Page 75 of Tristan
Not going to argue with that. I duck out the door. Besides, I’m thinking on what he’s given away because he considers me a pathetic human, incapable of intelligence. Andothair wants more warriors and just because I’m not Warlord anymore, it doesn’t mean I’ve stoppedthinking like a Warlord. I know the only reason for more warriors is war. It won’t take me three guesses to count on that war being with Mortouge. I remember what Diekin said about the Rogue Elves once being of Mortouge and that they were banished long ago.
I decide to seek Andothair.
On my way, I drop the load of washing in the washing queue.
“Hold my place, will you Mary?” I blink at her prettily.
All the Elves are pretty, and I usually forget that amongst them I’m a troll. I was admired by both men and women in Markaytia.
She pretends not to be pleased. “I’m tired of doing favors for you, Tristan, but all right.”
Mary is a human, like me, but she speaks fluent Elvish, unlike me (I’m getting there) but I can understand her now. “Thank you. I’ll owe you for this,” I say in my best Elvish.
I rush off to Dagenham’s Hall. It is a good place to find Andothair before dinner. I tell the guard Andothair is expecting me, which he is not, but I’ve no consequences to worry about. He lets me in. Andothair is with his father.
The two brothers resemble their father, but Bayaden has a rougher edge to him unlike Andothair, who is more like King Caer Gai that way.
“Warlord? To what do we owe this intrusion?”
“You’re planning to attack Mortouge.”
“How good of you to notice.”
“You can’t do that—you’ll start a war.”
“Don’t be stupid. Wewantto start a war, otherwise, why attack?”
“Why?”
“If you knew anything about Elven history, you would know—why don’t you go study or something? Quit coming in here to bother us with trivial matters.”
“Don’t you think I’ve enough to do with running around after your brother? And I wouldn’t call war a trivial matter. I can’t let you do this.”
The king laughs at me. “And how will you stop us? You are human.”
“You both underestimate me.” Corrik had too, they all forget I have a dragon running ‘round in my blood.
They both laugh at me now. “Run along and play, Tristan,”the king says. King Caer Gai doesn’t seem to like or hate me. It’s as though he thinks me his son’s cute little puppy that is a mere nuisance at times and a fun source of entertainment at others.
“Fine.” I’m not going to get through to these two and I’ve got the confirmation I wanted. “May I visit with, Diekin?”
“Want to make sure we have not killed your friend?”
Something like that. “You can’t be trusted.”
“Very, well. You may take him his supper. Now be gone. We have work to do,” Andothair says.
Perfect.
After I see to the Prince’s laundry and thank Mary for holding my place in line, I’m off to the kitchens. I know they don’t feed him well, to keep him weak. Since I’m gathering food for the prince as well, I take liberty and steal some of the prince’s heartier food and place it onto Diekin’s tray as well as a bowl of stew. It means the prince will get less, but I don’t care.
“Food for the prisoner,” I say by way of announcing myself. The guards would have me grovel at their feet; it angers them to no end when I don’t. I stalk by them, and one reaches out to grab my arm and pull me to him, my tray almost crashes to the ground but I’m able to recover my balance.
“Well look what we have here,” he says in a smooth voice. In my first days in Aldrien, they didn’t know I was Bayaden’s manservant, nor did they care. Even when I made it clear where I was from, some would refuse to speak to me in my home language on principle—like Bayaden.
When Bayaden finally gave me his collar to wear, with his crest on it, they sometimes paid me the “honor” of speaking to me in myhome language. More often, they’d tease me in their own, but I showed them and picked up quite a lot of their language. Unfortunately, and fortunately, their dialect is much easier to learn than Mortouge’s—the Elvish language I would’ve liked to have mastered—so now much of my accent is that way. I’ve been here far too long.
“Leave me be or I’ll tell Andothair of this.” The guards fear Andothair. I’ve long since stopped allowing my pride to interfere and use this excuse to keep them off my back. Protecting my pride only gets me beaten, it’s not worth it—usually—though there have been a couple times that were.
