Ten minutes later Howie returned with two sets of clothes. AJ had stopped the rain, so what they put on wouldn’t get just as wet as the other pair was. It amused him that Howie still looked embarrassed when he handed over their clothes. Enjoying watching his friend flush, AJ put a hand on his arm as he took the clothes, forcing him to stay looking at him. “What’s the worst problem we’ve got going on? The one that needs my specific attention the quickest.”
Howie deliberately looked over AJ’s shoulder as he answered the question, avoiding looking at either AJ or Brian as they pulled on their breeches. “Probably the centaurs and the dwarves. That’s a political sinkhole that none of us have been able to do a damn thing with.”
“It’s true.” Flreu echoed from where he sat on the edge of the tower top. “I even tried to step in, but they do not recognize my authority over them as people, only over what they may do inside of my land. That does not stop them from fighting down on the ocean shore, where my domain does not have sway.”
In the middle of lacing his breeches AJ froze, looking curiously at them. “First off, all this area is your domain, my King.” He said slowly, looking at Flreu with his eyebrows furrowed. “They are here to help, yes, as allies. But still, they are guests in your home and should respect the laws as such. To not is a great dishonor to the dwarves. What on earth happened that could make them consider it worth the risk to chance dishonoring themselves in your eyes?”
Here Howie threw up his hands, looking disgusted. He had lost his embarrassed look now that AJ and Brian both had pants on, but it was replaced by frustration. “Who knows? How on earth you deal with them, Alyck, I have no idea. They drive me insane! I’ve been trying to find a way to mediate between the two, but it’s impossible! All I’ve been able to get so far is that the centaurs insulted one of the dwarves. But there has to be more to it. There’s no way an insult could be enough to start this big of a feud between them!”
This time it was Brian who froze in the act of pulling on his tunic. “What was the insult?” he asked them. His tunic slowly slid into place, the red of it highlighting his blond hair even more. AJ noticed that Brian had got his hair trimmed yet again. His mouth curved a little as he looked his lover over from head to toe.
Brian already had on soft leather boots that came almost to his knees and were as red as the light from a sunset. Up, over those, to the leggings that Brian wore in lieu of breeches that were an almost reddish orange color. His tunic, which hung loosely below his waist, was just a shade brighter than his boots. Over that he belted on a simple leather belt, colored to match his leggings. It should have looked flamboyant. But AJ found himself having to control the hunger that rose in him. Brian sensed it, and sent his own appreciation along the bond as he looked over at AJ, who was still dressed in simple breeches laced at the waist.
If Howie noticed their staring, he didn’t pay any attention to it. AJ had the feeling that Howie wasn’t noticing much. He was practically radiating his annoyance. “I could never quite catch what it was that was so insulting. They’d get to yelling and I’d lose the whole conversation.”
Flreu stepped down, smiling when he saw AJ look at and then discard the tunic that Howie had brought him. He picked up AJ’s two baldrics and helped his grandson put them on as he spoke. “I managed to get little more out of them. What I did, catch, though, mentioned something about a certain word. This word was repeated over and over. I am not fluent in dwarvish, so I do not know its meaning, or quite how to say it properly. It was hgr…”
AJ went totally still as shock filled him. “Hgrrlt?” he asked. His grandfather finished adjusting the straps and AJ turned to stare at him, wide eyed.
“Yes, I believe that is what it was. This is a bad?”
A groan slid past AJ’s lips. Boy, when they brought him a problem, they really brought him a problem! He felt a small stirring of temper. This was something that he had thought he’d worked through long before this. Hell, he’d worked his hind end off to get these two to live in peace just a few hundred years ago! Now they were back to this again? “To call a dwarf a hgrrlt is one of the worst insults you can ever use. To call them that means that you think they have no strength, no honor. That they’re nothing more than worthless dogs, with rocks for brains. You imply they are no man at all. To a people who strive to be the bravest, the most honorable, the strongest…”
“Yes, I can see the insult that would be there for them. They have such pride in them it is amazing.”
“Wow. A man goes to sleep for just a little while and everything goes to hell in a hand basket.” AJ grumbled to himself as he checked his blades, making sure they were clear. Brian’s hand on his arm stopped him, as did the sympathy in his lover’s eyes. “Song of my heart, you were asleep for five days. The healer said you’d burned yourself raw from the inside out, and that you had almost no reserves left.”
“Well, hell.” He looked around at them all. “How much shit is waiting for me to wade through?”
Howie had the decency to look sheepish, but Flreu simply grinned and folded his arms. “Such is the life of a King.” He told his grandson. It took everything AJ had to resist the urge to stick his tongue out at Flreu. But he sucked it up and did the adult thing. Calm and cool, he told himself. “Ok, so…dwarves and centaurs first. Then apparently all the other races are starting to bicker with one another. Then, oh yes, we mustn’t forget, new attacks and defenses to plan. The barrier will need reworking. Basically we’re starting from scratch. As if it’s not enough that we have to rework all of this, we have to have race wars?” Ok, so maybe not as calm as he’d thought.
Well, temper was understandable. He’d only been out a few days, and somehow every single problem that could crop up, had. Didn’t any of these idiots realize that there were more important things to worry about than their pride? Hell, they’d just found out that Roth was coming early! He grumbled and moved toward the trapdoor.
With him leading the way, their procession made its way down from the tower, and down to the main part of the castle. Some made as if to run up to AJ, but his serious face had them rethinking it. He made his way through the courtyard and out the front entrance. Once outside, his annoyance level only grew. Everywhere he looked he could see different races held off in little ‘groups’. There was no mingling between any of them except for the dragons. The dragons were everywhere, and spoke with whomever they wished.
Were they freaking kidding him? Did they really think they had time for something so foolish as racial disputes? Apparently Brian was thinking the same thing. He stood beside AJ, one hand on the pommel of his sword, glaring around the open area. ‘I had no idea they were fighting this badly or I would have come down and knocked some sense into their heads.’ Brian’s annoyed mind voice filled AJ’s head.
‘Do they think we have time for this? The whole world has the potential to end in death and darkness in just a short time, and they waste the little time we have to plan fighting amongst themselves’
‘They’re not only wasting our time, but potentially dooming us. Something has got to be done about this. Just because you were out for a few days doesn’t give them the right to just go to pieces!’
AJ grunted, looking around as people slowly began to realize that he was standing there. ‘We need to get everyone’s attention, and then I’m going to set each and every one of them straight. These stupid idiots!’ he cursed.
On the same wavelength, Brian glared harder. Suddenly he dropped his hands to either side of him, closed his eyes, and focused. AJ realized what he was doing and calmly stood there, waiting. After a second, Brian raised his hands up. As they came up, so did the ground that the two of them stood on. Just a small section, rising like a tower six feet into the air. He stopped it there and calmly brought his hands back down, one going to rest on his sword hilt again.
Every person and creature there was staring at them now. AJ looked at them all as they gathered close, and he let his angry seep into him. It helped his voice to carry as he started to speak.
“You are a group of fools.” He announced to them. Ignoring the protests that started to rise, he continued on. “We have just discovered that there was a spy among us who gave all of our information to Roth. A spy who told everything, straight down to the small details. All of our attack plans, all of our defenses, betrayed to the one we would use them against. Yet, instead of working together to find a way to plan around this, you are bickering amongst one another!”
Everything was silent. The only other sound was the waves crashing into the shore, and the breeze coming through the trees.
“We have limited time to completely overhaul our offensive and defensive plans. If we continue to bicker between ourselves than we lose this war ere we begin. By fighting this way, we are allowing him to win without him ever having to pick up a sword. Our time should be spent working together to ensure the survival of all of our races. If Roth wins, not a one of us will be exempt from his torture. We will all die. What can be more important than stopping that?”
A figure stepped forward from the group of centaurs. Their leader, Allan, who AJ had met before. His black coat was sleek and shining in sun, matching the darkly tanned skin and black hair that he wore loose and to his shoulders “We have sought to work together, trulion, but there are some insults that cannot go unheeded! As people, as free beings, we have the right to live by our laws. Laws that have been set down from the beginning of our cultures. Yet we have been forbidden from punishing the one who has done this transgression to our people!”
“Silence!” AJ shouted, glaring at him. “How dare you think to bring your authority to me, as I must bow to what you say? How dare you so greatly disrespect King Flreu, to whom you are a guest in his lands? I have heard how he has been treated. His advice and judgment pushed away as if it counts for nothing here. You are all guests in his home, and such, you obey his laws. His decrees. But beyond that, you obey mine. I demand that this interracial fighting come to an end. You gain nothing by doing this, and chance losing everything!”
Allan raised a hand in defiance. “I demand our right to live as we choose! That is just what we are fighting for, is it not? Or do you seek to suppress us as this dark mage would? We fight to be free of this from him as we will fight to be free of it from you if you so press it!”
Before AJ could react to the insult, Brian was leaping off their platform to land nimbly on his feet before Allan. His sword had already cleared its sheath and was held tightly in his fist as he braced his body in a defensive posture. “Think you that you’ll challenge us, Allan of the centaurs? Think you that you can fight us?”
The centaur snorted and pawed the ground. “Magic or no magic, we will not tolerate being mere slaves for any being. Most especially a two legs.”
AJ fed a small thought to Brian, reading his lover’s determination in this and agreeing with it. Catching the thought, Brian let his grin spread. “Do you speak for your entire herd, Allan of the centaurs? Is it all of you who feel this way? All of you that would betray the trulion, and would threaten him?”
As if they were one, the entire herd stepped back, away from Allan. He glanced behind him in shock, his front legs pawing at the ground again. His tail swished. Brian’s grin grew sharper. “You are alone, Allan. Your herd has left you alone in your ignorance and defiance. Do you still seek to question the one who is your leader?”
“I question not him, but our rights to live as we choose!” Allan quickly interjected. His hands clenched into fists. “I have the right to call forth the dwarf that insulted me, and battle with him so that the Gods might witness which of us is right and which is wrong! I have that right!”
Taking a step forward, Brian practically vibrated with magic and anger. “You will have your challenge.” He snarled out. Everyone around them, everyone but AJ, gasped at this news. AJ knew what Brian was doing, and knew that, in this, he had to stay silent and allow it to play out. Brian was not being Brian Littrell, he was being baka to the trulion. This was his role, and his right.
Allan looked smug for a split second. Brian’s next words wiped that smugness away. “But it will be against me, not the dwarf, that you fight.”
He danced backwards, his hoofs stamping into the ground. “A battle for justice before the Gods must be between the accused and the accuser! That is the way.”
“The trulion is of all races and none. Beside him, his baka is of all races and none. We are a part of each race that is on this earth. I am warrior to the trulion, and through him, to all races. This is not a battle over a simple insult. This is a battle against one who would seek to subvert all that we are trying to do. Against one who would destroy an ally simply over pride. In this, I will be a warrior, a baka. You will have your challenge.”
Looking around him, Brian straightened looked up to AJ. Taking the unspoken sign, AJ looked back over everyone, raising a hand. “So shall it be!” He called out, cementing the fight. “You each have ten minutes to prepare. To arm and armor yourselves. As an impartial party, I ask you, Tripha, to act as judge, that all might see the fight is favored on neither side. So shall it be done!”