Elf Boy's Friends

Elf-Boy's Friends 31

Good Deeds

by George Gauthier

[The on-going adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']

Chapter 1. Landslide

"We gotta fly high like this more often!" Axel enthused. "From up here you can see for a hundred miles in every direction!"

Axel was enjoying the ride in Drew's autogyro, a model custom-built for speed and acrobatic ability. Usually the three autogyros cruised at a humdrum altitude of only a few hundred feet to allow Jemsen to magically delve the geological structure of the ground they passed over, but every so often they soared up to a couple of thousand feet though never for long, just enough time to get a good look at what lay ahead of them.

Finn Ragnarson flew his own custom-built autogyro, but in his case it was designed for heavy lifting. Finn was a Frost Giant standing eight feet tall and massing six hundred pounds. Jemsen and Karel shared the back seat though together their weight added up to less than half of Finn's own. That was why his autogyro usually stayed at their cruising altitude.

Much the largest of the three autogyros was a transport aeroplane flown by Liam which featured a fully enclosed compartment for pilot and passengers. Freight was carried in two holds, one in the belly and the other in the aft section. Liam's passengers were the forest rangers the shapeshifter Madden Sexton and the elf-boy Dylan. Packed in the rear hold was the gear which the eight of them would need on their months-long expedition of exploration and discovery.

"I would start to worry about that weather front with undulating clouds moving in from the west if I weren't confident that Liam was keeping a weather eye out, you should pardon the expression, for stormy weather." Drew told him. "He is a weather wizard, after all."

"And several other kinds of wizard as well."

Liam was in fact a war wizard, one of a corps of powerful magic wielders who could wield various forms of magic, much like druids though the powers of war wizards focussed more on the physical world than the biological one. Liam was a fairly strong fetcher, able to lift or fling a draft horse or a good-sized boulder. Thus his telekinetic powers were easily up to the task of powering the autogyro. As he pushed it forward the air flowing through the rotor spun it around generating lift and as did the flow of air over the stubby wings, which also had attachment points for dropping ordnance letting it serve as a heavy bomber if pressed into service.

Actually with the short yoke built into his armor a fetcher like Liam or Drew could take to the skies and fly all on his own. Liam was also powerful in weather and water magic, could communicate long distance with infrasound messaging, and could wield white fire and open space portals. His mentor Sir Willet Hanford was the preeminent master of Concealment and had honed Liam in that magical skill as well.

Drew was right that Liam was aware of the storm front, but he knew that it was still a couple of hours away, plenty of time to find a good place to land, hopefully at a sizable town with inns that offered comfortable accommodations for travelers.

Stormy weather was the only real threat to an autogyro which was inherently safe (unless the pilot flew it into a mountain). Even if the pilot got sick and could no longer push the aerocraft forward, the rotor would nevertheless spin as the autogyro dropped to the ground. The column of air it passed through would spin the rotor blades just enough for a rough but not a crash landing.

The country they passed over was rugged highlands. Not mountains exactly. Those still lay ahead and to the east and north and at considerably higher elevation. The drainage off the hills and rolling plateaux of this rainy region supplied the headwaters of the Long River which eventually flowed into the Great Inland Freshwater Sea to ultimately reach the outer ocean through an impassible gorge.

The landscape was that of a long settled and prosperous agricultural region, all fields and orchards and vineyards dotted with villages and small towns connected by a network of farm-to-market roads. Even the tree cover was mostly woodlots rather than true forest. All in all a supremely civilized and tamed landscape.

More than a few of the buildings in towns and on farms were sized for frost giants indicating a mixed population of humans and giants along with rather fewer dwarves and elves who preferred their caverns and sylvan vales respectively though the main cities of the Commonwealth had large populations of all races.

Cyclists on their two wheelers sped down the roads breezing past slow moving farm wagons draw by mules or horses. Farmers out in the fields sometimes waved as the expedition flew over. A flight of three autogyros was still an unusual sight in those parts though the inhabitants likely had seen single autogyros flown by the postal service or passenger or air freight lines or possibly a flight of military aerocraft.

"The worst aspect of this expedition," Karel grumbled, "is that we'll have to be in uniform practically the whole time so we won't get to run around skin-clad as we usually do. What a bother!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Dylan affirmed. "But at least we can kick off our sandals while flying and flex our toes."

The twins and Drew and Dylan of course preferred the barefoot and clothing free life style of the elves, not least for the chance it gave them to display their scrumptious bodies to everyone they encountered. To their way of thinking, it would be selfish of them not to share with others the physical beauty nature had gifted them with.

All right, so these boys were more than a little vain about their sexy bodies, but then why shouldn't they be? Slender, hard-bodied, and with pretty-boy good looks they practically glowed with physical well-being and sex appeal, thanks in large part to the longevity and perpetual youth conferred by druidic healing magic for the humans or the innate longevity and vitality of the elves, giants, or shape shifters.

All except Sexton and Finn looked like scrumptious teenagers and in Sexton's case that was because he chose to look like a man a few years short of thirty though he had been born on the eastern continent of Karelia more than three centuries earlier. If Finn gave the impression of being a little older than the twins, Drew, Axel, Liam, and Dylan it was rather more from his size than from his still youthful apple-cheeked facial features.

"Hmmm, now that is odd," Jemsen told Finn as they flew along. "That river below us appears to have run dry just recently judging from the way those piers and docks and undershot water mills have been left high and dry. The riverbed is still wet and muddy with isolated pools in the deep spots where the water didn't drain off to the south and the lower portion of the stone pier of that bridge we just passed is still dark from immersion."

"Something must have blocked the flow upriver, maybe a landslide," Finn suggested. "We'd better check it out."

Finn waved a flag to the other pilots and pointed to where he wanted them all to go.

"Somebody really has to come up with a better way for pilots and flyers to communicate." Karel said. "Flags and shouts and horns are short range and work at all only because the autogyros fly close and operate quietly, with just that soft whoosh from the rotor."

"Too bad pilots and flyers can't all learn Mind Speech. That would be ideal," his twin answered. All druids and unicorns could use Mind Speech but few others, among them a minority of war wizards which is why the wizards developed their system of long-distance communication using infrasound.

The blockage lay just upstream of the next town where the steep clay walls of the valley had slumped onto the flats below, thrusting a huge lobe of mud across the bend of the river, damming it and causing a lake to rise behind the blockage.

A sports ground served for a landing field, and the explorers got out to talk with the town folks. Their spokesman, a large bluff human of middle years stepped forward and said.

"Welcome travelers. My name is Truro. I'm the mayor of Kaster. That's quite an assortment of autogyros you have there. We're used to seeing the weekly postal autogyro, but your machines look custom built."

"That's right." Finn told him. "Mine is the first one built for a Frost Giant. The little redhead had his built for speed and agility, while the third aerocraft is one of the new freighters."

"What brought you folks out this way, so far off the beaten track

Finn explained their mission of exploration. The mayor nodded then said.

"Let me offer you the hospitality of my tavern. It's the second largest on in town. Ours is normally quite a bustling town what with the river port and light industry and the district post office, and we serve the farmers hereabout. We hope to grow into a real city one day. As of the last census we numbered nearly fourteen thousand souls. Things are at a standstill right now for obvious reasons."

"Unfortunately you come at a bad time. We are not sure whether we shouldn't abandon the industrial and port districts along the river tomorrow or maybe the next day lest the rising lake break through the mud dam and send a flash flood rushing down the valley. Better to take the loss in property and equipment than to risk lives trying to salvage machinery in the riverside manufactories."

"Normally we could turn to wizards or mages to remove the dam, but so many of them have joined the army fighting in Amazonia. Everyone wants to help put an the end to the threat from the trolls. Their patriotism is commendable, but it leaves us short-handed. We had to plead with the local firecaster employed at the ice house to stay here on the job rather than rally to the colors. The ice-house in Kaster ships blocks of ice downstream for thirty miles to the villages and towns along the way."

"Have you sent for help?" Drew asked.

"Of course. We did send to the county seat, but it seems that the ranks of their own magic wielders were also depleted by the army call up. They have passed the message along to the governor at the regional capital, but there is no telling when he'll send us an earth wizard or maybe a water wizard all the way out here to remove the obstruction."

"Actually the solution to your problem is at hand." Karel told him, "My twin brother Jemsen here is a powerful earth wizard. He'll fix you up in no time, won't you Jemsen?"

Truro's raised eyebrows showed he had recognized the name.

"Of course! You would be the famous twins Sirs Jemsen and Karel."

"In the flesh!" Karel confirmed.

Truro gaze went to the three small blue tattoos on their left shoulders which marked the twins as elf-friends, dwarf-friends, and giant-friends, all three, the only living humans to be so honored. All three races would automatically extend to them their hospitality and protection.

"Folks will likely vie in offering you hospitality. We include humans, elves, giants, and a few dwarves among our populace."

"Are there any orcs living around here?" Axel axed, pointing to his own tattoo."

Axel is an orc-friend." Karel explained.

"I didn't even know that orcs made friends, especially not after that brief war they unleashed on us not so long ago."

"Tell me about it." Sexton said dryly.

"What Ranger Sexton means is that he commanded all of us in the defense of that mountain resort, the Sign of the Bow."

"Sure we all read about that fight in the news-paper. I even had the reports read aloud at my tavern door for those who maybe don't read so well or hadn't bought a paper. Their correspondent was an eye witness and a good fighter at least to hear him tell."

"That would be Corwin Klarendes," Sexton explained, "a great kid, a great fighter, and a great reporter."

"What about your friend the Frost Giant."

"Finn Ragnarson missed that fight. Too bad. We could have used him."

"Finn Ragnarson! I thought I recognized him," boomed the voice of a frost giant standing nearby. He turned to his fellow giants and said. "Friends that fellow is none other than the Young Finn who stood with Old Arn in the Breach in the Battle of the Ravine. Nowadays he is the avatar of Thor and a mighty fighter indeed."

Finn acknowledged his fans by brandishing Mjolnir and invoking his gift to have a mighty clap of thunder sound from above, drawing a cheer from the frost giants and many others.

"And this," Finn said putting a massive paw to Drew's shoulder, "would be the Brave Little Fetcher who stood with us in the Breach."

Truro looked at them admiringly.

"I can see badges on your uniforms for the Military Cross for Valor and even the Shield and Sword of the Commonwealth. That means every one of you is a decorated war hero and very welcome among us doubly so since it looks like Sir Jemsen it getting ready to clear the blockage."

"That is exactly what I am about to do." Jemsen told him. "First thought I'd better walk up that way and delve the ground. That big rock at the far side of the protruding lobe of mud looks like a good place to start. I need to know whether it is an outcrop of bedrock or just an erratic boulder."

"No need to trudge through through two hundred yards of mud to get there. I'll Jump us right to it." Axel told him. At Jemsen's nod Axel touched his shoulder and teleported them atop the big rock.

"Now that is a right handy way to get around!" the mayor said approvingly.

By then Jemsen had delved the dam site and signaled for everyone to step back from the riverbank while Drew flew off in his speedster to trace the length of the river and make sure the suddenly renewed flow did not catch anyone unawares. Between shouted warnings and simply Lifting stubborn or slow folks out of the way of the onrushing waters, Drew made sure that no one drowned, no sentients anyway. Waterfowl and livestock were another matter.

Back at the dam site the earth had trembled and split apart letting the waters of the lake pour through though in a controlled manner as Jemen slowed the disintegration of the blockage. It took a few hours to drain the lake and return the river to normal. As the flow subsided Jemsen excavated a new channel for the river, farther from the steep clay slopes that might well slump again after heavy rains.

Truro was the proprietor of the second largest tavern in town. With the town's main shipping route inoperative, business was slow leaving plenty of rooms vacant for the travelers.

The next day the townsfolk held a festival to celebrate their deliverance. Households vied to prepare the best victuals for their guests and neighbors and laid them out on trestle tables on the town common. With an eye to the coming election Truro had kegs of beer and ale brought up from his cellars. Everything was on the house.

Hoses from the kegs connected to large wooden boxes. Metal piping inside ran all the way around in a sort of square helix connecting to another hose at the top which in turn connected with the tap lever. The box was filled with a mixture of ice and freezing water so the beer would take the chill as it flowed through the pipe."

Taking a deep draught of his best brew the happy mayor smacked his lips and pronounced:

"Cold beer is surely proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy!"

"Tell me about it" Finn said dryly. As if a Frost Giant like himself needed to be told that.

Chapter 2. The Eastern Mountains

The next day the Corps of Discovery left Kaster and resumed their journey pointing their autogyros toward the Eastern Mountains. On an impulse all three aerocraft flew high to get a good look at the geography which spread before like a gigantic map. East and west lay the mountain ranges that defined and protected the Commonwealth proper, the valley of the Long River.

It was the rainfall of these highlands which gave birth to the river. Rivulets and creeks and streams and small rivers joined at Grayling the most northerly port on the river. From there it flowed south for hundreds of leagues through a valley eighty leagues wide to empty into the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea.

Ages ago geological forces had thrust vast blocks of bedrock up to create the parallel mountain ranges, forcing the land between them to sink into a rift or graben. The alluvial soil of that rift valley was the richest on the planet, and a major source of the Commonwealth's prosperity.

The mountains facing westward toward the depression were quite rugged, more so than their eastern or outward side. The mountains were managed for a mix of uses. First and foremost as a protected watershed, next for water power to overshot waterwheels at sawmills and hammer mills. Much of the tree cover was in managed forests, not tree plantations but where timbering was done on a sustainable basis.

Graveled roads provided access to mines, timber lands, hunting lodges, resorts, health spas, constabulary posts and the like though no true towns. Yet for all the development, the hand of man lay lightly on the region. The Commonwealth was a good steward of the land.

Still only in the foothills the travelers stopped for lunch at a meadow, setting up beside a deep pool in the stream which flowed through it. It was a fine day and the site so welcoming and the water so limpid and inviting that they decided to camp right there and not push on any further that day.

Setting up camp was easy enough. Cords with a loop immobilized the rotors of their autogyros. A large silk sheet thrown over the rotor created a shelter which served as both a sunshade and a rain hood if it came to that. The corners were tied to long stakes which Finn drove into the earth with Mjolnir. That left openings two feet high all around to admit cooling breezes. The campers dug shallow trenches to route rain water around their shelters though only as a precaution. The weather was fine and looked to stay so. Grass or boughs stuffed into silk covers served well enough for mattresses.

Madden Sexton had volunteered to cook, more out of self-preservation and reservations at the culinary skills of his young companions than anything else. In three centuries you do pick up a number of skills, and cooking in the field was one of his. The youngsters had centuries ahead of them, so plenty of time for them to learn more than the basics.

Meanwhile Sexton got to show off how much he could do with so little to hand. Tubers and mushrooms and greens gathered from the area added piquant flavors to the fish they caught from the stream, and the birds eggs the twins gathered and the last of the bacon they had brought. Too bad they didn't have a firecaster in their company to create ice for the small ice-box on the transport aerocraft, but already the block of ice they had got at Kaster was melting away.

Once camp was set up Madden Sexton and Finn settled into folding camp chairs while the others threw off their clothes and dived into the water for a swim and a session of water play and wrestling and the grab-ass horseplay which young males were so fond of.

At first there was a general melee with boys wrestling around or scooping water with their hands to splash anyone in range. Then the boys squared off in a three way match, with the twins and Dylan facing Axel and Drew, and Liam declaring himself to be a team of one since he was the only water wizard present. He bragged that they were, after all, chest deep in his tutelary element.

"Hey no powers!" Dylan complained but for his trouble he got a wave which pushed him over toward the twins.

Karel invoked his air magic to create a gentle waterspout and and sent it at Liam, but Liam's weather wizardry trumped Karel's air wizardry and sent Karel's waterspout back at him though Karel's air magic made it swerve. Dismissing the waterspout Liam sent a big wave to upend Axel and Drew.

Once he got his feet under him Drew pushed off the bottom, surfaced, and shook his fist at Liam then Lifted the water wizard about ten feet and dropped him head first into his own watery realm. Liam's telekinetic powers were fairly strong, but he was no match for Drew who could lift a brontothere into the sky or even two of them while the best Liam could manage was a draft horse with maybe a pony thrown in.

Once Liam was underwater he swam along the bottom and surfaced behind a Concealment figuring out of sight was out of mind. Unless Jemsen thought to delve him he would wait till the other boys faced off again then pounce.

Dylan's modest magical powers of Unerring Direction and Empathy should not have allowed Dylan to locate Liam's position, but somehow the elf-boy sensed the young wizard's location. He told Karel who threw up a flat sun mirror behind Liam which let everyone see just where he stood.

"We can see you Liam. That magical Concealment of yours isn't doing you any good." Dylan shouted pointing straight at him.

Liam figured that for a lucky guess and a bluff and kept silent relying on Concealment and stealth.

Dylan tried again.

"If you don't believe me Liam, then turn around and see for yourself."

They all laughed when the young water wizard turned and gaped open mouthed at his reflection in the mirror.

"Okay, okay. Ya got me. Truce!"

That brought an end to their water combat though Dylan grumbled that Liam really should have surrendered not just called for a truce. Whatever, they were all tired so they climbed out of the pool to stretch out on the grass to lie in the sun and dry off.

"I've gotten pretty good at Concealment, so how did you suss me out, Dylan?"

Dylan shrugged.

"I'm not sure myself. If it was my empathic sense at work, this was the first time it was directional. And I sensed just your presence rather than your emotions. Who knows, maybe your field of Concealment filtered those out."

The twins lay side by side 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 slender physiques and youthful features. Lying next to the twins and propped up on one elbow the better to ogle their boy flesh was the elf-boy Dylan. A bit taller than the twins and darkly handsome he had the glabrous skin, lissome build, and smooth musculature of his kind. Dark eyes twinkled over the killer cheekbones characteristic of his race.

Unlike the others who were on their backs, Drew lay prone the better to display his pert rump to advantage. Drew never lost a chance to show off the the trim and taut teenage body he had grown into and still retained thanks to druidical healing magic. 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.

Liam was a raven haired beauty blessed with chiseled features and a fine body. Maybe he was on the lean side but he had a strong upper storey with wide shoulders and muscled arms originally from handling teams of four for a living when he was a teamster. He had the so-called wizards' eyes, one blue and one brown which shone in the dark with what wizards called their moon-glow.

"What we have laid out on the grass before us is nothing less than a vision of youthful male concupiscence." Finn commented grandiloquently.

Maddon Sexton shrugged.

"If you say so Finn. Oh I can appreciate the physical beauty of boys in an aesthetic way, as a sculptor or artist might look at his model. I just don't fancy boys as you and so many males do. In bed I lie exclusively with the female half of the species."

"Which species is that, Madden? Human or wolverine? I shudder to think what a coupling of two wolverines must be like. All snarls and growls and howls and roars I expect." Finn joked.

"Very funny. Wirs mate only in their human forms. We are magical beings -- humans who take the form of beasts not beasts who mimic humans."

"Not just humans. Giants can be wirs too as can dwarves and elves."

"What about orcs?" Sexton wondered.

"I don't really know, but I don't see why orcs can't be shape shifters too."

"Almost any form would be an improvement over their natural shapes, the gangly bastards." Sexton grumbled.

"I heard that" Axel said, giving him a disappointed look.

Axel took his role as an orc-friend seriously. He had even learned enough of their language to laugh at their jokes. Once you got to know them, orcs weren't such bad folks really. It helped that Axel liked a touch of garlic in his food though he agreed that the orcs used entirely too much of it in their cuisine. Besides as an Army medic he always kept cloves of garlic in his kit as an herbal medicine.

Sexton held his hands up placatingly.

"Peace, Axel. I fully accept that the orcs are now our allies and no longer our enemies, but that doesn't mean I gotta like `em, and I don't."

Axel nodded to concede Sexton's point.

The last thing Sexton wanted was an argument with a boy he thought so highly of. They were good friends and comrades in arms, even if Sexton himself was the only member of the expedition who didn't fancy the cute copper-topped youth for a tumble. Maybe Axel was on to something. He had a gift for making friends with the right sort of people. So perhaps orcs were worth a second look.

Dylan suddenly had a feeling that someone or something in the tree line was watching them. Sure enough on the other side of the meadow the elf-boy saw a tawny panther and her two cubs poked their heads out of the shadows of the trees. Putting as much distance as possible between her family and the humans, the mother cat led her charges to a flat rock on the far bank of the stream where the felines crouched, lowered their heads, and lapped at the water.

"They must be really thirsty to show themselves so openly." Dylan told his friends in a low voice. "So hold still and keep quiet. And please, don't anyone try to hurt them." this last was directed with a questioning look at Sexton who had reached for his bow.

"Just a precaution. And just because I am a wir wolverine doesn't mean that I'm not as fond of cats as anyone. As you know very well, one of our good friends is a black panther. So sure, we'll all just give that family of felines their space."

Dylan invoked his gift of empathy to project reassuring thoughts at the panther family. When she was done drinking the mama cat look Dylan full in the face, dipped her head as if in thanks, then turned away with her cubs.

Dylan didn't know what to make of it. He wondered whether he was starting to manifest a new magical gift and if so, which one might it be.

The next morning they flew into the mountains proper. The area had been surveyed by natural philosophers and was being exploited for iron and tin mines so Jemsen didn't have to delve it.

Later that morning, drawn by the wail of a siren at a mining operation they landed to see whether they could help.

A tough looking dwarf scowled at them and barked.

"We don't need gawkers. Clear off."

"What happened?" Finn asked equably.

"A mineshaft collapsed killing half a dozen miners outright and trapping a dozen more in a deep tunnel. What business is it of yours, anyway?"

"Maybe we can help." Finn offered.

"How? A guy as big as you wouldn't even fit in a tunnel sized for us dwarves."

Just then another dwarf who was clearly the one in charge told him:

"Easy there Danko. I'll take it from here." To the visitors he said:

"My name is Lombok. I run this mine. Danko is right though. Maybe you folks want to help, but you would only get in the way. This is a job for miners."

"How about for an earth wizard?" Jemsen asked.

"Huh!" the miner named Danko snorted. "A human pretty boy, an earth wizard? Not likely."

Jemsen shook his head. "Oh ye of little faith."

"Are you really an earth wizard, youngling?" Lombok asked

"He is and it's not "youngling". Finn told him evenly. "The proper form of address for either an Army captain or a knight is Sir, and this young human is both. So is his twin who is an air wizard. In our company we also have a war wizard, a Jumper, and a pair of powerful fetchers."

"Which one of those would you be?"

"Something else entirely."

"Finn is the avatar of a thunder god." Axel supplied helpfully.

"Really?" Lombok asked skeptically. He didn't know what to make of this strange bunch that had showed up at his door.

"Finn, why don't you show him?" Axel suggested pointing upward.

Grinning Finn raised Mjolnir and cried "By the power of Thor!"

A second later a great crash of thunder answered him out of the cloudless sky followed by a jagged bolt of lightning which struck the hammer. As electricity crackled all over Finn's armor he pointed Mjolnir at a nearby boulder and threw a bolt which shattered it to shards.

"Impressive. Maybe you fellows can help after all," he conceded, "but remember this is my mine. I am the superintendent. So I am in charge."

Finn shook his head. "You know mining, and I don't. So I'll let you run things, but in any emergency situation command ultimately falls to a Hand of the Commonwealth."

Finn triggered the small magic which made his hand glow, display his credentials as a Dread Hand of the Commonwealth.

"Sorry, Sir. We seem to have got off on the wrong foot. Come over to the office and I can show you what we are up against. And Danko. Tell that miner to stop cranking the siren. The noise is getting on everyone's nerves. By now everyone knows that we have a disaster on our hands."

Danko went off on his errand. As Lombok lead the way to his office Axel touched Finn's arm to indicate that he wanted to speak privately.

"By the power of Thor?" Axel asked

Finn shrugged. "It's my new battle cry. And before you ask, no, I am not taking this avatar business too seriously. It's really a tactic to inspire shock and awe in the enemy or, as you saw today, to establish my bona fides as the avatar of Thor. Just like with the small magic I can trigger to prove that I am a Hand of the Commonwealth."

Axel nodded. Finn had a point. You got only one chance to make a first impression.

Lombok's office was stark and functional. It reflected the no-nonsense mindset of the superintendent. Pointing to a diagram of the mine he told them that the sides of the northern access shaft had fallen in, trapping miners in tunnels on two levels, one hundred forty feet and two hundred thirty feet down.

"We'll need more than a schematic of the tunnels." Jemsen said. "Let's look at the topographic map for a planimetric view of the area."

Lombok took the map down from the wall and started to explain how to read it.

"We know all about contour lines, Superintendent Lombok." Jemsen said waving him off. "We invented them, me and Karel."

"Of course. You would be Jemsen and Karel. The famous twins."

"In the flesh."

After Danko returned with the other two foremen Finn introduced his team and told the miners something of their capabilities. After some discussion the group settled on a rescue plan. Finn concluded the conference with his standard verbal formula which indicated affirmation, agreement, and authorization to proceed.

"Sounds like plan."

There was no point in trying to clear the collapsed mine shaft. Better to create new means of access. Relying on his delving and on his gift of Unerring Direction Jemsen indicated to Liam where he should use white fire to blast two new shafts down to the trapped miners. The larger one would be for access, the smaller for ventilation. Once both shafts were open, Karel pushed air down the ventilation shaft and up and out the wider access shaft. It was just in time too. The air in the mines was turning foul.

Axel rode down the access shaft with his feet in the stirrups attached to Drew's armor. On the way down Axel called light, setting a blue white ball of cold light at each level. That gave the trapped men light to see by and boosted their morale bringing them hope of rescue. As a matter of course the miners would always have at least one man or rather one dwarf in a crew who could call light though rarely would his globe persist for hours without him even thinking about it as Axel's globes could. Unfortunately the light bringers in both crews had been crushed by falling rock during the collapse of the access shaft. The miners still had a few oil lamps with them but kept them unlit to conserve the small amount of fuel in their reservoirs.

Finn would never fit in those tunnels, but both rescuers stood only five feet, so they could walk upright. While Axel splinted broken limbs and bandaged lacerations to control the bleeding, Drew led the ambulatory miners to the shaft and took them up and out one at a time in the stirrups. Then it was the turn of the wounded whom Drew gently floated to the surface with his telekinetic powers.

It took a couple of hours to get everyone out. By then Liam had brought a magical healer and a bonesetter through a portal from an infirmary at Grayling. There were other infirmaries closer, but Liam had not been to any of them so could not open a portal to those locations.

The magical healer was also assisted by a surgeon, a doctor of natural medicine staying at a hunting lodge nearby who came over to help. Their professional skills ensured that all of the rescued miners survived though that still left the five killed at the outset.

Axel was the last one to evacuate the mine. He didn't wait for Drew to float back down for him. He simply Jumped straight up and out of the shaft then made a final short Jump to the ground.

"That's a right handy way to get around, Sir Axel." Lombok told him. Axel grinned. A bit of showing off surely did no harm.

No celebration this time, but the miners were deeply grateful for the help the Corps of Discovery had given. Superintendent Lombok was especially gratified that Liam had blasted the shafts to the proper size for mining operations. Once the miners installed air pumps and an elevator, they could resume mining with less than a week's production lost. The firm would cover the lost wages regardless per the labor contract with the Brotherhood of Miners.

The travelers put up at the local hunting lodge for a couple of days while everything got settled. Then the expedition set off again heading northeast across the mountain range.

Drew was happy to see that Axel's air of despondency had lifted. This was what the boy had needed: a chance to make a positive contribution. And here he had done it three times in quick succession, first to get the expedition to its jumping off point, second at the landslide, and just now at the mine.

That lifted Drew's spirits too. He and Axel were close as roommates, friends, lovers, comrades in arms, and fellow adventurers, not to mention their bond as redheads. Axel's hair was the color of copper which complemented Drew's own rich auburn locks so well. They made quite a fetching couple actually -- no pun intended. Or rather a matched trio with Nathan Lathrop's carrot-top.

Redheads rule!

Not that Drew was't fond of blonds and brunettes too.

Chapter 3. Oases

After an extended geological survey of the northern end of the mountain range, the expedition turned north toward the Hot Lands. Beyond the mountains lay a region of grassy plains punctuated by gallery forest along the streams. It was just as well that they flew for this was the rainy season when surface travel was difficult because the ground became water-logged and spongy. Low-lying areas might even be covered by shallow flood waters.

The transition to the Hot Lands was gradual but soon they were traveling over a region much hotter and dryer than the Eastern Plains. Little rain fell on this short grass prairie. The sky was perpetually sunny except for occasional showers.

The twins called Finn's attention to the line of cairns along the low escarpment where the Eastern Plains ended and the Hot Lands began. The tetrahedral stone structures stood eight feet high and marked the northern boundary of the Commonwealth.

A cluster of buildings stood on either side of the trade road just south of the border. The installation included a customs house and constabulary post, a stagecoach terminus and a freight depot, an airfield, plus a sizable tavern. Just off the main road were farmhouses and the fields which supplied much of the food for the permanent party and travelers.

This was the transshipment point where cargo brought across the Hot Lands via pack or draft camels would be loaded onto horse drawn wagons while riders would transfer to stagecoaches.

A windmill driven pump lifted water from a slow moving underground river whose flow ultimately replenished the artesian basin under the Hot Lands.

The complex offered their last chance in the Commonwealth to find comfortable lodgings with real beds and under a solid roof. After landing Finn entrusted their autogyros to the staff at the airfield after which they walked the short distance to the rustic tavern which was built with stone and timbers which must have been hauled from the mountains.

Halting their group at the entrance, Liam began:

"Now Axel, I want you to fix this location in your mind so you can jump to it at any time from any place."

`But Liam, I can teleport myself only to places which I can see or have reached via a portal."

"Which is why you are going to pass through a portal and travel from where you are standing to where I am standing. That's a journey of only a few feet, but the principle is the same no matter what the distance."

"OK, if you say so."

Liam concentrated and opened a portal which looked much like an ordinary doorway except for the silvery frame and a shimmer in the air.

Axel stepped through. It wasn't like stepping through a doorway. Nothing happened till you got your entire body through the portal which left you with a sense of falling weightlessly for a half a second until you exited the far side. Evidently this was when the druids adjusted for the difference in the rotational speed at different latitudes for long distance travel.

"Now, do you have this precise location fixed in your mind so you won't forget it even months from now?" Liam asked.

"How could I forget?" Tapping his temple with his index finger, Axel reminded Liam:

"Eidetic memory. Remember?"

That drew a nod and a rueful grin from the young war wizard.

"Ask a dumb question..."

The innkeeper allowed that he had a few rooms available. They had few giants passing through, but two beds pushed together would accommodate even his dimensions. Only three rooms were vacant so some of them would have to double up.

"No problem, sir." Karel said cheerily. "We are all used to sharing beds, if you take my meaning. We'll do it like this: first me and my twin will bunk with the elf boy, which takes care of three. The little guys get the second room, meaning the two redheads plus that taller dark haired fellow with the wizard's eyes, and finally the big boys: the giant and the forest ranger."

Sexton frowned and told the proprietor to have a cot squeezed into the room for him. "No offense Finn, but you're not my type."

Finn nodded: "Likewise."

Supper was a tasty stew made of camel meat with beef fat added for flavor and cooked long and slow to tenderize the tough meat of the camel. Braised vegetables were added to the pot toward the end. Afterwards the company of adventurers sat in the common room drinking chilled soft cider and talked with their fellow travelers and the locals, two of whom were fellow pilots, members of the constabulary named Pohl and Vann.

"That's right, Vann and I patrol the border to catch caravans trying to avoid payment of custom dues."

"How can a single constable arrest a whole caravan from an autogyro?" Axel wondered.

"We can't and we don't. Actually our confrontations with smugglers are all very civilized, a game really. The smugglers pretend to be lost, and we pretend to believe them, then offer to escort them safely back to the trade road, an offer which they are hardly in a position to refuse, not with that story about getting lost."

Karel frowned.

"What do they say when you ask why a trade caravan would set out without guides who could read a map and or invoke the gift of Unerring Direction?"

"Why ask such an embarrassing question when we know perfectly well that their guides are excellent at what the Army grandly calls the Art of Land Navigation? Most of them have the gift as well. They need to be able to figure out where they are when they go off the beaten path into a trackless wilderness. One of their guides said as much one evening when he was in his cups. His friends shushed him up, and we pretended the guide's words were too slurred from overindulgence to make out."

"All part of the game. Now the Commonwealth is not greedy with its tariffs. The rates are high enough to generate a lucrative revenue but not so high as to discourage trade. You will always have smugglers of course. We levy fines on those we catch but the surcharges for bypassing the border post are't so heavy that the smugglers would be tempted to resort to violence."

"Still enough caravans do sneak through to make the game worthwhile for smugglers who might succeed perhaps one time in four or five. Anyway we get lots of flying time, which is why we like the job so much. Gotta love the guy who invented the autogyro.

"We do, literally." Karel told him with a grin.

"Oh ho! It's like that, is it? No offense kid to a real looker like you, but Vann and me we consort exclusively with the female half of the species, of whom there are precious few in these parts. Alas!"

Madden Sexton saluted him with his cup of cider. "You are men after my own heart. Don't get me wrong, my companions are among the finest people I have met in a very long life, but I just don't get all the romantic fuss some males make over pretty boys."

Drew countered airily with: "Fortunately there are many others who do get it."

On that note, Finn ordered a round of the potent peach schnapps for which Frost Giants were justifiably famous.

The southernmost settlement of the Medkari, the oasis named Amity lay nearly a hundred miles north of the border, a three day trek by horse or camel. In autogyros, they covered the distance in less than two hours.

Last time the twins and Drew and Axel had passed this way, the country had been a trackless wilderness. These days a hard packed trade road lead from Eastern Plains across the short grass prairie of the Hot Land. Every thirty-odd miles -- a day's travel -- stood a caravanserai built of fired mud bricks. It drew water from an artesian well to supply travelers and to irrigate a vegetable garden and even a copse of shade trees to soften the arid landscape of short-grass prairie and sandy soil overlying soft bed rock. These were just stopping places. The first real settlement was the man-man oasis named Amity.

When the expedition arrived at the Amity Oasis the four members who had been there before found a landscape transformed with fields and trees and a small town built around a set of ponds, the largest of which was both an amenity and an emergency reserve. Two more were for recreation, and the smallest was where their firecasters made ice.

To deal with the high temperatures of the Hot Lands the Medkari lived underground. The soft rock of the hillsides was easy to dig out to create apartments which remained at a constant temperature no matter how hot it got outside. Air shafts provided cross ventilation and the dwellings were illuminated by skylights made of glass brick which faced north away from the direct rays of the sun. The rooms were small but felt larger since they were sparsely furnished: tables, stools for seating, chests and cupboards for storage. Shaded porches, verandas, patios, and pergolas provided extra living space.

Water flowed by gravity from two artesian wells into impoundments, spillways, and watering troughs for livestock. Crops were watered by drip irrigation through a network of bamboo pipes. The pack and draft animals of the Medkari were bizarre shaggy beasts with two humps, relatives of the one humped camel or dromedary.

The autogyros set down in the short grass prairie between the irrigated fields and the stands of prickly pear cactus which could grow without irrigation. The Medkari farmed the cochineal insect on the plant, brushing them off every three months, drying and grinding their bodies into a powder they made a valuable dyestuff. Plus the fruits of the prickly pear were themselves edible.

A curious crowd quickly gathered though they opened up as a delegation of three young men in long robes and sandals stepped forward to greet and assess the visitors. No one was armed.

"Greetings strangers. Yours are the first flying machines any of us has ever seen, so you can understand our curiosity. My name is Raqqub. I am the headman of Amity and these are my colleagues, councillors Zabai and Morabbi. Not that a settlement of less than two thousand really needs much governance. Mostly we allocate resources, oversee community endeavors, settle disputes or..."

Breaking off the young headman cocked his head, looked at the visitors quizzically, and asked. "Your faces -- under those hoods they look familiar."

"Raqqub! Surely you remember us." the twins said throwing back the cowls of their cloaks.

"Jemsen and Karel!" Raqqub exclaimed excitedly. "How could I ever forget the two of you?"

"So you would be the famous twins Jemsen and Karel." Zabbai said while Morabbi nodded.

"Raqqub has spoken fondly of you. He said you were far and away the most beautiful boys he ever took to bed or even laid eyes on. And now here you are."

"In the flesh." Jemsen confirmed.

During the diplomatic expedition which established good relations with the Commonwealth's new neighbors the Medkari, Drew and the twins and even the normally more reserved Axel acted as personal ambassadors of good will, as it were, carrying on brief but torrid affairs with some of the younger males among the Medkari including Raqqub then just a teenager.

Young males among the Medkari were indulged while young, their youthful affairs with those of their own gender regarded simply part of growing up and a way of keeping their attentions off young females before they were able to support a family. Soon enough most of them would settle down to a traditional domestic existence.

"I wish Dayyub himself could be here to greet you but he is off dealing with an infestation of locusts at an oasis many miles west of here.

"Dayyub was the leader of their exploratory expedition back in the day." Drew explained to Finn and the others.

"Nowadays he is our designated troubleshooter. As resourceful as he is wise and just, Dayyub has the respect of all Medkari. Anyway, what brings you all the way to Amity?"

Karel asked how guys as young as Raqqub wound up as headman. Raqqub joked that he had impressed the voters with his ability to fly. Raqqub was a fetcher and had equipped himself with a flying yoke like those used in the Commonwealth.

More seriously young people were in charge because the population in these new settlements was almost entirely made up people in their teens and twenties. The males among them were second and third sons who had no prospects in the older settlements. They had to make their own way in life and find a wife for themselves rather than have it arranged by elders. That was what had brought the young ladies to Amity. Together young couples would establish households and families and prosper together.

Jemsen told them that their mission combined geographical exploration with a geological survey and geopolitical soundings in the Far North as the Commonwealth thought of those lands. To the Medkari they were the Near North.

The Medkari pledged to do all they could to help. First came hospitality. In the next few days the well-traveled among the Medkari would talk with the team and tell them what they could expect to find in the areas known to the oasis dwellers.

At mid-afternoon the next day Raqqub shared news of a disturbing development.

"The locust infestation is much worse than at first believed. After what he saw just this morning Dayyub sent a warning to prepare for the worst. We are to mobilize all our resources, magical as well as physical to battle a full blown plague of locusts."

"Isn't Dayyub many miles away?" Drew asked. "How did he get word here so fast?"

"Years ago Dayyub organized a messaging service which reaches across the miles between our oases. It relies on long range infrasound communication. He got the idea from Sir Willet during your first visit."

"Now we Medkari don't have true war wizards and our weather wizards are few and not up to those standards, but between them, our wind talkers, and our air wizards we manage to keep in touch. That way we can muster to confront bandits attacking caravans or raiders trying to loot our settlements or respond to natural disasters like a great grass fire last year in the north. Anyway here are the details."

From Dayyub's report it seemed the locusts were not yet in their swarming phase but were still migrating by hopping along the ground in bands of wingless nymphs. Still even nymphs were a threat, a ravenous army marching in a formation half a mile wide and four miles long.

In two or three days those nymphs would become a huge swarm of winged adults which could travel great distances consuming the vegetation wherever the swarm settled. A swarm might number four hundred million insects spread over several square miles.

The lush oases of the Medkari would be prime targets.

"In that case, in my official capacity as a Dread Hand of the Commonwealth and in the spirit of the treaty of alliance and amity between our peoples, I would like to offer you our every assistance. Now before we get to devising a strategy, I'd like to clear up something. Just what is a wind talker?" Finn asked.

"Let me answer that," Karel said.

"Several magical gifts can control the atmosphere. Weather wizards which includes war wizards like Liam have the most versatile of the three gifts. Weather wizards control the elements such as wind and rain and hail and fog or even frost and can summon a thunderstorm and use its torrential rains and lightning against a foe. A strong weather wizard can launch a tornado against a shield wall. All weather wizards can sense impending changes in the weather so the weaker ones work for news-papers or the military as forecasters."

"An air wizard like me controls the atmosphere but not the weather. We cannot sense changes in the weather nor can we call up storms, but we can sense the winds and summon dust devils and land spouts which are atmospheric rather than meteorological phenomena. And we can do a lot of other things besides like jets of air or shields of hardened air and sun mirrors."

"A wind talker senses the winds which is why so many work for the Navy or the shipping lines and increasingly at airfields. Now the abilities of stronger talkers shade into those of air wizards proper, being able to turn or deflect natural winds but not create jets of air."

"You know Finn. You got me thinking. Maybe we can use this corps which operates the infrasound network against the locusts. I don't just mean just to keep tabs on where they are but join their powers to ours, mine and Liam's to create sun mirrors which would be our best tactic against both terrestrial nymphs and the flying swarms of adults."

"Sounds good, but don't forget white fire." Axel suggested.

Liam frowned. "What do you mean, Axel?"

"It's a tactic for raising a missile shield which Sir Willet and Artor discussed during our exploratory expedition to New Varangia. They said that white fire can be shaped into a flat rectangular screen dozens of yards on a side to block and disintegrate incoming arrows. Or, if the screen were pushed all the way to the enemy lines, turned to the horizontal, and pancaked to the ground, the white fire would disintegrate the force of archers not just their missiles. To my mind, that's too grisly to use against sentients but against bugs, no problem."

"I see. So I could do the same against locusts: the pancake technique against the nymphs and the screen technique against the flyers. I have become much stronger with white fire from over-extending myself in Amazonia. Sheets of white fire is a great idea. Thanks, Axel."

Finn nodded. "I think I can help too with my lightning bolts -- not the electrical discharge itself but their heat. The passage of a bolt through the air generates a form of white fire. That superheats the air which expands and rushes away so fast that it makes a noise like the crack of a whip only very much louder and we call it thunder. So what I will do is call super bolts of lightning to discharge from cloud to cloud rather than to the ground and destroy a hell of a lot of locusts."

"I sit here amazed," Raqqub said. "Amazed and thankful that the gods have brought you to us Medkari in our hour of need. Oh and Zabbai. Afterwards we must organize the women to sweep up as many as the fried locusts as they can."

"What for?" Drew asked.

"To eat. What else? Locusts fried in olive oil are a real treat among us Medkari. We pop them into the mouth and eat them as a crunchy snack. I like to dribble honey on them or use them to scoop up a dip such as our tasty avocado paste. Finally cooks can use them as the main ingredient in a casserole."

"I am not sure I am really ready to augment my diet with fried bugs." Drew said dubiously.

"Ha! That is the city boy in you talking, Drew. It's just too bad we didn't have a supply of locusts on hand the last time you were here, but they are a seasonal dish. Otherwise we would have made an aficionado of you."

"I find that hard to believe."

"You shall see my friend. You shall see." Raqqub said confidently.

"Actually, when you think about it, Drew, you wouldn't be eating fried bugs at all but bugs boiled by the moisture in the clouds" Jemsen corrected.

"Wrong!" Karel objected. "Boiling requires immersion. No, these would be merely steamed bugs."

"Steamed?" Don't you really mean scalded?" Axel asked provocatively, throwing a wink to the others.

Joining in the banter Dylan shook his head. "Sorry guys, but you all got it wrong. Steam is a white mist of hot water droplets suspended in hot moist air unlike water vapor which is wholly gaseous. Without liquid water boiling, steaming, or scalding is impossible. And since you need oil to fry with, you can't fry them either. No, the dry heat born of lightning won't fry the locusts or boil them or steam them or scald them. Instead it will BAKE them."

Sexton laughed. "You should listen to the elf-boy. Who knows food better than elves?"

Karel started to ask if elves were so knowledgeable about food, then why was Dylan such a terrible cook, but he thought better of it and kept silent. His reticence drew an approving nod from his brother who had sensed his twin's intent through their psychic link.

The Medkari chuckled at their visitors' banter. Finn had let it go on as long as he had simply to ease the tension.

Drew was still dubious and not just about the cuisine.

"Maybe. I just wish I could think up a way to use my powers to destroy locusts. You don't suppose I could sweep the sky with a giant fly swatter, could I?"

Madden Sexton shrugged. "One might work against the hoppers on the ground but not against the flyers. For those you would need two swatters not one for hammer and anvil tactics. Mash the one against the other held stationary. You'd kill hundreds with each sweep. Even so the toll you took probably wouldn't amount to much given their huge numbers."

"So says our master tactician. OK, I guess it's still worth a try unless someone has a better idea. Let me think on a design for these mighty engines of destruction." Drew said with heavy irony.

"I'd better use my swatters where Finn isn't frying locusts by the million. No use mixing his flash fried variety -- I mean flash baked -- with the mashed raw locusts my technique will produce."

"Now you are thinking, Drew." Raqqub said grinning. "We'll gather the ones you kill for fertilizer and plow them under the soil of the fallow fields. Waste not, want not."

Chapter 4. Locusts

Though the Medkari was known for their hospitality, the evening meal was very low key. Everyone was worried about the threat of the locusts, though they all avoided that topic of conversation. That gave Raqqub and the twins a chance to get caught up.

At twenty-two Raqqub was still unmarried though that was largely from lack of opportunity given the skewed sex ratio in new Medkari settlements. He fully intended to wed, hopefully within the year and even had a couple of possible matches in mind, a pair of twins who lived in the next oasis north. His problem was which of the two to choose. He couldn't very well marry both, and with identical looks, the choice would come down to personality, charm, and compatibility.

That said, Raqqub was still available and eager for a frolic with the twins though they all agreed to postpone their reunion till after the locusts were dealt with. Then there would really be something to celebrate. The rest of the visitors were circumspect too, though Drew of course, ever the social butterfly, had already picked out a couple of local lads he would like to get to know better.

In the morning all three autogyros took off. Finn and Drew headed out to Dayyub's location in the westernmost oasis. Liam had a different mission, to fly to all eight of the oases strung out along the north south trade road and collect the wind and weather mages and bring them to Amity, the likeliest target hence the logical place to concentrate the defending forces. They had been forewarned via infrasound messaging to stand by for pickup. At least one member of the network would remain at the other seven oases to ensure communications.

Liam's transport aerocraft could not carry all fifteen mages at once, but it didn't have to. At each oasis, Liam opened a portal for Axel to step through just as he had back at the border and again in Amity. That would let him Jump to and from any of the oases. For starters, once they had collected the mages from the first three oases, Axel had them form up and join hands and teleported the group to Amity. Then he did it twice more the last time staying in Amity while Liam flew out to join the other flyers at the isolated western oasis.

That left the twins, Sexton, and Dylan to get defenses organized.

Karel's job was to coordinate the weather wizards, wind talkers, and air wizards of the Medkari. The idea was for the air wizards to concert their powers over the psychic link they all had with their tutelary element.

Under Karel's patient coaching the mages learned to create flat sun mirrors to reflect the light and heat of the sun and parabolic mirrors to concentrate it. The plan was to hold the parabolic mirrors stationary while aimed slantwise to the flight of the locusts. The wizards would change the angle of reflection of the flat mirrors to track the sun as it moved across the sky.

Wind talkers and weather wizards would call winds or jets of air to blow alongside the swarm, shepherding it, pressing the swarm into a more compact mass, hence a more lucrative target for the intense beams of heat generated by the parabolic mirrors. The plan was simple since they had only a couple of days to practice and rehearse their moves.

To Jemsen fell the task of devising passive defenses, earthen berms or walls in the shape of a flat U which encompassed the entrances to houses that faced the prevailing winds, the direction from which the locusts would approaching. Locusts always flew with the wind, so their avenue of approach was predictable.

The hope was that the berms would deflect the wind upward and lift the locusts up with it. Once past the structures the insects would not fly back. That would keep them out of those homes and stables and keep them from the potted plants and flower baskets brought inside for the duration.

As for the food stored in pots in underground granaries, Jemsen deemed them safe enough where they were. Just to be sure he piled a few inches of soil against their doors. Locusts were not burrowers.

Axel was charged with teleporting the weather and air wizards and the wind talkers to their initial posts. As the battle with the locusts developed Axel would shift them around accordingly. No plan long survives first contact with the main strength of the enemy.

After having the men practice falling-in Axel was satisfied that the air and weather wizards would line up, without hesitation or fumbling in proper order whether singly or in teams. Practice jumps got them used to shifting location in an instant without leaving them disoriented.

Meanwhile the wir wolverine and the elf-boy were at loose ends with nothing to do to prepare for the onslaught of the locusts. That didn't bother Sexton at all. His three centuries of life experience gave him the perspective and the equanimity to shrug off any feelings of uselessness he might have had. Sexton was sure that at some point during the mission his powers and physical abilities would be put to good use. Now if only he could convince Dylan, but the elf-boy could only grumble:

"Some use I am with my powers limited to Unerring Direction and Empathy. And what good are my physical skills like archery where we aren't expecting trouble? So far on this journey I have used my powers only during that water fight to sense Liam's presence behind a Concealment. Anyway, as an earth wizard Jemsen could have delved Liam's location for himself."

Sexton shook his head.

"You have to believe that they brought us along for a reason. In my case that means my shapeshifting abilities and my prowess in close combat. Also I am now as good with my airgun as I am with a long bow. In fieldcraft even the twins cannot match a wir and an elf. And you and the twins are champion archers thanks to your gift of Unerring Direction. Furthermore just because we are on a peaceful mission doesn't meant that trouble won't find us. We might run into bad people out there. And no one can detect insincerity and treachery better than an empath. Don't worry, Dylan. Your time will come."

"You really think so?"

"Heading into the unknown the way we are, I would say that it's practically inevitable."

Dylan brightened. He knew that Madden Sexton had been around, and he was a man who wasn't given to flattery or loose talk. All right. Dylan would be patient and do what needing doing when it needed to be done. And in the meanwhile he would try to understand his new ability to sense the presence of animate creatures, like with those strange two-humped camels which the Medkari used as draft and pack animals and occasionally as mounts. He got enough from them to know that they were not friendly with strangers and that he should not get too close.

Out west the three pilots conferred with Dayyub and the local headman. This newest man-made oasis of the Medkari was the first built away from the north to south axis of the trade route. Situated below sandstone cliffs to the south and west, it benefited from the shade they cast in the afternoon. Dwellings and workshops had been carved in the soft rock. Still only lightly inhabited, the oasis was a work in progress. The main public works were all in place: two artesian wells which fed impoundments, spillways, and watering troughs for livestock.

A network of bamboo pipes for drip irrigation had been laid out though as yet only a fraction of the fields was under cultivation. The soil there was particularly fertile. With irrigation the harvests would be bountiful.

Unfortunately the fields had been overrun by locusts in their wingless nymph form. The trails of devastation to the west told the tale of how separate outbreaks of nymphs had joined up into one giant mass of insects. There was nothing the small local work force could have done to stop them.

Drew laid about with his fly swatters, squares of matting twenty feet on a side, the sides stiffened with bamboo poles to hold their shape. With two poles slipped out of their sleeves, it had been easy enough to roll the mats up and carry them in Liam's big transport aerocraft for reassembly on site.

Alas it was soon obvious that Drew's fly swatter tactic was hopelessly inadequate. As the swatters approached the ground they blew as many insects away from the impact zone as they caught. Anyway what use was it to crush three or four hundred at a time while ten thousand leapfrogged forward in their place? And it wasn't long before the panels fell apart from the battering they took as Drew repeatedly slapped them against the ground.

Liam did somewhat better with a whirlwind which he called up to sweep the fields and lift the nymphs up to the cold air at height, but many of the locusts survived the cold and the winds and even the fall back to earth. They were so light that the terminal velocity of their fall was not fatal.

The locals resigned themselves to forting up in their dwellings till the nymphs hopped by. At least they had nothing to fear physically from insects which ate only vegetation. The battle of annihilation would have to be fought at Amity against the winged adults using sun mirrors to kill them by the millions in the sky.

Liam's transport aerocraft ferried Dayyub and his team back to Amity where the Medkari would make their stand. If the locusts could not be stopped there, they could fly along the chain of oases the Medkari had constructed in the Hot Lands and consume every growing thing. Later that day Drew's aerial reconnaissance confirmed that the locusts had molted and taken on their adult or winged phase.

As the locusts headed east those in the lead landed to eat the prairie grass while those who had been behind flew on. The approaching swarm looked like a dirty cloud on the horizon though moving in a way no real cloud ever would.

The defenders created a staggered defense strung out several miles to the west of the oasis. Those that got past Finn's first line of defense would ran the gantlet of sunbeams created by the Mekdari gifted with air magic. Some were air or weather wizards though most were wind talkers as was Dayyub himself. Karel would get the next crack at them, and finally Liam would hold up sheets of white fire for them to fly into. The defenders hoped it would be enough.

In his persona as Thor, thunder god of the Norse, Finn raised his war hammer Mjolnir and shouted his battle cry:

"By the power of Thor!"

In response lightning flashed horizontally through the swarm again and again. Finn paused briefly as more locusts flow forward into the space in which their late colleagues had been incinerated then zapped the swarm once again. And so it went till Finn had to break off, temporarily drained by his effort.

The Medkari were formed up in five teams comprised of an air wizard and either a couple of wind talkers, or a weather wizard. For maximum effect they created sun mirrors pointed northwest slanting their heat beam forty-five degrees across the approach of the locust swarm. The insects died by the millions, not baked liked Finn's victims but literally incinerated, that is turned into ash.

As the tail end of the swarm passed the first team, Axel jumped it to the other end of the line where they set up their sun mirror again and resumed the fight. Most teams got three cracks at the bugs before the swarm arrived at Amity where Karel was determined to stop them. As one of the strongest air wizards on the planet, his sun mirrors were larger and their heat more intense. Taking advantage of the afternoon sun, he shone his heat beam straight down the the approaching swarm, killing them by the million.

Unfortunately a portion of the swarm had broken off from the main body and headed north toward the next oasis along the trade road.

Drew signaled to Axel who jumped next to Drew who asked him to transport Drew and Raqqub and six of his giant fly swatters to where the two fetchers could head off the breakout. They didn't use Drew's fly swatters to bash the insects but rather to wave the squares in the air hoping that their jerky motion and the shadows they cast would unnerved the locusts. To Drew's surprise, his tactic born of desperation actually worked. The locusts mostly turned back to rejoin the main swarm.

As effective as his sun mirrors were, Karel was being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the insects and by the broad front the swarm presented as it approached Amity. That was when Liam stepped in by creating a dozen sheets of white fire a hundred feet on a side. The young wizard, ranged them into a fiery phalanx, and swept it through the swarm utterly disintegrating the locusts it touched. White fire doesn't leave ashes behind.

Axel repositioned the Medkari teams and they joined their powers to Karel and Liam's. Meanwhile Finn defended Amity itself, zapping lightning bolts at the locusts which got past his allies.

In the end the defenders won, but just barely. It was a close run thing, as all would admit. They had been at the end of their strength.

Dayyub summed it up. "So we won after all. I wasn't really sure we would."

The defenders were too tired to cheer and just nodded.

A short while later as they refreshed themselves with soft cider brought by the grateful populace, Raqqub cried out.

"Oh no! Don't tell me that dark cloud is another swarm approaching from the northwest."

Only it was exactly that. And there wasn't just one dark cloud moving their way. There were two of them, the second coming from directly north.

Hearts sinking, the Medkari resigned themselves to utter ruin.

Suddenly Dylan shouted.

"Wait! Don't give up hope just yet. It's not what you think. Sure that cloud to the northwest is another swarm of locusts, but not the cloud to the north."

"What is then?" Finn asked.

"Deliverance." Dylan said with relief then explained.

"That cloud to the north is an immense flock of seagulls which must have flown all the way from the northern ocean chasing swarms of locusts. The gulls will stop the locusts all right. Gobble them up, they will."

Dayyub was happy about the gulls but doubtful about their origins. "More likely the birds flew from a large salt lake which lies some hundred fifty miles north of here, beyond the Hot Lands."

"Dylan, how can you be so sure that those are seagulls and not more locusts? Even through my far-viewer I cannot tell what they are." Jemsen asked.

"I know Jemsen. I just know. It's like when I knew about the panther or sensed Liam behind his concealment. "

"Then you must be manifesting a new gift. And if you can sense the gulls from this far away, Dylan, it must be a powerful one."

"But what gift could it be?" the elf-boy wondered.

"A very rare gift indeed, my young friend." Dayyub said. "It is a gift you share with your friends the druids. You Dylan are becoming a Beast Master."

"A Beast Master?"

"Exactly. Right now you can only sense the presence of animate creatures and project your feelings towards them. Soon your gift will enhance the range of your senses. You will be able to send part of your consciousness into the minds of your animal servitors so you could look through their eyes. With their sharp vision and ability to soar and glide over an area eagles and hawks make excellent agents for aerial reconnaissance."

"For ground reconnaissance or surveillance at ground level you should use wolves. They have excellent visual discrimination and good crepuscular vision. True their acuity is less than your own, and they are partly color-blind so you will have to make allowances. What you see as red a wolf sees as yellow. On the plus side is their olfactory ability. You might set wolves to follow a scent."

"You will be able to control them much as the druids do. You could enlist the larger animals such as equines and moose and even elephants as mounts for you and your party. The smaller animals would serve as scouts or as sentries."

"Don't overlook the possibilities of mice and cats as spies. Cats roam about and curl up everywhere and people are comfortable in their presence and talk unguardedly. As for mice and such, they are tiny critters which no one would give a second thought to."

"How is it you know so much about such things, Dayyub?"

The Medkari elder smiled and explained that one of his cousins was a beast master, someone they should look up since they were headed northward anyway.

"His name is Padraig and he lives on the shores of a great lake about four hundred miles from here which is too far for infrasound messaging. I'll write you a letter of introduction. How does all that strike you my young friend?" Dayyub concluded.

"I'm still taking it all in. Me, a Beast Master. I don't know what to say."

"Well you'd better think of something memorable to say pretty darn quick." Drew chided.

"I'll need a quote from you for my next article in the Capital Intelligencer. Or rather the one I write after my report about the battle against the locusts. So say something inspirational."

Dylan rolled his eyes. "Why do journalists always dramatize everything?"

"Obviously it is to sell papers. Why else?" Drew asked with unassailable logic then added.

"News-papers must engage the attention of the public in the first place if they are to convey what people need to know as citizens of a republic."

Sexton smiled at the elf-boy and said: "Your new powers will make you an even more valuable member of the team."

"It's just as you said." Dylan acknowledged.

By the time their conversation was concluded and with the sun near the western horizon, the two clouds converged and interpenetrated. Carried by the prevailing west wind, the swirling mass of flyers drifted ever closer. It time everyone could hear the squawks and calls of the hungry gulls as they greedily gobbled up the locusts.

Afterwards the satiated gulls settled down by the thousands around the central pond of the oasis and drank their fill. Too tired and heavy to resume flight that day, the noisy gulls kept everyone awake the whole night, not that the Medkari complained. It was so much music to their ears, the music of deliverance.

Liam, Finn, Axel, and Karel were drained from using magic so extensively. They had been at it for hours on end which was longer than any of the pitched battles they had fought in the past. Liam especially had over-extended himself with keeping sheets of white fire in place. It would very likely strengthen him in the future but right then he was completely exhausted. All of them actually slept through the racket the seagulls made. Dylan shared Karel's bed though only for sleep that night.

Less tired than the others, Jemsen and Raqqub had the energy to make the most of their opportunity to renew their friendship that very evening. They knew that Karel would be joining them for the rest of their stay in Amity. The young Medkari showed Jemsen the house he and his friends had recently built in anticipation of his taking a bride. It looked comfortable enough though not yet homey, lacking a woman's touch.

Moonlight shone through a skylight in the main bedchamber, bathing the pair in a pearly effulgence. Disporting themselves energetically on the sturdy marital bed the boys went at it hammer and tongs. They had a lot of lost time to make up for. The cultivation of irrigated crops is hard work and the Medkari had the strong bodies to prove it. Even so Jemsen was much stronger. Druidical healing magic and the powers of the New Forest had made him three times as strong as he looked to be.

At twenty-two Raqqub was at the height of his physical and sexual powers and here he was making love with one of the sexiest guys on the planet. It didn't get much better than that, except when he had both twins in bed at once. Both lovers were versatile so they pleasured each other orally then Raqqub mounted Jemsen face to face. He like to see the face of the boy he was fucking and to kiss it as well as play with his erogenous zones like nipples, navel, and earlobes. When they came, their orgasms were synchronized and explosive.

When Jemsen got his breath back he lay flat and had Raqqub straddle him and impale himself on Jemsen's shaft. Raqqub posted his mount as if atop a trotting horse while Jemsen tweaked his nipples and the rubbed the sweet spot on his cock. This time Raqqub came first, shooting his gism over his lover's chest and face. A bit of splooge almost hit Jemsen's left eye but his preternatural quick reflexes shut it in time. Jemsen wiped it off with his finger and offered it to the young Medkari to taste. Raqqub's resumed posting soon brought Jemsen over the edge and he shot his seed into his lover's quim.

The pair went to sleep but woke up early for a second round and a third before sleeping long past dawn. The next morning their joint shower was alas too short to allow for any fooling around. In the Hot Lands folks did not waste water. As Raqqub dressed Jemsen asked him why he and his folk favored long robes in the intense heat.

"First of all, you must understand that we Medkari don't wear full-length robes because we are ashamed of the human body. Far from it, as I think I demonstrated last night."

"Our robes are actually better for this hot climate than what you call your expeditionary outfit. The cut is loose enough to allow a full range of movement of body and limbs. With the hem at the ankles it doesn't interfere with walking or running for that matter. And with camels you have to ride side saddle anyway since the barrels of their bodies are two wide to bestride which is why we don't need trousers."

"Your preconceptions aside, Jemsen, the robe is an adaptation to the heat. We don't wear a belt or sash so its unconstricted shape acts like a chimney. Air flows in at the bottom to replace air heated by contact with the body which escapes out the collar and sleeves. And the sleeves roll up neatly out of the way for messy work."

"The fabric is a special weave, soft and smooth and with fibers treated alchemically to wick sweat away from the body which also cools the body as it evaporates. And the attached hood gives protection from the burning rays of the sun. So a Medkari robe is actually quite a practical garment. It much better than what you are wearing for this environment."

Jemsen looked critically at his own expeditionary outfit which consisted of short trews which reached to mid-thigh and a sleeveless shirt slashed all the way at the sides, both made of dark green silk plus a pair of the same hobnailed sandals that the infantry wore. The sun really was hot in those latitudes, which was why the twins themselves wore their camouflage cloaks. No running around the Hot Lands skin-clad or even in just sarongs. The twins had learned that lesson years ago while crossing the Hot Lands on foot with Balandur and Randell on a mapping expedition.

The feast of thanksgiving the next day featured baked locusts dripped with honey or chewed with a tasty dip of avocado paste. Drew allowed that they weren't half bad really, so long as you closed your eyes when you popped one in your mouth and didn't dwell too much on what you had just swallowed. Raqqub had to settle for that.

Dayyub spoke for his people thanking their visitors for their help they gave in fighting the locusts.

"The timing of you visit, in our direst hour of need was nothing less than providential, and the help you gave us with your own powers and by aiding us to muster our own made all the difference. In this too as in so much else the Commonwealth of the Long River has acted as a good neighbor to the Medkari."

When it was his turn to speak Finn emphasized the importance the Commonwealth attached to having no problems on its borders. The settlement of the Hot Lands by the Medkari had ensured that a friendly people dwelled on its northern border, one linked by ties of alliance, trade, and communications. The trade route was flourishing. Servicing the caravans provided many Medkari with a livelihood.

Also the constabulary of the Commonwealth and the Medkari's own patrols against bandits and raiders worked well together, sometimes in joint operations. Both sides had the right of hot pursuit, so the territory of neither party would ever become a sanctuary for malefactors no matter what side of the border their crimes occurred.

Moreover the Commonwealth' postal service had only in the last year opened a regular route through the Hot Lands to the countries beyond, facilitating the trade from which so many benefited. The postal authorities were looking into upgrading carriage of the mail from camel to autogyro, a step which would require establishing a airbase somewhere in the Hot Lands.

Over the next two days, the Medkari told the explorers what they knew of the geography of the lands to the north. Beyond the Hot Lands lay a rainier region of tall grass prairie in the midst of which was the great salt lake, then well-watered lands of hills shading into mountains covered by dry tropical forest. The Medkari knew little of the coastal lands that lay north of a rugged dividing range.

The salt lake which Dayyub had mentioned was a landmark the Medkari had noted during their migration to the Hot Lands. A hundred miles north of the salt lake was a much larger body of freshwater lake. This was the region from which the Medkari had come. It was not their original homeland by any means but rather one of the areas they had settled over the centuries. Dayyub gave them a letter of introduction to the local authorities as well as a letter of introduction to Padraig the beast master whom Dylan would consult.

In time the Medkari would set a statue of a seagull atop a memorial to the day the gulls and the Corps of Discovery, and their own wizards and wind talkers had joined their fight to save the Mekdari settlements in the Hot Lands.

A few days later, after celebrations, the Corps of Discovery resumed its odyssey. But that is another story.

Author's Note

This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.

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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 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.