"What were you discussing last night with the Grey Elves' chief? You were in conference for a long time." In the darkness of Alflyse's house, Versang had removed his mask. Khaleen wondered why he looked so concerned.
"We talked about the future, and he gave me some advise. He says his people are willing to make an alliance with ours."
The surgeon nodded. "That was generous, but I can't see how it is useful. The Grey Elves are not warriors."
"I wasn't looking for warriors. We have enough for our own defense, as long as we're careful. What we need now are friends, and better yet, families."
Versang looked perplexed. "Families…?"
Khaleen nodded. "Vespalder's agreed to allow his people to marry into ours, if they can find husbands. The way things were going last night, I don't think they'll have any trouble."
"But… wives and children will slow us down – " He followed Khaleen as she started down the hall.
"Once we get settled it won't be an issue."
"You mean to settle us here?"
"Not here. I'm hoping to find some place out of the way, without a lot of light, maybe underground… This place is fine for Alflyse, but I don't think the men would be comfortable."
The surgeon considered this. "I suppose you're right. But I don't imagine comfort matters that much during a war, as long as the advantage is maintained."
Khaleen laughed. "Versang, that's what I'm getting at. We're done with the war, at least as much as it's our choice. We're settling down and coming clean."
Versang stopped dead, then ran to catch up to Khaleen. "But my queen, Asgard is still out there –"
"Asgard can drop dead."
"But would you not have a hand in making that happen?"
"No. I'd rather have a hand in the men surviving. There aren't enough of us left to keep fighting."
"You cannot accept defeat! You cannot deny the men their vengeance and their birthright!"
"Actually I can, and for the sake of our children's children, I just did."
"Is this the legacy of the House of Kitharn?" he demanded. "That a coward become the heir of Malekith the Accursed?"
Khaleen stopped and turned to stare at him. Versang's teeth were bared and his face was drawn. He started to speak again and she cut him off.
"Kir ar vörtne, Versang," she said. "I am your queen. I have made the decision."
Versang jerked like he'd been slapped. They stared at each other, neither speaking. Footsteps echoed in a side corridor and Algrim emerged. The surgeon glanced at him, turned on his heel, and left.
"What was that about?" Algrim asked.
"I have no idea." There wasn't time to dwell on Versang's strange behavior. She was due to meet with Alflyse and Vespalder. She turned and hurried the rest of the way down the hall.
They found Alflyse in the spacious room where they had first been entertained. Davitheen and Silas were there as well, and Vespalder, who was accompanied by another elf who looked enough like him that they must have been related.
"Where's Versang?" Davitheen asked as they entered. "He's late."
"He went back to the ship," Khaleen said, although she didn't really know that. "I don't think he'll be joining us today."
"That's a pity," Vespalder said. "He more than any would be interested in what we mean to show you."
"There is a vault on the other side of this valley," Alflyse added. "There we have stored what Vespalder brought here for safe-keeping."
"What did you bring?" Khaleen asked.
"Many things," the old chief smiled. "Things that we have built." He motioned to the other elf, who stepped forward and bowed. "This is my son, Anhevin. He is a maker and inventor; he has made many things, both from his own mind and from what we have found on our travels."
"There is a passage beneath the floor of the valley," said Alflyse. "We may go that way, out of the sun."
It was perhaps a two-mile walk, and the passage was unlit. Khaleen found her way in the dark easily, but she wondered about the Grey Elves. She found herself walking beside Anhevin, and decided to ask.
"It is all well," he said. "We can see nearly as well as your folk in the dark."
"Are you guys somehow related to us?"
"Some say so. But then, all elves are kin, going back to the beginning. And the mortal men, as well, or half-elves like you could not be."
"But you can see in the light just as well."
"Yes. We do not belong wholly to either the light or the dark. We are twilit people, keepers of the doors between worlds. We belong to the Dusk, as the Bright Elves belong to the Day and the Dark Elves belong to the Night."
"I guess belonging to the Dusk is better than straight up belonging to the Dark Side."
Anhevin glanced at her. "You speak of the Dark as though it is evil."
"Well, isn't it?"
"No. Darkness and Light have existed from the Beginning. Evil came later, when what was good became crooked."
"On Midgard, they talk about Night being the time when bad things come out."
"Perhaps that is because they who were guardians of the Night turned from their watch and allowed evil to flourish there. The same may happen when the people of the Day are not vigilant."
The thought stuck in Khaleen's mind and she slowed down. Algrim nearly walked into her.
"Ljääl!"
"Sorry!"
After a moment she spoke again. "So, what you're saying – we aren't the monsters in the dark, we were supposed to keep the monsters away."
"I think so. Although he who fails to oppose evil may himself become evil. But that was not your original purpose."
Khaleen began to slow down again. This time Anhevin put a hand on her shoulder to keep her going.
"It is like this," he explained. "The bat does not live its life by day; it flies in the night, in the darkness. The bird may not fly in the night; it lives its life by day. One is not better than the other; both do only what they were created to do. If the bat were lost, we would suffer as much as from the loss of the bird."
"And the Dark Elves, who can't live in the light…"
"You were not born to do so. You were created to fill the Night with life and warmth, that good things might be found there. Just as the Bright Elves were created to fill and make lovely the Day. We nearly lost you once, and all the universe has suffered for it."
For a long time neither spoke. The low sounds of Alflyse's and Vespalder's conversation drifted back to them. At last, Khaleen timidly spoke up.
"Do you think we could be that again?" They were nearly at the end of the tunnel. Anhevin didn't hesitate.
"Of course."
The tunnel opened and they stepped out. They were in a narrow, rocky valley, shielded from direct sunlight by its high walls. At the end, set into a cliff face, was a carved doorway like the entrance to Alflyse's house. Casting a last smile at Vespalder, the princess walked toward it with Anhevin, while the others followed at a slower pace. As they stepped over the threshold, Algrim surveyed the architecture and snorted.
"Asgardian!"
"Yes," said Alflyse. "I found it when I first came here. They seem to have built it during the Great War."
"What did they keep here?" Khaleen wondered.
"Nothing, it seems. Whatever they built it for, they never used it. I had to finish the rear-most portions myself." Alflyse laid a hand on the stone wall and whispered something, and pale lines ran from it across the wall and the floor, dimly illuminating the passage. It was wide enough for three of them to walk abreast, and doors opened off it onto small chambers. A hundred yards on, the passage opened up into a vaulted room big enough to land a Harrow in. Khaleen turned in a circle, her breath hanging in a cloud as she tried to take it all in. The floor was littered with draped piles the size of furniture. Anhevin went to one and picked up a delicate-looking sphere the size of a softball. He blew on it, and it began to glow faintly. By its light, he took hold of the large cloth covering the pile and pulled it off.
"What is it?" Khaleen wondered. The thing under the cloth reminded her of a large bug, with an elongated body and huge delicate-looking wings spread out in front. Halfway along the body there was a saddle-shaped structure that made Khaleen think that the thing was meant to be ridden.
"It is a flying machine," Anhevin explained. "Light powers it, sunlight or moonlight." He motioned to the wings. Khaleen stooped to look at them. Each one was made up of dozens of transparent panels that flashed iridescent in the dim light.
"Solar power?" Silas peered over his cousin's shoulder. "But if it can use moonlight, too – jeez, this is like the holy grail of solar power! Can you imagine?"
Anhevin smiled. Slowly, they made their way through the hall and down a corridor behind it, while Anhevin and Vespalder showed them the treasures stored there: data crystals full of notes and formulae; thin suits that could shield the wearer from the depths of space ("I got the idea from what was known of the Dark Elves, actually."); spheres full of growing plants that could purify water. One room seemed empty when they entered it; a low stone slab occupied the center of a labyrinth of thick copper lines. The hairs on the back of Khaleen's neck stood up.
"What is this?" she asked. Anhevin stepped to the door beside her.
"The design is my own, but the idea for this machine and its purpose were discovered in the ruins of an ancient world. It is a device for healing the sick and wounded."
"Right up Versang's alley," Silas observed. "Wish he could get a load of this. How's it work?"
"The one to be healed is placed there," he motioned to the slab, "and the controls are here." He pointed to the floor near the wall, where a series of translucent stone blocks stood out from the floor. "As for the theory – it's rather complicated, but suffice to say that the machine transfers the life energy of one being to another, giving it the strength needed to heal."
Davitheen, who had been examining the control blocks, jerked his hand back as if burned and muttered something about vampires, but Silas shook his head.
"It's like a blood donor, isn't it?" he asked. "It's something they do on Midgard. Doesn't have to take much to save a life."
"Has it ever been used?" Khaleen asked.
"Twice," Anhevin said. "We have been reluctant to let it become known. It can be abused, and even when used in good faith it can be dangerous. But here it will be safe. This place is under Alflyse's protection, and there are strong wards upon it."
The Grey Elves' treasures filled the storerooms halfway down the back corridor. Khaleen took a step inside the last one. Anhevin activated a projector and the room filled with a holographic star map. Algrim's jaw dropped when he saw it.
"It's nearly as good as the one in the War Palace in Harudheen," he breathed.
"It's not complete," Anhevin admitted. "I made the projector; my brothers have been compiling the rest, star by star."
"Have you been to all of these?"
"Most of them."
Algrim circled the map until he came to a particular star. "Harudheen," he said, tracking its progress with a hand. "In all the universe, there's nowhere like it."
Khaleen watched the hologram's slow rotation. "Nowhere like it," she echoed, but she was thinking. Billions of stars, millions of planets – and that was just what the Grey Elves had mapped. In all of this, there had to be a place for her people – if not exactly like Harudheen, then like it enough.
Kir ar vörtne: I am your queen.
Ljääl: Please; used here to mean "excuse me."
Pökke tifilevel: storehouse; literally "house of things."