The woman from the forest ran over to where Theuses was laying. She dropped her bow beside her and Castor saw her cast a few more spells. Theuses awoke. It took a moment, but he appeared to recognize her and they embraced. Theuses got up a bit unsteadily and Castor walked over to him.

"What happened?" Theuses asked.

"You saved my life, that's what. After you hit Tarris with that lightning he took off and left the Argles to finish the job. Thankfully, your....?"

"Sister," Theuses finished with a smile.

"...Sister came and took care of them." Castor didn't let it show that he was surprised at the discovery of Theuses's sister. He had heard Theuses mention someone named L'arch when they were in Ilesmatr to the king, but it hadn't occurred to him that it could be his sister.

Theuses looked at her. "What are you doing out here? Father said you were on a mission."

"I was, but when I came back Father told me that you had left with a party of humans and gave me the job of hunting you down."

"I can fend for myself, thank you very much."

L'arch rolled her eyes. "Please, I just saved your life."

"You did not. We could have fended just fine by ourselves, right Castor?" Castor could tell this was a long standing feud between the two siblings and he was not eager to get in-between it.

"Not to be the tie breaker or anything, but no, we couldn't have."

L'arch smiled playfully and Theuses's shoulders sagged. "Fine, maybe this once."

L'arch smiled even more and walked off to where her warriors were stocking the fire.

"I am never going to hear the end of this," Theuses groaned.

Castor laughed. "You'll be fine. Come on, let's get something to eat."

After they had eaten and Castor had been introduced to Innes, L'arch's lieutenant as well as a few other elves in the group, Merric came up to Castor. "Sir, may I speak with you?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"Not here," He said, eyeing the elves. Castor scraped the remnants of his dinner into the fire and put his plate down. They walked a ways away before Merric spoke. "Horace and I are worried."

"What about?" He asked, even though he knew the answer.

"The elves. We; Horace and I, fear you put too much trust in them. For all we know they are plotting our destruction. We've talked to Guilin and Ferris. Guilin is with you, but even Ferris has his suspicions."

"Merric, be serious."

"I am sir." His face was like stone, but his eyes were full of concern.

"Then all I can say is I have a very good feeling about this. The elves are our allies, whether you realize it or not, and they have been since the first war of the earth. We can trust them, believe me. After all, Theuses saved my life."

Merric shook his head. "I hope your right sir; for all our sakes."

~ ~ ~

"FELZ!!!" Bantu continued to swear in the ancient language as he hurled a vase at the wall. "You fool! How could you have failed?! You had numbers, power, and weapons, how could you lose against a handful of humans and four elves?!!"

Tarris, now in the form of a man, bowed his head. "I am sorry my liege but they defeated us. The elf prince and the human are formidable opponents and are not to be trifled with. They were strong enough to deal me this wound." He pulled up his left sleeve, revealing the stub of his arm. With his other hand, he traced the cut on the cheek Theuses had given him.

Bantu glared. "How did they do this to you? What happened?" He had gained interest, but no sympathy.

"I confronted the elf and while I was ordering him to hand over the human. The elf challenged me. I tricked him to give the human over, but-"

"- But you in turn were tricked and ended up nearly fatally wounded instead. The combination of your stupidity and wounds flare my temper. You claim to have your army surrounding Ilesmatr? Then rouse your forces. Strike Ilesmatr. Rain down justice and pain on those who dare resist my might. Strike down the king, Elrin and slaughter his warriors."

~ ~ ~

After the dead had been buried and the Argles moved, Theuses, L'arch, and Castor sat around the small fire, listening to it crackle and pop. After ten minutes or so of silence Castor spoke up. "So what do we do now?"

"We take the forces and keep the Argles back."

Theuses shook his head. "L'arch, we don't have the numbers to repel the Argles yet. We need to go back to Ilesmatr to get some more warriors before we continue."

"Are you seriously suggesting we go back to Father? He'll never give us the men to do it and you know it."

"That may be, but we can't do anything without more soldiers."

"Then it's decided. We will go to Ilesmatr, retrieve the warriors, and attack the Argle force."

Castor interrupted. "Where are the Argle's based at anyway? Shouldn't we at least know that before we try to attack them."

"Our scouts say they are stationed at the Saber Pass. There are nearly four-thousand stationed there."

"If that's the case then you will need an extremely strong army to break them."

L'arch nodded. "And Father will never give them to us. Especially after what you did," She said, glaring at Theuses who rolled his eyes.

"Still, there's no reason to stick around. We need to either get moving or set a guard. We are way too exposed out here."

"Then set a guard," Said L'arch. "Our men are too spent to go now. We will set a guard and depart in the morning. The others nodded, seeing the wisdom in this.

~ ~ ~

The next morning, the group of elves and men were charging through the forest amount their horses. The hooves drummed quickly on the forest floor, propelling their riders toward their destination. Castor had always enjoyed the noise. It was calming, definite. It was something he could always predict, even if the world was at its most unpredictable moment.

Until they stopped.

Everyone stopped to look at Theuses. L'arch brought her horse adjacent to his.

"What is it?"

Theuses jumped from his horse and knelt near the ground. "Look at this," He said, pointing to the dirt. Rows upon rows of hoof prints were tracked in the ground.

"It could just be a deer or wild boar or something," Merric said.

"No, the tracks are too deep. Theses tracks were made by something running... Fast. It would have to have been heavy also. I would estimate two hundred pounds at least."

"That would be a small boar," Castor noted.

"Or a large deer. And there would have to be nearly three hundred of them for this many footprints. No, this was no wild animal pack." Theuses stood up. "Check the trees."

"What are we looking for?" Castor asked.

"These." Theuses pointed to a tree after a moment of silence. A shallow, ragged gut was carved into the trees on both sides of the path. More shallow scrapes and cuts marked the trees farther down the route. "Mount up; we need to make it to Ilesmatr before sundown."

"Theuses, that's impossible! Ilesmatr is still four or five miles away," L'arch argued.

Castor looked up. Through the trees he could see the sun dipping down to the horizon. It had almost touched it.

"We have about two hours left. We have no time to rest the horses. It'll be hard enough to get there in time, let alone if we have to give the horses a brake. It will be difficult but we should be able to do it. Move out!"

They spurred on their horses and started again through the forest. They rode like that for a while before the first arrow. It appeared just after Theuses stopped the party and told them they had reached within one mile of the city. He turned his stallion around. "We're near. If what I think happened elf rangers will be near this area." Castor bent down to pat his heaving horse's neck. That's when it came. Out of nowhere a black arrow flew, slamming into a nearby tree, right in the path of where his head had been. Two more followed.

"Go! Go!" Theuses shouted.

They galloped forward with more arrows right behind them. The horses' footsteps grew quick as they dashed across the forest floor. They could hear the chant of the Argles and heard their feet hit the ground.

"Move!"

They slid around the trees and galloped forward. Castor heard yet more arrows striking the trees. This time he could see them; their horns pointed forward and their axes and bows in the air.

"Just a little more! We are almost there!" Theuses gritted his teeth and crouched down to his horse's neck. One last arrow followed them. It flew past Castor and struck down one of Theuses's warriors, causing him to tumble from his horse and fall to the ground.

Finally, Castor saw the misty figure of the elf he had seen when they entered Ilesmatr before, though, this time his sword was raised and his eyes locked on the pursuing Argles. Two more soldiers stood behind him.

As they dashed across the borderline, the elf lifted his sword and cleaved the lead Argle in two with single strike of his blade, while the other elves raised their own swords in warning. The beasts stopped and fell back in fury as they saw the troop of elven guards waiting behind the first three. The elf guardian hefted his sword and kept his eyes locked on the party of beasts.

As they galloped onward, Castor heard the elf shout something. "Yarth sarium vesmis haudhr." His voice was cold and commanding, full of loathing. Something bad has happened here, Castor thought.

Theuses continued leading the group into the city. They stopped once to look at the charred and crumbling remains of the elf watchtower before resuming their move into Ilesmatr. As they rode through the streets Castor was taken aback by how few elves he saw. There would be one or two standing in the streets or hiding in their houses, but saw nearly a third of how many he saw the first time in the city.

Then they reached the Palace Elorion. The palace still stood tall and proud, but very different from the first visit. The once shining white marble floors now were cracked and stained with what looked like dried blood and most of the benches were now burned and cut apart. At the gates stood two elves, which Castor assumed were Aurtha Ra.

They held their chins high and wore long, green capes with silver helmets, adorned with narrow crests. Silver breastplates were strapped to their chests, engraved with green swirls. In their hands they held long staves with sword blades on either end, which matched Theuses's description of I'rl. They lifted their fists in solute. "Lord Theuses. You presence has been missed." A note of accusation was in their voice.

The gates opened and Lord Aeran came out with Lord Ormas beside him. Both looked very worn.

"Theuses, you have returned. We have much to talk about," Aeran said.

"Where is Father?" Theuses demanded. "How many where lost?"

Aeran looked him in the eye. "As I have said, we have much to talk about."