Elf-Boy's Friends 23
Busy Days, Lazy Days
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Wheels
"Working late again Eike?" Lieutenant Sir Nathan "Sparky" Lathrop asked his boyfriend and protege Karl-Eike Thyssen as the journeyman naval architect entered the suite of rooms they shared in a residential hotel.
"Admiral Van Zant's folks are sure keeping you busy."
Eike, as he preferred to be called, worked at the Navy's Bureau of Ships. Smart, inventive, and very good with his hands, he counted himself lucky to have found his niche in life. He loved his job with the Navy though admittedly he himself was no sailor.
The Navy was at the forefront of technical development, especially in ways that combined the mechanical and alchemical arts with magic. True, it was the Army Air Corps which deployed flyers who used their telekinetic powers as scouts and bombers, but that involved short range flying. It was the Navy which had pioneered long range aerial patrolling using the rigid wing invented by Nathan. Eike had done more than anyone else to transform Nathan' idea into practical reality.
Nathan and Eike had become lovers nearly two years after Nathan and the CS Petrel had rescued the orphaned castaway, then only fifteen, from Huckleberry Island in the Scilly Isles. Nathan had protected the naive youth from the kinds of sexual advances a cute blond boy with his looks would be expected to draw.
Growing up on the island alone from age of ten to fifteen, Eike had been innocent with no understanding of sexuality whether for pleasure or fecundity. Nathan ensured that Eike got a chance to develop at his own pace and to make his own choices, which ultimately turned out to be for Nathan himself.
Eike was slight of build and smooth muscled with a face far prettier than any boy's rightly ought to be. Blessed with a flawless complexion and fine boned features Eike had a broad brow, high cheekbones, straight nose, and a chiseled jaw line. Slightly pointed ears and a sharp chin gave him an elfin appearance and his large green eyes were set wide apart under finely arched brows, their lashes too long to have ever have been meant for a male.
"Oh the Navy isn't working me too hard, Sparky. I actually keep regular hours but after I quit for the day I go off to premises in a little shed I rent out and tinker away. You see, I have an idea with tremendous potential, but to protect my interests I work on my own time in private premises. My Navy legal adviser told me that if I worked on my idea on naval premises and with the navy's tools and equipment, then whatever I invented would belong to the Navy. "
"So what is it you are working on, Eike?"
"I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh."
From the anxiety evident on Eike's face Nathan knew he would hurt his friend's feelings if he didn't keep a straight face.
"Go ahead. I promise."
Eike brightened then announced:
"I have reinvented the wheel!"
"The wheel? Like what goes round and round?"
"Exactly. That might sound preposterous or even presumptuous, but I really have invented a better wheel than any in use today."
Nathan was too intrigued to even smile at the notion of reinventing the wheel. He had respect for Eike's intelligence, ingenuity, and mechanical and design skills. If anyone could reinvent the wheel and make it better, it would be him.
"Show me."
Eike didn't have any plans or notes with him so he just sketched the design for his wheel on a sheet taken from Drew's sketch pad, which is what brought Drew into the conversation. Nathan looked at it quizzically, not sure what he was supposed to see.
"Okay, I see a wheel with a whole lot of very skinny spokes connecting the hub of the wheel to a narrow rim. It looks like a flimsy wagon wheel."
Drew shook his head. "I see just what Nathan sees. What are we missing?"
"Ah, to the uninitiated it might look like a skinny wagon wheel, but what you cannot see is that the spokes are flexible wires under tension, not rigid wooden rods under compression. You see, with a wagon wheel the spokes have to be thick and stiff because they push on the hub. My spokes are made of wire and pull on the hub. They are in tension. The steel rim itself is flexible and pulls on the spokes all the way around. Finally, I have replaced noisy iron tires with solid rubber tires similar to those used for the pushcarts the Frost Giants favor only much narrower."
"My wire wheel is strong, lightweight, and quiet, and offers a comfortable ride with very little rolling resistance. Axel's business manager the dwarf Lennart is helping me work up a patent application and he has already set up a company to license the design to manufacturers. Understand I won't be producing the wheels myself. I am not interested in running a manufactory. That would only get in the way of my career in naval architecture. Besides, this approach makes the start up costs so much lower."
"You really think there is money to be made with this new kind of wheel?"
"More than you can imagine."
"I don't know. I have a pretty vivid imagination." Drew pointed out.
"Lennart assured me that in a few years I would be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Now there is a phrase for you, my wordsmith friend: beyond the dreams of avarice. Wrap your imagination around that!"
Drew nodded. Everyone knew that the wily dwarf Lennart was the shrewd business agent who helped the twins get rich from their Gemini Zinger and mapping businesses and Axel too with his street lighting business, nor were those two his only successful ventures.
"First he made our friends rich; now it is your turn."
"Exactly. For his help Lennart takes a minority share in the enterprises he helps get going, which gives him a stake in their success. He has always done well by his partners. I understand that Sir Angus McFarden, Drew's King of the Iron Roads, tried several times to hire him away. Lennart turned him down saying that, as marvelous as they are, irons roads and street cars are now established industries. He prefers to carry on with his role as a midwife to new business ideas and ventures. That keeps him on the cutting edge of business enterprise, so there is always something new."
"OK, I don't doubt that the man -- I mean the dwarf -- has a good record. What I don't know is how you can make money with a new kind of wheel." Drew said.
"With bicycles. The new wheel will make those bone-shaker bicycles obsolete and multiply the number of bicycles on the roads."
Built with heavy frames and wooden wheels and with only the most rudimentary sort of suspension the aptly nicknamed bone-shaker cycles were notoriously uncomfortable to ride and were noisy and not very maneuverable either.
"With my wheel, bicycles won't just be for idlers out for a joy ride. The bicycle and the tricycle will provide transportation for the masses. True these days we have street cars pushed by fetchers but only along a few fixed routes in the major cities. A cycle of one's own will give folks the flexibility to go anywhere anytime, city or country."
"I don't think it is going too far to say that my wire wheel will initiate a revolution in personal transportation."
Nathan and Drew were caught up in Eike's enthusiasm and promised to keep the secret till the patent was locked up, which happened soon enough. Lennart delivered the goods: a defensible patent, a company to own and license it, contracts with reputable manufactories, and top drawer advocates to protect their legal rights from copycats.
It took a few expensive defeats in court for the unscrupulous to learn that if they wanted to use Eike's wire wheels, they had to pay for a license and not infringe on his patent. Lennart set fees low enough to encourage cooperation, and the money rolled in. Axel, the twins, and Count Klarendes invested in bicycle companies and added to their fortunes.
As the new style of cycle started rolling out of the manufactories, Lennart drummed up interest with promotional efforts like a series of exhibition races in major cities. He calculated that cycle racing would soon become a popular sport which would spur demand for second cycles from young males, a light sports version for fun as well as a sturdy practical model for everyday use.
It did't hurt the cause any that like runners competitive cyclists were all slender athletic guys happy to pedal away in the nude. That let air currents reach and cool every part of their splendid sweaty physiques. To engage the pedals on the front wheel the rider sat up straight leaning back slightly, arms up, forward, and spread to grasp the handle bars, legs straddling the frame and the wheel in front.
That posture made for an unimpeded view of the rider's physique. Only the soles of his feet, the palms of his hands, and the middle of his rump were not in view. With his nude body so totally on display, legs churning and arms spread, a racer was a sensual delight for anyone who appreciated the athletic male body in motion.
The races were the highlight of a promotional effort that included advertising in the news-papers, raffles, and flyers passed out on busy street corners. The only sour note in the whole campaign was sounded when a winner of one race, a minor air wizard, was forced to hand back his trophy and prize money for using a jet of air to push his bicycle. The rules were clear: No Powers.
Lennart's promotional efforts caught the fancy of the public. From then on, bicycles built with wire wheels sold themselves. Soon practically everyone had bought one or was on a waiting list from backlogged manufacturers. Bicycles were especially popular with fetchers who could push the vehicle along with their gift. No need for hard sweaty work with the pedals.
One important customer was the army. Cheap lightweight bicycles became the mounts for a new type of dragoon. Traditionally dragoons were mounted infantry who rode to battle then dismounted, formed up, and fought on foot. Their mounts provided just transportation not the shock effect of cavalry. Battalion of dragoons could now zip down the major highways and paved secondary roads and reach a threatened sector much faster than by foot and without having to mess with horses.
The advantages of bicycle dragoons were obvious. For starters there was fortune saved on the purchase and training of horseflesh. Next the army's supply train was relieved of the burden of transporting huge quantities of fodder and feed grains. Bicycles didn't have to stop and graze for hours at a time delaying movement. And they were not temperamental with minds of their own. Nor could an enemy raid your remuda and stampede your mounts. Camps and military posts could be more compact and more easily defended.
Bicycles didn't get sick or tired. If they broke they could be fixed faster than a horse could heal. Cycling promoted stamina and physical fitness in a way riding a horse never could.
Despite its often deserved reputation for a `Not Invented Here' mentality, the Army readily adopted the idea of dragoons mounted on bicycles. Each field army stationed within the Commonwealth proper organized two battalions designated as a quick reaction force that could get to any threatened sector fast via the Commonwealth's excellent highway network.
Their job was not necessarily to engage in major combat but to act like skirmishers to delay an enemy advance by dropping trees across roads or holding chokepoints like mountain passes and river crossings long enough to force the enemy to deploy from line of march to line of battle only to withdraw and return to harassing a frustrated enemy.
The postal service was soon using cycles for rural delivery. Healers got to their patients faster. Cycles with extended frames were fitted out with tandem seats for a passenger and/or a tow point to pull a light trailer.
Tricycles offered taxi service for the old, the halt, or the lame, or the many who preferred not to arrive at their destination all hot and sweaty. The three wheels on a tricycle made the vehicles stable and large enough for two or three passengers at once. Unlike cabs with animal traction, these taxis did not leave a smelly mess in the streets.
Sales of bicycles to the Army and postal service were only the beginning. Millions of citizens in the Commonwealth took to riding bicycles to go to work, to school, for shopping or for outings, whatever, and all those millions of vehicles were built with Eike's wire wheels. Cycles were soon crowding horses off the streets. Only those who had hitherto relied on scooping up a supply of free manure for their backyard gardens were put out by the decline of equine transportation.
The new wheel was the stimulus for a virtuous circle of innovation and invention. Other tinkerers improved the bicycle with better brakes and saddles, cargo baskets, safety flags, and other accessories. There was even early versions of a chain drive though most cycles were still powered by pedals attached directly to the large wheel in front. (The larger the wheel the farther you could travel with one rotation of the pedals.)
Now Eike already had a nice nest egg from the treasure he had inherited on Huckleberry Island, which had been invested for him after his rescue several years earlier. With license fees filling his coffers he could readily afford a nicer place of his own. So he and Nathan and Liam took the suite of rooms next door to the suite the twins leased. Corwin Klarendes moved over from his uncle's townhouse across town to share rooms with Drew and Axel. It was great having all eight of them under one roof.
Eike had to wait a while for official recognition from the Commonwealth. The value of bicycles running on wire wheels was not as immediately self-evident as the innovations of the Pioneers of Flight. Finally, nearly two years after the wheel went into commercial production, the young inventor had his day. For his noteworthy contributions to the Commonwealth Karl-Eike Thyssen was raised to the knighthood by letters patent. Formally he would henceforth be titled Sir Karl-Eike Thyssen of the Scilly Isles, but always just Eike to his friends.
Right after that, the healers and druids enhanced Eike's vitality as they had for his friends the twins, Drew, Liam, Nathan, and Axel. Together they would stride down the centuries perpetually healthy and youthful.
Eike no longer looked for a magical gift would give him a direction in life. He had already found his: a career in naval architecture, more money than he could spend, his continuing interest in tinkering and invention, and a circle of friends.
Still it would be nice if he too could start throwing lightning or fireballs around and join his friends on an adventure or two. Not that he wanted to run off all the time as they did, but every young man dreams of adventure, if only to have something to look back on in later years. He did start sparring with Jemsen and training with Karel to run with the wind at his back. Drew and Liam took him up on familiarization flights with the tandem rig.
By that time, Liam too had reached his peak strength in magic after which wizards became more effective through experience and cunning rather than any increase in raw power. Sir Willet sponsored him for promotion to war wizard in full, which came with a knighthood.
Karel teased him that the name "Sir Liam" sounded pretty flat. It was high time the former nomad took a surname, preferably something impressive and sonorous or at least added a geographic qualification to his title. For example: Sir Liam Rodomontade or Sir Liam of the Western Plains, or even better Sir Liam Rodomontade of the Western Plains.
"I'll consider taking a longer name after you and Jemsen take one." the newly minted Sir Liam countered, and that was the end of that.
Liam did look up `rodomontade' in the dictionary and was not really surprised at what he found there. Just another of Karel's jokes.
Only Drew Altair of all their circle of friends remained, as Karel had once put it in jest, an "untitled nobody", though he was definitely not "a major disappointment to his family". They could not have been prouder of their son who was not only a star reporter and best selling author with five Writers' Prizes to his credit but also both a war hero and a peacemaker recognized as a Stalwart of the Commonwealth. A knighthood for Drew was only a matter of time.
Nor was Corwin really an untitled nobody. He had deliberately not mentioned to his friends that, as the first son of a baron, he himself held the courtesy title of "Corwin, Lord Klarendes", which he never used. The boy thought it silly for older men to address a kid like himself as if he were a superior just because of an accident of birth. He would be presumptuous to insist on it. Now titles you earned were a different story.
Even Corwin's uncle Taitos, with inherited titles like Lord-Zamindar of Elysion and Count of the Eastern March, preferred to be addressed by the folk of Elysion as Captain Klarendes, a title he had earned in the army not simply inherited. Taitos was also the captain of both their militia and their volunteer fire brigade. It was handy having a captain who could extinguish a fire with a thought.
Chapter 2. Sparring
Sparring wasn't just for the wizards' aides. Mages too had to cope with foes wielding powers different from theirs, like an air wizard versus an earth wizard or either of those against a fetcher. The twins faced off, air against earth, though at very low levels of power to prevent injury. For safety everyone was not only in uniform but also in light armor with helmets and goggles as well. Anyway, Sir Willet or Liam refereed the bouts and were always at hand to Lift either of the opponents out of danger.
Karel struck first and trapped his brother within a dust devil which Jemsen countered with a wall of earth ten foot high which blocked the flow of air at ground level. Going on the offensive Jemsen tapped the water table to turned the ground under Karel's feet into a quagmire. The young air wizard sank to his ankles but before the earth wizard could turn the mud into hard clay and trap him, Karel called a jet of wind which pushed him aside sliding him out of the danger zone. His clothes were a muddy mess, but he was in the clear, though not for long.
The earth suddenly fell away beneath him, dropping him into a hole deep enough to trap a bear though without the sharp stakes of a bear trap. Karel called up a powerful land spout which sucked him right out the the hole and set him safely atop rocky ground Jemsen could not easily excavate. Earth flows easily but rock only breaks with great effort.
The brothers also faced Liam's and Drew's fetching powers. Liam attacked Karel with a half dozen dried corn cobs instead of a pair of steel spheres. A couple of the cobs got past Karel's shield of hardened air when Drew sent them all the way around to smack Karel from behind. Karel countered the tactic by extending his shield into a cylinder. Drew's fast moving corn cobs made no impression whatsoever against the wall of earth Jemsen raised as a defense. When Jemsen dropped Drew into a bear pit, the fetcher lifted himself out with his sandals, the technique he had pioneered.
Liam and Drew faced off in aerial combat.
Now flyers could engage in two kinds of combat -- either direct attack or ambush. In direct attack the flyer wielded a weapon a short spear with a leaf blade, good for slashing or stabbing. The haft was equipped with a nasty spike at the other end. The spear could inflict wounds or block the whatever blades the opponent wielded. It wasn't just physical strength and skill with weapons that decided the outcome. Flyers directed their telekinesis at each other, trying flip them around to present a vulnerable side to their attack.
For standoff attacks the flyers employed practice versions of the steel discus the Navy used against the rigging of enemy ships. Made of rattan and lacking the hard steel edge of the real thing, the practice discuses were safe to use in mock combat.
Direct attacks often lead to a tug of war for control of the flying weapons either to neutralize the enemy discus or even better turn it against him. Victory did not always go to the fetcher gifted with the stronger telekinetic power. Nimbleness in aerial maneuvers and speed also counted, and two flyers could gang up on one.
With ambush a favorite trick was to dive at top speed out of the sun or a cloud or from a cliff, hoping to be upon the foe before he could react. One sneaky tactic was for a flyer to conceal himself on the ground and let the enemy fly past him then send a discus whirling at the enemy all unseen from behind and below. A flyer who failed to maintain an all around missile shield would be shot from the sky.
A variation of this attack was while the fetcher was airborne, sending a discus ahead of him very low and skimming the nape of the earth only to turn it back to strike the enemy's rear when he closed to meet the flyer's direct attack, never realizing danger came not from the opponent up in the sky with him but from what might be coming up from behind and below.
The air combat trials made the Army Air Corps realize that if they ever faced enemy flyers, then some of their own should fly unencumbered to protect the slower less nimble bombers burdened as they were with their loads of bombs, whether fire globes or incendiary kegs. From this evolved the conceptual difference between ground attack flyers who engaged enemy infantry and interceptors who fought to maintain air superiority over the battlefield.
The aides too faced off under Sir Willet's watchful eye.
Now none of this sparring was battle drill which was training to inculcate specific tactics responses to given situations. Battle drill took over automatically, but the sparring between the aides was more about developing a habit of mind, to encourage tactical flexibility that would let fighters prevail against an unfamiliar threat.
Nathan had agreed to play the aggressor for the next few training sessions. Nathan would not only wield a blunted naval cutlass but would also fling electrum sparks at his opponents. These tiny balls of static electricity weren't fatal in themselves but they delivered a nasty jolt and burns that were impossible to ignore. The distraction made it easy to take out your foe with your chosen weapon, whether sword, knife, spear, or quarter staff.
For the first bout, Nathan squared off against Sir Willet's own aide Axel Wilde, who had set aside the ensorcelled amulet that protected him from magical attacks. Physically they were evenly matched thanks to druidical healing magic which made them twice as strong and as quick as normal human youths. Axel's speed and short reaction time would be critical in fending off Nathan's sparks.
Now Axel could not very well use his kukri against electrum sparks. Its steel blade was a conductor and would only carry the charge to his arm, possibly numbing it and making him drop his weapon. So Axel has strapped a buckler to his left arm. Just a small round shield, it was normally used to counter enemy blades and was of little use against missiles like arrows and crossbow bolts. Sparks however were slower, still pretty fast, but slow enough for his quick reflexes to counter.
"I hope this works as we hoped." Axel told Eike. The talented inventor had attached a grounding chain to Axel's buckler to carry the electrical charge harmlessly to the earth. A fishing weight gave the chain just enough heft to deploy with a casual toss to Axel's left while its twelve foot length gave him room for footwork.
The two youths squared off, Nathan's naval cutlass versus Axel's kukri. Their fighting styles were very different. The naval cutlass was a short sword with a single edged -- one well suited to the cramped conditions of combat aboard ship, but it was mostly a slashing weapon. The bent bladed kukri was double edged and could be used to slash, chop, or thrust. With his opponent having plenty of room to maneuver, Nathan was at a disadvantage with his cutlass.
For a time the chain frustrated Nathan's efforts to disable his opponent with his sparks, conducting their charge harmlessly to earth. Then Nathan got sneaky and snapped a handful of sparks at Axel's shins and scored hits which disrupted his footwork. Nathan moved in and tapped Axel on the neck with the flat of his blade to mark the kill.
Chagrined at how he had been outfoxed, Axel thought hard about how he could turn the tables. Then he got an idea. Facing off again he grabbed the chain and swung it low entangling Nathan's legs. A hard yank put the young naval officer on his back on the ground with Axel's kukri held to his throat.
Sir Willet was proud of both of them.
"Excellent work the way you both adapted your tactics to deal with the unfamiliar."
Another guest aggressor was Drew who literally disarmed his opponents by pulling their blades right out of their hands and throwing them over his shoulder out of reach. Eike got clever again and fixed a strap to the handle of Axel's kukri, so when Drew tugged on the Axel's blade he pulled his opponent right up to him with Axel's left hand pressing a push knife against his ribs. That was ruled a draw since Drew's blunted kukri was pressed against Axel's belly.
None of the aides could cope with an air wizard like Karel who could raise a dust devil to distract and blind an opponent or call jets of wind to bowl his opponent over. Nor could a blade get past his shield of hardened air. Eike himself was fresh out of ideas, but on their second bout Axel realized his opponent was Karel himself, not his powers. He flung his blunted weapon at Karel's head to make him concentrate on using his shield to block it then lunged forward and grappled with his opponent, putting him in an arm lock.
Admittedly that was a tactic you could use only once against a foe. When Sir Rikkard's aide tried the same trick he found shimself held fast by a cylindrical shield of hardened air formed all around his body.
Corwin's ball lightning was too deadly to spar against. Instead he gave the aides riding lessons. Corwin had grown up on the Eastern Plains and could ride as well as a nomad of the Western Plains like Liam. Under his tutelage even Drew who didn't like horses very much developed a better seat.
One problem for little guys like him was a that their legs were too short to stretch around the barrel of their mounts. So Corwin told him to ride a pony instead. That helped. Drew would never be a great horseman, but he no longer dreaded long rides.
Still for all that Drew preferred to ride one of the newfangled bicycles wherever there were decent roads, which pretty much meant within the Commonwealth itself. Bicycles were not much good off road, where the going was rough and slow and effortful.
"I haven't had so much fun in ages," Axel said sarcastically after one particularly grueling sparring session, inventorying his latest set of bruises.
"I'm really sorry, Axel." Karel said. "I got carried away there playing the aggressor and pressed my attack harder than I should have."
"Apology accepted. Anyway, I'm up for a swim. The creek will cool me off and soothe my hurts as I float effortlessly upon the buoyant face of the waters."
"So says our wounded warrior waxing poetic. It's a good idea however you put it. Let's go!"
The swimming hole at the south end of the campus of the Institute of Wizardry and Magic was never as crowded as the public pools in city parks. It was about fifty yards long, half that in width and ten feet deep in the middle. Stonework lined and stabilized the banks making it almost an artificial structure though it started out as simply a wide spot in the creek which ran through the property.
That afternoon there were just a couple of other swimmers so plenty of room for all eight of their circle: the twins, Drew and his roommates Liam and Axel, plus Nathan and his roommates Eike and Corwin.
The swimmers stopped by the outdoor shower heads and flushed the sweat and salt and dust off them, emerging squeaky clean. And what a stunning group they were.
Jemsen and Karel were a brace of palomino colts, energetic, rambunctious and cheerful, fond of jokes and pranks, a pair incessant chatterboxes with an insatiable curiosity, always plying those around them with questions -- in short a delicious combination of brains, good looks, and sex appeal.
Drew Altair was considerably shorter, standing five foot zero and weighing maybe a hundred pounds. He had spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns reaching below the ear lobe 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. No slouch in the brains department either, he was the wordsmith of the group, a journalist and author with half a dozen best-sellers to his credit.
Liam was a well-set up lad with a fine healthy body. Just under medium height and on the slender side but with a strong upper storey he was a raven-haired beauty blessed with chiseled features.
His roommate Axel Wilde was short, fair, with hair the color of copper, and extremely boyish looking. Intelligent and somewhat reserved, he was perhaps the least confrontational and assertive of the group and the most conciliatory.
Another walking wet dream was Nathan Lathrop who stood just a shade under Liam's height but with the willowy build of an elf though he was fully human. Nathan was boyishly cute, a freckle-faced carrot-topped youngster who looked much too young to be a lieutenant in the Navy of the Commonwealth. His body was whole once more. The druids and healers had regrown the lower power of his left leg severed by a troll axe two years earlier in a battle at sea.
Eike Thyssen was the youngest of the group and still a teenager. Blond, slender, and smooth muscled. Slight of build and with a face far prettier than any boy's rightly ought to be, he had a flawless complexion and fine boned features including a broad brow, high cheekbones, straight nose, and chiseled jaw line. Slightly pointed ears and chin gave him an elfin appearance and his large green eyes were set wide apart under finely arched brows, their lashes too long to have ever have been meant for a male.
Only a few months his senior, Corwin Klarendes was another teenager. Blond, clean limbed, slight of build, and standing maybe four inches over five feet, he had fine-boned features which suggested a considerable admixture of elfin blood, as was characteristic of the whole Klarendes clan.
The others were no longer teenagers chronologically but physically they were still the youths they had been when their constitutions were enhanced by druidical healing magic which conferred on them longevity, perpetual youth, greater healing powers and resistance to disease as well as doubled strength, stamina, speed, and reflexes plus keener senses. They all retained the sex drive and adventurous spirit of their teenage years though tempered by an extra decade of life experience.
Nude though they all were at the pool, no one was really thinking about sex. In the pool they were just a circle of friends lolling around the pool or floating and sculling desultorily. It was a fine afternoon to laze around and chat.
Later the eight lounged on the grass for more than an hour talking about their interests and their jobs and what the future might bring. Drew was basking in the success of his latest bestseller, the tell-all book about the mission of the Young Peacemakers Four to the Far West.
He had recently received a letter from a boy he had befriend years earlier in the town of Junction in the Despotate of Dzungaria, an assistant gardner named Dewi. The personable youth had been their guide about town. Through him they had come to understand why so many folks out there supported the Revolution which had swept aside the old landowning elites in the five lands the Despotate had liberated.
Demi had written to say that he was now a prosperous market gardener. He was in a long term relationship with a fine young man his own age. And he was thrilled to find himself mentioned in Drew's book as one of those who had helped bring about the lasting peace that now prevailed in those formerly war torn lands. Indeed, Dewi had become something of a local celebrity on the strength of the write up. Finally he said that he had always had fond memories of their brief time together.
Eike talked about the new chain drives for bicycles which made pedaling easier. He had some ideas of his own on that score. Some tinkerers were experimenting with gears for hilly areas, but a single gear was just fine on the flat terrain of the Commonwealth proper.
Their naval contingent, namely Nathan and Liam, would soon be taking part in the invasion of Amazonia. A major limitation on portals was that you could not open a gate to someplace you had never been or at least seen from afar as from a mountain peak or through a far-viewer tube. That was why someone first had to go there and open a gate to the capital.
Liam himself could not yet open space portals large enough and hold them open long enough for the passage of whole regiments of Frost Giants each with two thousand soldiers who were the shock troops of the allied forces, but he could open a small gate to the capital to bring in a few of his fellow war wizards like Sir Willet and Sir Rikkard who could hold a large gate open for a long time.
For his part Sir Willet was happy to be spared the sea sickness which a long sea voyage to the scene of the fighting would have inflicted on him. Chronic seasickness was the reason he served in the Army not the Navy.
Drew would join the expedition as a journalist while the twins and Corwin would sit out the first stage of the invasion in the capital. Their time would come later.
Chapter 3. Hill Station
"Even with the modern cooling system in our hotel, the nights are often uncomfortably warm." Drew complained.
An abnormally severe heat wave had left the capital sweltering. Their hotel's cooling system could not fully cope with the heat.
Their building used wind catchers to direct the airflow downward and through one of the city's underground aqueducts where the warm air gave up its heat to the cool earth and subterranean water. Natural air pressure then forced the flow back up into and through the buildings. No machinery required. It helped that awnings blocked direct sunlight from window openings which were not glassed in but set with wood lattices that afforded privacy without blocking ventilation.
"Liam you are a weather wizard. Can't you and your colleagues do something about this usual spell of hot weather?"
Liam shook his head.
"We dare not exercise our powers to tamper with a continent wide weather system like this, which in turn is driven by powerful periodic weather cycles in the outer oceans. It is just unfortunate that the cycle is peaking just when the planet is closest to our sun."
Seasons on the planet of Haven were caused both by its modest axial tilt of ten percent and by the considerable eccentricity of its orbit.
"So what good are you." Drew grumbled. Liam shrugged. He knew Drew was just letting off steam. It really was uncomfortably hot these days and likely to stay that way for a couple more months.
"Say, maybe we should recruit a firecaster to our circle to cool the air in our rooms with magic." Karel suggested.
"I don't see how that would work," Jemsen countered. "Compared to metal or stone a given volume of air holds relatively little heat energy so our rooms would soon be hot again."
"So? He should draw the heat from the masonry walls till they were cold as ice. It will take a long time for them to heat up again."
"Meanwhile, we would have to wear furs or shiver. No thanks. I don't care to live in an ice box." Drew countered. Suddenly he had an idea.
"Say, why don't we all go on vacation to a hill station, one of those resorts in the eastern mountains where cool weather prevails thanks to the altitude?"
"I really like the idea of a vacation in the cool mountain air. I am sure Sir Willet will let me get away for a while." Axel said.
"Easy enough for you to say." Nathan objected. "Must I remind you that am at the beck and call of the Navy."
"I really don't see the problem, Nathan. Put in for leave. After all that sea duty, you must have a lot of vacation time coming to you. Things aren't so busy now are they?"
"No. In fact I am due to rotate back to the Petrel in a couple of months anyway, now that my assignment here in the capital is winding down. So yes, I could get away. OK guys, let's make this happen!"
A fortnight later, dressed in silks or sarongs they boarded a riverboat for the trip north to the town where a main east west highway lead to the walled garrison town of Bled, the starting point for the winding road which threaded the mountains and debouched on to the Eastern Plains.
Instead of following that familiar route to Dalnot and Elysion, they took a coach along a secondary road northeast into the highest part of the mountain range where some peaks rose above two miles.
The hill station which was their destination lay at seven thousand feet. A rambling low slung marvel of rustic architecture, it was built of wood and stone atop a saddle back ridge which connected two prominent peaks. Rhododendrons and azaleas added a welcome color accent to the stunning mountain scenery.
"Now this is more like it!" Drew enthused. "Feel that cool mountain air. And look, no one is sweating. I am so looking forward to the next three weeks."
"I wonder what the food is like." Eike remarked.
"It'll be good. The food here is a big part of their reputation." Drew assured him.
"I read up on this place. The resort is called the Sign of the Bow, which explains that logo we saw on the turnoff back a ways. The chefs prepare scrumptious meals from wild game actually shot and trapped in the surrounding forests. Plus they take fish from the lakes and streams of the district and grow vegetables in their own kitchen garden."
"Just thinking about food is making my stomach grumble."
Their coach had pushed straight through on the second day not stopping for lunch but only long enough to switch their team of horses.
The eight friends settled their kit in their rooms and joined the other guests on the dining terrace for a mid-afternoon snack, a light meal of finger foods and hot and cold beverages which the hotel offered to its guests to tide them over till the evening. The Sign of the Bow was an upscale establishment where everything was included in the price. Its rates were steep, but all of the eight were quite well off.
The other guests, mostly older couples with kids and teens in tow, numbered some six score. As the twins went back to the buffet table for seconds one of the guests, a man of middle years asked:
"I saw when the coach drove up that you brought bows with you so I wondered what kind of game you were after. You do realize that the Sign of the Bow is not really a hunting lodge."
"Actually we are not here to hunt at all. We just like to keep our weapons handy, my brother and me. Just in case."
"Expecting trouble?"
"Not at all. We just like to be ready for trouble if it happens. It comes with the territory."
"Oh, what do you boys do for a living that makes you so vigilant?"
"Long story. Let's just say that we are professional adventurers and leave it at that."
"Your friends too? You all arrived armed."
"Them too."
"My but you are slow on the uptake today, Edmund," the man's friend chided him. "not to recognize these boys by their tattoos which proclaim them elf-friends, dwarf-friends, and giant friends all three. Only one pair of humans is currently so honored. These can only be the famous twins Jemsen and Karel."
"In the flesh!" Karel conceded.
"Are any of your friends celebrities too?"
"Well the auburn haired twink in white is the celebrated journalist and author Drew Altair, who is not only one of the Pioneers of Flight he is also a five time winner of the Writer's Prize. That cute blond with him is a one time winner, Corwin Klarendes. The raven haired beauty with the strong shoulders is the war wizard Liam a naval hero decorated with the Shield of the Commonwealth. Three of us were designated Stalwarts of the Commonwealth in recognition of our role as peacemakers, namely Drew and Jemsen and myself and several of us are also Pioneers of Flight. Finally the short blond standing next to him is the inventor of the wire wheel used in millions of bicycles."
"You left one out: the copper-topped youngster."
"That would be Axel Wilde, a wizard's aide. He has made his mark as one of the Pioneers of Flight and has also parlayed his gift of Calling Light into a fortune in the street lighting business in the capital. He has several other gifts besides his good looks and intelligence."
"And what of your own gifts? I myself can only snap electrum sparks, but my friend Edmund here can throw weak lightning bolts, enough to numb a sword arm or even give a foe a heart attack as he once had to do with an armed robber. I'm Rayburn Bullock, by the way."
"You are awfully inquisitive, if you don't mind my saying so."
"I like to get to know my guests, I am your host, the owner of the Sign of the Bow. I am sorry I was not able to greet on your arrival."
"I see. Well, Rayburn Bullock I am an air wizard; my brother is an earth wizard; and Liam is a war wizard. We call Nathan Sparky because, like you, he snaps electrum sparks. Corwin wields ball lightning, and Drew is a fetcher powerful enough to lift a brontothere into the sky."
"Isn't that just an expression, about the brontothere I mean?"
"In Drew's case no. I have actually seen him do it. Now with Liam, the best he lift is a horse."
"Weapons aside, it's unlikely you will have to invoke your powers while you are staying with us. Nothing untoward happens in this sylvan paradise. It's all about good food and drink, fresh air, leisure, marvelous scenery, good company, and the quiet of the wilderness far away from the clamor and bustle of the city.
"Well said, Rayburn. That is why the wife and I come up every year."
"Edmund is a regular here and an old friend. And before you ask, he is in textiles, so don't get him started."
"Hint taken. I do have a tendency to go on at length about the business," the textile magnate conceded. "Though there is a lot more to textiles than most folks realize." he added defensively.
The next few days passed pleasantly enough relaxing, swimming, hiking, and just taking in the scenic wonders of the region on tours conducted by wilderness guides. Spectacular cataracts emptied into deep pools perfect for swimming. Groves of forest giants rose to the sky like the pillars of a vast temple to the gods of nature. There were limestone caverns with what looked like curtains of stone and columns made from the joining of stalagmites rising from the floor to join with stalactites growing from the ceiling. A natural echo gallery in a cavern carried a whisper a hundred yards.
Hung above the bar was a huge reflex bow big enough for a Frost Giant though their traditional distance weapon was the sling, not the bow. Unstrung, its limbs curved away from the archer, opposite to the direction in which the bow would flex when strung and drawn. A brass sign promised ten silvers to anyone who could string and draw it."
Liam titled his head studying the bow then nodded as he realized why it look familiar.
"Er, Goodman Bullock, that bow up there looks suspiciously like one of our new compact naval ballistas minus the mechanism used to draw and lock the bowstring."
"You are right, of course, but please keep it to yourself. For the edification of our visitors we have spun a tall tale, telling how that bow was borne by a mighty hero named Persang during the wars against the orcs. This was once all orc country."
"There is still a remnant colony of orcs in the mountains to the north. They supply timber from their forest lands to a sawmill I operate at the foot of the mountains. Don't worry. They never come here. Few can abide their presence for long."
Orcs were tall and gangly, their limbs disproportionate to the length of their trunks, compared to humans and elves. Their faces were all planes and angles so the effect was not pleasing. They were not ugly, but when all was said and done their proportions and features looked all wrong. Their creators designed them to be strong without inflicting on them the metabolic penalty of sheer size as with the Frost Giants. Orcs relied on the leverage of their long limbs for strength.
Though stronger than humans they were not quite so clever or inventive nor as gifted in magic. Orcs were also clannish and did not mix with the other races. They seldom bathed and used entirely too much much garlic in their diet. Between unpromising looks, standoffish dispositions, body odor, and bad breath, there was little to recommend them. Definitely not the convivial sort
"They don't cause any trouble these days and keep themselves to themselves in something like an enclave of dwarves or elves but without a formal recognized legal status. They trade timber, latex, and native copper for what they cannot produce for themselves including livestock and grain. No one is sure how many of them live there, for they do not allow visitors but from natural increase their population must be in the tens of thousands and maybe much more though still far less than their original population when they occupied most of these mountains."
"The close of the Formation Wars saw the orcs overwhelmed by the huge armies of the period. Except for the colony around their sacred peak, the orcs been driven from the mountains which were resettled, to the extent that they have been, by humans, elves, and dwarves. That includes the vale of Elysion which lies about seventy miles to the northeast."
"Though the bow was not his, there really was a Frost Giant named Persang who became famous fighting the orcs."
"Next time, I think we'll bring along our friend Finn. If anyone can string and draw that bow, it would be him." Jemsen said confidently.
"Oh, what makes you so sure he could do it?"
"Finn Ragnarson is a Frost Giant who stands eight feet tall and weighs six hundred pounds. He is not the largest of his kind but by far the strongest with double his natural strength from the power he draws from lightning. You must have heard of him. He has quite a reputation as an avatar of the Norse Thunder God Thor."
"Oh that one. Who hasn't heard of his exploits?"
With such celebrities in their midst it was no wonder that their fellow vacationers sought out their company for casual conversation or drinks or extended invitations to the dinner. Among the eight were all of the Pioneers of Flight, three of the Young Peacemakers Four cum Stalwarts of the Commonwealth, half a dozen decorated war heroes, two best selling authors, and four innovative entrepreneurs with businesses as diverse as street lighting, maps and travel guides, and the wire wheels which had turned the bone-shaker bicycle, formerly a toy, into personal transport for the masses.
A veteran diplomat sounded Drew out about the peace process in the Far West. An army major asked intelligent questions of combat veterans like the twins and Drew and Corwin and told of his own hard fights as a young man before he went into the logistical arm of the service. He was also curious about Liam and Nathan's experience in naval warfare since a cousin of his served as the captain of a frigate in the High Seas Fleet. An aged firecaster named Baldur recalled his long career in the fire department of a major city and the many people and structures he saved with his powers, which alas were now on the wane.
Baldur explained that he didn't do it all by himself. Sure he put out the flames, but that was far from the end of the fire. To make sure the fire stayed out, his crew used their pike poles to tear the smoking structure apart, uncovering hot spots and smoldering embers. They then directed their hoses to play water on the debris and cool the formerly burning materials below their kindling point, lest the fire spring up again when their backs were turned.
The eight caught the eye of some of the younger males on the premises, both guests and staff, but only the twins and Drew and Corwin were at all interested in extracurricular adventures. Nathan and Liam and Axel and Eike were not interested in suitors. They had each other.
Ever the social butterfly Drew attracted those who liked little guys. He took up with a cute pastry chef. At seventeen Corwin's appeal was that of a boy in the first bloom of his youth. He made up in enthusiasm for what he lacked in technique. Two guests in their late teens, brothers though not twins, paired off with Jemsen and Karel. There was nothing serious about these casual summer romances.
Author's Note
This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.
If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.htm
This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or just a few of the original characters.
Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.