Xenn said, “Birney, the Drolls who killed my father and Narce are dead. They met terrible fates.”
Birney quizzically looked at Xenn and asked, “I thought you had little memory of the events surrounding Mikkal’s death. What have you recalled?”
Xenn looked about. The brace of Drelves were alone in the tree. Birney had sent the other Rangers to Alms Glen to tallow their participation in the festivities. The guard who accompanied Xenn waited at the base of the tree and Seeing his father’s best friend’s grief outweighed the Cloudmare’s request for anonymity. Xenn said, “I was doomed. My father and Narce lay dead. My puny spells did little more than infuriate the Drolls. They restrained me and made ready to carry me to my end. Then a river spirit fell upon them. A Dark Horse. The creature defeated and devoured the Drolls. Later a misty mare joined us. The Cloudmare carried me to Alms Glen with my father’s body. She spoke telepathically and swore me to secrecy. I don’t know why. I’ll ask the same of you. I just felt you had to know.”
Birney marveled, “The stuff of legend! Drolls fear the water. The Annals of Drelvedom tell of such creatures. They fought with our forebears against the greatest Kiennite General Saligia. What you’ve told me makes the Drolls’ retreating make sense. These creatures robbed me of my chance to exact revenge against the Droll that killed Mikkal, but there are many more Drolls. A fortress sits in the Gap in the Peaks of Division. The fortress teems with the wolf-faced killers and their Kiennish allies. I’m ready to risk the wrath of the Council of Alms Glen to go the Gap and slay Drolls.”
Xenn said, “You’d be following the path of the Lost Spellweaver Yannuvia.”
Birney made a little smirk and wryly said, “As do you, my young Fire Wizard.”
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