Crystal Gorge

“It would make it easy to find the border, Athlan,” another young archer said, “even in the dark.”

“I like it!” Athlan said. “Let’s do it that way.”

The incursions of the Reindeer Tribes into the northern part of Deer Hunter country continued for the next few weeks, but Athlan’s “silent ambushes” and Zathal’s “stinking bodies” notion seemed to disturb the invaders more and more as time went by, and as autumn approached, the intrusions became fewer and fewer.

Then, on a cloudy morning, Kathlak came up from the village of Statha to speak with Athlan. “What are you doing, Athlan?” he demanded.

“Hunting, of course,” Athlan replied with feigned innocence. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

“I just received a complaint from the chief of one of the Reindeer Tribes about a foul smell coming up from our territory. He says that it’s making the people of his southern villages sick.”

“That was sort of what we had in mind, Kathlak,” Athlan replied. “The Reindeer Tribes have been attacking villages on our side of the border, so we came up with a way to make them stop.”

“Oh?” Kathlak said. “What’s that?”

Athlan shrugged. “We kill them and then drag the carcasses back up to the border and leave them there. If Dahlaine doesn’t like what I’m doing, tell him to order the Reindeer Hunters to stay on their own side of the line.”

Kathlak glanced around to make sure that they were alone. “Don’t change a thing, Athlan,” he said very quietly. “All I’m doing here is following Dahlaine’s orders. I’m supposed to reprimand you, so consider yourself reprimanded.”

“Did you want me to weep and wail and bang my head against a tree, or something?”

“I don’t think you need to go quite that far,” Kathlak replied. “Keep me advised about how things are going up here. If the Reindeer Tribes learn to stay where they belong, you probably won’t have to go any further, but if they keep on coming down here, we might have to take some more drastic steps.”

“I’ll let you know, My Chief,” Athlan promised.

The incursions of the Reindeer Tribes into Deer Hunter territory had more or less come to a halt by the end of the following week, so Athlan went on back to Statha to advise Kathlak that things were quiet again. “It took them a while to get the point, My Chief,” Athlan concluded as they spoke together in Kathlak’s lodge, “but when they realized that we’d kill every one of them who came across the line, and we wouldn’t make any noise, they decided to go find something else to do.”

“You’re very good at this sort of thing, Athlan,” Kathlak observed.

Athlan shrugged. “I’m a hunter, My Chief, and a good hunter’s quiet. You won’t take very many deer if you yell at them before you shoot your arrows.”

There was a sudden shattering crash just outside Chief Kathlak’s lodge.

“I wish he wouldn’t do that!” Kathlak growled.

“Who is it?” Athlan demanded, his ears still ringing.

“Dahlaine, of course. He roams around in the world on a thunderbolt. He says it’s fast, but the noise it makes irritates me for some reason. Let’s go see what he has to say.”

“Has he managed to get over his grouchies about what my people were doing to the Reindeer Hunters?” Athlan asked a bit apprehensively.

“We can ask him, if you’d like. Come along, Athlan.”

They went on out of Kathlak’s lodge, and Dahlaine was waiting nearby.

“How are things going in your brother’s Domain?” Kathlak asked.

“Even better than we’d hoped, Kathlak,” Dahlaine replied. “The war’s over down there, and the Vlagh doesn’t have nearly as many servants as she had when it started. There was another enemy involved as well, and now they’re gone, too.”

“Fire again?” Kathlak asked.

“No. This time it was water.” Dahlaine grinned broadly. “Things don’t seem to be going too well for the Vlagh this year, for some reason.”

“Which way do you think the Vlagh will strike next?” Kathlak asked.

“We don’t know for sure,” Dahlaine replied. “We’ve managed to block off the West and the South, so that leaves only two regions of the Land of Dhrall still open. My older sister’s positive that the Vlagh will attack her Domain next, but I think she might be wrong. We’ve all been hiring outlanders to help fight the Vlagh, though, so we can cover Aracia’s Domain and mine as well. There’s a sizeable fleet of Maag ships on the way up here, and they should arrive before very long. Have there been any sightings of the creatures of the Wasteland up here lately?”

“What are they?” Kathlak asked.

“That’s what the servants of the Vlagh are called, My Chief,” Athlan explained. “They’re very small, and they sneak around, watching what we do. Longbow told me that they’ve got poisonous fangs—sort of like some snakes, so you don’t want to get too close to them.”

“You know Longbow?” Dahlaine asked with some surprise.

“We met a few years ago,” Athlan replied. “He came up here to find out if the creatures of the Wasteland were snooping around up here like they were down in Zelana country. He comes by every so often, and we usually go hunting. He’s awfully good with his bow, isn’t he?”

“He’s the best,” Dahlaine said. “He’s coming up here with the Maags, so you’ll be able to renew your acquaintance.” Then Dahlaine squinted at Athlan. “You’re the one who’s been murdering the members of the Reindeer Tribes, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘murder,’ Dahlaine,” Kathlak stepped in. “The Reindeer Hunters are coming down here into our country to rob and kill members of my tribe. Athlan gathered up some archers to hold them off—and he did a very good job. I approve of almost everything he did. Piling dead Reindeer Hunters on the border and leaving them to rot might have been a little extreme, but it got the point across. The Reindeer Hunters stopped attacking our people at that point, and that was the whole idea. If you want to scold somebody, you can scold me.”

Dahlaine frowned. “I wasn’t aware of what was happening up here,” he admitted. “I think I’ll have a word or two with that Reindeer chief. He didn’t tell me what was really going on up here. All he said was that those rotting bodies were making life unpleasant for his people.”