Telli and Setisia stood on a rocky outcrop looking down thousands of feet to the floor of the Khrelling valley. It was the summer of the year following their adventures in Kellmarsh, but they were dressed in furs against the cold of the high mountain plateau. The pair, both now fifteen years old, had grown in stature and knowledge over the previous nine months, now appearing as the young adults they had actually been for some time. Sabhytt stood a few feet behind them, looking down over their heads. He was now paid by the King as their bodyguard and was also their closest friend.

"You see the camp." Telli pointed to the circle of the wall far below, with its patchwork of fields and orchards, and the tiny squares of the cottages grouped between the river and the cliff behind. They could just make out the dark hole in the cliff that was the entrance to the Khrelling caves. Telli looked over to another rock, just a few yards away, where Prince Balleoch was standing. Married to the Princess Lephelia three months before, the northerner was chief captain of the King's forces on this expedition. He looked back at his youthful guide.

"Do you think we can reach the walls by tomorrow evening?"

"Yes, your majesty. It's a steep climb down, but I can go ahead with a few men without burdens, and we can mark out the easiest route. We should be able to get five hundred men onto the valley floor by the afternoon, and then we can march straight across it. All the men must be wary of the giant lizards once we are on the low ground. But I doubt that the Khrelling will attack us in daylight. It is not to their advantage to do so."

Telli had been chief guide to the army for twelve days now, ever since the advance guard had left Larisroot. The King's men were strung out across the mountains behind them. They had established camps on ten peaks on the way across, with fifty men guarding each one. There was now a supply route from the Kingdom to the Khrelling valley. An advance guard of five hundred was arriving behind the lookout points where Telli and Balleoch stood with their advisors and guards.

Setisia was one of these advisors, appointed and paid by the King, who had by now developed great respect for her judgement. Her conspiracy had been broken, with the King's forces arriving in Chirtis in time to prevent the planned take over of the town. A number of arrests had been made, including that of the King's cousin, the pretender to the throne, and that of the Lord of Chirtis. In Kellmarsh, the fat merchant brothers and a number of their co-conspirators were secure in the Duke's prisons, as was Grenwald, serving a shorter sentence than the others because he had confessed to all he knew.

But the order of Hathur had not been completely broken. It had thousands of followers in the area of Chirtis, and many of them had retreated to their Temple, deep in the forest, and were prepared to defend it with their lives. The red-robed priests were no longer allowed to spread their creed, however, and could not appear openly anywhere in the Kingdom. Ganith, the priest Setisia had overheard conspiring with Grenwald in Bhuin, had not been caught. She was disappointed in this, as her instincts told her that he was the most dangerous of enemies.

Setisia was not the only woman in this expedition to the Khrelling valley. Astell had also crossed the mountains, along with Azgar, both to be amongst the advisors to Balleoch in the coming negotiations with the Khrelling. The two Meldrith came up now, looking remarkably fresh after the difficult mountain crossing. Telli and Setisia now knew that they were both older than they appeared, each being nearer sixty than fifty and therefore by some way the oldest members of the expedition. Sabhytt made way for them so they could see down to the slave camp.

"We shall be able to start negotiations tomorrow night, do you think?" Astell could not disguise her eagerness to make contact with the strange creatures, the only known species with an intelligence similar to their own.

"I hope so," said Telli. "The sooner the better, so that they realise we have come to talk, rather than fight. The worst thing for all would be if they were to attack us before we get the chance to communicate with the slaves who can translate our intentions to them."

The men of the advance guard were laden with gifts for the Khrelling at Telli's insistence. These were mainly tools and weapons of a workmanship far superior to anything the slaves could make in the forge, and were intended to convince the cave creatures that it would be far better for them to trade with the King than to attempt to keep those slaves. It had been hard to persuade some of the more war-like captains that gifts should be given to creatures holding their own people captive, and the two Meldrith had been his greatest allies, apart from Setisia, in arguing for this course.

Balleoch and his advisors discussed the strategy they would follow the next day while the advance guard put up their tents and prepared for the watchful night ahead.

Late the next afternoon, Balleoch was approaching the walls of the slave compound, surrounded by his Treochim bodyguard and his councillors. It had been a long day for them, starting at first light when they had begun their descent into the deep, green valley. The beauty and fertility of this hidden paradise impressed all. They had made no attempts to conceal their presence, wishing to approach the Khrelling and to establish contact with them as quickly as possible. The wall ahead was lined with the creatures, robed and hooded in protection from the sun, their weapons glinting in its light. Telli, walking beside Balleoch, was relieved to see some men on the wall with them.

"Either they have thought of the need for translators, or they wish to show that they hold hostages," he said to the Prince. "Shall I call out now?" The Prince halted and held up his arm in a signal for the others to stop. Most of the advance guard had halted several hundred yards behind, and the group approaching the wall numbered only about fifty. They wished to show clearly that they were not intending an attack on the Khrelling.

"Yes, call out as we arranged," said Balleoch. Telli cupped his hands round his mouth.

"Men, tell your masters that we come in peace, with gifts, and wish to talk with them at length," he shouted, as slowly and clearly as he could. He thought he could recognise one of the men on the wall as a foreman whom he knew to be a speaker of the Khrelling tongue. After a tense period lasting several minutes, it was this man who called back.

"Come nearer, some of you, without arms, so we may talk." Telli consulted with Balleoch, and then laid down his bow and hunting knife and walked towards the wall. Azgar, unarmed, followed him. When they stood about twenty paces from the wall, the man called out again from above.

"The masters wish to know what you would talk with them about." Telli, wondering whether he had been recognised, launched into a longer speech.

"We bring them gifts to show our goodwill and good intentions. We know about the keeping of slaves, and the Great King across the mountains wishes it to end. In place, he will provide your masters with weapons and tools of a superior quality to those they have; also, with workers who can help in the mines. He wishes to start a system of exchange, which can benefit both the Khrelling and the people of the Kingdom. Can you explain this to your masters?" This time there was a much longer wait for an answer.

"The masters will have to speak with their chiefs. What are the gifts your King has sent?" Expecting this question, Telli made a gesture behind him, and several men came forward with bundles wrapped in cloth. They laid them out on the ground, showing gleaming examples of newly made tools and weapons, all of the best quality, and all being things that Telli knew were valued by the Khrelling. There were picks, shovels, knives, swords and axes. Telli called up to the walls, saying that these were just a small sample, and that the Khrelling could take them now and keep them, whatever agreements were made. He waited for the translation to be made.

"We shall send down guards to pick them up. If you go back to your friends now and wait, we shall call when your message has been understood by the chiefs."

Telli and Azgar returned to report to Balleoch. As they reached him, a rope ladder was dropped from the wall, and several Khrelling guards clambered down to collect the King's gifts. Telli explained to Balleoch that all had gone well so far. He noticed that all others in the party were staring at the Khrelling, and remembered how strange he had found them the year before. They must now wait until the creatures' rulers had heard their basic proposition.

It was nearly an hour later when a call came from the wall. Telli and Azgar approached it again, and negotiations started. Telli soon guessed that the Khrelling chiefs themselves were on the wall. To his great relief, they seemed to have understood the nature of his proposals. An important question he had been expecting was soon asked.

"If the King over the mountains is to provide the masters with tools, what will he ask in return?"

"Your masters have many things that are of little value to them, but which may be of great value to the King. It would be much easier for your masters to exchange gold or precious stones for the goods and services that the King can provide, than it is for them to guard their slaves. They could have better tools and weapons, for far less work and trouble." Telli knew that this was true, and wondered if the Khrelling would understand the underlying threat. Now that the people of the Kingdom knew of the slavery, they could make it impossible for the creatures to keep their slaves anywhere other than inside the caves, where they would have no food supply for the humans, other than their own fish. He was certain that the King's armies could take and hold the valley, although it was almost equally certain that the Khrelling could hold their own caves. If the Khrelling thought logically, they would be tempted to reach an agreement with King Beranis. But they would want to be secure in this agreement. Telli had persuaded the King and his council that hostages should be offered to the creatures, that a number of human volunteers should stay with them until trust was fully established. These would be rotated, some leaving as others arrived. He had suggested that soldier volunteers were paid generously with Khrelling gold, on top of their normal wages, to spend short periods working in the Khrelling mines, taking over the role of the slaves. If the price was right, there would be no shortage of volunteers. A few months in the mines, and a young soldier would return to the Kingdom rich by his standards. The next question showed him that the Khrelling mind was not so different from his own, and he was greatly pleased to hear it.

"How can the masters know that they can trust your King?"

With this, Telli became sure that he could do business with the creatures. He outlined his hostage plan. Then he suggested that the discussions should be resumed the next day, so that the Khrelling could have the night to consider the proposals, and the humans could rest. This was agreed, and Balleoch's party withdrew to join the rest of the advance guard.

Telli and Setisia discussed the exchange late into the night with Astell and Azgar. Balleoch joined them for an hour or so, after he had eaten.

"You think that the exchange went well, Tellimakis?" the Prince asked.

"Yes, your Highness. I did not know that the translation would be so good. We are lucky, because we could never master the Khrelling speech as some of the slaves have. It would be ten times more difficult than learning a foreign language of men. I know from my friend, Stellakis, that the Khrelling teach children from the camp at an early age, when they learn quickly. They pick out the fastest learners, and continue to teach these, so that they have translators between master and slave for the future. Stellakis was taught in this way. But I did not know how well the translators could convey complex new ideas to the creatures. From the questions they asked us, it is clear that their understanding is good. As our propositions are definitely in the interests of both sides, success now depends on the nature of the Khrelling mind. If they think in a way similar to ourselves, they should accept our ideas."

Balleoch smiled at his councillor.

"Do you know that my wife wishes her father to make you Lord of this valley when you reach the age of eighteen, and if this mission is successful? No? Well, I think she is right, and we are unlikely to find a better manager of affairs with the Khrelling. The valley and the camp would make a beautiful fiefdom, don't you think, Setisia?"

"I think that Telli may wish to wander for a few years, before settling down as a Lord, but that he would certainly be a good one if he chose to take that role in life. I think we should be able to guess by how the talks go tomorrow whether or not we shall be successful in establishing a relationship with the Khrelling. Tomorrow is crucial." The others agreed with Setisia on this.

The next morning, Telli and Azgar approached the wall again, accompanied by several men carrying more gifts for the Khrelling. The slave translator called down that the masters had discussed their proposals over night, were now resting, and would be ready to talk with them in the afternoon. They left the gifts, and retreated to wait for a sign that the Khrelling chiefs were ready.

When this sign came, Telli's heart leapt. He was the most emotionally involved of the group watching the wall, worried for the welfare of Brakis and his other friends amongst the slaves. Shortly after noon, several rope ladders were let down from the battlements, and a number of Khrelling climbed down, carrying sacks over their shoulders. They walked half the distance towards the watching men, then laid the contents of their bundles out on the ground, before collecting Balleoch's gifts, and climbing back to the top of the wall. They left the rope ladders hanging down, seeming to symbolise trust and openness to the watchers.

Prince Balleoch went forward himself, with only his advisors around him, and no armed guard. When the group saw what the Khrelling had presented them with, they realised that Telli's plans might succeed beyond their wildest dreams. It appeared that the slaves had advised their masters well on what manner of goods might interest the people of the Kingdom. Before them was a pile of gold bars, a pile of rubies, and a pile of uncut diamonds. They were later to estimate the value of these gifts at about a thousand times that of the weapons and tools they had already given the Khrelling. The Prince and his advisors tried hard to conceal their surprise and excitement.

"Our masters make you gifts of goodwill, and are ready to talk at length," a man called out from the wall. The gold and precious stones were carried back to the army camp. Six Khrelling and three men climbed down the ladders, and walked about thirty yards from the wall. They appeared to be unarmed, so Balleoch's group laid down all their arms, and went forward to meet them.

Three of the Khrelling were clearly negotiators and individuals of importance. Each one had a slave translator. The Prince was well prepared, and explained the details of Telli's plans clearly. It was not long before a key question that Telli and Setisia had predicted to Balleoch came up.

"If our masters depend on you for weapons, surely they are at your mercy under this plan, should things not go well. How can they feel secure under such circumstances?"

"Fetch the Treochim weapons I prepared," the Prince ordered one of his captains. The man returned with a sword, a spear and two knives, one long and one short. The Prince took the sword and ran his thumb lightly along the edge of the blade. He held up his hand towards the Khrelling, showing the drops of blood falling from his thumb tip. Then, northern warrior that he was, he proceeded to perform a Treochim trick which Telli had seen his friend Keoch do for amusement. Balleoch unwound a silk scarf from round his neck and stood up. He tied a large knot in one end of the scarf to make it heavier than the other, then threw it high into the air. As it streamed down, knotted end first, he aimed three lightening quick strokes at it with the sword. The scarf fell to the ground in four pieces. Hisses and clicks came from the six Khrelling that might have been appreciative laughter. The Prince spoke to the translators.

"There are no weapons better than these, and we shall provide your masters with a stock of them. They must know that our intentions are peaceful in doing this. If we wished to make war, we certainly would not want to fight soldiers armed with blades such as these. They will see that they are far better equipped to defend themselves in a few days than they are now. We do not wish to conquer their caves, their home, but would want to visit them as their guests." He presented the sword, handle first, to one of the Khrelling negotiators. The creatures examined all the weapons in front of them, and appeared to be discussing their merits.

Telli thought that the Prince's demonstration of the weapon had been a clever move, a two edged sword in itself. It showed the quality of the gifts they were prepared to give to the cave creatures, but it also demonstrated his own prowess with such weapons. It would be easy for the Khrelling to persuade themselves that it was better to avoid conflict with an army containing such skilled swordsmen, and that a negotiated agreement was more desirable. Setisia had already expressed the opinion to him that Lephelia had chosen her mate wisely. This mission was of great importance to the consort of the future Queen. Success would mean respect and popularity in the Kingdom for him, something Lephelia already had.

The discussions went on into the evening. Astell and Setisia joined the group of advisors around Balleoch, the Prince wanting to see how they would judge the characters of the Khrelling and their three slave translators. One of the Khrelling left for the wall every hour or so, obviously reporting on the progress of the talks. As night came on, Prince Balleoch was informed that he would be talking with an important Khrelling chief the next day. It was arranged that talks should take place in the late afternoon and evening, starting when the sun began to sink behind the great mountains above the caves, and the Khrelling were more comfortable in their shadow.

Setisia was the most astute judge of character Telli knew. That night she talked to Balleoch about the slave translators, whom she had been studying closely.

"These men have importance and privilege under the present circumstances. They are not swinging picks to cut the blackstone for their masters. They may not want to risk a change in their way of life. We must get them on our side, but we must be subtle in doing so. As we are making it clear that our plans can bring great benefit to the Khrelling, we must also make it clear that the slaves who are fluent in the Khrelling speech will be of great importance to the King. We are only emphasising the obvious truth in doing this, but we must do so, because, at present, I can read the doubt in their minds. The oldest is the most cautious and could be hostile. The middle-aged man is the most inclined to follow our plans. He is a good-hearted man and a clever one. I can easily hear the excitement in his voice as he understands the changes that might be coming to his community. The youngest translator is somewhere between the two, and will be quite likely to look to the other two for leadership.

The Khrelling are, of course, far more difficult to understand. As they faced us, the one on the right was clearly the most important, even though he appeared to be the youngest. The other two never asked a question through their translators without a brief exchange with him before doing so. He would indicate assent by a backward movement of the head. The creatures appear to show pleasure by a sideways movement of the head. A movement of the face muscles very like our own smile accompanies this gesture, except that it does not really show on the lips. These signs of pleasure were increasing as the discussions went on. Pleasure and amusement can also be read in their eyes, and this also became more frequent towards the end of the talks. I sensed no strong opposition to our ideas from these three, although their thoughts are hard to read. The oldest of the three has an arthritic elbow, which gives him great discomfort. With your majesty's permission, I could offer to treat him tomorrow, and could probably give him some temporary relief from pain during the talks. This would certainly do our cause no harm."

Prince Balleoch knew Setisia, a frequent visitor to his wife in Tellui, and was not too surprised at this confident contribution to the discussion in his council tent. The two senior captains seated beside him were looking slightly stunned, however, and the Prince laughed at the expressions on their faces.

"Setisia is a powerful witch, but do not worry, she is on our side," he joked. "By all means treat the old Khrelling, and try to charm him while you are at it. Do you think you can bewitch such creatures as you bewitch me?"

"I do not bewitch royalty, your highness, as it is considered bad etiquette amongst us witches to do so, and anyway, we have no use for blue blood in our magic potions." The two old soldiers laughed at this, and Telli wondered if they realised it was they who were being enchanted into respect for the half-gypsy country girl who sat opposite them.

Azgar summarised the day's talks, and the group discussed their strategy for the next day, before retiring to their sleeping tents.

On the third day of talks, the oldest translator asked a question of Telli, rather than Balleoch. Telli was not surprised, as he had assumed that the men had recognised him, just as he recognised them by sight if not by name.

"How did you escape from the forge?"

"I managed to climb up one of the shafts. If the talks go well, I can show your masters how, when we can visit the caves as friends." Telli hoped that he would not be asked to do this, but knew that it could only happen if his plans were successful, and would be a small price to pay for that. As his answer was translated, he decided to take advantage of the fact that the subject of his slavery had been introduced. He asked if he could see Brakis and Stellakis, saying that Balleoch would guarantee their return to the camp, until the conditions of the talks were finalised. One of the Khrelling assistants set off for the wall to ask higher authority for this.

While the negotiators waited for the messenger's return, Balleoch offered Setisia's services as a doctor, saying that she might be able to do something for the pain the oldest Khrelling felt in his arm. The creature consented to this after some discussion with his companions. Both sides watched in silence as Setisia pulled up her patient's bat skin sleeve, exposing a muscular, white arm, covered with yellowish hair. The elbow was red, swollen and stiff in its movements. Setisia rubbed an ointment she had prepared onto the joint, then held it in her hands for more than a minute, concentrating hard. Telli remembered the sensation he had felt in his ankle the summer before, and could read the pleasure in the creature's pink eyes as he underwent the same experience. The old Khrelling jabbered excitedly to his companions, then spoke more slowly to his translator.

"He feels great relief," said the slave. "He thanks the girl, and says he counts her as a friend."

As Setisia bound the joint, she explained that the relief was only temporary, but that some permanent improvement might be achieved with continual treatment over several days. She emphasised, wisely, that she could not cure such a condition completely, not wanting to raise false hopes. Telli guessed that there would now be a lot of work for Setisia, Astell and Azgar amongst the Khrelling. Nothing could be better for the early days of the new relationship he wished to establish with them.

The Khrelling messenger returned from the wall, and spoke with the three negotiators. Telli could feel his heart beating fast as he listened to the translation.

"Your two friends are on their way, and the masters say they may stay with you as long as they wish. They do not have to return to the camp."

This was the most important moment of the talks for Telli. Setisia hugged him, knowing what the words of the translator meant to him. Balleoch and the other advisors were nearly as excited as the youngsters. The Khrelling were making a significant gesture of peace. The first two slaves were to be released.

Before this happened, a Khrelling of obvious importance arrived from the wall with several armed guards. The guards hung back as the chief came forward and joined the talks with Balleoch. Telli listened to these with one ear, while watching the wall for the arrival of his friends. The newcomer seemed to be some sort of military leader, judging by his preoccupations. He emphasised, through the translators, that if there were to be men of the Kingdom in the valley on a permanent basis, then the wall around the camp must stay up as the first line of security for the Khrelling. Balleoch agreed immediately to this, disarming the other by saying that he would have his men help improve the wall's battlements and increase its height if the Khrelling wished him to do so. At this point Telli decided that he was no longer really needed in the talks, that it was clear that Balleoch was in complete control along with his other advisors. When he recognised Brakis's bearded head on the wall, he withdrew a few yards from the chief negotiators.

Brakis and Stellakis climbed down the rope ladders and started to walk towards the group. When Brakis saw Telli, he broke into a run, arms held out wide. Telli felt the tears come to his eyes as he stepped forward into his old friend's embrace. The two hugged each other silently for nearly a minute, neither able to speak. For Telli, Brakis felt like home, like a part of Elneside. The tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he made no effort to hold them back. Stellakis broke the spell, his cheerful grin wider than ever.

"Do you not say hello to your old master, apprentice, or have you become too fine a Prince to speak with a poor toolmaker? Tell me, how did you come back from the dead?" He embraced Telli as Brakis stepped back, then held him at arms' length.

"He has grown, Brakis, they fed him well in the Kingdom. And look at those fine clothes. The rumour has it that we in the camp may be freed, Tellimakis, so tell us, what is happening, old friend."

Telli, still unable to speak, led his friends away from Balleoch's group towards the army camp. When he had regained some composure, he explained his plans to his two friends and gave a brief account of how the talks had progressed so far. He told Stellakis that he wanted him to act as personal translator for Balleoch. He would have to stay away from his family in the army camp until the negotiations were complete. The young smith's quick wits enabled him to recover quickly from the excitement of crossing the wall for the first time in his life. After about half an hour discussing the important points of the negotiations with Telli and Brakis, he declared himself ready to take on his new job immediately.

"But how did you escape? We all thought you dead down that foul smelling hole in the forge"

"My piss-hole decoy worked, then?" Telli asked Brakis.

"Yes, to perfection. I was the only one not to assume you to be dead, and it was a hard secret to keep, I can tell you. I was questioned by the Khrelling and by the foremen, but as they were already inclined to believe you dead in the hole under the forge, they soon left me to mourn alone for my young friend. When we heard nothing more over the next few days, I hoped you were well on your way to the Kingdom."

Telli introduced Stellakis to Balleoch and the smith joined the group discussing the future of the slaves with the Khrelling. Telli and Brakis withdrew to a distance so that Telli could recount the story of his escape and his subsequent adventures in the Kingdom.

Telli withdrew increasingly from the negotiations with the Khrelling now that he was reunited with his Elneside friend. The talks were going well, and he felt tired from his efforts. He was increasingly impatient to return to the west of the mountains, to see his family and friends, and, of course, to introduce Setisia to the community of his childhood.

As trust grew between the men of the Kingdom and the Khrelling, more slaves were allowed over the wall to visit the King's army, and some from outside the wall could visit the slaves in the camp, Astell and Azgar amongst them. The two Meldrith had developed a theory about the Khrelling, and how such a creature had come to exist. Astell explained this to the council in Balleoch's tent several nights after Brakis's release.

"Your Highness must know the legend of the war between the Ice God and the Sun God as it is a story told by the Treochim, but allow me to tell it now for the benefit of all here. The Treochim are the oldest of the peoples of Ahn-Eph-Setisia, land of Setisia who, as you know, is Goddess of rivers and of all flowing water. They tell stories of a time when the lands we now know as the Kingdom were much colder, and Setisia's waters were frozen. In their legends, this came about because of a story of love and war involving two great Gods and a Goddess. Both Hasteoch, God of Ice and Snow, and Dalleoch, God of the Sun, were in love with Setisia. She favoured the Sun God, under whose warmth her waters flowed freely. Hasteoch, in his jealous rage, spread his icy domain south from the great wastes, and down from the peaks of the high mountains, until all of the rivers of Ahn-Eph-Setisia fell under his rule, and Setisia was trapped in her own homeland. Dalleoch fought back, and the battle lasted many centuries. Men only survived in the far south of the Kingdom, living by breaking the ice, and finding food in the waters where Setisia was trapped beneath it. The Sun God eventually triumphed, pushing the Ice God back to his old domains, and freeing their love, Setisia. Men returned to all parts of Ahn-Eph-Setisia. The battle still goes back and forth, as we can see in the cycle of the year.

"But we now know that there was another animal similar to man in the area at the time of the great wrath of Hasteoch. And I believe that this animal did not follow man and other warmth loving species south, but sought refuge in the arms of Elivia, the Earth Goddess. It is not only the sun that gives warmth, the earth does, also. We know that deep caves, such as the ones in this valley, keep their temperature regardless of the seasons on the earth's surface. So, I think that the ancestors of the Khrelling retreated to the caves, and their descendants have become creatures of those caves as we can tell from their obvious allergy to bright sunlight."

Telli thought about this theory while the others discussed it. It fitted with his hunter's knowledge of animals and how they adapted to their environment. It occurred to him, not for the first time, how similar Astell's way of thinking was to his own.

Trina was sitting outside her grandparent's house later that summer when she heard a commotion coming from the direction of the riverside gate. She lifted her tiny baby, Tellimakis, from her breast and laid him gently in the cradle beside her. Several of the village children were running from house to house crying out in shrill tones that conveyed excitement. Perhaps someone had caught a fish of record proportions, thought Trina. Then she gasped as the four strangers came into her view. The first strangers to arrive in Elneside during the settlement's entire three hundred year history. All four were wearing outlandish clothes, but it was the two with red hair, something Trina had never seen before, who stood out immediately as folk who could not possibly be Elnesiders. And one of these was a giant, the largest man she had ever seen.

Trina recognised Brakis first, after hearing one of the children call out his name. A few seconds later she realised that the slight young man walking at the hunter's side was her brother. She stood up, speechless with joy, as Telli broke into a run towards her.

"There, you see? Your country hides in the haze beyond; beyond the Ice God's great barrier."

"Your travels have turned you into a poet, goblin." Setisia smiled as she gazed at the tiny white triangles on the horizon, the distant White Mountains. She was standing beside Telli on the crown of Horn Hill. "I used to climb the hills above Bhuin to look at them, and often wondered what lay on the other side." Setisia took Telli's hand in hers. "Had I known you were here, I would have tried to cross them," she said sweetly, as if she meant it.

"Maybe it was you drawing me to the other side with your witching powers," said Telli, half seriously.

"Maybe, maybe, although I didn't know it. Now, Tellimakis, it is time for me to tell you something of your future, once again. When you feel you have seen enough of your loved ones in Elneside, and when I can tear myself away from your lovely little nephew, we shall go back through the great Khrelling caves and journey down the rivers of Ahn-Eph-Setisia to Meldrith, where we shall study our world and learn to understand our talents. I think we should go soon."

"And I'll tell you something of your future. In a few years time, you will be married to the young Lord of the Khrelling valley, a witch Lady held in great respect throughout the Kingdom." Telli looked into the bright green eyes, and added: "Set, you will be my wife?"

"Of course." Setisia smiled back. "I've known that since the day we went canoeing to Setisia's garden."

So, we'll leave the young lovers their peace and their privacy, for the time being at least.

Telli proved to be wrong in his prediction that he would one day be Lord of the Khrelling valley. It was his friend, Stellakis, who was to take on this role, the young smith's quick wits combined with his fluent understanding of Khrelling speech making him so useful to King Beranis that it soon became apparent that he was the obvious choice for the job. Most of the former slaves were to remain in the Khrelling valley. Like the Elnesiders, they were a community in which everyone knew one another, and leaving would mean separation from relatives and friends. Some who, like Seth, could remember a life outside the valley, journeyed to the Kingdom in search of the lost families of their childhood, but most of these, including the big smith, found their family members either dead or changed beyond recognition, and so returned to the community that they knew. The 'camp' became known as Jeweltown in the Kingdom, because of the rich flow of gems coming from the Khrelling caves, these being transported across the mountains, and then distributed around the Kingdom, many of course ending up in the coffers of the King in Tellui.

The community in the Khrelling valley was not the only one to be radically effected by Tellimakis's journey from Elneside to Kellmarsh and back. Elneside was now in contact with the Kingdom and, although its remoteness meant that visits from the far side of the mountains were infrequent, the Elnesiders benefited almost immediately from this contact in some ways. The most obvious of these was the arrival of a large consignment of tools for their use in farming. King Beranis sent these at Telli's request before the end of the summer during which the slaves were liberated. The exiled Elnesider knew that the finest tools of the Kingdom would save his people much arduous labour. Eventually, other settlements were to grow up west of the mountains, and intermarriage with other peoples was to save the Elnesiders from becoming too inbred.

Brakis was not discouraged from travelling by his experience of slavery, and was to make the journey through the Khrelling caves and down the Kingdom's rivers to experience the wonders of Kellmarsh three times in his life. But he never stayed long on the eastern side of the mountains, always drawn back home by his love of the Elneside forests where he had once lived for months following his wife's death.

East of the mountains, the effect of Telli's journey on Minersford was such as to change it completely out of all recognition (something Telli, with a vivid memory of his first reception by its people, would always consider a positive achievement in his life almost on a par with freeing the slaves)! The run down collection of shacks grew quickly into a very prosperous trading post. It was the starting point for all making the journey over the mountains to do business with the Khrelling, and became the first comfortable stop for all returning. Larisroot was also effected, becoming even wealthier as a community, to the great pleasure of fat Flankis, who could wallow in gold as it started to flow into the Kingdom from the Khrelling caves.

Not all of the effects of Telli's voyage were beneficial to the Kingdom. Such a spectacular new source of wealth as that offered by the King's growing trade with the Khrelling would, of course, attract the attention of many people. This would include Beranis's enemies, and it would not be long before the 'priest', Ganith, the man Setisia considered the most evil she had ever seen, would turn his thoughts towards the area in the great western mountain range from which this wealth was flowing.

As for Tellimakis and Setisia, they had only just begun their adventures in the Kingdom. They were to spend the year following their visit to Elneside in Meldrith, home of the Helenthiat, where they were amongst people similar to themselves, and where they had many things to learn. What they learned, what became of them after their stay in Meldrith, and what became of Ganith is all far too complicated to be told here, and must be left for another story. The story of the Princess Lephelia, destined to become one of the greatest rulers the Kingdom had ever known.