Chapter 11
Queen Nerla led Sara through the palace to a couple of rooms that were filled with artifacts and paintings. Sara was surprised to see all the artwork that contained images of dwarves and elves together. What was surprising was that almost all of it showed the dwarves fighting the elves. There were even a couple of paintings where the dwarves were fighting giants. Sara wondered about the artwork and if any of it was from the time of the elves. She decided to ask.
"How old are these paintings?" she asked.
"Most of this date back to the time of the Elves. They have been handed down to each dwarf king."
Sara was impressed. "So the dwarves have a memory of their time with the elves?" she asked. When the look on Nerla's face went suspicious, she added, "What I mean is that we have artwork with human and elves together too, but there is no memory or other recorded facts about that time."
Nerla relaxed her expression as she said, "I understand. We dwarves are the same way. Other than the impression we get from these pictures, we have no memory of the elves. But if these pictures are any indication, then we dwarves did not get along with them very well."
"I can see that. You dwarves have a very proud history of fighters."
Nerla had a smile on her face. "Thank you. So what about you humans, what do your pictures say about your time with the elves?"
"Not a lot. All the pictures we have of humans and elves are portraits. Humans and elves are just standing together. We have never found any action painting like these. We could be their equals; we could be their slaves or we could be their overlords. The paintings add more mystery than give answers for us humans."
"Interesting. I think my people would like the idea of humans being the elves' overlords. Most dwarves do not like the elves if they think of them at all."
"Well, that is different than humans. The human attitude towards them run from those who think they were gods and created everything to those who do not believe they ever really existed."
"That is interesting. What do you believe about them?"
Sara thought a minute before answering. "I do not believe that they were gods but at the same time, I cannot deny that they existed as we find the items they left behind. I do not know who or what they were. More and more though I curse them for leaving behind all their stuff. I fear their weapons are going to be the downfall of humans."
"You mean things like the citadel?"
"Exactly. It is too powerful for any one kingdom to control and there is no way to share it. That is why I am going to destroy it."
Nerla gave Sara a long look and then said, "I agree with you. The Elves had their time, and it is now over. I say good riddance to them and their garbage they left behind."
Sara smiled at Nerla. It was not very often that you found someone with that viewpoint about elven weapons. Her husband Henry was such a person. She thought he would like these dwarves. Then, upon remembering her husband, sorrow streaked across her heart. In all the planning to escape and now their freedom, she had forgotten about Henry. She was glad to know that he was still alive, but she felt terrible for forgetting him. She turned away from Nerla, pretending to look at a painting so that she could hide the pain in her eyes.
After a moment of silence, Nerla said, "Come with me. I want to show you the Jewel of Hathorn."
Intrigued Sara followed her and said, "Jewel of Hathorn?"
"Yes, one of the most valuable things in all of Hathorn. You have come at a fortunate time as you can only see it in the fall."
Curious, she followed Nerla through a hallway and then up a circular flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a door that they passed through. Sara found herself on a large roof patio. They walked over to the edge were a very low wall stopped them from walking over the edge. She could see why the rooftop patio had been built as they were high enough that you could see over the wall of the city. The patio faced west, and she could see the harbor. Beyond that was the great Argo Sea. She had seen the Argo Sea from the western shore of Carriland, and it was still beautiful.
The sun was low in the sky, causing Sara to cover her eyes as she looked out over the scene. She was about to say something when Nerla motioned for her to be quiet and to keep watching the view. Sara thought the view was nice but could not see any sign of a jewel of value. She stood there for about 10 minutes, figuring that Nerla must have meant the view was the jewel. She was about to say something when she noticed the sun start to change color. The sun was now about one diameter above the horizon, and as it descended to touch the horizon, it changed from bright yellow to orange. It was just the tip at first, but as the sun moved down, the orange color seemed to slowly consume the sun. Just as the sun was almost fully orange, the tip began a new color. This new color was red. About every two minutes, a new color was introduced. There was green, blue and finally purple when the sun touched the water.
Sara just stood there watching the sun until it dropped into the Argo Sea. She then turned to see Nerla looking at her with a big smile.
"That was amazing. I can see why you call it the Jewel of Hathorn," Sara said.
"It never gets old. I just wish we got this every night."
Sara then noticed that someone had brought two chairs, one dwarf size, and another human size. There was also a drink for each of them. They both took a seat, and Sara said, "So this only happens in the fall?"
"Yes but I do not know why only this time of year. Most people just take it as a sign of a good year."
Sara sat there for a few minutes, just taking in what she had seen. It was a true jewel, the kind of jewel that kings and queens covet and yet belong to all the people. Finally, Sara decided to talk to Nerla about something she wanted to ask Nerla.
"So tell me about the Woodsman, I mean Raymond."
Nerla had a cautious look on her face. "What do you want to know?"
"He is a bit of a mystery. He has been wandering the woods for the past eight years. I am just curious as to why and why is he helping us with this mission, especially since he was Queen Hellicus' first general in the last war?"
Nerla now had a surprised look on her face. "He was? I did not know that, but it makes the attack more interesting."
"The attack?"
"He was attacked by Queen Hellicus herself. About ten years ago, we were watching the Emos border. We knew they were at war and feared they would turn their focus our way. One night one of our scouts observed Queen Hellicus and a soldier walking and talking along a small creek. He could not hear what they were talking about but all of a sudden, she attacked the soldier. The soldier tried to fight back, but Queen Hellicus was just too much. The attack was brutal. She gave him that scar and then left him for dead. Our scout found it curious that she would attack her own soldier, so he went to the soldier and nursed him back to health. He never said he was a general, though."
Sara thought for a moment and then said, "That scout was your son, was it not?"
"Yes, it was. Once he was back to health, we found him a curiosity, at least at first. He was the first human we had ever interacted with without killing. But soon he became friends with our son and then us. But once he saved our son from a Craig Bear he became a friend to the people. We were sad when he decided to leave us."
"Queen Hellicus was the one that gave him that scar? I wonder why?"
"I do not know, but I know that he was once married, and she is now dead."
"Really?"
"One night I found him up here crying. He told me that his wife had died, and when she did, he had lost the one thing he lived for. He did tell me that was why Queen Hellicus attacked him. She had said he was derelict in his job and being derelict in your job is a capital offense. We dwarves consider ourselves to be strong on discipline, but that seem hard to me. He was grieving the loss of his wife; she could have given him some time to deal with it."
Sara agreed that it seemed a bit hard. She had learned how he got the scar. Was he helping them destroy the citadel to get back at Queen Hellicus? The two spent the rest of the evening talking about the woodsman and his time with the dwarves.
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