The Last Satyr: The Company is Formed Part 1

“Are you a wise king or a hot-headed one?” demanded Graybeard. “A moment ago, you accused me of taking you for a fool. If you don’t give us the six horses we already have, then you are the fool! What would a wise king do? What will you eventually have to do?”

“If I give you the six horses, you will have made fools of my guards and a fool of me!”

“And if you don’t give them?”

Grendel fell silent and took his chair in resignation.

“Tell me the real reason for your coming and I will give you the six horses,” he said.

“We ride to free the satyrs.”

“To free the satyrs?” the king gasped in stunned amazement. “Why they are either dead or slaves by now! Either way, they are leagues underground. You’ll never reach them!”

“Not with an army—no,” Graybeard agreed. “But as a small company, we can go in, not to conquer, but to steal them back.”

“Why rescue the satyrs? You are not their keeper.”

“I rescue them to create an alliance against the drow,” Graybeard’s voice held a firm edge as he retorted, his eyes narrowing as he met Grendel’s gaze, “not of elves and men, for they shall not fight together, but, instead, of men and satyrs.”

“You think the satyrs would ally with us?”

“Why not?” asked Graybeard. “They fought the Second War against the drow. They hate the drow as much as you—more so now if they are slaves.”

The king’s brows furrowed as he fell into deep thought, his gaze fixed on the table before him.

“The satyrs,” he mused thoughtfully. “I suppose it is possible they might fight for us, especially if they want their freedom.”

“It is the one thing Lolth does not expect,” Graybeard stated. “She knows that the Light Elves will not ally with men. And she knows you will not come to the Light Elves aid unless it is to your advantage. She can attack either one of you first, and then the other in turn, without fear of your combining forces. Lolth will defeat and enslave you both, one at a time.”

“We humans just might surprise her,” said the king knowingly. “We might just attack her flank by surprise just as the elves are about to be defeated.”

“Which is why she must attack you first.”

This caught King Grendel by surprise. He looked startled. “What do you mean?”

“If she attacks you first, the elves will not come to your aid, just as they did not come to your aid before and just as they did not come to the satyrs’ aid. So long as Lolth does not attack the elves, they will not attack her. I have tried to change their minds on this and I cannot. The elves will let you humans be killed off, and she knows it. Therefore, it reasons she will attack you first and the elves second.” Graybeard explained. “Otherwise, she risks attack by you on her flank exactly as you say.”

“If she attacks us first, we will give her a much better battle the second time around,” Grendel insisted. “And we did not lose the first! Now that we have horses, we shall be just that much harder to defeat. Lolth would be foolish to attack us first and too soon.”

“Yes. She would be, but when is too soon?” asked Graybeard. “Because as soon as the dwarves are defeated by her; you’re next.”

“And what would you have me do?” retorted Grendel, “Attack her first? That will not work. We cannot go underground after her. We are as blind as the Light Elves in the dark. We can no more go underground after them than the Elves. It’s why the drow went underground in the first place! They knew none but the dwarves would go in after them.”

The boy watched them argue in fascination. Who would win?

“And now the dwarves fight for their very existence, a sign the drow have grown strong,” said Graybeard. “Once the dwarves are gone, Lolth’s underground cities will be safe from all attack. Then she can go on the attack herself. The drow are breeders, King Grendel. They’ll mate two of anything just to see what they’ll get. They’ll even breed things with demons. And they’re planning to breed an army that can stand the light of day.”

Grendel stood up at that, pointing at his men.

“Guards!” he commanded. “All of you! Leave this room! I shall speak to this keeper and his company alone.”

The rank and file of the humans filed out and left.

“I must watch my words in front of my people,” Grendel said to the old keeper after they left, “for I cannot put fear in them. But we have long placed spies over the drow as well as guards over their entrances, so I know what you tell me is true. Only it is worse than you say. The army you described; the one you said that can withstand sunlight - It has already been raised through the arts of Morgoth. There is a half man-half orc that sees less well in the dark but can stand the light of day that now serves Lolth. And there are types of half-drow, bred of demons who might also be able to stand the light of the sun. We have seen these things and more. There is a terrible evil within the Mithril Mountains and it is growing. Forgive me, but I thought you had come with false pretenses of an alliance with the elves. That happened once, but it has never happened since, nor will it ever happen again. So I received you with a closed mind."

Graybeard nodded his understanding.

“But the satyrs—that is a possibility I had not considered.” The king sighed in sad remembrance. “We had a chance to save them once ourselves but didn’t take it. We took their horses and left the satyrs behind. That may sound cruel and inhuman, but at the time we were thinking only of ourselves. We knew the satyrs had fought Lolth’s armies well on horseback and knew she would attack us someday again. So we wanted the horses for ourselves, horses the drow would only use as steeder feed if we did not rescue them."

"You were correct to do so," Graybeard replied. "I do not judge ill of you for it."

“At the time, for us to save the horses was to save ourselves from being next. That is why we always maintain a watch and guard over the drow, so they cannot sneak up on us as they did the satyrs. But if the satyrs could be freed for the price of six horses; then that is a price I would gladly pay. Yet I fear that even you, who have outlived my life a thousand times over, know too little about the enemy. Six horses are not enough. The enemy’s power, like a shadow stretching across the land, grows with each passing day, a looming darkness that threatens to consume all in its path.”

“But six horses will get us there,” said Graybeard. “And I must start somewhere.”

“You plan to travel past the drow’s watch bats by day using fast horses, correct?”

“That was our plan.”

“It can be done. It’s dangerous, but it’s possible,” Grendel conceded. “What cannot be done is for you to go underground. For the drow guard all the entrances in. For you, the way in is shut.”

“But what about your own spies?” asked Graybeard. “They must have gotten in.”

“We have sent in many but, each year, fewer come back. The strength and power of the enemy grows while our ways in and out grow fewer. None of our last spies returned. So, you see now why I think you will fail.”

Yet the old keeper just shook his head. “I must still try,” he said and turned away.

“Wait!” said King Grendel. “There is still one way in.”