Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The Solitary Arrow by Mack the Knife

   Part Nine

   Harlen and Hyandai walked slowly home, it was early in the day, and they
were both careworn and tired from their long nights and suffering.  They
took comfort in each other's company, and in the beautiful countryside,
with its small copses of trees and rolling hills.  Shepherds tended their
flocks off on those hills, and waved as the couple passed close enough to
be seen clearly.

   She did not find human lands as objectionable as she had been told they
would be.  They seemed mostly friendly, and the land was not nearly as
`raped' as many elves felt that it would be.  Certainly, the humans changed
their environment, as did the elves, or did they think that woodlands were
simply naturally like a garden or orchard?  That humans were not quite so
enamored of simple forest should not be held against them, there was beauty
in all sorts of countryside, and she reveled in all the sorts.

   The scuttling clouds provided cooling shade as they passed overhead, and
the sunlight was bright and warming when it fell on them.  She was in very
high spirits now.  The taint of her womb was healing, and she would soon be
whole.  The witch had not gotten the true payment she had sought, and
Harlen, even if he did not stay with Hyandai, would not return to the
embrace of the hag.

   They were young, they were in love, and they were happy for the moment.
She did not let any of the darker thoughts that she had been having come
forth for now, and she simply enjoyed the moment, as an elf should.

   That was what she had learned, hanging helpless in the manacles while
her folly had dribbled from her torn innards.  She had learned that she had
approached everything wrongly, and her clan was, too, maybe all elves had
been.  They had stopped being elves, so worried were they by events of the
world, and in their own lands.  She would not succumb to that again. 
Certainly, she would have sadness, and she was certain that evil would
befall her again before this ill-conceived quest was complete, but she
would not despair, for despair was the one thing that she had to let go of.
Despair was not elven.

   Harlen, for his part, mulled over his actions of last night.  How much
of what had happened was witchcraft and how much was his frustration in not
being able to give his most intimate love to the woman he felt he did love.

   He knew frustration was there, and, though he would never admit it to
Hyandai, some of it had, indeed, changed to hostility.  He looked through
his mind, and found those kernels of resentment, and tried to purge them
from him.  She was not responsible for what had happened to her, and he
knew it.  She wanted him, and he wanted her.  That things kept interfering
was not her doing, and he needed to remember that.

   Sorcha had played on their innermost fears, resentments, and twisted
their loyalties.  But she had failed, ultimately, to break the elf, or
subvert the man.  She had nearly done both, and if she had both would now
be on a very different path.

   "I'm sorry." Harlen said to her, taking her hand.  "I don't know if it
was witchcraft or my own lusts that drove me to think the things I did, or
both." He looked over at her as they walked.  "I can only ask for your
forgiveness and hope that you will."

   She smiled tenderly.  "If it is needed, I give it.  Though, I am not
convinced that it is necessary." She looked west.  "You knew I was
returning to my own lands soon, and there is no great wrong in seeking to
do something after that event."

   He chuckled.  "Yes, but it is rude to go filling a vacancy before it is
made."

   "Some might say it was good planning." She smiled wryly.  "Though I will
not." They walked a while in silence again.  "Harlen.  I am not going
home." She said, quietly.

   He stopped, watching her take a few steps then she turned to him.  "I
thought you had to?" He asked.

   She walked back to him.  "No." She said.  "I do not.  I will seek out
the Ehladrel, but I am not going home to collect another silly man to
accompany me." She looked at him.

   "You wish me to?" He said, rather shocked, and a little worried.

   She smiled.  "If you will." She said.

   "Of course I will." He answered.  Kissing her brow.  "I only hope we
will fare better than Eleean and you did."

   She smiled.  "We will." She said, her voice assured.  "It was foretold."

   She made a quick turn and started up the road again.  He stared after
her a moment, then jogged after her.  "It was foretold?" He asked, catching
up to her.

   "Of course." She said.  "It is all in the seer's words." She patted his
arm, as if consoling a school child.

   His face looked a bit distant, and not a little stunned.  "But the seer
said that the man would be your...betrothed." He said.

   "So she did." Hyandai said over her shoulder as Harlen had slowed again.
"She is never wrong, so I suggest you get used to that idea." Her smile was
lovely and her hair gleamed like burnished copper as the sun came out from
behind a cloud and lit it from above.

   Harlen ran toward her, and she squealed as he wrapped his arms around
her and lifted her from the ground.  He held her to his chest and spun her
about, causing her long legs to fly away from him, and he kissed her as
they spun.  Soon, however, he was dizzy and they both fell into the grass
beside the road, giggling and laughing, and he kissed her as she laid atop
him.  She kissed him back, running her hands up and down his arms and onto
his shoulders.

   "I shall take that response as a affirmative one." She said, smiling
down at him.

   Harlen nodded enthusiastically, as a wagon on the road passed them.  The
driver and his wife sitting on the buckboard glaring at the trysting couple
unapprovingly.  As the wagon rolled past, two girls, apparently twins, were
riding on the tailgate, and they giggled as the couple sat up in the grass
and waved to them.  The girls giggled some more and waved back until their
parents turned their basilisk stares upon them.

   Hyandai rose gracefully from atop her man, and stood, straightening her
skirt.

   Harlen climbed to his feet, and kissed her again, knocking small bits of
dirt from his backside, and grass from his back and hair.  "We should
always have a blanket with us, if we plan on being so impetuous." He said.

   "That sort of makes being impetuous rather planned, does it not?" She
asked him, helping him dust himself off.

   "Perhaps." He agreed.  "But then again, people will at least think us
good planners when they see us rolling about."

   She grinned after the almost vanished cart.  "I care not if we are seen
in loving one another." She said.  "It is honest love and others should see
it in flower."

   Harlen nodded at that.  "Yes, they should, but I don't think they will
wish to see my hairy bottom, even in honest love."

   She regarded that bottom as they set off on the last mile to Morrovale.
"I should think it a good butt, hairy or no." She said, appraising it, and
then running her slim fingers over it through is trousers.

   The last mile seemed too short to them, as the sun lowered in the sky
and the moon was well up.  The townsfolk watched them pass and there was
some small comment to their passing.  They were smiled upon, though, and
the people still would come out of their way to watch the elf-maiden pass
by.  She greeted those that greeted them, and they even stopped again to
speak to one of Harlen's hunting acquaintances.  This man was named Hurgon,
and he was small and wiry, almost like an elf himself.  He showed Harlen
his recent prize of three wolf tails, and Harlen wowed appreciatively. 
They talked for a while about the possibility of the Duke rezoning the
assigned lots come fall, and discussed the possibilities and pitfalls that
might entail.  Hyandai busied herself speaking to Hurgon's wife, a tall,
broadly built woman who laughed a lot and smiled even more.  The two
couples spoke for a long while before parting, well after dark fell on the
village.

   Finally, they arrived at his home, to find Trevir sitting on the porch,
looking worried.  When he saw them opening the gate.  He leapt to his feet
and ran to them, hugging Harlen then Hyandai.  "I feared for you." He said.
"Someone said you two went to the witches road."

   Harlen nodded.  "Yes, we did, for we had business with the crone." He
said.  "We needed her advice on some matters, what of it?"

   The boy stared blankly.  "One should seek a cleric for advise, Harlen,
not a witch, they will deceive you."

   Harlen nodded.  "You're wiser than you look, Trevir, and we will agree
now with your council." Hyandai nodded enthusiastically.

   "I am glad you two are back well." The boy said, and hugged them both
again.

   He paused a moment, his face clouding.  "Miss Hyandai, there has been an
elven man seeking for you, by name."

   Her face shifted to one of immense worry.  "Me?  By my name?" She said,
suddenly she was somewhat panicked looking.  "What did he look like, or did
you get his name?"

   The boy shrugged.  "He looked like an elven man, he had blonde hair and
silver eyes, and he wore a fine mail tunic." He thought a moment.  "He had
a odd blade crossed with a staff on his back." He added as an afterthought.

   "A blade dancer." She said.  "Did you get his name?"

   Trevir shook his head.  "He said he would seek for you later, should you
return." He said.

   She looked out to the street worriedly.  "I see." She said, quietly.  "I
fear it may be someone whom I know, and they will not be pleased with how
my quest has fared."

   "Not another picked suitor?" Harlen said, looking concerned himself.

   She shook her head and smiled wanly.  "No, if it is who I fear it may
be, it is my brother." Her face took on a look of immense worry.

   Harlen looked a bit worried.  "I though elves tended toward small
families." He said.  "Yet you seem to have no shortage of siblings."

   She smiled widely.  "My parents were, and are, legendary among the clan
for being rather...affectionate toward one another." She giggled.  "I have
two sisters, one elder and one younger, and three brothers, two younger and
one elder." She looked down the road.  "The elder is the one I fear is
here. He is the eldest of us and considers himself something of an
authority figure." She looked at Harlen.  "His name is Ceriandel."

   "Speak a name and they shall appear, sister." A voice said from the
darkness near the road.  A tall elf walked into the light of the lantern
Trevir had set upon the porch.  He was indeed clad in mail.  He walked like
a warrior, Harlen noted, moving gracefully, like a cat.

   Hyandai sighed, and looked at him.  "Well met, Ceriandel." She said,
smiling, though it looked somewhat forced to Harlen.

   "Am I?" He asked as he stood at the gate.  "Somehow, I feel my arrival
has come as less than welcome news." He said.

   She looked down a moment.  "I did not expect anyone from home to follow
me on this." She said.

   "How could I not?" He said, a small tinge of anger in his voice.  "You
are my sister, and I cannot let you, of all people, go into harm and not
worry for you." He said in a rush of words.  "When you did not come home
when expected, we grew concerned." He looked at Harlen, and not favorably,
near as the hunter could tell.  "Where is your betrothed, Eleean?"

   She kept her head down.  "Dead." She said.  "We were accosted by orcs
east of here, and he was killed, and I was grievously injured." She said.

   He began speaking in elven, words that were both beautiful and sounded
very, very hostile.  She looked up at him, and her eyes were filled with
tears.  Then she said.  "Speak in Westron, Ceriandel, it is rude to speak
in a language those about you cannot understand." Her voice had iron in it
now, she had her back up.  Enter the courtyard, my brother, stand not in
the street, casting your voice at us from a distance.

   Harlen told Trevir to go warm the bath, and to stay inside.  The boy
watched the group as he went inside, and kept a wary eye on Ceriandel as he
walked into the yard and stood before the couple.

   "I understand from the talk about the village, you were so injured that
you needed the special services of a Sorceress." He said, a sneer in his
voice.  "Such injuries are grievous, I would imagine." He glared at both of
them, his eyes seemed to have gained some gray, turning them the sheen of
steel.

   Hyandai straightened her back and set her shoulders.  "You think you
have the truth of it all, do you?" She said to her brother, her voice
sounding set and her jaw squaring.  "You know all things?"

   "I do not pretend such." He said.  "But I know the marks of an unwanted
child, and smell the stench on you of the abattoir." He looked at her, and
his eyes flashed with rage.  "You perform an act that is most unholy in the
eyes of the spirits, and seek to defend yourself, and the man."

   "This man did not send me to that place, you unknowing fool." She said,
finally snapping, tears rolled down her face as she confronted him.  "If
you must know my business so intimately, then I tell you, it was no human
and elf child that I had torn from my womb, but the offspring of those foul
orcs that accosted Eleean and I." She gave him a look of pure anger.  "Or
would you have me carry such abominations to term?"

   The blade dancer blinked a few times, then said.  "I did not know." The
color had drained from his face.  "Forgive me sister." The anger was gone
from him.

   "I can forgive you, but you need to apologize to this man, for you
placed the blame on him, and he has not touched me in that way." She said,
giving him an icy stare.  "Yet." She added.

   Harlen was very uncomfortable now, and fidgeted a bit.  The predator
eyes of her brother worried him, even as they were now cast downward in
remorse.

   "Yet your mind thinks of lying with him now?" Ceriandal said, looking at
her disbelievingly.  "You find your own race lacking?"

   Her eyes widened in shock.  "You can say such, hypocrite, I know you
have lain with human women, on more than one occasion when serving in the
Windy Isles." She turned her back to him.  "Do not lecture me on virtues
such as that, unless you have some standing in the area."

   "It is not the same..." He started.

   She interrupted him, spinning about and stepping forward, forcing him to
step back a half step.  "It is not the same?" She screamed at him.  "You
think it is so different because you are a male?" She was railing now, and
Harlen was very uncomfortable.  "It is not different, you self-righteous
ass!" She yelled.  "I will take whomever I like to my bower, and you will
not gainsay it." She quieted down a bit.  "Or did you have a friend in
need, perhaps?  Someone more worthy of me putting my legs around?" She
grinned evilly now, and Harlen took a few steps away from the siblings. 
"Bring your friend about, and we shall compare his staff to my Harlen's,
and if he can best him, then I shall take your friend instead."

   The elf looked indignant.  "Have you become a whore?" He exclaimed.

   And upon that, Harlen turned.  "You will keep a civil tongue on my land,
elf." He said, raising a pointing finger at the blade dancer.  "Or warrior
or no, I shall remove you, lest you desire to draw blade on me."

   "I'll not dishonor my chosen calling for you." Said the blade dancer. 
"Or for her." He said, pointing to Hyandai.  He backed to the gate, and
walked out, shutting it behind him.  "I see now that my sister is no longer
of us, and she has cleaved to you, so be it." He turned and walked down the
road, at the edge of the light, he turned again, his silvern eyes glinting.
"When he has grown old and died, my sister, maybe you will return to your
own kind." He turned and was gone, into the night.

   "I did not know there was a stigma attached to being with a human."
Harlen said, putting his hand on Hyandai's shoulder.  She was crying,
frustrated and angry tears.

   She looked up at him, smiling gently.  "To most elves, there is not."
She said.  "But some are of a different sort, I just never knew my brother
was one of those." She sniffed and touched his face.  "Most elves know one
cannot control whom they fall in love with, they are happy just to see
others in bliss." She looked to where her brother had gone off into
darkness.  "But some think it debases our line to give ourselves to humans,
though dallying with them is apparently acceptable, do not grow attached to
them, else you are a whore."

   "You are no whore, my love." Harlen said.  "You know that."

   She nodded.  "I know." She giggled sourly.  "If I am, I am very bad at
it, as I've yet to bed the main target of my lusts."

   Harlen smiled at that.  And hugged her to him.  She let herself be
enfolded in his protective arms.  "You took a grave risk." She said.  "I
half expected him to come at you."

   He looked down at her.  "So long as he didn't draw that ehladrel on his
back, I wasn't worried, I can hold my own in unarmed brawls."

   She giggled.  "That is what I feared, the risk was that you would hurt
my wayward brother.  He is a fool, but he would not have drawn on you.  And
without being able to do his dance of the blade, you would have probably
pounded him like a tent peg." She smiled up at him.  "He is an accomplished
warrior, Harlen, and not to be taken lightly, but he would not be used to
such a contest, and you are much stronger than he." She squeezed his arm.
"If you cross him again, please do not hurt him, he is my brother, after
all."

   "I'll keep that in mind." Harlen said, looking, himself, down the road.

   Trevir popped his head out the door.  "He has gone?" He asked, looking
warily about.

   "Yes, young Trevir." Hyandai said, sighing.  "He said his piece and
left."

   He looked at her.  "I thought I would like all elves." The lad said. 
"But your brother is a different sort from you." He looked at her.

   "Yes, he is different from me." She agreed.  "Very much so." With that,
she took Harlen's hand and Trevir's and led the two into the house.  She
sent the lad off to bed in his small servant's quarters in the back, and
she sent Harlen to the bathing room, to wash the witch's stink from
himself. She, herself, sat in the common room and thought a while.

   When Harlen emerged from the bath, she watched him cross the darkened
room for the stairs.  She smiled, realizing he had not seen her.  She
slipped behind him into the bath and climbed in, soaking herself.  Harlen
did not come back down, so she supposed he was awaiting her upstairs.  She
forced some water into herself, and back out, carrying small blood clots
out with it.  She was tired of bearing injuries to her womanhood, even if
she was not planning on putting it to use.  Finally, she climbed from the
tub and walked out, still dripping into the back.  She laid upon the grass
there, and watched the stars overhead.  She laid there a long while, drying
slowly in the night air, and feeling the cool caress of the breezes.  She
thought of Harlen, and his touch, and she longed for it, but she, for some
reason, did not go to him to receive it.

   She wanted Harlen to make love to her, and was growing quite frustrated
at her inability to let him do so.  Her mind ran through scenarios of him
taking her, in various poses and places.  And she moaned slightly at the
thoughts.  The stars did not accuse her of being a whore for her thoughts
or desires.  She was no whore, but she was, as the witch had put it,
`damaged goods.' The ordeal that the small remnant of her mind had been put
through still affected the rest of her when they merged again.  The awful
feeling of being torn into and the wretched feelings that her body gave
back when it actually somewhat enjoyed the feeling of being used thus. 
That was the part she would bear the most.  People would commiserate over
the agony, and she would get sympathy for that part.  But the little part
of pleasure, sick, twisted pleasure, she had felt, and the shuddering
orgasm she had while her womanhood was being torn and ripped would elicit
no sympathy from Harlen or anyone else she could think of.

   And that was the agony of it.  She actually found herself envying the
small part of herself that had endured the rape, for that one filthy moment
of pleasure that was buried in the humiliation of the violent encounter. 
She sighed at the stars.  They would never clear her of the charges of `orc
lover' that she had given to herself for that little piece of physical
betrayal.  Her body had taken pleasure in the act that had deflowered her,
impregnated her, and ruined her, even while her mind had screamed in agony.
She came to the sudden realization that she was touching herself.  Her
body, even now, was acting of its own accord, and she removed her fingers
from her opening.  She had been thinking of the orc over her, entering her,
and using her body as a orifice to ram its huge member into and to spew its
foul seed into her womb.  Seed that had taken root and had tried to give
her corrupt children.

   "Miss Hyandai?" Trevir's voice came from the darkness in his doorway. 
The moon was behind clouds and the yard was very dark.  She must have
moaned or made some noise he heard, and he knew it was her.  She kept still
and looked over toward the little servant's quarters.  He was standing nude
in the doorway, his young body bald and smooth.  He looked like an elven
lad of almost Hyandai's age like that.

   His organ was standing out from him, erect.  He was no man, and his
manhood was hardly comparable, but it bested some elven lads she had seen.
He walked toward the outhouse and went inside.  She did not like the little
box much, but could see its usefulness.  She slipped back into the house
while he was otherwise occupied, and it was just as well, as the moon came
from behind the clouds and would have revealed her had he come out then.

   She went upstairs and found Harlen curled up in the bed, and slipped in
beside him.  He responded to her by turning toward her and murmuring.  She
had gotten surprisingly aroused outside, partially by her darkly erotic
thoughts about the pleasure of her body, and partially, even, by Trevir's
smaller, but somehow much purer erection.  She moved her hand onto Harlen's
waist and slowly crept it toward his own organ.  She found it, hanging
limply, and touched it.  Harlen's eyes opened.

   "Um.  Hello." He said, smiling after a half second.

   She squeezed his flaccid penis.  "Good Evening." She said, smiling back.

   "You've got my bits." He noted, raising an eyebrow.

   She giggled.  "So I do." She said.  "I had thought you would not mind
terribly."

   He stretched out, and said.  "I do not, but I have to confess a bit of
soreness."

   She patted his shoulder.  "I know, the witch made you work hard for my
benefit."

   He gave a strained smile.  "I don't know about that, but I do know that
my rod is quite sore, and you giving me another erection is not helping."
He touched her face.  "I am sorry if you had plans." He said.

   She gave him a peck on the cheek.  "Not really, I was just playing, I
had not even thought of you being sore, I did not realize it happened to
men from overuse, as well.

   He nodded.  "Sadly, it does."

   "Then I will leave your man alone, for this one night." She said.  "But
I will expect additional payment later, to make up for my loss." Her smile
grew wide indeed.

   "You shall get it." He said, matching her smile.

   She pressed to him, and he embraced her.  She felt warm again, and safe.
She had some rather inappropriate thoughts outside, about many things, but
they were gone now, and she just enjoyed his strong arms and his cleanly
soaped smell.  Soon, she, too, was asleep.

   --

   In the light of dawn, Hyandai awoke to find Harlen holding her in his
arms once again.  She was facing him this time, and she just watched his
sleeping face untill he awoke.  It was not terribly long before he did,
people seem to know when they are watched.

   "Good morning." She said, smiling.

   He looked at her, and kissed the tip of her nose.  "Good morning." He
answered.

   She giggled at that for a moment, then said.  "I saw young Mister Trevir
last night in his birthday suit."

   "You did, did you?" He asked, his eyes wide with amaze, his smile wide
as well.  "And what is your elven assessment of him?"

   She grinned.  "He is a, shall we say, well-built boy."

   "Well, imagine that." Harlen said, enjoying her naughty talk.  Her face
was so deliciously innocent looking, to think that she harbored rather
lusty thoughts within was something of a shock sometimes, and it thrilled
Harlen when she expressed them.  "Should I worry?" He asked, looking down
into the sheets.

   She said.  "Not for a few years yet, but maybe then a bit." She said,
smiling.  "He is likely to be your size, perhaps."

   Harlen sighed.  "Not even betrothed fully, and already the eyes wander."
He said.

   She looked at him.  "That is something, seriously, you will need to
learn to deal with." Her expression was not one of humor.  "Elves do have
eyes that look sometimes far afield." She shrugged.  "It is something that
is part of us, we are very sensual creatures and we demand our senses be
stimulated."

   Harlen laughed.  "A roving eye is not a strickly elven invention." He
said.  "Most humans suffer the same affliction or enjoy the same blessing,
depending on your viewpoint." He touched her hands.  "It is where these go
that concerns me, and these," he touched her lips, "and this." He slid his
hand down to the bottom of her belly and over her pubic mound.  "The eyes
can wander freely."

   "Please, do not make light of my fey." She said, her face serious.  "I
am partially driven by it, and on ocassion, it will sieze me."

   He looked at her seriously now.  "You mean you may be unfaithful?" He
asked.

   She shook her head.  "No.  I am faithful to you, and will always be."
She said.  "My heart is yours.  But there is a difference between love and
sex." She explained.  "And while the two do intertwine, they are not nearly
the same.  My lusts are powerful some times, like two days ago, when I
embarrased Trevir."

   He grinned at her.  "You're saying you may come on to people on
ocassion? Flirt with them and such?"

   "Yes." She said, smiling weakly.  "And if they take me up on my offers
of the moment, well, things may happen." She looked terribly embarrased and
worried.

   "Okay." Harlen said, and regarded her seriously.  "And you wish to know
how I will react to that?"

   "I am fairly certain you will react to that negatively." She said.  "You
will probably send me away." Her face was downcast now.

   He chuckled.  "That would be a bit crazy for me." He said.  "To loose
something wonderful because someone else sampled its goodness?"

   She looked at him a bit confused.  "You would not be upset?"

   "To a point, I would, of course, be." He said, smiling at her.  "But if
you were a very, very fine wine, would I throw out the barrel because
someone else had a glass of it at some point?"

   "I am not wine, but I see your analogy." She said.  "I do not plan on
doing this thing.  Since we will be together almost all the time,
naturally, when my fey strikes, you will be the one usually at hand to take
care of the ensuing results." She thought a moment.  "And if I am only with
people I dislike then it is easily resisted." She looked at him.  "It is
when I am around men I like already, and you are not, that a problem may
arise.  Such as two days ago."

   Harlen thought on this a while.  "And this is likely?" He asked.

   She nodded slowly.  Watching his eyes.

   "I suppose, I will have to learn to forgive it, won't I?" He replied. 
"I'm sure as hell not giving you up, and you have now given me fair
warning." He did not look terribly pleased, but he was not angry.  "May I
ask one thing of you, though?" He asked.

   "Of course." She said, trying to smile brightly.

   He said.  "Keep it discreet if you must." He said.  "You know us humans
are a bit gossipy."

   She nodded gravely.  "I can always hope it will not arise, but if it
should, I will try to keep it out of the public eye." She kissed his cheek.
"I do not seek to embarras you or humiliate you."

   He rolled onto his back and looked at the cieling.  "I should have known
all that perfection had a catch." He chuckled.  "You're too wondrous to
keep all to myself."

   "Do not fear, my beloved." She said, soothingly.  "The fey does not
often strike, and it can be battled back, which I intend to try to do." She
put her hand on his chest.  "I only warn you so that you know if something
unfortunate happens, that it is due in no way to some shortcoming on your
part."

   He grinned again.  "It is an elven thing?"
   "It is an elven thing." She replied.