Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:SEARCHERS
Renn scratches his chin. "Could be an interesting addition to my titles," he tells Roald. "Captain of the Guard. Hero of the North. Backstabber of Demonic Ruminants." But I'm not eager to hunt the beast--I'd rather be prepared should it hunt us.
He turns to Sir Edgemore. "You spoke of your late liege, the Lady of Silverhill? I'd like to know more of her, if it please you."
The robber knight says,
"The lady Aithne ruled the town of Silverhill in the province of Dhalaese
. She owned rich mines there and thick stands of timber. She was kind, fair, just. We all loved her.
Her kinsmen wanted her to marry again, but she held off for the best match.
I began in her service as a common soldier and rose to knighthood. My duty was to guard the miners and woodcutters from monsters and brigands of the mountains. Me and the men - a few are still with me- beat back all foes. All but the last . "
He sighs.
" I've told that much. I might as well tell the rest, so you don't believe any lying tales you might have heard of me.
Carados, the son of a coastal lord, came to Silverhill with fine gifts and words of friendship. He wooed our lady and won her heart. They married in the late autumn. "
Egremore fingers the haft so his great axe.
" One night early in winter, deep snow, someone opened the gate. The gnolls came in, killed the watchmen, and fired the palisade. After that it was bloody hell. I ordered some of my men to get the women and children to safety while I led a picked band to the hold, to fetch out our lady. But Carados was there, pulling a ring from her dead hand. I went for him, but he had a helper I had missed. A hairy goblin, one of the big sneaky kind. Bashed me. My helmet saved my life. When I came to in the forest, the survivors told me how Carados had escaped in the fighting, vanishing in a cloud of smoke like a devil. "
The knight sips his beer before continuing.
" I ordered the men to take the people to the nearest lord's manor and seek help or service there. And then I went looking for Carados. It took a year, but I found him in the capital. I cut off his head. And then it happened... The beard vanished, his eyes turned from blue to green, and the ears grew pointed. He was never a true man at all, but an elfin changeling! I...used some help...to learn more about him. I know he came from the Tower of Thorns."
He sets down his empty mug.
" But I committed some crimes in my hunt. So I can't return home."
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)