; the artist clearly was showing a happy scene.

“I have confirmed this with father,” Dalonír continued, “for such activity predates my own life, but he remembers these events from his youth. Dragons and elves were friendly, more so than they are now, and riding dragons was, according to the text above that first illustration, considered a pleasure to be experienced by both elf and dragon.”

“It was fun, in other words?”

“Yes, you could use that phrase,” confirmed Dalonír and he smiled. “There was no practical value for us to ride dragons. We could see great distances from the air, but we had no need for this. We can see great distances from the ground, after all. The dragons certainly gained nothing from the activity. It was fun.”

“If my people could see this scroll they would be amazed. Actually, they would just put it down to elves being magical in their abilities.”

“Magical?” Dalonír raised an eyebrow.

“When people do not understand an ability, they have a tendency to ascribe it to something beyond the known and surpassing the ordinary. It never seems to occur to them that abilities can seem mysterious until you see the hard work that went into developing those skills. I can speak with animals, for instance, though not as well as you, and yet even my limited ability would cause my people to think of me as possessing magic.”

“I have never experienced what you call magic,” said Dalonír.

“Nor have I,” said Felanar, “but there are many who do believe.”

“Let us take this magic scroll, then, and show it to the dragons,” suggested Dalonír. “It may remind them of better times in the past between our peoples. Dragons are not as long-lived as elves, so their community memory is not as complete. It may be there are none among them who remember these happier times. This may help.”

“Agreed,” said Felanar, “and are our other provisions ready for the voyage?”

“Almost. Another day or so and we should be on our way.”

“The fleet heading to High Point is nearly ready too.”

“The pieces are in place, then,” said Dalonír, “and I hear my sister is planning to join that fleet, though how she secured our father's permission is a mystery. It is not like him to allow her to go on such a dangerous journey.”

“I wonder how she did it,” said Felanar, “though I have seen her determination on several occasions now. I would not be surprised to learn she put quite a bit of pressure on her father.”

Pressure was quite the right word to describe what Alessa had done the night before Llarand left to accompany Kara to Argan. For weeks she had been pleading and cajoling her father to let her join Aren on the mission to High Point. For weeks he had refused outright and reinforced his refusal for every variation of the plan Alessa came up with, even those variations that seemed absurdly safe to her.

She had promised to never leave the ship, to be guarded by knights at all times, to even be on a ship that hung back behind the others (though in her mind she thought this a pointless position to be in and she probably would not have kept this promise in the heat of battle). This had all been refused by Llarand and his views were confirmed by her mother. Alessa had grown disgusted at her parent's insistence on her staying behind while all of her friends and even her brother were sailing off to adventure.

“I cannot just stay here and do nothing!” she wailed the night before her father sailed.

“You will be needed to protect Elaria,” Llarand offered in frustration.

“I kept pointing out that Elaria needs no protection!”

“Of course it will, we will be draining it of our best fighters. There is no telling what enemy might take advantage of their absence.”

“What enemy?” cried Alessa. “The Evil One will be confronted on his land, the autarch will have his fleet destroyed, the dragons never bother us. What enemy?!”

“My mind is made up,” Llarand said simply. “You are too precious to me, my daughter. You are too young. You have too little experience in the ways of the world—“

“How can I gain experience unless I get experience?” Alessa asked in exasperation as she threw her hands into the air.

“Not this way,” said Llarand as he hugged his daughter and bade her good night. She did not hug back at first but then melted into his arms and began to cry.

“I love you, father,” she said. “I will miss you so much.”

“I love you too, child,” he said in his embrace. “I love that you want to help. I see your willingness and appreciate it. Please try to understand that I want what is best for you, my beloved child. Please stay safe, obey your mother, and I will see you soon when troubles are behind us. Please, do as I say.”

Alessa hugged her father harder but said nothing.

The next day Kara, Llarand, and a band of knights left for Tranith Argan. Alessa and Heléste waved to them from the dock as the ship drifted away, and Alessa shouted to Kara, “I will see you soon, somehow!”

“You must visit again and often,” shouted Kara back.

They waved to each other until the ship passed out of sight for Kara's eyes to see the dock.

One day later Felanar and Dalonír and a small band of knights were ready to sail to Dragon Island, and once again Alessa and Heléste waved to them from the dock. Felanar had said his goodbye before boarding with a warm hug of Alessa and a gentle hug of Heléste. He thought of saying something more to Alessa but he could think of nothing new and the setting was wrong. She said nothing either so perhaps it was just as well. He made do with her waves from the dock until he could no longer see her except in his mind, and there she remained as it ever would.

Two days later Alessa showed up alone to the dock where Aren was making final preparations for his fleet. Alessa carried supplies and when Aren noticed her she laughed.

“Can you believe it?” she asked. “My father finally gave his approval!”

Aren's face showed a mixture of surprise and pleasure, though surprise won.

“Are you sure of this?” he asked.

“Oh yes,” said Alessa as she boldly walked on board carrying her supplies. “He fought for a while, but I finally convinced him. He just wants you to look after me, that's all. As long as I am kept safe, he is satisfied.”

Aren rubbed his chin and thought about this unexpected turn, but the thought of having Alessa with him on the voyage overrode any cautious thoughts and he finally gave in to it and said, “Very well, then, I am glad to have you with me.”

“And I am glad to be here,” she said.

So while Dolen sat on his throne and prepared to lead an army of dwarves, and while Kara headed for her throne to prepare Argan for what was soon to come, and while Felanar and her brother headed off to end the dragon threat, and even Chafrar and Sera sailed home to Brindledown with Pross and Jela, Alessa found herself having no one to wave to on the dock as the ships set sail that morning. She did have one friend to speak to, however, when Tassair the hawk landed on her outstretched arm on the main deck.

“Just in time, my friend,” she said to the hawk. “You remember what to do?”

Tassair nodded in imitation of the movement he had seen elves make.

“Good, my friend,” Alessa continued, “wait until evening and then deliver this scroll to my mother.” She handed a rolled-up paper to Tassair who took it in one of his talons. “Wait until evening, that's important. Do you understand?”

Tassair nodded and let out a cry.

“Good, and finally you are to guard the skies around my home. If you see my mother attempt to send any bird to intercept this ship, you are to chase it away instead. Thank you, my loyal friend.”

Tassair let out another cry and flew off. With that Alessa's deception was complete, causing her heart to feel a pang, but then she told herself it was too late to do anything about it now. The pieces were in place and she was one of them. Whatever was to occur now, she would have to experience it as it happened. She took a deep breath of sea air and slowly let it out, and then she smiled in anticipation.

Adventure awaited.