Nothing like a new book from C.P. and a couple of favorite alerts to put someone back on track...
Eragon and Bid'Daum only had two close encounters with random elf camps. And only one of those encounters had anything to do with the Queen. All in all, considering what they were doing, they did not meet very many elves. Although they did make regular weekly visits to Eliana, most of the time they flew around looking for dragons or any other signs of battle.
Eragon tried to keep his spirits up by assuming that since they couldn't find any signs of battle, that none was happening. Maybe the elves had figured out that they couldn't win. Maybe the dragons had gone into permanent hiding. He wouldn't allow himself to believe it, but he told himself that maybe his venture had been completed by someone else, and the fighting had stopped entirely. Not that what he was telling himself was logical, likely, or conceivable, but it was better than assuming that the majority of each species had died on one battlefield.
For a while Eliana knew no more than they. The elves in the camp were supposed to have been participants of the great battle Eragon and Bid'Daum had missed, but by a stroke of poor luck they had gotten into a mess with werecats, delaying their arrival to the battle so that they arrived too late to do anything other than mourn.
Eliana had struggled, when she first left Eragon and Bid'Daum, to find an elvish encampment that didn't have an officer that would recognize her in it. Eragon's words from their first few nights of major criminal activity came back to remind her they were technically outlaws, and needed to act as such. Not suspiciously, God no, she needed information, but she needed to act so no one asked her questions, she wanted to be the one asking them. She had stopped by a few towns at the beginning of her quest, but all she had found out was that nobody knew anything in the towns except that the only reliable sources of information were to be found on the fighting fronts and that her father was fighting again. The fighting fronts were commonly referred to as "Campaign Camps," and no one really had any hope that the campaign was going well.
It was quite accidentally that she ran into a troop of rookies on their way to join a major battle that was entitled the "Do or Die" with a high possibility of "Die" being the unfortunate conclusion. Eliana had camped with them only long enough to discover the locations of the other Campaign Camps, who was leading them, and what their objectives were. And that was when she had gone running off to find Eragon and Bid'Daum, hopefully before it was too late.
But it had been too late, and it was a lucky guess that this encampment, let alone the Queen's troops had seemingly missed the "Do or Die" mission. Eliana had been welcomed warmly, seen by the soldiers as a survivor of the battle. She had never bothered to disrupt this rumor as dangerous as it could be should they discover otherwise, primarily because she needed information. Anything – but they knew as little as she, and as much as Eragon.
Which was absolutely nothing other than the Queen was alive. Somewhere.
Eragon at least knew where her camp had been before he and Bid'Daum had accidentally swooped in on them. Apparently she also had all of the magicians with her, because it was an invisible camp. According to the bewildered description Eragon and Bid'Daum had given her, anyways.
She smiled thinking about it. Eragon and Bid'Daum, no matter how much "daddying" Eragon had done, were more like brothers than friends or anything else. And she, much to her dismay, found herself mothering the two far more than she had ever anticipated or desired. It was a dull throb – at least she knew of their existence, a better position than any in the encampment or even the Queen herself – but a painful one. Because truth be told, no matter how much she tried to stop it and control it before it could take a hold, she wanted nothing else but to quit. Go into hiding. Save the elves through the fact that nobody knew of Eragon and Bid'Daums existence. Run her hands through that sandy-blonde hair and -
She missed Eragon more than she would ever admit. But that was a trivial fact she logically forced into submissive hiding somewhere deep on the inside.
Such was the contemplative state Vido, the camp's scout, found her in.
"Eliana-elda!" he called, bending over and panting. "Come quick! I have important news from the Queen!"
Eliana's attention was quickly subdued, and she hopped out of her tree to join the scout.
"How goes the battle?" she asked Vido quietly.
"I'll tell you and Commander Knaeol in the Commanders quarters," Vido gasped. He was limping too, though Eliana could see no wound. She watched him carefully as he hobbled vigorously through the trees.
"Slow down, soldier," she grunted, putting a hand on his shoulder. Vido stopped, shocked. "You're going to hurt yourself. Unless time is of the essence, which, if you won't tell me the business that is clearly not the case, you don't need to push yourself this hard." She almost surprised herself – not a year ago she too had been an over-eager rookie.
Mothering those two vagabonds, she told herself decidedly. That's why I've become so...
"Very well," Vido said with a grin. "I suppose it would be best if I don't die of exhaustion before telling you are Commander Knaeol."
"Dying is not very high on our list of priorities," Eliana muttered sternly. "And neither is suspecting our own deaths, no matter how imminent they may be."
Vido chuckled. "I suppose that's why you made it out, eh?"
"Out of wh—oh. That." Eliana bit her tongue before responding. "I suppose."
Vido was looking much better, even in the two minutes it had taken him to slow down. His breathing was even now, and his limp was much less pronounced. Eliana glanced at the Sun's position in the sky. Eragon will be waiting before too long. Their meeting point was a location close to the encampment – too close for Eliana's liking, but Eragon had insisted, "in case something happens while you're gone." An unlikely possibility that had to be considered.
By the time they reached Knaeol's tent even Vido's limp was almost unnoticeable, though Eliana made a mental note to have him get it checked after he had given the news.
Finally, she thought, there can be a discussion with some actual fact in it instead of pure speculation. The lack of knowledge had been a great hamper to the few moments she had with Eragon and Bid'Daum, due to the fact that they were over-eager to find something. Just like rookies. I suppose they are rookies at what they're doing. Although Eragon had been a scout at one point in time – surely he knew something about finding out things –
"Vido! Good to see you back!" Knaeol's grumpy expression melted into a grin at the sight of his finest scout, and he sat back from a plethora of maps on his desk. "What's the story?"
"Good news, Commander. We're called into battle!" Vido and Knaeol's eyes flashed with excitement. They'd made it out of the werecat business none-the-wiser as far as what battle actually looked like. Eliana frowned at their elatedness.
"Where and when, Vido?" she asked.
"We're to meet the Queen at the nearest bend in the river by tomorrow. She's quite close by now, you know." Eliana caught her breath.
"Exactly how quite close?" she asked.
"She's maybe an hour north of us. I told her all about you, Eliana. She was very interested in your story, come to mention it." Vido cocked his head in deliberation. "I didn't notice it at the time, but she seemed to come alive when I mentioned you, actually..."
Of course she did, Eliana grimaced inwardly.
"She even asked me to greet you for her," Vido said, eyebrows popping as the memory returned to him. "Were you a commander at one time, Eliana?"
"A very long time ago," Eliana said, a memory of Hero, first class popping into her mind. A very large part of her hoped she wouldn't have to go with Eragon to explain his very bizarre plan to the Queen. Another very large part of her hoped she wouldn't come upon any of her regiment. And a very small part of her hoped with all she had that her father had somehow survived.
"Aha." Vido's eyebrows showed surprise, but Knaeol only smirked. "I suspected as much. Your natural leadership qualities couldn't have gotten past the drafters. And your spunk and – "
That was when the tent caved in.
Shrieks and shouts sounded from every direction, but for all of the commotion she could hear, Eliana could only see the brownish fabric of the tent. A crushing weight slammed itself upon her ribcage, and a thunderous roar filled her ears along with the snapping sound of her ribs.
Dragons! she thought, struggling to breathe. Eragon!
She's never been this late before. Eragon grunted, pacing back and forth between the tree Bid'Daum was in and the tree he usually sat in.
Relax. Maybe she's found something out. Maybe she got distracted. Bid'Daum. Always acting with a logical ease that Eragon had somehow forgotten a long time ago.
Yeah, yeah, maybe you're right. Eragon stopped and clambered back into his tree. He hadn't reached the fourth branch before he leaped back into his pacing. But what if you're wrong?
Seriously, I've never seen you so agitated, Bid'Daum chuckled, a half-cough-half-roar echoing through the trees. I'm sure she's fine.
Should we go make sure? I could go. Just to make sure.
She is late, Bid'Daum conceded. But that happens to everyone.
But this is late, Eragon glared at Bid'Daum and looked towards the camp. I'd just walk in the trees and see if I couldn't at least sense her. You know? Make sure she's there and not finding something out somewhere else. You know?
That took you a while, Bid'Daum clucked. You should be able to sense her from here, you know?
Eragon stopped mid-pace and exclaimed, "Brilliant!" so loudly that all of the birds in the area took flight.
Oops.
Smooth moves, hotshot, Bid'Daum covered his face with a wing. I can't believe I stick with you.
The echoes of a roar rumbled through the clearing with less clarity than Bid'Daum's chuckle, and this time both Eragon and Bid'Daum shot a glance at the camp.
Hold on, he told Bid'Daum, plunging himself outwards, searching for Eliana's telltale signature -
Eragon!
Eliana! We're on our way, what's going on? Eragon nodded to Bid'Daum, who leaped down. With a clean vault into his seat, Eragon grabbed a spike tightly as Bid'Daum took off, flying low.
We're under attack, I guess. Eragon noted with much concern a sharp pain Eliana was trying to block out from their contact. I'm stuck in the Commander's tent. I think – nevermindjusthurry!
Bid'Daum let out a huge, tree-shaking roar and barreled into a black dragon that was trampling tents.
Get off and stop the elves from attacking, Bid'Daum growled to Eragon before cutting off all contact.
Right. Just like we'd planned... Eragon leaped off and rolled, swallowing as he took in the scene in front of him. He had no idea which tent was the commander's – but his duty, as painful as it was, was to stop the elves from fighting. Bid'Daum could hopefully do the same for the dragons -
"Hey, don't!" Eragon bellowed at a group of archers. "Dodge, don't attack!"
"Are you mad!" the archers obeyed, but were clearly not planning on doing so for long.
"Cut it out!" Eragon shouted. "If you don't attack them, they won't attack you!" He ran over to them and helped them dodge a burst of flame. Bid'Daum dove from the sky and overpowered the green dragon, sending it fluttering over towards where the black dragon and several other lizards were sitting, a very safe distance from the elves. "STOP!" he screamed at the other elves that had rallied behind him. "Wait. Calm down."
Eragon had not, not even in his wildest dreams, expected that a bunch of elves under attack would even hear him. But now, he had a regiment's worth of elves quietly waiting behind him, hands only lightly gripping their weapons.
Bid'Daum? He asked.
Start explaining your propaganda. I'm just about to begin. Bid'Daum paused. And I honestly didn't expect them to listen, but they are for now, so let's go.
Eragon whirled on his heel and took a long look at the soldiers in front of him. I have to make it quick; who knows how many are trapped in the tents...
"Look. We all know the war's not going well. If it continues like this, neither we nor the dragons will survive." Eragon shushed an exclamation with a motion of his hand. "I know we don't really care about them so much, but they're in the same situation as us. The only way for us to survive is if they do. We have to come to terms now, before it's too late."
The dragons have agreed to a temporary stop in the fighting here. They don't believe that the elves won't fire, Bid'Daum informed Eragon.
"You probably don't think dragons would ever spare us if they had the chance." Eragon paused. "You're wrong. If you don't believe me, just watch."
Ready? Eragon asked Bid'Daum. His white eyes sparkled dangerously.
Been ready ever since I hatched, you silly little elf.