He followed Evals into a squalid looking inn. Evals talked congenially to the owner and soon had them a room. The owner kept glancing at him. Each time a frown creased his brow, but he said nothing.

Evals led them to their room. "You go on to bed, Cosis. We will rest tonight and tomorrow. This will be our last contact with civilization. I’m going to take care of the horses and then go to the tavern to see what information I can scare up.

Cosis sat on the lumpy mattress. It felt wonderful. He pulled his boots off his swollen feet and sighed. "Good hunting," he said as he flopped back on the bed groaning as each ache called for attention.

Evals glanced back as he left the room. Cosis was already snoring. He gently shut the door and glided down the stairs. As he passed the kitchen, the innkeeper hailed him.

"Evals!"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing traveling with an elf?" the rotund man asked.

"An elf?! No, he’s a priest. I have been ordered to protect him while he takes care of some priestly function."

"Take my word for it, he’s an elf. I can tell by his eyes."

"Cordan, when have you ever seen an elf?" Evals asked jokingly. "Surely your inn isn’t so famous as to attract visitors from that far away."

"I haven’t always been an innkeeper, young man," Cordan said indignantly. "I once ran traps all of the way to Crystal Lake. It was in the mountains that I saw the elves. They weren’t any different from us except their eyes. Their eyes all had a curious slant. It was something I could never forget, and your priest’s eyes are the same."

Evals frowned. Cosis did have queer eyes. "Perhaps we should talk after I stable the horses," Evals said. He knew Cordan was well respected throughout these parts, and it wasn’t just because he was willing to extend credit. He had trapped and ventured farther afield than any trapper during his time or after. At least, he had gone farther and returned.

Evals returned to the inn and found Cordan sitting in the small dining hall at a corner table with a large pitcher of mead on it. Strange, Evals thought, Cordan Never drinks that I know of. He seated himself opposite the innkeeper.

"Now what does an old innkeeper know about elves?" he asked as he filled his mug.

Cordan refilled his mug and settled deeper into the wooden stool that groaned under his bulk as he shifted his weight. He stared into the amber liquid. "It was some thirty years ago when I was in my prime that I saw my first and only elves." He took another long drink then stared Evals. "I have never told anyone this tale." He stared down at his nearly empty mug and laughed mirthlessly. "Indeed, I have tried my best to forget it, but it has burnt itself so deeply into my heart I haven’t been able to. " He drained his mug and the pitcher. Wordlessly he ambled to the kitchen. Evals thought the conversation was suddenly over, but as he started to get up Cordan returned with two more pitchers. He sat them on the table and after downing half of one began again, his eyes glassy from the alcohol and memory.

"As I said, I was in my prime and thought nothing in life could harm me. I was trapping near Crystal Lake, and I was staying so close to the lake that at night I had to bind my ears so the night songs of the Sirens from the forest beyond wouldn’t lure me to my death."

He took another long drink. "Ah, Evals, if ever there was a song that could rip a man’s heart asunder, it was theirs. Even though they were across the lake, which is leagues across at the least, and over the Crystal Mountains, their song had such force that without binding my ears I could never have hoped to withstand its strength.

"Each night the song was the same except for the night when I met the elves. On that night, their song was terrifying. It reached into my soul and dragged out every horror that had ever buried itself there. My bindings couldn’t help. Their song wrenched at me until I began wailing. I cried like some poor child frightened from a deep sleep by his most terrible nightmare.

"I screamed and clawed at myself for how long I don’t know. The next thing I remember is being sung to by a soothing voice and having my head stroked tenderly. I opened my eyes and found my head in the lap of a beautiful girl. She smiled gently at me, and that smile warmed my very soul. It put to rest the fears the Sirens had awakened.

"Weak though I was, I forced myself to sit. I instantly saw she was pregnant and very nearly ready to have the child. What really held my attention were her eyes. They were beautiful, the color of a doe’s, but they also had a peculiar upward slant to them. The same slant your companion’s eyes have.

"As though reading my thoughts, she said, ‘I’m an elf.’

"‘A look at your eyes can tell him that,’ a man’s voice said from behind me. I turned and saw him squatted near my fire, which had been rekindled. He wasn’t an elf but a man. Where she looked kind and gentle, he looked rough and haggard except when he looked at her. Then his entire face softened, but his eyes couldn’t hide the many sleepless nights they had spent.

"Before I could say anything, the man jumped to his feet. I was amazed at his size. He would have been several inches taller than even you. ‘They’re coming,’ he said looking to the west. He and the young elf woman were gone into the night.

"I sat there stunned. Everything had happened so fast. Still, my trapper’s ear listened for them, and I was amazed at how quietly they departed. When they were lost in the night’s sounds, I turned my attention to the west. For several minutes I heard nothing. Then I heard only faint rustlings, and they didn’t really seem out of place. Still, I armed myself and prepared for whatever might come.

"I built up the fire and hid in the brush just out of its light. To my surprise, ten heavily armed elves appeared. They had the same eyes as the girl who saved me. They searched the camp and would have left without finking me had I not stepped out to challenge them hoping to give the pair a chance to get farther away.

"Rather than fight, they slipped back into the forest and were gone before I could even throw a curse at them. I spent the rest of the night with my fire blazing, jumping at every sound.

"Dawn wasn’t far away, and just as the sun broke over the horizon I thought I heard the sound of metal clanging against metal. My courage returned with the light, and I followed the trail of the two.

"At first it was difficult, but it became easier because the ten elves had soon picked it up and had done nothing to cover their trail. It was late afternoon when I finally reached the end of the trail." Cordan swallowed the last dregs of the second pitcher. He gently laid the mug down and put his head on his crossed arms. For several minutes sobs racked his chest.

Evals sat quietly, hiding his amazement and his curiosity as best he could. What could have touched Cordan so powerfully? Surely he had seen everything.

Cordan pushed himself off the table and wiped the tears from his face. "I found two of the elf warriors under dead falls. Three of the others were on the slope of a steep hill with arrows in them. The other five were around the man and the elven girl dead from sword and dagger wounds. The man was dead also. Next to him, barely alive, was the girl. She was bloody not only from several wounds, but also from birthing her child.

"As I began to bind her wounds she smiled sadly at me and whispered, ‘Winnowlas.’" He shook his groggy head. "I...I must have looked puzzled because she said it again. ‘Winnowlas.’ She then died in my arms. When she died, something deep within me wrenched so hard that I wept like I had never wept before.

"I buried the man and her side by side under a tree on that hillside. Those damned elves I left for carrion." He stood shakily. "That was the last trail I ever followed. When I returned here, I bought this inn."

He began to stagger off. "What about the baby?" Evals asked.

Cordan turned around and shrugged, tears streaming from his eyes. "I don’t know. I never found any sign of it, and I spent over a week looking so I could bury it with its mother."

Evals watched silently as the innkeeper staggered off. His mind reeled. Cosis was an elf. Not only that, but he had been leading the Gray Riders and Scouts to certain death if what Cordan said was true about the Sirens’ song. Evals grimaced. He had begun to like the gutsy little priest, but it wasn’t going to prevent him from getting to the truth, and that was something he knew he could do.

Cosis felt a cool breeze and tried to snuggle deeper into the covers of his bed. He couldn’t move his arms, and his legs refused to obey him. He struggled harder and felt something bite into his wrists and ankles. He awoke scared and tried to see what was hurting him. He couldn’t move his head. Frantic, he struggled wildly but to no avail. He could only move his eyes. Looking straight ahead, he saw the cobweb covered ceiling. Rolling his eye to his left, he saw the wall next to his bed. Rolling them to the right, he saw Evals sitting next to a candle with a small knife in his hand.

"What’s going on?" he demanded.

"That’s what I plant to find out, elf," Evals replied. He hated interrogations, but he was one of the best when the situation called for it. He already knew from the surprised look on Cosis’s face that Cordan was right.

"What are you talking about?" Cosis asked too quickly, trying to hide the fear already creeping into his spine. How could Evals know?

"You know what I am talking about elf. I can see that in your eyes. What I want to know is why you are trying to return to your people after hiding among men all your life?" He held the candle over Cosis’s face and dripped several drops of hot wax onto the priest’s cheek. Cosis grimaced as the pain stung him. "The cheek really doesn’t have much feeling it, you know. Not nearly as much as the eye. Perhaps if I let just one drop hit your eye, you will talk. Then you can go back only half blinded." He dribbled some wax on Cosis’s other cheek. "Then again, I should put a drop in each eye so you can no longer spy on us.

"I suppose I should cut out your tongue so you can’t tell what you have learned about us. And I should cut off each of your fingers so you can’t write what you have learned. Then again, pain itself has a way of making a man forget. I bet it would do the same to an elf." He pressed the tip of the knife he had been heating over the candle onto Cosis’s chest. Hair and skin sizzled.

The priest screamed, but a pillow cut it off. The pillow stayed over his face until Cosis thought he was going to suffocate. He ripped at his bonds hysterically. Just as the world began to shrink away, the pillow was lifted from his face. He gasped air greedily.

Evals sat back. "Now we know where we stand. You know I can do with you as I please. You also know I know you are an elf. There’s no use trying to hide it.

"What I need to know is why you were leading the Gray Riders and many Scouts to their deaths by the Sirens’ song. I would suggest you tell me the truth because if you don’t I will make what just happened to you seem your life’s most pleasant experience."

Cosis tried to fight down the panic welling up in him. It wasn’t only the panic of what might happen to him. It was the fear of knowing if he didn’t say everything just right, his life’s work would be in ruins, and Kilaal’s’ Sword would again be back in the lands of man where it would be of no use to elf or man.

He tried to think of a thousand lies, but none of them would convince Evals, of that he was certain. His only hope was the truth. The problem with the truth was that it, too, would sound like a lie. He could tell Evals they were returning Kilaal’s Sword, but the Scout had touched it and nothing had happened to him. Still, it was his only hope.

"You are right, I am an elf. What I am doing is trying to get Kilaal’s Sword back to its rightful owners so it might aid both men and elves in the near future because they are going to need it desperately."

Evals laughed. "How can Kilaal’s Sword help man. It is used to kill him." Inside he felt a thrill. He had actually seen and held Kilaal’s Sword. The thrill overwhelmed the realization that he should be dead.

"Kilaal’s Sword was misused in the Elven Wars. Its purpose wasn’t understood then, and Kilaal was able to misguide the elves with his bravado and charisma."

"If its purpose isn’t to kill people, then what is it."

"I don’t know. What I do know is it was given to the elves, not man, by the gods. Just because the elves misused it once doesn’t mean the gods want the elves deprive of it. All of their gifts have a purpose. For us to find it will require the Sword’s return to my people. We have our own priests who will be able to do that now since Kilaal won’t be enthralling everyone.

"I’ll tell you this, too. While Daxlan and Larthan didn’t know I am an elf, they did know my mission, and they agreed it was the best course to take. They could see what is happening in the West isn’t just the result of Pychnie and Mandogo expansion, and they weren’t too proud to see man needs help."

Evals sighed. Strange things were happening in his land, and they were happening faster and faster. A dark cloud was descending over the land, and he had no idea what to do about it. He and Daxlan had discussed it many times, and his adopted father had been at a loss, too.

"Did you tell them they were doomed if they got close to the Sirens’ Forest? Did you tell them the Sirens’ song wasn’t just a legend, that it was fact?" he asked irritably as a feeling of helplessness crept into his soul.

Cosis said nothing. Evals had him. Even the truth would incriminate him. He tried to think of something, anything. He froze when he felt the knife pressing against his throat.

"Well?" Evals asked.

Cosis felt a warm trickle run down his neck as the knife bit through his skin. "No," he whispered as tears spilled from his eyes. His life’s work was going to end here in this lice infested bed in this ugly tavern among these barbarians who would still have Kilaal’s Sword which would mean the end of both their races.

The pressure on the knife eased. "Why not?" Evals asked. His voice sounded softer, less cruel. A spark of hope jumped into Cosis’s heart.

"I couldn’t think of a way to tell them without having them end the mission. I had tried to get the elves to agree to a different meeting place, but they would have none of it. They have remained isolated from man since the War and refused to break that isolation, not if they had to agree to my demands for Kilaal’s Sword’s return."

"What were those?"

"Only I can use it until we learn what its true purpose is. I know it isn’t to be used against man." He relaxed a little. The tension seemed to be subsiding.

"No one would have died in Sirens’ Forest," he added. "Long before we reached it, every man would have felt the touch of the song. I had planned to sneak away during the night when everyone was enthralled. I was going to leave an explanation about the song adding that Lythael protected me from it. You will have to leave me when you feel the song. By that time, I will be able to find my way."

Cosis froze when he felt the knife pressing against his throat again and saw Evals staring down at him. "Cosis, I am going to believe you because the way things are right now, I don’t think I have a choice. But I swear this to you, if I learn you have used me as your fool, the gods won’t be able to protect you from my wrath." He cut the priest free and said, "Get your clothes on. We’re leaving the village this morning."

Cosis sighed as he watched Evals’s back disappear through the doorway. He laughed at himself when he started tot put on his clothes but could barely manage because he was shaking so badly. Evals indeed was no man to be trifled with.