The Last Satyr: The Company is Formed Part 1

For now, the boy was left with Leradien, the last one anyone liked but him.

“You expected him to believe us?” Leradien confronted him. “He’s an elf and, therefore, an idiot. It’s why I voted to leave him.”

“So why then did you save him?”

“We had unfinished business between us,” she reminded him. “You may recall we were discussing the terms of my aid. We were interrupted. I carried out my part, trusting you to carry out yours. Was I wrong about that?”

“No. You saved my life and Ronthiel’s. I owe you.”

“You owe me nothing. I told you I would protect you from drow and which I did. As for Ronthiel, he owes you for his life, and not me. I’d have left him.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Only because I wanted something from you for it,” she said. “I am, after all, half-drow.”

“What do you want for it?”

“Will you still give it to me?”

“If it’s fair,” the boy agreed. She'd saved Ronthiel and him both. He owed her twice over. And she could have captured him but didn't.

“Fair?” she asked. “I’m a drow. I’m never fair. But you know what I want. I want you to live with me as my payment. But, since you never agreed to my terms, I suppose I can’t hold you to it now.”

The boy considered that.

“I would have agreed,” he admitted.

“I know you would have. That’s why I thought of it.”

The boy pondered his plight but came up with a solution.

“I know what’s fair,” he said. “Because you saved Ronthiel, I get to see him again. Therefore, it’s only fair that you get to see me again, too. So I’ll give you my word never to desert you and always be your friend. That’s fair, isn’t?”

“I don’t have any say in this, do I?”

“But it’s fair, isn’t it?”

She studied him through her ruby red eyes.

“It’s fair,” she agreed. “But you may live to regret that promise.”

“No, Leradien. I never will.”

There was an uncomfortable pause between them. Leradien finally broke the silence. “So, are you happy that you don’t have to marry me?”

“Well! If I was to marry anybody, you know it would be you.”

“Then you shouldn’t be thinking about some other Light Elf girl.”

“She’s not a friend like you,” he told her. “You’re the best friend I have.”

“Except for Ronthiel,” she reminded him.

“But he’s a boy,” he answered back. “That’s different.”

“I suppose it is,” Leradien agreed. “I don’t have to be jealous of him. Still, it’s humiliating that the most beautiful girl in Durham Forest should have to beg a satyr, who could probably fall in love with a passing porcupine, to live with her. I have my pride!”

“I know you do,” he said.

“How so?” she asked.

“You always keep your promises not to catch me.”

“I suppose I do. I guess it’s because I’m only half-drow,” she mused. “But I’ve always thought about it.”

“I know you have, but you never do it. That’s why you’re such a good friend, because I know I can trust you.”

“You trust others too much,” she reminded him.

“Good or bad, I trust you, and I like you just the way you are.”

“Okay! Enough,” she said, “Before I change my mind about not capturing you!”

But the boy knew she would not capture him. Still, he granted her wish and changed subjects. “Leradien, what do you reckon will come of this?”

“Come of what?”

“Of Olga eating that elf?”

“I imagine she’ll get fatter.”

“No. I mean, what will the elves do when they find out?”

“How are they going to find out?”

“We can tell them.”

“What do you mean, ‘we’? Why would I tell an elf anything? And what do I care about what Olga eats? It’s not my business. I just took you out there for some fun and excitement.”

“Well! The excitement I got!”

“You’re not really thinking about telling the elves what you saw, are you?” Leradien's eyes narrowed in immediate opposition. “Because you never know how elves will respond. They won’t believe a satyr and they certainly won’t believe a drider. Why, they might even think I robbed that crypt! Suppose they decide that? You know how they figure everything two different ways and then always pick the one you and I wouldn’t! They already forbid you to be around me and, if they find a way to enforce that, how can you keep your promise to me?”

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about that.”

“That’s because you’re a boy and therefore totally stupid!”

“Then I guess we don’t say anything to anyone?”

“I won’t, but you already have. You told Ronthiel, remember?”

The boy considered that. “I saved his life. He owes me not to tell.”

“He doesn’t know you saved him,” she reminded him. “He doesn’t believe you.”

“So what do I do?” he asked.

“What you do best,” she replied. “Lie. Besides, you have bigger problems than just what you tell others happened tonight.”

“What other problems do I have?”

“You have drow problems. Those four recognized you. They didn’t send that displacer beast to kill me. They sent it to kill you.”

“Me?” the boy responded in alarm. “Why do you say that? Maybe they just wanted to complete Ronthiel’s sacrifice?”

“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe you have drow enemies. When Graybeard gave that knife, it was to kill drow. He must have told you something?”

The boy thought about that. “Yes. He did. Everyone thinks the drow are responsible for the disappearance of the satyrs.”

“They probably are.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’ve been up Gold Creek enough. There’s no evidence the satyrs were ever there. Only drow could do that and not leave any evidence.”

“That’s what Graybeard said, too. He thinks they’ll come for me next.”

“So that’s why he gave you that knife and why the displacer beast hunts you? In that case, you are in some serious trouble.”

“So what about you?” he wanted to know. “Can you stop them?”

“Stop the drow?”

“Yes.”

“Not if they have a displacer beast,” she said. “You’re going to have to allow me fairy blood if you want me to catch it.”

Now that was a scary thought. Fairy blood doesn’t just cause a drider to grow bigger. It also makes them grow hungrier and they just can’t be filled or get enough fairy blood afterward. There’s no satisfying them, and Leradien, like all driders, already had a terrible thirst for it.

“No. That won’t work,” he said.

“Then you’ll have to live here with me. That’s the only way I can protect you. Only if you stay, you stay. You don’t get to ever leave again.”

Had she figured out how to make him stay with her without capturing him?