Elf-Boy's Friends 50
The Western Dividing Range
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1 Orcs
After four days camped atop a butte overlooking a land dominated by avian predators, the Corps of Discovery pushed on. Their four autogyros rose into the sky and flew westward, passing over and beyond the open forest and meadow of the intermontane plateau.
Ahead lay a second range of mountains taller than the front range inhabited by the forest folk they had befriended. At the edge of the intermontane plateau a nearly sheer cliff rose for two hundred feet, an impassible barrier to the terrestrial birds of the plateau. Beyond that were forested mountains one of which was clearly of volcanic origin though the rest were the usual sort of folded mountains.
"No wonder the forest folk knew nothing of this new country we are flying over," Finn offered. "Given their reluctance to hazard the plateau filled with terror birds and the rock wall which the next range presented to them, there was little reason for them to venture this far."
The inhabitants of this region had real farms, with clear cut fields laid out around compact villages connected by graveled roads. Finn directed the aerocraft to land in a newly cleared but as yet unplanted field on the outskirts of one of the larger villages then waited for a delegation of locals to present itself.
He soon realized that their arrival had stirred up a hornets' nest. Signal horns sounded the alarm and the call to arms. In short order the village militia formed up and marched out to confront them. Their tall gangly physiques left no doubt. These folks were orcs.
The orcs were armed with shields and maces in the center, archers on either flank, all told numbering five hundred. Taking heart from their numbers they advanced at a deliberate pace, a drum beating the cadence.
The leader was an imposing specimen of middle years. He called out a challenge which none of them understood except Dahlderon who was listening not to his words but to his thoughts via Mind Speech.
<Since none of us speak your language I have resorted to telepathic communication. I am the Druid Lord Dahlderon and at my side stands our commander, Sir Finn Ragnarson>
Their leader spat.
<Your mental intrusion is just one more reason why you will die, foul interlopers. Prepare yourselves to receive our attack, and pray to your gods in the little time you have left to live.>
<We are flying the parley flag, or don't you know the significance of this green and white banner?>
<We know what it means but don't care. All who learn of our existence here must die lest they carry news to the outside world of this, the last refuge of orc kind.>
<You are hardly the last of you kind. Many thousands of orcs live among us in the Commonwealth of the Long River, and half a million more dwell in their new homeland in far off Amazonia.>
<Nay, we know full well that the Commonwealth wiped out the orcs in their Formation Wars. We are all who are left.>
Dahl shook his head.
<That is not true and easily disproven. Anyway, you are already too late to prevent news of your settlement reaching the wider world. As a druid, my Mind Speech can reach halfway across the continent to my colleagues in the Commonwealth and the Great Southern Forest. They are listening in even as we speak.>
At that point Owain and Merry joined the conversation, their mental "voices" distinctly different from Dahl's.
<Our colleague speaks the truth, not only about the news of your existence but also about your fellow orcs here and in Amazonia.>
Finn declared over the shared mental link.
<Or the lies you command them to. You, sir giant, shall be the first to die.>
The leader turned toward a orc at his side who did not bear any weapon and gestured toward Finn.
Having read the man's intention the druid had alerted Corwin to be ready. The reason that particular orc did not bear arms was that he could throw lightning. He gestured dramatically and hurled a powerful levin bolt straight at the frost giant. Corwin blocked it with his ball lightning which shook and flashed blue as it absorbed the bolt then darted forward to a position only five feet in front of the orc mage where it hummed and crackled menacingly.
In the face of the obvious threat, the orc threw up his hands, turned toward his leader, and shook his head.
<No matter,> the orc leader sent.
At his command sixty archers loosed shafts at the small band of explorers fully expecting them to die or at least take grievous wounds from their arrow storm. Their efforts came to naught as the arrows or rather their arrowheads fell short as the druid turned the wooden shafts of the arrows to dandelion seeds which dispersed as loose airy puffs. Without the inertia of the shafts the arrowheads lost momentum and guidance and fell harmlessly to the ground.
<Your magic is formidable, but in the end our numbers will prevail. Even as we speak reinforcements from villages nearby are on the way. Very soon now you will face a thousand warriors.>
Finn shook his head.
<Even a thousand warriors could not prevail against just those of us here, for we wield formidable magic, but we do not wish to have to slay anyone to prove our point. Instead we shall stage a demonstration of the military might at our command, for we too can bring up reinforcements. Behold.>
A space portal opened up and onto the field marched a regiment of Frost Giants two thousand strong along with the war wizard Sir Willet Hanford and his aide, the war mage Sir Axel Wilde. The giants were all armed with the larger and more powerful type of air gun. Behind them rolled supply carts; some were filled with fire globes which they could hurl at their foes with slings.
By the time the giants had deployed from column of march to line of battle the orc reinforcements had arrived bringing their numbers to just over a thousand facing twice as many giants.
<Alas, it is as we always feared, that one day the Commonwealth would track us down and wipe out the last of the orcs. If we have to go under, at least we will give a good account of ourselves, our arrows and maces against those clumsy spears you all carry.>
<Ah, but these are not spears at all. The bayonets at the end of our air guns have mislead you to thinking that these are merely a close-in weapon. In fact our air guns can propel lead bullets for three hundred fifty yards and are uncannily accurate, as I am prepared to demonstrate. Axel, get ready and shoot at whatever target their leader designates.>
At that exact moment, as Dahl had arranged with Axel, a pheasant burst out of the brush and took flight. It was the orc leader's obvious choice for a target, so he took the bait.
<There's your target. Shoot it down if you can.>
Axel cooly took aim, lead his target, and fired. The bird squawked once and fell to the ground dead. In actuality the shot was easier to make than it looked. Axel knew when the bird was about to break cover. It had been under Dahl's control and had held still during the confrontation then took off at the druid's command and flew a straight and level course. For a sniper of Axel's skill it was an easy shot to make.
"That regiment of frost giants is armed with a more powerful version of this weapon and could unleash a hail of lead that would obliterate your assembled militia with a single volley. Yet we are staying our hand in the interest of peace."
<Nay, we cannot not trust your peaceful intentions. So it seems that the planet of Haven has seen the last of the orcs, and we shall all be slain.>
In their own language Axel shouted:
"No, you won't, not if you come to your senses. We will defend ourselves but shoot to wound rather than to kill. Whatever happens we will not attack your civilian population. No one will be harmed if you parley instead of attack."
"What? How is it that you speak our tongue, outlander?" he called back.
"How else? I learned it from friendly orcs whom I have lived among going back now for years, some of whom have taken me as a lover."
"Humans and orcs friends and lovers? I can hardly believe it."
"If it were not so, then how do you explain my fluency in your language, and what do you make of this blue tattoo on my shoulder which marks me as an orc-friend?"
"This I must see for myself. I will have our forces stand at ease. We shall honor your parley flag, for now. Let a small party advance from each side to meet in the middle between us so we can communicate without shouting. What is your name, orc-friend?"
"My name is Axel Wilde."
"Then Axel Wilde, I would ask you to translate between us so that the druid may drop his unwelcome mental contact. No one cares to have another read his thoughts, especially in a negotiation."
Dahl turned to Axel and nodded.
"Agreed."
Chapter 2 Peace Talks
Four orcs stepped into the middle to confer with Dahl, Finn, General Ifans, Axel, and Sir Willet. The colonel in charge of the regiment of frost giants stayed with his command, sending over a captain as liaison.
Their orc interlocutor gave his name as Soren. He was the headman of the nearby village. The orcs with him were their war chief Rohm, a member of the ruling council named Forten, and their shaman Ridley, the lightning thrower.
With Axel translating Soren said:
"So you are telling us that after a very brief war, the orcs of your Eastern Mountains threw in with the Commonwealth and joined them in a cataclysmic war against a common enemy."
"Exactly," Finn told them.
"The trolls were the enemy of all races which can use magic. They invaded Valentia intent on exterminating humans and elves and dwarves and giants as well as orcs. Fortunately we won and they lost. For now the trolls are confined to their original oceanic archipelago where their population is in the process of crashing to a much lower level."
"That was our doing, we druids," Dahl admitted.
"We visited a plague on them, one which did not kill anyone but which reduced the fertility of their males to below replacement level. Now some of them will be naturally immune, so this was not an act of genocide. Trolls will not die out but their numbers will be very much reduced. We hope that in a century or so they will have thrown off their intolerant and crusading religion which propelled them to their bloodthirsty wars of extermination. If so we would welcome them among the nations."
"Would you then restore their fertility?"
"No need for us to do anything. Natural selection will do that for them. Those immune to our plague will be the progenitors of the trolls of the future."
All four orcs were astonished to learn that their hidden land did not shelter the only population of orcs left on Haven. They were but an offshoot of a thriving population of orcs numbering in the millions. That made them one of the great races of mankind on their planetary refuge.
The orc shaman Ridley offered an apology.
"Sorry about that attack just now with a levin bolt. I am just glad it was blocked by that pretty blond boy."
Axel smiled.
"As Corwin always says, powerful as they are, lightning bolts are all offense but offer no defense, whereas ball lightning serves as both sword and shield."
Left unsaid was that, as the avatar of a thunder god, Finn would have caught the bolt with Mjolnir and thrown it back twice as hard, but Finn wanted to defuse the situation, not escalate it. Just as well they targeted him instead of the druid. His ensorcelled amulet would have protected him for hostile magic, but at the cost of giving away one of their hole cards. Axel too wore such an amulet.
"So the trolls lost the war, and our own people the orcs won a new homeland for themselves. This I would like to see with my own eyes." Forten told him.
"You wish is easily accommodated, gentlemen." Sir Willet assured them. "Axel here can escort a delegation to visit the new homeland of the orcs."
"Would we be traveling through one of your incredible space portals?"
"No, but by a different means entirely. Of those here only the druid and myself can open portals. Axel has a different gift, that of teleportation. He can instantly jump your delegation to Amazonia to meet their leaders, take a tour, then return."
"How does it work?"
Sir Willet let Axel answer:
"I can transport not only myself but anything or anyone I touch both physically and with my mind. The transfer is instant and effortless. I like to say that I can travel at the speed of thought."
"Would these Amazonian orcs welcome us to settle among them?"
"Assuredly, they have welcomed nearly half a million orc migrants from the Commonwealth and the lands of the eastern barbarians. There is land aplenty for farmers and employment opportunities in the growing towns whether in commerce, transport, or in manufactories."
"Your folk will find a warm welcome and plenty of opportunity there. And for those who would stay behind, as I expect many will, they will no longer be isolated and out of contact with the outside world where so much has been happening."
Ifans commented:
"I'd expect that within a very few weeks an air service will link the Flatlands to this hidden land of yours, especially if an airfield here serves as a base for further exploration and as a nexus of trade and cultural links, not only to the West but also North and South. The Western Dividing Range is practically a subcontinent unto itself, and it is the focus of our initial exploration. We are leaving the coastlands for later."
Finn nodded.
"Our first job is to explore the whole length of the Western Dividing Range to look for routes through it instead of just penetrating on a narrow front. The Coastal Lands can wait for that later expedition our High Command has planned."
In the end, it was decided that Councillor Forten and the shaman Ridley would visit the new homeland of the orcs. Meanwhile Headman Soren and War Chief Rohm would spread the word about the opportunity suddenly opened up by their visitors. Final arrangements depended on what the delegation found there and what assistance the orc government there would offer new settlers.
As a sign of good faith the frost giants and Sir Willet returned to the Commonwealth. Before the war wizard left, Corwin and handed him a hastily written article describing their encounter with the orcs. It would be just the latest of their continent-wide scoops. Chagrined competitors had long complained about the pair's uncanny gift for being on the scene of the action.
Corwin's and Drew's attitude was that if they were where things were happening it was only because they themselves sought adventure, went on important missions, battled foes, or rescued disaster victims. The competition should just go off on their own adventures and find their own stories instead of waiting for scoops to drop into their laps.
Forewarned by Mind Speech from Dahl, the orcs in Amazonia did indeed welcome their long lost brothers with all due ceremony including a military honor guard. Councilor Forten was impressed that their soldiers all carried modern air guns like those borne by the soldiers of the Commonwealth. The chief councillor of the orcs, Janne Saari, assured him that the orcs and the Commonwealth were not only military allies but now partners in the development of a new continental order, a modern world that the orcs were now an important part of.
Saari gave the delegation the grand tour of their new land. Like their own hidden land it was a blessedly cool region of highlands and plateaux lying between two parallel mountain ranges. Forten and Ridley were impressed by the sheer numbers of orcs and the energy and prosperity evident everywhere they went.
What made an even stronger impression on them was touring the country via autogyros flown by the orcs themselves. Everywhere they heard stories of the recent war and of how the orcs had raised an expeditionary corps armed, equipped, and paid by the Commonwealth. In exchange for their servie, the orcs got first pick on the conquered lands.
"We can thank Axel for our initial aviation assets after the conquest. It was he who suggested that the Commonwealth donate autogyros made surplus by our joint victory in Amazonia. Now we are not yet building them ourselves, but we use them not only for our postal service, rescue work, and our small military establishment, but also for moving passengers and freight north and south quickly against the grain of a land where the rivers and ridge lines mostly run east and west. We are building roads and bridges, but that is a monumental task which will take decades."
For the return trip Axel suggested two stop overs. The first was the orc enclave and entrepôt at the mouth of the great river which drained their lands and where sailing ships transshipped their cargos onto river boats. The orcs exported food, fiber, metals, naval stores, and dyestuffs, chiefly indigo, and took in a wide variety of manufactures from the Commonwealth including books printed with moveable type in the orc language, mainly translations. Printing and book publishing were still in their infancy in the orc homeland.
After that the delegation stopped over in the capital. There they would see what the Commonwealth could offer to its friends: a chance to join the modern world, with new knowledge and technology and an ongoing industrial revolution. The various races circulated and intermingled harmoniously on the city streets: humans, elves, giants, dwarves, and orcs.
Iron roads carried passengers and goods long distances. Street cars offered speedy transit in the cities. Trunk highways and canals linked major centers of population and production. Autogyros flew overhead carrying mail, passengers, and air freight. Heliograph lines flashed messages the length and breadth of the land in a matter of minutes. For personal transport there were bicycles and tricycles rolling on wire wheels plus skimmers. At night cool globes of light illuminated the streets letting the inhabitants circulate easily to restaurants, and entertainment venues or go in pursuit of more sensual pleasures.
On successive evenings Axel took them to dinner at the Sign of the Whale and then to one of the better establishments offering their own garlicky cuisine for which he himself had developed a taste.
"Now this is more like it." Ridley said of the cuisine at the orc restaurant. "I didn't want to say anything to our hosts in the new homeland of the orcs, but they use rather too much garlic in their food."
"Indeed" Soren endorsed. "With food flavorings the rule should always be: `A little more than a little is by much too much.' That is especially true of garlic."
Axel told them that in order to appeal to a wider public than just orcs, the chef used less garlic than was usual. Orcs were known for their love of garlic, as well as for the garlicky breath it left.
Soren shook his head. "That is not so among our folk. Why rely so much on a single flavoring when there are so many to choose from? My favorite is lemon grass, which has a much more subtle taste."
"And mine is paprika." Ridley told him.
When the proprietor realized that his guests were the delegates from the hidden land in the Western Dividing Range he tore up the bill, telling everything was on the house, including a premium after-dinner liqueur he had brought out.
The visitors were really won over when Axel introduced them to ice boxes and refrigeration. Its practical use was obvious. Ice kept meat, fish, and dairy cold and retarded spoilage. Ice was also essential to two of the pleasures of modern life: iced-cream and cold beer.
Printed books were something new to the visitors. Axel took them to a bookstore where he bought all of the twins' successful line of field guides, newly translated into the orc language and reissued as a set.
Published under their imprint Gemini Field Guides, each volume described some aspect of the natural world. The imprint had issued guides on topics like land navigation, tracking, landforms, tree identification, and avian raptors.
Written and illustrated with maps and drawings by the twins themselves, the field guides were printed on sturdy linen rag paper for durability but with soft covers and in a small format that let readers slip them into a pocket or pack.
In a sense the guides were the fruit of the endless questions the insatiably curious twins had plied their sometimes exasperated interlocutors with over the years, offering the excuse that questions where how you learned things not written down in books. Now they were, at least on the subjects covered by their field guides.
To the twins' guides Axel added translations of Drew's and Corwin's best selling books of reportage and history. These would help bring the orcs up to date on what had been happening in recent years in the wider world.
Too bad that perpetual best seller, the Compendium of Knowledge, had not yet been translated into orc. It offered an encyclopedic exposition of what was known in the natural sciences, medicine, history, geography, technology, and literature.
On their final day in the capital Axel took the delegates to the offices of the Capital Intelligencer for an interview where they described their reaction to what they had seen and their hopes for the future. So the news-paper got another scoop though this time the byline was that of the editor, Drew's brother Heflin.
Heflin raised an eyebrow when Axel asked him to mention the two restaurants by name. The Capital Intelligencer did not usually print shameless plugs for commercial establishments, but agreed to make an exception just this once. After all the dinners were a part of their visit, and the delegates had themselves spoken of how good the food was in both.
Afterwards Axel teleported the delegates back to their hidden land. The friends of the delegation were mightily relieved to see them back safe and sound and listened incredulous as they related the wonders they had seen.
The books they brought back with them got passed around so much they practically fell apart from so much handling. Many who read the twins' field guides wanted copies of their own and could hardly wait for the promised trade route to open up to supply printed books of all sorts.
Corwin's and Drew's reportage and history told of the recent history of the Commonwealth of the Long River and its successful wars against barbarians, centaurs, and trolls. The orcs of the hidden land realized how reckless they had been to provoke so mighty a military power, one capable of projecting whole field armies through space portals to strike a foe from any quarter.
Just the Corps of Discovery or even single members could have defeated them militarily. One twin could create sun mirrors capable of incinerating a whole cavalry regiment. His brother could make the earth yawn and swallow them up. The frost giant could rain volleys of lightning bolts down on them, etc. Even the pretty blond boy could have swept his ball lightning along their battle line and incinerated every one of them. Instead he had exercised restraint, merely absorbing the levin bolt aimed at Finn and checkmating their shaman without harming him.
The most enlightening of their books was Drew's account of the first Corps of Discovery. It was a terrific page turner, an exciting tale of action and adventure with its young heroes battling a dragon, a plague of locusts, reptilian raptors, a mosasaur. and even a mud volcano. It also told of an act of high statecraft.
The orcs came to understand that the ultimate purpose of the expedition was not simply exploration and discovery but the formation of the Greater North Valentia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a loose group of independent but friendly states linked by communications, trade, investment, travel and tourism, and cultural exchange. They read how the Commonwealth shared its aviation technology with Nordstrand in exchange for their techniques for building ships capable of navigating the outer oceans.
The orcs realized that the Commonwealth was not only the benign hegemon of the continent of Valentia but also the chief defender of civilization on the planet. It promoted modernity and the commercial and industrial revolutions which underpinned it.
How lucky then that they themselves now had a chance to become a part of this civilization yet on their own terms and under their own laws whether in the hidden land or the new homeland of the orcs far to the East. Some might even take up residence in the Commonwealth itself. A whole new world beckoned.
With visions of a brighter future ahead there was no holding the orcs back. Nearly a third at least talked of emigration, disproportionately younger sons and daughters. The older and more established folks were content to stay where they were and let the modern world come to them.
In time their hidden land would accede to the orc homeland as an exclave in otherwise un-demarcated territory. The Commonwealth had no territorial ambitions in the mountains. It was content with its stewardship of the center of the vast continent of Valentia which stretched east to west more than a quarter of the way around the planet.
Chapter 3 Making Friends
The Corps of Discovery settled in for a stay of some weeks while everything was being sorted out. Sir Willet reopened the portal briefly for resupply, and the Corps settled down in some empty but still sound farm buildings, no longer in use since a neighbor bought the acreage from the former owner. Money was no problem. The orcs did not live by barter but used coins minted from silver and copper making it easy to assign a value to the Commonwealth's coinage.
With the mission on hold, the circle of friends mingled with the orcs and tried to help out where they could. Except for Finn and Dahl they set aside their official looking uniforms and expeditionary outfits in exchange for their fashionable square-cut low-rise short shorts which flattered and revealed their scrumptious physiques. Only Finn carried a weapon, but then Mjolnir was as much a badge of office as a weapon of war.
The elf-boy cum druid Dahlderon used life magic to counter a blight and help the orcs bring in a record crop of earth apples or potatoes, their staple which was interplanted with breadfruit trees. They also grew vegetables and greens and herbs including garlic plus tree crops like walnuts and apples. Their farmers and gardeners used a stone mulch made from volcanic rocks to reduce water loss from the soil and to suppress the growth of weeds.
Corwin and Axel volunteered their services at the local infirmary. Both were trained combat medics and Corwin was also a magical healer. Not every village had a magical healer of its own and Soren's village of Mount Alder was one such. The sick and injured relied on bonesetters, herbalists, and midwifes who practiced natural medicine. Magical healers were sent for when only magic would work.
It helped that most medical problems were straight-forward: injuries from falls, kicks from balky cows or mules, accidents in the kitchen or workshop or smithy, contaminated or spoiled food, dog bites, and the very occasional case of foul play.
Fortunately insanity, dementia, and the hereditary diseases which had plagued the inhabitants of Old Urth had long since been edited out the human genome. Insect vectors of disease did not trouble them either. Humans and the other races simply smelled wrong to piercing and biting creatures which might otherwise feed on their blood or flesh. One did have to be careful around bees and wasps, scorpions, and fire ants which used their armaments and venoms not for food but for self-defense.
The Corps of Discovery needed a translator to talk with the orcs and since Axel was on hand and was very much a persona grata among the orcs he got the job. Sir Willet would just have to do without his aide for the time being. From that point on, with Axel now a member of the Corps of Discovery, he would teleport their copy to the capital.
The twins had long been comfortable in elvish, a language which shared ancestry with the orc tongue, and they had picked up a fair amount of the dwarven language too. After all not only were the twins elf-friends but also dwarf-friends twice over. With their gift for languages they set out to acquire at least a facility with basic orc and engaged a tutor.
Corwin and Drew shared the same tutor who worked with the four of them two hours a day. The young journalists had spent a lot of time among frost giants who used what was arguably a dialect of the common tongue rather than a separate language, though not in the giants' own estimation. As Finn once told them:
"The difference between a language and a mere dialect is whether it is used as the official means of communication for a state, an army, and a system of law courts. We giants have two homelands, a home army and our Fyrd in the Commonwealth, and our own set of laws and courts. So ours is no mere dialect."
"As to any difficulties of intercommunication, it's hardly our fault if others sometimes find it difficult to follow what we say. They should get the wax out of their ears."
His attitude was perhaps a faint echo of the attitude of those frost giants who, for all the racial harmony in the Commonwealth, looked down on the other races in more ways than one.
Finn had started out as a blacksmith and was happy to lend a hand at the local smithy which was shorthanded, one of their two journeymen having left to set up his own shop in another village and take a bride. Finn worked with borrowed tools. Mjolnir was not meant for bashing metal. It was a war hammer.
Meanwhile army transports flew the twins out to continue the aerial survey of the mountains. They flew to a radius of a hundred miles west and two hundred north south, about the limit for a single day's flight. They saw signs of settlement: villages, fields, dirt roads, and pack trains, but avoided contact. The locals must have wondered at the autogyro overhead, which would have looked to them like a very large and very strange sort of dragonfly.
After a week in Mount Alder, Chief Borden raised the issue of fraternization with Finn. He had already asked the general's opinion on the matter so both men sought Finn out and put it to him. It was all well and good for Evan and Hugh Loring to pair off, but aside from a second pair of elves the rest of the scouts very much preferred the society of females. Could the ban be relaxed at least temporarily since there are so many females living close by?
"It's your good luck gentlemen that Soren himself has already raised that very issue. I had expected him to insist on guarantees that none of our men would seek out their women, but he surprised me. He told me that the orcs had no objection to our scouts `stepping out,' as he called it, with orc females. Fresh blood would be welcome as a way to prevent in-breeding. That is why their own young males were encouraged to take brides from a village other than their own. Now the orcs had not mixed their blood with humans or elves since their isolation, but they had certainly done so in the past. No stigma is attached to hybrid origins."
"Understand, any liaisons with orc females must be consensual. You should remind your young bucks that with the leverage which their gangly proportions gives them, even a female orc is about as strong as a human male. And if that does not deter over eager swains, tell them that anyone forcing themselves on an orc female will face severe punishment. Corwin's magic can do more than heal, it can render a male permanently limp, if you take my meaning."
Meanwhile Evan and Hugh Loring had sparked the interest of a number of orc youths, who like them, preferred their own gender. After Chief Borden told them about the relaxation of the ban on fraternization, the young couple sounded out Axel about orcs as lovers. Evan had trouble articulating just what troubled him.
"Sir Axel, I am not sure how to put this, but I understand that you have taken orcs as lovers. So I am wondering about, well, about their er ... manly attributes... "
Hugh Loring rolled eyes and said candidly.
"What my shy friend is trying to ask is whether orcs are as `gangly' in their manly parts as in their limbs."
Poor Evan's ears burned.
Axel grinned.
"Well, far be it from me to spoil the surprise, Evan, so let's just say that you will not be disappointed."
With that he and the others chortled. Evan was more relieved than embarrassed and soon he joined in, though with a somewhat forced laugh.
"So that you won't be going in blind, let me educate you on the orc libido." Axel continued.
"A strong physical attraction is not uncommon between orcs and elves despite or perhaps because of the physical differences. Orcs are tall and gangly and their faces are all planes and angles. Now that's a lot different from your own willowy physique and fine-boned features. Your orc lover will expect to take the lead. They like to dominate, though without any rough stuff, but they don't want a complete submissive for a partner. That turns them off. They like their boys with a bit of fight in them. Got it?"
"Got it! And thanks!"
Axel himself was not interested in liaisons with the locals. Sure he liked orcs well enough when he visited their homeland alone. Here among the members of the Corps of Discovery Axel was very much not alone. In fact he had the very best of lovers to choose from: a pair of identical twins, a cute blond boy with a strong admixture of elven blood, an auburn haired scamp, a lovely elf-boy cum druid, and a frost giant cum avatar of a thunder god. Lovers didn't come any better than that.
Not that the orcs didn't warm up to Axel and his mates socially. Practically overnight he and his circle of friends had become celebrities. Besides the orcs who had actually read Corwin's and Drew's books many others had attended group readings and heard them read aloud. Their accomplishments spoke for themselves. Here were a group of admirable young males who had not only distinguished themselves in war but had served as peacemakers and been among the pioneers of flight, and had rescued or healed victims of disaster.
A Commonwealth which produced citizens of their caliber was indeed worthy of friendship.
Chapter 4 The Vale
"Good Morning Headman Soren" Jemsen began, speaking the orc tongue. "From the look of the sky we can expect rain later today."
"Indeed, and my compliments on your progress in learning our language. Your accent is quite good."
"Thanks but we have a long way to go, my brother and I, before we feel comfortable in orc and fluency will take even longer. That is why Axel is on hand to translate for us if we get stuck."
"What I wanted to ask is what can you tell us of your neighbors?"
"In a word, nothing; we have had no contact with those who dwell beyond our borders. There are three routes in and out of our hidden land and all are blocked. For centuries we have kept ourselves to ourselves even resorting to killing to keep our existence here a secret. We do know of the forest folk on the other side of the intermontane plateau but do not interact with them."
"All we have are oral tales of the time centuries ago when we settled these lands, taking them from a tribe of humans, mere hunter-gatherers who did not practice agriculture. We were physically superior and their war clubs and slings were no match for bows and weapons of steel. Even more important, as a civilized people we could field a proper army. The primitives had only loosely organized bands of nearly naked warriors who bore neither shield nor armor."
Some of that went over Jemsen's head so Axel translated.
"Is your conflict on-going? Do they raid into their old lands?"
"Never! We chased them off good and proper. I suppose we committed an injustice, but we told ourselves that they weren't using these fertile lands to their full potential. I know that's a rationalization, but there it is. Anyway what was done centuries ago is done for good."
"What was that all about anyway?" Axel wondered.
Jemsen told him that he and his twin were gathering material for their next book on the flora, fauna, geography, landforms, and peoples of the Western Dividing Range. It would be the next in their successful line of field guides.
The guide would complement Corwin's and Drew's the narrative of the expedition with a publication date some months later and into the next calendar year. That would make both books eligible for Writers Prizes without competing head on.
"We also plan to publish maps and a gazetteer for travelers but that will have to wait, perhaps for several years, till we find practical ways through the mountains. So far all we have found in our surveys are river valleys leading into the massif only to dead end in their source at a mountain lake or spring or cataract but with no mountain pass beyond. If there is a way through these mountains we haven't found it, but it is still early days."
Meanwhile a team had arrived by portal and autogyro from the new homeland of the orcs in Amazonia to work with the locals and organize an exodus of those who wanted to emigrate. When the time came, an orc war wizard would open a space portal for successive parties of orcs to pass through. The local orcs estimated that in the end fewer than a tenth of their population of some quarter million would emigrate right away. The rest would wait to see how things worked out for the pioneers.
Engineers and builders also went to work on an airfield to serve those who remained. They put up hangers, sheds, quarters, a transfer hall, etc. The airfield would facilitate passenger and air freight between the hidden land and the Commonwealth.
The orc domain had ideal growing conditions for the crocus which produced saffron, the costliest spice by weight. Once they expanded production, exports of saffron which go a long way toward covering the cost of imports of manufactures from the Commonwealth.
The orcs also intended to market fossil amber and their unique handicrafts and art, and perhaps their tasty pickled mustard tubers. The tubers were actually made from the knobby, fist-sized, swollen green stem of the mustard plant, which was first salted, pressed, and dried before being rubbed with hot red chili paste and allowed to ferment in an earthenware jar. The unique taste was a combination of spicy, sour, and salty, and the delicacy had the aroma of sauerkraut with hot chili paste.
Finn was dubious about the reception the tubers would get in the outside world, but General Ifans was enthusiastic.
"Don't worry," Ifans assured the orcs. "These will go over big time."
Finn rolled his eyes and with a twinkle in his eye said: "There is no accounting for taste."
The orcs later sought out Finn and asked to join the Corps of Discovery temporarily while they explored the region immediately around their own hidden land. Finn and Ifans had no objection provided they observed the principle of unity of command and followed Finn's orders. War Chief Rohm and five orcs militiamen flew in their own transport piloted by an orc from Amazonia.
"My title is really an anachronism," Rohm admitted to Finn. "We haven't gone to war since the conquest. I just command the militia during bimonthly musters for training and also when helping with disaster relief. We occasionally get earthquakes strong enough to collapse houses. Sometimes big storms will cause mudslides, bring down trees, or level houses."
The next people the Corps of Discovery encountered proved to be elusive. Practitioners of slash and burn agriculture, the inhabitants fled the village where the expedition landed. Finn tried to entice them out of hiding by leaving behind four steel knives and as many hatchets, tools which he expected them to prize. When he returned the next day, the tools were gone, but the shy folk stayed hidden, in no way coaxed by the gifts into revealing themselves. Figuring the same thing would happen at their other villages, Finn gave up and pushed on. If folks did not want contact with the outside world you could not force it on them and indeed should not.
As the aerocraft flew high above a river valley they spotted a rainbow arching over the pool at the foot of a cataract which plunged two hundred of feet from a slot in the side of a mountain. The narrow slot was the outlet of a stream which drained a trough shaped vale four miles in length. Invisible from below, it was walled by impassible cliffs which had kept out hunters and farmers.
This was virgin country untouched by the hand of men of any race. Streams threaded through the vale, spreading out in places to form small lakes. Meadows and glades alternated with old growth forest and dramatic rock formations carved by the elements into fanciful shapes which resembled a recumbent bear, a coiled snake, and a giant claw. Scenic cataracts fell vertically or in steps from the higher ground all around.
The long axis of the vale ran north to south, so it pointed toward the equator. Hence it was brightly lit all day till late afternoon when the sun sank below the western horizon. Its microclimate was comfortably warm but not hot. Everywhere were songbirds and butterflies and small mammals.
The only large herbivores were two species of ibex, the alpine ibex whose males bore large backward curving ridged horns and the markhor where both sexes had tightly curled corkscrew-like horns. The cliffs blocked access to their normal predators, bears and wolves but not the alpine lynx and the golden eagle, both of which preyed on ibex young, successfully enough to keep their numbers in check lest they overtax their range.
The expedition set down and made camp beside the outlet of one of the small lakes which had a tiny islet in the middle. It was an idyllic spot and perfect for relaxation, recreation, and fun. Even the scouts could devote themselves to leisure since there was no need to maintain a watch at night.
It was a fine day and the site so welcoming and the water so limpid and inviting that the circle of friends threw off their garments and dived into the water for a swim and a session of water play and wrestling and the exuberant grab-ass horseplay which young males were so fond of.
Afterwards the twins lay side by side on the grassy verge of the lake, the beads of waters on their tawny skins sparkling like diamonds. Lithe, boyishly handsome, and with close cropped blond hair the color of corn silk, they were utterly alluring with their slender physiques and youthful features.
Overhanging boughs provided enough shade to soften the heat of the sun, though not enough to entirely stop them from sweating. Propped up on an elbow, Jemsen chatted desultorily with his brother till he realized that Karel had dozed off, making for a one-sided conversation. Jemsen didn't feel like a nap himself, so he settled for watching the ever changing shapes of the puffy white clouds above, all the while studying the beautiful body lying next to him.
The twin of his own, Karel's was the ideal human shape: slender, tanned, toned, and taut -- all sculpted musculature with strong shoulders, well defined abdominal muscles, and narrow hips. No hair interrupted the flow of its faultless lines. Moreover the wounds they had taken in the wars had healed completely, leaving no scars.
Jemsen watched droplets of sweat form on Karel's smooth tanned skin, each drop glistening in the sunlight like a tiny diamond. Growing larger, the droplets broke the surface tension that had held them in place and slid downhill, merging and collecting in rivulets in the channel between the pectorals and at the bottom of the hollow between the rib cage and hips, pooling in the navel.
The first-born twin reached out to play with the sweat filling his brother's navel, tracing a circle with his index finger on that flat belly, finally bringing a taste of the salty fluid to his tongue. Next he pressed a spot on one side of Karel's belly to let the pool of sweat drain down his hip, only to watch the hollow slowly fill up again. This time he did not spill any of the salty fluid but lapped it up then kissed away beads of sweat on his forehead, cheeks, and the tip of the nose, ending with a light kiss to each of Karel's nipples.
Karel stirred a bit but dozed on oblivious of his brother's homage to his beauty, his comely face relaxed in sleep, like a slumbering angel, dreaming perhaps of love, his eyes twitching behind close lids. No one knew better than Jemsen what mischief could dance in those grey-blue eyes of his.
Jemsen sighed, content with life and happy to just be with his beloved brother. In truth, all their lives they had never been any real distance apart, spending virtually every moment within earshot of each other. And he wouldn't want it any other way.
Lying next to the twins and propped up on one elbow the better to admire their boy flesh was the elf-boy Dahl. Considerably shorter than the twins and darkly handsome he had the glabrous skin, lissome build, and smooth musculature of his kind. Green eyes twinkled over the killer cheekbones characteristic of his race.
The twins had been Dahl's first real lovers. Back then he had been a sixteen year old elf-boy who had run away from home at the behest of the unicorn Meirionnydd to train as a druid. Then they had run into their stout friend the late great Balandur and only days later the twins. Hunters, archers, and explorers, the twins had gone after an elk they had merely wounded, wanting to find the poor beast and put it out of its misery. However, their very first night together had been anything but romantic as they newly met allies battled a pair of evil Trackers, demon spawn versions of dire wolves.
The twins had come far in the years since then, though you would not think to look at them thanks to healing magic which kept them from aging, perpetual teenagers in every way except chronologically and in their acquisition of life experience.
Unlike the others who were on their backs, Drew lay prone the better to display his pert rump to advantage. He loved the kiss of the sun on his bare buns; it made him feel ever so naked. Drew never lost a chance to show off the trim and taut teenage body he had grown into and was so proud of.
As for his features Drew had spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns which reached below the ear lobes plus straight eyebrows with almost no curve to them. They framed a cute face with a high forehead, chiseled jawline, and a perky nose slightly turned up at the end.
Finally there was Corwin. Short, slight of build, clean limbed, and standing a hand over five feet, he was blessed with fine-boned features that suggested a considerable admixture of elfin blood in his ancestry like all those in the Klarendes clan. As a magical healer he practically exuded good health and sex appeal.
"What we have laid out on the grass before us is nothing less than a vision of youthful male concupiscence." Finn commented grandiloquently.
General Ifans shrugged.
"If you say so Finn, you won't get an argument from me. Beauty, after all, lies in the eye of the beholder. Now while I can appreciate the physical beauty of boys it is only in an aesthetic way, as a sculptor or artist might look at his model. I just don't fancy boys the way you and so many males do. I consort exclusively with the female half of the species."
A half hour later the twins got up and started tossing around the Gemini Zinger. A more aerodynamic version of the inverted pie tin with which the sport originated, the Gemini Zinger had been a runaway commercial success since its introduction some years earlier. Profits from its sale contributed significantly to the twins' growing fortune.
Held face down and flung with either a forward or back hand motion, the disc would sail gracefully over to another player who had to snatch it out of the air and return it or pass it on to a third or fourth. The game required a lot of running, jumping, reaching, and stretching as well as speed and coordination, so it was good exercise as well as a lot of fun and a terrific way to display the youthful male body in motion.
Strictly speaking this was not a competitive sport. No one counted score and their were no winners or losers. Yet the boys did try to outdo each other with their acrobatics and flashy moves, running, leaping, and reaching out to snatch the Zinger before it touched the ground. They all relished the chance to show off their sexy bodies and their athleticism.
Soon Corwin, Dahl, and Drew joined in.
"Just remember," Finn reminded them. "No powers."
By way of explanation to Ifans, Finn added:
"Sometimes the mischief in their souls gets the better of them, and they are tempted to resort to magical trickery. I always warn them about not using their powers not out of any concern for sportsmanship but rather out of caution lest dueling powers get out of hand. Anyway there wouldn't be any point to tossing the Zinger around if they used their gifts."
"As a fetcher Drew could just stand still and use his telekinetic powers to draw the Zinger into his hand or make it zip out of reach of someone else. As an air wizard Karel could call air currents to push it where he wanted it to go. Axel wouldn't have to exert himself either, just teleport to wherever the Zinger was heading and snatch it out of the air. Jemsen could make the earth heave and trip a player as he ran to catch it."
"I see." Ifans allowed. "At least neither Corwin's nor Dahl's powers could affect the game."
"Don't be too sure. With healing magic they might worsen another player's coordination or simply make him dizzy. Remember, all these boys have been using their gifts for years, often coming up with clever and innovative ways to employ them. Look how Corwin devised his explosive technique with ball lightning or how fetchers now use their telekinesis to fly with yokes or in autogyros."
"I understand that you yourself Finn have found new ways to use your powers. You can now fly by holding onto Mjolnir and even use it as a torch as tiny lightnings play over the head of the hammer."
"With all the challenges we have faced and those yet to come, it is just as well that we have a whole deck of cards up our sleeves."
Chapter 5 Geological Wonderland
The Corps of Discovery spent two days exploring the inaccessible vale they had discovered. Its fauna was unique in that normal predators and herbivores had never been able to reach it thanks to nearly vertical walls and the sheer drop at the mouth of the hanging valley. Only two species of sure-footed ibex had found their way into the vale from the surrounding mountains, but the impassible terrain had kept out their normal predators such as wolves, bears, and tigers.
The absence of predation might have been disastrous, for without predation, the ibexes would soon overtax their range. Fortunately for the balance of nature, their numbers were kept down by the golden eagle and the alpine lynx which preyed on their young.
Drew Altair found the place enchanting. Very much a city boy, Drew nevertheless loved to get away to the great outdoors, though preferably to a place with all the creature comforts such as were available at an upscale mountain resort like the Sign of the Bow in the Eastern Mountains. Thus it was he who suggested to War Chief Rohm that in a few years the orcs might look into establishing a resort in the vale.
Dahl thought it might be better to declare the vale a nature reserve. Visitors might fly in via autogyro on a day trip, but humans should not build and operate a resort there. The vale should remain pristine and untouched by civilization, except for sanitary facilities for visitors. Either way, the orcs would benefit from tourism.
Rohm pointed out how difficult it would be to construct buildings in so inaccessible a locale. So he thought tourists would likely just take day trips via autogyro to view the natural beauty of the place and its unique fauna.
Rohm also pointed out the any decision to annex the vale would have to be made in consultation with the leaders of the new orc homeland. The inhabitants of the hidden land had no experience in foreign affairs or international law and diplomacy. That is why they intended to ask for annexation to the orc homeland in due course. The hidden land would run its local affairs as always, but would let the established orc state handle foreign affairs and regulate commerce with foreign lands.
Dahl made the point that they could expect to find other hanging valleys with cataracts feeding the river below which very likely flowed into the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. Finn agreed. The first Corps of Discovery had seen much the same sort of terrain in the fjord lands of the far North.
Though well below the snow line, the mountains here had been shaped by glaciers in geological ages past when the planet had passed through an ice age. Valleys shaped by ice were U-shaped in cross section whereas those excavated by rivers were characteristically V-shaped. That was true of both the hanging valleys and the main valley they overhung. So the glacial valley offered no route through the mountains. It penetrated only as far as the first high peaks.
Before they left, Dahl used life magic to cover the disturbed ground of their campsite with greenery, leaving no sign of their brief sojourn. Dahl hoped to introduce his lovers, his fellow druids Meirionnydd and Owain, to the hidden garden spot in its pristine state.
A hundred miles south the expedition found a land shaped not by glaciation but by vulcanism. Geothermal features were everywhere: hot springs, geysers, mud pots, steam vents or fumaroles, and travertine terraces. The grey-blue waters of a small lake bubbled and boiled. One particularly powerful geyser threw steam two hundred feet into the air.
Hot springs were the most common hydrothermal feature. In contrast to geysers, the flow of water in hot springs was unconstricted. Heated by magma below, superheated water rose through the rocks, cooled at the surface, then sank back down to be reheated. It never reached a temperature high enough to erupt like a geyser.
Geysers were hot springs with constricted plumbing. The weight of the water itself kept it from boiling. Instead steam formed below, bubbled upward, and expanded till the heated water erupted as tremendous amounts of steam were forced out of the vent. Eruptions expelled water faster than it could enter the geyser's plumbing so the heat and pressure fell, bringing the eruption to an end.
By contrast, with steam vents water flashed into steam before reaching the surface. Fumaroles released not steam but sulfurous gasses into the air. With mud pots, bubbles of gas rose on the surface and burst with a wet plop. Minerals dissolved in water were deposited as travertine, a form of marble, which formed terraces where the water trickled over the edges from one terrace to another, blending them together with stone which looked rather like a frozen waterfall.
These features all lay within a caldera thirty miles on its long axis heated from below by a magma body quite near the surface. Old lava flows evidenced eruptions in the distant past.
The expedition set down in several places to take geological samples and to draw sketches of the geological wonders. Not for the first time the twins expressed their frustration at the limitations of sketching with pencils, charcoal sticks, or chalks which could never capture the vivid colors of the travertine terraces or the contrast between the blue sky and the white steam of the geysers.
Too bad it was not possible to capture a scene as the ancients were said to have done, to draw pictures with light itself. Alas most of their technology and science had been lost because it was far too advanced to transplant to pioneer worlds like Haven which had no ultramodern industrial base. The inhabitants of that refugees planet had had to start near the beginning, reinventing old technology that the ancients themselves had long ago abandoned: everything from animal traction and autogyros to printing with moveable type, to wire wheels, wind driven sailing vessels, and heliograph lines.
Fortunately the capabilities of the old machines and technology had been replaced in part by magical gifts such as Calling Light, Unerring Direction, Healing and Weather Wizardry which kept humanity from falling into a true Dark Age during its early days on Haven.
"Wait till that geologist Johan Klutz gets a look at all this." Jemsen assured his twin.
"Right. Klutz gets to explore this geological wonderland, and their zoologist Evander Blok, studies the terror birds. Now all we need is something to draw in Professor Scolari. Hmm, he is a botanist, so let's keep our eyes peeled for something spectacular along that line."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, but wouldn't it be great to discover a giant man-eating plant?"
"Right! As if..."
The expedition set up camp on the edge of the caldera, well away from the sulfurous stinks of the fumaroles. The cook took advantage of a nearby hot spring to cook the evening meal. An earth tremor during supper caused apprehension, but Jemsen assured everyone that they were in no danger. As an earth wizard Jemsen could directly perceive what lay beneath the surface as could Dahlderon since earth magic was one aspect of druidic powers. He pointed out that both earth wizards and delvers could sense what lay below, whether geologic faults, ore bodies, caverns, underground rivers and lakes.
"Our perceptive sense also lets us look though walls and `see' without a light source on even the darkest night and in caves or mines."
Axel interjected. "Sure, I remember how Nathan used his perception to defend our shipping from the trolls in the naval campaign on the coast of Amazonia."
"How so?" Hugh Loring asked.
"On a very dark night when you could hardly see your hand in front of your face troll infiltrators in small boats rowed out to the anchored fleet intent on setting our ships aflame. Nathan sensed their approach and roused his shipmates. Under silent routine the crew went to general quarters and prepared to repel the boarders. As the small boats gathered under their gunwales sailors and naval infantry sprang the trap. The noisy fighting, the alarm bell, and half a dozen balls of Called Light warned the rest of the fleet in time to prevent a naval catastrophe."
"Sir Willet is our chief expert on Concealment. He and several other wizards have been studying magical perception for years. They suspect psychic senses are all variations on a single phenomenon. They do know that some kinds of magical perception have a physical as well as a psychic aspect."
Dahlderon nodded. "We druids have been following their progress with interest. As you know druids have a number psychic senses including Unerring Direction and Mind Speech, and magical healing powers depend on delving into our patients to see what is wrong with them so we can fix it."
"Right!" Corwin agreed. "Yes, and physical contact with the subject definitely improves a healer's perceptions. What about the other psychic senses Axel?"
"We'll the wizards think the sense of Unerring Direction relies on the magnetic field of the planet. As you may know migratory birds use it to navigate on their long-distance flights. Fetchers too have a psychic sense which lets them move objects even where they cannot see them or in the dark or to hold a missile shield. However telekinesis is in no way related to the planetary magnetism."
"That makes sense." Drew agreed. "Our telekinetic powers work on anything solid, not just magnetic materials as with Finn's gift."
"We druids are familiar with unusual physical senses in animals like the lateral line in fishes which detects pressure waves in the water made by swimming fish and the echolocation of bats. Humans too can train themselves to use echolocation, at least to a degree. Some blind persons click their teeth and listen to the echo. Others generate sound with a clacker. Then there is the electrical field which lets certain eels detect prey in the murkiest of water. You yourself Corwin unconsciously rely on it when you wield ball lightning."
"Really? In that case, when I get back to the capital," Corwin told them, "I'll get with Sir Willet and see if I can acquire conscious use of this electric sense to let me see in the dark."
"That electric sense would make for a fifth kind of night vision," the druid observed. "Many of us with magically enhanced constitutions can see in dim light like a cat, though that is entirely natural and physical. Then there is psychic delving and the perception of heat as Madden Sexton can do, plus the echolocation of the blind."
Colonel Ifans wondered aloud whether Mind Speech, as telepathy was usually called on Haven, or his own empathic sense were physical in some way, as unlikely as it seemed to him.
"What about weather wizards and air wizards?" Karel wondered. "Is our perception of the atmosphere partly physical, and if so how so?"
Axel shrugged. "That remains to be seen. It's early days yet."
After that the group conversation died down everyone prepared for bed, whether alone or with a partner.
The next morning, the orc War Chief Rohm announced that he was satisfied with the survey they had made of the lands to the south of their hidden land. He and his five orc militiamen flew back in the transport piloted by an orc from Amazonia. The expedition would have fewer people to stand watch at night, but with ten scouts and two pilots, that was no real burden.
Author's Note
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This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. It 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, appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence focuses on one or a few of the large cast of characters in the ongoing saga which now exceeds Tolstoy's War and Peace in word count, if in no other measure.
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 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.