Chapter 14

They followed the skunk through a thicket into a little known path that led straight to the cabin. Young Toame stopped at the forest's edge facing the cabin. "I fear I am unprepared for this, Master Elf."

"My dear boy, one is never truly prepared to meet the father of their beloved. Come we have kept our friend waiting long enough." The old elf stepped from the forest and led the boy to the cabin's door. The skunk scratched at the door to be let in. The farmer opened the door and fell silent at the sight of his wife's most trusted friend. "My apologies, sir. I realize you were not expecting my presence here today," the old elf coughed.

"Please, Master Elf, no apologies. Enter please. True. I am surprised to see you. I had thought I never would again since…" his voice trailed off. The elf nodded his understanding. The farmer turned his attention to the young elf that stood before him. He was tall and slender like Lily, with similarly long black hair. He looked into the boy's deep brown eyes as he jutted out his hand in greeting. "You must be Toame."

"Yes sir. I am." He shook the farmer's hand and smiled respectfully.

"How old are you? You seem familiar to me in someway," remarked the farmer.

"I just turned sixteen, sir."

"Lily tells me you are the prince of the forest crown. Tell me how you are related to Bayla. I was unaware she had any relatives."

"Relatives?" Lily interrupted before Toame could answer. "We are related?"

"No, my lady. You are not," offered the old elf. "His father is of no relation to your mother." The news left his audience dumbstruck with many questions.

"Then how was he able to become the king?" asked Toame. "I thought only royal blood could reign."

"He was appointed by our mother to be her successor until her own child could assume the throne."

"What? Her own child... I don't understand," admitted the farmer.

"Please, everyone. Be seated and shall tell you." They all found a seat and eagerly looked to the old elf for his knowledge. "My story begins at your wedding to Queen Bayla. When she introduced me to you that day in the library I knew she would marry you and I knew it would cause great distress to our people."

"Why didn't you say anything?" queried the farmer. "We might have avoided so much pain. She could still be alive, if I had not married her."

"Nonsense, man. She was your destiny. No words uttered in any language could have prevented your marriage or her death. She knew that from the beginning. The Great Spirit of the Forest brought a vision of you to her and she knew you would be her husband. She knew her relationship with you would cost her everything. It was a price she was more than willing to pay. She met with Tokint in secret to devise a tale of a distant relation between them that would allow him to assume the throne upon her death. He was the only elf, other than myself, that knew of your wedding and the birth of your daughter. He had vowed to guard the throne with his life until Lily was old enough to assume her place as queen of the elves and the forest. But his illness prevents him from keeping his vow."

"My daughter? She is to be your queen? What of the war? She is half human. How can your people accept her as ruler when she carries the blood of your enemies? She knew nothing of your kind until she met him," her father said pointing to Toame.

"But what of my mother? She will not allow this. She is a jealous woman and I fear she is the one responsible for keeping my father ill." added Toame.

"I believe that too, my son. She married him shortly after he had assumed the throne. I believe she may have drugged him to get him to marry to her. She is human herself and has never been kind to any elf."

"Human? My mother is human?" Toame was shocked to hear such news. He knew she didn't look like all the other elves, but he had never guessed she was human.

"Yes, my boy. Queen Amri is human. As human as the farmer here."

"Amri?!!?" shouted the farmer and Lily at the same time causing them both to look at each other in awe of the other's reaction.

The farmer refocused on the tutor. "Amri? Is she a short, heavy woman about so high with long blonde hair?" He held his hand just under his own height to demonstrate her short stature.

"Yes," responded the old elf. "You know of her?"

"I knew her once, a long time ago. I was planning to court her when I met Bayla. She is the daughter of Philip, the local medicine man. She vanished not long after my wife's death. She had asked for my hand in marriage, but my grief was too great to offer it. No one in the village knew where she went."

Lily tried to hide her disbelief. 'How could she be the Queen of the elves after what she had done to her mother? Don't they know she is the one who killed her? And doesn't that make Toame the son of her mother's murderer?' Her mind raced to find answers but she would find none here. She now understood what it was that Amri was doing. Amri had desired her father so much that she couldn't bear to see him with any one else. She must have blamed the elves for her father's rejection of her and had become their queen to destroy them. She could feel anger rise up in her chest though she refused to allow hatred to have hold on her heart. She balled her fists and began to tremble with emotion. It was all so much to take in. A week ago she was just a farmer's daughter and now she's the heir to a throne? Just days ago she found and fell in love with aboy that not only turned out be an elf, but the son of her mother's murderer. In frustration, she stood up in the middle of her guests and shouted "Falleen ami!" Light flashed through the room for an instant leaving behind a single lily upon the table. She looked to the old elf in surprise as if to ask what had just happened.

"You have spoken in an ancient language, dear girl. You mother's magic must live inside of you." He picked up the lily carefully and handed it to her father.

"What was it that I have said, Master Elf? I do not know the words," she admitted feeling a little embarrassed. The shock of what just happened supressed her confusion for the moment.

"Your words said 'reveal me' which is why the lily appeared before us. It is who you are. I can teach you the language and how use the magic I know of, if you wish."

"Oh, yes," she gleamed. "I do." Maybe through magic she could visit her mother again and learn what to do with all she had learned.

"I don't think I do," her father interrupted. "It seems too dangerous. If she starts messing around with magic, then it won't be long before all know of her. The enemies of Bayla still live and may seek to do her harm as well."

"It is a risk, yes. But a necessary risk indeed," retorted the elf.

"I will give my life to protect her, sir. I offer it willingly for I love her more than my own self," interjected Toame.

"Be careful young elf," warned the farmer. "I too made such an oath. I failed to keep that oath and my punishment has been living with that knowledge."

The old elf noticed the necklace around Lily's neck. He walked over to her and admired the intricate detail of the flower. "Your mother had a charm similar to this that I had given her when she was about your age. Hers bore the symbol of a rosebud but carried the same detail of craftsmanship."

Toame remembered the necklace from his dream. He withdrew it from his pocket and offered it to the old one. "I dreamt of Bayla last night. She gave me this necklace there. She said it would protect me in my time of need."

Tears welled up in the tutor's eyes at the sight of the necklace. It was the very necklace he had given Bayla. He took it gently from Toame's hand and fingered its design. "A rare thing indeed; to have the dead visit the living. Rarer still are gifts received in dreams. Heed her words young one, for she offers you truth beyond our understanding." He returned the necklace to the boy and retreated to his seat.

"How is it possible for her to visit him?" inquired the farmer. "I have not felt her presence since her death."

"She was a magic weaver, dear friend and of such I have little knowledge. I have no magic in my blood and therefore only know what I have observed in her family and what she herself had taught me."

"Excuse the intrusion," interrupted the skunk. "But the queen grows restless at the disappearance of her son. He should return to her before she discovers this meeting." The tutor, the prince and Lily acknowledge the skunk's advice.

"You mean that skunk can really talk to you?" shot the farmer.

"Yes, Papa. As well as you or I."

"Why can I not understand him?"

"Because I cannot speak through the bitterness in his heart," offered Jacque.

"I'm not certain," Lily lied. The farmer and the young elf had convinced the old elf to remain in the cabin due to threat against his life. Toame had promised to tell his mother of his demise so the elves would stop looking for him. The old one agreed and gave his walking stick to Toame to offer as proof of his tale. She fetched him a cloak and prayed for his safe return to his home. Jacque accompanied him to the forest paths to help him avoid prying eyes.