The Last Satyr: The Two Paths Part 2

The boy wanted to run in alarm. If there was anything he didn’t want to meet, it was anything having that monster, Lolth, for a mother.

“Fear not,” Kreel assured the boy. “Eilistraee was born to Lolth before Lolth became a demon monster. Her father is Azazel.”

“The Dark Maiden,” said Graybeard knowingly.

If that name was supposed to assure the boy, it failed. That was hardly a nice sounding name and the boy shivered even more.

“You need not fear her name.” Graybeard noted, seeing the boy’s reaction. “The Light Elves call her that for the color of her skin and not for her nature. Unlike her mother, she enjoys doing good things.”

“How is that possible if Lolth is her mother?”

“Because Azazel is her father. Lolth once seduced Azazel,” answered Graybeard. “She was really quite beautiful before Azazel cast her into the Abyss to make her a keeper of demons. Thus, Eilistraee need not share her mother’s current love of chaos and cruelty, though she has a drow’s appearance.”

Kreel nodded in total agreement and offered to explain further to the boy. “You would like her,” he said of Eilistraee. “She is greatly angered by the evil of most drow, but is also glad that some of us have worked our way free of the spider queen’s web. Eilistraee is also quite beautiful, just like your drider here, and appears as an unclad, glossy-skinned drow woman of great height with ankle-length, sweeping hair of glowing silver.”

The boy inhaled, absorbing the other’s description as an artist would capture his painting.

Leradien, of course, took affront at the comparison. Oh! She accepted being called beautiful easily enough. What she didn’t accept was that any elf or drow could possibly be as beautiful as her. That was a just cause alone for Leradien to hunt her down and kill her, or so Leradien liked to claim, for she had never actually carried out any of her threats. Kreel, however, failed to notice her instant jealousy.

But the satyr boy was not dwelling on Leradien. Hadn’t Kreel just said Eilistraee was “unclad”? The boy’s ears perked up to hear more that his imagination might paint in some of the more important details.

But Graybeard was watching him so he reluctantly forced his attention back to the task and drow at hand. “Which side is she on?”

“Which side is she on?” repeated Kreel in surprise. “Why her own side, of course! She takes no one’s side since no one is on her side.”

The boy could agree to that.

“Does she have an army?” he asked.

Kreel shook his head.

“Not in Moon City,” he said. “Her only army is here, for I am the sword maker of her Black Dragons.”

“Black Dragons?!” gasped the wide-eyed boy. “Are there such things down here? And do they have wings and breathe fire?”

“We have dragons if you mean lizards,” replied Kreel. “But the Black Dragons I describe are actually the name given to a secret society of drow women here willing to fight for Eilistraee.”

Again, his interest rose. They needed an army to free the satyrs!

“Are these Black Dragons a large army?” the boy asked hopefully.

“Unfortunately, no,” answered Kreel with a shake of his head. “But as their sword maker, I have given them adamantine blades so keen they can cut through other drow armor. They are a very small army but second to none.”

“Then I think the boy would like to borrow them,” interceded Graybeard. “If you would but lend them to us?”

Actually, the boy was thinking he needed a bigger army.

“The Black Dragons take no orders from the Light Elves or from you as their keeper.”

“I have given no orders.” Graybeard reminded him. “I ask only to borrow them on behalf of the boy and not of my own request.”

“If that is the case, then I shall answer the boy,” said Kreel, turning to the satyr. “The Black Dragons can be borrowed but only for a price.”

“And what is that price?” the boy asked warily.

“To reach Moon City,” replied Kreel. “That we might join our goddess keeper there.”

The boy looked at both in wonder. Where was Moon City?

Yet Graybeard nodded back his consent to accept.

“That can be arranged,” said Graybeard when the boy didn’t answer.

Moon City? Where was Moon City? It had better not be on the moon. That would be a lot stairs. Yet Kreel worded no such concerns.

“In that case, I suggest a meeting,” said the drow, “between you and the leader of the Black Dragons.”

“Can you do that?” asked the boy, for drow women ignored the suggestions of their men.

“Of course!” said Kreel. “It would be my delight and my ambition. If you can get us to Moon City, we shall all gladly fight for you.”

Right. Hopefully, Moon City was on the way to Ched Nasad. Hadn't Ronthiel mentioned it?

“We actually head for Ched Nasad,” stated Graybeard.

So, no. It wasn’t on the way to Ched Nasad. Maybe on the way back?

Kreel showed no surprise in that as he nodded in agreement.

“Yes. That is where Vhaeraun took the satyrs.”

“By Vhaeraun?” asked the surprised keeper. “I know he has them, but didn’t Lolth capture them?”

“No,” replied Kreel. “Her son, Vhaeraun, took them. There was a period known as the Silence of Lolth when none heard from her. So he dared organize an alliance of rebellion against her. He reached all the way to her Demon Pits but failed to kill her. During the resultant War of the Spider Queen, his own drow army of Jaezred Chaulssin destroyed the city of Ched Nasad. He took the satyrs as slaves to rebuild it as his own.”

The boy’s head was starting to hurt. This sounded like “grownup business” to him. He might be in favor of it if they were fishing now with a pipe and a pint of mead. Otherwise, no.

Kreel set aside his goblet and went on as Graybeard keenly listened.

“Long have we Black Dragons wondered what to do about Vhaeraun. He is at least better than his mother, for he believes the Light and Dark Elves can live together in peace, as we do, He also does not hold that drow men are to be slaves, just as we do, and he opposes Lolth, the same as we do. So when he organized his rebellion, we seriously considered joining him. But our keeper goddess forbids it and so we obeyed her, for he only temporarily accepts the race but not the dwarves, gnomes, and satyrs.”

Sounded to the boy like he and this Vhaeraun fellow should be on opposite sides, him opposed to satyrs. That only made sense if his mother is Lolth but yet he too opposed Lolth. His head hurt again.

“Why does Vhaeraun dislike satyrs?” asked the boy.

“Vhaeraun intends to retake the surface world. For that, he needs land and a year of peace for his followers to let their eyes become accustomed to sunlight. To do both, he captured the western slopes of the Mithril Mountains belonging to the satyrs as that blocks the morning sun. Then he took them back here as slaves to his Under World to rebuild Ched Nasad. But he has yet to move to the surface for, while his followers can dwell upon the land of the satyrs by night, by day they must retreat underground into the mountain, the land of the dwarves. To do that, he can have no enemies inside the mountain like the dwarves. He must get rid of the dwarves too.”

“So that is why he captured the satyrs and makes war upon we dwarves,” surmised Marroh. “How does he do it so sneakily? And why does Lolth not stop him?”

Kreel freely answered.

“The drow of Jaezred Chaulssin are an army of assassins. They proved well suited for sneakily capturing the satyrs in but a single night. As for why Lolth allows it, the only explanation is that it serves her purpose.”

“You said he is in temporary acceptance of the race of men,” noted Amien warily. “What did you mean by that?”

“The Men of the Rim attacked his Jaezred Chaulssin returning from capturing the satyrs and took their captured horses. The slaughter of his drow was great. Vhaeraun has not forgotten that.”

“And what of his dislike for gnomes?” asked young Joe. “What’s bad about a gnome?”

“They repair the damage done by men,” said Kreel. “Since we drow conquer nature, rather than be conquered by it, his drow have no need for meddling gnomes repairing the damage surface drow do in conquering the land. Or so, at least, I suspect.”

“What has stopped him from already doing this?” inquired the boy.

“The dwarves for a start,” said Kreel. “They are not so easily sneaked up upon by his Jaezred Chaulssin who fight by stealth and not by might, whereas the dwarves openly fight by might and crush them with their hammer blows. His drow army of assassins cannot defeat them.”

Kreel went on to further explain. “So, he has instead raised an army of man-orcs to defeat the dwarves. He practices the black breeding arts of Lolth. Being half-human, they can stand the light of day, though they hate it. They can clear the Mithril Mountains not only of the dwarves above ground but also those below. It is the wish of our goddess that he be stopped, and that those drow who wish to return to the surface do so by peaceful means.”

Kreel now made his own decision.

“Come! It is not safe for you to stay here. Already the city guards may be on their way by royal errand to bring you before the leading house of Abboth and I doubt they shall approve of your plans as they worship Lolth here.” He led them to the door. “There is a secret meeting place for the Black Dragons. I shall raise my signal flag to summon them and take you to it.”

Soon, Kreel led them down several dark city lanes, using his fairy lights to guide them to an empty steeder barn. There, he gave a loud whistle. Another distant whistle echoed back in reply and then another and still one more.

Immediately, there appeared three drow women to surround them, all armed and illuminated by Kreel’s fairy lights. Kreel spoke to the middle one.

“Greetings, Shinayne,” he hailed her. “How is the house of Yothlow?”

Shinayne was of long limbs and hair, standing nearly as tall as Amien with polished emerald eyes.

“We do well. Who are these you bring with you?”

“Surface dwellers,” answered Kreel. “They wish to bargain with the Black Dragons for their services.”

“Bargain?” said the woman, addressing their company, her eyes as penetrating as cut jewels. “We of the house of Yothlow are mercenaries, but the price of our swords does not come cheap. What killing do you want to be done and what price are you willing to pay?”