Chapter 6 Change in the Winds

Ilio and Edwina step up the gangplank in Rikia to arrive home for the second time to Blue Island. The mermaids had built a series of bark lodges for the family. Ilio began work on a stone house with a columned portico. He used magic in front of the mortal Edwina and invited his mother for the first meal at the completed stone house. His mother and her entourage came in style with his siblings and son Cambri now a child. Cambri was delighted playing with Jaden and Mahalah. The mermaids rejoiced at the arrival of their new lord. After settling into their new home, they toured their island. Ilio spoke of limestone cliffs, rivers full of fish, brown bears coming once a year to eat the salmon, and the enchantment of the lake monster. The Hydra, as Lexie calls her pet, is a large serpent with six heads where once there were three heads. When a head is cut off, two grow in its place. To kill the hydra is a task given to many heroes who tragically fail. It scared off the Nubian army when they tossed rocks into the lake. To enchant the beast, like Lexie has done to obtain access to her court next to the lake, magic singing must be performed. The mermaid sirens sing as they swim in the lake looking for food. The mountain lake is vast and never freezes like the rivers flowing from it do. Until Edwina learns magic singing she must avoid the lake. The family settled in and had a third child, Selena. Lexie presented a sea otter blanket for the baby. Ilio often sailed around his island and left to report to his mother in Adea. She often came by on a ship while touring her islands to hear pleas and settle disputes. Life was good with a newly built temple honoring the sea god Elexi. The mermaids and elves mined gold in the rivers stretching pieces of wool with wood sticks, running them through the gravel in the river, and hanging the wool on tree branches to dry. Soon after Selena’s birth, King Demetrius was said to sign a peace treaty with Dacia taking a river valley bordering Varrika as payment for leaving Dacia. The king allotted land to warriors who wished to cultivate the river valley. The warriors sent messages as the soldiers returned home to Blythe for their families to join them.

One warrior who would not be returning home was Prince Lucius. He died from plague no wizard could stop. His last words were said to be asking his brother to care for his wife, perhaps he cared for her after all. His neglected wife quickly married a palace guard who will inherit a grand estate. My how the times have changed since he arrived at island as a boy. After Ilio returned to sailing the seas, the great civilization of Nubia began to crash down. Wealthy landowners were more concerned with gaining luxury items than storing food for any drought years. Merchants in cities grew in wealth, but had no land and sought to rise in a society that blocked any social climbing. It began with a volcanic explosion on Kala Island where a Nubian colony thrived. It occurred during the Nubian harvest season and after North Sea celebrated the return of spring. The whole island was destroyed and covered in ash. Survivors who fled could not return home. Ilio was heading towards Thera Island near Nubia when ships came his way informing them of the ash falling like snow most of the morning in Kala. The day before fish in the lagoon died in the hot water and miners said boiling water was shooting up from the ground. Ilio directed his ships around the island to rescue the fishing villages and the inner mountain mining villagers who were certainly were rushing to the coast. He found many hiding in boat sheds. The Kala islanders sailed to Thera Island a day away and Nubia another day away for aid. Soon his ships were full of people and headed for Thera Island at sunset. They sailed all night and day to reach the city on Thera. Empty of their passengers they returned to Kala Island. Ships from Thera arrived as forceful ash and rocks were collapsing buildings. They rescued people along the river deltas.

Ilio arrived near sunset upon favorable winds to find few people suffocating and suffering burns from the hot rocks along the beaches. He circled the island listening for cries only he could hear from the rumbling of the volcano. He circled the island in the dark unknown amount of times with his lamps lit hoping people would make themselves known. People from mountain mines swam to his ships holding on the tree branches and Ilio came ashore to get their families. Once dawn came, he circled for the last time with the arriving Thera ships to find sailors begin dropping from suffocation. They put out to sea. Then, the dawn grew dark again and their lodestone compass began to spin in circles. The departing ships viewed the tower of exploding ash blowing into the clouds above with lighting flashes. A loud rumbling explosion came making their ears ring. The ship quickly raised and sunk without much fear. Queen Chloe in Nubia giving sanctuary to the newly arrived refugees was woken by a violent earthquake. People on Thera Island were woken by an earthquake and flashing lights to the north. Soon ash fell like snow on Thera, in Nubia, and all the way to Ithaca. The whole South Sea cultures felt a tremor and majestic stone temples of Thera and Nubia had walls crash down. Chloe watched from her Tanis palace as the coastal harbor sunk into a giant beach.

City dwellers not experiencing a sea wave before went out to the new beach to collect suffocating fish and sea shells. Soon, the rushing wall of water made the villagers scream in fear and quickly drowned. Bodies, broken ships, and shredded houses floated in the harbor for days as ships from further away down the coast removed debris from the water. Thera Island and Ithaca was hit with monstrous sea waves. Bear Island was hit with large waves, but not as badly damaged. Ilio quickly sailed to Nubia from Thera to check on Queen Chloe he regarded as friend. Much of Tanis had to be rebuilt and her new husband King Rashid worked with architects on the construction. Ilio found a man and dog clinging to life on floating driftwood from torn ships before they saw the coastline. Chloe was most happy to see him and eagerly listened to his tales of heroics. He then decided to return home because the coast cities would not be interested in his trade goods. When he returned to the North Sea coast, he sailed around stopping at cities in Vinland and Kassia to trade.

The hard times of that explosion were far from over. The ash blown into the sky affected the South Sea and North Sea cultures for years to come, giving a year without a summer from the ash blocking the sunlight. Read sunsets appeared where much dust was still in the air. Further away, yellow fog drifted for a year dimming the sun. Violent storms followed by heat waves killed many people in Nubia and even in Aferdia. The Nubian crops that grew when the annual flood water receded could not prosper under a darken sky. Then the floods and rainstorms came to wipe out fields and villages. The North Sea cultures were not immune to this disaster. Frosts and snowfall came in the middle of summer. Crops and fruit trees delayed the usual prosperous harvests. King Demetrius allowed his subjects to fish in his streams and hunt on his lands. Many fish eating seaweed in the seas starved and the fish that ate them began to disappear. Fisherman suffered a decline in fish and mermaids had to search deeper for their food. Brewing of liquors was forbidden since grapes, wheat, and honey were need as food for the people. Livestock of villagers and nomads suffered from the grasses killed by the frosts. Famine caused unrest in the North Sea, but the monarchs came together moving stored food to areas of most need. Many children suffered stunted growth and became shorter adults.

Dacia after losing a war with Rikia, decided to invade Armorica, great grassland with river villages and horse nomads following migrating herds. The Dacian king was determined to conquer to gain access to sea trade routes to help his people. The South Sea cultures valuing trade goods over storing foods suffered great famines. Roads were filled with dead bodies of people looking for food and ready to sell their animals at any price available. Children were abandoned in temples or sold into slavery. Even worse, the spread of the saddle invention by returning Nubian warriors and traded with the nomads gave these nomad riders more power over their settled villagers. King Rashid begged for their alliance in their army’s cavalry promising spoils of war in exchange for their ceasing their raiding of the peasant villages. The time of the war chariot was over and they were altered to the purpose of transporting nobility and royalty. King Rashid spent much of his reign fighting to cease the nomads from raiding starved villages. His army’s vulnerable status revealed, the Aferdians to the south rebelled against their viceroy and ultimately their King of Nubia. This fragile structured society broke under the strain of sea waves, floods, and famine. This South Sea country experienced the rise of the commoner that nobility and royalty look down upon. Their stagnate civilization suffered to the end.

Battles broke out around the North Sea countries between villages and cities storming each other’s storehouses. King Demetrius gave sanctuary to many lords and princes. He used his secret escape tunnels as extra food storage for years and now they became valuable in securing his power. He is praised as a hero and his subjects learned to hide his delivered grain. The failures of Queen Chloe’s several husbands now united her subjects against her. King Rashid’s army was sent out to restore order and they found families hungry after the storage house was emptied. Chloe returning from Ilio’s father’s captivity started a storage program where food taxes collected were stored instead of sold like all her husbands before Rashid did. The next year after another meager harvest, her peasants armed with farming implements and herding tools, formed an army to attack the capital. In desperation as much as preventing the destruction of Tanis, Chloe impressed her rebellious subjects by driving a chariot out the gate to meet the leader of the rebels. She assured her subjects she knew of their suffering and asserted dismay that her food relief sent to struggling princes and city lords were not distributed to the peasants. She brought out carts of food from Titania and the rebels carried back what they could to their families. King Rashid at the time was in Aferdia quenching rebellions there. Chloe agreed to common soldiers obtaining land grants once held by murdered princes. Decorated soldiers of any social status were given ships to trade and colonize uncultivated areas. Commoners were allowed positions as advisors to the king, judges in the cities, and servant positions in the royal household once held by slaves. The following harvests were better, but still fail to supply the full population.

Grand banquets became smaller at the palace and Chloe altered her gardens to grow more food. Nomads trading cheese, milk, meat for jewelry had learned about steel from the Nubians. Then, the army recruited young men eager to train. Once the lack of raids into Aferdia resulted in a lower slave population, common village farmers worked in salt mines for wages, planted food crops instead of plants used for trade goods, and sent their children to receive educations from professional lawyers, scribes, and priests. But, the nobility fighting for power in the new government along with rich merchants searching for opportunity only delayed the final revolution to overthrow the king. A weakened army of young men who have never seen battle before began to fall to the Aferdian warriors. The King of Nubia led in his chariot to watch his untrained children fight with valor and cut to pieces. Aferdia had finally won their freedom, but they did not stop there. Rashid retreated the armies back to Nubia escorting the family of the slain Viceroy of Aferdia. He returned to his palace home to find his family seeking sanctuary from being overthrown and family house burned down by the starving peasants.

Sensing doom of a failing army, Rashid supported ships to carry Nubians to various colonies. A divided and drought induced country cannot withstand the anger of the former enslaved Aferdians also suffering famine from the dimmed sun. Aferdia drunk with victory defeating the Nubians began an invasion guiding them straight to the capital Tanis in a few years. King Rashid ordered ships to carry away refugees to Nubian colonies. He asked any palace guards or servants wishing to continue service to them to prepare leaving Nubia forever. He prepared his family to flee. Following the underground passages to a forest outside the city to meet Ilio receiving Chloe’s message in the middle of a second war with Dacia, as the Nubian army retreated from the Aferdians besieging the city, came with his ship to rescue them. His allies in Ithaca and Thera came with their ships to help empty the city. Ilio sailed to Ithaca where Chloe’s daughter was married to the Crown Prince of Ithaca. Hermione’s uncle Mishca threatened to send Hermione away where the prince will never find her, if he refused to marry her. The king agreed to a dowry and Ithaca had a new princess. Shortly after, Hermione gave birth to a baby prince. Regarding Princess Sarah’s dowry she left behind, the king ordered it returned with her servants who were also sent back.

Queen Chloe was most eager to see her daughter she had with an elf during her captivity under Ilio’s father. They sought the wealthy sailor Mishca who trades all over the seas for advice where to settle. Ilio examined his map that his father made with Mishca. Ilio trades the entire world, but where new Ithacan colonies that could help support the Nubians he did not know. Lord Mishca advised a settlement along the Horn of Roden where he supported an Ithacan colony called Amberleigh. This colony near city of Kalan refugees, called Danko, was settled last year and much of the nearby terrain was explored. Mishca guided Ilio holding Queen Chloe and her family along with their loyal guards and servants to the colony Amberleigh containing a series of fishing shacks where they preserve fish in brine and a river fort. Ilio knew of the Horn of Roden, but pirates from Ithaca guarded the coastal villages so could not forage much there. Mishca allied to those pirates, knew of a wide river with many tributaries was a good place to plant wheat, collect wild rice, and raise olive gardens. The city Danko along the tributaries created river mud islands where they grew grain and prospered in medicine plants found in the marshes. Olive trees grew everywhere near the sea. Mishca was most happy to bring the Amberleigh’s first crop of olive oil to Ithaca. Ilio enjoyed the iron tools and pottery vessels they made. The herding nomads to the south visited the colonial fort and city to trade. Iron becoming popular for making tools now, the nomads become rich off trading iron ores found further inland mountains. Mishca guided Ilio along the coast and sailed upriver from Amberleigh to a tributary with view of the coast. The soldiers and servants built wood frame houses and used reeds to enclose it. Then the houses were covered with mud and gathered seeds to plant next year. Then they began working on mud bricks to build walls and later, temples and houses.

Rashid experienced in fortifications engineered watch towers and ramparts to protect against pirates. They named the new settlement Carthage and King Rashid ruled this new settlement with his queen. Prince Tati, Prince Tati’s wife, and Princess Sabrina were made Crown Prince and Princesses. Her nephew from Queen Zoe, Prince Jamar, she raised like her own son was made a commander of the guards. Jamar’s wife proved herself an accomplished merchant and followed Chloe whenever she visited Amberleigh. Rashid proved himself a hunter and gardener who sought herbs from Danko when his people became ill. When Ilio returned a year later to visit Carthage, after Demetrius defeated the Dacians again, he was welcomed as a friend complete with grand banquet. Chloe was grateful for the good friends she had in this time of need. The Aferdian King of Nubia would have killed them all if he had the chance. She feared the fate of her poor subjects she was forced to leave behind. Being a foreign merchant, Ilio had access to her subjects glad they overthrew their royalty and angry with the new Aferdian government treating them like an inconvenience. Many saw opportunities for advancement during Rashid’s reign being lost upon the new kingdom cementing their control. Those who intermarried with the conquerors lived better lives as Aferdian warlords divided the land among themselves. Ilio made a fortune transporting Nubians away from their homeland and settling in colonies who elected their own kings and chiefs who failed at paying tributes to the new Aferdian king. Naturally, they desired their independence. Chloe was glad to see many Nubians of various trades wanted to return to their queen in Carthage. Danko gained many immigrants as well.

While Nubia was falling apart , King Demetrius returning from the first war with Dacia fully supported his subjects in colonizing Varrika, new Dacian river valley he gained, Vinland on the other side of Kadacia, Kassia beyond Vinland, and even went around Kassia to the Teutonic Forest to the north of Dacia. Merchants grew rich and educated their children to hold political appointments. Mass migrations decreased the concentration of the population so in drought years the famines were less devastating. King Oskar returning from Dacia placed Crown Prince Ragnar in charge of moving around food from storehouses when a flood hit a valley full of villages. Ragnar helped repair bridges, dams, and levees. In times of need, Oskar allowed hunting in his forested parks and fishing in his waters. He also replaced any viceroys stained with corruptive greed. The Amazons still attacked anyone poaching in their sacred forests. They traded enormously with merchant caravans coming through. Villages and nomad camps occasionally were attacked, but trading gradually replaced raids. Elves who stayed in the Amazon valley after the Varrick War, taught these human women all about planting crops. The Grassland elves would gather prairie grasses far from the rivers where it was too difficult to plow to burn in order to fertilize their crops.

Around the forest, they gathered reeds and grasses to twist into rope. Mud from the bottom of streams was dug out to help the crops grow. Elves taught the Amazons to also place fish with seeds when they plant them to help them grow. Amazons love to eat fish and the leftover scraps were buried in their gardens. The elves had much food crops to trade with the caravans and sent food to the valley that was flooded. Queen Chloe was amazed how these north barbarian countries could unite their subjects in times of war and crisis while her subjects united against her under stress. King Demetrius declared the betrothal of Princess Sarah to Crown Prince Ragnar. Queen Andromeda and Queen Penelope negotiated a betrothal contract during the Dacian War. Once the war was over, Princess Sarah was sent to Lotan to marry Crown Prince Ragnar. Her sisters and their husbands joined the journey and rode horses in the procession. Naturally, the royal family wanted a tale from Titania none of them had even seen. Ilio enchanted them with a trip to see his friend Chief Dagan.

A year after Ilio and Edwina left Titania; many elves started dying from a curious illness they never seen before. Rashes and boils deformed the victims before killing them with fever. Dagan and healers gave the usual fever and rash medicines to watch their friends die in vain. Returning elf warriors and Dark Mountain sailors found their families wiped out and buried. Dagan traveled to the Witch of Endora Mountain for a cure. She gave him a mountain plant that aided in bringing down the bewitching fever so fewer stricken elves died. Those who survived could live on scarred from their boils. Returning from Endora, he rested near the mountain elf village Tinsleigh with his fairy Mattie, a bear cub came running through the grasses in fear of strange creatures that just killed his mother inside their cave home. At first, the bear cub was afraid he was one of the creatures readying an ambush and squealed. Mattie approached the quivering cub hiding behind a rock. Guarding the cub, he discovered humans from Caledonia were there and said prayers for the mother bear carved in pieces. They must have brought the sickness upon the elves. Dagan arrived in Ainsleigh with this disturbing news. Caledonians were the ones kidnapping elves and taking them to parts unknown. With the chief dead and his family decimated, Dagan was appointed leader of the war party to defeat the human camp.

They discovered the encampment by talking to hummingbirds. They covered their skin, armor, and shields with black paint in preparation. At dusk, they attacked the beach and set their ships on fire with incendiary arrows. Dagan led the warriors to attack the tents. He howled to call a wolf pack eager for a meal. Caledonians retreated into the forest to find cave lions, cave hyenas, and terror pigs hunting for food. After the massacre on the beach, Dagan was elected new Chief of Ainsleigh the next morning. Then a miracle appeared, a sword with a gilded hilt appeared projecting out of a boulder near the river. An inscription was visible upon the golden handle “For the heir of Chief of Ainsleigh”. Ilio suspected it was Queen Lexie’s magic that places the sword there. The deceased Chief Uther had a few living relatives who resided in other villages, but it were difficult to know who was the proper heir. Chief Dagan declared he will step aside as chief until someone pulls the sword out of the stone. Ilio sent a letter to Lexie asking if she was the one who placed the sword there to receive an indirect answer. Ilio let go of the mystery and simply waited like everyone else for the heir to arrive.

In addition to his chief duties, Dagan apprenticed elves who eventually joined Dark Mountain elf ships or one of Ilio’s ships. Oh, the stories they got to tell of life outside Titania. After the Kala Island explosion, Titania enjoyed much rainfall giving them bountiful harvests. These elves enjoyed trading food with Ilio for iron tools. When Ilio returned to sailing the seas, he tried hard to discover what happened to the lost elves that were sent to Caledonia as apprentices to learn iron making and never returned for over twenty years now. He searched the island ports and villages for anyone knowing about any elves to find the apprentices were at the mountain iron mines making steel, but never permitted to leave. Other elves were kidnapped along the coastal Titania by ship captains and brought here to mine the iron. One young elf declared his father had said he came from another land and thought he was an apprentice to find he would never be allowed to leave. He tried to escape on a ship to be caught and hung on a tree limb as a warning to others. His father said his friend also from this faraway land hopped on a ship, but the ship never returned. It was believed the ship sunk or attacked by pirates. Ilio recalled as a boy under command of his father, Pirate King of Vassily, which on a ship they attacked looking for tin held a young elf. The elf boy said he was from a village on the Anora River, but his father did not know where this Anora River was located. His father never landed in Titania. Elves in Ainsleigh instructed a river a league to the north is named Anora. This elf boy caught a fever in Adea a month later so it was left as a mystery to them. In Caledonia, Ilio gathered his ships and guided the enslaved elves in attacking their masters with weapons they had made. Escaping to Titania, the elves recited horrors of starvation, whippings, slaves being sacrificed to appease the Caledonian gods, and working in dark caves all the time. Ainsleigh welcomed the long lost elves home and quite enraged when these Caledonian men gave them a plague. When Ilio arrived with his ships to trade, he greeted like a hero returning home with their lost elves and sat beside Chief Dagan and his family during the evening meal.

Soon, he wanted to see the grasslands again and packed up for the journey over the mountains. He rode his horse Atara and Dagan rode the grown up Bodin, a black stallion. Chitzi rowed a canoe down the river with the Ainsleigh elves. In Ilio’s absence, Chitzi married an elf from Ryeleigh along the Anora River who caught the pox illness and nearly died when Dagan returned with the mountain plant to save her life. Dagan’s mermaid wife Tiffy stayed behind with their children and their animal friends. The grasslands east of the Ice Mountains were exactly how Ilio remembered them. How he wished Edwina were here with him. The river village elves in colorful linen and nomads in decorated leather celebrated the beginning of summer. Music was played and elves danced. Trade commenced and food eaten. Along the journey, Ilio gathered a few apprentices ready to learn sailing and magic. Ilio promised to return the apprentices in one year’s time as his friend Captain Ivhar routinely did his apprentices. One apprentice reaching his adult ceremony next year soon met a pretty face in the nomad tent city. Betrothed to another nomad, the pretty face could not openly show her admirer affection. After enough beasts were killed and possessions traded, the coastal elves prepared to return to the mountains. The pretty face attempted to come with the departing elves. When it was discovered she was missing, her father and betrothed chased down the departing elves. They found them camped at a river catching fish and the betrothed attacked the object of pretty face’s affections. On a rare occurrence, Ilio used his magic to break up the fight. The pretty face Kaley, the betrothed, Kaley’s father, orphan boy Lothar, and Ilio returned to the tents. The tent nomad chief held a session to determine to resolution of this problem. Kaley’s father was hesitant breaking the agreement since the betrothed’s father was a proven hunter, war leader, and expert trader. Kaley felt an attachment with Lothar who no longer had a family. He was given to Ilio by a Tinsleigh priest who failed to save his family. Kaley’s father felt ashamed of this social attachment of his daughter. Pretty face Kaley declared her desire for the orphan boy Lothar declaring his kindness towards her and encouraging prospects. Lothar came forward declaring he had nothing to offer his prospective bride in earthly goods. Lord Ilio was widely respected tutor and very rich merchant ruling over a mermaid island. Lothar could learn much from Ilio and come back wealthy in the coming years. Ilio spoke of his apprenticeships and assuring many his pupils have joined ships and settled on different colonies.

The tent elves’ chief declared the betrothal broken and a new betrothal created. The chief declared that former betrothed should go to the Witch of Endora to see who his rightful betrothal should be located. Ilio took the scorned betrothed with him and came back with news how the Witch said his future betrothal will lose her love in two years. In two years, they can ask for a betrothal to the maiden. The solution was complete and orphan boy left happy with his pretty face under Ilio’s care, since her father disowned her despite her mother’s weeping cries of mercy. Lothar and Kaley joined Ilio on the return trip to the coast to walk the gangplank into service. Kaley soon became sea sick and Ilio gave her ginger tea to settle her stomach. As they arrived at Knossos ready to trade, grave news struck like a knife into Ilio’s heart. His wealthy friend Sorcha had died of pox that has killed half the city. In their attempt to find the wizard or witch who cursed the city, many street urchins and prostitutes were killed and their bodies burned to rid the city of the curse. The city docks were empty of ships and the cart pushers had a short walk to the city gates. Ilio took his ship around the island to look for herbs to heal the sick city. He returned with willow bark for pain and fever, elderberry for fever and pox rashes, grape seed and oil to repel evil spirits, ginger roots for the upset stomach, and horse tails the Witch of Endora introduced Dagan to. Horse tails can be cooked and eaten to fight the evil spirits as well as healing the skin. He brought his herbs to the temples for of sick city dwellers. His ship left for Carthage to check on Queen Chloe. Ilio took his apprentices Lothar and Kaley to the temple giving instructions how to administer the herbs. He gave them rose hips and wine from the ship to strengthen their fight against the evil spirits canvassing the city. Ilio saw demons and banshees everywhere in the temples. Hearing the miracle herbs of Ilio, a father arrived with his dying son praying to the gods for a cure. A priest declared the child to be dead from the sight of a demon lingering over him. Ilio approached and felt the boy’s chest.

“Mirror,” demanded Ilio.

A silver mirror was brought and Ilio placed it under the boy’s nose. A few moments later it was moist from the boy’s shallow breath.

“Boy is not dead yet. I need cold water. Now!” asserted Ilio.

The priest directed Ilio to the temple’s fountain. Ilio dropped the boy into the pool and stood in the cold water splashing the boy to awaken him. After soaking the boy, Ilio sat down along the edge of the pool and waited for the boy to shiver. It did not take very long. He then was directed to the Marine Gate leading to the seashore. Sea water is much colder than river water because of the salt. Soon many pox victims suffering a fever were brought to fountains, rivers, and the sea coast to break the fever. Herbs were given until they all disappeared. Many humans were saved and decided to erect a statue of Ilio at the sea god temple. His ship returned to Knossos after a month full of supplies along with jewelry, tools, pottery containing wine and olive oil, and linen from Nubia. They traded in the market place and stuffed the ship full of goods to trade in Adea and Kara. Lady Edwina was most happy to meet Lothar and Kaley. Edwina in Ilio’s absence had been busy weaving new cattail mats for their stone house floor. Ilio was quite pleased with his new home. The royal family of Lotan applauded at Ilio’s story and continued the feast celebrating Crown Prince Ragnar’s and Crown Princess Sarah’s wedding.

After recovering from the Dacian War, expanding colonies, famines, and raising Prince Kiernan to be a king, King Demetrius soon found himself fighting Dacians again invading Armorica to the north of Kadacia. The meager harvests from Year Without a Summer and frosts killing plants and livestock dependent on it stretched his available resources to the end. Now Dacia had invaded Armorica ruled by grassland nomadic warlords and small village chiefs. They were no match to conniving Dacians who divided the clans and conquered them with promises of riches they could trade. Many women and children were sent into slavery in Dacia. Soon Ilio was called to help fight the Dacians. But before they march into unmapped Armorica, they needed surveillance. He sent in Ilio with Amazon Valley elves to trade with the warlords who migrate according to the movements of herds. Amazons knew the parts of Armorica where the horse lords come together during festivals. The Midsummers celebration was coming soon where the nomads congregated at the Anasazi River where a human village Adelia was located. Ilio planned to attend the festival with forty carts full of trade goods he thought the warlords would like. The village of Adelia was attacked by Dacian and Nomad warlords and the survivors ran to a leprechaun fort along the border of Kadacia. King Demetrius hoped the Nomads would believe the elves of Amazon Valley would have no knowledge of this raid and accept this merchant caravan into their camp. Amazons are raiders themselves and possibly could get along well with another warrior culture. Ilio and his partner Layla, who was in the valley to collect gold, traveled across the tall prairie grasslands with wagons, horses, and hunting dogs. The Queen of the Amazons took on a husband who came with a pair of hunting dogs that flushed out animals hiding in the grass so the husband could shoot them. The merchant caravan found the burnt houses of Adelia. The Nomads came a day later. They explained they found the villagers were dead with disease and they burnt the houses as their memorial. They removed themselves to keep from getting the disease and collected food elsewhere. Traders were due to arrive at the village for the Midsummers festival so they returned. Another merchant caravan arrived from the north the next day after that. Ilio slung them a story of his origin the Nomads and Dacians were most eager to hear from this stranger.

Ilio recited being born in an elf Varrick village. When he was an infant, their village was attacked by humans looking for feed their army. All humans look alike to the elves so his parents were unsure which neighbor attacked them. They brought him to the Amazon Valley where elves were begging for sanctuary in exchange for growing plants for Amazons. Amazons were hunters and gatherers of plant foods, not farmers like the elves. In exchange for protection from the human soldiers marching through from Kadacia, the elves planted food, fished in streams, and made pottery and jewelry for the Amazons. Then a wizard married to a goddess brought a small mermaid’s son to negotiate for gold. Mermaid weapons are gilded in order to protect them from the seawater. The Queen agreed so mermaids came and dug for gold with the elves in the rivers and in the mountain caves. Twice a year a caravan of mermaids come to collect the gold. Ilio grew up with Amazon, mermaid, and elf children in the village school. He learned much geography, history, tool making, writing in several languages, and mathematics. As he reached the age of apprenticeships, the Amazon queen recommended leaving with the mermaids and is a pupil of their Queen Layla of Lara Island. He had the potential of being the husband of a future Amazon queen. But when they reached the port Rikia, the ships refused to sail towards The Mermaid Islands that were suddenly under siege. A convoy of ships from the islands came and signed an agreement with the Rikian king to join the war against Nubia. The mermaids carrying the gold sailed with a pirate convoy under Captain Colby, Lord of Adea, to the western island Lara where Queen Layla ruled. He began as cabin boy and valet to the Captain learning to make tools out of anything you can find whether it is bone, stone, and wood, feathers, copper, bronze, or iron. He learned to fight on land and sea, smuggle goods into Adea, and trade or raid for supplies. He stayed behind on Lara Island once the battles ended and Nubians went home. He learned about magic and healing from Layla. As he reached his adult ceremony, he joined a ship’s crew as assistant carpenter and sail maker. He sailed all over the North and South Seas. He took on a human wife and longed to return home to visit his family. Queen Layla came with him to help carry the gold back to the coast. This merchant caravan is the first he has been in charge of. He wants to bring riches to his wife to enjoy.

The Nomads and Dacian caravan enjoyed his tale and Layla thought they believed such a wild pack of lies. Ilio asked about where the merchant caravan from the south could be. Nomads were concerned about that too. Perhaps, another tribe or Kadacians attacked them. Ilio knew the Kadacian merchants were terrified to trade with the nomads once the Adelia survivors spun their tale of raiders. The Midsummers festival began with bonfires and dancing. As a magic healer, Layla was requested to tell fortunes as was Ilio. One Dacian provided a spear point made of iron and asked for a fortune beyond a year that is standard practice looking at mint leaves in a tea cup. Ilio declared that required an omen ceremony and he needed time to cook the potion. At dusk when the feast begins, he will produce his fortune. Ilio felt afraid to sit near this Dacian, iron spear point or not. An aura of blood surrounded him and cries from innocent lives he took cried from the afterlife warning of danger. Ilio continued on reading mint leaves soaked in clay cups. As Ilio prepared the omen ceremony, he told the man that murder is steaming from his armor. The Dacian smirked stating murder must be steaming from his pirate armor too. The Dacian explained he was a soldier in the Blythan Invasion of Dacia and yes, killed many men in battle and raided supply caravans. Ilio understood where he got the spear point of iron; Dacians did not possess many iron weapons because they have not learned about steel to make it stronger. Iron by itself is weaker than bronze and hard to shape. Ilio assumed the Dacian soldier gave up this valuable treasure from lack of value he saw in it. Ilio did see sapphires and silver on this Dacian. He traded his shark tooth necklace for the Dacian sapphire and silver ring. Wearing this Dacian ring, it gave Ilio insight into the life of this murderer when he completed his omen potion. Ilio called upon the spirits and fate goddess Freya for assistance. He viewed the smoke as many squinted to see what he saw. Ilio gasped.

The Dacian has only a short amount of time left to live. He will be killed during a raid on the nomad horse lords. He is shot by his enemy to fall off his horse. News will carry of his assumed death to his family. His wife will become the wife of another and the new husband will abuse his two sons to the point they run away to join the army. The Dacian claimed he had no sons, but only a daughter. Ilio declared the girl will die with her friends during an epidemic and will be mourned by his sons. The Dacian disliked his future and sought to change it. Ilio could look for possible changes, in exchange for completing a map of Amorica. The Dacian used Ilio’s paints to sketch out the migration route of the opposing nomads and villages along the rivers. He was very careful not to trace his ally’s movements or the burned villages he helped wipe out. When finished, Ilio recommended sending his wife to live with her parents in another village while he is away. The mother of the wife will seek to protect her grandchildren from the new husband and the children would know a place to escape to. Ilio then thought on his death. He could be away from the raid by becoming a messenger to the Dacian king. Ilio studied the map carefully and pointed to a lake on the migration route where the nomads camp before the winter. The Dacian will be killed after the harvest and before the New Year when his allies raid the winter camp. His omen ceremony completed, the night continued with a feast and dancers telling stories.

Ilio returned to Rikia a hero in the eyes of King Demetrius. He lavished gold onto the mapmaker. Ilio sailed to Lara Island to drop off Layla and came home to his family. King Demetrius reinforced his Kadacian border sending soldiers to villages and leprechaun forts. He sent an envoy to offer assistance to the nomads on the map at their winter camp. He offered iron weapons, blacksmith apprenticeships in repair and maintenance of the iron, war horses, and livestock. He ordered soldiers to protect the merchant caravans trading with villages left to be attacked. At the villages, they help build fortifications, taught military tactics, and offered sanctuary for any villagers wishing to move after hearing about Adelia. Beacons were set up to warn other villages of attack. Many villagers and nomads decided to move much of their livestock to the leprechaun forts along the Kadacia border. The women and children tended the animals at the forts while the men prepared to defend their villages and camps. King Demetrius delayed an all-out war with Dacia until he gathered his resources and new recruits from colonies. Dacia was using these nomads to start a civil war resulting in the conquering of Armorica and so Demetrius did the same with the other side to halt the impending attacks on Kadacia.

As time went on, villages were attacked by the nomads allied with Dacia. Village messengers went sent away to announce to the camped nomads of these attacks. The Nomads rode out to the face their enemy and rescued any survivors. They witnessed burned houses and the raiders taking anything they could carry. These raiding nomads knew something was amiss in this raid. Why the other nomads were so close to the villages and why were there no women or children around? Word must have spread about their attacks, but how, when they killed everyone they saw. They decided that the weak ones ran from the attack and hided out in nearby villages. They must have employed the nomads as protection since they are trade partners. Villagers continued to plant their crops with aid from increasing legions of soldiers from Kadacia. Generals eager to increase their favor with the king acted as village chiefs and trained the villagers in battle tactics. Dacia also increased their cavalry in the nomad ranks and began attacking the border of Kadacia. King Demetrius was forced to send relief to the besieged forts.