The Dragon King Trilogy

STEPHEN R.

LAWHEAD

OTHER TITLES BY STEPHEN R. LAWHEAD

KING RAVEN TRILOGY:

Hood

Scarlet

Patrick, Son of Ireland

THE CELTIC CRUSADES:

The Iron Lance

The Black Rood

The Mystic Rose

Byzantium

SONGOF ALBION TRILOGY:

The Paradise War

The Silver Hand

The Endless Knot

THE PENDRAGON CYCLE:

Taliesin

Merlin

Arthur

Pendragon

Grail

Avalon

Empyrion I: The Search for Fierra

Empyrion II: The Siege of Dome

Dream Thief

The Dragon King Trilogy, Book One

In the Hall of the Dragon King © 1982, 1996, 2002, 2007 by Stephen Lawhead The Warlords of Nin © 1982, 1996, 2002, 2007 by Stephen Lawhead The Sword and the Flame © 1982, 1996, 2002, 2007 by Stephen Lawhead

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Map drawn by Helen Cann.

ISBN 978-1-59554-518-3 (trilogy)

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 RRD 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Ross,

my golden one

with all my love.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

1

The snow lay deep and undisturbed beneath the silver light of a dawning sky. Overhead, a raven surveyed a silent landscape as its black wings feathered the cold, thin air. The bird’s rasping call was the only sound to be heard for miles, breaking the frozen solitude in irregular staccato. All around, the land lay asleep in the depths of winter.

Every bear, every fox, hare, and squirrel was warm in its rustic nest. Cattle and horses stood contented in their stalls, heads drooping in slumber or quietly munching the first of the day’s provender. In the country, smoke drifted from peasant huts into the windless sky from rough-hewn chimneys, sent aloft from hearth fires tended through the night. The village, clustered close about the mighty walls of Askelon Castle, slept in pristine splendor, a princess safe in the arms of her protector.

All through the land nothing moved, nothing stirred, save the raven wheeling slowly overhead.

Quentin lay shivering in his cell, a huddled ball topped by a thin woolen blanket that he clasped tightly around his ears in a resolute effort to keep out the night chill. He had been awake, and cold, long before the sullen sky showed its drab gray through the lone slit of a window high up in his cell. Now the gloom had receded sufficiently to make out the dim outlines of the simple objects that furnished his bare apartment.

Next to the straw pallet where he slept stood a sturdy oaken stool, made by the hand of a local peasant. A table of the same craft stood against the wall opposite his bed, containing his few personal articles: a clay bowl for his supper, a candle in a wooden holder, a small bell for his prayers, and a parchment scroll on which were written all the rules and observances of his acolyte’s office, which, after almost three years, Quentin was still struggling to memorize.

From somewhere in the inner recesses of the temple, the chime of a bell sounded. Quentin groaned, then jumped up in bed, pulling the blanket around his shoulders. Today was the day, he remembered. The day of great change. He wondered what it would be, for as closely as he had followed the portents he could not guess it.

All the omens had pointed to a change: the ring around the moon for three nights before the snow, the storm itself coming on his name day, a spider he’d seen busily constructing a web across his door (although that had been some time ago, he hadn’t forgotten).

There was no doubt—a change was forecast.

Its exact nature remained a mystery, but such was often the pleasure of the gods to leave part of the prophecy hidden. He had at last deduced the date of the change by a dream in which he had climbed a high mountain and then had leaped from its very pinnacle and sailed out into space, not falling but flying. Flying dreams were always lucky. His lucky day was always a holy day, and this day, the feast of Kamali—admittedly a minor holy day—was the first holy day to have fallen since his dream.

Today, without question, was the eventful day; the tokens were indisputable. Quentin reviewed them in his mind as he hurriedly threw his coarse, heavy acolyte’s robe over his head of close-cropped brown hair. He stuffed his feet into baggy stockings and laced the thongs of his sandals around them tightly. Then, grabbing his prayer bell, he dashed out of the cubicle and into the dark, chilly corridor beyond.

Quentin was halfway down the high-arched passageway when another bell sounded. A deep, resonant peal rang out in three short intervals. A brief pause. And then three again. Quentin puzzled over the meaning of this bell; he had not heard it before that he could remember.

Suddenly it came to him. Alarm!

He stopped, confused. As he turned to run toward the sound of the bell, he collided blindly with the round, fully padded form of Biorkis, one of the elder priests.

“Oof, lad!” cried the priest good-naturedly. “No need for panic.”

“That was the alarm bell just now!” cried Quentin, inching around the puffing priest. “We must hurry!”

“No need. The servants of Ariel do not run. Besides,” he added with a wink, “that was a summons bell. Not the alarm.” Quentin suddenly felt very foolish. He felt his face coloring. His eyes sought the stone flagging at his feet. The jovial priest placed a heavy arm on Quentin’s young shoulders. “Come, we will see what drags us from our warm slumbers so early on this chilly morning.”

The two moved off down the corridor together and shortly came to the vast entrance hall of the temple. A cold, stinging wind was rushing through the huge open doors at the entrance. A priest in a scarlet cassock, one of the order of temple guards, was already pulling the giant wooden doors closed. Three other priests stood round a large, shapeless bundle lying at their feet on the floor. Whatever it was, the dark bundle, uncertain in the dim morning light, had been recently dragged in from the outdoors—a trail of snow attested to the fact, as did the snow-encrusted bundle itself.

Closer, Quentin saw the bundle was that of a human form wrapped heavily against the cold. The priests were now bending over the inert shape, which to all appearances seemed dead. Biorkis placed a warning hand on Quentin’s arm and stepped slowly forward.

“What is this, good brothers? A wayward pilgrim early to the shrine?”

“This is no pilgrim by the look of him,” said the guard, rubbing his hands to restore the warmth. “More likely a beggar for our feast day torts.”

“Then he shall have them,” replied Biorkis.

“He is past nourishment,” observed Izash, the eldest priest of the temple, whose symbol of office was a long braided beard. “Or he very soon will be, I fear.” He tapped his sacred white rod and stirred the air in front of him, indicating that the man should be turned over, the better to see his face.

Two junior priests knelt over the lifeless form and gingerly tugged at the wider part of the bundle, which formed the man’s shoulders. The priests, overly careful not to defile themselves lest they should find themselves touching a dead body, ineffectually jerked at the corners of the rough fur skins the man wore for warmth. Biorkis watched the timid struggle with impatience, finally exploding, “Get out of the way! I’m not afraid of Azrael; my hands have touched worse!” He stooped over the body and rolled it into his arms.

Quentin, moving around the perimeter for a better look, gasped at the sight. The man’s face was ashen white, and his lips, pressed together in a thin line, were blue. He appeared completely frozen. But even as Quentin looked on fearfully, the man’s eyelids flickered. Biorkis, noticing the remnant of life, ordered one of the junior priests away. “Bring wine, brother. Hurry! And a vial of unction.” And to the rest he directed, “Here, now! Help me loosen his wraps. We may pull him back from Heoth yet.”

The priests fell upon the motionless figure, carefully unwrapping the layers of clothing. Their astonishment showed visibly in their faces when they had finished, and in the face of the priest who had just then returned with the wine and unguent.

There on the floor before them lay a knight in rude battle dress. His head was encased in a leather helm with crisscrossed bands of iron. His torso carried a breastplate of the same make and material, but studded with short spikes, and his forearms and shins were sheathed in studded guards.

Biorkis, still holding the man’s head, tugged at the strap fastening the helmet. It rolled free, clanking upon the stone floor, and a murmur went up from those surrounding. Quentin looked away. The knight’s head was a mass of blood. An open wound gaped just over his temple, where the skin and bone had been crushed by a sharp blow.

The kind priest knelt with the knight’s head on his knees and pushed the man’s matted hair from his forehead. He gently loosed the bindings of the breastplate, and two priests set it aside. A groan emerged from the man’s throat, shallow at first, then gaining in strength.

“The vial,” Biorkis ordered. Snatching it up and dipping two fingers into the salve, the priest smoothed the healing ointment upon the man’s face. Its aromatic vapors produced an immediate result, for the soldier’s eyes flickered again and then snapped open as those of a man struggling out of a dream.

“So, he is to be with us a little longer,” said Izash. “Give him some wine. He may tell us of his errand.” The old priest stepped closer and leaned low on his staff to hear better what might transpire.

Biorkis administered the wine as the knight, without strength enough to tilt his head, allowed the liquor to be poured down his throat. In Biorkis’s hands the wine seemed to have a magical effect. Color seeped slowly back into the man’s face, and his breathing now deepened where before there had been no discernible breath at all.

“Welcome, good soldier.” Izash addressed the knight respectfully. “If you feel like talking, perhaps you could tell us how you have come here and why.”

The fair-headed knight rolled his eyes and attempted to twist his head in the direction of the speaker. The effort brought a wave of pain that washed full across his features. He sank back into Biorkis’s lap.

By now other priests had gathered close about, drawn by the summons. They spoke in low voices with one another, speculating upon the strange visitor who lay before them. The knight opened his eyes again, and they shone bright and hard as if strength or will was returning. He opened his mouth to speak; his jaw worked the air, but no sound came forth.

“More wine,” Biorkis called. As the cup was handed to him, the plump priest tugged out a pouch from the folds of his robe. He dipped into the small leather bag and sprinkled a pinch of the contents into the drink. He then lowered the cup to the knight’s lips once more. The prostrate man drank more readily and, finishing, paused before attempting to speak again.

“Now, sir, enlighten an old busybody if you will. That is, if you have no reason to conceal your errand.” Izash inclined his old head; his white beard fell almost to the floor. A slight smile creased his lined face as if to coax the words forth with kindness.

“I am Ronsard,” the knight said, his voice cracking. Another sip of wine followed that exertion. His eyes, steel gray in the silver light, looked around at the tight circle of faces bent over him. “Where am I?” he asked quietly.

“You are among friends,” Biorkis told him. “This is the holy Temple of Ariel, and we are his priests. You may speak freely. No harm can reach you here.”

As if reassured by the soothing words, the knight licked his lips and said with as much strength as he could muster, “I am come from the king.”

The words were simple, but they struck the ears of the listeners like thunder. The king! He comes from the king! The murmur rose to echo from the high-vaulted arches of the temple.

Only Izash, still leaning on his rod, seemed unimpressed.

“Our king? Or someone else’s?” the elderly priest asked.

“King Eskevar,” the fallen knight answered with spirit.

The name sent another ripple through the gathered priests. The king had been absent so long, his name unheard among his own countrymen, that hearing it now brought hope to all gathered there.

“And what of the king?” the old priest continued. His probing had a method to it; he was occupying the knight, making him forget his wounds and the pain that twisted his rugged features.

“I cannot say more. The rest is for the queen alone.” The fighting man gulped air and licked his lips again. “I was waylaid last night— ambushed by outlaws who now sleep with the snow.”

The knight looked up at the faces of the priests bending over him. Fresh blood oozed from his wound, opened again by his exercise.

“Worry not,” said Biorkis soothingly. “You will remain with us until you are able to resume your errand.” He motioned to several of the younger priests to help him lift the soldier onto a pallet that had been brought. “No one will bother you for the details of your mission. Your secret is safe within these walls. Rest now. I do not like the look of that wound.”

“No!” the knight shouted hoarsely, his face contorted in agony. Then in a strange, rasping whisper, “I’m dying. You must deliver my message to the queen. It must not wait.”

Biorkis stooped with the knight’s head gently in his hands as the man was carefully transferred to the pallet. The knight clutched the wooden sides of the bed and raised himself up on his elbows. Blood ran freely down the side of his head and neck, staining his green tunic a dull, rusty gray.

“You must help me!” he demanded. “One of you must go in my stead to the queen.”With that he fell back in a swoon upon his bed. The color had run from his face. He appeared dead to those who looked on in fear and wonder.

The priests glanced from one to another helplessly. Biorkis stood, his hands dripping with the knight’s fresh blood. He searched the faces of his brothers and gauged the worry there. Then he stepped close to Izash, who motioned him aside.

“Here is an unwanted problem,” the old priest observed. “I see no help we can offer, save all that is in our power to heal his wounds and send him speedily on his way.”

“The delay—what of that?”

“It cannot be helped, I’m afraid.”

“Though we do all in our power to heal him, still he may die,” Biorkis objected. “He is as good as dead already.” Something in the knight’s voice, his look, spoke to Biorkis. The man had certainly overcome some crushing odds, and even now he refused his deathbed on the strength of the message alone. Whatever the tidings, this news of the king’s was of the highest importance. More important than life itself.

At that moment the knight regained consciousness. He was now too weakened to raise himself up, however. A low moan escaped his clenched teeth. “He is with us still,” said Izash. “How persistent the courier is.”

Biorkis and the old priest placed their heads close to the knight’s. “Good Ronsard,” Biorkis whispered. “Do not tax yourself further for your life’s sake. We possess some skill in healing and have often delivered a soul from Manes’s hands. Rest now. Let us tend your wounds and strengthen you to your purpose.”

“No!” the knight objected with surprising force. “There’s no time. One of you must ride to the queen.” His eyes implored the priest.

“Sir, you do not know what you ask,” Izash answered. He waved an arm to include the whole of the assembled priests. “We are under sacred vows and cannot leave the temple, except on pilgrimage or matters of the highest sacred import. The fate of nations, kings, and powers concerns us not at all. We serve only the god Ariel; we are his subjects alone.”

Biorkis looked sadly down upon the dying man. “He speaks the cold heart of the oath we have taken. My own heart says, ‘Go,’ but I cannot. For to leave the temple on this errand would mean breaking our sacred vows. Any priest who did that would forfeit his whole life’s work and his soul’s eternal happiness. There are none here who would risk that, nor would I ask it of them.”

The priests nodded solemnly in agreement. Some shrugged and turned away lest they be drafted to the task; others held out their hands in helpless supplication.

“Will not one of you match your life with mine? Will no one risk the displeasure of the god to save the king?” The knight’s challenge sounded loud in the ears of those around him, although he’d spoken in barely a whisper.

“I will go,” said a small, uncertain voice.

Biorkis, Izash, and the other priests turned toward the voice. There in the shadow of the arch stood the slight figure belonging to the voice. The figure stepped slowly forward to stand by the side of the dying knight.

“You, Quentin?” Biorkis asked in amazement; the others whispered behind their hands. “You would go?”

2

The mighty horse carried his insignificant rider with tireless ease. Trained in the hard school of combat, Balder was used to bearing the weight of grown men in full armor upon his broad back. Quentin, clinging like a cold leaf to the magnificent animal’s neck, was scarcely a burden at all.

The day was young and still overcast as on the day previous, but the low cloud covering showed signs of breaking up before long. The wind had freshened, sending whirling white clouds across the tops of the drifts with every fitful gust. Each blast sent a shiver along Quentin’s ribs. He wondered whether he would ever be warm again. But he did not greatly mind the discomfort, for at last the change long foretold was in motion. Where it would lead, what it would mean, he did not know. For the present he was caught up in the adventure of it, yet he kept his eyes sharp to any omen that might present itself.

Nothing presented itself to his gaze except a vast expanse of white, unbroken except by irregular dark lumps mushrooming out of the snow. These were the peasant huts, and sometimes he saw a face peer at him from around the corner of a doorpost, or a timid wave acknowledge his presence as a bent form hobbled through the snow under a burden of firewood.

In his seven years’ cloister within the temple, the land, it seemed to Quentin, had changed little. Yet it had changed. There was something unmistakable in the eyes of the peasants he met, something that struck him fresh each time he saw it. Was it fear?

The thought gave him an uneasy feeling. Was something loose in the land that caused these simple people to be afraid?

The great chestnut warhorse plodded steadily on, his hooves silenced by the cushion of snow. Billows of steam spouted from the animal’s nostrils as its hot breath touched the icy air. Quentin turned his thoughts back on the brief procession of events that had placed him in Ronsard’s saddle, on Ronsard’s horse.

There had been a long, intemperate discussion following his spontaneous offer to assist the knight in accomplishing his mission. Everyone concerned—Biorkis, Izash, the other priests, and even the knight himself—had been against it. And still, when all the facts were laid end to end, there was no better plan. Quentin would go at once, allowing only a day’s rest and feeding for the horse. The animal had been found patiently standing in the outer courtyard of the temple, where his master had left him before climbing and then collapsing upon the outer steps. It was the horse’s whinny to his fallen rider that had alerted the temple guards, who then discovered the wounded, half-frozen knight.

Reluctantly, Biorkis had given his approval to the enterprise, for although his young age was against him, Quentin was the only logical choice. He was merely an acolyte, not a priest, as yet not having taken his vows or completed his initiation—a process that normally encompassed twenty years or more. Quentin had really only begun his instruction. At fifteen he still had years of study ahead of him; others his own age were already novitiates. The road to becoming a priest was a long one; most began it while still small children. Quentin, although dedicated to his calling at age eight, had come to it late.

Now that career was behind him. Never again would he be allowed to return to the temple, except as a dutiful worshipper begging some boon from the god. Ariel was a jealous god; once you had turned away, he knew you no more. Only by distinguishing himself in some act of great heroism could Quentin hope to regain the god’s favor. That he vowed he would do—just as soon as he could.

The journey from Narramoor, the holy city, to Askelon, the king’s stronghold, was a matter of two days by horse. The temple, according to most ancient customs of the realm of Mensandor, was built in the high foothills overlooking the land it sheltered with its prayers. In the spring and early summer, pilgrims came from all over the country to ask prayers for good crops and healthy livestock. Each town and village also had a small temple or prayer house that was presided over by one or more priests, depending upon need, but most worshippers preferred to make the pilgrimage to the high temple at least once a year, more often if it could be arranged.

The road, winding down from the steep hills beneath the jagged old mountains of the Fiskill, was not overwide, but it was well maintained— at least it had been up to the time of the king’s departure. Quentin remembered nothing of the king’s leave-taking, being but a babe in arms at the time. But in the years since, he had heard retold the vivid accounts of the splendor of that parting.

The king, dressed in full battle regalia emblazoned with the royal insignia—a terrible, twisting red dragon—had led his loyal warriors out through the giant gates of his castle. Amid a thousand fluttering banners and the call of a thousand trumpets from the high battlements, the king’s army marched through streets lined with cheering crowds and out onto the plains of Askelon. It was said the procession lasted half a day, so many men followed in his train.

The entourage had traveled to Hinsen-by-the-sea—or Hinsenby, as it was usually known—and had boarded the sturdy warships awaiting them in Hinsen harbor, then sailed forth. The ships were provided by King Selric of the small island country of Drin, whose people were known to produce the world’s greatest sailors.

Other kings from other lands joined them, swelling their forces beyond anything ever before seen or imagined. They were going to meet the barbaric Urd, a race of creatures one scarcely dared to call human, who were so savage, so brutal, their very existence imperiled all. The Urd, united under their king, Gorr, had risen in defiance of all civilized order, vowing to extinguish or make slaves of other nations. They would rule the world.

The twelve kings of the civilized nations had met and declared war upon Gorr, sailing to meet and join in battle with him in his own lands before the evil lord had time to mass his army against them in theirs.

The fighting had begun in early spring, and by summer it looked as though the campaign would conclude before the winter set in, so successful were the united kings’ first encounters. The wily Gorr, seeing his warriors melt before the terrible onslaught, retreated to his massive walled fortress, Golgor. There the stubborn renegade dug in, establishing himself with a strength and fervor no one could have foretold. From Golgor the raving giant taunted the valiant forces of the kings; his raiding parties, though often beaten back with heavy losses, continually wore down their defenses. Winter found the enemies deadlocked.

The war, so easily won in the spring, dragged on and on. Years passed and the war continued. Thousands of men died in that hideous country, never to see friends or loved ones again. Several of the kings pulled out in the seventh year, returning home with the tattered remains of their once-proud armies. But Eskevar, Selric, Brandon, Calwitha, and Troen fought on.

For all Quentin knew, they fought on still.

Quentin raised his eyes to the horizon. He could see, it seemed, forever; the land fell away on every side, unobscured except for the occasional looming shape of a gigantic boulder or jutting escarpment that rose abruptly at intervals throughout the hills. But the slim rider was leaving the hills behind, and the dark line of the forest drew ever nearer as if by magic.

Askelon, his destination, stood on the far side of the forest. Beyond that to the west lay the flatlands and the farming towns, and the cities of the plains, Bellavee being chief among these.

To the far north was Woodsend, a substantial village of farmers and craftsmen, firmly planted on the banks of the Wilst River, a long, lazy branch sprung from the Arvin, whose headwaters originated, as did all the rivers that flowed throughout the realm, in the high Fiskill Mountains above Narramoor. At his back rose the imposing mountains themselves, and beyond them the regions of Suthland to the south and Obrey to the north.

These were the Wilderlands, remote and virtually uncharted areas inhabited only by wild animals and even wilder men, the Dher, or Jher, as they were often called.

The Jher were the lingering descendants of the most primitive dwellers of the land. They still clung like moss on weathered rock to their obscure ways, changing not at all since anyone could remember.

They were said to possess many strange powers—gifts that more disposed them toward the wild creatures with whom they shared their rough lands than rendered them acceptable companions for civilized human beings. The Jher kept to themselves, for the most part, and were alike left alone by one and all. Quentin, like most younger people, had never seen one. They existed for him as characters out of children’s stories, told to frighten and induce obedience in youngsters showing reluctance to behave themselves.

Quentin stirred from his meditation on these and other things to notice that it was approaching midday. He began looking for a sheltered place to stop where he might eat a morsel and rest the horse, who appeared not to be the least bit taxed for his exertion. The weak winter sun, which had been struggling to burn through the hazy overcast all morning, suddenly flared high overhead, like a hot poker wearing through sackcloth. Instantly the landscape was transformed from its ghostly pall into dazzling brilliance.

With the sun, although seemingly small and distant, came heat. At least Quentin imagined that he felt warmed, felt the heat spreading over his back and shoulders and seeping through his thick, fur-lined cap. Ahead he spotted a small stand of birch trees encircled by a tangle of forlorn shrubbery and several small evergreens. The site offered a slight shelter from the biting wind that, now that the sun was out, whipped more sharply.

Quentin found the sun good company as he reined the horse aside and tied him to a nearby branch. Clambering down from his steed, the boy fumbled in the shallow rucksack filled with provisions that Biorkis had made for him for the trip. He fished out a small loaf of seed cake and, throwing his cloak beneath him, sat down to eat his meal.

The sun played upon his face, warming the frozen tips of his nose and ears. Quentin removed his hat and turned his face to the thawing warmth. His mind skipped back once more to the bustle and confusion of his leaving; he rehearsed again, as one hundred times before, his instructions: Go to the hermit of Pelgrin Forest. Do not stop, except to eat and to rest the horse. Do not speak to anyone. Do not deliver the letter to anyone but the queen.

That last order would be the most difficult. But Ronsard, in his final act before losing consciousness, had given his dagger to be used to gain audience. The knight’s golden dagger would be recognized and would speak for the gravity of the occasion.

Quentin was not as distracted by his impending reception at court as he might have been. He was far more curious, and frightened—but curiosity held the better of his fears, to be sure—over the mysterious communication that was now sewn inside his plain green jerkin. He absentmindedly patted the place where it lay next to his ribs. What could it contain? What could be so important?

And yet, as intrigued as he was by the enigma he carried, a part of his mind was worrying over another problem like a hound with a gristle bone—an item he did not want to consider in any form at all: his future. He avoided the thought like a pain, yet it gnawed at the edges of his consciousness, never far from remembrance. Quentin delicately pushed the question aside every time it intruded into his thoughts: What are you going to do after you have delivered the letter?

The lad had no answer for that question, or the hundred others of a similar theme that assailed him at every turn. He felt himself beginning to dread the completion of his mission more with every mile. He wished, and it was not a new wish, that he had never stepped forward— he had regretted it as soon as he had done it.

But it was as if he had no will of his own. He had felt compelled by something outside himself to respond to the dying knight’s plea. Perhaps the god Ariel had thrust him forward. Perhaps he had merely been caught up in the awful urgency of the moment. Besides, the omens had foretold . . . Ah, but when did omens ever run true?

Eyes closed, face to the sun, Quentin munched his seed cake, pondering his fate. He suddenly felt a cool touch on his face, as if the sun had blinked. And high above him, he heard the call of a bird. Quentin cracked open one eye and recoiled from the brightness of the light. Squinting fiercely and shading his face with an outstretched arm, Quentin at last determined the source of the call. At the same instant his heart seized like a clenched fist inside his chest.

There, flying low overhead, was the worst omen imaginable: a raven circled just above him, casting flittering shadows upon him with its wings.

3

The blue, cloud-spattered sky had dissolved into a violet dome flecked with orange and russet wisps, and the shadows had deepened to indigo on the white snow before Quentin found his rest for the evening; the rough log hut of Durwin, the holy hermit of Pelgrin Forest.

The hermit was known among the lowly as one who gave aid to travelers and cared for the peasants and forest folk who often had need of his healing arts. He had once been a priest but had left to follow a different god, so the local hearsay told. Beyond that, nothing much was known about the hermit, except that when his help was required, he was never far away. Some also said he possessed many strange powers and listed among his talents the ability to call up dragons from their caves, though no one had ever seen him do it.

It seemed strange to Quentin that Biorkis should know or recommend such a person to help him—even if the aid was only a bed for the night. For Biorkis had given him a silver coin to give to the hermit, saying, “Greet this brother in the name of the god, and give him this token.” He had placed the coin in his hand. “That will tell him much. And say that Biorkis sends his greetings”—he paused—“and that he seeks a brighter light.” The priest had turned hurriedly away, adding mostly to himself, “That will tell him more.”

So Quentin found himself in the fading twilight of a brilliant winter day. The hut was set off the road a short distance but completely hidden from view, surrounded as it was by towering oaks, evergreens, and thick hedges of brambly furze. It took Quentin some time to locate the hut, even with the precise directions he had been given.

At last he found it, a low, squattish building that appeared to be mostly roof and chimney. Two small windows looked out on the world, and a curious round-topped door closed the entrance. The homely abode was nestled in a hillock at the far end of a natural clearing that gave way to a spacious view of the sky overhead. The ground rose to meet the house on a gentle incline so that one had to climb slightly to reach the front door.

Quentin rode quietly up to the entrance of the hut. Sitting on the horse, he could have leaped from his saddle onto the roof with ease. But he chose instead to slide off the animal’s broad back and rap with the flat of his hand on the heavy oaken door. He waited uncertainly; his hand had hardly produced any sound at all, and except for the smoke curling slowly from the stone chimney, he would have suspected the place abandoned. But someone had been there—the clearing was well trampled with the footprints of men and animals in the snow.

Quentin slapped the knight’s dagger from its place in his belt beneath his cloak. Holding it by the blade, he banged again on the door, this time with a more satisfactory result. He waited.

The sky was darkening quickly now; the sun was well down. He could feel the cold strengthening its hold on the land. No sound came from inside.

Plucking up his courage, Quentin tried the crude latch and found that with some force it moved. He placed his weight behind the door and shoved. The rough-hewn door swung upon its hinges and opened readily. Quentin stumbled quickly in with more ceremony than he had planned, bumping over the threshold as he entered.

The room was a good deal larger than he would have guessed from the outside, and it was sunken well below ground level. Stone steps led into the room, which was warm and cozy, lit by the flickering fire left burning in the wide, generous fireplace. About the room stood an odd assemblage of handmade furniture: chairs, tables large and small, stools, and a large lumpy bed. Also something that surprised Quentin and strangely delighted him: books. Scrolls were heaped upon the tables and stuffed into the latticework shelves. More scrolls than he had ever seen— even in the library of the temple.

All this Quentin took in as his eyes adjusted to the relative gloom of the dark room. He also saw the place was empty of its chief inhabitant. Durwin, apparently, was absent, perhaps on some mercy errand in the forest nearby. Quentin decided to slip in and await the hermit’s return, dragging a stool up to the fire burning low upon the hearth.

Quentin did not know whether he was awakened by the sound or the smell. Voices seemed to drone into his consciousness from far away. No words could be understood, only the monotonous buzz of two voices talking quietly but with some enthusiasm. Close by the smell of food, warm and heavily laced with garlic, drifted into his awareness. He opened his eyes.

He was covered by his own cloak and lying a little away from the hearth. Two large figures sat near the fire. One knelt at the edge of the fire, stirring a large black pot with a long-handled wooden spoon. The other sat on a stool with his back to him, revealing nothing of his features or stature. Both men were dressed in dark, flowing cloaks. As they talked, their long shadows danced on the far wall of the hut like the animated puppets in a shadow play.

Quentin rolled cautiously up onto his feet. The movement at once caught the eye of the man busy over the bubbling pot. “So it is! Our young friend lives. I told you, Theido.” He winked at the other man, who twisted round to regard the youngster with a quizzical eye. “I told you my soup would bring him round. Enchanted—bah!”

Embarrassed to have fallen asleep at his post and now to be the center of such attention, good-natured though it was, Quentin stepped timidly to the fire and addressed himself to both men simultaneously. “I am Quentin, at your service, sirs.”

“And we at yours,” came the standard reply.

He fumbled at his belt for the silver coin. “I bring this to you with greetings from Biorkis, senior priest of the high temple.” The greeting sounded very stiff and formal, which suited Quentin, unsure as he was about what kind of reception he should expect. Yet he knew as he placed the silver coin into Durwin’s hand that he had nothing to fear from this man.

Durwin’s face radiated a kindly light. Bright blue eyes winked out of a hide creased and lined like soft leather and browned by the sun. Great bushy brown eyebrows, which seemed to have a life of their own, highlighted the hermit’s speech and were matched brush for bristle by a sprawling forest of moustache and beard. Beneath his cloak he wore the simple robes of a priest, but gray rather than brown.

“So it is! The old weasel sends you with this? Does he indeed?” The hermit turned the coin over in his hand thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t suppose it can be helped, can it?” Then he turned to Quentin and said, “There is a wider path than many know, though I’m sure you don’t have an inkling what I mean.” Quentin stared back blankly. “No, of course you don’t. Still, he sent you here,” the hermit mused to himself.

“Did he tell you anything else?” the holy man asked.

“Only this: that he seeks a brighter light.”

At this both men exploded with laughter. The other, who had remained silent, was obviously following the exchange closely. “He said that, did he?” Durwin laughed. “By the gods’ beards, there’s hope for him yet.”

Quentin stood mystified at this outburst. He felt awkward and a little used, relaying jokes of which he knew less than nothing to strangers who laughed at his expense. His frown must have shown them that he did not approve of the levity, for Durwin stopped at once and offered the silver coin back to Quentin. “This coin is the symbol of an expelled priest. See?” He dug into his clothing and brought out a silver coin on a chain around his neck. “I have one too.”

Quentin took the two coins and examined them; they were the same in every detail except that Durwin’s was older and more worn.

“They are temple coins minted for special occasions and given to priests when they die or leave as payment for their service to god. Some payment, eh?”

“You used to be a priest?” Quentin wondered aloud.

“Yes, of course. Biorkis and I are very good friends; we entered the temple together and became priests together.”

“Enough of old times,” said the stranger impatiently. “Durwin, introduce me to your guest in a proper fashion.”

Quentin turned and eyed the dark man, ignored for the most part until now. He was above average in height, Quentin guessed, but since the man was on the stool, with his limbs folded across themselves, Quentin could not tell for sure. His clothes were of a dark, indistinct color and consisted of a long cloak worn loosely over a close-fitting tunic and trousers of the same dark material as the rest. He wore a wide black belt at his waist, to which was attached a rather large leather pouch.

But the man’s features commanded the better of Quentin’s attention. The face was keen in the firelight, bright-eyed and alert. A high forehead rose to meet a head of dark, thick hair swept back and falling almost to his shoulders. The man’s sharp nose thrust itself out over a firm mouth that opened upon a set of straight, white teeth. On the whole, the appearance bespoke a man of action and movement, of quick reflexes and perhaps quicker wits.

“Quentin,” the ex-priest was saying, “this man you are staring at is my good friend Theido, a much welcome and often missed guest at this humble hearth.”

The man dipped his head low in acknowledgment of the courtesy. Quentin bowed stiffly from the waist out of respect. “I am glad to meet you, young sir,” said Theido. “An expelled priest, I have found, makes a good friend.” At this both men laughed again. And though he did not know why, Quentin laughed too.

The three dined on a thick, tasty soup and black bread, washed down with a heady nut-brown ale that Durwin had brewed to perfection. After the day’s exercise, Quentin held his own in appetite with the two men and remarked on several occasions that he had never tasted food so good.

After they had eaten, they talked. The wandering conversations roamed the length and breadth of the world. It seemed to Quentin that no subject, from bees to bodkins and books, was left untouched. Never had Quentin been party to such fellowship; the temple’s strict regulations kept contact between priests very formal and extremely refined. Although he mostly just listened, Quentin found this new realization of friends around the board with good food and conversation fairly intoxicating. He reveled in it and soaked it up. He wished in his heart that the night would stretch on forever.

At last Durwin stood and shook his tired head. “Good friends! We must go to bed. We will talk some more tomorrow.”

“I must leave tomorrow,” said Quentin, having entirely forgotten his mission. He peered apprehensively into the faces of the two men, who regarded him carefully.

“So soon?” replied Durwin. “I thought you would stay a little. I would like to show you what I have been doing since I left the temple.”

“And how will you be going?” Theido asked.

“My horse!” Quentin shrieked. He had also forgotten about his animal in the friendly interchange around the hermit’s table. He dashed to the door and heaved it open, peering outside into the frigid black night. There was nothing to be seen of the horse. With a look of horror, he turned to the men. “I have lost him!”

“Can you describe him?” asked Theido.

“He was a chestnut, the most beautiful horse I have ever seen. Now I have lost him.”

“Follow me,” Durwin commanded lightly. “I think we will find he has not wandered far.” The hermit turned and disappeared behind a standing partition lined with scrolls. Quentin ducked behind the partition and discovered that it concealed another room, the entrance of which was draped over with an immense bearskin. The room was dark and quiet, but warm and smelling strongly of hay and horses. Durwin carried a stubby candle and with it lit a pitch torch leaning in its holder on the wall. The sooty flame guttered and smoked furiously, then took hold and threw a steady light into the room.

This annex to the hermit’s lodge was a small cave. Durwin’s house had been built right up against the cave’s entrance, which explained the smooth stone floor of the hermit’s cottage. In the pale light of the torch, Quentin could see his steed alongside two other slightly smaller animals, nose down in a heap of sweet fennel that had been thrown down for them. Relieved and somewhat embarrassed, Quentin thanked his host for his thoughtfulness.

“We guessed you were no true horseman,” remarked Theido good-naturedly, “when we saw him standing in the yard untethered. A lesser animal would have wandered off for good. Your horse is well trained, and I surmise you are not his master.”

Quentin shook his head sadly. “He belongs to another—or did . . .”

“Enough! We will sleep now and talk of these things in the morning —which, unless I miss my guess, is soon upon us.”

4

It had been decided, quite without Quentin’s opinion but not altogether against his approval, that Theido would accompany him on the remainder of his journey. This had been discussed over a cheerful breakfast of hot porridge and milk, with bread dipped in honey. Quentin ate with unusual alacrity, his high spirits charged by a renewed sense of adventure.

The two men had shown considerable surprise that Quentin had made it this far through the forest without incident. Theido had said, “Hereabouts, Pelgrin shelters outlaws of every description. There are some who might set a high value on your horse.”

Durwin added, “And not so much on his rider.”

“They wouldn’t dare touch me,” Quentin announced carelessly, full of himself and his own high spirits. “I carry a letter for the queen.”

At this news, the first bare hint of Quentin’s clandestine errand, both men nearly jumped from their seats. Quentin’s jaw snapped shut in alarm when he realized he had ruined his secret. “The queen?” said Theido, recovering himself instantly. “What business might you have with the queen, boy?”

Now Quentin became guarded and secretive. “That is my affair and none of yours,” he said a little angrily, though the anger was for his own carelessness and not his questioner.

“This letter would not be from the king, would it?” Theido pursued.

“I’ll tell you no more about it, sir,” Quentin retorted.

Here Durwin interposed. “My boy, while it may not occur to you at once, my friend and I have known for some time that you were about an errand of some importance. Your horse, for example, is the mount of a champion and not the nag of an acolyte. I’ll wager that your expulsion from the temple was due not to the willful breach of your sacred vows, but rather out of necessity to the task you have undertaken.” Durwin paused to regard Quentin carefully. Quentin colored somewhat under the hermit’s scrutiny and the sudden knowledge that he was so transparent. “I see that I have struck close to the mark.”

“Lad, you can trust us. We mean you no harm. I think you will find no two better men who would hold your secret as though their own lives were forfeit.” Theido spoke quietly and with deep assurance. Quentin believed the tall stranger but sat in sullen silence, not knowing whether to speak further or hold.

“You possess a strength and bravery enough for two of your size,” Durwin continued. “But there are events afoot against which bravery and strength alone are no match. I think Biorkis realized this and sent you to me, hoping I would guess the seriousness of your mission and help you if I could. Perhaps the god himself prompted you to spill your secret in our hearing just now, to save you from harm.”

“Is it so dangerous, then, for a subject to confer with his queen?” Quentin asked sullenly.

Both men nodded in silence. Theido replied, “Seeing the queen is but a trifle, providing you were able to obtain entrance to the castle alive. There are those who would keep her ignorant of outside affairs, the better to plant their own evil seeds.”

“Without our help you might never reach the queen. Prince Jaspin would get you if an outlaw band did not.”

“Prince Jaspin?” Quentin wondered why he had never heard the name.

“Prince Jaspin,” Durwin explained, “is King Eskevar’s youngest brother. He desires the throne of Askelon; he incites treason and treachery with increasing boldness. Honest men are afraid for their land and lives if they dare stand against him. Many nobles have lost everything to Jaspin for refusing to join in his intrigues.”

Quentin turned all this shocking information over in his mind but found himself at a loss to know what to do. He at last decided to trust the former priest and his unusual friend and share with them the rest of his secret.

“I am going to see the queen,” he stated slowly, “to give her a message of importance. Two days ago a wounded knight came to the temple, demanding our aid. He had been set upon by outlaws and was dying. I volunteered to take the message, which was written in secret and sealed. It is his horse I ride, and this is his dagger.” Quentin drew back his cloak to reveal the knife’s gold handle.

“The knight—do you know his name?” Theido asked quickly.

“It was Ronsard.”

“Ronsard! You can be certain?”

“Yes, I saw everything. He said his name and asked for someone to take the message to the queen. I volunteered.”

“Then you are even braver than we thought,” said Durwin.

“The message—it comes from the king, then,” said Theido. “Ronsard is one of his personal bodyguards, a knight unequaled in strength and valor.” He looked at Quentin sadly. “He is dead, you say?”

“Yes—that is”—Quentin hesitated—“I think so. I dared not wait to see the end, but he was very near death when I left.” Quentin fell silent, remembering vividly the events that had brought him hither. He felt afraid and very alone. “I can trust you? You will not deceive me? I promised not to tell . . .”

Durwin rose from his seat and came around the table and placed his hand upon Quentin’s shoulder. “My son, you have done the queen a great service by sharing your secret with us. Quite possibly you have rendered your king an even greater service. Ronsard, I think, would be no less pleased with this outcome if he had thought of it himself.”

“The hermit speaks the truth,” said Theido. “But now we must make plans to deliver your message. The outlaws will be the least of our worries.”

Theido and Quentin left the hermit’s cottage about midday as a light snow of fitful flakes drifted down to lose themselves in the whiteness already deep upon the ground. Durwin remained behind to tend to his usual affairs, saying, “I shall be waiting with hot soup and a cold drink when you return; I would only slow you down otherwise.” As they led their horses back along the narrow track to the road, they heard his voice loud in the winter stillness, calling, “The god go with you, and keep you, and speed your safe return.”

“Who is the god Durwin serves?” Quentin asked after they had ridden several minutes in silence, each lost to his own thoughts.

Theido seemed to consider this question and answered at length. “I do not know that Durwin has ever spoken his name—it may be that he does not have one.”

A nameless god? The thought occupied Quentin for a long time.

They rode through the forest, a dense, old tangle of ancient oaks that wove huge branches overhead in a stark, intertwining canopy of bare limbs. Here and there a stand of finger-thin pines shot upwards through the spreading branches of the oaks to find the light above.

The horses moved easily through the snow, which had not drifted to any depth upon the forest floor. Theido rode ahead on his quick, brown palfrey, and Quentin, astride the mighty Balder, followed not far behind at his right shoulder. Quentin listened to the forest sounds: snow sliding off the branches of trees with a soft plop, the creak of a bough shifting in the cold, a lone birdcall sharp and distinct in the distance. Even the quiet was full of sounds when one listened.

“Do you think we will meet with any outlaws?” Quentin asked after a while, remembering what had been said earlier.

“We should hope that we meet nothing but the trees and the snow. But there are some outlaws here who are more honest than you or I, men driven to the refuge of the forest by Prince Jaspin and his thieving rascals.” This was spoken with a quiet defiance that Quentin could easily apprehend. However, there was something else in the dark man’s tone that he could not guess. “If we chance upon anyone in this wood, pray that he serves no lord but the Dragon King,” Theido continued. “I am not without reputation among such men.”

“Perhaps the snow will keep them inside today,” Quentin observed. Yet even as he spoke, the clouds overhead showed signs of scattering. The last few flakes drifted down slowly.

“Yes, perhaps. Although a traveler is a welcome sight these days. Many who once traveled on business have taken to hiring armed escorts or banding together in the hope that numbers alone will daunt the robbers. Most avoid the forest altogether, and those lucky enough to pass unharmed are nonetheless marked well. You, my young friend, were very lucky to have escaped notice thus far. Were you not afraid?”

“I did not know these robbers had become such a serious problem.”

“News does not travel to the mountaintop, eh? The gods and their servants care not what takes place in the world of men?” He laughed strangely. “Mensandor is besieged by trouble; once-honest men turn upon one another; innocent blood is shed by day. These are grave times.”

“I had not heard . . . ,” replied Quentin, as if to defend himself. Although from what he did not know.

“I suppose not. Maybe it is better that way—innocence is a gift. Who knows, you might never have volunteered for such an errand if you had known what lay ahead.”

At last, with only an hour of daylight left, the forest began to dwindle, becoming sparser and more open. Then, quite unexpectedly, the two riders were free of it. And there, across a broad valley cut through by a deep, narrow stream, rose the soaring battlements of Askelon.

The king’s stronghold sat upon the crown of a hill glittering in the fading light. Its tall towers commanded a view clear to the horizon and could in turn be seen for miles in every direction. With the crimson evening light behind it, the mighty fortress loomed dark and menacing, itself a fantastic dragon curled upon its stone couch. Quentin shivered in his saddle. Long had he dreamed of this sight; now he was seeing it.

“They say this castle is the oldest thing upon the land made by men,” said Theido. “Of all the ancient wonders, only Askelon survives. King Celbercor, when he came to this country, laid the cornerstone himself. It was not finished until a thousand years later. It will house fifty thousand fighting men, and horses for half that number; there is not another fortress made by man that is its equal. It has weathered siege upon siege and war upon war. Those walls stood when our fathers’ fathers were babes, and they will stand when we are dust in our graves.”

“Has it never been conquered?”

“Never, at least not from without, not by force. But intrigue—the fighting within—has laid many a king low. Even those great walls cannot stop deceit.”

The two descended the gentle slope of the hill and splashed quickly across the stream. Already the last light of the day failed them. But the lights were twinkling in the village that crowded close beneath Askelon’s protective ramparts. As they moved closer, the great, dark shape above them became lost to the night, a mountain vanishing behind a shadow. The lights showing rosy from the windows drawing nearer with every step threw warm light upon the snow. Quentin heard voices from within the houses they passed, and occasionally the yeasty smell of hot bread would meet his nostrils, or the tang of meat basted over an open hearth fire. Suddenly he felt very tired and hungry.

“Will we go to the queen directly?”

“No, I think not. Tomorrow will be soon enough. I want to find out how things sit at court these days. It has been some time since I was here.” He paused, reining up his horse so that Quentin could draw abreast of him. He spoke in a lowered tone. “Tonight, you are my nephew—if anyone should be curious. Speak only if spoken to, and say nothing about the queen or king to anyone at all. Watch me at all times, do you understand?”

Quentin nodded quickly.

“All right, then,” continued Theido in a more relaxed voice. “How about some supper?”

Quentin glanced up and saw that they had stopped outside an inn of some size. A weathered sign that bade travelers welcome hung over the door, and it sported the painted likeness of someone or something Quentin could not quite make out.

As they dismounted, the door burst open and a short man in a tunic and pantaloons with a white cloth wrapped around his bulging middle came bustling forward. “Welcome! Welcome!” the man chirped. “Supper is just being laid. If you hurry, you may yet find places at the board! Quickly now! Never mind; I’ll take care of your horses.”

“Very kind of you, Milcher,” said Theido with a chuckle. “You’re as blind as ever—you don’t even know who it is you’re dragging in out of the night. Nor do you care!”

“Who is that? Is that Theido?” The man came closer and peered into the traveler’s face. “Yes, of course. I knew it was you. Recognized your voice. Come in, come in. Too cold out here to be wagging your tongue. In with you! In with you both!” He took the reins from their hands and led the horses away behind the large rambling structure.

“Hurry now. Supper is just being laid!” he called out as he disappeared around the corner.

Theido and Quentin stepped up to the entrance, and as Theido shoved open the broad door, he placed a hand on Quentin’s shoulder. “Remember what I told you.” He laid a long finger to his lips. Quentin nodded with a furtive smile.

“Yes . . . Uncle.”

5

The room was loud with voices raised and the clink of pewter ale jars. Smoke from the candles upon the table, from torches on the wall, and from the improperly drafted fire in the huge fireplace filled the low-beamed room. The scene was at once jolly and reckless, boisterous and enthusiastic. Quentin found himself grinning heartily not ten steps inside the door.

Theido propelled them both toward a long table standing just a few paces from the hearth. Contrary to what Milcher had insinuated, there were plenty of places at the table; most of the guests were taking liquid nourishment this evening. But the innkeeper had been right— they were just in time. No sooner had they settled themselves upon the rough bench at the far end of the table than platters of steaming food appeared. The heaping plates of meat and vegetables and several kinds of bread and cheese were served by a stout woman with a ready smile and red cheeks and a thin, gawky boy who lurched clumsily as he smacked the pewter plates down. “Careful, Otho!” called the woman amiably. “You had your supper; now let these fine gentlemen eat theirs in peace.”

The comical pair retreated to the kitchen then, only to reappear at frequent intervals to pester the diners with more food and drink. “Eat!” the woman scolded. “Eat, eat, eat! Please! You’re not eating!”

As the diners finished, they left the board to others who sat down at their places. Theido and Quentin, at Theido’s command, ate leisurely and with slow deliberation. Theido’s watchful gaze swept over the roisterous scene, alert to any hint of discovery. But even his quick eyes failed to see a small, dark man appear at the door like a shadow and slink into a darkened corner. The spy left moments later, undetected.

After a while Milcher, the busy little proprietor of the inn, stepped around to see how his newest guests were accommodated. “You will be staying the night with us, I trust?” he asked.

“Yes, you will have us at your mercy,” replied Theido with a grin.

“Good. I thought so—I have already stabled your horses for the night. But who’s this?” he exclaimed, noticing Quentin’s benevolent stare. “I don’t think you’ve introduced me to your friend, Theido.” He beamed down upon the boy with a face red from running on his endless errands.

“Haven’t I?” said Theido casually. “Well, I thought you knew. This is my nephew, Quentin.”

“Oh, of course! I knew it all along, didn’t I? But my, so big already. Hasn’t he grown.” With that the little man was off again, buzzing like a bee in some other corner of the noisy, crowded room.

“Let us hope no one else takes an interest in my family life tonight. Milcher can talk more than any twenty women. I would rather our little visit was known by as few as possible.”

“You think someone might be looking for us?” The thought had just occurred to Quentin.

“It is likely. Whoever killed Ronsard, or had him killed, must know by now that the secret he carried did not die with him. Although we cannot be sure. Maybe they did not know about the message.”

“You mean he was not attacked by outlaws?”

“No, lad. Or at least not altogether. Outlaws may have been hired for the deed, but they would scarcely have gone up against a king’s knight without better reason than his purse. Even an outlaw values his life more than that, I think. No, it was probably someone who knew what he carried, or suspected his mission.”

“Prince Jaspin, maybe?” The intrigues of court were new to Quentin, but he found himself irresistibly drawn to them. His quick mind leaped ahead to all sorts of possible collusions, a fox in a yard of plump chickens.

“Maybe. It would not be the first time he has used others for deeds he would not do himself. But I think there is some other—I cannot say why. I feel it here.” He pointed to his stomach. “And now, if you are well stuffed, we might as well be off to bed. We must still find a way to guarantee our private audience with the queen tomorrow.”

Milcher returned and bustled them off to their room, where his wife, the jolly, red-faced woman, had laid aside the bedclothes of a high, sturdy bed. A smaller, more portable pallet had been placed near the fireplace, which warmed the apartment. The chamber was square and plain, but private and cozy enough. There was no window, a feature Theido had requested.

“Sleep well tonight, good guests. Sleep well!” said the innkeeper, closing the door to their chamber and tiptoeing quietly away.

“I would just loosen my belt if I were you,” warned Theido as Quentin, seated on the edge of the pallet, began pulling off his tunic. “Tonight we must be ready for anything.”

Not far distant, high up on the hill in Askelon Castle, a candle burned low in a spacious and richly appointed bedchamber. The floors were of white marble and the walls hung with exquisite tapestries depicting the occupant’s favorite pastime: the hunt. A magnificently carved table spread with a vast cloth of dark blue embroidered with thread spun from silver supported a surface littered with maps and scrolls of parchment. At one end of the domed room—for it was the uppermost chamber of the east tower—a crackling fire burned brightly in an ornamented fireplace overhung by a heavy oaken mantel carved with the crest and blazon of a previous resident.

A melancholy figure sat hunched in a great chair with a high back and wings on each side to keep off the draft that seeped through the old castle walls. The chair, more a small throne, was drawn near the fire, but its tenant seemed to draw neither warmth nor comfort from the dancing flames. Instead he stared dejectedly into the blaze, with a tall horn cup of wine, untasted, in his hand.

Prince Jaspin scarcely stirred when the sound of a sharp rap reached his ears from the outer door of his private chambers. A breathless chamberlain presently returned with the news that a certain knight wished audience with him. Upon learning the man’s name, Prince Jaspin exploded.

“Send him here directly, you old fool! I have been waiting days to hear his news, and you keep him cooling in the corridor like a side of beef. I should have you flayed!”

The chamberlain, well accustomed to his master’s fits, did not hear what was said in his absence, leaving at once to bring this most desired visitor before the angry prince.

“Tell me, Sir Bran, what news? Have you found him yet?” Jaspin leaped from his chair as the knight entered.

“Yes, he is here—in the village,” the knight said, bending low from the waist in a quick bow.

“In the village! Where? I shall seize him at once!”

“I would caution you against such a move, Your Grace. It would attract too much attention. We do not know how many there are—he might have brought some of his men with him. Anyway, it is better done in daylight.”

“Yes, I suppose you are right.” The prince settled back into the silk cushions of his chair, much pleased by the news. “We must not blunder the opportunity as we did the last.” He paused and asked casually, “Are you certain Ronsard is dead?”

“Quite certain.” The knight, dressed in a fur-lined cape and gloves over a rich tunic of fine brocaded linen, began removing his gloves. The chamberlain brought a chair and took away his cloak. The powerfully built knight poured himself a goblet of wine from a standing flagon and downed half of it in one swallow. “You do live well, my prince,” he said as he sat down opposite Jaspin.

“Those who support my cause will not need neglect their appetite for finery, I can assure you. Have I told you, Bran, I am thinking of giving you Crandall for your efforts? What would you do with it, I wonder?”

“Give it to me, and you shall see,” retorted the knight.

“You are anxious, aren’t you?” The prince laughed. “Yes, by and by we shall see. I would give it to you now, only that spoiler Theido—or whatever he calls himself—is still loose and roaming about. We cannot have him coming forward and pressing his claim . . . How awkward that would be.”

“I can deal with him,” sneered Bran, pouring himself another goblet of wine.

“As you dealt with Ronsard?” the prince jibed.

“You will remember we did not know it was Ronsard until the very encounter. Anyway, with his wounds and the freezing cold, he did not go far. That I know.”

“But you never found the body, did you?” the prince said firmly.

“It was snowing, by Zoar!” the knight snapped angrily. “Do you not believe me? The snow covered everything within the hour. His horse wandered off and left him where he fell, and the snow covered him.”

“Yes, yes, I know. The snow—you watched the ambush from some distance . . .”

“And by the time I got there, I could find but two of my own men!”

“Well, it is over. Now to put an end to our other problem, this outlaw leader—what do they call him?”

“The Hawk,” said the knight sullenly.

“Yes. Strange this Hawk suddenly showing himself—and so close at hand. How do you explain it?” insinuated the prince in a sly voice.

“I do not explain it!” The knight banged his silver goblet down upon the arm of the chair; wine sloshed up over the rim, wetting his hand. “Happenchance—it’s a coincidence, nothing more,” he said, straining to control his temper. “Or perhaps one of the worthless robbers I hired for this . . . this transaction returned to his den and wagged his tail for his master.”

“Possibly, possibly. There is no honor among dogs, you know,” Jaspin quipped.

The prince sipped his wine and sat silently for a time, gazing into the fire now beginning to dwindle. “I suppose we shall have to ask our friend Hawk tomorrow.”

The knight smiled quickly and drank deeply of his wine. “Yes, we will hear the rascal sing tomorrow.”

6

The knight, Sir Bran, after finishing his wine, exchanged a few words with the prince regarding the impending capture of the outlaw Hawk the next morning. The prince dismissed him then and waited until he had gone before calling his chamberlain and discharging him for the night as well.

As soon as he heard the door to the outer chamber creak shut, he got up and, taking the candle from the table, made his way to a darkened alcove across the room, hidden from view behind a lower portion of one of the giant tapestries. Slipping behind the tapestry, Jaspin entered the alcove and, fishing among the folds of his clothing, brought out a key with which he unlocked a private door set back and cunningly secreted at the farther side.

The prince stepped silently into his secret chamber, placed the candle upon a small table waiting there, and settled himself into a chair before the table.

Upon the table sat a small box resting on an elegant cloth of velvet. The box, richly enameled in fiery red and inlaid with gold tracery and pearls, gleamed, its fine artistry shimmering in the flickering light of the single flame.

Prince Jaspin wasted no time but placed his hands upon each side of the box and lifted it away. On the table before him remained a curious object resting on the cloth—a pyramid of gold incised with strange hieroglyphs. The entire surface of the pyramid had been inscribed with elaborate and fantastic runes that were, he considered, the source of its unusual power.

Prince Jaspin gazed upon his prize with an odd glint in his eye, as if lit by some unnatural source from deep within. The pyramid always had this effect upon him; he felt bold, invincible, and clever beyond human cleverness.

The golden pyramid was the gift of Nimrood, known as the necromancer, a cunning old sorcerer whom Jaspin employed as partner in skullduggery. Many a night did Jaspin draw upon the secret of his strange object and the knowledge of its inventor. But of late, Jaspin received less and less assurance from his accomplice and felt seeds of deep distrust beginning to sprout.

Placing his hands on two sides of the pyramid, Jaspin closed his eyes and murmured a soft incantation. Slowly the pyramid, pale in the dancing light, began to glow with a ghostly luminescence. The glow became brighter, casting Jaspin’s features into high relief and throwing shadows of his hunkered form upon the wall. As the unearthly illumination reached its apex, the sides of the pyramid began to grow indistinct and hazy, although they remained solid under the prince’s touch. The pyramid, now lit with an almost piercing light from within, became translucent; Jaspin could see his own hands dimly through the sides. In a moment the strange device had become completely transparent, almost invisible, and Jaspin looked long into its crystal depths.

A pale green mist shrouded the interior from view, but as Jaspin watched, the mist began to thin into stringy, straggling wisps. Now the form of a man could be distinguished, walking as if from a great distance, toward Jaspin. But even as the man walked, he drew closer with alarming speed so that instantly Jaspin was face-to-face, as it were, with his old sorcerer.

It was not a face to be admired. Twisted. Cruel. Two piercing eyes burned out from under a heavy, menacing brow. Despite the wizard’s obvious age, wild dark hair shot through with streaks of white formed a formidable mane around the man’s large head. The face was creased with interwoven wrinkles, each crevice representing an evil its owner had contemplated.

“Ah, Prince Jaspin!” the necromancer hissed rather than spoke. “I was expecting your summons. I trust everything is as I said it would be!”

“Yes, your information is always good, Nimrood,” the prince replied, his eyes gleaming. “The knight Ronsard appeared just as you predicted and was intercepted before his work could be completed. Unfortunately, we may never know what that errand was—he was killed in the ambush.”

“A pity. He could have told us so much, no doubt. But we have other ways.”

“And another of your seeds is about to bear fruit, wizard. The outlaw Hawk has surfaced again—as you suggested he would. This time we are ready for him. By midday tomorrow that irksome band of renegades will be without a leader.”

“Do not make the mistake of underestimating him once again,” the conjurer warned. “He has outfoxed you before, as you well know.” The necromancer grimaced, and his wrinkles deepened ominously.

“Do not think I will let him slip away again. My headsman’s blade is thirsty, and an outlaw’s blood is just the refreshment I shall recommend. His head shall adorn a pike in the village square. Those bandits will see how lightly I consider their threats.

“I shall have no opposition when the Council of Regents meets, and I shall be named king. The petitions are already signed.” The prince rubbed his hands in greedy anticipation of the event. “All is ready.”

“What about the queen?” the wizard asked slyly. “Will she agree to step down so easily? Is her power already so diminished?”

“The queen will agree to see things as I see them. She is strong, but she is a woman. Besides, if I offer the choice between Eskevar’s life or Eskevar’s crown, I rather believe she would choose his life.”

“She may lose both, however—as will Eskevar! Ha! Ha!” cackled Nimrood.

“That is your concern, not mine. Leave me out of it. You get the king, and I his crown—that was our agreement. I do not want any difficulties. I cannot afford to arouse the suspicion of the people; I need their support for a while.”

“I am your servant, Prince Jaspin,” the wizard replied. “Is there anything more you require?”

“No, I think not. All is ready now,” the prince replied. He added, “Is my brother comfortable?”

“Oh yes. Eskevar is, after all, the king.” The necromancer laughed suddenly, and Jaspin felt an unaccountable anger spring up inside his breast.

“But not for long!” he cried. “Soon there will be a new monarch on the throne. That I promise!”

The sorcerer appeared to bow low, and suddenly the pyramid went dim, its sides becoming once more opaque and cold. Jaspin replaced its ornamented cover and, taking up the candle, left the room at once. He did not know why, but the mere mention of his brother’s name upset him. That night it troubled his sleep with dreams of doubt and fear.

Quentin awoke with a start in a strange room. He glanced over to Theido’s bed and saw that it was empty. He threw off the coverlet and raised himself off the pallet and took up his cloak and went off in search of his friend.

He discovered Theido in the stable behind the inn, seeing to the horses. “Good morning, lad. I am glad to see an early riser. I have only just come down myself.” He straightened from his work of strewing fodder for the horses. “Well, that is done. Let us fend for ourselves as well.”

They ate together at the small table in the kitchen, for Theido wished to have privacy, although none of the other guests, if there were any, had stirred.

“I have a plan that will do for us,” Theido said, speaking in low tones. Quentin ate quietly and listened to the plan as Theido described it.

The plan was simple; they would enter as furriers just arriving from trading in the Wilderlands and would offer to show the queen the finest of the treasures they had obtained.

“We have no furs,” Quentin had objected, and Theido countered by telling him they would not need any. They were merely to be admitted in order to make a proper appointment and to receive any garments the queen might wish to have adorned with their wares. Such appointments were not uncommon with craftsmen of high repute. However, once in the queen’s presence, they would discard the ruse and make known the real purpose for the visit.

“Now, if something goes wrong,” Theido continued, his voice steady and his eyes hard in earnest, “you get out any way you can. Do not stop to think or look around; just run. Go back to Durwin and tell him what has taken place. He will know what to do. Hear what I say and obey. Understood?”

Quentin nodded solemnly. He had not considered the possibility that they might indeed fail. But Theido, noticing the boy’s somber mood, smiled and said, “Cheer up, lad. It is not the first time I have been hunted by Jaspin’s men. I can take care of myself. Besides, my plans seldom fail.” Quentin was not comforted by the thought.

They finished breakfast and left by the kitchen entrance, crossing the yard to the horses. Upon reaching the stables, Theido threw open the wide doors and froze in his tracks. “Run! Get away!” he shouted to Quentin, at the same time throwing his cloak aside and drawing out a short sword from a hidden scabbard. Quentin stood rooted in terror. Theido turned on him and shoved him away, saying, “Run! You must get free!”

In the same instant two riders bolted from inside the stable. Both had swords drawn and small arm shields, or bucklers, held at ready to ward off their captive’s blows. Quentin turned and fled, looking back over his shoulder as he ran. He saw Theido thrust beneath the shield of one of the armed men, who knocked the blow aside just as the other, while pinning the quarry between the two horses, raised his sword to deliver the fatal stroke.

“Don’t kill him, you fool!” a voice rang out in the yard behind Quentin. He turned just in time to avoid colliding with another man on a horse. This one was a knight, by the look of his finely wrought armor. The knight called out again. “He must be taken alive!” And the next instant Quentin felt a hand grab his cloak in a powerful grip, jerking him nearly off his feet.

Quentin, without thinking, lashed out at the horse’s leg and landed a sharp kick. The spirited animal tossed its head back and raised its forefeet off the ground as it jolted backwards. The knight instantly lost his hold on Quentin, and the boy dashed beneath the rearing horse’s belly and away. He gained the corner of the inn just in time to see one of the riders swing the pommel of his sword down upon Theido’s head. He heard a dull crack, and Theido slumped to the ground.

7

Quentin ran blindly down the narrow streets—some little more than footpaths between shuttered dwellings. He cast a hasty glance over his shoulder as he ran, expecting the man on horseback to come charging into view at every turn. His strong legs dodged and turned and flew as his fear carried him away from the scene.

Presently he became winded and ducked into a close passage between two buildings on what might have been the main street of the city of Askelon. He stood out of view of the street and waited to catch his breath and think.

“Go back to Durwin,” he remembered Theido’s voice saying. “He will know what to do.” But he had no horse, and Durwin was a day’s ride away. He could not make it on foot, alone, without provisions; those he would need to secure. He had no idea how or where that might be accomplished.

Not wanting to remain too long in one place, he began walking along the streets; he had not the slightest idea of where he was going— unaware that he was approaching the castle until he happened to look up and see its high walls, soaring above him. He seemed to be drawn to it. For although he twice changed his direction purposefully to avoid coming too near it, lest he be spotted and straightaway taken captive, each time he looked again, he was closer than the last.

In the meantime, the shops in the merchant district, through which he was walking, had begun to open to their daily trade. Although roofs hung heavy with snow and icicles dangled from the eaves, merchants threw wide their shutters onto a bright, cloudless morning and signaled the beginning of another busy day. Soon the cobbled streets echoed with the tramp of busy feet and the strident voices of shopkeepers, patrons, and street vendors exchanging greetings, hawking their wares, and haggling over prices. A number of farmers had braved the cold to set up stalls in which to sell their winter commodities: eggs and cheese, and several types of ale and cider. Large braziers filled with charcoal burned before the stalls. Quentin loitered before these, warming himself and trying desperately to come up with a suitable plan for outfitting his journey.

In the end he decided to risk going back to the inn to recover his horse, provided that it was still there and the kidnappers had not taken it. He turned down a street, by the look of it the craftsmen’s quarters; Quentin saw several artisans’ dwellings—a smith’s forge, the chandler’s, the furrier’s. The furrier—something drew him closer to the place. He stood at the entrance for some time, just looking, wondering why he felt as if he belonged there—an unaccountable feeling. He had never seen the place before in his life.

Quentin paced along the outside of the building and gazed at the brightly painted sign with the picture of a red fox with an exceptionally long, bushy tail. Finally, he turned to move on before someone within, noticing his shameless loitering, urged him away. As he swung away from the door, a small, two-wheeled, covered carriage drawn by a shaggy brown pony drew up. The coach wore a coat of shiny black paint with an insignia on the door—a red, twisting dragon outlined in gold.

The driver, walking ahead, steadied the horse, frisky in the cold morning air, and the hansom’s door swung open. A lady sat within, bundled in a thick robe with a hood over her head. The lady seemed about to disembark when she noticed Quentin standing just before her. She smiled and said, “Boy, come closer.” She threw back her hood to reveal a fine-featured face and long dark tresses spilling over her shoulders. Quentin thought he’d never seen anyone so beautiful in all his life. What is more, she appeared to be his age, for all that he could tell, or if not, only a year or two older. But her manner and bearing let him know that he was no doubt in the presence of royalty.

Quentin stepped woodenly near the carriage and placed his hand upon the door. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

The girl laughed, and Quentin’s face colored deeply. “I am not the queen,” the girl replied. “I’m only Her Majesty’s . . . companion. My lady wishes to be called upon this afternoon by your master.” The girl nodded to the furrier’s shop. “Take this,” she said, handing the surprised Quentin a small folded parchment enclosed by a ribbon and sealed with wax. “It will usher you directly into my lady’s apartment. What time shall I tell her you will call? She suggests after the midday’s repast.”

Quentin, remembering enough of his court etiquette, bowed low and replied none too certainly, “Your gracious servant will attend, m’lady.” He’d mixed the reply, but the spirit was right. The queen’s companion laughed again. Her voice was the joyous bubbling of a happy heart.

“I am certain you will bring your finest furs,” she said. Quentin bowed low again, and the driver, looking neither right nor left, took the bridle strap and led the carriage away.

Quentin stared at the summons in his hand, wondering at his remarkable fortune. The god Ariel, a deity among whose many attributes was serendipity, had fortuitously arranged for Quentin to have his audience with the queen after all. Quentin considered the serving maid’s mistake a miracle of the highest order and stuck the letter into his tunic next to his skin. He moved off quickly, with purpose renewed, forgetting altogether Theido’s command to seek help of the holy hermit Durwin.

With several hours to employ until he should have his audience, Quentin decided to make his way to the gates of the castle, there to be ready for the appointed hour. He planned to use the time to his benefit, arranging precisely what he would say and do in the queen’s presence: how he would confess his subterfuge, deliver his message, and most especially plead for the release of his friend—although he did not know why Theido had been taken, he assumed it to have some connection with the secret communication secured to the inside of his jerkin.

Quentin forgot his fear of the armed men and the skirmish in the stable yard at the inn earlier in the day, believing his mission to be aided by the gods. He strutted forth boldly as if wearing the invincible armor of a king’s knight. The sight of this young master in his ordinary brown cloak and dark green tunic, his slightly overlarge trousers and outer stockings with heavy peasant sandals laced high against the winter cold, swaggering down the center of the street like a whole regiment of king’s men, delighted the townspeople.

Had Quentin noticed the mirth that accompanied his sally to the gates of the castle, he would have slunk away embarrassed. But he did not, so occupied with the deeds and fair fortune that had come his way.

His attitude changed abruptly, however, upon reaching the gates of the fortress Askelon. They were mammoth iron-and-timber constructions wide enough for a whole company of knights to ride through a dozen abreast. They stood as a challenge to anyone who would make war upon King Eskevar to do his worst; the gates had defied fire, axe, and battering ram in siege after siege. From the foot of the long incline of the ramp leading up to the gates, Quentin stood with mouth agape in wonder at the magnificent sight. The castle rose in sweeping lines to tower high into the bright blue winter sky. Red and gold pennons fluttered in the breeze from a score of towers and turrets. Quentin heard the crisp snap of the flags in the icy wind.

Of the five ancient wonders, only Askelon remained. The others— the Fire Fountains of Pelagia, the Ice Temples of Sanarrath, the Cave Tombs of the Braldurean Kings, the Singing Stones of Syphria—all had crumbled away, lost in dim ages past. But Askelon, mighty city of kings, with its dragon curled and sleeping under the hill, stood and would endure forever.

Askelon’s foundations were carved out of the living stone of the hill upon which it rested, itself a mountain of strength and grace. The massive stone curtains had been raised by the brute effort of two thousand quarrymen and laborers under the direction of two hundred masons. That work progressed for one hundred years uninterrupted. Once the outer curtain was raised, the towers were completed and construction on the gatehouse was begun. The gatehouse, the most vulnerable point of the fortress, was itself a singular engineering feat, established and refined over the next fifty years. The work started on the inner curtain, the walls that would enclose the actual working and living spaces for the royal retinue of soldiers, servants, cooks, keepers, warders, stewards, and the whole host of functionaries necessary to the proper maintenance of the empire.

The inner curtain, like the outer curtain, was formed of a double wall; hollow, the interior was filled with earth and loose rubble to withstand the ruinous blows of the battering ram. Once the inner curtain and its towers were enclosed, work began on the apartments and barracks within. In time the configuration of these inner chambers was to change endlessly, each new occupant directing reconstruction to his own personal tastes and the fancies of the time. The outer structure changed also, if more slowly, as new innovations in offensive strategy demanded defensive updating as well. The castle had grown and changed over a thousand years to become the thing of dreadful beauty that Quentin saw as he stood gazing skyward, trying to take it all in with a single prolonged gape. It was all he had ever dreamed and more.

After a time he stepped onto the ramp and began the long, sloping climb to the gates themselves. On his upward journey he was passed by several ox carts and wagons bearing supplies to the castle. He noticed them not at all; his eyes were on the looming battlements and soaring towers of the fortress, which surpassed all his most daring imaginings and, in Quentin’s mind, rivaled the exaggerations men told about it. The walk took much longer than it might have.

When at last he attained the end of the ramp, right up to the end of the drawbridge—that retractable platform spanned a mighty gap from the end of the ramp to the gates at a bone-crushing height above the rocky rubble of the dry moat—Quentin paused. Not wanting to attract the attention of the fierce-looking guards of the gatehouse, he lingered in the shadow of one of the houses built along the ascending ramp in stair-step fashion. The last house furnished a shelter out of the wind, so he settled himself beside a friendly wall to wait.

People passed, hurrying to and fro on business of their own, but Quentin attended to nothing but the task before him. He tried to imagine what the queen would be like. He’d heard stories of the lovely Alinea, but with his extremely limited experience of women, he had trouble thinking of anyone who would be more beautiful than the maid he’d met just that morning. Queen Alinea was said to have long auburn hair that shimmered red in the sun, and deep green eyes the color of forest shade on a summer afternoon. Her voice was held to be an instrument of enchantment; when speaking, or singing, for which she had earned wide renown, it fell like laughing water to the ear. These and other details he’d learned around the priests’ table or from the talk of pilgrims he chanced to overhear when they camped on a summer evening outside the temple, awaiting their oracle.

Queen Alinea, it was said, formed the perfect complement in grace and beauty to King Eskevar’s strength and restless vitality.

When Quentin adjudged midday had passed, he stirred himself, glad to be moving again, for he had grown cold in waiting, and marched resolutely toward the gates. Although the main gates were closed, smaller gates—still wide enough to permit two wagons to pass one another— were open and attended by firm-jawed guards. Quentin did not know the proper protocol for presenting himself to the queen, but he supposed he’d tell the first person he met what he intended and let the natural course carry him along.

The first person, of course, was a guard whom Quentin dutifully approached. But when Quentin opened his mouth to speak, the man waved him on with his lance. He immediately found himself in a low, dark tunnel, the interior of the gatehouse through which the road led into the castle’s outer ward.

Quentin had expected, due to his lack of military knowledge, that upon passing through the gates he’d be inside the castle as one would be upon entering the temple. He found the gatehouse road to be disagreeably frightening; the dark and ominous feel was due to the massive portcullis with its sharp teeth of iron, under which he had to pass, albeit quickly.

Once through the gatehouse, he stood on the perimeter of the outer ward, gazing on another smaller castle surrounded by its own small city of houses, stables, kitchens, storehouses, and attendant buildings. Some of these were stone; others were made of timber and wattle, as in the town below. This inner castle had its own gatehouse, and Quentin made his way there at once. Here security was more stringent, and the guard at the gate demanded to know his business. Quentin produced the folded parchment. The soldier glanced at the seal and waved him on.

Upon emerging from the gatehouse passage, Quentin hesitantly entered a courtyard of some size. The whole of this inner ward was given over to elegant gardens that contained every known flowering plant and tree in the kingdom and beyond. In springtime the inner ward would burst in blooms of riotous color; now it was covered over with a still, white shroud of snow.

As Quentin watched, a man dressed in a long brocaded coat lined with sable—a lord or prince, by the look of his rich clothing—emerged from a stone archway to hurry across the garden to another part of the castle. Quentin waited until the nobleman had passed and then followed him. The man scurried across the snowy expanse and darted into the castle with Quentin right behind.

Once inside, Quentin lost the man when he disappeared into one of the many doors opening off the main corridor. He was standing still, wondering what to do next, when a gruff voice bellowed behind. “Stop! If you have business here, speak up! Well? Out with it!”

Quentin spun on his heel to see a square-built man bearing toward him menacingly. “I have come to see the queen.” He uttered the first words that sprang into his mind.

“Oh, have you, now?” The man frowned furiously. “Clear out! You should know better than to be lurking about my keep. Clear out, I say!”

Quentin jumped back and thrust the sealed packet before him as if to ward off an impending blow. “Please, sir, I have a letter.”

“What is the trouble here, warder?” The voice came from an open door, and Quentin looked up to see the nobleman he’d followed into the castle.

“This one says he’s to see the queen. I think he’s about mischief, I do.”

The man stepped up to Quentin. “Let me see your papers.”

Quentin swallowed hard and offered the sealed parchment to the man. He snatched up the letter and looked at the seal, broke it, and read the message with a cursory glance. “Where is your master?” the man demanded, eyeing Quentin closely.

“He—he could not come, so sent me ahead to beg the queen’s pardon.”

“Hmph—tell your master that he had better value Her Majesty’s requests more highly in the future or he will lose her favor—and the benefit of her trade.” He handed the letter back to Quentin. “Very well, follow me.”

The man was not a lord as Quentin had supposed, but the queen’s chamberlain, and he led Quentin through a maze of corridors and ante- rooms to a high-arched passageway on an upper level of the castle. “Sit down,” the chamberlain commanded at last.

Quentin took a seat upon a low bench across the corridor from a great carved wooden door. A window of thick, frost-covered glass looked out upon the inner ward, and Quentin gazed out blankly, trying to remember what he was going to say to the queen. He had forgotten it all.

The chamberlain entered and exited the apartment several times, as did others, mostly servants and other women. Once or twice Quentin thought he must be seeing the queen herself emerge from her chambers; these visions of beauty, Quentin discovered, were the queen’s personal attendants; however, all were arrayed and conducted themselves very much like queens to Quentin’s unpracticed eye.

After a time the chamberlain emerged once more and came directly to Quentin. “Her Majesty wishes to see you now,” he said and added a further word of instruction for Quentin’s benefit. “When entering the royal apartment, it is proper to kneel until Her Majesty has asked you to rise.”

Quentin nodded and followed the man through the door to her outer apartment. This was a large open room hung with tapestries and richly furnished. A few women sat at looms, weaving and talking as they worked. A minstrel played in one corner to the accompaniment of several ladies singing. The room seemed filled with charming activity. Quentin wondered which of the lovely women he saw was Queen Alinea. But the chamberlain marched him through this room to another, the queen’s private chamber.

The chamberlain knocked once upon the wonderfully carved door and opened it without waiting for a reply. He bowed low and ushered Quentin in. Quentin, not daring to raise his eyes, fell to his knees on the floor.

“Your Majesty, the furrier,” the chamberlain announced, then left at once. The next voice Quentin heard was the queen’s.

8

So young, our furrier is, and so formal,” Queen Alinea said. Her voice, just as the poets intimated, was like laughing water, Quentin thought. “Rise, young furrier,” she commanded pleasantly. Quentin raised his head uncertainly, half afraid to cast his eyes upon his queen. But then he saw her and could look at nothing else.

Queen Alinea stood before a window. The afternoon winter sky formed a brilliant azure backdrop that highlighted the auburn beauty of her hair. Her comely form was wrapped in a simple hooded gown of deep turquoise that fell in gentle gathers to the floor. She wore a belt of braided gold and pearls that accented her slim waist, and round her graceful throat a necklace, delicate and dainty, of the same design. Her radiant hair was swept back, revealing a high and noble forehead adorned with a simple golden circlet. The red-brown tresses curled in dark cascades along her slender neck, framing a face at once so open and frank it disarmed the observer. Her eyes glimmered with a good humor that played at the corners of her lovely mouth, threatening always to dissolve her exquisite features into laughter.

All this Quentin took in as one bereft of his manners, gaping shamelessly, momentarily stricken speechless by this dazzling vision.

“Our young visitor seems to be enchanted by your beauty, Bria,” the queen remarked, and Quentin saw the girl whom he had met that morning sitting next to the queen with an embroidery in her lap. The queen had been instructing her in some finer technique of needlepoint. “Rise, I say,” the queen repeated, stepping down from the dais and coming close to Quentin, who jumped quickly to his feet and bowed as she approached.

“Have you brought something to show me, young sir,” the queen asked amiably, “or would you have me describe my fancies for you that I may be surprised by your master’s art?”

Quentin suddenly remembered with a start that he was not the furrier, or even the furrier’s apprentice; he didn’t even know the furrier’s name. His trembling hand sought the letter that Ronsard had traded his life to bring. The queen detected his tremulous hesitation and asked, “Is something wrong? Why do you tarry so?”

“Your Majesty . . . I am not the furrier’s assistant,” Quentin managed to stammer. And to her look of mild inquiry he added, “But I have brought you something more valuable than you know. It is . . .” He broke off, glancing at the queen’s companion. “I think you may wish to receive it alone.”

The queen smiled at this conspiracy but nevertheless nodded to Bria, who removed herself with a sharp, disapproving look to Quentin.

“Now then,” the queen replied, her hands clasped in front of her, “what is it that begs my private attention?”

“A letter, Your Majesty,” Quentin said and opened his cloak. He took the gold-handled dagger from his belt and sliced a thread that bound the patch concealing the letter to his jerkin.

“That dagger . . . let me see it,” the queen said with sudden interest.

She took it from Quentin’s hand and turned it over, examining the golden handle carefully. “I have seen this knife on occasion,” she declared at length. “I cannot say where.”

Quentin had finished freeing the parchment scrap from its pouch and produced it without hesitation, saying, “He who owns that knife sends this in his stead.” He watched as she took the knife and broke the seal of the letter. She unfolded the crackly parchment and read. Quentin, not knowing what the epistle contained, did not know what to expect. He watched her face for a clue to the letter’s contents, remembering that one man had prized its contents with his life.

To Quentin it seemed that the effect of the message upon its reader was absorbed only slowly, yet it must have been instantaneous. The queen’s face drained of color and she let fall the dagger, which clattered to the floor. Her eyes seemed to grow cold and filled with terror as she thrust the letter away from her. “My king,” she murmured.

Quentin stood, a granite statue, not daring to move lest he intrude in some way upon the queen’s distress. The beautiful monarch’s arms fell limp to her sides as if the strength had gone out of them. Her chin came to rest upon her bosom. Quentin quaked inside to see this gentle woman thrown so cruelly into such distraction. In that instant he vowed that whatever had caused his queen’s calamity, he, Quentin, would set it right. Or if it was too late for that, he would avenge her grief.

He stepped close to her, his own heart rending for her. Instinctively she reached out for his arm and clutched it. Her eyes were scanning the letter once again. She was silent for some moments. Quentin thought to run to the adjoining anteroom and summon aid, but he dared not leave her. So he stood, offering his arm, as at that moment he would have offered his life.

Presently she spoke again, though her voice was much changed from what Quentin had recognized only shortly before.

“Do you know what this letter contains?” she asked. Quentin said nothing. “Then tell me how you came by it, for I fear it is no jest. I know the signature too well. And the poniard upon the floor is proof enough besides.”

“I am Quentin, an acolyte in the High Temple of Ariel. Three days ago a wounded knight came to the temple, asking our help. He said his errand was most important to the realm—a message from the king. He did not fear death, only that it would come too soon and he would not be able to deliver his message to you. He wrote it then; you have it in your hand.”

“Ronsard—brave Ronsard—sent you in his place? A temple acolyte?” The queen looked upon Quentin with wonder that a boy would volunteer for such a mission.

Quentin, however, mistook the queen’s question. “He did not wish me to come, my lady. But there was none else . . .”

“And what of Ronsard?” The queen turned her head away as if to avoid the impact of the answer. “Dead?”

Quentin again remained silent, lacking the heart to tell her.

At this the queen drew herself up, her shoulders straightened, her head lifted. When she turned again to Quentin, she was remarkably composed, revealing her singular inner strength. “He trusted you, and in doing so placed the safety of the king and the future of the kingdom in your hands. I can do no less than trust you too.”

She moved to a large cushioned chair that had been drawn up near the window. The sky beyond, so recently clean and fair, now appeared cold and far away, dimmed, as if a veil had been drawn over it.

Alinea seated herself and motioned for Quentin to follow. When he had perched himself upon the window bench nearby, she said, “Quentin, this letter portends dire events for all who know its secret. Our kingdom is in peril. The king is a prisoner of Nimrood the Necromancer—held by the treachery of his own brother, Prince Jaspin, who would sit upon the throne. More than that the letter does not say, but the consequences can readily be guessed.

“I have been as one blind these years. While I watched abroad the foreign wars, the king’s power at home diminished in his absence, plundered by Jaspin and his hired thieves. I became aware too late—I myself am prisoner in my own castle. My only hope was that the king’s return would strike fear into their craven hearts, and once restored, the king would settle their accounts.

“That will not likely happen now. I fear our cause is lost before we have sounded the alarm.” The queen turned to gaze out of the window, but her eyes saw nothing of the scene before them.

Quentin, feeling at once great pity for the queen and even greater anger at Jaspin, spoke with quiet resolve. “Then we must save the king.” The queen turned her head and smiled sadly.

“A true man you are. Ronsard was right to trust you. But even if I raise a force, the king would forfeit his life. You see, Jaspin would know in an instant. His spies are everywhere; not a leaf drops in Pelgrin Forest that he does not know about.”

“I have friends,” Quentin offered. “It may be that a few can do what many cannot.” How few, Quentin had not stopped to consider— the only people he counted friends in all the world, besides Biorkis, were Theido and the hermit Durwin.

“You would go to save your king? You and your friends alone?” Queen Alinea seemed about to gainsay Quentin’s offer but then hesitated. She looked at Quentin shrewdly, her head held to one side as if appraising him for a suit of clothes. “It sounds like madness, but your words are wise beyond your knowing. Who are these friends of yours?”

At the question Quentin blanched, realizing that his list was a short one, and without a solitary knight’s name on it. But he answered with all the conviction he could muster.

“Only Durwin, the holy hermit of Pelgrin, and one called Theido.” He was embarrassed by his lack of fellowship, but a light came into the queen’s deep green eyes.

She exclaimed, “Lucky is the man who counts noble Theido his friend. Do you know where he can be found?”

The question posed a problem for Quentin. He did not know where Theido was; in fact, he scarcely knew anything beyond the fact that Theido had been captured by men early that very morning—a detail he’d forgotten until just that moment. He did not know how to answer, but as he opened his mouth to admit his ignorance, the queen continued. “It has been some time since anyone has seen Theido. He was one of the king’s best knights and a nobleman too. The death of his father occasioned his return from the wars. But on his homecoming he was falsely branded a traitor by Jaspin and his brigands, and his castle and lands were confiscated. He escaped their trap and has lived the life of an outlaw ever since.”

The queen stood and turned away from the window, gazing down upon Quentin with a sudden warmth. “He also would I trust with my life. I know not of this holy hermit Durwin, but if he is a friend of yours, and of Theido’s, he will not be less my friend.

“But why do you look so? Is something amiss?” the queen asked suddenly, noticing Quentin’s fallen countenance.

“My lady,” Quentin groaned, forcing the words out, “Theido was taken this morning by men who lay in ambush for him. I escaped to come here, but I do not know what has become of Theido, or where they might have taken him.”

The queen’s answer to this seemingly doom-filled pronouncement astonished Quentin and enormously cheered him. “That is a mystery easily solved,” she said, a tone of rancor coloring her reply. “For there is only one person who so oppresses the king’s innocent subjects in broad daylight—deeds for which even the most impudent rogues seek the cover of blackest night. Prince Jaspin has kidnapped our friend. There is no mistake there.” She thought for a moment. “Such arrogance would not shrink from bringing the prize within these very walls.”

The queen swiftly crossed the room and threw open the door to her chamber and called for the chamberlain, who appeared in a trice. They talked in whispers in the doorway across the room, and the chamberlain hurried off again.

“We will soon know the fate of friend Theido. I have sent Oswald to inquire discreetly of the dungeon keeper whether a new prisoner was remanded to his keeping this morning. We shall see if I guess aright.”

They waited for the chamberlain’s return. Quentin fidgeted with nervous frustration. He wanted to run to the dungeon, wherever it might have been, and look for himself, then and there to grant this friend liberty. The queen, for her part, bore the waiting with regal calm. Whatever emotions she felt were of a more determined kind, Quentin thought; they seemed to simmer beneath her placid exterior.

At last the chamberlain, Oswald, returned. He bowed low as he quickly approached the queen, saying, “An outlaw was imprisoned this morning, Your Majesty. The keeper knows nothing else, only that he was instructed by the knight in charge to allow no one to see him and that no record was to be made of the prisoner’s presence.”

“The knight’s identity was known to the dungeon keeper?”

“It was Sir Bran,” Oswald replied. The queen thanked her chamberlain and dismissed him. She turned once more to Quentin and said, “I think we have solved our riddle. But now another arises which will not be answered so easily: how are we to set the captive free?”

9

The afternoon sun had set too swiftly, it seemed to Quentin. The queen’s apartment was growing dim; any minute servants would begin lighting the many candles that stood round the queen’s private chamber. The day had been a rush of activity, especially the last few hours.

Now, however, all was in readiness, and they waited. “You appear anxious, young sir.” The queen crossed the room to where Quentin was maintaining his vigil upon the window bench. She had been seeing to last-minute details and had just returned. “Do not be troubled, Quentin.” He smiled weakly and turned his eyes slowly away from the window, from where he had spent most of the late afternoon watching servants scurry across the courtyard in the snow on furtive business for the queen.

“I am not afraid,” Quentin lied, “only a little.” He looked at the beautiful Alinea in the dying light. She had vastly changed since he had last seen her. Where only a short while before she had been arrayed in regal finery, the fairest of the fair, now she stood before him in plainer trappings: a dark green tunic—not unlike his own—with purple cloak, very heavy, but finely made. She wore trousers with a man’s wide leather belt at her waist; tall riding boots completed her wardrobe. “So you approve of the queen’s attire?” She laughed, trying to put Quentin at ease. “We have the same tailor, you and I.”

Quentin forced a laugh and stood. “When will we be going? The sun is well down . . . Will it be long?”

“No, not long,” the queen reassured. “Oswald will summon us when all is made ready. We need not fret. Our preparations are in good care.”

Quentin was now more uneasy than he had been previously. He had had a taste of the danger of his mission and had witnessed its effects in Theido’s case. And that danger had been heightened and multiplied by all that had taken place in the last several hours: Ronsard’s message, the hastily conspired plot to free Theido, the feverish preparations for their journey—and now the waiting.

In the waiting Quentin found time to think about all that had gone before, to doubt his newly discovered bravery, to question again his omens and wish a thousand times that he’d never left the temple, and to curse the blind impetuosity that had propelled him into the midst of this dark adventure.

Quentin turned glumly once more to stare out of the window; the courtyard below lay deep in violet shadow, and a single star blazed bright as a beacon fire above one of the southern turrets. A good token, thought Quentin, and was himself brightened somewhat.

A quick knock sounded upon the queen’s chamber door, and Oswald entered at once. Quentin had trouble recognizing him, for he was dressed not as the queen’s chamberlain but as someone of much higher rank, although Quentin could not say who; he looked like a nobleman.

“You look a fine prince, Oswald,” said the queen. “Are you ready to play the part?” Oswald bowed again; turning his back to them, he shouted thickly, “You may go! Leave!” He turned again and asked blandly, “Would you say that was sufficient for our purpose?” There was just a hint of sarcasm in his voice, and Quentin realized with a start that Oswald was playing the part of the mysterious Jaspin.

“I think you will do nicely . . . I only hope I do not lose my chamberlain. He might like it as a prince—though not a rogue such as Jaspin, surely.”

With that, Oswald withdrew into the anteroom. Quentin heard the hollow echo of his summons to the warder. The queen turned to Quentin and said, “It is time to go. Follow the warder and he will lead you to the postern gate. The horses are waiting there with our provisions. We will come along as soon as may be. Go quickly now.”

Quentin followed the warder, a short, thick bull of a man with black eyes and curly black hair. He looked every inch the soldier he had once been. Quentin bobbed along in the man’s wake as they made their way along the back ways and little-used passages of the castle.

They walked quickly, stopping to look neither right nor left, although Quentin’s eyes caught flashing glimpses of rooms opulent and luxurious beyond his simple imaginings. He ached to be able to just stand and gaze upon them from the corridors. They passed various apartments, the armory, anterooms, and chambers. At one point they passed a great open entranceway with two huge carved oaken doors thrown wide in welcome. Inside a double colonnade supported an immense vaulted ceiling of concentric arches above a vast open room that seemed to contain the treasures of a whole kingdom. Quentin had never seen anything like it; the room seemed large enough to have swallowed the Temple of Ariel whole. Trenn, the warder, saw Quentin’s eyes grow round as they passed the room and explained, “That is the Great Hall of the Dragon King. There is none like it in all the world.”

Quentin believed him.

No sooner had the warder spoken than he turned like lightning upon Quentin and seized him by the tunic at the back of the neck. Quentin was surprised and shocked. He jerked like a loosely strung puppet and struck out with arms and legs flailing. “Come along, ruffian, or I’ll feed you to the dogs!” the warder roared.

“Do you require assistance, Trenn?” Quentin heard a voice behind him. He spun around and saw two men, richly dressed and proceeding into the great hall. One looked to be a knight by his armor, but he was no knight like Quentin had ever seen. His armor was silver and burnished to a glittering brightness; his cloak was crimson and lined with sable, as were his gloves and boots.

The man standing next to the knight wore a richly brocaded cloak of silk with gold drawn into fine thread and woven into the fabric. His tunic was royal purple, and he wore a large golden collar from which hung his insignia: a vulture with two heads, one facing right and the other left.

Quentin guessed it was the knight who had spoken, though he had no way of knowing. “I can manage, my lord,” said Trenn, dipping his head curtly. “We caught this one in the larder, stuffing his pockets.”

“Well, give him a taste of your strap,” said the nobleman impatiently. Both men turned away, and Trenn yanked Quentin behind one of the great doors, clamping a hand over the boy’s mouth.

“Quiet, young master!” he whispered hoarsely. “We dare not be seen lurking hereabouts.” Then he removed his hand with an additional caution not to cry out.

“Who were they?” Quentin whispered. Trenn rolled his eyes upward.

“Orphe, help us! It was Prince Jaspin and one of his nobles, Sir Grenett—a more foul gentleman I never want to meet.”

“Then let us get away!” said Quentin, seeing no good reason to linger in the vicinity any longer.

“We cannot—any moment Oswald will walk into a trap unaware! We must do something to prevent it.”

The plan had been simple enough, but not without its element of risk. The chamberlain, Oswald, was to impersonate Prince Jaspin after secretly obtaining some of the prince’s clothing. A forged message was delivered to the dungeon keeper to place the new prisoner under guard and bring him to the Great Hall, which was the only place the conspirators could think of where Jaspin himself would not likely show up. But their worst fears had, as on such occasions frequently happens, materialized in force.

Prince Jaspin and one of his noble knaves had chosen this time for a private parley in the Great Hall, where Oswald, in disguise, would momentarily appear. Only the doughty Trenn and Quentin knew of the serious mischance. “I fear the gods go against us, young master. Yonder comes Oswald, and too soon the prisoner will follow.” Footsteps could be heard far down the corridor; Oswald was hurrying to his place. “There is but one thing for it,” said Trenn. “A diversion.”

He peered around the huge door and pointed diagonally across the hall to the darkened arch of an alcove. “You see that door over there?” he asked. “That is the storeroom of tables, benches, and all that fills the hall on feast days. And also a quantity of banners and pennons and other such frippery—set them afire!” He thrust into Quentin’s uncertain hands a small flint and iron attached with a leather thong, which he carried in a pouch at his side. “I will be right after you, yelling to catch their attention. Mind, when you hear me call, leave all and come out. We will not have much time, but maybe enough.”

“I understand.”

“Then go.” Trenn pushed Quentin forward with such force that the boy fell sprawling into the entrance of the Great Hall, dropping the flint and iron, which clinked dully as it skittered across the black marble floor not five paces from where Prince Jaspin and Sir Grenett had stopped to confer.

Quentin leaped to his feet and dived to snatch up the flint and iron. Trenn, behind him, shouted, “Stop him! Stop that thief!” Prince Jaspin and Sir Grenett turned just in time to see Quentin dash toward them, swoop to retrieve his lost utensil, and dart away. Sir Grenett, without thinking, made a swipe after the fleeing youth, but Prince Jaspin, considering this an ill-timed interruption in his important affairs, stood fuming in his place.

Quentin reached the door of the storeroom and smacked the iron latch with his hand. The door was secured from within. No, it gave somewhat, but Sir Grenett was upon him. Putting all his weight upon the effort, Quentin managed to force the latch and barely swung the door open, squeezing through and closing it again in almost the same motion. Sir Grenett’s heavy fist rattled the door as he threw the bolt.

The room was almost pitch dark; only a feeble light found its way in from an arrow loop set high up in the wall. With Trenn’s excited voice and Sir Grenett’s angry challenges and both men pounding upon the door, Quentin stumbled forward and found in a corner of the room banners on standards. He threw them down and set to striking the flint and iron.

The effort appeared futile; there was no edge or kindling that could catch a spark. Furiously he looked for something else to start a blaze. On the floor he spied a single piece of parchment, a proclamation of some sort that had been read at a feast now forgotten. He picked it up and ran back to the door, crumpling the parchment as he went. He threw it down just in front of the door and struck the flint and iron to it. The spark caught on the brittle old skin. He blew carefully, and the spark leaped to flaming life. Trembling, Quentin shoved the smoldering parchment to the threshold and blew his breath on it, sending the smoke streaming under the door.

“Fire!” he heard Trenn’s voice boom out. “The rascal’s set the stores on fire!”

Prince Jaspin, growing more and more impatient with the impertinence of the supposed young scoundrel, came steaming up to where Sir Grenett and Trenn stood beating the door with their hands. “Call the guards! I’ll have this door down at once!”

“The room will be in blazes before that,” Trenn objected. “My lord, allow me to remain here while Sir Grenett goes round to the other door through that anteroom.”

“The room has two such entrances, I believe,” explained the exasperated prince, quickly losing his temper.

“My lord could see to the other,” suggested Trenn.

The prince seemed about to overrule this plan, but the smoke was now curling about their feet. “By Azrael! I’ll flay his foolish hide myself,” he swore, trotting off to find the other door, a location he knew but imprecisely. “Sir Grenett!” he shouted. “Take your post! Let us end this vexation instantly!”

The two left to their appointed stations. As soon as they were out of sight, Trenn called, his face close to the door, “Young master, they are gone. Let us away!”

Hearing the signal, Quentin emerged coughing from the room. The parchment was now but ashes on the floor, completely consumed. Trenn grabbed his arm, nearly wrenching it from his shoulder, and pulled him across the floor and away. At the entrance to the Great Hall, they met a confused Oswald fearfully peeping in at the scene he had just witnessed.

“Our plan is discovered,” he said as they drew up.

“No,” replied Trenn in a hushed tone. “But you must not linger here all night. We have bought some time. See to your business and flee!”

Oswald appeared far from certain, but the noise or voices in the corridor behind, and a quick glance to see the dungeon keeper and his guards with their prisoner moving toward them, made up his mind. The chamberlain crossed to one side of the hall and took up his position, back turned toward the entrance.

Trenn and Quentin did not remain longer to see the drama to its end but hurried on toward their appointed place—the postern gate.

Quentin felt the sting of the cold night air upon his face as they dashed out of the castle and into the broad expanse of the outer ward. Trenn and Quentin flitted like shadows over the snow and, stealing through a low stone archway set in a low wall, entered the small postern gateyard. There in the whitened square of the gateyard stood three horses laden with provisions. Standing nearby was a member of Trenn’s gate watch who was checking saddle and tack for readiness.

“Everything is in order, sir,” the guard reported when the two came close.

“Good,” said Trenn. “Go and see that the plank is let down. The others will be here shortly.”

The man turned and hastened off. Trenn cast a worried glance back over his shoulder toward the castle and said softly to Quentin, “We have pushed our luck this far; the gods will have to see to the rest.” He paused and added in a hoarse whisper, “But listen! Someone comes!”

10

Quentin shivered in the cold. A large bright moon was beginning to show its silvery disk just above the eastern curtain between two towers. Quentin watched in nervous excitement, waiting to be off. He stood in the snow, holding the reins of his mount, none other than the stout Balder, rescued by the queen’s thoughtfulness from the stable at the inn. The ambushers, having captured their man, had given no thought to the horses left behind.

The queen stood nearby, talking quietly to Trenn, who was maintaining a thickheaded obstinance over something she was telling him. “Good warder,” she said, “I would not insist if I thought you were in but little danger. The prince rages from within, demanding an accounting. He thinks you have conspired some treason against him and likes not the trickery played out in the Great Hall just now. When he learns of the prisoner’s escape, he will demand your head.”

“How can he know that I had aught to do with his precious prisoner?” Trenn objected.

“He needs no reason to suspect anyone, who is suspicious of all. Jaspin will suspect and then, at very least, make an example of your death for those who trifle with him. It is not safe for you to remain behind.”

“I have borne the brunt of his anger before. I can withstand.”

“No, not this time. He will be satisfied with nothing less than your head upon the spike. You must come with us.”

Just then two figures darted forth from the low archway: the leading one tall and dark; the other, his cloak glimmering in the moonlight, following close behind.

“Theido!” cried Quentin when the two had joined them.

“Quentin, is it you?” the dark man asked in some surprise.

“Quickly now,” said Trenn. “Truly, there is not a moment to lose. You must be off.”

“Trenn, you are coming with us,” the queen said firmly and called to one of the guards standing close by. “Make ready another horse!”

“There’s no time, my lady,” the bullheaded warder protested. “I may be of more use to you here. Go now and do not worry after me.”

“Yes, you must go at once,” said Oswald. “The dungeon keeper will send for his prisoner soon and find him gone; then Jaspin will know that treason is afoot.”

Quentin was already in the saddle of the great warhorse. Balder snorted and shook his mane. The bridle jingled in the frosty air, reminding Quentin of tiny prayer bells heard from far away. Theido mounted his brown palfrey, and the horse tossed his head and stamped the ground repeatedly, as if to say, “The time has come! Away!” The queen climbed, with the help of Trenn’s steady hand, into the saddle, offering last instructions to Oswald.

“Jaspin must have no reason to suspect my absence for at least two days. Play out the ruse as long as you are able. Let everyone believe I have taken to bed with a sudden slight illness and will not be disturbed. My ladies must behave as they would under that condition. And you must forget you know otherwise yourself.”

Oswald bowed, and Trenn signaled one of his men to lift the postern gate, and the riders set forth. The hooves of the horses clattered upon the stone floor of the gatehouse road and thudded over the plank, the small drawbridge that had been put down over the broad ditch sep- arating the postern ramp from the gatehouse. They wound their way along the walled road of the postern ramp, which descended steeply down the rocky backside of the hill on which the castle was founded. When they had clattered over the final bridge, spanning the last dry moat, Theido turned in his saddle and halted briefly, allowing the others to draw up beside him. “Whoever else I have to thank for my freedom, I thank my friend Quentin,” he said, bowing in the saddle. He turned to Queen Alinea and said, “And I thank his influential friend.”

“We all have you to thank for our captivity if we do not leave this place at once,” she said with a laugh. Then she added in a more serious tone, “Good Theido, I am sorry for the abuse which has befallen you, but the gods may yet have some plan to undo all the evil Prince Jaspin has done. For my own part, I am glad that you are still alive and are now by my side. There is not another I would entrust my safety to more willingly.”

“My lady, we have not seen the beginning of our course. It may be that you will have reason to curse the one you so highly honor now.”

“No. I have too often seen your high mettle tested and shown true. I have no qualms whatever danger lurks at hand.”

“Still, it is not too late for you to go back. You—”

The queen cut him off, saying, “I have made my decision and will abide.” She took a deep breath and turned her face to the east. “No, my future lies elsewhere. My king is waiting.”

Theido snapped his reins. “Then we are off!”

The horses surged into the snow, striking up glittering diamonds in the silvery light. The shadows of the three riders wavered, sliding silently in the smooth void—three fleeting shades darting through a sleeping world. Away they flew to the east toward the darkly advancing line of Pelgrin Forest, their black shapes traced in the spun silver of a rising winter moon.

Quentin crouched low, clinging to Balder’s thick neck, abandoning any hope of remaining close behind the others unless he gave his mount free rein. He was not an accomplished rider—the temple had little use for horses. That part of his education had been neglected in favor of other, more priestly studies. So he leaned into the wind, lashed by Balder’s flying mane, squinting into the night and blinking back icy tears and enduring the string of snow loosed by the hooves of the horses in front of him.

The moon hovered at its zenith when they reached the first straggling forefringe of the forest. Theido pursued the dodging course among the small trees and shrubs until at last the riders entered the deeper wood. Here, at the forest’s edge, Theido reined to a halt to allow the horses a breather. All turned in their saddles to look upon Askelon, now many leagues behind them.

Quentin craned his neck to see the castle, dimly outlined in the moonlight, rising like a mountain, dark against an even darker night. Overhead a thousand stars shed brilliant pricks of cold light glancing down upon them. Pale wisps of steam rose from the horses.

“We should reach Durwin’s cottage with the dawn,” said Theido. He turned again toward the vast expanse of white they had just crossed. “I cannot see that we have been followed. But we should expect that, I think. They will try to stop us, you may be sure. Our only hope is to stay far enough ahead of them that their attempt comes too late.”

“We may be able to outdistance them or lose them along the way,” Alinea offered.

“It is possible; at any rate, it is our best course. Jaspin has many spies throughout the land and many who owe him costly favors. He will try to use them. If we can but elude them long enough, we may lose them when we leave this country behind.

“We shall ride as quietly through Pelgrin as a party may go with speed. There is, however, one stop I would make along the way, and that quite soon.” He swung his horse into the forest, and the others followed close behind.

Quentin found the going somewhat easier; he was able to sit more erectly in the saddle, although low-hanging branches kept him ducking and leaning constantly. Theido pursued a relentless pace for nearly two hours, as far as Quentin could guess by the position of the moon—which he struggled to glimpse from time to time through broken patches of clear sky overhead.

They stayed just off the main track through the forest and presently came to an ancient oak of immense girth, as large as any Quentin had ever seen. Theido called a halt and rode a few paces ahead by himself. Then he raised himself in the saddle and, placing two fingers of an ungloved hand into his mouth, gave a low whistle. He repeated it and then trotted back to where Quentin and Queen Alinea waited. He was just about to speak when a long, shrill whistle came in answer to his own.

“Come,” said Theido. “We may proceed.”

They turned off the path by the oak, and Quentin saw a narrow opening between two massive and impenetrable hedges. The gap was just wide enough to admit a rider or a man on foot—if they happened to be looking for the spot, for it was fully concealed behind the eldern oak.

Through the hedge wall the riders entered a clearing that was a bowl-shaped hollow. The ground sloped down just ahead of them and rose again opposite to form a rocky rim crowned with slim young birches on a small hill. All around the circumference of the hill grew holly bushes, thick and black in the moonlight.

Theido led the party to the center of the bowl and there waited. Quentin could not imagine why they had come here or who had returned Theido’s signal, for obviously, signal it was. He had not long to wait for answers to his questions. As he sat scanning the limited horizon of the bowl, he noticed nothing. And then, even as he watched, he perceived that the bushes themselves were alive—each one a man outfitted with a cunning camouflage of branches and twigs affixed to his back and shoulders. Quentin watched fascinated as these walking shrubs rustled to their feet and came forward. There were sixteen in all. Their leader seemed to be a large man with a hat of dry leaves pulled low over his face. He approached easily and came to stand directly in front of Theido, bowing low and saying, “Good evening to you, Sir Hawk. Your signal stirs us out of a long winter’s nap. But we are ever ready to serve you and yours whatever the time or need may be. How can we help you?”

“You are most gracious, Voss. I wish only to speak to you now, and then you shall all return to your cozy cave.” The man bowed again, and this time Quentin saw his broad, good-natured face full in the moonlight that filled the hollow, reflecting off the sparkling snow. Voss waved his men closer, and instantly the riders were surrounded by an odd assortment of heads, arms, and branches. Each man carried a short sword and a longbow. Quentin saw no arrows but guessed them concealed in the camouflage.

“I was taken prisoner this morning by men under Jaspin’s orders.”

“The dog!” spat Voss. The ring of bushmen murmured menacingly. Quentin got the impression that if Jaspin or any of his fifty men had been within bowshot right now, they would be wearing feathers. “How was the deed accomplished?”

“I do not know. But this is a matter of small importance. I am free now because of the quick thinking of my friends here.” Theido nodded to Quentin and Alinea.

The bushmen bowed together at this revelation, and Voss spoke for all of them, pledging, “Pelgrin will never hold ill for you while any of us are awake and breathing. A whistle thus”—he whistled—“will bring help and rescue from man or beast. And if food and shelter is your lack, you have bed and board with us as long as bellies need meat and eyes sleep.”

“We accept your most generous pledge, kind ranger,” said the queen. “You may be certain that if ever I am in such need, I will summon you at your word.”

“Please,” interrupted Theido, “we will trouble you no further tonight but to say that we go directly to the cottage of the holy hermit, Durwin. Most likely we will be followed—if we are not pursued even now. I would require a watch to be placed upon our path, and a fair warning to be given when any of the prince’s men enter these woods.”

“That is easily said,” replied the woodsman, nodding to several of his companions, who left at once, melting into the forest silently as shadows, “and done. Is there nothing else?”

“I may have need to put your craft to the test, but not yet, I think. We will take our leave and thank you now for your help. I may not have time to thank you later.”

“No thanks necessary,” replied Voss with a wide smile. His eyes glittered, and his teeth shone white in the dark. “We are only too glad to repay in kind what has oft been given us. Away with you!” he shouted suddenly, slapping the horses on the neck. “You may still dream before dawn.”

Theido saluted the stocky woodsman and bowed to the circle of men gathered about them. They returned his salute, raising their longbows high in the air and saying, “May Ariel guide you!” Three men jumped forward and seized the reins of the horses and led them off into the forest. Quentin looked back over his shoulder to where Voss and the rest still watched after them. He waved, and the bushmen’s leader waved back. Quentin watched until they were removed from sight by the forest closing once more around them.

11

Quentin awoke to the smell of roasting meat seasoned with pungent spices. The aroma teased him, bringing water to his mouth and an ache to his empty stomach. It seemed like a month since he had last eaten.

His eyelids were heavy as bobs of lead, and he had not the strength to open them. So he lay in a state of suspended animation, awake but unmoving, dragging his scattered thoughts together and willing his reluctant limbs to move—and only half succeeding in either case.

At last, overcome by hunger and coaxed upright by the pleasant odors wafting over him, he pushed away his cloak and gleaned the straw from his hair.

He heard voices and—struggling to his feet out of the dry, straw-filled corner that had served for his bed—approached the hermit’s long table, where Durwin and Theido mumbled together.

“. . . Then we must use every caution. Any misstep would prove fatal. So much is at stake.” Quentin heard this ominous pronouncement as he drew nearer the table. Durwin was speaking. “We must arm ourselves accordingly—I see no other alternative.”

“No,” replied Theido softly, yet his voice carried a stern objection. “I cannot ask such a thing of you. There must be another way.”

Just then Quentin reached the table and the two men cut short their conversation and greeted him heartily. “Durwin, our young acolyte saved my life yesterday. Did I tell you?” Theido said, raising a cup of steaming liquid to Quentin as Durwin hurried to place a bowl of hot porridge and bread before him.

“Yes, you have told me only three hundred times this morning, but I’ll gladly hear it again,” replied the hermit.

Theido recounted in glowing terms all that had taken place the last morning, from the capture to the daring escape and the moonlit ride. “Had it not been for my young friend’s disobedience of my orders, I would be food for the owls today.”

“Disobedience? When did I disobey you?” Quentin croaked.

“You were instructed to ride back to Durwin here if I came to harm or if our plans miscarried.”

Quentin remembered the order; it had been scared right out of his head in the confusion and fright of the ambush. And later he had chanced upon a better plan.

“Quentin,” continued Theido, “you stand absolved of any wrong. But I must stress this to you now: you are never to disobey my orders again. Follow them no matter what may seem to you the outcome. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Quentin answered uncertainly. He had only minutes before been praised for his bravery and pluck. Now he felt severely reprimanded.

“Tut,” said Durwin. “Don’t be so strong-headed, Theido. I think the god intervened with a command of his own. I tell you the god has a hand on this one.” The holy hermit nodded approvingly to Quentin, who was glad for this affirmation.

“I will obey in all details,” said Quentin. He sat down on the bench and began tearing the bread to pieces and stirring the pieces into the steaming porridge. “Now may I ask something that I have been wondering?”

“Ask away; there shall be no secrets between us.”

“Why is it men call you the Hawk?”

“It comes from my family’s blazon—the hunting falcon. I am known to the woodsmen and others hereabouts as the Hawk—they make me out to be an outlaw like themselves.” He shrugged. “It suits them and allows me the freedom to go where another name might hinder.” He paused and then added in a lighter tone, “My friends, as always, know me as Theido.”

“And those who know the name never want a truer friend.” The voice was the queen’s; she now stood directly behind Quentin. She had awakened to the sound of their voices and had come silently to the table. Durwin, appearing somewhat flustered, hurried to offer the best seat at the table, his own.

“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing from the waist, “I am honored to have you in this humble house.”

“Your kindness is appreciated,” she said, sliding into the offered chair. “But from now on I am only Alinea—I have put off my crown and am no queen until my king returns to claim his throne and so redeems my own. So please, good hermit, make no fuss for my sake.”

“As you wish, Alinea,” replied Durwin smoothly. He had a gift for meeting people high or low and making them feel honored and welcome in his presence. Quentin had felt it from the first. “Now no more talking until we have all broken fast together.”

Prince Jaspin stormed red-eyed through the corridors of the ancient castle. He had not slept the night and had just been informed that the queen was abed with an illness and would see no one, nor receive messages. His opportunity to question her was foiled. The foul prince was furious.

During the night he had sent word to as many of his nobles as were within reach to meet at midday to hear a plan he had been contemplating for some time. His anger at losing his prisoner had caused him to implement this new scheme without further delay.

He strode into the council chambers, his sharp face flushed with anger and exhaustion. Various knights and nobles, more than a score altogether, stood beneath their banners and standards awaiting his arrival. Many showed signs of having ridden hard and long to get there at the appointed time.

“My esteemed lords, please be seated. We have much to discuss.” All bowed to him as he waved them to chairs at a long table. He indicated a chair at his right for Sir Bran and one at his left for the brawny Sir Grenett. Nearby sat a noble with sly, narrow eyes and a puckered, pouting mouth, a man of vast holdings and extraordinary wealth who was determined to be the new king’s chief minister. His name was Ontescue, a name not well liked by the helots who worked his lands and bore the brunt of his expensive ambitions.

“My lord, you are looking ill-possessed this morning. Your sleep was not troubled, I hope.” He had guessed the prince was looking for an opportunity to launch into a retelling of his latest agitation. He wanted to provide a ready ear.

“It is true; I have had no sleep this night past. But that is a matter for another time.” The prince dismissed his chance to confide his troubles, pressing on to a subject of more immediate import. “Gentlemen all,” he called, “your presence gratifies me. As we all know too well, our kingdom has been for some time without a king, being governed in his absence by the Council of Regents. I have uncovered evidence that certain nobles of that body have been aiding the outlaws in their campaign of robbery and defiance throughout the forests of this land.

“Only yesterday my men arrested the prince of these outlaws—I had him secured within these walls until he should speak out against those of his band and other outlaw leaders with whom he is intimately acquainted.

“My aim is to rid the wood and hills of these preying wolves, and so give back the roads to the people and to commerce. However, before I could myself set eyes upon this bandit leader, he was sprung to freedom by companions high in rank and title. I have not apprehended the men who loosed this villain, but I know now who put them up to it.” He paused, and all eyes and ears were his. “Lord Weldon and Lord Larcott!”

At once a cry rang out. “It cannot be!” Lord Larcott, slamming his fist upon the table, was on his feet, protesting his innocence. Lord Weldon sat stunned in his chair. The other knights and nobles drowned Larcott’s cries with their own demands for justice.

Prince Jaspin held up a hand and ordered silence. “You, as noble lords of this kingdom, will have your chance to answer the charges brought against you. For now, and until such time as your crimes shall be heard, you will deliver yourselves to the tower to be there confined.” With a nod of his head, Prince Jaspin signaled four armed guards to escort the Lords Weldon and Larcott to the dungeon. The furor continued along the meeting table as the two unlucky men were seized where they sat and marched out under the rough handling of the guards.

Lord Larcott could be heard screaming, “By Zoar, you’ll pay for this outrage! I’ll see your head black on the spike!” Lord Weldon went quietly with a look of deepest grief and unrelenting sorrow upon his gray face. Those who saw his look quickly glanced away; his eyes seemed to burn into the soul of any who accused him.

When they had gone and order was restored, Prince Jaspin rushed to the heart of his plan: filling the two newly vacant chairs on the Council of Regents. “Noble men, as you are aware, the people grow daily more dependent upon strong leadership to maintain order in the land. I propose we now elect two new members to the council, and do so without delay.”

“Hear! Hear!” the nobles in Jaspin’s sway shouted, delighted with such a display of efficient and farsighted leadership. When once more the din had died, a figure stood at his place at the table. “I cannot accede to such a move,” said Lord Holben, a knight of no small renown. He was Larcott’s friend and one who had been chosen by King Eskevar to sit at council. “For to elect new members to this council would be to declare the guilt of the previous members. There have been no writs of justice presented and no decrees posted. As it involves nobility, this is a high matter and as such can only be judged by the king himself upon his return.” With that Lord Holben sat down.

“He is right,” said some. Others objected. “It cannot wait!” The chamber once again rang with the shouts of contending voices until Ontescue held up his hands and succeeded in reducing the tumult to silence.

“Surely the prince has only the best interests of the realm at heart. Therefore, I will abide by Prince Jaspin’s decision in this matter,” said Ontescue. He nodded with a sly smile toward the prince.

“I defer as well,” said Sir Bran. He was aided in his opinion by Sir Grenett, who then scowled down the length of the table, daring any to defy him. Most, willingly or with reluctance, came at length to their side, opposed only by Lord Holben and several of his neighbors who cared not for Jaspin.

“I maintain the king’s justice in this matter. No further moves may be taken against those charged with this crime,” Holben declared. “Here it rests until the king shall return.”

“Very well,” snapped Jaspin irritably. “The matter shall go no further at present. However, it is equally a breach of the king’s law to leave an empty chair at the Council of Regents. Two members must fill those vacancies. Since we are all assembled here now, I see no reason we should not proceed to elect new regents.”

Lord Holben started to his feet to make some objection but was shouted down by Jaspin’s minions.

“Very well,” continued Jaspin. “Since it pleases this body, I propose to put forth the names of Sir Bran and Sir Grenett for your commendation.”

“I commend them,” said Ontescue. His words were echoed time and again as the vote proceeded around the table, man by man. Nearly everyone commended the prince’s choice heartily; only a few from Lord Holben’s party abstained. Only Lord Holben himself dared to go against the vote.

“Sir Grenett and Sir Bran”—Prince Jaspin beamed—“you are now regents of the realm. You will be sworn to your office within the fortnight, as is required by king’s law,” he said snidely, bowing to Holben, who clenched his fists in his lap. “How say you, bold knights? Do you accept this charge placed upon you by your peers?”

“We do,” they answered.

Just then there was a commotion in the hall. Amid angry vows, fierce gestures, and dark, threatening looks, Lord Holben and his party stalked out of the council chamber in a great show of protest. The smile that had only moments before curled the corners of Prince Jaspin’s fleshy lips now faded slowly.

Other nobles and knights now took their leave and began filing out of the chamber, attended by their pages and standard bearers, each with the banner and device of his lord. Prince Jaspin rose and called Ontescue to him. “Some of the voices were not loud enough in their approval of my new regents. Go to them and smooth any uncertainty with whatever means seems best to you. I will have these men, as many as can be won with favors, on my side.”

“Of course, my lord. You, as always, know what is best. Your cause shall not suffer for want of generosity at my hands. I will bring them around,” the would-be chancellor declared. Already his shrewd eyes were stealing after the nobles as he calculated the price of fealty for one and then another.

“Good,” said the prince. “Have I told you that I am considering giving you Crandall? No? ’Tis true. It only needs a slight demonstration of your loyalty to secure that estate—one of the largest in the realm, I am told.”

“I am flattered, my lord.”

“Go now and bring me word of your success as soon as may be. Other matters now beg my attention. Go.”

Ontescue hurried after the departing lords, engaging each one in private conversation and pressing upon them promises, gold, and royal pledges of the prince’s undying loyalty to them, greasing the machinery of state with warm words and lofty indulgences.

Prince Jaspin hurried out of the council room by a side door and went directly to his apartment, where five men waited in his anteroom.

“The knaves! The fools!” he fumed as he bustled along. “They will see how Jaspin deals with troublemakers! Ah, but first to loose the Harriers upon that blasted Hawk and his miserable friends.”

12

The need is great—already it may be too late. If there were another way, or a lesser cost, I would not insist. But there—the choice is mine, and I say we must go to Dekra.” The voice was Durwin’s, and from what Quentin could tell, the discussion, which had started again as soon as the breakfast table had been cleared, was a continuation of the one he had interrupted earlier. He lazed in a patch of warm sunlight, half awake, sitting on the floor under a thick-glazed window that the low winter sun filled with streaming yellow light. Quentin basked in the light and let the warmth seep into his bones.

“No,” said Theido, objecting once again—and with, what seemed to Quentin, a god’s own obstinance. “We will find another way. We have time yet, and we do not know what Jaspin plans.”

“Precisely! We do not know what Jaspin plans, but it is certain to be nasty and cruel. Most likely his malice is already afoot. But what of that? He only wants a crown. Nimrood will not be so easily satisfied— he wants a world! We must go to Dekra.”

Who or what Dekra was, Quentin did not know. But the conversation had been going on so long he had lost interest in it and had retreated into the background to doze. The queen still sat at the table with the two men, but it had been a long time since she had had occasion to speak. Quentin knew that nothing would be settled until this impasse between the two men was resolved.

Presently he stood up, yawned, and wrapped his cloak around himself and slipped quietly outside. The cold air tingled in his lungs, and the piercing white light thrown up by the sun’s reflection upon the snow brought tears to his eyes, which he rubbed away with the back of his hand. For the first time since leaving the temple, Quentin wondered what the kindly and plump Biorkis, his only friend among the priests, was doing at this moment. Working among his medicines, no doubt, or blistering the ears of some poor acolyte over letters unlearned or scrolls unread.

Quentin heard the door creak open and turned to see Alinea slip out beside him. She was as lovely dressed in the attire of a ranger as in the fine raiment of a queen. Her hair gleamed in the sun, and the cold brought a rosy blush to her fair cheeks.

“Do you miss the temple, Quentin?” she asked lightly. Alinea regarded him with a warmth and understanding Quentin had only rarely felt from another person.

“In a way,” he replied, “but not so much. I have had but little time to miss anything.”

“Yes,” she laughed, and once again, the music was in her voice. He had not heard it since he had given her Ronsard’s message at their first meeting. “Yes, there has been little time for anything but escape.” She smiled and, drawing Quentin by the arm, began to walk. “Tell me about what you did in the temple. How did you come to be an acolyte?”

“I was very young. My parents were lost in the sleeping plague that swept over the land in the Spring of Death. I don’t remember them or much about my home. I see a face sometimes—it might be my mother’s. Mostly, I have always lived at the temple.”

“Why did you volunteer to leave it, then, since you have no other home?”

“I felt . . .” He hesitated, searching for the right words. “. . . felt something was pulling me. Like I was supposed to go . . . It was right for me. I have never felt that way about anything before.”

“It must have been a very strong feeling for you to forsake all that you had known—your home, your friends.”

“I have no friends in the temple. Only Biorkis, one of the elder priests.”

“Was it lonely for you?”

Quentin could not think how to answer her at first. “No—that is, I don’t think so. The temple is . . . The priests exist to serve the god. Acolytes serve the priests. There are rules and tasks. That is all.”

The queen nodded thoughtfully. Quentin had not been lonely because he had known nothing but the rigorous order of the temple, where each had his place and his task. “What would you be doing now if you were there?” she asked after a long silence.

“Oh, studying. I had much to learn—more than I could master, sometimes. And soon we would begin making ready to receive the god back from his winter journey. He will come in the spring as he always does, and the temple must be ready. Rites of purification must be performed: the sacred stones washed and anointed. There is much to do.”

“I believe you.”

“But then,” Quentin continued, his eyes kindling with excitement as he warmed to the story, “when everything is ready, the god comes, and there is celebration—it goes on for weeks. There are feasts and games and so much happiness. The temple is opened to the pilgrims who have gathered outside the walls, and all join in the celebration.”

“Yes, that is a good time for our people. I have attended some of those celebrations—when I was a little girl. I was always afraid of the priests; I thought they were the gods.”

“Sometimes they think they are too,” remarked Quentin. His face brightened momentarily with a grin. “Or they’d like to have you believe it. But I think there must be more to it somehow. I don’t know . . .” His voice trailed off, as he was unable to express what he felt. They had reached the foot of the hill below the hermit’s cottage.

“I know what you mean. I often think that the gods are not the least bit interested in us or our problems. And sometimes I think there are no gods at all. And yet . . . even in my doubting I feel a presence I cannot explain. A moving within. A longing in my spirit for something more.”

“You have felt it too,” said Quentin firmly. “Perhaps that is why I chose to leave; I could no longer stay.

“Often I would lie awake at night, burning with a strange fever. I would hear someone call my name, and yet the night was hushed around me. I used to tell the priests about these things, and they said that it was the god calling me, that he had something special for me. But deep inside I knew that wasn’t it. Finally, Biorkis told me not to speak about it anymore with any of the other priests.

“Still, whenever I heard the voice or felt the fire, I would go to Biorkis and we would talk about it. He would ask me what I thought it meant.”

“What do you think it meant?”

Quentin drew a deep breath and looked into the sun-filled sky. “I am not a priest, but I do think a god was calling me. But a god greater than any other. Higher, wiser. And he knew me.”

“You are a special boy,” Alinea said, raising her hand to his face. “I knew that the moment I saw you standing nervously in my chamber. I knew also that you were no furrier.” She laughed.

The air seemed to grow sharper as a gust of wind spun snow around the two figures. Without another word they turned and went back up the little hill to the cottage.

The prince slouched in his winged chair, fingering a soft leather pouch full of gold coins. Sir Drake and Sir Grenett stood on either side of him, and all three gazed with some trepidation upon the three visitors in front of them. Prince Jaspin said, after a moment’s deliberation, “I want them found and brought back—this Hawk and whoever his friends may be— however it may be accomplished. I do not care what means you use.”

Sir Bran and Sir Grenett, knights hardened in battle and fearless, shrank away from the sight of the Harriers, fierce and brutal men devoid of human compassion or mercy. The Harriers, as they were known in Mensandor, were the last descendants of an ancient people in the realm, the cruel Shoth: a savage, war-loving race who killed for the pleasure of killing and the twisted enjoyment of inflicting pain on another.

Over a long and unbroken history of war, the Shoth had developed special powers that enabled them to pursue their enemies with unerring accuracy, powers the simple peasants considered supernatural: the ability to see in the dark like cats, to scent a trail, and to home in on the intense emotions of their prey. It seemed as if they could snatch thoughts out of the air, and so many believed.

There were few of the Shoth left in the world; they were dying out stubbornly. But those who lived on employed themselves as mercenary soldiers or as trackers of outlaws. For either service they received high rewards from their patrons—as much as ever they desired, since they were not the kind of men one wanted as enemies.

The Harriers were greatly feared by everyone who knew of them or who happened to meet them upon those rare occasions when one or more might be seen in passing.

Two long braids from each side of their heads were woven together and fell down their broad backs. Their features, wolflike and hard as stone, were made more fearsome by the blue tattooed designs that covered their faces. Their clothing was rough, made of animal skins with the hair scraped or burned off; they wore soft boots made in the same fashion, laced on the outside from ankle to knee. Around their necks they wore necklaces made from the hair and finger bones of their victims. On their brawny arms were bracelets of human teeth.

To see a Harrier was to know fear. Their bizarre appearance was coldly ordained to inspire terror, to immobilize their hapless quarry.

They carried long, thin swords with serrated blades so that a wound from a thrust of a Harrier sword did not heal quickly or without difficulty. That mattered little since few who ever felt that dangerous edge remained alive to tell it. They also carried small wood-and-skin shields on which were painted crude symbols of their barbaric religion—said to include regular human sacrifice.

The Harriers who sold their services as trackers also used birds— most often hawks, but also small eagles or ravens—to help them locate their human game at long distance. These birds rode with the Harriers on the trackers’ peculiar, stout, short-legged ponies, upon ornate perches—usually of bones and hide, again the bones and hide of their victims—built onto their saddles. Some said the Harriers spoke with their birds mind to mind, so extraordinary was the communication between the two preying creatures.

“There are at least three of them, maybe more. I have a report from one of the guards who saw three ride off toward Pelgrin last night.” Prince Jaspin stood abruptly and tossed the bag of coins to the foremost of the Harriers, who deftly caught it and slipped it into an inner pouch in his clothing. “There will be more money when you return; you will be paid well.” He smacked his clenched fist into an open palm to add emphasis to his words. “I want them found!”

“So shall it be done,” said Gwert, the largest of the three. Then without another word or look, they turned and filed out as silently as smoke drifting away on the breeze.

When they had gone, Sir Bran let a deep breath whistle through his clenched teeth. “Fair prince, I do not like this turn. I would that you had requested me and some of my men-at-arms to bring back this prisoner for you. These Harriers—these barbarians—are not to be trusted. You will get your prisoner and his companions, if you care not how many pieces they are in.”

“I do not care,” said Jaspin angrily. “I only want them found and stopped.”

Sir Grenett interposed. “My lord, why is this man—this Hawk— such a menace to you? He is only an outlaw—and even if he were chief among them, he would account you no more loss than your bounty will cost in the end. Why do you seek his end so ardently?”

“That,” said the enraged prince, “is my own care, sir, and none of yours!” He turned on them threateningly. “You will both keep this to yourselves. Do you hear? Besides,” Jaspin continued in a softer tone, “it would not do for my new regents to entertain such troublesome pursuits. There are more important things to be done.

“Come, let us begin making plans for our next little surprise.” He led them to his table and a pitcher of wine and goblets on a silver tray. “My friends, I pledge your health and continued success,” he said, lifting his glass to theirs when he had poured them full. They all drank deeply, and when they rose from their cups, the knights returned Jaspin’s pledge.

“To Askelon’s new king!”

13

The old man lay upon the stone altar in a great darkened hall. Torches smoldered at each corner of the five-sided altar, casting a strange, flickering glow that curled and eddied like water over the man’s face. He appeared to be asleep or dead, yet even in deepest repose the fierce malevolence of the features did not abate. So bent was the black soul that inhabited that body, it twisted all it touched. The face was a mask of hate, the more terrible because it was also a face of keen intelligence.

Nimrood sank, as it seemed to him, through layers of smoke, as if falling from a great height. His head throbbed; dull pains shot through his limbs. But he willed himself to continue.

The smoke thinned and then scattered completely. He looked beneath him and saw the solid earth sliding away below. Still dropping rapidly but gliding now, not falling, the magician could make out detail in the land. Behind, a high range of snowcapped mountains, the Fiskills; to the right, the long silver ribbon of the Wilst River, now frozen in its wriggling push to the sea; ahead, but still too dim to see clearly, the dark, gray-green mass of the great forest Pelgrin, partially hidden by clouds. Farther ahead, but beyond sight, lay Askelon, the city on a hill.

Nimrood slowed his descent and heard the cold air rushing past him, but he felt nothing at all. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he turned to see a black wing rising and falling rhythmically as the wind sang shrilly through his feathers. The sorcerer had taken the form of a raven. He flew swiftly on.

As he approached Pelgrin, Nimrood’s keen raven’s eyes could see the dim shape of Askelon rising in the distance. Light was falling as the world sank into the darkness of a long winter night. It would be dark by the time he reached the castle, but it mattered not. Nimrood was a friend of darkness and of all things that loved the darkness. He used the black of night as a cloak to hide his deeds.

Nimrood had delved deeply into the hidden arts; he had toyed with secrets veiled from the foundations of the world. He had traveled widely, learning the lore of magicians and sorcerers of every race. An insatiable pupil as a young man, he had studied with every occult master until he was as powerful as any who had lived before him. He had gazed upon the heart of the unspeakable and had bartered every human emotion to gain the power he sought, and which still eluded him: the power to bend all men to his will.

When at last he reached his destination, Nimrood circled over Askelon, descending in sweeping spirals. He dived for the tower where Prince Jaspin’s quarters lay and alighted upon the narrow ledge of an arrow loop high in the wall above Jaspin’s chamber. Prince Jaspin was alone, sitting in his great chair near the fire. Nimrood fluttered to the floor noiselessly, changing back into his human form as he lightly touched down.

“Prince Jaspin,” he said, enjoying the fright he gave the prince. “You are not expecting anyone, are you?”

“By Zoar! You startled me.” Jaspin threw himself back into his chair, clutching his heart. “No, by Azrael, I should say not. No one— least of all you, Nimrood. How did you get here?”

“That would not interest you very much, I am afraid. I am not really here at all. You see merely a phantasm, my projected soul-body, or what you will.” The sorcerer crossed the room, and as he passed in front of the fire, Jaspin could see the flames shining faintly through his ghostly form. He came to stand directly in front of the astonished prince.

“What are you doing here? If you will not tell me how you got here, you’ll tell me why, I warrant.”

“Indeed I shall.” The wizard folded his arms upon his breast and glared down upon Prince Jaspin, who sank in bewilderment farther into the cushions of his chair. “You let him escape!” he shouted. Jaspin fancied he heard thunder crack in the magician’s voice.

“He had help . . . friends within the castle. I have had the keeper of the dungeons and the guards beheaded . . . I have—”

“Silence!” Nimrood hissed. “Do you think spilling the blood of worthless guards will appease me? Will it bring back the prize?”

Nimrood frowned furiously and began to pace before the hearth. Jaspin watched in dread fascination. “He is mine! I want him! Twice you have let him escape!” he cried in anger.

“Twice?” Jaspin asked timidly. “Surely you are mistaken. We have only caught him once.”

“Nimrood mistaken?” The wizard’s eyes flashed fire, but he opened his mouth to a hollow, cackling laugh. “You little know me, Prince Jackal.

“You fool!” Nimrood shouted, suddenly losing his temper again. “Do you not know? This outlaw Hawk is none other than Lord Theido of Crandall, the greatest military mind of this age.”

“No . . . I . . . ,” the prince gasped, speechless.

“None other. You had him in your clutches when you arrested him upon his return from the wars. You let him slip away then too.”

“That was different,” Jaspin objected, starting out of his chair.

“You raise your voice against Nimrood?” the wizard cried. The fire in the hearth billowed forth with a roar, spilling a torrent of cinders and sparks into the room. Jaspin felt the heat on his face. “I shall reduce this pile of stone to smoldering ashes, my prince. Be careful.” Nimrood ran his long, slender hands through his wild hair and continued to pace.

“What do you intend to do about it?” he demanded.

“I have set Harriers upon the trail,” said Jaspin sulkily. “We shall have him back before too many days have passed.”

“Hmmmm . . . all right. I see you can use your head when you are pressed to it. But notify me at once when you have caught him. Alive or dead, I want him. You have bought yourself another chance and maybe saved your crown. But do not fail this time, or it will be your last living act!” the wicked Nimrood sneered.

He then turned and fixed Prince Jaspin with a terrifying scowl. Jaspin felt his limbs grow heavy, losing strength; his heart turned cold within his breast. “There are worse fates than death, I assure you. I know of several—all equally distressing. I reserve them for those who particularly disappoint me. You have one more chance . . . Do not disappoint me.” The sorcerer turned and stepped into the flaming fireplace. The deed brought Jaspin to his feet.

The wizard cackled and appeared to stretch, growing taller and more transparent. Just before he faded from view, he said, “Did you know that Ronsard lives? No? Well, not for long. I have sent men to capture him.” He laughed again and faded completely into the flames. Prince Jaspin heard only the thin echo of Nimrood’s depraved laughter, and then that, too, was gone.

Jaspin sank once more into the winged chair. His face had taken on the pallor of a dead man.

The fire on Durwin’s hearth had burned low. Quentin slept lightly, curled in a warm corner near the fire. He felt as if he had finally saturated himself with slumber; his mind drifted hazily through shifting dreams. It had been an uneventful day, spent in talk and minute preparations, of which Quentin had but a small part. He had mostly eaten and slept and cared for the horses, making sure they all had an extra portion in payment for their hard ride the night before.

Theido and Durwin sat near the fire, smoking long wooden pipes filled with aromatic leaves that Durwin cultivated. They sat in silence, all talked out. Puffing occasionally and grunting, they turned matters over in their minds.

Alinea slept comfortably, stretched upon Durwin’s low wooden bed. She had said little all day, but Quentin thought her emerald eyes spoke eloquently of the turmoil taking place within; they seemed to weep inside for the anguish she felt for her king. Still, she had put aside her own torment and had found kind words to say to Quentin in that moment when they were together. For that, Quentin had declared to himself, he would gladly give his life for hers at the first opportunity.

Durwin rose at last and stretched. He knocked his pipe gently against the stone mantel and turned to roll himself in his cloak in some farther corner, leaving Theido to his thoughts. Quentin, who dozed fitfully, thought he heard Durwin utter a shrill whistle and thought it extremely odd behavior so late at night.

Then he heard it again and stirred himself out of his half sleep, pushing himself up on his elbows. Durwin had stopped where he stood, listening. Theido, his chair tilted back, resting his long legs against the fireplace, stopped puffing and listened too.

The whistle sounded again, this time closer. Theido got up and went to the door and slipped out. A cold draft washed over Quentin, rousing him more fully awake. Another signal was heard, this time closer to the cottage; it was Theido replying to the sign.

Alinea was awake now and standing near Durwin. She bent her head and spoke to the hermit, but Quentin could not catch the words. He strained every sense to hear what was taking place outside. All he heard was the crackle and pop of the fire upon the hearth and his own breathing.

Then he became aware of the soft, muffled shuffle of snow-dampened footsteps returning to the cottage. Theido ducked in, rubbing his hands for warmth. “Voss and his bushmen have a visitor for us,” he explained. “They are bringing him along.”

No sooner had he spoken these words than a soft knock was heard at the door. Theido threw it open, and there stood the squat leader of the rangers. Behind him was another man held by two of Voss’s companions.

“Come in, Voss,” said Theido. “Let us see your catch.”

The hefty ranger strode into the cabin and waved his charge forward.

“Trenn!” the queen cried as her warder tumbled into the light. He swayed uncertainly upon his feet and looked about to topple over, but Voss put out a hand to steady him. Durwin whisked up a stool and sat the man down.

“We watched him as soon as he entered the wood. When he appeared to be heading in this direction, we took him,” said Voss casually.

“Trenn, what are you doing here?” Alinea’s eyes searched his face for a clue. “Has Jaspin discovered our game?”

“As I fear, my lady,” said Trenn, rising to his feet and bowing. “I came to warn you all: Jaspin has put Harriers on your trail. I prayed to every god I knew that I would not come too late.”

At the mention of the dreaded trackers, even Voss’s broad face blanched. “This is dire news,” he said.

Alinea’s hand went to her face. She shot a hasty look to Theido, who stood unmoved. “There is our answer,” said Durwin.

“How long ago did this take place?” asked Theido with forced calm. He spoke very carefully and smoothly, not allowing his voice to betray the alarm he felt.

“I saw them enter the postern gate this morning about midday, conducted by several of Jaspin’s knights. There was also much activity through the main castle this morning—knights and nobles, some from as far away as the flatlands. Rumor has it that Jaspin had called a hasty council to catch those who helped you escape.”

“What? The man is mad,” said Theido.

“That was just a ruse,” explained Trenn. “Prince Jaspin accused two nobles of lending aid to your escape. I got it from the jailer—the new jailer”—a quick chopping gesture showed what he meant—“that two nobles were being held—Lords Weldon and Larcott.”

“The snake!” said Theido quietly. “He is using my escape to alter the Council of Regents. I suppose he wasted no time in having two new regents enfranchised. Do you know who took the others’ places?”

“I cannot say positively, but I think Sir Bran and Sir Grenett,” answered Trenn. “It was said that Lord Holben stood up to him—saved the lives of the lords. The prince wanted them bound over for treason. Lord Holben appealed to the king’s law.”

“He saved their lives for the time being and probably lost his own,” replied Theido.

“Does Jaspin dare so much?” asked the queen, shocked that such bold effrontery should take place in her own court. “I had no idea.”

“We cannot help Weldon and Larcott,” said Theido sadly. “We must help ourselves now.”

“Trenn, how did you get here without the Harriers seeing you?”

“I left before they did and, as I knew where I was going, had little trouble in making good time, though I must have nearly killed my good horse.”

“They will have followed you,” pointed out Voss. “It’ll make their task so much easier.”

“I hope I have more wits about me than that,” sniffed Trenn. “I had some of my men ride out with me to muddle the trail. They rode with me a way, and then each split off to a different direction. It was all I could do in the time I had.”

“Good,” said Theido, jumping forward. That will buy us some time.”

“My comrades and I can purchase some more,” said Voss. “I will put them to work at once confounding the trail. We can lead the fiends through the forest for days.”

“These are Harriers, not ordinary hunters,” said Theido.

“And we are not ordinary game,” boasted Voss. “They will neither see us nor learn our trick until you are well away from here. Still, we will not be able to stop them forever.”

“We could fight them,” suggested Trenn.

“And die trying,” replied Theido. “No, our only hope is to stay ahead of them until we cross the Wall. I doubt if even the Harriers can find us once we have crossed over into the Wilderlands.”

“So it is!” replied Durwin triumphantly. “You admit it now. We are going to Dekra.”

“Yes, we are going to Dekra. You have your way, my friend. And it is our only hope. We go to Dekra . . . and we leave tonight.”

14

From Durwin’s cottage in the heart of Pelgrin Forest, under night’s dark wing, the unlikely rescue party set forth on their quest. They little dared hope for the success of their labors, nor scarce conceived a plan by which they might obtain their goal of freeing the king from the malignant magician Nimrood.

In a fortnight upon the trail, heading north and east through the farthest reaches of Pelgrin and the low foothills of the Fiskills, they had encountered no other living soul. This, however, was accounted as an auspicious tiding, for it meant they had not seen that which they feared most to see, and that which kept them all peering over their shoulders when they thought no one else was watching—the merciless Harriers.

Led by Durwin and urged on by Theido, they pursued a course that would skirt the treacherous mountains and lead them instead across the hilly woodland regions of Askelon, bending eastward toward Celbercor’s Wall.

Once over the wall—traversing the formidable obstacle would be an ordeal all its own—the rescuers would make straight for the Malmar inlet, crossing it on foot over the ice. Safely across Malmar, they would then have a brief rest in the small fishing village of Malmarby, one of the few outposts of human habitation in all of the vast peninsula of Obrey. They would have time, it was hoped, to replenish their supplies and to obtain a guide who could lead them to Dekra.

Quentin had at last learned that Dekra was not a person but a place: the forgotten city of a mysterious people long ago vanished. No one now remembered what had happened to the city’s strange inhabitants, but they had left behind a fantastic dwelling that had grown rich and wonderful in song and legend, although few men had actually ever been there to see it. Fewer still believed its existence, regarding it as a mere glittering fancy spun by bards and minstrels to tickle the ears of the gullible. Some, though, insisted that it did exist and was a very evil place where men were not welcome—those daring to search for it never returned, so it was told.

“Never heard of Dekra, my boy?” questioned Durwin. His bushy eyebrows arched in a quizzical look when Quentin ventured to ask him about it. “No, I don’t suppose you have. The priests of Ariel do not willingly admit that it exists. Well, you shall have a chance to do something most men never do: you shall see it with your own eyes.”

“Is it a very bad place, then?” asked Quentin. “Is that why Theido did not want to go there?” He was riding Balder abreast of the hermit, having left his usual position at the rear of the train, just ahead of Trenn. Quentin liked to ride ahead with Durwin when the trail permitted.

“No,” Durwin replied, after a pause in which he tried to think of the correct words. “Dekra is not an evil place, though many believe that it is. It is one of the seven ancient places of power on the earth. And though the power is mostly gone now, remnants still linger for those who know where to look.

“But it is not an evil place—that is not why Theido argued against us going. He knew it to be a dangerous journey and a long one for nothing if we should fail to obtain what we seek.”

Quentin had had to content himself with that answer, for Durwin would say no more about the ruined city or their reason for going there. Yet the hermit knew more than he would say—Quentin sensed it in his voice. There was something Durwin avoided telling, and Quentin, his youthful curiosity piqued, itched to find out what it was. So he listened constantly for any clue that Durwin or Theido might let fall at mealtimes or around the fire at night. He was most often disappointed.

Theido spurred the party forward at a relentless pace, never stopping long or allowing a fire by daylight. Nights were short by design—stopping at dusk, sleeping only a few hours, and then moving on well before dawn. Quentin had mastered the art of sleeping in his saddle when he could no longer keep his eyes open. In fact, he had found himself rapidly becoming a better horseman all round. He reveled in the new skills he was developing day by day and the woodland lore he was learning from Durwin, who proved to be an inexhaustible source of knowledge.

Quentin could now name thirty different kinds of tree and shrub. He could tell the tracks of every forest creature that stirred in the dead of winter. And he could read the weather signs with some small degree of accuracy. Quentin considered this far more useful information than anything he had learned in the temple, although he had to admit his temple training was useful in other ways.

For these and other reasons, arising mainly out of the kinship formed of a group dedicated to a common purpose, Quentin felt a deep sense of joy in the rigors of the journey, forgetting easily the innumerable discomforts of living on the trail. He had also quite nearly forgotten the danger dogging their every step—the Harriers. Yet there seemed to be nothing to indicate the presence of the hated trackers.

Theido, however, continually dropped behind the group, leaving it for hours at a time to watch and wait, scanning the forest for any sign that might indicate they were being followed. Each time he returned to report that he had seen nothing of the Harriers. But each day he grew more worried.

“I am afraid they are waiting for us to run out into the open,” Theido told them one night. The sun had just gone down, and they sat around the fire, wrapped in their cloaks and thick robes made of animal skins that Durwin had furnished.

“You don’t think we might have eluded them?” asked Trenn hopefully. “That Voss and his rangers put them off the trail?”

“No,” Theido replied gravely, shaking his head from side to side. “I fear not. Voss may have put them off for some short time, and by the fact that we are still awake and moving, I’d say that was likely.

“But each day I feel their presence stronger. I seem to sense the fingers of their minds reaching out for us, drawing closer. They may not have found our trail as yet, but they are closing upon us.”

“Why do you think they will wait for us to break and run into the open?” asked Alinea. “Why would they not take us in the forest?”

Theido again shook his head. “That I do not know. There is something preventing them, though what it is I cannot say. But once we are free of the forest, which we shall be in two days’ time, they will have no trouble seeing us. The hills beyond offer little cover in the summer, and less in the winter, for those who need shelter from preying eyes.”

“Yet if we can but cross the hill country as far as the Great Wall, we will then have a chance,” interjected Durwin. He alone looked hopeful.

“We still have to find a way to cross the Wall,” reminded Trenn. “That could take many days. Unless my horse sprouts wings, I do not see how we are to cross.”

“There must be a way,” said Alinea. “The Wall is old; perchance there is a breach . . .”

“Pray there is no breach, my lady,” said Trenn. “Any advantage we receive, our captors will benefit the more.”

“Harriers are not our captors,” said Quentin oddly. The others stopped and looked at him, raising their heads from the fire to see his face. He wore an expression of fear and wonder, his dark, round eyes looking beyond the circle of light thrown out by the campfire. “These men are.”

Theido was the first to follow Quentin’s gaze outward and to see what he saw: a ring of faces—almost invisible in the darkness but for the firelight glinting in large eyes—circled them in. They were surrounded.

15

The Jher village, if that word could be applied so loosely, was as nearly invisible as could be made. Shelters for fifty or more people had been erected out of limbs and branches, bark and leaves. Each was dug into the earth and was shaped like a shallow dome. If there had been no people standing in front of these simple abodes or peering from the narrow slits of doorways, Quentin could have passed right through the rude village and never had an inkling he had been there.

The footprints in the snow on the ground told a different story.

The snow had been compacted by the constant tramping of many feet. It appeared that the Jher had been living in this part of the forest all winter, as indeed they had. Hunting and trapping in the northernmost reaches of Pelgrin, they had established a winter camp in the forest. They would move again in the spring when they returned to their usual habitat —the Wilderlands of Obrey.

Seeing them now in the full light of day, Quentin wondered what he had feared from them in the long night when they had stood at the edge of the campfire’s light. All night they had held their strange vigil, faces shifting slightly as one would go and another appear to take his place. He had imagined all sorts of horrible tortures at their hands. But looking now at their broad brown faces, their finely formed yet sturdy features with their clear, untroubled brown eyes, which seemed wise and all-knowing, Quentin was ashamed he had thought ill of these simple folk.

When dawn had come, the leader, who called himself Hoet, had advanced to the campfire where Theido and Durwin stood waiting to receive them in whatever manner they presented themselves—in war or in peace. Then, quite inexplicably, Durwin had startled everyone, not least the Jher tribesmen, who hooted in amazement, by speaking a few halting words in their lilting, singsong tongue.

Durwin had turned to the others, then addressed them sheepishly. “I am sorry, my friends. I should have told you all sooner that we had nothing to fear from the Jher. But I thought it best to remain on our guard, for it has been long since I encountered any of them about in this part of the forest, and many changes have taken place in the world. I could not be certain what reception we faced. But it is as I hoped—they welcome us as friends.” He had then faced the Jher leader and spoken again in that strange tongue.

Hoet had signaled excitedly to his companions, about a dozen in all, and they had proceeded to murmur together in astonishment at the wonder they beheld—a stranger speaking their language.

And wonder it was. The Jher were a wandering people. Simple, uncomplicated, their ways had not changed much in a thousand years. They built no cities, erected no altars, neither read nor wrote their own language. They were older even than the hated Shoth; older than the land, for all anyone knew. Where they had come from was a mystery long past discovering—one of the many which, like bark grown thick around an ancient oak, surrounded these shy people.

They were seldom seen in the region of Askelon anymore. Civilization forced them farther and farther north and east into the Wilderlands. Few city dwellers ever encountered the gentle Jher, but the peasants living close to the northern edges of Pelgrin glimpsed them on rare occasions. Sometimes they would not be seen in a region for a generation or more and then suddenly appear just as before.

The Jher were a peaceful, timid people who had no enemies, except the brutal Shoth whom they hunted like the deer they lived upon. It was a marvel these unassuming beings could fight at all; they did not seem capable of conflict. But they had among their surprising traits an inbred hatred for the last of their ancient enemy.

Durwin sat in consultation with Hoet, the Jher chieftain, in the midst of the small clearing. Quentin could tell the going was very slow. The same words were repeated over and over, with many gestures and lapses into confused silence. But Durwin seemed to be making headway. He nodded more frequently and seemed to ask questions less often. All this Quentin wildly inferred, since nothing in the Jher speech seemed like words in the ordinary sense. It was more a random uttering of forest sounds and nature imitations than real language. And yet, to Quentin’s ears it was strangely beautiful and even moving, for in it he heard the gentle sounds of the earth as it moved through the seasons, of trees in the wind, of water slapping stone, of animals playing. The language of the Jher was filled with the beauty of the forest and its creatures.

While the two leaders tried to understand one another, Quentin established contact in his own way: gawking unashamedly at the strange people who had gathered around them. The Jher just as boldly stared back, pointing at the outlanders (their term for anyone who was not another Jher) and coveting their horses and steel knives.

The Jher, Quentin decided, were a compact race, tending more toward grace than bulk. They possessed smooth, well-formed bodies, lithe rather than muscular—again, like deer. The Jher had so long lived with the deer, they had become like them; it struck Quentin that they even looked like deer, with their large, dark, fathomless eyes, deep as forest pools and as calm.

They wore deerskin clothing, sewn of deer-gut thread with deer-bone needles. They ate venison and burned deer fat in their lamps made from the skulls of deer. The race had become wholly dependent upon the deer for survival and followed them wherever the nimble animals went, running with them through the seasons.

On any of the crudely decorated items of clothing or personal possessions Quentin happened to see were usually pictures of deer, painted, scratched, or carved into the item. Or perhaps a representation of the sun, which they also revered.

And the people had the same quick instincts and lightning reactions as the shy forest creatures. That, coupled with their acute awareness of their surroundings, made them invisible to the loud, clumsy white races who tramped through the forest unaware that there might be other living souls as close as the larch they passed under.

Quentin was engaged in making hand signals with several of the braver Jher children who had gathered around when Durwin rose and shuffled back to where the rest were seated on deerskins in the snow, awaiting the outcome of the parley.

“Hoet says that we are marked for death,” announced Durwin, who quickly realized his blunder by the stricken looks of anguish appearing on his comrades’ faces. “Oh no! Not by the Jher. Oh my! No. Forgive me—I have been trying to piece together the story and did not realize what I was saying.

“Hoet says that we are being followed by Harriers, which we know. However, the Harriers were closer than we had guessed. Last night should have been our last. He said that was the reason they stayed with us through the night, watching, lest the Shoth try to take us. Without our knowing it, we have stumbled very close to their winter village, and they did not want any Shoth coming so close to them.”

“So they protected us through the night, did they?” said Theido. “I am grateful for their aid. But what will happen when we leave here? The Harriers will be waiting for us behind the next big tree we pass.”

“We have discussed that,” replied Durwin. He smiled and inclined his head toward Hoet, who stood a few paces away. Hoet repeated the gesture. “Hoet says he will give us a bodyguard and a guide to lead us away from the Shoth by ways known to them.”

“How many men will go with us?” asked Trenn. His eyes scanned the group for likely conscripts. “Five or six of the bigger men should be adequate, I think.” In his soldier’s brain Trenn had already formed them into a fighting contingent and outfitted them with the helmets, bucklers, and hard leather armor of foot soldiers.

Durwin looked a little confused. “I cannot say how many Hoet intends to send with us.” He turned and went back to where the chief was standing, arms folded, chin resting on his breast. They put their heads together and began discussing again, hands groping as if to pull words out of the air. Finally, Hoet turned and whistled and waved his hand toward a group of men who were standing by the horses, admiring the animals, tack, and gear. A slender young man, not much older than Quentin, came gliding over and presented himself to Hoet, who presented himself to Durwin.

“Here is our bodyguard and guide,” said Durwin, returning with the youth.

“What?” exploded Trenn, flabbergasted. His eyes started out of his head, and his mouth hung open. The young Jher did not seem a fair match even for one of his own people, let alone three blood-lusting Harriers.

“This is Toli,” said Durwin, introducing him to the others. Then he went around the group, saying each person’s name. Toli did not attempt to duplicate the sounds. He merely smiled and nodded politely.

“When do we leave?” asked Theido with a sigh. He, too, had his doubts about the Jher bodyguard. He cast a quick glance overhead to see that the once-clear sky had become overcast while they waited for Durwin and Hoet’s deliberations to run their course.

“Hoet suggests we sleep now. We can leave tonight. He also says not to worry; Toli will show us a secret way past the Wall that he claims the Shoth do not know.”

16

The king sat in darkness in the deep dungeon of Kazakh, Nimrood’s walled mountain keep. Around him lay the scattered pieces of his armor, now rusting in the dank jail’s seeping damp. His once-proud head fell forward dejectedly toward his chest, and his sunken eyes were closed against the disgrace of his surroundings. His long black hair and well-kept beard, once curling with vitality, now hung in limp tangles, filthy, matted, and graying at the edges.

Inwardly he cursed himself for his own stupidity and lack of foresight. So intent had he been upon returning home, so full of good spirits, he had dismissed his men to his commanders and, taking only a small bodyguard of knights, had set off straightaway to catch the last boat before the raging seas of autumn brought an end to the shipping season. They had boarded the ship and had, with some misgivings of the captain, sailed forth upon a sea running to chop and a sky glowering with pent-up fury.

The storm had broken the fourth day out, and the captain had made for the nearest port, the harbor Fallers at the far southern tip of Elsendor. The captain had wisely refused to go farther, so Eskevar and his knights struck out cross-country. A day and a night out, they were attacked. A force of armed men had been waiting to take them as they entered a narrow canyon.

The king and his knights fought valiantly, though greatly out- numbered, but at last had been overpowered. They were bound and thrown into wagons and covered with sailcloth and traveled for many days through rocky country. One of the knights, Ronsard, had been able to work free of his bonds and had escaped, recovering his horse and weapons but having to leave behind his king and comrades.

Ronsard had followed the wagons to their destination, a ship with black sails standing off a lonely stretch of coastland, hoping to seize an opportunity to free his companions. But when he espied the dark ships and its stout occupants, he despaired of loosing his friends with his lone sword and turned toward Mensandor with his message for the queen.

The months passed, each day more unbearable than the one before it. King Eskevar refused to surrender to the hopelessness he felt closing around him. At first he had railed against his captor, his mighty voice kindled in righteous rage. The halls and galleries of Kazakh had reverberated with his angry thunder.

Nimrood had paced his chambers, cackling maniacally, his wild eyes kindled with a fierce, unearthly light.

After many weeks of captivity, Nimrood had descended to his dungeon to at last cast his wicked eyes upon his prize. The king had challenged him, had begged for the freedom of his knights, had promised a stunning ransom, had demanded to know the reasons for his kidnapping. To this latter demand he had been told that his brother, Prince Jaspin, had arranged to have him kept comfortably and safely locked away until Jaspin wore the crown.

Nimrood had left then, leaving his miserable prisoner alone with his anger and frustration. The king had seen no other living person since that brief interview.

Eskevar heard the scraping clank of an iron latch lifted and dropped into place again, followed by the squeal of unused hinges. Then he heard the pinging echo of footsteps on the spiraling steps descending to the dungeon. The jailer comes with food, he thought.

Then he saw the flickering light of a torch playing on the rough rock walls of the narrow gallery that led along the row of cells. He listened and waited. From the shuffle he heard in the gallery, he guessed there were more than the jailer alone. A torch was thrust into sight, blinding his clouded eyes with its unwonted brightness. Sharp pains stabbed into his brain as he forced himself to look at the jailer.

Eskevar struggled to his feet uncertainly, coming to tower over the jailer and his two scurvy guards.

“You get back there!” screamed the jailer, thrusting the torch through the bars of the iron door. The old, rusty door swung open, and the two guards, with lances at the ready, stepped gingerly in. One prodded the king forward with the butt of his lance, and the king tottered like an old man into the gallery. The dripping passageway was so narrow and short he had to hunch himself together, bending low to proceed. For good measure, and to remind the prisoner that he was under guard, the spear would jab him in the back periodically as they made their way to the spiral steps.

Eskevar stumbled twice as they climbed the steps, but caught himself and continued to climb slowly and with great deliberation. He was buying himself some time to restore some part of his strength and allow his eyes to become accustomed to the pale light that grew brighter as they ascended upward out of the dungeon.

At last the king stepped out into fair light again; it seemed to dazzle his deprived senses. He breathed deeply, filling his lungs with cool, clean air. He found his head cleared from the confusion he had fallen into of late. He straightened with difficulty and squared his shoulders and raised his head high.

The party was ushered into the great hall where Nimrood sat waiting on his high black throne. “So our prisoner lives still, does he?” hissed the necromancer. “Too bad; our pets will have to wait a little yet for their meat!” He laughed to himself, and Eskevar noticed the huge, ugly head of a tremendous snake leering at him from beneath the throne.

“Set me free or kill me,” said the king. “You shall receive no ransom, and my brother will never sit upon the throne. The regents will never allow it.”

“Perhaps not your regents, proud king. But several of your regents seem to have come under suspicion of certain foul deeds. Two of them are even now locked away in the bowels of Askelon Castle, awaiting their impending fate.”

“You fiend!” shouted the king, dashing forward. One of the guards sought to block his path with lowered lance, but the king grabbed the lance and wrenched it out of the man’s grasp and shoved him back with the butt of his own weapon. He then swung the lance in a wide arc around himself, keeping the jailer and the other guard at a distance. Eskevar lowered the lance and advanced on Nimrood menacingly. The sorcerer raised his arms above his head and shouted an incantation. “Borgat Invendum cei Spensus witso borgatti!”

“Your powers cannot—,” the king started; then something like a leaden net dropped upon his limbs, and he felt his strength leave him. He raised his mighty arm to loft the lance, but the weapon suddenly seemed to weigh as much as the dungeon door. The throw went soft, and the lance skidded weakly upon the stone floor.

“You shall see what my powers can do!” snapped the wizard. “I have been waiting for just this moment. Bind him! Take him to the tower.”

King Eskevar cried out in rage. “Kill me now! If you miss this chance, you will regret it for all eternity, black wizard!”

The guards rushed upon the helpless monarch and bound him in chains. They dragged him out of the hall and to the tower, where he was locked again in a strange room, not a cell, but a high-domed room painted with grotesque shapes and strange inscriptions. No sooner had he entered the room and the door slammed behind him than King Eskevar felt himself overcome with an unnatural urge to sleep.

The heavy vapors of slumber seemed to drift out of the very floor beneath his feet. His head nodded and lolled on his shoulders, eyelids fluttering. His knees buckled, and he crashed to the wooden floor, where he attempted to rise again. The king gained his knees and knelt awkwardly, for his chains would not permit but limited movement.

“You will find the rest here refreshing, I think,” hissed Nimrood. Eskevar jerked his head up to see the sharp, twisted face of his tormentor at the barred slits of the door.

“I curse your bones, Necromancer,” spat the king. But even as he spoke, his tongue went slack in his mouth, and his eyelids fell shut. He tried again to rise, but his legs could not support him, and he dropped senseless to his side, fast asleep.

“Look your last upon the world as a mortal, great king. It is a rare gift I give you. When you awaken, you’ll be one of my own Immortals. Sleep well.”

17

In the four days since they had left the camp of nomadic Jher, Durwin’s party had covered ground at a tremendous rate. They were amazed at the skill and clear thinking of their guide, Toli—none so much as Trenn, who had severely doubted that they would last an hour more in the forest.

But Toli knew the land like his own skin. He knew instinctively when a trail would veer and when to abandon one path and choose another. The forest seemed to hide no secrets from his alert eyes: in fact, this slim, brown young man read it as easily as Durwin read the scrolls he collected in such profusion. Quentin suspected that generations of following the deer had made the Jher more at home in the forest among the wild things than in the world of men. In this he shared the conventional wisdom, for the wary Jher were widely considered a people sinking back into animal ways rather than arising out of them.

But a better guide they could not have found anywhere. And if there had been six like him, the company could not have been safer from discovery by the Harriers. Toli knew when to halt and when to move forward. He varied the times of their travel, never keeping to a determined pattern but moving more like a cunning animal might, though still chiefly at night.

Still, none of them doubted that the Harriers were yet behind them. Toli agreed that until they crossed the Wall there would be no safety. He and Durwin were often in consultation shortly before and after each day’s trek. Durwin began to grow visibly more apprehensive as they neared the great structure.

The ancient architectural wonder had protected the realm of Mensandor for a thousand years from marauders and would-be conquerors. Now it stood as a warning of the strength and determination of the people of Mensandor to live free, for no enemy had dared to cross it with an army in anyone’s memory.

Celbercor’s Wall, as it was known of old, rose to a height of fourscore spans from the rocky, uneven ground to the jagged merlons that formed its battlements. The Wall was wide enough at the top for three knights to ride abreast or a column of men to move along with ease. It spanned a gray, barren stretch of land a hundred leagues in length from the inlet of Malmar, where it jutted out into the water to the sheer rock curtain of Mount Ostenkell in the northernmost Fiskills.

Celbercor’s Wall was intended to separate Askelon from the entire Wilderland regions of the Suthlands, but it had never been finished. Only the northern extremity running south from Malmar’s icy finger to the treacherous Fiskills had been erected, and that at dear cost.

But it stood intact. A staggering achievement: seamless, without gap or breach imposed by the years, raised with such stonecutter’s art that no mortar was used—only stone fitted to stone, interlocked and assembled with exacting precision throughout its whole length.

Quentin had never seen the Wall but had often heard of it in stories. The thought of at last beholding it sent a tingle of excitement to his sandal-clad toes. But Durwin dashed any lighter mood when he announced to the assembled company, “Tonight we will cross the Wall, and most assuredly tonight the Harriers will try to stop us. Toli thinks they are not far behind, and they probably already sense what we are going to attempt. We will be vulnerable once we leave the shelter of the forest.

“The forest will end about a league before the Wall, but there is a valley which runs along our course. We shall enter it and follow as long as we may.”

“What then?” asked Trenn, his soldier’s ethics offended. He considered it a disgrace to slink away by night like cowardly dogs. Yet he did not relish putting his sword to test against three such formidable blades as those of the Harriers.

“What then? Why, Toli will lead us to the Jher’s secret crossing. If we make it, I doubt if the Shoth will pursue us further. It would take them weeks to find a means to cross the Wall without their horses, and months to ride around it.”

“How will we get our horses across?” asked Alinea.

“Yes,” said Theido. “Are we to take our horses or no?”

Durwin called Toli to him, and they spent a few moments together in discussion of this problem. Durwin turned with a grave look upon his face. “He does not know. The Jher do not have horses so have never considered whether it is possible to bring them through. You see, the secret way is not over the Wall, but under it—a tunnel.”

“Blazes!” muttered Trenn. He liked the scheme less and less.

“Is it so bad to continue without the horses?” asked the queen.

“It would be very difficult,” replied Theido.

“Impossible,” put in Trenn.

“Not impossible,” Durwin said. “Remember, Toli and his people live in the Wilderlands. He will show us how to get through them. They travel the land continually.”

“Even so,” put in Theido, “Dekra is still weeks away—longer if we must travel on foot.”

Quentin listened to this talk with a sorrowful feeling. He hated the thought of leaving Balder behind to become prey of wolves—or worse, the Harriers. He turned away and went to the animal he had grown quite attached to in the short time they had been together.

“They say you may be left behind, Balder. I would rather they left me behind,” he sniffed, a tear forming in his eye. “I don’t want to leave you.” He put an arm around the huge animal’s neck and pressed his cheek into the horse’s thick shoulder. Balder nickered softly and swung his head down to nip Quentin on the arm.

“You are fond of this animal.” Quentin turned to see Theido standing near him, reaching up to pat Balder’s white forehead.

“I did not realize it until just now.” He smeared a tear across his cheek with his sleeve.

“It is nothing to be ashamed of. A knight must have a thought for his mount—in battle you are partners. And this sturdy warhorse knows how to protect his rider in a fight, I’ll wager.”

“He will be able to fend for himself, won’t he? When we turn them loose?”

“Yes, he will manage—better than we will, I should think. But I have no intention of turning them loose if it can be helped. We need our horses desperately.” Quentin saw the look of strain in the tight lines around his friend’s eyes.

“Is it that difficult, this road through the Wilderlands?” Quentin had not considered that it would be very much different from what they had experienced in the forest.

“Yes. Worse than you can imagine if you have not seen it. There is no road nor path nor even trail. The whole region is naught but thickets of brush and bramble resting on a queasy bog. At least we shall have the benefit of snow to firm our footing. But even with that we must be careful—many of the bogs are fed by warm springs underground. They do not freeze in winter, though the snow will sometimes cover them over. There are few more hazardous places for a company of travelers.”

Quentin took this news glumly and wished the journey was at an end. He was beginning to tire of the constant making and breaking of camp and the long, cold intervals between. He had long ago stopped thinking about the Harriers and the terrors they held; after days of fretting constantly and lying awake through the night, clutching his dagger, he had simply refused to consider them anymore. Now he was once again forced to wonder what they might do to him if he were caught.

At dusk the party once more set out. The forest thinned around them as they pushed ever nearer the Wall. And so, too, did the awful dread increase. What lay behind them was not to be dwelt upon for any length of time.

Quentin felt only partly more secure. For this run to the Wall, Toli had been mounted with him on Balder, the largest of the horses. The two sat together comfortably, Toli occupying the place behind Quentin. Although the Jher had no horses of their own, they seemed to be unafraid of them and tolerably able to handle them when given the chance. But Quentin, being the better horseman of the two, held the reins, and Toli directed the course.

The group traveled a league and more single file behind Balder’s lead. The sky was dark overhead, moon and stars obscured by low, scudding clouds. So much the better, thought Quentin; maybe the Harriers would not see them at all.

Finally, they reached the edge of the forest, and without hesitation Toli led them out onto a wide expanse of barren hills where standing stones lurched out of the ground sharply and at odd angles. The landscape was a desolate waste, the exposed roots of the subterranean rock shelf that pushed up inland to form the Fiskills. To Quentin it appeared a lonely, forsaken place, bare and forbidding.

Picking up the pace, Toli led them down a steep incline to the bottom of a broad gully that had been formed by the icy waters of spring cutting through the loose soil. Above them on each side rose the banks of this dry streambed. Long icicles hung down from the lips of overhanging rock, and the slight wind that had risen behind them whispered over the craggy fissures.

Ahead or behind they could see nothing; overhead only the blank, dark sky. But each of them began to sense a deep foreboding, almost a loathing to continue. Each step became a labor, and each turn in the way a thing to be avoided. In spite of Toli’s urgings, the party slowed and began feeling its way along haltingly.

Quentin felt the fear wash over him and knew that it did not come from within. He had, as an acolyte, witnessed possession rituals in which a priest would call upon the god to inhabit his body for a brief time to espouse the god’s oracles. He had felt the same sensation on those occasions when the supercharged emotional atmosphere gave vent to the strange proceedings.

This impeding force Quentin knew was foreign, and with a jolt he realized its source: the Harriers. They were coming at last.

In the same instant Quentin framed the thought, he felt an icy tingle skitter along his ribs, and he swiveled in the saddle to peer behind him. He saw nothing; then, even as he turned to look away, he caught a glimpse of a dark shape melting into the background some distance away. What it was could not be seen, but Quentin knew in his heart that the Harriers were upon them. He jerked the reins sharply. Balder stopped dead, and Theido nearly collided with him as his animal lurched forward in the dark.

“I saw something behind us just now,” Quentin whispered hoarsely. He saw Theido’s face only as a dark mask in the darkness around it.

“How far back?”

“I cannot tell,” said Quentin breathlessly. “I only saw something move back there. Listen!” As he spoke there came the patter of a stone falling into the ravine, somewhere far behind them. The thin, rattling echo was lost instantly in the void.

“Away!” whispered Theido. The urgency in his voice made him sound small and far away. He wheeled his horse around and passed the word back. Quentin slapped Balder and let the animal have his head. They dashed into the darkness with a clatter.

Through the twisting gorge they rode, Toli holding on to Quentin with a stubborn grip. He shouted something unintelligible into Quentin’s ear, and Quentin looked forward to see the banks on each side sloping away as they began to climb a shallow incline. A final burst and they were out of the valley.

Rising in front of them was the massive, undulating shape of Celbercor’s Wall, a looming rampart of astonishing dimension. Quentin urged the horse forward as overhead the moon broke through the low overcast. Now he could see the vast bulwark of the Wall towering above them, although they were still some distance from the foot of it.

The moon disappeared again as they turned, following Toli’s instruction, and began running along the face of the Wall at an angle toward it. From the sound of hooves behind him, Quentin knew the others were close behind.

They galloped down another steep ravine and started up the opposite side. They had just gained the top of the farther bank when the moon peeped out, scattering light across the wild landscape. To Quentin’s horror, he saw in that fleeting stream the glint of steel and two riders wheeling toward him. Toli tugged at his arm, and he threw the reins to the side and headed straight for the Wall.

A piercing shriek cut the night; at first Quentin thought it was a woman’s scream and then recognized it as the hunting cry of a hawk. A rider bolted past him, and he heard Theido shout, “To the Wall! Lead the others to the Wall!” He saw the moonlight shimmer on the thin line of Theido’s uplifted blade.

Toli yelled and waved his arm for the others to follow as they started upon the Wall.

“They’re upon us!” cried Trenn. His horse stumbled on the loose rock, and he went down.

The queen, just ahead of him, turned and started back, but Durwin propelled her forward, saying, “I will help him—go on!” Her quick horse flew over the uncertain footing as nimbly as a shadow, and in an instant she was beside Quentin and Toli.

Just ahead, but hidden from them by an outcropping of rock, Quentin could hear the clear, cold ring of steel upon steel and the wild cry of the horses as they engaged one another. They reached a sheltered hollow, and Toli threw himself to the ground and ran directly up to the very face of the Wall. Quentin blinked his eyes, for in the shifting moonlight he thought he had seen the young Jher disappear right into the huge foundations of Celbercor’s Wall.

Toli was back almost at once, shouting and pushing them forward. Quentin heard the scream in the air above him once more, this time very close. He spun, instinctively throwing an arm over his face as Toli, leaping like a cat, caught his other arm and pulled him to the ground.

There was a rustle in the air and a tearing sound as he went down. Then he felt a sharp pain high up in the arm he’d thrown over his head. He saw Durwin come pounding in, and Trenn, hanging sideways over the back of his horse, slumped to the ground. Quentin rolled his eyes and saw two white wings lifting away in the night. He looked at his arm and saw that his tunic had been ripped and blood was oozing out of the wound.

“Here is the tunnel!” someone called. Quentin felt hands lift him to his feet, and then he was running for the wall. A rider thundered up from behind them, and he heard Theido’s voice bellowing. Quentin suddenly thought it strange that he should be running like a scared deer; he wanted to sit down. The voices around him buzzed, and the air became warm. He slowed and turned. Theido said something, and Quentin cocked his head, puzzled, for Theido had begun speaking in an unknown language.

He stopped and looked up at the twin moons hovering just overhead. He reached up to touch one, as if to pluck it and hold it in his hand. He heard music: the ringing of temple bells far away. Then the black sky turned red. Quentin blinked his eyes and sat down, marveling at this strange wonder. He felt his head slam against the smooth stone of the Wall, and the last thing he saw was Durwin’s face peering down upon him as if from a great height, speaking to him in a confused tongue. A tear rolled down Quentin’s cheek, and he knew no more.

18

The twinkling, shifting light spun in bright globes. Quentin could see them even though his eyes were closed. He traced their play on his eyelids for hours, half waking, half dreaming. From somewhere far away, in another room or in another world, perhaps, he heard music. High-pitched bells tinkled sharply, pricking his ears with their thin melody.

How long he had lain watching the dancing lights and listening to the crystalline song of the bells, he did not know. Maybe hours. Maybe days. Maybe forever.

Quentin, in his twilight world between darkness and light, drifted in and out of consciousness almost at will and was aware of nothing but the shifting globes of light, sometimes red or blue, but most often a rosy golden hue. He perceived nothing but the lights and the intonation of the tiny chimes.

The room where Quentin lay commanded a western view of a range of low, forested mountains. They rose and fell in gentle folds like the thick, bristly fur of some mythical beast sleeping peacefully through the ages. From the balcony’s high parapet, one could look to the west and view the fiery descent of the setting sun.

And every afternoon the earthward trail of the falling sun brought the light full through the arched double doors that opened onto the balcony. The light washed over Quentin’s inert form, transfiguring him from a pale, waxen image into a creature of living light. A wind chime hanging at the apex of the arch danced in the light breeze that capered now and then in through the open doors.

An old woman in a white woolen shawl sat near Quentin’s high, wide bed. She held in her hands a small jar of aromatic unguent that she periodically applied to a spot just over Quentin’s heart, and to his temples. At these intervals she whispered a few brief words under her breath, holding her hands over the young man’s still, barely breathing form.

A steady strain of visitors throughout the day came to stand at the foot of Quentin’s bed, or merely to step inside the door. They looked to the old woman, always with the same question in their eyes, and always they left with the same reply in kind: no change.

Durwin relieved the old woman from time to time, sitting for hours gazing upon the motionless body stretched before him. In the evening he brought a cup of lukewarm broth that he administered to Quentin by means of a short, hollow tube of bone. Durwin let the broth trickle slowly down Quentin’s throat, careful not to choke him. There was never any response.

Durwin had just administered the broth one evening when Theido came into the room.

“Still no change?”

“None. He hovers between life and death. Sometimes I think he might awaken; he looks about to rise up—but the moment passes away and he is the same.”

“Can he recover, do you think? It has been nearly two months.”

“I do not know. I have never seen this kind of illness before. Certainly no one recovers from the poison of the Shoth. Still, the people of Dekra have many powers unknown in the world abroad. And had his wound been deeper, or closer to the mark, this old woman’s art would not have mattered—he would have died within the hour, or out on the trail.”

Durwin sighed as he looked sadly at the boy’s thin body. “We came for nothing. It is my fault he is stricken so.”

“Do not blame yourself. If fault is to be found, we need look no further than Jaspin. After all, it was Jaspin who loosed the Harriers.”

Durwin paused, looked at the still form in the bed, and sighed. “Still, our purpose in coming here has come to naught. It was my willfulness and pride, Theido. That is why young Quentin suffers now.”

“It was your healing skill, good hermit. That is why he still draws breath.”

Theido did not speak again for a long time. Then, hastily, as if fearing what he must say, he blurted, “We cannot wait any longer, Durwin. We must leave. The ships will be sailing soon for their winter’s harborage. We must secure a ship to take us to Karsh.”

The hermit lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “You think you will find a merchant who will endanger his ship so?”

“For the king, yes.”

“For no king or kingdom. The fate of a king matters little to these sailors. They care nothing for the rise and fall of nations. Their loyalty swings by the heft of your purse.”

“Then the captain who casts his lot with us will earn a king’s ransom for his trouble. The queen herself will vouch for it.”

“Do not be so sure. They are a wild, superstitious lot. Worse than peasants when it comes to charms and sacrifices. Karsh may hold a power over them which even the love of gold cannot release.”

“We shall see. Anyway, we have no other plan—we cannot fly.”

“No, I suppose not. I doubt if even old Nimrood could foresee that.” Durwin laughed.

It had been meant as a joke, but Theido remained grave at the mention of the magician’s name. “Do you think the necromancer sees so much? Does he know of our enterprise?”

“Undoubtedly he knows—whether by art or by spies, he knows we are abroad. But I do not think he considers a party of five—”

“Four,” corrected Theido. Durwin was about to continue when he heard a rustle at the door and Alinea stepped into the room. She went to the bed and placed a warm hand on Quentin’s cool forehead. She looked sadly upon his upturned face and then stepped over to where the men were talking.

“Is there nothing more we can do?” Her voice lightly pleaded for the young man’s release; her eyes held a touching pity for her fallen friend.

“All that can be done has been accomplished. Now we must watch and wait,” said Durwin.

“Yes, I know. So you have told me often enough. I only wish there was something that could sway the balance. It is hard, this waiting.”

“Our wait is nearly at an end,” said Theido. He caught the queen’s questioning glance and explained. “We must begin our journey to the island of Tildeen. The ships will be sailing again soon, and I am anxious to secure our passage.”

“Then we must leave him?”

“I think it is for the best,” offered Durwin. “He cannot travel as he is; that much is obvious. Even if he were to awaken now, he would still be too weak to travel safely. We have no choice but to leave him here. The Curatak will take care of him. When he is strong enough, he can return to Askelon; Toli will bring him safely as far as Pelgrin.”

“Yes,” agreed Theido, “it is for the best. We do not know what awaits us in Karsh. No doubt, Quentin will be safer in Durwin’s cottage.”

“It will break his heart to find us gone,” said Alinea. “He has come this far only to be denied . . .”

“It cannot be helped, my lady,” said Theido. He, too, felt awful that Quentin, who had shown himself to be a stalwart and worthy companion, should now have to remain behind.

“I know,” she said, brightening somewhat. “I will compose a letter of safe conduct for him—should any of Jaspin’s men be roaming the way.”

“Do you think that will matter very much?” asked Theido.

The queen paused and looked at the other two men sorrowfully. “No,” she said quietly, “but it is the one thing I can do.”

“Yes,” agreed Durwin. “I shall compose a letter myself, explaining all that has happened and what we intend. That should help ease his mind that we have not abandoned him unreasonably.”

“Good! A fine idea. I will begin seeing to our provisions and equipment,” said Theido, feeling better about their leave-taking. As with most knights, he did not like leaving a fallen comrade behind in any circumstances that he could improve. He left the room with a more resolute tread than that which with he had entered it. His mind was at ease now.

“I do not know . . . ,” murmured Durwin into his beard.

“What troubles you, friend Durwin?” wondered Alinea. “Is there something more?”

“More than I am telling? Yes, I do admit it.” He moved to Quentin’s bed and sat down on the edge. He placed his hand upon the boy’s chest for a moment. “I told him once that he had some part to play in this— so I still believe. But beyond that, I cannot say. And the god I serve has not illumined me.” He gazed fondly down upon the motionless form beside him. “It could be this is the beginning for him, not the end.”

Queen Alinea nodded silently and placed her hand on the hermit’s shoulder. After a few moments of silence, they left together, leaving Quentin’s care once more to the old woman.

19

The snow lay melting in Askelon’s inner ward yard. The high, windswept dome of the sky appeared spotless and clean, heralding an early spring. Servants of various rank scurried across the yard, avoiding the mud and standing water as much as possible. Each was intent upon some important task. To look at them was as much as to see a column of ants hurrying about their chores with more than the usual amount of vigor.

In a constant parade to his chambers, where Prince Jaspin held court amid the bustle of servants packing his furniture and belongings, came the knights and nobles, some of whom would ride in his train. They all came to pledge their support and fealty to his cause, and to receive some indulgence for themselves in return. The sycophant Ontescue stood at the prince’s left hand, bending close to whisper in the prince’s ear how much this noble’s allegiance had cost, or what boon that knight required to satisfy his conscience.

A young knight, who wished to leave to take back the lands of his father (which he had squandered away in dissipation) by right of the point of his lance, entered and knelt before Jaspin. He pleaded his cause when asked, and the prince acquiesced as instructed by Ontescue’s intimations. As the knight rose to leave, bowing deeply, Prince Jaspin asked, “Will you be attending us at our summer castle at Erlott Fields?”

“If it so pleases you, Sire,” replied the knight. Several of the younger knights, and a few of the less secure nobles, had begun using the royal designation as a show of deference, and it did not fail to please the greedy prince, who took it as his right. Those who knew better withheld their esteem judiciously.

“It pleases me to have your lance ever ready at my side, Sir Knight,” the prince replied. He did like to be attended in style when he chose to move about the country. “I daresay there will be sport and game enough to occupy a young and lively blade anxious to win some valor among his peers.”

“It is my honor, King Prince,” said the knight, bowing again. He would rather have seen to the retaking of his forfeited lands, but a request of the prince was not to be trifled.

When he had gone, Jaspin turned to Ontescue. “You have sent my chamberlain and attendants on ahead to ready Erlott for my arrival, have you not?”

“Yes, of course. They left the day before yesterday and should be even now seeing to your homecoming,” Ontescue replied. Of late he had weaseled himself into a position of growing consequence in the prince’s estimation. “We may leave as soon as you yourself give the order.”

“That is well. I am weary of this accursed castle. I want to see my own lands again.” The prince pouted. “And another thing: I am not at all pleased with the way the queen has disappeared. She has been away far too long without word or sign of her whereabouts.”

“Why should that trouble you, Sire?”

“Something is amiss; I can feel it. I fear not for her safety, but rather my own while she is loose about the country, doing who knows what. She may stir up a faction against me.”

“If she were to stir up a faction, you would soon know about it. You could quell it in an instant and have her thrown into chains for her troubles.”

“Throw the queen into chains? Ho! There’s a thought. I would have done it long ago if I had dared.

“Still, I would rest the easier if I knew where she was.” He paused; a small dark cloud crossed his brow. “Oh, why haven’t I heard from the Harriers? They should have returned with their captives—or their captives’ bones—long ago. This bothers me more than the queen’s absence . . .”

“What could go amiss with them? Are they not proven to the task— and with cunning to spare? You will soon have your answer, my prince, never fear.”

The prince pulled on his chin and threw his counselor a fretful glance. “I suppose you are right. But I would go to my summer quarters in a better mind if these loose threads were clipped and discarded.”

“Say no more. If you like, I shall remain behind until I myself can bring you the news you seek.” Ontescue smiled his most ingratiating and winsome smile.

“You are a good counselor, Ontescue,” replied Jaspin, glad to have the matter taken care of. “I will tell you this: I can use men of your abilities when I come into power—that will not be long in coming now. Sir Bran and Sir Grenett are good men, but they are, after all, soldiers and understand not the finesse of court and government. You, though you may not admit it, have special gifts in this area, I perceive.”

“You are too kind, my lord.” Ontescue bowed and looked appropriately innocent to deserve such favor; inwardly he shone for joy that his goal was so nearly within his grasp.

In all the prince took fifty knights and nobles with him to his summer palace. Counting their servants and men-at-arms, the numbers swelled to five times as many.

The pilgrimage to Erlott Fields, the prince’s private castle, wherein he resided some four or five months of the year, was a drawn-out affair, commanding more regard that it warranted. But Jaspin would have it no other way. Being within an hour’s riding distance of the sea, the climate remained somewhat cooler there during the hotter months, and though many times smaller than Askelon, it was nonetheless well fortified and ample for any prince’s needs. Castle Erlott housed his fluctuating retinue with ease.

The coming of the prince to Hinsenby, the nearest village, was always a gala event. People lined the roads as the royal caravan passed. They marveled at the knights and horses, the weapons and costly furniture they saw carefully packed away on the wagons. It was a show well attended with merrymaking and festivity. Jaspin himself usually participated, supplying a good deal of meat and wine to the occasion.

This year Jaspin was weeks early in his desire to remove the safety of his own battlements. Two things occasioned his somewhat premature notion: his own growing uneasiness about his alliance with Nimrood, who was showing himself to be a perverse and ambitious ally, and his wish to remain apart from Askelon until the Council of Regents should meet and declare him king. Then he planned a glorious triumphal entrance to the great city as its monarch. He did not wish to lessen the impact of his brightest moment by remaining in Askelon until the deed was accomplished. Jaspin reveled in the pomp and splendor of such events. He knew how to please the common people and wooed them with lavish spectacle and cheap entertainment to divert their wandering attention from their troubles and thus silence any defaming tongue.

A chill yet sunny day greeted the departure of the prince and his army of nobles and knights, servants and soldiers, and various minstrels, game masters, and ladies who had been invited to help while away the cool spring evenings. A day of good travel would bring them south to Hinsenby, there to encamp and enjoy a day of sport before removing to Erlott, another half day’s march to the west.

The day proved fair for the journey, and they achieved Hinsenby well before dusk. The servants set about erecting the bright, multicolored tents used on these occasions as they took the broad fields just west of the town. Under the sparkling eyes and laughter of the townspeople, the tent city blossomed. A great bonfire sparked to life in the center of the field, and smaller fires for cooking flamed around it and in front of the various tents.

Eating and drinking would continue through the night, and on the morrow a mock tournament would be held among the knights and the more adept of their sidemen. It was done for play and practice for the knights, and for the grand sight it presented to the people who would crowd the perimeter to see the spectacle of horses clashing under gallant knights, dangerously armed. Much care was taken to prevent anyone from being harmed accidentally, for there was no renown in being wounded in a mock tourney, and a knight indisposed was without honor or a source of income. Like knights anywhere, most relied on their skill at arms to secure the favor and patronage of a wealthy nobleman—that is, those who were not themselves of noble birth.

In his large tent, raised above the others on a wooden platform, Jaspin slept uneasily while the raucous sounds of the roistering crowd continued far into the night. The prince, begging leave of his merry followers, had retired early, saying he wanted to present himself fresh for the tournament on the following morning. In truth he had grown restive and disturbed, having brooded the whole day upon Queen Alinea’s disappearance and the lack of effect from the Harriers he had sent out to bring back the fugitives.

He took to his bed in an apprehensive mood and fell at once into a troubled, dream-filled sleep in which the ghost of his brother rose up accusingly before him, demanding to know what had happened to his wife, Alinea.

Twice during the night he awoke feeling a lurking presence somewhere close by—as if someone were prowling around outside. Each time he called for his chamberlain, who denied, after checking the circumference of the tent, that anything was amiss.

By morning he had all but forgotten his unpleasant night; the prospect of games greatly cheered him. All that remained of his midnight misgivings was an occasional twinge of foreboding, vague and undefined, as if bad news were winging its way toward him unexpectedly.

But his disquiet vanished as preparations began for the mock tournament. The boundaries of the fighting field were drawn and marked with lances bearing red and gold pennons. Tents at each end of the field were converted for the use of the knights who would engage themselves in combat. The weapons were readied—all sharp edges wrapped in leather and the points of the lances blunted with wooden protectors. Helmets, shields, and breastplates were shined and devices and insignias painted fresh where use had rubbed them thin.

The people of Hinsenby and beyond, some who had walked all night, assembled on the somewhat soggy Hinsen Field early in the morning. Most had brought with them baskets of food and drink to last the whole day; others bartered with the local merchants, who took advantage of the sudden influx of visitors to vend special delicacies— sausages and rolls and spicy meat pies of a small, portable nature.

The midday sun, bright and warm before its season, found all in readiness. Jaspin sat under a canopy on a raised platform overlooking the field of contest; a score or more of his favorite nobles graced seats on each side of him. Ladies, their faces demurely covered from the sun, sat below, just in front of the platform. Publicly these fair damsels decried the rough sport of the tournament, but not one flinched from the clash of arms or from the issue of blood that accompanied the games.

When all the contestants, buckled and braced and mounted on their sturdy warhorses, had ridden twice around the list, the marshal of the games took his place upon the field and read out the rules of the tournament to the participants now lining each end of the field.

Lots had been drawn to decide the order of the knights to participate. Sir Grenett had won first place and advanced across the field, paused, and turned in front of Prince Jaspin’s party.

“For Mensandor and glory!” he shouted. All the people returned the cry. “For freedom! Fight on!” Prince Jaspin dipped his head, and Sir Grenett rode to the knight he chose as his opponent, picking him from among the mounted knights assembled in a long line at the west end of the field. He stopped before Sir Weilmar and touched his buckler with the point of his lance. The two then rode out to take their places at each end of the field.

At the signal, the prince’s falling glove, both riders spurred their charges forward, lances held high. As they closed upon one another in the center of the field, the combatants lowered their lances and made ready to exchange blows.

Sir Weilmar’s aim was good. He placed his blow precisely on target in the center of Sir Grenett’s chest. Sir Grenett was no less precise, and the shock of the collision staggered the horses. Sir Weilmar’s lance splintered like kindling as it glanced off his competitor’s heavy armor. Sir Grenett would have fared no better but for the strength of his arm and his own slightly more advantageous weight in the saddle. His blow caught Sir Weilmar and lifted him in the saddle, but Weilmar’s excellent horsemanship kept him at the reins, causing instead his saddle bindings to burst.

Weilmar’s saddle slid to the side, and both saddle and knight tumbled over the rear of the horse to the ground. This slight advantage was accorded to Sir Grenett’s favor, since neither had won a decisive fall.

All this took place in a twinkling amid the general clamor and cheering of the crowd, many of whom had placed wagers upon their favorites. The marshal accorded Sir Grenett the victor and Sir Weilmar vanquished. The two retired to watch the rest of the games in peace, having won enough valor for the day, and the next two contestants took their places. Sir Grenett received a gold sovereign for his victory; Sir Weilmar, nothing but a broken cinch strap and fleeting disgrace.

The games moved through their course to the delight of the gathered onlookers. One after another, each knight tried his strength and skill at arms. Midway through the contests a murmur of alarm rose from the far side of the field opposite Prince Jaspin’s canopy. The riders awaiting the signal for their turn at the joust paused and turned their attention toward the crowd to see what the disturbance might be.

“What in Orphe’s name!” cursed the prince as spectators, apparently frightened by some cause as yet unapparent, fled onto the field.

“Someone has undoubtedly seen a snake in the grass,” laughed Bascan of Endonny, sitting near the prince. “Nothing to be concerned about, I am sure.”

Another sought to further the joke, adding, “A snake in the grass is better than rats in the cellar.” Everyone laughed again.

The prince, perceiving this to be a sly comment on his jailing of Weldon and Larcott, exploded at the joker. “Who dares ridicule my judgment? Speak up!”

“I meant nothing by it, my lord. It was only an idle jest . . . ,” Sir Drake sputtered. “No offense was intended, I assure you.” He was about to speak further when a gasp arose from the ladies below them, and several knights on the platform jumped to their feet.

“Blood and thunder!” someone cried. “Who . . . what is it?”

The throng on the far side of the field had opened, clearing a wide avenue for a lone rider, who took the field with a slow, dignified, and somewhat menacing gait. Prince Jaspin’s face drained of its ruddy hue, and his hands fluttered like frightened birds in his lap.

A lone Harrier advanced across the field and brought his horse to stand in front of the prince. On his shoulder perched a large hawk; at his side hung an awkward bundle.

Without a word he loosed the bundle and drew out the contents of the rough sack. The defiant Harrier then raised high into the air for all to see the two severed, bloodied heads of his dead comrades.

20

Quentin stood at the parapet of his room overlooking a dark, mist-shrouded forest, feeling useless and disgraced at being left behind. His hand hung at his side, still holding the letters left for him by his friends, which he had just reread yet again.

He heard a sound behind him and turned; it was Mollena, his aging nurse. She hobbled in, glancing at his empty bed and then out onto the balcony, and smiled a toothless grin when she saw him.

“Come in, young master. You will be chilled standing out there like that. Warmth comes to these old mountains but slowly. You’ll be needing your cloak a good spell yet.”

Quentin said nothing but came reluctantly inside and threw himself upon the bed.

“You are feeling stronger, I can tell. But so much is not good for you yet. Your feet are anxious, but your heart needs rest.” She paused and looked at Quentin’s fallen countenance. “What you have read troubles your soul, my bold young man?”

“They left me, Mollena. Why?” Quentin knew why; he merely wanted some other assurance that he had not been forgotten.

“It could not be any other way. That I know.” She spoke these words in a strange way. Quentin rolled over and looked at her. The Curatak were an odd people and knew many things by many strange ways.

“What do you know?” he asked, much as one would ask a soothsayer to divulge his future.

“I know that your friend Toli waits for you below. Come, the walk will do you good, I think.”

Quentin slid off the bed and shuffled to the door. “Here,” said Mollena as he stepped across the threshold, “remember your cloak.” Quentin took it and threw it across his shoulders and went with the old woman down to meet his friend.

Under the old healer’s ministrations, Quentin had revived and awakened three days after Theido and the others had set out. He had opened his eyes, as if from a long night’s sleep, hungry and not more than a little light-headed. He had lain for a long time trying to remember what had happened to him and how he had come to be where he was. But the attempt was futile.

Somewhere in the far recesses of his mind, a shadowy, indistinct dream still lingered—a dream in which he had a part. But it seemed long ago and far removed from himself, as if it had all happened to someone else and he had only read the account of it. He had—in the letters Durwin and Alinea had left behind for him.

Quentin had gotten up to walk around the room on the second day, and had explored the whole of the upper floor the day after that. Under Mollena’s tutelage he had learned something of Dekra and the mysterious Curatak who guarded the ruins.

Dekra was the last stronghold of a great and powerful civilization, a people who had vanished without trace a thousand years before Celbercor had come to forge his kingdom. The Curatak, or Caretakers, had long ago colonized the ruined city and fought back the ever-encroaching weeds and wildlife—and from time to time even discouraged squatters from settling there.

From the dust of the crumbling walls and columns in the once-proud city of a highborn race, the Caretakers had rescued the memory of Dekra and its inhabitants. They had delved deeply into their past, learned their ways and customs, and even effected restoration of much of the ancient city’s common square, or the seat of the government. It was here Quentin and the others had been housed, in the lofty, many-roomed palace of the governor of Dekra, which now served as the central communal dwelling of the Curatak.

Quentin had seen but little of the ruined city, but enough to know that the aura of fear that surrounded the mere mention of the name was totally unfounded. The legends that men told each other in the dark by firelight were assuredly false—if not outright fabrications designed to protect the privacy of the Caretakers and their mission to restore the city to its original splendor—a task that Quentin learned was, to the Curatak, the ultimate in devotion to a people they seemingly worshipped as gods.

The Caretakers believed that the Ariga, Dekra’s original tenants, would someday return to claim their city. The Curatak believed that on that day they would themselves become Ariga by virtue of their loving work.

Where the Caretakers had come from was less certain, for they seemed to care nothing of their own history, only insomuch as it helped them to remember Dekra’s. But the original number of a few score had grown into several hundred over the years. Outsiders still occasionally wandered to the city and stayed to embrace the work. The Curatak did not in the least discourage visitors who held nothing but honorable intentions toward them or who wished to study the ancient ways. In fact, they were always more than pleased to offer the arts of the departed Ariga to any and all who asked. This they also considered their sacred duty.

Durwin had visited the city on several occasions, staying once for over three years. He had seen and learned much in the ruins and had himself helped in the restoration of one of the main buildings—a temple to the god of the Ariga. A lone god with no name.

“Do you think I will be strong enough to leave soon?” asked Quentin when they had reached the lower floor. They entered a large area that had been partitioned off into smaller rooms but which retained an atmosphere of light and openness in what would have been a dark, solid basement in any structure he had ever encountered. Quentin, feeling winded from his walk down so many stairs, sat on a three-legged stool while Mollena stirred herself in another corner of the room. Toli, apparently, had darted off on another of his ceaseless errands.

“Leave soon? That is up to you. You can leave when you feel you must. Or you can stay as long as you wish,” Mollena answered finally. Quentin looked at the old woman’s gray hair and wrinkled, stooped appearance. Anywhere else the woman would have been regarded as one of Orphe’s daughters. But here she was as much a part of the natural surroundings as the strange architecture he saw and the exotic murals that lined the walls of nearly every building. And there was something in her spirit that made her seem as young and alive as any maid he had ever seen (although for Quentin, those were few indeed).

Quentin always had the impression that Mollena was refraining from telling him too much, that she knew more than she would allow him to hear. And not only Mollena—all the others he had met in the past few days spoke in the same cryptic way.

“Would you teach me something?” he asked after watching her busy herself with preparing some small morsel for him. She turned to eye him with a sideward glance, her head held to one side as if she was weighing her decision.

“There are a few things I might teach you, though there are others far more learned than I. What would you like to learn?” she asked.

“I do not know—I mean . . . I would not know where to start. Tell me what you think I should know of this place, of the world.”

“What I think does not matter a great deal. You must choose yourself how you will,” Mollena answered, setting a small table before him that contained a bowl of dried fruit and a cup with a warm yellow liquid. “Eat now. Regain your strength. Consider what will help you accomplish your purpose, and I will teach you.”

Quentin ate and did as she suggested, but at the end of his meal, he was no closer to an answer to his own question.

“It’s no use,” he announced, pushing the bowl away from him and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I do not know enough about this place or its people to decide what would serve me best to learn.”

“Well spoken,” said the old woman with a warm smile. “That is the first step toward knowledge. Come. I will guide you through the city, and we will find the answers you seek.”

Toli appeared at the doorway just as they made to leave, so the three started off together.

A firm friendship had grown up between Quentin and the quiet Jher, who seemed to hold his friend in reverential awe as someone who possessed strong mystical powers. Anyone who could survive the poisoned talons of a Harrier’s hawk qualified as a deity in Toli’s opinion. He seemed determined to serve Quentin as bodyguard and cupbearer, and he made a point of insisting upon learning Quentin’s tongue so that he might know how to serve his master more efficiently.

Quentin, for his part, considered Toli’s quick thinking and lightning reflexes in pulling him to the ground on that black night to be the only reason he still walked among the living. The hawk had barely scratched his upper arm with its hollow, poison-filled metal talons—the bird was trained to attack the throat.

So out of gratitude Quentin busied himself with teaching Toli and taking up the tasks of learning the gentle Jher’s lilting speech. He was surprised to find that after the rigors of the temple training in the official temple code language, the Jher tongue was not so obscure as he had feared. There was only a handful of basic sounds, which were combined to form more complex words and sentences.

With steady work and patience, Quentin and Toli began to eke out a method of communication with each other.

The old woman led them along wide, tree-lined avenues, which in another day Quentin imagined would have been jammed with carts and people bustling to and fro, buying and selling. He looked at tall buildings of ingenious design—lofty towers that rose with effortless grace. And although they used the same stone Askelon’s builders had later used, Dekra’s architects did very different things with it. Their skill was such that even the most solid, massive structure appeared airy and light, well proportioned and elegant. A city designed by poets.

Dekra’s only temple sat in the center of the city, and all lines focused upon this center. The streets ran in concentric rings and intersecting angles from the temple, which was large enough to accommodate all inhabitants of the city with ease.

It was toward the temple that Mollena directed them.

Quentin walked through the quiet streets, some of them more closely restored than others, in a kind of waking dream. The city of the vanished race was an exotic, alien place—itself a city of dreams. He stared in awe around him, gazing in wonder at the strangeness of the place. He wondered what the people themselves had been like.

“What happened to the people?”

“No one knows. Oh, we find things from time to time, and there are many theories among us, but the answer to our most perplexing question remains a mystery.

“But this we know: they left all together and all at once, very quickly. We have found pots still on the ashes of the fire that burned under them, with the charred remains of the meal which was being prepared still untouched. We have found, in the merchant quarters, money boxes left open and the contents inside and undisturbed. Once we found a table set with writing instruments and the fragmented remains of a letter in composition—the pen laid aside in midword, as if the writer had been called away suddenly and unexpectedly, never to return.”

The old woman stopped and looked around; her face revealed an excitement no less aroused than Quentin’s own. “The answer is here, within these buildings and walls. Someday we will find it.”

Quentin was silent as they continued their easy stroll. After a little time he ventured another question. “What were the people like, Mollena? Were they very different from us?”

“Not so much in appearance, maybe, though they were taller and stronger than our people are. That we know from the many murals which abound in every house and public building. Among them were many artists and writers of surpassing skill.

“One of the first buildings to be restored was the library of Dekra, a vast collection of writings. Many of the scrolls were in readable condition still; many others have been preserved and restored, though it is a long and often frustrating process. But we have learned how to read their words, and many Curatak engage themselves fully toward learning the teachings of the ancient scholars. What we have read reveals a wise and benevolent race of high intelligence; their teachings are not easy to understand, but we have learned much. Much more remains to be discovered.”

The three were moving toward the temple along one of the straight, bisecting streets. As Quentin listened to the old woman, he watched in fascination as the temple grew larger with their approach. The holy place rose majestically over the tops of the trees surrounding it—all clean lines and pinnacles pointing heavenward.

“Who were they?” Quentin asked, more to himself than to Mollena, experiencing a growing sense of suppressed excitement, mingled inexplicably with a grief he could not place, as if someone he knew did not exist might yet appear at any moment.

“Who were they?” repeated Mollena as the three stepped onto the broad plaza surrounding the soaring sanctuary. “They called themselves the Ariga—children of the god.”

“And who was their god?” Quentin asked. “Do we know him?”

“Many know him, but by no name. The god of the Ariga has no name. He is one, nameless and supreme. Their holy writings sometimes use the words Whist Orren, or Most High, and Perun Nim Gadre, or King of the Gods. Most often they called him Dekron—the One, or the One Holy. But his name, if he has one, is never written.”

Without another word Mollena led them inside the great temple. Quentin saw Curatak moving quietly about their work within the temple. One section of the west wall, opposite them, had given way. Scaffolding was erected around the damaged portion, and workmen were painstakingly laboring with the rebuilding. All moved about their tasks with great reverence, it seemed to Quentin.

“We Curatak,” explained Mollena, “have ourselves become Ariga in that we worship the nameless god as our own.”When she saw Quentin’s questioning glance, she continued. “We believe, as did the vanished ones, that their god has many children.”

“Where did the priests stay?” asked Quentin, looking around. Most of the inner temple was given over to a vast open area, raised at one end by a dais, which was reached by stone steps ringing its circumference. He saw no place where priests could live, unless their chambers lay underground somewhere.

“There were no priests—that is, not the way you think of priests. The Ariga approached the god alone, though they had readers—men who had studied the holy texts extensively, who spoke to them when they assembled, reminding them of the various tenets of their religion. But no priests interposed for the people.”

They turned to leave then, and when they had returned outside once more, Quentin was stuck by a thought suddenly remembered, a thought he had often wondered and had meant to ask Durwin along their journey to the ruined city.

“Mollena, why was Theido frightened of coming here? Why did he wish Durwin to stay away?”

The old woman wrinkled a squint upon him. “Who told you he was afraid?”

“I heard them talking about it. Durwin said from the beginning that we should come; Theido was against it. Then something happened— Trenn came with word that the Harriers were after us—and Theido relented. What was he afraid of ?”

“That is not for me to say, but you may ask Yeseph, one of our leaders. He may give you an answer to your question, for I cannot.”

Again a cryptic reply, thought Quentin. What was it these Curatak were withholding from him? Certainly he had seen nothing so far to be afraid of. He puzzled on this the rest of the day and far into the night before dropping off to sleep. The next day he awoke determined to seek out Yeseph and put the questions to him. Why was Theido afraid for Durwin? And why had he changed his mind?

21

We have luck with us yet, my friends,” exclaimed Theido upon his return from the shipyards of Bestou.

“You have found a ship to take us to Karsh?” asked Alinea. She and Durwin sat in the lodge of the Flying Fish Inn, waiting for Theido to arrange their passage to the island stronghold of Nimrood the Necromancer.

“Yes, though it has not been easy. I have asked fully half of the captains in the yard if we may be accommodated—always the same reply: ‘We stay far away from Karsh! Not for gold, nor for the blessing of the sea gods themselves would we go there!’

“One man sought me out, however. He said he is captain and owner of a ship that would pass near Karsh and would be willing to land us on a friendly shore, if there is such a thing in Karsh.”

“He sought you out, you say?” mused Durwin. “We must be suspect of any offering aid too readily. They may be in Nimrood’s employ.”

Theido brushed the observation aside impatiently. “We cannot always be looking under every rock and behind every tree for a spy. We must trust our own initiative; we must act!”

“Of course, Theido. But we would do well to remember that our foe is a sorcerer of great skill, adept in evil of every kind. And his net is cast wide indeed.”

“That may be,” said Theido a little angrily. It chafed him to remain idle; a man of action, he wanted to move at once. “But we cannot wait forever for a sign from heaven—whether your god smiles or not, we must go.”

“Gentlemen, please! Refrain your tempers for the sake of our cause,” pleaded Alinea. She had seen the growing restlessness of Theido in the past few days as they waited for a favorable result from the docks. She had often to play the peacemaker, supplying the gentle word or a quiet touch in times of heated discussion between the two men. “I am as anxious as either of you to see the end of our journey, but not at the cost of enmity between us. That, I fear, would be disaster for us and our good king.”

Theido nodded, acknowledging the reproof. Durwin, too, admitted his irritation, laying a hand upon Alinea’s and saying, “You are right, my lady. Our purpose will not be served if we are crossing swords with one another.”

“Then come, good friends. Let us be resolved. Our differences are slight and better put far behind us.” She looked long at Theido’s worn appearance and at Durwin’s usually cheerful countenance, now overcast with care. “My king has never had more noble subjects, nor any half as brave. His gratitude to you in this adventure will be hard-pressed to find worthy enough expression.”

“To see him alive and safe once more will be payment enough,” said Theido. He smiled, but the tight lines around his eyes were not erased.

The party had reached Bestou on the island of Tildeen after a rigorous march through the tangled forest surrounding Dekra. Their path had become surer and the way easier upon reaching the fishing outpost, hardly big enough to be called a village, of Tuck. There they clambered aboard the ferry, which plied the narrow channel to the island of Tildeen, one of the larger of what were called the Seven Mystic Isles. In truth, there was nothing particularly mysterious about any of the islands in the small chain—only that the largest, Corithy, had long ages ago been used as a primitive holy sanctuary of a shadowy, secret religion. Strange events were said still to take place on that odd-shaped, often mist-shrouded island.

But Tildeen, the second largest of the seven, was the site of the seaport city, Bestou. This commercial center served as the winter refuge for the whole of Mensandor because of its immense sheltered harbor, which seldom froze during the coldest months, despite the island’s northern lay.

Upon arriving on Tildeen, put ashore rudely by the rustic operator of the ferry, Theido, Durwin, Alinea, and trusty Trenn had before them an arduous mountain trek, up and over the hunched and twisted backbone of the island, on a serpentine path descending at last to the low-lying port on the other side.

The journey was accomplished in more time than Theido would have liked to allow. But as the group came within sight of the harbor, approaching like bandits dropping down out of the high hills behind Bestou, Theido had been vindicated for his relentless push along the trail; the ships lay at anchor, their colored sails ready-furled, waiting for the first good day to sail.

As he walked the shore that first morning after their arrival, having spent the first warm night in weeks before the fire in the lodge of the Flying Fish, Theido had talked to sailors and captains of large ships and small. Each refused, some politely and others with bold discourtesy, to grant them passage to that accursed land.

Their reluctance was understandable. Karsh, a grotesque lump of earth, the tip of a huge submerged mountain, jutted out of the water far east off the coast of Elsendor, Mensandor’s sprawling neighbor. The island had long been shunned by superstitious sailors, even before Nimrood had taken up residence there and built his fortress. The place was forsaken by all gentle humanity, fit only for countless seabirds, which nested in the precipitous cliffs on the western side, and the tiny land crabs that feasted upon the washed-up remains of putrid fish and hatchlings from the cliffs above.

Theido, with Trenn behind, had stalked the wharf for two days before happening upon the captain who agreed to deliver them to the hated island.

At last satisfied that his objective had been achieved, Theido did not bother with the formality of inspecting the ship or its crew, relying on the word of the captain, a rather short, oppressive-looking man who called himself Pyggin, to vouch a faithful account of its seaworthiness.

He returned to the inn, humming to himself and leaving Trenn to stow their few things and make any provisions he thought necessary for their convenience on board. Trenn, after seeing to his task, also returned to the inn, much less happy than his friend Theido.

“There is something strange about that ship,” he told Theido, pulling him aside after dinner that evening.

“What did you see on board—something amiss?” The knight searched the soldier’s troubled features for a clue to his misgivings.

“Nothing I can say, sir. But I noticed that while all other hands aboard the ships in harbor made ready to get under sail—loading and stocking provisions, mending sails, tarring, and whatnot—this Captain Pyggin’s men sat idle. Not one stirred a hand all the while I was on board. They stood about the deck or sat on barrels in the hold . . . as if they were waiting for something.” He frowned deeply. “I do not like it at all.”

“Perhaps they are ready and only waiting for the first fair wind to be under sail. So the captain told me,” replied Theido, blunting the other’s complaint as gently as he could.

“Perhaps, but I never saw a ship of that size that didn’t need some fixing, nor any captain who ever let a crew stand idle.”

“That may be,” agreed Theido. “But all we ask is to be put ashore at our destination. Where is the harm in that?”

Trenn pulled on his chin and scowled furiously, repeating his original pronouncement. “You know best, sir, and no doubt. But I still say there is something strange about that ship.”

22

When Prince Jaspin fled from the games, so disrupted by the sudden and unwelcome appearance of the Harrier and his grisly mementos, he flew at once to his castle at Erlott Fields. “Let the games continue,” he had announced magnanimously after disposing of his debt to the odious tracker (who demanded twice the payment he had been promised, and his dead companions’ shares as well). Prince Jaspin, being caught in an awkward situation, was anxious not to offend public sentiment, which held that anyone dealing with the Harriers was a villain himself, so he paid the savage and sent him off with a minimum of show.

So Jaspin called for the contest to be resumed lest the people be too disappointed. Then he, with a handful of his esteemed confidants, left the field immediately, allowing that he had been called away on some detail of state importance.

The prince and his cronies had run at once to the security of Erlott Fields and there held a hasty conference to discuss the situation.

The meeting availed little in terms of correcting the damage already done, and since the prince could not reveal the actual source of his fear, he dismissed them all brusquely and retired to his own counsel in his inner chamber.

Once the door to his outer apartment had been secured and guards posted to make certain no intruders would interrupt, the prince stole into the inner chamber, a small dark room with no outside window, a nook hollowed out of the massive outer curtain of the castle.

There Jaspin sat down before the enameled box. Lifting off the lid and placing his hands upon the sides of the miraculous pyramid, he felt the pulse of power throb as the golden object began to glow. Soon his sharp features were bathed in the waxing light. He listened to the drumming throb of his own heart pounding in his ears and watched the opaque sides of Nimrood’s invention take on a misty appearance.

Then, as always before, Jaspin looked into the clearing depths of the enchanted object and watched the thinning mist reveal the dreadful mien of his malicious accomplice.

“Well? What is the meaning of this unexpected summons, prince-ling? Lost a pin? A throne?” The necromancer threw back his head and laughed, but the sound died in his throat. He then fixed Jaspin with an icy glare.

Prince Jaspin quailed at the message he had to deliver. But having no choice, he plowed ahead and steeled himself for the wizard’s awful fury. “The Harriers have returned,” he said simply.

“Good. They enjoyed the benefits of a successful hunt, I trust?”

“N-no,” Jaspin stuttered, “they returned empty-handed—or rather one of them did. The other two lost their lives.”

“You fool! I gave you but one more chance, and you have wasted it. You are finished! Hear me, you insignificant dolt!”

Thinking quickly, in an effort to appease the raging sorcerer and avert further threats, Jaspin seized upon the one scrap of information he had and flung it forth like a leaf against a thunderstorm. “I know where they have gone, Nimrood!” he shouted.

The seething sorcerer quieted his ranting but, still frowning furiously, demanded, “Where have they gone, then? Tell me.”

“First, you must promise—,” Prince Jaspin started, but Nimrood cut him off.

“Promise? How dare you! Listen, dog of a prince! I give my word to no man! Never forget that!” Then the black magician changed, instantly sweetening his tone, as if speaking to an unhappy child. “But I forgive you. Only tell me where the scheming wretches have gone and I will forget this trouble between us.”

Jaspin told quickly the minute fragments of information he had been able to drag from the Harrier. “There are six, and there is a woman among them—the queen, I believe. It is fair certain they have gone to the ruins of Dekra—to hide, most likely. Everyone knows there is nothing there.”

“There is more at Dekra than people know,” said Nimrood. The faintest trace of worry crossed his wrinkled face but was instantly banished by his haughty leer. “They will leave that place as they must. I will ready a special surprise for these bold travelers. Yes, I think I know what it shall be.” Then, speaking to the prince again, he continued. “You serve me well in spite of yourself, proud Prince. And you have earned yourself a reprieve from my anger. It may be I can use you yet.”

“You are forgetting your place,Wizard!” Jaspin, incensed at the staggering insolence of the necromancer, rebelled. “It was I who hired you— you serve me!”

“I tire of your games of petty ambition,” hissed the sorcerer. “Once it suited me to further your childish schemes. But I have designs you cannot imagine. But serve me well, and you shall share in my glory.”

The pyramid lost its crystalline transparency and became cold and solid once more.

Quentin had begged and otherwise pestered Mollena into arranging a meeting with Yeseph for him at the earliest possible time. That meant the moment he opened his eyes the very next morning, the day after their limited tour of the ruined city.

Toli sat opposite Quentin over their breakfast, pointing at objects around the room and demanding that his instructor supply the appropriate word that he might learn it. Quentin, although it seemed sometimes a colossal chore, beamed with pleasure at his pupil’s progress. Toli could already speak halting sentences, albeit simple ones, and could understand most of what Quentin said to him, though he could not always repeat it. When others were around, however, he usually lapsed into his native tongue.

They were deep in concentration when Quentin heard the old woman’s shuffling footsteps on the stone steps outside the kitchen, where they were finishing their meal.

“Mollena! What news? When can I see him?” he blurted as soon as he saw her creased, kindly face poke into view.

“Soon . . . very soon.”

“Mollena . . .”

“Today—we will go as soon as you are ready.”

“I am ready now!”

“No, you have not finished your food. You must eat to regain your strength.”

Toli watched this conversation, as he did most others, in an alert silence. But then he broke in, demanding in his own tongue to know what Quentin prepared to do. “What is it that my friend requires?”

Quentin ate and related to him as well as he could the discussion between Durwin and Theido, their disagreement and the final resolution that had brought them to Dekra. Toli nodded and said, “This leader, Yeseph, he will tell us what we are to do?”

Quentin would not have put it quite that way but, after considering for a moment, nodded his head in agreement. “Yes, he may tell us what we are to do.”

Mollena, who had observed their talk with admiration for the growing bond between the two, now stood them on their feet. “Let us go, you lazy young men. It does not do to keep a Curatak leader waiting.”

The three hobbled together over the jumbled stones of the deserted streets. Quentin, again, was impressed by the elegance and grace of the vanished Arigas’ city. Even in their crumbling state, the abandoned buildings spoke of a purity and harmony of thought and function. Surely, buried here were treasures beyond material wealth.

As they made their way along, occasionally meeting a group of Curatak workmen hauling stone or erecting scaffolding around a sagging wall, Mollena explained to Quentin who Yeseph was and how properly to address him. Quentin listened attentively, careful to mark her words so he would not offend the man best able to answer his questions.

They turned down a walkway, or narrow courtyard, lined with doorways that opened onto a common area of small trees and stone benches. “These are the reading rooms of the Ariga library,” Mollena explained as they passed the open doors. Quentin peered through some of the doors to see scribes busy over scrolls at their writing desks.

“Where is the library?” he asked, realizing that he had seen no structure large enough to house the great library that had been described to him. He looked around to see if he had missed it.

Mollena saw him craning his neck, looking for the library, and laughed. “No, you will not find it there. You are standing on it!” Quentin’s gaze fell to his feet, and his expression changed to one of puzzlement. “It is underground. Come.”

She led them to the end of the narrow courtyard and to a wide doorway. Inside they crossed the smooth marble floor of a great circular room, ringed around by murals of robed men. “Those are Ariga leaders,” Mollena said, indicating the murals with her hands spread wide. “We know little of them now, but we are learning.”

In the center of the round room, which contained no other furniture of any kind that Quentin could see, rose an arch. As they approached the arch, Quentin saw steps leading down to an underground chamber. “The entrance to the library,” he said.

“Yes; notice how the steps are worn from the feet of the Ariga over the ages. They were lovers of books and knowledge. This”—she again embraced the whole of the edifice with a wide sweep of her arm— “this is our greatest charge: to protect the scrolls of the Ariga, lest they pass from human sight and their treasures vanish with the race that created them.”

Quentin caught something of the awe with which the old woman spoke; he was touched as before by the mingled reverence and excitement, as if he were in the presence of a mighty and benevolent monarch who was about to give him a wonderful gift.

“There.” Mollena pointed down the darkened stairway. “Yeseph waits for you. Go to him—and may you find the treasure you are looking for.”

Quentin stepped forward and placed his foot on the first stair. Instantly the darkened stairwell was lighted from either side. He turned to Mollena and Toli, who appeared about to follow him but then hung back uncertainly, and experienced the strange sensation that he might never return. Brushing the feeling aside, he said, “I won’t be long.” Then he proceeded down the stairs.

He had just reached the bottom when he heard a voice call out, “Ah, Quentin. I have been waiting for you.” Quentin stepped forward into the huge, cavernous chamber to see more books than he had ever seen in one place. Shelves three times the height of a man held scrolls without number, each one resting in its own pigeonhole, a ribbon extending on which was written the title of the book and its author and contents. So taken was he by the staggering display that he did not see the small man standing right in front of him.

“I am Yeseph, an elder of the Curatak and curator of the library. Welcome.” The man was dressed simply in a dark blue tunic over which he wore a white mantle edged in brown.

“I am glad to meet you, sir,” said Quentin, somewhat disappointed. He had expected someone who looked like a king or a nobleman of stature, not a short, balding man who walked with a slight limp as he led the way along the corridors of shelves.

“Come along,” the curator called after him. “We have much to talk about and much to see.” Yeseph stopped, standing between two tall shelves, and said, “I can tell a book lover when I see one—you belong here, you know.”

Quentin started, as if to speak; the words seemed to fly out of his head—banished by a most remarkable sensation. It was as if he had been here before . . . seen it just like this . . . somewhere, sometime—long ago, perhaps. He had been here and now had returned.

23

Nimrood sat brooding on his great black throne, draped over it like a wind-tossed rag. Incensed at Prince Jaspin’s bumbling ineffectiveness, he nevertheless grudgingly considered that the chance encounter of Theido and Pyggin had brought about an even better possibility than he had planned—the opportunity of defeating that meddlesome hermit, that bone in his throat, Durwin, once and for all.

As he mulled over these recent developments, a new plan began to take shape. He called for his servants to bring him the keys, which they did, as they carried out all his orders, with stumbling haste lest they displease their perverse lord.

“Tell Euric I will see him in the dungeon at once,” snapped Nimrood to the quaking wretch who had brought the keys. He snatched the large ring from the servant’s trembling hand and flew like a bat from the throne, across the room, and out.

In a further part of the dungeon, Euric, a man almost as depraved as his keeper, found Nimrood unlocking the door to a special cell. “Allow me to do that for you, master,” the swarthy, gap-toothed Euric croaked. He took the keys and in seconds swung open the reluctant door. Nimrood stepped into the darkened room. He clapped his hands, and fire leaped from his fingers to a torch sitting in its iron holder on the wall. He handed the torch to Euric and indicated that he was to lead the way.

Through the chamber and a door at the opposite end they went. The second door opened onto a narrow hall lined with cells. They hurried past these cells and came to the end of the passage, which terminated in a narrow flight of stone steps twisting down into a black vault below.

The two entered the vault. Nimrood clapped his hands again, and torches all around the room flashed to life. There in the guttering glare of the torches lay nine massive stone tables in rows of three. Six of the tables were occupied by prostrate forms of six mighty knights bedecked in gleaming armor, with swords clutched over their chests and their shields across their loins. Each one appeared composed and serene, only sleeping, in an instant to join the call to arms. But their flesh bore the ashen tint of dead men’s flesh, and their eyes were sunken like dead men’s eyes.

“Death’s Legion,” hissed Nimrood. “Look on it, Euric. It is terrible, is it not? Soon it will be complete, and I will give the signal, and these, my army, will arise. With them I will conquer the world. Who can stand against such as these—the boldest knights the world has ever seen.” He moved along the slabs, calling out their names. “Hesterlid, Vorgil, Junius, Khennet, Geoffric, Llewyn . . .”

Euric indicated the three empty biers. “Who will occupy these places to complete the number?”

“One is for Ronsard, who would be here now if not for Pyggin and his men—but I have given them another chance. They bring him now by sea; the other is for King Eskevar, who shall be commander of my Legion. Very soon now he will join in his new regiment. His will is strong; he lingers yet. But my will is stronger, and he shall be mine ere long.

“Look how still they sleep; even death does not diminish them.”

The necromancer’s eyes glittered with excitement as he beheld his handiwork.

“And who is the last slab for, Great One?” asked Euric. He fully enjoyed his participation in the black arts as much as did Nimrood.

“The last I feared would have to remain empty. The great knight Marsant died in that petty war against Gorr, and the ignorant barbarians burned his body.

“But now it appears I shall not lack a full complement of warriors to lead my soldiers into battle. Theido, that troublesome renegade, will be joining us at last. He will no doubt thank me for the opportunity to serve his king in death as he once served him on the battlefield in life.”

“How will this be accomplished?”

“Did I not tell you? The gods decree that I am indeed fortunate. Pyggin found him wandering the wharf of Bestou where they await the sailing season. It seems the foolish knight wishes passage for himself and his companions to Karsh—they will come here!

“Since they are so eager to die, I will not disappoint them. Pyggin will deliver them to their destination, all right. And with a courtesy they do not expect. Ha!”

Euric’s face glimmered in the dim torchlight. His eyes rolled up into his head ecstatically as he contemplated his foul lord’s intricate machinations. He bowed low, saying, “You shall rule the world, Nimrood.”

The harbor of Bestou remained wrapped in rain and fog for several long and vacant days. Then, on a quiet afternoon of drizzling damp, the sun broke through in a sudden burst of beaming brilliance, and all the sailors abiding in the inns and taverns of the town streamed down to the quay with their scant belongings stuffed into rucksacks and canvas bags. They came as if on signal. That night they would sleep aboard their vessels and sail with the dawn.

When the rising sun was merely a dull promise on the eastern horizon, Theido and the others made their way down to the docks and boarded the wherry with a few other passengers to be delivered to various ships lying at anchor in the harbor.

Ships were already streaming toward the pinched opening of the harbor to be the first to take to the open seas. Durwin and Alinea could hear sailors calling to one another from ship to ship, captains cursing their crews’ winter-dulled skills as they made ready to put off, the splash of the oars in the green water.

As they pulled farther into the harbor, the humped back of Tildeen rose in the thin spring mist that hung over Bestou like a gossamer cloud. Gulls worked the air with their slender wings and complained of the activity in their harbor as they hovered and dived among the ships. Trenn stood in the front of the boat, directing the rowers to their ship, and Theido sat in the rear, pensively watching the land recede slowly behind them.

“You appear wistful, brave Knight,” observed Alinea. She had noticed Theido’s somber mien. “Tell us, what could trouble your mind on a morning such as this? We are on our way at last.”

“I slept ill, my lady. A fearful dream came over me as I tossed on my bed. I awoke sweating and cold, but of the dream I remember nothing. It vanished with the dawn.

“But the feeling of doom lingers, though the dream has departed.”

Durwin listened to his friend, nodding and rubbing his chin with his hand. “I, too, felt ill at ease last night. I take it to be a confirmation of our quest. Sometimes we must enter the course by the least likely gate—the god has his own way, often mysterious and always unpredictable.”

“Well, we go, and none will stop us,” replied Theido, squaring his shoulders. “Come what may, the gods will not find us sitting idly by. It is good to be moving again.”

“I only hope we may be in time,” said the queen. She turned her lovely face away for a moment and was silent.

“Yes, Jaspin and the regents will convene their council soon, I think. His crown is bought many times over; it only remains for him to lay his hand to it.”

“Time will not be hurried,” offered Durwin. “We can go only as fast as we may. I will pray to the god that our purpose will not be thwarted. He is a god of righteousness and loves justice. He will not see us fail.”

“Well said, holy hermit. I am always forgetting the god you serve is of a different stripe from the gods of old. But I prefer to trust my own arm for righteousness and the point of my sword for justice.”

“Arms lose their strength and swords their edge. Then it is good to remember whence came your strength and who holds a sword that is never dull.”

Alinea, who had listened closely to this exchange, said, “Holy hermit, tell me about your god. He seems to be far different from the capricious immortals our people have long worshipped. May I learn of him, do you think?”

“Why, of course, my lady. He turns away none who come to him, and it would honor me to instruct one as wise and lovely as you. This gives a purpose to the empty hours of our voyage,” said Durwin, pleased to have a pupil and an excuse to discourse his favorite subject.

As these last words were spoken, the rowing boat bumped against the side of Captain Pyggin’s ship.

“Passengers!” cried Trenn, grasping for the rope that dangled from the taffrail. A squinting face appeared over the rail; the man regarded them closely and disappeared again. A rope ladder then dropped over the side of the ship and was secured by the rowers. Trenn clambered up the ladder and reached a hand down to the others. When they had all assembled on the deck, Pyggin came wheezing up.

“Everyone aboard? Yes, well . . . excuse me; I did not know we would have the pleasure of a lady on our journey. I am honored.

“This way,” the captain said, bustling them off. “I will show you to your quarters.” As Pyggin herded his passengers before him, he gave the signal for the crew to cast off. Neither Theido nor Trenn saw the signal, nor did they see several crew members skulking along behind them, toting belaying pins in their thick fists.

“The Gray Gull is a small ship but a tight one. I think you’ll find your accommodations adequate.” Pyggin indicated a narrow door leading to stairs descending to the ship’s hold.

“Are there no other passengers?” wondered Theido aloud.

“No, we seldom take passengers—but we have made an exception for you, my lords.” So saying, he opened the door and ushered them down the stairs.

No sooner had Theido, being the last of the party to enter the hold, reached the bottom step than Pyggin threw the door shut, crying, “Enjoy your voyage, my lords!” And before Theido could hurl himself up the stairs against the door, the sound of heavy bolts being thrown and locks clicking shut let them know they were now prisoners.

Theido beat on the door with his fists. “Open this door, you scoundrel! In the name of the king! Open, I say!”

The sound of derisive laughter came through the fast-bolted door, and the prisoners heard footsteps departing on the deck, and they were left alone.

“Well, we are in it now,” said Theido. “It is my fault—I should have listened to the counsel of our good warder, Trenn.”

“If my wits had been sharper, my warning might have had some teeth in its mouth,” said Trenn. “But let us consider what is best to do.”

Just then a low moaning, barely audible, drifted to them from behind a wall of stacked barrels.

“A monster lurks among us!” said Trenn in a strained whisper.

“Listen . . . ,” said Theido.

The sound came again, starting low and growing louder, then trailing off at the end like a wounded animal exhausting the last of its strength.

“It is not a monster,” said Alinea. “It is a man, and he is hurt.”

Feeling her way in the dark hold, lit only by a few lattice-covered hatches cut around the center of the deck overhead, Alinea moved slowly around the musty kegs, followed closely by the others. There in the dim gray light she saw the form of a man bandaged, and upon perceiving his fellow prisoners, the man slumped back on his filthy bed in a swoon.

Something about the unconscious form struck the queen. “I know this man,” said Alinea, bending close to him. She took the bandaged head in her hands and peered intently into the insensible face.

Her eyes grew wide in recognition. “Can it be?”

“Who is it, my lady?” asked Trenn. “Do you recognize him?”

“Look,” she said, pulling Trenn down beside her. The ship, already under way, dipped and turned, and for the moment the feeble light from an overhead hatch fell full on the man’s face.

“It is Ronsard!” said Queen Alinea, cradling the great knight’s head lovingly in her arms.

“It is Ronsard!” shouted Trenn. “By the gods! It is!”

24

You stand there blinking, young sir,” replied Yeseph kindly. “Is there something your heart would say but your tongue cannot?”

Quentin, suspended by the feeling that he had once stood in this very spot, talking to this venerable little man, could only stare in wonder.

But the feeling passed like a cloud sweeping before the sun, and Quentin came to himself again.

“I had the feeling that I have been here before and that I have seen you before too,” he said, shaking his head slightly.

The Curatak elder smiled knowingly and nodded. “Perhaps you have—all the more reason I should treat my guest with honor.” He turned and led the way between the towering shelves. “These are my life,” Yeseph said, indicating row upon row of books with his raised palm. He went on to describe the work going on in the enormous library.

Quentin followed in rapt attention, fascinated by all he saw and haunted by the lingering feeling that he belonged here, that somehow he had come home.

Presently their tour led them to a row of copy desks where Curatak scholars were hard at work over manuscripts, making notes and translating. Yeseph made his way along the desks, stopping at each one to offer some word of encouragement or answer a question. Then he reached a door that stood ajar, and Quentin entered Yeseph’s own workroom.

The small room was sparsely furnished with a desk, piled high with scrolls, and a table straining under the weight of still more books. Generous light poured into the room from a round skylight overhead.

Two fragile-looking chairs faced each other, and Yeseph took one and waved Quentin to the other after closing the door for privacy.

“Now then, Mollena tells me you have questions which only I can answer. I will try.” He nodded, smiling encouragingly.

For a moment Quentin had quite forgotten his questions, but upon recollection they came back to him, if somewhat reduced in importance by the things he had seen around him. Quentin explained to Yeseph, who listened patiently, about the disagreement between Theido and Durwin, and Theido’s reluctance to come to Dekra. He ended by saying, “. . . though I can see no reason for fear—surely there is only good here.” He paused and added, “Unless the danger lay not in the destination but in the reason for coming.”

Yeseph smiled. “Your mind is quick! Yes, I could not have put it better myself.

“There is no danger here. The stories—” He dismissed them with a mocking frown and a wave of his hand. “Bah! Superstitious prattle— made up to scare the children. Though I admit we do not discourage them. Our work is very important; it is best that the world stays far away and troubles us only rarely.

“But that is not why Theido did not want to come, or rather, did not wish Durwin to come.” He stood and began walking around the cell, hands clasped behind his back in the manner of a teacher instructing his pupil.

“Dekra is a place of power, one of the last remaining on the earth. Durwin knows this, as does Theido.” He laughed. “You little know your hermit friend—a man of amazing talents. He came to us as high priest of the Temple of Ariel. On a pilgrimage, he was, seeking to further his quest for knowledge. He believed at that time that knowledge alone could transform a man, make him immortal, exalt him to the status of the gods.

“Here he found how far wrong he was—it would have crushed a lesser man. But not him. He grew from strength to strength, discarding all his previous beliefs as fast as he could embrace his new ones. In three years’ time he learned all that we had to teach. He went back to the temple and renounced his faith. They nearly killed him—would have, but for the scandal.”

Yeseph stopped walking and placed his hands on the back of his chair and looked at Quentin. “Durwin returned to us then, but only for a short time, though we begged him to stay and join us in our work. But he had greater things to do—the god revealed that to him.

“You see, he had only come back to divest himself of all his earthly power. As high priest he had studied long the magic of the sorcerers, the wizard’s art, and he had become keenly adept. But he saw that for what it was—the way of death. He put off his power—here, where he knew no one would misuse it.

“As it happened, when Nimrood was discovered to have risen against the king and his kingdom, Durwin thought to come here to retrieve his power, to take it up again in this good cause. He proposed to face Nimrood himself, alone.”

Yeseph smiled sadly. “That was not to be.”

The elder’s words sank slowly in, but as their meaning broke fully in Quentin’s consciousness, he exclaimed, “Then what will become of them? They go to meet the enemy unarmed!”

“They go. Unarmed they may be, but not unguarded. We could not allow our honorable friend to take such a terrible burden upon himself. It would destroy him. Theido understood that, although imperfectly. He knew that coming here would very likely mean the death of Durwin.”

“But he changed his mind—why?”

Yeseph shrugged. “He weakened in the face of the threat posed by the Harriers, and Durwin’s insistence. Still, that mattered but little. We did not allow them to carry out their plan.

“The power has been put off. It is here, and here it will stay.”

Quentin fought his rising emotions, but fear for his friends and anxiety over their safety roiled within him. “How could you let them go?” he shouted, leaping from his chair. Quentin knew nothing of Nimrood, only that everyone around him seemed to tremble at that name. The sorcerer appeared to be the cause of all the troubles besetting the land. He had not experienced the evil of the black wizard firsthand; he had been spared that, but he had formed a picture in his mind of something grotesque and twisted in its terrible hate, less a man than a maleficent monster. It was the monster Nimrood his friends now quested, unarmed by the power that Durwin might have commanded.

“How could you let them go?” he asked again quietly, hopelessly.

“How could we prevent them from going?” rejoined Yeseph kindly.

“What will happen now?” Quentin already expected the worst possible outcome. “They cannot stand against Nimrood alone.”

Yeseph smiled knowingly. “Your friends are not alone. The god goes with them.” He said it so simply, so trustingly, that Quentin wanted desperately to believe him. But his own doubts, and all that he had seen in the temple, stole away his seed of belief before it could take root. His face fell in misery.

“What good is that? The gods do not care! Our lives mean nothing to them,” he said bitterly.

“You are right—and yet you are far from the truth.” Yeseph crossed the distance between them and peered into Quentin’s brown eyes intently. “The Most High God is One. The gods of the earth and sky are but the chaff blown before the mighty wind of his coming. They cannot stand in his presence, and even now their power grows weak.”

“But what makes this nameless god different from all the others?”

“He cares.”

Again Quentin wanted desperately to believe, for the sake of his friends. But the years of temple training, all his earlier beliefs, rushed upon him and extinguished any spark of hope that what Yeseph said might be true. “I wish I could believe you.”

“Do not fear for your friends,” Yeseph said, placing a hand on Quentin’s arm. “The god holds them in the palm of his hand.”

“They will be destroyed!” said Quentin, recoiling in horror at the thought of his companions marching headlong into battle with the beast Nimrood, defenseless and vulnerable.

“They may be killed,” agreed Yeseph, “but not destroyed. There are worse things than death, though I would not expect you to know about them. It would be worse for Durwin to take up again the power which he laid down years ago—that would destroy him in the end. He would become the same as Nimrood. He would become the very thing he hated. That would be worse than honorable death.

“Besides,” the Curatak elder said lightly, “do you think your presence with them would sway the balance very much?”

Quentin’s head fell toward his chest; his cheeks burned with shame. “Who am I to make a difference?” he mocked sadly. “I am no one. No one at all.”

“You feel things deeply, Quentin,” soothed Yeseph. “You are young, impetuous. Your heart speaks before your head. But it will not always be so.”

“But is there nothing I can do to help them?” Quentin asked. He felt helpless and cast aside, useless baggage.

“Does it mean that much to you?” The elder eyed him closely.

Quentin nodded in silence. His eyes sought Yeseph’s for some sign that he would help him find a way.

“I see. Well then, here is something to think about. I will bring it before the council of elders. There are those among us who discern more closely than I how the god’s hand moves through time and men’s lives. We will seek their counsel.”

Quentin’s eyes brightened at the prospect, and hope revived in his heart. As he left Yeseph to his work, he felt as if a great burden had been lifted from him. He did not know what to make of the feeling.

“Quentin,” the elder curator called after him as he slipped through the door, “there is more to you than meets the eye. I knew the moment you opened your mouth to speak. When you have done whatever it is that has been given you to do, promise me that you will come back again and sit at my feet—there is much I would like to teach you.”

That night Quentin dreamed another flying dream.

25

Jaspin called his hirelings together in the great hall of Castle Erlott. The sun was well up and warming the land to a fresh and early spring. The prince was growing more restive with each passing day—now pensive and brooding, now sweetly polite and even jovial in company. The tight little lines around his mouth told those who knew him best that the prince was deeply troubled.

“I have decided that the Council of Regents must be held within a fortnight,” Jaspin told the assembled knights and nobles. Many had taken their leave of Erlott Fields to attend to their own concerns, but many still remained at the prince’s pleasure. These murmured at the suggestion that the council should depart from its appointed time—midsummer.

“Sire, we must protest this alteration,” spoke Lord Naylor boldly. He and his neighbor, Lord Holben, alone dared to confront the prince openly. Naylor himself, chief regent of the Council of Regents, was no great friend of Jaspin. Others in the group demonstrated their agreement with Lord Naylor by nodding and nudging one another. “After all these years? The council will accomplish its duty in good time—and without undignified haste.” He laughed stiffly, knowing the danger he was in at the moment. “I see no reason to depart from our commission now.”

The prince rankled at this challenge to his ambition. “What I propose shall be done,” he said firmly. “And you, my lord, shall see that it is done according to my wishes.”

Jaspin fixed Naylor with an icy glare and then looked around at each of the others individually, defying them to challenge him. “And you shall have the letters drawn up and dispatched to all the members not in attendance here, that we shall hold council in Erlott, not in Paget.”

“And if I refuse your suggestions?” questioned Lord Naylor, his own temper rising. The prince little knew, or cared, that he was making the situation harder for himself by bullying the chief counselor of the regents. But Jaspin was a man whose mind seized upon a thing like a mongrel with a meaty bone and would not be put off.

“Refusal would be construed as a failure of your office. You could be replaced.”

Some who looked on, and who would have happily pledged their support of Prince Jaspin if allowed to do so with a show of free will, were now uneasy at the thought of electing him at his own direction— for so they surmised his plans. They were appalled at the idea of naming him king in his own castle and not, as tradition dictated, in the traditional setting of the Hall of Paget.

Jaspin only sought to hasten the appointed meeting. And since as the object of the meeting he would not be allowed to attend the council himself, he thought that by simply moving the designated meeting place to his own castle, he would then know the result much sooner and save himself a ride to Paget, a journey of several days.

His idea, however, was a solidly unpopular one. And if not for Lord Naylor’s challenge, Jaspin would have been persuaded by a cooler head such as Ontescue’s to abandon his scheme. But the matter had proceeded too far. Jaspin would have it no other way.

A hasty conference took place between Holben and the chief regent. “I will do as you bid, my lord,” said Naylor, his teeth set on edge. “But you may regret having pressed your way in this matter.” He turned and crossed the room under Jaspin’s dark look. “By your leave,” he said and walked out of the hall.

The captives heard nothing but the occasional curses of their captors going about their business on the deck above and the wash of the waves against the hull of the ship. In four days at sea they had been fed twice— a ration of coarse bread—but as they had access to all the water aboard ship, they lacked nothing for their thirst.

Queen Alinea had been able to nurse Ronsard back to his senses. With her kind ministrations and the help of Durwin’s healing power, the knight swore he felt better by the hour. Alinea insisted he remain reposed on his bed, but cheered by the nearness of his friends, Ronsard largely ignored her pleas. They had much to talk about and much to tell.

“It gives me no pleasure to say it, my lady,” said Ronsard, leaning upon his elbow, “but I fear for the king. Nimrood is a crafty snake; his plots are beyond reckoning. However, we may be certain there is mortal danger for any within his grasp.”

“He has induced Prince Jaspin to join his schemes of treachery— though little enough encouragement was needed there,” said Theido.

“And I have heard it voiced far and wide that Nimrood raises an army, though who—or what—would fight for him, I cannot but wonder. In Elsendor there are rumors of a Legion of the Dead.”

“No! It cannot be true,” gasped Alinea. “Oh, it is too horrible to contemplate.”

“He has the power to do such things?” asked Trenn.

“He has,” said Durwin, “and we do not have the means to stop him . . . ourselves.”

“We will find a way,” said Theido. His eyes kindled with fire against the wicked necromancer. “Nimrood will be stopped. My life is my pledge.”

“If only my arm had the strength to hold my sword,” moaned Ronsard. His stony features fought against the pain his companions could see hovering there; he sought to rise.

“Please, good Ronsard, you must rest while you can,” said Alinea, pressing him back down with her hands gently on his shoulders.

“Alas,” wailed Ronsard, “even if I could wield a sword, I have none in this time of need.”

“Soon—too soon, I fear—there will be no lack of blades, but of hands to hold them. You will have your chance, Ronsard. Only content yourself till then, and pray your strength recovers.” Durwin spoke softly and peered deeply into Ronsard’s clouded eyes. The knight shook his head, and his eyelids fluttered weakly. He laid his head back and slipped off to sleep moments later. “Would that I had such power over our enemies as I have over the wounds of brave knights.” Durwin sighed.

Trenn looked at the hermit with wide eyes full of awe. “There is power enough, I’ll warrant, for many purposes. Perhaps you could charm this Nimrood to sleep as you did Ronsard just now.”

“Would that I could. But no, the power that remains in me is of a healing kind—though it may be turned for other purposes in time of need. If I were to think of harming someone, even the evil Nimrood, this last remnant of my power would desert me instantly. It is a law of this healing power.” He paused, deep in thought, and then continued excitedly. “But what may be done with drafts and potions and the mixing of rare earths—that I may still do! Oh, I have been so slow. Gather round quickly! I have a plan!”

In a little while the captives heard the click of a key in a lock and the sound of rusty bolts thrown back. There was a rattle as chains dropped free and a blinding glare as the cargo door was opened wide, sending a shaft of light flooding into the hold.

A rough voice announced, “Get back! Get back! Ah, I trust my passengers are enjoying their fine quarters?” The voice was that of Captain Pyggin, whose portly form could now be discerned descending the steep stairs, followed by two of his ruffians. “Give them their food,” he ordered one of the men. The other stood guard.

“By Zoar! I’ll—,” swore Trenn, jumping to his feet. The guard’s long knife flashed in his hand in an instant.

“Make no threats you care not to die by,” warned Pyggin. “My men are less civilized than I. They kill to pass the time.”

Trenn backed away slowly. “What do you want, pirate?” asked Theido carelessly.

“Only to wish you well, my fine friends.” He cast a lustful eye over Alinea’s comely form. “We reach our destination in two days’ time.” He waved his hand, and the sailor carrying the food set down an iron pot and tossed a couple of loaves onto the filthy floor of the hold.

Pyggin turned to leave. “Enjoy your meal!” He laughed perversely and climbed the steps. The guard watched them with hooded eyes, daring anyone to try to rush upon him.

Then he was gone, and darkness returned as the door slammed shut. The locks and chains were replaced, and they heard the derisive call of Captain Pyggin through the lattice. “Two days—mark them well. They’ll be your last.”

“To think I paid him for our passage,” muttered Trenn when Pyggin had gone.

“He but takes us where we want to go,” observed Durwin.

“Yes, though not in the fashion we desired,” replied Theido. “But much can happen in two days’ time.”

26

The last light of day splashed crimson into the sky and tinted the edges of lingering clouds violet and blue. Quentin walked easily, though nervously, between Mollena and Toli. Ahead of them loomed the graceful silhouette of the Ariga temple.

Mollena was dressed in a long flowing robe of white, edged in silver, and her gray hair was pulled back straight to hang down her back. Quentin gazed upon her as he walked, thinking that something of the woman she must have been was revived in her this night. She appeared much younger than her years, her skin smoothed, the wrinkles eased with a radiance he had never seen in her countenance.

“Yes, it is Mollena and no other,” she replied to his wondering glance. Her eyes twinkled brightly as they approached an avenue of torches leading to the temple entrance.

Quentin, embarrassed and enjoying it at the same time, said, “You are beautiful tonight, Mollena.”

She laughed. “You say that now because you have not met our young women.”

Quentin realized with a wince that he would not be meeting any young women at all—he and Toli had made plans to leave in the morning. His gaze slid from Mollena’s laughing mouth to Toli’s deep-set dark eyes. He, like Quentin, was dressed in a sky-blue mantle that covered a white tunic embroidered with silver at the neck. Toli looked like a Pelagian prince with his brown skin and gleaming black hair. For all the trouble they had faced in getting him to give up his rough skins, Toli appeared quite used to such finery.

Quentin, though, was too nervous to enjoy himself—except in fleeting moments when he forgot what was about to happen. For he was about to be presented in a special temple service given in his honor. Quentin was to receive a special gift, as Yeseph had explained it; he was to receive the Blessing of the Ariga.

What that might be, Quentin could only guess.

“Here you are,” said Yeseph. Quentin did not see him at first. He was gazing up at the sweeping lines of the temple’s narrow, finger-thin central tower. People dressed in the same simple elegance as Mollena and Yeseph streamed into the temple. “Follow me—and I will lead us to our places.”

Quentin obeyed mutely. He was much too busy taking in all the sights and sounds—a chorus had begun singing as they entered the vestibule of the temple.

Yeseph led them along quickly. Quentin could see through the spaces between the great hanging tapestries they passed that the sanctuary of the temple was already mostly filled with worshippers. They moved around the semicircular auditorium and arrived at a side entrance where three men in long white robes waited with a half dozen young men carrying large candlesticks of burnished gold.

One of the priests, for so Quentin took them, held out a white robe for Yeseph, who slipped it on over his other garments. “Now,” he said, “we are ready. Quentin, you follow me and do as I instructed you earlier. Mollena, you and Toli may take your places in the front row. You may watch from there.”

The three priests, or elders, turned and formed a single line. Yeseph stepped into file behind them and Quentin behind him. The fire bearers stood on either side of them, forming, Quentin thought, an impressive procession.

Then they were moving down a wide aisle toward a raised platform, behind which hung a great golden tapestry that glittered bright as the sun in the light of hundreds of candles.

There were seats arranged in a semicircle on the platform behind a large stone altar. Upon reaching the final step, the elders went to their seats and the fire bearers placed their candles in the receptacles around the altar. Yeseph took a seat near the center of the circle, and Quentin sat at his right hand.

“Listen carefully and do as I say,” Elder Yeseph instructed. “There will be an invocation—a calling of the One to hear our prayers. Then Elder Themu will deliver a short message to our people. When that is done, it will be our turn. We will enter into the holy place. I will lead; you will follow.”

Quentin nodded his understanding, and the choir began a short verse, which was followed by one of the elders ascending to the device Quentin had taken for an altar—it was a large stone cube set in the center of the platform with steps at the rear, allowing the speaker to climb to the top. Around it in a circle burned the candles placed by the fire bearers.

“Mighty Perun nim Perano, King of Kings, you who ever hear our prayers, hear us now . . .”

The invocation continued, and to Quentin it seemed somewhat similar, and yet very different, from the invocations he had heard in the temple at Narramoor. Similar in the style of speech and the words used, but very different in the way in which it was delivered. There was no fear, no self-consciousness or ostentatious display of humility. The elder spoke simply and with assurance that his voice was heard by the god, as it was heard by the hundreds who filled the sanctuary. Quentin shifted nervously in his chair, a little unnerved by the idea that the god was actually listening to them, watching them.

Quentin imagined that he could actually feel the god’s presence and then surprised himself when a real surge of emotion welled up within him in response to his imaginings.

He puzzled on these things as the ceremony moved along its determined course.

Quentin started to his feet at Yeseph’s example as the words of Elder Themu’s message died away in the vast hall. He had daydreamed through the entire speech—it seemed like only moments since he had been seated, and yet he had a vague recollection that there had been more singing and the reading of the sacred text. But it all ran together in his mind as one brief event. Now he was standing and moving toward the stone with Yeseph.

“My good friends,” said Yeseph to the congregation. Quentin looked out at the hundreds of bright eyes glittering in the light of the candles. All he saw were the eyes. “We have come tonight to confer upon this young man, a sojourner among us, the Blessing of the Ariga.” Nods of approval rippled through the auditorium. “Attend us now with your prayers.”

Yeseph signaled the fire bearers, who came forward, each carrying a candle in a shallow bowl.

The fire bearers filed to the rear of the platform, followed by Yeseph and Quentin and then the remaining elders. As they approached the wonderful golden tapestry, two of the fire bearers stepped up and drew the tapestry aside, and Quentin saw a narrow doorway.

Yeseph entered the doorway, darkened but for the flickering glow of the candles, and they passed through a short corridor into an inner chamber.

The chamber was much like the inside of a tomb, thought Quentin. Bare. Cut out of smooth stone with a stone ledge running the length of the farther wall. No symbols or ornaments were to be seen as the fire bearers silently began placing their candles about the room.

Quentin heard the gentle splash of water and saw at one end of the oblong room a small fountain playing peacefully in a hollow bowl set in the floor.

The elders took their places along the stone ledge, and Yeseph drew Quentin toward the fountain. “Kneel, Quentin.”

Quentin knelt down before the fountain and felt the smooth stone cool against his legs. In the quiet he heard the breathing of the elders behind him and the burble of the fountain dancing in its bowl. Then Yeseph, standing over him, said, “This is a place of power, the center of the Arigas’ devotion, for in this room each young Ariga received a blessing when he came of age.

“They received many blessings throughout life, but this was a special one, delivered not by the elder or priest, but by Whist Orren, the Most High God himself.

“This special blessing they carried throughout life, and it became a part of their life. They did not earn it, nor did it require a ritual of purification or obedience. The blessing is a gift of the god. All that is required is a true heart and a desire to receive it.

“Now then, is there any reason why you should not receive the Blessing of the Ariga?” Quentin, his eyes focused on the fountain while Yeseph had been speaking, turned to look into the elder’s kindly eyes.

“No,” he said softly. “It is my desire to receive the blessing.”

“Then so be it,” said Yeseph. Raising his hands above Quentin’s head, he began to speak. “Most High God, here is one who would be your follower. Speak to him now, and out of your wisdom and truth, give him your blessing.”

Again Quentin was struck by the bare simplicity of the prayer—an unadorned request, spoken with calm assurance.

Yeseph stooped to the fountain and cupped his hands in the water. “Drink,” he commanded, offering Quentin the water.

Quentin took a sip, and Yeseph then touched his forehead with damp fingertips. “Water is the symbol of life; all living things need water to live. And so it is the symbol of the Creator of Life, Whist Orren.

“Close your eyes,” Yeseph instructed and lifted his voice in an ancient song.

At first Quentin did not recognize the words; the elder’s quavering voice echoed strangely in his ears as it reverberated in the stone chamber. Yeseph’s song seemed to swell, filling the chamber, and Quentin realized the others were singing too. It was a song about the god and his promise to walk among his people and guide them in his ways. Quentin found the song moving, and as the simple melody was repeated, he recited the words to himself.

Gradually Yeseph’s song died away, and Quentin heard a voice. Was it Yeseph’s or another’s? He could not tell—it could have been his own. The voice seemed to speak directly to his heart, to some part of him that he carried deep within.

Quentin then entered a dream.

In the dream he still knelt upon the cool stone floor, but around him lay a bright meadow of limitless size. The lush green valley shimmered in honeyed light. The light itself seemed to emanate from no single source, but rather hung over the meadow like a golden mist.

The air smelled of pine and the lighter fragrance of sweet grass. Overhead the sky formed an arc of delicate blue iridescence, which fairly rippled with subtle shades of changing color, yet appeared always the same. No sun roamed the sky, but the heavens, as the whole of the valley, seemed charged with light.

A crystal brook burbled close by, joyfully offering up its music to his ears. The water seemed alive as it splashed and danced along, sliding over the smooth, round stones.

An air of peace breathed over the scene, and Quentin felt a surge of joy spring up like a fountain inside him. His heart tugged within him, as if struggling to break free and soar aloft on light wings of happiness.

The voice he had heard before called him again, saying, “Quentin, do you know me?”

Quentin looked around somewhat fearfully. He saw no one nearby who might be speaking to him; he was utterly alone. But the voice continued.

“In the still of the night you have heard my voice, and in the depths of your heart you have sought my face. Though you searched for me in unholy temples, I cast you not aside.”

Quentin shuddered and asked in a small voice, “Who are you? Tell me, that I may know you.”

“I am the Maker, the One, the Most High. The gods themselves tremble in my presence. They are shadows, faint mists tossed on the breeze and dispersed. I alone am worthy of your devotion.”

As the voice spoke, Quentin realized he had heard it many times before, or had so longed to hear it—in the dark of his temple cell when he cried out alone. He knew it, though he had never heard it this clearly, this distinctly, before.

“O Most High, let your servant see you,” Quentin pleaded. Instantly the peaceful meadow was awash in a brilliant white light, and Quentin threw his arm across his face.

When he dared to peer beneath his arm, he saw the shimmering form of a man standing before him.

The man stood tall, with wide shoulders, rather young, but his features bore the stamp of a wise, seasoned leader. The man’s form seemed to waver in Quentin’s gaze as if Quentin were seeing a reflection in the water. The man appeared solid enough, but his outline grew fuzzy at the edges as if made of focused beams of living light, or clothed in an aura of rainbowlike luminescence.

But his face held Quentin’s attention. The Man of Light’s eyes gleamed like hot coals, and his face shone with the radiance of glowing bronze. Quentin could not remove his gaze from the dark, fathomless depths of the man’s burning eyes. They held his in a sort of lover’s embrace: strong yet gentle, commanding yet yielding. Hunger of a kind Quentin could not name burned out from those eyes, and Quentin felt afraid for presuming to exist within the sphere of the radiant being’s sight.

“Have no fear,” said the man. The tone was unspeakably gentle. “Long have I had my hand on you and upheld you. Look on me and know in your heart that I am your friend.”

Quentin did as he was bid and experienced a sudden rush of recognition, as if he had just met a close friend or a brother who had been long absent. His eyes filled with tears.

“Please, I am not worthy . . .”

“My touch will cleanse you,” said the Man of Light.

Quentin felt a warmth upon his forehead where the man placed two fingertips. The shame vanished as the warmth spread throughout his body. He wanted to leap, to sing, to dance before the Man of Light who stood over him.

“You seek a blessing,” said the Man of Light. “You have but to name it.”

Quentin tried to make the words come, but they would not. “I do not know how to ask for this blessing . . . though I know in my heart that I need it.”

“Then we will ask your heart to reveal what lies within.”

A sound of anguish and sorrow such as Quentin had never heard ripped from his own throat. It was as if a stopper had been removed from a jar and the contents poured out upon the ground in a sudden flood.

The cry ended as suddenly as it began, though for a moment it lingered in the air as it faded. Quentin blinked in amazement, shocked by the intensity of his own feelings—for that was what it was: the raw, unspoken emotions wrenched from his heart.

“Your heart is troubled about a great many things,” said the Man of Light. “You cry out for your friends. You fear what may happen to them if you are not with them. You seek the assurance of success in rescuing your king from the hold of the evil one.”

Quentin nodded dumbly; these were his feelings of the last few days.

“But more than this you seek higher things: wisdom and truth. You would know if there are true gods men may pray to who will answer their prayers.”

It was true. All the long nights alone in his temple cell, the anguished cries of longing came back to him.

“Quentin.” The Man of Light stretched out a broad, open hand to him. “My ways are wisdom, and my words are truth. Seek them and your path will know no fear. Seek me and you will find life.

“You ask a blessing—I will give you this: Your arm will be righteousness and your hand justice. Though you grow weary and walk in darkness, fear nothing. I will be your strength and the light at your feet. I will be your comforter and guide; forsake me not, and I will give you peace forever.”

Quentin, looking deeply into the Man of Light’s eyes, felt himself falling into the limitless void of time—as if through the dark reaches of starless night. He saw not through his own eyes, but through the eyes of the god, the orderly march of the ages, time stretching out past and future in front of him in an unbroken line.

Then he saw a man he seemed to recognize. He was arrayed for battle, and his armor blazed as if made from a single diamond; he carried a sword that burned with a hungry flame, and a shield that shone with a cool radiance, scattering light like a prism.

The knight spoke and raised his sword, and the darkness retreated before him. Then the knight, with a mighty heave, flung the sword into the air, where it spun, throwing off tongues of fire that filled the sky.

When the knight turned again, Quentin recognized with a shock that the knight was himself—older and stronger, but himself.

“I am the Lord of All,” said the voice, “maker of all things.” Then the vision faded, and Quentin was once again staring into the Man of Light’s eyes. But now he knew them to be the eyes of the god himself, whose voice he had heard in the night, who had called him by name.

“Quentin, will you follow me?” the Man of Light asked gently.

Quentin, bursting with contending emotions, threw himself at the Man of Light’s feet and touched them with his hands. A current of living energy flowed through him, and he felt stronger, wiser, surer than ever before in his life. He felt as if he had touched the source of life itself.

“I will follow,” said Quentin, his voice small and uncertain.

“Then rise. You have received your blessing.”

When Quentin came to himself, he was lying on his side in the dark. A single candle burned in its shallow bowl. Before him the fountain splashed; the sound made the chamber seem empty. Quentin raised his head to look around and saw that he was alone.

As he got up to leave the inner room, he noticed that his right arm and hand tingled with a peculiar prickly sensation: both hot and cold at the same time. He paused to rub them and then went out.

27

The rain fell in a miserable drizzle from a low, gray, unhappy sky. The track underfoot had become a muddy rivulet that trickled slowly as it wound its way down the hill among the giant forest evergreens. Quentin, astride Balder, and Toli, mounted on a black-and-white pony left behind by the others, slid uncertainly down the trail in a muffled silence that hung on them like the heavy hooded cloaks they wrapped themselves in to keep out the rain. The trail from Dekra to the east was a much improved version of the boggy maze they had floundered through on their way to the ruined city. So Quentin let Balder have his head and allowed his mind to wander where it would. He thought again of their leave-taking from Yeseph, Mollena, and the others.

A sad parting it was, for in the short time he had been with them, he had grown very fond of them. They had said a few brief words of farewell—the Curatak do not believe in lengthy good-byes, since they consider that all who serve the god will one day be reunited to live forever together—and as the horses stamped the ground impatiently, Quentin embraced Mollena and hugged Yeseph a little clumsily.

“Come back, Quentin, when your quest is at an end,” said Yeseph. “We would welcome a pupil like you.”

“I will come back when I can,” promised Quentin, swinging himself into the saddle. “I am grateful for all I have received of your kindness. Thank you.”

“The god goes with you both,” said Mollena. She turned her face away, and Quentin saw the sparkle of a tear in the corner of her eye.

He looked on them for a lingering moment and then wheeled the big warhorse around and started down the hill into the forest. He looked long over his shoulder, etching the memory deep into his mind. He wanted to remember it always as it appeared then: the sun filling the sky with a joyous light; the high, bright sky scrubbed clean by white clouds; the red stone walls of the city rising gracefully into the heady spring air; his friends standing at the wide-open gates, waving him away until at last the slope of the hill cut them off from view.

Quentin had never experienced a more emotional departure. But then, he reflected, he had never known anything but the coldness of the temple priests, who never greeted nor bade farewell.

Inside, Quentin tingled with excitement; his heart soared like a bird freed at last from a long captivity. He quickly forgot his melancholy of leaving in the overflowing good spirits he felt at being alive, being back on the trail, and reliving again the vision of the night before.

He had found it extremely difficult to sleep at all the last night. After the feasts in his honor, where there was more singing and dancing and games, which lasted long into the night, he and Toli had returned to Mollena’s rooms in the palatial governor’s home. He had told them of the vision. Yeseph, and some of the other elders who had also gathered there, listened intently, nodding and pulling their beards.

“Your vision is a powerful sign. You are favored by the god,” he said. “He has special plans for you,” declared Yeseph.

“The Blessing of the Ariga,” mused Elder Themu, “is itself a thing of power, for it carries with it the ability to accomplish its own end. The Most High God grants to every pure heart a blessing in kind and the strength to carry out its purpose. In so doing you will find your own happiness and fulfillment.”

Quentin puzzled over this and asked, “Then what does my vision mean?”

“That is for you to discover. The god may show you in his own time, but most often knowledge only comes with struggle. You must work out the meaning yourself, for the interpretation comes in the doing.”

“This is indeed different from the ways of the old gods,” said Quentin. “In the temple the people come to the priest for an oracle. The priest takes the offering and seeks an oracle or an omen on behalf of the pilgrim. He then explains the meaning of the oracle.”

“That is because the oracles are but foolishness of blind men—the smoke without the fire,” said Themu.

That night, when the guests had departed and he was alone in his bed, Quentin had prayed for the first time to this new god, the one he had met in his vision. The vision seemed still more real to him than the vague dimensions of his own dark room and comfortable bed. He prayed, “Lead me in the discovery of your ways, God Most High. Give me the strength to serve you.”

That was all he could think of to say. After all the formalized prayers of the temple, written down to be memorized by constant repetition, Quentin’s simple prayer seemed to him ridiculously inadequate.

But trusting in Yeseph’s observation that the god regarded more the state of the heart than the length of the prayer, Quentin let it go at that. And he had the strong inner conviction that his prayer had been heard, and by someone very close.

Early that morning, before the sun peeped above the undulating horizon, Quentin and Toli had discussed their plans.

“It is my desire to follow Theido and the others and perhaps catch them if we can,” said Quentin, munching a seed cake. Toli looked at him with strange eyes, which Quentin found unsettling. “Why do you look at me so?”

“You have changed, Kenta,” he said in a low voice, struck with wonder. Kenta was the Jher word for “eagle”—and, by extension, seemed to mean “friend,” “master,” “lord”—all at the same time. It was also the closest approximation of Quentin’s own name that Toli would attempt, though to Quentin it seemed his friend did not try very hard. Toli fastened on this word for his own reasons.

“How have I changed?” Quentin tried to dismiss Toli’s observation with a smile, but it felt forced. “I am the same as I was.”

Toli saw it differently. He had watched the ceremony of the blessing with great admiration and respect. It had appeared to him as the coronation of a king, and he was proud that his friend, for so he considered Quentin irrevocably now, had acceded to such a high honor.

“No,” said Toli, “you are not the same.”

That was all he would say on the subject. So Quentin pushed on to other things. They would ride on to Tuck and then to Bestou, as the others had done (so Mollena had informed them).

All Quentin knew was that Nimrood could be found at Karsh, though where that might be, he could not say. Mollena refused to speak of the place, saying that it was an evil island not nearly far enough away though it was halfway round the world.

So they had struck out upon the trail to Tuck, a much-forsaken path through the northern forests that were home to a great number of red deer and wild pigs. The animals themselves kept the trail open, giving it the little use that it received; the Curatak had no need of it.

The second day out, Toli had awakened Quentin to a dismal dawn. Shortly after they had breakfasted on some of Mollena’s specially packed provisions, the rumbling clouds had begun to leak a fine mist of rain. They had thrown on their hooded cloaks and proceeded in a subdued and melancholy mood. The soaring high spirits of the day before were dampened in the cheerless rain.

As they rode along, Quentin became restive, his mind made uneasy by a thought that jabbed stubbornly at his conscience. He resolved to mention it to Toli at the first opportunity. So when they stopped by a small running stream to water the horses, Quentin spoke what was on his mind.

“Toli, do you know what is ahead of us?” he asked. The young Jher squinted his eyes and peered down the darkened trail.

“No,” he answered with typical Jher logic. “How can one know what lies ahead? Even well-known paths may change. The careful hunter goes with caution.”

“No . . . I mean something else. We go to find Theido and Durwin and the others—most likely we ride into great danger.” He watched Toli’s face for any sign of concern. There was none.

Quentin glanced down into the racing stream as his horse’s muzzle sank deep in the swirling water. “I have no right to ask you to accompany me any farther. Your people sent you as a guide out of friendship. Now that we have reached Dekra and, indeed, left it behind, your task is ended. You are free to return to your people.”

Quentin glanced up to see Toli’s bronzed features drawn into deep lines of sorrow. His mouth turned down sharply at the edges; his dark brown eyes had grown cold. “If that is what you wish, Kenta, I will return to my people.”

“What I want . . . that does not matter. But you must go back. This is my journey, not yours; you did not ask for it. I cannot ask you to risk your life—you have no place in this fight.”

“You must tell me what you wish me to do,” replied Toli, clasping Quentin’s hand tightly.

“I cannot,” pleaded Quentin. “Do you see?”

Toli did not see. He blinked back at Quentin gravely, as if to reproach him for cruelty unimaginable.

“You may be killed,” explained Quentin. His knowledge of the Jher speech was quickly becoming exhausted under the strain of trying to communicate this dilemma. “I cannot be responsible for your life if you follow me.”

“The Jher believe that every man is responsible for his own life. The Jher are free—I am free. We do not suffer any to be masters over us. But a Jher may serve another if he chooses.”

Toli’s voice rose, and the lines of his face began to ease as he continued. “For a Jher to join his fate with another who is worthy—this is the highest honor. For to serve a worthy master accounts the servant worthy. Few of my people ever find an opportunity as I have found.” He spoke this last part as a boast, his eyes sparkling.

“But the danger—”

“He who serves shares another’s portion—danger, death, or triumph. If the master receives honor, so his servant receives much greater honor.”

“But I did not ask you to be my servant.”

“No,” he said proudly. “I chose you.”

Quentin shook his head. “What about your people?”

“They will know and rejoice for me.” Toli’s face beamed with pleasure.

“I do not understand,” complained Quentin, though he did not much mind his lack of understanding.

“That is because your people are brought up to believe that serving another is a weakness. It is not out of weakness that one serves, but out of strength.”

“I would still feel better if I could ask you myself.”

“Ask, then, but I have already given my answer.”

“Is there no getting rid of you, then?” joked Quentin. The joke escaped Toli, whose face fell again momentarily.

“If you dismiss me, I will return to my people in disgrace.”

“That will never do,” Quentin said.

“You, Kenta, wear the look of glory. You will I serve. For only by your side will I find glory too.”

“Very well,” said Quentin at last. “Since I would really rather not go alone, and you are determined not to allow me to in any case, we will go together.”

“As you wish,” said Toli pleasantly.

“My wishes seem to have nothing to do with it,” remarked Quentin.

Toli ignored the remark and held Balder while Quentin mounted, then mounted his own black-and-white.

“To Tuck, then,” said Quentin. His heart was much lighter and his mind at ease. He had not wanted to give up Toli’s company and would have tried to persuade him to remain if that had been the case. This new relationship, however, would require some getting used to. He had not known the extent of Toli’s loyalty toward him and wondered if he was at all deserving of it. Already the responsibility weighed heavier than he would have supposed.

They rode along together through a wet afternoon and stopped to spend a soggy evening along the trail under the skimpy shelter afforded by a long-limbed evergreen whose branches brushed the ground.

Toli tethered the horses and allowed them to walk a short pace to graze on nearby clumps of grass and forest foliage. Quentin unrolled the packs under the evergreen boughs and made a dry, soft bed by piling up the aromatic needles. Toli gathered dry bark and stones and soon had a small fire going to warm them and dry out their sopping clothing.

Night fell quickly in the forest, and the two lay in the dark, listening to the drip of water from the high boughs and the small crackling of their little fire. Quentin stretched himself upon his bedroll and breathed the fragrant balsam deep into his lungs.

“What do you think of the new god?” Quentin asked absently, searching the darkness nearby for the glitter of Toli’s eyes.

In all the time they had spent at Dekra, he had not spoken to Toli about any of the Ariga religion. Now that oversight embarrassed him.

“He is not new. The Jher have always known him.”

“I did not know. What do you call him?”

“Whinoek.”

“Whinoek,” Quentin repeated to himself. “I like that very much. What does it mean?”

“You would say it means Father . . . Father of Life.”

28

It is a slim chance, but it is a chance,” said Durwin, lifting off the first of the water barrel lids.

“I only wonder why we did not think of it sooner,” remarked Theido. “Keep your ear to the door and be ready to sing out,” he added, whispering across the hold to Trenn crouching at the top of the steps.

Durwin took a handful of yellowish-looking powder from a cloth that Alinea held in her hands. He sprinkled it into the water in the barrel, and Theido stirred it with a broken oar and replaced the lid.

“Do you think they will come for water today?” asked Alinea. The three moved on to the next barrel and repeated the procedure.

“I hope so.” Theido rolled his eyes upward to the deck overhead. “They come every second day to replenish the stoups on deck with fresh water. With any luck at all, they will come today too. Though we must be close to land now—they may wait.”

“We do what we can. Just to be sure, we will refrain from contaminating this last barrel; it will be for our use.” Durwin shook the last of the powder into the keg and dusted his hands over the top.

Just then Trenn rapped sharply on the stairs with his foot. “Someone comes!” he whispered harshly. “Look quick!”

Theido stirred vigorously and replaced the lid of the keg, driving it home with the end of his oar. The three then took up their usual places at the foot of the stairs as the door to the hold opened.

“Bring up a goodly length,” a voice called out from the deck to the two descending figures.

“Get back!” snarled one of the sailors. The other went to a corner and proceeded to sort among piles of rope. When he found what he wanted, he returned and started up the stairs with the rope. The captives watched in disappointment.

After the sailors had locked the door behind them, Durwin said, “Take heart; the day is yet young. Perhaps they will come again.”

Trenn looked doubtful. “But we have no way of knowing how close we may be to land. We could drop anchor soon.”

“Indeed we could. If that is to be, so be it. The god holds us in his hand and moves however he will.”

But as he spoke, there arose a commotion on the deck above and the sound of someone furiously throwing off the chains and locks that secured the hold. The door again swung open, and Pyggin’s scream could be heard as he berated his poor seamen. “The day’s ration of water, you dolts! Fetch it! You’ve already fetched yourselves a flogging!”

Three forlorn sailors tumbled down the stairs, led by the sailor with the rope. They dashed straight for the nearest water keg without casting even a sideways glance at the prisoners huddled at the edge of the shaft of light thrown down by the door overhead. They lifted the keg in their brawny arms and struggled back up the steep stairs. They did not see the surprised and pleased expressions on the faces of the prisoners as they disappeared back up on the deck with the water ration for the crew.

“We still don’t know whether Pyggin drinks from the same bowl as his men or not,” said Trenn when the footsteps had faded away above.

“It is a risk we will take,” answered Theido. He turned to Durwin. “How long before your potion works?”

“It varies, of course—how big the man, how much he drinks . . . But I made it slow to act, though strong. When all have gone to sleep tonight, none will rise before dawn—though tempest blow and waves beat down the masts.” He laughed, and his eyes twinkled in the darkened hold. “But lest we forget, we have a more immediate problem before us . . .”

“Right,” agreed Trenn. “If we don’t find a way out of this stinking hull, it won’t matter low long those rogues sleep.”

“What about one of the other hatches?” said Alinea, pointing into the darkness beyond to one of the two dim squares of light cut in the deck above.

“An excellent idea, my lady.” The voice was Ronsard’s. Surprised, all turned to see the knight standing somewhat uncertainly behind them.

“Ronsard!” exclaimed Theido. “How long have you been standing there?”

“You should not be standing at all!” said Alinea, rushing over to take the wounded knight by the arm and lead him back to his crude pallet. He took one step toward them, and his face screwed up in pain; a hand shot to the side of his head.

“Oh!” he said and then steadied himself. “I am not used to having my feet under me just yet.”

“It will come,” assured Durwin.

“Ah, but I feel better than I have in a very long time,” replied the knight, allowing himself to be sat down on a keg by the queen’s insistence. “Aside from this throbbing head of mine, I feel like a new man.”

“I am glad to see it,” said Theido, beaming. “I had long ago given you up for dead—even seeing you here and looking like you did when we found you did not increase my hopes by much. But it now appears that you will live after all.”

“It is all due to this wizard priest of yours,” Ronsard said, grinning at Durwin.

“I did nothing—only allowed you to get the rest your body needed. You have slept these last three days.”

“You said something about the forward hatch, sir,” reminded Trenn. “If you don’t mind my saying so,” he said to Theido, “I think that is our most pressing problem.”

“Of course. What do you know about the forward hatch? Is there a way out from there?”

“It may be we can make one,” said Ronsard, rising slowly from his keg. “I seem to remember watching them lower supplies through the forward hatch. It may be it is not secured the same way as the others.”

“Let us see.” Theido led the group ahead, carefully picking his way among the carelessly stored cargo and supplies. In a moment they stood under the small hatch, gazing up through the latticework of its bars.

“It is a scuttle hatch more than likely,” said Trenn pessimistically. “Too small for a man to get through.”

“Though not too small for a woman, perhaps,” said Alinea brightly.

“My lady, I forbid you to go running about on deck—what if one of those pirates does not fall asleep? No, it is too dangerous.” Trenn spoke in an authoritative tone. Theido and Durwin were inclined to agree with him but said nothing.

“Well! Is bravery only for men, then?” Alinea’s eyes snapped defiantly. “I will match my hand against any of Pyggin’s herd if it comes to it, but I have stealth and surprise on my side at that. Not to mention Durwin’s art.”

“It may be our best plan after all,” said Ronsard. “It would be dark.”

“Yes, and she could move about more quietly than any of us, I will grant,” said Theido.

“But we have yet to find the means to raise the hatch,” pointed out Durwin. “I suggest we start there while we still have a little light to see by.”

“Here,” said Theido, “help me stack up a few of these casks and barrels. We will build our lady a staircase to freedom.”

The prisoners worked all day and into the evening chiseling away at the lone hasp that fastened the hatch using bits of metal and a tool or two they found lying rusting in the bottom of the hold.

As twilight came upon them, they heard sounds from on deck, which gave them to know that the ship had sighted its destination, the cruel land of Karsh.

Captain Pyggin’s voice, hoarse from screaming orders at his lackluster men, could be heard above the commotion of scrambling feet and dragging tackle. “You lazy gulls! You’ll get no rum tonight, land or no land. Move! What’s got into you! Are ye all bewitched?”

“Hmmm . . . the drug is beginning to take effect, I believe,” said Durwin.

“Surely he will not try to land tonight.”

“No, most likely they will wait at anchor some way out and not risk their boats against the rocks in the dark,” replied Ronsard from his bed.

“Good,” said Trenn. “That will give us time to work. By dawn we should be ashore and this tub will be resting at the bottom of the sea.”

“You would not sink it with all on board,” objected Alinea. She was perched upon a barrel top, grinding away at the hasp of the hatch above.

“I would caution against such an act myself,” warned Durwin, “the needless taking of life.”

“But this is war!”

“Even in war we must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of men.”

“Besides,” added Theido, “we may need the ship later to make our escape.”

“Now that I understand,” muttered Trenn.

Just then the clink of metal falling to the deck above them sounded, and Alinea said, “It is free! The hatch is free!”

“Good. Come down now, and we will wait for darkness to make our move,” said Theido. “We will not have long to wait, I think.” Prince Jaspin paced furiously about his apartment in Castle Erlott. The Council of Regents had been in session all day, and he had been barred from going anywhere near the meeting that was taking place in his own hall.

“Leave them to their business,” cautioned Ontescue, the prince’s would-be chancellor. “They will remember their benefactor, have no fear. If you like, I will send to the cellar for some of your excellent ale. That should refresh their senses to the task—and give them a taste of the riches to come under your reign, my liege.”

Though the selfish Jaspin did not fully appreciate pouring his best ale down the throats of the regents, he nevertheless saw the wisdom of such a move; it was a sure reminder to them of who pulled the strings.

“Yes, a fine idea, Ontescue. See that it is carried out at once.” He continued his pacing.

“How long have they been in there? How long will they remain?” Jaspin wailed. “What can be taking so long?”

Ontescue returned shortly with a message in his hand. “The ale is being served. The regents are in recess now for a time. Sir Bran delivered this now to me in secret—it is for you.”

The eager prince snatched the letter out of Ontescue’s hand and read it at once. “By the gods’ beards!” he shouted, losing all composure. “The council is deadlocked. That skulking bandit Holben has talked some of his spineless friends over to his side,” the prince fumed. “They are blocking my approval with their dissent.”

“How can that be? They do not have the power to elevate another in your place. By right of succession the crown goes to you.”

“True enough, but they appeal to a dusty old law, insisting upon proof of the king’s death beyond reasonable doubt. That proof I cannot give.”

“Does such proof exist?”

“You ought to know as well as I,” evaded Jaspin, covering his mistake quickly. “If the king is dead, then proof exists.”

“I only meant that even if the king were still living—though unfit to continue his reign—some proof might be found that would satisfy the troublemakers.”

“Hmmm . . .” The prince’s high brow wrinkled in thought. “There is something in what you say, my friend. How quickly you think.”

“Might I suggest that a search be made that would turn up something or someone who would provide the necessary proof ?”

“Yes, that will do,” said Jaspin, rubbing his hands together with glee. “Where do you propose we start looking?”

A wry look came over Ontescue’s sharp features; his weasel eyes squinted merrily. He bent his head close to Jaspin’s ear and whispered.

“By Azrael,” breathed Jaspin. “You are a clever fox. Let us make haste. There is no time to lose.”

29

Shhh! Make no sound!” warned Toli in a strained whisper. One hand covered Quentin’s mouth, and his other dripped with the water that he had splashed in his friend’s face to wake him.

Quentin struggled from sleep, blinking the water out of his eyes, puzzled at first; then he caught a look at Toli’s wide eyes and tight lips. Concern mingled with fear lurked there.

Toli removed his hand with another warning for silence.

“What is wrong?” Quentin barely breathed. He rolled onto his side, pushed himself up on an elbow, and followed Toli’s gaze into the forest. There was not a sound to be heard.

He peered into the night. All was darkness; the fire had burned out, and it appeared to Quentin several hours yet before the dawn. A thick, overcast sky shut out any light from moon or stars. The forest round about lay in deepest gloom.

Just then, one of the horses whickered softly, and the other answered nervously. Quentin, straining both eyes and ears into the darkness, saw and heard nothing. He waited and was about to speak again when he saw a slight flicker through the trees some way off: a ghostly shape, gray-white against the black trunks of the trees. Low to the ground. Moving swiftly among the dense undergrowth. A thin, pale shape.

It disappeared almost as soon as Quentin had seen it.

“What is it?” Quentin asked, leaning close to Toli. He could see the tense expression on his friend’s face and felt his rapid, shallow breathing on his cheek.

“Wolves.”

The word pressed itself into Quentin’s mind slowly. At first it seemed to have no meaning; but then, like a slap in the face, he realized their danger. Wolves! They were being stalked by wolves!

“How many?” he asked quietly, trying to make his voice sound calm and unconcerned, and failing.

“I have only seen one,” said Toli in the barest whisper. “But where there is one, there are others.”

Unconsciously Quentin reached for the only weapon he had, the gold-handled dagger of the king’s knight. His fingers tightened around the hilt as he drew it from his belt.

He glanced at the smoldering remains of their campfire, wishing that it would spring magically to life again. Wolves are afraid of fire, he thought. He had heard that somewhere and wondered if it was true. As if reading his mind, Toli leaned over and placed his face close to the smoking coals and blew on them. His face glowed duskily in the feeble firelight, and for an instant a single flame licked out. But lacking fuel to feed it, the flame winked out again.

The horses, close behind them but invisible in the darkness, jingled their bridles as they tossed their heads to free themselves. “We must loose the horses,” said Toli, “so they may fight.”

“Will it come to that?” Quentin asked. He had no experience in these things. He felt out of place and strangely indignant about it, an emotion that puzzled him.

Just then Quentin caught another flickering glimpse of a gray shape floating among the trees to the right of them. This time the animal was much closer.

“They are closing in,” said Toli. Quentin realized he had been holding his breath.

“What are we going to do?” asked Quentin, shocked because he did not have the slightest idea himself what to do.

In answer to his question, Toli handed him a stout branch, one they had gathered for the fire. It was hefty enough to use as a club. With the club in one hand and the knife in the other, Quentin felt only slightly more confident. “Keep low,” Toli warned. “Protect your throat.”

Toli stood slowly, and from a long distance behind them they heard a mournful call of a wolf. Quentin’s stomach tightened as if someone were squeezing it. The eerie, hollow cry was echoed by another on the right, not nearly so far away. Toli placed a hand on Quentin’s arm, clenching him in a steel grip, drawing him to his feet.

Suddenly they heard a low, menacing growl from the left, very close. Quentin turned toward the sound and saw a gaunt white death’s head floating right at him out of the forest.

“To the horses!” screamed Toli, spinning on his heel and diving forward.

Quentin turned in the same instant and flew to Balder’s side. He found the animal’s head and slashed at the reins that tied him to the branch where he had been tethered for the night.

The mighty warhorse jerked free and reared upon its hind legs as it spun round to face its ghost attacker. Quentin dodged out of the way as a heavy, iron-shod hoof whistled through the air where his head had been an instant before.

Balder neighed wildly, flailing the air with his forelegs. The wolf, plunging at them from the forest, swerved and bounded aside to avoid Balder’s flying hooves.

Out of the corner of his eye, Quentin saw another wolf dashing in from the side. He leaped forward and swung the makeshift club high over his head, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did so. The yell surprised him as much as the scared wolf, who hung back in its attack just long enough for Quentin to land a blow square on its long snout. The wolf ’s jaws snapped shut with a teeth-cracking crunch as the club fell. The animal let out a pleading yelp and backed away.

Another yelp sounded behind him, and Quentin started toward Toli to lend a hand. He had run not two steps when his foot caught on a root, and he went down.

As he fell, Quentin sensed a motion behind him, and before he hit the ground with a thud, he felt a weight upon his back. Without thinking, he threw an arm over his head as the wolf ’s long teeth raked at his exposed neck. He felt the dagger in his hand and tried to wrench free his other arm pinioned beneath him.

He felt the wolf ’s teeth caught in the sleeve of his tunic, tearing at his clothing. He squirmed under the weight of the animal, trying to bring the knife up and into the wolf ’s belly.

The knife flashed up, suddenly free, and Quentin looked beneath his arm to see the body of the wolf flying sideways and folding in midair as if it had no backbone. Then he saw Balder’s head tossed high above him as he prepared to deliver another similar blow to any predator daring to come within range of his lightning hooves.

“Kenta!” Toli cried. Quentin looked around to see his friend holding four wolves at bay with his whirling branch. Three others were working at the other horse, closing in for a lunge at the frightened animal’s throat.

Jumping to his feet, Quentin found his club in his hand and raced toward his friend. “God Most High, help us now!” he screamed as he ran.

One wolf broke off its attack of the horse to meet Quentin in full flight. Quentin lunged with the club, but the wily creature dodged and caught the club in its mouth. The wolf jerked backward with such force it nearly pulled Quentin’s arm from its socket as he let go of the club. He brought the knife up before him as the wolf gathered itself for another lunge.

Toli screamed something unintelligible, and Quentin saw a wolf standing on its hind legs with its paws on Toli’s back, jaws snapping wildly.

There was a growl before him, and Quentin looked down into the wolf ’s evil yellow eyes. The wolf snarled savagely and bared its cruel fangs, coiling itself, snakelike, for a strike.

Then Quentin heard a squeal from the bushes beside him. Another wolf ? It did not sound like a wolf. He heard more squeals and the sound of something big crashing recklessly through the underbrush.

The wolf heard it and turned its baleful eyes from Quentin to look at the brush behind it.

All at once the bushes erupted in high-pitched squeals and the crashing sound of small hooves tearing among the branches. Dark shapes like boulders came dashing through the clearing from the far side of the forest.

The dark forms raced headlong into the wolves, squealing and snorting as they ran. The wolves, snarling in terror, turned to face this new foe.

One of the dark creatures brushed by Quentin, nearly knocking him off his feet. It was then that Quentin realized the squealing shapes were those of wild pigs—boars and sows.

The wild pigs, led by a huge boar with long, curving tusks, bolted with a fury into the thick of the wolves. Toli leaped aside as they came crashing into the clearing to engage the wolves.

Fur flew. The tear of flesh and meaty crunch of living bone being splintered could be heard amid the yelp of the terrorized wolves.

The large white wolf, the leader, which had begun the attack, barked once and made a dash for the forest. Those of his marauding band that could still run turned tail and followed him as the pigs snuffled after them.

In moments they were gone, and Quentin stood fighting for his breath in the center of the clearing. All that could be heard was the receding crash of the wild pigs in thundering pursuit of the fleeing wolves.

Then Toli was beside him, peering into his face in quiet wonder. Toli’s face was wet from sweat and blood from a small cut over his eye. “Are you all right, Kenta?” he asked, touching Quentin on the arm with his fingertips.

“Yes, I am fine. But you are bleeding.”

“I am not hurt—just a scratch.” He turned to where the sounds of pursuit were dying away in the forest.

“I have never seen anything like it,” breathed Quentin. “Have you?”

Toli shook his head. “It is known among my people that wild pigs will sometimes fight off a wolf that threatens their young. But this . . . this is a mighty sign. Whinoek has raised his hand to protect us.”

“The god must care about us very much,” said Quentin, remembering his desperate prayer only moments before.

“Yes,” agreed Toli thankfully. “But there is something else.”

Quentin waited for him to say what it was.

“There is plenty of game in this forest for wolves to pull down— deer and pigs, the old and sick. Much safer than taking on humans with horses. Wolves do not attack men—only rarely, in the deep of winter when food runs scarce and they starve.”

“What made them do it?” Quentin’s eyes went round. “Nimrood?”

Toli gave a cryptic shrug and raised his eyes to where the trees met overhead. The small patch of sky showed a dull iron blue. “The sun is coming up soon. We must be on our way.”

Together they set about calming the horses and breaking camp as quickly as possible. Though neither spoke, it was clear to both that they wanted to be far away as soon as possible.

30

Captain Pyggin had threatened not to give his men their usual rum ration, a customary gesture when a ship reached port. But, as were most of his threats, it was an idle one. As darkness fell, the rum pots were filled and the rowdy play of the crew began.

The captives could hear the raucous clamor of drunken voices raised in song. The wild revel would normally have lasted far into the night, but the rum, acting in harmony with the power of Durwin’s drug, heightened its effect. Thus, after a few salty choruses and a drink or two, the men collapsed upon the deck where they stood—a normal happenstance on a night like this, but the outcome hastened, thanks to Durwin’s art.

Abruptly, the singing stopped, and the snores of the crew members could be heard droning softly against the wash of the waves.

“So it is!” announced Durwin. “That is the remedy. Now to business.”

“Be careful, Alinea,” warned Theido. “There may be one or two still on their feet. Stay out of sight until you have a chance to have a look around.”

“I will,” she said. “Now stop worrying. I will have you out of here in no time.” Alinea, looking more like a stable boy than any queen, ascended the rude staircase of cargo and pushed open the hatch while the others gathered below.

“Oh, my lady,” moaned Trenn nervously, “I’d rather you let me take your place.”

Durwin smiled. “No need. Besides, you would not likely fit through the hatch in your present shape. Come, let us make ready to be off.”

The three ascended the steep steps to the chained and bolted door. Presently they heard Alinea’s soft footfall approaching. “What do you see?” asked Theido when she reached the door.

“All are fast asleep, save the cook and his galley servant. They sit nodding in their cups beside a rum pot on the far side of the deck.”

“Can they see us from there?”

A pause. “No . . . I do not think so. Anyway, it will soon be beyond their power to stand up, let alone draw sword against a knight.”

“We must find the keys to these locks—how many are there?”

“There are two, and the door itself. Where should I begin looking?”

“The captain’s lackey,” suggested Trenn. “Unless I miss my guess, he was the rat that brought the food and fetched the rope.”

“Good eyes, man!” said Theido. And then to Alinea, “Find the man who brought us our food. He wears a blue coat and a squint, as I recall.”

“He’ll likely be found in the captain’s shadow,” offered Trenn.

“Yes, look for the captain.”

They heard her footsteps leave and stood waiting for her return. A minute passed. Then another, and another. Each one seemed to stretch out far beyond its normal limit.

Finally, they heard her return. “I cannot find the man, though I found Pyggin. He had no keys on him.”

“What do we do now?” wondered Theido aloud.

“If I were up there, I would find that pirate. Those keys are up there in a pocket somewhere.” Trenn clenched his fist as he spoke.

He had no sooner finished speaking than they heard a low rumble from somewhere far away. “What was that? Listen!”

“It is thunder,” said Alinea. “The sky is clear, but I can see a storm approaching from the east. There is lightning. It looks to be a large storm. And it is moving fast.”

“We have got to find those keys,” muttered Theido.

“What about the other hatch?” suggested Durwin. “The main cargo hatch. We could climb out from there with ease.”

“Alinea, we are going to try the main cargo hatch. How is it secured?” As Theido spoke, thunder cracked in the distance.

“Listen,” said Trenn. “The wind is rising.”

It was true. They could now hear the wind singing in the high rigging of the ship—fitfully, but with growing force.

“I had best wake Ronsard,” said Durwin. “He may need time to gather his strength.”

Alinea returned from looking at the main hatch. “It is a simple hasp with a single staple—it will require no key. They have beaten a wedge through the staple. I may remove it if I can find something to loosen it with.” She hurried away again in search of a tool.

“Come,” said Theido. “Let us be ready to leave here as soon as the hatch is opened.”

The three set about busily restacking casks and kegs, most of which were empty, in a rude stairway that fell short only a few spans from the hatch. Theido stood on the top of the pile while Trenn and Durwin handed him the items needed to construct the precarious stairway. Ronsard sat to one side, complaining, “I am fit, I tell you. I can lend a hand . . .”

“Save your strength, man,” said Trenn. “You will have need of it before this night is through.”

“No more than you will, I should think.”

“Perhaps not,” reminded Durwin, “but none of us have been sleeping as close to death’s dark door as you have. There is much to be done before our journey’s end. We will need your unhindered strength when the time comes.”

From above could be heard the tapping sound of Alinea working at the hasp. The teetering mountain of cargo tilted dangerously in the slow rocking of the ship with the waves that were beginning to run higher.

The three held their breath and waited.

“It is free!” shouted Alinea. Then, “Aieee!” The scream was muffled and broken off quickly.

“Something’s wrong,” cried Theido, clambering up the cargo mountain and heaving the hatch open.

As he poked his head above the deck, he saw Alinea caught in the grasp of a hulking figure whose hands were around her throat. She struggled furiously but futilely against the superior strength of her assailant.

“Release her!” shouted Theido, pulling himself through the hatch. The queen’s attacker turned slowly, drunkenly, around to meet Theido’s crouching charge. Theido sprang headlong at the man, spearing him full in the stomach like a ram butting into an unwary trespasser.

“Oof!” the man wheezed as he went down.

The pirate hit the deck like felled timber and lay stretched full length gazing up at the sky. He made one feeble attempt to raise his sodden head and then fell back, asleep, his head thumping upon the deck.

“The cook?” asked Trenn, now standing next to Theido and ready for action if his services were required.

“Yes,” said Alinea, drawing a shaky breath.

“My lady, are you hurt?” The warder took her by the arm and gestured her to sit down.

“No, Trenn, I am unharmed. The man was so obviously drunk . . . he frightened me just a little, that is all.”

“Come, everyone!” shouted Durwin as he clambered from the hatch, his eyes searching the sky. “This storm will be upon us too soon, I fear. We must hurry!”

Theido dashed across the deck, shouting, “Trenn, give me a hand with the boats!”

“Ronsard, you and Alinea go with them. I will join you in a moment.”With that, Durwin turned and climbed a low companionway leading to the captain’s quarters.

Ronsard and Alinea made their way to where Trenn and Theido were lowering the ship’s longboats. They were three rickety-looking specimens of the boatwright’s art long past their prime, decrepit—a state hastened by neglect. One boat was already in the water as the queen and the king’s knight drew up.

“Here, hold fast to this rope,” said Theido, shoving the thick, braided seaman’s rope into Ronsard’s hand; the other end was attached to a small open boat. “This one looks to be the most seaworthy.” He and Trenn then dashed farther down the deck to lower the others.

“I do not like the look of that sky,” said Ronsard. As he spoke, the first fat drops of rain splashed at their feet in small puddles. The wind whipped the high rigging, and the ship began to rock against the waves. “I fear we are in the brunt of it.”

“Where is Durwin?” asked Theido as he came running up.

“He went in search of the captain’s quarters, I believe,” answered Ronsard.

“Well, let us get aboard while we can.” Theido threw one long leg over the ship’s rail and buried his hands into the netting hanging there. He dropped down the side of the ship like an awkward spider and jumped into the boat. He grabbed an oar and pushed the boat, now bobbing like a cork in the swell, closer to the ship.

“My queen, you come next. Trenn, Ronsard, hand her down gently.”

“I can manage,” she said as she threw herself over the side like an experienced sailor and shimmied down the netting into the boat. Trenn and Ronsard stood marveling.

“Move, you two!” yelled Theido.

Ronsard was next, lowering himself somewhat laboriously, a step at a time, into the boat. Trenn followed, releasing the ropes attached to the other two boats.

“Now where is that meddling wizard?” wondered Theido impatiently.

“Let me see to the oars, sir,” said Trenn, settling himself on the center bench.

“It may take two,” said Ronsard, sitting down beside him. “From the looks of those waves, we have our work before us.”

Alinea positioned herself low in the center of the boat at the bow. Theido manned the rudder, casting an anxious eye up to the rail in expectation of seeing Durwin’s round face peering over the side at any second. “What can be keeping that hermit? The storm is almost upon us.”

Thunder crashed around them now as lightning tore through the heavy black clouds. Salty spray off the white-capped waves drenched them, and the rain, falling faster now, pelted down in stinging pellets.

“Look!” cried Alinea, her voice lost amid the roaring wind and thunder. The others followed her outstretched hand with their eyes.

“The gods save us!” shouted Trenn; the words sped from his mouth in the shrieking wind.

Glowing green out of the darkness, twisting, writhing like a gigantic living serpent, spun a waterspout coming straight for them. The awful maelstrom, lit by the terrible lightning that showered around it, whirled and coiled about itself, rising half a league into the sky. Behind it a curtain of rain, tossed by deafening winds, hurled into the flood. The little boat rocked violently but stayed above the swell, descending into the valley and then climbing the hill of water on the other side.

Finally, Durwin’s bewhiskered face appeared at the rail. Without a glance toward the onrushing waterspout, though the gale seemed to fill the world with its scream, the hermit threw himself over the rail and down the side of the tilting ship.

“Careful!” shouted Theido. No one heard him, though they saw his mouth form the word.

The netting, slippery now, proved treacherous for Durwin’s grip. Twice he lost his footing, being saved from a plunge into the angry sea by thrusting his arm through the netting and crooking his elbow.

Theido shouted again. “Jump for it!” Durwin had the same thought at the same instant and half turned, gauged the distance, and then dropped the rest of the way into the boat. As soon as the hermit had plopped into the bottom of the craft, Theido shoved them away from the hull of the ship.

Trenn and Ronsard strained at the oars and began to row furiously. The little boat bit into the water and moved slowly away from the ship.

Theido threw himself against the rudder’s stout tiller and headed them toward the shore, now showing as a faint white strand against the gloom.

When they dared look again, the waterspout had grown fantastically as it swept in from the sea. Sucking more and more water into its cyclone, it wavered like a long, wicked finger tracing a course of death toward the small boat.

Blindly, the party fought the waves that threatened to swamp them at every valley and overturn them at every peak. Somehow Theido managed to keep the boat heading to shore, and Trenn and Ronsard moved them ever so slightly ahead. Durwin, gripping the gunwales with white fingers, lifted his face to the sky and prayed, “God of all creation, spare us from the storm’s great wrath. Deliver us safely to yonder shore—for without your help we surely will drown.”

No one aboard heard the prayer, but all knew what Durwin was doing and echoed his thoughts in their own.

A shout turned the others toward Theido, who stood waving his arms. They looked through the driving rain to where he waved and saw to their horror the waterspout looming up behind them, thrashing through the water like some agony-driven creature loosed in fury upon the sea.

Theido threw himself forward into the bottom of the boat, indicating for the others to follow his example. Water hurled from on high showered down upon them in sheets. The bawl of the storm filled their ears.

Then, suddenly, inexplicably, when the terrible spout should have been upon them, there was no sound. Nothing. The rain stopped. The water grew calm.

Durwin lifted his head and peered above. “Look! The spout has skipped over us.” It was true. The waterspout, which only moments before had towered above them, threatening to draw the tiny boat and its occupants up into its dreadful tempest, had lifted over them, dancing back up into the clouds. They could see its green tornado spinning directly above them, twirling like a burrowing worm and heading inland.

The calm lasted only brief seconds. Then the wind and water hit again with renewed force. The boat spun helplessly in the torrent; the rudder slammed into the stern and broke its hinges. Theido threw himself to the tiller, but it was too late. The handle flopped uselessly in his hands.

“The rocks!” Alinea screamed.

All turned to see the jagged roots of the island jutting crazily from the swell and disappearing again, only to rise once more as the water rushed around them.

The rocks formed a sharp row of teeth protecting the shallow bay beyond. In calmer weather the breakers beat upon them ineffectually, and even the most hopeless sailor could navigate them with ease. Now, however, the stony teeth gnashed furiously, driven to rage by the boiling sea.

The boat was lifted high and thrust forward with the waves. As the water crashed down, a rock rose beside them on the right. Ronsard, picking up his oar, shoved against the rock as it shot up; the boat spun aside, barely grazing her fragile hull against the unyielding mass of stone.

Again the boat was lifted high on the frothing waves and thrust forward. Trenn on his side wiped the flying spume out of his smarting eyes and held his oar ready to avert another rock. But before anyone could see the warning tip shooting up out of the foam, they heard the sickening crunch as the boat dropped square upon the crown of a huge rock they had just passed over.

The hull splintered and buckled. The boat teetered, now completely out of the water, stranded upon the rock as the wave drew away. For a second the small craft hung in the air, a fish speared upon a jagged tooth of stone. Then, with a sideways lurch the boat began to tear away from the rock as the hull gave way.

A wave pounding in upon them picked up the damaged boat again and split it in two, spilling its occupants into the rolling, angry sea.

31

Nimrood strode the high parapet of his castle, his black cloak streaming out behind him. His raven-black hair—shot through with streaks of white like the lightning flashing among the black storm clouds he watched and reveled in—flew in wild disarray. The booming cataclysms of thunder echoed in the valleys below his mountaintop perch, and the evil wizard cackled at each one.

“Blow, wind! Thunder, roar! Lightning, rend the heavens! I, Nimrood, command it! Ha, ha, ha!”

The sorcerer had no power over the storm; it was a pure thing of nature. Instead, he seemed to draw a strange vitality from its awesome force as he gazed out toward the bay, where Pyggin’s ship lay at anchor. Nimrood could not see the ship; his castle was built upon the topmost peak of the highest of the rugged mountains that rose out of the sea to form his forsaken island. The bay was a league or more away as the gull flew.

The storm, spreading its anvil high into the atmosphere, flew on reckless wings in from the sea. Nimrood watched, his thin old body shaking in a paroxysm of demented glee; his sinister features lifted upward toward the storm, illuminated by the raking streaks of lightning. The wizard chanted, danced, and laughed, thrilling to the storm as it passed overhead.

At last the heavy drops of rain began plummeting to earth. Loath to leave, but hating this wetness more, Nimrood the Necromancer turned and darted back into his chamber.

“Euric?” he shouted, throwing off his black cape. “Light the incense. I feel like following the storm.” His henchman scuttled ahead of him as he descended the spiraling stone stairs to a vaulted room below. The room was bare stone except for a five-sided stone altar standing in the center.

Euric, with torch in hand, flitted around the altar, lighting the pots of incense that stood on low metal tripods, one at each corner of the altar. “Leave me!” shouted Nimrood when he had finished.

Nimrood stretched himself upon the altar and folded his hands over his breast. He let his breathing slow and become more shallow as the incense swirled around him. Soon he dropped into a deep trance, and the sorcerer’s breathing seemed to stop altogether.

As Nimrood sank into the trance, his mind rose up as if through layers of colored smoke, ascending on the pungent vapors of incense. When the smoke cleared, he was flying above the earth in the face of the onrushing storm.

The wizard closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he had taken the form of a kestrel, soaring in the turbulent air. His body tingled with excitement as he played among the rolling clouds, diving steeply and rising again in the blink of an eye.

As he wheeled ecstatically through the rushing wind, he watched the land slide away beneath him. Directly below he saw his castle, dark upon its crown of mountain. To the west, falling sharply away to the bay, the thickly wooded hills hunched like the backs of tormented beasts. Beyond them, the glimmering crescent of the bay itself.

In a sudden blinding burst of lighting, his sharp kestrel’s eyes spied something in the bay. I wonder what that might be? he thought to himself. I will fly closer for a better look.

Nimrood dived into the wind, streaking to earth like a comet and heading for the bay.

“A ship!” he squawked when another stroke of lightning revealed the vessel’s outline. Then he sailed out over the bay. “Could it be Pyggin’s ship? I did not expect them so soon.”

Then, hovering in the air above the bay, the wind whipping through his feathers, Nimrood saw far below a small boat break away from the side of the ship. “Ach!” he screeched. “My guests have arrived!”

With that, he flew back to the castle on the speed of the racing wind and swept into the vaulted chamber through an arrow loop in the wall. He alighted on the edge of the altar and became a wisp of gray smoke lingering in the air before dissolving above his own entranced form beneath.

As soon as the smoke vanished, the wizard’s eyes snapped open and he sat upright with a jolt. “Euric!” he shouted. “Come here at once!

“Where is that fool servant?” he muttered, swinging down from the altar. “Euric!” he shouted again; then he heard his servant’s quick steps in the corridor beyond as Euric came running to his master’s call. Nimrood met him at the door.

“You called, wise one?” The pitiful Euric bowed and scrabbled before the sorcerer.

“Yes, toad. We have work to do. Our long-awaited guests are even now arriving. We must prepare to meet them. Call the guards. Assemble them before my throne; I will give them their instructions. Hurry now! No time to lose!”

It was the third inn they had tried that morning, and this one sat down on the wharf at the water’s edge. Toli and Quentin stood looking at the squeaking, weather-beaten shingle that swung to and fro on the brisk wind. It read FLYING FISH in bold blue letters hand-painted with some care by the owner, whose name, Baskin, was also painted beneath the legend.

“This is the last public house in Bestou, I think,” remarked Quentin. “This must be where they stayed. Come on.” He jerked his head for Toli to follow him inside. Toli, stricken with the jittery bafflement that most Jher held for all cities of any size, followed woodenly as he gazed along the waterfront.

“Excuse me, sir. Are you Baskin?” Quentin inquired politely of the first man they encountered within.

The man looked up at him over a stack of coins he was counting, his eyes blinking in the light of the open door. “My good fellow!” he shouted, somewhat surprised.

“Are you Baskin, sir?” asked Quentin again, startled by the man’s unusual manner.

“At your service. Indeed, yes! If it is Baskin you want, Baskin you have found. What can I do for you”—he cast a sharp and not altogether approving glance toward Toli—“for you two young sirs?”

“We are looking for a party traveling through here—through Bestou some time ago.”

The man scratched his head with a quizzical look on his face. “That could describe a fair number, I’ll warrant.”

“There were four of them altogether . . .”

“That helps, but not much. Many merchants travel in numbers.”

“One was a lady. Very beautiful.”

“That’s better . . . but no, I cannot think of anyone like that. Who did they sail with?”

“I . . . I do not know, sir.”

“They stayed here, you say?”

“They may have . . . That is, I cannot say for certain that they did. This is the last place in Bestou they could have stayed . . . if they did.”

“Let me see,” said Baskin, pulling his chin. “You are looking for a party who came you don’t know when, and stayed you don’t know where, and sailed with you don’t know who. Is that right?”

Quentin’s face flushed scarlet. His gaze fell to his feet.

“Oh, don’t mind me, lad. I only wanted to get the facts . . .”

“I am sorry to have troubled you,” said Quentin, turning to leave.

“Are you sure there is nothing else you can think of ?” Baskin inquired after them.

Quentin stopped and considered this for a moment, then said, “They were bound for Karsh.”

At that word the innkeeper jumped down from his stool and came around the table to where Quentin and Toli stood. “Shh! Do not say that name in here. Bad luck! But, hmm . . .” He rubbed a long hand over his high forehead. “I seem to remember them now. Yes.

“There were three and the lady. One tall, fidgety. Looked to be a man of quick temper. The other big, stout. Dressed like a priest somewhat, though no priest I ever saw. They had a servant of sorts with them. A sturdy man. Didn’t see much of him. And the lady—beautiful she may have been, though you couldn’t prove it by me. She wore men’s clothing all the while. Disguised, perhaps?”

“Yes, that’s them!” cried Quentin.

“So I gather. They wanted to go to . . . that place. Had difficulty— and who would not—finding any honest captain to take them.”

“Did they find someone?”

“Yes, I think so. They must have. They left early the first sailing day. Paid the bill the night before and were gone, along with everyone else, at dawn.”

“What day was it?” Quentin was almost breathless with relief at having found word of his friends.

“Oh, it must be ten, perhaps twelve days ago now. Yes, at least that long. Perhaps longer—let me see . . .” The innkeeper turned and went back to his table. A hutch stood nearby, and he fished in one of the cubbyholes for a parchment, which he at length brought out. “Yes. Here it is. I remember now. They left their horses with the smith up the way. I have the record now.” He pushed the paper under Quentin’s nose.

“Did they say whose ship would carry them to—”

“No, I never did hear. But there would be those who would risk such a trip for enough gold, I would think. Though many would not, as I say.”

Baskin looked confidentially at Quentin and asked, “You are not thinking of following them, are you?” He read the answer in Quentin’s eyes before Quentin could speak. “Forget it. No good can come from it. I will tell you what I told them: stay far away from that place. I told them, and I tell you. Go back to where you came from. Don’t go anywhere near that evil land. Stay away!”

32

Prince Jaspin swept through the ample corridors of Castle Erlott on his way to the great hall where the Council of Regents sat deadlocked for the third day. He was followed by two of his own bodyguards carrying halberds with royal pennons fluttering from the halberds’ long staves. Jaspin had chosen this moment to remind the recalcitrant regents of his power and prestige.

Behind him also marched Ontescue, carrying a small ornamented casket. Next to Ontescue walked a man in the worn clothes of a soldier, hesitant of step, eyes darting everywhere as if seeking refuge for an uneasy conscience.

This parade arrived at the towering doors of the great hall, now locked and the way barred by three guards, one of whom was the marshal of the Council of Regents.

“Halt!” bellowed the marshal. “The council is in session.”

“The council is deadlocked,” said Prince Jaspin in his most unctuous manner. “I have with me the means they require to resolve their impasse. Let me through!”

The marshal puffed out his cheeks as if to protest when a knock on the door sounded from within. “Stand away,” he warned the prince and turned to open the door to the summons.

“Marshal, the council will recognize the prince,” said Sir Bran as the door swung open slightly. He added under his breath to the prince, “I am sorry. I have only just received your signal, or I would have given this featherbrain orders to admit you on sight.”

“Hmph!” the prince snorted. “Are you ready?” Sir Bran nodded as they moved inside the door. “Are the others?”

“They know their part. You will hear them sing when the time comes. Worry not.”

Ontescue followed them through the doors, motioning for the man in soldier’s clothes to remain without. The huge door closed with a resounding crash, and all heads turned to see who had entered to disturb their deliberations.

“I protest!” shouted a voice above the murmur that accompanied the discovery that the prince had invaded the privacy of the council. “I protest the presence of the prince at this meeting.” The strident voice belonged to Lord Holben, who was on his feet, waving an accusing finger in Jaspin’s direction.

“I come as a friend of this body and as one offering evidence which the council requires.”

Lord Holben clenched his fists at his sides and bent his head stiffly to confer with one of his friends. “This council will provide its own evidence,” retorted Holben. There were nods all around the table.

“Of course.” The prince smiled sweetly. “But the council may examine any evidence brought before it from any source—if it so chooses.” More nods of agreement.

“How is it that you know this council desires any such evidence?” asked Lord Holben. His voice was tense, barely under control. “It seems you have long ears, my prince, but methinks they belong to a jackass!”

“That is unseemly, sir!” cried Drake. He made as if to dash across the room to where Holben stood shaking with rage.

“Good sirs, desist!” shouted Lord Naylor, leader of the council. “The council has the right to decide if it will admit Prince Jaspin’s evidence or not.” He turned to address the whole of the council. “What say you, my lords?”

Starting with the chair on Lord Naylor’s right hand, each regent spoke his pleasure—yea or nay, for or against admitting an examination of the prince’s evidence. Curiosity enticed the greater number of the assemblage, and the prince was invited to admit his proof.

“I bow to your discretion,” said the prince, bending low. He smiled, but his eyes were stone as they cast upon Lord Holben and his dissenters.

“It has reached me that this council stands deadlocked for want of proof of the king’s death. And though it grieves me—you know not how much—to render this sad account, I would be remiss if, having the power to end this dissent, I stood by and did nothing.”

Again murmurs of approval were voiced around the table. Jaspin picked out his paid followers, eyeing each one individually.

“I have bare hours ago received this final proof of the king’s death. And though it deals a grievous wound to us all, who have hoped against hope that we would one day see his return, it nevertheless confirms the reason for this meeting.” He raised his sad eyes around the room. “It does confirm our darkest suspicions.”

Prince Jaspin raised a finger and motioned Ontescue to approach with the jeweled chest. Jaspin took the chest and placed it before Lord Naylor. He handed him the key, saying, “I believe you will find the end of your questions within.”

Lord Naylor took the key and without a word placed it in the lock and turned it. In all the hall only the sound of the lock clicking open could be heard. Naylor withdrew the key and carefully raised the lid. What he saw inside drove the color from his face. He closed the lid and looked away, sinking back in his chair, eyes closed.

The small gilt casket made its way around the table, pausing before each regent in turn. Prince Jaspin watched the effect of the casket’s contents upon each member. Some stared down in disbelief, others in grave sadness, like Naylor, and still others expressed nothing more than a dread curiosity.

All except Holben seemed to accept the evidence as proof enough of the king’s untimely death.

“Do you think, Prince Jaspin,” he began quietly, “that this scant remnant will suffice our inquiry?” He drew breath. “It is a travesty!” he shouted, flinging the casket from him. The contents, a severed finger, once bloody and mutilated, now withered and rotting, bearing a great golden ring, rolled out upon the table. The ring was King Eskevar’s personal signet.

“I have seen that ring on His Majesty’s hand. With my own eyes, I have seen it!” someone shouted.

“I, too, have seen it. I swear it is genuine!” cried another.

Others joined in the chorus, but Holben stood his ground. “The ring may be genuine, my lords. Indeed, it may even be the king’s finger which wears the ring. But it proves nothing. Nothing!”

“He is right,” said a noble sitting to Holben’s right. “A king’s ring and a king’s finger do not add up to a king’s death. Certainly, a king may be separated from one or the other, or both, and that separation would not prove fatal.”

Doubt traveled fleetingly across several faces.

“A king does not suffer his ring—the symbol of his sovereignty— to be taken except on pain of death. King Eskevar would fight to the last breath rather than give up that ring. That is enough for me.” The speaker, Sir Grenett, sat down triumphantly, as if he had carried the day.

But Lord Holben was adamant. “King Eskevar, I will warrant, would face death a thousand times rather than relinquish that ring. But King Eskevar may have had nothing to do with it.” He turned to fix Prince Jaspin with a fierce, defiant scowl.

Jaspin shook his head slowly and said, with seeming reluctance, “I had hoped to spare you the grisly details, but since Lord Holben would stain the illustrious memory of our great monarch with his morbid disrespect . . .” He turned and signaled to Ontescue to produce the witness.

Ontescue, standing ready at the door, gave a sharp knock, and the marshal opened the door and admitted the soldier.

“This man, this poor wretch you see before you, followed our king to foreign lands and fought steadfastly by his side. He was present at the end, when in the last battle Eskevar was killed and the ring cut from his hand by the enemy.” The soldier hung his head and did his best to appear dutifully grief-stricken.

“How did this ring come to be in your possession?” inquired Lord Naylor gently.

“If it please you, sir, the sight of the king sprawled dead upon the field so saddened our men that we were overcome with a righteous frenzy and slew the enemies who had killed our king as they retreated in victory. And so we retrieved this ring.”

“You saw the king fall, did you?”

“Yes, my lord.” The soldier’s eyes shifted uneasily from face to face around the room.

“And how did the . . . ring. How did it come to be in your possession?”

“The wars being over, we were all returning. I was aboard the first ship to sail for home, but the last ship to leave before winter. I volunteered to bring it on ahead.”

“The armies will be returning shortly?”

“Yes, my lord. With the first ships of spring.”

Lord Naylor closed his eyes again as if in great weariness. “Thank you, good soldier.” He nodded, dismissing the man. The soldier backed away from the round table with a bow. Prince Jaspin waved him away with a furtive gesture.

“Where is your commander?” demanded Holben. “Why was this token not provided with an honor guard? Answer me!”

“The man came directly to me as soon as he could,” remarked Prince Jaspin, ignoring Lord Holben’s demands. His witness left the room.

“Yes, of course,” agreed Lord Naylor wearily. Then he raised his head and in a voice filled with emotion said, “My lords, I think we have seen and heard enough.” He raised a hand quickly to parry Lord Holben’s objection. “Enough to make up our minds. For myself, I choose to believe what I see, and what has been told among us. I can see no other course but to do what we came here to do.”

“We can wait,” suggested Holben readily. “Wait for the others to return. Members of the king’s bodyguard, for example. Those who buried him . . .”

“And how many will it take before you believe?” asked Sir Bran. “You would not believe your own eyes, nor would you anyone else’s.”

“This council has been charged with a duty that must not wait,” offered Sir Grenett. “The realm daily cries out for strong leadership.”

“That from you, Sir Grenett?” sneered Holben. “Since when did strong leadership become a concern of yours? You and the rest of your thieving rabble!”

“Careful, my hotheaded sir. You go too far. This is not the place to settle our differences,” Grenett spat out with great control.

“You are right, Sir Grenett,” mediated Naylor. “This is not the time nor the place to dwell on these things. Lord Holben, you are entitled to your vote of dissent, but the rest of this body has a right to vote as they will.

“Prince Jaspin, if you will leave us to our duty, we shall endeavor to inform you of the council’s decision as soon as possible.”

“I think a midsummer’s coronation would suit me splendidly.” Prince Jaspin laughed upon returning to his chambers. “What do you think, Ontescue? I am overjoyed. At last it is mine!

“Wine! We need wine! I feel like celebrating! Send the chamberlain to broach a cask of my finest—”

“I have already done so,” said Ontescue. “And I would congratulate you myself, and take the opportunity to remind you of certain promises upon which we have agreed?”

“Oh, pish-tosh! I am in no mood to discuss such petty trifles. We will talk again on it soon. Plenty of time for that later. Let us celebrate now.”

“I would not like to be premature,” reminded Ontescue stiffly.

“Premature, you say? Nonsense!” The light died in the prince’s eyes as the smile faded from his lips. “Still, if you think we should, we will wait. Yes, we will wait. Better that way, of course. I shall share the celebrations with my friends. Yes, quite so.”

Jaspin threw himself into his chair to spend a worried hour waiting for the news he so longed to hear. At last the chamberlain thrust his head through the door to announce that a party from the council wished to see him. “Let them in, you fool!” he shouted at the man’s disappearing head.

“Sire, good news!” Sir Drake crossed the room in a bound, followed by Sir Grenett and the others. “I am charged by the Council of Regents to inform you that you have been named to the throne of Askelon, king of the realm Mensandor.”

“The council awaits the pleasure of your decision regarding the coronation,” added Sir Grenett. “Let me take them word so that the coronation may be announced at once.”

“Hmmm . . . I really hadn’t given it much thought,” said Prince Jaspin. His fleshy lips twitched with mischief. “But I think Midsummer’s Day would suit me splendidly. Yes. Let it be so proclaimed.”

33

Quentin sat upon the cold stone of the harbor wall, kicking his feet against the thick green moss. Toli stood beside him like a shadow, arms folded across his chest, gazing out into the harbor. Squawking gulls hovered in the air, noising their protest of these two humans invading their sunning spot.

“The ships are gone,” sighed Quentin. He swung his gaze over the broad, empty dish of the harbor. Only two ships remained behind of all that had sailed a week earlier—both needed repair and were getting nowhere very soon. Quentin had already inquired after them.

“They will return,” replied Toli. He had a knack for stating an obvious fact in a most enigmatic way.

“Undoubtedly. They will return. But it may be too late for us.”

Quentin got up from the low slanting wall, which, for the most part, kept the sea from running through the streets of Bestou. “I don’t know what to do now.” He sighed again and brushed his trousers with his hands.

“Wisi thera ilya murenno,” said Toli, his eyes still searching far out to sea.

“The winds speak out . . . what?” Quentin’s translation halted unfinished.

“The winds blow where he directs,” replied Toli. He turned to regard Quentin again. Quentin could not help noticing his servant still held a strange, distant light in his eyes.

“Who directs?”

“Whinoek.”

“Mmm,” said Quentin thoughtfully. “Then we will leave it to him. Come on. We’d better look after the horses.” Casting an eye toward the sun, he gauged it to be nearing midday. “I could use something to eat, myself. What about you?”

The two climbed the long sloping hill upon which Bestou was built and which ran down from the forests above to plunge into the sea. They had left the horses in the care of a farmer on the outskirts of Bestou, not knowing if horses would be welcome in a shipping town.

In no time they were through the town. Bestou cuddles the whole length of the crescent bay but has no depth. The merchants crowd the waterfront; above them stand the houses of the wealthy ship owners who make their homes in Bestou; beyond that lie the widely scattered stone-and-timber dwellings of the hill folk and farmers.

The two walked back to the farmer’s tumbledown house at their leisure. When they arrived, Quentin spoke to the farmer, whose wife insisted that they share their midday meal. Toli led the horses to water and turned them out to crop the new green grass around the house.

The travelers and their hosts ate huge hunks of brown bread that the farmer’s chattering wife toasted at a small fire on the hearth, along with great slabs of pale yellow cheese. Several times during their meandering conversation, the farmer mentioned the horses with admiration, especially the surpassing strength of Balder. “I will wager he can work, that one,” he said, as if imparting some great truth.

“Balder is a warhorse,” explained Quentin. “Trained for combat.”

“Aye, and such a strong one too.”

“Well . . .” Quentin winked at Toli. “Have you some chore fit for a horse? Then we could see what he could do.”

“Oh no. No. I wouldn’t think . . . Well, but there is a stump in the field. But no . . . Do you think he might?”

“We shall put him to the test,” said Quentin, rising heavily to his feet. He had not eaten so much since leaving Dekra, and that was many days ago. “It is the least we can do to repay your kindness.”

“Do not trouble yourselves for us,” said the farmer’s wife. “We are glad of the company. A farmer’s lot is a lonely one.”

But Quentin could see that they were both very pleased. He enjoyed being able to help them; it gave him a warm feeling. Serving, he thought.

“This stump has vexed me raw these two years. It sits in the middle of my new field,” the farmer explained as they tramped out to the spot where it stood.

Horses, though not unknown on Tildeen, were rare enough. They were not needed for travel; there was no place to go, and Bestou, being a port, had little use for them. Only a few of the better-established farmers owned them for working the land. But those were very few and fortunate indeed.

They had rigged a harness for Balder made of leather straps and rope. Nebo, the farmer, carried a long, sturdy branch to use as a lever. Quentin led Balder, and Toli carried the harness. Tisha, the farmer’s wife, bustled along behind them.

After several attempts and much adjusting of the rustic harness, Balder lowered his head and leaned into his work. The ropes stretched taut and threatened to snap. Nebo, Quentin, and Toli hung from the branch, nearly bending it in two. Tisha, standing at Balder’s head, coaxed him on with soft words.

There came a loud pop underground and a long, wrenching creak. Balder’s smooth muscles bulged under his glossy coat. And then, suddenly, the stump lay upon its side, dangling moist, earth-covered roots in the warm spring air.

“Hoo! Hoo!” the farmer shouted. “That is the strongest animal I ever saw! Hoo! Wait until Lempy hears about this! Hoo!”

“Now, Nebo,” said the farmer’s wife, “remember that you promised to make sacrifice to Ariel if that stump be moved in time for planting. It be moved. The god requires his due.”

“Ah, yes. So I did,” drawled the farmer reluctantly. “I will make sacrifice of a silver bowl at the temple.” He hesitated. “Though I would rather buy a new plowshare.”

Quentin listened to this exchange with a curious sinking sensation. “Please, make no offering to the god Ariel. Such is not required. Only help another when you may; that shall be your sacrifice.”

The eyes of the farmer and his wife looked strangely at him, and Quentin suddenly felt foolish. He should not have spoken.

“Are you a priest, young master?” questioned the farmer cautiously.

“I once belonged to the Temple of Ariel,” admitted Quentin. “But I follow a greater god now. One who is not honored by silver.”

A look of relief appeared on Nebo’s broad, good-natured face. “Then I will make the sacrifice you and your god suggest,” he said lightly, happier than ever. He had moved the troublesome stump and had saved the price of the silver bowl too. This new god, whoever he might be, impressed him very much. He clapped his hands in childlike glee.

“I am tired,” announced Quentin. “I have eaten too much, and the sun makes me drowsy.”

“A nap, then,” Nebo declared. “A little sleep is a good thing.”

Quentin awakened with a grudging reluctance. The air was cool, the sun warm upon his face as it spun to the treetops, having crossed over the high arch of heaven to begin its descent toward evening. Toli sat quietly beside Quentin, having awakened some time before.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” asked Quentin, pushing himself up. They were lying on a small grassy hill beside Nebo’s small farmhouse.

“It is time to go back to the harbor,” replied Toli.

Quentin looked at his friend, holding his head to one side. “Now? What makes you say that?”

Toli shrugged. “I feel we should. Something here tells me.” He pointed to his chest.

“Then we will go. We will leave the horses here for now.”

“No. I think we should take them.”

“As you say.” Quentin was agreeable, though he did not see any point in taking the horses into town; they would only have to walk back again. Better to let them rest. But it was not worth discussing on such a bright, brilliant afternoon.

They took their leave of the kind farmer and his wife and struck out upon the rocky lane toward Bestou. Descending to the bowl of the harbor, they could see the whole of the town, the harbor, and the blue sea beyond, glimmering in the distance.

They walked along in silence, listening to the horses clopping peacefully behind them; the fresh scent of grass and growing things hung in the air. Quentin thought that in such a place, on such a day, he could forget all about his task. Forget about kings and wizards and fighting and hiding. He could lose himself in these hills, in the idle drone of the bees buzzing among the wildflowers, nodding their pink and yellow heads in the breeze along the road.

Quentin stirred himself from his contemplation of the dusty tracks they walked upon. He turned with a question on his lips and drew a breath to speak. The question died at once and the air spilled out between his teeth when he beheld Toli’s face.

That distant light once again burned in the Jher’s dark eyes and lit his features in a strange way. It was as if he stared into the future, thought Quentin, beyond this time and place, or perhaps very far into the unknown distance.

“What is it? What do you see, Toli?”

“A ship comes,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“A ship?” Quentin scanned the harbor. He saw nothing. He looked beyond the harbor to the sea—nothing there. No object showed on the horizon at all that he could see. He looked long to the north and south as far as he could until the hills on each side restricted the view. “I do not see a ship,” he admitted at last.

Toli said nothing more, and so they continued down the hill once more in silence.

They reached the houses, then the cobbled streets where the merchants had their stalls, and then the harbor wall itself, where they had sat that very morning. Quentin searched the horizon again, as he had all the way, to see what Toli apparently saw quite plainly.

The streets were brisk with activity. The fishermen in their long, low-hulled boats had returned from a day’s work. Women with cane baskets hurried along to gather in groups around the fishermen spreading out their catch on the stone streets. Gulls nattered sharply overhead, hoping for a morsel.

Quentin took in the activity with mild interest—he was still discovering in little ways life in the world outside the temple. It all seemed so new; he felt himself drawn like a wild creature to a domestic abode to wonder at another kind of life. Commonplace yet foreign. Strange and ordinary at the same time.

Toli stood as a tree trunk rooted to the spot, his eyes fixed upon some spot in the distance.

There was no point in arguing with a Jher about anything, so Quentin tied the horses to a big iron ring, set in the seawall, that served at other times as a mooring for ships. He hunched down to wait and allowed himself to drink in all the various industry around him.

The sun shone low behind them, and the shadow of the seawall flung itself out into the gray-green water of the harbor. Quentin swung himself up and turned toward Toli. He had been watching a man with a barrow full of shellfish sort through his wares, separating the living from the dead.

“How much longer will we wait?” asked Quentin. His tone spoke of mild concern.

“Not long,” replied Toli with a short inclination of his head.

Quentin followed the unspoken direction and turned toward the harbor. There in the pinched mouth of the harbor, sailing slowly ahead, streamed a ship—a large ship with sails stained orange by the late-afternoon light. Quentin’s jaw dropped as he gaped in amazement at his friend and at the ship.

Toli at last relaxed and smiled. “The ship is here,” he announced. His voice carried a triumphant ring, as if he had conjured the ship by willpower alone. Quentin believed that in some mysterious way the Jher had made the ship appear and would not have been more surprised if he had. Toli, after all, had many unusual abilities that Quentin was still discovering.

The ship drew closer, and soon Quentin could make out the masts, the rigging, and individual sailors moving about the deck. He could also see, from the way the ship seemed to limp from side to side, that something was wrong. The ship, now very close, moved through the water stiffly, with an awkward list—first to one side, then to the other. But instead of anchoring in the center of the lonely harbor, the ship proceeded to come up close to the wharf.

Quentin and Toli watched until the ship docked full-length against the wharf; then they untied the horses and walked along the seawall till they stood right alongside her.

“The Marribo,” read Quentin.

“A good name,” replied Toli, looking pleased with himself.

“It looks a good ship.” Quentin knew nothing of ships, but he liked the straight lines of the rigging and the coiled ropes on the deck, the way the sails had been furled expertly along their spars. Everything seemed right and in order to him; therefore, a good ship.

The gangplank had been let down, and sailors were busily engaging in various tasks, working efficiently. The captain, or so Quentin took him to be, stood at the bow and bellowed orders to the men below. There seemed to be some haste involved, which Quentin considered strange for a ship just reaching its destination.

“Captain, sir,” Quentin called out. It had taken him a full ten heartbeats to pluck up his courage to speak. “May I ask . . . ,” he began.

“I am not the captain,” the man hollered back carelessly. He jerked his thumb toward a man in a short blue jerkin descending the gangplank and in close conversation with a man in a leather apron who looked to be a shipwright.

The two stood head-to-head for some time before the shipwright hurried off. The captain sat down upon the ledge of the seawall and lit a long clay pipe as he watched his crew working.

“Are you the captain, sir?” Quentin asked again, this time in better control of his courage.

“Aye, lad. That’s me and here’s my ship. At your service.”

“And we at yours,” replied Quentin with a bow that included both him and Toli. “It is a fine ship too.”

“You know ships?” The captain squinted up at him, blowing smoke.

“No . . . I mean . . . I have never been on a ship before.”

“That is your misfortune, sir. Ah, the sea . . . I could tell you stories . . .” He lost himself in a cloud of smoke. “I am Captain Wiggam. Who might you be?”

“I am Quentin. And this is my friend Toli.”

“What can a seafaring man do for you, young gentlemen?” The captain stuck out a wide, dry paw, which Quentin shook with vigor.

“Could you tell us, sir, would you be going—”

Captain Wiggam cut him off. “We will not be going anywhere without our rudder. What cursed luck. Three days out she shears her hinge pins. Blast the luck! Took us two days to haul her about and four days to limp back to port.” He paused and drew another long pull on the pipe. “You looking for to go somewhere?”

“Yes, sir. We would go to Karsh.” Quentin spoke in a self-assured tone despite what the innkeeper had said about the place.

The captain’s eyebrows shot up. “Karsh!” He squinted up again and asked suspiciously, “What would you be going there for?”

“I . . . that is, we have friends in trouble. We are going to help them.” Quentin did not know for certain they were in any specific sort of trouble at the moment, but he could not have been closer to the truth.

“If they are anywhere near Karsh, they are in trouble.”

“Could you take us there?”

“Me? This ship? Never!” Captain Wiggam turned a hard face away.

Quentin stood speechless; he had no other course of action planned. But the captain, puffing furiously on his pipe now, seemed to soften somewhat. “We are bound for Andraj in Elsendor. I will take you there if you think that would serve you.”

“I do not know exactly where that is, sir.”

“Don’t you, now?”

“No . . . I lived in the temple. That is, until a short while ago. I was an acolyte.”

“Which temple? What god did you serve?”

“Ariel—in the high temple at Narramoor. I was going to be a priest.” Quentin thought he saw a glimmer of interest in the seaman’s clear gray eyes. There was a moment of silence as the captain considered this. There came the sound of hammering accompanied by the soft slap of waves against the hull of the ship.

“Ariel is the god of fortune and fate, the seaman’s benefactor. It would not do to disappoint him by turning aside one of his servants.” He tapped the pipe out against the stonework of the ledge and rose to his feet. “I will tell you this—I will take you to Valdai, around the peninsula from Andraj. I dare not do more. At Valdai there are those who go to Karsh on occasion. You may find someone there to take you farther than I dare to.”

Captain Wiggam looked at Quentin and then at Toli. Noticing Quentin’s troubled look, he asked, “Is there something else?”

“We have no money to pay our passage.”

“Oh, I see. Well, think no more on it. The Marribo is a cargo ship— though we sometimes carry passengers.”

“And we have horses.” Quentin attempted to diminish their size and number with a small, pensive gesture in their direction.

Wiggam winked an eye and appraised the two horses from where they stood tethered to a mooring ring a few paces down the seawall. “That is a problem,” he said. His solemn tone pierced Quentin with doubt. Then came another wink. “But no more serious than seaweed in your scupper. We have carried horses before. We are a freighter, after all.” He laughed, and Quentin laughed, too, in grateful relief.

The captain turned and started away. “I must see to the repair work now, my lads. Starkle will see you aboard. Tell him I said so.”

“When do we leave?” called Quentin as the seaman hurried aft along the hull.

“We leave as soon as ever we can—as soon as the rudder is seaworthy. Get your things aboard. We leave tonight.”

34

Durwin awoke with a cough, spitting sand. His face lay upon a prickly bed of seaweed rank with the fetid odor of fish. He felt a sharp, stinging pain on, of all places, his scalp. Perhaps it was the pain that had brought him to.

Another prick, and another pain. Durwin raised an arm to his head and dislodged a gull, which flapped off along the beach, squawking its displeasure. “Not food for the birds yet,” mumbled Durwin under his breath.

He shoved himself up on his elbows and waited for the throbbing in his head to subside. Wiping the sand out of his eyes, he looked around him only to realize that he lay alone on the beach, near to a rock that poked up like an old fang from the gums of an aging dragon. The rock was draped in stinking seaweed, as was Durwin.

The sun had not yet risen, but the rosy glow spreading over the horizon promised a new day very soon. The waves of the storm had deposited Durwin high up on the strand, and as he sat taking in his surroundings, he felt strange eyes upon him. Glancing around, he saw a host of crabs scuttling closer, their eyes wavering in the new light. “Go pick the bones of some other poor fish,” he yelled at them. “This one needs his skin a little longer.”

Durwin pulled himself to his staggering and unsteady legs. He placed a hand on the rock and looked both ways along the jagged, rock-strewn shoreline. “Ah, this is an evil place,” he muttered. He lurched down to the water, which now lapped calm and undisturbed, as if nothing could ever perturb its placid surface. He dipped his hands in and washed his face and gritty neck. He shook the sand out of his hair and beard, then started along the water’s edge in search of the others, dreading what he might find.

He had not tottered more than ten paces when he spied a shapely foot sticking out from behind a low, moss-encrusted rock. “Alinea!” He rushed to the lady’s side, and her eyelids fluttered open.

“Durwin? Oh, what has happened? I feel sick.” She frowned.

“You probably drank your weight in seawater. As did I.”

Coming to herself more fully, Alinea asked, “The others . . . Theido, Trenn, Ronsard. Where are they? Have you found them? Are they . . . ?”

“Shh . . . in time, in time,” he soothed. “You are the first I have discovered. The others cannot be far away. We shall look for them together.” He hesitated and added after a moment, “Or I will seek them alone, if you would rather. You may rest here.”

“No. We will go together. I can face what we may find; the waiting would be worse.”

Durwin helped his sodden, sand-covered queen to her feet.

“Sit on this rock for a moment. Breathe the air. Deeply. It will make you feel better.”

“I must look like one of Orphe’s daughters—more fit for the fishes than for human company.”

“We will all require some careful grooming, I’ll warrant. But to be alive—there is nothing more beautiful than that. After last night . . .”

“Oh, Durwin . . . ,” the queen gasped. Her hand found his arm and squeezed it.

Durwin turned to look where her eyes were fixed, to see what he had taken to be a pile of kelp and seaweed lumped upon the beach. Now he saw that it had a human form, and then what Alinea had regarded with horror. Dozens of crabs were feeding upon the body, gathered around an open wound. Their pincers scissored tiny chunks of red flesh from the body’s flank.

“Ack!” cried Durwin, rushing to his comrade, sending the blue and green crabs scuttling in sideways retreat.

“It is Trenn!” he shouted as he rolled the body over. He placed his ear to the man’s chest. “He is alive, thank the god!” Then the hermit bent to finger the wound in Trenn’s side—a long, ragged gash, deep though not bleeding; the flow of blood had been stanched by the salt water.

“Will he be all right?” Alinea crept close to Durwin.

“I think so. The wound is deep but not severe, I think. He may have other injuries we cannot see.”

Alinea shivered at the memory of the crabs. “I saw them snatching at him. . . . I thought . . .”

“And so did I. But look: The crabs have done a service after all. The wound is clean now; it will heal quicker.” Durwin spoke with soft assurance but cast a doubtful eye upon Trenn’s insensate features.

Suddenly a crash sounded in the undergrowth of the thick wooded land that fringed the shoreline. Durwin glanced up and met a ring of sullen eyes set in dull, unfeeling faces. There were perhaps twenty soldiers dressed in hauberk and helm, leveling spears at them. Each helmet carried the crest with the insignia of the soldiers’ cruel master: the black croaking raven of Nimrood the Necromancer.

A rider on a black-spotted horse leaped through the tangle and onto the strand. He eyed the humble survivors with a malicious glare. A purple scar cleaved his face from forehead to jaw, bending the nose aside as it swept across the cheek.

“Seize them!” the rider cried. The voice was a sneer.

The impassive soldiers leaped at once to the task of jerking Durwin and Alinea to their feet and roughly binding them. The prisoners were marched, with much prodding and poking, into the wood above the beach.

“Is he alive?” asked the rider, jerking his head to the body of Trenn reposed upon the sand.

“Yes, he is alive,” affirmed Durwin. “Be careful with him. He is injured.”

“Tch, a pity. ’Twere better if he were dead.” The rider spurred the skittish horse past Durwin and the queen and shouted, “Take the other one.”

The three were bundled into a high-sided cart. Alinea and Durwin edged Trenn carefully to the bottom of the cart and settled, as best they could, beside him.

“Not a word about the others,” Durwin warned in a whisper.

“Take them away!” yelled the rider with the wicked scar, who seemed to be the commander of the company on the shore.

The cart bumped off into the wood, rocking as if to overturn. Neither the driver of the cart nor the four accompanying soldiers paid the slightest attention. The cart passed through a thin, unhealthy wood made up of wiry trees and straggles of vines. Rocks with sharp edges thrust out of the ground, making the going exceedingly strenuous. And though it was sunrise, the dire wood seemed to banish the light, steeped instead in perpetual gloom.

“This is a cheerless place,” noted the queen.

“So it is. Any place the necromancer calls his own is cheerless and, I fear, a good deal worse.”

The cart and its contents bumped over rock and root. Eventually they reached a feeble trail scratched into the stony soil. The surrounding wood thinned as they proceeded along.

It soon became apparent that they followed a struggling brook; the splash of its churning water could be heard close by. Rude hills rose on each side, covered with dense, though sickly, vegetation of unpleasant sorts. An air of quiet doom hung over the valley they trod. Only the forlorn call of an occasional bird and the groan and whine of the wagon’s ungreased wheels broke the oppressive silence.

After an hour or longer—time seemed irrelevant in this place—the cart turned onto a wider path and began a steep ascent. Alinea looked round with wide, frightened eyes.

“Do not be afraid, my lady,” soothed Durwin. “He is not so terrible that he cannot be faced. Evil always misrepresents itself. Pray instead for Theido and Ronsard; they may yet escape. That is greatly to be hoped.”

“I will do as you ask, though I have not the knowledge of the god that you possess.”

“It matters not what words one uses. He hears the heart itself.”

After a long ascent, the cart rolled to a level place, a wide ledge of stone carved out of the steep mountain. From there, peering over the cart’s high sides, the unhappy prisoners could see the hunched hills through which they had been traveling. The sun was well up and yet seemed dim and far away. A sulky mist draped the hills and gathered thick in the miserable valleys. The land seemed shroud-wrapped and forsaken.

From somewhere a keening wail rose into the air like a lost soul crying for release.

“Just a gull,” replied Durwin, looking above. But his tone lacked conviction.

Once more, silence crept back. And then, “Ohhh . . . ohhh . . .” A low moan escaped into the air. Durwin looked at the queen and then at Trenn. An eyelid flickered. A finger twitched.

“So it is! He is coming round.” Durwin, hands tied behind him, could do nothing to ease Trenn’s entrance back into the realm of the living. But he bent his head close to Trenn’s ear and whispered, “Rest easy now. No need to fear. We are with you. Take your time.”

Presently the warder opened his eyes and stiffly turned his head. “Trussed up like chickens, aye,” he said.

“Oh, Trenn. You are all right.”

“Yes . . . ohh.” He winced as he tried to move to sit up. “But I may be better with some seeing to.”

“You have had a horrid gash,” said Alinea. “Just lie back.”

“Where are the others?”

“Shh!” Durwin warned.

“We do not know—could not find them this morning.” He appeared doubtful. “But we had no time to look.”

“Where are we? Nimrood’s tribe?”

“It appears we are on our way to meet him.”

“You should not talk so,” whispered Alinea. “Rest now while you can.”

No one spoke for a long time after that. Each nursed his own thoughts and discouraged the fear that grew like a dull ache with each step closer to Nimrood’s foul roost.

Finally, “There it is!” Durwin inclined his head past the driver of the cart. Alinea turned, and Nimrood’s castle, like a blackened skull set upon a rock, swung into view.

“What a ghastly ruin,” said Alinea.

“So it is.”

Black stone battlements rose straight up from the rock of the mountain. A maze of stairs and dark entrances carved in stone like the tunneling of worms wove throughout. Odd-shaped towers of irregular heights thrust themselves above the great domed vault of the hall. Empty holes of doorways and windows stared like eyeless sockets out from the squat jumble of apartments around the dome. Dark shapes of birds flapped through the cool air above the castle and shrieked at the approach of the cart.

The winding road to the castle had here been built upon the back of a ridge. The road, only wide enough for the wagon with a man on each side, twisted up sharply. The mountain fell away in a steep run to each side. The ridge ended in an abrupt precipice just before the long, narrow, iron-studded drawbridge.

The cart lurched to a halt before the raised drawbridge. The chasm, falling down in a sheer drop from a breathless height, stretched before them. Below, ringing like the clash of sword on shield, a noisy cataract fought its way to lower ground.

With a prolonged groan the drawbridge began to lower. It thumped down with a hollow knock, and the wain rumbled over it; each creak of the cart was magnified; each step of the horse’s iron-clad hooves sounded a death knell that rolled away to echo in the chasm below.

Squeaking in protest, the cart bumped across the drawbridge and through the dark gatehouse under the baleful stare of an owl perched in the beams. The gatehouse was as dark and damp as a cave. Water dripped from the ceiling and trickled down the sides of the stone walls with a snickering sound.

Trenn, now sitting in the cart, let out a low whistle that reverberated through the tunnel. “It is hollow beneath this road,” he said after listening to the echo die away. “I would not like to find what lurks down there.”

“Courage, friends. Our enemy seeks to break the spirit. Resist him. Do not give in to fear.”

“I fear no mortal man,” said Trenn. A tremble shook his voice. “But this sorcerer—”

“Is a mortal man like any other. He has powers, yes, but he can be beaten. He can be defied.”

“The king is here,” said Alinea. Though Durwin could not see her in the darkness, from the sound of her voice he knew she must be close to tears. “How long, oh, how long? This wretched, hideous place.”

“Take heart, my queen. The king is strong, and unless I am far wrong, his imprisonment has not been unbearable. He is able to withstand.”

The cart rolled suddenly out of the dark gatehouse tunnel and into the light of a misshapen and unkempt courtyard. A man dressed in a sable cloak, dark tunic, and trousers with high black boots was waiting.

“Bring them,” he said and turned on his heel and disappeared into the yawning entrance of the castle. The prisoners were handed down and marched through a maze of corridors and passageways. The castle seemed deserted, so few servants did they meet. Without ceremony they were thrust unexpectedly into the throne room of Nimrood.

The sorcerer awaited them, eyes half closed as if in a daydream, sprawled upon his great black throne as if flung there at the height of some monstrous passion that left him limp. Oily torches behind the throne spewed thick black smoke into the room and cast a slippery glare round about.

“Welcome to Karsh, my friends,” the sorcerer mocked. He neither opened his eyes nor lifted a hand in acknowledgment of their presence. “I have been waiting for you. I have only to wait. In time everything comes to me.”

“Even death and destruction—the end of your schemes,” replied Durwin calmly.

“Silence, fool! I can have your tongue torn out where you stand!” Nimrood had leaped to his feet and stood glowering down at them. His hands gripped a rod of polished black marble.

“But no.” The wizard suddenly sweetened. “Prattle on. Your words are the rhymes of children. Noise and air. There is no power in them. It amuses me. Please continue.”

Durwin said nothing.

“Nothing more to say? We shall see if I can inspire you! Take them to the dungeon!” He swung the rod over his head, and the guards who had accompanied them from the wain hustled them away with the butts of their spears. As they left the room, they heard Nimrood cackle. “You will soon have company—your friends, unless they are dead, cannot elude me long. Ha! It makes no difference. Dead or alive, you shall have company. Ha! Ha!”

35

Quentin awoke to Toli’s quiet touch on his shoulder as his friend shook him gently from sleep. He came up with a start, confused. The lulling creak of the ship reassured him, and he remembered they were on board the Marribo, making for Valdai.

“You cried out in your sleep, Kenta,” said Toli.

“Did I?” Quentin rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his hands. “I don’t remember . . .” Then it hit him afresh—the dream.

“Oh, Toli, I had a dream.” In the dark he could see Toli’s eyes, liquid pools that glimmered in the reflected light of a sky full of stars. The moon had set, leaving the lesser lights of the heavens to glow and sparkle like the lanterns fishermen spread upon an endless sea at night.

“Tell me your dream. Now, before you forget.”

“Well, I was standing on a mountain. And I looked out and saw all the earth covered in darkness. And I felt the darkness was like an animal. Watching, waiting.”

As he spoke, Quentin again entered into the spirit of his dream. He saw, again, as in the dream—but clearer, more real this time—that faraway land stretching out under a black and barren sky. An ancient land of years beyond counting and darkness huddled close like a preying creature—breathing, waiting.

He continued. “Into the darkness there came a light, like a single candle flame, falling—an ember, a spark—falling as from the very pinnacle of the sky.”

Again he saw the pinpoint of light falling through space, arcing across the sky, tumbling down and down toward the earth.

“And the light fell to earth and broke into a thousand pieces, scattering over the land, burning into the darkness. A shower of light. And each splintered fragment became a flame just like the first and began burning, and the darkness receded before the light.

“That was all. Then I woke up.”

Quentin remained silent as he remembered the dazzling rain of light and the feeling that somehow the dream had something to do with him. He brought his gaze back to Toli, who wore a look of quiet wonder.

“This is a dream of power.”

“Do you think so? In the temple I would have dreams like this— seeing dreams, we called them. But I thought the dreams had stopped. I haven’t seen an omen or had a dream since I left the temple . . . not counting Dekra.” He was silent again for a while. “What do you think it means?”

“It is said among my people that truth is like a light.”

“And the evil is like the darkness. Yes, we say the same thing. The truth is coming, maybe now is here, that will strike into the darkness and take hold against it.”

“A dream can mean many things, and all of them are right.”

“Do you think this might be one answer?”

“I think it is your dream and that you will find the answer within yourself.”

“Yes, perhaps I will. It was so real—I was there. I saw it . . .”

Quentin lay back down on the thick straw pallet. He turned the dream over in his mind and finally, feeling sleepy again, said, “We had better get some sleep. We come into Valdai tomorrow morning.” But Toli was already asleep.

When Quentin stirred to the smell of fresh salt air, the port of Valdai was already within sight. The sun was up, filling the sky with golden light. The sky arched royal blue overhead, spotted with a few wisps of clouds sailing across its empty reaches.

Toli was up and had already seen to the horses. Quentin found him standing at the rail, looking on as Valdai neared.

“Look,” he said, pointing as Quentin came to stand beside him. “Another ship is coming in too.”

Just ahead of them a ship plowed the water, dividing the waves and tossing back a harvest of white foam. The ship was stubby, squat, and low in the water—a usual enough design for a ship, but Quentin got an uneasy feeling as he watched it moving toward the harbor. There was something strange about it—what was it? Then he saw what it was that bothered him.

“Toli, that ship has black sails!”

Toli said nothing, but the quick nod of his head acknowledged the fact.

“That is odd,” remarked Quentin. “I know very little about ships, but I have never heard of any with black sails before. I wonder where they are from?”

“You might well wonder.” A deep voice spoke behind them. Quentin turned to greet Captain Wiggam, who continued. “She running the black hails from Karsh, like as not. Yes. Take note of her.”

The captain had become very friendly with Quentin in the few days of their short voyage. And he had become concerned with Quentin’s plans to join his friends. “Forget Karsh,” he said, regarding the ship with distaste. “Come with me. I will make you a sailor and show you the world.”

“I cannot forget my friends,” replied Quentin. It was not the first time Captain Wiggam had made the offer. “Though maybe when we return . . .”

“Sure enough,” said Wiggam, Quentin thought a little sadly. “You look me up in any port, and wherever I am, you have a ride with me.” The captain folded his hands behind him and walked aft along the rail.

“He would like to help,” said Toli when the captain was gone, “but he is afraid.”

“Do you think?” Quentin watched the retreating figure and shrugged. “Anyway, it is not his concern; it is ours alone.”

“It is anyone’s who will accept it,” said Toli with a certain finality.

Valdai shook with activity. A smaller port and harbor than Bestou, it nevertheless was just as busy. Elsendor, a far larger realm than Mensandor, had many such ports all along its western coasts. These served the whole world.

“There is the Black Ship,” said Quentin, pointing across the harbor. They had come to dock at the northern end of the harbor, while the Black Ship, as they called it, being smaller, had gone farther in, toward the southern end. But Quentin could see the black sails hanging slack as her crew set about furling them.

The gangplank was soon down, and Quentin and Toli made their farewells. They led the horses down onto the quay and waved a final good-bye to Captain Wiggam, who watched them from the deck, smoking his pipe. He waved once and turned away.

“We have to find somewhere to keep the horses,” said Quentin. A plan was already forming in his head. “There is probably a smith here. We will find one; perhaps he can help us.”

The search was but a short one. The task of making the smith understand what it was they were trying to ask him proved much harder. The inhabitants of Elsendor, though like their neighbors of Mensandor in many ways, had a thick dialect all their own—a fact that Quentin had not foreseen and that taxed his meager language skills beyond their limit. The smith, struggling to unravel the meaning of Quentin’s strange (to him) request, kept insisting that Quentin wanted his horses shod.

“No. No shoes. We want you to keep the horses for us, or tell us someone who will.”

The burly, smoke-smeared man, smiling still, shook his head once more. Then he got up and came to Balder, patted him on the neck, and reached down for a hoof. He saw the shoe, tapped it with his hammer, and grunted approval. He replaced the animal’s hoof and spread out his arms questioningly to Quentin.

Toli had disappeared into the rear of the smith’s shop and now returned, saying, “There are horses in the stable yard behind this place. Water and food too.”

“Come,” Quentin told the smith. He led them back to the stable yard and pointed to the horses there. “Will you keep our horses?” He pointed at Balder and Ela—that was the name Toli had given his horse—then he pointed at the smith and then again at the stable yard. The smith’s face lit up with the slow dawn of understanding. He nodded his head repeatedly up and down. Then he held out his hand and jabbed his palm with a grimy finger.

“He wants money. Now what are we going to do?” wondered Quentin aloud.

At that moment a familiar figure appeared in the front of the shop. “It’s Captain Wiggam. Hello, Captain!” Quentin called.

“I thought you might need some help,” he said simply. “You want this man to board your horses, I take it? Very well.”

The captain turned and spoke to the man quickly. “Done,” said the captain. “How long?”

“I don’t know!” Quentin hadn’t considered that.

The broad-faced seaman dug into his pocket and handed the man a piece of money. The smith bobbed his head and thanked the seaman. “There. That should take care of them for a while. You can redeem them when you come back.”

“Thank you, Captain Wiggam. I shall repay you someday, if I can.”

“Think no more on it. If I was—the gods forbid—on Karsh and in trouble, I would want someone like you trying to rescue me. You are brave, lad. That you are.”

Quentin reddened slightly. He did not feel brave.

“Have you thought how you are going to reach Karsh?” The captain was already walking into the street.

“Yes, we have.” He explained his plan to the captain, who listened, nodding.

“Stowaway, eh?” He nodded again, considering. “It could work. Once you are aboard, there would be hiding places aplenty for smart seamen like yourselves. But how do you plan to get aboard unseen?”

“We thought to wait until dark and climb aboard over the side.”

“There may be a better way.” The captain winked. “But . . . Ho!” he said, looking at the noonday sun. “I say we should discuss it over a fisherman’s pie. What say you to that? Ever had a fisherman’s pie? No? Well, come along. The captain’ll show you a wonder!”

Captain Wiggam trudged off along the narrow cobbled street onto which opened every kind of shop imaginable. Quentin and Toli struggled in his wake. The streets were jammed elbow to elbow with sailors and merchants and townspeople shouting, jostling, and generally making it difficult for Quentin to keep an eye on the captain, who moved ahead like a ship under full sail.

At last he drew up before an inn so crowded with patrons that several sat out in the street with their ale jars. Quentin and Toli came tumbling up behind him. “Ah! Smell that, my mates. Did you ever nose anything so tasty in all your days?”With that he elbowed his way in the door and began calling to the innkeeper, with whom he seemed on intimate terms.

The next thing Quentin knew, they were all seated at a table together with three other seafarers—all captains, pointed out Captain Wiggam. And in moments they were eating a rich stew of fish and vegetables baked in a deep dish with a thick brown crust over all. Jars of light ale stood on the board, and Quentin drank his fill of the heady brew.

“One more stop,” promised Captain Wiggam. He had promised that three stops ago. Quentin cast a doubtful eye to the sky, where the sun was already well down, causing shadows to lengthen toward evening.

They had been running all afternoon, here and there, talking to this merchant and that. Wiggam, he gathered, was looking for a specific piece of information, and it appeared at last as if he had found it.

“Here’s what we’ve found out,” said the captain as they turned up a steep side street, off the main course. “The ship, as I guessed by its size, is only an island runner. A supply ship good for short trips. Karsh lies only a day and a night out, in good weather. They come often enough to replenish provisions, which is what they are doing now.

“Ah, here we are.” They had stopped before an open courtyard, which, from the wood shavings on the worn stone flagging, Quentin took to be a carpenter’s shop. Captain Wiggam proceeded into the courtyard, calling, “Alstrop! Where are you, old friend? Come a’runnin’, Alstrop. You’ve a customer!”

“I hear you well! No need to shout!” came the reply from behind an uncertain tower of barrels.

A curly head of white hair poked round the side of the tower to look over the newcomers. “Wiggam! Old sea dog!” cried the carpenter when he saw his guest. He came from behind the stack of barrels, and Quentin saw a man, though white-headed and round of shoulder, strong and full of life, with large hands and well-muscled arms.

“Not injured that broken-down ship of yours again . . . That would be your luck.” He stamped over to shake the captain’s hand.

“No. Though I will admit to you I could have used your help a few days ago—rudder hinge pin.”

“Aye. I told you. I told you. Give me a week with the Marribo and I’ll put her to rights. But you? No. Too busy. By the gods!”

“She is a stout ship. Stout enough, I’ll warrant, even to stand up to your moiling about.”

“Bah!” The carpenter rolled his eyes, then smiled. “What brings you here, then?”

“I have friends here that require your assistance. Two of those firkins would do nicely.”

The captain outlined his scheme for Alstrop while the carpenter nodded gravely and scratched his chin. His bright blue eyes regarded everything in turn: the sky above, the wood shavings below, Quentin, the captain, Toli, the barrels. They took in everything, and after Captain Wiggam finished speaking, they seemed to turn inward and examine the carpenter himself.

“Yes, it is a plan,” he uttered vaguely. “I am certain that is your plan, for who else could think up such as this? Laughable! That is what it is. Not a plan but a joke!”

The carpenter turned and rumbled back to his worktable and came back with a short length of whittled wood; his thinking stick, he called it. He slapped the smooth stick into his beefy palm.

“Now! The barrels might work. Yes, they’ll do. But there must be some changes made. And you must let me take them down. No? All right, we go together. I have a handcart. The rest later. We must go to work. Quickly! There is little time.”

The last of the afternoon light had faded and the first evening star had risen in the sky before the two men standing next to a cart with two large barrels nodded to one another. “Here we go,” whispered one of the men to one of the barrels. “May the gods smile upon you.” Then they wheeled the cart around the corner and down the bumpy street to the wharf where the ship with black sails was making ready to get under way.

“You there!” the carpenter called to a sailor aboard Nimrood’s ship. The sailor glared down sullenly but did not offer a reply. “Tell your captain that we have some cargo to come aboard.”

After a long, hard stare, the sailor disappeared and came back with another, a man who carried a braided leather lash.

“Are you the captain?” asked Alstrop.

“The captain is busy,” called the man gruffly. “We’re putting off to sea. Be off with you!”

“We have barrels here to come aboard.”

“We have taken our provisions.” The man jerked the lash through his fist.

“That may be,” replied the carpenter calmly, “but these barrels are to come aboard. If you think better, go get your captain and let him deal with this.”

“I can deal with this, swine! Get away from here!” He turned to leave, indicating to the sailors who had gathered around to continue their preparations for casting off.

The captain winked at the carpenter. “Very well, we will take them back,” Wiggam called in a loud voice. “But I would not want to be the man who told my master he had forgotten two barrels, and those barrels left right here on the dock!” He nodded to the carpenter, who turned and began pushing the handcart and the barrels back up the hill.

The sailor with the lash came back to stand glowering over the rail. He whipped the lash several times against the rail. “Wait!” he bellowed. “What is in those barrels?”

Wiggam shrugged. “Nothing much. It is probably of no consequence . . .” He turned to follow Alstrop away.

“Stop!” cried the sailor. He jerked his head toward several of his crew, and the gangplank suddenly thrust out from the side of the ship. Two sailors disembarked and ran up the street to the barrels. They turned the cart and in a moment had the two large kegs aboard.

“Now be away with you,” the sailor in charge snarled.

“Be careful with those barrels,” warned the carpenter. “I will not be responsible for damaged merchandise. You will pay if you break it!”

The two men watched as the barrels were carefully carried aft, and the ship pulled slowly away with the evening breeze. “May a fair wind blow you good fortune, my young friends,” said Captain Wiggam.

“And may the gods return you speedily home,” added the carpenter.

Then the two friends turned and walked back in the deepening twilight. The evening star glimmered high on the horizon near the newly risen moon. “Ah,” said the carpenter. “A good omen for their success.”

“Yes,” replied the captain. “But it will take more than an omen to keep them from harm now. It will take the very hand of a god.”

36

There is no way out, my lady,” said Trenn in a voice fraught with despair. “I have searched every bolt and every brace of this dungeon. There is no way out. Except through the door, and Nimrood holds the key.”

The queen, arms folded and legs drawn up, did not lift her head. “It is no more than we expected.” It was the deepest of sighs.

“Do not lose all hope, my friends.” Durwin had been standing in the small patch of light that fell from some unseen loophole above. He came to where Trenn and Alinea sat huddled together. “The god will set us free from this pit.”

Trenn sneered. “Since when did any god care what happened to a mortal? Look at us—what has your god to do with us now? If he cared, we would not have suffered as we have, as we will yet, I fear.”

“The God Most High has his ways. They are not always the ways of men.”

“Do not talk to me of the ways of the gods. I am tired of hearing it.” Trenn turned his face away. “I care only for what a man can do.”

“Do not go on so,” soothed Alinea. She placed a hand on Trenn’s knotty arm. “We must endure in any case; let us do so with dignity.”

“Do you see?” said Durwin, waving an arm overhead. “This is Nimrood’s doing—this hopelessness that creeps over us—that makes us turn on one another. Cast it off. It is a trick of the enemy.”

Trenn turned a stony glare upon Durwin.

“Besides, as long as Theido and Ronsard remain free on the outside, we have hope. Even now they are working for our freedom and the king’s.”

“If they are not already dead,” replied Trenn bitterly. “The storm, Nimrood’s men . . .”

Durwin said nothing, but went back to his patch of pale light and his prayers.

The dungeon was a misbegotten hold in the lowest part of the castle. There was no opening, save the rusting iron door and the unseen grate of the loophole. The floor was bare earth and slimy with dank moisture that oozed from the walls and dripped from the ceiling. Snakes could be seen slithering among the cracks and fissures of the castle foundations, for that was where the dungeon was—at the very roots of the castle.

The floor being wet and reeking of age and the obscenities practiced upon it, the prisoners had heaped together what they could of some mildewed straw that had been placed there as a bed sometime long past. It was here they sat, in the middle of the foul chamber.

In the darkness of the dungeon, only that thin shaft of light gave them to know the passing of the day. They watched it creep along the floor until it vanished in the gloom of oncoming night. Then they huddled close together to endure the bleak misery of the blackest nights.

Then, on the second day, as the pale patch of light marking the passing of the day moved closer to the far dungeon wall, there came a sound echoing down the low rock corridor that joined the dungeon, beneath one tower, to the main basement maze of cells and subterranean chambers.

“Footsteps!” said Trenn, rising stiffly to his feet, a hand pressed to his wounded side. They could be heard distinctly now. “Someone is coming this way.”

It was true; the footsteps of what sounded like a whole regiment were undeniably shuffling closer. A rough, unintelligible voice could be heard grunting orders. And then, with a rattle and a clank, the bolt of the iron door was thrust back and the door slammed open.

Two of Nimrood’s soldiers carrying torches stepped through the narrow opening, followed by another with a wicked-looking halberd. “Stay back!” snarled one of the soldiers as Trenn hobbled closer.

Then through the dungeon portal stumbled a tall figure, shoved rudely through from behind to fall face forward down the crude stone steps to the stinking dirt below. The man grunted as the air escaped his lungs. He lay there without moving.

The two soldiers with the torches stepped down, and each seized an arm and hauled him up to his knees. “Make our work more difficult, will you?” one spat, then raised his foot and placed it on the man’s back and kicked him forward. The prisoner’s hands were bound to his sides, so he was helpless to forestall the fall. His head snapped back and banged down upon the dungeon floor. Then the two turned and went out.

The door clanged shut, and the footsteps receded again down the corridor.

Durwin raced to the fallen prisoner with Alinea, who stood at his side. Trenn lurched forward and bent over the body. He looked up at the others. “Here is our hope,” he said quietly.

“Theido!” cried Alinea as Durwin rolled the man into his arms.

The knight’s face had been beaten bloody and bruised; dark purplish marks swelled beneath his eyes and over one temple. His eyes were open but unseeing, cloudy from the torture he had just undergone.

“If only we had some water,” said Alinea. “There is none left of the ration we were given this morning.”

But Durwin was already at work. He placed a hand over Theido’s forehead and, speaking strange words under his breath, made a sign with his fingers and then lightly touched each bruise. A moan of pain escaped Theido’s lips.

“He will sleep now. Here. Help me get him untied.”

In fact, the sturdy knight hardly slept at all. No sooner had they loosed him from his bonds than he awakened again. The cloudiness was gone from his eyes, but he seemed a moment coming to himself. He blinked and peered into the faces of each of his friends. “You are alive!” he cried at last.

“Oh, Theido, we have been worried about you,” said Alinea, reaching out her hand to clasp his.

“They told me all were killed in the wreck. They said you had drowned and they had left you on the beach for the birds.”

“Lies!” Trenn, his face black with rage, ground his teeth and clenched his fists.

“Where is Ronsard?” asked Theido, pushing himself slowly off the filthy floor.

“Have you not seen him, then?” questioned Alinea.

“No, I saw no one—not even my captors. I was dragged from the beach half full of seawater and still groggy. I didn’t even hear them coming.”

“When was this?”

“I do not remember . . . midday perhaps, or close to.”

“We were taken at dawn yesterday,” explained Durwin. “They must have gone back and searched the beach more thoroughly.”

“Then Ronsard is gone?” The queen’s voice quavered.

“Now we do not know that for certain. He may still be alive—we all survived the wreck.”

“But were not injured as he was,” said Trenn roughly. “Ronsard is dead.”

“We will not think on it for the time being,” advised Theido. “Trenn, have you made an inspection of this cursed place?” He looked slowly around in the gloom.

The queen’s warder nodded silently and spread his hands in frustration.

“I see. Then—”

“Listen!” said Durwin. Theido, the words still on his tongue, fell silent. Far down the corridor the sound of returning footsteps could be heard. “They’re coming back.”

“Probably for another one of us to torture,” said Trenn. “I’ll go, and welcome it!”

“No, they will not take another one of us,” replied Theido. “We will fight first.”

The footsteps were now just outside the dungeon entrance. The sharp grating of the bolt thrust aside and the creak of the opening door on its rusting hinges filled the chamber.

Once more two soldiers ducked in, throwing their torches ahead of them; then the guard entered, with his long halberd glinting cold and bright in the glare of the torches.

Following the guard came a short, hunched figure who stood quietly behind the others, off to one side. Behind him came a dark shape that thrust itself through the door and into the sphere of light cast by the torches. The prisoners saw the black hair with its shock of white streaks.

“Nimrood!” cried Durwin.

“None other.” The sorcerer smiled treacherously. “And now I see our little party is complete.” He gazed on them one by one and then drew himself up to full height and shouted, “You fools! Trifle with Nimrood the Necromancer! I shall blast you all to cinders!”

He swept down the steps, his black cloak fluttering through the damp air like a bat’s wing. He came to stand in front of Theido, who did not move a muscle but stood his ground, unperturbed.

“I will begin with you, my upstart knight, my ‘Hawk.’ Oh yes!” he hissed at Theido’s recognition of the name. “You see, I have long had my eyes on you. But you’ll not burn, like these others. I have better plans for you. Much better. I’ve a special place for you, my knight.”

“I will die before I serve you,” replied Theido coolly.

“You will. Oh yes, I daresay you will,” cackled the evil wizard. “But not before you’ve watched your friends die screaming.” Spittle flew from his foaming lips. He threw a fearsome scowl to the others, whirled, and flew back up the steps.

Nimrood stood again in the torchlight, looking like a phantom in the darkness that surrounded him. He hesitated as he turned to leave, then turned back. “I would begin at once with you”—he smiled at the captives, again that treacherous grimace—“but that will have to wait,” he continued. “I have a coronation to attend—it might interest you to know. There will be time enough for our diversions when that is done.”

“What coronation?” asked Durwin.

“Oh, you pretend not to know. I will tell you—Prince Jaspin, of course. Midsummer’s Day. Very soon Askelon will have a new king! Ha, ha, ha! I leave you at once. I shall relay to him your warmest regards. And you, Queen Alinea—you think I did not recognize you? The prince has wondered after your disappearance. I will tell him what you have been up to—tell him about all of you, and my plans for you.”

Nimrood turned at once and vanished through the doorway, followed by the stooped man and the soldiers. The prisoners could hear his insane laughter as he fled down the corridor. His voice echoed back to them like a thunder of doom.

“Sleep well, my friends! Pleasant dreams! Ha! Ha!” His laughter became a strangled choke. “Ha, ha, ha-a-a-a!”

37

The sounds of men working, laboring to unload the ship’s stores, had died down. Quentin pressed his ear against the side of the barrel and listened. He could hear nothing but the gentle slap of waves against the hull of the ship, as if far in the distance, but no doubt very close by. Occasionally he heard the squawk of a seabird soaring high above. All sounds reaching him from outside the heavy oaken barrel were muffled and indistinct.

He had filled the hours aboard the ship dozing and waiting, listening in the dark of his small prison and aching to stretch his legs, but not daring to move a muscle. At last, when every nerve and fiber cried out for relief, he had allowed himself to change position. Finding room enough, and having once braved the move with no dire result, he allowed more frequent repositionings, still remaining as quiet as he could.

Periodically, he had pushed the cap from the bunghole and let fresh air rush into the stuffy confines of his barrel. He pressed his face to the hole and peered out but could see nothing of the ship’s activity. This was both good and bad, thought Quentin. For it permitted him to draw air more frequently without fear of anyone noticing the slight movement of the cap. But it also meant that he could have no hint of warning if he were discovered, and no view of the deck to see when they reached their destination.

So he relied upon his ears to tell him what was taking place around him. He had been sleeping when the barrel was heaved up and carried off the ship. The sensation of being lifted, without warning, and jostled awake while swinging through space so surprised him that he had stifled a startled shout.

But then he had been bumped down upon the beach—there had been no resounding thump, as on the deck of the ship when he had been thrown down—so he guessed they had unloaded the cargo upon the sand.

He waited then for sounds of unloading and the noise of men grunting and cursing their duty to diminish before plucking up his courage to risk another peep through the bunghole.

This new view from his tiny window was more encouraging. His barrel seemed to be situated close by a wooden ramp, seen from below as it slanted down from the top of his peephole. This, he guessed, was the crude dock that teetered out into the bay used by Nimrood’s men. Beyond the ramp he could see a length of shoreline where waves washed in gently amid the roar of breakers farther out. A few standing rocks marked the beach, and Quentin could see from the long shadows reaching out in the bay from these stones that the sun was well down and sliding toward evening.

He could see no sailors or guards nor anything that would indicate another human presence nearby. Very well, he said to himself, wait for darkness.

Quentin had just closed up the bunghole and settled back into his curled position in the barrel when he heard a slight jingling sound— which grew steadily louder—and then the dull murmur of voices. Two men, he imagined, talking together. Then the snort of a horse and the grinding creak of a wheel upon the sand. A wagon, he thought. They’ve brought a wagon.

“Well, let’s to it, then,” one voice said, muffled through the sides of the keg. Quentin removed the cap to hear them better.

“Not so fast!” said the other voice. “The others will be along in a little. They can help.”

“But it will be dark soon. I do not fancy driving this wagon back up there in the dark. It is bad enough in the daylight.”

“Then we’ll stay the night here. What difference does it make? Don’t be so skittish.”

“Brave talk! You’ve not been here as long as I have; heard the things I’ve heard; seen the things I’ve seen. I tell you—”

“And I tell you to shut your mouth! I don’t need to hear your tales. By Zoar! You’re a weak one, you are.”

“I know things, I tell you. If I’m afeared of this place at night, it’s because I’ve seen things—”

“You’ve seen nothing that can’t be seen anywhere else. Now shut up! I don’t want to hear it.”

The other man fell to mumbling to himself after that angry exchange. Quentin could not make out the words, but he knew that he now had to think quickly. He’d been offered a new choice. Either to wait and be loaded on the wagon with the rest of the supplies, or to try making an escape now before the others returned. He replaced the cap slowly and hung for a moment in indecision: wait or go.

Quentin decided to wait. A clean entrance into the castle unsuspected would be better than floundering around outside the enemy’s lair. But just as he reached this decision, the choice was snatched from him.

“Hey!” cried one of the men at the wagon. “Something moved over there by one of the barrels.”

“There you go again! Be quiet! I’m trying to sleep,” the other snapped angrily.

“It moved, I tell you! One of the barrels moved!” the first protested.

“To Heoth with you and your moving barrel! I’ll show you there’s nothing there. Which one was it?”

Quentin heard the tread of the man shuffling through the sand, coming closer. “There, that one on the end,” pointed out the frightened worker, following the brave one.

Three steps closer. Quentin’s heart pounded loud in his ears. He imagined a drumbeat that could be heard all along the beach.

He heard the man breathing. The footsteps had stopped right beside him. He could hear the rustle of the man’s clothing as he stood looking down upon him. “There’s nothing here, by Zoar!”

“I saw something. It was here a moment ago.”

“A shadow.”

“It was no shadow. There’s something strange about these barrels.”

“Look, will you! There’s not a blasted thing here! By the gods! Do I have to open the barrels and prove it to you?”

Quentin’s heart seized in his chest as if it had been squeezed in a giant’s fist.

He heard the scrape of something heavy on the lid of the keg. They were taking off the lid.

Quentin drew his feet up underneath him and crouched.

The lid wobbled loose.

“Well, look at that,” said the worker. “This lid is hardly fastened.”

At that instant Quentin shot up out of the barrel, throwing the wooden covering into the man’s face and shouting as loud as he could.

As he came leaping out of the barrel, he caught a glimpse of the terrified worker as he turned and tumbled over himself in an effort to flee. The other, startled almost as badly by this strange, screaming creature that leaped out of barrels, fell backward in the sand, the keg lid catching him on the side of the head.

“Toli!” Quentin yelled. “Run for it! We are discovered!”

Toli, well aware of what had taken place, burst from his keg in an instant and started across the strand and into the wooded tract ahead.

The worker sitting among the barrels came to his senses as the two raced off. The other cowered beneath the wagon, his head buried in the sand. “Here come the others! Nimrood’s soldiers—they’ll get ’em,” the first cried.

Quentin glanced over his shoulder as he ran. Marching down the beach he saw a dozen soldiers, some with long spears, others with swords drawn, not far behind the two workers who were now gesturing wildly and pointing in their direction.

He turned, put his head down, and sped into the woods. “Run, Toli. Run! They’re right behind us! Lead us away from here!”

With barely a pause in midflight, Toli’s quick eyes scanned the thinly wooded area. Then, like a deer before the arrow, he was off, heading into the deeper, more thickly grown regions beyond.

It was all Quentin could do to keep up. Toli, alert and every instinct keen, was back in his own element. He seemed to flicker through the dense undergrowth effortlessly, dodging, feinting, slipping through small openings and sliding over rocks and trunks of fallen trees.

At first Quentin stumbled and fell over his own feet, sprawling, lurching, and pounding along behind. But then, by imitating Toli, by dodging where he dodged and ducking where he ducked, Quentin found the going easier. He forgot his fear and ran completely free. His head soared with the cool exhilaration of flight.

Behind them he could hear the soldiers crashing through the woods after them. They had fanned out to keep better sight of their quarry. They cursed as they came, thrashing through thickets and brush, entangling themselves in briars and low-hanging branches.

Twice Toli stopped for a brief rest, and to listen. Each time the sounds of pursuit were farther away, receding into the evening sounds of the woods.

“It will be dark soon,” said Toli. He lifted his gaze to the sky, which still held a glimmer of light. But all around them the deeper woods were sinking rapidly into darkness. Already Quentin found it difficult to tell the column of a tree trunk from its dark surroundings.

“They cannot follow us much longer . . . We seem to be losing them.” Both thoughts were questions; Quentin asked for reassurance.

“They will not catch us now,” offered Toli. “But we must keep going. We will find a place to camp tonight.” He turned and swiveled his head this way and that. He listened for the sounds of their pursuers, cocking his head to one side. “Stay close,” he said and raced off again.

This time they changed directions and began ascending the rise of a hill. The path rose steadily, and each step grew a little shorter. Toli slowed to allow for the climb but pushed steadily on.

The noises in the woods behind them died away. Quentin guessed that either the soldiers had given up or they had lost them completely.

But now Quentin trained his ear on other sounds: the sounds of the deep woods coming to life with the night. For the greens of leaves and moss, the browns of trees and earth, and the blues of shadow had merged into one confused hue. He followed Toli now with his ears instead of his eyes as he trailed blindly along.

“Oof!” Quentin went down with a grunt. He had caught his toe on a root across the path and pitched forward onto his face. Toli heard him fall and came back. “Let us stop,” suggested Quentin. “Just for a little while. It is too dark to run like this.”

“I forgot, Kenta—you do not have night eyes.” Toli stood still and turned his head, listening. Quentin heard a strange snuffling sound. Toli seemed to be smelling the air.

“This is a very bad place. We cannot stay here,” the Jher said at last. He reached down a hand and hoisted Quentin to his feet and struck off again, but slower this time.

Still the path continued to climb; then, without any sign, it descended steeply. They reached the bottom of a gorge cut into the earth by the rain. A small, turgid stream flowed nearby. Quentin could hear it. A foul-smelling mist was beginning to rise, seeping out of the ground around them, clinging to their legs in tattered wisps as they moved through its grasping tendrils.

An owl called from somewhere overhead and was answered by its mate far away. Other sounds—sly chirruping, furtive rustles in dry leaves beneath bushes as they passed, the whirr of unseen wings—crept out of the woods as the night took hold of the land.

Once Quentin heard a faint whiz in the air close by and felt a flutter on his cheek. He recoiled from the soft contact as from a blow. When he reached his hand up to feel where the touch occurred, his cheek was wet with a sticky substance. He wiped it off with a grimace and trudged on.

The malodorous mist thickened and rose higher, swirling in eddies upon the pools of air. Quentin imagined that it dragged at his legs as if to hold him back. He could no longer see his feet below him.

He followed Toli, who seemed to take no unusual notice of all that went on around him, with a fragile resolve. He longed to turn aside from this wretched path and climb again into the woods.

But he moved on.

His foot struck a rotting limb, which snapped with a hollow crack that seemed to fill the gorge. Suddenly, from right beneath his feet, a wild shape came screaming up at him: white and formless as the mist and screeching in long, ringing cries that echoed through the woods. It flew straight up at him, and Quentin threw his hands in front of his face as the creature lunged at him. But at the moment of collision, Quentin felt nothing. He parted his hands to see the white wings of a bird lifting away into the gorge ahead.

“Toli, is there no better trail we can follow?”

Toli stopped and looked around, gauging the distance they had come. “Soon we will leave this path. Only a little farther.”

True to his word, in a short while Toli led them up a steep, vine-covered bank. They climbed out at a murky juncture where a small stream through the woods emptied into the gorge in a sickly trickle that dripped fetid water over stones slimy with black moss.

Quentin slipped, losing his footing in the muck. He caught himself and grimly dug in, pulling himself up by handfuls of weeds.

Then at last they were out of the gorge and standing on a broad level space rimmed in by trees. Behind them, the gorge, with its stinking mist; before them, a densely wooded hill.

Without a word Toli began the long climb up the hill. Quentin fell in mutely behind him. It was no use to ask where they were going or why. Toli would have his reasons, and anyway, Quentin had nothing better to suggest.

They had walked freely for several hours, the dark trees closing out the deeper darkness beyond, when Quentin saw something that startled him, though he did not know why.

He said nothing about it but walked on, his eyes fastened on the spot far up ahead on the hill above where he had seen this thing. Presently, he saw it again. Just a wink.

He bobbed his head and saw it again—a thin glowing in the air far up ahead. He bobbed his head, and it blinked. It flickered and danced and seemed to move away even as he approached.

The path mounted steadily upward, and soon Quentin was certain he was not seeing a ghost. “See there.” He pointed through the crowding branches. “Up ahead. Something glowing.”

In ten more steps he knew what it was: a fire. Someone had built a campfire.

They approached the campfire cautiously. Toli was all for skirting the area entirely, but Quentin felt differently; he wanted to investigate. So they crept in close, moving slowly with infinite care, making not the slightest sound.

After an hour’s aching crawl, they were right next to the cozy little camp, just beyond the circle of light. They watched and waited. There was no one anywhere to be seen. Whoever had started the fire was not around.

“The soldiers?”

Toli shook his head. “Not here. The fire is too small for all of them.”

They heard the warning tread too late.

From behind them on the path came a rustle and a heavy footfall. Then suddenly a huge shape was upon them, forcing them forward. Toli dived to one side, but Quentin was caught and thrown forward into the camp. The monster roared, as if in pain, and Quentin went down as numerous blows rained down on him.

He twisted under the blows, his head close to the fire. He saw a flash streak by him—a face. And then a voice said, “Stay where you are!”

The command was stern and evenly spoken. There was a trace of fright, but that vanished quickly. Quentin slowly raised his eyes to meet the bulky form of a large man towering over him, with what appeared to be a club raised in his hand.

Quentin was struck by something that seemed somehow familiar about this imposing figure who stood over him and threatened to dash out his brains with the club.

He peered up again and sought the face, which wavered uncertainly in the light of the dancing flames.

Impossible! he thought. It cannot be! But he reflected in the same instant that encountering a ghost in this inhuman place was far from impossible; it was to be expected. Following hard upon that observation, so as to be almost one and the same thought, Quentin remembered that shades did not carry clubs or strike their victims, as far as he knew.

But the face . . . There was something very familiar about that face. He had seen it somewhere before. In another place long ago.

Then it came to him. He struggled with the memory, thrust in front of him; he fought to disbelieve it. But the recognition remained, though Quentin was far from certain.

“Ronsard?” he said softly, his voice quaking.

He heard nothing for a heartbeat but the crackle of the fire.

The man dropped to his knees beside him, bent his face toward Quentin’s. He reached out a shaking hand.

“Ronsard, is that you?”

38

I am Ronsard,” replied the man kneeling by the fire. “Who is it that knows my name in this forsaken place?” He spoke gently. But Quentin could see now, as he bent closer to the fire, the same angular features, the same jut of the jaw that told of strength and purpose. Yet the knight seemed tired and worn. Heavy lines of fatigue were drawn at the corners of his mouth and etched around his eyes.

“Do you not know me?” answered Quentin. “I am Quentin, the acolyte. You gave me the message for the queen . . .”

The knight’s face was suddenly transformed by a vigorous grin that banished the care and worry and sparked a light within his eyes.

“Can it be? Quentin . . . ? Yes, I remember . . . but how?” The questions came fast as the great knight, struck almost speechless, sought to make sense out of this apparent miracle.

“Come out, Toli,” Quentin called. He knew his friend was lurking close at hand, out of sight, ready to spring forth in an instant.

The thickets parted, and Toli stepped in to stand by Quentin. “All is well. This is Ronsard—the knight I told you about.”

“The message bearer,” answered Toli in his own tongue. “Yes, and a great warrior.” Toli bowed deeply as Quentin had instructed him for occasions such as these. But the formality of the greeting in the rough setting made Ronsard smile and Quentin laugh. “Welcome, friend of the forest,” said Ronsard. “I have never met one of your race. Truth to tell, I had heard many things . . . which turn out to be untrue.”

“We are both at your service.” Quentin laughed. He felt waves of relief running over him.

“And I at yours,” said Ronsard. “So, good friends, we have much to talk about, much to discuss. First, how did you get here? Theido told me that you had been left at Dekra, gravely ill. They were worried you would not recover at all.”

Quentin then launched into an account of all they had done since Dekra, and before that, right up to the time when he had left the temple. He thought even as he spoke that it all seemed slightly incredible, as if it had happened to someone else entirely and that he, Quentin, had remained at the temple. Thinking about the temple, and speaking about it again, made him a little wistful. Still, he knew in his heart nothing remained for him there.

Ronsard listened to all patiently and yet eagerly, mulling it over in his head with a look of rapt attention. “You are a special one,” said Ronsard when all was told. “You would make a fine knight.”

Quentin blushed at his high praise. “I am only glad to see you alive and whole.”

“Alive I am. Whole I shall be—and soon. I feel stronger every day. If it weren’t for shipwrecks and kidnapping, I would be as hale as I ever was.” Ronsard went on to tell how he had been snatched from the temple by Pyggin and his crew of scallywags right out of Biorkis’s healing hands. “I had been there some time and was just beginning to mend when they took me. The temple guards were no match for swordsmen; they scarce put up a fight, and I could not defend myself. I was thrust into a wagon and near jostled to death from Narramoor to Bestou, where their ship waited.

“How they managed to find Theido and Durwin and the others was an odd piece of luck—though I was grateful for the company.” He explained about the storm and the shipwreck and his lonely vigil on the island.

“And tonight I meet once more my friend from the temple.” Ronsard laughed. “To tell the truth, I thought I would never see you again—I was certain my message had miscarried. But it appears the gods have bound our fates together.”

Toli, listening to their speech, pieced together as best he could a vague idea of what they said. But at last he grew tired and, yawning, put his head down and curled up close to the fire and went to sleep.

“Yes, I am for sleep myself,” said Ronsard. “I was just collecting firewood to last through the night when I bumped into you on the trail. I did not see or hear you until I nearly fell over you—scattered all my firewood.”

“Was that it?” Quentin remembered being struck many times as he fell to the ground. “We did not hear you either, coming up behind us on the trail.”

“It bodes ill to let anyone know you are astir on this island. It is a strange place, far from safe.”

Quentin nodded. “What about the others?” He had been aching to ask that question all night but had not dared to. The thought shocked him back to the present and the task at hand.

“We will discuss that tomorrow in the clear light of day.” With that Ronsard yawned and laid himself down to rest.

“Good night.” Quentin paused and added softly, “I am very glad to have found you again.”

“No more than I. Sleep well.”

It was obvious as soon as Quentin opened his eyes that Toli had been up with the dawn, and probably before. Arranged around the campfire were leaf baskets full of berries and several kinds of edible roots that had been washed and neatly stacked. Over the fire two scrawny rabbits, skinned and spitted, roasted merrily away, neatly done. And, wonder of wonders, oozing out its golden nectar upon a fresh mat of leaves: a honeycomb.

“It seems your friend has made us a breakfast,” observed Ronsard.

Quentin rubbed his eyes sleepily and sat up. “So I see. Where is he?”

Just then Toli, balancing three oblong green objects in one hand and three apples in the other, stepped into the camp.

“Here is water,” he said, handing round cupfuls of clear, sparkling water in vessels he had made of large leaves, folded. He then swiftly attended to the rabbits.

They ate as if they had never seen food before, cramming their mouths full and savoring every bite. The honey, saved for last, drew the utmost commendation for Toli’s woodcraft. “Never have I feasted in the wild this well,” said Ronsard. “My strength returns on eagle’s wings. And I may well need it. Today we must go up to Nimrood’s nest.”

Quentin had forgotten all about Nimrood, or had shut the black wizard out of his mind. The mention of the black lord’s name sent an icy chill through his heart.

“Is the castle far from here?”

“It is of a distance, yes—though not more than a league or two, as the crow flies. It is on the top of a mountain, and there will be much climbing to reach it. The way is well marked, however. I have seen that much.”

“Then let us be off,” said Quentin. Toli was already on his feet, having doused the fire and scattered the ashes, removing any sign that they had been there.

They struck out along the path Quentin and Toli had followed the night before. In a short while it descended again and joined a wider way. This road bore the signs of recent use: footprints of soldiers going both ways, wheel marks of wagons, and hoofprints.

“I will send Toli ahead,” Quentin offered, “to watch for anyone coming this way. The trees are so close here that we would run smack into them before he could see them coming.”

“A good idea. I will keep a watch behind, though I do not think we will have to worry much for being chased.”

In this way they covered the distance quickly, reaching the mountain summit as the sun climbed toward midday. Then, as they rounded a last upward curve, Kazakh, the sorcerer’s castle, swung into view.

“There it is.” Ronsard shaded his eyes with his hand and took in the sight. “And a more miserable pile I never want to see.”

Quentin gazed upon it with the same dread fascination he would have felt in watching a deadly snake wreathe itself on a nearby rock. “It is awful,” he said at length.

Toli ducked back around the corner of a bluff covered with a heavy tangle of vines. “The evil one’s warriors come from the castle,” he told Quentin. Quentin translated for Ronsard.

“Let us get off the road and see what they are up to.” Ronsard leaped into the undergrowth beside the road, and Quentin found a well-covered place beside him that afforded a perfect view of the road.

There was a rustle beside him and then a rip, as of a branch being torn away. Quentin turned just in time to see Toli hopping back onto the road with a fern branch in his hand. He was wiping out the tracks where they had stood talking together in the trail. “Your friend leaves nothing to chance,” whispered Ronsard. “He is both cunning and quick. I like him.”

“The soldiers must be very close now.” Quentin fought down the impulse to yell at Toli, to warn him, but he resisted for fear that the soldiers would hear. He bit his lip as he heard the tramp of many feet in the dust and the jingle of a horse’s tack.

Then Toli was beside him again, and a second later the first soldier appeared on the road. He was riding a black horse, and as he turned in the saddle to call a command back over his shoulder to his men, Quentin saw a raking scar that seemed to divide the man’s face in two.

“Him I have seen before,” whispered Ronsard. “On the beach.” Following the horsemen came a horse-drawn wagon with high sides, and behind that a small force of perhaps forty men. The whole procession shuffled along carelessly. Two soldiers rode in the back of the wagon, with their feet hanging out.

“Undisciplined,” breathed Ronsard. “Cocky.”

“They are looking for us.” Quentin watched the company pass and remembered his fear of the day before.

“How do you know?”

“We were discovered on the beach last night and escaped into the woods.”

The soldiers moved off down the road at a leisurely pace. When they had gone, Ronsard waited a few minutes and, when no one else appeared, took the road again.

They came quickly to the long, winding road across the ridge. Ronsard, standing in the last of the protection offered by the trees, said, “I don’t like this at all. We will be seen the moment we set foot on the road.”

Ronsard studied the terrain carefully, measuring and appraising the distance to the foul lord’s den. “There is no other approach to the castle that I can detect.” He turned to Quentin and Toli. “We have two choices —wait until darkness can hide us, or go boldly in daylight and take the chance.”

“If we wait, the soldiers may come back. I would not like to be discovered in there creeping about by night.” Quentin shivered at the thought.

“Well said. And I would not wish to wait a moment longer to be free of that place if I were captive there,” Ronsard said. “That settles it, then. We go at once.”

Quentin’s hand sought the dagger at his belt. He clutched it as he hurried off to catch Ronsard, who was already striding toward the ridge.

“Well, so far, so good. Not a guard or watchman in sight,” observed the knight.

They were crouched in the shadow of one of the mighty drawbridge’s stone pylons at the end of the road where the bridge spanned the gulf between the castle and the ridge. There were two pylons, one at each side of the road, like the posts of a huge gate. Stone griffins smirked atop each pylon.

Sliding his head cautiously around the corner of the post, Quentin could see the black tunnel of the gatehouse across the bridge. It was, as near as he could tell, quite empty.

“No guards inside, either,” he reported.

“Then let us begin!” said Ronsard. “We may not have a better chance.”

Quentin wanted to protest. They should, after all, have a plan of some sort, he thought. That was the way to do it, not rushing in like this, unprepared. Who knew what they might encounter? Nimrood himself might be waiting for them as soon as they crossed the bridge.

But Ronsard was already away and dashing across the drawbridge. Toli, like a shadow, flew right behind. Quentin, in order to keep from being left behind, scrambled across too.

They inched their way through the gatehouse tunnel and peered into the courtyard beyond when they had reached the end. “No one about,” said Ronsard. “Strange.” He wrinkled his nose. “What is that smell?”

A slightly acrid odor could be detected over the dark mustiness of the gatehouse tunnel. It seemed to be coming from the courtyard beyond.

“Well, stay close. Here we go.” Ronsard darted out of the mouth of the tunnel and into the light. Quentin, running a few steps behind him, saw the knight suddenly stop. Quentin stopped, too, wondering what had gone wrong. Had they at last been discovered? Ronsard turned, his face contorted as with agony unbearable.

“What—?” Quentin began. Then it hit him—an overpowering stench like a massive fist. He felt his gorge rising and began to choke. His knees buckled, and he went down on his hands. As tears filled his eyes, he heard Ronsard retching and Toli gasping for air.

When the waves of nausea passed, Quentin raised his head slowly to look around. The courtyard was decidedly unkempt. Weeds grew through cracks in the stone flagging; filth accumulated in every corner; stagnant water stood in troughs where flies buzzed in thick dark clouds.

“Oh . . . no . . .” Quentin heard Ronsard moan and turned his head to where the knight stood gazing at some object. Quentin could not determine what it was. He crept closer.

“The foul fiend!” cursed Ronsard, turning away.

Quentin gazed down and saw the skeletal carcasses of two horses rotting in the sun. The horses were still tethered to iron rings in the stone; they had starved to death where they stood. Birds had been at them and had torn away huge chunks from their flanks. This, then, was the source of the festering stench.

Quentin turned away and pulled Toli with him. The Jher said nothing, but his eyes had grown hard and dark as stone.

Inside the castle it was the same—deserted and reeking with neglect. Everywhere they turned some atrocity met the eye. “Stupid waste!” spat Ronsard as the three inched along. Quentin’s skin crawled; he felt dirty, as if he had been contaminated by a wasting disease. He knew himself to be in the presence of impudent, arrogant evil, and it made his blood run cold.

They continued on in silence until they reached a great stone archway at the farther end of a long, crooked corridor.

“This is odd,” said Ronsard, shaking his head in disbelief. “Where is everyone?”

“Nimrood cannot have many friends,” quipped Quentin. Ronsard regarded him with a knowing look.

“The dungeon must lie beyond.” He indicated a heavy iron-banded wooden door with an iron bolt. “Let us see.”

Ronsard tried the bolt and found that it slid easily enough, if not as quietly as he would have wished. But the door swung open readily, and they saw a spiral of stone steps circling down into the blackness below. A torch stood ready in a holder just inside the door, with a candle flickering beside it. Ronsard seized the torch and lit it with the candle, leading the way down. Quentin followed, and Toli crept along behind.

Quentin thought the stairs would never end, but presently they came to a landing that opened onto a vast chamber. Below them the chamber was filled with stores and barrels, heaps of armor, and unused swords and spears.

“He must be outfitting an army!” said Ronsard. “This is the basement. The dungeon is below.” They continued down the twisting stairs.

The steps ended at an arched entrance. Ronsard paused, handed Quentin the torch, and peered around the arch. A low, wide passage ran to the left and right, lined with cells, and ahead of them a shorter passageway ended in darkness.

Ronsard took back the torch and said, “We will have to search every cell. I will go to the left. You two go to the right.”

It didn’t take as long as it might have: every cell was empty. The three met back at the place where the corridors crossed. “There is only—” Ronsard stopped short. “Listen!”

Footsteps could be heard slapping along just around the corner of the arch. Then a voice called out, “Euric! Is that you? Bring your torch, man! Euric!”

For two heartbeats Quentin stood frozen to the spot, then threw himself against the wall. Ronsard placed a finger to his lips and winked. Then, just before the man turned the corner, Ronsard stepped into his path and, holding the torch high, swung his other fist into the man’s face. The man went down and out cold. He never knew what, or who, had hit him.

“Must be the jailer,” offered Quentin, pointing to the large truncheon that hung by a leather thong at the man’s belt and next to it an iron ring with an assortment of keys.

“Yes, we are in luck,” said Ronsard, already lifting the man below the arms and dragging him into the nearest empty cell. “Now come along. The way should be clear.”

They dashed quickly and quietly down the shorter corridor ahead and descended the stone steps.

The narrow iron door was heavily locked; the bolt had been thrown and a great iron lock attached. The captives inside heard the fleeting steps in the passageway and then the scrape of a key in the lock, and then another, and others, and suddenly the bolt was flung back and the door heaved open.

“Ronsard!” The queen recognized him first and ran to him. “You have found us at last!”

“I knew you would come,” said Durwin. Trenn and Theido stood staring—speechless.

Then Quentin thrust his way in, followed by Toli. He stood looking down upon his friends, his eyes filling with tears.

“Quentin!” shouted Durwin. The hermit rushed toward him, his arms outstretched. The next thing Quentin knew, he was embracing Durwin as he would have embraced his own father. The others gathered around, pounding him on the back. Alinea kissed his cheek.

Everyone talked at once as the questions came tumbling out: How? When? Where? Quentin was oblivious to it all. He smeared the tears that splashed down the side of his face and considered this to be the sweetest meeting he had ever had.

It was a moment he would keep forever.

39

Escape from Nimrood’s castle could not have been easier or more quickly accomplished—to Quentin’s amazement. Up out of the dungeon and back through the castle corridors, across the stinking courtyard between the inner and outer curtain, into the gatehouse tunnel, and over the drawbridge to freedom.

Quentin kept expecting Nimrood to appear at any moment, to trap and imprison them or at least challenge their flight. But not a soul did they meet—though they did hear prodigious singing as they flitted past the corridor leading to the kitchens. “A revelry? Here?” questioned Ronsard.

“The snake is away,” said Durwin and explained that Nimrood had gone to attend the prince’s coronation.

“The prince? Prince Jaspin—king? Then it is even worse than I expected,” said Ronsard.

“So it is!” said Durwin.

“Well, it cannot be helped now,” said Theido. “We will have to deal with that in its time. Now we must find and free the true king.”

“Yes,” replied Ronsard. “Time for a council of war.”

They huddled under the pylons at the end of the drawbridge and discussed how best to locate and free the king. Quentin did not care much for his assignment, which was to lead the others back along the trail to where the woods joined the ridge and sheltered the road beyond. He was to wait there and offer a signal should the soldiers return before Ronsard and Theido could meet them.

“Waiting!” complained Quentin darkly to Durwin as they trudged back to the hiding place. “We have come all this way only to wait while they rescue him. It isn’t fair.”

Although he had not thought about it before, he had naturally assumed that he would be there when the king was rescued. Only now, when that prospect was denied, did he feel cheated.

“I daresay it isn’t fair at all,” sympathized Alinea. “But the queen is glad for the company of her protectors.”

“I am sorry,” blustered Quentin. “I did not mean—”

“I understand,” she said, cutting him off. “You had every right to be there. But we must all play our part as we are given it. And I am grateful, really. I could not have endured that dungeon cell a moment longer. You have rendered your queen a great service once again. I shall never forget it.”

At this Quentin brightened somewhat and took his task more seriously. But the walk back down along the ridge was uneventful, and they reached the shelter of the wood without incident. Trenn grumped along behind: he, too, was miffed at being led away with what he considered the old men, women, and children.

They stopped to wait in the small glade, off the road and well hidden but within easy sight of the dreadful castle soaring above on its crag of rock. The spot afforded a clear view of both the ridge and the road below. Each settled down, and Durwin closed his eyes and drifted promptly off to sleep.

They waited. The minutes dawdled along maddeningly. Then an hour. And another. It was too much for Quentin, who jumped out into the road at frequent intervals to see if anyone was coming. Trenn was certain something had gone wrong and that they should all go rushing back to the aid of their freshly captured comrades.

Gradually, the sun slipped lower in the afternoon sky. Quentin watched as a long caravan of clouds made its way in from the west. He had decided to give the rescuers until the last cloud had passed over the castle before going after them—against all orders to the contrary.

He was saved from this dereliction of his duties by the appearance of figures on the ridge.

“Here they come!” he fairly shouted. Toli, who had been scouting the road below, came running back, and Trenn and Alinea jumped back into the road to see.

“Yes, someone is coming, all right. But I cannot see—how many are there? Can you tell?” Trenn squinted his eyes against the sun, now shining level along the ridge.

Quentin could not see that far either, so he turned to Toli, who peered intently for a moment and then announced, “Lea nol epra. Rhunsar en Teedo.”

“He said there were only two. Ronsard and Theido. The king is not with them,” replied Quentin. “I am sorry, my lady.”

Shortly, Theido and Ronsard drew up. Theido, puffing from his run down the steep path, said between gulps of air, “He is not there. The king is gone. We searched the entire castle—even forced the chamberlain, who we caught napping, to open all the cupboards. He said they had gone, all of them, with Nimrood. Though who ‘all of them’ were, he did not know.”

“Are you certain?” cried Trenn. His anguish was real enough, and he spoke for them all. “There might be ten thousand places to hide a man up there.”

“And we searched ten thousand!” snapped Ronsard. Disappointment darkened his brow. “He was not there, I tell you.”

“Yes, you are right,” replied Durwin, who had been unusually quiet all this time. Quentin thought he had gone to sleep.

“I have been sifting the ether for a sign. I sense no trace of the king’s presence. The chamberlain, it seems, is telling the truth. The devious Nimrood has taken his prize with him. I should have guessed as much.”

“It makes sense,” Ronsard admitted grudgingly. “That is why we met with no resistance when entering the castle.”

“And none leaving,” said Theido. “Now we have to find a way off this accursed isle.”

“That, too, should not prove too difficult,” offered Quentin. “Perhaps the ship that brought Toli and me still lies in the bay.”

“Excellent! Quentin has provided us with a ship. To the beach.”

“It is not a large ship,” said Quentin apologetically.

“I don’t care if it is a bucket with oars,” crowed Theido. “As long as it takes us far away, it will suit me. Lead the way.”

Quentin and Toli led them off at once, Toli darting ahead along the trail to scout the path ahead, lest they meet the returning soldiers. But the path was clear, and by the time their shadows had grown long upon the dust of the trail, they reached the thinly wooded area rimming the bay.

“It is beyond here a little way,” whispered Quentin. “Just beyond those trees. Toli will go and see what is to be seen.” He threw Toli a quick sign, and the forest dweller vanished in the wink of an eye, melting into the dappled patches of light and dark thrown by the oncoming dusk.

In a moment he was back. He spoke a few words to Quentin while the others looked on anxiously. Quentin turned and said, “The ship is there.” Then he squelched the kindled hopes of the former captives. “But so are the soldiers. Toli says they have set up camp on the beach.”

“Strange,” Theido wondered aloud. “Why would they do that?”

“That at least is why they were not to be seen at the castle,” offered Ronsard.

“Hmph!” snorted Trenn. “How many are there? We are more than a match for them whether there are ten or one.”

“I would agree with you, but for the fact that we have no weapons.”

“The day is fading; it will be dark soon,” said Durwin. “Perhaps something will present itself between now and then.”

The fellowship settled down to await the cover of night. But no sooner had they made themselves comfortable than Durwin jumped up. “I have it! The perfect diversion!”

“Shhh! We won’t require a diversion if your shouting brings those beach rats,” snapped Trenn.

Durwin paid him no attention. He cast an eye at a patch of sky overhead. “Quickly! We have but little time. We need to gather some things.” He assigned each one an item to fetch from the woods: bark from certain trees, leaves of a certain type, stones that might be found, and other ordinary items. “Hurry now! And bring me all you find.”

By the time the sun had set, Durwin had amassed a small mountain of these raw materials. He set to work shredding and pulverizing, breaking and husking, mixing and sorting the substances into appropriate piles. As the first star of the evening appeared, he announced, “So it is! We are ready at last!

“Theido and Ronsard, creep to the edge of the wood, to the sand. Dig holes, so.” He indicated the size. “Three of them—one on each side of the path leading to the wood from the beach, and one in the center of the path.

“Quentin and Toli, each of you take some of this”—he scooped up an armload of the stuff—“and follow me. Trenn, Alinea—gather firewood and come to the edge of the beach where we will dig.”

At these words everyone leaped to action. When the holes were dug in the sand and approved by Durwin, the shallow depressions were filled with the things Durwin had requested, carefully arranged in layers with painstaking patience. Then Durwin took his leather pouch and emptied the contents over the three mounds.

On the beach, the soldiers had started a fire and were cooking an evening meal. Coarse laughter and snatches of their crude conversation drifted to where the party worked in silence under the watchful eye of Trenn, who had been posted to watch lest any of the men on the beach take it into their heads to pass into the woods.

“Now,” said Durwin, “to light it.”

“Wait a moment,” pleaded Ronsard. “Tell us what is to happen here.”

“Did I not tell you? We have created a dragon for the amusement of the soldiers yonder. It will send them screaming into the night, I assure you. Light the pyres we have made here, and then hide yourselves well away. When the soldiers scatter, make for the boat. I will join you there.”

“But where are you going?” Theido asked.

Just then Trenn sounded the alarm. “Someone is coming!”

“The dragon must have a voice!” said Durwin as he turned to hurry off into the woods.

“Wait!” Ronsard rasped, his voice a strained whisper. “We have nothing to make a fire with.”

“What?” cried Durwin with a startled expression. “Oh, very well. I suppose there are still some things I may do.”With that he stooped and removed a twig from one of the miniature pyres. He held the twig before him and raised his other hand high over his head, mumbling the words of an ancient charm with his eyes closed. He brought his hand down swiftly, and a blue spark leaped from his finger to the twig. The twig fizzled into flame.

“So it is! Light them with this at once. No time to explain. Get to the ship and cast off as soon as the way is clear.”

“Hurry!” warned Trenn. “They are getting closer. They will see us.”

Theido held the flame and lit the first pyre. “Hide, all of you! Get ready. When I give the signal, run for the boat.”

He lit the other fires and hid himself beside the trail. Raucous laughter floated up from the beach. It was quite apparent that the soldiers had helped themselves to a firkin of wine and were beginning to feel its effects. A few others had joined the first and were making their way to the woods to relieve themselves.

Quentin looked at the pyres in their dishes of sand. Nothing was happening that he could see. A few wisps of smoke drifted upward, all but invisible in the darkness that had settled over the wood.

Then, as he watched, a great bubble of smoke rose from the central pyre, followed by a bubble from each of the others. The bubble flattened and spread, snaking out over the sand toward the beach.

“Look!” said Quentin to Toli, who crouched at his shoulder. “The dragon’s breath!”

Bluish smoke now billowed from the pyres and poured onto the beach, creeping low along the ground like a mist spreading over the sand. The smoke boiled forth, lit by green fire from the burning pyre below. It writhed in curling tendrils as it stretched down along the slope of the beach reaching toward the water.

The first soldier, stumbling up the path, singing a rude ditty at the top of his lungs, stopped and peered drunkenly down at the path as the snaking smoke curled about his feet and licked at his legs. He stepped back, almost falling into the two coming up behind him. For a moment they all stood staring as the mysterious mist swirled about them, thickening, racing on.

Quentin felt it before he heard it—a low thrumming note that vibrated in his chest. He fancied the rock beside him quivered in response to the sound.

The note grew in volume, becoming louder and louder still. To it was added a shrill hiss, the sound of steam escaping from a fissure in the earth, or of a monstrous snake coiling to strike. Then all at once the woods shook with a roar. The bushes rustled as if in the wind, but there was no wind. Leaves fell from the trees.

A thrill of excitement raced along Quentin’s ribs. He turned wide-eyed to Toli, who returned his gaze with a grin. “The dragon’s roar!”

The three soldiers on the beach, at first puzzled and now alarmed, faltered and fell back. They turned as if to run but remained anchored to the spot where they stood. The singing around the fire by the shore had stopped. Several stood looking into the woods.

Again the roar. Louder this time. From somewhere back in the woods a great light flashed—a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky. In that brief flare Quentin saw the terrified faces of the men on the beach; the look of unspeakable horror that appeared magically upon each brow sent a tingle of fear through his stomach. What if there was a dragon?

The flash of light was followed by strange sounds: the weeping creak of trees snapping off at the trunk and the muffled crash as they fell to the earth.

“The gods save us!” came a cry of dismay from the shore. “The dragon is coming.”

The slithering smoke had reached the huddled knot of men on the beach. “The dragon’s breath! We’re doomed!”

Two who had been entering the woods ran screaming back to the campfire, leaving the other collapsed on his knees with his hands clamped over his ears and his eyes squeezed tight in terror. He sobbed mournfully and then pitched over, facedown in the sand.

“We’ll all be killed!” someone screamed. The horses, tethered to the back of the wagon, broke free and whinnied wild-eyed with fright, lashing out with their hooves at anyone who came near. Men began rushing to and fro upon the sand, arming themselves.

Then, from the smoking pyres, a weird glow went up, bathing the scene in a lurid green cast. The roar sounded again, rattling the branches overhead and, Quentin was certain of it this time, shaking the rocks in the earth. He cast a timid glance over his shoulder and fancied that he saw the huge black shape of a nameless dread moving through the deep shadow of the woods. The rending of trees and the crush of the undergrowth increased. The stench of burning sulfur filled the air.

The pyres, casting an eerie hue over all, now suddenly erupted in a shower of sparks and tiny cinders, becoming fountains of sparkling flame.

The soldiers, scattered and confused, shrieked as one. The horses bolted and ran down the beach. In an instant of hesitation, the men dropped their weapons and melted away, some to flounder in the ocean, calling for the waves to cover them. Others streaked away along the strand to hide among the rocks. Within the space of three heartbeats, there was not a man to be seen upon the beach save the soldiers who had collapsed in the sand.

“Move out!” cried Theido. Quentin found that when the call came, his legs were already moving as fast as they would go down the beach to the water’s edge.

He threw himself up the rickety wooden ramp and over the rail of the small ship. He floundered across the deck to the mooring rope, which he struggled to unloose from its post. He did not look up when he felt Toli’s hands upon the rope, working feverishly with his own.

“Are all on board?” called Theido.

Ronsard, standing at the bottom of the ramp, his arms holding a load of swords and a shield or two, hollered back, “I cannot see Durwin. He must be coming . . .”

Quentin glanced back up the strand toward the woods. In the green glare of the smoking pyres, he imagined he saw the great shape of a black dragon lumbering into the clearing. Two great circles of eyes burned into the night. Once more the water-freezing roar thundered. And then, inexplicably, Durwin emerged from the smoke, dancing down the path to the boat.

40

From his high parapet, Prince Jaspin watched the last-minute preparations for his coronation. Below, on the greens of Askelon, a hundred brightly colored pavilions had blossomed like early summer flowers. Lords and their ladies strolled the lawn while servants fluttered among them on errands of pending importance.

The air fairly billowed with the fragrance of a thousand bouquets and the savory aroma of meat roasting in the pits and sweet delicacies being prepared for the high feast. Everywhere he looked, color and festivity met his gaze, and even to Jaspin’s jaded eye the sight dazzled and delighted.

He rubbed his pudgy hands and hugged himself in paroxysms of pleasure.

Jaspin had readily assumed the appearance of a king. Rings rattled on every finger; gold chains hung about his neck; his rotund form fleshed out a handsome brocaded jacket with wide, lacy sleeves; a flattened cap, embroidered with gold, perched upon his head; and his long brown hair had been curled for the occasion. On his feet he wore boots of gilded leather; his legs were stuffed into the finest stockings, which issued forth from his short velvet trousers, fastened at the knee with silver buttons. He, though he hated to admit it himself, had never looked so splendid.

His entrance into the city the day before had been no less grand and majestic. All his lords, bedecked in their finest armor, astride their best horses, rode with him in triumphant procession through the town. The streets were thick with throngs of onlookers who sent their cheers aloft as the occasion required. To an objective ear the cheers could have been more effusive and heartfelt; nevertheless, to Jaspin, caught up as he was in his own pomp and circumstance, the tidings seemed the greatest possible adulation. In fact, the perceived acclaim so overwhelmed Prince Jaspin that he unaccountably loosened the strings of his purse and began flinging ducats of gold and silver into the throngs. This, of course, produced a heightened approval from the populace, most of whom made up the lower echelons of the realm. Those who had no great love for Jaspin, the more sincere citizens, stayed away from the procession altogether.

A more objective eye would have noticed that his praise poured forth from the throats of what might be termed a scruffy rabble. But to Jaspin, they were lords and ladies, peers of nobility every one.

After the parade there had been mummery and feasting and drinking far into the night. Jaspin, quite unlike himself, had retired early so as not to spoil his happy day with the wrath of the grape.

And now he beamed down upon the scene of his glory like the sun itself, sending down a rare beneficence to all who passed beneath his scan.

A shadow slipped fleetingly over his eyes, and he looked up to see a great bird gliding overhead. He turned and went back to his apartment to finish readying himself for the ceremonies soon to commence, which would continue for several days. He heard a croak from outside on the parapet and turned to see the bird he had glimpsed moments before alighting on the balustrade. Before he could think or speak, the bird changed, grew larger, its shape shifting and transforming. In a blink the dread form of Nimrood stood in the doorway, blocking out the sunlight streaming in. A cold finger of fear touched Jaspin’s heart.

“What do you want?” the prince gasped.

“Come, now. We both know what I want. Why pretend otherwise?” The sorcerer smiled his serpent’s smile. “I want what was promised me.” His tone had become an insinuating hiss.

“What I promised? I promised you nothing more than I have already given. You wanted the king—I gave him to you. That was our agreement.”

“And did you think I would be satisfied with that? How innocent you are.” Nimrood’s black eyes flashed with fire. His wild hair waved as if in a wind. “No! You promised a piece of your realm to any who would help you gain the throne. I have given you the throne. Given it to you, do you hear?” The wizard paced and raved. “Now I demand payment!”

“And what payment would you have?” the prince asked cautiously. If pressed, he was prepared to rave as loudly as any mad magician, where it concerned his wealth.

“Half your realm.” Nimrood smiled grotesquely. “Half your realm, my princeling.”

“That you shall not have, by Azrael! You dare ask that? Be gone, you miserable—”

The words suddenly clenched in his throat. Jaspin gazed in terror into Nimrood’s narrowed eyes, which flashed red in their depths. “I could crush you like a bug, Prince. Do not play with me. I am your master.

“You wish to be king? Very well. You shall be king—but at my price.”

“And if I refuse?” Jaspin whined miserably.

“You cannot refuse.”

“Can I not?” The prince became sullen. “What can stop me? In two days hence I will wear the crown. I will be king regardless.”

“I wonder if your pretty regents would hand you the crown so readily if Eskevar suddenly appeared.”

“You said he was dead. You sent his ring . . .”

“As good as dead. He is close by; well hidden—you cannot find him. But he may be revived to claim his throne once more. Of that I assure you.”

“You would not,” sneered the prince. “It would undo all you have done; all your schemes would come to naught.”

“Ah, but the sight of two brothers locked in mortal combat would greatly cheer me. And I need not tell you who would win.” Nimrood’s eyes shone in triumph as he drew himself up to full height. “So which shall it be? The crown, or Eskevar’s return at a most inopportune moment?”

“You black serpent!” Jaspin threw his hands into the air. “All right! All right! You shall have what you ask. But what am I to have of your surety? How will I know that you will do as you say?”

“You have, Prince Jackal, the surety of what I will do if you cross me. Beyond that? Nothing. Nimrood does not condescend to any mortal.”

Jaspin’s countenance reddened with rage, yet he dared not express his anger toward the necromancer. His fear formed the greater part of his discretion; he held his tongue.

“So it is agreed,” soothed Nimrood. “I will return in a fortnight to receive the necessary titles to my new lands. And I will bring you a token, a reminder of your pledge . . . and what may be your fate if you renege.”

Nimrood spun round, his cloak flying in tatters behind him. He hopped upon the casement step, leaped to the balustrade, and hurled himself off, to Jaspin’s horrified stare. But in the instant of his falling, his form changed, so quickly it seemed he had not changed at all but had always been the huge black raven that lifted its wings to the sky.

41

Quentin had slept but little, and that had been restive. He had tossed and rolled in his sleep as in a fever. He heard voices call his name, and when he awoke and sat up, the voices vanished, leaving only the splash of the prow slicing the waves.

He soon despaired of getting any rest and went to sit beside Durwin at the helm. “Steering by the stars is not difficult when you learn the knack,” Durwin replied to Quentin’s question. “Like everything else, it is all in knowing what to look for.”

“Was there really a dragon on that beach tonight? I mean, I saw something. I cannot say what it was.”

“It was an illusion. A vapor. Nothing more.”

“Only that? But the terrible roaring, the lights, the smell.” Quentin wrinkled up his nose at the memory of it. “How did you accomplish that?”

“As I said before—there are a few things a former wizard may do who has laid aside his power. It is permitted for me to intercede for good in times of need, but even then there is a price. Power always exacts its price. No, my greater powers are beyond my reach forever now, and it is for the best that I put them off.”

Quentin was silent for a time considering this. When he spoke again, he asked, “Why did you?”

“Lay aside my power? Very simple; a man may not serve two masters. The Power is a terrible master. It demands nothing less than the whole of your life.”

“Who is the other master?”

“That you already know. The other is the Most High God, the One. He demands your life as well. But in him there is life, rather than death—which is where the Power always leads in the end.”

“Cannot the Power be used for good? Like tonight on the beach?”

“Ah, yes. But that was only a very little power, that. The temptation is to use more and more, to give more and more of yourself to its mastery. But though you wield it, the Power is still your master. There can be no end but slavery and death. Sooner or later it destroys whatever it touches.”

“Will it destroy you?” Quentin hated the thought, but he had to know.

Durwin laughed softly. “Who knows? Perhaps.”

“But you said you had given it up.”

“So I have. But the Power was strong in me for many years. I used it as I desired for my own ends, and as I said, the Power exacts its price. I would have taken it again at Dekra, but wiser heads than mine counseled against this. They saw that even though a kingdom fell, it was not worth a soul. Even such a sorry soul as mine!” He laughed again.

“But if you have put it aside, how can it harm you?”

“Who is to say? Tonight on the beach I used but a remnant of my former abilities. Already I feel the urge to use more—it eats at your soul until there is nothing left. But the god is jealous. I have given over much that could have been his. Who is to say what I could have become if I had not wasted so much in the pursuit of the black arts.” Though Durwin spoke without sadness, Quentin thought he could sense a longing in the hermit’s voice. A longing for something once lost and never again to be recovered.

“Now you, for example,” Durwin continued. He held the tiller in his hand and rested both easily across his knee as he spoke. “You have the best opportunity—you are still young. For me it is too late.”

This saddened Quentin, but he knew what the hermit meant. “I know about the god,” he said. “The One.”

“Do you? How?”

“I met him in a vision. At Dekra. I received the Blessing of the Ariga from Yeseph and the elders. It was the night before we left.”

“Tell me about it.”

Quentin related all that had happened to him at Dekra, culminating in the ceremony of the blessing. Durwin listened to Quentin’s story with full attention, nodding and making sounds of agreement.

Quentin entered a second time into the feeling he had experienced that night. So long ago it seemed now. He described the Man of Light and the words he had spoken. “‘Your arm will be righteousness and your hand justice,’” quoted Quentin. In a sudden vivid flash, he entered again into the spirit of his vision. “‘I will be your strength and the light at your feet . . . Forsake me not and I will give you peace forever.’”

“So it is,” breathed Durwin at last. “You have seen him. Now you know. Any who truly meet him cannot go back to the way they were before.”

“Do you see him often?”

“I have never seen him,” answered Durwin simply.

“Never?” This shocked Quentin. He had assumed the hermit, of all people, to be on the most intimate terms with the Most High One.

“No, never. But I did not need to see him to know of his presence, to learn his ways. It is enough for me that he has accepted me to be his servant. I am content.”

“But I thought . . . You know so much about him.”

“I suppose I do—know about him. He gives each man a special task in life and a blessing to carry it out. You have been chosen for a great work, and yours is a special blessing. He has never appeared to me. Yes, yours is a Blessing of Power, as Yeseph would say.”

Quentin was dumbfounded. Durwin had never seen the god he served so faithfully. Durwin’s words echoed in his mind: It is enough . . . I am content.

Quentin wrapped himself in these thoughts. He stirred only when he heard the creak of footsteps coming up beside him. “You two must get some sleep before this night is through,” said Theido. “I will take over now. Go and get some rest. It will be morning soon, and we will enter the port of Valdai at midday.” He laughed. “That is, if this dragon-slaying hermit has not steered us out to sea.”

“Keep her bow aligned with that lowest star—that is our port star—and the moon over your right shoulder as it descends. That will bring us to our destination. Good night.”

Three great ships dwarfed the harbor at Valdai. Warships, Ronsard said, though who they belonged to he could not tell; they were still too far out to see anything but the tall masts and wide hulls silhouetted against the hazy background of the port. But Ronsard and Trenn hung eagerly over the side of the ship, anxiously watching for the first symbol to present itself: a pennon, a banner, some insignia of color or shape they could recognize.

“King Selric!” shouted Ronsard as they at last drew near enough to make out the flag that flew from the topmost mast. “That is his battle sign. I know it as well as my own.”

“Aye, it looks to be Selric’s,” affirmed Trenn. “How long has it been since I’ve heard that name?”

“What do you think?” asked Theido. “The first of the returning armies?”

“Yes, yes! I had nearly forgotten,” shouted Ronsard jubilantly. Quentin, though he did not know why, was seized by the same spirit of elation that swept through his comrades. He watched as their small ship came about and entered the mouth of the harbor and drifted to its mooring place. Alongside the mighty warships, their tiny vessel with the black sails seemed like a clumsy toy. Quentin gawked openly at the huge hull and at the towering masts. He had never seen anything in the water so big. And there were three of them, each an exact copy of the other, showing in every bold and graceful line the strength and prowess of their owner.

“How long have they been here?” asked Theido.

“Not long, I think,” replied Ronsard. “They could not have been here when Quentin was here. He would have remembered.” Quentin nodded his agreement.

“Aye, not long indeed!” shouted Trenn. “Look! The wherries are still unloading men. Selric’s army is going ashore.” He waved an arm, and those at the rail saw that he was right. The long rowing boats were still carrying soldiers to the wharf as the last ship was being unloaded.

“If I know Selric,” cried Ronsard, “that is where he will be!” He nodded at the farthest ship. “He will be aboard until the last man has gone ashore. A commander to the end.”

They made straight for Selric’s ship. And they found him, as Ronsard had predicted, watching over the disembarkation of his men from the taffrail of his ship. Upon seeing Theido, Ronsard, and the queen, he dashed down the ship’s ladder himself to welcome them aboard. At a word from Alinea, he invited them to join him in a conference in his personal quarters. There Alinea told him the story of Jaspin’s treachery and the king’s distress.

Although no one had spoken it aloud, all assumed that Selric would be sympathetic to their plight. He was very much more than sympathetic. Selric, king of Drin, was beside himself with fury when he learned what had taken place while he and his armies endured the winter on the coast of Pelagia, waiting for the first fair winds of spring to sail for home.

“The impudent rogue!” Selric shouted, smacking his fist into his outstretched palm as he paced about the commander’s quarters aboard ship. “His ambition has raced far ahead of his ability. This will cost him his head if I have anything to do with it!”

“Then you will help us, my lord?” asked Alinea.

“Help you! Of course I will help you, by all the gods of earth and sky!” Selric swore. The color had risen to his cheeks, matching his fiery red hair and inflaming his legendary temper.

He continued, pacing furiously all the while. “Do you not know that Eskevar saved my life and the lives of my men many more times than I care to remember? Not a man among us would stand idle while the king needed help.”

Quentin watched the drama intently. Selric was the first king he had ever seen. He was fascinated by this slim, commanding figure with the shocking red hair, who absolutely burst with restless energy. Selric could not remain still for an instant. Even when he was sitting, which he seldom did, his hands were reaching, gesturing; and all the while his eyes darted everywhere, never missing any detail, no matter how trivial.

Now Selric was an angry lion on the prowl. Quentin shuddered within, wondering what it would be like to face this intense commander.

“When can we leave?” asked Theido.

“Why—at once! We will leave at once! Tonight!”

“But your men have only just gone ashore,” observed Ronsard.

“Bah!” Selric snorted. “They have been ashore all winter! I will send my trumpeters to sound the call at once!”

The king moved to the door in two long strides. “Kellaris!” he called. Instantly a tall man with a deeply pockmarked face appeared at the door. He bent his head and entered the crowded quarters of his king.

“At your service, Sire,” he said, bowing with but a slight tilt of the head.

“Kellaris, I have just received dire news. Send trumpeters ashore to sound the rally call throughout the town. We must board the men as soon as may be. I will explain later. Bring me word when all is ready.”

“As you will, my lord.” Again the tilt of the head, and Kellaris was gone.

Quentin leaned close to Toli and whispered in his ear. Toli nodded, and both left the room unnoticed by the others, who turned again to discussing what lay ahead.

42

The evening sky was ablaze with the glittering light of a billion pinpoint flares of tiny stars, each one a jewel resplendent against the royal blue of the heavens.

It had been a long day, thought Jaspin. A long and glorious day. His coronation was everything he could have wished—a brilliant, dazzling display. A spectacle of pomp and power. And now he was king at last. He turned the thought over in his head endlessly as he sauntered along the balcony overlooking the magnificent gardens below the great hall. The night still breathed the warmth of the day and offered the heady perfume of a thousand garlands that festooned the hall and everywhere the eye chanced to stray.

King Jaspin sighed with deep contentment as he strolled, hands folded behind him, humming to himself. His guests, thousands in all, still feasted and danced in the great hall, or strolled, as he did, the balcony or the gardens below in the soft moonlight.

But Jaspin, wishing to be alone for a time, turned away from the high festivity and sought a more private place. He ascended a short flight of steps leading to a low barbican nestled in the wall and overlooking the balcony below. Here, in times of war, a soldier would stand guard, watching over the inner ward.

He had no sooner gained the top step of the platform than he heard a distinct hissing sound and a slight rustle upon the cool stone. Jaspin froze, afraid to move. The hair on the back of his neck pricked up. There, in the silver moonlight, a thick black snake drew its length along the gray stone balustrade. Jaspin could see clearly the sharp, angular head and the glimmering beads of its eyes watching him as it slithered closer.

Then, as Jaspin watched, the snake coiled itself into a heap and disappeared, becoming a thin wisp of writhing vapor. The vapor coalesced into an amorphous mass that hung just before Jaspin’s horrified face. Within the mist Jaspin made out the vague outline of a countenance he knew too well. In a moment there was no doubt.

“Nimrood!” cried Jaspin in a stricken whisper, not wishing to attract the attention of anyone who might happen by.

The face in the mist grew steadily more distinct, and the dread visage of the sorcerer glared out at Jaspin and snapped, “I have no time to exchange pleasantries with you.” The voice was thin and far away.

When did you ever? wondered Jaspin to himself.

“I only come to warn you that the prisoners have escaped.”

“What is that to me?”

“Do not make the mistake of toying with me, King Jackal!” Even in the form of a night mist, the wizard’s eyes flashed lightning. Jaspin could feel the necromancer’s awful power and stiffened in silence.

“That’s better. You and I are partners, my obtuse friend. Never forget that. After all, I share one-half of your throne. Half of all Mensandor is mine—or soon will be. When I take the trouble to warn you, you may be certain that it tokens your concern. Oh yes, it does indeed.”

“The prisoners, you were saying?” Jaspin tried to look appropriately concerned, which was difficult under the circumstances.

“Have you forgotten so soon? Or did you not even guess?” Nimrood’s quick eyes saw the answer to his question. “You fool, I credit you with more intelligence than you deserve. Did you not know that I had within my dungeon that rebel Theido and some of his friends: Queen Alinea and several others; your warder, for one, and a hermit, Durwin by name. Ronsard was to have been among them, although he was presumed drowned.”

Try as he might, Jaspin could not make any connection between these people and any possible threat they might hold for him, though the group certainly seemed most suspicious. He blinked blankly back into Nimrood’s questioning gaze. “I thought they were hiding at Dekra.”

“Bah! I don’t know why I bother with you! They have escaped and are returning here. Guess the rest—if you can. In the meantime, heed my warning to secure your crown. I will hasten to apprehend them. My spies are already abroad seeking their whereabouts. They will not remain free for long.”

“But . . . ,” Jaspin blurted. The vapor that had held the depraved wizard’s image was unraveling and seeping away into the night, vanishing on the breeze.

A cold shudder of fear rattled Jaspin’s frame. He turned and hurried away, casting a furtive glance over both shoulders as he ran, lest anyone witness what had just taken place.

“How stupid I have been!” Jaspin cursed himself as he hurried to his chambers. “I did not need that poisonous sorcerer—I could have managed on my own! Now he involves me in his schemes.”

So they are returning here, he thought. Theido and the queen, and maybe others as well. But who was this Durwin? Were there others he did not know about? Still, what difference did it make? How could they possibly hamper him now? The coronation was over; he was king. Very well, let them come. He would be ready for anything.

All these things Jaspin mulled in his head as he ran along. But arriving at his conclusion, he stopped and turned back to rejoin his own celebration. Secure in the knowledge that nothing could go wrong, he entered again the Great Hall of Askelon and was immediately swarmed by doters and well-wishers.

A steady breeze billowed the sails of Selric’s foremost ship, Windrunner. Quentin stood at the starboard rail and watched the moon slide slowly into the sea.

He breathed deeply the tang of the salt air and listened to the gentle churning of the water as it passed beneath the prow of the warship. Then he heard the murmur of voices coming closer and turned to see Theido and Ronsard with King Selric walking toward him across the deck. He turned back to watch the glistening spray of stars rise and fall with the gentle motion of the ship.

The men came to stand a little way off from where Quentin waited. He could hear them talking quite clearly, though they spoke low and confidentially. He did not much like the tone of their conversation.

Presently, he grew weary of listening. A melancholy mood stole over him, and he sighed and moved away.

“What is the matter, young sir?” a voice sought him from the shadow of the mast.

Quentin turned and peered into the shadow but could distinguish nothing. He moved into the darkness himself and found Kellaris sitting on a carefully coiled pile of rope with his back propped against a keg. “Oh, it’s you,” he said.

“I have been more heartily hailed in my day,” remarked King Selric’s most trusted knight.

“I am sorry,” muttered Quentin, but his apology lacked conviction.

“There is something ailing you; I can tell. Seasick?”

“No.”

“What, then?”

“I was listening to the others just now; I overheard them talking,” admitted Quentin.

“Nothing good comes from listening to another’s conversation uninvited.”

“I couldn’t help it. Anyway, what they said about the king—about Eskevar, I mean—” Quentin broke off. He could not find the words to express himself as he wished.

“They think our hope is in vain, that he may be already past help. Is that it?”

Quentin, sinking down to sit cross-legged on the deck, only nodded. He felt as if someone had taken a spoon and hollowed him out. He did not raise his head when he heard footsteps approaching softly across the deck.

“Is this parley for men only, or may a lady join?” It was Alinea. Kellaris jumped to his feet, and Quentin rose slowly to his.

“Please, sit—both of you. I will not stay if you are busy.”

“Not at all. Please join us, Your Majesty. I would welcome the counsel of a queen in the matter we have been discussing.”

“You are very kind. I will stop awhile, then. Now,” she said, settling herself beside Quentin, her slim arms drawing her knees to her breast, “what is it that requires my counsel?”

“Quentin here fears for his king. That the worst may have too soon befallen him.” Although the knight spoke gently, Quentin jerked his head up and shot a warning glance as if he had given away a deep secret or trespassed upon a sacred trust.

“That is something greatly to be feared. I fear it as well.”

Quentin raised his eyes from the darkness of the shadows to look upon the beautiful Alinea sitting so calmly beside him. Though she had echoed his concern, her voice lacked the resignation that he felt within himself.

“But it is midsummer already. Jaspin has been crowned king . . .” The words failed.

“And still we do not know where Eskevar may be. Is that it?” she asked.

Again Quentin only nodded.

“Take heart, dear friend. The tale is not all told. There is much that may yet be done. If only we could see a little ahead into tomorrow, as Durwin sometimes seems to, we might see a very different prospect from what we now contemplate. Though we cannot see what may be, we have hope. Hope has not abandoned us; nor should we abandon it.”

“My lady speaks well,” agreed Kellaris. “Those are words from a courageous heart.”

Quentin had to agree. Alinea showed remarkable courage, had shown it all along. Suddenly he was glad for the cover of night, for it hid the blush of shame that had risen to his cheeks.

He got slowly to his feet and said, “I thank you for your kind words, my lady.” That was all he could manage before he moved off again, walking slowly away across the deck.

“That boy carries the weight of the world on his young shoulders,” said Kellaris, watching Quentin’s form meld into the darkness.

“Yes, and he complains not for himself,” murmured Alinea. “There beats a noble heart, and proof against any evil.”

That night, as Quentin lay upon his mattress in his shared quarters, he offered up his second prayer.

“Most High God, let your servant see but a little ahead. Or, if not, give me the hope that drives out fear.” Then he drifted off to sleep.

43

Quentin awoke to the sound of voices calling and feet pounding upon the deck. From the slanting beams of sunlight pouring into the sleeping quarters, he could see that the day was speeding away. He threw off the coverlet and jumped nimbly to his feet, experiencing that momentary weaving sensation he always had when waking at sea.

Making his way out onto the main deck, Quentin noticed that the calls and sounds of activity were becoming more frantic. Something was wrong.

His curiosity alerted, he dashed out onto the deck, nearly colliding with Trenn, who stood just outside the cabin door.

“Look at that, young master,” said Trenn, squinting his eyes and jutting his jaw forward. “Aye, an evil sign if ever I saw one.”

At first Quentin did not see what he was looking at. Then, as the sight overwhelmed him, he did not see how he had missed it.

Dead ahead and closing in on three sides loomed a tremendous fog bank scudding swiftly toward them over the water. The sea was calm, the breeze light. The thick, curling fog seemed driven from behind.

The fog was a dirty gray mass: heavy, dark, its churning walls rose high overhead. And even as Quentin watched, the first leading wisps trailed across the sun.

Quentin ran to the rail and leaned over. Behind them Selric’s two sister ships had drawn close, and the crew was trying unsuccessfully to throw lines from one ship to another so that none would be lost in the fog. That was the explanation for the sounds of urgency he had heard. For though the other ships still sailed in clear weather, a wondrous blue sky arching overhead and the sun spilling down a generous light, Selric’s vessel in the lead was now almost engulfed in the fog.

Quentin watched as the towering billows closed overhead, blotting out the last patch of spotless blue above. The sun became a dull hot spot overhead, then dimmed and was extinguished altogether. This was an evil sign, thought Quentin as the rolling clouds swallowed the ship and removed the other ships from sight.

He turned and was astonished to find that he could not see even as far as across the deck. So thick was the fog that he could not say for certain exactly where he was at that moment. If he had not had a fairly good idea of the lay of the ship, he could have been completely lost.

“Trenn,” he called and was surprised to hear an answer close at hand.

“Here, sir!” The warder had stepped close to the rail when the fog closed in. “I like this little enough. It is a trick of that wicked wizard Nimrood. Mark my words; he is behind this right enough. Even I can feel that.”

Trenn’s voice, though close by, sounded removed and muffled. His face floated in and out of view in the veiling mist: a pale apparition uttering dire pronouncements. Quentin shivered and said, “It is just a fog, Trenn. I am sure we will sail through it soon.”

“I am inclined to agree with Trenn,” said a voice behind them. Quentin nearly leaped overboard. The voice had come out of nowhere, with no warning of approaching steps. But the voice was familiar, and Quentin could make out the dim outline of Durwin’s round shape standing before him.

“This is not the season for mists upon the sea,” said the hermit. A long pause ensued. “I believe there is magic behind this. Evil magic. There are signs—one can tell. This is no ordinary fog. It is sorcery.”

Durwin did not say more; he did not need to. There was only one who would cause such an enchantment to overtake them. Trenn had spoken his name aloud, though Quentin dared not.

The day wore on, and the fog became more foul every hour.

It grew steadily darker and cooler, so by midafternoon it appeared as twilight, and the cloying air held a damp chill that seeped into the clothing of any who ventured out into it. Strange blasts of icy wind blew suddenly out of nowhere, striking the surprised victim on the face, first from one direction, then from another. Selric’s men, well trained and seasoned, said nothing, their mouths clamped shut in grim determination. But their eyes revealed a mounting fear.

Quentin sat upon his mattress, munching an apple. He did not feel like eating; the apple was merely an exercise against the creeping uneasiness they all felt. Only Toli, who dozed upon his pallet, seemed unconcerned. But the Jher had not spoken all day.

Then the voices began.

Quentin became aware of them as one becomes aware that the wind has risen. All at once it is there, though it must have been present and building in force for a long time unnoticed. That was how the voices started. First a whisper, barely audible. Then a little louder, growing until the long, rattling wails could be heard echoing across the sea.

Quentin and Toli tiptoed out on a deck and crept forward to the mainmast, where they found a slight knot of sailors huddled together, and among them Theido, Ronsard, King Selric, and Durwin.

All around them, shrieks and moans filled the fetid air. Rasping calls and booming shouts echoed overhead. Whispers and cries and whimpering groans surrounded them. The eerie cacophony of voices assailed them on every side—a chorus of all the unhappy spirits that roamed the nether places of the world.

Amid the bawling and the bellows, the raking screams and screeches, the bone-chilling howls and absurd whooping, arose a sound that made Quentin’s blood run to water.

A laugh. A chuckle sounding small and far away began to grow. It swelled uncontrollably and insanely, booming louder and louder, a sharp, hacking cackle that shook the rigging and rattled the gear on board the ship. Quentin could feel that madman’s laugh through the soles of his feet as he stood on deck with his hands clamped over his ears.

He couldn’t shut it out; the sound had gotten inside his head. He began to think that if the laughter did not stop soon he would end it by leaping overboard and letting the waves cover him in silence.

“Courage, men!” The shout was strong and true. “Courage!” King Selric, who had been in consultation with Durwin when Quentin had joined them, had climbed up in the rigging of the mast and was rallying his men to the sound of his voice as he would in battle.

“These cries are but the augury of a magician. They are not spirits of the dead; they are illusion, nothing more. Courage!”

King Selric’s strong words seemed to help. Quentin noticed the fear subside in the eyes of those around him. Selric climbed down and resumed his place. Quentin and Toli, who had both stood as stiff as stone, now inched forward to join the group.

“How long can this torment persist?” The questioner was Ronsard, though Quentin could barely see him through the filthy fog.

“Endlessly,” replied Durwin, closer to hand. “Until its purpose is accomplished. Though what that is, I cannot say.”

“To slow us down? Put us off course?” asked Theido.

“Perhaps, though I am more of a mind that there is another reason behind it.”

Quentin felt a shift in the fog and a cold wind stirring the waves.

“Partro!” cried Toli. Quentin interpreted.

“Enchanted voices all around, and he says, ‘Listen,’” mocked Trenn.

“No! He is right,” shouted Durwin. “Listen! What do you hear— beyond the voices?”

Quentin listened and heard a thrashing sound, the wash of water upon rocks. The rocks!

“We are heading for the rocks!” cried Theido.

“We’ll crash!” shouted Selric, dashing forward. “Helmsman! Steer away hard to larboard!”

“No, stay!” shouted Durwin. “Selric, tell your helmsman to keep his course. Do not turn aside.”

The king spun to the hermit, his protest ready. “We will be smashed upon the rocks! There is no time to—”

“It is a trick! Hold your course.”

For an instant King Selric hesitated and then announced, “Helmsman, hold your course.”

The company stood huddled, awaiting the sound of their wooden beams splintering upon the treacherous rocks of one of the Seven Mystic Isles they seemed to be drifting so near. They waited for the grinding halt and the rapidly tilting deck as they struck and were pitched into the sea.

But though the sound of waves upon unseen rocks encompassed them round about, the anticipated wreck did not occur. The ship held steady, feeling its way through the oppressive vapor with the crash of waves breaking all around.

Several long hours dragged away. The group on deck now sat in a tense circle of worried faces. Periodically, someone would leave and another take his place; but throughout the evening the vigil continued.

As night took hold—adjudging by the darkness creeping through the mists, a general deepening of the darkness already present—King Selric ordered torches to be placed along the rail lest anyone fall overboard. Squatting upon the deck in the quivering light of the sulky torches, the miserable company waited.

Quentin, dozing fitfully as he slumped upon the damp planks of the deck, was suddenly aware of a great confusion. Nearby, the slap of running feet on the deck, shouts of alarm. And, more distant, the terrible sound of shipwreck.

He jumped to his feet, shaking his head to clear it, and followed the others to the stern.

“One of our ships has struck a rock!” cried a sailor. “It is sinking!”

Peering into the fog, as peering into mud, revealed nothing. But the anguished cries of men and the horrible tearing of the ship as it hung on the rock and battered itself to pieces filled the dank air. Quentin could hear the mast crashing to the deck and the screams of the men it crushed beneath its weight—cut short as it fell. He heard men in the water, drowning. A sickening, helpless feeling spread through Quentin’s frame as he stood gripping the taffrail with whitened knuckles. Someone do something—save them!

King Selric called for the ship to turn about, to lower boats to save the crew of the distressed ship and pick up survivors. But Durwin, standing close beside him, a warning hand on his arm, said, “No, withdraw your orders. There is nothing out there. Hold firm to your course.”

The king looked around in the swirling fog, appealing to the others for opinions. Theido said nothing, and Ronsard turned away. Selric had his answer; he pounded his fists into the rail and canceled his order for rescue.

“If you like, have your trumpeter call to the other ships—if they are close, they will hear that we proceed unaverted.”

Selric did as Durwin suggested; and the trumpeter, aloft in the rigging, blew a long, strong call on his horn. He repeated it as if to say, “Hold steady. All is well. Hold steady.”

The ship continued on as before, and the cries of the men from the wreck were gradually lost in the muffling mist.

44

We should have done something,” insisted Quentin. “It was not right to let them die; we could have helped. We should have done something.”

“We did,” said Alinea gently. “We trusted Durwin.”

“But you did not hear it! Horrible! The cries of men . . .”

Quentin had found the queen emerging from the cabin below deck. Though her voice was strong and soothing, he could see by her red-rimmed eyes that she had been as much affected by the ordeal as anyone, though she had chosen to endure it alone in her quarters.

“Durwin had a reason for what he did; I doubt it not. Come, would you like to rest for a while?” Alinea had turned, about to usher Quentin to her own quarters where he might rest and relieve his troubled mind of its burden. “You need sleep.”

Quentin nodded as one in a trance. His limbs wore leaden weights, and his eyes burned in his head. Sleep. The word sounded so peaceful. Still, he wondered if any of them would find peace again. It had been so long since he had had any real rest, and sleep had become a torrent of dreams and half-real horrors.

But as he stepped across the threshold and started down to the cabin below, he heard the helmsman call out, “Clear way ahead! Clear way!”

He turned and saw the fog struggling in tatters, driven before a fresh wind. Stepping back on deck, he raised his eyes toward the heavens and could see the thinning vapors receding as if some giant hand were drawing aside a veil.

Overhead the stars shimmered merrily, and Quentin thought he had never seen them burn more brightly. Now the ship plowed through the last bank of trailing mist, and suddenly they were free.

Quentin filled his lungs with sweet, fresh air. He could not stop himself from grasping the queen’s hand and squeezing it hard as he fairly danced with joy. “The fog is gone!” he cried. “We are free!”

There was not a happier person on deck the next morning than Quentin himself. The hideous events of the day before had been wiped away with a solid night’s sleep and now, in the clear light of a crystalline day, seemed remote and unreal—shadows only. Dreams of a tired mind, he thought. And yet he knew it had happened.

The most surprising revelation, and the one that cheered him most, took place the moment he climbed on deck. He could not believe his eyes when, as he scanned the blue horizon, noting the few frothy white clouds puffing their way across the sun-washed dome of the sky, he fastened on the most remarkable sight: two ships trailing out behind them. King Selric’s ships.

For an explanation of this miracle, he ran to Durwin, whom he found at the taffrail over the stern, placidly meditating as he gazed out to sea.

“So it is! As you see, no ships were lost last night,” he replied to Quentin’s inquiry.

“But I heard it. The wreck, the pleas for help, the breaking timbers. I heard it all. Everyone did.”

“Yes, I should say we did. But, as the fog itself and the absurd screams, the shipwreck was sorcery. It was no doubt meant to draw us away from our course, to confuse us and bring about a real collision. If we had turned aside, we would have struck one of the other ships.”

“There was no wreck, and no rocks either.”

“Does that surprise you? Why were you so ready to believe the fog a work of magic, and the voices, but not the shipwreck?”

“That was different somehow—more subtle. It seemed so real.”

“And so did the dragon on the beach, to the soldiers.” Durwin smiled mysteriously. “Much lies in the willingness to believe.”

“I am sorry,” said Quentin abruptly after considering the sorcery at length.

“Sorry? Why should you be sorry?”

“I thought you were . . .” Quentin couldn’t make himself say it.

“You thought I was hard-hearted—not turning back after the drowning men. For a moment you thought me as loathsome as Nimrood ever was. So?”

Quentin nodded, avoiding Durwin’s eyes.

“Bah! Think nothing of it. You were right to want to help.”

“How did you know? How did you know it was sorcery?”

“I had a presentiment—a wizard can tell wizardry. It would be like Nimrood to throw something like that in our path. I trusted my heart to tell me the rest.”

“Then you did not know, not for certain.”

“No, not for certain. There is very little for certain in this world. But, Quentin, you must learn to trust that small voice inside you, to stop and listen. The god leads by such hunches and nudges. Very rarely by direct command.”

Quentin went away pondering Durwin’s words. So much to learn. This god was very different from those he knew well, who spoke in riddles, surely, but at least spoke in understandable words—and in signs, omens, and tokens. Not in nudges and vague hunches. At least when you received an oracle, there was something to point to.

But even as he held this thought, he remembered all the times in the temple when he had seen a priest give a hopeful pilgrim a false oracle, having fabricated it only moments before. Yes, he thought ruefully, very little was certain. Then he remembered Alinea’s words of comfort: We did. We trusted . . . Trust, then, was something one could do, no matter how one felt.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. As did the next and the next, and the one after. More and more, Quentin felt that all that had happened to him since leaving the temple had been a dream or had happened to someone else. But he knew, from the firm feel of the deck beneath his feet, that it was all very real.

As time wore on and the ship plowed a wide furrow through many leagues of the sea, Quentin drifted into a moody humor. He alternated on a shifting course, rising to lofty lighthearted heights for the moment, then plunging into dark troughs of contemplation in which he imagined a host of horrors yet to face. Too soon the flights of gladness dwindled.

Though he did not know what to expect when they reached Askelon, Quentin guessed it would be unpleasant and, more than likely, deadly as well. Nimrood’s power had been defied thus far. Soon they would have to face him; the very thought filled him with ominous foreboding.

Toli followed him around the deck, a mute companion; the devoted Jher had given up trying to interest his master in any activity that might soothe Quentin’s troubled spirit. For as soon as they would contrive a moment’s respite, Quentin would lapse again into melancholy.

At last a faint, reddish-brown smudge on the horizon let them know that Mensandor lay ahead. Despite the fog, in which direction had become meaningless, they were right on course and had made remarkable time. The close navigation of the Seven Mystic Isles had proved again the truth of the proverb “The men of Drin are born of the sea.”

In the council of war that followed the sighting of land, it was decided that rather than landing and making the journey from Lindalia to Askelon afoot or continuing on around the peninsula and striking from Hinsenby, the best and most daring plan, and therefore the most unsuspected, would be not to land at all. They would come inland by ship up the wide sluggish west branch of the lazy Wilst.

“Can such a thing be done?” Theido asked. They sat in the king’s quarters, staring at a large map painted upon a parchment. Each face was blank under the pressure of heavy thought.

“By ordinary seamen, no. But with my sailors it is possible. My ships, though large and wide of hull, are shallow keeled. They are warships, after all. One never knows in war what will be required; there are times when river travel becomes necessary.”

“I will vouch for the skill of his sailors and the craft of his shipwrights,” said Ronsard. “I have seen much in the wars against Gorr to recommend them. There are none better.”

“So it is! We shall head inland along the river from Lindalia. But can we make the fork where the Wilst joins the Herwydd? If not, it would be better, though it would take time, to sail around and come up from Hinsenby.”

“I am confident it can be accomplished,” assured Selric.

“Yes,” offered Theido. “I know that region well. The Herwydd is old and deep. Where it joins the Wilst the waters have carved out a broad cleft. High cliffs rise up on either side. The waters mingle here”—he traced the route on the map—“stirred by deep currents. If we have no trouble reaching the fork, we will have no trouble after.”

Quentin, curled in a corner, said nothing, though it pleased him that at last something was being done, if only more talk and planning.

With every hour the coast of Mensandor became clearer and more distinct. The approach of land lifted his spirits, as did the council, but he still experienced great shudders of dread as he contemplated what lay ahead. In his mind’s eye he could see nothing but blood and doom; the clash of sword against sword; fire, pain, and death.

“Stop your whining! You are king—act like it!”

Nimrood waved a long, bony finger in Jaspin’s face. Jaspin cringed and fell back once more onto his throne.

Jaspin whimpered sullenly. “This would never have happened if—”

“You do not sit in judgment over me! It was that blasted holy man— Durwin. He ruined my spell. And he shall pay for it; you will see how he squirms. They will all squirm. They will wish they had gone to their graves at the bottom of the sea.”

Nimrood, his wild hair streaming, flew about Jaspin’s throne room in a maddened frenzy. He seethed and boiled, his temper finding imperfect vent in Jaspin’s spineless blubbering.

All at once he stopped and glowered at Jaspin, who returned the wilting glare with fearful, hooded eyes, not daring to look the angry wizard full in the face.

“What? Why do you look at me so? Stop it! I don’t like it!” bawled Jaspin. He shifted uneasily in his seat, hands gripping the arms of his golden throne.

“Let them come,” purred Nimrood. A snaky smile slid across his lips. His black eyes crackled with fire.

“What?” Jaspin was almost afraid to ask.

“Let them come. If we cannot stop them with magic, we will stop them with force. You, King Jackal! How many men do you have?”

“Why, only three thousand or so . . .”

“How many knights among them?”

“Forty, fifty, maybe more. I have not attended to details yet; there has been no time for—”

“Enough!” The malevolent sorcerer had begun pacing again. He called the questions over his shoulder. “How many nobles have you in your pocket?”

“A dozen could be persuaded, now that I am king,” Jaspin boasted.

“Save your idle vanity—it wearies me.” Nimrood crossed his arms over his chest and came to stand before Jaspin. “Now we have three days to marshal our forces. Gather your nobles and all their men-at-arms. We must have sufficient strength to crush them quickly.” He clutched up a large green apple from a bowl of fruit on a nearby table and raised it with his gnarled fist into the air. He squeezed it, and to Jaspin’s astonishment, the apple exploded into yellow flames. In moments ashes drifted down like snowflakes.

“Ha, ha! You see how it is!” The sorcerer dashed a shriveled, blackened cinder, all that remained of the shining apple, to the floor.

Jaspin had been doing some rapid calculating. “That would be over ten thousand men—knights and footmen. It cannot be done. There is not enough time.”

“It will be done!”

“But who would command such a force? I do not believe I—”

“No, not you, my worm. I have a commander at the ready. He has only to join my immortal Legion.”

At the word a ghostly pallor tinged Jaspin’s slack features; his flesh became mealy. “Not the Legion of the Dead; there is no need for that.”

“Silence! We will do this my way this time, and there will be an end. If I were to leave it to you, you would bungle it again.” The wicked wizard fixed Jaspin with his slithering smile.

“Yes, my little poppet,” Nimrood said, chuckling menacingly. “This time there will be an end.”

45

By nightfall the three warships had reached the ruddy coastline of Mensandor. The reddish color came from the rock cliffs rising abruptly from the strand on each side of the turgid Wilst. The smooth, red sandstone bluffs glimmered scarlet in the dying light as the chattering calls of gulls and terns echoed among the cliffs.

They anchored for the night just off the large triangular crag guarding the mouth of the river. The crag, Carthwait, or “the Guardian,” stood sentinel—a soldier standing eternal watch and providing refuge for countless seabirds. Around its base the dusky waters of the Wilst stained the green of the sea—called Gerfallon by the earliest inhabitants of the region.

The next day saw the ships slowly making their way upriver under the stares of the curious townspeople of Lindalia, who had come to see the spectacle of three warships pulling themselves along the cliffs by the straining muscles of the oarsmen.

By the end of the second day, Selric’s navy had reached the fork Durwin had described. They found it to be as Theido had said: the commingling waters of the two mighty branches had carved out a hollow bowl, rimmed around by high palisades. Plunging over the brink of these steep banks in green profusion, vines and vegetation splashed down like leafy waterfalls to trail away in the current.

One by one the ships turned into the deeper waters, shipped oars, and were carried along in the flow. Silently, along the wide expanse of the Herwydd, the invaders descended toward the plains. A calm hung over all—almost invisible—like the honeyed light filtering down upon them from above.

Gradually, league by winding league, the high banks receded back into the land from which they had sprung. The ships, keeping to the deep center channel of the Herwydd, passed in silence along far slopes crowded with trees. Occasionally, they slid by a cluster of rude huts where peasants peered fearfully out of darkened doorways while spotted mongrels barked their defiance from the shore.

To Quentin, time seemed to pass as a vision as he stood on deck, detached, watching the world wend away, feeling nothing in particular. The dull, aching dread had settled into a vague anticipation. He was being propelled toward something. Something he knew but could not name. He would catch glimpses of it in the way the light moved upon the water or through the trees. Golden light and silver-blue shadow. Darkness. Always darkness at the end.

He thought to watch for an omen, but he had given up reading portents. Or had he? He did not remember it as a conscious decision, but he could not think of the last time he had seriously considered seeking one. The practice had fallen from him without notice. And until now, he had not missed it.

So more had changed at Dekra than he had supposed. In what other ways was he changing? he wondered. Quentin spent the rest of the day in contemplation of the god who had the power to change his followers— a thing unique in the lore of all the gods he had ever known.

On the third day the ships reached the plains of Askelon. The level flatland ranged below the heights of Askelon Castle a full league to the river. It was a broad expanse, the scene of many battles, the cradle and grave of numerous campaigns.

Fringing the plain, bordering it to the south and along the Herwydd, stood the farthest reaches of Pelgrin Forest. It was here, under the protection of the trees along the river, that Selric determined to establish his base. They would camp just within the trees overlooking the plain.

When the vessels touched land, the days of waiting and inactivity were abruptly ended. Swarms of men boiled forth from the ships, carrying supplies, weapons, tents, and utensils. Horses were led ashore bearing large bundles of armor and weapons. As the ships gave forth their cargo, a small city sprang up in the trees. The woods rang with the calls of men working to raise tents and axes clearing the underbrush.

“This is a good place,” remarked King Selric to Theido as they stood watching the activity. “We are protected at our back with the river behind. There is only the plain ahead. We will not be easily surprised.”

“Walk with me a little; we may be able to see the castle from here.”

They walked through the woods a short way, amid the bustle of Selric’s men readying the camp. At the edge of the trees, they could see the plain; above it, hovering like a motionless cloud, the misty bulk of Castle Askelon stood on its mountain. But the two had scarcely arrived when they lost all interest in viewing the scenery. Before them lay the whole of Jaspin’s army deployed upon the plain.

“Azrael take him!” cursed the king. “The fox is waiting for us!” He turned eyes wide with shock and dismay toward Theido. At that moment they heard the snap of a twig behind them, and both men turned.

“So it is!” replied Durwin, taking in the sight of a thousand tents spread abroad and the twinkling of evening fires beginning to dance in the dusk. “It was to be expected. They have known of our coming all along.”

“We’ll not surprise them now,” said Theido.

“And we cannot go against a force that large with the men we have. How many do you think there are?” His eyes scanned north and south as far as he could see.

“Near ten thousand by the look of it.”

“To our thousand . . .” King Selric’s voice trailed off.

Without speaking further the three walked back to camp. Fires had been lit, and smoke, with the tang of roasting meat and bubbling stew, drifted throughout the darkening woods. Quentin and Toli, who had been strangely occupied from the moment the ships touched land, now came forward leading a great chestnut charger.

They found Theido, Durwin, Ronsard, and the others reclined around a crackling fire in front of King Selric’s blue-and-white-striped tent.

Quentin beamed brightly. “Is there a knight of this excellent fellowship who answers to the name of Ronsard?”

Ronsard raised his head, a questioning look in his eye. “You know that there is, young sir. I am he.”

Quentin laughed. “Then, Sir Knight, stand and claim your horse!” He handed the reins to the bewildered Ronsard and stepped back to watch the effect of his jest.

“Balder!” Ronsard shouted, his face shining with unexpected happiness. “Can it be?” He threw an arm around the horse’s thick-sinewed neck and slapped the animal’s shoulder affectionately. Then he stepped away and patted his charger’s forehead, saying, “You have cared for him all this time? You’ve kept him for me?”

Quentin nodded, for the first time feeling a twinge of loss at giving up the horse.

“But I have a secret to tell.” The rugged knight gazed steadily at Quentin. “Balder is not mine. My own courser was lost in the ambush of the king. This good mount belonged to one of my companions . . .” He faltered, but his voice was steady when he continued. “He will not be needing his horse anymore.”

“But you were his last master. He is yours all the more since the owner is gone.”

“No, I cannot take him. An animal like this one”—he patted the sleek jaw—“chooses his own master. I think he has chosen you.”

Quentin could not believe his ears. But the others sitting nearby agreed with Ronsard. Theido said, “Every brave knight should have a charger just as brave. Balder is the only horse for you, I think.”

Durwin added, “You have grown much and have become a real horseman—very different from the young acolyte I found curled up on my hearth”—he laughed—“who left his horse to fend for himself while he slept!”

Quentin colored with the memory, but he gratefully accepted the reins back from Ronsard and eagerly led his horse away to be bedded for the night.

The company ate a simple meal in silence, which Quentin thought unusual. There had not been a quiet mealtime among the high-spirited companions since they had sighted land. Queen Alinea did not even come out of her tent to eat, but remained within. Trenn ate quickly, grumbled, and left to attend her.

One by one the others went to their rest. Quentin knew something was wrong, but he did not have the heart or the nerve to ask outright what it was, feeling that it would only further dampen his already depressed spirits. He wondered if the mood around the campfire was a reflection of his own of the last few days. He turned this over in his head as he lay under the low evergreen where Toli prepared their places near the horses.

He rested, but he could not sleep. After a while the noises of the camp died down as the soldiers went to sleep. Quentin rose and returned to the fire, where he found Durwin sitting all alone, stroking his beard and gazing into the dwindling flames.

“What is it?” he asked the hermit softly.

“Do you not know?” asked Durwin. His eyes did not leave the fire. “Go and see for yourself.” He waved his arm toward the plain.

Quentin got up and made his way through the wood and came to stand at the very edge. There, spread out upon the plain, light from hundreds of fires twinkled like stars in the sky. For a moment he wondered what it could mean, but then the significance hit him. He felt a catch in his throat, and a sharp pang arrowed through his chest. He stumbled disheartened back to the place where Durwin kept his vigil.

“There are thousands of them. Thousands . . .”

“So it is. I should have foreseen this. I should have known.” He fell silent again.

“Why did they not swoop down upon us the moment we landed?” asked Quentin a few minutes later. He, too, had become absorbed in watching the fire, though his thoughts were very far away.

“I wondered the same thing. I have been thinking about it all night. Why not, indeed?

“I will tell you!” the hermit said suddenly. “They are waiting for someone. Yes, that must be it. They already possess the advantage of superior numbers; they could destroy us without delay. Yet they hesitate. Why? Because someone’s presence is required. A commander? Perhaps. But someone who must arrive before the battle begins.”

It seemed perfectly obvious the way Durwin had said it just then. Quentin wondered why he himself had not thought of it. His eyes sought Durwin’s face, red in the glow of the fire’s embers. Durwin seemed blind to the world as he sought an answer within the glowing coals. Quentin got up and placed another log on the fire, and presently yellow flames were flitting and crackling once more.

But the hermit remained unmoved, as if he were boring into the very heart of the earth for an answer. Quentin watched, his senses tingling. Gradually, Durwin’s calm features were changing, little by little becoming a mask of terror.

At that moment Quentin felt the tingle of a chill, as if an icy finger had traced the length of his spine. He shivered in spite of himself.

With an effort Durwin tore his gaze away from the fire. He turned a horror-stricken countenance toward Quentin—flesh pale from the exertion, eyes showing white all around. “There. You felt it, too, just then. They are coming . . . the Legion of the Dead. They come.”

Quentin’s heart fluttered in his chest. He glanced toward the moon hanging ripe over the treetops, spilling a cold, comfortless light down upon them. To Quentin it seemed to have shrunk inward, as if oppressed or drawn back by some unseen hand. He shivered again.

Then Durwin was on his feet, grasping a long, straight branch like a wizard’s staff, his face frightful in the red light. “King Selric!” His voice boomed a summons in the quiet darkness. He strode toward the tent, calling for the king and others to awaken.

“Send your swiftest rider to the south, to Hinsenby,” he told the king, who stumbled from his tent half asleep.

“What is it?” The question came from all who had gathered instantly around the hermit. “What have you seen?” asked Theido.

“The Legion of the Dead. Send your swiftest courier to the coast. Mayhap he shall meet with Eskevar’s returning forces. It is our only chance.”

“Help would be welcome in any case,” replied Selric. “But this . . .”

“I am not afraid of Nimrood’s foul Legion,” swore Ronsard.

“That is because you do not know them,” answered Durwin. He shook his head slowly, as if remembering a great tragedy. “They are terrible to behold: the greatest knights of the age. In death they serve him. Immortal. They cannot be killed in battle by blade or bolt. They fight and do not grow weary, for they are strengthened by the power of their dark lord.”

“Then what good are numbers against them? Were we ten times as many, could they be defeated?” Selric sighed, bewildered.

“With aid we may find an advantage. Without it we will not last long enough to try,” said Ronsard.

“Kellaris will go,” said Selric. “Call him.” He ordered one of his men away. And to another he commanded, “Make ready a horse. The swiftest. Better give him my own.” The man darted away, and Selric turned to the others. “The choice agrees with you?”

“I will go,” offered Ronsard.

“Stay, sir. We will need you here more, most likely.”

“If his horse had wings, I wonder if it would be fast enough,” said Theido. “How long do you think they will remain encamped on the plain yonder?” He turned to Durwin, whose brow wrinkled in speculation.

“I cannot say for certain. A day, I think. Yes, perhaps more. I can feel them coming, but they are a long way off. There is a little time yet.

“Then tomorrow at dawn Ronsard and I will ride out to scout the enemy’s position,” said Theido. “We may find a weakness in their defenses that we can turn to our advantage.”

“Yes, an excellent idea.” The impatient stamp of a horse and the jingle of his bridle interrupted Selric. “Ah! Here is Kellaris! Ride like the wind, man. Bring help.”

“I would rather remain here with you, my king,” the knight replied.

“And I would have no one else by my side. But the need is great. On your way, and do not fail.”

The knight raised his hand in salute and, turning the horse, leaped away and was lost in the darkness. For a long while Quentin imagined he could hear the horse’s hooves pounding away in the night.

The others dispersed then, each his own way. Quentin sought Durwin’s side as they walked back to the fire.

“What is the Legion of the Dead?” Quentin asked when they were once again seated before the dancing flames. “I have never heard of it before.”

“It would be better if no one had ever heard of it.” Durwin sighed. He had just about reached the depths of exhaustion. He drew his lips away from his teeth, as if he were about to bite into a bitter fruit.

“Nimrood’s sorcery knows no bounds. He dares all and fears nothing. Where others quail he treads boldly. He has looked upon the face of evil from the time he was young. He has delved to the very heart of evil itself and has grasped it in his hand.

“He has long been about his specialty: weaving spells over the dead. With this art he has assembled the most skilled warriors, the most courageous knights the world has ever seen. When they fell in battle he somehow knew of it and, by one means or another, spirited the body away to his castle. There he keeps them all, and has kept them ever ready, preserved in death to serve his will.

“There are six or seven of them, maybe more by now. I do not know. I have heard reports from time to time, but nothing for many years. I dared not even consider such a thing was possible—even for Nimrood. But when we were there, in his dungeon, I felt their presence. I knew then . . .” Durwin’s voice lapsed as he gazed into the fire, shrinking away from it as though from some hideous memory too horrible to contemplate.

“And you said nothing?”

“I said nothing. Selric, Theido, and the others already know about it, of course. There was no need to trouble anyone else. And I had hoped there was a chance that Nimrood would withhold them for some other purpose—though that, I admit, now seems rather foolish.”

“Is there nothing to be done against them?”

“If there is, I do not know it—that is, short of Nimrood’s death. If he were to die, they would perhaps be released. It is his power that binds them still to this earth. But as you saw yourself, the enemy is ten thousand strong. Against such odds—well, Nimrood is quite safe. Had I my power . . .” Durwin gazed forlornly into the fire. Quentin saw the depths of hopelessness written in the hermit’s face.

Then Durwin stirred himself and stood slowly, smiling wanly at Quentin. “Still, I will watch through the night. It may be that I will discover something”—he tapped his shaggy head—“that will be useful to us. Good night, Quentin.”

“Good night.” Quentin wanted to go to Durwin, to throw his arms around the priest’s knees, to cry with him, to comfort him and be comforted. But he remained seated by the fire, and the hermit wandered off, already deep in thought.

A loneliness crept over him as he sat before the snapping flames. When at last he arose to return to his bed, he felt more alone than he had ever felt in his life.

46

The sun was a hazy red globe, barely peeping above the far hills, when Quentin awakened. He lay and listened to the beginning day: the lone call of a bird to its mate, the clank and rattle of iron pots in the hands of the cooks, the swish of the horses’ tails and their gentle snuffling and snoring.

He lay and listened, stifling the sound for he knew not what, seeking an answer to the meaning of his dreams.

He had dreamed through the night. A strange, disjointed vision that he had dreamed before. But this time it was clearer, more distinct than before, yet he was no closer to an answer to its riddle.

He saw it mostly as a play of color: brilliant greens of all shades infused with sparkling gold; cool white flecked with green-gray splotches; silver-blue shadows deepening to utter black. The colors swirled and interchanged, mixing, melting into one another, but always ending in the deepest darkness.

Through it all he heard a kind of music, a high-pitched ringing. A bell? Perhaps. He was not certain. Beneath the sound there lay something vague and unsettling. He cared not to look too far for its source for fear of what he might find.

The dream also carried with it a sharp feeling of longing, a beautiful loneliness, a yearning unrequited. It was an emotion that left a hollow feeling in his breast upon waking.

After some minutes he rolled himself up and went down to wash in the river. The water’s chill sting quickened him fully, and he began by degrees to forget his dream, though the strange hollow feeling remained.

As Quentin dipped his cupped hands into the clear water, splashing it over his neck and arms, he heard a commotion in the camp behind him. He jumped up, dripping, from the flat rock on which he lay and hurried back along the trail.

He arrived as a large group gathered around a rider on a foaming horse. He could not see through the crowd who the rider could be. Then he caught sight of Toli hurrying away from the scene.

“Who is it, Toli? What is the news?”

His friend fixed him with a worried look. “It is Kellaris, King Selric’s messenger. He has returned.”

“But how? He cannot have come back so soon.”

“He did not get through,” said a voice behind him. Quentin turned and met Trenn shuffling away from the crowd. “Jaspin has forces moving in on all sides. Kellaris met them in the night. He was pursued— there is no way out. We are trapped.”

The words were a pronouncement of doom in Quentin’s ears. Trenn stumbled off to inform Queen Alinea. Quentin turned again to Toli, who merely stared back with his round dark eyes. What the Jher was thinking made no impression on his face that Quentin could read.

He was about to suggest they go find some breakfast when he remembered something that stopped him where he stood.

“Theido and Ronsard—where are they?” he asked.

Toli blinked back at him for a moment. “Why, they have gone to scout the enemy. They left before dawn with five knights. They rode to the south along the river.”

“But that is the way Kellaris went,” Quentin said, a note of alarm rising in his voice. “They will be ambushed and killed! Someone must warn them! Quickly, ready Balder!”

At first Toli hesitated, as if to object to his master’s command. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, turned, and hurried off, with Quentin on his heels.

In a twinkling Balder stood ready, and as Quentin bounded into the saddle of the mighty courser, he saw Toli spring lightly onto his own mount’s bare back. “Come along, then,” cried Quentin. “We will go together.”

They trotted through the camp from behind the ring of tents. Durwin and Selric were standing in conference with Kellaris, and Quentin called out to them as he spurred his horse away. “We go to warn Theido and Ronsard!”

“No! Wait!” shouted Durwin after them. King Selric barked an order. “Somebody stop them! Come back!”

But they were already bounding away through the woods and were gone. “The god be with them,” sighed Durwin.

Toli led the way, following the trail of the scouting party with his tracker’s sharp eyes. They rode, it seemed, for hours. The initial excitement of the moment quieted to a drumming sense of urgency. Quentin feared that if they did not find them soon, it would be too late.

The sun was up and throwing bright light into the woods, sending slanting rays of yellow beams through the ground mist that wafted over the path to vanish as it touched the light. The woods smelled of damp earth and growing things. A patch of mint grew somewhere nearby; its cool scent tinted the air as Balder moved on.

Then, just ahead, they heard a sound: horses moving through the underbrush, the clink of their harnesses and the creak of soft leather. The low tones of a rider talking with his companion came to them as Toli reined his spotted black-and-white to a halt. Quentin bumped up beside him. “Have we found them, do you think?” he asked hopefully.

Toli frowned. “We must find a place to see them where they cannot see us.” He led them off the trail and around to a place where the trail would again pass in front of them. They waited. The unknown party came closer. Quentin could hear their voices, though he could not make out the words.

Toli slid from his mount and crept to the edge of the trail. Then they were within sight. Quentin could see a white shape moving through the trees, followed closely by another, then another. As they approached, Quentin lost sight of them; the surrounding trees that protected him cut them off from view.

Quietly he urged Balder forward a few steps. The dark leaves shaded his face. Toli stood beside him.

The riders, four in all, had stopped in a small clearing along the trail. They seemed to be looking for something. One of the party was kneeling along the path, and the others swung their gaze through the surrounding trees, as if seeking a sign.

“The enemy,” whispered Toli.

They had run into a party of Jaspin’s men who were evidently searching for someone. “They are after Theido and the others,” answered Quentin. “Come. We may reach them ahead of these hunters.”With that he turned Balder and drew away from their hiding place along the path. They dodged along the track for a while and then rejoined it far ahead of the enemy soldiers behind them. No sooner had they joined the path and proceeded a little along it when they heard the sound of horses and men moving just ahead of them. “This will be Theido!” said Quentin, a smile lighting his face.

He spurred Balder ahead and came to a tree-lined bend in the trail. Suddenly they were face-to-face with five strange knights coming directly toward them on the trail.

Quentin froze. Toli turned his horse aside and pulled Quentin’s arm. At first the unknown knights did not seem to see them. They came on a pace or two, talking among themselves, eyes down along the track.

Then, even as Quentin turned Balder off the path, one of the riders glanced up. Quentin met the other’s eyes and in the briefest instant read the surprise there.

“Look!” the enemy knight shouted to his companions. But Quentin, with Toli ahead of him, was already dashing away. “Spies!” he heard another shout. A third yelled, “After them! Kill them!”

Toli was already a blur bobbing ahead of him as Quentin flung himself forward. Balder put his head down and leaped off the trail. Quentin ducked the branches that struck out to unhorse him, keeping himself low in the saddle, lying along Balder’s surging shoulders.

Behind him he could hear the sound of pursuit through the tangled wood. Voices rang out sharp and steel-edged in the quiet morning air. Toli shot fleeting glances over his hunched shoulders to make sure that Quentin was keeping up.

Balder’s iron hooves flung the soft turf high into the air. Brambles snatched at Quentin’s bare legs, scratching them, though he did not feel a thing.

On they rode, dashing ahead of their pursuers, flying over fallen trunks of trees and dodging the low-hanging limbs.

Quentin heard a crash behind him, the high whinny of a horse, and a curse. One of the knights had been swept off his horse by a branch. There was a shout as another knight sought to avoid piling into the sprawling rider. Quentin turned slightly to see a horse struggling to its feet and a knight rolling in the grass. He smiled darkly to himself.

But when he turned back, Toli was nowhere to be seen.

He reined Balder to a shuddering halt, almost pitching himself forward. For a heartbeat he stopped to listen and heard nothing. Then came a swish in the brush and the hollow clop of Toli’s mount darting through the woods just ahead and to the left. He had dodged onto another track.

Quentin leaned and threw the reins to the side, and Balder reared back, gathering his legs beneath him. He snorted and jumped. From somewhere Quentin heard a whistling in the air and suddenly felt a piercing sting in his leg. Balder screamed and jolted away.

He turned in the direction of the sound and saw one of the knights lowering a crossbow from his shoulder, making ready to load and shoot again.

He glanced down at his leg to see the crossbow’s bolt sticking out from the side of his leg. The vicious dart had arrowed through the fleshy part of his calf and had stuck in Balder’s thick-muscled shoulder. He was pinned neatly to his horse.

Balder, urged by the sting and lacking a direct command from Quentin, dashed off in the opposite direction from Toli. Quentin squeezed his eyes shut as the pain exploded in his brain in a burning flash of red brilliance.

Balder raced through the forest, his mane and tail streaming out behind him. Quentin fought to stay in the saddle. The great courser had his own head now and plummeted along a sharply descending trail.

The swiftly passing woods began to blur. The bright blue sky and yellow sun, the dark green earth and gray tree trunks all melded together. Behind him he could hear the shouts of the knights urging their steeds to the chase. But the sounds diminished and faded as Balder, running freely, outdistanced them with his great strides.

The trail turned and fell away. Quentin thought they must be near the river again, but he did not know in which direction they were heading. A narrow brook lay directly before him—he heard it rather than saw it as Balder sailed over it and galloped up the bank.

The charger pounded along the path, and through eyes bleary with pain Quentin noticed the forest deepen, becoming darker and denser. They were flying into the heart of Pelgrin. Quentin recognized the venerable old oaks spreading their branches above him. The light shone down green around them through the leaves, which formed a living thatch overhead.

Then, without warning, dead ahead of them in the trail, an earthen embankment jutted out of the forest floor like a green wall topped by thick, wiry holly hedge. There was no time to stop. Quentin threw himself forward and clenched the reins in his hands as he gritted his teeth.

Lightly as a deer Balder lifted himself up into the air and sailed over the top, the hedges barely brushing his belly. The animal recovered from the jump gracefully as he skidded down the opposite side of the embankment and into a large ringed depression, a vast hollow bowl carved in the middle of the forest. There he stopped.

Quentin hung limply to the reins, spun in the saddle, and with an effort seized the bolt projecting cruelly out of his leg.

He snapped the arrow in two and threw aside the winged end. Mustering all his strength, he pulled his pinioned leg free from Balder’s flank, drawing the broken bolt through his calf. Quentin straightened, and before he could see where he was, black, formless shapes gathered before his eyes. He felt suddenly light-headed. He could not breathe. He gasped, reeled in the saddle, and then toppled to the ground.

He saw Balder’s dark eyes regarding him with a calm, liquid stare. The sky spun. Then all went black.

47

Durwin sat with his head in his hands upon a log. It had been hours since Quentin and Toli had raced off into the woods alone. He feared the worst.

“Ease your fears, good hermit,” Alinea said lightly. “It is you who say we are to trust in all things. We will trust their safety, as we trust our own, to the god.”

“Your words are true, my lady,” answered Durwin, raising his eyes to her lovely face. “But my heart does not hear them.”

“But look!” she said, springing up. “Here is something! Riders are coming in! Theido and Ronsard! They have returned alive and safe!”

“Yes, that is good news,” said Durwin, rising slowly. He walked over to where a group was already gathering to hear what the scouts had to report. In a moment Durwin’s hopeful expression was once again exchanged for one of despair.

Theido came through the crush without speaking; Ronsard followed close behind. “Come,” he said. “Let us go to Selric’s tent. You come too, my lady.”

They gathered in Selric’s tent, where they found the monarch poring over detailed maps of the area drawn on skins and parchment.

“You are back, the gods be thanked! What news? What did you find?”

“Nothing good,” replied Ronsard. His face was flushed, and sweat trickled down his neck into his tunic. “We have ridden far and find that all approaches are cut. We are surrounded.”

“Jaspin is strengthening his forces on all sides.”

King Selric received the information with calm acceptance. “I see,” he said.

“So it is!” said Durwin. “No more than we already know.”

“What?” demanded Theido.

“Kellaris returned just after dawn,” replied King Selric evenly. “He did not get through. Your words confirm his own.” He pointed to the maps. “I have been studying these charts to see if there may be some vantage we may defend.” He sighed heavily. “I find none.”

“What will happen?” asked Alinea. Her voice, though steady, held a note of anguish.

“We will fight them,” said Theido simply. “They mean to destroy us. That is certain. Jaspin will offer no mercy. He has summoned men from every corner of his kingdom.”

“He means to cut us down where we stand,” said Ronsard hotly.

“When?” asked Alinea.

“That I cannot say,” replied Theido. “The enemy is still building his position. He may attack at any moment.”

“Nimrood’s dread Legion has not yet arrived,” replied Durwin. “That is what they are waiting for.”

“I have put my men to work excavating a ditch just beyond the trees. It may be they will have time to finish it. That will offer some defense,” said King Selric. “We must keep our backs protected in order to retreat to the ships when the time comes.”

“Must we talk of retreat so soon?” demanded Ronsard. “I will die rather than retreat.”

“Yes, of course,” replied Selric evenly. “I was thinking of the queen.” He glanced at Alinea’s dark eyes, which flashed defiantly. “I am sorry, my lady . . .”

“I will fight side by side with my comrades and die with them if necessary. I will not fly. If my king has not life left in him, of what use is my crown? Without my king, I am no queen and there is no kingdom. I will fight.”

The stouthearted companions looked to one another around the tight circle, silently pledging their lives to the cause. “Then it is settled,” said Theido softly.

At that moment a shout went up from the men outside and a messenger came running. King Selric stepped from his tent to receive the runner. “The enemy approaches, Sire. They march hither—half a league distant.”

“To arms! To arms!” Selric bellowed. He called to his trumpeter. “Sound the alarm! Call the men to arms!”

Within moments the scene was a flurry of flashing steel and shouting voices as the king’s men took up sword and shield and the knights buckled on their armor.

“Assemble the knights before me!” shouted Theido above the tumult. “I have a plan that may buy us time.” He himself had donned his armor in a flash and was standing before the king’s tent with shield slung over his shoulder, his sword raised high in the air.

The tumult in the camp subsided as quickly as it had begun. The soldiers ranged themselves behind the earthen wall they had that morning constructed and lined with sharpened pikes. The knights under Theido’s and Ronsard’s command, sixty in all, formed two groups that would take up positions to the right and to the left as the enemy approached the field of battle. It was Theido’s plan to cross these two mobile forces back and forth between each other, scissorlike, and thus wear down the enemy, blunting his attack before he could reach the footmen behind the ditch. King Selric commanded the footmen and, with Trenn, kept watch over the queen, despite her protests. For her part, she appeared hard of nerve and eye, armed with a slim sword and a buckler, more fitted to her hand than the heavier shields of the knights. She wore a corselet of plaited mail and a helm with a visor, as did all the king’s men-at-arms.

They waited.

Far in the distance could be heard the trumpets of King Jaspin’s army signaling their convergence. Dust from horses and tramping feet spiraled up into the noonday sky. Bright banners fluttering on long poles and pennons streaming from the lances of the knights, the far-off glint of a blade drawn, the sun’s rays catching the visor of a helmet— these could be seen by the soldiers awaiting the clash.

Closer. The steady thump of the drums and the rumble of five thousand soldiers marching as one carried on the wind. The sun darkened under the cloud of dust sent up by the advancing soldiers. Carrion birds soared overhead, gathering for a feast.

Trenn twisted his stout neck around, sniffing the wind. “There it is!” he muttered to King Selric. “I knew I smelled something. Look yonder.”

The first faint wisps of smoke drifted overhead. Selric noted the condition with a quick nod. “They burn the forest behind us.” He gripped the pommel of his sword tighter in his grasp. “So be it!”

“Where is Durwin?” asked the queen, looking around. “I have not seen him.”

“I saw him making off behind the tents. I do not see him now,” answered Trenn. “He will be up to his tricks, if I know him.”

The tempo of the drums increased. A mighty shout arose from the plain.

“They come!” cried King Selric. He flourished his sword in the air above his curly red head. “For honor! For glory! For king and kingdom!” His soldiers returned the battle cry.

The swiftly advancing front was a wedge of knights on horseback racing ahead of a larger body of men on foot who hurried behind. The rest of the assembled armies held back, waiting for their turn to bolt into the fray.

As the wedge thundered down upon the waiting troops, a shout went up from the woods on each side. Theido and Ronsard and their knights darted forth and caught the hurtling chargers in midflight. They came on from both sides at once: the advancing knights did not have time to turn or even to meet them as one. The charge faltered and then dissolved into confusion. Horses went down, rolling over their heavily armored riders.

Theido and Ronsard closed the gap and leaped to the attack. Instantly the heavens were rent with the ring of swords and the cries of the dying.

The footmen, seeing their advancing protection stymied, fell upon themselves and drew back. Theido turned his force after them as Ronsard contended with Jaspin’s knights. Many went down in the dust, never to rise again.

Jaspin’s warriors buckled before the fury of Ronsard’s knights and retreated, leaving half their number upon the ground.

Theido and Ronsard quickly called off the attack and rode back to the ditch to the cheers of the soldiers waiting there.

“Did you see them?” asked Selric anxiously.

“No, the Legion was not among them,” answered Theido.

“Where are they?”

“Most likely, they will wait to see how we acquit ourselves on the field,” answered Ronsard, raising his visor. “We surprised them just now; we may not be so lucky again. But I have a trick I learned before Gorr.” They fell into a quick discussion; then the knights mounted their coursers once more.

“Remember,” called Theido. “Tell your men to watch for any of the Legion. Stay out of their reach; melt before them and attack behind them. I think the soldiers will try to use them as protection and follow in their wake.”

Theido and his contingent ranged themselves behind Ronsard’s knights, one group forming a wall in front of the other. Then they waited.

The second attack came shortly. Two groups of knights charged, expecting to be met from each side as before. Instead, they encountered a wall of armored bodies waiting placidly for their onslaught. The foot soldiers advanced behind them over the dead upon the field.

As soon as the hurtling knights realized they were not going to be met on the flanks as before, they swerved inward and changed course to meet Ronsard’s wall. It was the precise moment Ronsard sought. He called a charge and dived to the left, followed by Theido, who dived to the right at the last instant.

The charging horses were once again thrown into confusion, carrying their riders headlong into the ditch and the sharpened pikes that seemed to spring up before them like quills. King Selric’s men there made short work of them.

Theido and Ronsard fell once more upon the men-at-arms and punished them severely. Once more Jaspin’s troops staggered back before the fury of their hungry swords.

“Twice we have turned them away.” Ronsard beamed when they had again rejoined the king. “What scheme can we hold to next to beat them back?”

“I have one,” replied Theido. Even after two sallies he was scarcely breathing hard. “If they do not send too many against us, it may work.”

Again the charge came, and again the small cohort was successful in disadvantaging the superior forces of Jaspin and his nobles. When they at last withdrew, the field of battle lay cluttered with men and horses. The ground beneath them was stained with their blood.

In a pavilion of blue silk constructed above the field on a high scaffold so as to command the best view of the battle sat King Jaspin, sputtering with rage, upon his traveling throne.

“Sir Bran! Sir Grenett!” Jaspin shouted, his face blackened with anger. “Lord Orwen! Lord Enmore!” The knights and nobles, grimy with sweat and dirt, their armor bearing deep gashes and crimson smudges, approached the pavilion on horseback.

Jaspin leaped out of his seat and threw a shaking finger into their faces. “You fools!” he screamed. “They are making sport of you! Cut them down! Crush them!”

“It is easier to crush a stone than a stream!” answered Sir Drake. “Or cut down a sapling instead of a shadow.”

“They do not stand and fight,” complained Sir Grenett.

“They vanish before the charge and appear in our midst. They have our bumbling, ill-trained foot soldiers attacking one another.”

“Do something! Soon Nimrood will arrive, and I had hoped to win this campaign on my own.”

“It is too late,” whispered Ontescue from behind him. “The wizard is already here.” Jaspin turned to see the black shape of Nimrood ride around the far side of his pavilion. The necromancer sat astride a black horse that looked half wild and pawed the ground as it snorted. Nimrood wore a black crowned helm with wings sweeping back from each side and a long black cloak edged with silver. In his hand he carried a rod of ebony marble inlaid with silver tracery in strange, convoluted patterns.

“Nimrood!” said Jaspin. His breath rattled in his throat. “We were waiting for you.”

“Were you indeed? I see dead stacked upon the field like kindling— they died of boredom, no doubt.”

“The fiends attacked us without warning. We had to retaliate. Th-there was no choice,” Jaspin stuttered.

“From the look of it, I would say they displayed the most remarkable luck,” the sorcerer sneered. “A thousand attacking ten thousand and holding them at bay. Ha!” Nimrood turned stiffly in his high-backed saddle and spat out orders to the knights and nobles gathered before the pavilion.

“Go back to your men at once. Nurse their courage; revive their spirit. And wait. When I return, I will bring my Legion to show you how to fight. I go now to bring my commander.”

“He is here?” Jaspin gasped and sank back into his throne, limp and trembling.

“Close by,” hissed Nimrood. “I will return within the hour. Meanwhile, do nothing. This battle will be over ere long. It should have been finished long ago. But never mind. You will all see a spectacle you will never forget.”

With that the wizard spurred his jittery steed forward and galloped off across the plain and into the woods beyond.

“What is this Legion that the mad magician speaks of, Sire?” asked Sir Bran. “Why should we wait? We can finish them now, ourselves. The victory is ours!”

Jaspin waved the suggestion aside with a damp hand. His jaw hung slack, and his eyes remained focused on some far-distant view. When he came back to his senses, he looked around feebly and said, “You will see soon enough. You will all see soon enough.”

“We can finish them this time. I know it,” insisted Bran.

“No!” shouted Jaspin, leaping to his feet. Spittle drooled from his lips; he looked like an enraged bull. “It is too late! Too late! We will wait!” He waved them away and hunched back into his throne. He passed a kerchief over his face and gestured for Ontescue to draw the curtain of his pavilion for privacy. He would wait alone.

“Oh!” he cried out in utter anguish. Sobs racked his body. “What have I done? What have I done?”

48

From somewhere far away, Quentin heard the sharp tinkling of bells, high-pitched and floating overhead, as if the sound carried on the wind. And another sound—a low murmur, like laughter.

Light danced above him; he could trace its movement through his eyelids. He felt warm and dreamy and realized that something was tickling his cheek and the hollow of his neck.

He opened his eyes.

For the briefest instant he thought he must be back at Dekra. The feeling passed even as it formed. Above him a green canopy caught the sun and dashed its golden light into a thousand shifting patterns. The bells he had heard were tiny twittering birds flittering from branch to branch in the great spreading oak upon whose roots he lay. He absently placed his hand to his cheek and brought it away wet. Then he turned and saw Balder lower his nose to nudge him once more.

“All right, old boy, I am awake,” Quentin murmured.

He pushed himself up slowly on his elbows. In a few seconds the dizziness subsided, to be replaced by a dull, throbbing ache that spread throughout his body but seemed localized to his left leg. He felt the leg, suddenly remembering how he came to be lying on the ground, gazing up at the leafy roof above.

The wound had stopped bleeding and the blood had dried. Quentin surmised that he had been unconscious for some time. He reached out a hand and grabbed the strap of Balder’s harness and hoisted himself to his feet. With a little effort he found he could walk, though stiffly at first and with some pain.

He scanned the surroundings. Though utterly strange to him, he felt the place was familiar somehow. Yet he knew he had never seen it before. He was, as near as he could make out, at one side of a gigantic earthen ring. His eyes followed the smooth grassy embankment around its circumference until he lost sight of it behind a stand of ancient oaks that occupied the center of the ring.

All around the inside of the circle stood white carven stones, thick slabs as tall as Quentin, now pockmarked with age and flecked with green and gray lichen.

The standing stones threw shadows upon the lawn at odd angles, as some of the stones were tilted and leaning precariously.

His gaze swept inward, and only then did he notice the mysterious mounds standing like so many gigantic, grass-covered beehives. All was peaceful; all quiet. But Quentin felt a thrill of something like fear race up the back of his neck and set his scalp tingling.

He had been here before: in his dream.

He had seen it all in his dream; and not once, but many times. It appeared very different, to be sure; the reality formed the opposite side of the coin. But it was the same coin—of that Quentin was certain. The inner feeling of remembrance told him as much.

But where was he? And what were the odd-shaped earthen beehives?

All sense of urgency—still nagging at the back of his mind— diminished in light of the singular feeling that washed over him like a cold stream. Quentin stood gazing around him. “I am supposed to be here,” he thought aloud.

Leaving Balder to nibble the grass at the base of the oak, Quentin hobbled toward the center of the ring, descending down upon the bowl. It was ancient; he could see that. The cracked faces of the standing stones were worn, the inscriptions nearly obliterated by time and the elements.

Whoever made it, Quentin was sure, had lived long ago. Back in the age of the mysterious mound builders, perhaps. Remnants of the mound builders’ work still existed, tucked away in far corners of the land. Spirals, hillocks, rings—strange shapes all.

He heard a gurgling sound and the splash of water trickling over stone. He parted a leafy bower and stepped into a shaded spot where a small spring bubbled, pouring up its water into a clear, gemlike pool. Quentin knelt and dipped his cupped hand into the icy liquid. He drank and noticed the white stones placed around the perimeter of the pool, and just above the pool where the spring delivered its water, the shrine to the god of the spring. A carved stone image of the god the peasants called Pol stood in the shrine. Once he would have poured a libation to the god, but Quentin merely nodded to the idol’s perpetual stare and continued again on his way.

He made for the nearest mound and examined it carefully. Grass-covered, it stood twice his height, perfectly smooth and symmetrical on all sides.

Some of the mounds, he could see now, were larger than others. And some had a slightly flattened or sunken appearance at the dome, as if they had collapsed within—the way graves sometimes do.

Graves. He held the word on his tongue and turned it over as if hearing it for the first time. Then, as sunlight slowly chased the night, he knew where he was. Quentin had stumbled into the Ring of the Kings, or Kings’ Ring, as it was sometimes called in stories and songs. It was the ancient burial place of Mensandor’s first kings: the empire builders were buried here, their barrows dug within the ring. It was a most sacred place.

Quentin paused and then turned to make his way back painfully to Balder and then away. But something held him to the spot. He shrugged off his unaccountable reluctance and moved on, turning back again not four paces from where he had stopped before.

A thought came to him. If he was to make it back to camp alive, he would need a weapon of some sort, at least a shield. The kings were customarily buried with their armor and weapons—outfitted for their trials in the underworld.

Surely, he thought, there would be no harm in obtaining a sword or shield from one of the barrows. Though taboo and likely to upset the spirits of the dead—neither a problem Quentin held in any great regard—he decided to try to find a weapon.

The first barrow he examined had no entrance that he could find, nor did the second or third. Whatever means of entering the vaults had been contrived, they had long ago grown over or had been carefully erased.

He was about to give up and return to Balder when he saw a large barrow situated in the midst of the others. Very well, he would try just one more, he thought. He limped toward it, moving between the eerie mounds like a giant passing between green-domed mountains.

The barrow that had caught his attention was different from the others he had examined—rounder, a gentler arc all around, as if the tip of a large sphere bulged from below ground. He walked around it and neatly tripped over a small bush growing at the base of the shaded side of the hill.

He fell, plunging headlong into the turf and banging his injured left leg on the ground. Quentin winced in pain as he slammed down and felt something hard give way beneath him. There was an odd, muffled crack, like the tearing of a root, and Quentin tumbled into the yawning blackness that had suddenly opened up beneath him.

He let out a surprised yell as he landed on something hard. He coughed and sputtered in the dirt that caved in around him and wiped the dust from his eyes as small pebbles rattled away below him.

When the dust had cleared and he had taken stock of himself, Quentin saw that he had not fallen very far—less than three paces. The sunlight slanted down into the crevice he had opened up and illuminated a small patch of the floor on which he was standing. He saw one straight edge and then darkness: steps. He had stumbled into the entrance of the burial place that someone had been at great pains to conceal.

Steadying his quivering nerves, Quentin stepped cautiously down onto the step and then the next. The steps fell away sharply, and Quentin soon found himself in complete darkness, except for the patch of light through the hole where he had fallen. He thrust his hands out in front of him and continued.

The stairs stopped after only a few more steps, and Quentin, his eyes becoming used to the darkness now, perceived a stone door barring the entrance to a subterranean chamber. The door, black with age, was carved with the intricate designs and runes of the ancients. Yet from chips and scratches that showed white in the dim light along the left side of the narrow slab, he could see that someone had used tools to pry open the tomb’s door, and not so very long ago.

Quentin placed his palms on the cool, moist rock and pushed. Unexpectedly, the door moved with very little effort, grinding open on its unseen hinges.

He stepped into the tomb.

The interior of the tomb was cool and silent. In the feeble light of the open door, Quentin saw the glint of gold and silver vessels stacked along the walls. The dust of time lay thick upon the floor, dimming the colored mosaic tiles that proclaimed in quaint picture the exploits of the deceased monarch. Silver-tipped spears and bearskin shields—now moldering to dust—stood in ranks to his left. A saddle, with a horse’s bard and chamfron supported by crossed lances, stood on his right.

Whatever else lay in the ancient burial vault Quentin never discovered. For his eyes found the stone slab standing in the center of the chamber. And there, still and serene, as if in a peaceful slumber, lay King Eskevar, his form bathed in an eerie blue luminescence.

Though Quentin had never seen his king, he knew in his heart he had found him, for it could be no one else. The bearded chin jutted up defiantly; the smooth, high brow suggested wisdom; the deep-set eyes, closed in repose, spoke of character; and the straight, firm mouth, of royalty.

Quentin, in a daze of wondrous disbelief, slowly approached the stone bier as one walking in a dream. The figure before him, dressed in shining armor, his arms folded across his unmoving chest, appeared the picture of death itself. And yet . . .

Quentin, holding his breath, stepped closer, daring not to breathe for fear that the vision before him might prove to be insubstantial.

One step and then another and he would be there.

With a trembling foot he took a step. Shifting his weight, he raised his foot . . .

Something moved behind him. He felt the air rush by him, heard a metallic whisper, and caught the flash of two glowing points of yellow light arcing through the air as he instinctively turned to meet the blow, and then he was struck down.

49

The battlefield had grown as quiet as the dead men upon it. A hush crept over the plain, which still echoed with the ring of steel and the cries of warriors. The carrion birds soared above, searching for an opportunity to begin their gruesome feast; their cries pierced the silence that now covered Askelon Plain like a shroud.

In respite from battle, the wounded had been carried from the field and taken to the river, where Selric’s surgeons offered what aid and comfort could be given. Those still able to bear sword or pike were bandaged and returned to the ditch to await the next onslaught.

Durwin, arms bared and robes drawn up between his legs and tucked in his belt, hurried among the litters to aid with word or skill as many as he could. Wherever he went the pain was eased and the healing begun. Those who could not recover were comforted and their passage to the next world lit with hope.

As he bent over the unconscious form of a soldier lying on the grassy riverbank, Durwin felt a tug at his belt. He turned away from his patient to see a young man, sweaty and besmeared with blood, motioning him away.

“What is it, lad?” asked the hermit.

“A knight yonder would see you, sir,” replied the young physician.

“Then take me to him,” replied Durwin, and they both hurried off through the ranks of the wounded lying along the bank.

“Here is the holy hermit, sir. I have brought him as you bade me.” The boy bent close to the knight’s ear. Durwin, thinking that he had come too late, for so it appeared, was surprised to see the knight awaken and the clear blue eyes regard him knowingly.

“They tell me I will die,” said the knight. He was a young man, not yet beyond his twentieth year. “What do you say?”

Durwin bent to examine the wound, an ugly, jagged slash in his side where an axe had sliced through his hauberk and driven pieces of his mail deep into his flesh. He shook his head slowly.

“Yes, it is true. The wound is mortal, brave friend. How may I help?”

“It is as I feared,” said the knight. His voice was growing weaker. “I have watched you going among the wounded and have seen you comfort men in screaming agony and calm those who have no hope.”

“I do what I can,” said Durwin softly.

“Then tell me what I must know of death, for I am not a religious man. It is said that you can look into the world beyond, sir. Look for me and tell me what you see.”

Durwin, though he already knew what he would tell the young knight, bowed his head and closed his eyes as he placed one hand over the knight’s heart. After a moment he began to speak.

“I see two paths that may be taken—one into darkness and one into light. The dark path is an unhappy one. There is no peace to be found wherever it leads, and those who travel it never find rest or comfort for their soul’s pain. It is a lonely, bitter road.

“The other way, the road of light, leads to a magnificent city wherein all who come rejoice in the presence of a loving king who reigns forever without end. It is a realm of peace where hardship and death are conquered, and none who abide there know fear anymore.

“These two paths are open to you, but you must choose which one you will tread.”

“The choice is easily made, good hermit. I would go to the great city and there pledge my service to the honorable king. If he has need of men such as I, that is where I would be. But I don’t know how to accomplish that, and fear I may yet go wrong.”

“Do not be afraid. Only believe and it will be so. Believe in the king, the king of all kings, God Most High. He will meet you on the path and lead you himself into his city.”

“Sir, I do want to believe. But your words are strange. They are unlike any words I have ever heard a priest speak. Are you a priest?”

“Yes, fair friend. I am a priest of the king I have told you about. He turns none aside who would come to him; it is a promise he makes to all men.”

“Then I go to him at once.” The knight’s voice was a whisper. “Thank you, good hermit. I shall remember this kindness and greet your king for you. Farewell.”

“Farewell, brave sir. We shall meet again.”

At these words the knight closed his eyes and breathed his last. Durwin stood over the young man’s body and marveled at his courage and the firmness of his faith. “The Most High has won a faithful servant this day,” he said to himself. “And none more valiant.”

When Durwin had done all he could for the wounded and dying, he returned to the ditch where Selric, Theido, and Ronsard stood in council.

“We have lost many good men,” said Ronsard. “We cannot withstand another attack if they choose to make an end of it.”

“Why do they wait?” Selric wondered aloud. “Perhaps they will not challenge us again.”

“No,” said Theido. “They will come again. They are waiting for—”

“Waiting for Nimrood to bring his foul brood,” said Durwin as he joined them. “They have not yet come. But they are close by.”

“Then Jaspin hoped to win the day for himself without Nimrood?”

“So it is! But now he will be forced to acknowledge Nimrood as his master before all who call him king.”

“It is no better than he deserves,” observed Ronsard. “I believe he will yet rue the day he ever laid eyes upon the sorcerer.”

“This waiting is worse than fighting. Is there nothing we can do?”

“Yes,” said Durwin. “Pray to the Most High. He is the only one who can save us now.”

The unseen blow caught Quentin as he rolled away, grazing his shoulder and lifting him off his feet. He was flung headlong into the darkness to land sprawling on the floor of the tomb.

He squirmed to his knees in an effort to rise, pulling himself along the edge of the stone bier. But before he could regain his feet, he felt something pull him back, dragging him down with a sinuous weight. Something hard grasped him by the waist. Quentin grabbed at it and touched a smooth yet rigid surface undulating under his grasp.

A wave of horror and revulsion swept through him as he realized that he was locked in the crushing coils of a gigantic serpent.

A coil shot around his arms, binding them to his sides. Another loop wrapped itself across his chest, and Quentin, struggling feebly to free himself, saw the terrible angular head rise slowly up before his face.

Hideous yellow eyes burned with an unearthly light, regarding him with extreme menace. He could feel the coils tightening around him, squeezing the breath from his body.

His hands scrabbled for a hold on the heavy scales of the serpent’s skin; his nails raked the snaky armor ineffectually. Each breath was a labor fraught with pain now. Very soon he would suffocate. He heard the rasping hiss of the snake as it leered closer and squeezed tighter.

Quentin’s mind raced in a frenzy verging on panic. There must be a weapon, he thought. Lifting his eyes, which felt as if they would burst from the pressure of the serpent’s ever-tightening embrace, he chanced to see the shimmer of the king’s sword lying at his side along the slab.

Quentin, growing weaker by the heartbeat, threw himself on his side beneath the bier. The coils shifted momentarily as he went down. He gulped air and forced his arm free before the relentless coils squeezed again.

Slowly drawing his feet up under him, Quentin placed them against the stone trestle of the king’s bier. With a kick he sent himself tumbling heels over head as the serpent, hissing with a fury, struck.

Quentin heard the monstrous jaws snap shut just above his ear. But he had gained his objective. His free arm was now on top as he lay on his side. He raised it toward the sword.

The serpent noticed the movement. A lashing tail flicked out and lashed a coil around Quentin’s wrist and pulled it down in an iron grip.

In the shimmering glow of the blue radiance, Quentin saw the awful outline of the black head rearing again, readying for the killing strike.

Forcing every fiber of muscle to obey, he lifted his hand once more. His fingers ached as he stretched them toward the sword. He felt the serpent squeezing his wrist; his fingers became numb. He closed his eyes and cried out with the effort, feeling that his heart would rend. Then he felt the edge of the bier under his grasp. He held on.

Inch by precious inch he clawed forward, his fingernails splitting as they tore against the stone. He could no longer breathe. His arm shook violently. Dizziness overwhelmed him, but he fought to remain clearheaded. Then, miraculously, the sword was in his hand. He grasped the cold steel blade and pulled it down. But his strength was gone. He could not raise the sword or strike out with it. Instead, the honed blade lay in his benumbed hand, and he merely looked at it glinting in the darkness as he felt the black mists of death gathering over him.

He wanted to give up, to let go, to step into that peaceful calm that awaited him. He could hear a sound like the rush of wind or a thousand voices calling out. He had an image of clouds heaving up and then parting. He was moving through the clouds, falling.

The clouds parted and he saw below him the battle lines on the plains of Askelon. There were his friends, dug in behind their ditch. He saw the charge and heard a clash of arms. Then the vision faded and he felt a warmth bathe his limbs as a deep sleepiness overtook him. He felt himself slipping away.

“No!” he shouted, jerking himself back from the brink. “No-o-o!” his voice echoed back to him from the vaulted walls of the tomb.

The sword lay limply in his slack hand. He grasped it and felt the steel cut into the flesh of his fingers. The pain sharpened his mind.

He swiveled his head and saw the serpent’s head wavering above him. The monster moved, rolling him over to deliver the death blow. Quentin drew the sword to his breast.

The serpent’s glowing eyes stared into his own; the black forked tongue flickered as the wicked head descended. In the same instant Quentin raised the sword.

The head swung down. Quentin felt the sword suddenly wrenched from his hands. He heard a raging hiss and opened his eyes to see the sword sticking through the serpent’s mouth and out of the back of its head. The monster had impaled itself upon the sword.

The coils loosened as the snake began to thrash upon the floor. In an instant Quentin had another arm free and was on his knees. He dragged himself aside as the serpent rolled into a seething ball to crush itself in its own coils. The creature writhed and squirmed as its movements grew more and more erratic.

At last, with one final terrible convulsion, the serpent lay still.

Quentin knelt, hands on the cold stone, dragging the cool air into his lungs in racking gulps. He heard a strange bubbling sizzle and glanced up to see the monstrous creature begin to shrivel and wriggle, melting together. Quentin stared. Green smoke issued from its body, covering it, and then it was gone. A trailing tendril of smoke curled up where the awful serpent had lain. And then that, too, vanished.

Quentin rested, panting at the edge of the bier, and allowed life to return. His ribs ached, and his hand, where he had gripped the sword, stung. He looked down to see blood dripping from his fingers. He drew a long, shaky breath and turned toward the king. The eerie blue radiance that had surrounded the king’s body was gone—as if whatever life-force had clung to the remnant had been extinguished.

A pang of grief stabbed through his heart, for it appeared to him that now, beyond all doubt, the king lay dead. No breath stirred the great chest. No presence remained.

Quentin turned to go. There was nothing to be done.

But to have found him and then to leave seemed to Quentin grievously inappropriate.

Quentin bowed his head and offered up a prayer. “Father of Life,” he prayed, using Toli’s name for the god, “return the life of our king.” He thought for a moment and added, “Raise up a champion to lead us in victory over our enemies . . .” He stopped then because he could think of nothing more to say.

He stepped close to the king’s body and reached out to touch the cold, lifeless face. As he extended his hand, a drop of blood fell from his fingertip and splashed onto the king’s lip.

He stared at the crimson splotch.

In the faint light from the tomb’s entrance, he imagined he saw color seeping out from the drop of blood, spreading over the features of the king. He stared transfixed as a wondrous change occurred.

The king’s stiff features softened; the cold gray flesh warmed and took on the appearance of life. Quentin watched, not daring to move, not daring to blink or look away. He saw color return to the lifeless hands crossed upon the king’s breast. He saw the tiny beat of a pulse appear just below the jaw.

A silver light seemed to emanate from the king’s countenance—a radiance that quickened the still features. It grew until Quentin could not bear to look upon it. He threw an arm over his eyes, and when he looked again the light was gone and he saw the quiver of an eyelid and heard the long sigh of air drawn in through the nostrils.

Quentin dropped to his knees. Tears trickled down his cheeks to splatter in the dust of the vault. He bowed his head for a brief moment in silent thanksgiving, then heard a low moan and rose to his feet and bent over the king. Another sigh and King Eskevar opened his eyes.

In all that followed, Quentin could never be certain what happened or in what order it happened, who spoke first or the exact words—everything seemed to happen at once.

He remembered telling King Eskevar of the danger and of the battle taking place on the field. He remembered Eskevar rising off the slab unsteadily and falling in a crash to the floor. He remembered a feeling of inexpressible joy when the king placed a hand on his shoulder, gripped it tightly, and said, “Well done, brave knight.”

They were then out of the crypt and moving toward Balder, Eskevar growing stronger with every stride. The sun shone high overhead, a fierce, hard ball, filling Quentin with hope and determination as he strode somewhat painfully across the green expanse.

The two mounted Balder, Quentin sitting behind the king, filling in the details of his story as they rode off together.

“There must be some who are loyal to me,” the king cried, his deep voice booming through the forest. “We shall find them!”

Quentin could not help thinking that unless they found ten thousand who had not bowed a knee to Jaspin, their search was in vain.

“First to Askelon,” said the king. “The common people will fight for their king in need. We will raise an army of farmers and merchants if we must.”

They dodged through the forest and struck the road to Askelon. Eskevar rode easily in the saddle; Quentin bounced along behind, holding on as best he could.

It seemed only moments before they were clattering through the streets of Askelon below the castle. The king struck for the center of town and raised himself in the saddle, sword held high in the common square.

“Countrymen! Your king has returned!” His voice seemed to shake the very foundation of the castle rock itself.

“Follow me!” he called. “Our kingdom is in peril! Bring sword and shield; bring rake and pike, spade and pitchfork. To arms! For Mensandor!”

When the people heard this, they marveled and fell on their knees. The women cried and the men looked at him in astonishment. A great cry went up. “The king has returned! The Dragon King lives!”

Men ran through the streets, bidding all to join the call to arms. A smith came running up, leading a white horse, already saddled and prancing in eager anticipation. Eskevar leaped onto the horse and waved his rude army on.

They had scarcely left the city and taken up the road leading down to the plain before they met a large number of men dressed in dark green tunics and carrying pikes and longbows, with quivers full of new arrows slung about their shoulders.

Eskevar, with Quentin right behind him, stopped in the road as the men approached. Upon seeing the king, the leader of these men kneeled, crying out in a loud voice, “Your faithful servant, Sire. My men are at your command.”

The man and his manner seemed familiar to Quentin. Where had he seen them before? Then he remembered a night in Pelgrin, when the forest had come alive with bushmen. When the man rose again to his feet, Quentin recognized the tough, weathered face of Voss, but now the number of his brood had swelled to several hundred.

“We heard there was fighting yonder,” said Voss, approaching his beloved king. “We thought we would come strike a blow for king and kingdom. We did not expect to be led into battle by the Dragon King himself.”

“Your loyalty will be rewarded, for today you will see your king take sword against his enemies. Follow me!” The king wheeled his charger into the road and led his people into battle.

With every step their numbers grew. Twice Quentin looked around and was amazed at what he saw: a surging sea of rough wooden pikes and pitchforks bristled in the sun; rakes, hoes, and other implements turned for the present into weapons for Mensandor’s Dragon King.

A song soared up from bold and happy hearts and winged its way into the bright heavens:

See the armies so arrayed,

Line on line, ten thousand strong.

See the Dragon King’s sharp blade,

Rising to a song!

See his enemies laid low!

Hear our voices sing:

Let glory crown the victor’s brow,

In the Hall of the Dragon King!

50

Jaspin met Nimrood’s eyes with a look impossible to interpret: a mingling of relief and disappointment, of anguish and fleeting hope. “I . . . I don’t . . . understand . . . I . . . ,” Jaspin stammered.

Nimrood’s eyes sparked lightning, and his voice cracked thunder. “The prize is gone! My prize has vanished!”

He cast a hateful glance out across the plain where King Selric’s army waited. “Black is the day of your doom! Your bodies will be food for the carrion birds and your bones scattered to the ends of the earth! You will not escape Nimrood’s wrath now!”

Then, seizing his marble rod, he held it aloft and wailed a long incantation into the air. The black stallion beneath him shook its mane and pawed the earth, whinnying its impatience. Nimrood paid no heed; he raised himself in the saddle and repeated the incantation. “Ratra Nictu deasori Maranna Rexis!”

A cool breeze stirred the silk of Jaspin’s pavilion. The red and gold banners fluttered on their stanchions, and the pennons waved as a small dark cloud appeared in the sky. Nimrood continued his incantation, eyes closed, hissing out the fearful words.

The wind rose and the banners swung and the pennons on the lances of the knights snapped smartly. The roiling cloud mushroomed, spreading into a churning, seething storm. The ropes of Jaspin’s silk pavilion sang in the whistling wind.

The Legion of the Dead came riding on the wings of the storm.

There were six of them—riding two abreast on snorting chargers. They rode from the south, galloping out of the forest. A murmur went up from the assembled armies, and as they drew nearer, those who stood in line with their approach fell back.

Jaspin watched them come closer. Six knights in sable armor—the color of the darkest night—long black plumes floating from the crests of their helms. They looked neither right nor left, but galloped at a measured pace to halt directly before the pavilion. Their visors concealed any recognizable feature; no glint of eye sparkled from the dark slits.

The earth plunged into an eerie twilight as the clouds boiled up and blotted out the sun. All grew deathly still. No one spoke; no one shouted; ten thousand men stood as one. Silent. The only sounds were the howl of the rising wind, the snap of the whipping flags, and the impatient blowing of the horses.

At a gesture from Nimrood, the foremost of the knights of Nimrood’s fell Legion urged his mount forward to stand directly in front of Jaspin. The chink of the horse’s iron-shod hooves rang in Jaspin’s ears like a clang of a funeral knell. The pale usurper winced and shrank away from the black knight’s address.

“The day is ours!” shouted the necromancer boldly so all gathered on the plain could hear. Then, turning to Jaspin, he said, “Look upon the face of death, and despair!”

Jaspin watched in horror—his heart trembled within his breast and his blood ran to ice in his veins—as the appalling specter placed a gauntlet to its visor and slowly raised it. Jaspin closed his eyes and looked away.

“See my handiwork!” cried the wizard.

Jaspin turned again to meet the apparition’s gray, bloodless face. And as he cowered before it, the knight’s ashen lids slowly opened to regard Jaspin with a chilling stare. Jaspin gripped the carved arms of his throne and uttered a low cry: the knight had no eyes!

“Away!” sobbed Jaspin.

Durwin turned his face into the streaming wind. His knowing eyes watched the great black clouds rolling over the plains of Askelon and regarded the sky growing murky as the unnatural gloomy twilight descended upon the battlefield.

“Nimrood has arrived. He is here, and his Legion with him,” said the hermit. “We must ready ourselves for the final assault.”

“I am ready,” said Ronsard. His strong tone held no trace of fear. “I have faced death many times: he is too old an adversary for me to quail in his sight now.”

“Well said, Ronsard,” replied Theido. “I, too, am ready. Come what may, I see glory waiting for us all out there.” He nodded with eyes squinted toward the plain. “I mean to earn my share.”

“Yes,” agreed King Selric, “and a place in men’s hearts wherever deeds of valor are storied round the fire.”

Alinea, who had been long silent, now lifted her eyes to the horizon and looked her last upon the shimmering shape of Askelon’s far walls, misty in the distance. Trenn, his mouth set in a defiant frown, stood resolutely beside her.

“I am a woman,” said the queen softly, “and no soldier. But for the love of my king, I will gladly take my place beside my gallant friends and gladly pledge my life to theirs.”

Trenn said nothing, but his thick neck bulged as he tightened his grip on his sword and touched its hilt to his heart.

Toli, who had returned from the forest after searching fruitless hours for his missing friend, grasped a longbow and fitted an arrow onto the taut gut. Beneath his dark aspect a smoldering fire kindled against those who had cut Quentin down.

Into the stillness that had settled over the plain, the comrades-at-arms heard the growl of distant thunder marching through the heavens toward them. King Selric took his place at the head of his soldiers and sprang up onto a rock to address them, raising his hands and voice into the air.

“Men of Drin, my warriors! Hear me! You have made me proud to be your king, and though our time grows short, I would ask no greater boon than to lead you into battle one last time.

“The enemy is great, but even if he breaks our bodies, he will never vanquish the proud spirit that strengthens us to our end. Fight well, my friends. Look ahead, not behind. You will earn glory and honor today. Be worthy of it. Be strong. Do not be afraid.”

The soldiers, still as statues, now raised sword and spear, and with a mighty shout a thousand voices rang out, “For glory! For honor! For our king!”

Then, taking their swords, they began to beat on their shields and sing a battle song, chanting to the rhythmic cadence. With Selric in the lead, they ranged themselves into the shape of a spearhead and marched out onto the plain, there to await the foe.

Theido and Ronsard took their knights and drew up beside their fearless comrades, flanking each side of the formation. The warhorses tossed their heads and snorted as the wind gusted smoke from the burning woods across the battlefield.

Again they heard the sound of drums as the enemy came forth. Theido looked round to catch the eye of Durwin to bid his friend a last farewell, but saw that the hermit had vanished again.

Then, through the smoke rolling across the plain, the enemy emerged once more. This time they were led in close procession by the six black riders of Nimrood’s Legion of the Dead.

They stopped. The drums quickened their tempo. The six lowered their lances, and at the trumpet’s blast they spurred their chargers forward.

The Legion flew across the plain, their horses’ hooves striking sparks as they hurtled across the gap. Behind them came the knights of Jaspin’s forces, followed by the foot soldiers, who now began to run with a mighty shout.

The men of King Selric’s army, rattling sword upon shield, steeled themselves for the clash. Theido and Ronsard launched their coursers to meet the charge.

There was an enormous crash. The earth trembled with the shock.

Dust billowed up to shroud the combatants from view. Horses screamed and the cold clang of steel rang out. When the dust parted, Selric saw that Theido and Ronsard and their riders had succeeded in lancing through their opponents with but little hurt to their numbers; what is more, they had succeeded in unhorsing one of the Legion. His horse lay screaming in agony on the field, but he came on, on foot.

Theido, ignoring the sable knights, turned his attack inward upon the more assailable enemy. Jaspin’s own men, surprised at this strategy, nevertheless joined the battle. Instantly all were surrounded by the foot soldiers who thronged to the fight.

“Away!” cried King Selric, and the trumpeter sounded the call as the stalwart thousand rushed to join the combat.

Footmen struggled to pull down the armored knights—for as long as a knight held horse, he proved well-nigh invincible.

The knights rained blows upon the ill-protected heads of the footmen and took on each in turn. Unsaddled knights grouped their comrades behind them and advanced like living shields once more into the struggle.

Theido hacked his way into the thick of the strife, but his followers failed to keep pace and were cut off. He became stranded in an angry sea of enemy soldiers. Throwing his shield before him, he bore down, his arm rising and falling upon the necks of his attackers. Then he felt a jolt and glanced down to see an enemy spear jutting from his mount’s side. The horse reared screaming and plunged down, hooves flashing out, destroying the face of its assailant. Theido slumped to the ground with his dying horse as eager hands thrust out to haul him from the saddle.

Ronsard saw his comrade fall and turned his charger into the thick of the fray. His sword sang through the air, and the whistling blade became a flashing rampart before him. Enemies flung themselves down to the ground rather than face his terrible sting.

The fearless knight plunged into the tumult surrounding Theido, and in an instant three of the foe crumpled to the earth. As the enemy drew back, Ronsard reached down a hand and pulled Theido to his feet and up behind him on his horse. “Your hand is much appreciated, good friend,” said Theido.

“A knight without a mount is a sorry sight. I do not like to see my friends looking so forlorn,” Ronsard replied as they bounded away.

King Selric hewed a swathe before him as he and his men advanced to where Ronsard’s dauntless forces labored valiantly, though sorely beset. Many brave knights had fallen as their bodies felt the fatal sting of a blade thrust into some crease in their protection. By the time Selric reached the place, only one remained upon his steed, his reddened mace dripping with the gore of his luckless opponents. He saluted his king and his fallen brothers and turned once more to the havoc.

Little by little the superior numbers of Jaspin’s troops and Nimrood’s Black Legion wore down the stout defenders. The cruel end approaching swiftly, King Selric signaled the remains of his tattered army to circle and form a wall of shields to stay the destroyer’s hand as long as possible.

Theido, having regained a horse, led his cohort wading through the tangle in an effort to join Selric, who stood within the circle of the shields next to Alinea. “Fight on!” He urged them forward. “Fight on!”

Suddenly, two of the dark Legion appeared side by side in his path. Theido dodged to the side to avoid them, but too late. A blade flicked out and caught him a raking blow on the arm. A deep gash opened up, and his sword spun to the ground as he felt the strength leave his hand.

He spurred his mount and jerked the reins back, causing the horse to rear; the well-schooled animal lashed out with its forelegs. But the sable knights ducked aside. A blade flashed; Theido threw himself upon the horse’s neck and heard the swish of the sword as it chopped empty air where his head had been only an instant before.

Theido desperately searched the ground for a weapon, throwing his buckler over his head to protect himself. A blow struck the small shield, nearly wrenching it from his grasp. Another hit home, rending the metal in two. Another blow and the buckler would be useless protection. Theido reeled in the saddle.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a curious sight. The sable knight to his left raised his sword above his head to deliver the killing stroke. But as the black hand began the downward arc, the arm suddenly went askew, careening off like a branch from a tree. An axe had severed it completely. Bloodlessly.

He heard a whoop and saw Trenn’s blustery face beaming back at him. The next thing he knew, the axe had been thrust into his hand.

The black rider on his right, heedless of his comrade’s plight, came on with whistling mace. Once, twice, the mace battered into Theido’s poor shield. The third time it struck; the mace bit through the metal and snagged the buckler away. Theido let it fly. In the moment of confusion while the fouled mace hung down with the weight of the crumpled buckler, Theido swung the axe up and with a mighty heave flung it into the foul knight’s breastplate.

The war axe bit deep, cleaving the armor and neatly burying its head deep in the knight’s chest. No cry of pain came forth, no sign of weakening. Theido could not believe his eyes—an ordinary man would have dropped like a stone.

But the blow did have effect, for Theido was able to spring away as the black creature tugged at the axe sticking out of its chest.

Now Prince Jaspin’s army began to crush Selric’s dwindling numbers as they staunchly stood their ground. Again the courageous king rallied his men, but strength flagged and still the enemy came on.

“I fear it is the end,” said Selric when Ronsard and Theido, abandoning their horses, came to stand beside the valiant warrior.

“We have fought a good fight,” said Ronsard. “I am not ashamed to die this way.”

“Nor I,” replied Theido. He gripped the hands of his friends as the foe opened a breach in the wall of shields. “To the death!” he shouted.

At that moment an uncanny sound reached the battered comrades’ ears: the sound of hearty voices lifted in song. Then someone cried out, “It is the Dragon King!”

The words struck their hearts like living sparks. Could it be true?

“I see him!” someone called. “The Dragon King comes with his army!”

All at once a shout went up. “The Dragon King lives! He has returned!” Then they heard the song streaming forth:

See the armies so arrayed,

Line on line, ten thousand strong.

See the Dragon King’s sharp blade,

Rising to a song!

The attackers faltered and cast worried looks from one to another. Before they could think or move, there arose a whooshing sound, as of a mighty wind. Instantly the sky burst open. The gloom that hung like death over the field of combat fled as a brilliant ball of white light roared into the heavens.

Then he was there: King Eskevar, sitting astride a great white charger, armor glittering in the blinding light, sword held high above his head.

The sight was too much for Jaspin’s warriors. They cried out in terror and threw down their weapons. Some fell to the ground as if they had been struck down; others backed away, stumbling over those behind them.

Jaspin’s commanders sought vainly to rally their cowering soldiers. Another streak tore through the air, and another fireball exploded in the sky, transforming the scene to deepest crimson. This decided the wavering forces; the line broke, and Jaspin’s army retreated. Thousands fled into the forest, shrieking as they ran.

In moments the plain was in turmoil. The nobles who had traded their loyalty to Jaspin for heavy favors held to their grim task, but the men-at-arms, who had nothing to gain by staying, bolted and ran.

Into this panic the Dragon King descended with his peasant army at his back. In the violent red glare of the fireball, these simple peasants with their rakes and hoes were suddenly transformed into armed giants, every one a knight in the eyes of the stricken attackers.

A cry of terror rose from Jaspin’s forces as the Dragon King and his mysterious men-at-arms waded into battle.

Nimrood, watching the contest from a distance, shrieked, “Stop, you dogs! They are only peasants! The victory is ours!” He spurred his horse onto the field in an effort to halt the rout. “Turn! Victory is ours, I say! Turn back and fight!”

The wizard’s screams went unheeded. Pinched between the stubborn defiance of Selric’s soldiers and the Dragon King’s fierce vengeance, Jaspin’s army abandoned the field and fled to the woods and the river beyond. Only the nobles and their knights, and Nimrood and his Legion, remained to settle the issue so surely won bare moments before.

The knights and the nobles came together and formed a wedge to thunder down upon Selric, hoping to scatter his men before turning their full attention upon Eskevar and his peasants.

The wedge assembled and hurtled down the battlefield to crush the staunch defenders. A great whirring sound went up, and suddenly the air prickled with arrows. Voss and his foresters had taken up a position parallel to the flying wedge, where they loosed a stunning volley of arrows from their longbows.

The arrows, thick as hail, rattled off the knights’ armor for the most part, though some by force or luck found a chink or a soft spot and did their work. The poor horses caught some of the missiles aimed for their riders, floundered, and dragged others down with them.

The wedge broke apart and melted away.

Nimrood saw this last attempt to turn the tide of battle falter and knew then that all was lost. He turned his horse and galloped away. He had not run far when a rider darting out of the nearby woods intercepted him.

“Halt, wicked one!” cried the cloaked rider.

“Ah, Durwin—failed wizard, failed priest. I should have recognized your childish tricks,” Nimrood hissed as the other’s horse flew up to bar his escape. “Out of my way, or I will shrivel you like a piece of rotten fruit! You, I should have disposed of long ago. I should have destroyed you all when I had you in my keep.”

“Save your breath, Nimrood. There is nothing more you can do.”

“No? Watch me!” The necromancer pointed his finger and drew a circle around himself in the air. Instantly fire blazed up to form a wall around him. Durwin toppled to the ground as his frightened mount, eyes showing white with terror, bucked and bounded away.

“Ha, ha, ha!” cackled the sorcerer. “There is much this magician can do. Savor the death your meddling has won!”

Nimrood raised his black stone rod and uttered a quick incantation. From outside the shimmering curtain of flames, Durwin saw the sorcerer’s rod begin to glow as red as new-forged iron. Then cruel Nimrood lowered the rod and leveled it upon the hermit. “Say farewell to this world, hermit! You saved your friends; now let your friends save you—if any are left alive!” he spat bitterly.

Sparks like lightning bolts hissed from the rod, striking Durwin, who was instantly knocked to the ground. He fought back to his knees as the sorcerer laughed with glee. “That was just a foretaste. Now for the . . .” His voice faltered as he lowered the rod a second time to deliver the fatal stroke. From out of nowhere an arrow sang through the air and pierced the foul lord’s arm. The rod tumbled from his hand.

Before Nimrood could turn, another arrow found its mark in his shoulder, and he fell from his horse. In two heartbeats Toli was standing over Durwin, notching yet another arrow onto his bowstring.

He raised the bow, then bent its long length.

“No! No!” the sorcerer screamed. “Don’t kill me! Ahh!”

But the Jher ignored the necromancer’s pleas. The arrow flashed through the wall of flames and sank into the wizard’s black heart.

The old sorcerer crumpled inward and became a black heap upon the field. He quivered and lay still.

“At last he is gone,” said Durwin, dragging himself to his feet. His mantle smoked where the fire bolt had seared into his flesh. Toli offered his arm to the hermit, and together they turned to rejoin their comrades as the clash of battle, now diminishing rapidly, came quickly to an end.

They had not walked ten paces when they heard a great sizzling sound. They turned to where Nimrood lay and saw his huddled black form burst into crackling flame; thick black soot rolled into the air. Then, impossibly, in the sputtering flames, they made out the form of a great black bird rising in the smoke.

A moment later they watched as huge black wings slowly lifted away and flew into the woods. Drifting back to them came the rasping call of a raven.

51

At the demise of Nimrood, an uncanny transformation took place. The Legion of the Dead, bearing down upon King Selric and his men with flashing swords and whistling maces, suddenly faltered in their swift course. Their black-gauntleted hands went slack at the reins; they swung weakly in the saddle and plummeted to earth in a tempest of dust and horses’ flying hooves. The six black stallions galloped away across the plain, free at last. The terrible Legion lay still upon the earth.

King Selric was the first to approach the six armored bodies as they lay. He crept close, his reddened blade held at the ready. Kneeling down over the first of the fallen knights, he glanced at the wondering faces of his men, now gathered around him, and slowly raised the helmet’s visor.

The empty sockets of a skeleton’s skull stared back at him. Death’s Legion was no more.

For a long time the battlefield lay wrapped in silence; a deep and reverent hush had fallen upon the ground hallowed with the blood of brave men. Then, one by one, all raised their heads to a jingling sound and beheld a sight that made their hearts soar with a happiness long denied: the Dragon King upon his great charger galloping into their midst, and Alinea his queen running to meet him.

Eskevar threw off his helmet, Alinea threw aside her shield and blade, and then he caught her up in his strong arms and lifted her off her feet and onto his horse in a long embrace.

The plain reverberated in tremendous, tumultuous, joyful acclaim. Tears of happiness streamed down besmudged faces. The Dragon King and his beautiful queen were at last reunited. The realm of Mensandor was secure.

To Quentin, who had followed in the king’s wake, the scene seemed to take on the quality of one of his dreams. There were the king and queen riding into the cheering throng of their most loyal subjects. She, sitting before him on his saddle, appeared more radiant and beautiful than any woman he had ever seen. And though her auburn tresses tumbled awry and her features were grimy with soot and tears, he thought she looked the more lovely for it all. And the king, armor shining in the golden light of a glorious afternoon sun suddenly burning through the gloom, held his great sword high overhead and proclaimed the victory in a clear, triumphant voice.

Then Quentin was in the arms of his friends. Toli was pulling him from his horse and crushing him in a fierce hug. Theido, one arm newly bandaged, was nevertheless pounding him on the back with the other, while Durwin gripped his face with both big hands and fairly danced for joy. Ronsard, Trenn, and King Selric shook hands and laughed until tears ran from their eyes and their sides ached.

Quentin, too overcome to speak—his voice seemed to have dried up—just beamed at them all, peering through bleary eyes that sparkled with happy tears. Never had he felt so wonderful, so complete.

The king raised his voice to speak; the glad companions turned to hear him. His voice echoed over the plain, saying, “Today will be a day of mourning for our fallen comrades. Tonight their funeral pyres will light their brave souls’ homeward way. The armies of Heoth have this day claimed many fine soldiers—we will honor them as is befitting men of high valor.

“But tomorrow . . . ,” the Dragon King continued. All eyes were upon him in rapt wonder; many still could not believe that he had indeed returned. “Tomorrow will be a day of celebration throughout the realm of Mensandor! The victory has been won!”

At this, all on the plain of Askelon leaped to a shout, and songs of victory poured forth from all assembled there. Far into the night the songs continued, muted only during the lighting of the funeral pyres of the fallen countrymen.

When at last the pyres had dwindled to glowing embers, Quentin and the others started back to Askelon. Quentin watched as over the darkened field the funeral fires twinkled and winked out one by one as if they were stars extinguishing themselves forever.

The next day was a day Quentin treasured forever. He awakened to fine bright sunlight streaming in through an open window on a breeze perfumed by the fresh scent of wildflowers. He rubbed his eyes and remembered he had spent the night in Askelon Castle.

Jumping up, he found that his clothes had been removed and in their place were the rich garments of a young prince: a tunic of white samite with silver buttons and royal blue trousers, and a richly embroidered cloak woven with threads of gold so that it sparkled in the sunlight as he turned it over in his hands. There was a golden brooch in the shape of a stag’s head and a golden chain to fasten the cloak. He had never seen clothes this wonderful. And shoes! Fine leather boots that fit him perfectly.

A servant brought rose-scented water and waited on him while he washed. Quentin’s hands trembled as he dressed himself and dashed out of his apartment, fastening his cloak with the golden brooch as he ran, quite forgetting the aching stiffness in his leg. Theido and Durwin, both looking nobler than he had ever seen them, were just emerging from their chambers, directly across from his own.

“Ho there, young sir!” cried Theido with a grin. “Who is this bold knight I see before me? Do you know him, Durwin?”

“Unless my eyes deceive me,” said Durwin, “this must be the king’s champion off on some new adventure!”

“It is wonderful! All this—” Words failed him.

“Yes, yes. Wonderful indeed.” Durwin laughed. “But you have seen nothing at all until you have seen the Great Hall of the Dragon King in high celebration!”

“Let’s go there now!” cried Quentin. “I do want to see it!”

“Not so fast,” said Theido. “Breakfast first—though I would hold back somewhat, for there are sure to be delicacies abounding throughout the day. We will join the others first.”

“Then can we go?” asked Quentin anxiously.

“In due time.” Durwin laughed. “You are impetuosity itself. I should have known when I saw you riding off into the wood after good Theido here that you would bring back the king. I should have seen it!”

At breakfast the three joined Toli, Ronsard, and Trenn, all bedecked in the appropriate finery. Toli looked the part of the royal squire and insisted on serving Quentin by his own hand. He would have attended Quentin in his chamber had he not been prevented by servants of his own—Toli, too, was a most honored guest.

Quentin blushed, faintly embarrassed by Toli’s enthusiastic ministrations; for although the Jher did not say a word, Quentin could see the light of a glowing pride kindled in Toli’s wide, dark eyes. To Toli, Quentin appeared at last to have taken his rightful place as a prince of the realm.

In the massive chamber of court, King Eskevar sat upon his high throne, looking grave and righteous as he heard the evidence of the misdeeds practiced against him and his people during his absence.

Lord Larcott and Lord Weldon were released from prison and restored to full favor with their monarch. In their places were Sir Grenett and Sir Bran, until they should have a change of heart and be willing to swear allegiance and fidelity anew to their monarch.

Jaspin appeared next before the throne. So feeble with remorse had he become that he had to be dragged forth by guards and propped up on a stool to hear his sentence.

“For your part, Jaspin,” said Eskevar, not without compassion, “I will be lenient, though you will no doubt perceive your punishment as more harsh than you can bear. Be that as it may, I have decided.

“You shall be banished from this realm to wander the world and make a home wherever you may find men to receive you. You will never trouble Mensandor again.”

Jaspin wailed as if he had been struck with a hot poker. He cried to his brother for mercy. “Allow me to confine myself to my own castle. In time you shall forget this unpleasantness.”

But Eskevar was firm in his resolve. “You may take with you one companion: Ontescue.” He nodded, and the wily Ontescue was brought forth, muttering darkly.

“Ontescue,” the king pronounced, “you, who would be the king’s companion, shall accompany your ‘monarch’ wherever he goes to guide him in exile as you sought to guide him on this throne.”

Ontescue blanched, but he bowed low and said nothing, grateful at least to have saved his head.

A whole host of nobles and knights, prisoners taken on the battlefield, were ushered in. They were each made to pledge their oaths of loyalty once more to the Dragon King, and each then promised a ransom for themselves and agreed to a levy on their lands. But they were released at once.

“I have served my enemies as the law and mercy allow. Now let my friends receive their justice as well,” announced the king.

King Selric was called first and came to stand before Eskevar, who, out of deference to his friend, stood as well. “I cannot reward your courage and valor upon the field nor repay the service you and your soldiers have rendered this crown. For this I shall call you brother, for you have shown yourself more true than any tie blood itself could purchase.

“But as a mere token of my gratitude, let me offer you the worthy ransom with which these nobles have redeemed themselves. Take it and divide it among your men and the families of the brave soldiers who died in this duty. Please accept it—it is but little recompense.”

“I thank you, good Eskevar. You are fair and just. But my men are my responsibility to reward, and I have means and plenty to do it. They will not want who have served in this campaign, nor families lack for the loss of a provider.

“For myself, I am content with your friendship and will rejoice to call you brother.”

At this, King Eskevar descended from the dais and hugged King Selric to himself in a fond embrace. Then the two men raised their clasped hands in the air to the loud acclaim of all who gathered there.

Trenn was called next and came to kneel before the throne. When he stood up to leave, the city of Askelon had a new sheriff. Ronsard followed and was made Lord High Marshal of the realm.

Theido received back his title, which Jaspin had plundered, and his lands as well as those of Jaspin’s at Erlott.

Then it was Durwin’s turn. “Sir, I would reward you with anything in my power to grant: title, position, gold. You only have to name your reward and it is yours,” said Eskevar.

“Your safe return to a just rule of your people is reward enough for me,” said the hermit of Pelgrin Forest. “For myself, I wish only to return to my cottage and live there in peace.”

“Nothing else?”

“Only this: let me remain but a servant of a just and righteous king.” He paused thoughtfully and added, “But if I may request a small favor?”

“It is yours.”

“A promise then that the Dragon King will never again leave his throne empty for so long.”

Eskevar laughed and held up his hand. “So be it. I have promised.

“There is one more I would reward,” said the king, glancing down the assembled ranks of onlookers. Quentin was shocked to hear his own name called.

“Quentin, step forward.”

A thrill of excitement shot through him as he nervously stepped to the foot of the Dragon King’s great throne. He knelt there as had the others, hands folded on his knee.

“You I would reward most profoundly,” said the king, emotion rising in his voice. “For it was you who broke the bonds of sorcery that held me and snatched me back from death. Your blood and prayer freed me from the spell of the evil necromancer.

“All that I have, the treasures of my kingdom, are yours. For on this day you shall become my ward, my son.”

Quentin looked up in uncomprehending amazement, and then he saw Alinea, a queen once more, with her golden circlet upon her brow, approaching him, her emerald eyes sparkling. The king descended toward Quentin, and both then met him where he knelt. They raised him to his feet, and then the king proclaimed in a loud voice that echoed throughout the court and corridors beyond, “Let the celebration begin!”

All at once the doors of the court were thrown open, and trumpets blared the king’s proclamation. The clarion call echoed and reechoed through the castle and through Askelon itself and through the countryside, and anyone within earshot knew that today they would be welcome in the Great Hall of the Dragon King.

Then Quentin, walking between the king and queen, his feet barely touching the floor, was whisked into Askelon’s great hall.

To Quentin it was a dream come true. The hall was hung with ten thousand bright pennons of red and gold. Streamers of flowers formed varicolored canopies overhead, and the windows had been thrown wide to let the sun itself pour gold upon all it touched. The garden beyond had been transformed into a vast dining area where tables were set, and luscious food of every kind and description was being prepared in front of pavilions raised for the cooks and their scullions, who scampered along the tables with platters of meat and fruit and cakes.

A mood of joyous festivity floated on the breeze like the song of a lark. Then the gates were opened and the people flooded in to begin the most wonderful celebration any of them could remember.

The sun was beginning to set when Quentin and his personal shadow, Toli, at last had their fill of feasting and singing and laughing. In the glow of hundreds of torches flickering to light throughout the hall and on the lawn, Quentin sought Durwin, standing alone on the long balcony overlooking the merriment below.

“What is wrong, Durwin?” asked Quentin softly. He had seen a melancholy glimmer in the hermit’s eye when he approached. “Why do you not join in the festivity?”

“Ah, Quentin, it is you. Oh, I have enjoyed myself quite as much as I feel able.” He smiled a smile Quentin thought a little sad. He turned to watch the stars come out one by one in the vast blue vault of the heavens.

“We won,” Quentin breathed, his upturned face lit by glimmering torchlight. “We won at last.”

“So it is! We won the battle . . . but the war is not over, I fear.”

“Not over? What do you mean?”

“Look around you, Quentin. Think about all that has happened to you. The old gods of earth and sky are vanishing; the old order is passing away. The true god is making himself known; his rule is just beginning. But the old ways die hard.

“This is the twilight of the gods, and there is much darkness still ahead before the dawn comes. Ah, but the light will come. That I promise you!”

Then the hermit turned and fixed Quentin with a long and wondering gaze. “Remember your blessing, Quentin. You have some part to play in all of this—the god has his hand on you. Perhaps he has chosen you to help bring in his new order. What you have done is just the beginning; there is still much to do.”

Quentin stood blinking back at the holy hermit.

“Durwin,” he said with a sudden urgency, “I want to go back— back to Dekra. Is there anything to prevent me, do you think?”

“By no means. A ward of the king may go anywhere; all doors are open to you.”

“Would you go with me?”

“I would love nothing better. There is much I would show you.”

“Can we leave right away?”

“As soon as may be, my hasty young sir. However, it would be well to abide in Askelon for a time to allow Eskevar to express his gratitude. But we will go soon enough.” Then, noticing Quentin’s anxious look, he asked, “What? Is one adventure not enough for you? You have to begin another so soon?”

“But there is so much to do, so much to learn.”

“And plenty of time to accomplish what has been given us. We will think about all that some other time. Look! Here comes Toli with someone who would like to meet the hero of the day.”

Quentin turned to see Toli hurrying up; a young girl followed demurely behind him. With a start Quentin realized that it was the girl he had met outside the furrier’s shop that cold winter’s day that now seemed so long ago. She smiled shyly as she approached, and Quentin realized how very much like Queen Alinea she looked. Their auburn hair and emerald eyes were identical. Before Toli could make the introduction, Theido, who came strolling up along the balcony, called out, “Ah, Bria! There you are! After pestering me all day to introduce you, I see you have managed on your own.”

Quentin bowed low and said, none too certainly, “I am Quentin at your service, my lady.” The girl, her green eyes sparkling, rustled a deep curtsy in her pale blue beribboned dress.

“Well you say ‘my lady,’” said Theido, beaming. “Do you not know that you are addressing the princess?” He and Durwin both laughed, and when Quentin turned, they were already walking away arm in arm back to the garden, where music had begun to play under the stars.

“I am Princess Bria,” the girl confessed. “Would you like to listen to the music?”

Quentin was speechless, but his eyes spoke most eloquently for him. Toli fairly pranced for joy, his dark features shining with pleasure, as he ushered the bashful couple along. Bria’s warm hand closed upon Quentin’s as she drew him away into a night he suddenly wished would never end.

The Dragon King Trilogy, Book Two

For Drake, my shining one.

With all my love.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

1

Quentin stood at the high parapet overlooking the tranquil forest. His eyes scanned the gently lifting hills clothed in their greens of early summer, all softened in the golden afternoon light by the gathering mists of evening. At his hand upon the cool stone balustrade a thin parchment roll fluttered in the easy breeze. At his feet lay a leather case from which he had drawn the scroll to read only moments before. The case bore the royal insignia he knew so well: the terrible, twisting red dragon of the Dragon King.

The warmth of the late-afternoon sun splashed full on his face, and yet Quentin felt a chill creeping through him. He sighed a heavy sigh and hung his head, shaking it slowly from side to side. Hearing a rustle behind him and the brushing tread of a soft foot on the stone, he turned to see Toli gliding up.

The tall young man settled himself easily on the edge of the parapet and crossed his arms over his chest. He regarded Quentin with a quizzical brown eye and then looked out over the forest, cocking his head to one side. “Listen,” he said, after a moment. “It is the sound of a world at peace.”

Quentin listened and heard the faraway chirp of birds as they fluttered among the whirtle berries, the breeze nudging the leaves, voices murmuring in a courtyard somewhere below.

“They told me a rider from Askelon had arrived with a message for you. I thought to come and see if you needed anything.”

Quentin looked at his friend and smiled. “You mean curiosity moved you from your beloved stables. Yes, a message from the king.” He picked up the parchment and handed it to Toli, who began to read.

Presently Toli’s head came up, and his eyes found Quentin’s studying him. “This does not say what the trouble is.”

“No, but it is not a request for a friendly visit. There is some need behind it, and some urgency. If it were but a small thing, Eskevar would have waited. We’re due to travel back to Askelon soon anyway . . .”

“And this recommends we leave right away. Yes, I see. But there is something else?” Toli’s sharp eyes appraised Quentin, who stiffened and turned from their piercing gaze.

“What makes you say that?”

Toli laughed softly. “Only that I know my Kenta very well. You would not look so if you did not have a suspicion of what lay behind this innocent summons.”

“Innocent?” He fingered the leather case that he had stooped to retrieve. “Perhaps, but you are right, Toli; there is something else. I don’t know—it just came over me as I was reading.”

Toli watched Quentin closely and waited for him to continue.

“I’m afraid if we go to Askelon now, we will never come back to Dekra again.”

“You saw this?”

Quentin only shook his head.

“Well, then it may not be. Your feelings may only be a warning of what may come if we do not go at once.”

Quentin smiled again; this time a flicker of relief shone in his eyes. “Yes, perhaps you are right. As usual you have rescued me from myself.”

“We can leave tonight. It will be good to sleep on the trail again. We have not done that in a long time, you and I.”

“We shall, but not tonight. Have you forgotten that tonight we dine with Yeseph? If I am not mistaken, we have only enough time to prepare ourselves and go to his house. He will be waiting.

“We will leave at dawn instead,” said Quentin.

“So be it,” said Toli, inclining his head in a slight bow. “I will see to our preparations when we have supped with Yeseph and the elders.”

Quentin nodded and took the rolled parchment that Toli offered him, then slid it back into its case as they turned and walked back into Quentin’s rooms.

Quentin dressed quickly, donning a fresh mantle and tunic, and pulling on fine leather boots. He met Toli at the door, and the two set off for Yeseph’s lodgings.

Yeseph lived in a quarter of the ruined city near the library. As they walked along together, Quentin looked upon the home he had come to love. His eyes, long ago accustomed to the tumbled structures that still met his gaze on every side, seemed not to notice the destruction, but instead saw it all the way it had been in the time of the mighty Ariga.

In his mind he saw stones lifted back into place one upon another; arches reconstructed with their colorful tiles, and beautifully carved doors thrown wide in welcome; courtyards once again abloom with flowering plants; streets echoing laughter and song. He saw it all as he imagined it had been. Quentin always experienced the same magical sensation when he moved about the city. In the ten years he had lived in Dekra, he never lost the rapture it held for him, or the feeling that he belonged there, that Dekra was his home as was none other he would ever find.

“It will be once more,” said Toli as they moved along the quiet streets, over stones worn and smooth with time.

“What will be?” asked Quentin absently.

“This city. It will be again what it once was: the way you see it in your head.”

“Do you think so?”

“Don’t you?”

“I believe that it will. I want to believe it. Though it seems sometimes that the work goes so slowly. There is so much to be done. We could use more hands.”

“But look how much has been accomplished since we came here. And every year our numbers grow. Whist Orren blesses our efforts with his own.”

It was true. The work of restoring the ancient city and populating it with people who shared the dream of rebuilding it to its former glory, of studying the ways of the Ariga and their god—that was going on at a fine pace. Much had been done in ten years. The work of a lifetime, however, still remained. And that was what pricked Quentin’s impatience.

They met Quentin’s stooped old teacher where he stood waiting for them at the gate of his courtyard. His face beamed when he saw the two young men striding up. “Hello! Hello, my friends!” cried Yeseph, running out to meet them. “I have been waiting for you. You are the first to arrive. I was hoping that would be the case. I wanted to talk to you both.”

He drew them into the shady courtyard and led them to stone benches under a spreading tree. The yard was spotless and furnished as nicely as any garden could be whose owner loved plants and flowering things.

“Sit down, please. Sit. Omani!” Yeseph clapped his hands when his guests had seated themselves beneath the tree. A slim young girl appeared with a tray of wooden goblets and a stone carafe. She floated forward with an easy grace and laid the tray at Yeseph’s elbow where he sat. “You may pour, bright one,” he said gently.

The girl poured and served the beverages around. She turned to leave, and Yeseph called after her. “See that the meal is prepared when the others arrive. It will not be long now, I think.” She bowed and retreated into the house, smiling all the while.

The Curatak did not have servants. But often young girls or boys would attach themselves to the households of older Curatak leaders or craftsmen to serve and learn at their hand, until they decided what they wished to do with their lives. In that way those who needed the assistance of a servant did not lack, and young people found useful occupation until they could enter the adult world.

Yeseph watched the girl disappear into his darkened doorway a little wistfully. Quentin noticed his look and commented, “She’s a very able helper, Yeseph. You are blessed.”

“Yes, and I am sorry to lose her.”

“Why would you lose her?”

“Why not? She is nearly eighteen. She wishes to be married soon. Next summer perhaps. She and Rulan, a former pupil of mine. He is a good man, very intelligent. It will be a good match. But I will lose a wonderful cook and companion. I feel she is my own daughter.”

“Why don’t you get married again?” asked Toli.

Yeseph suddenly looked flustered. “Who has been talking to you?”

“No one. I merely wondered.”

“Well, it is true nonetheless. That is what I wanted to tell you. I am to be married. I am announcing the banns tonight.”

“Congratulations!” shouted Quentin, jumping to his feet. He crossed the distance between himself and his former teacher in one bound and embraced him, kissing both cheeks.

“Who is the lucky bride?”

“It is Karyll, the cloth-maker.”

“The widow of Lendoe, who was killed in action at the forge some time ago?”

“Yes, the same. A fine woman. She has been lonely for so long . . .”

Quentin laughed. “You need not explain to us; you have our permission already. I am sure you will both be very happy together.”

“Yes, we shall. I am very happy now—sharing this news with my friends. You know I have come to regard you both as my own sons.”

“And you have been a father to us more often than we can remember.”

“I wanted you to be the first to know.”

“Will we see the esteemed lady tonight? I would like to congratulate her as well.”

“She will be here—if that is not her voice I hear even now.”

The sound of light voices lifted in laughter came to the courtyard from the street beyond. Yeseph dashed to the gate once more and welcomed his bride and her two companions. Blushing and smiling, he led her toward Quentin and Toli, who stood grinning.

“My friends, this is my betrothed, Karyll.”

The short, round-faced woman smiled warmly back at them. Her hair was bound demurely at her neck in an ornamented netting, and among the brown Quentin could see streaks of silver. She was dressed in a plain, white, loose-fitting gown with a bright blue shawl over her shoulders. She was a handsome woman.

As Yeseph drew her close to him with his arm, he gave his future wife a look of such endearment that Quentin felt a pang of longing for his own beloved.

“Hello, Karyll, and congratulations. Yeseph has been telling us that you two are to be married. I am very pleased.”

“Thank you, Quentin. We are very happy.” She turned and gazed into Yeseph’s eyes and added, “Yeseph is full of your praises. It pleases me that he has chosen you to hear of our plans first.”

“When will the wedding take place?” asked Toli.

“Yeseph and I thought that a midsummer wedding would be nice.”

“Yes,” agreed the groom. “There is nothing to prevent us from being married at once. We are both of age.” He laughed, and Karyll laughed with him. But the laughter faded when neither Quentin nor Toli shared their mirth. Both had become strangely silent; the light of happiness was extinguished in their eyes.

“What is the matter? Does our plan not meet with your approval?”

“Yes, and more than you know. But I fear that we will not be among the happy wedding guests.”

“Why not, may I ask?”

“We were going to tell you this evening. We have received a summons from the king, and we must leave for Askelon.”

“Yes? But I thought you would stay until midsummer at least.”

“No—at once. A rider came today. We must leave at once.”

“Then we will wait until your return,” offered Yeseph. Karyll nodded her agreement.

Quentin smiled sadly. “No, I could not ask that. I do not know when we may return. Please, do not wait on our account.”

Toli attempted to set the mood in a lighter tone. “Kenta means that if he were in your place, Yeseph, he would not let so lovely a creature escape into the arms of another. You must marry as you have planned. We will return to greet the happy couple before they have been wed a fortnight.”

Yeseph sought Quentin’s eyes. He, as usual, could read more than his friend intended. “Is it trouble, then?”

“I fear that it is.” Quentin sighed. “The message did not say it directly, and the courier did not say more. But he left immediately without awaiting an answer.”

Yeseph regarded Quentin as he stood before him. From an awkward, impetuous youth had grown a square-shouldered, sensitive man—tall, lean in the way young men are, yet without the careless air they often have. Quentin had a regal bearing, and yet utterly lacked any self-consciousness of it, or the arrogance that often accompanied such a noble spirit.

A pang of longing ached in the old man’s heart when he saw his young pupil and protégé wavering, as if on the brink of a great abyss. He wanted to reach out and pull him back, but he knew he could not. Quentin belonged to Dekra, yes, but he also belonged to Askelon, and neither loyalty could be denied.

“You must go, of course.” Yeseph offered a strained smile. “When will you leave?”

“Tomorrow at dawn. I think it is best.”

“Of course. Of course. Do not delay. Besides, the sooner you are off, the sooner you may return, and perhaps you will bring Bria with you this time.”

At the mention of the name, Quentin started. He smiled warmly again. The cold shadow that had fallen upon the happy group moved away, and in the glimmering of a softly falling twilight, they began to talk excitedly once more of all they would do when next they met.

Despite their desire for an early start the next morning, Quentin and Toli were the last to leave Yeseph’s house. There had been much singing and eating and talking. The elders had blessed the young men’s journey, and all had listened to stories and songs of the lost Ariga, sung by one of the young Curatak musicians. Then all had made their good-byes, but none more ardently than Quentin.

“Look, Kenta,” said Toli as they found their way along the dark and empty streets. The moon shone full upon the city, pouring out a liquid silver light upon all it touched.

Quentin followed Toli’s gaze upward to the sky. “What do you see?”

“Oh, it is gone now. A star fell; that is all.”

“Hmmm.” Quentin retreated again into his reverie.

He listened to their footsteps echo along the streets and felt Dekra’s quiet peacefulness enfold him. Then, unaccountably, he shivered, as if they had just walked through a hanging pool of cooler air. Toli noticed the quiver of Quentin’s shoulders and looked at his friend.

“Did you feel it too?”

Quentin ignored the question, and they continued on a few more paces. “Do you think we will ever return to this place?” he asked finally.

“The night is not a time to dwell on such things.”

The two walked silently back to the governor’s palace and made their way to their rooms. “It will be good to see Askelon again,” said Quentin as they parted. “And all our friends. Good night.”

“Good night. I will wake you in the morning.”

For a long time Quentin lay on his bed and did not close his eyes. He heard Toli quietly packing their things in the next room, and the Jher’s soft footfall as he left to see to the horses before he, too, slept. At last he rolled over on his side and fell at once to sleep as the moon shone brightly through his balcony doors, peering in like a kindly face.

2

Quentin met Toli in the stables—the grouping of low stone structures Toli had turned to the purpose of breeding horses. In his time at Dekra, the Jher had become an excellent trainer and breeder of fine horses. In fact, with the help of Eskevar’s stablemaster, he was developing a remarkable strain of animals that were a cross between the heavier warhorses, such as Balder, and the lighter, more fleet racing stock that were the pride of Pelagia. The resulting breed would possess strength and stamina enough for battle, but would also have the ability to run fast and far without tiring.

Quentin passed under the stone arch and came to stand before Balder’s stall. The old warhorse whinnied softly when he saw his master approaching. Quentin held out his hand and patted the horse’s soft muzzle and stroked the bulging jaw.

“You may stay here this time, old boy. Take care of him, Wilton,” he called over his shoulder to the youngster who helped Toli. “Give him an extra carrot now and then.” Then, patting the horse’s white-starred forehead, he said, “We will go for a long ride when I come back.”

The stable smelled of sweet fennel and straw and the warm bodies of the horses. The smell reminded Quentin of traveling, and he reflected that he was indeed anxious to be off. He crossed to where Toli stood checking their mounts’ tack and gear.

“Good morning, Kenta. I was just about to come and wake you.”

“As you see, I am ready to go; I did not sleep much of the night. Is all prepared?” He turned to slap a milk-white stallion on the shoulder. “Ho, there, Blazer! Are you anxious to stretch those long legs of yours?” The horse tossed its flowing mane and rolled a blue-black eye at Quentin as if to say, “Why are we waiting?”

“I have only to charge Wilton with some final instructions,” remarked Toli. “Then we will go.”

Toli returned and took the reins of both horses and led them out into the quiet streets. Quentin followed at Toli’s right hand and listened to the clop of the horses’ hooves upon the cobbled stones of the ancient streets. In the east the sky shone with a violet haze that lightened into a golden-red hue as the sun rose higher.

Toli sniffed the air and announced, “The wind is from the west over the sea. We will have good weather for our journey.”

“Good. I am hoping to be in Askelon before the new moon. We should be able to manage that, aye?”

“It is possible. With good horses and the king’s road restored through Pelgrin . . .”

“We have horses with wings, my friend. And Eskevar’s road is now complete as far as the Arvin. We shall fly indeed.”

They reached the gates of the city and let themselves out. The gates were seldom tended, since Dekra had no fear of intrusion and no real need for defense.

At the small door that opened within the larger, Quentin paused and took a long last look upon the city he loved. The red stone glowed with the rosy hue of the rising sun. Towers and spires swept majestically into the clear, cool morning air, gleaming and glittering like radiant crystal.

The ordinary sounds of the city waking to life echoed out into the empty streets; a dog barked; a door opened and closed. Behind him Blazer and Riv, Toli’s sleek black mount, shook their bridles, impatient to be moving along. Quentin raised an arm in farewell to Dekra and then turned to his horse.

“It is time for speed,” he called as he swung himself up into the saddle. “On, Blazer!” The horse lifted his forelegs off the ground, gave a little kick, and leaped ahead to the trail.

Quentin pushed an eager course through the low hills and into the wretched marshlands. They planned to hold north as far as Malmarby, thus skirting the boggy wasteland as much as possible. At Malmarby they would hire a boat to cross the inlet and swing along the shore west past Celbercor’s Wall. Then the trail would become easier. They would make for the Arvin River where it came spilling clear and cold out of the Fiskills, ride through the wide foothills above Narramoor along the king’s new road, and speed along through Pelgrin to Askelon.

The days on the trail were uneventful. Game was plentiful, and thanks to Toli’s skill as a hunter, they never lacked for anything the hills could provide.

They arrived at Malmarby village one bright morning, picking the wider path toward the town out of the maze of bogs and wetlands that surrounded it.

As they approached the village, Toli stiffened in the saddle and reined his horse to a halt. Quentin mirrored his actions, wondering what had alarmed his friend.

“What is it? What do you see?”

“Something is amiss in the village yonder; I feel it.”

“It looks peaceful enough. But let us go with caution.”

They paced the horses slowly ahead, and both watched the thickets and dense shrubbery that lined the path for any signal that might confirm Toli’s apprehension.

They saw no one and heard nothing until just before reaching the village itself. Quentin stopped his horse and stood in the saddle, looking around. The muddy track that served as Malmarby’s main street was vacant. No living thing stirred among the rough wooden houses; no sound issued from doorway or window.

“There does not appear to be anyone around. I wonder where—”

He had not finished speaking when four men sprang out of the nearest thicket and grabbed the horses’ bridles. Two of the men were armed with spears and the others with short swords. All appeared very frightened, their faces grim with worry and pale from fear.

It was the look upon these sorry faces that made Quentin hold his hand. “Stay, Toli! We need not fear these men, I think.” Quentin spoke loudly and calmly so that their would-be attackers would know that they intended no harm.

There was a rustle in the thicket, and another man stepped out, or rather fell, into the road. Quentin recognized the thin, careworn face of the village counselor.

“Good morning, Counselor. Is this the way you treat strangers nowadays? Or perhaps you wished to invite us to breakfast.”

The thin, bald man blinked and rushed forward, squinting at the travelers with his one good eye.

“Quentin? Step back, men. It is the prince! Let them go!” Quentin smiled at the appellation. He was not the prince, but his legend had so grown among the simple people of Mensandor that he held that lofty position in their esteem. So they conferred upon him the highest title they could presume; to them he was, quite simply, the prince.

“Yes, it is Quentin. But tell me, Milan, why this rude reception? And where are your townspeople? The village looks deserted.”

“I’m sorry, good sir. We meant you no harm.” The village chief looked heartbroken. He wrung his hands over each other as he spoke, as if he feared some fierce retribution. “It’s just that . . . well, we cannot be too careful these days; there have been stories of evil deeds—we thought it best to post a watch on the road.”

“Robbers?” Quentin asked.

Milan ignored the question and asked one of his own. “You yourself have seen nothing?”

“No, nothing.”

Quentin shrugged and looked at Toli. Toli studied the faces of the men before them and remained silent.

“Well, perhaps our fears are unfounded. Will you stay with us?”

“No, not this time. If we may have the use of one of your excellent boats, we will put off directly. We are going to Askelon as quickly as we can.”

The town counselor fixed Quentin with a strange, knowing look and turned away. “Go on ahead and tell the town. The way is clear; there is nothing to fear,” he called to one of his men. Then to Quentin he added, “The boat is yours. You may take mine; it is the largest by far; my son will go with you.”

“We are grateful for your kindness,” said Quentin as they moved off together.

They passed the simple dwellings that crowded one another all along the path right down to the water’s edge. Quentin saw an occasional fleeting face at a window or peering from a doorway, but by the time they reached the great wooden pier that served as a wharf for the town’s fishing boats, most of Malmarby’s citizens were going about their business as though nothing unusual had happened. Many followed them down to the pier, and many more hailed the regal travelers as they passed.

The boats of Malmarby were broad, boxy things—sturdy enough to withstand the anger of the harshest seas, which they never faced, since the bulky boats served but to ply the sheltered inlet from one end to the other along its length.

Milan’s boat was more than adequate for their need, though the horses showed some trepidation at being led aboard such a strange-looking vessel.

With Milan’s son, Rol, at the long stern oar, they waved themselves away from the throng on the pier. Rol’s strong hands worked the oar, and soon they had entered a deeper channel, where a swift current pulled them along. They raised the small sail on its stubby mast and drifted smartly away.

“Where do you wish to land, my lords?” called Rol from his seat at the tiller.

“Anywhere you think best, as long as it is west of the Wall.” Quentin paused and regarded the hardy youth, who had strong shoulders and a thick thatch of brown hair. He remembered when the good-natured young man had been a skinny little boy who ran alongside the horses whenever a traveler passed through the village—such as Quentin and Toli had often had occasion to do.

“What is it the village fears?” asked Quentin, stepping close to Rol. “What has come to pass since we have last come this way?”

The young man shrugged a muscled shoulder and continued working the oar. “I do not know. Stories, that is all. It does not take much to frighten such a small village.”

“What are these stories you speak of ? Why have they frightened everyone so badly?”

Toli stepped in to hear what Rol had to say.

“This spring some people came to us out of the Suthlands, saying they had been set upon by demons and their homes burned.”

“Demons do not burn homes,” remarked Toli.

Again the tentative shrug. “I do not know if they do or not; that is what the people said.”

“Hmmmm . . . that is strange. Did they say what these demons looked like?”

“They are giants. Fierce. Fire spewed from their mouths, and each one had ten arms with claws for hands.”

“Where did these demons come from? Did they say?”

“No one knew. Some said they came from beyond the sea. From beyond Gerfallon. Others said they saw the sign of the Wolf Star on their foreheads. Maybe they came down from the sky.”

“This is an odd tale,” said Quentin to Toli as they drew aside.

“Why would anyone burn a village of peasants in the Suthlands?” Toli asked. “There is little enough there, and nothing to be gained by such doings.”

“I cannot guess. The realm is at peace these past ten years. We will tell the king about this; they may have heard something in Askelon.”

Rol proved an able seaman, and the day’s end found them close to their destination. A faint mist gathered on the water at the shoreline and pushed out into the inlet. Through the gray mist they saw the dark plane of the Great Wall jutting out into the deep water as the shadows lengthened upon the land.

Rol steered the boat around the Wall’s looming edge and made for the rocky strand. No one spoke as they passed by the imposing shape. The steady slap and dip of Rol’s long oar was the only sound that broke the stillness of the water.

Quentin watched the mist curling around the base of the Wall and thought it made the Wall appear to be floating on a foundation of billowing clouds, while the deepening sky above seemed to grow hard and solid as stone as it darkened with the twilight. He started when he heard a hollow knock and felt the slight jolt that told him they had touched shore.

“Will you stay with us tonight, Rol? We will camp a little way along the trail, up there.” Quentin pointed to a tree-lined rise that bordered the shore. “Toli will have a fire going in no time, and we will have some hot food.”

“Thank you, my lord. I am tired—and hungry, too. I cannot say which I am the more.”

“Well, you have done us a great service, and it shall be rewarded. Here,”—Quentin reached into the soft leather pouch that hung at his belt—“a gold ducat for your trouble, and one for your kindness.”

Rol bowed low as he thrust out his callused hand. “Sir, it is too much. I cannot accept so much.” He fingered the gold coins and handed them back to Quentin.

“No, you have earned them both, and our praise besides. Keep them and say no more about it. But, look! Toli is already making camp. Let us hurry and join him, or we may be too late for our supper.”

The three reclined around the fire and talked as the stars came out in the immense black vault of the heavens. Below them on the strand, the water lapped gently against the smooth, round rocks, and above them, in the trees, a nightbird called to its mate. Tall pines stood over them, and the air smelled of fresh wind and balsam.

Quentin drifted easily to sleep, nodding in his place, until he at last bade his companions good night and rolled himself in his cloak. Toli added another log to the fire and got up to check the horses before he himself turned in. Rol already slept soundly, judging from the slow, even rhythm of his breathing.

Toli stretched and lifted his eyes to the night sky, now sparkling with tiny lights. As he scanned the heavens, his eye caught a curious sight. He stood for a moment, contemplating what he saw, and then he turned and crept softly toward Quentin.

“Kenta . . .” He nudged his sleeping friend gently. “Kenta, I want you to see something.”

Quentin turned and sat up. He peered intently into Toli’s face, lit on one side by the firelight. He could not read the expression there.

“What is it? Have you at last seen the White Stag?”

“No, nothing so important.” Toli dismissed the jest. “I thought you might want to see this.” He led Quentin a short space away from the fire and the overhanging boughs of the trees.

“Look to the east . . . there just above the Wall. Do you see it?”

“A star? Yes, I see it—that very bright star.”

“See how it shines. Do you think it odd?”

“It is the Wolf Star. But you are right; it does have a different look tonight. What do you make of it?”

Toli gazed upward at the brilliant star and at last turned away, saying, “I do not know what to make of it. I only wanted you to see it, so that we may be agreed about it.”

Quentin was not satisfied with this answer. Toli, who was evidently withholding something, declined to speak further. There was no use in pushing the matter further until the Jher was ready to say more. Whatever was tumbling around in that head, thought Quentin, would come out sooner or later, but only when Toli desired it so. He would wait. Quentin sighed and rolled himself once more in his cloak and fell to sleep.

3

From the sound of the gurgling crash that filled the rock-rimmed canyon, the Arvin’s first cataract lay just ahead. Blazer and Riv picked their way among the loose stones on the canyon floor as Quentin and Toli scanned the soaring cliffs above. All around them towered jagged spires of rock. They moved carefully, as through a giant’s petrified forest.

They passed between two large outcroppings of dull brown stone upon which rested a great slab forming the posts and lintel of an enormous doorway. “Azrael’s Gate,” muttered Quentin as they passed quickly through, and then, brightening considerably, “Look! Eskevar’s road.” He pointed across the Arvin’s racing headwaters to the other side, where the road began.

Without hesitation Quentin urged his steed forward into the frigid water. The swift stream splashed around the horse’s legs and wet his rider to the knees. Quentin found the icy tingle the perfect tonic to banish the oppressive foreboding that had settled upon him—as it always did— when he rode through the eerie canyon that ended in Azrael’s Gate. Now, with that behind and the clear, wide road ahead, his spirits suddenly lifted.

“It won’t be long now,” he called over his shoulder to Toli, just then splashing into the course. “Tomorrow night we will dine with Durwin, and the following will see us at the Dragon King’s table.”

“I thought you were the one for haste,” replied Toli. “We can do better than that!” At these words he slapped Riv over the shoulders with the reins and leaned into the saddle. The horse spurted ahead, sending torrents of icy water up into the air as he surged past Quentin and clattered up out of the stream and struck for the road.

“A challenge!” shouted Quentin at Toli’s retreating figure. He snapped Blazer’s reins as they clambered out of the water and dashed after Toli in chase.

High in the lonely foothills, the sound of their race echoed and reechoed from one blank stone face to another. Their jubilant cries sang through the rills and crevices, and rang in rock hollows and caves. The horses’ hooves struck sparks from the stone paving as they flew.

At last, exhausted and out of breath, the two trotted to a halt upon a ridge. Below them the foothills dropped away in gentle arcs, fading from violet to blue in the hazy distance. Away to the south stood the lofty, snow-wrapped crags of the Fiskills, where endless winds howled among the sharp peaks.

“Ah!” sighed Quentin as he drew a deep breath. “Such a sight! It is a beautiful land, is it not?”

“It is that and more indeed. My people have a word for the land— I do not think I have ever told you: Allallira.”

“No, I have never heard it. What does it mean?”

“I cannot be precise—there is no exact meaning in your tongue. But it means something like ‘the land of flowing peace.’”

“Allallira, I like that; it fits.” They started down together. “And it certainly is peaceful. Look out across those valleys. These years have been good ones. The land has produced full measure. The people are content. I cannot think but that the god has blessed the realm in recompense for the troubled times when Eskevar was away from his throne.”

“Yes, these have been good years. Golden times. I hope we will see them endure.”

Quentin cast a sideways glance at his companion. Toli’s eyes were focused on some distant horizon. He appeared as if in a trance. Quentin did not want to break the happy mood, so did not pursue the matter further. They continued down the slope without speaking.

The next day dawned fair and bright, warmed by soft winds from the west. The travelers were already well on their way when the sun popped over Erlemros, the Fiskills’ highest peak. The road made the going easy, and they pushed at a steady pace, reaching the lowlands by midday.

They ate a hasty meal among moss-covered stones in the shade of an ancient oak and started again on their way; they had not traveled far when Toli said, “Along the road, yonder. We have some company.”

Quentin raised his eyes and saw very faintly, and very far away, what appeared to be a group of travelers coming toward them on foot. There was just a glimpse, and then a bend in the road took them from Quentin’s sight.

“Merchants, perhaps?” Quentin wondered aloud. Often traders who sold their wares from town to town banded together in traveling companies for mutual entertainment and protection. “I would like to buy a trinket for Bria.”

They continued on, and Quentin thought of all the things his love would enjoy. They rounded the side of a grassy hill covered with scarlet wildflowers and approached the spot where they had first seen the travelers. “Odd,” said Quentin. “We should have met them by now. Perhaps they stopped up the road beyond that clump of trees.” He pointed ahead to where a bushy stand of trees overhung the road, sheltering all beyond from view.

They continued on with a growing perplexity.

When they reached the shelter of the trees, they could look once again far down the road; there was not a single person to be seen.

“This becomes stranger every step,” said Quentin.

Toli swung himself down from his horse and walked along the road, his eyes searching the dust for any signs that might explain the disappearance of the group they had both seen quite clearly only a short while before.

They moved forward slowly. Quentin watched the wooded area to the right of the road. Then Toli stopped and knelt down. He traced his finger around the outline of footprints in the dust.

“They stopped here before leaving the road . . . there.” He pointed into the trees.

“How many were there?”

“I cannot say from these signs. But there were men and women, children too.”

“Most peculiar,” mused Quentin. “What sent them scurrying into the woods? Not the sight of two horsemen, surely.”

Toli shrugged and climbed back into the saddle. “Here is something else we must remember to tell the king.”

“Indeed we will.”

At dusk they camped in a grassy glade just off the road. The sun sent ruby fingers sifting through the gossamer clouds that moved gracefully across the violet arc of heaven. Quentin stood in a meadow dotted with yellow flowers that brushed pollen-laden heads against his legs. With his arms crossed on his chest and a look of dreamy concentration, he contemplated the imposing shape before him: high up on its plateau, the thin trail leading up like a white wisp rising from the lower ground, stood the High Temple of Ariel.

“You miss your old home, no doubt,” said Toli, coming up behind him.

“No . . . ,” said Quentin absently, then laughed as he stirred and turned away. “No more than one misses a toothache. I was only thinking of the time when I lived in the temple. For me they were days of loneliness and frustration—endless studying, chores, and inscrutable rules. So many rules, Toli. I would never have made a good priest; I could never see the sense of anointing the sacred rock. It always seemed such a waste of time, not to mention expensive oil.

“And the sacrifices—the gold bracelets, silver bowls, and carefully groomed animals—simply made the priests wealthier and fatter than they already were.”

“Whist Orren demands more than bracelets, bowls, or flesh. And he lives not only in temples made by men, but in their lives.”

“Yes, the God Most High holds out freedom to men; the price is unbending devotion. The lesser gods do not demand as much, but who can know them? They are like the mists on the water—when the sun touches them, they vanish.”

They turned and went back to settle themselves for the night. They ate, and Toli turned the horses out to graze in the sweet grass as evening gathered its long purple robes about the quiet glade.

Quentin lay with his head resting upon his saddle with a clear, unhindered view of the spangled heavens. The stars never change, he observed. And then, even as he framed the thought, he remembered the conversation he had had earlier with Toli. He turned his head toward the east and saw the strangely glittering star Toli had pointed out to him several nights before.

“The Wolf Star seems to grow brighter,” observed Quentin.

“I have been thinking the same thing, Kenta.”

“I wonder what High Priest Biorkis would say to an omen such as this. The priests surely have their explanations.”

“Go and ask him.”

“What? Do you think I dare?”

“Why not? There is no harm.”

“I do not believe my ears! Toli tells me to seek an omen from an unholy source! You, Toli, of all people, know I have turned away from tokens and omens. I follow a different god—we both do.”

“I do not suggest you ask an omen of Ariel, or discard the truths you have learned. Only that you go to your onetime friend and ask his opinion of a strange event. There is no harm in that. Besides, Whist Orren, who holds the stars in their courses, sometimes declares his will through such portents. Any who will look may see what is written there.”

“You are right, Toli. Biorkis is still my friend. Besides, I would like to take a walk. Come along.” Quentin was on his feet and striding off across the meadow toward the temple trail, which showed in the bright moonlight as a silver thread winding its way up the side of the steep hill.

They reached the trail and began the circuitous ascent to the top. As they climbed higher, Quentin looked out into the moon-bright night. The valley glimmered darkly; every leaf of tree and blade of grass was traced in spun silver. Away in the distant hills, shepherds’ fires winked like stars fallen upon the land.

They gained the top at last and entered the expansive courtyard. In the center of the white, stone-paved yard stood a torch on a carven stone stanchion. Its fluttering flame cast a wide circle of light around its base and reflected on the closed doors of the temple.

“We will see if pilgrims such as we are made welcome by night,” whispered Quentin.

They crossed the courtyard and climbed the many steps to the main entrance. Upon reaching the huge doors, Quentin lifted his poniard from its sheath at his belt and rapped upon the solid beams with its handle.

He waited, knowing at this late hour he must rouse some nearby priest from his sleep. As he waited, an uncanny sensation came over Quentin—a feeling that he was once more the skinny temple acolyte of many years ago. For a moment he looked at the dark stone of the temple and the moonlight-filled courtyard through the eyes of his youth.

He knocked again and immediately heard the shuffle of someone on the other side.

“Be on your way, pilgrim. Come back tomorrow. The priests are asleep,” came the muffled voice from the other side.

“Yet there is one who will admit us if you take our names to him.”

“There is no one who would admit you but the high priest himself.”

“Excellent! He is the very man we seek!”

“No, go away! Come back tomorrow; I’ll not disturb him tonight.”

They heard the footsteps shuffling away again on the other side of the door.

“Well, he means to do us no favors,” said Quentin. “But there is another entrance at the rear of the temple. We will try that, since we have come this far.”

The two moved like shadows under the high portico of the temple and reached the far south side, that which overlooked the peaceful valley. They walked along the side of the temple, the moonlight falling in slanting rays, forming bands of light and shadow under the mighty eaves.

“Listen,” said Toli. “Voices.”

Quentin paused and cocked his head to one side. Voices from a little way ahead and below them carried on the still air. The sound was but a dull murmur, barely recognizable.

They continued more cautiously, and the voices grew louder. Soon the travelers were crouching behind the immense columns of the temple, looking down upon a small circle of robed men bent over a shining object.

“They are star searching,” remarked Quentin excitedly. “And look— that one in the center. I think I know that shape.”

Quentin stepped boldly out of the shadow of the column and descended a few steps toward the group. He took a deep breath and said in a loud voice, “Priests of Ariel, will you receive two curious pilgrims?”

The startled priests turned around quickly and beheld the figures of two young men descending toward them.

The priest in the center of the huddle stepped forward and replied, “Pilgrims are always welcome to the shrine of Ariel, though most choose to make oblations in the light of day.”

“We do not come to make oblations, or to inquire of the god Ariel, but of a priest instead.”

“Priests are but the servants of their god; it is he who declares his will.”

“Neither do we ask for the god’s interest in any affairs of ours,” said Quentin, approaching the priest. He could see the man’s face full in the moonlight now and knew that he addressed his old tutor. “We would speak to you man-to-man.”

Quentin smiled as a faint glimmer of recognition lit the priest’s visage.

“My heart tells me that I should know you, sir,” said the high priest slowly. The old eyes searched the young man’s features for a clue that might tell him who it was that addressed him. “But a name does not come to my lips. Have we met, then?”

Quentin moved closer and placed his hands on the priest’s rounded shoulders. “Is the life of a priest so busy that he has no time for memories?”

“Memories do not walk the temple yards by night, nor do they confront their bearers face-to-face.”

“Then perhaps you will remember this.” Quentin dug into his pouch at his belt and produced a silver coin. He handed it to the priest.

“This is a temple coin. Then you must be . . .”

“You gave me that coin yourself, Biorkis, many years ago.”

“Quentin? Is this Quentin the acolyte?” the old man sputtered.

“Yes, I have returned to see you, my old friend—for so I always considered you.”

“But how you have changed. You have grown up a fine man. You are well—as I can see. What brings you here tonight of all nights?”

The other priests looked upon this reunion in wonder. They gathered close around to see who this returned stranger might be.

“Can we walk a little aside?” asked Quentin. “I have something to ask you.”

The two moved off, followed closely by Toli. The priests fell to murmuring their amazement and talking among themselves.

“Your name has grown in the land,” said Biorkis as they walked to a rocky outcropping at the edge of the plateau.

“Oh? You hear the tales up here, do you?”

“We hear what we wish to hear. The peasants bring us no end of information. Some of it useful. But you are known as the prince who saved the Dragon King and defeated the monstrous sorcerer, Nimrood.”

“It was not I who defeated Nimrood, but my friend Toli here.”

Biorkis bowed to Toli and indicated that they should all seat themselves upon the rocks. “They also say that you are building a city in the Wilderlands which rises by magic from the stones of the earth.”

“Again, that is not my doing. Dekra is my city only in that the gracious Curatak have allowed me to join in their work of restoring it to its former glory.”

“This is what the people say, not I. As for myself, I surmise that the truth of the stories is to be found at the heart—like the stone of an apricot. But I know from this that my former acolyte is doing well and has risen in the esteem of his countrymen. But why should you seek me out now? The temple doors have not been closed these many years.”

“We come to ask your opinion of something we have seen.” Quentin turned toward the east and pointed out across the quiet, moon-filled valley. “That star rising yonder. The Wolf Star. Has it not changed in some way of late? Do the priests detect a waxing of its power?”

“So you have not forsaken your studies altogether. You still seek signs in the night sky.”

“No, I must admit that I no longer study the stars in their courses. This event was pointed out to me by Toli, who remarked on it a few nights ago.”

“Well, your Toli is right. In fact, we have been following this star with interest for many months. Tonight, as you have seen, we were once more examining the charts and seeking an answer to this wonder.”

“Then you do not know what this sign portends?”

“Does one ever?” Biorkis laughed. “Why do you look so shocked? A priest may have doubts—even a high priest. Ah, but we have our theories. Yes, many theories.”

“That is what we have come to hear—your theories. What do you think it means?”

4

Durwin’s long brown robes swept along behind him as he rushed through the darkened corridors of Askelon Castle. Torches lit the way, sputtering in the gusty air as Durwin hurriedly passed. Ahead of him he could see a pair of doors that opened onto a patch of the night sky infused with the moon’s radiant beams.

He stepped across the threshold and onto the balcony, then paused. There, a few paces from him, stood the slim figure of a woman; her dark hair tumbled down in shimmering ringlets and curls, and her face was averted, revealing the shapely curve of her slender neck. She was dressed in a loose-fitting gown of white held at her trim waist by a long blue sash that trailed nearly to the ground.

“Your Majesty,” said Durwin, softly announcing himself. “I am here.”

The woman turned and smiled.

“Good Durwin, thank you for coming so quickly.”

“Bria . . . I thought . . .”

“You thought I was the queen, I know. But it was I who sent you the summons.”

“You look so much like your mother standing there. With the moonlight in your hair, I thought you were Alinea.”

“I will accept that as a compliment, Durwin. For me there is none higher. But you must be tired from your journey. I will not keep you, but I must speak to you a little. Do sit down, please.”

She raised an arm and indicated a stone bench a short space away. Durwin took her arm and walked her along the balcony. “The night is beautiful, is it not?” he said.

“Yes, it is—very.” The young woman spoke as if she had just become aware that it was night. The hermit could tell she had something on her mind that disturbed her.

“I would not have troubled you, but I could think of no better help than to have you here. Theido is gone, and Ronsard with him.”

“It is nothing, my lady. I am only too glad to know that this old hermit may still be of some use to those who dwell in Castle Askelon. I would have come sooner if I had known—your courier had quite a time finding me. I was in the forest, gathering herbs and tending to the illness of a peasant’s wife nearby.”

“I knew you would come as soon as you could. I—” The princess broke off, unable to say what she felt in her heart.

Durwin waited, and then said, “What is the matter, Bria? You may speak freely. I am your friend.”

“Oh, Durwin!” Her hands trembled, and her head sank. She buried her face in her hands, and he thought she would cry. But she drew a deep breath and raised her face to the moon, clear-eyed. In that moment the young woman reminded him more than ever of another woman who bore an immense inner strength in times of great distress—Queen Alinea.

“It is the king,” Bria said at last. “Oh, Durwin, I am very worried. He is not like himself. I think he is very ill, but he will see none of his doctors. He laughs at any suggestion I make regarding his health. My mother is worried too. But she can do nothing either. And there is something else.”

Durwin waited patiently.

“I do not know what it is—trouble, I think. Somewhere.” She turned and fixed the hermit with a smile that, though it graced her mouth, did not light her eyes as it normally would. “Quentin is coming.”

“I have not forgotten. We are all going to celebrate Midsummer’s Day together.”

“No—he is coming now. Eskevar sent for him. Even knowing that he would come for Midsummer, the king sent a special courier to bring him. That is how I know something is wrong.”

“It could just be that he wishes to see him sooner—just a whim, that’s all.”

Bria smiled again. “Thank you for that, but you know the Dragon King as well as I do. He does nothing on a whim. He has some reason for wanting him here, but what it is I cannot guess.”

“Then we will wait and see. When will Quentin be here?”

“If he left upon receiving the summons, I believe he will be here the day after tomorrow—the day after that at the latest.”

“Good. That is not so long to wait—you will see. In the meantime I will try to discover what ails the king—in body or in spirit. Anything that may be done, I will do. Worry no more on it, my lady.”

“Thank you, Durwin. You will not tell them that I sent for you?”

“No, if you would rather not. I will just say that I grew weary of my books and medicines and desired the warmth of fellowship with my friends. I came early to the celebration, that is all.”

“I feel better already knowing you are here.”

“I am content. Though I imagine you would rather a certain young man stood here right now.”

Bria smiled, and this time the light sparkled in her deep green eyes. “Oh, I’ll not deny it. But I am content to wait. It does cheer me somewhat to know that he comes sooner.”

They talked some more and then rose; Bria bade Durwin a good night. Durwin escorted her to the door back into the castle and then turned to stroll along the balcony alone.

He leaned his arms on the parapet and looked into the gardens below. In the moonlight he saw a solitary figure pacing among the beds of ruby roses, now indigo in the moonlight.

He could not see who this person might be, but it was clear from the altered gait that the walker had fallen prey to a melancholy mood. He hunched forward and crossed his arms on his chest, stopped and started continually.

Durwin looked on, and then the figure seemed to sense that he was being watched. He stopped and drew himself up and turned to look quickly into the balcony. Durwin drew away, but he had seen what he had already guessed. In the moment the face swung around, the moonlight illumined it, and Durwin knew that it was Eskevar, the Dragon King.

Biorkis’s long, white-braided beard—the symbol of his office—glowed like a bright waterfall frozen in the moonlight. His wrinkled face, though still as round and plump as ever, looked itself like a smaller moon returning its reflected light to a larger parent. He gazed long into the sky and then said, “It may be something, or it may not. The heavens are filled with signs and wonders, and not all of them have to do with men.”

“If you thought that, would you be standing out in the night, stargazing?” “No, likely not. But this is a most peculiar phenomenon—one does not see such a sign but once in a lifetime, perhaps not even then. To chart its progress would be of value aside from any meaning we might derive from its study.”

“You evade my question, Biorkis. Why? Certainly the star is there for all to see and make of it what they will.”

An expression of great weariness appeared on the face of the high priest as he turned to regard Quentin. “To the best of my knowledge, this star is an evil sign.”

He had spoken simply and softly. But the words chilled Quentin to the bone; he shivered as if the night had suddenly grown colder.

Quentin sought to lighten the remark. “Omens are always either good or bad, depending on the reader.”

“Ah, but the greater the sign, the greater the consequence. And this is a great sign indeed. Surpassingly great.”

Quentin raised his eyes to the eastern sky and regarded the star carefully. It was bright, yes, but there were other stars nearly as bright. He looked back at Biorkis with a questioning glance.

“It has only begun to show itself,” said the high priest in answer to the look. “With every passing night it grows brighter, and so does the evil it portends.”

“What is the nature of this evil? Can you tell?”

“Evil is evil; you know that. What does it matter? The suffering will be great in any case. Flood, famine, pestilence, war—all are the same; all destroy in their turn.”

“Well said. Your words are true, but men can do much to prepare against an evil time, if they know its source.”

“Here is where our theories guide us. Some say that the star will grow and grow until it fills the sky, blotting out the sun and moon and stars. Then it will touch the earth and drive all living things insane before consuming them with fire.

“Others say that each nation has a star and that this Wolf Star represents a fierce and brutal nation that rises against other nations and seeks to extinguish them with its power.

“Still others regard this as the beginning of the end of mankind on earth. This star is the token of Nin, the destroyer god who brings his armies down to make war on the nations of the earth.”

“And you, Biorkis, what do you say?”

“I believe all are right. Some part of every guess will be shown in truth.”

“When may the truth be evident?”

“Who can say? Much that is foretold does not come to pass. Our best divinations are only the mumblings of blind men.” Biorkis turned his face away. “Nothing is certain,” he said softly. “Nothing is certain.”

Quentin stood, went to the old priest, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Old man, come with us. You have lived long enough to see the gods for what they are. Let us show you a god worthy of your devotion. The Most High, Lord of All. In him you will find the peace you seek. You told me once that you sought a brighter light.”

Biorkis looked at him wearily. “You remember that?”

“Yes, and more. I remember you were my only friend in the temple. Come with us now and let us show you the light you have been seeking for so long.”

Biorkis sighed, and it seemed as if all the earth groaned with a great exhaustion. “I am old—too old to change. Yes, these eyes have searched for the truth, but it has been denied them. I know the hollowness of serving these petty gods, but I am high priest. I cannot go with you now. Maybe once I could have turned away as Durwin did, as you have—but not now. It is too late for me.”

Quentin looked sadly down on his old friend. “I am sorry.”

Toli had risen and was moving away. Quentin turned and looked back at Biorkis, who still remained perched upon a rock, looking out into the peaceful valley. “It is not too late. You have only to turn aside and he will meet you. The decision is yours.”

Quentin and Toli walked down the sinuous trail side by side without speaking. When they reached the meadow and the dimly glowing embers of their fire, Quentin said, “You knew the star to be an evil sign, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I considered it so.”

“But you suggested we go to the temple. Why?”

“I wanted to hear what other learned men might say. For all their spiritual uncertainties, the priests are still men of great knowledge.”

“And did Biorkis confirm your worst fears?”

“Biorkis spoke of what might be, not what will be. Only the God Most High can say what will be. His hand is ever outstretched to those who serve him.”

“Well, if Biorkis is right in his speculations, then we will have need of that strong hand before long, I fear.”

5

The earth moves through stages, epochs. The ancient legends tell of previous earth ages—four at least. We are living in the fifth age of man. Each age runs its allotted course and then gives birth to a new age.” Durwin spread his hands out on the table. Quentin, his chin in his hands, stared at the holy hermit in rapt attention. Around them in Durwin’s chambers, candles flickered and filled the room with a hazy yellow glow.

“These ages may run a thousand years or ten thousand. Of course, there is no way to tell how long it will last, but the ancients believed that before the end of each age, the world is thrown into turmoil. Great migrations of people commence; great wars are fought as nation rises against nation; the heavens are filled with signs and wonders. Then comes the deluge: all the earth is flooded, or covered with ice. Then fire burns the earth and erases all the signs of the preceding age. It is a time of chaos and darkness, great cataclysms and death. But out of it comes a new age, both finer and higher than the one before.”

As Durwin spoke, an eerie sense of dreadful fascination crept over Quentin. He shrugged it off and asked, “But must the earth be destroyed completely for a new age to be born?”

Durwin mused on this question, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Toli answered. “Among my people there are many stories of the time before this one. It is said that the Jher came into being in the third age, when the world was still very young and men talked with the animals and lived in peace with one another.

“These stories are very old; they have been with us longer than the art of our oldest storytellers. But it is said that the destruction of the world may be averted by some great deed—though what it is that may be done is not known.

“Tigal, the Star Maker’s son, is said to have saved the world in the second age by hitching his horses to his father’s chariot and carrying off Morhesh, the Great Evil One, after wounding him with a spear made of a single shaft of light. He threw Morhesh into the Pit of the Night, and Morhesh’s star was extinguished so the earth did not burn.”

Durwin nodded readily. “So it is! As I was about to say, it is believed that not every age must end in calamity. The destruction may be lessened or turned aside completely—usually by some act of heroism, some supreme sacrifice or the coming of a mighty leader to lead mankind into the new age.”

“Do you believe this?” Quentin asked.

“I believe in the truth of what has been handed down to us. Those who witnessed it explained it as well as they could with the words and ideas they had available to them. Certainly, much remains unexplained; but it seems strange that each race has somewhere in its past memories of this sort.”

Quentin leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table and clasped his hands. “I meant, do you believe that the star in the sky betokens the end of the age?”

Durwin pulled on his chin and scratched his jaw. He looked at Quentin with quick black eyes and smiled suddenly. “I believe a new age is coming, yes, such as the world has never known. A time of mighty upheaval and change. And I believe change does not take place without struggle, without pain. So it is!”

“It all seems very grim to me,” admitted Quentin.

“You should not think of the pain involved,” responded Toli. “Think of the greater glory of the new age.”

Toli and Quentin had ridden from Narramoor to Durwin’s cottage in Pelgrin Forest. They had made good time and arrived late in the afternoon, just as the sun slipped into the treetops.

“Durwin is not here,” Toli had said as they approached the cottage. They looked around before Quentin went inside. He returned without a clue to where the hermit might be.

“He may be away only for a short while, perhaps tending someone nearby. Maybe he will return by nightfall, but I think not. His cloak is gone and his pouch, though his bag of medicines is inside.”

They had then decided to ride through the night, and reached Askelon’s mighty gates as the moon set in the west. Not wishing to disturb the servants or awaken the king and queen, they went instead to the chambers kept for Durwin when he was in residence at the castle. There, to their surprise and pleasure, they found the hermit slumped in his chair with a scroll rolled up in his lap. He was sound asleep and snoring.

Upon their entrance, despite their attempts to be quiet, Durwin woke up and greeted them warmly. “You have ridden all night! You are hungry; I will fetch you some food from the kitchen.”

He hurried away with a candle in his hand while Quentin and Toli pulled off their cloaks, dipped their hands in the basin, and attempted to wash away their fatigue. They then settled themselves, exhausted, into the chairs and dozed until Durwin returned with bread and cheese and fruit he had filched from the pantry.

“Here, sit at this table and eat while I tell you what I have been doing since we were last together.” Durwin told them of his studies and his healing work among the peasants, and at last Quentin told him about their audience with Biorkis and their discussion about the star that nightly grew brighter.

They had talked long and late. At last they rose from the table and turned to curl themselves in their chairs to sleep. Just then a barely 414 audible knock sounded on Durwin’s door. Quentin said, “Durwin, you have a visitor, I believe. Do you entertain so late at night?”

“I, as you well know, did not expect a single person in my chambers tonight, and I find not one, but two. So now I entertain any possibility! Open the door and let them in, please.”

Quentin stepped to the door and opened it. He was not prepared for the greeting he received.

“Quentin, my love. You are here!”

Quentin instantly threw his arms wide, swept up a young woman in a long, white woolen robe, and buried his face in her hair.

“Bria! I did not know how much I missed you until this moment.”

The two lovers clung in a long embrace, breaking off suddenly when they remembered that they were not alone. Quentin gently set his lady back upon her slippered feet. Durwin and Toli smiled as they looked on.

“And what, I might well ask, brings you to this hermit’s chambers so late at night?” Quentin demanded, taking her hand and pulling her into the room.

“Why, I was passing by and fancied I heard voices. I fancied one of them was yours, my love.”

“Ah! Your lips utter the answer my ears long to hear. But come, I have much to tell you. Much has happened since I was with you last.”

“Not here you don’t!” replied Durwin. “In a very short time this chamber will ring with snores of sleeping! You two doves must take your cooing elsewhere.” He beamed happily as he shooed them out the door.

Quentin and Bria walked hand in hand along the darkened passageway and out onto the same balcony the princess and Durwin had occupied only a night earlier.

As Quentin opened the balcony door, the faint light of a glowing sky met his eyes. Dawn’s crimson fingers stretched into the sky in the east, though the sun lingered below the far horizon, and one or two stars could still be seen above.

“I have missed you, my darling,” sighed Bria. “My heart has mourned your absence.”

“I am here now, and with you. I find my greatest happiness when I am at your side.”

“But you will leave again—too soon, I fear. My father has a task for you, and we will be separated again.”

“Do you know what it is?”

Bria shook her head.

“Then how do you know it will take me away from you so suddenly?”

“A woman knows.”

“Well, then, we will have to make each moment we are together so much sweeter.” So saying, Quentin pulled her to him gently and kissed her. She wound her arms around him and rested her head upon his chest.

Quentin looked at the placid sky as its rosy red brightened to a golden hue. The mighty ramparts of Askelon Castle gleamed like burnished gold, magically transformed from their ordinary state of dull stone by the dawn’s subtle alchemy.

“Quentin . . .” Her voice was small and frightened. “What is happening? I am afraid, though I do not know why; the king holds his own counsel and will see no one. And when I ask him about the affairs of the realm, he only smiles and pats my hand and tells me that a princess should think of only happy things and not concern herself with mundane matters.

“I am worried for him. Oh, Quentin, when you see him, you will know—he is not well. He is pale and drawn. Some dark care sits heavily upon his brow. My mother and I do not know what to do.”

“Hush, my love. All will be well—you will see. If there is anything that can be done to ease his mind, I will do it. And if medicines have any effect, Durwin will know it and avail.

“And yet, I must confess that I am troubled, too. But by nothing so easily explained—though I wish that were the case. I would give a fortune to any who could calm the turmoil I feel growing inside me.

“There is trouble, Bria. I feel it, though all about me appears peaceful and serene. I start at shadows, and night gives me no rest; it is as if the wind itself whispers an alarm to my ears, but no sound is heard.”

Bria sighed deeply and clutched him tighter. “What is happening? What will become of us, my darling?”

“I do not know. But I promise you this: I will love you forever.”

They held each other for a while, and the new sun rose and filled the sky with golden light.

“See how the sun banishes the darkness; so love will send our troubles fleeing from us—I promise.”

“Can love accomplish so much, do you think?” Bria said dreamily.

“It can do all things.”

6

Listen, Theido; I say we should turn back. We have already come too far, and it is past the time when we should have been in Askelon. The king will be fearing our disappearance soon, if not already.”

“But we have not seen what we came to see: the enemy, if there is one. We would be remiss if we returned now. Our task is not completed.”

Ronsard sat hunched in the saddle, one arm resting on the pommel, the other bent around him as he pressed his arm into the small of his back. “If I do not get off this horse soon, I may never walk again.”

“Since when have you been fond of walking? The lord high marshal of the realm should set a better example for his men,” joked Theido, swiveling in his saddle to cast an eye upon the four knights behind.

“My men know me for what I am,” said Ronsard. “But I do not jest when I say that we should return at once. It is no light thing to keep a king waiting.”

“Nor is it acceptable to bring him useless information—the one would foil his purpose as easily as the other.” Theido turned his horse and brought himself close to Ronsard. “But I will tell you what we will do, so that I may hear the end of your complaining. We will send one of the knights back with a message of what we have discovered so far, and of our intention to continue until we are satisfied.”

“Fair enough. Also relay that we will return as soon as we can, by the most expeditious means, with a full report.”

“Agreed.” Theido turned his sun-browned face toward the place where the knights waited, resting their mounts before continuing their journey. “Martran! Come up here.” He signaled to one of them.

The knight approached his leaders on foot and saluted. “Martran,” commanded Ronsard, “you are to ride to the king at once and deliver this message: We are continuing on our mission and are sorry for the delay in returning to him sooner. Tell him we have seen nothing to occasion his concern. Tell him also that we will return to him as soon as we have found what we seek, or have some better report to give him. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lord,” replied the knight crisply.

“Repeat the message,” ordered Ronsard.

The knight repeated the message word for word with the same inflection given to the words as Ronsard himself had used. “Very well,” said Ronsard. “Be on your way. Stop for nothing and no one.”

The knight saluted again and walked back to his horse. He mounted and rode off at once, without looking back.

“Now then,” said Theido, snapping his reins impatiently, “let us proceed. We have lingered here too long already.”

Ronsard raised himself in his saddle and called to the remaining knights. “Be mounted! Forward we go!”

Since leaving Askelon, they had ridden farther and farther south, first to Hinsenby and then along the coast as it dipped toward the Suthland region of Mensandor. They had passed through Persch and a host of peasant villages unnamed on any map.

Now they approached a rocky stretch of coastland that rose in sharp cliffs at the brink of the sea. This was where the Fiskill Mountains spent themselves in their southernmost extremity. The crags marched right down to the sea, and there the land dropped away as if it had been divided by the chop of an axe. The sea lay crowded with jagged teeth of immense rocks, some as big as islands, though they jutted sharply out of the ocean’s swell, bare and lifeless, uninhabited except as roosts for myriads of squawking seabirds.

A narrow, treacherous track climbed upward through the cliffs and entwined itself among the tors. Now it cut through a wall of rock so narrow that a man’s outstretched hands touched either side, and now it swung out upon the sheer cliff face, where one misstep would send horse and rider hurtling down into the churning sea.

They halted.

“I suggest we stop here for the night. I would not like to trust that trail by night; it is bad enough in the daylight.”

“Very well,” agreed Ronsard. “A fresh start at it in the morning would not be disagreeable to me.”

They removed themselves but a little way from the trail and set about making camp for the night. As the sun slid down below the dark rim of the sea, the birds fluttered to the roosting rocks, and the evening trembled with their noisy calls.

After a while the moon ascended and cast its pale light all around. The tired men dozed and talked in hushed tones.

“Listen!” said Ronsard abruptly. All lapsed into silence and sifted the soft breeze for sounds. The only sound to reach their ears was the faraway roll of the waves crashing against the rocks and slapping against the cliff walls.

Theido cast a wondering glance toward his old friend.

“Well, perhaps I am hearing things,” said Ronsard, but he still peered intently into the night as if listening for the sound to repeat itself.

In a moment he was on his feet, pacing uneasily about the camp, just out of the circle of firelight. Then he walked a short way along the road and stood for a long time, looking toward the cliff trail. Theido watched him narrowly and was not surprised when the brawny knight came hurrying back.

“What is it?”

“Someone is coming! Up there in the cliffs—I am certain of it!”

He ordered his knights in a harsh whisper, “Put out the fire, and take the horses aside. Hide yourselves, and watch me for a signal!”

In the space of five heartbeats, the small camp was deserted, and no sign remained that only a moment before five knights had been encamped there.

Then Ronsard and Theido sat down to wait in the dark alongside the road, hidden from view by a low-lying clump of harts-tongue. Shortly there could be heard the minute sounds of a group of people hurrying along the path, desperately trying to pass unseen: the rattling echo of a stone dislodged by a careless foot, the muffled creak of a wheel upon the rock, a cough.

Then their murky shapes could be seen against the night sky as they drew nearer. They were on foot, and there were smaller shadows among the larger ones. They huddled together in a close knot, rather than ranging themselves along the trail; they evidently feared separation more than detection.

“It is no army,” breathed Ronsard between clenched teeth. He let his breath out slowly. “But now to find out who they are and why they risk the cliffs at night—the very thing we declined to do.”

“We had a choice; perhaps they felt they had none,” replied Theido.

Ronsard rose from his place and stepped near the trail, just ahead of the nocturnal travelers’ leader. When the man approached close at hand, Ronsard said in a loud, steady voice, “Halt, friend! In the name of the Dragon King!”

A shriek and a stifled oath came from the main body of the group. But the man stopped dead in his tracks and looked about him for the source of the unexpected command. Ronsard stepped closer, and the moonlight fell on his face. He smiled and held up his hands to show the frightened travelers that he meant them no harm.

“Wh-what do you w-want?” the leader managed to stammer.

“I wish to speak with you—that is all. I will not detain you long.” Ronsard still spoke in the same steady voice, loud enough for all to hear.

“Who are you?”

“I am the lord high marshal of Mensandor,” replied Ronsard. “Who are you, and what are you doing on this road in the dead of night?”

“Oh, sir!” gasped the relieved man. “You do not jest? You are really a king’s man?”

“At your service. Are you in trouble?”

At this all the people rushed forward, drawing close around Ronsard as if to seek the protection of his title, a welcome shield over their heads. They all began to shout.

Theido crept from his hiding place and came to stand beside Ronsard, who held up his hands and called for quiet. “I think I would better hear the tale from only one mouth at a time. You are the leader of this band.” He pointed to the man he had first addressed. “You begin.”

The man’s face shone pale in the moonlight, but Theido got the impression that it would be pale in the bright daylight as well. Deep lines of fear were drawn on the man’s countenance. His eyes did not hold steady, but shifted to the right and left and all around as if to warn him of the imminent approach of an enemy.

“I . . . we . . .” The man’s mouth worked like a pump, but his words were slow in coming.

“It is all right; you are safe for the time. I have soldiers with me, and we will defend you at need.” Ronsard raised his arm in signal, and his knights came forward to stand along the trail, their hands upon the hilts of their long swords.

Their presence seemed to frighten the man rather than calm him.

“Come, you may speak freely,” said Theido in a gentle voice.

“We are from Dorn,” the leader managed to wheeze at length. “We have left our homes and carry all our belongings with us. We are going to the High Temple of Ariel.” He paused, gulped air, and plunged ahead. “We do not know where else to go.”

“It is a strange pilgrimage you make, friend,” observed Ronsard. “Why do you leave your homes and flee by night?”

“Have you not heard? They are coming . . . a terrible host, terrible. They have landed at Halidom, and they are coming. Why, we are fleeing for our lives to the protection of Ariel! Only the gods can save us now.”

“Who is coming? Have you seen anyone?”

The man looked at Ronsard, wide-eyed with disbelief. “Do you not know? How is this possible? The whole land is in turmoil! We are fleeing for our lives!”

The people began to shout again, each pouring out his heart, beseeching the king’s men to help them escape. Ronsard and Theido listened and drew aside to confer. “Something has frightened these people; that much is clear. Though what remains a mystery. I can make no sense out of it.” Ronsard scratched his jaw.

Theido called the leader over to where they stood. “Tell us plainly, friend, who is it that you flee? What do they look like?”

The man hesitated. “Well . . . we have seen no one. But we dared not wait. Two days ago, men of Halidom in the Suthlands came to Dorn, and they told us of terrible things which had happened there. A mighty enemy has risen up and drives all before him. Their city was burned, and the streets ran with the blood of their children and women. Those that would save their lives fled to the hills. So we flee while we still may.”

“This enemy—did you hear a name?”

“It is too terrible to say!” The man threw his hands heavenward in supplication.

“Terrible it may be, but we will hear it. Tell what you know,” commanded Ronsard. His authoritative tone seemed to have a calming effect upon the frightened peasant.

He looked from one to the other of them and said, his voice now a strained whisper, “It is Nin the Destroyer!”

7

Theido looked blankly at Ronsard and then back at the frightened peasant. The man’s eyes glittered wide and round in the moonlight. He had scarcely dared utter his enemy’s name, and his tongue had frozen in his mouth, but as appalling as the name was to the peasant—enough at least to inspire a whole village to flight at the very sound of it—the name meant nothing to Theido or Ronsard.

“I have never heard of this name,” said Theido. Ronsard shook his head and looked hard at the peasant.

“Is there another name by which this enemy may be known? We know nothing of this Nin or his armies.”

“No, there is no other name I know.”

“Halidom was destroyed? These men that came to Dorn, they saw it destroyed?”

“Yes, so they said. Some of them had lost everything—home and family, possessions, everything.”

Theido turned to Ronsard. “There is where we will find our answer— at Halidom.”

“So it would seem. We will go there and see what may be seen. The king will want to know in any case.” He turned back to the leader of the fleeing people. “This Nin you speak of—he was moving toward Dorn, you say? How did you know if you did not see him?”

“The men of Halidom told us. The enemy ranges the whole countryside. No place is safe from him. That is why we go to the high temple at Narramoor to ask the god to protect us.”

“There may be a safer place than even the temple,” said Theido. “I have lands at Erlott which need the work of many hands. Go there and present yourself to my steward, called Toffin. Tell him his master sends you to him that he may give you shelter and food and land to work. And give him this.” Theido drew a small, round token from the pouch at his belt: a clay tile baked hard, with his signet pressed into it.

The peasant stared at the signet tile and then at Theido. He seemed as much dismayed by it as by Nin himself. “Are we to be sold into slavery because we have no place to go? We have left our home to become serfs of the king’s men?” He had spoken loudly, and there came a murmur from the rest of the group standing a little way off.

“My offer,” explained Theido, “is honorable. You may take it or not. I do not withdraw it. I keep no serfs; all who work my lands are free to enjoy the fruits of their labors in equal share. If you doubt my words, go there and see for yourselves. In any case, you are free to leave or stay once you have seen. No one compels you to do as I bid. Only know this: if you stay, you will be required to do your share and to work the land that is given to you. If you do not, your place will be given to another who will.”

The man looked at the token in Theido’s hand. He reached out for it hesitantly, casting a sideways glance to the others in his band.

“We, too, are honorable, though we are men of low birth.” He snatched the tile out of Theido’s hand. “We will go to your lands at Erlott and inquire of your steward; we will see how he receives us. If he bears the goodwill of his master, you will find us busy in your fields when you return from your duties.” He bowed stiffly from the waist and turned to go. He paused and turned again. “If it is as you say, you have our thanks, my lord.”

“I do not ask for thanks, but only that you will do as we have agreed. That will mean more to me than gratitude itself.”

The man bowed again and went to where his people waited to learn the outcome of the interview just concluded. Words were exchanged quickly; there were mumbled whispers all around, and suddenly the band was on its way again, but bolder this time and changed in mood. Several of the refugees waved their thanks to Theido as they passed, and all talked excitedly together as they moved hurriedly away down the trail.

“Well, you have done your fellows a fine service this night. I hope you will not have cause to regret your kindness,” said Ronsard when they had gone.

“One never regrets a kindness, my friend. But I have no doubt that I have gained as much as they in the bargain.”

“How so?”

“Good land needs the plowman’s hand to bring it to life, and a husband to care for it. If I did not have men to work my fields, they would soon become barren and worthless. These men do me great service by helping me care for my lands. Rightly managed, there is more than enough for everyone.”

“Well, I hope we may see your trust proved true. But why not? The realm has known nothing but peace these many years, and we are at peace still.”

“I wonder,” replied Theido. “I wonder.”

Quentin hastened along wide corridors lined with rich tapestries toward the Dragon King’s apartments. Upon rising, he had been summoned to meet with the king in his private council chambers, and had dressed in fresh garments—a new tunic and trousers of forest green and a short summer cloak of blue, edged in green and gold. The finely embroidered cloak, fastened with a brooch of gold at his shoulder, fluttered out behind him as he swept along.

Just as he stepped up to the door that opened onto Eskevar’s apartments, the door swung inward, and Oswald, the queen’s chamberlain, emerged. “Sir, if you would but come aside with me, my lady would have a word with you.”

Oswald smiled as he made his request, but his gray eyes insisted, so Quentin nodded his assent and followed the chamberlain.

They withdrew to a room just across the corridor from the king’s chambers. Oswald knocked upon the door and stepped in. “Quentin is here, Your Majesty.”

Quentin stepped into the room behind the chamberlain and saw Queen Alinea sitting on a bench in the center of the room, with her hands folded in her lap. She seemed to be staring at something that Quentin could not see: something far away. Quentin saw the lines of worry creasing her noble brow.

When the queen saw him, she straightened, and her face was suddenly transformed by a beautiful smile. Instantly the dim chamber seemed filled with light. She rose as he came to her and held out her arms to embrace him. Quentin hugged her and brushed her pale cheek with his lips; she kissed both of his.

“Quentin, you have come! Oh, I am so glad you are here. Your journey was not unpleasant, I trust? It is good to have you back. The months seem long when you are away.” She gripped his hand in both of hers and led him to the bench. “Please, sit with me but a little.” To Quentin’s glance she answered, “I know the king is waiting, but it is important. I would have a word with you before you see him.”

Her sparkling green eyes, deep and serene as forest pools, searched his for a moment, as if deciding whether the hearer would be strong enough to bear the words she had to say. “Quentin,” she said softly, “the king is very ill.”

“So I have learned from Bria.” He blushed. “We met this morning when I arrived. She told me of her concern for his health.”

“But I think even Bria does not guess how far he has fallen. She is devoted to her father and loves him with all her heart, but she does not know him as I do. Something consumes him before my eyes; it gnaws at him from within, stealing his strength and sapping his spirit.”

Again in answer to Quentin’s look, she continued, “Do not wonder at what I tell you; you will see for yourself soon enough. He has greatly changed since you last saw him. It is all I can do to keep from weeping in his presence.” She appeared to be on the verge of tears at that very moment.

“My queen, I am your servant. Say the word and I will do whatever you require.”

“Only this: take no unusual notice of him when you go in to him. It upsets him when people worry after him. Do not let on that you believe him ill, or that I have told you anything of his condition.”

“I promise it. But is there nothing else I can do?”

“No.” She patted his hand. “I know that you would if you could. But I have sent for Durwin and have placed a heavy charge on him. It may take all of his healing powers to restore the king—if he is not now beyond them.”

“I will pray to the Most High that Durwin’s cures have effect.”

“That is my course, as well.” The queen smiled, and again the room seemed lighter, for a dark cloud had passed over Quentin’s heart as they talked. He rose, more encouraged. “Go to him now, my son. And remember what I told you.”

“I will, my lady. You need not fear.”

Quentin quietly left the room, and when he had stepped back into the corridor, he found Oswald waiting for him. The chamberlain led him to the king’s chambers, knocked, and then admitted him.

“Your Majesty, Quentin is here.”

Quentin drew a deep breath and stepped across the threshold. In the center of the high-ceilinged chamber sat a heavy, round oaken table, shaped like the room itself, for it was a part of one of Askelon’s many towers. Small, round windows of amber glass tinted the afternoon light with a warm hue. Eskevar was standing in a shaft of light from one of these windows, his back turned, gazing out into the courtyard below.

There was an awkward moment when Quentin could not speak, and the king did not seem to have heard the chamberlain’s announcement. Quentin hesitated, feeling suddenly trapped. Then the king turned slowly and fixed his eyes upon Quentin. A thin smile stretched his lips. “Quentin, my son, you have come.”

If not for the queen’s warning, Quentin did not know what he would have done. He bit his lower lip to stifle a cry and then recovered himself and forced a grin.

“I came as soon as I could. Toli’s horses are magnificent. I believe they have wings. We flew over the land at an astounding pace.”

Still smiling—the sad, weak smile of a dying man, Quentin thought grimly—the king advanced slowly and offered his hand.

Quentin took it without hesitation and could not help noticing how weak the king’s grip had become, and how cold the feel of his hand.

Eskevar’s flesh had taken on a waxen pallor, and his eyes seemed to burn with a dull, feverish light; his lips were cracked and raw, and his hair—that crowning glory of rich, dark curls—hung limp and lifeless and had now turned almost completely gray.

Quentin found himself staring at the face of a strange man who looked at him intently with sunken eyes rimmed with dark circles. He looked away quickly and said, “This is a cheery room, Sire. Will we be alone, or are others expected?”

“Others will come, but not yet. I wanted to speak to you alone first. Please, sit down.” The king lowered himself slowly into a chair at the round table, and Quentin followed. He wanted to weep at the sight of Eskevar, the mighty Dragon King who was now tottering like an old man.

How could this be? wondered Quentin. How could such a change be wrought in such a short time? In a scant eight or nine months, the king had deteriorated to a shocking degree. Quentin wanted to dash from the room, to remove himself far away from the creature who sat beside him and who wore the king’s crown.

Eskevar gazed into the young man’s eyes with a look of inexpressible tenderness; a fatherly compassion that Quentin had never seen before suddenly flowered. Quentin was strangely moved and forgot for a moment the horror of the king’s shattered health.

“Quentin,” said Eskevar after a moment’s contemplation, “as you know, I have no son, no heir to my throne save Bria. My brother, Prince Jaspin, is banished, nevermore to return. I think it is time for me to choose my successor.”

“Surely, my lord is mistaken.” Quentin gulped. “Now is not the time to think of such things. You have many years ahead of you. You are strong yet.”

Eskevar shook his head slowly, frowning slightly. “No, it is not to be. Quentin”—again the sweet, sad smile and fatherly glance—“Quentin, I am dying.”

“No!”

“Yes! Hear me!” The king raised his voice. “Slowly it may be, but I am dying. I shall not live to see another spring. It is time for me to set my house in order.

“I intend to choose you as my successor—wait! Since you are not in direct bloodline, it will have to go before the Council of Regents. I expect no problem there. As I have chosen you myself, they will ratify my choice gladly.”

Quentin sat gazing at his folded hands, speechless. The king’s words had stricken him mute.

After what seemed like hours, he looked up and saw Eskevar watching him quietly, but intensely. “You honor me greatly, Sire. But I am not worthy of such high accord. I am an orphan, and of no noble birth. I am not worthy to be king.”

“You, Quentin, are my ward. You have been a son to me as I have watched you grow to manhood these last years. I want you, and no other, to wear my crown.”

“I do not know what to say, my lord.”

“Say but that you will do as I command; ease my heart in this matter.”

Quentin stood up from his chair and then went down on his knees before his king. “I am ever your servant, Sire. I will obey.”

Eskevar placed a hand upon Quentin’s head and said, “I am content. Now my heart can rest.” He took Quentin by the arm; his grip was spidery and light. “Rise, sir! One king does not kneel to another. From this day forth you are heir to the throne of Mensandor.”

Just then there came a knock upon the chamber door and Oswald’s voice could be heard calling, “The others have arrived, Your Majesty,” as the door swung open.

In walked Toli and Durwin. Toli hesitated at the sight of the king, but Durwin did not flinch at all. He hurried to the table and, with a quick bow, began talking of his travels, all the while keeping a close eye on the ailing monarch as if weighing him for some remedy.

“Good, good. Be seated, both of you. We have a matter to discuss.”

The king looked at his comrades closely and drew a deep, weary breath before he began.

“For some time I have been of an uneasy mind. Restless, hungry, and uneasy. At first I attributed it to the illness which consumes me, but it is more than that, I fear. It is for Mensandor that my unease persists. There is some distress in the realm.”

The Dragon King spoke softly and distinctly, and Quentin realized that Eskevar had so long been the head of his land that he had developed a special feeling for it and knew instinctively when something was wrong. It was as if part of him were hurt, and he felt the wound. He had discerned trouble before anyone else had suspected even the slightest eddy in the current of peace and prosperity that flowed through the kingdom.

It struck him—absurdly at first, but with growing conviction— that perhaps what ailed the land was the cause of the king’s distress as well.

“To prove my intuition I summoned the faithful Theido and Ronsard to me and sent them with a small force to discover, it they could, whence the trouble came.

“The time for their return is now past. I have received no word or sign from them, and I am anxious for what may have befallen them. That is why I have summoned you.” He nodded to Quentin and Toli. “It becomes ever more urgent that we discover the source of our harm before it is too late. There is evil afoot; I feel it. Each day it grows stronger. If we do not find it soon and crush it out . . .”

“My lord,” said Toli, “we have seen portents which would indicate the prudence of your fears.”

“And I as well,” agreed Durwin.

Toli and Durwin shared with the king the signs they had observed, foreshadows of an impending evil they could not identify. Quentin noted that as his two comrades spoke, and especially when they mentioned the Wolf Star, Eskevar appeared to fall even further beneath the weight of his kingdom’s peril.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, the king spoke solemnly. “Quentin and Toli, my brave friends, we must discover wherein our danger lies. My people require your courage.”

“We will go at once and seek out this evil. And it may be we will find good Theido and Ronsard as well,” Toli offered boldly.

Quentin said nothing but stared from one to another of the faces around the table.

“Very well,” sighed the king. “You know I would not send you out thus if I thought it were but a small thing, or if another could serve as well.”

He turned and looked at Durwin thoughtfully. “You, sir, I did not summon, but as usual, one who knows me better than I know myself has doubtless interceded.” He smiled again, and Quentin saw a flicker of the former man. The king continued, “I will detain you, good hermit, that you may remain with me. I may soon have need of your ministrations, and perchance your arts will be better employed here than on the back of a horse.”

“So it is,” replied Durwin. “I will abide.”

The king rose with some difficulty and dismissed them, asking his two warriors, “How soon will you ride?”

“We will leave at once, Sire,” said Toli.

“It is well; but stay and share my table tonight, at least. I want to see my friends all together before . . .” He did not finish the thought.

The three arose, bowed, and went quietly out. At the door Quentin turned and was about to speak. He looked at Eskevar, and his eyes filled with tears; no words would come. He bowed quickly, then went out, too overwhelmed to say what he felt in his heart.

8

The village has been subdued, Most Excellent One.” The rider bowed low in his saddle. Behind him black smoke ascended in a thick, dark column to be scattered by the wind blowing in from the sea. His sorrel pony jerked its reins and tossed its head, its hide besmeared with soot and dried blood. “There was no resistance.”

Savage eyes watched the messenger from beneath the rim of an iron helm ornamented with black plumes that fluttered like wings in the wind. The warlord said nothing, but turned his horse and started slowly away. The messenger spurred his mount forward and drew up beside his departing commander. “Something has displeased you, my master?” The question betrayed apprehension.

“No, it is well. Our task is complete. I will return to the ships; you will accompany me. I may have need of a messenger.” He lifted himself in his saddle and called to several riders who waited a little distance apart. The riders held their helmets under one arm and stared impassively ahead at the smoke curling upward.

“You four”—the commander gestured with his gauntleted hand— “stay with the men and occupy this place. You others will come with me. We ride at once. Follow.”

“But what is to be done with the prisoners, Most Excellent One?” called the messenger after the dark retreating form. The warlord did not turn nor look around, but the messenger heard the words drifting back to him.

“Kill them,” his commander said.

The room hung heavy with the pungent fragrance of burning incense, and clouds of aromatic vapor drifted about the great figure seated on a throne of silk cushions. Tiny colored birds fluttered and chirped in cages nearby, their songs accompanied by the soothing notes of a flute.

Presently, the tinkling ring of a chime sounded in the passageway beyond, followed by a rustle of clothing. The gigantic form seated on the throne appeared to be asleep, for he did not move or acknowledge the intrusion in any way; the huge head rested heavily on the thick neck rising from massive shoulders and a great barrel chest. The meaty hands clasping one another in the wide lap remained motionless, thumbs pressed together.

“Immortal One, I have news,” said the minister who had just entered so quietly. He waited on his knees with his forehead pressed to the floor, hands thrust before him, palms upward.

“You may speak, Uzla.” The voice seemed to fill the small room, even though the words had been spoken quietly.

“Your warlords have returned. And they bring tidings of victory. The cities of the coast are subdued.”

“Has a suitable residence been found for me?”

“Alas, no, Immortal One, these were but small villages, and none possessed a dwelling worthy of your being. For this effrontery the villages have been burned and the ashes scattered, lest the sight of them displease you.”

Nin the Destroyer looked darkly upon his most trusted minister. “This land will feel my wrath!” he shouted. The birds trembled in their cages, and the music stopped. Uzla, the prime minister, cowered below him on the floor.

“The wretches of this accursed land speak of many castles in the north, and one in particular which may serve your needs while you sojourn here to subject this land to your will.”

“What is the name of this palace?”

“It is called Askelon. It is the city of the high king of this land— one known as the Dragon King.”

“Ah,” said Nin softly. “The sound of these words pleases me. Say them again.”

“Askelon is the home of the Dragon King.”

“It will be my home, and I will be the Dragon King. This pleases me. I have never killed a dragon before—have I, Uzla?”

“No, my Deity. Not to my knowledge.” He hastened to add, “That is, unless in a previous life, of course.”

“Then I will look forward to that event with anticipation, and I will savor the moment of its accomplishment.” He stood slowly. “Now, where are my warlords?” Nin asked, his deep voice booming.

“They await you on the beach,” replied Uzla. “I will summon them.”

“No, I will go to them. They have achieved my desires and will be rewarded by the sight of their god drawing near to them.”

“As you command, Great One.”

Uzla bowed again and raised himself from the floor. He turned and withdrew to the hall, clapped his hands, and shouted, “The Deity walks! Kneel before him, everyone!” He went before his sovereign, clapping his hands and shouting the warning. Nin followed slowly, balancing his immense bulk upon ponderous legs.

As they reached a short flight of stairs that led upward to the deck of the palace ship, Uzla clapped his hands again, and eight attendants brought a throne on poles. They placed the throne before their king, and he lowered himself onto it. Then, straining every muscle, the chair bearers climbed the steps, careful to keep the throne level, lest they incur the wrath of their temperamental god. Soon they moved out upon the deck.

Two more attendants waited on deck with large shades made of brilliant feathers. As soon as Nin’s chair emerged out upon the deck, the huge, burly head was shaded from the bright sunlight of a beautiful summer day. The attendants swayed under the weight of their burden, but proceeded down a long ramp that had been erected out over the shallow water from the palace ship to the shore. The ramp terminated in a platform on the beach, forming a dais from which Nin the Destroyer could command his subjects.

At the sight of this procession moving slowly down the ramp, the four warlords dismounted and drew near to the dais, prostrating themselves in the sand. The chair bearers reached the platform and placed the mobile throne squarely in the center of the dais, beneath a broad canopy of rich blue silk. Then they withdrew to await their king’s command, kneeling with their faces touching their knees.

The blue silk ruffled in the soft sea breeze. Above the dais, gulls wheeled in the air and shrieked at the spectacle below. Nin raised his hands and said, “Arise, my warlords. You may look upon your Deity.”

The warlords, clad in their heavy armor, rose stiffly to their feet and stood shoulder to shoulder before their patron.

“I have seen your victory from afar,” Nin continued. “With my own eyes I witnessed the flames of destruction. I am well pleased. Now tell me, my commanders, what is the strength of this land? Is there an army to stand before the Destroyer’s blade?” He looked at the four fighting men and nodded to one of them who stepped forward slowly. “Gurd?”

The warrior struck his heart with his closed hand; the mailed fist clanked dully upon the bronze breastplate. His long straight black hair was pulled tightly back and bound at the back of his head in a thick braid.

Quick black eyes set in a smooth, angular red face watched Nin closely. “I have seen no soldiers in the south, Immortal One. The peasant villages were unprotected.”

“Amut.”

The warrior advanced. His gleaming head was shaved completely bald, except for a short bob of hair that he wore tied in a tight knot. On his cheeks and forehead were strange blue tattoos, and a ragged scar streaked from the corner of one almond-shaped eye to the base of a thick, muscular neck. “In the north we encountered no soldiers, Great One. The cowardly populace fled before our arrows like leaves before the storm.”

“Luhak,” called Nin, and the third warlord stepped forward.

Luhak touched his bearded chin with a brown hand. His head was covered in a helm of white horsehide that sprouted a short plume made from a horse’s tail at its crest. He was tall and lean, and when he opened his wide mouth to speak, a row of pointed white teeth flashed.

“I encountered but one village in the mountainous interior of this land, named Gaalinpor,” the warrior said. “No army could cross those mountains in surprise. We may turn our eyes elsewhere.”

“Boghaz.”

The last warlord, a towering black man whose features were hidden beneath the veil that covered the lower part of his face, revealing only his large, dark eyes, took his place beside the others. His head was encased in a horn-covered leather helmet, and he wore a breastplate made of flat disks of horn that had been linked together with iron rings. A long red cape fell from his shoulders to the heels of his black boots. At his side he carried, as they all did, a curious curved sword with a thin, tapering blade honed dagger-sharp on both edges.

“And I, too, have seen no soldiers. The villages offered no resistance, the blood of the stubborn ran red upon the ground, and their ashes ascended to heaven in your honor, Immortal Nin.” With that the black warrior touched his forehead and bowed low.

“What land is this which builds no walls around its cities and leaves the small villages unprotected? Here is wealth for the taking, my warlords. We will push north to Askelon, and there I will establish my palace, so that I may be comfortable while bringing this land under my rule.

“Go now and bring me word when the castle is mine, that I may come at once and take possession of what I desire. But do not make sacrifice of the king. I will have that pleasure for my own; his blood will flow for me alone. Hear and obey.”

The four commanders saluted Nin and backed away a few paces. Then they turned, mounted their horses, and galloped off together. Nin clapped his hands, and the attendants sprang forward to begin the laborious process of carrying their god back up the ramp and into the magnificent palace ship.

9

Heavy dew still clung to the leaves as the first rays of golden morning broke upon the countryside. Near the sea such dew was common, but it never ceased to delight Quentin when the sun struck each tiny droplet of moisture and turned it into a glimmering gem. Each hillock and bush seemed to acquire inestimable value.

Toli’s high-spirited horses, now well rested, pranced and jogged in the cool morning air. Quentin himself lifted his voice in a hymn to the new day. Toli, too, joined in, and their voices rang in the dells.

“Ah, it is good to be alive!” shouted Quentin, more for the joy of shouting than for the sake of conversation.

“This morning the saddle seems a friend to you,” called Toli, bouncing along behind. “That is not the impression you gave me last night.”

“In the morning the world is re-created. All things are made new— including saddles.”

“It is good to see you in such high humor. For the last three days one would have mistaken you for a growling bear—not that I noticed.”

Quentin seemed to ignore the remark, and they continued on as before, the trappings of the horses jingling brightly as they cantered along. “I have been under a shadow,” Quentin said at length. “It is good to be doing something—at least, I feel better for moving.”

“That is well for both of us,” replied Toli in his usual elliptic style.

The two riders approached and mounted the crest of a long, sloping hill. Here they paused for a short while and contemplated the road before them and the valley beyond, in the center of which lay the village of Persch.

“See how quiet it is,” remarked Quentin as he gazed at the scene below. “So peaceful. This is how it has been for a thousand years . . .” His voice trailed off.

“We will pray that it may remain so for another thousand,” answered Toli. He flicked the reins and started down the road, a thin dirt trail barely scratched in the long, thick green grass of the hills.

As they drew nearer to the seaside village, Toli grew tense with concentration. Quentin noticed the change in his companion’s attitude and asked, “What is it? What do those eagle eyes of yours see?”

“Nothing, Kenta. And that is what worries me. I see no one—no activity in the village at all.”

“Perhaps the people of Persch are late abed and late to rise,” Quentin said carelessly, attempting to maintain the mood of tranquillity that had just been shattered by Toli’s observation.

“Or maybe they have a reason for remaining behind doors on such a day as this, though that reason is certain to be born of fear.”

Quentin sighed. “It will not be the first time we have encountered such this trip.” He placed his free hand on the hilt of his sword and shifted it slightly to bring it into readiness. His eyes scanned the breadth of the town drawing slowly closer with each step. He saw not a sign of life, either human or animal, in the streets or on the road before them. Certainly that was strange. Ordinarily, the first rays of morning light would find the narrow little streets busy with citizens going about their daily chores. The merchants would be opening their stalls in the marketplace and the craftsmen their awnings. Farmers would be offering cheese and melons and eggs in exchange for cloth and various metal utensils. Wives would be carrying water from the well in the town square, and children would be scampering around corners and darting to and fro in noisy play while the village dogs barked and dodged their bare, sun-browned legs.

But this morning there was no such bustle and fuss. The empty streets seemed haunted by the echoes of childish laughter and the eerie absence of the villagers.

The riders entered the main street of the town, and Quentin heard the soft crush of horses’ hooves upon the tiny fragments of shells with which the people of Persch paved their streets. Quentin always thought that this gave all the seaside towns a fresh, clean appearance. This day, however, the whitened streets looked desolate, sepulchral.

No face appeared even fleetingly in a doorway or a darkened window. No sound could be heard, except the soft sea breeze blowing among the eaves; it whispered a note of utter loneliness.

“Everyone is gone,” observed Toli. His voice seemed to die in the empty air.

“I do not believe it. Everyone cannot have left. Someone must have remained behind. A whole village does not disappear—not without good cause.”

They reached the village square. It was an irregular rectangle formed by the fronts of Persch’s principal buildings: the inn, which was rumored to serve a most remarkable fish stew; the communal hall (since no noblemen dwelt in Persch, the citizens had erected their own great hall in which to observe feasts and holy days); the marketplace and the stalls of the vendors; the small temple and shrine to the god Ariel; and the dwellings of the craftsmen.

In the center of this rectangle stood a large well, and on a mound beside it an immense old cedar tree spread forth its shaggy limbs to offer shade to all who gathered there. Quentin and Toli drew up to the well and dismounted. Toli picked up a shallow wooden bucket which lay beside the stone rim of the well and dipped out water for the horses. Quentin filled a gourd and drank his fill of the cold, fresh water and then offered some to Toli.

“Hmmm,” Quentin mused, “not a sound, nor a sight. And yet, I feel that we are not alone.”

“Yes, I feel someone close by. I also feel their fear.” Toli replaced the gourd carefully and then motioned for Quentin to mount up again. Quentin did so with a questioning look, and the two rode the rest of the way through the village.

When they reached the last dwelling, Toli led them aside and whispered, “We were not entirely alone back there. I felt someone’s eyes upon us. Let us leave the horses here and go back by another way.”

They crept quietly along a pinched alleyway between buildings and soon made their way back to the square. There was nothing to be seen; it all looked just as it had only moments before.

“Well, it appears we should look elsewhere. Perhaps we should try one of the dwellings.”

“Wait but a moment and I will join you.”

Toli had no sooner finished speaking when they heard a slight scrabbling hiss, like that of a snake moving through dry sand. It stopped and started with a measured pace. They listened for a moment, and the sound seemed to diminish rapidly. It was then Quentin realized that someone had been very close to them, perhaps just around the corner of the same wattle-and-daub abode where they now crouched waiting in the shadows. The sound was the light, shuffling footfall of someone treading gently, cautiously along the shell-strewn path.

“He is getting away!” whispered Quentin harshly, and he dived around the edge of the dwelling in time to see a leg and a hand disappear behind an overgrown yew thicket.

“He is making for the basin!” shouted Toli. “We will catch him this way.” He pulled on Quentin’s arm and pointed behind them to where the narrow alleyway turned and started down as it became a path, like so many in the sea town, which led to the waterfront where the villagers kept their fishing boats.

Toli bounded away, and Quentin followed in his fleet steps. They tumbled down the path together and jumped down the rock steps placed in the side of the sandy hill that separated the town from the strand below. Ahead of them lay the basin, the small cove that formed the harbor of Persch; there, between two fishing boats resting with their black hulls skyward, a small skiff with a white, triangular sail had been thrust upon the sand. And hurrying nimbly along the sand toward the skiff ran the slight figure of a young man.

Quentin darted out onto the beach in pursuit. He ran a few paces, then stopped, raised his hand, and shouted, “Hold, sir! Stop! We mean you no harm! We only wish to talk.”

The figure half turned and only then saw the two men watching him. Though Quentin and Toli were still too far away to make out the features of his face, the effect of Quentin’s words was quite obvious. “You have frightened him!” called Toli as the figure on the beach lurched forward, stumbled, fell, picked himself up, and ran deerlike for the skiff. “Come on!” cried the quick-footed Jher, skimming over the sand.

The young stranger had reached the skiff and was shoving the boat into the water with all his might. It seemed to have caught on something, thought Quentin, or perhaps the tide had withdrawn somewhat since the boat had been left here, making it harder to push free.

But with the strength of desperation, the stranger succeeded in launching the small sailing boat and was thrashing through knee-deep water to turn the boat around before clambering in, fishlike, over the side.

Toli reached the water’s edge first and jumped in. Quentin plunged in after him, and both waded toward the boat. The stranger, paddling furiously with a long oar, cast a terrified look over his shoulder. Quentin noticed the compact frame and slim shoulders dressed in the leather vest and coarse-woven brown trousers worn by fishermen. The shapeless, floppy, soft hat, also traditional among the seaside dwellers of southern Mensandor, was pulled down low over the young face.

Quentin waded toward one side of the boat, and Toli splashed toward the other. The boat, despite the prodigious thrashings of its occupant with the oar, was not moving into the deeper water rapidly, and they had no trouble reaching it in quick strides.

Once they were within range, the oar whistled above their heads. Quentin tried to reassure the stranger, saying, “Be still, good sir! Desist! Ow!” as the wildly flailing oar came dangerously close. “We mean you no harm.”

As Quentin occupied the boy’s attention, Toli moved behind him toward the bow. The youngster turned and brought the oar down on the gunwale with a crack in the exact spot where Toli’s fingers had been only an instant before. Quentin, seeing the stranger momentarily off balance following the delivery of the blow, seized the stern with both hands and gave the boat a mighty, twisting shove. The young stranger gave a surprised yelp and, with arms flung wide and fingers clawing the air, toppled over the side headfirst into the water, the oar clattering to the bottom of the boat.

Quentin ducked the splash, and Toli swung himself around the side of the skiff to face Quentin. Between them floated the fisherman’s hat. Quentin reached into the shallow water, snagged a hold on the stranger’s collar, and hauled him sputtering to his feet.

“Well, what have we here?” asked Quentin amiably. “Toli, I think we have caught ourselves a . . .” He stopped abruptly. Now it was Quentin’s turn to be surprised.

“A girl!” cried Toli, finishing Quentin’s thought.

Quentin held the dripping hat, now a soggy black bag in his hands, and looked in wonder at the long, dark tresses, now wet and ropy, glistening in the sun. The young woman’s dark lashes blinked over clear, ice-blue eyes as she shook away the water streaming down her face. She had soft, well-shaped features, and her cheeks bore the ruby blush of excitement.

“Let me go!” she cried. “I am nobody. I have no money. Let me go!”

“Peace,” Quentin said softly. “We will do you no harm, my lady.”

The young woman looked from one to the other of her captors, eyeing them suspiciously. “We are not robbers, if that is what you are thinking,” replied Toli. “We are king’s men.”

“Since when do king’s men arrest innocent citizens and abuse them for no reason?” she challenged them haughtily.

“Innocent citizens have nothing to fear from us. Why did you run?”

The woman threw a furtive glance toward the village and murmured, “I was frightened. I found the village deserted and . . .”

“And then you heard us coming and hid.”

“Yes,” she said sullenly. She drew a soggy sleeve across her face and threw a defiant look at Quentin. “Now let me go!”

“We will let you go in good time. But you have pricked our curiosity, and we wish answers to our questions first. Now,” said Quentin, offering her his hand, “we needn’t remain standing in the water; let us all dry out on the beach.”

He turned and began sloshing toward the shore. Suddenly he felt his knees buckle, and he pitched forward into the water with a strange yelp. His back and shoulders were pummeled with fierce blows. He twisted underwater and was trying to haul himself back to his feet when the attack was broken off. He surfaced sputtering and shook the water out of his eyes. Toli was gripping the young lady by the arm, having pulled her off Quentin. Toli then pushed her, clawing and kicking, toward the shore.

Toli’s face wore a strange, ridiculous grin.

10

How is this possible?” Theido shook his head in disbelief. His eyes scanned the black plain where the village of Halidom had been.

“There must be something left, though it does not look promising.” Ronsard motioned to his knights, and the party started down the gentle hill above the flat valley of Halidom. Each man’s face wore a look of grim wonder, and each man’s mind echoed Theido’s thought: how was it possible that an entire village could be annihilated so completely?

There was nothing left of Halidom but a blackened spot on the earth. Not a timber stood; not a stone was left standing upon another. The entire area where the town had been was now a razed jumble of destruction.

“Even the birds have finished with it,” observed Ronsard as they approached the perimeter of the scorched circle.

“Not quite. Look over there.” Theido gazed a short distance away. Ronsard followed his look and saw a large, flapping buzzard settle himself on the remnant of a tree trunk. Three scolding ravens flew up from where they had been busily feeding on the ground.

“Let us see what draws their interest.” Ronsard turned to his men. “Spread out and search the ashes for any signs of who this enemy might be.” Then he and Theido reined their horses toward the place where the buzzard was now hopping along the length of burned trunk. The bird was eyeing something on the ground below. What it was could not be determined.

They moved through the midst of the destroyed village. Scattered among the ashes were the charred remains of the everyday life of the simple villagers: an iron tripod with its battered pot nearby, a small stone statue of a household god, the blackened shards of a wine jug. And here and there lay the remains of hapless villagers: a sooty skull staring vacantly skywards; a long, clean length of shinbone; the curved hull of a rib cage rising from the desolation.

The vulture took disgruntled flight at the approach of the horses and lifted itself slowly into the sky to circle high overhead with the ravens.

“By the gods!” cried Theido, drawing near the spot.

“What . . . ?” began Ronsard. Then he, too, saw what Theido had seen. “By Orphe—no!”

Theido had already thrown himself from his mount and was tugging at the lashings of his saddle for his water skin. Ronsard, entranced by the sight before him, dismounted slowly and stepped closer. He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword and was drawing the blade when Theido touched his arm. “No need for that, I think. He is beyond pain, beyond suffering.”

As Theido spoke, the object of their attention—a badly burned torso of a body—jerked convulsively, and a yellow eye rolled toward them. Upon seeing them, the mangled half-corpse uttered a pitiful moan. Theido knelt gently down beside the carcass and offered his water skin.

“Peace, friend. Here is water for your parched tongue.” Theido was on his knees, gently bringing the tip of the skin within reach of the cracked mouth. He allowed a few drops of water to seep out and dampen the man’s lips. The black tongue poked out and moistened itself with the water. The cracked eyelids fluttered, and the dry eyeballs rolled in their sockets. Miraculously, the water seemed to take effect, and the eyes cleared with recognition.

“How is this poor creature still alive?” wondered Ronsard, bending close to Theido’s ear.

“I do not know.” The knight paused to let some more water trickle out. “But perhaps he may tell us something of what happened here before Heoth claims him.”

“Can you speak, friend? We are king’s men, and your answers would do your king service.”

Ronsard turned away from the stench that assailed his nostrils. The man was burned horribly. Great areas of his chest and arms were charred black; the lower part of his body had been crushed by the tree when it fell. He lay in a shallow depression in the ground, half-twisted on his side. His hair had been burned off one side of his head; on the other, a few dark strands still clung to the bare scalp to trail in the breeze.

The birds had fed on the man where he lay and had laid open a fair portion of his shoulder and back. White bone could be seen gleaming from the raw, red wounds.

“Let him die in peace,” said Ronsard, turning back. His voice was tight and choked.

“No-o-o.” The voice was little more than a whisper on the wind. Both men looked down into the eyes and saw a glimmer that held them. The man was trying to speak.

“Easy. We hear you. Let me come close to listen.” Theido leaned forward and placed his ear directly above the man’s lips. He spoke softly and with a serenity Ronsard found hard to believe. “Tell us what happened, if you can.”

The words formed themselves in the air, though Ronsard could not see how; and, however faint, they could be understood. “I have been waiting for someone to come,” the man whispered. His voice was a dry rasp—the sound of a withered leaf blown over the sand. “Waiting . . . waiting . . .”

“We are here now; your vigil is over. Can you tell us anything?”

“All killed . . . All destroyed . . . burned . . . everything.”

“Yes, we see. Who did it? Do you know?”

“Ahh”—a long, raking gasp—“the destroyer god . . . ten feet tall . . . fire spewed from his mouth . . . everything destroyed.”

“Just the god alone?”

The words were growing ever fainter and more tenuous. “N-no . . . many soldiers . . . they say . . .” The man coughed violently, and the torso was racked with another convulsion.

“What did they say?”

“Ahh . . .”

“Tell me, and then it is over. The god will take you to your rest.”

“Beware . . . Nin the Destroyer . . . Ahh-hhh.”

The yellowed eyes grew cloudy and still. There was not enough breath left to make a last gasp, but Ronsard fancied he felt the last remnant of life flee the broken form that had held it so long against its will.

Theido stood slowly. “Let us bury this brave one at once.”

The birds squawked overhead as if they knew that they would be denied their meal.

When the pathetic corpse had been buried with as much kindness as the knights could render, Ronsard and Theido went a little apart to talk. “Have you seen enough, my friend?” asked Ronsard, leaning on his sword.

“Here—yes. But I would like a look at this enemy that strikes helpless villages and kills the defenseless.”

“That we shall have ere long, I believe. But now is not the time for it. We should return at once with word of what we have seen. When next we ride, it will be with a thousand at our backs.”

“I think you may be right . . .” Theido paused; he seemed to regard something on the far horizon.

“What is it, Theido? Does something trouble you yet?”

Theido drew a long breath, and when he turned back to Ronsard, a strange light shone in his eyes. He turned again to the horizon, and his voice sounded far away. A shadow moved across the valley.

“I am afraid, Ronsard.”

“You, afraid? How little you know yourself, sir!”

“Don’t you feel it?” His look was quick and sharp. “No? I wonder . . .”

“Speak your mind, Theido. You have a foreboding, and I would know what it is. Out with it! Let there be nothing between us, my friend.”

“Very well—you are right, of course. But it is not so easily put into words. Just now, as we were talking, I had a feeling that we were riding down a narrow path whose end lay in darkness, and darkness was falling all around. That is all, just that. But it made me fearful.”

Ronsard studied his friend carefully, and at last spoke in a firm but quiet voice. “We were together, you and I? Well, come what may, that is enough for me. It will be a dark path indeed that daunts these two knights.

“But come, this is an evil place. Let us return at once to Askelon for the king’s counsel. I tell you, we have been away too long already.”

“Let us return, then. I have seen enough.” Theido squared his shoulders and clapped Ronsard on the back with his hand. “But I wish we had seen this mysterious enemy and knew somewhat of his strength in numbers. I would feel better if we could see his face.”

“So would I, but perhaps that time is not far hence. We may yet encounter him before reaching Askelon—though we are ill prepared for battle.”

“I have no wish to engage an unknown enemy—only to search him out. All the more since this one seems too fantastic to believe.”

They had been walking back to their horses, and upon reaching them, Ronsard swung himself up and called to his knights, “Be mounted, men! We are away for Askelon!”

The knights took their saddles and began riding back up the hill the way they had come. But this time they gave the charred circle on the plain a wide berth.

Theido stood for a moment beside his horse, gazing far away. Behind him he heard Ronsard call; he shrugged, mounted his big, black palfrey, and hurried to catch the others. As he gained the crest of the hill, the late-afternoon sun caught him full in the face, and he felt his melancholy flow away in the flood of golden warmth that washed over him. He spurred his horse forward and did not look back.

11

Durwin hiked his robe over his knees and waded into the reed-fringed pool. The afternoon sun fell in slanting shafts through broad oaks and silver-leaved birch to glint in shimmering bands upon the clear water. Tiny fish flashed away from Durwin’s intruding feet. The liquid, crystalline call of a lark on a nearby branch split the forest’s green silence into two quivering halves.

Durwin stepped carefully into the deeper water, scanning the pebble-strewn bottom as he splashed along. He thought for a moment to throw off his robe and submerge himself in the pool’s cool depths, as was his custom on a warm summer’s afternoon in Pelgrin Forest.

But he thought better of the notion, inviting though it was, and continued his browsing. He soon had reason to be glad he had kept his robe, for as he worked his way around the pool, dipping now and then into the water, he noticed something white shining there. He glanced again and realized that it was a reflection on the mirrored surface of the pool. With a start he looked up and saw a woman clothed all in white standing on the shaggy, grass-covered bank above him.

“My lady!” he exclaimed. “You made me jump! I did not know that I was being watched.”

“I am sorry, Durwin. I did not mean to alarm you,” laughed Alinea, her voice ringing in the hollow. It had been a long time since he had heard her laugh. “You appeared so deeply engrossed, I feared to disturb your thought. Forgive me!”

“Your consideration is most thoughtful, but unnecessary. I am only gathering some biddleweed for a tisane.”

“Water hemlock? That is a deadly poison, is it not?”

“You know the plants of the field and forest?”

“Only a few. My mother, Queen Ellena, knew many remedies and made our medicines for us. As a child, I helped her gather herbs.”

“Well, then you know that a plant is neither deadly nor dangerous, but the intent of the healer makes it so. Yes, some are very powerful. But in wise hands even the most poisonous may make a wonderfully potent cure.”

“Your hands are surely the wisest in the realm, kind hermit. Your medicines are most efficacious.”

“Oh, my lady! You do not know how sorry your words make me.”

“Have I said something wrong? Please tell me.” The queen drew a few steps closer to the edge of the bank. Durwin waded toward her.

“No, you intended no wrong. But your words mock my lack of skill. For the one patient I would above all heal with my humble craft lies abed—no better now than when I first began his treatment. His malady resists my utmost art.”

“Surely it is a most subtle cachexia.”

“So it is!”

Durwin peered into Alinea’s deep green eyes and read the heavy burden of care that grew there; every day added to the weight. He felt powerless to help her, as he felt powerless when he stood over the birth of a peasant baby born too soon and dying before it had begun to live. He would have taken the burden upon himself though it was a thousand times greater. But there was nothing he could do, save stand aside, humbled by his own uselessness.

“Do you think the Most High God hears our prayers for the sick?”

“He must, my lady. He hears all prayers and answers each in its own season.”

“Then prayer will do what potions cannot.”

“You shame me with your faith. In my search through all my medicines I have sorely neglected that remedy. But no more.”

The queen sighed and raised her eyes to the sky shining soft and blue and bright in the afternoon light. Clouds fair and far away drifted slowly on the breeze that rustled the trees gently from time to time. The little pond was a polished glass reflecting all that passed above. Alinea plucked a tiny purple flower from a cluster at her feet. She gazed into it as if seeking a sign from its maker.

Durwin continued wading, stooping now and then to snatch up a plant by its roots. When he had collected enough, he strode through the water and climbed the bank where Alinea had settled to wait in the shade.

“What is happening, Durwin?” Her question was softly spoken, but the uncertainty in her voice and the worry lurking behind her eyes gave it the impact of a shout. Before he could speak a reassuring word, she continued. “It seems to me that something very bad, some dark evil, is growing, drawing nearer. Sometimes I stop for no reason, and a cold fear passes over me. It is gone again as quickly as it came, but afterwards it lingers in the air like a chill, and nothing is the same.”

“I, too, have felt it. But I am at a loss to explain it. Something, I believe, is moving in the land—something evil, yes. It is unknown now, but will not so remain. Too soon we will know what it is.”

“To hear you speak so does cheer me, though your words are not happy ones. At least I know that a dear friend feels as I do and understands.” “I would reassure you if I could.”

“You have done your service well. I came here hoping to find you and to rest a little. I have seen naught of the hills and woods of late, and the summer is waxing full.”

“It is peaceful here. When I come here, I can almost imagine I am in the heart of Pelgrin itself, it is so quiet. I take heart that even in a storm-blown sea of troubles, there are still islands of serenity to be found. Nothing can touch them, and nothing will.”

The queen moved to rise, and Durwin offered his hand. “Stay a while longer if you wish, my lady. I must go and begin with these.” He shook sparkling drops from the biddleweed.

“No, we will return together. I must look in on the king once again.”

They moved to their horses and then rode back to Askelon Castle in the quiet warmth of each other’s company.

“Where do you come from, changeling?” Quentin asked, squeezing the water from his jerkin. “And what is your name?”

“I’ll not tell you until I know who it is that asks.” The young woman’s eyes flashed defiantly.

“Very well, a name for a name. I am Quentin, and this is my friend Toli.” As he said their names, Quentin thought he saw a flicker of recognition cross the girl’s comely features. “Do those names mean anything to you?”

“No. Should they?” she shot back.

“There are some who would have heard them spoken before, that is all.”

“I suppose there are some who have heard of most anyone as loud and quarrelsome as you two are.”

Quentin rankled at the girl’s sharp tongue. “You have not told us your name, though we have given ours,” he said crossly.

“I give my name to whom I choose. And I choose to be known only by my friends.” She shook her limp, wet hair and turned her face away.

“If you knew who it was that spoke to you . . . ,” Quentin began hotly. His temper was rising at the haughty spirit of this obstinate young woman.

“If you knew who it was you mistreated . . .” She turned on Quentin again and, quick as a cat, leaped at him with claws extended.

Toli caught her by the arms once more, saying, “Peace! What Quentin is trying to tell you, my lady, is that we are sworn to protect all subjects of the realm. We are at your service.” He spoke softly and released her when she grew quieter.

“Well, you need have no care for me,” she returned in a more subdued tone. “I am not one of your king’s subjects.”

“Not of Mensandor? Ah, now we are getting somewhere,” Quentin remarked sourly.

The girl looked up at each of them from beneath dark lashes, as if sizing them up. “Very well, I will trust you—but only because Toli has a mannered tongue.” She glanced darkly at Quentin. “I am Esme. My home is Elsendor.”

“Then you are very far from home. What brings you to Mensandor and to this modest village yonder?”

“The village was not my destination, I assure you, sir. But my tale is not for your ears, worry me though you will.”

“And who might best hear your tale if not king’s men?” Quentin asked.

“The king himself!” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at them both.

“Then allow me to offer you the king’s protection until you shall obtain audience with him,” said Toli, bowing low. Esme smiled triumphantly and nodded. Quentin rolled his eyes heavenward.

“I accept your protection; it seems a woman needs it in this rough land.” She straightened her clothes and looked at them squarely. “Take me at once to the king, I charge you.”

“Toli is right to offer you the king’s protection, and we will ride to the king—but not yet. We have a charge placed upon us by the king himself and cannot return until it is accomplished.”

The young lady frowned and seemed about to lash out angrily once more, but again Toli interceded. “Quentin speaks the truth; were it not for the urgency of our errand, we would gladly conduct you directly to the castle itself. We return there ourselves as soon as we can.”

“Then I will go myself. With or without your protection, my mission must not wait.”

“How will you go? In your boat? That would take far longer than you might think. The current of the Herwydd is strong; going against it is not easily done, and Askelon is far. Or perhaps you would walk all the way?”

“Or you could give me your horse,” she answered.

“Quentin is suggesting prudence, my lady. Our errand is perhaps of an end not many days hence. We have good horses that can reach Askelon swiftly at need. Come with us”—he hesitated—“for your protection and so you may reach the king the sooner.”

The fiery young lady stared from one to the other of them before she made up her mind. “Very well, I will go with you. There seems no better choice.”With that she turned and began walking back toward the abandoned village of Persch.

Toli and Quentin followed behind, and upon reaching the village square, Esme turned to them and announced, “I will attend directly.” She then disappeared into one of the dwellings.

“I will wait here for our proud companion,” announced Quentin. “Fetch the horses, and we’ll leave as soon as she returns.”

Toli brought the horses and set himself to redistributing small items of their traveling effects.

“What are you doing?” asked Quentin, looking on.

“I assumed that you would not care to have the lady share your mount, so I am making ready mine.”

“I will take responsibility; it is my place.”

“How so? It was my tongue which placed this burden upon your back. Therefore, I will help bear it.”

“If it pleases you, Toli, you shall carry her in your arms all the way. Have it as you will.”

“I am ready,” called a voice behind them. They turned to see a very different young woman from the one they had fished from the sea. She had gathered back her hair and bound it in a leather thong. She wore riding trousers, but of a finer cut and fit than a man’s, and embroidered with intricate designs along the seams. She wore a short cloak thrown over one shoulder; it, too, was carefully embroidered and matched her trousers. The cloak was a deep blue, as was the soft tunic under it. A thin belt of new leather held a long dagger at her waist. Soft leather boots covered her feet and reached almost to her knees.

A more remarkable transformation could hardly have been anticipated. Toli and Quentin blinked in wonder. Esme looked like a warrior princess, but such things were unheard of in Mensandor.

“Which horse will I have?” she demanded.

“Toli has agreed to share his with you.”

Without another word they climbed into their saddles. Toli reached a hand down and drew the lady up to sit behind him on Riv’s broad back. They soon left the silent village behind.

As the declining sun lengthened their shadows upon the green hills, they stopped for the night in a stand of thin aspens near a trickling brook. Quentin and Toli routinely began making camp, while Esme planted herself on a grassy knoll and drew her knees up to wait. Only when Toli had meat on the spit and broth bubbling in the shallow pot did she approach.

“We will eat better tomorrow, perhaps,” remarked Quentin. “We did not have the opportunity to gather provisions as we would have liked.” He inclined his head in the direction of Persch.

“It appears a banquet to me,” said Esme, her eyes glowing as she watched Toli turn the spits. “I have not eaten in two days.”

The confession shamed Quentin, who colored deeply. “I . . . I must apologize for my behavior back there, my lady. It was not right of me to judge you so.”

“And I have misjudged you,” she admitted. “But perhaps you will grant me my error. A woman must sometimes discourage untoward advances by strange men. I thought you would take advantage of me.”

“I would pity the man who tried.”

“No harm will come to you while you remain with us, my lady,” said Toli earnestly.

“I thank you, good sir.” When their eyes met, Toli looked away quickly and finished preparing the meal.

When it was ready, they sat down together. Toli handed a plate of meat around and filled their bowls with broth. He broke some crusts of hard bread that they each dipped into the broth to soften it for chewing. Esme ate with a most unladylike appetite that Quentin and Toli made certain not to notice.

“You are most kind not to scold my ill manners. The food does so warm an empty stomach.”

“How could we scold what we ourselves indulge?” asked Quentin. “Have more; you are welcome.”

“I have eaten quite enough, thank you. Toli, your way with simple fare is praiseworthy. I would care to see what you could do with more exotic victuals.”

Toli said nothing, but merely smiled mysteriously.

“Would you now tell us what you were doing in the village alone?” Quentin asked after some time.

Esme looked into her bowl of broth as if the answer might be read there. She cocked her head to one side and said, “That I was alone was no fault of my own. I went there, as you would surmise, to obtain the clothes you first saw me wearing. I found the village empty as you did; so I helped myself to the garments.”

“You wished to disguise yourself—why?”

“I have already told you—a woman cannot be too careful when traveling alone. It was a poor disguise, I know. But I thought it might serve until I could discover another or until”—she smiled broadly—“disguises were no longer necessary.”

“Do you know so little of Mensandor, then, that you think every man a rogue?”

“It is not Mensandor’s subjects that I fear, though I did not propose to put them to the test. But tell me of your errand. Something tells me that we may be of closer purpose than seems first apparent.”

“We go to see comrades long overdue,” offered Toli. “They were sent to—”

“To derive the truth from certain rumors now growing in the land,” said Quentin tactfully.

Esme’s brow became suddenly troubled. “They rode to the south, your friends?”

“Yes; south along the coast. Why?”

“Good sirs, I greatly fear for your friends.” Her voice held a note of sharp concern. “I do not wonder that they are long overdue. It is possible they will not return at all.”

Quentin leaned forward in keen attention. Toli laid aside the utensils as he watched Esme carefully. “What do you know about this?” asked Quentin calmly enough, but there was no mistaking his anxiety.

“Only this . . .” Esme saw the effect her words had had on them and chose her way carefully. “It was between Dorn and Persch that I lost my companions two days ago.”

12

There you are,” said Quentin softly as he moved quietly up to stand at Toli’s shoulder. “I should have known you would be stargazing.”

“I could not sleep, Kenta. The star is growing.” The light of the late-night sky gleamed on the Jher’s upturned face.

“It looks the same to me,” Quentin said without conviction. “It will be dawn soon; perhaps we should make ready to leave. Our new companion’s words have troubled me; it would ease my mind to be on our way. I would not like to think that Theido and Ronsard were trapped because we didn’t warn them and prevent it.”

“Yes, the star grows each night, and evil increases,” replied Toli. He turned and looked at Quentin, his large, dark eyes filled with a light Quentin had rarely seen. “I will make ready the horses and wake the lady. I fear the day is already far spent.”

He slipped away noiselessly to leave Quentin pondering his words and peering up at the star glowing brightly in the east. Quentin heard a soft tread behind him, light as a shadow, and Esme came to stand beside him.

“So you know about the star too,” she said.

“We have been watching it, yes—though what it betokens is not certain.”

“There is no need to spare me your worst suspicions. Our priests are well acquainted with heavenly signs and the reading of portents. I know what they say about the Preying Star. But I am not afraid.”

“Then you are braver than I, my lady. For I must admit that I sometimes feel very much afraid when I look upon it.”

Toli brought the horses, and the three mounted up. They left the shelter of the aspen grove, slipped out into the waning night, and moved across the starlit hills. Behind them rose the cragged walls of the Fiskills and the narrow trail beside the sea. They had come through the pinched corridor late in the afternoon and had pushed up into the sloping foothills on the other side to find their camp for the night.

Although extremely curious about his new charge, Quentin had not pressed her for details of her story. She did not seem inclined to talk about the loss of her companions, nor about the mission that took her to King Eskevar. But her fearful thoughts on the safety of Theido and Ronsard had unsettled him, for he had been feeling a vague uneasiness regarding them himself. She had put words to his doubt and had made it real and urgent.

“They must have gone south toward Halidom,” Quentin had reasoned as they sat around the campfire after their supper. “Otherwise, Esme and her party would have met them on the road between Dorn and Persch.”

“But why would they go so far?” Toli had asked.

Quentin had shrugged. “I will ask them that when next we meet. Perhaps they saw something which took them there. These empty villages are mystery enough for me.”

They had lapsed into silence and uneasy rest. Quentin’s restive mind gnawed at his unanswered questions like a hound with a twice-picked shank. He felt better now that they were moving again.

He listened to the cadence of their passing in the deepest part of the night. Soon the horizon would begin to lighten in the east as the sun rolled back the darkness for another day. But now they rode as night’s children, slipping unseen through the sleeping world.

Quentin struck out once more along the coastal road, a wide, rock-strewn path that linked the seaside villages. If Ronsard and his knights were to be found, it would likely be along this road, although there were other, more infrequently traveled routes to the north through the brown Wilderlands. These were tracks that the traders used to traverse the vast and empty Suthlands and bring them to the more populated regions of the north.

The empty villages—first Persch, then Yallo and Biskan—had greatly troubled him; though he sought time and again for a logical explanation, none was forthcoming. He wondered if Theido and Ronsard had discovered them as well. They must have if they had passed through, or the towns might have been abandoned after the knights had ridden on. There was no telling how long ago they had traveled the road, where they might have stayed, or who they might have seen.

Quentin hoped, though reason told him six armed knights were a match for anything, that they had not encountered whatever it was that had overtaken Esme’s party.

They rode for an hour or more, following the rising and falling trail as it climbed and descended the gently undulating hills along the coast. At each crest they could see the great sea, lying dark and still in the distance. Gerfallon was not troubled by the mere vexations of mortal men; he slept in his deep bed, and his creatures with him. Quentin stopped at the crest of the next hill and waited until Toli, with Esme sitting behind, hands on thighs, had drawn up beside him. Blazer jigged sideways, impatient with the delay.

“What do you think it could be?” asked Quentin, nodding in the direction of the northern hills. A faint, leaden smudge could barely be seen glowing in the sky far away. “If I did not know better, I would say that the sun was coming up in the north today. A false sun that would be.”

“I have seen such false sunrises, and you may suspect some misfortune is at hand.”

“What is it?” asked Esme.

“Fire,” said Toli.

“Are you certain? It does not look like fire to me,” said Quentin, leaning forward in his saddle for a better look. “Why, it would take a pile of wood the size of a—”

“Village.” Toli supplied the missing word.

“You do not think . . . ,” cried Quentin with growing alarm. “Illem lies in that direction!”

“Yes, a league to the north, I would say.”

“Then we waste time talking,” said Quentin as he turned his horse toward the glow in the sky. “We may be of some help. Let us go!”

“Hold tight, my lady,” said Toli as he snapped the reins. Riv leaped from the track and bounded after Quentin’s gliding shape.

As the horses galloped at full speed, the glow on the horizon brightened and spread. At half a league it covered the far hills and deepened with an ugly, reddish hue. The hanging gloom of smoke could be discerned against the darker curtain of night.

In the east the sky had grown pearly with the coming of the dawn, making the glow ahead seem ever more ominous and unnatural.

Quentin reined to a halt at the bottom of a deep ravine. In the spring the thaw from the Fiskills filled the dry bed with icy water. Now it was filled with weeds and brush, the waters having long since emptied into the sea.

“I think Illem lies just beyond the ridge,” said Quentin. The ravine curved its way through a long trough of a valley bounded on three sides by low ridges. From the bottom of the dry streambed, the sky to the north shone as rust, and the smoke rolled away on the landward wind.

“The fire rages,” said Toli. “I advise caution until we discover what caused it—or who.”

“I agree,” said Esme. “We are only three against—who knows how many.”

Quentin looked at her with surprise. She evidently counted herself as one of the protectors rather than the one protected. “Why must there be an enemy? Surely you don’t think . . .” Quentin stopped; he knew Toli’s uncanny instinct well enough to know that even his slightest whims should be taken seriously. He had seen them proven true too often to dismiss them lightly. “Very well, we will continue along the valley until we draw even with the town. Then we can climb out below it in the shelter of the ridge.”

They started off again, but at a more measured gait. Quentin led the way, scanning the tops of the hills for any signs of unusual activity. They had proceeded only a little way when the course wound around a sharp bend. “Wait!” said Toli in a sharp whisper. “Listen!”

Just around the bend could be heard an odd muffled sound, as if a large animal were rooting in the soft soil of the dry streambed. It shuffled along, breathing heavily, with an airy, bristling sigh. Blazer and Riv lifted their ears at the sound.

“What can it be?” wondered Esme, her whisper almost lost in the quickly growing intensity of the sound.

“Whatever it is, it is coming this way,” said Quentin. “Over here!” He spurred Blazer toward the near bank to escape the path of the oncoming beast.

But he was too late. As Blazer jumped forward, the thing came churning around the bend. Quentin had a glimpse of a vast, rippling body— shapeless and ill defined. The creature saw him too, and let out a yelp that seemed to come from a dozen throats at once. It was then that Quentin knew what it was.

“Hold!” shouted Quentin, laying the reins hard to his mount’s side, so that Blazer reared on his hind legs and wheeled about. His command echoed from the far bank. Toli was instantly at his side.

The beast screamed and broke into a hundred separate pieces, each one darting in a different direction. The strange beast was, in fact, the townspeople of Illem, fleeing their burning homes en masse. The sound had been that of many feet hurrying through the dry brush and the murmur of fear as they fled.

“Hold!” Quentin called again. “In the name of the Dragon King.”

The people stopped. The sight of the instantly appearing horse and rider rooted them to the spot. For a moment no one dared to move. Quentin judged them to be as many as fifty in all: men, women, and children.

One brave man stepped forward. “Do not hinder us, sir. Whoever you are, if you call yourself friend, let us go.” The man approached Quentin slowly. The others behind him were too frightened to speak or move.

“We will do you no harm; have no fear,” said Quentin.

The man looked over his shoulder and cried, “The Destroyer is upon us! We have only escaped with our lives—let us go! Even now he comes for us!”

“Who is the Destroyer? We will meet him and—”

“No, it is too late!” He made a quick motion to his followers, and as they started to move on, the man suddenly threw his hand in the air. “Ahh! They have found us!”

Quentin looked behind the man and saw something moving by torchlight down the sides of the ravine. He drew his sword from its place behind his saddle and heard the ring of Toli’s blade at the same time.

“Run for it!” Quentin cried to the townspeople. “We will protect your escape.”

Toli charged ahead, and Quentin saw more torches boiling down the side of the ravine. Quentin leaned forward on Blazer’s neck, darted toward the embankment, and drove straight to the nearest of them. He heard Toli’s blade sing in the air and the crash of metal followed by a stifled cry. With his own sword held high, he leaped across the flat bed of the stream and caught a confused group of mail-clad soldiers as they tumbled down the bank. Two of them felt the bite of his blade, and two others fled back up the bank.

Turning, Quentin found his way barred from behind. Blazer reared and lashed out with flying hooves. Quentin’s sword became a lashing shield before him as he fought to Toli’s side. Twice a lance head thrust out of the darkness, and each time the sword sliced through the shaft. Now a buckler was cleaved in two, and then a helm.

It was clear that the soldiers had not anticipated finding men on horseback. They were uncertain what to do and ran into each other in an effort to stay out of range of Toli’s well-trained steeds. This led Quentin to believe that, though greatly outnumbered, they would prevail.

But once over the initial surprise, the soldiers quickly regrouped and surrounded the riders. “We are cut off!” cried Quentin as he raced by Toli. “We must break through the line. Where is the weakest point?”

“There—see that gap?” Esme called. Quentin saw her point past him with her dagger.

He looked and saw a space between two soldiers who were hurrying toward them. “Good eye! Follow me!” He threw the reins ahead, and Blazer sprang for the spot. Closer, he saw that a wall of low bushes stood in the gap. Before he had time to think, Blazer was up and over it.

Toli was not so lucky. Riv, with the weight of an extra rider, charged up and cleared the shrubs with his forelegs, but his hind legs became tangled in the branches. Quentin saw all three go down as soldiers instantly converged on the spot.

Blazer thundered to a churning stop, and Quentin pulled him around and headed back into the fray. “Whist Orren, protect your servant!” he cried in desperation.

In the scant few moments of battle, the sky had lightened enough to see the soldiers distinct from the darker background. Quentin sounded a battle cry and prepared for the shock of the inevitable collision. He saw Riv thrashing his head as the horse regained his feet. Toli and Esme were lost beneath a dozen black shapes of soldiers swarming over them.

Quentin bore down and slashed out at the jumble of lances and swords. He heard the gasps of pain and felt the sword strike deep. He thrust and thrust again, and the roiling mass of bodies parted.

Then he felt something tugging at his cloak, yanking him back- ward. Hands reached out and grabbed his arms; his sword was struck from his hand. Blazer reared and jumped, but the grip on Quentin’s arms held firm, and he was hauled from his saddle.

As he tumbled to the ground, he saw Esme leap out of nowhere and dart past him. For one heartbeat their eyes met. In that same instant Quentin thought she would come to his aid. But she turned away and was instantly in Toli’s saddle. Then Quentin was on the ground, and a foot smashed into his throat.

As the world spun sickeningly before his eyes, he heard the sound of Riv’s hooves pounding away.

13

Heavy draperies were hung across the windows of the Dragon King’s chamber. The barest thread of light shone through a chink in the gathered cloth to fall in a single shaft upon the king’s high bed. Otherwise, the room was as dark as a cave deep under a hill.

Durwin entered quietly and stood for a moment by the door. He pressed a finger to his chin and then moved closer, listening to the irregular and shallow breathing of the still form on the bed. He stepped nearer the stricken king and stooped to peer into the sleeping man’s face. It was then that he detected the faint, putrid odor of death.

The holy hermit spun around and laid the wooden goblet he carried on a nearby table. He went to the high, narrow window and seized the draperies in both hands and pulled with all his might. There was a tearing sound and a crash as the stifling folds came tumbling down beneath an avalanche of dazzling morning light now streaming into the gloomy chamber.

Fresh air swept fair and warm into the night-chilled room and banished the foul stench. The man on the bed, pale and wizened amid his mounds of thick coverings, stirred feebly. A breathless moan passed his lips.

“My king, awaken!” shouted Durwin, bending close. “Do you hear me? Awaken, I say, and throw off the sleep of death!”

Durwin snatched up the goblet and, slipping his arm beneath Eskevar’s head, brought it close to the invalid’s lips. He poured, and the yellow liquid ran down the king’s chin and neck, staining his bedclothes.

But some of the medicine seeped into his patient’s mouth. The king gasped weakly, and the hermit poured again, emptying the goblet. In a moment the gray eyelids flickered and rose, revealing dark eyes filmy with stupor.

“Awake, Eskevar. Your time is not yet.” The eyes stared unmoving in their milky gaze. “Oh, have I come too late?” Durwin muttered to himself.

“What is it? Durwin? What has hap—” The queen appeared in the open doorway. She took two steps into the room, then saw her husband staring upward, motionless. “Oh!” she cried, rushing to the bed.

“He is with us still, my lady. But for how long I cannot say.” As he spoke, Alinea clutched his arm for support, then threw herself upon the bed, burying her face deep in the bedclothes. In a moment her sobs could be heard, muffled and indistinct.

Durwin stood aside, regarding the queen and her dying king. His own heart swelled with pity and grief. “God Most High,” he prayed, “you give men life and receive it back from them when their span is done. All things grow in their season as established by your command. Surely it is to you a hateful thing when life is cut short.

“An evil malady afflicts our king and crushes him in a deadly embrace. Release him from it. Turn his steps back from their downward path, and restore him once more to his loved ones and to his realm.”

Durwin’s quiet prayer lingered in the air like a healing balm. The breeze blew softly, carrying the scent of roses from the garden outside. It whispered softly in the stillness of the room. Then all was silent.

“Durwin—look!” Alinea exclaimed. In her hands she clasped one of Eskevar’s as she knelt at his side. The king was now gazing quietly at both of them; his eyes were moist with tears.

“Oswald!” Durwin called. The queen’s chamberlain, hovering near the doorway, stepped fearfully into the room. “Fetch me the jar from my worktable!” The worried servant disappeared at once and was back before Durwin could add, “And hurry!”

The hermit once more administered the liquid, pulling the seal from the stoppered bottle and pouring it down the king’s throat. This time Eskevar coughed deeply, closed his eyes as if in pain and said, in a voice barely audible, “Have I fallen so low as to be poisoned in my own bed?”

“The king complains—that is certainly a good sign.” Alinea turned anxious eyes to the hermit, who replaced the stopper in the jar. “My lady, he is safe for the moment, but not out of danger yet.”

Durwin moved about the bed and began throwing off the coverings of wool and fur. “I have been foolish and slow-witted, however. Perhaps the king would not have sunk so far, almost beyond return, if I had been more observant. Come, my lady, we must get him up.”

Alinea looked doubtful. “Do you think—”

“At once. He must save the strength he still possesses. He must use it to gain more. Help me to get him on his feet.”

They took the unresisting body of the king, now light as feather down, between them and raised him carefully. Supporting him by the arms, they pulled him from the bed gently and placed his bare feet upon the floor. “Ahhh!” Eskevar cried out in pain. The queen threw a worried glance at Durwin, who only nodded as if to say, “Continue; it must be done.”

Carefully they walked him step by halting step back and forth across the room, stopping to stand before the window each time to allow him to catch his breath. On and on they walked, the king with his head lolling on his shoulders, barely conscious.

By midday Eskevar could move freely, though he still required the arm of his queen for support. His brow was damp with sweat and his shrunken frame shaken by racking spasms of violent coughing. He swooned with exhaustion.

Durwin and Oswald carried him back to bed as Alinea looked on, wringing her hands. “He will sleep soundly now, I think. We will wake him again in a while to eat. And he must walk again before the sun sets. I will watch him through the night.”

Durwin turned away from the bed and shook his head back and forth slowly. “How could I have let him slip so far?”

“In truth, it is not your fault. You have done all that could be asked, and even now you have saved his life.” Alinea patted Durwin’s arm gently and smiled with calm assurance.

“The god has opened my eyes in time, my lady. That is something indeed to be thankful for. But we must not slacken our vigil again or he will be lost. He is very weak and his strength very fragile.”

“Come to the kitchen, Durwin, and refresh yourself. You, too, will be needing your strength in the hours to come, as will we all.”

Quentin twisted on the ground. A sharp pain seared through his side. One eye was swelling shut; and his mouth, tasting of blood, throbbed with a dull ache. He raised his head slowly and looked cautiously about.

Smoke from the burning town still drifted in hanging clouds that rolled along the ground, stinging his eyes and making his nose run. The sun was barely up, a fierce red ball burning through the black haze that filled the air and seeped down the slopes of the ravine where he lay.

A soldier nearby saw Quentin’s slight movement and jabbed him in the shoulder with the butt of his lance. Quentin put his head down again and lay still; he had seen what he wanted to see. The main force of the soldiers had moved off; only a few remained to guard the prisoners— if prisoners there were, for Toli was nowhere to be seen.

Quentin tried to wiggle his fingers, but they were numb; the ropes that bound him had been tied tightly and efficiently. Both hands were thrust behind his back and lashed together; a loop passed around his neck and one around his feet. To move hands or feet tightened the noose around his neck and strangled him. But periodically Quentin wormed this way and that in an attempt to better reckon his surroundings.

It was only by the hand of the god that he was still alive. In the chaotic moment of his capture, he had been instantly beaten senseless. As he lay bleeding on the ground, a scowling warrior had raised a double-bladed axe over him. Quentin had seen the blade flash on its downward arc toward his heart.

He was saved at the last heartbeat by a hand that had caught the axe-man’s arm in midstroke. An argument had broken out then. Although Quentin could not understand the slurred words of the rough speech, he knew that it concerned him and his probable fate. The soldier with the axe wanted to kill him at once. The other apparently insisted upon waiting, probably for a superior’s approval. Quentin was then bound up and left to wonder what awaited him.

He did not have long to wait.

He heard the hollow sound of a horse’s hooves. There was a sudden scurrying around him, a harsh voice barked out an order, and he was jerked urgently upward to his knees by two grim warriors grasping him by the arms. The voice uttered another command, and Quentin’s head was snapped sharply back by a hand thrust into his hair. His eyes squeezed shut with pain.

When he opened them again, he was looking into the cold, hardened eyes of a warlord of Nin.

The warlord regarded him coolly. He was wearing a strange form of battle dress made of bronze, which glowed in the rising sun with a reddened luster that matched the tone of his flesh. His arms were covered in sleeves of mail from his shoulders to leggings. He wore no helmet, and his long black hair was pulled back and bound in a thick braid that hung down his back. A long, curved sword hung from the pommel of his saddle, its thin blade besmeared with crimson ribbons of blood.

The warlord’s horse, wide of shoulder and heavy of flank, shook its braided mane and snorted loudly. One of the soldiers supporting Quentin began speaking. The speech was strange to Quentin’s ears; he could not think what language it might be, for he could not catch a word of it. But, he guessed, the soldier was telling his commander about how the prisoner had been captured.

The warlord listened intently, interrupting the discourse to ask a question at one point. Quentin then thought he saw a spark of interest light the savage countenance. He spoke a quick command, and two soldiers rushed forward and untied his legs. Then Quentin was hauled to his feet and marched away. The warlord watched him go, then spurred his horse and rode off down the ravine.

Quentin was pulled up the steep bank of the dry streambed. In the smoke blowing across the field he saw soldiers, all wearing the same coarse, dark clothing and carrying brutal-looking double-bladed battle-axes, clustered around several great wagons. At one the soldiers gave up their weapons, which were collected and placed in the wagon. At another they were given large baskets. They then hurried back into the smoldering remains of Illem.

Quentin was taken to one of the nearer wagons and placed up against one of the huge wheels, so large that it was fully as tall as he was. He was untied and then lashed to the wheel by his wrists and ankles. He had no choice but to watch the strange activity taking place in the ruins.

A line of soldiers emerged from the curtain of smoke, carrying sacks of grain and casks of wine. These and other foodstuffs, the provisions of the entire town, were heaped up into a great pile and then loaded into hand-drawn barrows that carted the provisions away.

Then soldiers with baskets began filing past, two by two, moving off into the hills. Quentin could not see where they were going, but knew the general direction to be north. The men carried the baskets on their shoulders, some bent low by the weight of what they carried. Quentin wondered what the baskets contained.

But as he watched the activity around him, his mind returned again and again to the one thing he feared most. More than about his own safety, he wondered what had become of Toli. His friend and companion was gone. There were two possible explanations, he knew. Either Toli had been killed in the attack, in which case his body lay unattended back down in the ravine; or the crafty Jher had managed somehow to escape in the confusion of the battle. Quentin prayed that Toli had escaped.

He heard a signal—a long blast on a horn—and a rank of men on horses moved past the wagons. Each carried an axe and a shield as well as the peculiar curved sword. The horses, too, were armored. Large discs of hardened leather attached with rings of iron and woven into strips were slung over the animals’ withers and rumps, trailing almost to the ground. Upon their hooves were bands of sharpened spikes; and two long, cruel spikes sprouted from each horse’s headplate as well.

Whoever they were, thought Quentin, they had come prepared for war.

When the riders had passed, he heard another blast on the horn, and to his horror, the wagons began rolling. Quentin, thinking they had forgotten about him, cried out as the wheel to which he was tied rolled forward. His cries brought nothing but laughter from the soldiers nearby. He knew then that they had not forgotten him. He was intended to travel with them in this torturous manner, battered slowly to death on the turning wheel.

14

Yeseph sat on a bench in his courtyard, head nodding toward his chest. All around him the gentle sounds of evening crept into the air. The sun had slipped behind the hills of Dekra, and though the sky was still a brilliant blue, streaked with orange clouds, long evening shadows cast the clean-swept courtyard of the esteemed elder into deep gloaming.

Beside him a young laurel tree rattled its fragrant leaves in the fitful breeze. The feathery notes of a lilting melody drifted over the wall and fell into the courtyard like delicate petals of a flower. His cup sat untasted near his hand. He sighed heavily.

There was a slight pit-a-pat and the rustle of clothing, and Karyll, his wife, was beside him. Yeseph could feel the warmth of her presence as she stood looking down on him.

“My husband is tired from his day’s work,” she said. “Dear one, awaken. Our evening meal is ready.” Her voice was as light and soothing as the breeze that played in the tree.

Yeseph raised his head, and she saw his eyes gradually take in his surroundings as awareness returned. She saw the deeply etched lines of concern furrow his brow and crinkle around his eyes. He smiled when he saw her, and she noticed that it was a sad smile with no light in it.

“Husband, what is wrong?” She waited for him to tell her.

“I have had a dream,” Yeseph explained simply.

“And your dream has troubled you, for it was a dream of darkness instead of light.”

“How much you women see. Yes, it was a dream of darkness—a vision. I saw . . . ,” he began, and then stopped. “No, I must not tell what I have seen just yet. I must ponder it in my heart for a time.”

“Then you may eat while you ponder. Come. Your supper will be getting cold.”

She turned and padded back into their dwelling. Yeseph watched her go, thinking how lucky he had been to find one so wise and understanding to share his old age. He breathed a prayer of thanksgiving to Whist Orren for his good fortune. Then he raised himself slowly and followed her in.

As they lingered over their meal, Karyll watched her mate closely. He did not eat with his usual fresh appetite, but dawdled over his plate. In the lambent glow of the candles on the low table, Yeseph sank further into pensive reflection. Twice he brought a morsel of food to his mouth only to return it to the plate absently.

“Yeseph,” Karyll murmured gently, “you have not eaten well tonight. Your dream has upset you. If you will not tell me, perhaps you will tell the elders instead.”

“Yes, that is what I must do.” He got up from his stool at once and went to the door, where he paused and turned toward her, his form a dark silhouette against the evening sky. He seemed suddenly to come to himself once more. “I am going to call together the other elders. We will meet tonight. Do not wait for me, my love. It may be very late.”

“I do not mind. I have some work with which to occupy myself while you are gone. Now, away with you. The quicker you go, the quicker I will have my Yeseph back.”

In an inner chamber of the great Ariga temple, Yeseph waited for the elders to join him. It would not be long, for he had sent runners, three of the young men who served in the temple, to fetch the other Curatak leaders. He had merely to wait for their arrival, and the meeting could begin. Yeseph busied himself with lighting the many candles that stood on their long holders around the bare room.

In the center of the room, four straight, high-backed chairs sat in a circle facing one another. When the candles had been lit, Yeseph took his place, folding his hands in his lap in quiet meditation. In a few moments the curtains that overhung the chamber’s entrance parted and the familiar form of Jollen entered, smoothing his council robes.

“Good evening, Elder Yeseph. Your summons saved me from quite a distasteful chore—I had promised to begin translating a song for some of the children.”

“That, distasteful? Surely, you do not mean it. If you do, perhaps it were better you went back and got right to work.”

“Oh, do not misunderstand. I love the children and would give them anything. But the song they have chosen is of the old Ariga dialect. A very dreary piece about an unhappy youngster who is changed into a willow because of his complaining. I tried to persuade them to choose something happier, but their hearts were set on this one and none other.”

“You will be better for it in the end, I am sure,” laughed Yeseph. “An excursion into the old dialect will sharpen your wits.”

Jollen made a wry face. “If I did not know better, I would suspect you of having put them up to it. It would be just like you.”

The next to enter was Patur, the unofficial leader of the group. It was he who most often took it upon himself to inform the Curatak of the elders’ decisions in matters of public import. He was a most able and influential orator and often led the worship in the temple. He was well studied in the religion of the vanished Ariga.

“Greetings, my learned friends,” he said, adjusting the robe he had just donned upon entering the chamber. His eyes gleamed in anticipation of the evening’s work, for, whatever it was, it would involve him in close communion with other sharp minds, a thing he dearly loved.

“Greetings, Patur. Thank you for coming along so quickly. We only have to wait . . . ah! Here he comes now.” Yeseph nodded to the curtain, and Clemore, the most recent addition to the group upon the death of Asaph, the oldest member, entered, bowing low.

“Good evening, brothers. I pray you are well.” The others nodded, and they all took their places.

Yeseph looked from one to the other of their familiar faces. These were his most trusted friends; yes, Clemore was right: his brothers. He could tell them his dream, and they would shoulder the burden, no matter how small or great it would prove in the end. He felt better just being in their presence and wondered if any of them ever felt the same way about him. He supposed they did, as often they had sought his counsel singly or with the others. Now it was his turn to put a problem before them.

“Good Yeseph, do not keep us in suspense any longer. Tell us what disturbs you, for I see in your eyes that your spirit is distressed by something,” said Patur.

“You are right; I am troubled.” He paused as he collected his thoughts and looked at each of them in turn. “This evening I had a dream. Very brief it was, and very strange.”

“You believe it to presage something of significance?” asked Clemore.

“I do.”

“And have you an interpretation for us?”

“No, that is why I have asked you to come here tonight. I thought perhaps together we might seek understanding.”

“Very well,” said Jollen, “tell us your dream as it came to you. We will ask the Most High to enlighten us with its meaning.”

Yeseph nodded slowly and, closing his eyes, began to recite his dream.

“I had just stepped into the courtyard when a great drowsiness came over me, even though I had not eaten. I quickly fell asleep where I sat and began to dream. And the dream was this:

“I saw a river running through the land, and wherever the river touched the land, it sprang forth abundantly with green shoots and trees and food for all living things. And the water was clear and good; men came to the river’s edge to drink, and the wild creatures drank and were satisfied.

“But then a dark storm came out of the east and began to blow. The river still ran, but the water began to change, becoming the color of blood. At first just a trace of red clouded the clean water, but it deepened until the water ran black and the river became foul.

“Now no one could drink from the river and live; men who drank of it died, and animals too. And all the trees and grass and flowers which had sprung up along the river’s banks now withered and died. The land became desolate, for all things depended upon the river for their life. The winds came and blew away the dust, and dust filled the air in great clouds, covering the land, and the river dried up.”

Yeseph paused, drew breath, and continued. In the silence of the inner chamber, his words sounded like the toll of a bell.

“Darkness fell upon the land, and I heard a voice crying out. It was the voice of a terrified child, saying, ‘Where is my father? I am afraid. Where is my protector?’

“The darkness rolled up in answer to the child. It spoke with the voice of the night and said, ‘Your father’s bones are dust and scattered to the winds. Your protector’s sword is broken. You will live in darkness all your days, for now you are a child of the night.’

“I wept to hear those words. My tears fell like a mighty rain upon the earth. And the rain of tears washed over the land, which had become a bowl to catch the tears and hold them all.

“Another voice, mightier than the first, called out and said, ‘Where are my servants? What has become of those who are called by my name?’

“I answered, saying, ‘I am here, and only I—all others have perished.’ I fell on my face in my grief.

“The voice answered me and said, ‘Rise up and take the bowl and pour it out.’ I took the bowl in my hands and poured it out, and it became a sword of living light which flashed in the face of the darkness, and the darkness fled before it. ‘Take the sword!’ the voice commanded.

“I began to tremble all over, because I knew I could not take up the sword. ‘I have never touched a sword and do not know how to use it,’ I argued.

“Then give it to the child,’ the great voice answered. ‘He will use it, and you will guide his hand.’

“But when I looked for the child to give him the shining sword, he was gone. The night had swallowed him up, though I could hear him crying as the darkness carried him farther and farther away.”

Yeseph opened his eyes once more and looked at his brothers in their council robes. They sat unmoving as they pondered his words. Their eyes were grave, and their faces reflected the concern they all felt at hearing Yeseph’s dream.

“Brothers,” intoned Patur deeply, “this is a most unsettling dream. I hear in it a warning of some urgency. Let us now ask the Most High to guide us in our interpretation, for I believe it is given us this night to oppose the power of darkness bespoken in the dream.”

At that the elders of Dekra joined hands and began to pray.

15

The sleek black stallion seemed to flow down hills and through valleys like water. Esme had only to press with her knees or move a hand to the right or left and the horse responded, as if to her very thoughts. The animal was remarkably well trained—so much so that Esme began to fear for its welfare. Riv would run until his heart burst before slackening his pace in disobedience to his rider’s command.

The scene of the ill-fated flight lay far behind her now, and still the horse flew on, the lather streaming off his neck and shoulders in flecks whipped away by the wind. Esme saw the dark line of a creek snaking through the lowland valley ahead. Where the creek rounded the grassy base of a hill, there rose a stand of young birches, shimmering white in the morning light. That, she thought, would be a good place to rest.

“Whoa, Riv!” she called, leaning forward in the saddle. She pulled back the reins with the lightest touch, and the horse slowed to a canter and then a trot. Esme let him cool down before reaching the quiet stream, knowing that it would not be good to let him drink his fill while still hot from the chase and winded. She would need this horse to reach Askelon.

The birches ringed a shady hollow where long grasses grew, fed by the stream. It was secluded and invisible to any who might come after her. The stony feet of the hill lay exposed at one side of the hollow where the stream formed a shallow pool.

She slid from the saddle and led Riv into the shady grove, walking him slowly. The hollow was cool and silent and full of golden spatters of sunlight and green shadow. Warily, she advanced toward the running water heard spilling blithely over a rank of stones set in its course. She heard the call of a meadow bird above her on the hill and the swish of the horse’s legs moving through the grass. That was all, apart from the bubbling water. Yes, she was safe.

Esme led her mount to the edge of the pool and watched as he plunged his nose into the water. He drank deeply and pulled his head out of the stream to shake his gleaming mane in the sunlight. Glistening pearls of water were flung into the air, then splashed back into the crystal pool. She watched as the horse repeated the procedure several more times, and each time she was a little closer to forgetting that she had just barely escaped with her life.

Riv snorted and turned away from the water to stand looking at her calmly, as if to say, “You may drink—I will keep watch.” Esme knelt in the long grass, cupped her hands, and brought the clear water to her mouth. When she had finished, she led Riv to a patch of wild clover and let him eat his fill. She did not tether him, knowing that a horse as well trained as Riv would not abandon his rider to wander off.

She left the horse to crop the clover and turned her attention to the hill nearby. It presented to her the highest vantage for viewing her surroundings. Having left the fray at the ravine with little more thought than to come away with her skin, she had almost no idea where she might be. As much as possible she had tried to hold the direction whereby they had entered the ravine in the first place, her object being to regain the road they had been following. Once on the road, she would turn north and then hurry to Askelon.

Esme climbed the steep slope of the hill as it rose out of the vale and above the trees. Out of the shade, the air was warmer and alive with bees and butterflies beginning their daily chores. A fresh wind blew ruffles along the tall grass; the sky billowed bright and blue, unconcerned with the darker deeds of night and desperate men. Here she could almost forget what had passed just a few hours earlier.

But she could not forget the two gallant men who had so courageously flown to the aid of the helpless townspeople and who had, without question, offered her protection as well. As she reached the crown of the hill, she turned her eyes back toward Illem, now leagues behind her. There was nothing to be seen; not even a smudge of smoke on the horizon remained to mark the place.

For a moment she stood in indecision—should she return and try to discover what had become of her friends? Or go on, to complete her charge and deliver her message to the king?

It was an empty choice, she knew. The enemy that had overcome them in the ravine at Illem was the same that had surprised her and her companions on the road. Now the lives of two more had been added to the sum, for there was little doubt in her mind that by now Quentin and Toli were dead. And were it not for the importance of her mission, she would have stayed to share their fate.

There was nothing to be done but go on.

She gazed out over the land, her dark eyes sweeping the horizon for any recognizable landmark. Away to the south, she saw a thin slice of spangled blue that merged with the sky. The sea, she thought, I have not gone far wrong. By squinting up her eyes she could almost see the road itself as it hugged the coastal hills. She cast one look over her shoulder to see if the dark enemy had followed her, but saw nothing except the radiant sky and the hills of summer. So she turned with heavy heart to leave.

Clambering back down the side of the hill, Esme heard the excited whinny of a horse. Was it Riv, or some other? She stopped, her heart now fluttering in panic. She listened.

From beneath the leafy canopy directly below her she heard again the shrill scream of a horse in distress. In the tangle of leaves and branches, she could not see the animal, nor its assailant. As quickly and as quietly as she could, she slipped the rest of the way down the hill, careful not to show herself openly.

Once below the treetops she saw Riv, legs splayed, head down, backed against the rocks, shaking his mane and baring his teeth. But she could see nothing at all that should so upset him. All was as she had left it. Not a single intruder, man or beast, was in evidence.

Esme dropped to the ground and crouched in the grass for a moment. Hearing nothing and seeing nothing disturbing, she rose and went to the frightened animal to comfort it.

“There, Riv. Easy, boy.” She patted his sleek jaw and curled a slim arm around his neck. “Easy, now. What is it, Riv? Hmm? What has frightened my brave one?”

The horse calmed under her touch and soothing voice. He nickered softly, low in his throat, and tossed his head. But he continued to look away across the creek—at nothing Esme could see.

“There, now. See? All is well. There is nothing—”

Before Esme could finish, Riv tossed his head, eyes rolling white in terror, and broke away from her. She snatched at the dangling reins, but the horse leaped away and ran through the long grass to stand whinnying across the hollow.

“Riv!” Esme shouted impatiently. “You perverse creature! Come back here!” She stood with her hands on her hips as the horse bucked and shied, spinning in circles of fear as she watched. What had gotten into the animal? wondered Esme. She had seen nothing like it before.

“Away, foul beast!

And take your rider— Or be ye still,

And stand beside her.”

At the strange, singsong words spoken in a rasping babble of a voice, Esme whirled around. Her hand flew to the long dagger at her belt.

“Not a hangman’s knot.

Nor blade of knife

Prevail against

This sibyl’s life!”

Esme could not believe her eyes. For there, in a huddle of rags on a rock in the middle of the creek, stood a humpbacked old woman. She held a long staff in one hand and waved the other before her as if warding off bees. As Esme watched in mute astonishment, the old woman hopped as lightly as a cricket from stone to stone and so crossed the stream without so much as wetting a single tatter.

Upon landing on the bank, the old woman shook her rags in a flurry and stamped the ground three times with her staff. Then she proceeded to hobble toward the spot where Esme stood gaping in amazement. Where had she come from?

“Who are you, old mother?” asked Esme warily. The withered creature did not answer but drew closer in her peculiar hopping gait, swinging the staff and puffing mightily. Her hair hung in a mass of tangled gray snakes bedecked with bits of leaf and twig. The shriveled face looked like a dried apple, a mass of lines and creases browned by the wind and baked by the sun. When the woman moved, Esme imagined she could hear her brittle bones rattle; she appeared as old as the rocks under the hill.

“Who are you?” Esme repeated her question.

The hag made a pass in front of her with her wavering paw. Esme saw the rough hands and blackened nails and noticed, too, the scent of smoke and filth that billowed from the old woman.

“If rock and hill

And laughing water

Be hearth and home,

I’m Orphe’s daughter.”

She turned her weathered face slyly toward Esme and grinned a leering, toothless grin. It was then that Esme saw the sunken sockets where once eyes used to be. The old woman was utterly blind.

“You live here . . . in the hollow?”

“So ye say

And speak ye truth

And I would ask

The same of you.”

“Me? I am Esme. I did not mean to disturb your home. I heard the horse . . .” She turned and noticed Riv had calmed and now stood watching and cautiously nodding his head as if spellbound. “I will trouble you no further, but will leave at once.”

“Of leaving let

No more be spoken

Till I have known

You by your token.”

The ancient oracle held out her hand and propped her chin on her staff and waited. She looked like a bent and gnarled tree on a withered stump, offering a lonely branch. Her ragged clothing fluttered in the breeze like leaves.

“I do not have a token, old mother,” said Esme, thinking fast. It did not do to upset an oracle. Especially one of the caste who called themselves the Daughters of Orphe, for they were very powerful and wise. “But let me offer a blessing in your name when next I come to a shrine.”

The hag threw back her head and laughed, and Esme saw two lonely brown teeth clinging like lichen to their place in the elderly jaw. The old seeress’s laughter rang like the clatter of hail in an empty pot.

“Of blessings I

Have little need

Bless me instead

With a noble deed.”

Esme started at the old woman’s use of the word noble. She asked suspiciously, “What deed would you have me perform?”

“The rabbit caught

Within your briar,

Tastes the better

When aroast with fire.”

The old woman crooked a knobby finger along the stream behind them. Esme followed it with her eyes and saw a hawthorn thicket rustling vigorously as if something were indeed caught within it.

“You would have me cook you a meal? This is the deed you require?” Esme did not like the idea; she was anxious to resume her journey. The country was not safe; the enemy prowled the hills at will. She had had two encounters already and did not welcome a third. She wished she had some item of value she could give the hag and be on her way. “Very well,” she said slowly, and reluctantly went to retrieve the rabbit she knew she would find caught among the thorns.

Orphe’s daughter turned and followed her with sightless sockets. She smiled, and the wrinkled old face contorted in a shrewd, lipless grimace. She mumbled happily to herself and fluttered like a crippled bird to perch herself upon a nearby rock to wait.

Esme had no difficulty catching the rabbit. She could see it struggling in the thicket. Reaching in carefully, she pulled it out by the scruff of the neck. She could feel its tiny heart beating madly as she held it close. It gave a terrified kick and leaped out of her arms. Esme watched as it bounded away, afraid that she had lost it and would now be cursed by the oracle for failing in her deed.

But the rabbit, a plump hare, gave two faltering jumps, then pitched forward—dead. Esme ran to it and picked it up. The racing heart was still. She took her dagger and cut off its head to bleed it. She left it dangling by its hind legs from a branch while she went in search of wood to make a fire.

When at last the fire was crackling and the skinned rabbit gutted and roasting on a spit, Esme went to the seeress and announced, “Your meal will be ready soon, old mother. And I have found you an apple to eat with your meat.” The apple she had thoughtfully peeled and diced into a wooden bowl that she had retrieved from Toli’s pack behind the saddle. She had then ground the large golden globe to mash with the handle of her dagger.

The hag said nothing but hopped nearer the fire and seated herself. Esme went to the stream and filled a second bowl with water.

“Perhaps Orphe’s daughter would care to wash her hands before eating,” Esme said gently, holding the bowl before her.

The old woman nodded regally and dipped her hands daintily into the bowl and rubbed them together. The water turned murky with dirt. The old woman then wiped her wet hands on her filthy clothes and smiled.

Esme fetched her another bowl of water, took the cooked meat from the spit, and cut it into strips that she shredded and chopped. “Your meal, my lady,” said Esme, for the oracle had assumed a queenly air as she was presented with the bowl of apple and rabbit, thoroughly minced.

Esme withdrew to watch the old woman dine with obvious pleasure, licking her fingers and smacking her lips. When she had finished, she held out the bowl for more. Esme filled it again and sat down beside her to wait. The sun reached its zenith, dwindling the shadows in the glade to nothing, and still the old woman hunkered over her bowl. Esme clasped her hands around her knees and forced herself to wait as patiently as possible.

At last the old woman had eaten her fill. She placed the bowls on the ground beside her and rose up with much creaking and snapping of joints. She shook herself forward to stand before Esme and leaned once more on her staff. This she did with such surety of motion and without hesitation that Esme realized for the first time that the hag saw as much with her inner eyes as others did with perfect vision. She shuddered to think that as a child the woman had probably had her eyes put out to further enhance her strange gift.

“The deed was done

And with thoughtful art.

As best befits

A most noble heart.

By this I know

As by a gold ring,

Princess ye are

And your father king.”

Esme gasped and jumped to her feet. The hag had spoken rightly, but it frightened her to have her secret so easily known.

“You see much that cannot be seen with eyes alone, Priestess. Since I have served you as you asked, allow me to leave with your blessing.”

“A blessing ye ask

And this ye receive,

Your secret safe

If none ye deceive.

Full rare is she

Whose safety would spend

In risking death

For love of a friend.

But this ye do And this will be found:

Your errand done

When two are unbound.”

The old woman turned and scuttled away. Esme felt a nudge at her elbow and realized that Riv had come to her and was anxious to be off and away from the strange old woman.

Esme climbed into the saddle and watched the shapeless bundle of rags hop from stone to stone back across the stream. “Thank you for the blessing, Daughter of Orphe. May your prophecy be true.”

At that the hag stopped and turned once more toward Esme. She raised her crooked staff overhead with both hands and turned around three times very fast. Esme wondered that she did not fall off her precarious perch in the middle of the stream.

The old woman’s rasping voice rose to fill all the hollow.

“I speak what is,

And not what may be.

But since you ask,

Hear my prophecy!”

The oracle raised her face toward the sky and muttered a long incantation while the staff waved back and forth over her head. Then she brought the knobby head of the rod down with a crack upon the stone where she stood. Her hand shot into the air, fingers spread like a claw. Her words echoed in the dell.

“See ye the sword

And do not yield it!

If foe be slain,

A king must wield it.”

With a skip and a jump, the hag disappeared as quickly and as mysteriously as she had come. But long after she was gone, her words rang in Esme’s ears like the clear peal of a bell.

16

Quentin hung limply from the wagon wheel, his mind benumbed with the pain drumming through every extremity of his broken body. He whimpered softly, unaware that he was making any sound at all—unaware of anything but the throbbing, insistent agony.

All day long the wheel had spun—over rock and root, through dust and deep water. And Quentin, lashed to the wheel, had been slowly tortured into insensibility. He did not notice when the wheel finally stopped, nor when the sun set, nor when the night brought an end to his torture.

He hung on the wheel and whimpered softly and pitifully as darkness deepened around him.

Amid the ordered confusion of Nin’s army making camp for the night, the moon rose fair and full, and with it the Wolf Star. Quentin gazed unblinking at the moon with unseeing eyes. Some small part of his mind watched it curiously, a frightened animal peering out from a cave where it had retreated to escape the hunters.

After a long time it seemed to Quentin that the moon was coming toward him, leaving its course in the black dome of heaven to come closer and closer. He could see it weaving over him, shining with a gentle light. It had two dark eyes that watched strangely. He wanted to reach out and place his hand against its smooth, luminous surface, but his hands would not obey. Then the moon disappeared.

Years passed, or were they moments? Quentin next felt something cool touch his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw that the moon had come back. It was looking at him and whispering to him, but he could not hear the words, though they buzzed softly in his ears. He struggled to lift his head to speak, but lacked the strength, so simply allowed the moon to comfort him with its cool touch.

“Kenta, can your hear me? It is Toli. Kenta . . .”

Quentin blinked his eyes and peered dully back at the round, shining face of the moon. He opened his mouth to speak, but could not remember how to form the words.

“Do not try to speak. Just listen to me. I have come to free you. Kenta, can you hear me?”

Quentin moaned. Why was this moon so persistent? What did it want? He wanted only to drift back into the soothing void of unconsciousness. “Here is some water.” He felt something press against his lips, and cool liquid spilled gently into his mouth. He swallowed feebly and then again. “Drink it slowly,” came the whisper.

Next Quentin felt something tugging at his hand. He felt it, though it seemed to him that his hand was far away and no longer a part of him. When the hand was free, it fell limp and useless to dangle at his side. He watched as the moon stooped to slice through the cords that bound his feet. Then the other hand swung free, and he pitched forward onto his knees and into the solid arms of the moon, who whispered in his ear, “Can you move?”

Quentin made no answer. He felt himself rolled to the ground gently and then half lifted, half dragged under the shelter of the wagon. His head was raised, and the cool liquid poured into his mouth. Then he was laid back down, and Toli fell to rubbing some life back into his friend’s mangled limbs. He sank once more into peaceful oblivion.

“Kenta, wake up.” The voice was the barest of whispers. Warm breath tickled his ear. “It is time to go.”

“Toli?” The word was a slurred moan.

“Shh! Not so loud. I am here. Thank the God you are alive. I thought I had lost you.”

“What has happened! Ohhh . . .” His shoulder had begun throbbing again mercilessly and the pain and the night chill revived him somewhat. “Where . . . where am I?”

“There is no time, Kenta. It will be morning soon. We must get away now. Can you move?”

“I—I do not know. I do not think so.”

“You must try. Come, I will help you.” Toli gently lifted his master to a sitting position, but even this effort caused black waves of dizziness to wash over Quentin. He moaned again and could not restrain it.

“I think your right arm is broken, Kenta. Hold it close to your side, and try not to move it.”

“I cannot feel anything. But my shoulder . . . ahh!” Toli had placed his hands under Quentin’s arm to drag him from beneath the wagon.

“The soldiers are asleep, but there are sentries around the perimeter. They are careless, for they are not expecting an encounter this night. We have a chance. Can you stand?”

“I . . .” With Toli’s help he struggled to his feet, then swayed uncertainly. The pain took his breath away.

“I will hold you, but we must move now.” Toli guided his first faltering steps as Quentin stumbled helplessly forward, trying to make his legs move in harmony. It was no use—he collapsed not two steps from where they started.

“Good,” grunted Toli. “We try again. Lean on me.” He raised Quentin back to his feet, and they started off again.

Quentin tried to raise his head, but searing fireballs of pain burned through his brain with the effort. He let his head wobble upon his chest as Toli propelled them forward. The earth felt strange beneath his feet, as if it were rolling away from him with every step. His legs kept entangling themselves and tripping him, but somehow Toli kept them both upright and moving.

“Ahead is a gully—maybe fifty paces. We will be hidden there. We can rest before moving again. But we must be as far away from here as possible before daylight.”

They lurched through the darkness as Toli’s night-hawk vision kept watch for signs of discovery. They were moving away from the camp; the wagons stood between them and the huddled masses of sleeping enemy soldiers. But ahead lay the circle of sentries at their posts.

The gully, little more than a weedy depression carved in the ground, opened before them, and Quentin slid down the side to lie panting on his back when they reached it. His head ached, and dark shapes, like the wings of ravens, swarmed before his eyes.

“Listen,” Toli said. He crawled to the rim of the gully to look back toward the wagons. “I think they have discovered our escape. Someone is moving around the wagon. We must move on quickly.”

He lifted Quentin to his feet, and crouching as low as could be managed, they staggered off again.

Quentin concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and staying upright; Toli bore the responsibility for keeping them moving. It was all Quentin could do not to cry out in pain when his shoulder was jostled.

“There are trees up ahead. If we can reach them, perhaps we can rest again.”

As Toli spoke, they heard a shout behind them and the rattle of men running. “They know!” cried Toli, pulling them forward.

The trees loomed up as a black mass hurled against a black sky. The moon had set long ago; Toli had chosen this, the darkest hour of night, for their escape. Twice Quentin stumbled and fell full length to the ground, and Toli could not prevent it. Each time Quentin gamely hauled himself back to his feet, though the agony blinded him.

Somehow they reached the trees. Toli propped Quentin up beside a formless trunk and left him there holding his arm with his good hand. Though the night was cool, Quentin swam in his own sweat and tasted its salty tang on his lips. He fought to remain conscious when he saw the black wings fluttering closer. He felt as if he did not have a single bone that had not been wrenched out of joint.

Toli was back beside him in an instant. “They are looking for us. They know you have escaped. They have not yet turned toward the trees, but it is only a matter of time. They will find the gully, and they will follow it as we have. We cannot stay here.”

Quentin gasped and nodded. His temples pulsed with the pain as it twisted deeper and deeper into him. He could feel his strength slipping away. With Toli beside him he started off again, blindly, for between the sweat running in his eyes and the darkness of the wood, he could see nothing.

There were torches wavering over the landscape now. The soldiers were searching for them in knots of three or more, spreading out over the land. Soon Quentin could hear their voices echoing behind them as they dodged and floundered through the trees. Once he thought he saw the flare of a torch off to his right, moving even with them. The voices of their pursuers, excited by the chase, sounded closer.

“I have a horse waiting,” Toli said, “down there.”

Quentin realized dimly that they were standing at the top of a low bluff whose slope was clothed in brambles. Before he could speak Toli had them plunging down the slope and into the thickets, heedless of the barbs tearing at their flesh.

Quentin fought his way through and, with Toli ever at his side, had almost reached the bottom when his foot struck against a root, and he was flung headlong down the slope. He landed hard, unable to break his fall with his hands, and heard a sickening snap as he felt something give way in his injured shoulder. Daggers of pain stabbed into the wound. A startled scream tore from his throat before he could stifle it.

Toli darted past him, and Quentin felt a rush of movement just in front of him and realized he had landed almost underneath the horse Toli had somehow acquired and hidden for their escape. Then he felt Toli’s strong hands jerking him once more to his feet. He was pushed into the saddle to hang like a sack of barley, head on one side and feet on the other. Toli was instantly behind him, holding him on with one hand and snapping the reins with the other.

The horse jumped away, and Quentin saw the earth spin aside in a jumble of confused shapes: branches, rocks, sky, and ground. He saw a light and then another. He heard a shout close at hand and an answer not far away. His teeth ground against each other as he clung helplessly to the saddle.

Now the shouts of the enemy were all around. A dark shape rushed at them from out of the brush. Toli slashed down at it with the reins. Suddenly the copse was ablaze with torches. Toli jerked the reins hard and turned the horse toward the slope, but it was too steep for the frightened animal. The horse struggled, slid, pawed the air, and then fell back, legs pumping furiously.

Quentin was flung to the ground and Toli on top of him. In an instant they were ringed by soldiers and seized. Quentin saw the flash of a torch and the awful scowl of a face leering over him; then black hands grabbed him and began dragging him away. He heard a voice shouting in desperation and realized it was his own, but he could not make out the words.

He jerked his head around to see what had become of Toli, but could only see the swinging torches behind him. How bright the flaming brands are, he thought. It hurt his eyes to look at them. Run, get away! another voice told him, this one inside his head. Yes, he must escape. If only they would release him, he would run and run and not stop running until he was far away.

Where were they taking him? he wondered. What would happen to him? The questions framed themselves in his mind, but no answers came. Very well, it did not matter. Nothing mattered anymore. He had ceased to feel anything at all. He felt consciousness slipping from him; he heard a furious buzzing sound loud in his ears.

There was a rush of black wings, and suddenly he was soaring, falling, tumbling, floating high above the earth. Quentin looked down and saw a strange procession of torchbearers marching through the wooded dell. They carried with them the bodies of two unfortunates. Who could they be? Quentin was sorry for them. Sadly, he turned his eyes away and saw the dark edge of the night sweeping toward him.

It was as if a silken veil had passed before his eyes, removing all from view. He let it touch him and enfold him in its dark embrace. Quentin felt the last fine threads of strength and will leave him, and he knew no more.

17

The candles burned low in their tall holders; several had sputtered out, and the inner chamber of the elders smelled of hot beeswax and tallow. The elders sat stonelike, each one hunched over, head bowed and hands clasped. All was silent but for the rhythmic sigh of their breathing.

The night had drawn full measure, and still they sat. Waiting. Listening. Searching within themselves for an answer to Yeseph’s dream— a most disturbing dream.

Then at last the waiting was over, for Clemore raised his hands and began to sing. “Peran nim Panrais, rigelle des onus Whist Orren, entona blesori amatill kor des yoel belforas,” he sang in the ancient tongue of the Ariga. “King of kings, whose name is Most High, your servant praises your name forever.”

The three others slowly raised their heads and looked at Clemore. His eyes were closed and his hands raised to either side of his face.

“Speak, Elder Clemore. Tell us what has been revealed to you,” Patur said quietly. The others nodded and leaned back in their high-backed wooden chairs; the vigil was over.

Clemore, eyes still closed, began to speak. “The river is Peace, and the water Truth,” he said. “And the river runs through the land, giving life to all who seek it, for Truth is life.

“But the storm of war descends, and its evil defiles the water. Truth is poisoned by the lie and is choked off. When Trust perishes and Peace dries up, the land dies. And the gales of war blow over the land, filling the sky with clouds of death, which is the dust. Then darkness—Evil— covers all, blotting out the light of Good.

“The child who cries out in the darkness is a Child of the Light, who has lost his father, the ways of righteousness. His father’s sword is the knowledge of the Truth, which has been destroyed.

“But there are some left who do not go down to death and darkness, who still remember the River and the Water and the Living Land. They are the man who weeps. The tears are the prayers of the Holy who mourn the coming of Evil.

“The prayers are poured out and become a Sword of Light, which is Faith. The Sword flashes against the darkness of Evil, because it is alive with the Spirit of the Most High. The Sword is to be given to the Child, but alas! The Child has been overcome by the Night and is carried off.”

When Clemore had finished his retelling of the dream, they all spoke at once, joining in agreement with the interpretation. Yeseph’s voice rose above the others. “Brothers! We must not forget that dreams may have several meanings, and all of them are true. I do not doubt that the interpretation we have just heard is truly of the Most High. But I am troubled by one thing.”

“What is it?” asked Jollen. He opened his hand toward Yeseph, inviting him to speak freely. “It was your dream, after all.”

“I feel as if there were some more present danger yet unspoken.”

“Certainly the dream is dire enough, Yeseph,” said Patur.

“And its interpretation is clear warning,” added Clemore.

“Yes, a warning of something to come,” said Yeseph slowly, “but also a reflection of something even now taking place.”

“Well said, Yeseph. I think so, too.” Jollen reached across and touched his arm. “The interpretation was given to us that we might be ready for what is to come. The dream was given to us that we might know there is peril even now upon us.”

Clemore nodded gravely, and Patur pulled on his gray beard. “What does your heart tell you, Yeseph? What are we to do?” asked the latter.

“I hardly know, Patur. But I feel a great torment in my spirit. It has grown through the night as we have sat here.” He glanced at the others. “I feel that we must even now pray for the Child of Light whom we have sent out from among us.”

“Who is that, Yeseph?” asked Clemore.

“Quentin.”

“Quentin? But he is in Askelon.”

“Quentin, yes, and Toli too. They are in desperate need; I feel it.”

“Then it may be,” replied Jollen, “that our prayers are needed at this moment if the dream is to have an ending.” He turned to the others. “I, too, am troubled about Yeseph’s dream. It does not suggest an end, which means that the end is still in doubt. Therefore, we must unite our spirits, and those of our people, to bring about the ending which the Most High will show us.”

“Your thoughts are mine,” said Yeseph.

“Then let us not waste another moment. Our prayers must begin at once.” Jollen raised his hands and closed his eyes. The others followed his example.

In moments the temple chamber filled with the murmur of the elders’ prayers ascending to the throne of Whist Orren. Outside the temple the silvery light of dawn was tinting the gray curtain of the night in the east.

Dawn brought with it a sudden chill. The horizon was an angry red, dull and brooding, though the sky seemed clear enough overhead. The wind had changed with the coming morning; Toli had noted it as he lay bound beside his master. Quentin hardly breathed at all. He clung to life with a tenuous grasp. Several times before dawn, Toli had had to place his ear against Quentin’s chest to see if he still lived.

In the camp the soldiers were busy making ready for their day’s march. Toli, whose eyes missed nothing, had a presentiment that he and Quentin would not be making the trip with them, for he had seen a group of soldiers readying the ropes and harness, and the three guards who now stood over them laughed and pointed at them. Toli knew that the means of their execution was prepared.

The cooking fires sent white smoke drifting through the camp. The guard on the prisoners was changed, so those who had watched through the night could be fed. When all the soldiers had eaten and were ready to march, reckoned Toli, they would be assembled to view the execution as an entertainment, something to dwell on as they marched that day.

Toli spent his last moments of life praying for Quentin, who could not pray for himself.

He was roused with a sharp kick to his back. The blow rolled him over, and Toli looked up into the hate-filled face of a giant who held a battle axe with a blade as wide as a man’s waist.

The giant, whose face was seamed with crisscrossing scars, pointed at the captives and growled. The guards seized them and dragged them out into the meadow where the army had camped, pushing through the mass of thronging soldiers who formed a solid wall around some object that held their attention.

Toli and Quentin were pushed through the assembled host and thrown down at the edge of a wide ring formed by the shields of the soldiers. In the center of the ring stood two horses, one facing east and the other west. Between the horses lay a tangle of ropes and two heavy yokelike objects. At the farther side of the ring stood the warlord’s black steed, tossing his head and jerking the arm of the soldier holding his bridle.

As Toli watched, a ripple coursed through the ranks at the edge of the ring, and a wide avenue opened, through which came a man wearing a breastplate of bronze and a helmet of bronze that had two great plumes like wings affixed to its crest. A cloak was clasped at one shoul- der, beneath which protruded the thin blade of his cruelly curved sword. Toli had no doubt that he was seeing the warlord.

The warlord approached his courser and paused momentarily while two of his men dashed forward and flung themselves at his feet. One lay prostrate, and the other crouched next to him on his hands and knees. The warlord proceeded to climb into his saddle upon the bodies of his men. He then raised his hand in signal.

Toli swallowed hard, inwardly shuddering. He cast one last look at Quentin, unconscious on the ground beside him. “Stay asleep, Kenta,” he whispered to himself, “and fear nothing. I will go before you.”

But it was not to be. Two soldiers came forward at the warlord’s signal; one carried a gourd full of water. They rolled Quentin over on his back none too gently; a moan escaped his lips. Toli struggled against his bonds and was struck on the head by a guard.

The soldier with the gourd knelt over Quentin and placed the vessel against his nose and poured.

“You will drown him!” shouted Toli, receiving another blow on the head for his trouble. He lunged at the soldier and was kicked in the ribs.

Quentin coughed violently and choked. Water spouted from his mouth and nostrils, and he awoke sputtering. His eyelids flickered, and he turned cloudy eyes upon Toli, who now knelt over him. “My friend . . . ,” Quentin gasped, “I am sorry.”

Quentin seemed to know what was about to happen.

Both prisoners were jerked to their feet; Quentin was made to stand supported between two scowling soldiers, one of whom grasped a handful of hair in order to keep the captive’s head erect.

The warlord gave a second signal, and there was a sudden scuffle behind the two captives. A third prisoner was flung forward into the ring. He was a soldier, bound hand and foot as Quentin and Toli were. “One of the sentries of last night,” whispered Toli. He guessed the warlord would make him the first victim.

The man’s face was gray; he trembled all over. Sweat soaked his hair and ran down his face—a hideous mass of purple welts, for the man had already received a sound beating. The luckless trooper was quickly wrenched to his feet by two other guards, who then stripped him naked, cutting away his clothing with their knives. The soldiers looking on laughed.

The unfortunate was marched to the center of the ring, where the giant with the broadaxe waited between the two horses. He was pushed to the ground, where he writhed in anguish as his arms and legs were securely tied to the heavy wooden yokes. Then, upon a signal, the two horses, harnessed to the yokes, were led slowly away in opposite directions.

The ropes pulled taut. The giant stepped into place over his prey. The victim was lifted off the ground to hang in agony while his body stretched by slow degrees. The horses leaned into the harness, and the man screamed terribly. The awful popping sound of joints and ligaments giving way seemed to fill the ring. As the victim screamed his last, the giant, quick as lightning, spun the broadaxe in a flashing circle about his head and with one hand brought the blade down with a mighty stroke.

The jolt of the blow almost felled the horses, who stumbled to their knees as the ropes suddenly went slack. The poor wretch was hewn neatly in half as the host wildly clamored their approval, rattling their weapons and cheering.

Toli glanced fearfully at Quentin, who stared emptily at the horrible spectacle; though Quentin’s eyes were open, Toli could not tell if they saw what had been played out before them. His look was vague and far away.

The warlord ordered the corpse to be removed from the yokes and then led his steed across the ring to where Toli and Quentin waited. Toli gritted his teeth and stared stubbornly ahead. The warlord glared down at his prisoners for a moment. He spoke something in an unintelligible tongue. Toli raised his eyes, snapping with defiance, and for a brief instant their gazes met. The warlord grasped his reins and struck down at Toli and slashed him across the face—once, twice, three times.

Blood spurted from a gash over his eye and ran down his face. The warlord barked at him and shot a quick glance at Quentin, who still seemed not to know what was happening around him. Then the warrior chief swung his mount around and trotted back to the center of the ring.

He looked slowly around the entire circle of faces in his army and then spat out a short speech to them which, from the somber mood that suddenly fell upon the host, Toli guessed to be on the order of an official reprimand. When he finished, the warlord nodded, and the soldiers began readjusting the yokes and harnesses. Toli believed the moment to be his last. He closed his eyes and sent aloft a prayer for strength and dignity in his moment of trial.

Across the ring a blast of a horn sounded. Toli opened his eyes to the far hills and trees, intent that his last memory should not be of his executioner or the grotesque corpse lying in two pieces beside the wicked blade. He felt a twinge of regret that he would not be able to comfort his master in his last moment, nor even say his leave as a man would, but he doubted whether Quentin would know or understand anyway.

The soldiers on either side of him tightened their grasp, and suddenly he was being dragged forward. His heart raced madly in his chest, and his vision suddenly became remarkably acute. He saw every blade of grass under his feet, and every leaf on every branch of nearby trees stood out in breathtaking clarity.

Time seemed to swell, expanding to immeasurable dimensions. He moved step by step, wonderfully aware of each moment as it slid by; he held it, savored it. Now he was raising his foot, taking a step—how long it took—now the other foot swung up. There were twenty more steps to go before reaching the axe-man, and each step seemed to last forever.

He was conscious of the air as it filled his lungs: the taste of it, the tingling freshness as it rushed in. He felt the sun on his neck and thought that if he tried he could count each single ray as it touched him. How strange, he thought, that every nerve and fiber of his being should be so fully alive this close to death.

Then he was struck with a horrible thought. In this heightened state, he would be able to see the executioner’s blade as it glittered in the air in its lazy arc. He would be able to feel each tiny fiber of muscle strength and pull; he would feel his bones wrenched leisurely from their sockets; he would hear his own spine snap.

He would see in that most hideous of moments—stretched out far, far beyond its normal length—the cruel blade bite deep into his flesh, cleaving bone from muscle. And he would see himself severed in half and feel the awful rush of his organs spilling out.

He would know his death in its most terrifying aspect. He would die not instantly, as it would seem to those who looked on. He would die with torturous slowness. Gradually. Bit by excruciating bit.

18

You look better this morning than you have in weeks, Sire.” Durwin had seen the king from across the garden and had watched him for some moments before approaching. Eskevar sat quietly on a small stone bench amid a riotous splash of color from flowers of every shade and description. Every variety of flowering plant and shrub from the farthest ends of the realm and beyond had a place in the Dragon King’s garden.

A shadow vanished from the king’s brow as he looked up and saw his physician coming toward him. “Thanks to the ministrations of my good hermit, I think I will yet trouble this world with my existence.”

Durwin cocked a wary eye at Eskevar. “How strangely you put it, Sire. I would have thought that today of all days, you would rejoice in your improved health and put gloomy thoughts far behind you.”

“Then little you know me, sir. I may not make merry when my— when men of my bidding are still abroad.”

“It is Midsummer!” said Durwin. His gaiety was a little forced; he, too, felt uneasy about Quentin and Toli and the others being so long away. “I would not wonder if they were enjoying the hospitality of one of the happy villages by the sea.”

Eskevar shook his head gravely. “You contrive to cheer me, but your words fall far short of the mark, Durwin—though I thank you for the attempt. I know too well that something is wrong in Mensandor. Something is very wrong.”

Durwin stepped closer to his monarch and laid a hand on his shoulder. The king looked up into the hermit’s eyes and smiled wanly. “Sire, I, too, feel a dread creeping over the land. Sometimes my heart flutters unexpectedly, or a chill falls upon me as I sit in my chamber before the fire, and I know something is loose in the land that does not love peace. Too soon, I fear, we will face a most loathsome enemy.

“But I also know that we stand in the light of the god’s pleasure, and no darkness can extinguish it.”

“I wish I had faith enough to believe in your god. I have seen too much of religion to believe.” Eskevar sighed and rose slowly to his feet. Durwin reached out a hand and steadied him.

The two old friends walked the garden paths side by side in silence for a long time; Durwin kept his hand under the king’s arm.

“I do not think I could survive another campaign, another war,” said Eskevar after they had walked the entire length and breadth of the garden.

“You are tired, Sire. That is all. You have been very ill. Take your time, and do not let such thoughts trouble you. When you have regained your strength, you will feel differently, I assure you.”

“Perhaps.” The king grew silent again.

The sun shone down in a friendly way, and all the garden seemed to shout with the exuberance of life. A fountain splashed in a shady nook near a wall covered with white morning glories. A delicate song floated on the perfumed air as the men strolled slowly by. They stopped to listen.

“How sweetly your daughter sings, Sire.”

“She cannot do else.” The king laughed gently, and the light seemed to rise in his eyes. “She is a woman, and she is in love.”

Seeing how his patient brightened at the thought of his daughter, Durwin turned aside and directed their steps toward the fountain and the young woman dressed all in white samite, glistening like a living ray of light.

“My lady sings most beautifully,” said Durwin when they had drawn close. Bria, her hands busily plaiting a garland of ivy into which morning glories were woven, raised her head and smiled.

“I would have thought my lords too preoccupied for a maiden’s vain utterings,” Bria laughed. Music filled the air, and shadows raced away. Eskevar seemed suddenly to become young again, remembering perhaps another whose laughter enchanted him. “Come, Father. And Durwin, too. Sit beside me, and tell me what you two have been talking about this morning.”

“We will sit with you, but it is you who must tell us what occupies your thoughts,” said Durwin.

They sat on stone benches near the fountain; Eskevar settled next to his lovely daughter and did not take his eyes from her. Bria began to relate the trivial commonplaces of her day, and her excitement at the approach of the evening’s Midsummer celebration. There was no hint in her voice of anything but the most joyful anticipation of delight.

How very like her mother, Durwin thought. How wise and good. Her heart must have been filled with thoughts of Quentin and consumed with longing for his presence in this happy time; yet she did not let on that she felt anything but the most perfect contentment and happiness. She was doing it for her father, he knew.

After a little while, Durwin slipped away and left his patient for the moment in the hands of an even more skilled physician, one whose very presence was a healing balm.

Arriving at the road, Esme had faced a hard decision. To the north lay Askelon and her goal; to the south, danger and the likelihood of being captured again. But she guessed that any help she might bring must come out of the south, too. That was the way her protectors, Quentin and Toli, had been heading when they encountered her. That was the way their friends were expected to return.

The choice had occupied her the greater part of the afternoon— ever since leaving the oracle. And upon reaching the seaside track, she was no further decided in her mind. Very likely Quentin and Toli were dead. And it was almost certain that their friends—whoever they were—had been ambushed and killed, as had her own bodyguards. It seemed a futile gesture to turn away from Askelon now; there was nothing to be gained by wandering farther afield.

And yet, the words of Orphe’s daughter still whispered in her mind:

But this ye do

And this will be found:

Your errand done

When two are unbound.

What else could it mean but that Quentin and Toli—the two— were still alive but would not remain so unless she went to free them? If she believed the prophecy at all, it would mean that her errand would only be accomplished in securing their release.

It made no sense. But when, thought Esme bitterly, did the gods ever make sense to mortals?

So, against all reason, she had turned Riv to the south. As their shadows deepened and lengthened in the late afternoon, they set off in search of friends in a friendless land.

A long night fraught with lingering chills had passed into a sullen morning in which an angry red sun glowered upon the horizon. Esme was up and shaking the leaves and dew from her cloak when she heard it: the crisp jingle of horses moving on the road. It was thin and far away, but it was a sound she knew well—the sound of men-at-arms moving with some speed and purpose, their weapons and tack clinking with every step.

She slipped from the bower that had been her bed for the night, slightly below the road and down an incline so that it was well hidden, and crept to the road’s edge to peer along its length. She could see no one coming, and for a moment the sound drifted away; she wondered if she had imagined it. But the road hereabouts ran over and around the many humps of this hilly region, and presently the sound came again.

She ducked away again into her leafy refuge and led Riv out and along a route parallel to the road. They descended into a small valley and rose again to the top of a little, tree-lined hill. From there Esme judged she would have a clear view of the road below without fear of being seen.

She waited. The resentful sun rose slowly, throwing off a sulky light; the air seemed dank and stale. The sky held the feel of a storm, though not a cloud was to be seen. Such days did often betoken ill, thought Esme, hoping that its end would not leave her with cause for regret.

Into the stillness of the morning came once more the jingling refrain she had heard before. This time it was closer and more distinct. Listening very hard, she thought she could hear the thump of horses’ hooves as the party, not large, moved along. Presently Esme saw the ruddy glint of a blade or helm as it caught the sun for a brief instant. Then, jouncing into view below her came two knights, three more following close behind.

Though she watched them for a while as they jogged along, Esme knew at once she had nothing to fear from these men. They were not of the destroying horde she had twice encountered. And from her secret perch she could barely make out the blazon of one knight’s shield as it hung beside him on his horse’s flank—the twisting red dragon of the Dragon King.

When the company of knights had drawn even with her hiding place, Esme urged Riv out gingerly and hastened down to meet them in the road. One of the knights saw her racing toward them, said something to his companions, and then broke away, galloping to intercept her. He did not speak as he joined her, but eyed her cautiously as he conducted her to where the others had stopped and were now waiting to receive them.

There was an awkward moment of silence when she finally reached them; the two foremost knights exchanged glances quickly. It was clear they did not know what to make of her, a young lady riding out of the hills alone.

“I am Ronsard, lord high marshal of Mensandor. I am at your service, my lady.” It was the knight whose blazon she had recognized.

The young woman spoke up without hesitation. “I am Esme—,” she began, but was interrupted by the second knight, a man of dark aspect whom she thought seemed somehow familiar.

“I used to know an Esme,” he said, “though she was but a slip of a girl and shy as a young deer.”

“It is a common name, sir,” she said guardedly. Who was this man? She was certain she had seen him before.

“Of course, you are right. The Esme I knew lived away in Elsendor and was never fond of horses, as I see you must be to ride as you do.” A secretive smile played at the edges of the knight’s mouth. Was he laughing at her? Esme wondered.

“Elsendor is a realm of some size,” she said. “Perhaps you would remember whose house it was wherein you saw the girl that bears my name.”

“I remember it well,” laughed the knight. “Often it was that I found lodging there and hospitality of the most royal kind.” He lingered on the word “royal” and gave it a peculiar emphasis.

Ronsard looked from one to the other of them curiously. “It is well that we have naught to do but pass the time wagging our tongues. Or perhaps there is some hidden jest which this dull head does not apprehend.”

“Sir, if it is a jest, it is not mine,” she said, a little confused. “I am on an errand of some importance concerning friends of yours, I think.”

“Then, my lady, I suggest you tell us plainly what you require of us. We are charged with an errand of importance as well.”

“Now, now, good Ronsard. Be not so hasty with this young lady. For though she is a stranger to you, I think her father is not.”

“You—you know my father?” She peered at him closely. “Your words addle me, sir. But there is something about you which seems not altogether unfamiliar.”

“Yes,” said Ronsard, growing impatient. “If you think you know something, then out with it!”

“Very well,” sighed Theido. “It may be that I am indeed mistaken. Yes, I’m certain I am. For any of King Troen’s offspring would know one whom they called Uncle.”

The young lady’s dark eyes opened wide in disbelief. Her head shook dubiously, wagging the sleek braid at the back of her head. “Theido?” A look of happy relief flooded her face as she saw the dark stranger throw back his head and laugh deeply.

Ronsard clucked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “What a meeting this is. It is not to be believed.”

“Believe it, Ronsard. Allow me to present Princess Esme of Elsendor. Far from home she may be, but far from friendless she is.”

“Theido! I do not believe it either, sir,” she said to Ronsard. “Upon my word, he is the last man I would have expected to meet this day.”

“Well might I say the same of you, Lady Esme. You see, Ronsard, I spent much time in the halls of King Troen when that craven Jaspin seized my lands. I was made an outlaw in my own country, but Queen Besmire took me in, though her husband was away in the wars of Eskevar.”

“However did you know me? I scarce but recognize you.”

“You have much of your mother’s look about you, and much of your father’s boldness. The name Esme is not so widely used as you would have us believe. When I saw you, I knew there could be only one.”

The other knights murmured their surprise. Ronsard turned to them and said, “Why do you wonder at this, sirs? You well know Theido is kith to every family in the realm, be they plowman or prince.”

They all laughed, including Theido, who said, “Friends I have many, and it is true few men in Mensandor have not heard of Theido— though that is more of my father’s doing than my own.

“But let us be once more on our way. Join us, my lady, and tell us of your errand while we ride. We are for Askelon at once.”

“That suits me well—”

“I believe you spoke just now of friends of ours? What news would you bring us of them?” The party started off again.

“Dreadful news, sir. I wish it were not mine to tell. If you are friend to ones called Quentin and Toli, then you must prepare for the worst.” She glanced fearfully at her two companions. Their faces clouded with worry when she pronounced the names.

“I see I am right.”

“You are. Tell us what you know.”

“We were riding in search of you, my lords, traveling by night. We saw a fire—they said it was Illem, burning—and we rode to give aid. We were met by a fierce enemy, and Quentin and Toli were taken. I escaped.”

Tight lines appeared around Theido’s mouth, and Ronsard’s jaw bulged. “I marvel at your fortune,” said Ronsard. “And more at the directness of your speech.”

“My father has often said that bitter news does not grow sweeter on the tongue, and is better said quickly. If I thought that you would have been offended by my manner, I would have spared you.”

“No, don’t spare us. But tell us if we may hope for them.”

“Yesterday I thought not, but I chanced to meet an oracle by a pool. She gave me reason to hope, and reason to try to find you.”

“An oracle, you say?” Theido shrugged his shoulders. “Where need is great, any hand will serve, I guess. But we must not linger one moment longer; I fear my idle jesting has caused too much delay already. We will pick up the trail at Illem. We will have to wait for the rest of your story, my lady. I do not wonder but that it is most remarkable.”

“We ride for Illem!” shouted Ronsard to his knights. Reins snapped, and spurs bit into flanks, and the horses raced off into the hills toward the burned and blackened ring that had once been Illem.

19

Evening light lingered golden in the trees as Durwin stood out on the great bartizan overlooking the king’s magnificent garden, now ablaze with a thousand lanterns. The music of the assembled minstrels floated over all, a delicate tapestry of melody woven as if from the petals of summer flowers.

Nervous young men escorted radiant young ladies along the garden paths. Children frolicked among the leafy bowers, their laughter clean and clear, sounding like music played on silver instruments. Fine lords and ladies in bright costume moved gracefully among blue-and-yellow-striped pavilions wherein dainties were served. The Midsummer celebration at Askelon Castle was a feast for the senses, thought Durwin, sniffing the fragrant, flower-scented air. A thing of rare beauty.

“Why so heavyhearted, good hermit?” The voice was as light as the breeze that gently lifted the leaves in the garden. Durwin turned and bowed to his queen.

“My lady, you are a keen observer. I’ll not deny it,” he sighed.

“What can trouble your thoughts on an evening such as this? It is the night when all good things are dreamed—and you know that dreams may sometimes come true.”

“I wonder. Good does often seem so fragile against evil, the light so powerless against the darkness . . .” His voice trailed off without finishing the thought.

“That is not the Durwin I know. You sound as if you have been taking the king’s counsel.”

“Ah, so it is! How fickle a man’s mind, ever prey to his emotions. A weathercock for whatever winds may blow.” He smiled gently, recovering something of his former cheer. “Ah, yes. You are right to reprove me. What good is a physician who does not take his own cure?”

Alinea smoothly linked her arm in his and turned him toward the sweeping steps to the garden below. “Walk with me, kind friend. For I, too, have need of some good word.” A shadow moved across her lovely face. Durwin felt it like a pang.

“If words can help, then rely on it that I will say them.”

“I have been troubled today myself. A subtle unease disquiets my inmost soul, and most elusive it is. No cause seems readily apparent. Often, I discover myself to be thinking of Quentin.”

“I would calm you if I could, but these are not the words for it. I, too, have been thinking of Quentin this day—and of little else. When you came to me just now, I was thinking again of him, and of Toli, though even then I did not know it.”

“Do you think they may be in some trouble? It seems silly, I know—”

“Not at all, my lady, not at all. The Most High often joins our hearts with our loved ones in times of distress as well as joy. I have been praying for them all this day, though my prayers are uninformed.”

“I wish that I had the knowledge of the Most High that you possess. Then I would not feel so disposed to the foolishness of a woman’s fears.”

“But you have something else that serves as well. You have the ability to believe without the need for reasons, or for great signs and wonders. Yours is a faith to endure.”

“And yours?”

“Mine will endure, but it is born of years of struggling and vain striving. I have come to my belief over a most circuitous and rocky path, and I cannot say which is better. I think the god gives each soul what it requires, and there is the difference.”

“Still, I would know more of what you have learned in your quest. It cannot hurt to be informed.”

“Aye, my lady. You speak aright. I will gladly teach you what little I know. But do not be surprised if in your heart you already know the truth of what I would instruct. It is often thus.”

They were silent as they reached the last step and entered the festive world of the Midsummer revelers. Alinea turned and looked earnestly into Durwin’s broad and weathered face.

“What can be done for Quentin and Toli?”

“Nothing that has not already been done. Pray. It is no little thing.”

“Let me come to you when the celebration is over. We will pray together. If one heart alone may have effect, then two will speed the remedy. And your sure prayers will guide my own more directly to the mark.”

“As you wish, my queen. I will await you.”

Just then the blast of trumpets rang out above them from the bartizan they had just quit. They turned to see the king’s pages, their long trumpets in hand, snap to attention. Then King Eskevar himself was leaning on the stone balustrade, looking down upon the merrymaking. Silence descended slowly over the garden as all eyes turned toward him. Then the giggling children grew quiet as they sensed something important was about to happen, though they regarded it more of an interruption in their fun than an occasion of state. Their elders exchanged puzzled glances— it was not usual for the king to address his guests like this. But all waited to hear what he had to say.

“Citizens of Mensandor, my friends. I will not keep you long from your merrymaking, and I will join you soon. But I would tell you some things which have been on your king’s heart of late.”

There was a murmur of concern; some for the words, and some for the appearance of the king, whose haggard features were not at all disguised by his festive apparel.

“What I am about to tell you may cause you some concern. Please know that it is not my intention to worry you, nor cause you needless alarm.”

“What is he doing?” whispered Durwin.

“I do not know.” Queen Alinea shook her head. A line of concern appeared on her brow. “He discussed nothing like this with me.”

“But as your king,” Eskevar continued, his solemn tones descending like a leaden rain into the garden, “I would be less than just if knowing of the danger to our realm I did not at once warn my people to look to their safety.”

Now there was a general clamor, and a voice called out, “This is a poor jest for Midsummer!” Another said, “Let the king speak! I would hear him out in peace!”

“It is not a jest, my loyal friends. But my heart can no longer abide rejoicing while across fair Mensandor the wild, angry clouds of war are gathering.” He held up a hand to silence the outburst that followed this revelation. “Even now my marshals scour the land to bring me word of our enemy, that we might know his strength and so arm against him. We shall fight for our land against any foe, and we shall win!”

The king’s voice had risen to a rant; he sounded like a madman, though his words were sane enough. A stunned silence fell upon the Midsummer revelers. Eskevar seemed to come to himself again and realized what he had done. His hand trembled slightly as he said, “Return now to your pleasure. It may be the last we will know for many dark days.” He turned and walked away from the balustrade and disappeared into the castle, leaving his guests to mumble in confused alarm.

“What can he mean by this? Oh, Durwin . . .” Alinea turned to the hermit, eyes filling with tears. “Is he . . . ?”

“No, no. Do not be alarmed. He is as sane as you or I, perhaps the more. I believe that his great heart feels deeply for the land. Somehow it is part of him; when it hurts, he hurts. I am certain that I am telling you nothing you do not already know.”

“That may be, but it is good to hear another say it. I have long known him to be unable to enter into gaiety when there is any unhappiness he may cure. But he has never taken it to this extreme.”

“Pray that I am wrong, my lady. But it may be that we will have cause ere long to look upon Eskevar’s ill-timed warning as the act of a most brave and noble soul. I think he senses something that is not yet apparent to us. I fear we will share his forebodings too soon.”

“You will excuse me, Durwin. I must hurry to attend to him just now. He will be wroth with himself for his outburst. He will want a cool hand to soothe his brow.”

Durwin bowed, and the beautiful Alinea hurried away with a rustle of her silken skirts. He turned and saw that all eyes had been upon the queen in the moments following Eskevar’s strange address. Durwin smiled as broadly as he knew how, held up his hands, and shouted, with as much cheer as he could command, “Friends, let us enjoy our celebration! There may be trouble to come—so be it! But it is a good day, and we may have need of such joy ere long. So let us fill our hearts with happiness and let care belong to the morrow!”

His hand flourished in the air, and, as if waiting for his cue, the music swelled and filled the garden as the minstrels began to play once more. The children, sensing the momentary ban on their fun had been lifted, burst forth with pent-up high spirits, and their laughter sounded from every corner. In a short while the garden was transformed into a scene of mirth and merriment. The ominous cloud, so sudden and unexpected in appearance, had just as suddenly passed.

Night came on like a dream. Quentin had some vague recollection of a day that seemed to stretch out forever without end. He and Toli had been thrown into the back of one of the wagons to wonder at their fate. There was not a heartbeat throughout the interminable day that he did not relive the horror of their sunrise ordeal.

He had been pulled across the execution ring at the signal of the warlord. Halfway to the bloody spot, he had seen the deathman turn away. He looked around as the warlord was riding through the scattering throng of his soldiers; the ring was melting away. Suddenly he understood that the warlord’s order had been one of dismissal. The executions were over. For some reason, which he would not know until later, he and Toli had been spared. Relief, however, was slow in coming as he watched the giant axe-man walk away rubbing the cruel head of his broadaxe with shreds of the dead man’s clothes.

Shortly after the wagon had begun to rumble and jostle away, Quentin had slumped into a deep sleep, broken only by Toli’s persistent nudging and admonitions to eat. They had, by some chance, been bundled into a wagon bearing provisions taken from Illem. Toli, after managing to loosen his bonds somewhat, had gathered a few foods for them. He was adamant that Quentin eat and regain some small part of his strength for whatever lay ahead.

After a meal of dry grain, strong goat cheese, and hard bread, Quentin had fallen asleep again. It was nearly sunset on Midsummer’s Day before he stirred.

“You have decided to remain a little longer in this world?” Toli asked as Quentin’s eyes opened. They were now sitting amid a careless jumble of food stores in the half-light of the covered wagon.

“We have stopped!” Quentin struggled to sit up, but hot knives shot into his shoulder and arm. He ached all over. “Ow!”

“Rest while you may, Kenta. Yes, we stopped some time ago. I think they are making camp for the night. Soon they will come for provisions.”

“What will happen to us then, I wonder?” He shook his head as he looked at his ever-resourceful friend. “I thought you were dead. You should have escaped while you could.”

Toli smiled brightly back at him. “You know that was impossible. There could be no escape without my Kenta. It is fiyanash—unthinkable.”

“Well, we may both pay with our lives tomorrow, but I am glad you are here with me, Toli. At least Esme escaped.”

“Yes,” Toli said flatly, and Quentin felt as if he had touched an open wound.

“I thought—ahh!” Quentin’s face contorted into a grimace.

“Is there much pain?”

“It comes and goes. I feel as if my bones have been taken out, rumbled together, and replaced one at a time whichever came to hand.”

“I feared you dead when I saw you lashed to the wagon wheel.” He smiled again, and Quentin wondered how he could be cheerful at such a time. “But you were displaying more wisdom and restraint than you usually do. I would have had us free and away from here if not for that wretch of a guard.”

“His life was forfeit for his error.” Quentin paused, thinking again of the hideous spectacle he had witnessed and only narrowly avoided taking part in. “Perhaps it was meant to be a warning to us; perhaps he did not intend to put us to death—just yet anyway.”

“What is important now is that we have time to try again to escape. Tonight will be an excellent opportunity.”

“Tonight?”

Toli nodded. “Midsummer—they will occupy themselves with their revelry. The watch will be relaxed and inattentive. We may have a chance.”

Quentin’s head ached remembering their previous attempt at escape. He seemed to remember something else about Midsummer, something that stirred a brief flutter of pleasure, but it faded even as he struggled to grasp it. “Midsummer. Do you think these . . .”—he did not know what to call them—“these barbarians mark such occasions?”

“There is a fair chance, I would say. Even the Jher observe the Day of the Long Sun. It is so with most peoples; these would be no different.”

“Who are they? Why have they come to Mensandor?”

Before they could ponder the question further, two soldiers appeared at the back of the wagon and pulled out the gate board. The prisoners were yanked out of their nest and each one dragged to a wheel and lashed securely in place, arms outstretched, legs spread and bound to the wheel at the knee. They could not move, except to turn their heads and look at one another helplessly.

The two guards then took up a position close by to enable a tight watch to be kept on their charges. The guards sat a little way off upon a log and stared at them with cold malevolence. It was plain that neither of the guards relished the duty; possibly it was too risky, considering what had happened to one of their own that very morning.

With both soldiers watching them closely, Quentin decided that no movements to free themselves could take place, so he ignored the guards and tried to make sense out of the frantic activity taking place around them.

The army had chosen a flat lea overlooked by a long, low bluff of poplars and beeches on which to camp. Soldiers were busily dragging fallen trees down the hill and pitching them into a great heap in the center of the meadow. Small fires for cooking had already been lit, and the silvery smoke hung in the unmoving evening air. Other soldiers led horses away to a stream somewhere out of sight. Twice Quentin caught a glimpse of the warlord as he rode through the camp, directing the work of his men. He did not so much as glance toward his prisoners.

Soon the bustle throughout the camp decreased as the smell of cooking food wafted from the fires. Soldiers grouped around the fires in tight knots that slowly broke apart into smaller groups. The men sat on the ground with trenches of wood and dipped their hands into their meal. Quentin and Toli could hear their smacking lips and noisy slurping as they licked their platters.

Quentin decided to try to count the number of soldiers in the party. There were twenty cooking fires scattered across the lea, and by his best estimation each served a hundred or more men. There were more moving about the perimeter, employed in tending horses, gathering firewood, and various other chores. In this body there were at least two thousand soldiers, possibly many more.

He also noted that the warlord maintained a special bodyguard of fifty or so men who occupied themselves near his circular, dome-shaped tent. They sat apart from the others and did none of the menial duties of the rest of the soldiers.

As Quentin watched, a man emerged from the tunnel-like opening of the tent and came toward them. Even from a distance Quentin could see that there was something different about the man; he was vaguely unlike the other soldiers thronging the wide meadow. There was something in his bearing, something in his appearance that set him apart.

The man, tall and dressed in a loose garment of deepest indigo bedecked with chains of gold, wore an unusual soft, flat hat of a kind Quentin had never seen before. Beneath the hat a long face protruded, rimmed by a short, bristling beard. The beard was black as pitch, contrasting boldly with the lighter, somewhat sallow complexion of the emissary.

He strode with purpose directly to the wagon to stand with hands on hips, glaring the two prisoners. Quentin stared boldly back into the snapping black eyes as the warlord’s chief emissary—for so Quentin now considered him—spoke quickly to the two guards. He did not turn his head to speak to them, but kept his eyes on the captives alone.

The guards grumbled back an answer to the bearded officer. He barked at them once more and tossed them a hasty look over his shoulder. At once they jumped to their feet and, still mumbling, began to untie the prisoners from the wheels of the wagon. Then he turned and began walking back to the tent.

Quentin and Toli were jerked to their feet and pushed forward to follow him. Their guards seemed none too pleased to be about this duty. Quentin wondered what this summons could mean. Toli returned his questioning glance with one of his own as they marched through the camp. Quentin noticed that the eyes of the soldiers they passed followed them with looks of mingled fear and awe.

At the warlord’s tent the approach of the emissary and prisoners brought two soldiers to their feet to hold back the entrance flap. The tall man stooped and entered without a word; Quentin and Toli were pushed forward to follow him. Their guards, glad to be done with the detail, hurried away to find their supper.

Stooping so low brought a gasp of pain from Quentin, who stumbled and caught himself uncertainly. His hands had grown stiff and numb from his bonds. When he picked himself up, he saw that the inside of the domed tent was like the canopy of the night sky and just as dark. Tiny golden lamps suspended from golden chains burned brightly, each one a flaming star in the vault of the heavens. The robed emissary turned to them and held up his hand, indicating that they were to remain where they were. He turned and disappeared behind a richly embroidered hanging curtain.

“This is like no commander’s pavilion that I have ever seen,” said Quentin as his eyes took in the strange, slightly fantastic furnishings of the abode. Everywhere he looked, the soft glisten of gold and silver met his gaze.

“It is a king’s palace made to travel.” Toli, too, registered surprise at the contrast between the fierce warlord and his men, and the surroundings of his tent.

Just then the bearded emissary stepped back through the curtain and motioned them forward, and as he did so, the warlord’s seneschal cuffed Quentin sharply on the neck as an indication he was to bow in the warlord’s presence.

Quentin entered the inner sanctum with eyes lowered. He and Toli stood side by side for some time in silence. No one moved or spoke. Before them and a little above they could hear the slow, even breathing of the warlord, and Quentin imagined he could feel his cool gaze upon them as he pondered their fate.

The warlord grunted a command, and his servant came forward and bowed before him. The warlord spoke a low rumble in his unfathomable tongue. The seneschal bowed again and said, his voice smooth and cultured, “My lord has decided that you may sit in his presence. He wishes you to eat with him, but you are not to speak—unless he asks you a question, and then you are to answer without hesitation. If either of you do not answer at once, he will know that you are contemplating a lie and will have your tongue cut out that your friend may eat it and remember not to follow your example.”

He clapped his hands, and two servants brought cushions and placed them at the prisoners’ feet. “Sit,” came the order.

When they had seated themselves, with some difficulty in Quentin’s case, the bearded emissary said, “You may raise your eyes.”

When they had done so, he cried, “Look upon the immortal Gurd, commander of Ningaal, warlord of Nin the Destroyer!”

Quentin was not prepared for the sight that met his eyes.

20

They camped here last night, by the look of it,” said Ronsard, rising from the cold ashes he had been examining.

“And by the look of it, there must have been close to three thousand men with wagons and horses.” Theido’s gaze swept the wide meadow where the army had camped. All that was left now were scattered traces: matted grass where men had slept, charred patches where the fires had burned, broken turf where wagons had passed, and the crescent indentations in the earth where horses had walked. But the army had moved on.

“It will not be difficult to follow them; the signs are clear enough,” said Ronsard. He looked toward the westering sun. “How far do you think an army of that size could travel in a day? Four leagues? Five?”

“Four leagues, perhaps. Not more. They do not seem to be in a great hurry. It is strange . . .”

“What is?”

“That a force of such size should move through the land, driving all before them and yet . . .” He paused, seeking the words.

“Not appear afraid of being met and challenged.” The voice was Esme’s, who sat upon her mount, watching the two knights and following their conversation.

“Yes, that’s it. If I were invading a strange country,” said Theido, “I would have a thought for the resistance which must surely come sooner or later. There is an arrogance here which chills me to the bone.”

One of Ronsard’s knights hailed them from across the meadow. “He has found something,” replied Ronsard. He led them to where the knight knelt. Drawing closer, they soon noticed the look of frank disgust that contorted the soldier’s features.

“What is it, Tarkio? What have you found?”

“Lord Ronsard, I think someone has been killed in this place.”

The soldier was right. The deep red-black stain upon the earth could have been made in only one way.

Theido eyed the evidence, his lips pressed into a thin, colorless line.

“It could have been a stag,” suggested Esme. Her words lacked conviction; she, too, feared the worst.

“What would they do with the body?” Ronsard’s voice was strained and tight. He turned away from the ugly splotch in the grass, and Esme noticed the dark flame of anger that leaped into his eyes.

“I think I know what they did with the body,” said Tarkio in a tone devoid of all expression. He spoke so oddly the others looked at him and then followed his gaze to the nearby trees.

“By Azrael!”

“The fiends.”

“Avert your eyes, my lady. It is no sight for a woman,” said Ronsard. He glanced at Theido, and his look was one of keen distress. For two heartbeats a question hung unspoken between them. “We must,” he uttered softly. “For I would know.”

“I will go with you,” said Theido quietly. “Stay here with Tarkio, Esme. We shall return at once.”

Theido dismounted and started off with Ronsard toward the tree, a great, spreading oak wherein hung the dangling corpse of the unfortunate soldier.

It did not so much resemble a human body as it did that of some animal carcass hung up to age. The birds had been all day at its face, and the entrails were but ragged shreds. It was hung from a low branch, both halves side by side, twisting slowly on the cord that passed through the bound hands and feet.

“One of their own?” Theido’s voice was thick and his features a tight grimace.

Ronsard nodded. “This one was never born in Mensandor.” He turned away from the gruesome token. “I am satisfied. Quentin and Toli may still be alive, but that is all I can say. I wish there were some clearer sign; I am not at all heartened by what I have seen here.”

“Nor am I. But it is enough, I think, to continue the chase.” Theido cast his gaze to the sky, now radiant with the gold of the lowering sun. “We still have a few hours’ daylight; we can go far.”

“And we will ride tonight. We should catch them before morning.”

Without another word they walked back to where the others were now waiting. Esme and Tarkio had been joined by the two remaining knights. “Be assured, my lady. Yonder wretch was never friend to us. One of their own, most likely.” Ronsard shot a questioning glance at the two who had, like Tarkio, been scouring the area for any signs as to the fate of the captives. Both knights merely shook their heads from side to side; they had seen nothing.

“Then we ride on. The trail is an easy one to follow. We shall stop at the next water to rest the horses. Nobren and Kenby go ahead, and then Tarkio and Esme. Theido and I will follow.” As the others took their mounts, he said to Theido, “We must have a plan before we reach the camp.”

Theido offered a nod. “We will pray that something presents itself along the way. For now, I am eager to put this cheerless place behind me.”

Two human skulls stared vacantly back at Quentin from where they stood affixed to long poles on either side of Gurd’s low dais. The warlord himself seemed only a slightly more animated skull. He sat unmoving, the soft lamplight filling the hollows of his keen face with shadow. That he was aware at all of their presence was shown by the two glinting orbs of his black eyes.

The warlord was seated, as were his reluctant guests, upon a cushion. His chest was bare, for he wore a short jacket open to the waist. It was of a very ornate pattern, brocaded in delicate figures foreign to Quentin’s eye. But it was the man’s chest that caught and held Quentin’s attention. For even in the glimmering light of the oil lamps, he could see that it was a mass of scars—long, jagged, nasty-looking scars. No accident or wound of battle could have produced them in such profusion; some were obviously more recent, for they overlaid the others, and some were freshly healed.

Quentin realized with a start that the wounds, these horrible mutilations, were self-inflicted.

The seneschal, now seated at the warlord’s right hand between the prisoners and his master, clapped his hands, and slaves bearing large bowls of food came hurrying in. Another slave set down smaller bowls, which the food bearers proceeded to fill from the larger bowls. When this was completed, the bowls were left before the diners, and the slaves withdrew hastily.

The warlord picked up his bowl and fell to eating at once, without another glance at his guests.

The food, an unfamiliar kind of boiled grain heavily spiced with chunks of meat in a thick sauce, was steaming hot. It tasted exotic and otherworldly to Quentin’s uninitiated palate, and once swallowed it left a lingering warmth on the tongue. They ate with fingers, bowls held to their lips. Quentin contrived to balance his bowl on the inner part of his knee, dipping with his left hand, his useless right arm cradled in his lap.

Midway through the meal, a slave appeared with a jar and began to pour out an amber liquid into golden cannikins. These, too, were placed before each one, and the slave departed. The beverage was a wine of some kind. Quentin recognized the slight metallic tang, but it was of a kind he had never encountered: smooth, almost thick, and wonderfully sweet. He found that a sip banished the warm tingle on his tongue produced by the spice of the food.

The warlord ate two bowls greedily without looking up. When he had finished, he laid down his bowl and placed his hands upon his knees. He belched once, and then said something very quickly.

“The meal is over,” the seneschal informed the prisoners. And though Quentin’s bowl was still half-full, he put it down and rested his hand upon his knee in imitation of his host.

“Lord Gurd wishes you to know that he only eats in the presence of those he respects, and that he will only share food with those he admires.” The emissary nodded to them, indicating that some response of like nature was intended.

“Who are we that he should respect or admire us, his enemies?”

The emissary translated Quentin’s question, and the warlord chuckled deeply and made a short reply.

“Lord Gurd says that your spirit has ennobled you. You, fair-skinned one, have survived the ordeal of the wheel. Had you been a coward, you would have died. You,” he addressed Toli, “risked death to rescue your friend. This deed has value, even though it is the act of a fool. The Lord Gurd admires such courage. He will be sorry to kill you when the time comes, but your blood will flow through him—as a most satisfying oblation for his immortality. This pleases him.”

This answer mystified and angered Quentin; he started to make a reply, but felt Toli’s light touch on his arm. Instead he said, “Why do you invade our land? Who are you?”

The seneschal spoke to the warlord, who smiled thinly, like a serpent. “I informed the Lord Gurd that you were honored that he should deem you worthy for such service.” To Quentin’s sharply angry look, he added, “It would not serve to anger him just now. He would have you disemboweled to return the food you have eaten with him.”

“What does he want with us?” asked Toli.

“He alone knows.”

Gurd picked up his goblet and drank deeply of the sweet liquor. When he had done, he rumbled a long discourse to his emissary, who interpreted. “Lord Gurd wishes to know how far is the great city—this Askelon—and how is it fortified and by how many soldiers is it guarded.”

“How is it that he believes I know the answers to such questions?” Quentin replied.

After a brief consultation with his lord, the man replied, “Lord Gurd knows that you have horses and therefore are not insubstantial men. He has seen your weapons and clothing and believes that you are of favored rank. The fact that you attacked his soldiers, the two of you alone, tells him that you are not unfamiliar with military matters and are in fact well trained for such purposes.”

Quentin hesitated. Toli’s thoughts could not be discerned.

“If you are wondering whether to answer or not, please allow me to remind you that Lord Gurd perceives any answers following such reluctance to be a lie, as I have already told you. Give me your answer at once, and he will be appeased.”

“Askelon is a far distance from here, many leagues. And he is right to call it a great city, for it is. There is none like it. No host has ever conquered Castle Askelon, and none ever will.”

“And how many soldiers defend this palace?”

“Tell your Lord Gurd that the Dragon King’s army is sufficient to any need.”

The warlord watched this exchange closely, not entirely pleased with Quentin’s response. But he nodded with satisfaction when his interpreter had finished his reply. Gurd beamed at Quentin and Toli and in his thick, incomprehensible speech addressed them both.

“The Lord Gurd is pleased with your answers. He has decided to allow you to live until we reach Askelon, where you will be sacrificed in order that he might win the city more quickly. He wishes to assure you that your blood will flow for him alone. This is a very high honor.”

“It is an honor we would rather forego,” Quentin said in a voice edged with subtle sarcasm, “but perhaps we may reciprocate the distinction at some future time.”

The emissary smiled slyly and began to offer Quentin’s remarks to his master, who bowed faintly and then yawned. He waved his hand toward his servant, who stood, saying, “The audience is now at an end. Bow to him and retreat; do not show your back to him.”

They backed away from the warlord’s presence and through the curtain. They crossed the tent and stepped once more outside. The evening was deepening, and Quentin felt the atmosphere in the camp pulsing with a barely contained excitement. The soldiers clustered together in knots, and coarse laughter could be heard on every side. The sun was well down, and the sky blushed crimson in the west. When the light finally disappears, thought Quentin, these barbarians will deliver themselves to frenzy.

As if reading his thoughts, the seneschal said, “This night there will be wild celebration, for it is Hegnrutha—the Night of Animal Spirits.”

“You speak our language well, sir,” said Quentin cautiously.

A sly look came into the dark eyes. “I speak eleven languages very well.”

“What did you say in there?” asked Quentin as his former guards hurried up to take them away.

The warlord’s personal servant smiled, revealing a row of fine white teeth that seemed to glow in the fading light. “I told him that it was an honor you would gladly repay in kind. He was flattered.”

“Why should you protect us?” asked Toli as the guards retied their hands. “What is it to you if we live or die?”

“There is no time to explain. I will come to you tonight when the chaos is at its peak.” The emissary spun on his heel and went back into the tent. Quentin and Toli were marched away to the wagon once more, but this time Quentin felt as if they moved in an aura of increased respect. The looks they received from the soldiers they passed were frankly awed to the point of reverence. He guessed that most who were summoned to the tent did not walk out, but they had.

21

Durwin remained long enough with the guests to ease their fears over the king’s odd behavior. He had walked about and greeted all, as if he were the king himself, and his presence seemed to calm any feeling of disquiet created by the king’s speech. The music trilled and eddied, a rippling river to carry away concerns of the moment.

The minstrel master called a cotillion, and the couples began choosing the leaders from among the best dancers present. Durwin chose this time to sneak quietly away, as neither Eskevar nor Alinea had returned. He was vaguely worried that something more serious might have transpired.

He hurried up the stone steps and fled into the castle’s gallery entrance; the wide wooden doors were thrown open, and rows of bright torches illuminated the corridor. A few curious guests strolled the gallery to marvel at the interior of Castle Askelon. Without appearing in haste, Durwin nevertheless hurried along to the king’s apartment. He had little doubt he would find Eskevar there.

Oswald was at the door when Durwin came bustling along. “Oswald, is all well?”

Oswald ducked his head in a shallow bow and said, “Aye, m’lord. The king is inside and the queen with him. He has a messenger.”

Durwin’s eyebrows arched. “Who?”

“I do not know. I did not see him arrive. The warder brought him here at once.”

“Very well. Let us see, then, what is afoot.”

Oswald opened the door and went in. As Durwin made to follow the old chamberlain, he felt a light touch on his arm.

“Bria, I thought you were in the garden.”

“I followed you.” Her smooth brow furrowed with worry. “What is it?”

“A messenger has come; that is all. Wait here but a little, and I will come and tell you all I can.”

“No, I would go with you.” So saying, she stepped through the doorway and pulled Durwin with her.

“Ah, Durwin! I was about to send for you.” Eskevar sat in a great carved chair; Alinea stood beside him with her hand on his shoulder. Both were looking intently at the knight, bedraggled and exhausted, his clothing and light armor grimed over with the dust of the road. The soldier stood swaying with fatigue before them.

“It is Martran.” Eskevar indicated the man with an open hand. “One of Ronsard’s knights. He was just about to tell us his message.”

The knight bowed and said, his voice rough from the dust he had swallowed, “Lord Ronsard says, ‘We are continuing on our mission and are sorry for the delay in returning to him sooner. We have seen nothing to occasion his concern. We will return to him as soon as we have found what we seek, or have some better report to give him.’”

“Is that all, sir knight? You may speak freely.”

“That is all, Sire. That is my message.”

Eskevar, his eyes displaying concern, stroked his chin with his hand.

“Why did he send you with such a message, brave knight?”

“I believe that he was worried that his long absence would cause you alarm. Theido suggested a message be carried back that they might continue their errand.”

“Why was that? Had you seen nothing to render an account?”

“No, Sire. We saw nothing out of the ordinary. But—” He hesitated, as if unsure of his place to speak further.

“But what, good fellow?” asked Durwin, drawing closer. “Have no fear. There is nothing you can say that will incur your king’s displeasure. Withholding your thoughts, however, could be a mistake. Please speak and allow us to judge.”

“Yes, sir.” The knight bowed to Durwin. “It is this. I sensed that something was bothering my lords. They were looking for something and not finding it. This upset Theido greatly. He pushed a furious pace; he wanted to ride all night on occasion. But Ronsard would not let him. They often had words with one another over it.

“But I saw something that puzzled me on the way back. I think that if Theido had seen it, he would have been even more adamant in his ways.”

“And what did you see?” Eskevar asked softly. His eyes were eagle’s eyes as he watched the messenger.

“One of the villages we had passed through only a day or so before was empty when I rode back through. I thought it strange that I did not see anyone, though I did not stop to look further into the matter.”

“Empty?”

“Yes, Sire. It was completely abandoned.”

“Anything else? Anything to indicate why that should be so?”

“Not at all. It seemed as if it had been deserted very quickly, though I could see no cause. But, like I say, I did not stop to wonder at it. I came on.”

“I see. Very well, Martran; you may go to your bed. You have well earned your rest.

“Oswald, take Sir Martran to the kitchen and feed him, and then find him a bed in the castle where he will not be disturbed.” To the knight he added, “Stay close about; I may wish to question you further. Now go and take your ease.”

Oswald led the knight away; the man reeled on his feet. “Just one more thing, sir,” said Durwin as Oswald swung open the door. “You did not say that you met Quentin or Toli on the road. Yet you must have passed them at some point. They left here in search of your party a fortnight ago.”

The knight shook his head. “I passed no one at all. And I thought that strange as well, for until I reached Hinsenby the roads were mine alone.”

“Thank you, Martran. Sleep well.”

Durwin fixed a wondering look on the king. “His tale is odd indeed. I do not know what to make of it.”

“It is as I have said—there are strange happenings in the land. An evil grows, but we do not see it.”

“But what has happened to Quentin?” Bria was suddenly concerned.

“We do not know, my lady,” answered Durwin. “But the land is great. They may have traveled by another route.” His tone was not as reassuring as he would have liked.

“At any rate we will soon know,” Eskevar offered. “I propose to go myself in search of them.” The Dragon King was on his feet, striding forth as if he would leave at once.

“My lord, no!” pleaded Alinea. “You have not yet recovered enough strength to abide the saddle.”

“Go if you would, Sire. It is your pleasure. But in going you risk missing the return of your envoy. And where would you begin searching for them?” Durwin asked.

Eskevar threw a wounded look at the hermit. “What am I to do? I cannot remain here forever, waiting while the enemy grows stronger.”

“No one has seen an enemy,” pointed out the queen.

Eskevar turned on her with a growl. “You think he does not exist? He does!” He thumped his chest. “I can feel him here. He is coming—I can feel it.”

“All the more reason to wait. Gain your strength. The action you seek will come soon enough if you are right.”

King Eskevar fell back into his chair in frustration. His noble countenance seethed with dark despair. He thrust his hands through his hair. “Mensandor cries out for her protector, but he sits abed and quakes with fear. Who will save us from our weakness?”

“Leave him now,” said Alinea, taking Durwin and Bria aside. “I will tend him. This is the duty of a wife and queen.”

“By your leave, my lady. I will withdraw to my chambers. Send for me should you need anything.” Durwin took Bria by the arm and drew her from the room.

“I have never seen him thus,” said Bria, her voice quivering on the edge of tears.

“It is a most difficult time for him, and he is not a man much accustomed to difficulty. But it is well. For I see signs of his former spirit returning. He will be the Dragon King once more.”

The great hand closed over the small white body of the bird. There was a flutter of tiny wings and a surprised chirp as the hand withdrew from the cage. The dove struggled weakly, its head poking through the circle formed by the giant thumb and forefinger. A small red-ringed eye stared in terror at the contorted face of the mighty Nin.

Nin the Immortal felt the swift beating of the tiny heart and the dove’s soft, warm body filling his hand. Then he squeezed. The bird squirmed and cried out. Nin squeezed harder. The yellow beak opened wide; the tiny head rolled to the side. Nin, whose fleets stretched the breadth of Gerfallon, opened his hand slowly. The bundle of feathers shivered and lay still.

With a cry of delight, Nin the Destroyer flung the dead bird across the room, where it landed with a soft plop near the door of his chamber. A flurry of white down floated gently to the floor to settle like snowflakes around the lifeless body.

As Nin sat gazing at his handiwork, a chime sounded in the passageway beyond, followed by the ludicrous sight of Uzla’s head peering around the edge of the door.

“Immortal One, I bring news.” The minister’s eyes strayed to the small, white lump of feathers on the floor beside him.

“Enter and speak,” Nin’s great voice rumbled.

Uzla tiptoed quietly in and prostrated himself before his master.

“Rise. Your god commands you. Speak, Uzla; let your voice utter pleasing words of worship to the Eternal One.”

“Who is like our Nin? How shall I describe his greatness? For it is more brilliant than the shining deeds of men, and his wisdom endures forever.” Uzla lifted his hands to his face as if to shade his eyes from the piercing rays of the sun.

“Your words please me. Tell me, now, what is your news? Has Askelon also been taken? I am becoming impatient with this waiting. Tell me what I wish to hear, Uzla.”

“My news is perhaps better suited to a different time and place, Most Noble Nin. I know not of Askelon, but may it be as you say.”

“What, then? Tell me quickly—I grow tired of your foolishness.”

“The commander of your fleet below Elsendor sends word of victory. The ships of King Troen have been destroyed, and the battle on land is begun.”

The great hairless face split into a wide smile of satisfaction; the flesh of his cheeks rolled away on either side like mountains forming alongside a deep chasm. His dark, baleful eyes shrank away to tiny black pits, and his chin sank into the folds on his neck. “It is well! How many prisoners were sacrificed to me?” The room shook with the ringing joy of the thunderous voice.

Uzla’s look transformed itself momentarily into one of dismay. “I know not, Infinite Majesty. The commander did not say, but we may deduce, I think, that it was a very great number. It is ever thus.”

“True, true. I am pleased. I will have a feast to celebrate!”

“May I dare remind the Supreme Light of the Universe that it is Hegnrutha? There is already a feast tonight; it is being prepared even now.”

“Ahh, yes. How suitable. Go, then, and bring me word when all is ready. And command the slaves to ready my oil bath; I will be anointed before the celebration begins. My subjects will fill their eyes with my splendor tonight. It is my will for them. Hear and obey.”

Uzla fell on his face once more and then backed out of the room. His brittle cadence could be heard moments later calling the slaves together to prepare fragrant oils in which to bathe their sovereign.

Nin raised his round moon of a face and laughed; the deep notes tumbled from his throat to reverberate to the farthest corners of the enormous palace ship. Those who heard it shuddered. Who among them would be asked to provide for the Immortal One’s amusement tonight? Whoever chanced to serve that honor on the night of Hegnrutha likely would not see another morning.

22

The tower of flames leaped high into the night, pouring itself onto the vast darkness above, blotting out the stars with its scarlet glow. Quentin and Toli, tethered to the wagon’s wheels, could feel the heat of the enormous bonfire on their faces, though they were well removed from the blaze. As the flames soared skyward, the wild revel rose on its own wicked wings, taking the form of a thing fevered and inflamed.

The tumult had grown steadily through the evening hours, and now the surrounding woods echoed with the crazed ravings of the celebrants. The raging mass seethed about the fire in gyrations of ever-increasing frenzy. To Quentin and Toli, looking on in mute wonder, it seemed as if something had taken control of their spirits and played them as a maddened minstrel striking his instrument in tortured ecstasy.

Quentin saw, in the glare thrown out by the fire, something moving in the darkness beyond the perimeter. Through the shimmering sheets of heat loosed by the fire, he could see it lumbering slowly, like a colossal beast, a dark shape that seemed to form itself out of the darkness surrounding it.

“Look yonder—there across the way,” he whispered to Toli. Quentin did not know why he had bothered to whisper—their guards were not even making a show of watching them. They had given themselves over to the festivities of their comrades, though they still sat at their posts, longing to join in the turmoil.

“What is it? I cannot make it out.”

“Wait, it is coming closer.” No sooner had Quentin finished speaking than the creature emerged from its dark captivity into the roiling circle of light. It loomed large in the dancing light, the glow of flames glittering on its hideous black skin. It was a creature of terrible beauty, awful and tremendous; it looked a very denizen of Heoth’s forsaken underworld, a thing distilled out of a thousand nightmares. And it came lurching out of the forest into the midst of the celebrants, as if it had been called up from the depths of its underworld home to reign as lord over the foul Hegnrutha.

At first Quentin believed it to be alive, but as the thing moved closer, he saw that it was in fact pulled along with ropes by a hundred or so of its keepers, who clustered about its feet. At last they brought it to the fire’s brink, where it stood with hands outstretched in a perpetual blessing or curse.

It was a statue—an immense carven image of a beast with the legs and torso of a man, the head of a lion, and the maw of a jackal. Two great, curving horns swept out from either side of its head, and its mouth was open in a snarl of rage.

“It is their idol,” said Toli, his eyes filled with the sight before him. He fairly shouted, for at the sight of the towering idol, the frenzied scene below had erupted in a climax of pandemonium. Their two guards jumped up and began dancing where they stood, waving their arms and screaming with enravished abandon.

Now more wood was being thrown around the base of the statue, and it was being introduced into the flames. As Quentin and Toli watched the flames encircle the monstrous idol, a shadow detached itself from among the myriad flickering projections and crept toward them along the perimeter. In a moment, without sensing anyone was there at all, Quentin heard a rasping whisper in his ear.

“I am going to cut your hands free. Do not move.”

Quentin did as instructed and felt his bonds fall away. His right arm swung limply down; he gathered it up with his left hand and held it close to his chest. Without waiting for further instruction, he rolled to cover beneath the wagon.

The three met, heads together, under the shelter of the wagon box. Toli rubbed his wrists and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

There was a brief flash of white in the darkness as the warlord’s emissary smiled. “They are my captors, too. I have long planned to escape, but if I am to survive, I will need the help of those who know this country.” He looked at both of them, his eyes glinting in the firelight. “Time is short. We must go.”

Away from the wagons, there was little chance of discovery. There were no sentries on this night, but there were several smaller groups of revelers gathered around smaller fires at the edges of the camp, and others could be heard crashing through the woods in hysterical rapture. Their screams tore through the night, leaving little doubt in Quentin’s mind of the reality of the animal spirits to which this night was devoted.

The three crouching figures worked their way around the rim of the camp, darting furtively through the mingling expanses of light and darkness. In the trees around them, the huge, elongated shadows cavorted in grotesque mummery as the savage rites progressed unabated.

It was slow work threading through the circle’s outer ring, but at last they managed to reach the shelter of the wood, where the shadows gathered over them like a cloak. “I have hidden our horses just there.” The seneschal nodded into the darkness beyond. “I was able to retrieve your steed,” he said, looking at Quentin, “but your friend’s could not be found.”

Toli grinned and replied, “It was not my horse—I took it from among the others at tether.”

Even in the dark Quentin could see their guide’s eyebrows arch upward in surprise and his eyes shine in amused disbelief. “Then I was right about you two after all. You are not without considerable resources yourselves. I have chosen my partners well.”

The air seemed cooler in the woods, and they moved with increased confidence, though the dell rang on every hand with the howls and shrieks of the celebrants of Hegnrutha. The familiar woodland seemed now a desolate place given to the homeless shades who wandered the nightlands.

Quentin shivered inwardly and fought to keep pace with the others. By the time they reached the horses, waiting patiently in a small gorse-covered draw, Quentin was panting and weak. The small strength he had rationed through the day was nearly exhausted.

“I know a way out of this wood, if you will follow me,” said the emissary. “Then it is I who will follow you.”

“Very well,” said Toli. “Lead on.”

The two mounted quickly and wheeled their horses to the north and away from the camp behind them. Toli cast a quick look over his shoulder and saw Quentin hanging from the saddle with one hand, too weak to climb onto his horse.

“Wait!” shouted Toli, slipping from his mount. “Oh, Kenta, I am sorry. . . . I should have realized . . .”

“No—I will be all right. Just help me into the saddle.”

In the moonlight softly filling the draw, Toli saw the film of sweat glistening on Quentin’s brow. “Ride with me; I can take us both.”

“Once we are away from here, I will be all right,” insisted Quentin. “Hurry, now. Help me into the saddle. There is no time to argue.”

Toli caught Quentin’s foot and hoisted him onto the mount. He could see that Quentin’s right arm dangled uselessly from his shoulder. Quentin grabbed the reins with his left hand and drew his right across his lap to tuck it beneath his cloak.

“Let us away,” he said hoarsely.

Toli sprang to his mount, and they were off, the horses clipping over the furze and heading into the wood. Blazer seemed none the worse for his adventure, thought Quentin, relieved to be in his own saddle again. At least with Blazer he did not need two hands to ride—the horse would anticipate the commands of his master. Quentin had only to hang on; that was something he desperately hoped he would be able to do.

In a moment they were in the deep wood where the thick columns of trees broke the silver moonlight and scattered it in slivers all around them. Behind them, like the voices heard in dreams, the cries of the revelers wailed on, diminishing rapidly as distance and the thick growth of the wood cut them off. It is a dream, Quentin imagined, as he chased the elusive shapes before him, flitting in and out of shadow and light—an awful dream that will be forgotten upon waking. But the sting of the occasional whopping branch and the bracing freshness of the night air on his face were only too real. He knew this was one dream that could not be shaken off in daylight. The nightmare was real, and it had come in force to Mensandor.

23

It is time something is done,” the high priest of Ariel said to himself as he paced his bare cell. “It is time to act.” The thick candle guttered in the swirls stirred up by Biorkis’s passing to and fro. A stack of parchment scrolls teetered precariously upon the table, clustered and rustling like autumn leaves in the breeze.

“It is time . . . It is time,” he said, heaving himself through the door of his cell and into the darkened passageway through a side entrance used only by the priests. He hobbled across a moonlit courtyard and through a narrow portal in the wall, then stood at the edge of the plateau and looked out across the silent valley below. He turned and cast his old gaze, still sharp as blades, toward the eastern sky.

The moon was overhead, but in the east a star blazed brightly—more brilliant than any of its sisters. And around the glowing star a film of light seemed to gather, streaming out from the star’s core. The portion of the night where that star was fixed shone with pale radiance, and wherever the eye roamed in examination of night’s black dome, it was drawn back to that star—the Wolf Star.

“Yes! It is time to act!” shouted Biorkis. His voice was echoed back to him from the empty courtyard and the temple colonnade beyond the wall. He turned, fled over the jumble of rocks, and swept back through the courtyard and into the temple once more. He made his way, puffing along on short, stout legs, to one of the temple’s many summons gongs. He picked up the striker and, pausing one final instant for reflection, banged it into the gong several times in quick succession.

“That will bring them running,” he said, and he was right.

In a moment the vestibule was filled with sleepy priests who rubbed their eyes and groaned at the disturbance to their slumbers.

“Brother priests!” Biorkis’s voice sounded loudly in their sleep-dulled ears. He shouted on purpose to bring them fully awake. “My bed has remained empty these two nights running; you can bear with me just this little while. I wish to speak to you.” There were groans among the general body of priests.

“What is this, Biorkis? Why have you called us from our devotions?”

“Your snoring vespers are not important,” Biorkis snapped at his insolent questioner. “It is time to act! The star which shines without, growing bigger with each passing night—I know what it means.”

“And this could not wait until morning?” The speaker was Pluell, the under-high priest, his own assistant. He, at least, had the privilege, as Biorkis had once had, of questioning the high priest.

“I think not. It has waited too long already. While we have blindly contemplated its meaning at our leisure, the star has grown large, and with it the strength of the evil it betokens. Mensandor is under siege by forces from far countries. The world we know is trembling on the brink of destruction.”

There was a murmur among the priests. Pluell bent to confer with several of his brothers. “I am surprised to hear that you are so concerned, Biorkis. It is not like you at all. You are the one who has ever instructed us of the folly of considering the commerce of mortal kings and their petty concerns.

“It does alarm me to hear you speak so now. Should we not draw aside, you and I, and discuss this together?”

Biorkis bridled at the suggestion. “Why, Pluell, do I sense in your tone the shriek of ambition? Why should not our brothers hear what I have to say?”

The under-high priest stepped toward his mentor, placing a hand on his arm as if he would lead him aside. “This is not the time to display such ill-founded airs before our assembled brothers. Come aside. You are tired, and your vigil has made you somewhat—shall we say, irrational.”

“Irrational, indeed! I have never been so lucid in my long and eventful life. But I do not understand your manner at all. Why do you look at me so?”

“It is late, brothers. Return to your cells and to your rest. We will no doubt have a more fruitful discussion tomorrow.”

Some of the priests made as if to leave; others stood hesitantly, uncertain whether to stay or go as instructed.

“I am high priest!” shouted Biorkis angrily. “Have you forgotten? All of you stay where you are and hear me! I propose to send King Eskevar word of our discovery.”

“Your discovery, Biorkis. You cannot expect us to endorse it, surely.” Pluell’s voice was smooth, and there was not a trace of sleep or fatigue in it.

Suddenly Biorkis realized what was happening: Pluell’s overreaching ambition, long held in check, was now released. He was making his move to take over the high priesthood. Biorkis trembled with rage as the realization knifed though him. What a fool I have been, he thought. While I have lain awake seeking an answer to the riddle of yonder star, he has been scheming for my rod.

“It shall not be, viper!” Biorkis shouted. His unexplained outburst brought wondering stares from the assembled priests. “Take your hand from me! Hear me, brothers. I am high priest, and long have you known me. When have I ever proposed a thing unwisely, or brought dishonor to the god whom we serve?”

There were doleful looks all around and much foot shuffling. No one ventured to speak. Pluell fumed silently at Biorkis’s right hand, his eyes narrowed with hate.

“Why should the suggestion of a message to the king cause such concern for some of our brothers?” As he spoke, the high priest gazed about him and recognized some who must belong to Pluell’s faction. He knew he was fighting now at a great disadvantage, but his heart warmed with anger, and his thoughts became crystalline.

“What does anyone have to fear of my sending word to our monarch? Unless there is a reason why they would keep all knowledge of events to come to themselves. Unless they would remove the high temple from its place as servant to the subjects of the realm.”

Pluell laughed, but there was no mirth in his voice. “How you do go on, Biorkis. There is nothing at all to prevent your communication with the king if you like.”

“Of course not. I am high priest. A journey to Askelon is within the authority of my sacred vows, for I will it to be so. I would grant this same authority to any who served me in the matter.”

“Why not go, then, and make the trip yourself ?” Pluell hissed.

“I? I am too old, and a younger man could travel faster. I will set my seal to a letter to be carried by one whom I will choose.”

“I do not think you would find any who would as eagerly cast aside their vows as you would have them.”

“They would not violate their vows. I have already said as much— why do you persist in this?” Biorkis felt suddenly weak and sick. Somewhere— though Biorkis had not seen it—the crafty Pluell had turned the discourse to his advantage. The high priest knew he was doomed, though he could not see how.

“Who better than the high priest to go and speak to a king? Let your own lips bear your tidings.”

“Very well,” said Biorkis angrily. “I will go. Who will come with me?” He glared around the circle of bewildered faces.

No one volunteered.

“What? Will no one accompany the high priest on this arduous journey? I could order all of you to go!”

“Maybe now we should come aside and talk,” suggested Pluell once more. He seemed to glow with satisfaction.

“I have nothing more to say to you!” Biorkis raised his rod and brought it down with a crash upon the stone floor at his feet.

“As you will, brother. Then I have no other choice but to inform the priests of Ariel of the transgressions committed by the high priest and ask for their recommendation.”

“What transgressions? Name them—I am not afraid. In all my life as a priest I have ever been faithful to my vows and to the god.”

“You force my hand. Hear then, all priests,” Pluell said, nodding to a priest who had drawn close. The priest handed over a scroll that Pluell took and made a great show of unrolling. In a strident, accusing voice, the under-high priest began reading off a list of imaginary crimes that Biorkis was alleged to have committed against the temple and his vows. The priests looking on appeared divided; some nodded their agreement with the charges; others wore looks of astonishment and disbelief.

When Pluell was finished, he turned to Biorkis. “What do you have to say to these indictments?”

“Azrael take your indictments! There is no truth in them; any who know me can tell you that. But I do not think it matters at all what I say; you have already made up your mind how this will end. Get on with it.”

Pluell turned to the assembly and with his easy and unperturbed manner said, “You have heard with your own ears that he will protest the charges no further. There is but one recommendation we can bring: Biorkis is to be stripped of his priesthood and a new high priest should assume his duties. Biorkis is to be cast out from among us. Are there any who would gainsay these recommendations?”

The room was silent as a grave. No one moved a muscle.

The moment passed, and Pluell, speaking with calm assurance in a voice tinged with false sadness, turned to Biorkis. “I am sorry it had to end this way. It would have been better for you to have gone away alone while you had the chance. I would have spared you this indignity.”

“Don’t spare me, foul friend! I will go at once, but hear me before I leave, all you priests of Ariel.” He gazed at each man, many of them close friends who turned away from his burning stare in shame for their silence. “Evil has this night entered this temple. It will destroy each one of you if you do not pluck it out and cast it aside at once.”

In response to a signal from Pluell, four temple guards came forward with torches. They took Biorkis by the arms.

“I am going,” the high priest shouted. “But remember my words, all of you. The land is fallen under a shadow. Soon no place will be safe— not even the High Temple of Ariel. If you will not follow me and do what must be done, at least look upon the one whom you have chosen, and know him for what he is.

“The people of the realm will seek your protection and bid the gods to defend them. You will not be able to do it, for your prayers will not be heard.”

“Take him away!” shouted Pluell. “He is raving again.”

The guards moved to take Biorkis out; the great wooden doors of the temple were already swinging open. The night air blew in among the assembled priests as a sudden chilling reminder of Biorkis’s dire predictions.

The temple guards hauled their former leader down the long stone steps of the temple and pushed him into the courtyard. Biorkis stumbled a few steps away and then turned toward his accusers, who had spilled out upon the steps to watch him go. The white-haired old man raised his rod of office, which the guards had neglected to wrest from him, and said in a voice strong as cutting steel, “The end of this age is upon us. Look to yourselves for your salvation; the gods will not help you. This temple will not stand!”

So saying, he threw the rod to the ground, where it burst into a thousand pieces. Then he turned and hobbled off into the night.

24

If ears do not deceive, the enemy lies encamped in yonder wood.” Ronsard leaned heavily on the pommel of his saddle, staring down onto the wooded plain below them, black and forbidding in the moonlight.

“I cannot think what else would raise a clamor like that,” replied Theido; he, too, was tired and arched his back to stretch weary muscles. Ronsard’s knights had dismounted and now walked to draw the stiffness from their legs. Only Esme seemed as fresh as when they had begun so early that morning.

“What rites require such observance?” wondered Esme as she listened to the horrific din emanating from the wood. The rattling screams pierced the waning night like the cries of the tortured and dying.

“We can but guess, my lady. But perhaps it is the better for us. We may creep closer while they spend themselves in savage revel.”

“If Quentin and Toli are down there, we will find them,” said Ronsard resolutely. “We may as well make a start.” He tried his sword in its scabbard; the blade slid easily, flashing a glint of silver in the moonlight. He turned to Esme. “My lady, would you care to remain here until we return for you? It would ease my mind.”

“Have no fear for me, brave sir. I will do my part. You might need what little service I can render. My arm is not as strong as yours, but my blade is sharp as a serpent’s tooth and quicker still.”

“As you wish; I shall not discourage you. It does seem most apparent that you can take care of yourself. Follow, then, and do what I direct.” Ronsard flicked the reins and called to his knights, “Be mounted. We will approach the wood single file. Keep blades and shields covered. We will leave our horses in the wood and come to the camp on foot. If all goes well with us, we may escape undetected.”

“Lord Ronsard!” shouted one of the knights. “Someone flees the wood as you speak. See—there. Along the gully beyond those trees.”

“I see it!” replied Theido. “Yes! There are three of them. Do you think . . . ?” He looked at Ronsard hopefully.

“It would do to find out who they are, at least.” He watched the three figures riding away from the wood with some speed; they were pale shapes floating over the gray sea of long grass just above the black line of a dry watercourse some distance away. “I think we may meet them just there.” He pointed with a gloved hand toward a bed where the gully swerved around the base of a hill. “Come, let us see who it is that flees the foul host by night.”

Quentin clung to the saddle by force of will. He felt drained and used up. All strength had been wrung out of him in the escape. Now he let Blazer have his head and concentrated merely on keeping himself upright in the saddle, knowing he could not go on much longer; soon he would have to stop and rest. But he thought if he could last until daylight, they would be far enough away that stopping would not endanger them.

So he clutched at the horn of his saddle and hung on as Blazer jounced and jostled along. To his dazed mind it seemed as if he had entered a dream in which hills and sky and woods became his pursuers, crying after him with shrieks of rage and fury. He fled them through gray mists on a horse that flew like the wind, but could not outpace the pursuit.

In his waking dream he saw an army emerge from the hills above them to come sweeping down upon their flank. The dream-knights came thundering to intercept them; he could see their faces hard in the moonlight, and could feel the hot breath of the horses on his face as they drew nearer as if by magic.

But there was something odd about the dream; he shook his head to clear it and looked again—the dream remained. Quentin peered intently, forcing himself to see clearly. But again he saw the force of knights moving down the hillside toward them.

“Toli!” he cried, lurching in his saddle as he flung his good arm out to his side. The Jher glanced quickly over his shoulder and dropped back to Quentin’s side. “They have found us!” he shouted. Toli jerked his head to where Quentin was pointing, and his startled look confirmed at once that it was not a dream. They were being chased.

He gave a shrill whistle that brought the seneschal around, and at once all three riders turned their horses to the shoulder of the hill beside them.

Blazer’s hooves bit into the soft earth and flung it skyward as his powerful legs churned. The horse stretched its back and fought its way up the slope of the hill. Quentin threw himself down along the horse’s neck in an effort to maintain his precarious balance.

Now he could hear the hooves of the strange knights’ horses thundering closer, and he thought he heard a shout. Bending low, he looked along Blazer’s flank behind him and saw that two riders descended into the shallow gully. Another leaped it and came on.

In that moment of inattention, Blazer spurted ahead and stumbled over a rock protruding from the hill, throwing Quentin sideways as he fought to regain his feet. Quentin’s fingers, so tightly wrapped around the pommel, were wrenched free, and he felt himself sliding backward over the rump of his mount. His injured arm flailed uselessly as his good hand grabbed for the bridle strap. He was not quick enough. Almost before he knew what was happening, he tumbled out of the saddle and landed on the hillside.

On impact the air rushed out of his lungs, and the night suddenly flashed in a blaze of brilliant stars, their scintillating rays stabbing through his brain. He rolled over, breathless, fighting to force air back into his lungs. He pushed himself up on one knee and threw aside his cloak, which had wrapped itself around his arm. With a shock he realized that he did not have a sword or a poniard with which to defend himself.

He heard someone shouting and looked up the hill to see Toli wheeling around to come after him. But it was too late. When he turned again, the first of their pursuers came pounding up. The horse reared, and the knight looked down on him. In the pale moonlight Quentin thought he knew the face that sought his; there was something familiar about it, but he could not be sure. He shook his throbbing head slowly, and he heard the whinny of his own mount behind him.

“Are you hurt?” said the knight towering over him. Quentin could not believe his ears—here was a tongue he recognized. The knight leaned down to look at him closely.

Yes, the face seemed familiar, like one he had seen in a dream long ago. But it was real, and it peered down on him intently, eyes shining in the soft light.

“Quentin? By the gods’ beards! Quentin!” the knight shouted, jumping from his horse.

Quentin shook his head dazedly. He passed his hand in front of his eyes. “Who is it?”

There was a shout behind him. “Theido. Is it true?” The voice was Toli’s, and in an instant the Jher was beside him, tugging at him.

“Theido? How . . . ?” Quentin could speak no more. He sank back as heavy vapors of darkness covered him, his consciousness receding swiftly. He heard many shouts and voices close at hand and the sound of horses galloping in. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but his lids had grown leaden, and there was no fight left in him. It seemed that he had grown light as down, for he felt himself borne up as on a sudden gust to ride on the wings of the wind, which now roared in his ears.

25

The touch of a cool hand on his brow brought Quentin out of the deepest sleep he had ever known. He heard a voice somewhere above him say, “See there! He has come back. Heoth would not have him!”

He opened his eyes to see a ring of faces grinning down on him. Esme’s pretty brow wrinkled in concern quickly giving place to relief.

“There seems to be no escaping you,” remarked Quentin as he strained to sit up. There was laughter all around, and hands reached out to clap him on the back.

“We knew you could not elude us,” said Ronsard. “Oh, but it is good to see you alive.”

“Ronsard, Theido . . . I must be dreaming still. How did you find us?”

“It is no dream, my friend. But if not for this young woman”— Ronsard nodded to Esme kneeling next to him—“we would never have found you, nor even known to search. She showed us where to look.”

“You came back,” Quentin said.

“I had to protect my protectors, did I not?” Esme answered. Her sudden smile seemed to warm him from within. “Besides, I had already lost one escort, and I was determined not to lose another.” Her dark eyes suddenly welled with tears. “Forgive me for leaving you, sir. When I saw you pulled from your horse, I wanted to help you, but I could only think of my errand. I am sorry.”

Toli thrust his head in among those gathered around him. The smell of food that he brought with him reminded Quentin how hungry he was.

“Eat, Kenta. We have already done so. We will talk while you breakfast.” Toli set a steaming bowl before him, and Quentin fell to with a ready appetite.

“Myrmior has been telling us of your captivity. You have much to thank him for,” said Theido.

“Myrmior?” The name was strange to Quentin.

“You mean he has risked his life to bring you out of the enemy’s camp and you do not know his name?”

“There was not time enough for such pleasantries. We were quite busy with staying alive. And only half succeeding at that.”

“This one has a strong will to survive.” The deep rolling voice was the seneschal’s. “I am glad to know you, Lord Quentin.”

“I am no lord, Myrmior.”

“Better than that,” said Ronsard. “He is the king’s own son.”

“His ward,” Quentin corrected.

“Ward or son, I see I have chosen well the man to save. From now on, my lords, I am at your service. It will be an insult if you do not allow me to serve you in whatever ways you will.” Myrmior bowed low and touched his forehead with his fingertips.

“You have done service enough for the Dragon King. Your reward is yours to name once we reach Askelon and King Eskevar hears how you have rescued his own from certain death.”

“I was looking out for myself, sir. I, too, was held against my will by the terrible Ningaal. The risk was but a small one for me, even at that.” Myrmior beamed at Quentin and added, “Whatever gods rule this land, they have poured out their favor upon this one. I have never seen a man survive the wheel, and it was that which allowed me to convince Gurd to spare your life.

“And you”—he turned to Toli—“your failed attempt at rescue nearly cost my head as well as your own. But Myrmior is nothing if not resourceful. I turned it to advantage, though you had to endure the anguish of seeing the guard’s execution—and fearing the imminence of your own.”

“It was at least less severe than the execution itself would have been,” replied Toli.

“How did you come to be in the company of the—what did you call them?—the Ningaal?”

“The name Ningaal means ‘the Terror of Nin,’ his army. It is no secret how I came to be among them, but it is a story I would rather tell to your Dragon King.”

“There is much that you might tell, I would wager,” Ronsard put in. “But the sun is well up, and I think we must put as many leagues between us and the Ningaal as may be. The Dragon King awaits in Askelon, and we must not forget the fearful tidings we bring. There will be much to discuss when we sit down together. For now, it is enough that we reach the king as quickly as possible.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Theido, rising to his feet.

“Quentin cannot ride in his condition, surely. If you like, I will remain with him and come hence on the morrow when he is more able to withstand the journey,” Esme offered.

Ronsard pulled on his chin. “I did not think that he would be unable to—”

“I can ride; I am well enough.” To show he meant what he was saying, Quentin fought to his feet, where he swayed uncertainly. He took two steps and pitched forward. Theido reached out a hand to catch him, but Quentin collapsed on the ground.

“It is your arm, is it? You cannot move it.”

Quentin rose to his knees, cradling his arm. “It will be all right. It is nothing.”

“It is enough. Why did you not say something?” Theido bent to examine the injured limb; it was swollen and discolored and hot to the touch.

“Well, we can do nothing for it here, but I do not like the look of it. Perhaps Toli and Esme should remain behind with you, though I must confess I like that even less.”

“No one will remain behind, and Kenta will not ride,” said Toli. “Ronsard, send two knights to bring me two young birches. I will fashion a deroit for him.”

“Excellent!” cried Ronsard. “I might have known you would have a solution—a litter. My knights will fetch you whatever you need.”

Despite Quentin’s protests, which grew feebler with time, the litter was constructed after a style used by the nomadic Jher. The finished deroit was strapped to Blazer, and before the sun had traveled an hour’s time, the party set off once more toward Askelon. Esme rode Blazer.

Quentin fumed at being trundled off like so much baggage, but his fussing was mostly for show. Inwardly, he was grateful to Toli for providing him with a means to rest along the way. For despite his assurance to Theido, Quentin was deeply worried about his arm. When he had fallen in the underbrush on the night of their unsuccessful escape, something had snapped—he remembered it vividly—and all the feeling had fled, and with it the ability to move the limb.

The weary party quit the forest they had been traveling through all day. The sun was lowering in a scarlet haze among flaming clouds as they stepped out of the sheltering boughs upon the hard-packed trail that would lead them to Askelon’s gates.

“Tonight we will sleep in proper beds with fresh linen,” said Ronsard. “And we will dine in the Hall of the Dragon King.”

“I wish that it were with lighter hearts than our own that we came here,” Theido replied darkly. “I rue the tidings we must lay upon his shoulders. It is a burden I would not wish on any man.”

“There will be a burden for all of us, I think,” mused Ronsard.

Presently the travelers rounded a bend in the road and came to the edge of a broad, shallow valley. Across the valley rose the great dome of rock upon which stood Castle Askelon, transformed in the gloaming into a city of light. The shadow stretching across the length of the valley had not reached the foundation rock of Askelon; the castle rose out of the purple shadow and glinted in the ruby light, a jewel with soaring spires and towers and graceful bartizans perched upon high walls.

“Oh, it is beautiful,” said Esme, her voice awed and breathless with admiration. “I never dreamed . . .”

“A god’s very palace! It is a wonder mortals dare intrude,” said Myrmior. “It far outshines even its own legends.”

Quentin, sprawled on the deroit, craned his neck to see the familiar shape of his beloved Askelon—a sight he never quite got used to, and one that always moved him strangely. It is far different from Dekra, he thought, but the Dragon King’s castle is also home to me. He gazed proudly upon the magnificent structure, rosy in the deepening blue of the twilight sky.

Toli, riding beside Quentin all the way, sat on his horse unmoved and stared at the twinkling jewel across the fair valley.

“What do you say, Toli? We are nearly home.”

Toli did not look at Quentin when he answered, and when he finally spoke, his voice was far away. “It does appear now to be as far as ever it was when we began this journey.”

As usual, Toli was seeing something very different from the others. And Quentin had learned it was no use trying to find out what the Jher meant by these mystical pronouncements.

Ronsard, at the head of the party, urged his mount forward. The others followed him down the gentle slope as the feathery wisps of evening mist began rising in the cool valley. The air was still and silent, a soft sigh upon the land. No one could have described a more perfect picture of peace as they gazed down into the valley growing green with the crops of the peasants, and to the east along the broad expanse of plain already falling to dusk.

From somewhere in the stillness, a bird trilled a poignant farewell as it winged homeward to the nest, and all at once a sadness came over the party. To Quentin, it seemed that some final word had been spoken, and he was indeed seeing Askelon as it would never appear again.

26

You have returned none too soon, my young man.” Durwin scowled as he examined Quentin’s swollen arm. “It appears your arm has been broken and has begun to set.”

“That is good, is it not?” asked Bria anxiously. She held Quentin’s left hand and snuggled close to him as the hermit poked and prodded Quentin’s injured right arm. Quentin’s filthy tunic had been removed and a soft robe draped across his chest. His arm rested on a cushion on a low table which had been pushed up to his couch.

“It will heal, Durwin—yes?” Quentin forced himself to ask the question he feared asking the most. Durwin ignored it and answered Bria’s instead.

“I feel it is not good, my lady. Ordinarily, yes. But not this time. As it is, the arm will never heal properly.”

“Oh!”

Durwin hastened to reassure them both. “But I have seen this before. The arm will heal”—he paused to assess the effect his next words would have—“but I must break it again and reset it correctly.”

Quentin winced, and a tear formed in the corner of Bria’s eye. “It hurts me to see you in pain, my love,” she said.

“There is but little pain. At first, yes, but not now. I can bear it.”

Durwin bent once more to his examination of the arm and shoulder. “That is what worries me, Quentin. There should be pain—a great deal of pain. I have never known it otherwise. I fear something of greater consequence than a broken bone is involved here. But what it is I cannot say.”

A knock sounded on the chamber door, and Theido stepped into the room. “What say you, Durwin? Will our young warrior’s wing heal to fly again?” Catching Durwin’s troubled frown, he added, “If I have misspoken I beg your pardon, sir.”

“No, no. You are right,” Durwin blustered. “I am being a silly old man. Of course the arm will heal. We will reset it at once.”

“At once?” Quentin closed his eyes.

“It would be best.”

“After we dine, at least?” offered Theido. “In the hall the meal is being laid. Better to face it on a full stomach, eh?”

“There is no harm. I had forgotten you all have ridden very far. Yes, there is a wonderful meal in honor of your safe return. We can attend to our business after we have eaten.”

“Then let us go directly,” said Theido. “I, for one, stand in need of some rejoicing this night. There will be little enough in the days to come.”

“Meaning what?” asked Durwin.

“Eskevar has announced a Council of War. It begins tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

Theido nodded gravely and left.

Durwin and Bria helped Quentin to his feet and pulled the robe around him after putting his injured arm in a sling. Then they all made their way to the Dragon King’s great hall.

The hall, shimmering in the light of a hundred golden torches, was even larger and more glorious than Quentin remembered. It seemed as if it had been many years since he had been in the hall. Steeped in its own kind of emotion and majestic drama, it was his favorite place in all the castle, and had deeply intrigued him since he had first seen it as a boy.

A crackling fire roared in the massive hearth, and the flames on the ranks of black stone columns marched the entire length of the hall. Long tables had been set down the center of the hall, and these terminated at the dais where the king’s table stood. A royal blue baldachin edged in silver and bearing the king’s blazon arched gracefully above his table.

The great hall was filled with people. Servants rushed here and there carrying huge platters of meat—fish, fowl, venison, pork, and dozens of roasts on spits. Knights and lords, some with their falcons on their arms, strolled with their ladies. Minstrels wandered through the crowd or played for smaller groups on request. Maidens with flowers in their hair flirted coyly with passing youths. The hall was a riot of color, a meandering current of gaiety.

Quentin’s heart swelled within him as he beheld the splendor of the Dragon King’s hall.

Two servants carrying a basin came hurrying up as the three entered. The basin was in the shape of a dragon and contained warm water scented with roses. Quentin dipped his good hand, while Bria washed it for him and then dried it with a soft linen cloth offered by one of the servants. Durwin dipped his hands, and the two young servants dashed away to offer the courtesy to other newly arrived guests.

As they moved into the stream of the jovial guests, trumpets sounded from the far end of the hall.

“Ah,” said Durwin, “we are precisely on time. Let us take our seats.”

He moved at once to the high table, and Quentin and Bria followed. Toli and Esme met them as they ascended the dais to find their places, while servants scurried around, filling goblets of onyx with wine and ale. Esme fairly glowed in her bejeweled gown. For once, thought Quentin, she looked the princess she really was.

“This is most wonderful,” she cooed. “You are so kind, Bria, to lend me one of your beautiful gowns. I feel like a woman again, after all those days on the back of a horse.” The two young women laughed; Quentin and Toli looked on, smiling.

“Toli has most kindly conducted me all through the castle, and I am much impressed. I have long heard stories of Askelon’s wealth, but the stories do not tell half.”

“You are a most welcome guest, Esme,” said Bria warmly. “We must have a talk together soon. I think we may become very good friends.”

“I would like that. I have grown up among my brothers, and female friends were rare—I think my brothers scared them away. When my business here is at an end, perhaps I will tarry here with you.”

“Please, I can think of nothing better.”

“It seems our two young women are cut of the same cloth, eh, Toli?” Quentin had stepped close to his friend while the ladies talked happily together.

“Our women?” Toli suddenly blushed.

“Bria and Esme, of course. Do you think I do not see the way you look at Esme? I saw that look once before on your silly face—the day we fished her from the sea.”

“It is not your arm that is ailing; it is your head. You begin talking strangely; perhaps I should call Durwin to take you away. This atmosphere has addled your mind.”

“My head is whole, and my eyes are not deceived, my good friend.”

Toli blushed again. The trumpets sounded a final call, and Bria said, “Let us all be seated. Toli and Esme, you must sit near us. I will arrange it.”

After a bit of fuss, they sat down together. Quentin looked down the table—past the platters of meat and pastries, trenchers of pewter and silver, baskets of breads, and tureens of vegetables—to examine the guests who shared the high table. Ronsard, who sat with Myrmior on one side and Theido on the other, caught his eye and waved; an instant later he was once again deep in conversation with the lanky knight at his side. Durwin sat to the left of Toli and on the right of the king, whose exquisitely carved chair remained empty. The queen’s chair, smaller but equally handsome, was next to it and empty too.

Quentin peeped behind the trailing baldachin, expecting the king to emerge from behind it at any moment. But even as he did so, a hush fell over the noisy hall. The trumpets sounded a ringing flourish, and in swept King Eskevar and Queen Alinea. They moved slowly through the hall toward the high table, stopping to offer a greeting to their guests along the way.

Quentin was much relieved to see that Eskevar, though grave and gaunt, moved with a spring in his step and with head erect; the crown encircled his head with a ring of fiery red gold. If anything, the king’s recent illness had given him an aspect of determined strength, of invincibility.

The royal couple moved to the dais, stopping at Quentin’s place at the far end of the table before moving on to their own chairs. “I am glad to see you safely under my roof again, my son.” The king placed a hand gently on Quentin’s good shoulder. “Let me say again that I am sorry for your hurt.”

“It is ever my joy to sit at table with you, my lord. And we have said enough already of Toli’s and my trials. I am assured that my arm will be as fit as ever in no time.”

“That is good news, Quentin,” said Alinea. She smiled with a warmth that made all feel welcome and at ease.

“Come to me tonight after the games and we will sit and talk together,” said Eskevar. Quentin was about to speak, but Alinea broke in quickly.

“My lord, you have forgotten that young people have more amusing pursuits than to sit in a chamber on a pleasant summer’s eve.”

“Of course!” Eskevar laughed. “Forgive me. Yes, I had forgotten. There will be time enough for talking. Enjoy your evening, my young friends. I will see you on the morrow.”

They moved off, and Bria leaned near to Quentin and whispered, “Your first night back and I was afraid you would become my father’s captive.” Her green eyes held his for a moment. “Oh, do not ever leave again.”

“There is no place I would rather be than right here with you. But I think Durwin has plans for me this night, even if Eskevar does not. You have forgotten so quickly?”

“My poor darling, forgive me. I am a selfish woman. I would have you all to myself always. But may we not walk once around the garden? It is so lovely, and I have missed you so.”

One turn around the garden gave way to another, and then another. The two young couples had started off together, but Quentin soon lost sight of Toli and Esme among the winding paths.

The air was soft and warm and full of the perfume of the flora glowing softly in the moonlight in pale pastel hues. They had spoken of nothing and of nonsense and had laughed at their intimate jests, but now strolled in silence.

“Was it very bad for you?” asked Bria suddenly, but in an abstract way that made Quentin wonder what she meant.

“Being captured? Yes. I hope never to endure it again.”

“There is another kind of captivity which is terrible.”

“And that is?”

“Not knowing. When someone you love is far away and you cannot go with him, be with him, when you do not know what may happen to him . . . I was worried about you. I knew something horrible had happened.”

They walked along without speaking again for a long time. Bria sighed heavily, and Quentin murmured, “There is more on your mind, my love. What is it? Tell me.”

“I am ashamed of myself for thinking it,” Bria admitted reluctantly. “I know there is going to be a war—”

“Who has told you that?”

“No one, and no one need tell me. I just know it. Ever since you got back, I have seen nothing but Theido’s dark looks, and Ronsard has been sending messengers far and wide. You do not deny it, so it must be.”

“Yes, war is a fair possibility,” agreed Quentin.

“A fair certainty,” she corrected him. “I do not want you to go. You are injured. You would not have to go. You could stay here with me.”

“You know as well as I that would not be possible.”

“Too well I know it. The women of my family have long sent their men into battle—some have even ridden by their side. That is what makes me so ashamed. I do not care about any of that; I only want you safe.”

“Ah, Bria. How little I know you. You are possessed of an iron will and a spirit that shrinks from nothing under the heavens. I do not doubt that you could launch a thousand ships and send whole legions into battle; yet you tremble at the thought of just one soldier going away.”

“Yes, how little you know me if you think you are nothing more to me than just one soldier.” She sounded hurt and angry. Quentin, disappointed at his bungling comment, was about to make another attempt at soothing her when Durwin’s bellow boomed out behind them.

“There you are! I thought I would find you here in the only place lovers may be alone respectfully. I do not blame you for wishing to put off the ordeal at hand, but the sooner it is over, the sooner healing can begin.”

“You are right, Durwin, though I little welcome your remedy. Let us go.” He turned to Bria to take his leave.

“I am going too. You may need a woman’s touch. Besides, if someone does not watch you very closely, Durwin, you may break the wrong arm.”

“Have a care!” Quentin implored. “It is my arm you are talking about.”

“Come along,” Durwin instructed.

Bria leaned close and gave Quentin a quick kiss. “That is for courage,” she said. She kissed him again. “And that is for love.”

“Lady,” Quentin said, “I need them both tonight.”

27

Quentin, are you sleeping?” Toli crept to the high, wide bed on which his friend rested. Quentin opened his eyes when Toli came near.

“No, only resting.” Both looked at his freshly bandaged arm, set with splints of bone and wrapped in new linen. A sling of forest green—to match his cloak—was bound around his arm, which rested on his chest. “Is it time?”

“Yes. The council will sit within the hour. Would you have me attend in your stead?”

“No, I feel much better. We will both go. Has everyone arrived?” Quentin raised himself up off the bed and swung his legs over the edge. Toli placed a hand under his arm and helped him.

“The lords of the flatlands have not arrived, but are expected to be late. Theirs is a far journey. But Eskevar thinks it best not to put off beginning.

“The others are here, or will arrive shortly. Rudd, Dilg, Benniot, Fincher,Wertwin, Ameronis, and Lupollen—those I have already seen.”

“Those are enough to ratify any decision the king might make, though I do not believe there will be dissent.”

“Do not be too certain of that. Mensandor has been long at peace, and men grow soft. Some will wish to avoid conflict at any price.”

“Then we must make them see that is impossible.” He looked at his friend sadly. “Toli, I do not love war; you know that. But I have seen enough to know that it has come to us whether we will or not. We have no choice if this land is to remain free.”

They walked from Quentin’s apartment to the round, high-domed council chamber in the north tower, passing through the walled courtyard where the king sometimes held vigil when weighty matters were bearing on his mind. The courtyard was clean and fresh and the sun directly overhead.

As they entered the yard, Theido and Ronsard, deep in discussion with another, waved them over. “Ah, Quentin! It looks as though Durwin has done his worst on you. How do you feel?”

“Fit enough. He wanted to keep me abed with a potion of his, but I declined. It would have meant missing the council.”

“Do you know Lord Wertwin?” Theido introduced the man standing with them.

“He has some interesting tales to tell in council,” added Ronsard.

“Yes, your lands lie to the south of here, do they not?” inquired Quentin.

“That is correct. Just beyond Pelgrin, above Persch.” The man smiled warmly, and Quentin noticed he was missing a tooth in his lower jaw; but that and his leathery, weather-beaten visage gave the lord the rugged appearance of a tenacious fighter.

“Sir, if you do not mind my asking, however did you come so soon? It would take a messenger two days to reach you.”

“Ordinarily, yes. But I was already on my way here—as I was telling Theido and Ronsard just now.”

Quentin did not need to ask what had prompted Lord Wertwin’s trip, but he did note its timeliness. They talked a bit longer until a page came out from the tower entrance across the courtyard to ask them to come in and take their places.

They filed into the tower and up a short flight of spiraled stairs to an upper floor. The arrow loops cast a dim light in the narrow passage, which gave out onto a great, round chamber with a polished wooden floor. Shuttered windows were thrown wide to let in the sunlight, giving the chamber an open, airy feeling, though it was hollowed out of massive tower walls sixteen feet thick.

In the center of the room, a ring of chairs had been established, one for each member of the council. But there were others among them, and Quentin wondered who would occupy them. Behind each chair a stanchion raised a banner bearing the device and blazon of each participant. Some of the council members were already seated, and behind their chairs stood a squire or page ready to do his lord’s bidding. Other council members stood apart, with heads together, and talked in low tones; the room buzzed with the murmur of their conversation.

Quentin found his chair, marked by his own blazon: a flaming sword over a small dragon emblem. He smiled to himself when he saw it. The only time he ever saw his device was when in Askelon. Next to his chair sat Toli’s, whose device was a white stag running on a field of forest green. He identified Ronsard’s, a mace and a flail crossed and raised in a gauntleted hand. Theido’s was the readily recognizable black hawk with wings outstretched. There were others he had never seen before, and several chairs had no banners.

In all there were fifteen chairs in the ring, but a few more stood along the wall to be added if the need arose. One by one the remaining council members took their places, and the room fell silent in expectation of the king’s entrance.

Presently a side door opening into a private chamber creaked on its iron hinges, and Durwin stepped in without ceremony, followed by the king. How tired he looks, thought Quentin. Not a king to inspire his nobles with a stirring call to arms.

Eskevar took his chair and Durwin the chair beside him, which was unmarked by a banner. The king began at once.

“My noble friends, thank you for coming.” He looked at each one around the circle. “My heart is heavy with the thought of what must be accomplished this day. I am no stranger to war and no coward. Some of you have stood with me in many glorious campaigns, and some where there was no glory for either side.

“Prudent men do not seek war, for it brings nothing good. But men of valor do not shrink from it if called to defend their homeland against a rapacious foe.

“Such is now the case. Mensandor is under invasion. At this moment foreign armies are burning our cities on the southern coast. The people there have no lords to protect them, so they flee to the hills and to the mountains.”

This last statement sent a ripple of surprise and outrage coursing through the assembled nobles. Lord Lupollen, whose lands were in the north, below Woodsend, raised his voice above the others and asked, “What enemy is this? I have heard nothing of an invasion.”

The king answered when all had quieted down once more. “As I bore certain suspicions regarding such activity, I sent the lord high marshal and the noble Theido, a trusted friend of the crown, to discover the source of my unease. I will let them tell you what they have found.”

Ronsard spoke first. “My lords, with an accompaniment of four knights, Theido and I rode out, striking first to the south. We saw nothing unusual until we reached the sea pass below Persch, where we met a band of villagers fleeing to the north by night.

“These villagers told us of an enemy moving northward along the coast. They also said that Halidom had been destroyed completely. We proposed to ride to Halidom to see with our own eyes the veracity of this report. The villagers seemed frightened and given to exaggeration.”

“Was Halidom destroyed?” asked one of the lords.

“Yes sir. There was nothing left of it but a charred spot on the earth.”

“What? Surely you jest?”

“Not at all, sir.” The voice was Theido’s. “It is as he said. And not only Halidom. Illem is gone as well.”

“But did you not see the enemy?”

“We saw no enemy, and only one survivor of the destruction, who died as we stood over him.”

“This is ridiculous! You ask us to believe—,” sputtered Lupollen.

“Believe what you will, sir,” snapped Ronsard. “We say only what our eyes have seen.”

“I must voice my dismay at this news, Sire,” said Lord Ameronis. “It does seem most unlikely. We have been at peace for over ten years, and it has been far longer since an enemy dared set foot on the soil of Mensandor. Are we to think that a raiding party has landed and terrorized the villages? That surely can be dealt with forthrightly, and no Council of War need stand to ratify such a move.”

“Yes,” agreed Lord Rudd, “it sounds very like the time when the Vrothgar came up the Lower Plinn into the Wilderlands. Once opposed, they left readily enough.”

Eskevar held up his hands for silence. “Please, my countrymen, if I thought that a stout body of knights would serve against this new menace, I would have dispatched them at once. But I have reason to believe the danger we now face is greater than that of a handful of barbarians raiding our cattle and crops.” He nodded to Lord Wertwin.

“Noble friends, I came here today of my own volition, meeting the king’s courier on the road. I agree with Eskevar—there is something here deserving more serious consideration. For the past half month or more, I have been receiving a steady traffic of refugees into my defenses. Some from as far away as Don: villagers, merchants, peasants. They have come begging protection and refuge from a terrible foe which has come against them—though ’tis true few of them have ever seen him.”

Lord Rudd loudly challenged him. “It is not so strange an occurrence to have a few peasants stirred up over nothing at all. That no one seems to have seen this awesome and mysterious enemy is proof enough for me that if he exists at all, he is no more than a band of ruffians to be crushed with a single blow.” When Rudd had finished speaking, there were murmurs of approval and nods of agreement.

“I have seen this enemy!” said Quentin boldly. All eyes turned toward him. “And I can say he is no mere band of ruffians or barbarians seeking meat and seed. Toli and I were captured at Illem on the night that town was sacked and burned.”

He waited for his words to sink in.

“For two days we were held prisoner, escaping only with the help of one of the enemy’s own officials.” He paused to measure his words carefully.

“What we saw in that camp gave us to know that the army of Nin is no thieving tribe of barbarians, nor raiders after spoil. The Ningaal are a highly trained and disciplined army, and they are moving against Mensandor.”

“I do not believe it!” shouted Lupollen angrily. “If such a foe exists, we would know it.”

“Obviously he is cunning beyond belief!” snapped Ameronis with cold sarcasm.

“Believe it!” the high-pitched, cutting tone was a woman’s. The assembly turned in their chairs as one to see who dared invade the king’s council chambers.

Quentin saw Esme standing before the door to the inner chamber. She had entered undetected and had heard what had been said.

“Who is this woman, Sire? Send her away! The Council of War is no place for a female.” There were other complaints of a similar nature.

“My lords, she will be heard. I have asked her to join us, and it seems that now we may hear her story. Continue, my lady, but let me inform this assembly that before them stands Princess Esme, daughter of King Troen of Elsendor.”

Esme, looking every inch the princess that she was, with a thick circlet of silver on her brow and sheathed in a gown of deepest vermilion— Bria’s no doubt—approached the king’s chair to stand before the council. Her dark hair hung in rings to her shoulders; her black eyes sparked with an intense flame.

“I have come to Askelon at the behest of my father to deliver a message of warning and a plea for help. What I have heard this day makes me fear for both our lands.

“Late this spring, one of my father’s ships was attacked at sea, but managed to fight off the attacker and return to port. Troen sent to discover who this enemy might be and ordered the commander of his personal vessel to search out and engage the pirateer. The ship never returned, but an answer came—for two days later, fivescore enemy ships were sighted off our southern coast by a fishing boat. My father issued forth the fleet to engage them; my brothers took command of our ships. I was dispatched here with the warning that a very great and powerful enemy has risen and would seize our lands. I have also come to ask King Eskevar to send help in our time of need.”

Nothing was said following Esme’s account until Eskevar asked, “Have you, then, nothing to say regarding these tidings?”

They must believe her, thought Quentin, even if they do not believe my own story. Esme has spoken with such strength and assurance.

“As you tell it, my lady, it makes a very convincing tale. But are we to understand that you believe the supposed enemy within our borders is the same that engages your father’s fleet? I find that quite unlikely.” With that speech Ameronis gained a few more nods of assent.

Eskevar exploded angrily. “You seem bent on disavowing any evidence we bring before you. Why is that, Lord Ameronis?”

Ameronis was cool in his reply. “The realm has been at peace for many years. I do not wish to see this hard-won peace so easily discarded. I, for one, do not see cause for mustering troops to oppose an enemy which no one has seen and whose intentions are inexplicable.”

“Ah, we strike the heart of the matter at last!” said the Dragon King. A high color had risen to his cheeks and brow. His eyes, sunken and dark-rimmed from his long illness, blazed brightly. He nodded to one of the pages, who disappeared into the inner chamber to reappear a moment later with a tall stranger. The stranger, swathed in a loose-fitting blue garment, with chains of gold around his neck, entered and bowed low before the assembled lords. His black beard bristled like the quills of a hedgehog, and his eyes were sharp and direct.

“I present to you Myrmior, prime minister to the high suzerain of Khas-I-Quair. He it was who made possible the escape of my ward and his friend. Tell us what you have to say, brave sir.”

Myrmior bowed again and touched his fingertips to his forehead. “It was not my intention to come before you in this way, but the king has willed it so, and I obey.” He spoke smoothly, and his words had an edge that cut at the pride of the assembled lords who glared at him.

“I was captured four years ago when the home of my people was brought under subjection to Nin, called the Destroyer. The high suzerain was beheaded like a thief in the village square after a long, bloody war that lasted five years. I, his minister, became a slave to one of Nin’s warlords.

“I have seen much in the years since my captivity began. Nation after nation has fallen; the realms of the mighty have been crushed; lands have been laid waste before Nin and his horde. Each victory makes the Ningaal stronger and pricks their leader’s insatiable hunger for greater conquests. He has extended his empire from Sanarrath to Pelagia, and from Haldorland to Artasia. He will not stop until he rules the world, until all lands are his and all men his slaves.

“Now he has turned his eyes upon the west and the nations of the mighty kings. If he succeeds here, as he has in every other land where he has loosed his warlords, there will be no stopping him. He will achieve what his evil heart contemplates: Nin will be the god before whom all men bow and worship.”

Myrmior’s voice had risen steadily throughout his speech, and now the last words rang in the council chamber. No one moved or breathed. All eyes were on this mysterious messenger of doom.

“Do not deceive yourselves, lords of Mensandor. You cannot hide in your castles behind your strong walls. He will search you out and destroy you as surely as the snake catches the rat.

“Hear my words and beware! He has turned his eyes upon your kingdom and will have it for his own. There is nothing he cannot do and nothing he does not dare, for his star is growing in the east, and soon all men will know the terror of his name.”

28

There is naught to your discredit, Sire. You have done what a man can do. We will try again,” Theido said soothingly.

They all sat gloomily around a large oaken table in the king’s private chamber. Eskevar stared dully at his hands clasped before him. He had raged and fumed and threatened to no avail. The Council of War had ended in a deadlock. Lords Lupollen and Ameronis openly stood against raising an army,Wertwin and Fincher pledged their support, and the rest were undecided.

“I should have waited for the others to come; they could have made the difference. I was too hasty . . . too hasty.”

“No,” objected Durwin. “You did the right thing. The others will not arrive until tomorrow or the next day. We need to move at once. Who knows what a delay of two days might mean? Kingdoms have fallen in less time.”

“Meanwhile, Lupollen and Ameronis have ample time to sway the others to their side.” Eskevar sighed, and the room seemed to grow darker.

“They will all come ’round when they see the danger,” offered Ronsard.

“But will it be too late?” wondered Theido. “I say we should send the king’s knights out now to engage the invaders and hold them until an army can be raised. We must not let them reach Askelon unchallenged.”

“Noble sirs, may I offer an observation?” It was Myrmior, who had been sitting in silence since the private council had begun. His impassioned appeal before the council had been to no avail, and he had retreated into a sullen mood, as had most everyone else.

“Nothing short of total strength will dismay them. Nin’s armies are well trained and battle-ready. And there are more of them than you know. The force which Quentin and Toli met with was only one of four which are within Mensandor’s borders. They are all moving toward Askelon by various routes.”

“Why would they?” asked Ronsard. “Why not come en masse?”

“Nin long ago learned it was best when invading a strange land whose strengths were unknown to move in smaller forces, thus dividing the defense.

“A few valiant men may stand against many given a tactical advantage— is this not so?”

Nods around the table affirmed it was indeed. “But it is almost impossible to defend on four fronts at the same time. That is what you propose to do.”

“And with few enough knights to do it,” noted the king sourly. “Our cause is lost before trumpet has been blown or blade drawn.”

“Say not so, Sire. There is much we may do with the men we have. The others will fall in line when they learn the threat is real and not imagined.” Ronsard struck the table with his fist. He looked around to the others for support of his view.

“Ronsard is right,” said Durwin slowly. “There is much we may do. And the sooner we begin, the better. It would be in our interest to—”

Just then there came a rap on the chamber door. A sentry stepped in and, bowing low, said, “Sire, there is a priest without who would speak to you without delay. He has been told you are in council, but will not be put off.”

“Will he identify himself ?” asked the king.

“He is Biorkis, as he says,” offered the sentry.

“The high priest? Here?” Quentin looked at Toli, who only nodded mysteriously.

“Allow the high priest to enter. We will admit him.”

The door was thrown wide, and an instant later Biorkis, dressed in his coarse brown robes, swept in to stand before them, a rueful smile upon his wrinkled, white face.

“Ariel has not forsaken his servant,” the priest said. “All is as I would have wished.”

Durwin leaped from the table so quickly, he sent his stool crashing to the floor. “Biorkis! Have you given up your vows at last?” The hermit strode to his old friend and clasped him by the arms.

The priest shook his head sadly; his white, braided beard wagged from side to side. “It seems as if I have been released from my vows whether I would or no.” Durwin’s eyebrows arched upward. “I mean,” said the priest, “that I have been expelled from the temple.”

“But why? Certainly it cannot be for any but a most serious offense— and what that would be from you I cannot imagine.”

The former high priest turned to the others as Durwin drew him to the table, giving Quentin a special greeting. “It was for the most serious offense, my lords. I have been guilty of standing in the way of gross ambition. The charges were trifling ones; I persisted in seeing danger where none could be seen, in reading omens in the stars which threatened the security of the temple.”

Durwin nodded knowingly. “We have been cast out this day for roughly the same reasons. But more of that later. I know that what you have come to tell us has not been watered down by your troubles. High priest or no, your heart will remain steadfast once it has decided on a course.”

“Well you remember me, Durwin. You were ever one who could read a man’s inmost soul. Yes, I have come with a message, but seeing you all here leads me to believe that I have come too late for my message to be of any great service to you.”

“Say it, by all means,” said Eskevar, “and let us judge its worth. That it has cost you your place in the temple is no small thing; rather, it speaks for the importance of your errand. What would you say to us?”

Biorkis bowed to them all; Durwin righted his stool, offered it to the priest, and went himself in search of another. When he had been seated, Biorkis spread his hands on the table and began.

“My lords, in my position of high priest, I worked tirelessly in the sifting of elements to discover the destinies of men and nations. It is my belief that religion should serve man in this way.

“When an omen presents itself, it is studied carefully to determine its import and consequence. I say that to say this: an omen has arisen the like of which has never been seen. It is a star, known to all by its common name—the Wolf Star. Unchanged since time began, it has recently begun to wax with unaccustomed brilliance. It has grown so quickly as not to be believed by any who have not followed its course as closely as I have.”

“This is the star you spoke of, is it not?” Eskevar turned toward Myrmior, who merely dipped his head in assent.

“I see you know of it. Then I need not tell you how curious a thing it is. I have searched through the records of the temple. Back and back— as far back as records have been kept—thousands of years and more.” Biorkis smiled and inclined his white head toward Quentin.

“This I did after your visit to me that night. Your curiosity about the star proved to me that there was something beyond novelty that study might reveal.”

Quentin answered, “As I remember, you were very gloomy in your predictions even then. It was evil, you said, and more.”

“Ah, that I was. Now I know I was right to believe as I did. The sacred records of the temple reveal that such a sign is not unknown. Twice before, long ages ago, such stars have been seen to grow in the sky. And though the old writing is hard to discern, and the meaning of the words is now unclear, it may be said with certainty that such omens betokened the very worst catastrophes for mankind.”

“The end of the age!” said Durwin.

“The end of the age,” agreed Biorkis. “In chaos and death. Destruction such as no man nor beast can survive. Nations are swept away; kingdoms vanish in a single hour, never to return. The face of the earth is changed forever. Lands rise up out of the sea, and continents submerge. All that was shall be changed in the mighty roar of the heavens rending apart. The stars fall from their courses, and the seas rise up. The rivers burn, and the earth crumbles away.

“Thus is the end of the age, and it is at hand.”

The midnight conversation that he and Toli had had in Durwin’s chamber when they had first come to Askelon leaped vividly to Quentin’s mind, inspired by Biorkis’s pronouncement. Conversation continued around the table; the voices of Ronsard, Theido, Eskevar, and Durwin sounded in his ears, but Quentin did not attend to them. They receded farther and farther from him, and then he heard them no more.

It seemed to him that he now entered a waking dream.

A dark, limitless horizon stretched before him, the darkness brooding and seething as a beast hungering and lying in wait for its prey. Quentin saw a small, bright figure laboring up a rocky slope to stand at last on the top of the hill.

It was a knight in armor, and as he looked more closely, he saw that the armor shone with a cool radiance, scattering light like a prism. The knight faced the brooding darkness and placed his hands to the hilt of his sword. He drew forth his sword, and it flashed with a burning white fire.

He raised his sword, and the darkness retreated before him. Then, with a mighty heave, the knight flung the sword into the air, where it spun, throwing off tongues of fire that filled the sky. As he did so, the knight shouted in a resounding voice, which seemed to echo in Quentin’s ears, “The sword shall burn with flames of fire. Darkness shall die: conquered, it flees on falcon’s wings.”

The talking at the table ceased. All eyes turned toward Quentin, who stood before them, shaking his head and blinking as one awakening from a dream. The surprise on their faces, their open mouths, let Quentin know that he had not heard those words only; he had spoken them aloud before everyone there. The voice echoing in his ears was his own.

“What did he say?” Ronsard wondered.

“It was—I am sorry, excuse me,” Quentin blurted. Toli peered at him through squinted eyes. There were stares all around.

“Where did you hear that?” demanded Durwin, jumping up.

“Why, I heard it just now . . . in a dream. I seem to have had a dream while everyone was talking. I do not know what it means.”

“I do!” Biorkis fairly shouted. “It is from The Chronicles of the Northern Kings.”

“Yes, it is. ‘The Prophecy of the Priest King.’” Durwin towered over Quentin, staring down upon him, eyes sparkling with a fierceness Quentin had never seen. Quentin squirmed uncomfortably on his stool, feeling foolish and light-headed.

“Tell me that you have never read that anywhere, nor heard it spoken in our presence, and I shall believe you.”

“I tell you the truth, Durwin, I never have. The words mean nothing to me, whatever you say. I know them not.”

“It is possible that you may have heard them in Dekra,” mused Durwin. “But I think not. You would remember if you had.”

“What is this?” asked Eskevar, his voice brittle with amazement.

Theido and Ronsard merely gazed in surprise at what was happening before them; Myrmior rubbed his hands absently over his bearded chin, eyes narrowed to slits.

“My lord, it is a wonder! A most powerful sign.” Biorkis closed his eyes. His head began to weave with the cadence, and the old priest’s voice swelled to fill the room as he began to recite the ancient prophecy.

“The stars shall look upon the acts of man. They shall bring forth signs and wonders. Cities of old are still to be seen; the cunning work of giants, the skillful shaping of stone. Wind is the swiftest messenger. The clouds shall fly free forever. Thunder speaks with a mighty voice; the temples quake upon their foundations. The sacred rock shall be cloven. The spear struck upon shield shall make war. The eagle shall ascend on wings of strength; his offspring shall be honored among men. Courage shall be in the warrior. The jewel in the ring shall sit high and broad. The good man in his country shall do deeds of glory. The snake in his chamber shall be pierced. The valor of the knight shall be strong iron; his name is sung in the halls of his fathers. The wolf in the forest shall be craven. The boar in the wood is bold in the strength of his tusks. The king shall have a throne. The priest shall wear a crown. The sword shall burn with flames of fire. Darkness shall die; conquered, it flees on falcon’s wings.

“The dragon under the hill shall be ancient; lordly, bold, and unafraid. The gods of high places shall be thrown down; theirs shall be the rage of death. The Most High shall suffer them no more. From out of the temple he has called his servant; his ways shall be exalted.”

29

Esme and Bria were waiting for them as they emerged from the council chambers. Quentin smiled when he saw them, though he did not feel like smiling. The two young women had become such fast friends, they were seen together everywhere, and it pleased Quentin to think that, though very different in many ways, they shared much in common, especially the same iron resolve in matters that touched them deeply. They were, he reflected, the living idea of the word princess.

Quentin had not spoken upon emerging from the chamber. He felt weak and a little frightened of what he might say next. The vision and prophecy had unnerved him, making him feel he could no longer trust himself to behave normally. Toli had ushered them all away to a quiet spot in the kitchen, where they could sit and munch apples and be alone.

After a while Quentin recovered some of his usual good humor and began to talk about what had happened. He told of the talk around the table, and of his dream, and the prophecy he had uttered, and how excited Durwin and Biorkis had become after hearing it. It was then that Esme related her own experience with the daughter of Orphe, and the prophecy that had been given to her in exchange for the meal she had cooked for the oracle.

Esme recited the strange prophecy, and Quentin was struck with how similar it was to the one he had himself spoken. Both spoke of a sword of power that would vanquish the invaders with a stroke. When Esme had finished her story, they had all fallen silent for a long time, not daring to break the spell that had descended upon the little group.

For Quentin the time of silence was welcome. He turned the words over in his mind, sifting them, holding them as they tumbled through his consciousness. His vision, so long ago received in his Blessing of the Ariga at the temple of Dekra, seemed now to be taking form, unfolding before him and pulling him along. His vision. Long had he pondered it and held it in his heart. Part of him wanted to run to it, embrace whatever lay ahead, knowing that he would never know true peace unless he did. Another part of him wanted to hold it off, to turn away from its terrible, fierce glory. And Quentin was torn between the two.

Quentin and Toli stood in the night-darkened passageway and knocked. They heard a shuffle on the other side of the heavy door, and it was drawn open slowly. Ronsard’s broad, handsome face grinned back at them.

“Enter, friends,” he said. “We have been waiting for you.”

“What is the meaning of this summons? Ronsard, Theido—have you nothing better to do than keep tired men from their beds?” Quentin stepped into Durwin’s chamber, made bright by the clustered lights of tall candletrees placed around the room.

“You will regret those harsh words soon, sir,” said Theido quietly. Quentin had spoken in fun, but though Theido smiled, Quentin could tell there was an uneasiness in the knight’s manner.

“You are going away!” said Quentin in dismay. He glanced quickly at their faces and knew that he had guessed correctly.

“Yes,” said Ronsard gently. “Before sunrise.”

“But—I do not understand. Why so soon?”

“It must be,” explained Theido. “We are leading the king’s own knights against the Ningaal. We must move at once before they have time to draw their strength together.”

“Come in and sit down. We have a little time to part as friends ought,” said Durwin warmly.

Quentin moved woodenly to a chair in front of the empty hearth. Toli settled on the arm of the chair beside him. What the dark-eyed Jher was feeling could not be read upon his face, though his eyes had gone hard.

“I know it comes as a shock to you, Quentin. But this is the way it must be.” Theido’s tone was smooth and assured. “I know you had your heart set on coming with us, but I assume you also know that cannot be. With your arm, you would not last the first clash of battle.”

Quentin was mildly flattered to think that Theido had so high an estimation of his courage. Actually, he had no wish to encounter the brutal Ningaal again.

“That is not the cause of my misgivings, though you do me honor. You cannot go against the Ningaal with the king’s retinue alone; it would be disastrous! There are too many, and they are disciplined soldiers every one. I have seen them.”

“We dare not wait any longer,” said Ronsard. “Every day we delay may mean much in time to come. But do not worry overmuch; we do not go entirely alone. Lord Wertwin will meet us with his troops—he will raise a hundred sturdy knights and arms for all.”

“But four hundred or five hundred—what is that against Gurd’s thousands? And he is but one of four, if Myrmior speaks true.”

“I think we may say that Myrmior speaks true,” laughed Ronsard. “He is going with us. He will help us to plan our strategy against the warlords.”

“It is no small thing,” agreed Theido. “His help shall prove invaluable; I have no doubt of it.” He leaned forward and searched Quentin’s face with earnest, dark eyes. “We must go, Quentin. We must gain this time for Eskevar to bring the other lords around.

“We did not expect such a poor show among our peers. But that is the way of it. They will see that war has come, and they will join us in the end. Of that I have no fear.”

“But in the meantime, while they are making up their minds, you will all be killed!” said Quentin bitterly. “No. there must be some better way.”

“This is how it will be,” said Ronsard. He stood and walked to Quentin and put his hand upon his shoulder. “Do not fear for us, for we do not fear for ourselves. A knight can have but one death, and that one with honor or he is no true knight. I have seen enough battle that it holds no terror for me. I am content.

“We have no intention of moving foolishly. In truth, you will not see two more cautious and prudent men as we. But we must give the king time to pull the lords together, or our cause is lost before it is begun. Myrmior has shown us that, at least.

“Besides, I do not think you will be idle yourself. If I understand Durwin aright, he means to employ you most strenuously. You will have no time to think about us.”

Quentin threw himself out of his chair and grabbed Ronsard by the arm with his good hand. “I will always think about you! Both of you have been more than comrades to me. I wish I could go with you and share your portion. I would gladly take my place on the battlefield with you once again.”

“And so you shall. There will be enough battle for all of us, I’ll wager.” Theido came to stand beside a tearful Quentin.

“The injury that keeps me here was more hurtful than I knew,” Quentin told them, embracing them both in turn. “Go, then, and may the Most High go with you and grant you his unfailing protection.”

“And you,” the two knights said in unison.

They moved reluctantly toward the door. Toli, coming up behind Quentin, shook both their hands and wished them, in his native tongue, singing blades and shields that never fall. And turning to Durwin he said, “Good hermit, will you say a prayer to the Most High for our brothers?”

“Of course—I was about to suggest it myself.” The hermit of Pelgrin came forward and raised his hands before the two knights. Ronsard sank to one knee, and Theido knelt down beside him.

“God Most High, who ever guides our steps and hears our prayers,” he said softly, “hear us now. Be to these our stout companions the sharp edge of their blade, the strength of their arm, and the protection of their shield. Show them mighty among the enemy; show them dauntless and unafraid. Go before them into battle as a lance to drive the evil from our shores. Be to them a comfort and a guide; refresh them when they are weary, and bear them up when strength is gone.

“Banish fear from their hearts, and give them wisdom to lead their men to victory. Be to them the glory which will shine through the darkness, and bring them home to us once more.”

The knights rose slowly. “This god of yours, Durwin, can he do so much?” asked Ronsard softly.

“He can do all things, my friend. Do not fear to call upon him in any need. He is ever quick to aid his servants.”

“Then from now on I will serve him—this God Most High.” He grinned at Quentin. “See, you are not the only one who listens to this prattling hermit. I have a care for my spirit, too.”

“Truly, this is a time of wonders unceasing.” Quentin advanced and offered his hand to them. “Farewell, my friends.”

“Farewell, Quentin. Farewell.”

30

Quentin and Toli had been too preoccupied with their own preparations to think beyond what lay ahead. They had spent two days following the departure of the knights gathering supplies and making ready. Then early, before the sun had risen above the dark line of Pelgrin, Toli led the horses and pack animals out across the inner ward, through the inner curtain, and into the outer ward where Durwin and Quentin waited.

There they had been met by Alinea, Bria, and Esme. The women pressed gifts of food into their hands and exchanged kisses all around.

“Eskevar wished me to bid you farewell,” Alinea said. “He would have come to see you away, but a king does not say good-bye. So, for him and myself, farewell. Travel swiftly and return safely. Our hearts and our prayers go with you.”

Then Bria and Quentin had removed a little apart to speak the special feelings between them. Esme, with flowers in her hair, took one and gave it to Toli, who carried it over his heart beneath his baldric.

The three women had accompanied them across the drawbridge and stood there, tears splashing to the ground in a gentle rain, waving them good-bye until the narrow streets of Askelon had taken them from view.

The sadness of that parting settled heavy on Quentin’s spirit. It brooded over his waking hours for the better part of three days following. He spoke but little and moved about as one asleep. He did not notice that Toli, and to some extent Durwin, behaved in exactly the same way.

In his lonely meditation, Quentin turned again and again to the events of the hurried last days in Askelon, and especially the meeting in Durwin’s chambers that had lasted far into the night. It now seemed shadowy and indistinct, as if he were watching smoke trails curling and rising in the night air. But it seemed real enough then, and it was that particular event that was now speeding them on their way.

As they moved through the darkened pathways of Pelgrin Forest, now heavy with verdure, summer sitting full on every bough, Quentin rehearsed once more the happenings of that night.

After Theido and Ronsard left Durwin’s apartment, almost before their footsteps had diminished in the corridor, Biorkis had swept in with an armful of scrolls and parchments and map skins. Since the private council with Eskevar the day before, he had disappeared; Quentin had not seen him since he heard the old priest recite the ancient prophecy that still rang in his ears.

Biorkis, they were soon to discover, had busily buried himself in the castle’s athenaeum and there, stopping neither to eat nor sleep, scratched together the odd assemblage of material he now carried with him.

“I have found what we need, Durwin. It was not easy—the king’s library is not at all as orderly as the temple’s, but that is to be expected. Some of these writings are barely discernible—even to a knowing eye— and quite incomplete. But my memory, and yours, of course, Durwin, will serve where the parchments fail us.”

The old priest bustled and fretted so prodigiously in getting his texts arranged that Quentin laughed out loud. “Do not tell me we are to endure one of your interminable lessons! Spare us!”

Biorkis cocked his head to one side. “Do not think that it would harm you, sir. You have probably forgotten all I ever taught you.”

“Biorkis and I put our heads together upon leaving the king’s council,” Durwin explained. “I think you will be interested to hear what we have learned.” Although Durwin did not say it, Quentin knew by the glint of the hermit’s eye and the mood of high excitement that suddenly bristled in the room that the subject of the meeting had something to do with the prophecy and his strange utterance of it the day previous.

“Yes, it is all here. Enough at any rate to allow us to act, I think, though I wish I had access to my books at the temple.” Biorkis sighed sadly.

“And I my own at the cottage,” agreed Durwin. “Still, I have read them enough to know them from memory, I daresay.”

“Are we to understand,” said Quentin, indicating Toli and himself, “that you believe this . . . Prophecy of the Priest King, or whatever— this has something to do with us?”

“Not us, Sire,” said Biorkis blithely. “You!”

Quentin had almost succeeded in putting off the feeling of awesome responsibility that went along with the thought that he might be chosen for some great task. He had almost settled into feeling his normal self again—almost, but not entirely. For the inexpressible notion that he was caught up in the swiftly running stream of history, that he was moved by an unseen hand toward an unknown destiny, and that all this had something to do with his vision of the flaming sword—this notion haunted him, lurking behind his thoughts like a shadow, or the lingering presence of a dream.

“There are many signs by which these things can be judged, as you well know,” the priest burbled on. “Let us just say that I have spent a day and a night in sifting through all that is known about the prophecy and the events surrounding it, and that I have no good reason to doubt that the signs point to you.”

“There are also very good reasons to believe that now is the time in which this prophecy will be fulfilled,” added Durwin.

Toli spoke up. “Though I have never heard of this prophecy—before it was spoken in the king’s chamber, that is—the Jher, too, have a legend that a king of the white race will arise who will usher in the age of light. He is to be called Lotheneil, the Waymaker. That is because he will lead men’s minds toward Whinoek, the God Most High.” Toli fixed Quentin with a knowing look and crossed his arms upon his chest, as if satisfied that the matter was settled.

“Do not think that I am unwilling,” said Quentin. “But you must show me how these things pertain to me. I know nothing of this prophecy—”

“And yet you quoted it word for word, or nearly. In the original it goes something like this: ‘Thee sword sceal byrnan with fyr flaume, Deorcin sceal dhy; deffetyn hit fleon winge falcho.’

“I would have been quite astounded if you had spoken it in the old tongue. Still, it was surprising enough. There are fewer than five men in all of Mensandor who know and can quote that obscure prophecy. That two of them should be in the same room together at an utterance—well, it is quite remarkable. Incredible.”

“I did not tell the whole prophecy, only part of it.” Quentin fidgeted in his high-backed chair, while Toli perched like a bird of prey beside him. “It might have been a coincidence.”

“Quentin,” Durwin reproached softly, “you know as well as I that for the servants of the Most High, there are no coincidences. And for a prophet to quote the merest portion of a prophecy is the same as to invoke the whole. The elders at Dekra should have given ample instruction in that.”

It was true; he had often heard and understood the elders to make reference to various events and happenings in the sacred texts, quoting portions of the text and implying the rest. He knew Durwin could see through any attempt on his part to distance himself from the events that were forming on all sides. It seemed to Quentin that a web of circumstances was weaving itself around him, pulling tighter and tighter. Soon he would be trapped by a destiny he had not foreseen and was not certain he could fulfill.

But he also felt that aside from his personal reluctance, which sat like a lintel stone upon his back, if what Biorkis and Durwin said was true, he had a responsibility to follow wherever the trail would lead. If he did have some part to play in saving the realm, he had to accept it and do whatever was required, aside from how he felt about it.

It was this other, more rational Quentin who answered.

“Very well. Let us see what you two rumormongers have schemed up for us. There seems to be no denying you.”

“You are beginning to think beyond yourself, eh, Quentin? That is good. Yes, very good.” Biorkis pulled on his long, white, braided beard. “Now, here is what I have found.”

The hours that followed had seemed but the flicker of a candle flame. A wink, a nod, and they were gone. From the moment his old teacher had begun to speak, Quentin was gripped in the spell of enchantment, transfixed by the unutterable mystery of the story of strange events, long forgotten, having passed from the minds and hearts of men long ages past. It was remembered only by a few learned men, and now it was revived in his presence. He listened intently, seizing every word as a thirsty man opening his parched throat to the sky to drink in the drops of rain.

They told of the sword, a sword unlike any other and possessed of a mysterious holy power; of secret mines beneath hidden mountains in half-remembered lands; and of the forging of the mighty weapon upon an anvil of gold. Biorkis and Durwin, their round faces flushed with the excitement of their tale, spoke of the ache of the people who for generation upon generation had waited, believing that they would see the coming of the sword and he who would carry it. They told of songs sung and prayers prayed in all the dark, hopeless times for the hand worthy to possess the sword to arise and deal deliverance at its point.

Zhaligkeer—that was the name the ancients had given the sword. The Shining One.

Quentin rolled the name on his tongue, knowing the name linked him to those who had lived and died waiting to see the sword. He wondered how many men had breathed that name in their hour of need; he wondered how many had despaired of ever seeing it and had given up hope and turned away.

When at last the story was told, Quentin rose to stretch and pace the room in quick, restless strides. “Are you suggesting that we just go and find this sword? That it lies hidden in some cave in the high Fiskills?”

Biorkis shook his head wearily. “Not find it; the sword does not exist. You must make it. Zhaligkeer must be forged of the hand that will wield it.”

Quentin sighed hopelessly. “I do not understand. Forgive me, what was all that about anvils of gold and secret mines and all? I thought that it was all part of the legend.”

“Oh, it is, it is,” said Durwin. “But it is our belief that the legends indicate the manner in which the sword must be made, not how it was made. I do not think that anyone ever actually made the sword.”

“Well, why not? It does not seem at all clear why they would hesitate. What was to stop them from trying?”

Durwin cocked his head to one side and smiled smugly. “Nothing and . . . everything. Undoubtedly, many tried. They applied the prophecy to themselves and their own times. But two things are needed for the sword to become Zhaligkeer, the Shining One: the one is from the secret mines, but the other is the hand of him whom the prophecy names. Even if they found the ore, which perhaps some of them by some means accomplished, they still lacked the thing that would make the sword Zhaligkeer: the hand of the chosen one. You see, it is not the blade alone but the hand of the Most High which endows the sword with its power.”

“If, as you say, men have long sought the Shining One, why have I not heard tell of it before now?”

“There is nothing unusual there, sir!” laughed Biorkis. “It is ever thus. In good days men think not of the hand that helps them. But when evil days come upon them, they cry out for the deliverer. In Mensandor, the years have brought prosperity and peace to the people as often as not. Men have forgotten much of the old times, when their fathers struggled in the land. They have forgotten the sword; but for a few the prophecy would have been lost completely.”

Quentin brushed his good hand through his hair. His eyes burned in his head. He was tired. The night was old, and he needed sleep.

“I know nothing of making swords. Neither do I know the way to the secret mines in the high wastelands of the Fiskills. And even if I already possessed such a sword, I do not know what I should do with it; I do not even have the arm to raise it.”

Durwin crossed the room and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “You are tired; you should take your rest like Toli there.” Durwin nodded toward the Jher, who had curled himself up in an empty seat and was now sleeping soundly. “Go to bed now. We have talked enough for one night. We will talk again tomorrow. Believe me, there is much more to discuss before we set off.”

Quentin believed him. There were a thousand questions flapping around in his head, like blackbirds over a new-plowed field. But he was exhausted and could think of nothing but sleep.

“Does anyone else know about all this . . . this. . . .” Words failed him; he could think no more.

“No, not as yet—Ronsard and Theido know we will be busy while they are away. To Eskevar I have mentioned my suspicions regarding the events before us, but he knows nothing of the sword. No one beyond we four knows anything about what we have talked of this night.

“Good night, Quentin. Go and find your bed. We will talk again in the morning.”

As if on signal, Toli rose and slipped to the door to lead Quentin away. In a few moments Quentin felt himself sink deeply into bed, collapsing full-length upon it without even removing his clothes. To Quentin it seemed as if he had plunged into a warm, silent sea. He was asleep as the waves closed over him.

The next day was a blur of maps and scrolls—so dusty and brittle with age, one scarcely dared breathe on them—and dizzying conversation. Toli, sensing that the time for riding was drawing swiftly nearer, had begun selecting animals and provisions for the journey. Several times Quentin saw Durwin and Toli head-to-head in a corner as Toli checked some detail of his plan with Durwin.

Quentin wondered why he was not consulted about the preparations, but at the same time he was glad to not have to think about them. His mind had more than enough with which to occupy itself; his head fairly throbbed with the things he was taking in. Also, he missed Bria. He had not seen her but for fleeting moments over hurried meals.

He could tell that she knew he was going away soon. Her silent gazes, her bittersweet smiles and furtive gestures told him she knew. But she did not mention it to him; she did not cling. It was a mark of her high character that she, as much as was humanly possible, put her own feelings aside and tried to make his last days at the castle easier. And Quentin loved her for it.

When he finally mustered enough courage to face breaking the awful announcement of their departure, Bria placed her fingers to his lips, saying, “Do not say it. I know you must leave me now. I knew that from the moment I saw you emerge from the council chamber. You have much to do, great deeds to perform, and I will not bind your heart with promises.

“Go, my love. And when you return, you will find me waiting at the gate. The women of my kindred are accustomed to waiting. Do not worry after me, my darling. I will pass the time the better knowing your mind is settled.”

Despite his broken arm, Quentin hugged her to him for a long time, wondering whether he would ever see her again.

In the haste which overtook them, there was little time for brooding or sadness—that would come later; there was simply too much to be done. In two days they accomplished what would normally have taken a week.

Long hours were spent in consultation with the king. Their plan had won his approval outright, although not without certain misgivings. With the hills and countryside become harborage for the Ningaal—no one knew precisely where they were—Eskevar was loath to allow the party to leave without an armed escort.

They at last convinced him that such would only make their errand more difficult. It would be better to pass unheralded through the world and unencumbered by the chores of moving many men and horses overland in secret.

Quentin, Toli, and Durwin went. Biorkis, too old to withstand the rigors of such a journey, stayed behind in Askelon to give aid and counsel where he could. If battle drew near, he would be needed to attend as physician to any wounded. Also in Durwin’s mind, though he did not voice it aloud to anyone, was his apprehension that Eskevar, not wholly recovered from his mysterious malady, would require competent care in his absence. Were it not for that, Durwin would have taken his leave of the castle with a lighter heart.

The dark, cool pathways of Pelgrin, overhung with leafy boughs that blotted out all but the most determined of the sun’s rays, soothed Quentin’s mind as he rode along. His sorrow gradually left him, and he became filled with the excitement of the quest. Though it was still hard for him to accept the fact that he seemed to have a central part in it— he felt the same old Quentin, after all—he allowed himself to linger long in a kind of rapture over the tale of the mighty Zhaligkeer, the Sword of Holy Fire.

31

Where will we find the master armorer to help in forging the sword? I do not recall having mentioned that. Surely, you do not contemplate that we will undertake that task without guidance?” Quentin rested with his back against a mossy log in a green clearing deep in Pelgrin’s wooded heart. Toli was busily poking among the bundles of the pack ponies to assemble a bite for them to eat. They had been riding since sunrise, and this was the first time they had stopped.

“I have an idea where we may find someone suited to the task,” said Durwin. His hands were clasped behind his head, and his eyes were gazing skyward. “Does the name Inchkeith mean anything to you?”

“Inchkeith? Why, he is said to be the most skilled armorer who ever lived. He fashioned the armor for the first Dragon King, and it was he who designed Eskevar’s battle dress, which he wore in the war against Goliah. Everyone knows that name! But is he still alive?”

“Oh, very much alive, though you make him older than he really is. It was his father, Inchkeith the Red, who made the armor for the Dragon King, and for several kings before that. He is many long years in his grave.

“But his son has continued the work begun by his father, and has increased the renown of the name. It is no wonder legends abound whenever men strap on greaves and gorget. The armor of Inchkeith is known as the finest made by human hands.”

Durwin smiled and winked at Quentin’s look of unalloyed amazement. “Well, what do you say? Will he do to make us a sword?”

“A slingshot fashioned by master Inchkeith would do as well. Of course he will do!”

They ate their meal and talked of the trail. Toli said little, and Quentin guessed his friend was concentrating upon reviving his dormant trailcraft—it had been a long time since the wily Jher had had an opportunity to practice the storied skills of his people. The little journeys back and forth from Askelon hardly counted, for there was a good road. But where they were going they would have need of his animal-like cunning, for there were no roads, no pathways, nor even trails. Man had not set foot in those high places in a thousand years.

Quentin was thinking on these things, realizing that just as he did not know how they would fashion the sword, he did not know exactly where they were going.

“These mines, Durwin—where are they? How will we find them?”

“I have brought along maps, such as they are, taken from the old scrolls. This is as good a time as any to show you. Here.” The hermit moved to one of the ponies and withdrew a long roll of leather.

“This is the way we shall go,” he said, unrolling the map. “It is very old, this map. And the land is much changed: rivers have slipped from their courses, and hills have worn away; forests have vanished, and cities have come and gone. But it shall serve to guide us nonetheless.”

Quentin fingered the skin on which the map was painted. “This does not appear as old as you say, Durwin. It looks as if it were made only yesterday.” “It was!” laughed Durwin. “We did not dare bring the original, or originals, I should say, for this map is made from scraps Biorkis and I have found over the years. The very age of the scraps made bringing them out of the question. They would have blown away on the first breath of breeze.

“No, this map was made by the combined resources of Biorkis and myself, and it is a better map for it. He had information which I did not. It is a lucky thing he came when he did. If he does nothing else, he has already helped greatly.”

“Durwin,” Quentin chuckled, “do you not know that where the servants of the Most High are concerned, there is no such thing as luck and coincidence?”

The hermit laughed and raised his hands before him. “So it is! Give me quarter! I submit. The pupil has instructed the master.”

“I am not always so dull,” Quentin said, looking again at the map, which seemed little more than a bare sketch. “Be it as you say, there is still precious little here to follow. I do not even see any mines indicated on it.”

“Very rough. But it is all we have—besides the riddle.”

“Riddle?” Toli spoke up. He stood over them, looking down at the map.

“Did I not tell you of the riddle? Oh? Well, I will tell you now. There was so much to do and so little time, I do not wonder that you feel ill equipped to begin this journey. I thought I had told you.

“The riddle goes like this:

‘Over tooth and under claw wend your way with care.

Where mountains sleep, sharp vigil keep; you shall see the way most clear.

When you hear laughter among the clouds and see a curtain made of glass

Take no care for hand nor hair, or you shall surely never pass.

Part the curtain, divide the thunder, and seek the narrow way;

Give day for night and withhold the light

And you have won the day.’

“It sounds simple enough,” said Quentin. “Where did you find it?”

“That we shall see. I am certain that it will seem more than difficult enough when the time comes to unravel its meaning. As to where I found it, you should know that already.”

“How so?”

“At Dekra. That is where I discovered most of what little I know of this affair. Yeseph himself translated it for me.”

“He never told me about it.”

“Why should he? It was years ago, and I was a pestering young man digging through his library like a mole. I chanced upon the riddle in a book which made mention of the mines of the Ariga.”

“Those are the mines we seek?”

Durwin nodded. “You see, the blade is to be made of lanthanil.”

“The stone which glows,” said Toli. “My people have heard of it. It is said that of old the Ariga gave gifts of glowing stones to the Jher for their friendship in the time of the white death. Whoever touched the stone was healed and made whole. They were called Khoen Navish—the Healing Stones.”

“Yes, that, at least, I have heard of, too. But I assumed that like much of the lore of the Ariga, the lanthanil had passed from this earth.”

“I think not, though we shall see,” Durwin said. “The Most High will show us aright. We must remember that it is he who guides us to his own purpose. We need not fret ourselves overmuch about the things we cannot foresee. The things we see too well will require our utmost attention, I have no doubt.”

Theido and Ronsard, with a force of three hundred mounted knights behind them, rode southward as far as their coursers could take them. They wanted to reach their rendezvous with Lord Wertwin on the third day and then undertake to engage the enemy before he had a chance to travel very much farther and strengthen himself on the spoils of Mensandor.

At midday on the third day, they reached the prearranged place of meeting. The knights dismounted and walked the wide greensward while they waited for Wertwin’s army to arrive. Squires in attendance watered the horses and saw to their masters’ armor; some polished breastplates and repainted devices erased by use, others set up their sharpening stones to hone blades long unused, and the smiths at their wagons pounded out dents in helm and brassard upon their anvils.

The day was filled with the clatter of an army looking to its armament. Theido and Ronsard had withdrawn under a shady branch to await their comrade. Ronsard dozed, and Theido paced while the afternoon came on in full.

“He has not come yet?” asked a sleepy Ronsard as he rose to his feet, stretching.

“No, and I am beginning to wonder if we should send a scout ahead to see what may have become of him. He should have been here waiting for us. Instead it is we who wait for him, and he shows not.”

“I will send Tarkio ahead a little and see if we can discover what has become of our tardy friend. Perhaps it is nothing. You know it is no small task to mobilize a force of knights in a single day. He may have made a late start.”

“Let us hope that is what has happened,” said Theido. He did not mention the other explanation that came to his mind. Both of them knew what it was, and neither wanted to hear or believe it.

Ronsard sent a squire to fetch the knight, and they waited for the courier to ready himself. “Be easy, Theido. You are wearing a path in the grass. See here, your pacing has bared the earth.”

“I like this less and less, Ronsard. I do. Something has happened. I feel it here.” He smacked his fist against his stomach.

Ronsard stared at his dark friend as Theido continued. “Your instincts in the ways of battle are ever keen. You must feel it, too.” Theido paused and stared, his gaze almost fierce with impatience. “Well?”

Before Ronsard could answer, they heard a battle horn sound in the wood; it seemed to surround them as it blasted a note of alarm. They turned and looked out across the greensward and saw a knight on a charger come crashing out of the wood. They watched as one of their own apprehended the man; there was a wild waving of arms, and then the knight looked toward them and spurred his mount forward. In an instant he was pounding toward the spot where Theido and Ronsard waited.

“Noble knights, brave sirs! I come from Lord Wertwin,” the breathless soldier said as he flung himself from his saddle. “We were on our way here and were joined by the enemy.” He gulped air; sweat ran down his neck and into his tunic. His armor was battered and dashed with blood.

“How far?” asked Ronsard.

“No more than a league, sir,” the knight wheezed.

“What was the disposition of the battle when you were sent to find us?”

The knight shook his head slowly; his face was grave. “There is little hope. The enemy is strong, and there are many of them. My lord was surrounded on three sides, his back to the lake that lies at the edge of the forest.”

“There is no time to lose!” shouted Ronsard. “Marshal, sound the trumpet! We move at once!” He dashed to his charger and began shouting orders to the men who had gathered around to see what the commotion foretold.

In three heartbeats the greensward was a confusion of knights buckling on armor and clamoring into their saddles. Out of chaos emerged a ready-mounted, fearsome host. Theido and Ronsard each took their places at the head of the column, and the army moved off at a gallop, leaving the armorers and squires to lead the wagons and follow along behind.

The clash of battle could be heard long before it was seen. The king’s forces dropped down the wooded slope into a broad, grassy bowl, which formed the higher end of the lake’s basin. Once below the level of the lower trees, they could see that the enemy had indeed surrounded Wertwin’s troops and were attempting to push them into the lake.

Theido and Ronsard ranged their army along the rim of the bowl and, when the knights were in position, sounded the attack. They came swooping down out of the wood and encompassed the field, driving straight into the thick of the enemy.

The startled Ningaal turned to meet this unexpected charge and found themselves blade to blade with a fresh foe. Ronsard half expected that the sight of the king’s knights descending in numbers upon them would send the horde scattering into the wood, where they could be driven to earth like cattle.

But the warlord Gurd’s men were seasoned to battle. They dug in and met the flying charge head-on. Many Ningaal lost their lives in that first surge. But dauntless and seemingly immune to fear, those who survived the onslaught merely stepped over the bodies of their comrades and fought on.

Theido forced a passage through to the shoreline of the lake and struck toward where Wertwin labored in the thick of the battle. When Theido reached him, the brave commander’s horse’s hind legs were in the water. Several valiant knights, having been unsaddled, had drowned along the strand in shallow water, unable to right themselves.

The fallen were everywhere. The blood of friend and foe alike stained the gray shingle a rusty red.

Ronsard led his contingent around to the rear to begin a pinching action upon the enemy caught between Theido’s forces and his own. By sheer force of weight—the knights being mounted, and the enemy on foot—Ronsard was able to join Theido in short order, successfully dividing the Ningaal into two isolated halves.

“We are outnumbered!” Ronsard called when he had driven to within earshot of his comrade.

“Our horses and armor will sway the balance!” Theido retorted.

The blades of the knights flashed in the sun; their shields bore the shock of fierce blows. On horseback the knights were almost invulnerable—living fortresses of steel—their beveled armor shedding all but the most direct strikes against them. On foot, however, the slow-moving, heavy-laden knights were disadvantaged by the lightly protected but more agile Ningaal.

The tide of battle ebbed and flowed for both sides. The clash of steel and cries of the wounded and dying filled the air, and carrion birds, having tasted blood on the wind, now soared overhead. With a mighty shout the Ningaal, at some unknown signal, suddenly rushed the mound that Theido and Ronsard had managed to gain. The tactic allowed them to rejoin the two halves that had been divided.

“We cannot hold them long,” said Ronsard through clenched teeth, his blade whistling around his head. “We must break through now, or we may be trapped against the lake once more.”

“Aye, well said. Have you any suggestions?” Theido grunted as he slashed and wheeled in his saddle, thrusting and thrusting again.

“A charge along the shoreline and then back into the woods!” shouted Ronsard.

“Retreat?” asked Wertwin. “I would rather fall with my men.”

“Let us say that we are moving the battle to more favorable ground,” cried Theido. “If we stay here much longer, we will be pushed into the lake once more. They are too strong for us!” He turned and shouted his order to the marshal, who obediently sounded the horn.

The knights of the Dragon King drew together and pushed along the shoreline of the clear blue lake; those scattered further afield disengaged themselves and followed in their wake. Several riderless horses joined the retreat, and knights on foot ran alongside, not to be left behind.

When they had reached the shelter of the wood, where the ground sloped upward, Ronsard halted and turned his men to face the foe once more. Theido’s and Wertwin’s knights streamed past and continued deeper into the wood. Ronsard called to his knights to be ready to dismount after meeting the first attack. He had decided in the close quarters of the wood it would be better for his men to fight on foot and use the higher ground to their advantage.

But the Ningaal did not follow them into the wood.

“What is this? They withdraw,” Ronsard cried in disbelief.

Instantly Theido was beside him. “I do not understand. It is hours to sunset, but they are leaving.”

“We will give chase!” cried Wertwin.

Ronsard cautioned against this, saying, “Let them go. Whatever moves them, I do not think it is fear of us. They were giving blade for blade down there. They are not fleeing. It may be a trap.”

“We could crush them!” objected Wertwin.

“No, sir!” said Theido. “A moment ago we were in difficulty to hold our own. That will not have changed because they choose to withdraw. Ronsard is right—they do not leave the battlefield out of weakness.”

Theido cast his gaze across the tufted field now bearing the bodies of the dead and dying. Upon the mound they had just left he saw a lone figure mounted on a sturdy black charger. The figure raised the visor of his plume-crested helm and turned his face to where Theido, Wertwin, and Ronsard stood at the edge of the wood. Then he lifted his sword with its cruel curved blade high above his head in salute.

“It is the warlord,” said Theido.

“He taunts us!” hissed Wertwin.

“It is a salute, perhaps. A warning,” said Ronsard grimly.

The warlord lowered his sword and turned aside to follow his army, now moving away along the opposite side of the lake, leaving the field to the birds and the moans of the wounded and dying.

“Send a party to bind our wounded and retrieve the armor of our fallen. We need not fear another attack today,” said Theido. “Then let us go back to camp and hold council. I would hear what Myrmior has to say about what has happened here today. He may have much to tell us.”

32

Under their banners of blue and gold and scarlet in the council ring, the lords of Mensandor sat in their high-backed chairs. Eskevar glared down from this throne upon the dais, his thin, knotted hands clutching the armrests like claws.

“The foe does grow each day stronger. How long will you wait, my lords? How long? Until your castles are burning? Until the blood of your women and children runs red upon the earth?

“And to what purpose? Do you think that by hiding within your gates you may save your precious gold? I say that you will not! The enemy comes! He is drawing closer. The time to move is now!”

The Dragon King’s words rang with surprising force and vigor, coming as they did from a man who appeared only half of what he had been, so wasted was he by his illness. The gathered lords, now all accounted for—aside from Wertwin, who had made his decision and was with Theido and Ronsard—sat in silence. No one wished to be the first to go against the king.

“Do you doubt the need?” asked Eskevar in a softer tone. “I will tell you how I perceive the need: I have sent my personal bodyguard, my three hundred, to stand against the Ningaal. Lord Theido and the Lord High Marshal Ronsard lead them, and they are joined by Lord Wertwin and his standing army of a hundred.

“These are gallant men and brave; but there are not enough. We must send tenfold knights and men-at-arms to stand with them if the Ningaal are to be crushed and banished from our shores.”

Lord Ameronis, in a voice of calm reason, said, “That is precisely the point we would question further, Sire. This enemy . . . this Nin, whoever he is . . . we have heard nothing of him. How do we know that he is so strong and his numbers so great? It would seem to me that we would be more prudent to send a scouting force to ascertain these and other details before embarking upon all-out war with an imagined enemy of unknown strength.”

“How well you speak, Ameronis. I would imagine, as you have had ample time to compose your thoughts, that you are quite settled in your mind as to how you will go.” The king paused to let his sarcasm hit its mark.

“Lord Ameronis opposes the call to arms!” shouted Eskevar suddenly. “Who else will defy his king?”

Eskevar’s sudden unmasking of Ameronis’s subtle opposition shocked the assembly, and in that moment several of the lords who had agreed to join a coalition of nobles against raising and funding an army now wavered in their opinion. It was a dangerous thing to defy a king outright, especially one as powerful as Eskevar. It might not be worth the gold they would save in the end.

But Ameronis recovered neatly. “You misunderstood me, Sire. I do not oppose action where it is plainly necessary. When the time comes to stand upon the battle lines, I will be at the head of my knights and at your side.”

Lord Lupollen, Ameronis’s neighbor and friend, his closest ally in the council, spoke next. “If this enemy is as great as you say, Sire, would we not have heard of him before now? That is the puzzling thing.”

There was a murmur of assent at this question. Eskevar looked sharply at Lupollen and said, “You also I know, my lord. That your king has sent his own knights into battle should be proof enough for anyone loyal to the crown that the need exists. Why do you doubt your king?”

Eskevar stood in the silence that followed his remarks. He looked at each one of his lords in turn, as if he would remember the exact set of each chin and the expression upon each face.

“I have said all I can, lords of Mensandor. And I have allowed others to speak where I thought most advantageous.” He was speaking of Esme, who had again pled her request for help before the council earlier that day. “I have nothing more to say. It is up to you. If Mensandor is to survive, we must not tarry.”

He stepped down from the dais and moved out of the circle of the council chairs. He spread out his hands imploringly—hardly a characteristic gesture for the Dragon King, and it was not without effect.

“I leave it in your hands. Do not wait too long.”

He left the Council of War deep in hushed silence. No one dared speak until he was far away from the room, and then the arduous debate began: Ameronis and Lupollen and their friends in opposition; Benniot, Fincher, and several others just as strongly in favor of supporting the king’s call to arms.

The argument was bitter, loud, and long, lasting the length of the day. Eskevar returned to his apartment in the castle to brood darkly upon the stubborn blindness of his independent, self-sufficient lords.

With every league the foothills of the Fiskills marched closer, changing in color from misty violet to blue above the mottled green of the forested hills. The party had set out due east cross-country toward the lofty heart of the rugged mountain range. In this part of Mensandor the Fiskills seemed to rise sharply out of rolling hills gently sloping upward to their very feet. They were a wall, as Celbercor had intended them, a soaring fortress against all save the most foolish and determined. It was this fortress Quentin, Toli, and Durwin dared to assail.

Each day the land rose higher. Quentin fancied he could feel the wind freshen and the cool air of the mountain heights waft down to breathe upon them in unexpected moments. In the happy countryside, with its small, well-groomed villages, it became increasingly harder to believe the ominous events that had loomed so large when in Askelon. Even his own experiences in the camp of the Ningaal seemed as if they had happened to someone else and Quentin had merely heard about it. If not for his injured arm dangling from the sling, Quentin would scarcely have believed the tale.

Only at night did the sharp reminder prick him; it came in the form of the star, growing slightly larger night by night. It now seemed to outshine every other star in its quadrant. Hard and bright, it sent a corona of milky rays outward from its hot, white core. Everyone must see it now, thought Quentin, lying rolled in his cloak at night. Everyone must surely feel the evil it portends.

But by the morning’s light, the Wolf Star faded, as did all the other lesser lights of heaven. The spell of the glowing star was broken by the coming of dawn.

“How far before we come to Inchkeith’s abode?” asked Quentin as they made ready early one morning to get under way.

“No great distance, I think. If the trail permits,” Durwin replied, “we will sleep in feather beds tonight.”

“Are we close, then?” Quentin had no idea where the home of the legendary arms maker might be. But the rocky highlands they were now traversing did not strike him as the sort of place a master armorer would be found.

Durwin walked up the slope of the little hill where they had camped. Quentin followed, squinting as he moved out into the light of a crimson sunrise.

“Do you see that ridge of bare rock beyond the near valley?”

Quentin nodded. The ridge was a ragged gray wall that cast a black shadow across the green blanket of the pine-covered valley. “He lives beyond the ridge?”

“Not beyond it—within it!” laughed Durwin. “Or very nearly, as you shall see. Inchkeith is a strange man; he has many strange ways. But he is the man for us.”

“You know him, Durwin? You have never mentioned him in my hearing until most recently.” Quentin regarded his hermit friend with something approaching suspicion. Not that there was anything at all unlikely about Durwin’s being acquainted with such a man.

“There is much I do not mention in your hearing, my young man. Only half of what I know will fit in my head at any one time!” He winked and laughed, his voice booming in the clear morning.

Toli whistled from below. When they joined him, all was ready.

“If we are to sleep on feathers tonight instead of pine needles, we had better away. See how long the shadows grow already.” Toli’s dark eyes flashed with good humor. He was once more in his native element. Every day he seemed to slip more and more into the quiet enigma he had been when Quentin first met him years before. Give him back his deerskins and bone knife, thought Quentin, and he would be once more the Jher prince.

“You would prefer pine needles, I would wager, Toli. But lead on! The day, as you say, is speeding from us!” Quentin, with difficulty but unaided, swung himself up into Blazer’s saddle and turned his face to the warmth of the rising sun.

Toward midday, towering banks of clouds sweeping down from the north in a long line, gray as smoke beneath and white as new-bleached wool above, rolled high above them. The churning mass swelled and billowed, spreading a great flat anvil at its soaring crest as the fierce upper winds took the bank and flattened it.

“There will be rain soon,” said Toli.

“Do you think it will hold off until we have reached our destination?”

“Possibly,” replied Toli, squinting his eyes into the sky. “But the air is already growing cooler. Thunder whispers on the wing. The rain may hold and it may not.”

Quentin could hear no thunder, but since Toli had mentioned it, he did seem to notice that the feathery breeze lifting the leaves in the trees around them now bore a cooler touch.

“Then let us not tempt it further by stopping to wag the chin!” cried Durwin. “Let us ride dry while we still may. A hot supper will make up for a meal missed on the trail.”

“I am for it!” called Quentin. “Let’s away!”

Durwin urged his brown palfrey forward, followed by Toli with the two pack horses; Quentin brought up the rear and kept a wary eye on the gathering clouds overhead. They had made good time that morning, stopping only to refresh the water in their skins at a rushing brook in the heart of the valley. Every time Quentin chanced to look up, the great gray wall of rock, glimpsed as a looming rampart between the shaggy branches of pine, seemed to have advanced dramatically closer.

Presently Quentin heard the splash of a nearby stream as it tumbled over rock. The party left the sheltering pines and came to a wild and rocky channel carved out by a shallow river that bounced and frothed over black stones, round as loaves of bread. The tumbling water, for all its activity, rose barely to the horses’ fetlocks, but it was broad as a ward yard. Durwin struck along the loamy band and turned upstream parallel to the face of the ridge.

Standing pools of water along the bank mirrored the bulging blue-black clouds overhead. The wind had freshened, and Quentin could smell the musty earth scent of rain.

The stream angled along a sweeping bend lined with tall, finger-thin, long-needled pines that whispered in the rising wind. “The rain is on the way!” shouted Durwin.

“Our destination is not too much farther, I hope,” called Quentin as he came abreast. “Perhaps we should find shelter and wait until the first downpour has passed.”

“If I remember correctly, we have not far to travel. Look ahead.” The hermit pointed to the gray cliffs directly before them once more. “See where the water emerges from the base of the ridge wall? It is just ahead.”

“It appears a seamless wall,” said Quentin.

“You will see. You will see.”

“Unless we hurry, Inchkeith the armorer will greet three very soggy travelers,” remarked Toli. As he spoke, the first fat drops of rain began plunking into the pools around them and plopping onto the trail, where they raised tiny puffs of dust.

They spurred their mounts ahead with renewed vigor as the ripe droplets splattered around them and made dark splotches upon their clothing.

As they came nearer the place Durwin had pointed out, Quentin could see a fold in the ridge wall he had not noticed before. Where the stream emerged, the left face of the cliff angled away sharply as the right face overlapped it. From a distance it gave the eye the impression of a continuous, unseamed wall. Closer, it began to open to them as they followed the river to the vast stony feet of the rock face.

The ground rose slightly as it met the ridge; pine trees grew right up to the very face of the gray wall. The horses’ hooves clattered over a stone embankment, and then they were through the cliff and gazing on a breathtaking sight. Despite the raindrops pelting down around them, Quentin stopped to marvel at the vision before him. A vast, rolling meadow of rich mountain green spread out on either side of the stream, here narrower and more deep. Enclosing the meadow and towering above it on all sides rose smooth, flat walls of stone, now blue under the black sky. At the far end of the meadow, which Quentin adjudged to be fully a league wide and half a league long, stood an enormous house of white stone, glimmering like the white sails of a ship on an emerald sea.

“That is Inchkeith’s home,” said Durwin, “and we are just in time.”

A clap of thunder rolled across the ridge to echo its booming voice throughout the meadow. The long grass began to dip and rise like the waves of Gerfallon in the fitful wind.

They galloped out into the wonderful meadow, the rain, sharper now, stinging their cheeks. Quentin felt a thrill of excitement as lightning tore the sky in a jagged flash. The resounding roar filled the blue canyon and rumbled out across the valley behind them.

Inchkeith’s house was as large as a small castle, an impression strengthened by the single stately tower that served as entrance and gatehouse before a generous, stone-paved courtyard. Several smaller structures clustered close about the main house; these were also of the same white stone. The stream, running deep and quiet in its course through the meadow, formed a graceful waterfall as it spilled out over the sheer rock face behind the master armorer’s manor. At the farther end, where the water ran down into the meadow, a large wheel turned slowly in the swift current.

There was no one to be seen as the travelers pounded to a halt before the tower. A portcullis of finely wrought iron barred their way into the courtyard beyond.

“He keeps no gateman,” observed Durwin, “because he expects no travelers and has but few guests.”

The hermit slid down off his palfrey and strode to the archway. In a nook in the stone hung a knotted rope. Durwin grasped the rope and pulled twice very quickly. A bell pealed in the courtyard.

“That should bring someone running,” said Durwin. The rain was falling harder; in a few moments they would be soaked to the skin. Out across the meadow, back the way they had come, great white sheets of shimmering rain were wavering toward them, driven like sails before the wind. Water was pooling up around the horses’ feet and streaming down the walls of the manor.

“Who seeks admittance to my master’s house?” Quentin had not seen the slight young man dart out of a doorway across the courtyard. He held his cloak over his head and peered at them through the iron grillwork of the portcullis.

“Tell your master that Durwin the holy hermit of Pelgrin and his friends Quentin and Toli are here to see him on king’s business. Tell him we respectfully request the hospitality due travelers. And you had better tell him quickly, or we will be in a most unhappy disposition.” He wiped away the trickle of water sliding down the side of his nose.

The young man seemed to weigh a decision carefully. “You do not seem disposed to be unruly. Come in out of the rain while I fetch word to my master.” He disappeared into a recess beside the portcullis, and instantly the heavy iron gate began to lift, smoothly and without so much as a squeak or creak. It was obviously made with the utmost skill.

The damp travelers hurriedly stepped under the arch of the gatehouse to wait until the young servant returned. Quentin and Toli dismounted and stood dripping in the dark tunnel of the archway.

Quentin was struck by the spare simplicity of all he saw around him. Not a post nor a portal possessed an inch of ornamentation. Around the perimeter of the courtyard, not an item was out of place, and the yard itself was spotless. The edifice of Inchkeith’s manor house was all clean lines and square corners; clearly it had been erected with exacting care. Not a crack or crevice was to be seen anywhere.

To Quentin’s eye the effect was reminiscent of the architecture of Dekra, though not at all derivative of it. He was impressed with the clean appearance of all that met his eye; it spoke of a hand that left nothing undone, and a mind that saw to the smallest detail.

He heard a shout and saw the young servant waving to them from inside the arched entrance to the manor hall. They dashed across the corner of the courtyard and joined him under the sheltering portico. “Come along with me. Take no heed for your horses; I will send someone to care for them and bed them. My master asks that you join him at table in the great hall if you are so inclined.”

“Indeed we are!” Quentin fairly shouted. He was hungry, cold, and wet. A hot meal seemed like the most wonderful thing he could have dreamed at the moment. “Lead on!”

The skinny, long-boned young man led them along the short passage to the hall’s entrance, pushed open the ironbound wooden door, and ushered them in. The hall was ample and gracious, but marked with the same unadorned, almost severe style as the exterior. Quentin gazed around in admiration. Several servants were moving about in preparation for the meal. A single long table with benches along either side overlooked a wide and generous hearth in which a well-made fire burned cheerily. It spoke of a well-drafted chimney, for there was, Quentin noted with pleasure, not a trace of soot on the walls or ceiling of the hall anywhere. Everything was as clean as if it had never been used, and yet it was warm and homey.

The appearance of Lord (for so Quentin now considered him) Inchkeith’s abode drew a picture in Quentin’s mind of a stern and exacting personage of regal bearing, a man of quick temper and a will as strong as the iron gate at his door, a man of precise and flawless judgment, one who would never suffer imperfection or blemish lightly. A man of power, strength, and grace. A man of relentless, fervent perfection, obeyed by all around him with unspoken efficiency and unfailing courtesy.

“Durwin! You old mumblebeard!” a hearty voice boomed out behind them. “Welcome! Welcome, fair friends! Welcome to Whitehall!”

Quentin turned, expecting to see the man of his imaginings. The picture so carefully drawn in his mind collapsed utterly as Quentin, with a rude shock, beheld the lord of Whitehall.

33

You should have allowed me to accompany you today,” said Myrmior. “I could have helped you against them.”

“No.” Ronsard shook his head sternly. “You are too valuable an ally. You will help us more with your knowledge of the Ningaal ways than with your strong sword arm. If you had been killed today, as many good men were, we would have had no one to guide us in preparing against them.”

“I submit to your will, Lord Ronsard. I will obey. But I wanted you to know that I am not afraid, and that when the time comes to lift blade against my former enslavers, I will do so with all courage.”

“We do not doubt your valor, Myrmior. Truly. You will ride with us in due time, no doubt. But Ronsard is right. You are worth more to us as a guide to the Ningaal’s mind and heart than as a sword wielder. You are unique; stout blades we have many.”

Lord Wertwin sat nearby and did not speak. His heart was heavy with the loss of many fine men that day; he had borne the brunt of the battle and was now bereft of almost half his company.

After the daring rescue of Wertwin’s troops by Theido and Ronsard’s forces, they had all returned to make camp for the night upon the greensward. As they sat huddled in a consultation, the ring of the hammer upon the anvil and the moans of the wounded could be heard throughout the camp as smith and surgeon saw to the repairs of weapons and men. Sentinels had been posted, and fires had been lit for the night’s vigil. Theido, Ronsard, Myrmior, and Wertwin turned once more to the brutal events of the day.

“We cannot go up against them again as we did today,” said Ronsard grimly. “They are too strong, and too well disciplined.”

“Disciplined!” snorted Myrmior. “They simply fear their warlord more than they fear you. You can only kill them, but he has power over their souls!”

“Is he really so powerful? I have heard of such things in my time,” said Theido.

Myrmior shrugged. “Whether it is true or not, I do not know. But the Ningaal believe it, so it is for them—and for you—the same thing. They will fight to the death rather than surrender. And each foe they kill becomes a step on the long stairway of immortality, or so they believe.”

“Whatever gives them their ferocity, it is indomitable. I do not see how we can stand against such a foe. Though they are but lightly armed and our own men well protected, they wear us down by sheer crush of their numbers. We have lost near seventy-five brave knights this day.”

“Do not forget that you have only seen but a fraction of the total. Three other warlords with their armies are abroad. When they have joined together once more, nothing will stop them.” As Myrmior uttered this gloomy pronouncement, Wertwin glared under his brows and cursed.

“By Azrael! What would you have us do, you savage! Are we merely to fall upon our swords and be done with it? If you know so much, why do you not give us guidance? Instead you torment us with your lies.”

Myrmior suffered this outburst in silence. His countenance showed nothing but sympathy for the commander’s plight. “I have said what I have said in order that you will not build any false hopes of standing against the Ningaal in battle,” he said quietly. “They cannot be beaten in that manner. At least not with our numbers.”

He paused, and all was silent in the tent of the commanders. Outside the twilight deepened, the sky blue-black with the coming night. They could hear the clear ring of hammers on steel and the crackle of a fire nearby. The shadows of men were flung against the walls of the tent, making it seem as if they were surrounded by the shades of their fallen comrades.

“I have not been idle in my long captivity. I have seen much of the ways in which men make war. I have studied those who have fallen against the Ningaal and observed the things which offer the greatest hope of victory, though few enough they are.”

“Tell us then,” implored Ronsard. “What can we do?”

“Remember, too, that we will have greater numbers before long. The council continues to meet, and we may expect help soon, I think,” said Theido hopefully.

“That we must not count on,” said Myrmior. “What I will propose now will serve us for the time we have to wait, little or long.”

“Well said. Begin then. We are ready to hear what you would suggest.”

“Are the soldiers of your country familiar with the bow and arrow?” asked Myrmior.

“Why, of course!” laughed Ronsard. “It is a useful thing, but hardly a weapon to be relied upon in the field. It is highly inaccurate, and it has not a chance against the steel of a knight’s hard shell.”

“It is more suited for annoying forest creatures and for striking from a distance in seclusion. It is not a weapon for a knight,” agreed Theido. “The bow cannot be managed from the saddle of a galloping horse.”

Wertwin only harrumphed. “Bows and arrows! Umph!”

“At least you have such weapons,” said Myrmior quickly. “Do not condemn the plan before you have heard it fully.

“I do not propose to take archers onto the field with us, but neither do I propose that we take the field again. I will speak most bluntly. You were lucky today; your gods smiled on you. In all the times I have been with Lord Gurd, he has shown pity to no one and has never left the field if there was the smallest chance of victory.

“What he did today is rare, but not unheard-of. He gave you a chance to regroup and ready yourself for another battle, because more than the battle itself, he loves a skillful opponent. To him it is no sport to kill a weak and defenseless foe. That is mere slaughter, and there is little immortality to be gained from taking a weak life.

“You stood against him, and he respected you for it. When you retreated, he recognized a most resourceful foe, one whose death would bring him much blood honor. He wanted you to regroup so that he could savor the satisfaction of your defeat.

“Like the vinemaster who carefully tends the fruit of his vines, the warlord was testing you and found a match worthy of his art.”

“What does all this have to do with bows and arrows?” asked Wertwin sullenly. His heart was shrunken within him, and a black mood twisted his features.

“They are the means by which we will snatch that savored victory from the warlord’s foul maw.”

“Defeat him with children’s toys? Ha!”

“Hold, sir!” said Theido. “Let him speak! For I begin to see something of his meaning.”

Myrmior bowed to Theido. “You are most astute, Lord Theido. I propose that we do not take the field against the Ningaal—at least not yet, not for a long while. Instead, we will harry them by night, raiding their camp and raining arrows upon them when they move to chase us.

“If we refuse to meet them face-to-face, Gurd will burn with rage. If we are very fortunate, his rage will consume him.”

“Where is the honor in that?”Wertwin shouted. “To skulk around by night like lowborn thieves, shooting arrows at shadows. It is foolish and absurd, and I will have no part in it!”

“This war will not be won by your honor. Your men died with honor today, and tonight they lie cold in their graves. How can that help you now? Hear me, my lords! Cling to honor and you will lose your land—more, you will lose your lives.”

“Myrmior is right,” said Ronsard slowly, glaring at Wertwin as he spoke. “There is no honor if your land is lost. Even if we die with valor, who will remember? Who will sing our praises in the halls of our fathers?

“We will do well to look first to the cause at hand, and lastly to our good names. I would stay alive to see Mensandor freed of this menace— however it may be done.”

“I agree,” said Theido thoughtfully. “But I am troubled by one thing. What you suggest is well and good for meeting this warlord with his contingent. But what of the others? Do we allow his brothers to roam unchallenged through the countryside?”

Myrmior shook his head slowly. He rubbed his bristly chin with a sallow hand. “This is the most difficult part of the plan, my lords. It would be well if your council would speedily send the troops we need, but as it is, I can see nothing for it but to proceed against all the warlords as I have suggested—one at a time. The plan will work, I think, as it does not require a great number of men to carry it out. But we will need archers.”

“Most of our knights are trained to the bow, though few will readily admit it. We can obtain more archers if we send to Askelon—which we must do to supply ourselves with the bows and arrows.”

“Then let it be done at once. In the meantime we will withdraw and stay just ahead of the Ningaal until we have weapons enough to begin our raids.”

“What? Are we to do nothing to impede the Ningaal? Are we to sit by and allow them to march free over our fields?”

“They have been doing so for a month or more, Wertwin,” said Ronsard. “If we must bear it a little longer to secure our purpose, so be it. We will have to risk that much, at least. Besides,” he added with a mischievous smile, “it may make them wonder what we are up to.”

“Yes,” agreed Myrmior, “it will increase his wrath. What we attempt to do is worry them so greatly as to make them angry enough to commit a foolish blunder, an error of strategy which we can seize and turn against them. And all the while we will wear away at their numbers bit by bit, like water dripping upon the stone, eroding it over time.”

Theido stood and stretched; it had been a long day. “Your plan is a good one, Myrmior. I will send a courier to Askelon at once. Tomorrow we will begin schooling our knights to this new way of fighting. I only hope we have enough time to make the change.”

“It must be made regardless. Believe me, my friends, there is no other way.”

Wertwin scowled at his comrades and growled as he stalked out of the tent.

“Do not mind him overmuch,” said Ronsard. “His heart will mend, and he will be staunchly with us soon enough.” He, too, rose and stretched.

“Thank you, Myrmior. You have given us wise and well-advised counsel this night. I think that, like Wertwin, I should not have believed you if I had not encountered the foe today and felt his cunning strength. I know now that you are right, and like Theido, I pray we are not too late.”

“It is no doubt that you were a faithful minister to your monarch,” Theido added. “He must have valued your services very highly, but no more than we do now. Before this is over we will have cause to reward your craft and loyalty as it deserves. Perhaps one day you may return as king to your own country.”

Myrmior turned large, sad eyes toward them. “I can never go back. The land that I knew and loved is gone. Here I have chosen to make my stand, as I should have long ago in my own country. Then I was afraid, but no more. I have daily lived through death too horrible to tell, and it can never terrify me again.”

The three men stood looking at one another for a long moment. No one spoke. A close bond of friendship had formed between the two knights and the man from Khas-I-Quair, and all three were cheered by its warmth.

“Good night, brave sirs.” Ronsard yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Tomorrow I take up once more the weapon of my youth. For that I will need my rest, I think.”

Theido and Myrmior laughed and went to find their own tents for the night.

34

Dumbstruck, Quentin stared slack-jawed at their host. He had expected a warrior commander, or at very least a knight well acquainted with battle and the needs of fighting men and their weapons. The person scuttling toward them across the expanse of the hall was quite the opposite of Quentin’s mental image.

Inchkeith, the legendary armorer, was a small man with a thin, puckered face and sinews like ropes standing out in his neck as if to keep his palsied head from quivering off his thick shoulders. He was slight and bent at an unnatural angle; Quentin saw at once that this was because the master armorer’s spine was curved grotesquely. He walked on spindly legs in a kind of rolling hop, and not at all in the slow and dignified tread of the man Quentin had imagined.

But his hands were the hands of a master craftsman: broad, generous, and deft. They were strong hands and sure of movement, graceful and never still for a moment. These remarkable hands were attached to powerful arms and well-muscled shoulders—the shoulders of a young man. It appeared to Quentin that some cruel jest had been played upon the old man with the spindly legs. The brawny arms and chest of a plowman or a soldier had been placed upon the frail body of a deformed scullery servant.

“It has been long since I have had the pleasure of your company, Durwin. But here you are, and I rejoice at the sight of you.” Inchkeith spoke with a deep voice, contrasting strangely with his wizened appearance. In two hops he was in Durwin’s arms, and the two men were embracing each other like brothers long lost.

“It is good to see you again, Inchkeith. You have not changed a hair. I have brought some friends with me that I would have you meet.”

“So I see! So I see! Good sirs, you are welcome in Whitehall now and always. I hope you will feel free to stay as long as you like. We do not have many guests here, and your stay will be cause for celebration.” The master armorer made a ludicrous bow and winked at them. In spite of himself, Quentin laughed out loud.

“Master Inchkeith, you do us honor. I am certain your hospitality is most gracious.”

“This is Quentin and his companion Toli,” said Durwin.

“Ah, Durwin, you travel in good company.” Inchkeith rolled his eyes and held his hands up to his face in a show of respect. “Both of you are well-known here. Your deeds are sung within these walls often, as are the great deeds of all brave warriors.”

Quentin blushed and bowed, acknowledging the compliment. “The stories do not tell all. I did what any man would have done, and not at all bravely.”

“Yes, but it was you that did it and not another.” Inchkeith jabbed the air with a forefinger. “That is all the difference!”

At that moment a door was thrown open at one end of the hall, and a troop of young men came marching in as if they were soldiers drilling in step.

“Come!” cried Inchkeith, hobbling away. “You must meet my sons. I know they will want to welcome you as well.”

The travelers followed their host; Quentin and Toli, grinning with pleasure, were irresistibly drawn to this peculiar man—so unlike the exact and scrupulous order around him.

There were seven sons, all handsome young men and well mannered. They did not speak, except when their father directed a question or indicated that a reply would be welcome. Quentin greeted each one in turn, as did Toli, and remarked that they were all like images of one another: soft brown hair and eyes, full lips and brown cheeks, high, strong foreheads. And they all possessed strong, straight limbs; none had inherited their father’s deformity.

“These are my army; my treasure, my pride,” said their father, beaming down upon them as they took their places at the table.

“And these are my gold and jewels!” Inchkeith turned and waved his hand and, as if on signal, a tall, handsome woman entered from the near side of the hall, followed by five beautiful young women. “My lady and my daughters.”

The young women tittered behind their hands as they approached, their plain muslin gowns swishing pleasantly as they moved together. But when each was introduced to Quentin, she held out her hand like a highborn lady and curtsied. Although he felt foolish, he kissed their hands, to the glowing approval of their mother. Toli felt obligated to follow Quentin’s example.

“You are most welcome in our home, my lords,” said Inchkeith’s wife. “If you need anything, my household stands ready to serve you.”

“You are most kind . . .”

“I am Camilla,” she said, holding her hand out to Quentin. He kissed it, and she curtsied. He noticed that the woman was younger than her husband; he wondered if she had borne all the offspring he saw gathered before him. It was possible—they all had her dark coloring; but if so, she had retained a most youthful appearance.

“Thank you for your kindness, my lady. I already feel welcome here, and we have but arrived.”

“Then let us not tarry another moment,” said Inchkeith with delight, rubbing his hands together as if to warm them. “Be seated, good guests, and partake with us of our bread.”

Inchkeith took Durwin by the arm and drew him to the head of the table with him, leaving Quentin and Toli in the care of the young women. They settled together across the table from the young men and all at once began talking, asking questions about what was going on at court, what the fashions were in Askelon, what news of the larger world they had brought.

So inquisitive were they that Quentin could hardly keep up with their questions, many of which forced confessions of ignorance from him, as he knew less about some of their interests than they did themselves. Their questions spoke of a firm knowledge of the world and its ways, despite the seclusion in which they apparently lived. As the meal ended, he had formed the firm impression that this was by far the most remarkable family he had ever met.

When they had taken their fill of meat and bread and broth and fruit, the sons of Inchkeith trooped off together, and the daughters, along with their mother, began helping the servants clear away the trenchers and serving vessels. Quentin and Toli moved to the head of the table, where Inchkeith and Durwin sat talking. Inchkeith had taken out a long pipe and was lighting it.

“Though I am grateful for the pleasure of your visit, I know that you did not come just to see old Inchkeith. There is business to be done, aye?”

“So it is.” Durwin nodded. “We do have some business to discuss with you.”

The craftsman took a long pull of his pipe, his cheeks caving in completely. He blew them out again in a long, thin blast of smoke. “I like nothing better,” he said. “But perhaps your business is not so urgent that it will not wait until I have shown you some of my latest works.”

“By all means,” urged Quentin. “I would very much like to see some of your achievements.”

“You twist my arm, sir!” laughed Inchkeith, getting up from the table. “Follow me and you will see something to suit your fancy, I daresay.”

They left the gleaming hall by a side entrance and were at once in a low, dim room where rank on rank of polished armor stood emptily at attention, waiting for their knights to lend them life. It looked the very armory of a king, so many swords, bucklers, helms, and breastplates did they see.

Through this low-beamed room they came to another, smaller than the first and darker. It contained lances and spears of all sizes and description, and halberds without number. The long-shafted weapons were all bound together in neat piles like new-mown sheaves of grain, bundled and waiting to be threshed. In the gloom Quentin could see the steel points of lance and spear, and the smooth, sharp blades of the halberds glimmering as they passed.

“Ah! Here we are. Watch your step. There. This is my only true home—my workshop,” shouted Inchkeith above a new din.

For they had stepped down into a room warm with the fires of the forge and loud with the clangor of steel on steel. The room was easily as large as the great hall, if not larger, and it was filled with the bustle of industry as the sons of Inchkeith, and various servants, went about their work of forging steel and iron into weaponry. There were tables and odd-looking devices that defied adequate description all over the place, from one end of the oblong room to the other. At each table, and surrounded by curious trappings, a man labored over his craft: here a blade being affixed to its hilt and handle, there a wooden shield receiving its hide veering, and over across the way, a truncated knight was acquiring his breastplate.

Quentin was dazzled by the display, for it was totally unlike anything he had ever seen. Inchkeith led them through the maze, pausing at each table to impart some finer point of craft to the workman there. And wherever the eye chanced to wander, it glanced upon a shining example of the armorer’s art. Quentin doubted whether in all the world there was anything to compare with Inchkeith’s workshop.

Quentin looked upon the table and saw, among an assortment of strange tools whose purposes he could but guess, a long, broad sword, a mighty thing, fully a span in length. The hilt was jewel encrusted and gold, and the scabbard was silver engraved with scenes of the capture of a bear. It was every inch a work of excellence and skill.

“Do you like it?” asked Inchkeith, following Quentin’s gaze.

“Like it? Sir, it is the most handsome of swords. A treasure.”

“Here. You may examine it more closely.”

With his left hand, and lamenting that he did not have the use of his right, he drew the sword from its sheath and heard the cool whisper of the sliding steel.

It was made to be used with two hands; yet it was not much heavier than its shorter cousin and was superbly balanced. Even with his left hand Quentin could feel the lift of the blade and the almost effortless way in which it followed the movement of the hand. Quentin passed the weapon to Toli, who made it sing through the air; he saw the light of admiration leap to the Jher’s dark eyes.

“The blade is of a special steel I have begun making. It will shear iron. This one”—he spoke as if it were but one fish of a thousand in his net—“I have made for King Selric of Drin. It is all but finished.” He carefully replaced the sword and turned to them with a twinkle in his eye. “Now I will show you my masterpiece.”

Inchkeith hobbled from his table to a low, arched door set in a recess in the wall nearby. As he passed the end of the table, he took up a lamp and lit it from a taper. After adjusting it, he proceeded to heave aside the heavy bolt that secured the door. “This way,” he said, and he disappeared inside the blackened doorway.

The three followed their stooped guide into a small, round chamber, and it was a moment before their eyes could adjust to the darkness and the dim lamplight. When Quentin raised his eyes, a gasp escaped his lips. Before him stood the most handsome suit of armor he could have imagined, but that alone was not what took his breath away.

Quentin saw before him the very armor he had seen in his vision.

It was real. It existed and was flashing in the light of the lamp as if it were wrought from a single diamond. Polished, smooth, bright as water, it shimmered before his dazzled, unbelieving eyes. Without heeding the others, Quentin moved toward the place where it stood on its stanchion, as if the object had beckoned him closer.

The armor, pale and shimmering silver in the lamplight, was without ornament or device of any kind. All its surfaces gleamed like gemstones, flat and clean, reflecting a luminous radiance.

The helm was magnificent, having a simple slotted visor and a crest that was nothing more than a thin ridge from brow to crown. And, quite unaccountably, from the shoulders hung a cloak of the most exquisite chain mail Quentin had ever seen. He could not resist touching it. He reached out a tentative fingertip, and the mail rippled like liquid silver, sparkling and dancing in the flickering light. The tiny, individual rings sighed like the fall of the snow upon frozen ground as they quivered beneath his touch.

“It is as light as goose down,” said a voice close to his ear. Inchkeith was standing at his shoulder, his face lit with pleasure at Quentin’s unutterable amazement.

“Who is it for?” Quentin managed to croak with effort.

“Ah, there is the wonder of it!” The craftsman’s voice was but a sigh. “No one—at least not yet. I fashioned it after a design that came to me in a dream. I saw it and knew I must make it. I believe the owner will come to claim it one day. Until then . . .” His voice trailed off.

“I notice that it does not have a sword,” Quentin remarked suddenly. “Why not?”

Inchkeith the master armorer cocked his head to one side and frowned. “You have touched it there, my lord. I saw no sword in my dream and so made none.”

“Then come, Master Inchkeith,” said Durwin. “It is time we talked.”

35

Eskevar paced his inner chamber with long, impatient strides. He held his hands clasped behind his back and cast his eyes to the floor. “The fools! The fools!” he said under his breath. “They will bring the kingdom down.”

He had been two days in his tower—pacing, worrying. He had eaten and slept little; and his features, now more lined and tightly drawn than ever, bore the effect of his distress. Often he had occasion to anguish over the stubbornness of his nobles, but now he saw clearly that the fate of the nation lay in their hands, and they seemed oblivious to the threat.

Once and again he lamented the power, or lack of it, that stayed his hand from more drastic action. In days of old he would have ordered his lords into battle with but a wave of his hand; they would have had to obey or lose their lands and privilege. In days older still, in the time of the first Dragon King, the kingdom had been ruled by the will of the all-powerful monarch; then there had been no lords to question the command of the king.

Ah, but before that had been the time of the northern kings, when each man, by the point of his sword, could become king in his own eyes, and the realm was divided into tiny territories of scratching, biting, self-important despots who swaggered about their principalities spoiling for a fight and a chance to increase their holdings through the overthrow of a neighboring monarch.

Then the kings of the north had united and formed an alliance, and had established order throughout much of the realm, for they had all acted in harmony and for the best interests of the realm, and no one dared to oppose them, for to deny one was to deny all, to bring war on one was to declare war on all. The petty kings of the south could not stand against them. Eventually, over many long years, the power had become consolidated in the north, and there it had stayed.

Eskevar turned these things over in his mind as he paced the length of his chamber or sat brooding in his great carven chair. He paused before his window, shutters drawn wide to the glorious summer day. He sighed, gazing out across the familiar landscape of green, rolling hills and the darker blue-green of forest. He saw the slow curve of the Herwydd flowing in a lazy silver arc away to the south, moving in its own unhurried time toward its own unchanging destination.

“The cares of kings and kingdoms are nothing to you, great river. Perhaps they are nothing at all.”

The messenger who knocked and entered the room behind him found him still standing at the window, staring far away. “Your Majesty, there are lords without who wish to speak with you.”

Eskevar seemed not to hear; so the page repeated his message. When at last the king turned to the perplexed youngster, his weary face bore a sad smile. “Allow them to enter my outer apartment. I will attend directly.”

They have arrived at a decision, Eskevar thought. What will it be?

Outside the rain fell steadily; the sound of its splattering in the courtyard was punctuated by the rumble of thunder marching across the heavens to do battle with the mountain peaks. Quentin imagined that the mountains were giants and the thunder the voice that they raised to him. They were calling him, taunting him to come and take from them their secret—if he dared.

It had been a long time since anyone had spoken. Toli was curled like a cat in a huge covered chair by the hearth. Durwin sat with hands folded across his stomach, head down. Quentin himself sat slumped in his chair with his chin in his palm. Only Inchkeith still seemed alert and active. He hunched forward with his hands clutching his long pipe, puffing a cloud of smoke around his head and glancing periodically at his guests.

“I will do it!” he said at last, leaping up. “By the god’s beard, I will do it!”

The suddenness of the outburst startled Quentin and brought Durwin’s head up with a snap.

“What?” Durwin shook his gray beard. “Oh, Inchkeith, you startled me. I must have dozed off a little. It has been a long day. Forgive me.”

“I have thought the matter out most carefully; be assured of that,” said the master armorer. “I will go with you to seek the lanthanil, and I will make the sword. How can I refuse, eh?” The misshapen craftsman smiled, and Quentin saw the relentless energy of the man burst from that smile.

“It is the opportunity of a lifetime—of many lifetimes. If you are right and the mines can be found, I would pay any sum to work with lanthanil. You offer me the craftsman’s greatest dream. Yes, by all the gods that may be, I will do it.”

“I knew we could count on you, Inchkeith. We will find the mines, I am certain. The prophecy is being fulfilled.” Durwin waved his hand toward Quentin.

“I care not for prophecy, nor whether Quentin here is this priest king you speak of. But I care that our realm is set upon by barbarians. By Orphe! That I do. And if this sword that I shall make can strike a blow against them, if it can turn the battle, then I will make a sword such as no man has ever seen. I will make the Zhaligkeer!”

Quentin listened to the two talking and said nothing. All evening he had listened, saying little. His restive mood was on him again, and this time he perceived its cause: his arm.

Durwin seemed to forget that Quentin, the one designated to play the most important part in raising a sword against the enemy, had a broken arm, and maybe worse. Secretly, Quentin suspected that it was worse, that his injured arm was more severely damaged than the broken bone. It had been a long time since he had felt any sensation in the arm at all; it seemed numb, dead.

He did not speak of his suspicion to anyone. Not even Durwin, on the night when his arm was reset and bound properly, knew that he felt nothing at all, for he had grimaced and moaned—mostly out of nervous fear—as if it had hurt him a great deal. There was something seriously wrong with his arm; he was forced to face it now when all the talk of swords and prophecy filled the night.

As he brooded upon this unhappy fact, the thought occurred to him that perhaps he was not the one after all—not the mighty priest king foretold in the legends. Perhaps the Most High had never intended for him to be the one; it was to be some other yet unknown.

Unexpectedly the thought sent a wave of relief through Quentin’s frame. Yes, of course, that was it. One could not very well wield the fabled sword without an arm to do so. The prophecy, if it were to remain true, pointed to another. Perhaps Eskevar was the one favored by the prophecy—he was king, after all. The old oracle’s prophecy had said that a king must wield the sword. That settled it.

When at last they arose to take themselves off to their beds, Durwin came near to Quentin and said, “You were very quiet this night, my young man. Why?”

“Do we not have enough to trouble us, Durwin?”

“Aye, more than enough. But I perceived this to be a vexation of a different sort.” Inchkeith approached them now with a light burning brightly in a finely made lamp. Durwin accepted it and said, “We will find our own way, good sir. Thank you. You need trouble yourself no further on our account.”

“The trouble, sir, is just beginning!” Inchkeith laughed. “But I chose long ago on whose side I will stand. Get your rest, gentlemen. I will be ready to join you on your journey in the morning.”

“So it is. We will leave as soon as possible, but not until we have dined once more at your excellent table.”

“It is a welcome change from Toli’s seeds and berries,” joked Quentin. “But we will not wish to linger overlong.”

“Strange, I have never known you to refuse a mouthful,” quipped Toli, who had woken up and now came to stand with them. “The rain will stop before morning, but the stream will rise through the night. I shall go out at daybreak to see if it is passable.”

“No need, sir. By morning the flood will have eased. It always does. Have no fear. We will start our journey dry tomorrow, at least. And do not trouble about your horses. I will have all in readiness tomorrow. My sons will see to it. Now, good night.”

Inchkeith, taking up the candle on the table, hobbled across the darkened hall, the sphere of light going before him like a guiding light.

“A most extraordinary man,” said Durwin.

“Most extraordinary,” agreed Quentin. And they all shuffled off to their beds, where they were enchanted into sleep by the distant sound of rain on the stones of Whitehall.

36

The massive palace ship of Nin the Destroyer, Immortal Deity, Supreme Emperor, Conqueror of Continents, King of Kings, rocked gently in the swell. The waves rose and fell like the rhythmic breathing of an enormous sea beast. They slapped against the broad beams of the palace ship’s sides and made soft gurgling noises along the mighty keel.

The ship was square-hulled, with three towering masts and two great rudders amidships. It was truly a seagoing palace, outfitted with costly timbers and exotic trappings from the various countries Nin had subdued. The decks were teak and rosewood from the Haphasian Islands. Brass fittings, which gleamed like red gold from every corner, came from Deluria and the Beldenlands of the east. Silks and shimmering samite fluttered from delicate screens on deck and in the honeycombed quarters below; these had come from Pelagia. Thick braided rope and the vast blue sails were made in Katah out of materials procured in Khas-I-Quair.

The ship itself had been built in the shipyards of Tarkus under the direction of master Syphrian shipbuilders. Its makers had anticipated every necessity, foreseen all desires of the ship’s chief inhabitant, and had accommodated them in ingenious ways. Nin lacked nothing aboard his ship that would satisfy his many voracious appetites.

The ship rode low in the water. The slightest swell could rock it gently, but a raging tempest could not overturn it. And if it moved slowly and ponderously, like its master, what of that? Time meant nothing to the Immortal Nin.

The Emperor of Emperors lay stretched upon a bed of silk cushions, listening to the even breathing of the sea, rocking with the slight roll of the deck. His immense bulk heaved and swayed dangerously, now tossed one way, then the next. The motion was making him feel ill and irritated. With each movement of the ship, his huge, oxlike head lolled listlessly, dull eyes staring outward in mounting misery.

Nin, with a supreme effort of will, prodded himself up on one elbow and grasped a mallet that hung on a golden thong near his head. With a backward flip of the wrist, the mallet crashed into a gong of hammered bronze. As the reverberating summons filled the room, he collapsed back onto the pillows with a moan, dragging one huge paw across his forehead in a gesture of enormous suffering.

In a moment a timid voice could be heard, muffled as it was by the owner’s prostrate posture, saying, “You have summoned me, O Mighty One? What is your command?”

Nin, with an effort, turned his head to regard the pathetic form of his minister. “Uzla, you lowest of dogs! What kept you? I have been waiting for hours. I shall have you flayed alive to teach you haste.” The large eyes closed sleepily.

“May I say, Your Omnipotence, that I regret my tardiness and the blindness which prevented me from anticipating your summons. Still, I was but two steps away and now am here to do your bidding.”

“Arrogant swine!” roared Nin, coming to life. “I should have you lick the decks clean with your festering tongue for presuming to address me so.”

“As you wish, Most Generous Master. I will obey.” Uzla made a move as if to leave and begin scouring the decks of the palace ship.

“I will tell you when to go and when to come. Did I not summon you? Hear me.”

“Yes, Immortal One.” Uzla’s voice trembled appropriately.

“Has there been no word from my warlords?”

“I regret to inform Your Highness that there has been no such word. But as you yourself probably know, there is perhaps a message on the way even now.”

“Nin does not wait for messages. Nin knows all! You fool!”

“It is my curse, Great One. You would do me kindness to have my tongue torn out.”

Nin rolled himself up on his elbow once more and teetered there like a mountain ready to topple at the slightest touch.

“Shall I send for your chair bearers, Supreme Conqueror? They shall hoist you to your feet.”

“I grow weary of waiting, Uzla.” The sleepy eyes narrowed slyly. “I do not wish to remain here anymore.”

“Perhaps you desire to be somewhere else, Master of Time and Space. Shall I make your desires known to your commander?”

“I have been patient with this desolate country long enough. The conquest is taking too long.” One pudgy hand rubbed a sleek jowl with impatience. “We will go up the coast to the north to make ready to enter Askelon, my new city. I have spoken. Hear and obey.”

“It shall be done, Master. I will tell the commander to set sail at once.”

“I feel like a common thief,” growled Lord Wertwin under his breath. “I would much rather lead the mounted assault of the camp.”

“We have been through all that, my lord,” Theido explained patiently. “Ronsard is better suited than either of us for such duty. He has experience in the Goliah wars to aid him.”

“I was in the Goliah wars too,” whined Wertwin.

“Yes, of course. However, before this night is through, and before our campaign is ended, we will both be thankful for Ronsard’s bold blade. I will tell you plainly that I would not welcome a ride into the camp of the Ningaal.”

“Hmph!” Wertwin snorted. He trudged off to his appointed station with his men, now armed with longbows and arrows and hidden in a bushy hollow.

The army of the Dragon King, such as it was, had been training with their new weapons and reclaiming rusty skills. They were now ready to try them in combat with the Ningaal and had, with extreme care and cunning, moved to within a stone’s throw from the camp of their enemy. The archers lay hidden behind trees and bushes, in hollows of furze and within gorse hedges. Despite the grumbling that had accompanied the announcement of the proposed change in tactics, there was a tingling of excitement in the air as the men readied themselves for the ambush.

“Theido, are your archers in place?” asked Ronsard, bending to whisper from his saddle. It was very late; the moon was low in the western sky, slightly above the horizon. The knight’s face shone faintly, but his features were barely discernible.

“They are.” The two men looked at one another briefly. Theido reached a hand out and gripped his friend by the arm. “Take no undue risks. This business is risky enough.”

“Do not worry. Surprise is on our side—this once, at least.”

“The Most High God goes with you, my friend.”

Ronsard cocked his head slightly. “Do you suppose he cares about such things as this?”

“Yes, I believe he does. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I have never prayed to a god before a battle. I did not consider it meet to invoke the aid of heavenly powers on earthly strife. It is man’s fight and should be settled by man’s own hands.”

“The Most High is concerned with the well-being of his servants. By his hand alone are we upheld in all we do.”

Ronsard straightened in the saddle, pulled the reins back, and wheeled his steed around. “I have much to learn about this new god, Theido. I hope that I may have time to learn it!”

The knight returned to the place where his men were waiting, already mounted and eager to be about their task. He glanced around at all of them, checking each one for readiness. In order to move more quickly in the saddle and more nimbly, Ronsard had required his raiders to don only hauberk and breastplate, leaving the rest of their armor behind. They each carried their long swords and small tear-shaped bucklers upon their forearms.

Ronsard nodded, completing his inspection. “For honor! For glory! For Mensandor!”

With that he turned and led his men into the wooded grove wherein the Ningaal lay encamped.

Theido saw his friend disappear into the darkened wood; he thought he saw his right hand raised in salute. The fifteen horses and men, Ronsard’s bravest, slipped into the darkness. Theido offered a prayer for them as they passed, and then he took his place, sword in hand.

He waited. The night seemed to grow suddenly still. He could hear nothing save the night wind sighing in the trees and a nighthawk keening as it soared among the scattered clouds.

And then it came: a startled shout, cut off short. And then more shouts interspersed with the cold ring of steel on steel. Then the sounds became confused—horses whinnying and men giving voice to their battle cries. In a moment he heard the sound of horses crashing back through the wood, much more loudly than they had gone in.

“Here they come!” shouted Theido to his archers. He raised his sword high above his head. In two heartbeats a charger came pounding out of the darkness, its rider low in the saddle. The rider did not stop when he reached the ranks of hidden archers, but continued on down the dale.

“Draw your bows!” Theido shouted. Instantly there came a whisper of arrow shafts against the bow. More knights were now thundering out of the wood, and there was the unmistakable clamor of pursuit.

“Hold steady!” cried Theido as the last knight dashed by him but a pace from where he crouched waiting. He bit his lip—he had not seen Ronsard emerge from the wood.

They waited, bowstrings taut.

Then suddenly the knight appeared at the opening in the wood where he had entered only moments before. He paused and waved his sword. The shouts of his pursuers now filled the wood and echoed in the dell beyond. Theido could see torches, blinking as they waved through the wood. “Get on! Get away!” muttered Theido under his breath. Ronsard spun and galloped into the clearing and away down the dell as the first of the Ningaal came running out behind him.

“Let fly!” shouted Theido, and instantly the night was filled with dark missiles.

The first rank of Ningaal stumbled forward and dropped to the ground without a sound. Their comrades boiled out of the wood behind them and hesitated, uncertain what had become of those just ahead. In that moment’s pause, death fell upon them as arrow after arrow streaked to its mark.

The enemy was thrown into confusion and dropped back into the cover of the dark wood with shouts of terror and cursing. But as the first force was joined by others from the camp, Theido thought he heard the coarse, authoritative shouts of the warlord himself. Almost at once Ningaal broke from the forest, but this time they crouched low to the ground and held their shields around them, making very difficult targets for Theido’s archers.

“Get ready, men!” ordered Theido. The Ningaal were now moving more quickly over the ground between them. “Let fly!” shouted Theido, and his words were answered by the rattling scrape of arrow points upon the Ningaal shields. But some of the arrows found a home, and cries of shock and outrage stabbed the night as the shafts bit deep.

“Retreat!” cried Theido a moment later. He had seen the warlord upon his horse jump into the clearing, surrounded by his bodyguard.

The knight and his archers did not wait to welcome the newcomers with feathers. Instead they jumped up and ran yelling into the dell, just as Ronsard and his knights had done. A mighty shout arose from the throats of the Ningaal, who now believed that they had the king’s army on the run. They bolted after the fleeing archers, treading over the bodies of their comrades.

Theido led his men down the slope and into the dell, across the small brook at its bottom, and up the other side to disappear just over the crest of the hill beyond. The triumphant Ningaal, bellowing praises to their destroyer god, dashed after them, heedless of the darkness that lay upon the land. They rushed headlong, recklessly, into the valley.

As soon as Theido and his men vanished over the hill, the first Ningaal were fording the stream with shouts and curses of anger. Hundreds more of the dark enemy were pounding out of the wood after them to gather in the dell, stopped momentarily by the obstacle of the brook. And once more, in that moment, whistling death streaked out of the skies as Lord Wertwin’s archers, hidden all along the sides of the narrow valley, loosed their sting upon them. The Ningaal shrieked in pain and horror, as terrified beasts mortally wounded by an unseen assailant.

Arrows hailed down upon them from every side. Ningaal running out of the woods fell upon their comrades and trapped those trying to flee from the deadly ambush. Those who went down never rose again.

In a moment all who had thrown themselves down into the valley lay still. No more Ningaal came from the forest. No one moved.

“Let us escape now, while we may,” whispered Theido. “The victory is ours if we do not long remain here. They will be back, and soon.”

Ronsard gave a silent signal, and the men, knights, and archers began melting away into the night as quickly and as silently as the shadowy clouds before the moon. Lord Wertwin’s force joined them, and they left the field in an instant, leaving it to the fallen Ningaal.

That night warlord Gurd lost five hundred. The Dragon King did not lose a single man.

37

The rain-washed sky arched high above like a limitless blue dome. The air was cool and fresh, scented with balsam and pine and the damp of earth. The grass still sparkled with raindrops, glittering like diamonds in the early-morning light. The party had eaten a fine meal at Inchkeith’s table and had, thanks to the master armorer’s sons, set off without raising a hand—except to down goblets full of Camilla’s excellent mulled cider.

Quentin, well fed and rested, had quite forgotten his apprehension of the night before. He had convinced himself that his arm was better— and that it would surely fully heal. But he still could not see how he could be expected to wield a sword before his bones had knit. Thus the awesome prospect of his being the mysterious, legendary priest king seemed remote and almost ridiculous. In the dazzle of a brilliant new day, he felt ashamed and embarrassed for having had the audacity to presume himself to be in any way central to fulfilling the prophecy.

Of course, it had been a presumption fostered by Durwin, Biorkis, and, for all Quentin knew, Toli. But he had allowed them to lead him into thinking that the prophecy might indeed point to him. The whole thing was foolish, preposterous. Quentin could see that now. He told himself so, and he believed it.

The horses had clattered out of Whitehall’s courtyard at first light. Through the cleft in the ridge wall, golden rays of sunlight sliced the violet shadow of the canyon like a blade. It appeared to Quentin as they rode through the gatehouse and out onto the broad meadow, their horses cantering in high spirits, that they moved upon a trail of light all golden and green and shimmering. Everything that came into view, every tree and rock and mountain peak, seemed clean and new and vibrant with life. It was as if the world had been created anew during the night, and the old world had been cast off as a pale, pathetic parody of the true thing. Quentin imagined that he was seeing it all for the first time and that this was how it had looked when the world was young.

He heard a strange whoop behind him and turned to see Durwin’s face radiant in the golden light, mouth open and head thrown back, laughing. And then suddenly he was laughing too. Toli started singing, leading them all in a song which he called “Pella Olia Scear” or “Song of the Morning Star.”

They sang, and their voices soared up the sheer rock face of the ridge wall and fell whispering back. Beside them, as they neared the cleft, the rock stream cascaded with renewed vigor, leaping over its stony bed and splashing fire gems into the air. The stream, called Rockrace by Inchkeith, spread out like a road of flowing silver as it rushed to meet the day. They followed Rockrace for a long time among the fragrant firs, and then, as the sun mounted higher, crossed it and headed toward the Fiskills’ barren foothills.

“How far from here are the lost mines?” asked Quentin after they had ridden for some time in silence. Durwin rode just ahead; he cast a backward look over his shoulder and laughed. “If anyone knew that, my friend, there would be no need of going. The lanthanil would be long gone by now.”

“You know what I mean, you old sorcerer!” shouted Quentin back.

“So it is! How impatient you are. I think that before ten suns have set, we will look upon the entrance to the lost mines of the Ariga. That is, if the mountains are not greatly altered since those maps were made. Just the same, it will be no easy task to find them.”

“We have the riddle,” reminded Quentin.

“Yes, there is that. But you know as well as I that riddles are meant to conceal as much as they reveal. We will have a time of it, I think. The Most High will have to show us very plainly.”

Inchkeith had been listening and now turned toward them and said, “You know, Durwin, the first time we met, you were gabbling about these lost mines of yours. You were full of questions about the lanthanil; you wanted to know if I had ever seen it or worked with it. Do you remember?”

“I remember it well. And I also remember your answer, though you may not. You looked at me with the greatest pity and said, ‘If I had ever touched the metal of the gods, do you think I would still wear the cloak of a hunchback?’

“Mine was a foolish question, I admit. But you must remember I had only discovered the existence of lanthanil and knew nothing of its full properties.”

Inchkeith smiled strangely. “Craftsmen like myself have our own tales of lanthanil, though how much truth is in them I cannot tell.”

“I have on rare occasions heard the elders speak of lanthanil,” said Quentin. “To the Ariga, it was prized more highly than gold or silver. The craftsmen who worked it were almost treated as priests. But I never heard it referred to as a healing agent.”

“Khoen Navish,” Toli reminded him. Quentin turned to see that Toli had dropped back and was now riding beside him, intent upon the conversation.

“Yes, the Healing Stones.”

Durwin looked quizzical and said, “Can you not guess the answer?” Quentin frowned and thought and at last shrugged. “Well, think a moment,” replied the hermit. “The Ariga had no need of healing from any ailment. They lived in perfect health and never fell to disease, and none were ever reported to have been injured in any way. Healing is not mentioned as a property of the stone, although they probably knew about it if Toli’s story is true. Its healing properties were seldom mentioned because they had no need of it themselves.

“As for the craftsmen being priests, they were—of a sort. The Ariga craftsmen were skilled in every art; they were poets, you might say. They worked in metal, wood, and stone as our poets work with words. And to the Ariga it was reckoned as almost the same thing. I say ‘almost’ because the Ariga rejoiced in a thing well made, for even in the smallest utensils of everyday life, they saw the face of the Most High. So craftsmen were priests in that they allowed the people to see something of their god in the objects around them. And they were greatly respected.”

No more was spoken for a long time. Quentin rode along and thought about Dekra and realized he missed his friends there; he wondered what they were doing and whether they missed him as well. He also wondered what Yeseph would say if he knew that his protégé was now embarked upon a quest for the lost mines of the Ariga. What would Yeseph say if he knew Quentin was to play a role in the forging of the Zhaligkeer?

Eskevar slouched in his thronelike chair. His gaunt visage showed his displeasure quite openly. The lords of Mensandor, now gathered before him, clenched their fists at their sides and scowled determinedly.

“What of the others, my lords?” asked Eskevar, making no attempt to moderate the malice in his voice. “Do they propose to sit round in the field and join in the slaughter with whichever side carries the day?”

“We know not what other lords propose to do, Sire,” said Lord Benniot in measured tones. “But we have come to offer you our swords and those of our knights. We will ride with the Dragon King.”

“To the death, if need be,” added Lord Rudd. “By Azrael, I will not see my king do battle alone while I have a blade beside me. My men are yours, Sire.”

“And mine!” said another. The others declared their loyalty also.

“Well done, my lords,” said Eskevar at last. Though he did well appreciate the decision of these, his loyal nobles, the king was enflamed against those—a sizeable party led by Ameronis and Lupollen—who had, after two days of heated contention, remained unmoved in their decision to withhold support for what they considered the king’s war.

“We will go at once to muster and arm our troops. We will march as soon as we can.” Lord Fincher placed his hand to the hilt of his short sword as he spoke. “It will be a pleasure to ride beside the Dragon King again.”

“It will be no pleasure, my lords. Make no mistake!” said Eskevar slowly and carefully. “I believe this will be the utmost test of our might and endurance. If we fail, the world will grow dark. Freedom will die.”

“Then let us fly, Your Majesty. We will return in three days,” said Lord Rudd. “And we will march out with you to meet Theido and Ronsard and Wertwin’s men in the field.”

“Yes, fly at once. And remember, my lords, spare nothing. If we fail, there will be nothing left worth claiming in the end. I will speak again to the others to see if my words may yet prevail upon them to change their decision. We will need every strong arm before this war is over, I fear.

“Be on your way. I will await you here, ready to march at once.”

There was a rustle of fine brocaded clothing as the nobles bowed as one and went out, each to ride with his train to his lands and there to prepare for war.

When they had gone, Eskevar called for Oswald and said, “Fetch me the armorer. I will speak with him at once.”

Oswald appeared doubtful and frowned deeply, his old features crinkling up into a web of lines and creases.

“Do not look at me so! Fetch me the armorer at once, I say!”

Without reply the chamberlain bowed and went out. In a little while there was knock on the king’s chamber door. Oswald came in, followed by a swarthy man with muscles that bulged and rippled as he moved.

“Tilbert, Sire.” Oswald presented the man and left without looking at the king.

“Tilbert,” the king said. The man nodded and remained at attention, his face stern and alert. “Ready my armor and my weapons. I will need both soon—within three days. Ready yourself and any tools you think best; you will be needing them.”

At that moment the chamber door swung open without a knock, and Queen Alinea came into the room. Tilbert bowed to the queen.

“My lord,” said the queen with a curtsy. She was slightly out of breath. “Why is this man here?” She indicated Tilbert, who looked puzzled.

“I am speaking with him.”

“And about what I can guess. My husband, certainly you do not entertain any false notions of going into battle.”

The king moved to dismiss Tilbert with a quick wave of his hand. The armorer bowed from the waist and started out.

“Wait!” said the queen. She turned once more to the king and fixed him with a smoldering stare. “Durwin is gone and so you think that you may now do as you please, is that it? You are still very weak, Eskevar. Think of your health.”

“You may go now, Tilbert,” said Eskevar. The man left the chamber quietly. Alinea crossed to the king’s chair and fell to her knees beside Eskevar, seizing his right hand in both of hers.

“I pray you, my king. Do not go! It will be the death of you!”

Eskevar scowled furiously at his wife; her actions offended him. “The rascal Oswald told you.”

“What does it matter? My darling, you are just up from your sickbed, and you have not your full strength. Wait at least until you feel stronger.”

Eskevar put a hand to her lovely head and laced his fingers in her hair. “My lady, I would that I could stay. But I cannot, nor can I wait one day longer than it takes to assemble an army to march.”

“But why? Let your lords serve you in this. Theido and Ronsard would tell you the same if they were here. They are on the field now; let them assume command.” The queen’s voice quivered on the edge of tears.

“It may not be,” he soothed. “The larger part of the council still opposes the call to arms that I have sounded. They are not convinced there is sufficient reason for them to march in war upon the whim of their raving monarch.

“Do you not see? They believe me ill and of troubled mind. They think I joust at shadows. I must go ahead of my army and convince them I am fit to command and that my judgment is unimpaired. Maybe then they will join us. I pray they do before it is too late.”

“But is there no other way?” Tears ran freely down Alinea’s cheeks and fell in dark spatters upon her blue gown.

“I must go. It is the only hope we have,” the Dragon King said gently.

“Oh, my lord,” cried Alinea. “It is an evil day that takes you from me thus.”

“That it is, my queen. Most assuredly it is.”

38

The Wolf Star could be seen glinting cold and bright as soon as the sun slipped below the western rim of the sky. It rose before the other stars and set last of all. The people of Mensandor, if they had not noticed it before, now were wary of it. Doomsayers went from city to city, spreading rumors of death and destruction and prophesying the end of the age. The weak-minded believed these rumors and fled to the temples, seeking the shelter of sacred soil where the gods would protect them. More stout-hearted citizens stood their ground and waited and watched. But all listened to the wind and paused in their daily tasks to lift their eyes to the far horizon as if they expected at any moment the approach of something they dared not name aloud.

Theido and Ronsard, having weakened the army of warlord Gurd, turned their attention to the army of the warlord Luhak, who was advancing at a fast pace to the north. Arriving late at night, having traveled ten leagues that day with little rest, the king’s forces struck once more on their midnight raid. Once again they caught the enemy by surprise and slew many.

On the next attempt, however, a confused signal almost defeated the Dragon King’s army. The warlord’s troops were waiting in a wooded draw, and Ronsard’s knights met them. But before Ronsard and company could disengage and break free, the archers attacked, and many good men fell by friendly hands. The king’s men withdrew from the field, leaving the Ningaal exultant.

As for Quentin and his party, the four ascended the empty foothills of the ragged mountains and labored up into the dismal heights. The way proved slow and difficult, even with sure-footed animals and Durwin’s knowledge of the more passable routes. They lost their way and spent three arduous days crossing and recrossing the same trail and finally gave up, camping that night in the same spot where they had camped three nights before. One of the pack animals threw a shoe straining over the rocks and had to be set free. Many supplies were abandoned in order not to overburden the remaining animals.

The dark cloud had deepened its shadow over the land. Mensandor seemed to be a country quivering on the edge of the abyss. The roads were filled by day with travelers hurrying from here to there in an effort to find escape. The temple courtyards became choked with peasants seeking sanctuary. At the high temple above Narramoor, the trail leading to the temple had blossomed into a tent city from the base of the plateau to its crown. All along its narrow length, people huddled in their tents and waited for what they had been told would come: the destroyer god, descending to earth to slake his thirst with their blood. And at night, all over Mensandor, men watched the star grow brighter and cowered in fear at the impending destruction thus proclaimed.

Steadily, despite Theido’s and Ronsard’s best efforts and most valiant and courageous fighting, the Ningaal drove further north toward Askelon. The king’s knights were solidly outnumbered, and the enemy soon grew wary of the crafty defender’s tricks, becoming more and more difficult to lure into traps and ambushes.

On and on the enemy pushed and at last achieved the very thing the Dragon King’s army feared the most: the four warlords joined their forces. The soldiers of Boghaz and Amut forged through to meet Gurd’s remnant and Luhak’s fairly intact regiment at the outer fringes of Pelgrin Forest. No invader had ever pushed so far inland in recent memory. No enemy had ever defied the Dragon King’s knights as did the Ningaal, whose combined forces shamed the stalwart defenders.

Under Myrmior’s inspired strategy, the Dragon King’s army fell back into the forest to wage a war of ambush and retreat among the paths they knew so well. This increased the rage of the enemy, and that rage induced him to make mistakes and lose men. But the relentless push to Askelon continued, slowly and surely and with mechanical precision. It seemed as if nothing would stop the cunning invader.

“We cannot continue this way,” said Theido wearily. It was the end of another long day of sting-and-run among the oaks of Pelgrin. The commander sat in Ronsard’s tent, ashen-faced in the fluttering torchlight. “We are giving up too much ground, even though our losses in men are lower than we could have hoped, thanks to Myrmior.

“I think it is time to send word to Askelon for the king to make ready for a siege. Though I hoped it would not come to this, they should begin preparing the castle for our return.”

“It would seem that in time we could bear these Ningaal if we but had more men,” observed Ronsard. “Could we not send Wertwin to the other lords to entreat them to take up arms? Now is the time if ever there was. They cannot fail to recognize the danger now.”

“Abandon any hope you may hold of persuading those jackals to join us. They have had every opportunity. Why, we are but ten leagues from Askelon now!”

“Even so,” Lord Wertwin offered, “allow me to ride to Ameronis and the others. They are not cowardly men and will be reasonable once they know the need. I will bring them around.”

“Go, then, my lord. Do what you can. But go with all speed. There is little time left. Each day we are pushed farther back.”

The nobleman stood and, though weary to the marrow and reeling on his feet, said, “I will leave tonight and take but two of my own with me. The others I will place under Ronsard’s command.” With a quick bow he left, and the others returned once more to their nightly exercise led by Myrmior, who listened intently to the reports of the day’s forays and then applied himself to creating some new strategy for the next day. He seemed to have a gift for anticipating the movements of the enemy and for diversions and surprises that allowed the king’s men to hound and harry the plodding Ningaal.

“From what you have told me,” Myrmior said, gazing at the map skin before him, “the Ningaal have tightened their divisions and march with a vanguard of their fiercest warriors. That is good—it means our raids are starting to worry them—but it also means that they will be much harder to trap and impossible to ambush from now on.”

“As if it were not difficult already,” said Ronsard. “I believe our time of nibbling away at the enemy’s strength is at an end. Yet we dare not meet them face-to-face. If we could be assured of fresh troops soon . . .”

“I cannot think what we may do,” replied Theido. “But you are right. We cannot charge them with lances or meet them toe to toe as we are often wont to do. I will defer to Myrmior’s counsel yet a little longer.”

“Lords, you flatter me,” Myrmior said. “I have no secrets here, and I freely tell what I know so that you will know just how perilous is our position. It is very grave for us, my brave friends. I do not see a weakness that we may exploit; they have countered all our tricks this time.”

He looked at the map, head bent down, eyes red-rimmed from sleepless nights of studying and pondering the movements of the foe as reported to him by the assembled commanders.

“How far are we from this river?” he said, stabbing his finger at the map.

“Let me see,” said Theido. “That is but a branch of the Arvin which lies two or three leagues to the west. It is not so large as it appears on the map, I assure you.”

“Nevertheless, I have found a plan which may gain us but a little more time.” Myrmior smiled triumphantly. “A very subtle plan.”

39

The cold wind whipping off the sharp snags of rock stung Quentin’s face, and the howl deafened him as it ravaged the bare peaks and screamed down into endless empty places. He kept his cloak turned up to cover his ears and wished that he had brought warmer clothing. Though only four days had passed since they had reached the elevations of the Fiskills, it now seemed ages since he had felt the warmth of the sun and seen the green of summer-filled hills. In every direction, wherever he turned his eyes, he saw the same thing: an infinite vista of jagged gray-and-white peaks jutting sharply against the blue sky.

Each day was much the same: cold and windy, without respite. At night they camped under a star-filled sky on ledges, in crevices and fissures out of the wind, but the rock was cold and hard. In the morning they awoke to the harsh, white light of a sun that shed no warmth upon the day—unless by chance they happened to find a spot hidden from the wind where they could stop and eat a bite before continuing. Then Quentin would feel a brief bit of warmth seep into him, tingling on his skin like dancing fire.

But those respites were rare and never long enough, for Durwin, sinking more and more into silence and a dour mood, pushed a merciless pace along the crag-bound trails. The party, at first so full of goodwill and high spirits, now dragged along dolefully, each one lost to himself and his own thoughts, their faces as gray and cheerless as the bare rock around them.

Quentin’s thoughts turned toward Theido and Ronsard and the battles he imagined they were waging far away. More than once he wished he could be there beside them, instead of floundering here, lost in a world of dull rock and white light and severe blue skies—as often as not clouded with gray, wispy clouds that shredded themselves on the tors and spilled a damp, chill drizzle to thoroughly quench any spark of hope that they would see the end of their seemingly endless journey.

At night he lay awake and watched the dread star bend its fearful beams through the thin air of high altitudes. It now filled its quadrant with light and was the brightest object in the sky at night, save the moon itself. Quentin even began to believe that the star would grow and grow to consume the world and set off the conflagration that would prepare the earth for the new age. These thoughts, and others like them, filled Quentin with a sense of hopelessness he had never known before. And as the search among the high rocks continued day after day, he began to think that doom was certain and that it was already too late to forestall the inevitable.

One morning Quentin was shaken out of his gloomy reverie by Toli, who had gone ahead to check on the trail, which threatened to narrow beyond the ability of the horses to maintain their footing.

He heard a shout, looked up, and saw Toli, red-faced with excitement and the exertion of running, flying down the rock-strewn path.

“Beautiful!” Toli shouted when he was within range. “Come and see it! A valley . . .” He puffed breathlessly. “It is wonderful! Come!”

Instantly Durwin’s face lit. “So it is! I believe we have found it at last!”

But Durwin was already toiling up the path behind Toli, who sprang lightly as a mountain goat over the flat slabs of rock, pointing and waving ecstatically.

Quentin turned to look at Inchkeith. “Well, a fair sight would be welcome to these burning eyes, I would reckon,” said the hunched armorer. “Even if it is not our journey’s end.”

“Then by all means let us view this sight!” grumbled Quentin. “It must be a fine valley indeed—Toli has not said that many words in as many days.”

Inchkeith turned, ignoring Quentin’s comment, and began scuttling over the rock, barely keeping Toli, now disappearing over the crest, in sight. Quentin marveled at the deformed armorer’s strength and agility; for in spite of his misshapen body and hobbling gait, Inchkeith somehow managed to grapple his way along the most unnerving passages.

Quentin glumly fell in and began trudging up the steep path, a narrow cut in the rock formed by a rivulet that carried away the spring melt. By the time he neared the top, none of the others were to be seen. He reached the summit and walked a few paces down the opposite slope before he thought to raise his eyes.

The sight before him so stunned Quentin, he sat down.

Across a vast and limitless gulf of silver mist, he saw an enormous bowl rimmed round with snowy peaks like white teeth. And the bowl, with gently curving sides, was a scintillating mountain green; all soft and mossy, the color of emeralds when struck by the sunlight. Carving through the center of the beautiful valley in graceful, sweeping undulation ran a river, gleaming like molten silver, filling the basin at the near end to form a lake shaped like a spearhead. The lake was deepest blue crystal and reflected the white-capped peaks rimming the fathomless blue sky above.

All this Quentin took in moments later. In his first, rapturous gaze, all he saw was the awesome splendor of the towering, frothing, magnificent falls that fed the river and formed the lake. “It is the Falls of Shennydd Vellyn,” Durwin told him later, “the Falls of the Skylord’s Mirror. The lake is the mirror, of course, and the Skylord is another name among the Ariga for—”

“Whist Orren. I know,” said Quentin in a voice lost in wonder. “I have heard of Shennydd Vellyn. But I never thought . . .”

“Yes,” said Toli quietly, as if he feared to break some spell of enchantment, “it is hard to believe that such beauty still exists in the world of men.”

“Harder still to believe that beyond these forsaken mountains men are fighting and dying,” said Inchkeith strangely. Of them all he seemed to be least affected by the sight before him.

All that was to come later; now, Quentin was overcome by the most dramatic vision of natural beauty he had ever seen. The falls plunged in three great leaps as they poured from some hidden crystal spring in the mountainside. This was the source of the silvery mist that floated over all like gossamer and charged the thin air with shimmering radiance as if rainbows hovered ever within reach.

Looking down upon it, Quentin could well believe that the Ariga had once sat where he sat and had seen it as he was seeing it. In that instant, he felt as if the immense barrier of time separating him from that happy time when the Ariga had walked the earth had been rolled aside. Inexplicably, the constant longing for a glimpse of that vanished time was suddenly stilled within his breast. Here it was at last, that which remained from of old unchanged.

The next thing Quentin knew, he was running down the precipitous grade toward the crystal lake, laughing and shouting with joy.

It was a tearful farewell with which Alinea sent Eskevar to meet the assembled armies of his lords. As much as she wanted to show him a brave front, she could not. In all her life as queen, she had never sent him off with tears in her eyes; no matter how much she might have cried for fear and loneliness later when he had gone, she did not want his last memory of her to be one of sorrow.

This time she could not contain her feelings. The tears welled up from her heart and overflowed down her cheeks, glistening in the morning light.

Eskevar, so used to the bold face his wife had always before maintained, seemed bewildered by what he considered a sudden change.

“My lady, do not be forlorn. I will return as soon as I can. It is nothing we have not faced before, my love.”

“I fear it is, my lord.” She dabbed at the corners of her emerald eyes with a bit of lace. The king took the handkerchief from her and poked it down inside his breastplate.

“I will keep this near my heart so that I will not forget the tears you shed in my absence. It will remind me to hurry here and dry your eyes as soon as I can.” He lifted a gauntleted hand to smooth her auburn hair and looked deeply into her eyes. “This will be the last time, Alinea. I promise you I will never leave you again.”

She looked at him, standing in the small courtyard of the inner ward just before the postern gate, and through her tears it seemed as if the years had been rolled back once more and the young Dragon King was looking down on her with brightly blazing eyes, eager to be off to defend his realm.

“Go, my lord. But do not say it is the last. For I know that you must be where harm threatens your kingdom. But go, and with no regret for me. Only promise that you will hasten back when your labors have restored peace to the land.”

When she had finished speaking, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He held her stiffly, her soft flesh pressed against his steely armor. “Farewell, my queen.”

She turned and hurried away through the small arched door in the wall. Eskevar watched her go and then turned to the warder, who stood with averted eyes, holding the reins of his mount. The king ascended the three stone steps and swung himself into the saddle. The warder dashed to the ironclad gate and pushed it open. Outside, the armorer and the king’s squires were waiting.

Without a word the king led them through the postern gatehouse, over the plank and down the long, winding walled ramp that formed the rear approach to Askelon. They crossed the dry moat and rode out across the plain to meet the lords of Mensandor and their assembled armies where they stood amid pennons and glinting steel, waiting for their king.

“Yonder comes the Dragon King!” shouted Lord Rudd as he scanned the plain, eyes squinting in the sun. “Sound the call!”

A trumpeter raised the battle horn to his lips and blew a long, clear note. At once a shout went up. “The Dragon King! He is coming! The Dragon King rides with us!” The knights gathered on the plain rattled swords upon their shields in noisy salute and shouted with joy.

“It is good he comes,” said Lord Benniot, bending close to Rudd. “The rumors that he was dying had near taken the fighting heart out of my men.”

“And mine,” said Lord Fincher, riding up. “But now they will see that he does not hide in his tower, nor lie wasting abed. By the gods, it is good to see him astride a horse once more.”

The three nobles watched their king galloping toward them across the plain. Behind him his squires carried the billowing standard with the king’s unmistakable device: the terrible, twisting red dragon. On the crest of his helm he wore a crown of gold that shone in the sun like a band of light around his head.

Eskevar rode into the midst of his army to the cheers of all the knights and men-at-arms. Such was the clamor of his reception that it was some time before he could quiet them enough to make himself heard. But at last the army—more than two thousand in all—grew silent, waiting expectantly for what he would say.

“Loyal subjects, men of Mensandor!” More cheers. “Today we march to meet a great and deadly foe. Messages from those already engaged against the enemy indicate that he has reached the borders of Pelgrin Forest but ten leagues to the east.” Murmurs of shock and disbelief rippled through the throng. “In his wake the enemy has destroyed our towns and villages and has slain the innocent.” Cries of anger and revenge coursed through the crowd.

Eskevar looked out over the upturned faces of the host before him, many kneeling, their right hands clutching the hilts of their swords. He drew his own sword and raised it high.

“For Mensandor!” he called in a bold voice.

“For Mensandor!” came the clamorous reply.

“For honor! For glory!” the Dragon King cried.

“For king and kingdom!” the soldiers answered.

With his sword pointed to the east, Eskevar spurred his horse through the assembled armies. A way parted before him, bristling with raised swords and spears, and walled with shields and colorful snapping pennons. Along this panoply the Dragon King passed to the wild hurrahs of the soldiers. Behind him the way closed as the knights and footmen took up their weapons and followed their king into battle.

40

This makes the task of getting here worth every step,” said Quentin. He sat on a grassy knoll, dangling his bare feet in the cold, clean water of Shennydd Vellyn. “This is a most fitting reward.” He felt the weariness of the harsh trail and the fatigue of the seemingly endless days in the saddle, and then lastly on foot leading the horses, drift away in the soothing water. He felt revived.

“So it is! But we have not yet found the mines, though I believe we are at least at a place to begin looking.” The hermit was bent once more over his maps and scribbles, searching for a clue to a sign that might spark the discovery.

Toli strode up, buoyant and brimming with good cheer, fairly intoxicated with the beauty around him. “I have set the horses free to graze. Look at them run!”

Indeed, the horses were gamboling like colts in the balmy air of the great bowl of a valley. They galloped and bucked and pranced over soft, thick turf as green as the first delicate blades of spring.

“We shall have a time of it trying to catch them again,” mumbled Inchkeith. Quentin and Toli looked at each other. He had been mumbling darkly ever since they discovered the enchanted valley. While their spirits had risen on wings of joy, his seemed to have fallen lower by equal degrees. He was now quite sour.

“Do not worry on it, Master Inchkeith. They will come running to Toli’s whistle without fail. He has a power over them; you will see.” Inchkeith said nothing, turning his face away.

“Now then,” said Durwin. “Listen to me. Here is the riddle once more. Think, now!

‘Over tooth and under claw wend your way with care.

Where mountains sleep, sharp vigil keep, you shall see the way most clear.

When you hear laughter among the clouds and see a curtain made of glass

Take no care for hand nor hair, or you shall surely never pass.

Part the curtain, divide the thunder, and seek the narrow way;

Give day for night and withhold the light

And you have won the day. ’

Durwin raised his eyes to meet blank stares all around. “Well,” he said, pursing his lips in a frown. “As I thought. It is not so simple now, is it? Now the time has come to solve the mystery—”

“Past time, if you ask me!” said Inchkeith sharply. “It is folly to roam these wasted rocks, chasing a dream. Look at us! We are up here babbling like children over riddles and nonsense. Down there”—his hand flung wide in a gesture of anger and frustration—“down there men are dying. The blood of good men runs hot upon the ground while we potter among the clouds.”

Quentin’s brow wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed as he silently listened, somewhat shocked by the armorer’s denunciation of their quest.

At last Durwin spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen over them with Inchkeith’s rancorous outburst. “Could we serve them better by taking up swords and throwing ourselves into the fight? Would our blades matter very much, do you think?”

“Does this matter? Riddle guessing! Breaking our bones over these accursed rocks! And all for a dream.”

“I thought you were with us, Inchkeith,” put in Quentin. “I thought you believed as we did in the importance of our journey. You did! I know you did!”

“Maybe I did once. But I have had time to think. It was a mistake to come here; I do not belong here. I should be back at my forge and anvil. There is a war on, by the gods!”

Then Durwin, speaking softly as to a child, said a surprising thing. “Do not be afraid, Inchkeith. To others it is appointed to fight, and, yes, to die. To us it is appointed to find the sword and bring it to the king. And if there is even the slightest chance that the sword will be the Zhaligkeer, I believe our efforts could not be better spent than in searching for it, though the whole world wade in blood.”

Do not be afraid.

The words struck deep into Quentin’s heart. Yes, that was it. Inchkeith was afraid of failing, or never finding the lost mines. Perhaps he was even more afraid of succeeding, and forging the legend-bound sword, afraid of believing the prophecy could come true. Better for him not to put it to the test. And this was the way of Quentin’s heart, as well.

Quentin, at first swept up in the excitement of great deeds and the promise of glory, had with growing reluctance come to view the enterprise as possessing little merit insofar as he himself was concerned. It was one thing to dream about being the long-awaited priest king, but quite another to actually set off in search of the means to make that dream reality. The aura of mystic fantasy had evaporated on the trail in the howling of the wind and in sleepless nights on the cold, barren rock under the glare of distant, unfriendly stars. And with every step that led him closer to the promise, he had grown more afraid.

Do not be afraid.

Although the words had been meant for Inchkeith, they stirred in Quentin a peculiar swirl of emotions. He wanted all at once to scream at Durwin. Why should I not be afraid? I have every good reason. I never asked to be this new king upon whose shoulders the world will rest. I never wanted it.

But Quentin said nothing. He turned his face away and looked out across the sparkling water of the Skylord’s Mirror.

That night they camped beside the lake, the white-topped peaks to the east glowing rosily across the green bowl, which was now immersed in shadows of deepest indigo. The Wolf Star burned fiercely in the sky and was reflected in the crystalline depths of Shennydd Vellyn.

Quentin sat alone—silent, brooding. He stirred only when the light tread of Durwin’s feet signaled the hermit’s presence. “So it is!” said the hermit, his voice seeming to resonate the water. “You have come to it at last.”

Quentin regarded him with a questioning glare. Durwin, gathering his robes, squatted down beside him. “You have come to that dark and narrow place through which every servant of the Most High must pass.”

Quentin flipped a pebble into the lake. “I do not know what I have come to.”

“Oh, I think you know very well. And that is what is bothering you. It has been gnawing at you ever since we left Askelon. It was worrying you that night at Inchkeith’s. I saw it then most clearly. I even spoke to you of it, but you evaded my question.”

“Is it not possible that we may all be wrong about this prophecy? If you ask me, I am not the one. And if I were, would I not know it somehow?”

“Yes, perhaps we are mistaken. It is possible we have misread the signs. But whether you are the one or not does not matter very much.”

Quentin cocked his head sharply; he had not expected the hermit to say that. “No,” Durwin continued. “What does matter is whether you are willing to follow the Most High, even in your unbelief.”

“I—I do not know what you mean.”

“Certainly you do. All your life you have served the gods in one way or another. Of the old gods you soon learned only to demand those things which they were capable of providing—an insignificant sign or two, a small favor vaguely asked. Then you met Whist Orren, the Most High God, the One True God of All. You have served him faithfully these many years and have learned much about his ways. But now is the first time you have ever really had to trust in him, to place yourself totally in his will, and you are afraid.”

Quentin started to object, but Durwin held up his hands. “Yes, afraid. You must now put your faith to the test. And such a test! With lost mines and flaming swords and prophecies fulfilled.”

“Why should I fear that?”

“The reason is not so hard to guess. It is the same with every man. You fear testing your faith, because it means testing the Most High. Deep in your heart you fear he will fail. If he fails, you are utterly alone in this life and beyond; there is nothing you can believe in anymore.”

Quentin shook his head. “No, Durwin. That is not my fear.”

“Tell me, then.”

Quentin drew a deep breath, glanced at the hermit and then quickly away again. “I am afraid of being the priest king. I cannot say why, but the mere mention of swords and mines fills me with dread. Look at my arm! How can I wield the Shining One with an arm as dead as firewood?”

“It is the same thing in the end, is it not? You fear to accept something the Most High has chosen for you.”

“How is that the same thing?”

“Most assuredly it is. To accept the crown of priest king would mean placing your trust totally in the Most High. It means that you must trust him to know what is best for you, to know you better than you know yourself. It would mean trusting him beyond all trust, even when the way is unclear—especially when the way is unclear.

“When you trust like that, you necessarily test the god’s ability to keep you. You are—we all are—unwilling to make such demands of our gods. If we trust but little, we will be disappointed but little, eh?”

“If I do not believe, but follow anyway, does that not mock the Most High and defeat his will?”

“On the contrary, my friend. To follow without seeing the end— in unbelief, as you say—is really the highest form of trust.”

“It is but blind trust,” objected Quentin. The words of the hermit made sense to him, but he still felt as if he must fight acceptance.

“Not blind trust. Not at all. Those who trust the powerless gods of earth and sky—they trust blindly.

“Quentin, look at me,” the hermit commanded gently. “You cannot serve the Most High without trusting him totally, for there always comes a time when he will put you to the test. He will have all of you or nothing at all. There can be no middle ground. It is a demand that he makes of his followers.”

Both men were quiet for a moment. The great bowl of the valley had deepened into violet dusk. The western peaks still had the faint glimmer of flame at their summits, but that, too, was dying fast.

“Look at it this way,” said Durwin. “Why should you be afraid to test the Most High? He invites it! You see your injured arm as proof against his will. Cannot the one who created the bones also heal them? And if he chooses to raise an orphan acolyte to the crown of the realm, what is to stop him?”

Quentin smiled at the appellation. “You mean that I should go along with this strange business regardless of my own feelings about it.”

“Exactly. Do not seek to hide your doubts and fears, or mask them in any way. Give them to him. Let him take them. They are, after all, part of you.”

Quentin thought for a long time, and then said, “What did you mean earlier when you told Inchkeith not to be afraid?”

Durwin smiled. “More or less what I am telling you now. We must not fear for the Most High; he can take care of himself. We must only look to ourselves that we remain faithful to his call. I know it is much to think about in one piece. It has taken me years to understand these things, and I am asking you to comprehend them in but a few moments.

“Inchkeith does not know the Most High, but he is not an ignorant man. He still feels the fear of believing that something so good and so powerful can exist. And that, as I said before, is the place where most men turn aside.

“But if you go beyond your fears and doubts, and follow anyway— ah! Strange and wonderful things can happen. Yes, orphans can become kings, swords can sprout flames, and great enemies can be laid low at a stroke.”

Quentin did not hear when Durwin left him, so lost in thought was he. But upon looking up into the night sky, now alive with blazing stars, he knew he was alone. His thoughts roiled and swarmed inside him; and rather than soothing his troubled spirit, Durwin’s words had only served to increase the confusion—or so it seemed.

Quentin lay down and wrapped himself in his cloak to watch the glittering stars and to ponder the words of the hermit. He lay for a long time thinking and then slowly drifted into a troubled sleep. As he lay beside the glass-smooth Shennydd Vellyn, he dreamed a dream filled with things both strange and wonderful.

41

The muddy little tributary Myrmior had indicated on the map lay across the path of the advancing Ningaal. It was, as Theido had advised, not a particularly large stream, but it was deep and lay below steep tor-bound banks in a most dense part of Pelgrin. If anyone ever spoke of it at all, it was called Deorkenrill, because of the air of darkness and gloom that surrounded it. Its gray and turgid waters slid quietly along a serpentine course through noisome bogs and stagnant pools until at last it emptied into the mighty Arvin many leagues to the north.

As unwholesome as it was, it was at this very place that Myrmior proposed that the army of the Dragon King make a final stand to try to halt the invaders’ inexorable drive toward Askelon.

The plan was simple, designed to separate the amassed Ningaal into smaller groups that could be nettled more effectively by the defenders. But like most stratagems of war, Myrmior’s plan was not without its element of risk. The weary defenders closed their eyes to the danger, thinking that as it was likely to be their last hope of stopping the Ningaal before they reached the plains of Askelon, no risk was too great.

For many leagues to the north and south there was only one fit place for an army to cross the Deorkenrill: a hollow at the bottom of a slight hill where the stream flattened out slightly to form a natural ford.

“This is better than I could have hoped,” said Myrmior when he saw it. “It was made for our purpose.”

“Well,” remarked Theido, casting an eye around the wood in the gathering dusk, “it is not a place where I would willingly choose to do battle. Let up hope that the Ningaal think the same and do not suspect an ambush here.”

“They have become wary indeed. Their scouts now push far afield and ahead of the main body and are harder to elude,” pointed out Ronsard. “And Theido is right. This is not a place to do battle. Look around you: mud, trees, vines. A man can hardly draw his sword.”

“Brave sirs, that is precisely why this place is best suited for us. Whether they suspect or not, they must cross this water. I propose to make it as difficult as possible. But we must get busy. There is much to be done before first light tomorrow. We will need to work through the night.”

“Very well,” said Theido resolutely. “We have had our say, and have no better plan. We put ourselves at your command. What will you have us do?”

Myrmior looked around him in the misty twilight. A malodorous vapor was rising from the swampy banks of the Deorkenrill to drift slowly among the gray boles of trees.

“There!” He pointed out into the hollow through which the enemy must march to the stream. “We will begin by opening a channel into the hollow. We will fill it tonight and drain it in the morning. The mud should be very thick by then. And have some men start carrying water to that far bank. I would have that slippery with mud as well.”

And so they began. Though they had come unprepared for excavating and carrying water, the Dragon King’s forces turned whatever implements they had to the task. Knights more at home on horseback than on firm ground slogged tirelessly through mud and stinking water, digging with their noble swords or with bare hands, cutting a channel to bring water to the hollow. They worked by the glimmering of torches, listening to the forlorn cries of owls and other creatures drawn by the unnatural activity.

Others climbed the taller trees along either side of the bank and began building platforms of branches and limbs from which archers could rain arrows down upon the enemy. Ropes were wound with vines and stretched from one tree to another. And for Myrmior’s supreme surprise, three of the largest trees growing at the edge of the near bank were chopped to within inches of falling and their upper branches were tied with ropes to other nearby trees and filled with mud and leaves.

This activity continued through the night, and by the time the sky glimpsed through the irregular patches overhead began lightening, Theido, Ronsard, and Myrmior stood on the far bank, looking at their handiwork.

“All that remains is to drain the hollow once more. And we will need hot coals to use with the arrows,” said Myrmior, very pleased with what he saw.

“Then we wait. We should have a few hours to give the men a rest before the first of the Ningaal come through here,” observed Ronsard.

“I am for it. We have done a labor this night. Let us pray that it has been to good purpose,” replied Theido in a voice strained and rasping from shouting orders through the midnight hours. “We will do what remains and then deploy our men to their appointed places.”

So saying, the lords turned at once to finish their tasks. Then, as the thin light of the morning filtered down into the murky dell, all fell silent. All was ready and there was not the barest hint that everything was not as it should be, that it was not all it seemed. An army waited among the ferns and in the trees and behind the turfy hillocks and was invisible.

The first of the Ningaal to come through the hollow were the scouts. They crossed the ford and passed on unaware of the army lying in wait on either hand. The next to pass were rank upon rank of horsemen, and just as Myrmior had hoped, the horses churned the hollow into a mud pit and made the far bank, already slick with the muck Ronsard’s men had created, a treacherous slide. But they, too, passed on unaware.

Tension seeped into the air. Theido could not understand why the enemy did not feel it, too. His stomach was knotted, and his nerves felt stretched as tight as bowstrings. Though he could not see them from where he hunched among the musty ferns, he knew his men must feel the same. Willing himself to remain calm, he waited.

The sun had marched to midday when the first of the footmen started across the ford. Hundreds of men, line upon line, waded through the waist-deep water and slithered up the far bank with difficulty. Theido could see them as they poured into the hollow and noted with satisfaction that the soldiers moved more slowly now as the mire deepened and sucked at their feet.

He heard a sound and a swift shout, and suddenly a horse and rider appeared at the edge of the ford. It was a warlord on his black steed, and Theido could tell he was unhappy with the time it was taking the soldiers to cross the stream. Without understanding the crude language at all, Theido knew that he was ordering his men to move along quickly; it was exactly what he would have done in the same situation.

The warlord sat straight in the saddle and looked long up and down Deorkenrill. Theido held his breath. Had the warlord spotted something amiss? Was their trap discovered?

But the grim lord swung his horse around and shouted once more to the scores of footmen trudging through the fen. Then he plunged through the stream and disappeared on the other side.

Nin’s soldiers were crossing in masses now, a hundred at a time. They staggered muddily to the ford and plunged in, then flung themselves up the far bank like fish flopping out of water.

Another warlord appeared, surrounded by twenty horsemen. He waited, as the other had, watching the men cross the stream, and then splashed across.

The forest echoed to the sound of something ponderous and heavy crashing through the underbrush. The wagons! thought Theido. Get ready!

The wagons were what they had been waiting for. According to Myrmior’s knowledge of the movements of the Ningaal, they most often traveled with their weapons and supplies in the wagons, half of their troops going before and the rest after. It was the second half of the Ningaal host that the defenders would attack.

Theido peered cautiously through the man-high ferns to see the first of the heavy wagons mired nearly to its axles in the hollow, now trampled into a swampy bog by the hundreds of feet of men and horses that had passed before. Around each wheel twenty or so footmen grunted and strained to push the wagon along, and the four-horse team leaned into the harness to the cracking whip of the driver.

Theido’s hand sought the hilt of his sword. He knew that even now a thousand arrows were being notched to their strings in anticipation of the signal that would not be long delayed. Each archer readied his cannikin of live coals and arrows with shafts wrapped in cloth soaked in palbah—flammable spirits. Myrmior, seeing Theido’s unconscious move, placed a hand on his arm and whispered, “Not yet. Give the others time to move up into position, and allow those who have passed on to distance themselves from the ambush.”

Theido took his hand away from his sword hilt and drew it across his perspiring face. He let his breath escape between clenched teeth.

The Ningaal, by sheer force of numbers, had succeeded in hauling their wagons to the brink of the ford, but now other wagons were entering the hollow and succumbing to the morass. Shortly, the hollow was filled with wagons hopelessly enmired and hundreds of soldiers clustering around them in an effort to budge them along.

“Now!” whispered Myrmior shrilly. “Do it now!”

Theido drew his sword silently and stepped calmly from the ferns. He raised his sword, knowing that all eyes were now on him. He dropped his arm, and suddenly the air was filled with a sound like an enormous flock of birds taking flight from the treetops. The dim air of the dank dell was instantly alight with darting flames arcing to earth like stars falling from on high.

A confused cry of alarm went up from the unsuspecting Ningaal as the flaming arrows found their marks: the wagons. In moments the wains were afire and the befuddled soldiers were overwhelmed with terror. The Dragon King’s archers then hailed down arrows upon the enemy without mercy. Ningaal dropped where they stood, never seeing their assailants nor hearing the sting that felled them.

The rout had only begun, however, when it was turned by the appearance of the two remaining warlords. One came pounding out of the wood, his bodyguard with him. Shouts rang out and orders flew, and in moments the chaos had resolved itself, though still the larger part of the Ningaal did not have weapons, confined as they were in several of the burning wagons.

That was soon remedied. A group of soldiers, in response to one warlord’s command, rushed upon one of the burning wagons, jumped into the flames, and began hurling weapons to their comrades. When one was overcome by fire, another leaped in to take his place.

The other warlord with his mounted bodyguard pointed his sword across the stream, and his warriors came galloping across the ford toward where Theido and Myrmior waited with a dozen knights. Arrows took two from their saddles at midstream. Another came on, and Theido found himself suddenly ducking savage thrusts that chopped the ferns and sent greenery flying.

He threw up his sword to parry the slicing blows and grabbed the enemy horse’s bridle, pulling its head down. The animal went to its knees, and Theido lunged at the rider, knocking him from the saddle. Theido’s poniard did its work before the warrior could disengage himself from his thrashing mount.

The murky wood now rang with the sound of battle. Men shouted their battle cries and fell to with a fury. Swords struck upon shield and helmet; axes whirled and bit, splintering anything that sought to stay the deadly blades. Theido stepped away from the riderless horse beside him and saw a dozen Ningaal axemen splashing toward him—some screaming, the handles of their axes still smoldering in their grasp.

He caught the first one in the throat as the warrior raised his axe. But he had not withdrawn the blade when a second was upon him. He saw the glint of the blade swing up, and he raised his shield, expecting his arm to be crushed by the impending blow.

But the blow never came. Theido dodged aside and saw Ronsard’s familiar face beside him, grimly determined, his sword streaming with blood as the wounded man at his feet writhed in agony. Behind Ronsard a host of knights stormed out of the wood where they had been concealed.

“I will take a warlord!” shouted Ronsard, leaping into the saddle so recently vacated by the rider at Theido’s feet.

The lord high marshal cut down two charging Ningaal as he flew across Deorkenrill; the dark water now bore the corpses of the enemy by the score.

The warlord, wearing a helm of white horsehide with a plume of a horse’s tail, whirled his mount around to meet Ronsard’s charge with lively skill. Ronsard’s sword flashed and flashed again; each time the warlord met his thrust and turned it aside. Neither could gain the advantage, and soon Ronsard, surrounded by enemy footmen, was forced to break off the attack and scamper once more across the stream lest he be hauled from the saddle and stabbed through a crease in his armor.

The archers poured their arrows upon the battlefield in a deadly rain. Flight after flight streaked down, and Ningaal fell by the score. The unhappy waters of the Deorkenrill flowed red with the blood of the dead. And on the far bank—that slimy incline of a death trap—the fallen lay like corded wood. In the quagmire of the hollow, the living surged ahead over the bodies of their comrades.

Myrmior had planned the fight well, and the Ningaal struggled in vain to gain the advantage. Myrmior dashed along the far bank, calling out orders and strengthening the position of the defenders where necessary and directing the archers to new and threatening targets as they emerged from the dim wood. Had there been more time, or had the Dragon King’s forces been larger, it would have turned out a day of victory for the stouthearted defenders. But it was not to be.

A mighty shout went up from behind the defender’s position. It rang in the dell like thunder, and even the most dauntless among the knights felt his blood chilled. It was the howl of the raging Ningaal who had passed over Deorkenrill, now returning, summoned by the sounds of battle. In moments the Dragon King’s forces were surrounded and would have been swept away instantly; but Myrmior, ever alert to the unexpected, had saved one last trick.

The bearded seneschal, heedless of danger to himself, mounted a small hillock on the far bank and there stood waving his hands. At first it seemed there would be no response to his signal; no one seemed to heed the commander presenting himself so foolishly in the thick of fighting. But then there came a groan as if the earth were rending, tearing out its very bowels. A hush fell upon the startled invaders as they stopped still to listen and look around them.

In the silence another gargantuan groan trembled the earth, and another, filling the wood with an eerie thunder accented by shuddering pops and horrible creaks as if some ancient beast were shattering the bones of its gargantuan prey. And then the sky itself seemed to pitch and sway.

The first tree crashed to earth square upon the bodies of a troop of Ningaal too startled to move. Their comrades dodged aside, screaming, only to be met by the second tree, which fell at an angle to the first and stilled many voices as its branches crushed and pinioned all beneath it.

To the terror-stricken Ningaal, it seemed as if the forest were crashing down upon them. Many dropped their weapons and fled back across the river and into the forest, where they were dispatched with arrows. The third tree crashed down across the ford and blocked the retreat of those who sought to return once more the way they had come. A cohort of defenders chased the fleeing Ningaal and slew many as they ran screaming through the wood.

The terror inspired by this last trap was short-lived, however. Soon the iron-willed warlords had their men back in close command. With terrible efficiency the warlords bore down upon the sturdy knights, cutting through their faltering defenses, and the tide of the battle turned against the Dragon King’s forces. Still, though outmanned and exhausted, the staunch knights held their own through the middle hours of the day.

Teams of Ningaal, some with axes and some holding shields over their heads, began cutting down the trees wherein archers lay hurling death at those below. Thus protected, the Ningaal were able to fell the trees, if not completely stop the archers, who escaped at the last moment by swinging away on the ropes they had concealed among the vines. But the menacing warlords turned their attention to the armored knights now pulling their lines together along the far bank.

“It is time to flee,” said Ronsard breathlessly. He was bleeding from a dozen shallow wounds, and his face, beneath the blood and grime, was gray with exhaustion. “We have done all we can.”

Theido nodded. “Go now. Lead your men away. I will remain behind to cover your retreat and then follow you as soon as you are free.”

Myrmior appeared, white-faced and holding his arm while a crimson stain spread down his sleeve. “It is too late, my lords. Alas! I have just made a last survey of our position. We are surrounded on all sides. There is no escape.”

“We are completely cut off ?” asked Ronsard. The strength seemed to go out of him, and his sword fell to his side.

“I feared as much. There are just too many of them.” Theido turned his grim face away and called in a strong voice for the defenders of the realm to rally to him and prepare to make their dying stand.

In a few moments the remnants of the exhausted fighting force were dragging themselves together around the hillock where Theido stood with upraised sword. The Ningaal fell back to gather their numbers for the final onslaught. For a brief moment the clangor of battle died away.

“Brave knights of Mensandor,” said Theido, “you have fought well this day. You have proven the honor of your king and country. Your courage this day will be sung by men as long as deeds of valor are remembered.” The knights, some kneeling around him, raised their faces to his. Theido continued calmly.

“Let not the moment of death cheat you of the honor you have earned. It is but a little hurt, and then will come rest and sleep, and you will never again know pain. Have no fear, and stand boldly to the end.”

“For glory!” shouted a knight.

“For honor!” shouted several others.

“For king and kingdom!” shouted a chorus led by Ronsard, who came to take his place at the head of the warriors.

The knights raised themselves to their feet, lowered their visors, and turned to meet the enemy for the last time. The Ningaal, watching them from every side, paused for a moment. Then the four warlords raised their curved blades, and with a ferocious cry the Ningaal sprang forward once more into the fray.

“It’s better over quickly,” said Ronsard as the attackers swarmed them. “I have no regrets.”

“Nor I, my friend,” answered Theido, “though my heart is heavy at the thought of our country falling before these barbarians. But I have done all any man can.”

“Good-bye, brave friend,” said Ronsard. “Is this the dark road you warned me of ? How long ago it seems now.”

“It well may be. But wait!” He turned and mounted the crest of the hillock. “Trumpeter!” he cried. “Sound your call! Sound it until your last breath! Do you hear? Sound it, I say!”

He turned, his face shining and eager once more.

“Fight on!” he cried, throwing himself into the clash. “Fight on!”

Ronsard plunged after him, guarding his left, and the two men drove ahead, swords singing in the air as if they would single-handedly drive the invader from their shores. The knights around them, heartened by the example of their dauntless leaders, put their shields together and dug in. If death came now, it would find them brave soldiers to the end.

42

Quentin rose and stood looking across the polished surface of the Skylord’s Mirror. The deep of the night was upon the fair valley, and the moon now crouched low behind the western peaks of the Fiskills, firing their snowy caps with a white brilliance that reflected in the fathomless lake. Also reflected with startling clarity were the myriad of stars burning like pieces of silver fire in the black vault of heaven’s dome. The bright green of the valley was now gray in the subtle moonlight, and the leaping falls flowed down like liquid light, sending their ghostly mist to curl and eddy on the night air.

Across the distance Quentin could hear the falls splashing among the rocks at their base in a sound like laughter carried on the wind. It was the only sound that could be heard, for the valley was silent. Toli, Durwin, and Inchkeith were asleep, wrapped in their cloaks; they looked like lumps of earth or stone, so still and silent did they lie.

How long he stood looking, Quentin did not know. Time seemed to hold no particular meaning in the valley. But Quentin was suddenly mindful of another sound, or rather the impression of a sound, which had been present for some time. Perhaps it had awakened him.

The sound was a thin, high-pitched tinkling like needles dropping onto a stone floor. Or, he imagined, the sound of ice forming on a winter pool—if one could only hear it. The sound seemed to be coming from far above him. He turned his face to the sky and saw the Wolf Star, now shining directly overhead, filling the sky with blazing light, a light so bright it cast shadows upon the earth. The light made him cold, and Quentin pulled his cloak more tightly around his shoulders; but he could not take his eyes off the star.

It seemed to be moving, stretching, growing thinner and pulling other stars into its dance, for it swirled and shimmered in the blackness of the sky like a living thing. The stars melted together into a single shaft of light, cold and hard as ice. A thin, tapering shaft that stretched from the east to the west, from one end of the night to the other.

The tinkling was, Quentin realized now, the music of the stars, and the flashing shaft of light was the blade of a mighty sword.

In a twinkling Quentin realized he was seeing it: the Zhaligkeer.

The sword, its hilt of glittering golden stars with lordly jewels embedded—ruby, amethyst, topaz, and emerald—began to rise slowly, tilting upward as a sword lifted in triumph. Then the tip dipped and slipped and began falling through the black void of heaven, spinning as it fell, and flashing fire into the darkness.

The Shining One arrowed to earth in an arc of white fire. The brilliance of that plunge dazzled Quentin, but he looked on without flinching. The sword came to rest just above the peaks at the farther end of the valley where the Falls of Shennydd Vellyn poured out of the steep mountainside. It hovered there for an instant and then slid slowly down, as a sword sliding cleanly into its scabbard. There it remained for a moment, its glow diminishing rapidly and fading away in the sweeping mist.

When Quentin came to, he was staring at the falls, and the night lay deep around him. The mountains were sleeping, and he heard only the laughter of the rumbling water. But burned into his brain was the image of the sword. And without a whisper of doubt, he knew where he would find it.

“Durwin! Wake up!” Quentin whispered hoarsely. “Please wake up, or it will be too late!” He jiggled the sleeping hermit’s shoulder and then stood to look once more into the wreathing mist.

“What is it?” said Toli, rising up silently. “What has happened?”

“I have seen it—Zhaligkeer. I know where we will find it. Look! The falls! Do you see?”

Durwin mumbled and raised his head. “Oh, it is you, Quentin,” he said groggily. “It is bad luck to disturb the sleep of a hermit. I thought you knew that.”

“I have seen the sword. Zhaligkeer! I know where it will be found.”

“I do not see anything,” reported Toli, still looking toward the falls.

Quentin whirled and pointed with his left hand. “It is there. I—” A look of deep disappointment bloomed upon his face. “No, it has gone now. But it was there, I tell you! I saw it!”

Quentin was striding away hurriedly. “Wake Inchkeith, Toli.” The hermit sighed. “We will follow him. We seem to have no other choice.”

“Inchkeith is awake,” said the armorer. “What is the meaning of this fracas?”

“Quentin had a vision,” explained Toli as they leaped after him. “He says he has seen the Shining One and knows where it will be found.”

Quentin was leading them toward the falls along the grassy bank of the lake. The moon was down behind the mountains in the west, but their path was illumined by the unnaturally bright light of the Wolf Star. Quentin did not take his eyes from the falls ahead; it was as if he did not trust himself to remember what he had seen if he looked away for even an instant.

The others hopped along behind him; Toli darted back and forth from running beside Quentin to urging the others to a quicker pace. A breathless hour’s travel brought them near the base of the falls. Quentin was standing at the foot of the towering cascade when Durwin and Inchkeith came puffing up.

The roar of the waterfall did not sound like laughter now. It was a mighty rumble that inundated them and set their bones to quivering.

Quentin turned to them, his face glistening with the spray, mist curling around his shoulders and beading on his cloak like pearls that gleamed in the starlight. “There!” he said, pointing his good hand. “The entrance to the mines is up there.”

Durwin pulled on his chin. Inchkeith frowned. “Impossible! What do you propose to do? Swim up the falls like a salmon?”

Toli said nothing—only looked at the swirling, splashing water and at Quentin shrewdly. Durwin eyed Quentin closely. “I do not doubt what you saw. Let us see whether it answers the riddle. Let us see . . .” He put his finger in the air and opened his mouth to speak.

“‘When mountains sleep, sharp vigil keep; you shall see the way most clear.’”

“Yes, I have seen it! The sword fell from the sky and disappeared into the falls.”

“I thought you were not listening, but that is very good. Yes, and it fits, too. ‘When you hear laughter among the clouds.’”

“I heard it. The waterfall sounded like laughter.”

“Some laughter!” shouted Inchkeith. “I can hardly hear a word you are saying over the roar!”

Quentin ignored the remark. “‘Among the clouds’ . . . See how the mist forms the clouds. What else could it be?”

“Hmmm, yes,” agreed Durwin. “‘And see a curtain made of glass.’”

“The water is a curtain!” cried Quentin, his face shining and eager in the white light. “‘Take no care for hand or hair,’” he recited, thrusting out his hand. “It is wet!” He rubbed his hand through his hair. “And my hair is dripping, and so is my cloak. I am soaking wet.”

“So it is!”

“We are all soaking wet, and fools for it!” grumbled Inchkeith.

“‘Divide the thunder and seek the narrow way,’” continued Durwin. “Go through the waterfall? Do you suppose?”

“Of course! Yes! That is what I have been trying to tell you.”

“‘Give day for night, and withhold the light, and you have won the day,’” quoted Durwin. He looked around. “Well, it is night. But it could also mean that the entrance could only be seen in the darkness or that entering the mine in darkness would—”

“I see it!” called a faint voice somewhere above them.

“Toli!” said Quentin. “Where is he?”

The three looked around, but could see the plucky Jher nowhere. He had disappeared while they were puzzling over the clues of the riddle.

“Here!” he called again. They looked to the falls and suddenly Toli was there, stepping out of the tumbling water as from behind a shimmering curtain. He seemed to be standing on the sheer rock face of the cliff, or walking on the mist. “Come up here. Do not mind the water!” he said, and disappeared again.

Quentin was already running after him. Durwin and Inchkeith traded doubtful stares. “It seems all chances of a peaceful night have vanished,” sighed Durwin.

“And a dry one,” grumbled Inchkeith. “We may as well have our bath and be done with it.”

The two followed Quentin around the rocky edge of the pool at the base of the falls, where the water gathered churning and bubbling to spill into the stream that fed the pool in the center of the valley. The rocks were wet and slippery, making the way slow and laborious for the two older men. Quentin fairly skipped over the rocks and soon came to stand at the edge of the plunging torrent. Durwin saw him smile, look back over his shoulder at them, and then step into the churning water.

In a few moments they heard his voice calling down to them. “Do just as I did. I will wait for you.”

“After you, good hermit,” said Inchkeith. “I will follow in your wake. It’s only fitting. This is your expedition, after all.”

“So it is!” said Durwin. He took a deep breath and stepped into the glassy curtain of rushing water.

43

Courage, men!” Theido cried. “Fight on! Our deliverance is near!” The trumpet sounded a valiant note, piercing above the din of battle and the shrieks of the combatants.

And then a voice called out from above on the hill behind them. “It is the Dragon King! He has come! The Dragon King has come! We are saved!” The trumpeter, his grinning features shining and eyes wide with wonder, raised his trumpet once more and began to blow a strong and steady note of hope.

Those below him on the hill heard his words and turned their eyes to the dim wood beyond. A murmur passed among the beleaguered defenders like a spark through dry kindling. “The Dragon King is coming! We are saved! The Dragon King!”

Theido, too, raised his eyes to the wood. Faintly, as in a dream, he saw the glitter of gold and scarlet flicker among the shadowy branches of trees like dancing light. And then suddenly he saw it full and fair: the writhing, angry dragon, the king’s blazon, floating swiftly toward them, darting through the trees.

Others saw it, too. “The dragon! The king!” they shouted. And the dark wood rang with the sound of trumpets and the crash of knights on horseback surging through the forest. The Ningaal, surprised by this unexpected turn, fell back, breaking off the attack. One warlord wheeled his troop around to face the battle on the newer front. For a moment the Ningaal were divided.

“Strike, bold knights!” cried Ronsard. “Strike! Now!”

The knights, bruised and beaten and greatly reduced in number, surged ahead upon the points of their swords and sheer determination. The Ningaal before them, unable to meet the attack from both sides at once, scattered like leaves before the storm. In moments the stalwart band of defenders was surrounded, not by the enemy, but by comrades-in-arms. The bloodied knights lifted their swords with weary arms and cheered their king, while the fresh forces of the lords of Mensandor charged into the confused Ningaal.

Theido and Ronsard, battered and bleeding, stood leaning on their swords. “You are alive, thank the gods!” They looked up and saw Eskevar grinning down upon them from his great white charger.

“Yes, we had all but given up hope,” said Ronsard. “But Theido here thought differently.” The knight turned to his friend. “Another premonition?”

“No—well, perhaps in a way, I suppose. At first I thought it might hearten the men to hear our trumpet sound the call. And if there was a chance that anyone was passing near, they would hear and come to our aid. Where I came by that idea I cannot say.”

“However it was,” said Eskevar, watching with knowing eyes, “your clarion guided us to you forthwith.” He jerked his head around, and Theido caught a glimpse of the man that used to be—eager, strong, and quick to the heart of the battle. “You and your men fall back through the wood. We will take these and put an end to it here and now.”

“Sire!” The voice was Myrmior’s; he came running up from the thick of the fighting. Theido and Ronsard had not seen him since he had stood with them on the hillside. Once again he had unhappy news. “The Ningaal across the river are swarming over the barriers, now there are no archers to hold them back. Do not think you will crush them so easily. Even now they are working to gain advantage on two sides.”

“What?” Eskevar wheeled his mount around and rode a few paces away. In a moment he was back. “By the gods! These warlords are cunning wolves.”

“Unless you have brought more men with you than I see, I suggest we retreat while we have the means and the strength to do so.”

Eskevar glared at the panting seneschal. The afternoon light slanted sharply through the trees, but served only to heighten the dimness of the battlefield, most of which lay under gathering shadow. Clearly he did not like the idea of retreating from the first contact with the enemy; it rankled his fighting spirit. But his head wisely overruled his heart. “As you say, Myrmior. Theido, Ronsard, get your men behind us and take yourselves away toward Askelon!” The king shouted this last order over his shoulder as his charger sprang away.

Theido and Ronsard gathered the tattered remnant of their once-powerful force and left the field. The shouts and clamor died away behind them as they pushed back through the forest along the path Eskevar and his knights had forced through the wood. Though bone-weary and no longer able to lift their swords, the knights doggedly placed one foot in front of the other and dragged themselves away.

After they had walked nearly half a league, the forest thinned, and they came to a fresh-running brook. There they stopped to kneel and drink. Several of the knights among them knelt down, but could not rise again. Others stood teetering on their feet, afraid to stoop lest they, too, be unable to overcome the weight of their armor and succumb to exhaustion.

“We must press on,” said Ronsard, casting a worried eye around him. A few soldiers had splashed across the creek and now lay gasping on the other side. “If we tarry much longer, they will bury us here.”

“If we had horses, we would have a chance,” Theido said. “When Eskevar sounds the retreat, they will soon pass us by. A knight on foot is no knight at all. This armor was not made for marching.”

“I do not welcome the thought of being left behind when the army comes by. But look, Theido,”—Ronsard pointed across the brook to a clearing where a line of wagons rumbled toward them—“you have only to speak your mind and it is done. Today is your day, my friend.”

“It certainly seems so.”

In moments Eskevar’s surgeons were scurrying among them, removing gorgets and breastplates, greaves and brassards and mail shirts, attending to the wounds of the knights. The armor was collected by squires and taken to the waiting wagons. Other knights began calling for squires to come and help them strip off their armor, and once unburdened, they splashed their way across the brook and made for the meadow.

The sun was westering when Theido and Ronsard stepped into the lea. They had waited until all their men had been tended and had either walked out of the forest or had been carried out and placed in a wagon. Just as they stepped out of the wood, a cheer went up from the soldiers. Looking around, they saw several men leading horses. Unbelievably, they were their own chargers—the animals, separated from their riders during the fight, had headed toward home and had been collected by the squires. Many of the knights found their own mounts; others took the mount of a fallen friend.

“Be mounted, men!” shouted Ronsard happily. “To Askelon!”

They turned and rode west through the forest once more and were joined by the first of Eskevar’s retreating army, grim faced and sullen. Soon knights were streaming from the wood. Theido identified the devices and colors of the various lords: Benniot’s silver-and-blue double eagle; Fincher’s gauntlet of gray on a crimson field, clasping thunderbolts of white; Rudd’s red ox on sable; Dilg’s green oak above the crossed maces on a yellow field.

“I do not see Ameronis, Lupollen, or their party,” said Theido.

“Nor do I. Perhaps Wertwin will convince them yet. Let us hope so in any case.”

Theido swiveled in his saddle. “Where has Myrmior got to? I would thank him for his valor and sharp wit on the field today.”

“His will be the last blow dealt, if I know him at all.” He turned in the saddle and spied a rank emerging from the wood. “Here, Theido! Yonder comes Eskevar, and, yes, Myrmior is with him, and the lords.”

In a moment the other lords had caught the two knights. “Is the enemy pursuing?” asked Theido.

“Yes,” answered Rudd unhappily. Clearly he did not like retreating any more than the others, probably less. “But they are afoot for the most part. If we continue, we should outdistance them shortly.” He issued a challenge with his eyes to the others around him. “I say we should rally in the wood ahead and wait for them. We could—”

“We could foolishly allow ourselves to be cut to ribbons in the night,” said Myrmior savagely. Fire glinted in his dark eyes. He was angered and turned his horse away from the others and rode away after glaring at those around him defiantly.

“He speaks the truth,” sighed Eskevar. “We have underestimated this enemy from the beginning. We will do well not to try doing it twice in one day. Retreat to Askelon is the only cure for our malady, my lords. We will have little enough time to prepare for a siege; let us make best use of it.”

The march back to Askelon was somber and silent. It was dark when the army reached the plain below the castle, and though the moon had not yet risen, the ominous Wolf Star was burning brightly, shedding a chill light upon the land. That night the armies of the Dragon King felt the sting of that cold light. All regarded it bleakly, and strong men quaked inside with fear, for they knew an evil day had come.

44

Stepping through the waterfall was like stepping through a glass curtain. At the extreme edge where they entered, the tumbling water did not have the force it did in the center of the falls. Once through, the explorers found stone steps cut into a rock face that inclined away from the vertical plunge of the mountain wall. And though the steps were wet, and slimy with black moss, each was carefully carved, wide and broad so that with care no one need fall.

The steps led up under an overhanging roof of rock to a landing of sorts—a natural bartizan. There Durwin and Inchkeith found Quentin and Toli waiting for them as they came lumbering up the stairs.

“This is the lost mine, the secret of the Ariga!” exclaimed Quentin, his voice sounding hollow in the great mouth of the tunnel. “Look!” His left hand pointed ecstatically toward the near wall. In the near-total darkness Inchkeith looked and saw strange figures carved in stone, glowing with a pale golden light. He could not make them out; they appeared to be shapes of letters in some unknown hand. But looking at them made him think of men and mountains and the waterfall churning and rivers and trees and the fullness of the earth.

Durwin stepped to the wall and began tracing the inscriptions, which were deeply carved and looked fresh, as if the scribe had just laid away his chisel. The lines were straight and well formed, untouched by the weather or age.

Durwin began to read. “‘These Are the Mines of the Ariga, Friends of the Earth and All Living Things.’” Durwin turned to the others, smiling. “There seems no doubt but that we have found what we seek. Shall we go farther or wait until daylight to bring our provisions and tools up here?”

It was a needless question. The piercing look of bright expectation on Quentin’s face, and Toli’s quiet excitement, were enough to answer. “Very well, we can start at once. But we will need a light first. Someone must go back for the torches, so we may as well bring all the supplies at once.”

Quentin’s face fell a fraction. “Toli and I will go. You and Inchkeith may stay here, and we will return at once.”

Before Durwin could suggest another plan, they were off, dashing down the slippery steps of the falls two at a time. “We may rescue some sleep from this night yet,” observed Durwin with a yawn. “They will be gone a goodly time. We may as well rest while we can. I think it will be our last for a long while to come.”

They settled down against the far wall, and Durwin fell asleep almost at once. Inchkeith pulled his coat around him and breathed the cool, musty air of the deep earth that rose up from the mine shaft somewhere away in the blackness beyond. But sleep had abandoned him completely; he was wide awake and could not take his eyes from the wonderful inscription shining softly from the opposite wall. Even though it merely marked the entrance to a mine—such an ordinary thing—Inchkeith thought he had never seen anything so inexplicably beautiful.

A shout brought both men to their feet. Durwin rubbed his eyes. “So soon? So it is! I feel as if I just dozed off. How did they manage so quickly?”

He and Inchkeith hurried, with careful dignity, down the steps to the filmy curtain of water and stepped out into a night fading into a pearly dawn. The quick splash of cold water brought Durwin fully awake. “Brrr! Such a rude awakening!” he sputtered, clambering slowly down the rocks like an animal roused from hibernation.

Quentin stood untying bundles from a horse, and Toli was leading the other, loaded down with packs and tools. “I should have guessed,” said Durwin. “This night their feet would have wings. Well, let us begin. Our labor is before us.”

Inchkeith only nodded. He had been strangely silent since entering the mine.

In another hour’s time they had carried up all of the provisions and tools they would need. Quentin, with only one useful arm, had carried the most, making more trips than the others, so eager was he to begin the search. He had no idea what lay in the depths of the mine below, but it greatly heartened him to be once more where the Ariga had been and to see again the works of their long-vanished hands. Being here, his thoughts turned upward toward Dekra.

They piled all the baggage in the mouth of the mine and began dividing up the packs they would each carry. Inchkeith insisted on carrying his fair share, despite his deformity. Durwin allowed that he would need his strength to forge the sword and therefore should conserve his energy while he could—the way would be difficult enough. But Inchkeith would have none of it. In the end he gathered up his various implements, saying, “I carry my own tools, at least. No one touches this master’s tools but the master himself.” The anvil, bellows, and heavier items belonging to the forge were left behind at the mine’s entrance. The party was finally ready.

“Now, one thing more and we will begin,” Durwin announced. “While I light the torches, I want each of you to go back outside and look at the valley in the dawn. Unless I am far wrong, it will be some time before any of us sees the light of day again. I want you all to fill your hearts with a pleasant memory against the time when darkness crowds our way.”

They all went outside and gazed upon the bright green bowl of the peaceful valley. The morning light struck the curling mist with a golden radiance, and the mountains seemed crowned with flames of red gold. Shennydd Vellyn lay smooth and deep and undisturbed, mirroring the limitless blue of a clean morning sky brushed with the lacework of wispy white clouds.

The thin mountain air smelled sweet and fresh, vastly different from the dank, stale air of the mine. Quentin, though he appreciated Durwin’s suggestion as a wise one, was anxious to be off. While he gazed about him intently, his mind was so full of new excitement that he saw little. When they finally turned to go back into the mine, Toli was the last to tear himself away from the beauty before him.

One by one they ascended the tumbled rocks, wet with spray. One by one they approached the thunder of the falls. One by one they parted the shimmering curtain and stepped inside, into the darkness of the fabled mines.

Esme and Bria stood on the high barbican overlooking the gates of the castle and the town below, its buildings clustered like a flock of timid sheep in the shadow of its great protector. On this fresh morning, the narrow, cramped streets were rivers of moving color, all surging at flood stage toward the gates below. Out on the plain, as far as Pelgrin’s dark border, threads of travelers could be seen weaving their way to the city to join the streams moving into the castle.

“Those poor, weary people,” said Esme, her voice softened with awe. “There must be whole villages of people down there.”

“True,” replied Bria. “Fear is a swift messenger, is it not? Two days ago the lords returned from battle. Now look. Some of them have traveled day and night to get here. I would do the same in their place—what else can be done?” These last words were uttered with such hopelessness that Esme turned to her and took her by the shoulders.

“Bria, we are friends, you and I. Are we not?”

“Yes, of course. Why—”

“Then I must tell you something—as a friend would.” Esme searched her companion’s face and looked her in the eyes. Bria was startled by the directness with which this dark-haired beauty addressed her.

“Speak freely,” said Bria.

“We are women now, Bria. Royal women. There is no more room for girlish indulgences. You have eyes; you have seen. We are to endure siege here not many days hence. We must put away all thoughts of ourselves and begin thinking of others first. It must be done. We must be strong for the men who fight, for the people who will look to us for hope and encouragement, and only lastly for ourselves. For the sake of the kingdom this must be; our courage must be a flame which can kindle the hearts of those around us. That is a woman’s duty in time of war.”

Bria’s green eyes fell, ashamed. “Your words pierce me, fair friend. What you say is true. I have walked in proud misery these past weeks— ever since Quentin left. I have been selfish. I have shown myself to be afflicted by the fate that took our loved ones from us—though others had better claim to such recourse than I.” She raised her eyes once more to her friend’s.

“But no more, Esme, no more. You have spoken the truth as a friend ought. I will put away girlish airs and simpering. I will be strong that those around me will take strength, too, and not be at pains to cheer myself when there is more important work to do. I will be strong, Esme.”

Bria threw her arms around Esme’s neck, and the two young women embraced each other for a long moment. “Come, let us do what we can to see to the accommodations for the villagers seeking refuge within these walls,” suggested Bria.

They turned away from the barbican and began walking along the southern battlements. “I feel such a fool, Esme. Forgive me.”

“No, do not chide yourself. I did not speak so to reproach you, for you are far more tenderhearted than I.”

“If that were so, I should have been comforting you, Esme. You are far away from home, and no news has come of the fighting there or of your family. You must be worried.”

“I am, though it was part of my father’s plan to send me here and thus remove me from the threat of war. I honor him by holding to the course he set for me, though I am sure he scarcely guessed that mighty Askelon would fall under siege.”

Esme threw a guarded glance to Bria, then blushed and averted her eyes.

“What? Speak if you will. What is it?”

“Well, to tell you the truth,” said Esme slowly, “I have not thought of my own family as much as I have another.”

“Toli?”

“Yes, Toli.” She regarded Bria carefully. “Why? Is something wrong with that?”

“Oh no! Far from it, Esme. It surprises me a little, that is all. Toli is always so quiet, so invisible. I scarcely notice when he is around. But then, he and Quentin are inseparable, and since I only have eyes for Quentin, it should not surprise me that someone else sees in Toli something I do not.”

“Believe me, it was the furthest thing from my mind to lose my heart so easily. I was on an errand for my father, but in those days upon the trail and—Bria, you should have seen the way he protected me when we met the Ningaal. And afterwards, when I saw him alive again, my heart went out to him. I believe he loves me, too.”

Their talk had brought them to the great curtain that divided the inner ward from the outer. They stood looking down into the outer ward at the mass of people moving about, constructing tents and temporary lodgings for themselves. Cattle, pigs, and chickens had been brought along to provide food should the siege prove a long one. The warder and his men were scurrying around, directing the flow of humanity here and there, trying to keep the pathways open for soldiers who would be moving through.

“Can the castle possibly hold all these people?” asked Esme.

“I have never seen anything like it, though it is said that in the Winter’s War, a hundred thousand were besieged here all winter. But that was long, long ago.”

The lowing of cows and the squeals of pigs, intermingled with the general shouting and crying of peasants and villagers, created an overwhelming din. The princesses looked down upon the frightened populace and forgot their own cares, for in the pathetic confusion of the refugees, they heard small children crying.

“Are you sure you want to go down there?” asked Esme.

“I am sure. There may be little we can do for them. But that little shall be done.”

With that, they entered the southern tower and began descending the spiraled ranks of stairs into the noisy chaos of the outer ward.

45

The darkness was unlike anything Quentin had ever experienced. Far darker than the blackest night, it was a palpable thing, primitive and insistent. Almost as if alive, it crouched around each turn and on every side, waiting to smother all intruders in its velvet embrace. The torches they carried seemed fragile and ridiculous things, mere toys against an unrelenting foe of stupid, savage cunning.

Still, the spluttering pitch torches served somehow to keep this awesome darkness at bay, though they always seemed to be on the verge of guttering out completely and plunging their bearers into a void as black as death. Each person carried a torch except Inchkeith, who labored doggedly along, weighed down with his delving tools, as he called them. Durwin went ahead, relying on his sparse knowledge of Ariga mining lore to serve as a guide. Quentin, arm in sling but toting a large pack nonetheless, followed Durwin. Inchkeith hobbled along behind Quentin, and Toli brought up the rear, grinding his teeth with every step into the mountain’s black heart.

After walking for what seemed like days on end into the darkness along a low-roofed, wide corridor of solid stone, Durwin halted the party, saying, “No doubt you young men could go on walking this way until you wore the soles out of your boots. But I think it is time for rest. A bite to eat would not be unwelcome, either.”

“Take no thought for me, hermit. Do not stop on my account,” said Inchkeith. But Quentin noticed he loosened his pack all the same.

“It is not for anyone but myself that I sit down, sir. My feet tell me it is time to rest a bit, and my stomach agrees.”

They ate, and Quentin realized how hungry he was after all. As he munched, he wondered whether it was day or night outside. But in his mind he pictured it exactly the way he had seen it last. Durwin had been right— it was a useful thing to carry a little sunlight with one into this dark hole.

Toli ate little and said less. He had grown sullen and had withdrawn into himself, becoming, if it were possible, even more quiet than usual. Quentin pretended to take no notice of his friend’s behavior, for that would have only served to make it more painful to him. He knew precisely what was bothering Toli: the Jher did not like the smothering confines of the mine. It was a supreme act of bravery for Toli, born of a people who roam the earth at will, following the wild creatures, to have even entered the hateful place, which seemed to him worse than a grave.

And there was something of the same uneasiness that bothered Quentin, too. But in him it took the form of a puzzlement. The Ariga, whose every word was a visible, tangible song, had constructed a most unappealing mine shaft. Not that Quentin had expected the brightly colored, sweeping galleries of Dekra to be reproduced below, but he did anticipate something of their remarkable flair, which usually showed in even the most mundane articles of their everyday life, to be present here. All he could see was a black tunnel of stone that glistened in patches where water seeped down its sides.

“If I am not mistaken, we are still in the entrance shaft. Soon, I think, we will reach the first level. How many levels there are, I cannot say, nor on which one we shall find the lanthanil,” Durwin said. “We will search each level and every gallery until we find it. My own guess is that it lies very deep and that we must descend to the lowest level.”

At that Toli made a strange grimace, as if he were eating a most bitter fruit. Quentin would have laughed if it had been anyone else, but he knew how much this experience was torturing his friend. So he turned away and said to Durwin, “You mention the lanthanil. I would hear more about it, for all I know is what little you have said and what I remember from Dekra, which is so wrapped in legend as to be beyond belief.”

“Do not be certain of that. Yes, often the stories men recite about such things do grow in the telling. But the Stone of Light—that is what the word means, roughly translated—is a most fantastic substance. It has many exotic and powerful properties.”

“If tales are to be believed,” said Inchkeith, staring into the darkness, “hear this one. Many years ago my father was traveling the world with his father. He was but a small boy at the time, and they were seeking the secrets of weaponry and armor, of forging and forming rare metals, of setting gems in their bezels—all the craft which an armorer must know.

“In Pelagia they met a merchant who sold arms, and they became friends when the merchant saw a sample of my grandfather’s work. When the merchant realized that he was talking to a great craftsman, he took them into the back of his shop—for in that country they had stalls outside covered with awnings, and inside—where the merchants and craftsmen lived and worked—they kept the very finest articles of their trade. To be invited inside was a considerable honor.

“This merchant, a well-known and respectable man—I cannot recall if I ever heard his name—took them in and led them to a very small room in his large house. He unlocked the bolt across the door to this room and then led them inside. My father said it was very dark. He remembered the walls of the room were extremely thick and the door was very heavy, for it groaned on its iron hinges like a drawbridge.

“The merchant closed the door and brought out a casket from some hidden place and put it before them on the table. The case was bound with locks and chains, though it was but a small one. When he had unlocked it, he took out an object wrapped in cloth. My father said the object was not very large, and appeared to not be much in weight, for the man handled it with ease and with great reverence.

“The merchant did not speak, but unwrapped the cloth and revealed a chalice of surpassing beauty. But most remarkable of all—the thing my father remembered most clearly until the day he died—was the way it shone in the darkness, as if lit with an inner flame. He said he cried to look at it, it was so beautiful, but then, he was a small boy.

“He reached out to touch the shining cup, and the merchant pulled it away, saying that it was enchanted and to touch it with bare hands diminished its power. He said it was very old and its power was only a fraction of what it had been, but that it was still great. He said that cordials sipped from the goblet cured at once, that the very touch of it healed all infirmities.

“My father’s father then did a very unusual thing. As proud as he was of his work, he said he would give the merchant his finest dagger for one touch of the chalice for himself and his son. My father noticed the strange look which came over his father’s face as his voice pleaded. The dagger was finely wrought; it had a golden handle with rubies inset. It was worth a great deal, and yet the merchant hesitated.

“But in the end he relented and let them touch the chalice. My father remembered how the light that leaped from the exquisite cup lit his father’s face and seemed to infuse him with a new power of creating and a heightened understanding of his craft—though this was observed much later. When his father finally passed the chalice to him, he was afraid to touch it, but his father urged him to, and he did. He said he never felt such strength and wholeness, and nothing in his life ever moved him with such emotion after that. Though he was but a small boy, he knew even then that he would never recover that feeling or see such beauty again; so he treasured it in his heart.

“My father spent the rest of his life trying to achieve in his craft the beauty that he saw in that cup. And you know he lived far beyond the natural span of a man’s years. He always said it was because of the chalice and that had his father given a hundred golden daggers, it would have been but a paltry sum for the gift of that one touch.”

Inchkeith’s voice softened to a whisper. Quentin, Toli, and Durwin, too, sat rapt and staring in amazement at the story the armorer told. For a long time no one spoke, but at last Quentin broke the silence. “What became of your grandfather? How did it affect him?”

Inchkeith was slow in answering, and when he at last opened his mouth to speak, he turned eyes filled with sadness toward them. “His was not a happy fate. He, too, lived long and prospered. But he became obsessed with finding another chalice, or some other object made from the mysterious metal, and when he could not, he tried to make one himself. But he was always disappointed. For though his works became the most highly prized in all the realm, he was yet unsatisfied. He died bitter and broken, consumed with despair. Some said it was the despair that killed him in the end.”

“Did your father not share his fate, then?”

“To some degree, yes. He, too, was never satisfied with the work of his hands after having held the chalice. But you must remember he was a small boy. I believe his heart was yet innocent and untutored in the ways of the world. The touch of the chalice, rather than leading to bitterness in the end, inflamed him with a burning desire to seek that beauty. He died at last unfulfilled, it is true, but not unhappy for that.”

“Your story is most moving,” said Durwin. “I begin to see now why the Most High has chosen you to accompany us on this journey. It seems your family has some part to play here.” He looked around at them all and said, “Well, we have rested and talked long enough. Let us continue our quest. Onward!”

Slowly and painfully, they shouldered their burdens once more and lifted their torches to resume their long, slow descent into the mine.

If the outer wards were filled with the frenzy of frightened citizens, the inner wards were filled with soldiers feverishly preparing for the impending siege. A steady stream of soldiers marched from the base of the southern tower, emerging from the donjon with armloads of spears and bundles of arrows. Others, bent to the task in smaller groups, labored over objects of wood, rope, and iron on the ground; they were assembling the machines of war. Still others tied piles of straw into bundles and sewed heavy pieces of cloth and skins together.

Horses were led to the stables around the ward yard, where squires sat at whetstones sharpening sword, lance, spear, and halberd. Provisions, brought up from the town by the wagonload, were stacked away in kitchens and pantries by cooks and their helpers. Dogs chased cackling chickens and honking flocks of geese, while children, uninhibited by the danger and excited by the bustle of activity around them, ran and played, dodging the footsteps of their elders and staging pretend battles.

Eskevar roamed the battlements like a shade. He seemed to be everywhere at once. His commanders looked up to see him watching them as they drilled the troops; the donjon keeper found him inquiring about the level of water in the reservoir, dipping the measuring rod himself; the squires were instructed in better sharpening techniques by one whose hand bore the royal signet. At the end of the day, there did not seem to be anyone anywhere within the walls who had not seen him.

“Sire, I must protest!” exclaimed Biorkis, clucking his tongue. “Durwin would tell you if he were here, and so I tell you in his stead— listen to him if not to me: you must rest. Your strength is but half recovered, and your ride into battle has tired you. Rest, I say, and let your commanders make ready all that is necessary.”

Eskevar fixed him with a baleful stare. “You little guess the danger gathering at our gates. Who is there to see to those preparations if not the king?”

Biorkis, well warned by Durwin regarding the obstinate pride of his patient, did not flinch from his duty. “What good will you be to your people when you lie exhausted on your bed, unable to even lift your head, let alone wield a sword or shout a command? Rest now while you may.”

The king frowned ferociously. “I am sound enough, I tell you! My strength is none of your concern.” Even as he spoke, he tottered uncertainly.

“How so, Sire? It is now the concern of every man and child in the realm who would see his king deliver him from the hand of the enemy. You need rest. Gather your strength that the day of the trial does not find you enfeebled.”

“Enfeebled! The way you talk! And to your king, by the gods!” Eskevar snapped. His face darkened in such rage that Biorkis thought it best not to press the matter further for the moment. “There is much to do, and someone must see to it that it is done well,” Eskevar growled as he went out again. Biorkis did not see him the rest of the day, though he waited near Eskevar’s chamber for the king to return.

46

It was strange to wake in the vast darkness of the mine. When Quentin opened his eyes, he did not know that he had opened them at all. The sensation of blindness was so overpowering that for a moment Quentin’s heart clenched in his chest until he remembered where he was and how he had come to be there. Just to make sure, he winked both eyes several times, but could discern no difference. So he lay on the hard, uneven stone and waited, not inclined to bump around in an attempt to light a torch. From the deep, regular breathing that filled the chamber’s towering silence, he knew the others were still asleep. He would wait.

They had made two more long marches before fatigue overtook them, and Durwin decided they must sleep before moving on. They had reached the first level shortly after they had stopped to rest and eat the first time. The corridor with the low roof had ended in a steep incline that emptied upon a room of interminable size, judging by the echoes the stony walls flung back at them when they spoke. But they had no light to see how large the room was, for the torchlight failed to illuminate its farthest dimensions.

They had crossed the great room, passing huge columns of reddish stone carved of the rock of the mountain’s core, rising out of the floor like monstrous trees sweeping from the ground, their tops lost in the inky blackness above. Quentin counted twenty pillars before they reached the far end of the room, which tapered to a huge arch through which they passed. The arch bore the unmistakable marks of having been made by Ariga stonecutters. Quentin would have liked to stand and admire it, but they passed quickly on.

The next corridor was more difficult to navigate than the first. It was wider and its roof higher, allowing for more freedom of movement, but numerous shafts and galleries opened off it, often abruptly and at slight angles. It forked in several places, splitting off to the right and left. Sometimes they would pass by an opening that Quentin could not see until he felt a chill breeze on his face and smelled the dank, musty odor of stale air and stone. Once they crossed a stone bridge that arched across a wide crevice, splitting the floor before them in a sharp divide. On the bridge, Quentin felt a warm updraft and guessed that the rift was the chimney of some subterranean fire eternally blazing.

Each time Durwin came to a fork or a turn that offered a choice of paths to follow, the hermit elected to take the one that promised a downward course. He admitted he had no precise notion of what they were looking for, but had the idea that the highly prized ore they sought lay at the deepest levels of the mine.

They had rested in a curious domed chamber on the far side of the stone bridge. They talked among themselves at first, but somehow— through fatigue, or through the wearing oppression of the deep darkness— the conversation seemed to dry up like a trickle of water in the desert sand, vanishing slowly without a trace of its having ever been there.

Though tired, and aching from the weight of the packs they carried, they had decided to press on. The slope of the downward track increased dramatically once they left the domed chamber. With the extra weight they carried on their shoulders, the falling grade impelled them onward at a faster pace than they would have normally had strength or inclination to attempt. The result was that they reached the second level in what seemed no time at all.

Quentin knew they had been walking for some hours when they tumbled into the enormous cavern that formed the central chamber of the second level. But time had ceased to function in its normal way. Hours collapsed and minutes stretched out incredibly until it seemed that time had no meaning at all unless it was measured in footsteps or in tunnels passed.

They had been walking in silence, each wrapped in his own thoughts as in a hooded cloak from head to toe, when Quentin felt a touch at his elbow that caused him to jump in fright, nearly dropping his torch. “Toli! You scared me. I did not hear you creeping up behind me.”

“Excuse me, Kenta. I did not mean to alarm you.” He looked at Quentin with large, shining eyes as deep as fathomless pools. For a moment Quentin was reminded of the time, long ago it seemed now, when he had met a young Jher in the forest, dressed in deerskins and peering at him with the soft, wary eyes of a wild creature. The look Toli gave him now was exactly as it had been then. With a sudden creeping sensation, Quentin imagined Toli had entered some more primitive state. Looking at those large, dark eyes glittering in the quavering light of the torch was like looking into the eyes of a wild and frightened animal.

“What is it, Toli? Is something the matter?” Quentin spoke in barely a whisper.

Toli stared around him in a strange, wide-eyed way. When he spoke again, it was with a quivering voice on a strange note that Quentin had not heard before in his friend. Toli appeared poised and ready for flight; Quentin feared that he might suddenly dash off into the darkness, never to be seen again. “My people do not love dark places,” said Toli. “We have never lived in caves. In ages before this one, when holes and caves were home to many men, my people lived in the forest and made their homes in the light.”

The way he spoke made it seem that Toli was offering a deeply personal confession. Quentin did not know what to think.

“There are still those among us who speak of the times of the cave dwellers,” continued Toli. “Some even have been inside caves when they have come upon them in the forest. But I have never been.”

All at once Quentin realized what Toli was trying to tell him. And he realized what strength it had taken for the Jher to follow him into this dark place. To Toli it was not a mine; it was an ancestral taboo that he was willing to put aside, out of love for his friend. But the darkness and the endless walkways of stone boring ever deeper into the bowels of the earth had at last stripped Toli of the veneer of civilization he had acquired living with his Kenta. He was the Jher prince once more, wild as the free creatures of the Wilderlands.

“We will soon be finished here, Toli. Do not fear. You will see the living land once again, and very soon.” Quentin felt the emptiness of his words. The more so when Toli turned an uncomprehending, glassy stare upon him and seemed not to recognize him at all. Quentin had the odd feeling that he was looking at a stranger whose face was as familiar as his own. The Toli he knew had vanished.

“Delnur Ivi, Toli,” Quentin murmured as they trudged along, repeating the words over and over by the flickering torchlight. He had racked his brain for some smattering of the Jher speech he could use, and that was what he had come up with. Delnur Ivi. Hold on . . . hold on.

Quentin rolled over in the darkness and was startled to see a faint light bouncing toward him out of the formless void. It seemed to float or swim in the darkness, and it blinked like the eye of some cave beast that had happened upon their trail and was now stalking them. He watched as the light grew brighter by degrees.

Quentin sat up, wondering whether to wake the others and warn them. He heard the shuffling footsteps of someone coming down the passageway toward the chamber where they had huddled to sleep. But even as Quentin framed the thought, the feeling of danger passed. He waited, and presently the light burst through the arched entrance to the chamber, filling the room, or so it seemed to Quentin’s light-deprived eyes, with a sun-like brilliance.

“So it is! You are awake, Quentin. Come with me. I want to show you something.”

“But the others—”

“Let them sleep. It is not far. Come along.”

Quentin stood stiffly and found at once how sore his feet were. He padded after Durwin, who lifted the torch high so both could use it as they entered once more the main tunnel they had been following on their last march. Presently they came to a small arched entrance in the side of the passageway. Durwin stopped and said, “I have been wandering long up and down this gallery. I only saw this when I was returning to the chamber to sleep a little while ago. I decided to try it. Follow me.”

Quentin, curiosity piqued, stooped and ducked under the arch. At once they were in the uncomfortably close confines of a low and narrow wormhole tunnel that twisted and turned with barely enough room for a man to stand erect.

The tunnel fell away steeply, far more rapidly than Quentin thought safe; it seemed as if the tunnel would suddenly pitch down and he would find himself falling into a bottomless well. But Durwin seemed to have no fear, lurching along as quickly as his legs would carry him. So Quentin kept his fears to himself and followed dutifully along.

They came to a narrow place at the end of the tunnel. But Quentin saw Durwin turn sideways and disappear into a crack just wide enough to squeeze through. He, too, turned his shoulders and, holding his breath, scraped through the thin opening. As he came through, Quentin felt Durwin’s hand on his arm; the hermit stooped and lay down the torch so that he could see that he only stood on a narrow ledge.

Then Durwin smiled at him in the glow of torch, his face gleaming with ferocious glee. “What is it, Durwin?” asked Quentin. He felt a thrill of excitement tingle along his spine. Quentin heard his own voice fall away from him, and he knew he must be standing before an enormous chasm.

“What is it? What is it indeed!” laughed the hermit. “I will show you.” Durwin’s voice sounded empty and metallic as it reverberated through the dark open space before them. Quentin crowded closer to the rock wall at his back.

The hermit took the torch and with a mighty heave sent it spinning off into the darkness beyond.

“No! Wait!” cried Quentin. His cry echoed back to him across a great distance. The torch tumbled and spun as it fell and fell, and Quentin saw the reflected flash of the fire on smooth surfaces as it plunged and at last was extinguished in a splash that sounded like ice splintering on a newly frozen pond.

“Watch,” said Durwin breathlessly.

Quentin could see nothing and worried about the torch. How were they to find their way back again? But then a strange and wonderful thing happened.

As he watched, he imagined that he saw the stars of heaven come peeping out, one by one, into the darkness surrounding them. At first these stars were but the tiniest slivers of light, but they began to grow. “What . . . ?” began Quentin. He never finished the thought.

Above him the vaulted roof of the enormous chamber began to shine with a soft amber luminescence that blushed pink like a winter sunrise. The far walls held glimmering green traces like liquid light streaking down. The floor of the cavern far below shone with its own ghostly light in irregular splotches here and there, in seams of blue and gold. Within moments—though to Quentin it seemed like the slow dawning of day—the vast chamber was radiating light from all sides, and Quentin was swept away with incredulous joy.

“Durwin,” he whispered.

“Yes, Quentin. We have found it. It is the lanthanil.”

47

By the fierce light of the Wolf Star, the sentinels watched them coming. Although it was the sixth hour of the night, the cold glow of the awful star cast a light as bright as the day upon the plain. The star had grown to fill the entire eastern sky, obliterating all lesser lights. And by the light of their savage star the Ningaal came to Askelon.

A messenger was dispatched to bring the king; he had ordered that he be notified, whatever the hour, when the enemy approached. The courier had scarcely left the battlements when he was back with Eskevar, grim and glowering in his sable-lined cloak, his golden dragon brooch and chain glittering in the streaming light. The embroidered silver figure of the dragon could be seen writhing on the back of the hooded cloak as it swirled out behind him. The king was wearing tall, red boots, and his sword hung at his side; those who saw him knew that he had not been to bed that night, but had been waiting and was ready to meet the enemy.

They were still a long way off as Eskevar glared defiantly out into the unnatural light. “Come to Askelon, you barbarian horde!” spat the king Eskevar. “Come and meet your doom!”

The commanders who had gathered around him exchanged worried glances, for Eskevar’s countenance burned with a feverish mien like that of a ravening wolf. He cocked his head to them and said, “Rudd, there. And you, Dilg, and Fincher. The dragon sleeps while the enemy draws closer. He is under the hill, sleeping in his hall of stone, but not for long. He will awaken and defend his home. Never has the hand of an invader touched these walls, and none ever shall. The dragon will stop them. Yes, the dragon!”

The lords nodded in silence, afraid to break in on the king’s ravings. Eskevar gripped the stone crenellation with both hands as if he were holding up the walls with his bare hands. “See how they come,” he said slowly, every word ringing clear. “I feel their hated feet upon the land. I feel their evil intent deep in my inmost parts. But the dragon’s heart is in me; it is of iron. I am not afraid.”

The lords shrank away from the Dragon King. Even those who had served in the wars against Goliah had never seen him so. His eyes started from his head and his mouth was taut; his high, noble brow shone smooth and tight in the starlight.

“This is a wonder, is it not, my lords? Look upon it. See how willingly they come to the slaughter. See the accursed marching to their destruction. But have no pity for them, my lords. They deserve what they shall receive. They shall be cut down.”

“This night is chill, Sire,” said Rudd. He spoke hesitantly, for a number of soldiers had gathered around and were murmuring over the king’s behavior. If it was to be whispered about that the king had lost his senses, their soldiers could not be expected to fight as they should when the time came. “Perhaps we should all wait within for a little. I would talk with you about our defenses.”

Eskevar turned to them as if seeing them for the first time. “Eh? What is that you say?” He passed an unsteady hand over his brow, now beaded with sweat. Rudd felt a shudder shake the king’s frame as he placed his hand on his elbow.

“Yes, come with us and tell us what orders you intend for us,” urged Dilg, taking the king’s other arm.

The two led him away from the battlements, and the other lords followed after dismissing the crowd that had gathered, saying, “Go to your posts. We will be in council with the king.” Then they hurried after Eskevar and his escort so as not to raise suspicion among those who watched them pass.

Upon reaching the turret of the western tower, they were met by Queen Alinea, stepping out from the deep shadow of the doorway. “My queen,” said Rudd. She read at once the sheepish looks of the nobles.

“Eskevar, I was just looking for you. Dismiss your commanders for yet a little while; let them go to their men. Or if you will, allow them to gather in the council chamber. I would talk with you, my husband. There is much to discuss before this night is through.”

“Yes, Sire. We will talk soon. Send us back to our men that we may stir them to boldness with high words.”

Eskevar did not notice what was being said. He only looked at his wife, who linked her arm in his and steered him back into the tower. “Yes, go to your men. Tell them we must be ready. We must be ready.” The king turned away, his face white in the glaring light of the star. The lords of Mensandor, glad to be relieved of the responsibility for the king, though sick at heart for his most unusual condition, hurried back to their posts to reassure their men that the king was sound and would lead them when the time came. But in their hearts they wondered.

They stood on the floor of an enormous vault at the very roots of the mountain. Quentin stared wide-eyed like a child, blinking in utter disbelief. The magnificence of the chamber was beyond his ability to form words to give utterance to his thoughts. Toli, too, stood by him in mute wonder at the splendor of the subterranean treasury, for treasure it was.

Inchkeith had shouted for joy and gamboled like a kid down the long, winding ledge where they had entered the vault. He still darted here and there examining first one kind of ore formation, and then another. Durwin, by contrast, seemed almost sedate and restrained. But he was as excited as the others, Quentin knew. His jubilance took the form of speech—Durwin had not stopped talking since they had entered the vault the second time, bringing Toli and Inchkeith.

Quentin turned to the hermit, who was babbling about the various devices the Ariga had used to mine the lanthanil, and asked, “What was that you said about some sort of collapse at the main entrance?”

“Collapse? Oh, yes. I found the main entrance to this room, this castle, with no trouble. Our path led straight to it. But it was blocked by a fall of stone.” He turned around, searching for the entrance, spied it, and pointed out across the expanse toward an opposite wall. “There, see all that rubble? It is there the entrance lies.”

Quentin saw a tumbled mass of rock slabs and boulders, some as big as houses, that looked as if the tunnel had collapsed. “What happened there?” he asked.

“I can only guess, of course, but I imagine the Ariga blocked it off for some reason. They were far too skillful as miners to have allowed such a catastrophe to happen accidentally. I think they intended it. There came a time when they decided to close off this particular part of the mine.”

“This part? This is where the lanthanil is.”

“So it is! They had a reason for it; of that you can be certain. What that reason was I cannot say, any more than I can say how the Ariga vanished, or where they went. But leave it they did . . . for us to find.”

“But it would have taken us years to dig through that confusion at the entrance. What made you think there would be another way in?”

“I do not think they determined to keep everyone out—just the curious, the fortune hunters and desecrators.”

“I would never have thought of trying that hole in the wall. It looked like a drop to certain death to me. How did you think of it?”

Durwin smiled and shrugged. “I do not know. But if you believe that it was meant for us to find it, then we would have found it in any case. If the Most High had so wished, the mountains would have opened up before us!”

Toli had been scraping around the mounds of stone that sloped up from the floor, and he came gliding back to where Durwin and Quentin were talking. “Come with me,” he said, pulling them away. “I have found something!” He ran away again with Quentin and Durwin tagging after him. As they rounded the heap of stone, Toli pointed to something that shimmered in the glowing light of the cavern.

“What is it?” asked Quentin, bending to get a better look.

“I think it is an anvil,” Toli answered.

“An anvil like none I have ever seen.”

“That is because it is gold! And look at these.” The Jher stooped and began picking up objects from the floor, where they were arrayed as if waiting for the master to return and take up his work once more.

“Let me see those.” Inchkeith pushed in and took two strange-looking objects from Toli. He turned them over in his hands and tested their heft.

“What are they? Tools?”

“Exactly,” replied Inchkeith. His face shone with excitement. “But such tools! These are the tools of a great master craftsman. And they are made of gold, too. Imagine—thinking so little of gold that you would make tools of it! They are of very old and unusual design, but I can readily perceive their purpose. And look—here is a hammer.”

“I recognize that at least. But it must be very heavy, and much too soft for a hammer.” Quentin took the hammer from Inchkeith and tried it. The golden hammer was not as heavy as he expected; in fact, it was only slightly heavier than a hammer made of iron.

“Lanthanil can be worked with tools of any kind,” the armorer explained. “It is wonderfully malleable. But gold does not diminish its power. Gold is the only substance which does not transmit the power of the metal. And the Ariga no doubt used a secret alloy to strengthen the gold for use as hammer and anvil.

“It was foolish of me to have brought those.” Inchkeith gestured toward the pile of baggage that lay stacked on the floor a few paces away. “Between these”—he shook the tools in his hand—“and the forge yonder, we have everything we need.”

“The forge?” Quentin looked around. “I do not see a forge.”

“There, set in the wall. Mind you, it does not look like one of our forges; it is more like a shrine. But I can tell what use it had. It is a forge.”

Quentin felt very small and insignificant in the magnificent chamber. He turned his eyes once more toward its huge dome, glowing amber and green, and to the walls streaked with blue and violet veins, and to the floors suffused with red-gold and rose. He felt like a thief in a king’s treasury, who might be caught at any moment and thrown out.

“Now, then. Here are the tools and anvil. The forge is close by. We lack only the ore and we can begin,” said Durwin.

The words shook Quentin out of his reverie. He had forgotten all about their reason for coming, so taken was he with the otherworldly beauty of the Ariga vault. “Begin?”

“Yes,” Durwin laughed. “We have a sword to make!”

48

No,” instructed Durwin. “These will not do.” He handed two shining green rocks back to Toli, whose eyes sparkled as he looked at them. “Neither green, nor amber, nor blue, red, nor even gold is suitable. Perhaps for chalices and utensils and the like, but not for the Zhaligkeer. The Shining One must be made from white lanthanil, for it is the most rare and possesses the greatest powers.”

Quentin looked around. “I wondered why so much of the precious rock lay about. It was the white the Ariga prized most.”

“So it is! We will have to delve for it if we are to fashion a sword,” Durwin stated. “For I have not seen a showing of white since we entered here.”

“Nor have I.”

At Inchkeith’s suggestion they spread out, each to a different quarter, to search for a vein of white ore among all the rainbow traces of colored lanthanil. Inchkeith schooled them on what to look for and how to go about it, so that at the end of several hours’ search, they were well acquainted with the methods of the miners. But by the end of the entire day’s search, they were no closer to having found a speck of the rare white ore.

The next day’s search brought nothing but sore fingers and knees to the miners. The following day was the same. Quentin considered these periods of activity to be days since they were bound on each side by intervals of rest, but how long in duration they were, he could not say. At the end of it, as they sat before the small fire Toli had made in a ring of stones, frustrated and longing for sleep, Inchkeith grumbled to himself— a habit he had fallen into of late.

“What was that?” asked Durwin.

“Nothing,” growled Inchkeith. He raised his cup once more to his mouth.

“You said something about the water,” replied Durwin. “I think I would like to hear it again.”

“I said this water tastes as stale as stone!” Inchkeith glared at the hermit with a look of smoldering exasperation.

“I think you may be right,” said Durwin, tasting his water. “Very like stone.”

“What is so odd about that?” inquired Quentin. He believed they were all beginning to show signs of strain and exhaustion. “We have been drinking this water for two days.”

“Yes,” added Toli, “ever since we emptied the skins we brought with us.”

“Where did you fill them, Toli?” asked Durwin eagerly, leaning forward in the light of the fire.

“Why, at the pool over there. Just below where we entered. But it is safe enough. I tested it myself and found no ill effect. It is stale because it has been so long in the cave, away from sun and air.”

“Then the pool is not fed by a spring?”

“I should say not. If it were, perhaps the water would have a fresher taste.” Toli looked narrowly at Durwin.

“Why this sudden interest in our water? We have been drinking it some little while, as Toli says. It has brought no harm.” Quentin shrugged, and as a show of confidence in Toli’s judgment, he drained his cup.

Durwin stood abruptly. “Take me to the pool.” No one moved. “At once!”

Toli rose and led him off. Inchkeith and Quentin stared at one another, mystified. “Well, we might as well trail along after them as wait here. I am ever amazed at the notions that hermit takes into his head. There will be no sleep until he is satisfied anyway.”

So the armorer and Quentin followed the figures receding in the glowing half-light of the great vault. When they caught up with them, Durwin and Toli were down on hands and knees, peering into the ebony depths of a pool whose surface looked as hard and polished as black glass.

“No, I cannot see anything,” sighed Durwin. “But I think we must try.”

“Try what?” asked Quentin.

“I cannot be certain,” began Durwin. “But . . .” He hesitated.

“Out with it, you pesky hermit. What do you suspect?”

“Only this, and it is a forlorn guess—that it would be very like the Ariga to further conceal their prize in a way that did not altogether hinder discovery.”

“You think it is in the pool?” Quentin knelt and stared into the water in disbelief.

“Perhaps,” intoned Durwin. “I did not say for certainty that it was.”

“Bah!” said Inchkeith. “This is seepage water, nothing else. You will find nothing down there.”

“Oh, do not be so sure. Have you seen any seepage or running water since we entered the mine?”

“A little, of course.”

“Very little, sir. The Ariga miners knew their craft—far better than any miner living today. Water is a constant danger in a mine. But as you yourself have seen, no such hazard threatens this mine; the Ariga had ingenious ways of disposing of it. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that this pool is here for a purpose.”

“Of a purpose or no,” Inchkeith said, squinting into the fathomless depths, “how do you propose to delve down there?”

Durwin shook his head and stood. “That I do not know. But let me sleep on it. Perhaps something will come to me in my dreams.”

They all went back to the place where Toli’s fire still burned and pretended to try to sleep. But the attempt was far from effective because each had fallen prey to the puzzle of the pool: how to remove the water. So each tossed and heaved under their cloaks and thought about nothing but the pool and the white lanthanil that might lie buried in its black depths.

At last Quentin sat up and said, “It is no use. I cannot sleep, and if my ears tell me anything, they tell me no one else is sleeping either. We may as well talk about it.”

“You are right,” grunted Inchkeith. “There will be no rest until we have solved the riddle of how to get ore from a puddle.”

“So it is,” Durwin said, rising up. “Has anyone thought of a way?”

Blank stares met over the fire. It was clear that no one had any idea of how the mining operation might proceed.

Slowly Toli got to his feet. “There is only one way,” he said. “I must go down there.”

Silence followed the pronouncement. Toli’s features had become a mask of fear and revulsion such as Quentin had never seen on his friend before, not even in battle. “Toli, there is no need; we will find another way.”

“What way would that be?” Inchkeith muttered.

“We could drain it, or . . .” Quentin could not think of another way to suggest.

“You see, my way is best,” said Toli softly. He appeared as a man going to his death.

“But—,” Quentin started to object.

Durwin stopped him, saying, “No, I believe Toli is right. His is the only way. I see no reason to talk about it any longer. We might as well get on with it since no one feels like sleeping.”

“No!” Quentin protested. “I will not hear of it, even if Durwin thinks it is the only way. If anyone must go, let it be me. It is supposed to be my sword, after all.”

“Think of what you are saying.” Durwin turned a steady gaze on Quentin that made him feel like a small child. “Are you fit to swim and wield a pick underwater? With your arm, what could you do?”

Durwin continued, “Who of us better than Toli? Inchkeith? Myself ? No. Toli is right. He is the only choice. Of all of us, he has the best chance of succeeding.”

“Then I will go with him,” said Quentin hotly.

Durwin shrugged. “You may be of some help. All right. Let us begin.”

Within a short time they were ready. Toli and Quentin stripped off their clothes and, wearing only their leather baldrics—to which had been attached long ropes, tools, and on an inspiration from Inchkeith, small pieces of glowing lanthanil so that they might be seen as they descended and worked in the inky depths—they stood on the brink, looking morosely into the pool as if Heoth himself waited below to embrace them in his icy grasp.

Durwin and Inchkeith held the ends of the ropes. “Remember, you have but to tug on the rope and we will pull you up in an instant. Do not try to swim—save your energy and lungs. It will allow you to work longer. The weight of the tools you carry should take you down quickly enough. Save your strength, both of you.”

Toli said nothing. His countenance had hardened into features as cold and unreadable as the stones of a castle wall. Whatever he felt inside had been pushed far back into some remote corner of his being.

“This is a brave thing you are doing, my friend.” Quentin put a hand on Toli’s shoulder and felt the tenseness of the Jher’s muscles. “Do not worry. I will be beside you.”

Toli nodded briefly, never lifting his eyes from the pool. Then he took one step, and sank out of sight with scarcely a ripple. Quentin took a deep breath and followed, clutching his injured arm to his chest so that it would not float awry.

The shock of the icy water upon his bare skin almost caused Quentin to gasp at once. It felt like ten thousand dagger points tearing at his flesh. He swallowed air into his stomach, and bubbles spouted from his nose. An instant later he was numb to the icy assault of the chilling water. He opened his eyes as he drifted down and down into the black, silent, dreamlike void. He looked up to see the faintly luminescent glimmer of the cavern above as it receded and dimmed with his descent.

Close beside him Quentin could feel Toli’s presence, though he could but faintly see his friend. At three spans or so below the surface of the water, they reached a sharp overhang and felt along this shelflike projection with their feet, almost walking along it, until it dropped off again. Underneath the shelf was a great hollow, or that was the impression Quentin received, for he could see nothing at all. Even the dim glow above was now obliterated beneath the overhanging rock ledge.

It was with some surprise that Quentin’s feet touched smooth rock once more. Whether it was another rock ledge or the bottom of the pool he could not tell. But here it was that Toli decided to begin searching for the elusive white ore. Quentin felt a slight swirl of movement beside him and knew that Toli was inching forward toward the wall that he imagined was directly before them.

Quentin made to follow and immediately stubbed his toes against a lump of rock. The sudden pain caused him to lose some of his air as he stumbled awkwardly and slowly to his knees. With grace and ease he righted himself and weightlessly followed Toli, whose belt of glowing lanthanil he could just see before him.

Toli had reached the rock wall, and with a jarring bump Quentin reached it too. They had only been underwater for a few moments, though already it seemed like hours to Quentin. He wondered how Toli was taking it. Another swirl of movement, followed by a small clink, and he realized that Toli had wasted no time or motion and was already picking away at the surface of the rock face with one of Inchkeith’s handpicks.

With his good hand Quentin fumbled at his baldric for a tool and followed Toli’s example. He picked blindly away with the slow, cushioned movement of the swimmer. He could hear, like the clink of coins struck together, the tap of their tools upon the rock. After but a moment of this exertion, Quentin’s lungs began to burn, and he reached out to signal to Toli that he was going up for air. Toli acknowledged his signal with one of his own. Quentin tugged on the rope and stepped back away from the rock wall. All at once he began ascending rapidly—so much so that he had to kick furiously in order to avoid the overhanging shelf above.

With a fizz of bubbles and a gasp, Quentin bobbed to the surface. Durwin and Inchkeith were peering down at him intently. “It is c-cold as ice down th-th-there!” Quentin chattered involuntarily.

“Can you see anything?” asked Durwin, ignoring the temperature report. “What is down there?”

“There is a rock ledge three or five spans below me here. Just under that is a space large enough for a man to stand and work. Whether it is the bottom or not, I cannot say. Toli is still there, but he should be up for air shortly.”

“That sounds as good a place as any to begin looking,” said Inchkeith eagerly. Quentin thought the old armorer would gladly have changed places with him if offered the chance; his face gleamed in the soft light of the vault with a glaze of intense anticipation.

“Toli is staying down too long,” observed Quentin. He ducked his head beneath the water, but could catch no sign of Toli’s glowing belt surfacing. Inchkeith still held Toli’s rope slack in his hands.

“I shall fetch him; he has been down long enough.”

“Yes, go and see what is keeping him. No need to overexert his lungs, even if he can swim like a fish.” Durwin began paying out rope again, and Quentin dropped at once back into the cold, silent viscid world of the pool. Once below the rock ledge, Quentin could see the dimly shining belt of Toli just below. He pushed on as quickly as he could and approached his friend in long, weightless strides.

Quentin felt in the water for Toli’s shoulder and, touching it, turned the Jher around. But Toli turned away again, and Quentin felt the swirl of motion and heard the odd, faraway clink that meant Toli was continuing with his picking.

Quentin, becoming worried for his friend, thought to grab Toli’s rope and tug it himself and so get him hauled to the surface whether he wanted to go or not. As he reached for the rope, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw a very faint spidery crack appear in the rock wall, as if a shining web of delicate silken strands was glowing there. He took up his own pick and, following Toli’s lead, began chopping away at the rock before them, leaving Toli to his own judgment.

In a moment the black wall of rock before them crumbled away with a flash of silver, and there before them, blazing like the sun with cold brilliance, opened a vein of white lanthanil two hands wide.

Toli, quick as a snake, reached out and placed his hands on the radiant stone, and Quentin saw, in the inundating glare that so suddenly shone forth, Toli transformed. It seemed to Quentin, feeling so cold and unnatural in this watery grave of a place, that Toli suddenly appeared larger, stronger, and more noble.

He had little time to wonder about what he saw, for Toli was already hammering at the stone and breaking off a big chunk of the precious rock. Quentin had hardly blinked his eyes when Toli offered him a huge piece of white, shining ore. Quentin looked at it, strange in this underwater world, and at Toli, who was grinning in spite of himself. Already Quentin’s lungs were beginning to burn again—it was time to surface. He wondered with amazement how Toli could remain submerged for such a time.

Quentin reached out to grasp the stone Toli offered him, with no more thought than to take it up to the surface for Inchkeith and Durwin to see, to tell them they had found their treasure at last. But as Toli tumbled the stone into his hands Quentin felt the shock of heat sear through his body like a flame. He tingled all over as if he had been struck by lightning, but the burning passed in an instant, leaving behind a warm glow of peace and well-being. Even the ache of his lungs vanished in that instant. He suddenly felt more alive and whole and at peace than ever in his life.

In that very same moment—though Quentin was never really certain, for it all happened so fast—he felt a long shiver course through his right arm. The arm tingled as if needles pierced it all over. And then, deep within his arm, in his very bones, he felt a strange warmth that grew and grew until he thought his bones were on fire.

But the fire left just as quickly, to be followed by a rush of soothing cold, as if water were running over his arm. This startled Quentin as much as the fire had, for it was the first time he had experienced any feeling in his arm in many long weeks. He looked at Toli in the weird, shining light, and Toli grinned knowingly back at him. He stretched out his hand to touch Toli’s face, and the hand obeyed him once again. The fingers flexed, and the arm swung freely, though encumbered somewhat by the splint still attached to it.

Toli broke off another piece from the vein of blazing ore and jerked his hand upward, signaling for them to rise. Quentin had quite forgotten they were underwater; the urge to return to the surface had vanished the instant he touched the stone. But now he was eager to show their find to the others. So, quite forgetting to tug on the ropes, they began swimming to the surface.

Durwin and Inchkeith, growing apprehensive over the unusually long time the two had been down, were discussing whether to pull them up—especially Toli, who had not come up for breath at all.

Suddenly Durwin shouted, “Inchkeith! By my lights, look there!”

The armorer looked where the hermit was pointing and saw two bright objects, like the glowing white eyes of some monstrous sea creature, rising rapidly toward the surface. With a hop Inchkeith jumped back a step and threw his hands out before him, so strong was the illusion of a sea monster boiling up out of the pool.

But next the hermit’s voice split the air like thunder that rolled and echoed through the vast cavern. “It is the lanthanil! Praise be to the God Most High! He has shown us his high favor! We have found it!”

Then, quite unceremoniously, Durwin began to hop about in a wild dance with Inchkeith while the two water-soaked, happy divers looked on.

49

Upon the straining backs of groaning slaves, Nin advanced along the old river road from Lindalia on the western coast toward Askelon. Fifty thousand footmen followed in his train. The Arvin here ran bold and deep, and wide enough for those who could find boats—and even those who could not—to escape to the other side as Nin’s terrible caravan passed by.

He had sat in his palace ship waiting just beyond the island, where the river mingled its waters with bright Gerfallon’s. But his rage had flared and burned while he waited for word from his warlords that Askelon had fallen. When it was not forthcoming, the Supreme Deity of the Ningaal had decided to go himself and see to it that the end came swiftly.

He ordered his standing army of fifty thousand foot soldiers, waiting in their ships, to disembark upon the western coast, and then he had ordered his throne to be carried ashore. There he mounted his throne over the prostrate bodies of his slaves, and with a wide, generous sweep of his hand, ordered them ahead. Like an army of locusts, they cut down everything standing in their path: crops of fields, the hovels of peasants, small villages. Nothing deterred them, and no one lifted a hand to prevent them.

By night and by day they marched, tirelessly, relentlessly, inexorably drawing nearer and nearer to Askelon.

By night and day the evil Wolf Star shone in the heavens. By day it could be seen shining low on the horizon, a bright spot appearing as a tiny second sun. By night it nearly assumed the brightness of the sun itself, transforming night into an eerie, mocking reflection of the day just passed. Unnatural shadows stood upon the land; birds fell silent in the trees, and animals huddled in the fields, uncertain whether to sleep or graze; the masses, crouching in temple courtyards and castle wards across the land, wailed with fear and covered their heads.

And Nin marched on toward Askelon.

In Askelon the lords met secretly and discussed the strange behavior of the king. Some said it was the star that had driven him mad, that it had touched him as it had touched the people cowering within Askelon’s mighty walls. Others said his illness was upon him again. They all worried together what would happen if their knights and soldiers should find out that the Dragon King would be unable to lead them in battle, for none of them held the slightest hope that they could long endure the siege. Sooner or later they must meet the enemy on the field to defeat him. Desperately they hoped Eskevar would be recovered in time to lead them, if only for a show to the men, for they were certain the fateful battle was drawing swiftly nearer.

“Is there any word?” asked Eskevar anxiously. He seemed composed and in his right mind, resting peacefully in his bed. Biorkis and the queen stood by him as the lords entered his chamber.

Lord Rudd, who had taken it upon himself to speak for the rest of the lords, approached the king’s high bed.

He knelt, saying, “Sire, we have had no word, and now the opportunity for such is gone. The warlords of Nin have surrounded the castle on all sides. They occupy the plain below the rock and have taken the town as well. They have as yet not dared to draw near the ramp, but that will come soon, I have no doubt. Askelon is besieged.”

“So it has begun,” sighed Eskevar wearily. “I had hoped a messenger might come from the lords to the north to bring word of their decision to join us.”

“It is too late, I fear. Even if a messenger came now, he would not get through the enemy. But even so, the lords might still come.” Lord Rudd glanced at his peers and hastily added, “We would seek a boon, Sire.”

“You shall have it,” replied Eskevar. “Ask it and it is yours.”

“We would have you come and speak to the knights and men, Your Majesty. There are rumors . . .” Rudd fell silent, feeling he had said too much.

“Rumors? Ah, yes, what are they? You need not fear to anger me. I know full well the rumors voiced about.”

Rudd looked nervously to the others for help.

“Well?” demanded Eskevar, his temper rising. “Speak, man!”

“Some say that you are changed, Sire. That you do not have the will to fight—”

“They say that I am insane! That is what you mean. Say it is so!”

“It is so, my lord.” Rudd lowered his head.

Eskevar made a move as if to leap out of bed. “Please, Sire!” Biorkis jumped to life. “Stay abed but a little and regain your strength.”

“Listen to him, my lord,” pleaded Alinea, rushing up. She threw a dark, disapproving look at the unhappy lords, who made a move as if to withdraw at once.

“No!” Eskevar held up a hand toward the priest and his queen. “Do not hinder me. I will go with my lords to speak to the soldiers. They must have no doubts, nor harbor despair in their hearts for their king. I will show them I am neither ill nor afraid.”

He turned to the lords. “Assemble the knights and men in the inner ward. I will speak to them from the battlements of the inner curtain and will pass among them when I have spoken to quell their fears and apprehensions. They will see me and will know I am with them and will lead them.”

The lords, anxious to be away from that room, bowed as one and rushed out to begin bringing their troops together. When they had gone, Biorkis and Alinea came close to the king and helped him up.

“You are so weak, my king,” Alinea sobbed. Tears filled her green eyes and ran freely down her cheeks.

“Let me tell them you will come tomorrow,” suggested Biorkis. “Rest just this night, and you will feel stronger.”

“No, it cannot be. Tomorrow may be worlds away. I must go at once. The rumors must not be allowed to persist if I can stop them, for they would eat away my soldiers’ hearts. A soldier needs his heart if he is to fight for his homeland. I must go.”

Leaning heavily on their arms, he stumbled toward the door. When they reached it, Eskevar squared his shoulders and raised his head. “I will walk alone,” he said, and went out.

When he had gone, Alinea turned tearfully to Biorkis. “He should never have gone into battle, Biorkis. He was just getting better. He exerted himself overmuch and has not recovered his strength, and . . . and, oh, now I fear he never will!” She buried her face in her hands. “If Durwin were here, he would know what to do,” she sobbed.

Biorkis wrapped one arm around her slim shoulders and comforted her. “Yes, Durwin would know what to do, but he is not here. We will have to think what he would do in our place, and then do it.”

“I am sorry,” sniffed Alinea. She raised her eyes to the kindly old priest’s. “I did not mean to belittle you. Your help has been most valuable. I just—”

“Say no more. I, too, wish Durwin were here. He has far more knowledge of the world and men than I. I have been too long on my mountain, removed from the ways of mortals, and I feel old and useless. Let us hope that Durwin will return soon.”

“Let us pray that he does.”

“Yes, my lady. By all means let us pray that he does.”

Eskevar went out from the eastern tower and strode along the battlements in the cold, mocking light of the star. His great cloak swept like a huge, dark wing after him, the silver dragon device glittering in the strange light. Theido and Ronsard marched gravely by his side, and when they had reached the midpoint along the inner curtain battlements, Eskevar stopped and looked down at the ranks of soldiers that had been assembled to hear him speak.

As he looked down upon them, seeing their fearful faces turned upward to his, seeking strength there, and wisdom and assurance, he felt very old and tired. They were sapping him, he thought, and it was as if he felt his strength ebbing away even as he gazed down upon them. He felt too tired, too used up, to speak.

But they were waiting, watching him. His men were watching and waiting for him to banish their fears. How could he do that, he wondered, when he could not banish his own? What words were there? What magic could make it happen?

Without knowing what he would say, Eskevar opened his mouth and began to speak, his voice falling down from on high like the voice of a god.

He spoke and heard his voice echoing back into the small places of the inner ward. Murmurs arose in response to his words, and Eskevar feared he had said something wrong, that he had run afoul of his own purpose. But he spoke on, oblivious to the words that tumbled from his mouth unbidden. They are right, he thought bitterly. The king is insane. He is babbling like an idiot from the battlements and does not know what he is saying.

The murmurs changed gradually to shouts and then to cheers. As Eskevar’s last words died away, the inner ward yard erupted in shouts of acclaim and hearty cheers and battle cries. Then suddenly the soldiers were singing an ancient battle song of Mensandor, and somehow he, Eskevar, was moving through the thronging soldiers, touching them and being touched by them.

The Dragon King stood among his troops, bewildered by their cheers and high acclaim. He was humbled, realizing he did not know what he had said; he was gratified, knowing that his words had been the right ones.

The cheers and songs had not run their courses when they were interrupted by a sound not heard in Askelon for five hundred years. Boom! The sound rolled away like hollow thunder. Boom! Boom! It came again, and all around the Dragon King became silent. The cheering stopped; the singing shrank away. Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Ningaal had brought a battering ram to the gates of Askelon. The siege war had begun.

50

I can scarcely believe it still,” Quentin said, flexing his arm. “It is as if it had never been injured at all. Better even! And look; the skin is not withered, and the muscle is firm.”

Toli, standing near as Durwin unwrapped the bandages and removed the splints, replied, “I can well believe it. The stories of old were true ones. The Healing Stone still exists.”

The two glowing lumps of rock shimmered like fiery white coals fresh from the fire as they lay beside the black pool. Durwin finished examining Quentin’s arm and satisfied himself that, indeed, it was whole and healthy once more. “So it is!” the hermit said, still prodding Quentin’s arm with his fingers. “Your arm is healed most wonderfully. If I had not set it myself, I would say that it was never broken.”

Durwin cocked his head to one side and observed Quentin closely. “I see nothing now that would prevent you from lifting the Zhaligkeer. Do you?”

With a thrill like the touch of a spark to the skin, Quentin remembered all his old misgivings, which he had succeeded in putting far out of his mind. In an instant they all rushed back upon him like a flood, quenching his excitement of the moment. Something like fear grabbed him in his gut and squeezed with an iron grip.

“Do you still think I am the one?”

“Why do you fear? You have already chosen to follow the Most High. This is the way he has set for you. Do not turn away from it.”

Quentin stood looking at the blazing stones. “But the prophecy . . . It is . . .” Words failed him.

“You think that you will be alone? Is that it? Ha! You will not rid yourself of us that easily. We will be ever at your side. Do not think the Most High makes his servants tread only lonely paths. His ways are more clearly seen with the help of others of like spirit. He has given us to you, as you have been given to us, that we might help each other.”

“Take it, Quentin. It is for you.” Durwin threw out a hand toward the white stones, and Quentin slowly, reluctantly bent toward them and picked them up.

“Yes, I will take it. I will claim the Zhaligkeer.” So saying, he lifted the stones high over his head as if he already had a sword in his hands. “Inchkeith! Let us begin. Time is drawing short. There is a sword to be made!”

But when they looked around, Inchkeith was not to be seen.

Boom! Boom! The sound of the ram against the gates thundered on and on. The peasants who had crowded into Askelon to escape the enemy screamed in terror at every dreadful knell. The outer wards were roiling in panic.

Archers had mounted to the gatehouse barbican and were endeavoring to pick off the Ningaal plying the massive battering ram against the drawn bridge of the castle. Occasionally an arrow would strike home, and an enemy warrior would tumble off the narrow plank they had thrown over the chasm that divided the end of the ramp from the castle; despite this annoyance the Ningaal were not greatly hindered. They were protected by the ironclad roof over their implement, and any unlucky wretch who chanced to show himself too openly was replaced in a trice by another. So the drumming continued on and on and on.

“Call off the archers,” said Theido, gazing down from the battlements. “We may as well save our arrows. They are not going to prevail against the gate. No one ever has.”

“We could pour fire down upon them,” suggested Rudd, wearing a worried expression. “That would get rid of them.”

“And it would also burn down our own gates!” snapped Ronsard irritably.

“I do not think even fire would harm those gates,” mused Theido, shaking his head. “But I could be wrong. Still, it would be better not to take an unnecessary chance. We will wait to see what they try next.

“They cannot tunnel beneath the walls, for they rise out of solid rock, and the mountain is stone as well. The postern gate is well protected, and the maze of walls leading to it prevents the use of a ram such as this. Our archers can keep them at bay there, too. My guess is they must find a way through that gate and that gate alone, for there is no other way into Askelon Castle.”

As he finished speaking, the Ningaal took up their pounding again. Boom! Boom! The timbers of the gate shuddered with each massive blow, but held firm.

Theido turned away from the battlement, and Ronsard followed him, after instructing his officers to bring him word if the situation should change in any way.

“Theido, I would talk with you awhile,” he said, falling into step beside his friend. “Let us go inside where we may speak freely.”

They strode to a nearby barbican and went inside, ascending to a higher platform of the round turret to look out over the plain and the city below. From that lofty vantage they could see the better part of one side of the castle and a portion of the second side. The Ningaal had indeed surrounded the castle on all sides, being most heavily deployed around the main gates and throughout the town. They had set fire to sections of the city, and the smoke swept up in black columns to streak the sky above.

“It is an evil day.” Ronsard turned a careworn visage to his friend. “How is Eskevar faring?”

“He is the same. No change.”

Eskevar had nearly collapsed when the sound of the ram commenced. It was as if each blow had been so aimed as to strike directly at the king’s heart. It was only with difficulty that the two knights had led their sovereign away without the soldiers witnessing his fall. Upon gaining the security of the tower, they had all but carried him to his chambers. Biorkis and Alinea had been in attendance since then, and the knights had returned to watch through the day-bright night as the Ningaal strove to batter down the doors.

“Will he ride, do you think?” asked Ronsard.

“Why do you ask me? You have stood with him in battle enough times to know. But we are under siege! Why does everyone insist upon talking about battlefields and riding?” Theido snapped. After a long, silent moment in which Ronsard merely looked back at him sadly, Theido sighed. “Forgive me, my friend. I am tired. I have not slept in three days—one cannot even tell day from night anymore! I am tired.”

“Go and rest. Let me take your watch. You yourself have said that nothing will happen soon. Have something to eat, and lay yourself down a little. You will feel better.”

“Yes, perhaps I should do that.” Theido turned his eyes away toward the north. “They should be coming. They should have been here by now.”

“They will come. And do not forget that Quentin, Toli, and Durwin are abroad. Theirs is some errand that will make good; of that I am certain.”

“So I believe. I only hope they are in time.” He smiled briefly and gripped Ronsard by the shoulder. “Thank you. I will rest a bit as you suggest. It has been a long time since I endured a siege. I have forgotten my manners almost completely.”

“You have forgotten nothing, my friend. Go now, and I will send for you if anything changes.”

When Theido had gone and his footsteps descending from the barbican could no longer be heard, Ronsard settled himself against the stone crenellation of the turret. He looked long and hungrily to the north for the shining armies he hoped he would see riding to their rescue. But the far vista shimmered instead with the heat of the summer sun. Nothing moved out on the plain.

Still, the knight watched and waited, and his thoughts became a prayer, turning toward the new god he had so recently elected to serve.

“God Most High,” Ronsard mumbled, “I do not have the knowledge of your ways that others do. But if you need a strong sword, here I am.” There was a long lapse before he spoke again. “I know not how to pray in seemly words. I have never been a man of prayers. But I believe you helped me once, long ago, so I pray you will listen to me once again. Lead us against this terrible host which gathers at our gates and seeks to destroy us. And if it is my lot to die, so be it. But let me face the moment like a true knight and seek to save another’s life before my own.”

He prayed on, pouring out his heart as the words came to him, and would have continued praying but for the alarm that brought him instantly to his feet and sent him off to meet a new disaster.

51

They found Inchkeith huddled behind a hill of stone far away from the pool. All wondered at his odd behavior in hiding and the look of fear that twisted his features as he raised his eyes to meet them.

“What is wrong, Inchkeith? Why did you disappear like that?” asked Quentin. The master armorer peered at his discoverers with a distrustful look. His hands trembled as he worked up the nerve to speak.

“Do not make me touch it! I beg you, sirs! Do not make me touch it!” He hid his face in his hands once more, and his shoulders shook as if he were sobbing.

“This is very strange,” remarked Quentin, turning to Toli and Durwin. The hermit gazed with narrowed eyes upon the huddled body of the deformed man.

“I think I know what ails him. He is afraid to touch the blazing white lanthanil; he has seen its power and what it can do. He saw your arm healed, and he fears what it might do to him.”

“But,” Quentin spluttered in amazement, “certainly you are wrong here, Durwin. If anything, he should rejoice and rush to take it into his hands that he might be healed of his crippling deformity. I would, and so would anyone else, I think.”

“Would you?” asked Durwin. His bushy eyebrows arched high as they would go. “Think again. His twisted spine cripples him, yes. But he has lived his life with it and has come to accept it and himself for what he is. His spirit has risen above his physical limitations in the beauty of his craft. There is strong pride in that.”

“To be healed, to be made strong and whole again—what can be the harm of that?” Quentin shook his head slowly from side to side. The thing was a mystery to him.

“Quentin, have you never had a flaw of some sort, a hurt that you carried with you?” Quentin’s brow wrinkled sharply. “You cursed it and fretted over it and longed to cast it aside, and yet you secretly caressed it and held it close lest it should somehow slip away. For that weakness was part of you, and however hateful it was, it defined you; you took strength from it. With it, you knew who you were; without it, who could say what you would be?”

Quentin answered slowly. “Perhaps it is as you say, Durwin. When I was a child, I held many childish flaws and weaknesses as virtues. But I put them away when I became a man.”

“Ah, yes. But your weaknesses were not of the same kind as Inchkeith’s. His is not so easily put aside. How much more must he fear losing the thing—ugly as it is—that has given him such comfort all the long years of his life? It is no wonder that he shrinks away from the Healing Stone. For though he would give anything in his power to be made straight and strong, he would give much more to remain as he is.”

Quentin turned to regard Inchkeith where he sat a little way off, still huddled and trembling. There were no words to describe the pitiful picture that met his gaze. Sadly, he turned away from it.

“Go and ready yourselves for another dive,” suggested Durwin. “I will talk to him a little and convince him that whether he touches the stone or not, the decision is his. We will not think less of him for refraining if that, in the end, is how he chooses. Go on, now. We will be along directly.”

Quentin and Toli did as Durwin told them and returned to the pool. “Look how they shine, Toli,” marveled Quentin as he knelt before the two lumps of glowing rock. “Have you ever seen anything like it? It is as if they burn with an inner fire. They should be hot to the touch, but they are cool.”

“They possess very great power. Of that there is no doubt. I understand now why the Ariga closed off the mine and concealed what was left of the white lanthanil in the pool. The temptation to wield such power must drive men mad.”

Quentin nodded silently. “I wonder what else the stone can do?” he asked at last. His bright face shone in the aura of the stones.

“We shall see, Kenta. You have been chosen to carry the Shining One; you will find out.”

In a moment Durwin came, leading a sheepish Inchkeith toward them. “Very well, shall we continue? We have much work to do and have only begun.”

“One moment, Durwin. Please, I would speak.” Inchkeith held up his hand. “I am ashamed of my behavior, and you would do a kindness to a foolish old man if you would banish it from your minds. I am sorry to have embarrassed my friends so. I promise I will embarrass you no further.”

“Think no more on it, Master Inchkeith,” replied Quentin happily. “I assure you, it is already forgotten, and you shall never hear of it from our lips again.”

They all returned to work as before and threw themselves into their labors. The energizing force of the ore-bearing stones that Quentin and Toli brought up allowed the two divers to remain underwater for greater periods of time, and before long a fair-sized pile of the shining stone was heaped beside the pool.

When the heap had grown to the size of a pyramid half a man high, Inchkeith called a halt to the diving. “This is enough for our purpose, I believe. If this magic stone is similar to other ores I have worked, we should have enough to make a sword and a scabbard and chain, too.”

Quentin and Toli dragged themselves out of the frigid water and dried themselves. Inchkeith left them to hobble to the forge at the far end of the cavern. “Bring the lanthanil when you are ready. I will begin firing the crucible.”

Filling Inchkeith’s empty tool chest with ore, Quentin and Toli carried it to the forge, where, using fuel he had found neatly stored away beside the forge, Inchkeith had a fire roaring and ready. Durwin busied himself preparing food for them, as it appeared there would be no sleep for any of them for some time.

When Toli and Quentin had filled the crucible with ore, it was rendered into the fire, where a curious transformation took place. The stones did not crack and release their ore as the stones bearing copper and iron do. Instead, they were slowly melted away like ice in the spring when plunged into running water. Using a long rod, Inchkeith poked and stirred the molten lanthanil, causing the impurities to flame into hot ash and ascend to the chimney of the furnace. With long tongs he introduced new ore into the crucible and kept his ceaseless vigil at the fire, maintaining a constant temperature.

This activity continued for a long time, during which the others watched and dozed and ate by turns. At last Inchkeith pulled the crucible white-hot from the flames and gingerly set it down.

“Quickly, now!” he shouted. “Take up the forger’s yoke and lend a hand. Step lively!”

Quentin was nearest at hand and took up the tool Inchkeith had indicated—a long iron utensil with two handles and a circular bulge in the center. Inchkeith took the yoke and placed it over the crucible, directing Quentin to take one of the handles and carefully follow his instructions. Quentin did as he was told, and they proceeded to pour out the molten ore, now a shimmering pale blue like liquid silver, into four long, narrow molds that Inchkeith had arranged along the floor. There remained a fair amount of the precious metal when the four molds were filled, so Inchkeith poured the rest into a sheet mold, and then they sat down to wait for the metal to cool.

Waiting for the glowing lanthanil to cool was like waiting for an egg to hatch, Quentin thought. But at last the four rod molds were judged cool enough. Inchkeith took up a dipper of water and poured it over the still-hot metal, sending billows of steam rising into the dimly luminescent air of the cavern. He then broke apart the molds and, with tongs, and heavy gloves on his hands, drew out four square rods nearly four feet in length.

The master armorer hopped to his anvil, took each rod, and pierced one end; then he joined the rods together by passing a rivet cut from the sheet of lanthanil he had made.

“Now, then. I have done all I may do,” he said, holding up the four newly fastened rods for the others to see. “Durwin tells me that you must do the rest, Quentin.”

Quentin rose to his feet. “Me? You jest! I know as much about making a sword as I would know of making a tree!”

“Then it is time you learned. Come here.” Inchkeith held the rods in the tongs and indicated for Quentin to take them. Quentin stepped forward, looking to Durwin for approval. Durwin waved him on, and Quentin took the rods.

“Now, do not think for a moment that I will allow you to mar my greatest masterpiece, young sir. I will guide your hands to even the smallest movement. I will be your brain and your eyes, and you will do as I direct to the utmost. Do you understand?”

Quentin nodded obediently, and they began to work.

Under Inchkeith’s watchful eye he took hammer and tongs and began to braid the still malleable metal, one rod over the other, in a tight square braid. When he had finished the task, sweat was dripping from his face and his bare arms. He had long since stripped off his shirt and tunic and wore only his trousers.

The braided rods were then thrust into the pit of the forge among the burning embers, and Quentin turned the core—as Inchkeith called it—constantly, while the armorer plied the creaking bellows.

Soon the core began to glimmer blue-white once more, and Quentin pulled it from the fire, his own face glowing red and flushed. Taking the core, he placed one square end into the square hole in the side of the golden anvil and with the tongs began to twist the braid together.

He twisted and twisted, winding and winding until he could twist no more. Then Inchkeith let him stop, and the core was plunged back into the pit of embers and heated to blue-white once more. Then came more twisting and still more. Quentin was exhausted and feeling more so all the time, but the rhythm of the work began to steal over him, and he found he entered a free-floating state where he moved in concert with the master armorer’s wishes—so much so that he began to feel as if it were Inchkeith’s will directing his hands and muscles and not his own.

The braided core was twisted again and again until, by the very tension of the coils, it began to fuse together. When it had fused completely, Inchkeith had Quentin cut the long, thin core in two, for it had nearly doubled in length with all the twisting. One half was then set aside, and the other half was pounded flat on the golden anvil with the hammer of gold. Every time Quentin struck the core, dazzling sparks showered all around and a flash like lightning was loosed.

The flattened core was heated and pounded, heated and pounded time and again until it was very thin and flat. Then it was set to cool. Toli was given the task of dousing it with water numerous times to cool it more quickly.

Taking the length of twisted braid that had been set aside, Quentin thrust it into the forge pit to reheat it. He then began twisting it again and again, drawing it out into a thin rod. This rod was pinched in half as well, and these two pieces, along with the cool flat piece, were thrust into the burning coals once more as Inchkeith explained that the repeated heating and cooling of the metal tempered it and made it stronger, as did the braiding of the original rods. “You have then the strength of four blades, not just one,” he crowed. “This is how the legendary blades of old were made. There is a tension in the twisting of the braid that is never undone. This tension is what makes the sword leap to the hand and sing in the air. No common blade forged of a rod and flattened can stand against it.”

When the three long pieces were once more burning with blue brilliance and crackling with sparks, they were withdrawn. Quentin was so absorbed in his work it seemed as if he walked in a dream; all his surroundings blurred, becoming faint and insubstantial as he toiled on. His eyes had sight only for the flaming blue metal turning under his hands.

The three hot pieces were placed precisely upon the anvil according to Inchkeith’s exacting specifications. With quick, sure hammer blows, Quentin welded the two rounded pieces to the flat one. This action resulted in a very long, flat piece with a rounded ridge in the center. When that was done, Inchkeith sent him to plunge the core into the pool and leave it there until it could be handled freely.

Quentin hurried off, so absorbed that he nearly stumbled over the curled figures of Durwin and Toli rolled in their cloaks, fast asleep.

After a time Inchkeith came and settled himself down beside Quentin to wait. “You are doing a master’s job, sir. A master’s job. If you were not spoken for, I would take you in and teach you the armorer’s craft. You have the heart for it and the soul; I have seen how you look upon your work. You know what I am talking about, eh?”

“It is true. I have never done anything like this, but it is as if I feel in my hands what the metal would have me do, and I do it—though you must take credit there, for I would not begin to know what to do. But when I lift the hammer and I see it fall, a voice says ‘Strike here!’ and it is done.” Quentin lifted the core from the pool. Water slithered down its pale blue surface and slid back into the pool in shining beads. “It does not look very like a sword yet,” remarked Quentin.

“Oh, it will. It will. The work is just begun. Now we will see how this metal works. Now will come the test!”

Inchkeith and Quentin worked on and on, pausing to take a little food now and then, and to rest only in idle moments, though there were few of those. Toli and Durwin looked on and uttered words of encouragement when such words were needed, but mainly kept themselves out of the way and silent, allowing the master and his eager apprentice to work on undisturbed.

There was much heating and cooling, hammering and shaping of the gleaming metal. It was chiseled and chased, beaten and burnished, until at last the blade of a sword could be seen emerging from the long, flat length of metal. A hilt and handle were fashioned from the solid sheet that had been put aside. From this a flat piece was rolled and flattened, and it, too, was twisted and twisted and then joined to the emerging blade.

The blade was fired and refired. Each time it was scraped smooth and filed again and again with long, careful strokes. Inchkeith bent his face over the hot metal and directed Quentin’s fingers here and there along the length, pointing out minute flaws that only he could see. If his young apprentice’s strength and enthusiasm flagged, the old master’s never did. With praise and threats and stubborn demands, Inchkeith challenged Quentin to better and higher work, at one point taking Quentin’s hands in his own and guiding them over the blade to do the job he knew must be done.

And then it was finished.

Quentin sat exhausted on a large rock and looked at his handiwork as it lay across the golden anvil. Inchkeith studied it carefully, nodding and puffing out his cheeks alternately. Durwin and Toli were nowhere to be seen. Quentin’s eyes burned in his head, and though tired, he watched Inchkeith’s every wink and frown with breathless anticipation.

At last the master craftsman turned to Quentin, his face beaming, his chest swelling with pride. “Yes, it is finished.” He hesitated, seeing Quentin hungrily grasp at his words. “And it is a masterpiece.”

Quentin leaped and shouted for joy. “We have done it!” he cried. “We have done it!” He grabbed the old man and began dancing around the forge where they had lived and worked and sweated for what seemed years on end. They were so caught up in the relief and exultation of the moment that they did not hear Durwin and Toli return.

“Does this unseemly exhibition mean that you two have finished your labors at last?” Durwin called, bounding forward to clap them both on the back. He stopped, and a look of reverent awe lit his eyes. Toli, coming hard on his heels, stopped and began speaking in his native tongue.

“It is—” Durwin searched for words. “It is indeed a thing of fearsome beauty.” His hands flew up toward his face as if he feared the sight would burn him.

“It is the Zhaligkeer,” said Toli. “It is the Shining One.”

Quentin took it from the anvil and held it in his hand, lifting it toward heaven. “This is the Shining One of the Most High. Let it move as he alone directs. As I am his servant, let it be filled with his power, and let our enemies fly before its terrible fury.”

“So be it!” shouted the others. Durwin stepped up and brought out a vial from the leather pouch at his side.

“I have kept this for this time. It is oil which has been blessed in Dekra. With it I will anoint the blade of the Shining One.”

Quentin held the sword across the palms of both hands as Durwin opened the vial and poured the holy oil along the length of the blade, which shone with a pale, silvery blue light. The sword was indeed a thing of dread beauty. It was long and thin, tapering almost imperceptibly along its smooth, flawless length to a gleaming point. The grip and hilt sparkled as if cut from gemstone.

As Durwin poured out the oil, he blessed the sword, saying, “Never in malice, never in hate, never in evil shall this blade be raised. But in righteousness and justice forever shall it shine.” Then he took his fingers and rubbed the oil over the finely worked blade.

As he touched the shining metal, Durwin felt the power of the lanthanil flow through him, and it was as if the years fell away from him; he was a young man again and marveled at the sensation, for he had quite grown used to his numerous aches and pains. When he turned to the others, he was the same Durwin as before, but vastly changed in aspect. He appeared wiser, stronger, and more noble than before. He laughed out loud and pointed a long finger at Inchkeith, who gazed at him with some alarm, seeing the sudden change that had come over the hermit.

“Look there, Inchkeith, my friend. The blade has worked its enchantment upon you as well, I see.”

Inchkeith, aghast, sputtered, “What are you talking about? I never touched the stone, nor the blade. What do you mean?”

Quentin looked at the hunchbacked armorer and saw that he was standing erect and tall; he seemed to have grown several inches. How or when it had happened he had not noticed. Perhaps when the master had placed his hands upon Quentin’s, the power had gone into him; but they had been so completely absorbed in their work, they had not noticed until Durwin pointed it out to them just at that moment.

“Yes!” shouted Quentin. “You are healed, Inchkeith. You are whole.”

A look of stunned disbelief shone on the craftsman’s face; he squared his shoulders and raised his head. It was minutes before he would believe that his hump had disappeared, but when that belief finally broke in upon him, he sank to his knees and began to cry.

“Your god has done this, Durwin!” he cried as tears of happiness streamed down his face. “I believe now. I believe all you ever told me about him. Blessed is the Most High. From now on I am his servant.”

They all rejoiced together, and the high-domed roof of the great cave echoed with their voices. The halls of the Ariga, deep beneath the mountains, rang with joyful sounds such as had not been heard in ten thousand years.

52

When Ronsard arrived at the gatehouse barbican, he was met by the worried glances of his officers and Lord Rudd. “What is it?” he asked. “What is the alarm?”

“I ordered it,” explained Rudd. “Look down there. They are bringing some machine up the ramp.”

Ronsard looked down and saw that what Rudd had said was quite true; two hundred or more Ningaal were laboring with ropes and poles to drag an enormous device up the ramp. The battering ram had been taken away, and this lumbering object was being wheeled with great exertion to assume its place before the gates.

“What is it?” a perplexed Ronsard asked. “I have never seen anything like it.”

“I cannot say I have seen such a machine in war either. But I can tell you I do not like the look of it, whatever it is.”

“Direct the archers to hinder them as much as possible. I have no doubt it would be better if it never reached the gates. I will fetch Biorkis; I would have him look at it. Something tells me that thing down there belongs more to his ken than ours.”

Shortly the lord high marshal was back at the battlements, dragging a blustering priest behind him. “What do you make of that?” Ronsard asked as they peered over the stone ramparts onto the activity below.

“It is a strange thing indeed!” said Biorkis, pulling on his braided beard. “Very strange.”

His old eyes gazed upon the massive black object inching its way up the long incline under a hail of arrows. Its black skin shone with a dull luster in the sunlight, and two great arms thrust forward, palms upward as if to receive the supplications of the castle dwellers. It stood with the legs and torso of a man, one leg thrust forward, bent at the knee, the other stretched straight behind. But its face and head were its most distinguishing features, next to its size, for it bore the head and mane of a lion and the gaping maw of a jackal with a jackal’s sharp fangs bared in a furious, frozen snarl of rage. Two huge black horns swept out from either side of its hideous black head, and its unblinking eyes stared angrily ahead as it groaned forward under its immense weight.

Ronsard’s archers were causing much consternation among the enemy, but not as much as Ronsard would have liked; for no sooner had one rope-bearer fallen than another sprang forward to take his place. Soon those in the forefront had been provided with shields that they held over their heads to fend off the deadly rain, and the arrows rattled harmlessly down, striking only at random and seldom causing any mortal hurt. Ronsard called for the arrows to cease, but for the archers to remain alert to any target careless enough to present itself. Still the thing inched forward.

“Well?” asked Ronsard. “What say you, Biorkis?”

“Undoubtedly it is an idol of some sort. But to which god I am uncertain. I have never seen it before, and the thing that puzzles me is this: what kind of idol is it that it is taken into war to do battle with men? What kind of god do these Ningaal worship?”

“Why should that puzzle you? Men are always calling on their gods to lead them in battle, to deliver the victory into their hands, as you well know. This is only slightly more obvious, I will warrant, but it is the same.”

“Yes, it is the same, and not the same at all. This is more primitive and more savage. It is a thing unholy and evil. Even the gods of the earth and sky are offended by such as this. It belongs to a long-distant time and place, back in man’s darker past. It is evil, and it breeds evil.”

“But does it have any power?” asked Ronsard. Biorkis looked at him oddly. “You know what I mean. Of itself—is it a thing of power?”

Biorkis thought for a moment before answering. “That I cannot say with certainty. Your question is perhaps more difficult than you know.” He fingered his white beard as he gazed at the monstrous thing.

“An idol is but wood or stone,” the priest continued. “It is the image of the god it represents. Images do not often have power, except for the ones who worship them, and then the power can be very great indeed.”

“This one has power,” said a gruff voice behind them. Ronsard and Biorkis turned to see Myrmior standing behind them. “And, yes, it is evil. Well I know it, for I have seen it work often enough. It is an idol, yes. But its purpose is far more coldly cunning than you suspect. It is foremost a machine of war, known in other lands as Pyrinbradam—a fire-breather.”

A glimmering of understanding appeared in Ronsard’s eyes. “If that is true, I will order water to be brought up at once.”

“It would be wise,” Myrmior assented. “Wet skins, if you have them, might offer some protection.”

Ronsard called his officers to relay his orders and see that they were carried out. Water was to be poured over the gates and wet skins draped across them in an effort to reduce their flammability.

“Is there nothing else that may be done?” he asked.

“Nothing but to wait. Wait and pray,” muttered Myrmior.

The waiting began and lasted for twelve long days. And each of those days was filled with ceaseless labor as water was hauled in buckets to the top of the drawbridge gate and poured over the great wooden planks. By night and day the water cascaded down the gates, and skins of cattle were soaked and spread only to be retrieved, soaked, and spread again.

The fire-breathing idol spewed flames from its mouth and nostrils in a never-ending torrent, scorching wood and stone, and heating metal until it glowed with a ruddy cast. The Ningaal tore apart the dwellings of the townspeople to fuel the monster at the gates. Into a cavity at the idol’s base they threw the timber and oil that sent the flames and sparks gushing from its white-hot mouth.

On the evening of the thirteenth day, an officer approached Ronsard timidly. The knight rested on his arm and watched with weary dread as the flames and water did battle one with the other, clouds of white steam resulting from the conflict.

“Lord Ronsard, I—” The man hesitated and fell silent.

Ronsard swung his tired gaze toward the man. “Yes? Say anything but that we are running out of water.” The thought had occurred to him often during this long vigil.

The man’s face went white; his mouth hung slack.

“By Azrael! I meant it as a jest! Speak, man!”

“What is the trouble?” Theido said as he strode up to relieve Ronsard at his post. He was fresh and rested, eyes alert and tone confident.

“I am trying to find out, sir,” said Ronsard hoarsely. “It seems the news he brings steals his voice.”

“Well? Speak, sir. We are stout enough to hear it.” Theido looked furiously at the officer and folded his long arms across his chest.

The man licked his lips and worked his jaw, but it was some moments before any words tumbled out, and when they did, it was in a tangled rush. “Lord Rudd has sent me . . . the water . . . supplies too low . . . we cannot last the night.”

Ronsard needed to hear no more and sent the man away. “That cuts us to the quick. What are we to do now? Wait until our gates crumble away in flames, or until we die of thirst? Which would come first, I wonder?”

“We have our wits about us yet. But we have been too slow in comprehending this menace, and that may be our undoing. I have an idea I should have had days ago, but may work yet. Quickly, send some of your men to bring ropes and grappling hooks. Tell them to hurry, Ronsard, and bring all they can find. There is little time.”

Theido took his place on the barbican directly over the flame-throwing idol. After soaking a long rope in water, he tied a three-pronged grappling hook onto one end and, leaning as far out over the wall as he dared, held only in Myrmior’s and Ronsard’s steely grasp, he lowered the hook toward the monster. The Ningaal, guessing his intent, howled with rage at the sight as above them the long length of swinging rope snaked down the face of the castle wall.

After several futile attempts, Theido swung the hook out and by a chance it caught on one of the iron beast’s fangs. He called for a group of men to take the rope and pull it tight as he readied another rope and hook. In the space of an hour he had another hook lodged in the idol’s horns. The Ningaal were now in a maddened frenzy, helpless to prevent what they feared might happen. They screamed in frustration as a third and then a fourth rope snagged the fire monster.

“That should suffice,” said Theido as he scrambled back to safety on the battlements not a moment too soon, for the howling Ningaal had begun launching rocks and flaming debris from slings and mangonels.

“Do you think it will work?” asked Myrmior. He eyed Theido’s web of ropes and hooks suspiciously.

“We will soon see. I can think of no better course.”

“Then let us hope this one does not fail,” replied Ronsard. He signaled to the men, three hundred in all, who were holding the ropes to begin pulling. With a mighty groan they all heaved at once. There came a resounding roar from the enraged Ningaal below as they saw the ropes pulled tight.

“Heave, men!” shouted Ronsard. “Heave!”

A few of the enemy, braving the arrows that still whistled through the air on occasion, threw ropes of their own over the ropes that Theido had fastened to the idol. Now they skittered up these like spiders, armed with knives that they carried in their teeth in the hope that they might somehow cut the ropes binding their fire-breathing god that threatened to overturn it.

The king’s archers managed to keep the ropes of the Ningaal unoccupied, though at great price, for the warlords had appeared on the scene and were directing the efforts to save their endangered machine. The first act of the warlords was to order the mangonels to be filled with flaming coals from the idol and these flung aloft into the archers’ faces. More than one bowman fell screaming to his death after being struck with the flaming debris.

The ropes were pulled and pulled with force, but the iron image did not move. Three hundred more men were ordered to the battlements, and the ropes were lengthened to accommodate them. They heaved and pulled, straining to their task until their hands bloodied the thick lines. But still the idol stood.

“It is not working,” observed Myrmior. “We need more ropes.”

“We have no more,” reported Theido. “At least not the length we need.”

“Then we must tie them together, and our cloaks and shirts as well. Your plan will work if we have more ropes.”

“Wait! I have just thought of something,” announced Ronsard. “What about chains? There are long lengths of chain in the gatehouse below. Let the ropes be fastened to the chains and the chains to the windlass of the drawbridge and the counterbalance.”

“Can such a thing be done?” wondered Theido. “It might mean disengaging the drawbridge.”

“It is a chance we must take. Send for the gatekeeper!”

What Ronsard had proposed was done without great difficulty. The massive drawbridge of Askelon was operated by not one but two windlasses and a system of counterweights. It was quick work to release the chain and allow the ropes to be bundled and threaded through a large iron ring. Then, with the counterweights once more in position, a dozen brawny men were placed on the windlass and they began to turn.

The chain wound around the windlass and disappeared into a hole in the stone floor of the gatehouse. Theido and Ronsard dashed back to the battlements to see the effect of their labors.

“It is working!” shouted Myrmior as they came panting up. “You lazy geniuses! It is working. May the gods be praised!”

They looked down to see the ropes stretched tight as harp strings. The iron idol teetered ever so slightly as the ropes pulled it upward.

“I pray those ropes can hold,” said Theido.

“They will hold—you shall see,” replied Myrmior. “By all that is good and right, they will hold.”

No sooner had Myrmior spoken than he was nearly proved wrong. One of the ropes snapped; its ragged length sang through the air and lashed four Ningaal to the ground as it struck like a whip. “Bring grease!” cried Theido.

“Stop pulling!” shouted Ronsard. The chain stopped moving as the men at the windlass obeyed the marshal’s order.

Grease was brought up from the gatehouse in buckets and smeared on the ropes and on the ledge of the crenellation where the ropes passed over the stone. Two men were stationed to swab the grease onto the ropes as they passed over the stone, and the windlass began turning again.

In a few moments the flaming idol was slowly lifted up off the ground, and then began to swing forward toward the gate. A tremendous knock sounded as the enormous iron image banged into the drawbridge; smoke from its fire rolled up the walls, stinging the eyes of the men on the battlements.

“Keep turning!” shouted Ronsard to the men below at the windlass. The Pyrinbradam inched slowly up the drawbridge, its snout pressed against the bridge’s planks, which began to smolder.

“The gates are burning!” cried a voice from below.

Ronsard shot a quick glance toward Myrmior and Theido. “I did not foresee that.”

“Do not turn away now,” said Myrmior. “Stay with your plan.”

“Yes, just a little while longer,” agreed Theido, peering over the battlements.

“Bring water to the gates!” barked Ronsard. “Continue turning!”

More water was poured down the outside of the gates to quench the fire that had started. White billows of steam rose with the black smoke of the flames.

The idol rose a few more inches and then stopped. The men at the windlass strained; the windlass creaked.

“The cursed thing is caught on something,” called Theido. “I cannot see what it is.”

“Keep turning, and perhaps it will come loose,” suggested Myrmior.

“Put more men on the windlass! Keep turning,” ordered Ronsard.

A dozen more strong men were added to the windlass, and they fell to with all their might. The windlass creaked in loud complaint, the ropes stretched, and the chain moved but one link.

“It is not working,” reported Theido. “Call them off. The gates have caught fire again.”

Ronsard moved to relay the orders below when there came a whooshing sound, and the ropes went slack. A thunderous crash was heard, and everyone dashed to the battlements to see the flaming monster teetering on the edge of the ramp. The ropes had burst under the strain and had dropped the iron image back to the ground, where it had rolled to the edge of the ramp and was in danger of toppling over the edge into the dry moat below.

The king’s men saw this and began to cheer wildly, urging the thing onto its own destruction. Ningaal warriors, half-crazed with anger, leaped to the dangling ropes in an attempt to haul it back from the brink. It appeared they would succeed.

The image righted and stopped rolling with two of its six huge wheels spinning over the chasm. Hundreds of Ningaal were now swarming to the ropes and were tugging it back inch by inch. The cheering from the battlements now abated.

“Well, we are in for it now, I fear,” sighed Theido. “No better off than before.”

“It was a good idea, my friend,” said Ronsard. “It almost worked. At least we did not let the monster destroy our gates without a fight.”

The enemy had placed long beams under the wheels and were attempting to rock the ponderous image in order to allow the rearmost wheels to be pulled back onto the ramp. But the rocking loosened one of Theido’s hooks, and it broke free.

“Look!” cried Myrmior. “We are saved!”

Ronsard and Theido turned in time to see fifty men tumbling down the ramp, grasping the end of a falling rope. The snap of the rope caused the towering statue to lurch violently, teeter once, and then plunge over the edge, dragging a hundred men with it, still clinging to the lines.

The terrible idol spewed fire as it spun slowly in the air, ropes snaking after it with men attached like insects, plummeting to their deaths. The idol landed on its wicked head and crumbled in a shower of sparks, one arm breaking off and opening a great hole in its chest where flames leaped up and showed those looking down from the battlements that the monster was indeed ruined completely and many of its wretched keepers as well.

“We are saved to fight another day!” shouted Ronsard happily.

“Yes, but how many days will we last without water?” asked Theido, the short-lived triumph dying in his eyes and his features giving way to the black cast of despair.

53

The council was held in Eskevar’s chambers with the king sitting up in bed, frowning furiously and darting quick questions to his advisors. Though he appeared even more gaunt and pale than ever, his eyes burned intensely and his hands were steady as he turned the sword that lay across his lap.

“This is not good!” he shouted. “It leaves us no choice but to fight them on the plain. The siege can kill us one by one as we drop from thirst.”

“We have a little water left, Sire,” put in the warder weakly.

“How little?”

“Three days. Four.”

“So we prolong the agony that much longer. No, I will not see soldiers weakened by thirst attempt to hold off the fall of Askelon. If Askelon falls, it must be on the field of battle. If the end is to come, let it come. But let us have our wits about us, and let us die with our swords in our hands.

“We can at least give these barbarians a fight they will long remember. This Nin will live to regret the day he set foot upon the soil of Mensandor, even if every one of us perishes.”

This fiery speech of the king greatly heartened several of the lords in attendance. Rudd, Benniot, and Fincher had grown restive during the siege. Not men of patience, they itched to take up arms and meet the foe in a fair contest, even though—as greatly outnumbered as the king’s forces were—there was nothing fair about it and not much of a contest. Still, the idea of taking once and for all a stand worthy of brave men appealed to them. They were ready to fight.

“What say the rest?” asked Rudd when he and the others had spoken their support of the king’s plan.

Theido was slow in speaking, and as he stepped forward, all eyes turned toward him. “Sire, what you propose is the last desperate act of desperate men. I do not think we are pressed that far just yet. I say we should wait a few days. Much can happen in that time, and we are safe within these gates. The Ningaal have done their worst and have failed. I think we may yet prevail against them if we but wait a little.”

“The time for waiting is over! It is time now to act. We have waited these many days, and we are no better for it. I am with the king; let us fight and die like men, since we have no better choice.” Rudd threw a defiant look around the room and gathered support for his position with his fearless tone.

“I am much inclined to agree with you, Rudd,” said Ronsard. “And when the time comes to stand toe-to-toe with the enemy, you will find me in the foremost rank; but there is good counsel in waiting. Three or four days may mean much. The lords of the north may yet appear at any time, and we would do well to be ready in that event.

“I say let the time be spent in readying ourselves to fight, but hold off fighting until we must.” Ronsard’s logic cooled several heads that had been hot to rush into battle that very moment.

“What do you say, Myrmior?” asked Eskevar. “Your counsel has been invaluable to us these last days. Speak. Tell us what you would have us do.”

Myrmior looked sadly at the king and at those around him. His large, dark eyes seemed wells of grief, and sorrow tinged his deep voice.

“I have no counsel to give, my lord. I have said all I thought best, and it has brought us to this extremity. I will speak no more but rather take my place alongside these men worthy to be called your loyal subjects and raise my blade with theirs against the hated Nin.”

The effect of Myrmior’s words was like that of a pronouncement of doom. He had said in a few words what most of them felt but resisted giving words to: There is no hope. We must prepare to die.

“Sire,” said Theido, coming near the bed, “let us not act hastily in this matter. Let us rather withdraw from here for a time and search our hearts before pressing for a decision.”

Rudd, too, stepped up, shouting, “And I say we must not wait. Every day we stand by, our men will grow weaker and our chances worsen. Now is the time to strike!”

The room fell silent as everyone looked to the king to see what he would do. “Noble lords,” he said gravely. “I will not force you to a decision. Neither will I tax you further with waiting which can belabor a man’s spirit.”

They all watched intently. Theido noticed the set of the Dragon King’s jaw and knew what was coming before the words were spoken. “Therefore, I say that we will ride out tomorrow and engage the enemy, that what little advantage there may be in surprise we may carry with us. Go now and look to your men. See that they are well fed and made ready. Tomorrow at dusk I will lead them into battle.”

The lords murmured their approval and left at once to begin preparing for combat. Theido and Ronsard lingered and spoke to the king in an effort to change his mind. But he turned a deaf ear to them and sent them away. After they had gone, Queen Alinea came in to spend one last night at the side of her king.

Eskevar had chosen dusk to lead the attack, because reports from his sentries had it that the enemy’s watch on the postern gate was reduced at that time, while the Ningaal took their evening meal. It was a bold move and a clever one. It was assumed that an attack by the castle dwellers would issue from the main gate—here it was that the warlords had positioned their greater strength in anticipation of such a move. The postern gate—being smaller, and the long, crooked ramp that led from it being walled and narrow—permitted knights to ride but three abreast.

These things Eskevar took into consideration and decided the result was favorable. He would achieve a fair measure of surprise in such a maneuver, and he would catch the Ningaal unprepared and in the wrong position to begin a battle. They would mass quickly as the call to arms was given, he knew, but by that time he hoped to have his own men ranged upon the plain and ready, having already dispatched a goodly number of the foe.

The Dragon King and his army spent the day preparing and positioning men and horses to move through the postern yards and through the gates as quickly as possible.

When all was ready, a hush fell over the wards and yards where the men waited. The sun sank in the west, a great, crimson orb, and the Wolf Star shone fiercely in the east, shedding its cold, harsh light upon all who huddled beneath it. The villagers and peasants gathered to send their champions forth, and to pray to all the gods they knew for the victory. Women cried and kissed the brave knights; horses snorted and stamped their feet; children stood stiff-legged and stared round-eyed at the men in their glittering armor.

At the far end of the ward yard, a commotion arose, and those at the near end craned their necks to see the banner of the Dragon King lofted on its standard and waver toward them as a path opened before it. And then there was the king himself, sitting erect upon a milk-white stallion that pranced in trotting steps toward the gate. Over his silver armor he wore a royal coat that had the dragon emblem worked in gold. His helm bore no crest but the simple gold circlet crown. Flanking him on either hand, two grim knights—one astride a black charger, the other riding a sorrel—gazed resolutely ahead. The shield of the dark knight bore the device of a hawk; the blazon of the other showed a mace and flail held in a gauntleted fist.

Behind them rode Myrmior, who, after the fashion of his own people, wore no armor, but carried only a light, round shield and short sword. Ronsard, however, had prevailed upon him to don greaves, and a brassard for his sword arm at least. He had refused a helm, complaining that it was impossible to see out of the iron pot.

They passed through the yard to the gate, followed by ranks of nobles and knights three abreast. When they reached their position, the king raised his hand and the procession stopped. He looked to the gatekeeper, who, peering down from the barbican, nodded in return, declaring that the Ningaal had moved off the gate, leaving only a small force to watch. Then Eskevar, his face gray and hard, his eyes gleaming cold in the evil light of the star, drew his sword with his right hand. It whispered softly as it issued from the scabbard, but the sound soon filled the ward as the movement was repeated a thousand times over. The heavy iron portcullis was raised and the plank let down over the dry moat. And the Dragon King rode out to battle.

The Ningaal at the postern gate were scattered as chaff on the threshing floor. Several of them foolishly drew their weapons and were cut down before they could lift their hands; the rest ran howling to sound the alarm that the defenders had broken free and were in pursuit.

Eskevar turned the attack not toward the town, where the main body of the enemy waited, but to the more lightly manned cordon that had been thrown around the castle. This tactic proved successful, for the thundering knights easily routed the ill-prepared foe and dispersed a great many who could have formed a second front if given the chance. No sooner had this been accomplished than the knights wheeled to face the charge sweeping down around the castle rock behind them.

The full force of Eskevar’s army met this hastily assembled attack and drove through it with little hurt. They then moved quickly on to thrust into the larger of the Ningaal’s many siege camps, where several thousand of the enemy had gathered to eat and sleep that night. The sight of three thousand knights charging through their camp banished all thoughts of food and slumber from their barbarian minds as the camp instantly became a boiling cauldron of confusion and terror.

The Ningaal were caught unaware; the alarm had not reached them before the knights’ fierce attack. In moments the scene was one of fire and blood, rearing horses and slashing blades. Many of the Ningaal fled from the camp rather than face the fierce justice of the king’s swords. And for a fleeting moment it appeared to the defenders that the Ningaal would be overcome and crushed.

But that notion faded with the appearance of two warlords astride black warhorses, rallying their panic-stricken troops with cool control.

The knights had encompassed the camp and had driven through the center of it. Seeing the warlords bringing their scattered regiments together, Eskevar sent a company of knights against them to quell that opposition before it could materialize in force. The rest strove to keep the Ningaal running and confused, not allowing them time to coalesce into a unified front.

But too soon the body of knights surrounding the camp was outflanked by a larger ring of bellowing Ningaal led by the two other warlords. These began pressing forward, pushing the knights inward, shrinking the diameter of the circle by force of superior numbers. It seemed that no matter how many of the enemy were killed, there were more standing than had been there before.

Eskevar realized that the position was indefensible. With Theido on his right and Ronsard on his left, the Dragon King led a withering charge toward a weak section of the circle. There was a tremendous clash, and many knights fell into the wall of Ningaal axe blades, never to rise again. But the circle bowed and broke, and the king led his soldiers out upon the plain.

When they reached a place in the center of the plain half a league from the castle, Eskevar halted and turned to face the enemy, which was now massing for the final assault.

54

The warlords, perceiving that the victory was theirs to be won, did not rush at once to the attack. They waited, gathering their forces and ordering their troops for the final conflict. This gave the Dragon King time to position his knights as well, placing them in stout ranks around scores of footmen with pike and spear who had joined them from the castle.

The first clash with the Ningaal found the Dragon King ready and waiting at the forefront of his army. The bellowing mob, with battle-axes swinging, rushed down upon the Dragon King’s forces from the upper plain, led by two warlords. The two remaining warlords held a vast number of their foul flock in reserve.

Amut and Luhak rode with the charge and were met with a wall of steel. The Dragon King’s knights, fighting with a strength born of desperation, held the line against the warlords’ fearsome bodyguard and reduced that number effectively. The Ningaal axe men boiled onto the field like a tempest-driven flood. Though they beat against the armored knights with terrible blows of their cruel axes, the defenders withstood all.

Thwarted and repelled, the attack broke off and the warlords withdrew— to the cheers of the knights—leaving the field with the blood of their fallen.

Theido, astride his charger on the king’s right hand, lifted his visor and looked over the battlefield. “We have made a good account of ourselves,” he said. “What is more, we have not suffered much loss.”

“Even one man is too many in this fight,” Ronsard retorted from his place at the king’s left hand. “Do you fail to see it? They mean to wear us down one by one to the last man.”

“By Azrael!” said Eskevar. “It is the only way they will take Askelon. But we are far from defeated yet. And I have a plan that may confound them. Theido, gather the commanders. I would speak to them before the next attack.”

They met on the field, and the king spoke hurriedly, finishing just as the rolling whoop of the advancing enemy once more filled the air. As the Ningaal closed on the defenders for the second time, there was a stirring within the king’s army, and the attack met not a solid wall this time, but a rank that gave way before them. The enemy was instantly drawn inside the ring, like water into a flask, and then the stopper replaced, cutting off the axe men from their leaders, who were now inside. Thus the battle began with the Ningaal herded together within a palisade of stinging blades.

No one in the enemy’s camp noticed the small force that broke away from the rear of the Dragon King’s army and made its way back to the castle.

Once more the king’s knights stood to the task, hewing down the enemy before them. The pikemen worked among the flashing hooves of the horses to bring the warlords’ bodyguard down, where they were pierced with spears. The Ningaal axe men, separated from their commanders within the palisade, ran screaming around the outer ring, throwing themselves ineffectually upon the unforgiving lances of the knights.

Warlords Gurd and Boghaz, watching from a distance, soon realized what had happened and readied a second wave to smash the outer ring of the king’s defenses, and thus lay open the battle for a speedy end.

Mounted upon their sturdy black steeds, they swept down into the fray. They had nearly reached the field of combat when their attack faltered and broke apart amid a deadly flight of arrows. The Ningaal fell in such numbers that the warlords pulled up short of engaging the king and swerved to meet the archers who were now running to join their comrades on the plain, having staved off the second wave. The archers, who had been left behind to defend Askelon in its last need, were led by Myrmior and several of the boldest knights. They had been sent to bring the archers as part of Eskevar’s plan to divide and confuse the enemy.

The charging Ningaal could not draw within blade range of the archers and were at last forced to retreat and regroup. The archers reached the plain with ease, and the air sang with their killing missiles. Within moments of their arrival, the Ningaal withdrew once more and left the field to the Dragon King.

“We have not fared so well this time,” said Theido, once more surveying the carnage around him. “We have lost many good men. Perhaps too many to withstand another charge.”

“Withstand we must!” shouted Eskevar. “We must hold.”

“We have surprised them twice. I do not think we will again,” said Ronsard. “But we have stood them a battle that will be sung in the halls of brave men everywhere. That is something to take with us. Yet I begin to think that if we last this day, we may yet turn the tide of battle in our favor.”

“If Wertwin were as good as his word and brought the armies of Ameronis, Lupollen, and the others with him, I would agree with you,” said Theido. He turned his eyes to the north but saw nothing on the horizon. “But even if they came now, I think it would be too late.”

“Do not talk so!” charged the king. “We will prepare to meet the attack with courage.”

“As you say, my lord.” Theido looked at his king, and his noble heart swelled within him almost to bursting, for he seemed to see a dark shape, like the wings of a raven, hovering around the king’s shoulder. When the knight spoke again, it was with a voice choked with sorrow. “You have ever shown us courage, my king. Lead us, and we will follow through the gates of death itself.”

Eskevar’s face shone fierce in the strange white light of the star, shining as bright as day. But when he spoke, it was with a gentler tone. “You have served me well, brave friends. I have trusted you with my life on more occasions than a king ought, but I have never found you wanting.” He stopped and looked at each of them before continuing.

“This is how I want to be remembered—turned out in my finest armor at the head of loyal men and brave. This is how I would enter the rest of my fathers.”

Ronsard raised a hand to protest, but Eskevar waved him silent. “Enough of dying,” he said. “Now to arms! For the enemy once more draws near.”

Across the broken battlefield, now slippery with the blood of the dead and dying, the Ningaal advanced, slowly this time, behind a vanguard of horsemen with flaming pikes. The four warlords had positioned themselves so as to command a phalanx of troops ahead and behind them. This time there would be no force held in reserve, and there would be no tricks, for they moved over the plain step by step, wary of the slightest shift among the soldiers of the Dragon King.

The baleful Wolf Star burned down upon the scene with its hateful light, bright as noonday sun, casting shadows all around. It seemed to grow larger and to fill the sky, making the forlorn moon rising in the east a pale and insignificant thing.

Eskevar turned his face to the Wolf Star. “Surely that is an evil thing. I feel its fire in my bones. How it burns. Ronsard, Theido”—he turned to them both—“do you feel it?”

“It is the heat of battle I feel, Sire,” offered Ronsard.

“Aye, that too,” agreed Eskevar. The king seemed to come once more to himself and looked out across the battlefield, now rolling in the smoke of the fiery pikes of the Ningaal.

“If they think us slow-witted enough to wait here like cattle for the slaughter, they are mistaken,” said Eskevar as he glared out over the field. “Assemble the commanders!” he called. A trumpeter sent the message ringing in the air.

“We will charge them there—in the center,” said the king, pointing with his long sword toward the advancing body of the enemy. “We will show them how the knights of Mensandor value their lives.”

“Aye,” agreed the gathered lords, their armor battered and bloody but their faces still eager in the light of the hateful star.

“And we will show them how the knights of Mensandor value their freedom,” shouted Rudd. “For glory!” The nobleman raised his voice and led them in a rousing battle chant.

“Go back to your men,” instructed Eskevar. “Be ready, and wait for my signal.” Eskevar took his place at the head of his knights. Theido and Ronsard stayed at either side.

Theido, guessing the end was near, looked across to his friend Ronsard and offered a wordless salute. This was the long, dark road he had seen so long ago. Now that it stretched before him, he did not fear it, though it saddened him. He wanted to speak some final word to his friend, but none would come. The salute said all.

“Farewell, brave friend,” said Ronsard as he returned the salute. He closed the visor of his helmet and raised the point of his sword to Theido.

“For Mensandor!” cried Eskevar suddenly. His voice sounded clear and strong as thunder as it carried across the plain. He raised his sword and spurred his courser forward, and with a roar the army of the Dragon King leaped as one into furious motion.

The shock of the clash as the charging knights met the stubborn Ningaal shook the earth. Horses screamed and wheeled, plunging and plunging again. Knights cut the air with mace and flail; swords flashed and spears thrust and bowstrings sang.

Eskevar’s white stallion could be seen dashing straight away into the thick of the fighting. Ronsard, bold and bright, defended his king’s left with a tireless arm. Time and again the champion’s sword whirled through the air, dealing death with every blow. Theido guarded the king’s right and strove to keep himself between his lord and the bloodthirsty axes of the barbarian horde.

Here and there amid the furious melee, the standards of the Mensandor lords could be seen, as the islands of defenders, surrounded by a sea of enemy fighting men, labored to remain abreast of one another. But one by one the standards fell, some never to rise again, as the long night of battle wore on.

The daring attack of the Dragon King produced at length an unexpected result. So fiercely did the king’s army fight, and so well, that they succeeded in punching through the center of the Ningaal formation. Despite the enemy’s superior force, the defenders cut a wide swath through the heart of the warlords’ offensive and in time came together behind the Ningaal lines.

“This is unexpected!” cried Eskevar, breathing heavily and leaning forward in his saddle. “Our cause is not yet lost. Look there! See, Rudd drives through to join us, and yonder Fincher and Benniot.”

Theido looked at the swirling maelstrom before him and separated the shapes of the Dragon King’s knights from the darker forms of the Ningaal. The din of the fight rang loud in his ears, but he did not see the faintest glimmer of hope that the battle could be won, as Eskevar had said. Their charge had scattered the larger part of the Ningaal and had divided them like a wedge. The warlords of Nin circled around the outside of the battle storm and sought to rejoin their troops, but in vain. The enemy was falling away in droves.

“Is it true?” shouted Ronsard, throwing his visor up to view the contest.

“Yes!” agreed Theido. “See how they crowd toward the center— their own numbers crush them. If we direct a sally there, we can further divide them.”

“Good eye, man! You are right. Trumpeter! Rally the men. Onward we go!” Eskevar urged his steed once more ahead, and the Ningaal felt the heat of his blade like a flame kindled against them. The king’s knights formed a spearhead that drove through the milling mass and cut it down. Ningaal warriors forgot their discipline and ran screaming from the battlefield in great numbers; their commanders slew many deserters with their own hands in order to stop the rout.

This second charge was successful, and the defenders took heart that they might indeed carry the victory. With jubilant whoops and courageous battle cries, they stood shoulder to shoulder and fought, urging one another to greater deeds of valor.

By the time the sickly moon had advanced two hours’ time, the army of the Dragon King had for the first time taken the upper hand in the battle. The warlords were fighting a defensive action, seeking a retreat whereby they could regroup their lagging regiments. But Eskevar and his commanders, though suffering from fatigue and the terrible attrition of their numbers, doggedly struggled on to put the invaders to flight.

At midnight an entire Ningaal regiment broke and ran from the field. The sight of the beaten enemy dragging itself away from the combat greatly heartened the defenders, who sent a cheer aloft that reached Askelon and was echoed by the fearful refugees who peered anxiously from the battlements of the fortress.

“We can seize the day!” shouted Eskevar. “The barbarians have lost the heart to win.”

“Sire, let us pursue them and drive them from the field,” said Ronsard. “But you remain here where your soldiers can see you. Gather your strength.”

“Yes, my lord,” agreed Theido. “Let your commanders earn some glory. Do not endanger yourself further. Rest a little and regain your strength.”

Eskevar glared dully at his knights as he sat hunched in his saddle, unable to sit erect any longer. His visor was open, and his face showed white with exhaustion. He shook his head wearily and replied, “I will rest when the day has been saved—and not before. If my knights wish to see me, they must look toward the heart of the battle, for that is where I will be.”

Theido and Ronsard exchanged worried glances. They would have preferred to have their king stand off from battle at least for a time. Theido was about to protest further when Eskevar closed his visor and jerked the reins, plunging once more into the clash. The two trusted knights had no choice but to surge after him and protect him however they could.

For a moment it appeared as if this final assault would indeed shatter the Ningaal strength, for the howling axe men of the warlords melted before the defenders’ blades as snow before the flame. And for a moment the Dragon King and his knights stood unchallenged on the hard-won battleground as the enemy roiled in retreat.

But the illusion of victory was fleeting, for there came a sound that seemed to tear out of the ground as if the very earth were rending. It filled the air and soared aloft to shriek across the plain. Those who heard it quailed in its presence; even the stoutest among them trembled.

All eyes turned toward the south, and for the briefest instant the rolling smoke parted to reveal a solid wall of warriors stretching across the plain. Nin the Immortal had arrived with his fifty thousand.

55

The battle-weary defenders watched in horror as the conquest, so nearly won, dissolved in bleak futility, and certain doom swarmed in to take its place. The cheers of triumph turned to bitter wails of despair as the Ningaal, seeing their sure salvation, halted their retreat and turned once more upon the Dragon King’s battered army.

Eskevar had but little time to rally his flagging troops before the enemy surged around them like a flood whose waters rose to overwhelm all. At once the hapless defenders were surrounded on every side and cut off from any possible retreat. The warlords urged their warriors to fight in a frenzy, and one by one the Dragon King’s brave soldiers fell.

Ronsard and Theido fought to keep abreast of the king and protect him to the very end. But a sudden rush of the enemy swirled up before them and drove them apart.

Three black-braided, howling Ningaal, mouths foaming, eyes wild and faces smeared with blood, leaped up and grabbed the reins of Theido’s mount. One of the attackers instantly lost a hand in a crimson gush; another dropped dead to the earth, his axe in Theido’s chest, and the knight felt the blade bite deep as his armor buckled and parted. He reeled in the saddle, falling back beneath the force of the blow, which would have killed most men.

The Ningaal attacker, still clutching the haft of his axe, was pulled off the ground as Theido’s courser reared. Theido swung his buckler down upon the enemy’s head, and his opponent fell sprawling to the earth, where the warhorse’s flashing hooves made short work of him.

Theido, by some miracle, remained in the saddle and wrenched the axe from the crease in his chestplate. He knew himself to be grievously wounded but turned to look for Ronsard and Eskevar. The current of battle had carried them far apace. He saw Ronsard engaging four or five enemies with flaming pikes and swords, trying to keep them from reaching the king, when suddenly a warlord, charging into their midst with his black cape flying, struck into the fight.

Instantly the warlord was met by the lightly armed figure of Myrmior. The seneschal, his face a mask of hate, thrust himself between the king and the warlord. Theido saw Myrmior’s sword flash in the starlight in a shining arc. The warlord raised his blade; Myrmior’s sword shattered with the force of his mighty blow. The warlord struck again and beat angry Myrmior’s shield. Theido watched, helpless, as the warlord’s cruel and curving blade flicked out and buried itself deep in Myrmior’s unprotected chest. Myrmior clutched at the blade with one hand and pulled, even as the warlord sought to withdraw it, jerking the battle lord forward in the saddle. In the same instant Myrmior brought his broken sword up and slammed it into the warlord’s throat. Theido then saw the two men topple to the earth.

So quickly did this happen that Theido scarcely lifted the reins to send his mount forward and it was over. From his vantage point the knight saw Ronsard, who had killed three of his assailants, lurch away and drive once more to the king’s side. But in that momentary lapse, worlds were lost, for Theido, already pounding to his aid, saw Eskevar pulled from the saddle to sink into a boiling mass of Ningaal with pikes and axes.

Ronsard reached the spot where his monarch went down first. He killed two with one stroke and four more in as many passes. Theido’s arrival sent the rest darting away as Ronsard, heedless of his own safety, flung himself from the saddle and knelt beside his king.

Soon there were shouts all around. “The king has fallen! The Dragon King has fallen!” The defenders swarmed to his side, forming a wall around the body of their beloved ruler.

Ronsard held Eskevar’s head in his hands and carefully removed the king’s helmet. “It is over, brave friend,” Eskevar gasped. “I shall lift my blade no more.”

“Do not say that, Sire,” said Ronsard, tears seeping out of the corners of his eyes to run down his broad cheeks. He tore off his own gauntlet and thrust a corner of the king’s cloak into a bleeding wound at the base of Eskevar’s neck.

“There is no pain . . . no pain,” said Eskevar, his voice a whisper. “Where is my sword?”

“Here, Sire,” said Theido, placing his own weapon into the king’s grasping hands.

Eskevar clutched the weapon to his breast and closed his eyes.

Those watching from the castle ramparts and battlements saw the king fall, and a cry of grief and dismay tore from their hearts as from the throat of a mortally wounded beast. But the cry had not yet died in the air when someone shouted, “Look to the east!” All eyes turned their gaze eastward, where the forlorn watchers beheld a strange and wondrous sight.

It appeared to those watching, and to the soldiers crouching over the body of the Dragon King, that lightning flashed out of the east with the brightness of the blazing sun, for there was a sudden blinding flare that seemed to fill the sky, outshining even the light of the Wolf Star.

Another burst of brilliant light struck the sky, and surging Ningaal paused to look up from their bloody work to view with alarm this new marvel.

Suddenly all anyone could see was the form of a knight on a white horse bolting out of the east. In his upraised arm he carried a sword that blazed and flashed with living light.

All the earth seemed to fall silent before the approach of this unknown knight. The thunder of his charger’s hooves could be heard pounding over the plain as he flew as on eagle’s wings into battle.

“Zhaligkeer!” someone shouted. “The deliverer has come!”

A murmur swept through the ward yards and towers of Askelon. Alinea, Bria, and Esme, holding vigil in the eastern tower, looked out through tearful eyes to see this strange sight. The soldiers of the Dragon King, standing shoulder to shoulder around their fallen lord, raised their visors in astonishment.

The sword in the knight’s hand seemed to cast a beam of light toward heaven as he rode swiftly onward. The Ningaal, amazed at this unheralded apparition, looked on with gaping mouths. Even Nin, Supreme Deity of the Universe, struggled to his feet from his throne upon his platform to better see what was happening.

Quentin, astride the speeding Blazer, saw the remnant of the Dragon King’s army surrounded by the enemy upon the plain. With Toli at his side, he had no other thought but to rush to their aid and take his place beside them. In his dash he had seen the standard of the Dragon King fall beneath the flood of the enemy. He had then drawn his sword and with a battle cry he launched himself straight toward the place where he had marked the banner’s fall.

Zhaligkeer burned with the brilliance of a thousand suns, throwing off bolts of lightning that seared the air. For the Ningaal, transfixed by the unearthly vision, this was too much. Unafraid of bold earthly warriors, they were terrified at the appearance of this heavenly foe. The barbarians threw down their weapons and fled before him. Quentin drove into the center of the reeling horde and rode untouched into the midst of the Dragon King’s awestruck army.

Quentin glanced down and saw his friends Theido and Ronsard kneeling over the body of Eskevar. He read the sadness in their eyes and knew that the Dragon King was dead.

Without a word Quentin wheeled Blazer around and leaped after the fleeing Ningaal. An unspeakable grief seized his mind, and Quentin had no thought but to drive the hated enemy before him, to ride until he could ride no more, to the sea and beyond. In his mindless grief he drove straight toward Nin the Destroyer and his fifty thousand panic-stricken warriors. The Ningaal parted before the invincible knight with the flaming sword, as waves before the tempest.

Quentin saw nothing distinctly; it was as if he had entered a dream. Pale shapes moved before him, rolling away on either side like clouds; the night sky was filled with a burning white light. Then there was a darkness before him that rose up in a seething mass.

Zhaligkeer flashed in his hand. Quentin raised himself in the saddle and flung the sword skyward with a mighty shout. The sword spun in the air, and it seemed that as it reached the apex of its arc it suddenly exploded with a blinding crack that showered tongues of fire all around.

The sky went white, and every man threw his hands before his face to save his eyes. It seemed to Quentin that he entered his vision, for he was once more the knight standing upon a darkling plain, wearing the shining armor and lofting a blazing sword that burned into the heart of the darkness gathered about.

There was a shudder in the air, and he felt the fire rush through him. Though the lightning danced blinding waves around him, he opened his eyes and saw the darkness roll away, revealing a city splendid and beautiful, shimmering in the light as if carved of fine gold and gems. The exquisite sight brought Quentin off his horse and onto his knees.

He threw his hands before his face to blot out the vision, and the tears came rising up as from a spring. In that moment he felt in his inmost soul the hand of the Most High God upon him.

When Quentin raised his head, he was alone, and the night was dark. The Wolf Star had disappeared in a great flash. Some said that the Shining One had reached up into the sky and smitten the star and extinguished it, for it vanished in the same instant that Quentin had thrown the sword.

Zhaligkeer had fallen to earth and was found buried to the hilt in the obscene body of the Immortal Nin. The Conqueror of Kings lay dead, pinned to the ground like a serpent. His unhappy minions, witnessing the swift miracle of their cruel lord’s death, fled screaming over the plain. Their pitiful cries filled the night as they sought to escape the justice that would soon overtake them. The warlords of Nin fell upon their swords and joined their loathsome sovereign in his well-deserved fate.

Quentin returned to the place where Eskevar lay. Together with Theido and Ronsard and the lords and knights of Mensandor, he picked up the body of the king and, lifting it upon his shoulders, bore it away to Askelon.

56

The funeral of the Dragon King lasted three days, and his mourning continued for thirty. During this time Wertwin and the armies of Ameronis, Lupollen, and the others arrived—greatly saddened and contrite, for the news of the king’s death had overtaken them on their way. They were in pursuit of the Ningaal who were fleeing back along the Arvin toward the sea, where their ships still waited. The lords slew many of the enemy in their flight, and the rest were driven into the sea at lance point.

Eskevar’s body was taken at once to the castle, where it was placed upon his own bed. Durwin, aided by Biorkis, came to minister to the body, washing it and composing it for entombment. Inchkeith worked long hours over the king’s armor, pounding out the dents inflicted upon it in the last battle and shining it bright as new. Queen Alinea herself dressed her husband in his finest garments; Bria and Esme adorned him with his most treasured jewels. And then he was taken to the great hall, where he was solemnly laid upon his bier.

The king’s body lay in the great hall for two days, guarded by a sorrowful contingent of knights and nobles throughout the day and night while a steady procession of tearful subjects filed past the litter. The miserable, wailing peasants filled the ward yards, and afflicted citizens roamed the streets of the town, inconsolable with grief. The great Dragon King had passed; no one had ever thought to see that dark day.

Quentin remained in his chamber and would see no one. He did not even venture to the battlements to watch the funeral pyres of all the brave dead of the king’s proud army as they burned upon the plain. He held himself to blame for the king’s death, reasoning that if he had arrived but a few heartbeats sooner, Eskevar would still be alive. Quentin would neither eat nor sleep, but sat slumped in a chair before the darkened, empty hearth.

At midnight on the second day, Quentin bestirred himself and crept quietly to the great hall. The mourners had gone, and no one lingered in the hall except the ten knights standing as statues of stone around the body. Torches burned on standards at the four corners of the bier, casting a soft, hazy light over the pall. Quentin moved closer, mounting the flower-strewn platform to kneel beside the body.

In the lambent glow the king’s features were relaxed and calm; except for the unnatural stillness, he might have been asleep. Gone were the traces of illness that had so wasted his noble frame. Gone, too, were the lines of care and concern that had creased his features in the last few days. The years seemed to have been rolled away, and Quentin saw a younger Eskevar than he had known. His hair was dark and swept back over his temples. The high forehead was smooth, the nose straight and well formed above a firm but not ungentle mouth. The hard jut of the jaw had been softened, revealing a man at peace within himself, and the deeply cleft chin spoke of the unflinching purpose of the man who had been. The king wore his armor and held his helm nestled under his left arm. His sword lay upon his chest, where it was held at the hilt in his right hand. The writhing dragon device on the king’s breastplate seemed to twist and wink in the firelight. A cloak of royal blue edged in silver and gold was fastened at the throat by a golden chain and the king’s favorite dragon brooch. Eskevar appeared ready to leap to his feet and ride once more to the trumpeter’s call.

Quentin bowed his head, and hot tears fell upon the bier. He recalled so vividly the time when he had seen his king just so, held in the evil Nimrood’s spell. Then, by an impossible miracle, the necromancer’s enchantment had been broken and the Dragon King freed to live again. But it was a far more powerful sorcery that embraced the king now, one that claimed all men in the end and from which there was no release.

Quentin heard a soft step behind him, and he felt a light touch on his shoulder. He glanced up to see Queen Alinea, dressed all in sable, looking down on him, her green eyes deep pools of sorrow, but shining more beautifully for the compassion with which she regarded him.

“I have sought you these past two days, my son.” The queen spoke softly, and the tone eased Quentin’s troubled heart. He did not speak.

“You must not blame yourself, for in the end he chose his own course, as he ever did. It was his wish to die serving the kingdom he loved. And of all his loves, this one, his love for his realm, claimed his highest devotion. He was a king first and a man only second.”

“Thank you for your words, my lady. They do soothe me well. I will not blame myself, though I did at first. I know now that his course was set for him long ago. He would not bend to another.”

“Not and remain Eskevar for very long. Look at him, Quentin. See how peacefully he slumbers. Death held no terror for him; he had conquered it many times. The thing he feared and hated most was that his realm would fall before him, and he would not be able to save it. That gnawed at him; it poisoned his last days. But he conquered that, too, in the end.”

“How well you knew him, Alinea.”

“Knew him? Perhaps I knew him as well as anyone could, and I loved him with all my heart; he loved me, too, in his way. But a king does not belong to himself, or to his family. He belongs to his kingdom. Eskevar felt this more intimately than any I have known. He died for Mensandor as he lived for it.

“But there was much that even I did not know of him. The long years of war, years away from his home, took more than time away from us. Many was the night I cried out in loneliness for my husband and would have had a strong hand to hold my own. There was none. Eskevar was away, fighting for his kingdom. Even when he returned, he never rested; he was always turning his eyes here and there, searching every remote corner of Mensandor for any sign of weakness or trouble.

“He once told me—by way of apology, I think—‘If you seek to know me, know first my kingdom.’ He was Mensandor; its life was his.”

Quentin looked upon the dead monarch, realizing there was much he would never know of the man who had adopted him to be his own. “Now that he is dead, what will happen to his realm?” he wondered aloud.

“It shall live on in the life of the new Dragon King,” murmured the queen softly. She bent over her husband’s body and removed the dragon brooch and chain. She then turned and drew Quentin to his feet. “You will find this to be far heavier than the weight of its gold, my dear one. But he wanted you to have it, and all that goes with it.”

Quentin shook his head slowly, fingering the golden brooch the queen had fastened on his cloak. “I was never his son. As much as I love you both and am grateful for your kindness to me these many years, I am not fit to be king.”

“Who would be better?”

“His trueborn son, perhaps.”

“You know he had no male heir. But I shall tell you something. I have always thought it strange that a man who valued his throne so highly would have—”

“Given it away so freely,” muttered Quentin.

“No, he did not give it away at all, Quentin. You see, Bria was born just before Eskevar went to war with Goliah. When he learned that I could have no other children, and his offspring was female, I expected him to be angry. I offered to relinquish my crown so that he could take another, but he would not hear of it. He said he was content, that he would trust whatever god that ruled him to provide an heir when the time came. He never spoke of it again.

“So when he asked you to be his ward, I knew he had found his heir. How he knew, I cannot say. But he saw something in you that pleased him very much.”

“It seemed a kingly whim to me, my lady. Not that I was not overjoyed to receive his high favor. But as much as I loved him and Askelon, Dekra is my home. He must have known that.”

“It did not matter. He wanted for you only your happiness. He knew that when the time came, you would fulfill his hopes and expectations, so deep was his trust.”

“I hope he was not mistaken. I pray he was not,” said Quentin. Alinea looked upon the still form of the king and, drawing a long breath, turned away at last, offering Quentin her hand.

“He was not mistaken, my son. All is as it should be—as he would have had it. You will see.”

Quentin cast a glance toward the body and withdrew with Alinea on his arm. Their footsteps echoed in the darkened hall, and when they had gone, silence again reclaimed her own.

The next morning the body of the king was taken to the Ring of the Kings, the ancestral resting place of the Mensandorean monarchs established within the green walls of Pelgrin Forest.

The funeral cortege, made up of knights and nobles on horseback and loyal subjects on foot, wound through the hastily cleared streets of Askelon. Townspeople stood among the ashes of their ruined city to pay a last farewell to their sovereign. Quentin rode on Blazer, next to Alinea and directly behind the funeral wain. Bria and Durwin followed and were in turn followed by Theido and Ronsard, who led the procession of noblemen. Others came on in turn, riding beneath their colorful devices and banners. At the head of the cortege, the Dragon King’s own standard carried his red dragon hung with pennons of black.

The king rode to his tomb on his bier beneath a sky of radiant blue sown with tufts of white clouds. A cool wind freshened the summer air and bore sorrow far away, though here and there a tear still sparkled in an eye. The sun shone down upon the body of Eskevar fair and full, and the wind ruffled his hair as his armor glinted hard and bright in the sun.

Eskevar was placed in one of the beehive-shaped barrows within the Ring—the very barrow Quentin had found him in years before to rescue him from Nimrood’s fell scheme. The barrow was clean and well ordered, having been swept and appointed by Oswald, the queen’s chamberlain.

With much ceremony and dignity, Eskevar was laid to rest upon his stone slab, which had been spread with fur coverlets from his bed. His most highly prized possessions were placed about him, and when all had looked their last upon the king, the tomb was sealed and the entrance filled in with earth. Quentin assisted in this work rather than stand by and watch. And when it was over, he turned away and did not look back.

As the funeral party emerged from the green silence of the Ring of the Kings, they were met by a party of lords led by Wertwin. The noblemen bowed in their saddles and gazed down at Quentin, who still walked beside the queen, holding her arm. “We are told,” began Wertwin, “that you are to be the king’s choice to succeed his throne.”

“I am,” Quentin said flatly. No one could determine from his tone how he felt about the matter.

Wertwin appeared disconcerted and glanced at the lords around him. “We mean to offer you our fealty,” he explained.

Quentin only stared at them. “He who wields the Shining One is our king!” said someone from among them. A chorus of hearty approval endorsed this statement. From somewhere nearby Toli appeared, bearing a sword in his arms. Quentin smiled at his friend and took the sword.

He felt the quick warmth of its grip as it touched his fingers, and he heard the blade whisper as he drew it forth. Then suddenly the forest glade was awash in a brilliant light as Quentin lofted the sword for all to see.

The assembled lords dismounted at once and came forward to gather around him and to kneel. Quentin held the sword high and said, “May the god whose power burns in this blade burn in me as well. I will accept your fealty.”

The forest rang with cheers and shouts of acclaim. Theido and Ronsard shouldered their way to his side and clapped him on the back, and then he was borne away on the shoulders of loyal subjects.

A jubilant parade returned to Askelon, in marked contrast to the one that had issued from the gates earlier in the day. Although the official period of mourning would continue for many more days, from that moment the healing process throughout the ravaged land was begun. In Eskevar all the dead were buried and the old order laid to rest. In Quentin the new order was present with a promise bright as the future that shone like the light of the Shining One at his side.

A new age had dawned, and a new king had been chosen to lead the way. And of all those who reveled in it and welcomed it, only Durwin, the faithful hermit of Pelgrin Forest, knew it for what it was: the priest king had come at last. The promise of the ages had been fulfilled.

The Dragon King Trilogy, Book Three

For the cousins:

Tiffany, Robbie, Erin,

Annie, Jeffrey.

With much love.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

1

The hunched figure toiled up the winding trail, leaning heavily upon his long crooked staff, stopping frequently to rest and to look down upon the placid lowlands, gazing toward the west in the direction of Askelon. He was an old man of years beyond counting, dressed in the robes and cowl of a priest. The hood threw a dark shadow across his features, and though the day was hot and the sun bright, he did not uncover his head but went on his way, wrapped head to toe. Seen from a distance he might have been a black beetle scrabbling up a hillock bearing the weight of his burdensome shell.

When he reached the summit of the plateau, he sat down on a rock beneath an ancient wind-worn tree that threw its sparse, gnarled branches over the road. Many a pilgrim had sat there upon that rock to offer up a prayer to the gods for a fortuitous oracle.

But this traveler was no pilgrim and offered no prayers.

Instead, he sat and with narrowed eyes gazed out over the countryside. The air sang with birdsong and shimmered as the heat rose in waves from the land. In the misty blue distance his sharp eagle’s vision could see the dark green line of Pelgrin Forest, lying like a vast green sea away to the west. In the valley below, peasants labored in the fields among their new crops. Their shouts to their lazy oxen drifted up the side of the hill, like petitions to an unhearing god.

The old man turned his face away from the peaceful landscape shining green and golden beneath clear, untroubled blue skies. He looked toward the temple rising white and silent as a tomb above him. Then he lifted himself heavily to his legs once more, took up his staff, and continued on.

When he reached the temple yard, he stopped and leaned long on his staff, as if waiting for a sign, or as if, having come this far, he was unable to decide whether to finish what he came to do. After some time he turned his face to the east, toward the mountains whose mighty heads could be seen rising above their heavy shoulders. There, above the far peaks, he saw dark clouds assembling and moving westward on the wind.

The old priest nodded to himself and then went across the stone-paved yard to the temple steps. He climbed the stairs, raised the iron ring on the great wooden door, and knocked several times.

After a few moments the door opened, and a man in a red cloak poked his head out. “The temple is not open at this hour.” The man looked at the old priest unkindly. “Come back at the seventh hour if you want prayers or an omen.”

“Do you not see that I am a priest?” asked the old one. “I have come to see the high priest of Ariel.”

“He sees no one,” the temple guard said. “He is in retreat.”

“Is he, indeed? But this is a matter of greatest urgency. He must see me.”

The guard glared at the wrinkled old priest, and his features proclaimed that the old man and his crooked staff were a great nuisance.

But before he could reply, the old priest spoke again. “It is not for you to decide. Bring someone in authority. If not the high priest, then the under-high priest, or the day priest.”

The temple guard glared a silent curse on the old man and closed the door. The elderly priest stood for a few moments and waited, head bent down. Just as he was about to raise the ring once again, he heard steps on the other side of the door. A gray-cloaked priest, a young man with a pocked face, thrust his head through the opening. Behind him the guard stood frowning.

“Well,” the young priest said, “what do you want?”

“I wish to speak with the high priest. That is allowed, surely. It is a matter of importance.”

“He sees no one unannounced,” snapped the priest.

“Then I wish to be announced at once,” said the old man softly. His faded eyes hardened to stone.

“High Priest Pluell is in retreat; he cannot be disturbed. I am the day priest; I am empowered to help you.”

The old man smiled slyly. “That I doubt most heartily. Still, you will do. Announce me to him. I can readily see that you are a man of some resource—you will find a way.”

The young man’s face convulsed in a mighty frown. He drew breath to shout the old man away. But before he could speak, the elderly priest raised his hand and said, “Do what I say.” This was spoken simply, but with utmost authority. The younger priest felt it like a slap. His mouth snapped shut instantly.

“Wait over there,” the day priest muttered. He pointed to a stone bench under a tree away across the temple yard by the wall.

“I will abide,” said the old man. He turned and began slowly descending the temple steps.

“What name shall I give him?” shouted the young priest after him.

The old man paused, leaned on his staff, and seemed to ponder the question carefully. “Well?” called the day priest.

“Tell him,” the old man began at length, “that a friend from the east has come.” One gnarled hand disappeared beneath the folds of his robes. “And give him this.” He withdrew his hand and held out a darkly glittering object.

The young man came out of the temple and took the talisman from the outstretched hand. He held it in his palm and examined it closely.

The object was a flat round medal made of black stone, and was inscribed with strange symbols he did not recognize. It was cold in his hand, and a strange feeling came over him as he held the talisman—a feeling of deep foreboding, of doom gathering around him like the high dark clouds overhead.

Without another word he turned and went back into the temple. The old man continued down the steps and made his way slowly to the bench under the tree. He settled himself to wait in the shade.

The day progressed leisurely. At midday a straggling few pilgrims came to the temple. The day priest met them and took their offerings. The pilgrims waited and then were admitted into the temple for their oracle. They came out and went away chattering happily, full of the good fortune which had been assured them by the priests. None noticed the old man sitting quiet as an idol beneath the tree by the wall.

Evening came on, and with it a cool breeze out of the east, scented with the sweet, musty smell of rain. As a crimson sun set in fiery brilliance away beyond the golden fields of the valley below the temple, a priest came out of the temple with a brand to light the torch that stood in a stone pylon in the center of the temple yard.

The priest stood with his back turned to the old man, raised the brand, and lit the torch, then turned slowly—feeling unseen eyes on him—and peered into the shadows at the old man still seated on the bench. From out of the darkness, two bright eyes glittered back at him in the torchlight. The priest jumped back, almost dropping the torch. Then he turned and fled into the temple. The great wooden door slammed shut behind him, and the sound of its closing echoed through the empty yard.

The old man did not move; he merely closed his eyes once more and waited.

High clouds, flying swiftly on the upper winds like tattered sails, obscured the moon rising over the valley. The breeze came in gusts now, and in the distance could be heard the muted rumblings of thunder far away. A few dry leaves flittered across the stone flagging of the temple yard, their tumbling shapes like skittering mice. The torch in the pylon sputtered as the wind played with it.

The old man sat with his head down; he drew his robes more closely around and waited.

At midnight the courtyard was dark and silent. Clouds covered the sky, and the distant mumbling of thunder sounded ever closer. The wind was fresh and steady out of the east, guttering the flame of the torch, making shadows leap and dance around the pylon.

Then, from the far side of the temple, came the faint glimmer of another light. The winking light approached, swinging in the hand that held it, accompanied by the muffled slap of sandals on the stones. The old man raised his head and smiled in the dark.

In a moment the stranger had come to stand before the seated figure. He raised the shuttered lantern and opened one of the small doors to let out more light. In the yellow glow of the lantern, the priest studied his visitor.

“Who are you?” asked the priest.

“So, Pluell, you have come at last.”

“How do you know me?”

“You are the high priest, are you not? Does not the high priest have a name?”

“I have, and you know it. I would know yours.”

“I think you do, sir.”

The high priest squinted at the old face and held the lantern closer. “I have never seen you before, never.” Then he added slowly, “Have I?”

The old man shook his head. “No, perhaps not. It has been a long time since I have been in these parts.”

“You are no priest,” Pluell asserted, “though you wear the priestly garb. If you have not been here for many years, how is it that I should know your name?”

“You received my talisman, did you not?”

“I did.” He stuck out his hand and held out the black stone. The old man took it and held it up. “It is a most curious piece.”

“Yes, most curious.” The old man concealed it in his robe.

Just then the sky above was torn by lightning, illuminating the two figures in stark, unnatural light.

“The storm is upon us,” said the old man.

“Who are you?” asked the high priest.

“I tell you that you know.”

“Bah! You’re wasting my time. I’ll have nothing more to do with you. You are keeping me from my bed.” He glared at the old man. “It was foolish for me to come.”

“And yet you came. Why, I wonder?”

The high priest opened his mouth to speak, thought better, and closed it again.

“I will tell you why,” intoned the old man softly. “You came because you had to come. You had no other choice but to come and see for yourself if what you thought was true.”

The high priest said nothing. The wind gusted, and the torch flared. The tree branches above them creaked and groaned in the wind.

“You came because I summoned you.”

“You lying old fool!” said Pluell. “I will not listen to this.”

“You came because trouble approaches, and you know I can help.”

“You are insane. I have finished with you. Begone!” he shouted.

“Very well,” said the old man evenly. He stood slowly as if he would leave at once. As he rose his hood fell back from his head, revealing long, wispy locks of white hair framing a face as creased and lined as a furrowed field. Sharp black eyes shone out of the ravaged face. “I will go, but once there was a time when the name of Nimrood commanded a measure of respect.”

The high priest stepped back involuntarily at the sound of the name. “Nimrood!” he gasped. “It cannot be!”

“There, you see? You do know me.”

“But—you are dead! Years ago . . . I was but a boy . . . I heard . . . you were killed in the battle with the Dragon King . . .”

“As you see, I was not,” replied the old man.

“Nimrood! I dare not believe my eyes!”

“Believe them, sir! It is Nimrood and none other.”

Lightning streaked the sky, loosing thunder to march out in booming steps across the valley. Heavy drops of rain began thudding to earth, splashing against the stones in the temple yard.

“You spoke of trouble,” said High Priest Pluell. “How can you help?”

Nimrood turned his face to the sky. “The storm is come in force. Would you not rather invite me into your private chambers? I think we might have much to discuss.”

High Priest Pluell stood in momentary indecision. He glanced at Nimrood sharply, weighing the matter. Rain spattered down into his face. The torch on the pylon guttered out, hissing like a serpent in the dark.

“Very well,” Pluell said. “Follow me.” He led them to the little-used side entrance, leaving the temple yard to the rain and the night.

2

Bria lay for a moment, listening to the drip of the rain onto the bar-tizan outside their chamber. The doors were thrown open wide, and the gentle summer breeze blew in, bringing with it the fresh, clean scent of rain-washed air. Tiny bluebirds twittered on the balustrade, making joyful music to the morning.

The queen rolled over and flung an encircling arm to her side. Her hand patted the empty bedclothes where her husband would have been. He was gone. She opened her eyes lazily and murmured, “Oh, Quentin, do you never rest?”

She rose and threw on a robe. At once a maidservant came scurrying in with a fresh summer gown of sky-blue samite with a belt of finely wrought gold.

“My lady slept well?” asked the young woman.

“Well, thank you, Glenna. Isn’t it a beautiful day?”

“Yes, my lady. Beautiful.” She smiled, and light shone in her eyes. “Almost as beautiful as my lady.”

“Your flattery is as easily given as the bird’s song.” Bria laughed, and the room was brighter. “Have you seen the king?”

“No, my lady. Shall I send for the chamberlain?”

The queen shrugged. “There is no need. I know where he has gone.”

The servant helped her queen dress and then set about tidying the room. Bria went out from the royal apartments and made her way to the kitchens.

She passed lightly through a corridor and down a flight of steps to a banqueting hall. No sooner had she set foot in the hall than there was a squeal and a sudden flurry of motion toward her.

“Mother! Did you hear? Oh, did you hear the news?” Two young girls rushed up to her on prancing feet and grabbed her hands, pulling her toward the breakfast table.

“And what news have you heard, my darlings?” She smiled and stroked their golden heads.

The younger of the two children, Princess Elena, her hair in long braids woven with golden thread so that they shone and shimmered as she danced on her tiny slippered feet, smiled happily at her mother, her green eyes twinkling with the merriment of her secret. Her sister, Princess Brianna, slender as a new spring shoot and dressed in bright blue, like her mother, pressed the queen’s hand and said, “Come and sit with us, Mother. We have so much to tell you!”

Princess Elena shook her head vigorously. “Yes, oh yes. So much to tell you!”

“Very well,” said Queen Bria, settling herself lightly on the bench at the table. “What is your news? I cannot wait another instant!”

The older girl glanced at her sister, and both burst into laughter. The sound was pure delight. Several kitchen servants stopped to look on and smile, arrested by the little princesses’ happiness.

“Will you keep your poor mother in suspense? I confess I must know at once!” Bria took their hands and squeezed them both.

Still laughing, the words tumbled out. “Esme is coming! Esme! Isn’t that wonderful?” they shouted. “Esme will be here tonight!”

“That is indeed wonderful news!” cried Bria, hugging her daughters.

“Oh, but please don’t tell Father,” said Brianna. “We want to tell him. Please?”

“Yes, you shall tell him. It will be your surprise.”

“Oh, let’s go and find him!” cried Elena.

The two would have darted off at once, but the queen called them back.

“The king is not here, my doves. He rode out this morning early to the temple.”

“May we go, too? Please, Mother?” they asked excitedly.

“Come and eat a bite of breakfast first, and we shall see.” Bria glanced around the room quickly. “And where is your brother? Still abed? The day is fleeing!”

“Oh, no. He grabbed a seedcake and ran off a long time ago. He is meeting Toli in the stable yard. They are going riding.”

“Riding again! Always riding. It is a wonder the boy does not grow hooves and a mane.”

The girls giggled at the thought. The queen sighed. She did not relish the idea of one so young riding such big horses. Still, she thought, as long as he was with Toli, no harm could come to him.

“Now then, eat your breakfast. We have much to do this day to make ready for Lady Esme’s visit!”

They sat down to eat, but the girls were in such high spirits that they could only peck at their food. At last their mother dismissed them, and they ran laughing from the hall. Bria smiled, watching their braids flouncing as they went.

So Esme is coming. That is good news, she thought. How did the girls find out, I wonder. Well, however it is, she will be greatly welcome. It has been too long since she was in Askelon. Too long. I have missed her.

Quentin stood at a large, rough-hewn table in the center of a great rectangle of stone. His head was bent in concentration over a huge parchment roll that was weighted down at either end with a stone.

“See here,” he said, pointing to a place on the plan. “If we raise this wall within the week, we can begin laying in the beams. What do you say to that, Bertram?”

Bertram, the grizzled old master mason, squinted at the place where the king’s finger pointed, then raised his head and scratched his scruffy jaw, nodding at the wall before them across the way. “Aye, it is possible, Sire,” he replied diplomatically. “But the corbels must be set first, and they are not ready yet. Nor the trusses, neither.”

“Hmmm,” said the king, frowning.

“But we’ll see her raised soon enough, m’lord. Indeed we will. Count on it. Up she’ll go soon enough.” He nodded his head and then called over to one of his masons. “Excuse me, Sire. I must attend—”

“Yes, of course. Go on. I am returning to the castle soon.”

“Good day to you, m’lord.” Bertram bowed and hurried away.

Quentin stood for a moment with his hands on his hips and gazed at the work going on around him. The morning was clear and bright, the long grass still wet from the rain through the night. The masons and their many workmen toiled away with vigor. Quarrymen with sledges loaded with stone added their loads to the rock piles at either end of the rectangle, while laborers selected rocks from these mounds and tumbled them into wheelbarrows, ferrying them to the walls. Mortar makers and their carriers stirred the mud pits and loaded fresh mortar onto pallets, supplying the masons, who continually clamored for more.

In the midst of this ordered confusion, the walls of the new temple, the temple of the Most High, rose slowly and almost imperceptibly. The work was in its sixth year, and it sometimes seemed to Quentin that it would never end.

He was impatient for the temple to be finished, for its completion would inaugurate the new era; and in this temple he would lead in the worship of Mensandor’s new god. The temple would be a symbol to all the realm that the new age had dawned at last.

The old gods are dead, he would proclaim. Worship the new God, the Most High, Creator and Ruler of all!

Word of the new temple had quickly spread throughout the land since construction had begun. There was not a house in all the realm that did not know of the King’s Temple, as it was called. But six years had passed, and four more at least were needed before it could be completed. Until then . . . well, there was much work to do until then.

Quentin heard the jingle of bells behind him and turned to see Blazer tossing his head impatiently. The great horse had cropped all the sweet grass within reach and was ready to move on. He tossed his head restlessly, setting the little bells braided into his mane and along his silver bridle ringing, as if to say, “Away! The sun is up; the day is good. Let us run!”

Quentin smiled and walked to the animal, placing his hand on the horse’s broad nose. “You are impatient, and so am I, old friend. Very well,” said the king, raising his foot to the stirrup, “we will go. I have bothered these good men enough for one day.”

He swung himself easily up into the saddle and jerked the reins. Blazer lifted his forelegs off the ground and spun around. Quentin lifted his hand to Bertram, who waved back, and then Blazer leaped away. They raced along the road leading down the broad slope of the hill, dodging the ox-drawn wains bearing food and supplies to the workmen. Then, feeling the sun on his face and the beauty of the day springing up inside him, the king spurred Blazer off the road and let him run down the side of the hill and out onto the plain below Askelon.

The castle rose up on its crown of rock, shining like a jewel in the morning light. Red and blue pennons fluttered and snapped from a thousand spires. The high battlements soared above, topped with turrets and barbicans—strong, safe, forever secure.

Quentin enjoyed the strength of the animal beneath him; his heart raced as they thundered over the still-damp ground. Blazer’s hooves struck up muddy turf and flung it skyward as they galloped on.

Presently they came to a great stone cenotaph standing alone in the center of the plain. Quentin reined Blazer to a trot as they approached. They stopped in front of the cenotaph, and Quentin dismounted. He walked to the monument and knelt at its base.

Inscribed in stone on both sides of the slab were the words Quentin knew by heart. Yet he read them once again. They said:

Here upon this field did the warriors of Mensandor meet and defeat in battle the barbarian host of Nin, called the Destroyer.

Here Eskevar, Dragon King, Lord of the Realm, fell, and many brave men with him, nevermore to rise. Peace was purchased with their blood and freedom with their swords.

After reading the words he had read so often, Quentin stood and remounted and rode off once more toward Askelon.

3

Away east of the city, in a meadow ringed with ancient oaks, secluded from prying eyes, Toli and Prince Gerin rode together. “Try it again, young prince,” called Toli, turning the cantering Riv toward a well-worn path where the great trunk of a fallen tree lay.

The prince, a hardy young boy of nine with a tousled mane of dark brown hair, studied the obstacle before him, his quick green eyes narrowed in utmost concentration, his mouth pulled into a pucker. Flushed with excitement, color rising red to his cheeks, Gerin thrust out his jaw earnestly. The act was such an exact parody of the king that Toli chuckled behind his fist in order to keep from laughing aloud.

Then, with a flick of the reins, the prince kicked his heels into his pony’s flanks and away they flew, back down the path toward the fallen trunk.

At the last second the little prince threw the reins ahead and leaned forward against the horse’s neck. The pony lifted its legs and soared over the obstacle with ease, landing with a bump on the other side. The young rider rocked forward in the saddle and bounced to one side, but retained his seat on his mount.

”Very good!” cried Toli. “Excellent! That is the way! Come here now and rest a little.” He beamed at his charge, nodding well-earned approval.

“Just once more, Toli. Please? I want to remember what it feels like.” He turned the horse again and started for the log.

Toli reined up and dismounted, watching the prince carefully. This time as the boy’s horse approached the obstacle, the animal hesitated, unsure of his rider’s command. He jumped awkwardly and late, throwing himself over. Prince Gerin slipped sideways in the saddle and hung on, trying desperately to stop the horse. But he could not; his grip failed, and he fell to the ground with a thud. The brown pony jogged on riderless.

“Ooof!” The prince rolled heels over head on the soft turf.

Toli rushed to him. “Are you hurt?” He picked up the boy and brushed him off. There was mud on his chin and elbows.

“No—it is not the first time I have fallen. That, at least, I seem to have the knack of.”

“I am sorry it will not be the last time, either,” laughed Toli. “But I must keep you in one piece, or your father will have my head!”

The prince looked up at his instructor, frowning, his smooth brow knitting in consternation. “Will I ever get it right?”

“Of course, in time—”

“But the hunt is less than a fortnight away!”

“Do not worry, young master. You are making good progress. You shall ride with the hunt, I promise. And your father will have his surprise. All in good time. But first you must learn not to hesitate when you approach a jump. It confuses your mount, and he will jump badly.”

“May I try it again?”

“We should be getting back. I’ve duties to attend to.”

“Please, Toli. Just once more. I would not like to end the day’s practice with a fall.”

“Well said. One more jump, and then we race for home.”

The prince dashed to his mount, Tarky, who had stopped to nibble the grass at the end of the path. Toli went back to Riv and remounted. “Think about what you are doing, young sir!” called Toli. “Concentrate!”

The boy climbed into his saddle, a look of dire determination on his face. He eyed the obstacle ahead, gauging the distance, then snapped the reins and spurred the horse ahead.

Away they galloped down the path. In a twinkling they were hurtling toward the log. Prince Gerin leaned low in the saddle, lifted his hands, and the horse flew up and over the log, as graceful and light as a deer. The prince pulled the reins and with a whoop of triumph wheeled the pony around and broke for the far trees across the meadow.

“Well done, Prince Gerin!” shouted Toli. “Well done!” Then he, too, spurred his mount for the trees and beyond them to the road leading back to Askelon.

The two reached the road side by side and raced, laughing all the way to the castle. The sun was high in the clear blue sky, and both felt the joy of life running strong in them.

Durwin’s worktable was stacked high with dusty scrolls and hide-bound volumes. He sat hunched over the table on a high stool, chin in hand, mumbling to himself as he read. His hair was long and almost completely white now, but his eyes were quick as ever and his limbs sound. He appeared a man half his natural age.

Abruptly he raised his head and sniffed the air. “Ah!” he cried, jumping up. He dashed at once to a small brazier where a black iron pot was bubbling away on the hot coals. It had boiled over, and black smoke rolled toward the rafters. He picked up a long wooden spoon nearby and was stirring the pot when a voice called out from the doorway.

“Phew! Good hermit, what is that prodigious stench? It is most foul!”

Durwin glanced up to see the queen dowager standing in his wide doorway watching him, her nose crinkled in frank disgust.

“Alinea! What! You do not care for my poultice? ’Tis a powerful curative for aches of the joints.”

“It is to be wondered whether the aches would not be more enjoyable.”

“My patients, I assure you, do not mind its aromatic qualities.”

“Your patients?”

“I call them patients, my lady. This is for Toli.”

“Certainly Toli has no need of this.”

“His horses, madam. I am making it for his horses, although it would not hurt the rider in any case, if need were great.”

“And nose were strong!” she said, laughing. “But mine is not. Come away from your labors a little, hermit. I would have someone to walk with in the garden.”

Durwin smiled and bowed. “I would be delighted. Just the thing. I have been too long among these vapors, or I would have thought of it myself.”

They went out together, through the castle, past the Dragon King’s Great Hall, and out onto the garden steps. “See how brightly the sun shines,” said Alinea, “and how fragrant the flowers.”

They walked down the steps and into the garden amid the fragrant offerings of roses of all kinds. The spring flowers were gone, but the blooms of summer were just opening, and everywhere one looked, the eye was filled with color.

“Ah! It is peace itself to be here,” sighed Durwin. He turned to regard his companion. The years had been kind to her. Her hair was long—braided, gathered, and bound in a snood. There was much silver now among the auburn tresses, and lines had formed around her eyes and lovely lips. But her eyes were still as green as forest pools, and her voice held the timbre of laughing water.

Yes, thought Durwin, the years have been good to us all. I would not trade them for any others. The God Most High is good; he has poured out a blessing on the land. We have much to be thankful for.

“What are you thinking, my friend?” Alinea asked softly.

“That these have been happy years, my queen, and full. I am content.” He paused, and his voice struck a faraway note. “Though I lay down to die tomorrow, I would have no regrets. None at all.”

“And I might say the same,” replied Alinea. “But come, let us not speak further of dying. That will take care of itself.”

“So it is! Aye, so it is.” Durwin nodded slowly. Brightening, he said, “Then tell me, what news do you have? I heard that a messenger arrived early this morning. He brought good tidings?”

“Yes! Yes, I was going to tell you. He brought word from Hinsenby—”

“Hinsenby? From Theido?”

“From Lady Esme. She is on her way here even now. She will arrive before dusk this evening. The day is good for traveling.”

“Ah, Lady Esme. I have not seen her for many years, it seems.”

“She has been missed within these walls. And, sad to tell, no one felt her absence as keenly as Lady Esme herself.”

“Yes, an awful business. Very sad. It bears remembering that there are some among us whose lives may not be as free of regret as our own. I am certain she would have chosen differently if she had known.”

Alinea was silent for some time. They paced the garden paths, each feeling the warmth of the day and of companionship from the other. “I wonder if any of us would choose as we do, if we knew the future.”

“Perhaps not. But it is a blessing nonetheless. The burdens of the day weigh heavy enough; we could not bear tomorrow’s as well.”

“Of course. How wise you are, hermit. Yes, it will be good to see Esme once more. Perhaps we may help heal old wounds.”

Just then they heard the happy twitter of childish voices and looked up to see Princess Brianna and Princess Elena running toward them as fast as their spindly little legs would carry them. Behind them Bria walked at a more leisurely pace.

“Grandmother! Oh, Grandmother!” called the girls. “We have a secret! A very great secret!”

“A secret. Whatever could it be?”

“You must guess it, Grandmother!” shouted Brianna.

“Yes, guess! Guess!” shouted Elena.

Alinea placed her hands together and raised them to her lips. “Let me see,” she said, her eyes shining at the sight of her beautiful grandchildren. “Are you going on a trip?”

Both little heads wagged from side to side, their braids flying.

“No?” continued their grandmother. “Then you have learned a new game and have come to show us!”

“That’s not it!” they cried, and burst into giggles. “Lady Esme is coming. She’ll be here tonight!” Both girls began hopping up and down.

“That is good news!” said Alinea.

“Did you hear, Durwin?” they shouted. “She’ll be here tonight.” Then they looked at each other as a new and better thought occurred to them. “Maybe she’ll bring us presents!” said Brianna.

They clapped their hands and then darted away among the rosebushes toward the fountain.

“Very like hummingbirds,” mused Durwin.

“There you are, Mother,” said Bria as she came to stand with them. “I see they have told you their secret.”

“Yes, dear. How happy you must be.”

“I am almost as excited as they are—if that were possible!” she replied and laughed, her eyes following the girls as they ran. “Good day, Durwin. I am glad to see Mother has dragged you from your noisome den. I was beginning to wonder whether you would ever come out.”

“Oh, in time, in time. But once this old head gets hold of an idea, it will not let it go.” He smiled broadly. “That is why I have you two to look after me. I know you will not allow me to remain too long alone. I thank you for that.”

“There is another who I wish were as easily persuaded,” said Bria.

“Quentin?”

Bria smiled a little sadly and nodded. “Oh, I know he is very busy now. He is preoccupied with his temple. But he is gone from morning until night nearly every day, closeted with his builders and architects. He never stops. I rarely see him anymore.”

Alinea looked longingly at her daughter. “With a king it is ever so. You must remember, my love, that he does not belong to himself, or even his family. He belongs to the kingdom, to the people. Quentin carries a very great burden in this temple. Old ways die hard, and he seeks to fulfill the god’s leading.”

Bria hung her head. “I know I should be more patient. But he has become a stranger in his own house.”

“Quentin is called to high deeds. Through him great things will be accomplished.”

“So it is,” said Durwin. “But my lady Bria speaks the truth. He also must look to the nurturing of his home. King or no, that is a man’s first responsibility. The Most High is happy in small deeds, as well as large. I often think he must care less for temples than for the simple strength of a family.” He paused and looked at Bria. “I will speak to him if you wish.”

“Thank you, but, no. I will wait. The temple is important—I know that. Perhaps when it is finished we will once again find time for ourselves. Until then I shall wait.” She smiled prettily and glanced at her mother. “The women in our family have had long experience with waiting. We are very good at it.”

4

Unlike the priests he led, High Priest Pluell lived in sumptuous splendor, with the richest appointments. While the lower priests’ cells were spare, devoid of all objects and ornamentation, except those few articles necessary to a minimum of comfort—a bed with straw-filled mattress, a stool, a rough table, a wooden bowl, a tallow candle—the high priest’s apartment was hung with heavy tapestries, and carven chairs stood around a great table spread with expensive cloth and laid with fine silver. In golden candle holders burned candles made with perfumed beeswax. His bed was high and curtained, the mattress stuffed with eiderdown.

This, he told himself, was no more than his due—the perquisites of his position, the rewards of his rank.

High Priest Pluell and his visitor had been holding conference for many hours. The high priest stared ahead dully, his eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep, a deep frown cast over his arrogant features.

Old Nimrood watched him carefully from his seat, with gnarled hands folded beneath his sharp chin. He seemed the picture of a shrewd merchant who has just struck an extremely fortuitous bargain. The faint wisp of a smile curled his thin, bloodless lips.

“Then it is agreed?” asked Nimrood, breaking the silence at last.

Pluell raised his head slowly, a sneer twisting his mouth. “What other choice do I have? Yes! It is agreed. I will do as you say.”

“See that you do and all will be well. You will save the temple; and what is more, you will hold the power of the kingdom. The realm will be yours and the king your servant. Think of it!”

“It is risky. I am not fond of taking chances.”

“Without risk there is no gain, my friend. And as you yourself have said, you have no choice. I tell you, this upstart king means to pull down the High Temple and drive out the priests. With every passing day the King’s Temple grows; when it is done, yours will be destroyed.”

“Still, would he dare? I would inflame the people against him. I would see to that.”

“He dares all things in the name of this god of his. He must be dealt with at once. Too long have you hidden beneath your robes of office. Wait any longer and it will be too late.”

“Yes, yes. So you say.” Pluell looked at his guest sharply. “I do not like this king at all, and I do not fear him. The sanctity and authority of the High Temple must be preserved. When and where do we begin?”

Nimrood smiled expansively. “I will choose the time and the place. Leave all to me. But I will need six of your temple guard—six who know how to obey and to keep secrets concealed.”

“You shall have them. What else?”

“Nothing for now.” Nimrood stood slowly. “Only a place to rest and a morsel to eat. Then I will be on my way.”

“Very well. Tell the priest waiting outside what you require. He will arrange everything for you. I will go and choose the men who are to accompany you.”

Nimrood dipped his head and then went out. The high priest sat for a moment in his chair, still staring blankly into the shadows. Then he drew his robes close around as a chill shivered through him, for the room had grown quite cold.

The afternoon sun shone a hazy gold as it sank below the green, tree-lined hills. The road bent down into low valleys, sinking into cool shadow. On the crest of the hill, the small traveling party stopped.

“Yonder lies Askelon, my lady,” said Wilkins, one of Lady Esme’s traveling companions, “and a fair sight it is.”

Esme filled her deep brown eyes with the glittering scene before her. Askelon Castle, its towers and turrets fired by the golden rays of the setting sun, sparkled like a jewel. The great walls stood strong, impenetrable, glowing red in the fading light.

She shivered, remembering another time when she had sat astride a horse in exactly this spot and gazed upon the castle standing just so in another sunset long ago. Nothing has changed, she thought. Oh, what folly! Everything has changed, me most of all.

“I may have been wrong to leave,” she said finally, speaking softly to herself. “But I have returned. Perhaps I can make a new beginning.”

Without another word Esme gathered the reins and started down the hill into the valley. Sensing food and water and a warm stall to hand, her horse began to trot and then to gallop along the road. The others behind her joined in the race, and soon they were all flying toward Askelon, their jubilant voices ringing through the dells.

They reached the village below the walls and clattered through the streets, hardly slowing at all. Then they were over the drawbridge, through the gatehouse, and jogging to a halt in the ward yard, where squires scampered to take the horses and lead them to the stables.

“Esme! You are here!” There was a shout behind her, and she turned to see Bria emerging from a doorway across the yard. Two little faces peeked out from either side of their mother’s skirts, their eyes shining.

Esme knelt down and held out her arms. “Come here, my darlings!” she called, and was instantly smothered in giggles and kisses. “And how big you have grown!” she said in amazement. “Oh, I have missed you so!” She kissed both girls and hugged them tight. Then she stood and embraced their mother. “Bria, it is wonderful to see you.”

The two women clung for a long moment and then stepped to view each other at arm’s length. “Esme, you are more beautiful than ever. You are! It is . . .” A tear formed in Bria’s eye. “I have missed you so much!”

“And I you. You have no idea how good it feels to be here at last. I have wanted to come many times, but—”

Bria caught up her hands and pulled her away, saying, “Come! There is much to talk about. Leave your things for now; I will have them brought up to your rooms.” She turned to address the others in Esme’s traveling party. “Please, you are our welcome guests. Rest; take your ease from your long journey. If you like, you may dine with us in the banquet hall this evening. Or if you would prefer, food will be sent to your rooms.”

Wilkins bowed low. “Your Highness, my lady has told us so much about you and about this place; we are all eager to see it. We will join you as soon as we have washed the dust of the road from ourselves. I, for one, wish to meet the Dragon King. His name is renowned in the land.” The others nodded their agreement.

“I am sure my husband will welcome the news you bring. I will send the chamberlain directly to lead you to your rooms.”

Esme said, “Chloe, you may remain with me.” A slim, brown-haired young woman dressed in riding clothes like Esme’s stepped shyly forward. She curtsied to the queen, then held out two bundles to her mistress.

“Ah, yes. I almost forgot!” said Esme, taking the packages. “I have brought something for my little friends.”

The princesses squealed in delight. “Presents!” they cried. Esme handed them each a bundle tied in bright silk. “Oh, thank you! Thank you!” Both girls kissed her and then ran off to open their gifts.

“They are treasures, Bria. Treasures.”

“That they are. But come, you must be exhausted. Your rooms are ready and waiting for you.” She led Esme away and smiled at Chloe, who fell silently in behind them. “Both of you can rest a little before dinner.”

The queen led them from the ward yard into the corridor of the inner curtain and into the castle itself. Along the way they talked about the journey and all that the travelers had seen. When finally they reached the queen’s apartments, Bria announced, “You will be staying here, Esme. I want you close. Rest now and refresh yourselves. Water has been prepared for you. I will come back in a little while and bring you to dinner.”

“You are so kind, Bria. Thank you. But now that I am here, fatigue seems to have vanished. I want only to sit with you and have a long talk.”

“Oh, we shall, Esme. We must have many long talks before I am satisfied.” She paused and added on a more somber note, “You have often been in my thoughts.”

“Thank you. And you have often been in mine. Yes, we have much to talk about.”

Quentin and Toli were standing with Wilkins just inside the wide-open doors to the banqueting hall. Others stood a little way off, talking among themselves, awed to be in the presence of the king himself. Wilkins enthusiastically recounted the journey to Askelon and related the news he had heard along the way.

Quentin, happy to entertain guests—for it had been some time since the castle had held foreign visitors—pumped the willing man for information, which was happily supplied.

“When do you return?” Quentin asked. “Surely you will stay for the hunt.”

“I have heard of the King’s Hunt!” exclaimed Wilkins. “In truth, I was hoping to be invited. Many of the villages we passed through on our way here told us of the hunt. Most described it as a most exceptional event.”

“It is more festival than hunt,” explained Toli. “There will be games of skill, minstrels, and a circus. Three days of celebration are given to it. People come from across all Mensandor to take part, or just to watch.”

“What is the occasion of this festival?” asked Wilkins.

“I do not know,” laughed the king. “The reason lies buried in the past. Tradition has it that the hunt was begun in Celbercor’s time. He used it as a means of helping recruit knights into his service. Legend tells that if a man could kill three boars in one day without dismounting or changing horses, he was made a knight before the sun set!”

“The hunt was not held in later years—while Eskevar was away at war. But we revived the custom,” said Toli.

“Yes, it was all Toli’s doing!” said Quentin. “He wanted to display his horses! What better way than a hunt?”

Wilkins nodded knowingly. “These horses of yours, Master—I have heard of them also. Even in faraway Elsendor the Dragon King’s horses are highly regarded.”

Just then there was a motion in the doorway, and Quentin looked up to see Queen Bria and Lady Esme step into the hall. Both were wearing light summer gowns of sendal: Bria’s was rose and Esme’s russet. He smiled broadly and went up to them. “Good evening, my love.” He kissed his wife. “Esme, I am so glad you have come. It is happiness itself to see you.” He pulled her to him in a glad embrace and kissed her cheek. “Welcome. I hope you have come prepared to remain with us a long time.”

“Thank you, Quentin. You are looking as fit as ever. Bria tells me the work on the temple continues apace.” Her eyes darted away from his momentarily.

“Yes,” replied Quentin. “The work goes on. But we can talk of that later. I imagine you would like to greet—” He turned, casting a quick glance behind him. “Where has he disappeared to all of a sudden? He was here but a moment ago.”

“Who, my lord?”

“Toli. He was . . .” He gestured to the spot. Both Toli and Wilkins had gone. “Well, he is still as shy as the deer he grew up with. I am certain he will want to greet you in private, later.”

From the other end of the hall, kitchen servants entered, carrying huge platters of food: venison and pork, roast fowl and game, freshly picked vegetables, and round loaves of brown bread, hot from the oven.

“Let us be seated,” said Bria. Already the benches on either side of the long lower table were being filled. Esme’s traveling company had found friends among the courtiers of the king’s household. A wandering bard had been invited to attend the meal and was now moving among the guests at tables, singing nonsense rhymes and taking requests for stories he would tell after dinner. Laughter followed him as he moved along the tables.

The great room was bright and the spirit cheerful. “See what your coming has done?” cried Quentin, leading them to the high table. “I have not seen such good humor in . . . well, in many a season.”

“You are kind, Quentin. But it is well known that the Dragon King’s table is ever gracious and that merriment abounds.” Esme glanced around her, and her face took on a lighter aspect. “It is just as I remembered it . . . just as I hoped it would be.”

Bria pressed her hand and drew her to a chair. Durwin entered and approached them, making many apologies for being late, and then greeted Lady Esme with a warm hug. As they talked, Quentin looked for Toli, who usually sat beside him, opposite the queen.

He found the Jher, head to head with Wilkins, sitting at the far end of the high table. They were deep in conversation, oblivious to all that was going on around them.

Quentin looked to the lower table; all eyes were on him, waiting for him to begin. He reached out and took a piece of bread, broke it, and put it on his silver trencher, nodding to his guests. At once they began to eat; platters were passed, cups filled, and glad conversation bubbled forth.

While they ate, the bard approached the high table. He bowed to the king and said, “Your Majesty, is there a ballad you wish told? You have but to name it, and Larksong is at your service.”

“Something befitting the lively mood of this summer’s eve,” declared Quentin. “Let brave knights and their bold deeds wait until another time. Tonight I would hear a lighter tale, one to make the heart rejoice.”

“If it is good cheer you wish, Sire, I know just the thing!” He bowed again, saying, “Excuse me now. I must retire to compose the lyric.”

How great an honor to be a king, thought Quentin. Truly a very great honor. Indeed I am blessed.

He looked down upon his guests and shared their amusement and high spirits. Life is good in Mensandor; all is well in the realm. He felt his heart fill with happiness and swell almost to bursting, so deep was his joy.

5

The pale moon had risen fair in the sky, throwing down a silvery radiance upon all below. Toli stood alone on the bartizan outside the banquet hall, overlooking a portion of the garden. Laughter drifted out of the hall through the open doors, and flickering torchlight splashed the stones and turned them to gold.

The bard Larksong sang his ballads to the high acclaim of all gathered inside. Toli could hear his strong voice lifted up in song, but could not catch the words, which were drowned now and again in waves of laughter. At the end of a song or story, there came clamorous applause and cries for more.

But Toli did not attend to what was taking place inside. He had grown uncomfortable and slipped away quietly to be alone. No one, he thought, had seen him go. He breathed the soft night air and wondered what he would do when he met her once again.

He did not have long to wonder. He heard the sound of a soft, brushing tread, turned, and she was there, standing in the doorway, the light framing her, shining all around her. A sharp pang arrowed through him. He turned away.

Then she was beside him. He smelled her delicate scent, warm and pleasing. Her nearness burned him with a glowing heat.

“Ah,” she sighed, “how peaceful and cool here. The hall, for all its light and laughter, grows stale.” She spoke softly. He did not reply. Then she touched his arm, and he felt a flame leap through him. “Hello, Toli,” she whispered. “I saw you leave the hall.”

He turned toward her. “Esme . . .” He could think of nothing to say. She, with the moonlight in her eyes and shining on her long, dark tresses, was even more lovely than he remembered. And she had come back.

Esme laid her fingertips to his lips. Her touch was cool. “Shh. You do not need to speak. This is awkward for me, too.”

Toli stared at the woman he had loved. Why? He wanted to scream. Why did you leave me? What made you go? And now, after so many years, why have you returned?

But he said nothing, only turned away again. Esme felt the distance between them as a physical presence: a risen wall of bristling emotion that she could not breach. Suddenly, all that she had kept locked away in her heart for so long came rushing forth. Her throat tightened. Her hands quivered. She bent her head, and tears began to fall.

There was a movement beside her. “Toli, I—,” she began, then glanced up. He was gone.

Inside the hall Larksong held his listeners in thrall. He was in high form, bowing to cascades of applause, his broad, good-natured face beaming from beneath his wide, low-crowned hat with its long green plume. He allowed the acclamation to wash over him and then, as it started to die away, held up his hands for silence and began to sing.

In fair Mensandor,

On a summer’s eve,

When all the hills are wearing green,

Give an ear, my lords and ladies,

To the tale I’ll weave—

Of bold Quentin and his queen!

This was greeted with shouts of laughter and ringing cheers, for now the king would be celebrated for their amusement. Larksong bowed low and began, his voice rising in clear tones to tell his tale. It was a song about a king who sought the hand of the most beautiful woman in the realm and found her in the daughter of his enemy.

The song was an old one, of course, known to all who heard it. But Larksong sang it well, inventing new verses that played upon Quentin’s and Bria’s names and the well-known events of their lives. The listeners sat captivated—enraptured from start to finish.

When at last the Quentin of the story won his bride’s hand and made peace with his enemy, a resounding cheer went up throughout the hall.

“Well done!” they cried. “More! More! Sing it again!” Everyone shouted their praise and cried for more, though the evening was growing late. But Larksong took off his hat and made a sweeping bow to all assembled.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, one and all!” He bowed to the king. “My songs are finished this night. Perhaps I may come again.”

“Yes, come again!” they cried. “Come tomorrow!”

Larksong looked inquiringly at the king. Quentin nodded his approval, and his guests added theirs. And then reluctantly—for it had been a wonderful night—the people began to leave.

Quentin rose. “Oh, my sides are sore for laughing! What a night! What a night.” He peered around. “Now, where has Toli gone? I would speak with him.”

“I think he is occupied at present,” replied Bria. “Come along. Speak with him tomorrow.”

“Esme?”

“Who do you think? Come along.” Bria tugged on his arm and led him away. They left the hall, and the servants began dousing the torches, giving the great room over to the night.

No sooner had they reached their chambers than a knock sounded upon the door. “Who can that be?” asked Quentin. He opened the door to see Esme’s companion, Chloe, wringing her hands and tugging at her apron.

“Sire, I—” She stared past him to Bria. “My lady, I do not know what to do.”

Bria stepped forward. “What is it, Chloe? What is wrong?”

“My lady.” She curtsied. “I . . . could you come?”

“What is it?” demanded Quentin.

“My lord,” said Bria, “go and see to the children. Tell them good night. I will look in a little later. Go on, now. I will take care of this.” She eased past Quentin and closed the door behind her.

“Where is she?”

“In her rooms. She returned some time ago and has been weeping ever since. I can do nothing with her. Oh, my lady! I have never seen her this way. Even when my lord—Lord Rathnor—was angry with her, she did not carry on so. I am afraid—”

“Calm yourself, my dear. All will be well. Have no fear.”

When they entered Esme’s apartments, Bria could hear someone sobbing in the chamber beyond. “Stay here, Chloe. I will go to her,” she said softly, and moved to the door. She knocked gently. There was no answer. She opened the door and went in.

Esme lay facedown on the bed, her shoulders heaving, the sobs welling up from deep inside her. Bria sat down beside her on the huge bed. She placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, feeling instinctually the depths of her misery.

“Esme, I am here. I am with you. Tell me what happened.”

It was a time before Esme could talk. But at last Bria got her to sit up, dry her eyes, and tell her what had taken place.

“Oh, Bria!” She sniffed, her eyes wet from crying. She twisted a damp handkerchief in her hands. “He hates me! Despises me! And I do not blame him. I should not have come hoping to . . . Oh, I should never have come.”

“There, now. Toli does not hate you.” Bria said his name; she had guessed what had happened. “I am certain of it. You know how he is.”

“He ran from me. I went out to him, and he left without a word!” Her lips trembled, and she seemed on the verge of another torrent of tears, but took a deep breath and kept them down. “Oh, Bria, how I must have hurt him. I thought—I thought . . . Oh, I do not know what I thought. I was wrong to come here. I was never born for happiness.”

“Nonsense. Do not talk so!” chided Bria. “You are welcome here; it can never be wrong to come where you are loved and cared for. As for Toli, perhaps it was a mistake to approach him so openly. Obviously, we will need to plan very carefully how best to win him back. But unless I am far wrong, he does not hate you. Never say it! If we could see inside his heart, we would see his love for you has never waned.”

Esme sniffed miserably. Bria put her arms around her and drew her close. “You have suffered much, Esme. And yet in all your pain, you never allowed yourself to cry out.” To Esme’s questioning glance she replied, “Chloe told me. But why? I would rather hear it from you.”

Esme gazed at her hands folded on her knees. “I have made such a ruin of my life, Bria. How can you still call me friend?” She placed her hand on Bria’s. “But you always were so much kinder than I.”

“Nonsense!”

“No, it is true.”

Bria pulled Esme more tightly to her, and both women fell silent. When she turned to her friend once more, she found Esme sound asleep. The queen drew a quilt over her and left the room quietly. At the door she paused and looked back. “There is healing here, Esme. Stay with us and let it begin.”

Quentin was sitting at his great table, frowning over sketches of his temple’s design. The table bore the full weight of a score of drawings, dozens of workmen’s plans, countless lists and inventories of building materials, several clay and stone models of the finished structure, a large plumb bob and line, three mason’s levels, a leather parchment case, and a stone from the site, which acted as a paperweight.

“You are tired, my lord,” said Bria, coming up behind him. She rested her hands on his shoulders and lightly rubbed his neck. “You stare witless at the scratchings before you.”

The king raised his face from the page before him and pressed his fists against his eyes. “You are right, my love. Yes, I am tired. There is much to do—”

“Nothing that will not wait until tomorrow. Come to bed.”

Quentin put his hands flat on the table and pushed the sketches from him as he stood. He gazed at his wife and smiled gently, then asked, “Is all well with our guest?”

“Her travels have worn her down, as may be expected. But I think she suffers still from the memory of a loveless marriage, and that is the pain she bears.”

“He has been dead two years.”

Bria nodded. “Yes, but deep wounds heal slowly. We do not know how cruelly treated she was.”

“She will not talk to you?”

“She speaks of it to no one. But it is plain to see that all is not well. There are many who do not share the joy we know, and Esme is one of those who have traveled a most difficult road.”

“We will hear of it in time, I imagine. When she is ready, she will tell us.” Quentin yawned and stretched, and together the king and queen went in to their bedchamber.

Quentin lay for a long time staring into the blackness of the darkened room, thinking about the events of the day past and those of the day to come. He fell asleep with a vision of the completed temple filling his eyes, and dreamed of the day when he would lead his countrymen into the temple to worship the Most High on its day of consecration.

6

The day of the King’s Hunt dawned with melancholy reluctance; low, dreary clouds spread over the Plain of Askelon, and gray mists draped the treetops. Those camped abroad and those boarded in the town and in the castle feared rain would spoil the day. But as a wan yellow sun climbed higher into the great vault of the heavens, it gathered strength, flared brighter, its white-hot rays burned away the clouds and warmed the air. Travelers and townspeople streamed into the streets and began the trek to the field. Those still abed in Askelon Castle awakened and rushed to ready themselves for the day’s festivities. Lords and their ladies—from as far away as Endonny and Woodsend, and all places in between—dressed in their finest. Knights donned riding clothes of leather and saw to the grooming of their horses, plaiting tail and mane with ribbons of gold and silver entwined with bells, or dressing their steeds in brightly colored caparisons: red and blue, gold and green, violet and yellow.

And everywhere, from the chamber of the king to the tents on Askelon Plain, excitement simmered beneath the surface, breaking out in laughter and song and impromptu games. Wagons and handcarts emerged from the castle keeps loaded down with foodstuffs and supplies for the makeshift kitchens arranged on the field under bright yellow canopies.

Everywhere around the sporting field colorful pavilions of red and silver, bearing the royal device, began filling. Smoke from cooking fires drifted lazily into the windless sky in silken threads. It appeared to anyone observing from the battlements of Askelon Castle that a bold, colorful army had encamped round about, an army whose numbers swelled by degrees ever greater as more and more people made their way to the field.

“Father! Father, come quickly! Look! Oh, look!” cried the children. They ran and seized Quentin’s hands and pulled him out onto the bar-tizan outside their rooms. “See! The hunt is almost ready! Look at all the people! Oh, I have never seen so many!” they cried.

“Can we play in the games, Father?” asked Princess Brianna.

“Of course,” said Quentin. “There will be games for you.” He reached out and patted her head.

“And watch the circus?” added Princess Elena.

“Yes! Yes!” laughed Quentin.

Young Prince Gerin did not ask a favor, considering himself too big for such childish pleasures. He looked out on the scene below and beamed, his face flush with excitement.

“And what about you, my son? What will you do today?”

Prince Gerin turned and smiled mysteriously. “I will show you— but not now. It is a secret! A surprise!”

“Very well,” said Quentin. “If I must wait, I must. But tell me soon, for I do not think I can endure the suspense for long!” He laughed again, then pulled the youngster toward him, rubbing his slim shoulders affectionately.

“There you are!” said Bria, stepping out onto the bartizan. “The sooner we have our breakfast, the sooner we will join the others, and the festival can begin!”

The princesses frowned disapprovingly. Prince Gerin whirled away and dashed for the door. “I cannot eat now!” he called. “I must find Toli!” He was gone before his mother could protest.

“Breakfast is an unwanted intrusion today,” said Quentin. “Besides, there will be time enough and food enough for eating at the field. If any goes hungry this day, it is their own fault and no one else’s.”

Bria sighed and herded the girls before her, and they went down to eat a hasty meal before departing for the hunt.

For many days the castle had been bustling with activity. There was food and drink to organize, folded pavilions to haul from storage, and the field to prepare. Minstrels and circus performers, some with trained dogs and bears, had begun arriving in the town. Merchants readied wares that they would offer to the crowds; food vendors prepared their special delicacies.

Toli and Prince Gerin had arranged their surprise in their own way, practicing the more difficult jumps time and again. The prince had, after many painful tumbles, learned to jump with ease, handling his horse with an expert hand at last.

“Very good! Excellent!” called Toli that final day. “You are ready for the hunt, young master. I have taught you all I can.”

“Do you really think so, Toli?”

Toli nodded solemnly. “A finer rider in this realm would be difficult to find. You are ready. Just remember everything we have practiced and you will ride with the best.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

“Father will be so surprised!” the prince shouted. “You will not tell him—”

“Never fear—I want him to be surprised, too.”

Those last days had been hard ones for the prince, trying desperately to keep his secret. It burned inside him, threatening to leap to his tongue each time he opened his mouth. But somehow he had managed; the secret was safe.

Now, as he dashed to the stables to find Toli and to see to his horse, he ran with the speed of his own racing heart. He found Toli saddling his mount for him, examining each tack item as he placed it on the horse. The prince slowed as he came up; Tarky nickered softly as the boy reached out and patted the sleek jaw.

“You will ride beside me, won’t you, Toli?”

“Certainly. I shall be right beside you all the way. How else am I to keep up?”

“Do you think we might find a trophy?”

“We have as good a chance as any, I’ll warrant. And better than some. We just might find a trophy.”

The hunters were allowed to hunt for game, but as an added reward there were prizes hidden throughout the forest: trophies of gold and silver, cups and bowls, and other objects of value. This heightened the competition and gave extra delight to the sport. Many of the hunters did not even carry weapons, preferring instead to concentrate solely on finding the valuable trinkets. This was what Prince Gerin had in mind as well; he wanted to find a trophy for his father. That would complete the surprise.

When all was ready the prince hoisted himself into his saddle, heart thumping in his chest. Together Toli and Gerin rode to join the others at the gate.

“Very well,” spat Nimrood from the shadows. “You know what to do. You have had a good look at him. There must be no mistakes.”

The six men gathered around him nodded silently. There would be no mistakes because they had come to fear Nimrood greatly and would not risk his disappointment, though none of them had much stomach for what was about to take place.

“Then disperse carefully. I will await you here. Remember the signal, and look sharp! I do not need to remind you that this is a most dangerous game we are playing. Most dangerous,” he hissed, his eyes darting from one man to the next. “Now, go. And be ready!”

The six men, the best chosen from among the order of temple guards, faded silently away, their dark clothing melding with the green leaves and deep shadows of Pelgrin Forest.

Nimrood’s cruel features creased into a malicious grin. “Now it begins. At long last, it begins,” he whispered to himself. “At long last I will have my revenge.”

7

The inner ward yard bustled with activity as the king assembled his family and friends. Bria and the princesses would ride to the field in a brightly festooned coach. Quentin and his son would lead the procession on horseback, followed by Durwin and Toli and as many of the noble visitors as had not already left for the field. Esme, however, would not be among them.

When all was ready, the armorer came hurrying up with a squire at either elbow. One lad carried the king’s shield, burnished bright as a mirror; the other carried, on a long satin pillow, the king’s sword, Zhaligkeer, the Shining One.

The armorer knelt and offered the king his weapons. Quentin nodded, and the squires helped their master fasten the great sword in place and then handed up the shield, which the king slung over his shoulder.

Word of the shining sword had long ago spread far and wide throughout the land. There was not a peasant anywhere who had not heard of its forging in the lost mountain mines of the Ariga out of the fabled glowing ore, lanthanil. Far beyond the borders of Mensandor, tales of the Shining One were told, and of the mighty priest king who had come to the throne by a strange and wonderful enchantment. Those who looked upon him now believed those stories more fervently than ever, because he appeared so strong and fearless.

Quentin mounted Blazer, and the milk-white stallion danced sideways, anxious to be off. He raised a gloved hand, the inner ward gates were opened wide, and the parade began. They passed into the outer ward and then through the gatehouse, over the huge drawbridge, and down the ramp into the city. And though many townspeople had already left for the festival site, there were still enough to line the streets to wave and cheer and welcome their king. The happy people fell into place behind the procession as it passed, and all made their way to the field.

Young Gerin, his heart fluttering within him like a captive bird, gawked openly at all around him, feeling proud and important. This day the hunt wore a different look; nothing appeared the same as he remembered it. All had changed, becoming more colorful, more exciting, more thrilling than ever before. For this day he would ride with the hunt!

He swiveled in his saddle and threw a conspiratorial glance back at Toli, who rode behind him. Toli was talking to Durwin, but saw the look and answered it with a wink.

Gerin turned his eyes to the sights around him. Jugglers tossed knives and hoops high into the air and caught them deftly; a man with a trained bear on a chain made it stand on its head; acrobats tumbled and threw one another spinning into the air; some boys had made a pair of stilts from the limbs of trees and were trying to master the art of walking on them; vendors cried over the shouts and laughter, hawking their trinkets: fancy ribbons, jewelry, and tiny lacquered boxes.

The world was alive with sound and color. Here and there music swelled as minstrels gathered small audiences to hear their newest songs; horses cantered and neighed, tossing their heads and setting their bells ringing; children ran laughing, their bare feet skipping over the grass.

The parade entered the field itself, and Gerin turned his eyes to the competition. Ranged around the long rectangle of the field were tents and small pavilions, each with a standard before the entrance bearing the banner of the lord or knight within. Some of the riders were outside their tents, seeing to the last-minute details of tack or weapons. Hunting hounds lay on the grass, waiting for the chase to begin, or strained at their leashes, yapping eagerly at one another as they sensed the moment of their release drawing near.

Gerin gazed among the pavilions, reading the devices and looking for those that he knew. There was the green oak on a barred field of azure and gold—that was Sir Grenfell. The boar and spear on scarlet belonged to Lord Bossit; and the silver lance and shield on checkered black and white was the blazon of Sir Hedric of Bellavee. There were also Benniot’s silver-and-blue double eagle, Rudd’s red ox on sable, and Fincher’s gauntlet clutching white thunderbolts.

There were more that he did not know—harts and hounds, mailed fists and morions, poniards and preying birds—but he did not see the two he hoped most to see: the black hawk on crimson, and the gray gauntlet clutching crossed mace and flail.

“Where is Theido, Father? And Ronsard? I do not see them,” the prince said, craning his neck around the perimeter of the field.

“They will be here before the hunt is through. Theido sent word that he will arrive tomorrow, and Ronsard likewise. They will not miss the hunt. Do not worry; your friends will come.”

They arrived at the king’s pavilion and dismounted. The ascending rows of benches were already filled to overflowing, and more people were crowding in. In the very front row, however, were chairs set up behind a banister for the royal family and their entourage. The queen took her place, and the princesses beside her, smiling and waving to all who greeted them. The king, instantly surrounded by well-wishers, slowly made his way to his chair, where he remained standing and signaled the herald.

A long, clear blast of the trumpet summoned the riders, who began filing onto the field, arranging themselves in ranks before the king’s pavilion. When all were ready, the king nodded to a man with a wide leather baldric from which dangled a hunting horn.

The man was the marshal of the hunt; he led his bay horse to the front of the assembled ranks and in a loud voice began reciting the rules of conduct. When he was finished, Quentin looked over the crowd and shouted, “Do you one and all pledge your oath to abide by the laws of the King’s Hunt?”

“We so pledge!” the riders shouted as one.

“Well said!” cried Quentin. “Let the hunt begin!”

A great hurrah went up from the hunters, and all the spectators gathered around the field. The marshal raised the horn to his lips, but before he could sound the note, someone called out, “We would have our king lead us!”

“The king!” someone else shouted. “Yes! The king!” the rest joined in. “We want King Quentin. The king must lead the hunt!”

Quentin smiled and glanced at his queen. “Oh, you must go, Father! You must!” cried Princess Brianna and Princess Elena.

“Yes,” agreed Bria. “Lead them, my lord.”

“Very well,” said Quentin. “I will ride!” He made to leave the pavilion and mount Blazer. Another hurrah went up from the throng.

“The king will ride!” they shouted. Actually Quentin rode every year, but it was always the custom that the contestants ask him to ride and offer him the lead. Usually he rode only for a short while and then returned to officiate over the other games.

“Are you coming, Durwin?” Quentin asked as he descended from the pavilion.

“I am getting too old for breaking my neck on horseback. Leave it to the younger men. I shall wait here for your return.”

“Durwin!” the crowd called. “Let Durwin ride with us! Durwin! Durwin!” The call became a chant.

“You see, they want you, Durwin. You would disappoint them?”

“Very well, I will ride. Lead on.” He followed Quentin down to the field.

As they were mounted and making ready to gallop off, Quentin looked to his side and saw his son beaming at him, his young face shining with anticipation. “What is this?”

“I am riding, too, Father. That is your surprise!”

Before Quentin could speak, Toli, sitting next to the prince, said, “We have been practicing for weeks, my lord. Your son has become a fine horseman.”

“Is it true?” He stared at his son.

The boy burst out laughing. “If you could see the bruises I have endured, you would know the truth of it!”

Quentin did not know what to say. He glanced to Bria, who was attending the scene from her seat with a worried look on her face. Quentin scratched his jaw and seemed about to overrule the enterprise. He looked to Toli. “Do you think it wise?” Prince Gerin bit his lip.

“Sire, I would not allow it if I thought he would be in danger. He can handle himself and his mount, never fear. And I will ride with him just to make sure. I will not allow him away from me for an instant.”

Quentin nodded, his eyes on the boy. The intense hope the youngster carried within him burned out of his eyes like a flame. How could he be denied?

“As you will,” said Quentin, breaking into a grin when he saw how much his approval meant to the lad. “You shall ride. And I hope you find the biggest trophy!”

“For you, Father. I want to find one for you!”

“Toli, watch after him. And you, young sir, do as Toli tells you.”

They made their way among the other riders to the end of the field—the king in the lead with Durwin on one side and Prince Gerin and Toli on the other. When they were in position, the king raised his hand and the marshal of the hunt blew his horn. “To the hunt!” they cried, and all at once the horses leaped away, thundering off across the plain toward Pelgrin Forest.

The thump of the horses’ hooves on the plain pounded out a drumbeat, and the people cheered as the hunters flew away into the forest. Once they reached the foremost fringes of the wood, Quentin hung back and let the others go ahead. Those after game dashed ahead first, lances at the ready, searching out trails among the dark branches. Hot behind them came the trophy seekers, who spread out to ride alone to secret places where they hoped a prize would be found.

“What are you waiting for?” shouted Quentin to his son, who also hesitated at the edge of the wood. “Away! Fly!”

The youngster snapped the reins, and Tarky dashed away; Toli was right behind him. “He is growing up, Sire,” said Durwin at Quentin’s shoulder.

“Too fast, I sometimes think.” He smiled after his son. “Look at him go!”

“He reminds me of another young man I met—could it be that long ago? Although he rode a chestnut stallion, as I remember.”

“But he did not ride that well—as I remember.”

“So it is! But he had the will to try, and a stout heart in his young frame.”

“Stubborn, you mean,” laughed Quentin. “How we have changed, old friend.”

“Yes, changed a little. But still very much the same.” The hermit snapped his reins. “Come along. Let us see how the young master fares. Keep up, if you can!” With that he darted off.

“Is that any way to speak to your king, you grizzled old hermit?” Quentin shouted after him. He spurred Blazer and sped into the cool, green wood.

8

It is such a lovely day, my lady. Do you not wish to join the others at the festival?” Chloe came quietly up behind Esme as she gazed unseeing out upon the plain, ablossom with scores of colored tents. “See, the hunt has already begun.”

They watched the lines of horses and riders galloping in a long, sinuous wave over the Plain of Askelon. After a moment Esme replied absently, “You may go, Chloe, if you like. I think I will remain.”

“Oh, do come, my lady. You would enjoy it. You would, I know.”

“Ah,” Esme sighed, “to please you. Very well, I will go.”

As the day was gentle, they decided to walk, making their way through empty streets to the festival field. Chloe kept up a running banter all the way, talking of this or that small thing she had noticed in the Dragon King’s household, comparing it to what she knew of other royal houses.

Esme listened with half an ear, letting her maid chirp on like a sparrow, happy not to have to think at all, but just listen. Her dark mood of the night before had returned with the morning. And though she tried to master it, she found it engulfed her more securely than she guessed. For try as she might, she could not banish it from her.

So, with no hope of ridding herself of it, and lacking the immediate strength to fight it, she merely gave herself over to the despair she felt and let it tug her along where it would.

What am I to do? she thought. What am I to do?

She had, with the death of her husband, inherited vast holdings of lands. Several small villages were under her protection, as well as a castle and a summer estate, each with a full complement of stewards, overseers, and servants. Her treasury was one of the largest in Elsendor. But all this she would have given up gladly, if only it would have offered her a glimmer of hope for happiness.

“Do not frown so, my lady,” said Chloe.

“What?” Esme pulled herself out of her gloomy thoughts.

“Promise me you will try to enjoy the occasion.”

Esme smiled. “I shall try. I know it is not seemly for a lady to scowl like a haggard.” She sighed again. “Oh, Chloe, what am I going to do?”

Once at the festival site, they made their way among the yellow-and-white-striped pavilions, now being jostled by the roaming populace. They walked toward the king’s pavilion, pausing to watch acrobats and jugglers, or to sample the treats of the vendors.

“Lady Esme! Lady Esme!” she heard a voice call out, and turned to see the two little princesses running to her. “We are so glad you came! Oh!” said Brianna breathlessly. “There is so much to see!”

“So much to see!” said Elena. “Come with us!”

“Do you want to watch us in a game?” asked Brianna.

“Oh, please,” cried Elena, “you must!”

“I would love to,” said Esme.

The girls were off again, quick as grasshoppers, darting toward a large ring of people gathered around a game of skittles.

“I am glad you changed your mind, Esme.” Bria fell into step beside her.

Esme dropped her gaze to her feet. “It was Chloe’s idea,” she said slowly. Bria heard the undertone of despair in her voice. “I must have gabbled like a fishwife last night.”

“What is a little gabbling between friends? I welcome your confidence. If you care to talk, I will listen.”

Esme did not speak again for a moment. The two women walked together in silence. “It is strange, is it not?” she said finally.

“What is?”

“Life.” Esme glanced at her friend and then turned away again quickly. “Only yesterday we had so much before us—so many bright hopes for the future, so many dreams, so much joy. Those were good days—”

“And will be again.”

“For others perhaps, but not for me. It seems my fate was cast from the beginning. I was never—”

“All were born for happiness, Esme. But you have seen much of pain and trouble, and it will take time to heal those inner wounds. You must not expect them to disappear in an evening.”

“I thought by coming here it would be different. But I have brought my trouble with me.”

“Then we shall do whatever can be done to free you—and you must also help.”

“I will try, Bria. I will try for your sake.”

“Not for me, dear friend. For yourself.”

The hunt moved through the thick-grown trails of Pelgrin Forest, and the wood rang with the voices of the hunters and the sounding of horns whenever beast was caught or trophy won. In a clearing, through which coursed a shining stream, Quentin and Durwin stopped to allow their horses to drink.

“Tired so soon?” asked Durwin. Other riders entered the meadows, also paused at the water, and then went on.

“I should return to the festival. My presence there will be required to judge the games.” He listened to the crash of horses and riders through the undergrowth, and felt the warm sun on his face. “It is a good hunt, eh?”

“So it is! I do not remember one better. But you go on; I will remain a little. I would like to see the young prince ride. It is a joy to watch him. I shall try to find them.”

Quentin turned Blazer and started back across the meadow; he waved to Durwin and galloped away.

Durwin struck off for the far side of the clearing, where a trail entered the wood. He knew the forest well, and had a hunch where he might find Toli and Gerin, for he had seen them pushing a southerly course just before he and the king had entered the meadow.

How long has it been since I have lived in the forest? he wondered. Ah, too long! I have forgotten how peaceful it is, and how fragrant and beautiful. Perhaps I should leave the castle and come back to my old home. But I am content to be where the king wants me.

These and other thoughts occupied his mind as he rode along the leaf-laden byways of the forest. The green shadows were cool; yellow sunlight struck through open patches in the leafy canopy, dappling the path with dancing light. Durwin savored the solitude of the wood and felt his heart soar like a hawk on an upward draft.

Just then the air shivered with a startled cry—a sudden, sharp yelp. It hung for a moment and then was cut off. The forest deadened the sound, muffling it so that Durwin could not discern the source. But it seemed to come from somewhere very close at hand.

He spurred his steed forward, heedless of the branches reaching out for him. There was another shout, closer this time.

Durwin threw the reins to the side, and the horse careered through the undergrowth. Nettles tore at his legs. He ducked branches and urged the horse to greater speed. He caught a fleeting glimpse of a horse rearing and dark shapes like shadows darting through the wood.

The next instant he was through the trees and pounding into a wider place in the trail. There before him he saw Toli and Prince Gerin on horseback, with three men in dark clothing around them. The men had short swords and were circling the riders, trying to get at them. Only Riv’s flashing hooves kept these assailants at bay.

Without thinking, Durwin loosed a shout and dashed forward. The men heard the whoop and turned to see a new threat bearing down on them. The circle broke as one of the foe turned to meet the hermit.

Before the man could raise his sword, Toli whirled Riv, and the warhorse’s shoulder knocked him to the ground. He yelled as he went down; his two companions bolted and ran, melding back into the forest.

The man on the ground looked up, fear twisting his begrimed features. He was bleeding from a cut lip. He spat once and then lunged between the horses, gaining his feet as he made for the trail’s edge. He dived into the brake and was gone.

“Who were they?” asked Durwin. He felt his heart racing in his chest.

“I do not know,” answered Toli. “We merely stopped here to choose a direction—they were on us in an instant.”

“Are you sound, young master?” the hermit asked.

Prince Gerin nodded slowly; his eyes showed white all around.

“What do you think they wanted?”

Toli squinted his eyes in the direction of the fleeing assailants. “That I mean to find out.” He glanced from the prince to Durwin quickly. “Stay with Durwin, young sir. He will look after you. I will be but a moment.”

The prince seemed about to protest, but shut his mouth and obeyed.

“Be careful, Toli. You have no weapons.”

“Return to the field at once,” ordered Toli. “I will meet you there directly.”With that he urged Riv forward into the undergrowth after the mysterious men.

9

Some wickedness is afoot,” said Durwin quietly. “I feel it. There is evil close about.”

Prince Gerin peered at the hermit closely. The boy set his jaw and stared ahead grimly. The act reminded Durwin of another who had faced trouble with the same silent resolve. How very like his father the young prince was.

They were riding back along the trail—the way Toli and the prince had come—when Durwin put out a hand and they stopped. “Listen!” he hissed. Both cocked their heads to one side. They heard a rustle in the bushes behind them along the path.

“Perhaps Toli is returning,” offered the prince.

Durwin felt the darkness around him increase. He could almost see it as a presence, feel its desperate strength. It occurred to him that he had encountered such a malignant force before, and in exactly the same way—a long time ago.

“We must run for it!” he whispered harshly. Gerin acted quickly and without question. With a snap of the reins, the two horses leaped away. They charged along the winding forest path toward the safety of the open plain. They had not run far before they met two men in the path ahead, wearing the same dark clothing as the others they had encountered. The men waved swords in front of the horses and shouted fiercely. The horses stopped and turned. Durwin pulled his mount around, and Gerin did the same, but as they made to retreat, two more ruffians stepped out onto the path behind them.

“There!” cried Durwin, pointing into the brush. He hesitated and allowed the prince to flash past and then darted after him.

But the pony became entangled in the undergrowth and went down. Prince Gerin yelped as he was pitched over his mount’s head to the ground, where he landed with a grunt.

“Hurry!” shouted Durwin. “Get back in the saddle! Hurry!”

The boy leaped back to his feet and grabbed at the dangling saddle even before the animal had regained its legs. “Ride!” shouted Durwin. “Ride!”

The hermit glanced down and saw hands reaching out for him. He slashed down with the reins and heard someone curse. He spurred his mount after the fleeing prince, but felt his arm caught and held. The horse jerked away, and Durwin was hauled from the saddle, struggling as he fell.

He landed on his back at the edge of the trail; there was a flash in the shadow, and he heard the air sing above his head. He squirmed and rolled to his knees and felt a sharp sting in his side. As he half-turned and threw himself backward toward the trail, he heard the rush of air through clenched teeth and saw the glancing light arc toward him. The blow caught him low in the back; his knees buckled, and he toppled onto the trail.

Durwin put his hand to his side and felt the warm wetness seeping through his clothes. When he brought his hand away, he saw it dripping red in the dimness of the forest. The wound burned now; flames spread through him from the throbbing pain just below the ribs. He tried to raise himself, but fell back—legs numb and unfeeling.

There was a quick movement beside him, a shout in the forest a little way off, and the thrashing of branches. He heard another shout farther away and then silence.

Time gathered itself into a ball, slowed, and hovered without moving. Durwin’s mind raced. He had been struck down by an unseen sword. Instead of finishing him, the attackers had gone after Prince Gerin. He must alert Toli, but how? He tried to call out, but the effort brought a flash of white-hot pain to his side. He coughed and spat. His spittle was flecked with blood.

The wound is bad, he told himself, but no matter. He lay back, panting. Toli must be summoned. The holy hermit of Pelgrin Forest closed his eyes and began to pray.

“God Most High, hear your servant in his time of need. Guide Toli here to save us. Bring him quickly before it is too late. Keep the prince safe, I pray. Keep him safe . . .”

Dark mist rolled over him, engulfing him, and slowly his lips stopped moving. He lay back in the soft, mossy turf of the forest pathway, an ugly red stain spreading slowly beneath him.

Quentin had reached the edge of Pelgrin and started back across the plain when he hesitated. Was that a cry he heard? He stopped rock still.

The air was calm and warm; light breezes waited idly, lifting the leaves and blades of grass around him. Nearby a skylark warbled a song to the sun.

But to Quentin it was as if the heavens had dimmed for an instant, as if a cloud had passed before the sun, blotting out its face for a brief moment. Then all was as before, except the king’s senses pricked and tingled to an unknown danger.

At once he turned Blazer back into the forest, sending his thoughts ahead to sift the wind for direction. He struck along a southerly path, sensing that the cry he imagined had come from that direction. The boles of trees, bands of light and shadow, blurred as Quentin flew along this dim corridor of Pelgrin. His heart thumped in his chest, and he urged Blazer onward ever faster, choosing his course on instinct alone.

Upon reaching a small clearing, he halted. A bundle lay ahead on the trail. Was that a body?

Quentin slid from the saddle and hurried forward. He knelt down and rolled the body into his arms.

“Durwin!”

The hermit’s face had gone as gray as ashes. His eyelids flickered, and he focused cloudy eyes on his friend. “Ah, Quentin . . .”

“What has happened? Who has done this to you?”

“The prince . . . your son. They have taken him . . .”

“Who? Here, let me help you—”

“No, no. Leave me. Find your son. They went through there.” He nodded his head weakly.

“How many?”

“Three or four. I did not see them clearly. Maybe more. Toli—ah!” Pain twisted his features; his limbs convulsed and then relaxed.

“Easy,” soothed Quentin. “We will find them. Rest now.” He struggled to remain calm.

“Yes, I will rest.” The hermit’s voice was thin, but his eyes looked deeply into Quentin’s. “We have traveled far together, eh?” He coughed, and his eyes squeezed shut.

“Yes, and we have many roads yet to ride.” Quentin held him tightly.

“You will ride them alone, I think. But I am content—I am not afraid to die.”

“You are not dying!” Quentin shouted desperately. Tears rose in his throat. “You will survive. Help is coming.”

“I fear it will come too late.” He gazed at Quentin again. “Do not blame Toli. It is not his fault.”

“I do not understand,” Quentin said.

“Be strong, Quentin. Remember, you are the king. You must lead your kingdom. This will be your sorest test, your darkest day.”

“No!” Quentin could see his friend was slipping away. “You will never die!”

“So it is! The spirit never dies . . . never. We will meet again, fair friend. I will wait for you. No pain, no fear . . .”

“Do not leave me!” cried Quentin.

A slight tremor passed through the hermit’s body, and then he lay still. His breath whispered away in a sigh. Durwin was dead.

10

Fools! Imbeciles!” Nimrood raged. “What have you done?” He whirled around the circle, thrusting a crooked finger into the grim faces before him. “You will pay for this with your lives.”

“We only did as you told us,” said the leader of the temple guards. “How were we to know he would leave the prince? They were together.”

“Silence! Let me think!” He stopped to glare down at Prince Gerin, who stared back defiantly. “I send you out to strike down a man, and you bring me a boy.”

“He’s the prince, I say!” maintained the man.

“Is this true?” asked Nimrood. His eyes bored into the lad. “What is your name?”

“Gerin,” he replied steadily. “Who are you?”

“Impudent cub!” The old man reached out and cuffed the boy, leaving a red welt on his cheek.

“My father will deal with you,” said the prince. “Let me go.”

“No,” said Nimrood slowly as an idea took shape in his mind. “Here is an opportunity I can turn to advantage.” He smiled cannily. “Oh, yes indeed.” He chuckled to himself and then snapped, “Bring him!”

They started off on foot, threading deeper into the forest. Two big men shoved the prince forward. When he fell on hands and knees, they hauled him up by his collar and shoved him forward again. Another guard seized Tarky’s reins and led the animal away.

“You two!” Nimrood said, pointing to the two behind. “Stay well to the rear of us. If anyone comes after, put them off the trail. Do you hear?”

The two men looked worriedly at each other, but nodded and dropped behind. Soon Nimrood, the prince, and the others were lost in the dense growth of forest. The two guards watched their comrades disappear. One muttered to the other, “I do not like this fool business. Not a whit, by Ariel! We are guards of the temple, but he has made us highwaymen and kidnappers!”

“I did not hear your voice oppose him,” the other replied nastily. “We are in it now and have no choice but to see it through.”

“Aye, but where is it going to lead in the end? That is what I want to know. There is death here—mark my words. Death. This will be the undoing of the temple.”

“Silence! There is enough to worry about as it is. If we are to get out of this with our skins, we need to keep sharp and stop mewling like sick cats.”

“He has taken the prince! By Ariel—”

“Shut up! We are in this as deep as he. No sense in yammering on about it. Come on, let’s be about our business.”

The two walked off in the direction the others had gone, listening nervously to the forest sounds, hoping against hope that no one would come after them.

Toli entered the trail and proceeded to the clearing. Before he even saw the huddled forms upon the ground, he knew something was very wrong. His heart jerked within him, quickening to the terrible apprehension that overpowered him.

He threw himself down from his horse and ran toward the place where Quentin held the body of Durwin in his arms.

“My lord! Oh!” He stopped short and knelt, knowing now what had happened.

Quentin raised his head slowly. His face glistened with tears. “Durwin is dead,” he said softly. “Dead. Toli, I . . .” His voice trailed off, and he clutched the body to him again, his shoulders shaking with the sobs that racked him.

Toli felt as if his heart had been cut in two. He sat back on his heels and raised his face to the sky, showing pale blue overhead through the trees. In a moment the quiet green glade hummed with a gentle sound as Toli raised the ancient Jher song for the dead.

Whinoek brea faro lleani,

Fallei sensi nessina wea.

The words were simple, and Quentin understood them. Toli sang, “Father of Life, receive our brother. Grant him peace in your great home.”

To the Jher people, who had no permanent home, roaming the northern forests as they did, Whinoek’s great home meant eternal joy and safety and comfort—and peace, which to the gentle Jher was the highest fulfillment.

After a time the song stopped, fading softly away on the air. Quentin lowered the body of the hermit carefully to the ground and, with Toli, arranged the limbs. He brushed a strand of hair away from the broad face of the man he had loved, and kissed the high forehead gently. Then he rose slowly.

“They will curse the day of their birth,” he murmured. “I am going after them.”

“No, let me, I—”

“I am going. Ride to the castle. Bring a bier for him, and take him back. I will join you there when I have found my son.”

“But—,” objected Toli. He stood and approached the king.

“That is all,” Quentin cut him off coldly. “You will do as I say. When you have finished, bring a company of knights and come after me if I have not yet returned.”

“What are you going to do, Sire?” Toli was frightened by the look in Quentin’s eyes.

“I am going to bring back the prince.” With that, he turned away and strode to where Blazer waited patiently. Snatching up the reins, he swung himself into the saddle, then glanced back once more at the body of the hermit on the ground. “Good-bye, old friend,” he said simply, raising a hand slowly in final salute. Then he was gone.

“What can be taking them so long?” wondered Bria aloud. “They should have returned long ago.”

Esme, sitting next to the queen in the royal pavilion, craned her neck and gazed toward the forest. “I do not see anyone coming. But you know men and their hunting. I would not wonder but that they became caught up in the chase and have forgotten everything else.”

“You are right. I am certain that is what has happened.” She spoke the words, but in her heart she was far from convinced. Bria turned her eyes once more to the costumed mummers performing before her. The bright disguises glittered in the sun, and the two young princesses giggled at the pantomime, clapping their hands with glee. Bria tried to maintain interest in the performance, but once and again her eyes stole back across the plain toward the forest, watching for the return of Quentin, Durwin, and the others. But she saw no sign of anyone, so at last forced herself to concentrate on the play.

“Look!” Esme whispered urgently. “A rider!”

The queen raised her eyes and looked where Esme was pointing. She could just make out the form of one rider approaching from across the plain.

“Oh! Only one!” An arrow of dread pierced her heart. “Something has happened!”

“We cannot be certain,” Esme said lightly. “Let us wait until we have heard what he has to say. Perhaps it is only a messenger on his way to tell us the king will be late—which we already know.” She laughed, but there was no happiness in her voice.

“Who is it? Can you see?” Bria stood.

“No, not yet.”

They waited. Tension drew taut as a bowstring.

Queen Bria crumpled the front of her gown in her hands as the rider drew closer.

“It is Toli!” cried Esme.

“Yes, I can see him now!” Bria stepped down from her chair. “Come. I cannot abide here another moment. Stay here with Chloe,” she told her daughters. “I will return in a moment.”

“I will look after them, my lady,” answered Chloe.

The two women dashed onto the field, scattering the actors, who parted to let them pass and then continued once more with their performance.

They met Toli at the edge of the festivities. “What is it?” asked the queen, her intuition already answering the worst.

Toli turned grave eyes on her. He did not look at Esme. Bria felt a thin blade of terror slide under her ribs. “The king—,” she whispered. “Not the king.”

Toli took the queen’s hand. “My lady, the king is well,” he said softly, searching her eyes, hoping to find further words there.

“Yes, continue,” said Bria. She stared steadily back.

“Durwin is dead.”

“How?” Bria gasped.

“They were set upon by kidnappers in the forest. He died protecting the prince.”

“And the prince? He is safe?” said Esme.

“Gone. The prince has been taken—”

“No!” murmured Bria. The clattering, noisy din around them faded, and she had the sensation of the world blurring before her as she staggered beneath the force of a killing blow.

“Where is the king?” asked Esme, fighting to keep her voice under control.

“He was with Durwin when I found him. He has gone after the prince.” He glanced briefly at Esme, as if noticing her for the first time. “I am to fetch a bier and bring Durwin to the castle, then return with a complement of knights to follow the king.”

“We will see to the bier,” said Esme. “You must go at once and assemble the knights as the king has ordered. Do not delay!”

Toli hesitated. Those had not been the king’s instructions.

Bria came to herself. “Yes, I agree. You must not waste a moment. Go now.” Bria placed a hand on his arm. “Please hurry.”

Toli still hesitated. “I should have been there,” he said. “I should have never left them alone.”

“No,” said Esme. “There is no time. What is done is done.”

“Go. He will need you with him,” Bria added.

“Very well. You will find Durwin in a glade along the southern trail. I will send someone to lead you.” Toli bowed his head, and then he was back in the saddle, racing once more for the forest, where he would find the knights he sought, for most were taking part in the hunt.

Bria turned to her friend. She tried to speak, but no words would come.

Esme put an arm around her shoulders. “Come. There is much to do. We have work to occupy us while we wait. And we must pray the wait is not long.”

“Yes, we must pray for Quentin and Gerin. They will need our prayers this day.”

11

Toli reached Pelgrin and struck out along the foremost trail leading into the heart of the forest. The hunt had moved deeply into the wood and scattered widely. He would have to keep a sharp eye for signs along the trail, and listen for any sounds of nearby hunters. He came to a place where a small stream trickled among the great trunks of ancient oaks. Along the low banks he saw the imprints of horses’ hooves where several had stopped to drink before pressing on. Without a second thought he leaped across the stream and into the forest after them.

Soon he was rewarded with the blast from a horn. The long, ringing note was sounded from far off, but the tone lingered in the air and gave Toli all the direction he needed. Alert to the minute signs of the hunters’ passing, Toli followed the party unerringly through the thick, woody tangle. Riv charged through the undergrowth, head down and ears laid back. The horse, so responsive to his master’s subtlest commands, passed like a glimmering shade between trees and outstretched branches.

And then, a little way ahead, Toli heard voices. He slapped Riv on the rump once more, and they jumped a fallen log, landing square in the center of a well-used path.

“Ho there!” one of the men cried when he saw Toli. “Toli! Look here!” The others with him looked up from their work. They were a party of four—Lords Galen and Bossit, Sir Hedric and Sir Dareth—and they were gutting a boar they had just killed. Toli thanked the Most High that these able and brave men were the first he met in his search for assistance.

“Lord Galen—good sirs . . . ,” Toli greeted them. He reined Riv to a halt, and the horse snorted loudly. The others saw the steed’s white-lathered flanks and shoulders and knew Toli had come on an errand of some urgency. “My lord, what is it?” asked Lord Bossit. A look of concern clouded his features.

“The king’s minister has been struck down, and the prince kidnapped,” said Toli, his breath coming hard from his ride.

“By the gods!” exploded Sir Hedric, jumping to his feet.

“How?”

“When?”

Toli took a deep breath. “We were set upon by assassins in the wood not far from here—only a short while ago. I went after them, but they doubled back and attacked the prince. Durwin fell protecting him.”

“The hermit dead? The heir gone?” They looked grimly at one another.

Toli continued, “Mount up at once and come with me. We ride to meet the king, who is pursuing them.”

“By Zoar, these rogues will pay for this outrage!” vowed Lord Galen. “We are at your command, sir!”

With that the knights abandoned their kill, mounted their horses, and fell into line behind Toli, who led them toward the place where he had encountered the attackers. They made their way as quickly as they could and at last reached the glade.

It was quiet and cool in the shaded clearing. A number of tiny yellow butterflies flitted among the leaves, darting in and out of the falling beams of light that slanted in through the trees. A hermit thrush sang in the high treetops—a clear, sparkling, liquid sound, pure and sweet.

Durwin still lay where they had left him, so still and peaceful he might have merely dozed off for a nap. No one spoke at first, overcome with the strangeness of the scene before them.

The hermit lay dead, and yet seemed in such perfect peace that those who looked upon him could but stare in awe. His presence was strong in the place; each one felt it as if he had touched them.

“Someone should stay with him,” said Lord Bossit. “I will.”

“No,” replied Toli quietly. “He is safe here in the forest. Nothing can harm him now. Go back to the castle and lead the others here. The queen is bringing a bier. See that all is attended to.”

“As you say, my lord.” He left at once.

“The king rode to the south,” said Toli. He turned Riv and took up the trail. The other knights followed without a word.

Quentin combed a wide swath through the forest, working first this way for half a league or more, and then cutting back the other way. But for all his care and vigilance, he failed to uncover any sign of the fleeing assassins.

Still he pushed on, bending ever southward, with a feeling that this was the direction the abductors had chosen, though he knew they might well have taken another. The forest was huge; to cover it all would take scores of men and many months of diligent searching. As he rode, Quentin fought down the growing sense of futility and desperation that swelled within him, building up inside like a vile black broth set to the fire.

He paused periodically to listen but detected only the normal, sleepy sounds of the wood. He went on.

Then, quite without warning, Blazer stumbled down a short, steep bank of a hill, and Quentin found himself on the well-used southern road that led to Hinsenby and then bent southwest along the coast. He sat still in the saddle for a moment, scanning the road both ways. When nothing out of the ordinary presented itself to his gaze, he turned once more southward and continued on.

After riding a little way he came to a dell where the road dipped to meet a stony-banked stream. Here he found his first clue, for in the dust of the road at the banks of the stream were a number of footprints, and the hoofprints of a horse.

Whoever made those prints had emerged from the forest at this point, having followed the stream until it met the road. Across the stream the tracks led off down the way. Blazer splashed across the water, and Quentin leaned low in the saddle to examine the marks. It was difficult to tell anything for certain from these prints, for there were others all along the road.

The hunt! thought Quentin. How dull I am. These and all the rest were made by people on their way to the festival. At once his hope, so quickly born, died and shrank away. But not entirely. Of all the various tracks in the dust, only a few were leading southward. All the others pointed toward the north and Askelon.

Seizing this meager scrap of evidence, Quentin once again urged the sturdy Blazer onward. The steed flew over the wide road, and the king searched along its length for any trace of his son’s passing.

“Listen!” said one temple guard to the other. “Someone comes.”

Both stopped and peered back behind them; on the road they could hear the tinkling jingle of tiny bells—such as a horse would wear on its tack.

“You get off the road. If they stop, draw sword and be ready,” said the first.

“But—,” protested the other. His hands trembled as they touched the weapon concealed beneath his cloak at his side.

“Quickly! I will stay here and try to put them astray.”

“Why were we chosen for this cursed task?” grumbled the other.

“Do as I say! Hurry! They are almost upon us!”

The frightened guard threw a dark look at his comrade, and then disappeared into the undergrowth at the side of the road. In a moment the first could see horse and rider approaching rapidly.

“You there!” shouted Quentin when he came. The nervous accomplice turned and stood blinking at him, pretending to be unsure as to whether it was he who had been addressed. Then his eye caught sight of the wrought gold clasp that secured the rider’s cloak—a terrible, twisting dragon, the royal blazon.

A shiver ran through the man as Quentin was recognized; color drained from his face.

“So you know your king when you see him, do you?”

The man licked his lips and said, “I am at your service, Sire.” His eyes shifted unsteadily.

“How long have you been on this road?” demanded Quentin.

“Well, we—that is, I . . . not long . . . I mean—”

“Where are you bound?”

“To Hinsenby, Sire.”

“Are you alone?” Quentin watched the man struggle under his questions.

“Yes, Lord.” The man’s eyes shifted again.

“Have you seen anyone on the way?”

The man thought for a moment and then said, “Yes, I did. Only a short while ago it was. Back there—back by the stream. A group of travelers. Merchants, I think.”

“How many?”

“Five, six maybe. Not more. They were bound for Askelon, I would warrant.”

Quentin turned in the saddle and looked behind them. No, the prints had pointed the other way. Then he saw the tracks leading away from the road. He turned back to the man just in time to see him glance to the side and then quickly back.

“Merchants, you said?”

“Sire, I believe they were.”

“And are you a merchant, too?” asked the king suspiciously.

“I am”—the man hesitated—“a pilgrim, Sire.”

“They were going to Askelon, you say? Was there a boy with them, a boy on horseback?”

The supposed pilgrim opened his mouth, but the words stuck on his tongue.

“Answer quickly, friend! I find your manner most peculiar.”

The traveler flushed. “No, there was no boy with them. I saw none, at least.”

“Liar!” shouted Quentin, scowling furiously. “In truth I saw the hoofprints at the water, and they continue this way.”

The temple guard stared at the king sullenly and said nothing.

“It is no small thing to lie to your king,” continued Quentin in a voice strained but in control. “I will give you one more chance. Where did they go?”

“I know not, Sire. Please . . . it is not—”

“Are you in league with them?” shouted Quentin. “Answer me!”

Just then there was a rustle in the bushes at the side of the road. Quentin whirled around as another man, dressed like the first, in dark tunic and long cloak despite the heat of the day, leaped from his hiding place, sword in hand. The second man lunged clumsily forward, eyes showing terror. “Strike!” cried this attacker. Quentin turned to see a blade appear in the first pilgrim’s hand as well.

Zhaligkeer sang as it slid from the sheath; the long blade shone forth with cool brilliance from its fierce inner fire. Quentin swung the mighty sword overhead. “You! You killed Durwin!” he cried.

The two men saw the terrible sword and fell back with a startled cry.

“Murderers!” shouted Quentin. “Cowards!”

“Mercy!” cried the first assailant. “Mercy . . . I beg you!”

Rage like molten metal seared through Quentin’s mind; its wild fury rushed through him with blinding force. “I will show you mercy,” he cried. “The mercy you showed Durwin!”

Before the man could turn and flee, the Shining One whispered in the air and flashed in a deadly downward arc. The would-be assassin quickly lifted his blade above his head to take the blow, but the sword shattered in his hand, and the pieces fell to earth. He shrieked and fell to his knees, the sound of certain death whistling after him.

“Mercy!” he screamed. “Forgive me!” Bright Zhaligkeer filled his horror-stricken eyes with its unearthly light, and he threw his hands over his face. The stroke caught him at the base of the neck, cutting short his last cry of remorse. The man pitched forward into the road, dead when he met the ground.

A thin crimson ribbon trickled along Zhaligkeer’s blade. Quentin swiveled in the saddle to meet the second villain, who threw down his weapon and dived headlong into the brush, disappearing into the forest.

The rage which had burned so hot in Quentin’s veins left him as suddenly as it had flared. The king stared at the misshapen heap in the dust, then at the sword in his hand, and his heart froze in his chest. Zhaligkeer’s fiery blade now appeared as any ordinary metal, glimmering darkly in the fading light of late afternoon.

The bright white flame of the Shining One had gone out.

12

Silently the women entered the glade—little more than a wide place in the trail. Esme swung down from her horse and Bria from hers. Lord Bossit halted the small, two-wheeled wagon that carried the bier. The wooden wheels creaked to a stop, the only sound heard in the place.

“Oh,” gasped Bria as she beheld the beloved hermit. She walked slowly but steadily forward and knelt beside the body. Quietly her tears began to fall.

Esme approached and put an arm around the queen’s shoulders.

“Good-bye, fair friend,” whispered Bria. Her outstretched fingers touched Durwin’s folded hands, now cold. She then turned to Lord Bossit, who stood reverently nearby. “My mother is waiting,” she said. “Let us take him back.”

Bossit nodded to the driver of the wagon, and the two men lifted the body onto the waiting bier.

When told of the tragedy, Alinea had said nothing, though her hands had trembled. When she had spoken, her voice was soft, yet steady; she had already mastered her grief, or had put it aside for the moment.

“Yes,” she had said, “you must go at once and bring him back. Take him to his apartments. We will prepare the body there. I will await your return, and while I wait I shall pray—for Prince Gerin, yes, but no less for Quentin and for the rest of us. Now go, and may the Most High be with you.”

Esme had marveled at the dowager’s quiet strength; her bearing calmed those around her, removing much of the sting of the bitter news. Esme recalled another dark day long ago now, the day Eskevar had fallen in battle. Days after the king’s funeral, Esme had asked the queen how she had been able to remain so strong, comforting all around her, yet seeming never to require comfort herself.

“No, I am not strong,” Alinea had told her. They were sitting in the garden among the primroses. Durwin was there, too. He had been the queen’s constant companion during those troubled days. “Though it is true I am no stranger to grief, one never becomes a friend to sorrow. But Durwin here has shown me the way of hope. This hope I carry within me makes the burden lighter, and I find I am able to help others who have not such hope.”

“Then tell me, my lady, for I would know. How can I obtain this hope of yours? Where is it to be found?” Esme had asked. She still remembered Alinea’s words.

And she remembered Durwin’s too. “The hope you seek is born of belief in the Most High, the One True God of all,” he had told her. “Seek him and you will find him. He is ever reaching out to those who truly desire to know him.”

“What must I do? Where is his temple?”

Durwin laughed. “He is not like other gods. He has no temple, and does not accept gifts of silver or gold, or sacrifices of helpless creatures.”

“No?” This she found most puzzling.

“No,” laughed Durwin again. “He wants you. All of you: your heart and spirit. He wants your love and worship, everything—he will not settle for less.”

“This is a demanding god you serve, hermit.”

“Yes, he is as you say—demanding. But the blessing he bestows on all who come near him is beyond all price. It is life he gives, and nothing less.”

Esme wondered at the words at the time. They sounded strange to her, and so unlike anything she had ever heard from any priest. She remembered how her heart had tugged within her as the hermit spoke. Ah, she thought, but I was younger then. So young. Still, I wanted to believe what Durwin said was true. Is wanting to believe the same as believing? Yet, the time passed, and I thought no more about it, until now. Why now? Is it too late?

Esme came out of her reverie and found Bria’s eyes upon her. “You are lost in thought,” said Bria. They had reached the edge of the forest and were staring across the plain. Askelon shone clearly in the light of the westering sun, throwing a great shadow toward them.

“I was thinking of another sad time,” replied Esme. “Of Eskevar’s passing.”

“Often I have thought of that dark day. When Gerin was born, how I wished he was there to see his grandson. It would have made him proud, I know. Yes, and no less proud to see his granddaughters.” Her features twisted in anguish. “Oh, Esme! My son is taken from me! What am I going to do?”

“The king is searching for him, and Toli brings help. They will find him. They will bring him back safely.”

“He is so young. I am afraid they will . . .” She could not bring herself to complete the thought.

“Do not think it! No one would dare harm the prince. No one. He will be safe.” Esme forced a smile. “You would not be a true mother if you did not worry after your son. But Quentin will find him.”

Bria nodded. After a time she said, “I am happy you are here, Esme. I will need a good friend in the days to come.”

“I am your friend always.”

They rode the rest of the way to the castle in silence, each wrapped in her own thoughts, but feeling the warmth of the other’s presence.

Quentin blinked his eyes in amazement at the sword in his hand. One fell thrust and the fire of the white lanthanil blade had been quenched. The awful significance of what had happened struck him like a thunderbolt. And he heard once more the words spoken at the anointing of the sword:

Never in malice, never in hate, never in evil shall this blade be raised. But in righteousness and justice forever shall it shine.

That was the promise of the Shining One, and he, in one flash of anger and hate, had broken that vow. And in breaking it, the hand of the Most High was removed from him. The magnitude of his crime overwhelmed him.

“No!” he cried. His own voice rang hollow in his ears, condemning him.

The strength seeped out of his arm, and he let go of the sword. The blade spun from his hand and fell to the dust of the road, not a pace from the body of the wretch he had cut down.

Murderer! The voice of the dead man screamed at him. Murderer! Then the forest rang with accusing voices. The king is a murderer! He has broken his trust! Murderer! Where is your Most High now? Murderer!

Quentin clamped his hands over his ears to stop the voices, but they had gotten inside his head. He could not shut them out. In horror he gazed at the Shining One, now lying in the dust, and at the crumpled body beside it. His stomach churned and heaved with revulsion; a spasm rocked him backward in the saddle.

“No!” he screamed once more, a cry of utter despair. “No!”

Then he turned Blazer, sank his spurs deep into the horse’s flanks, and fled down the road.

“What is that?” Sir Galen raised his hand toward an object in the trail ahead.

Toli looked up quickly. They were stopped at the stream, allowing their horses a quick drink before moving on. His eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze toward where the knight pointed.

Toli’s eagle-sharp vision recognized the shapeless form as vaguely human. “It is a body,” he said, climbing into the saddle.

When the others reached the spot, Toli was already stooping over the corpse. Toli turned it over, and the head lolled obscenely; it was nearly severed from the shoulders. The man’s shattered sword lay in pieces beneath him.

“Someone wanted this one dead,” remarked Lord Galen, “to strike such a blow.”

“Who could have done it?” wondered Sir Dareth. “There are no robbers abroad in this forest, surely.”

“Highwaymen would not have set upon such as this. See how he is dressed?” replied Sir Hedric. “Perhaps there was a falling out among thieves.”

“Or kidnappers,” said Toli slowly. “Yes, I would swear this was one I dealt with in the forest earlier this day. Or another of their company.”

“But to strike him down in the road—why?” Sir Dareth shook his head. “It makes no sense. They must have known we would find him.”

Toli made a quick search of the immediate area, sifting among the confused tracks in the dust for a clue to what had happened. But he gleaned little for his efforts. There were far too many prints—it was impossible to tell how many men had passed, or who among them had horses and who were afoot. Still, he counted tracks of at least two horses, and one rider had apparently been involved in the fight that had ended the kidnapper’s life.

“I believe,” said Toli, “the king might have passed this way.”

“You think this unfortunate attacked the king?” asked Lord Galen incredulously. “It was ill advised, though there must have been a reason.”

Toli nodded thoughtfully and cast a glance skyward. The sun stretched long shadows across the road. “We must bury him quickly. We are already losing light. I want to follow the trail as long as possible.”

At Toli’s command, the knights began hacking a shallow grave in the brush at the side of the road, using their swords for the task. Toli and Lord Galen examined the victim’s clothing for any clue of who he might have been, or where he might have come from.

When the corpse had been disposed of, the four set off again, though the sun was well down, and the first of the evening stars winked overhead. A chill seeped out of the wood as the sky deepened to twilight, but the riders pressed on, heedless of their fatigue or the hunger beginning to gnaw just behind their belt buckles.

I am certain Quentin was back there, thought Toli as he rode along. I can sense it. But there was something else, too. Something very powerful—more than the death of that unfortunate would account for. But what? What could it be?

13

Well, Tip,” the round little man said. “Here’s a comely spot to rest yer bones, eh? Or shall we walk a wee bit further?”

The dog looked at her master and wagged her tail.

“Oh, quite right, quite right. We’ve come fer enough today. No sense getting much away from the road. Quite right ye are.”With a clink and clatter, Pym the tinker began shaking off his burdens, loosening packs and sacks and strings of pots, pans, and tools, all of which he carried with him on his back.

But one package he placed carefully on the ground, propping it upright against a stone. His bright eyes glittered with glee, and he rubbed his hands with delight. “Now, Tipper, some firewood!” He clapped his hands. “Jest the thing, eh? Jest the thing. ’Twill be darking soon. First fetch the wood and the fire will follow, eh? Quite right.”

In no time the little tinker and his dog were curled before a cozy fire, drinking their soup, watching the stars come out in the sky as night settled peacefully over the land. Every now and then the man stole a look toward the slender, rag-wrapped package that he had propped up against the stone.

“See that, Tip? There’s our fortune,” he would say and then chuckle to himself.

When they had drunk their broth and sopped the last of it with hunks of dry black bread, the tinker reached for the bundle and laid it across his knees. “Lookee, Tip,” he said. “Old Pym has found our fortune. Yes, he has. I told ye he would. I told ye. Lookee, look!”

He carefully pulled the rags away with trembling fingers. And there revealed in the flickering firelight was a great sword: long and thin, tapering almost imperceptibly along its smooth, flawless length to a deadly point. The grip and hilt shone in the firelight as if cut from a gemstone.

“Sech a beauty, this ’un,” he said, his voice hushed in awe. “This are no common blade, no sir. Pym can tell, he can. I know a wee bit about swords, you see, and this ’un’s a royal blade if ivver I saw one. Yes, it is.” His fingers traced the fine markings along the blade, hardly daring to touch it. His eyes filled with wonder at the sight of the weapon.

The big black dog watched her master, head on paws, listening to the sound of his voice.

“Oh, yes,” he continued, “this blade’s a beauty. Nivver meant fer common hand. Some’un’ll give good gold fer this—a fortune, ye see. As much as ivver I ask. Why, Tip, we’uns’ll have enough to buy a little wagon. Oh, yes, and another sharping stone—a round ’un with a treadle foot ’twould be fine. I could sharp knives and shears and plowshares and . . . and anything that needs sharping. Ye know I could, Tip. Ye know it. Why, we’uns’d make our fortune!”

The tinker gazed at the sword happily, still not quite believing his good luck. Then a shudder went through him as he remembered how he had found the sword.

“A shame ’bout the body, Tip. Oh, terrible shame, that. But I had nothing to do with ’t—not a snip. Found him like that, you see. Come upon him in the road. Not long dead, I think.

“Ye saw him first, didn’t ye, Tip? Yes. When ye let out that growl, I knew something was amiss, didn’t I? Yes. Ye don’t growl without cause, and that were cause enough. Indeed. A man dead in the road. Terrible thing. Head cut near off, and this—this sword lying in the dust beside him.”

He took the sword in his hand and felt its quick strength. His face glowed with admiration. “Old Pym knows craftership when he see it. Yes, sir. Some’un’ll give good gold to get this back—as much as ivver I ask. Enough for a wagon and a sharping stone.”

A thought occurred to him. What if the one dead in the road was the owner? Who would give the gold then?

He frowned and turned the blade in the firelight, shaking his head. “That ’un nivver owned a blade like this,” he said at last. “No, sir. No one ivver did—but maybe a king.”

Another thought struck him, and his eyes grew round in fright. What if they think I stole it? What if they think it was Old Pym killed that man and took his sword?

“No! I nivver’d kill a man, nor take his blade. Old Pym’s a peaceable fellow. Every’un knows he is. ’Twas in the road. I found it there. How it got there, I cannot say.”

“But I must be careful now, oh yes. Very careful. There’s some as would steal this away from a poor old tinker. Then poor Old Pym would lose his fortune.” He stared woefully at his prize, and then his face brightened once more.

“We must hide it, Tip! That’s what we’uns’ll do—hide it! Wrap it up in rags and hide it somewhere so not a body can find it. We’uns’ll keep our eyes and ears open—look and listen, that’s right, and see what we can learn about this here sword. Yes, we’uns must hide it well, Tip. And so we will.”

Deep in the forest, night had become a black curtain that cut off all sight, save the occasional glimpse of the stars overhead through the interweaving branches. The moon had not yet risen, so the forest byways were difficult to follow. Prince Gerin, shuffling head down, exhausted by his long ordeal, longed to stretch out beneath a tree to rest, and let sleep steal from him the memory of this evil day.

“We will stop here to rest,” said Nimrood to the others. “We should have put them off the trail by now. We will not be found, but we must be careful not to be seen.”

The men were too tired to speak. They stood wearily on their feet and looked about them, wondering dully how the old man leading them found the strength to keep going. “Hate is what keeps him afoot,” whispered one guard to the other. “Look at him, old as he is, and still spry as ever. He’d walk all night.”

“He might, but I cannot,” answered the man next to him.

“You there!” snapped Nimrood. “Stop muttering and see to our prisoner. You will take turns guarding him. Remember, your heads are forfeit if he escapes.”

Prince Gerin heard only a part of what was said. The next thing he knew he was being half dragged, half shoved to a nearby tree, to be bound there with a cord for the night. He did not fight; he was too sleepy.

“There now,” said his guard. “Be good and give us no trouble, young sir. We do not wish to harm you, but you must not try to get away—that could be very painful indeed.”

Gerin only looked sleepily at the man, yawned, and lay back against the tree. In a moment he was sound asleep.

“Look at him,” said one guard, “not a care in the world.”

“He is the prince, by Ariel! No one would dare lift a hand against him,” answered his companion.

“Keep your voice down!” the other rasped. “Don’t let Longbeard hear you.”

“Ah, Longbeard. Now there’s a cold one. He is trouble—I said so from the start. Look what has happened: one dead, the prince kidnapped. This could bring down the temple.”

“Shh! He watches us! Remember, we are trying to save the temple.”

“This business is no good . . . no good at all . . . ,” the guard mumbled. He yawned and then settled himself to sleep.

The other sat down on a rock, chin in hand, to wait his watch. He glanced around at the others, already sleeping. Their snores droned softly into the night air. He rubbed his neck and shook his head as he felt the weariness engulf him. Yes, he thought, Ervis is right. This is a bad business. It could well bring the temple tumbling down about our ears. But I am not to blame. I only do what I am told. The high priest himself ordered it. What choice did I have?

He pulled his cloak around him and folded his arms over his chest; his head nodded, and soon he was sleeping like all the rest.

Quentin’s eyes burned, and his back ached; he had been in the saddle all day and was not accustomed to it. He could feel his sore muscles stiffening as the chill of night seeped into his bones. Ignoring his body’s pleas to stop and rest, he pulled his short cloak more tightly around him and plodded on.

The trail had grown too dark to see hours ago, but still he traveled on, hoping by some miracle that he would stumble across the kidnappers. Knowing that his son was still out there somewhere in the dark, frightened, held prisoner—that thought alone kept him going.

Heartsick, numb with misery and despair, Quentin wanted only to throw himself to the ground to weep at his misfortune. A few short hours ago he had walked in the light, his realm secure, the future a bright promise. Now there was only darkness. In the space of half a day he had lost his son, his trusted friend, and—worst of all—the favor of the Most High. His mind reeled at the enormity of his trouble; his heart ached with sorrow; his body throbbed with grief and exhaustion.

How was it possible? How could it happen so quickly? Why was there no warning, no hint at what was to befall him? He could only shake his head in mute wonder.

For an instant he imagined that all he need do was turn Blazer back toward home and all would be well once more. Upon reaching Askelon he would find Durwin alive and the prince safe in his bed. His sword would be found in his chambers, lying across its hangers below the royal device—the flame intact, the god still with him.

But it was a dream, and the grim reality remained unchanged. Hoping against hope, Quentin determined that somehow he would make everything right again. He could do it; he was the Dragon King. He would make it right. With that, he urged Blazer forward. The horse, head down, ambled on.

14

They are here, my lady; they have come.” The maid approached quietly, lest she disturb her queen’s vigil.

“What? Quentin is back? He has returned?” She jumped up, a brief light leaping to her green eyes. Then she saw the look the maid gave her, and the light dimmed. “Oh.”

“No, the king has not returned.” She shook her head, then added, “But Lords Theido and Ronsard are here. They are waiting in the hall.”

Queen Bria left at once and went down to meet her old friends.

“My lady!” said Ronsard when he saw her approaching from across the great room. They were the only ones in it except for a few servants readying the tables for breakfast, which would be served within the hour. “How lovely you look!” said the knight, smiling warmly.

“Just as I remember your mother,” added Theido. “How is Alinea?”

“Theido, Ronsard, I am glad you are here at last. Forgive me for pulling you from your warm beds at this early hour. My mother is well. I am certain she will wish to receive you soon, but I would speak to you first.”

Theido saw the dark shadows behind her smile and knew that the queen had summoned them on a matter of great urgency. “Perhaps this is not the place to discuss important things,” he said. “A more private chamber would be better.”

“Yes,” Bria agreed, “follow me.” She led them out of the hall and along the wide corridor to a small room, a council room that contained a heavy table with benches on either side, and a grouping of high-backed chairs in a farther corner. The three entered, closed the door quietly, and took their seats facing one another.

“Now then,” said Theido gently, “what has happened?”

Bria looked from one to the other of the two knights—men she had known all her life. Trusted friends of her parents, they had served the Dragon King’s throne numerous times and stood always ready to serve again. Their stalwart devotion and her own need overwhelmed her, and she broke down and cried.

“I hardly know where to begin,” she said, the tears streaming from her eyes.

The two glanced at each other helplessly, both feeling the depths of her sorrow.

“The words come hard, good sirs.” She sniffed and willed herself to stop the tears. The knights waited for her to continue. “Durwin is dead,” she said at last.

“By the gods, no!” said Ronsard. “Say it isn’t so!”

Theido held up his hand. Bria continued, “And my son has been taken.”

“When did this happen?” asked Theido. “And how was it accomplished?”

His stern tone helped Bria to calm herself. She began to speak more easily. “Yesterday, during the hunt. The prince was to ride in the hunt— he was so proud; it was his first. Toli rode with him. Quentin and Durwin went along, but were to return to join the festival after leading the hunt.” She sniffed again, but kept her voice steady. “The king was a long time returning; we thought he had taken up the hunt as well. Then Toli came and . . . he told us what had happened . . . Oh . . .” She paused, gathered her strength, and continued. “They were attacked and fought off their assailants. Toli followed, but lost the trail. When he rejoined Durwin and Gerin they . . . Durwin was dead and the prince gone. Quentin sent Toli for help. That was yesterday. I have not seen them since.”

Theido did not speak, but his dark eyes and the scowl on his face showed what he was thinking.

Ronsard smashed a clenched fist into the arm of his chair. “Who would dare such a thing? It is an outrage!”

“We must organize a search at once, though—I will be frank—too much time has passed already. If the kidnappers were on horseback, they could have ridden far.”

“Still,” put in Ronsard, “if ransom is their game, they may not have gone far at all. Indeed, they may be close at hand.”

Theido nodded sharply. “Yes, yes. There is something in what you say. But we must hurry in any case. My lady, in the absence of the king, will you give us the authority to command a body of knights?”

“Anything you require.”

“Good,” said Ronsard. “I know those well who served under me. We can start there.”

“Go,” Theido told him. “Roust them out, and see that they are outfitted for the trail. I will follow directly.”

Ronsard stood and gave a little bow to the queen. He smiled stiffly and said, “Take courage, my lady. We will find the boy.” He strode out of the room and was gone.

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Theido asked Bria.

“I know so little. No . . . I have told you all I know. Toli could tell you more, but he is gone. Lord Bossit might know something.” She reached out and took Theido’s hand. “Find him, good friend. Save my child, as once you saved my father.”

Theido pressed her hand, and she felt his confidence flowing into her in that touch. “One way or another we will find him, I know it. I do not know how long it may take, but we will rescue him unharmed. You may believe it; you must believe it.”

“I do believe, and I pray that it is so,” she said.

“Yes, pray. Your mother has taught me the power of women’s prayers. The god, I think, does listen most intently to a woman’s heart.”

“Then he has heard mine through the night.” She bent her head. “Oh, Theido, if anything happens to him I do not th—”

“We will bring him back hale and whole,” he soothed. “You will see.” He stood slowly. “I must go now and find Lord Bossit. The sooner we make a start, the better.”

“Yes, go. And Theido . . . thank you for coming. You have no idea what it means to me.”

“Would that it were a happier time, my lady. But these days shall pass quickly, and all will be right again.” The lanky knight dipped his head to her and went out.

In the last hours of the night, when all the earth was still and waiting for the new day, Quentin had stopped along the road to rest and had fallen asleep beneath a larch tree, his cloak spread over him. Sleep offered no release or comfort; fitful, troubled was his rest, broken by dreams of futile chases and violent clashes with an unseen enemy. There descended upon him a helpless, hopeless feeling of dread and loss that pierced his heart as cruelly as any poisoned dagger, and though he slept he ached with the pain.

He awoke more wrung out than when he lay down, and rose wearily, stiff from his hard bed among the roots of the tree. In the raw, red light of dawn, Quentin rubbed his burning eyes and set about saddling Blazer once more.

“Quentin!” The king turned his eyes to the shout and peered into the dimness of the forest trail. The sun was not yet fully up, and the shadows still lay heavy along the road, but he perceived the forms of riders approaching some way off. He waited, then recognized Toli riding toward him out of the gloom.

“Sire, at last we have found you.” The Jher’s features bore the traces of a sleepless night, but his eyes were as sharp and quick as ever.

“Have you seen anything?” asked Quentin.

“No, my lord. Nothing, that is, except the body of an unfortunate lying in the road.” Toli’s eyes examined Quentin carefully.

“Yes,” said Quentin flatly. He turned away and put his foot in the stirrup, climbing back into the saddle. “I saw him too.”

Toli did not pursue the matter further, thinking it better to leave it for now. The others joined them, longing for an opportunity to dismount and stretch aching muscles. No one spoke directly to the king. His woeful countenance stilled their tongues.

Only Toli had the temerity to draw him aside to speak openly. “What would you have us do, Kenta?” He used the affectionate name of years past.

“Find my son!” Quentin snapped, his mood raw as the new morning.

Toli wisely ignored the remark. “We should return to the castle for more men; we could cover more ground that way. We need fresh horses and supplies.”

“Do what you will,” replied the king. His jaw was set. “I will continue the search alone.”

“Where will you go?”

“South.”

“Why south? They could easily have turned off the trail anywhere. In the night we would have missed the track.”

“What else am I to do?” shouted Quentin. The others looked at him. He lowered his voice. “I have no better choice.”

“Return with us to Askelon. We will send messengers out to all the towns and villages to watch for the brigands. We can—”

“My son has been taken, Toli!” Quentin gestured wildly to the great forest. “I will not return until he is found. I cannot return until he is safe.”

Toli searched the face of the one he knew so well, and yet, at this moment, seemed not to know at all. Something has changed my Kenta, he thought. This is not like him at all. Durwin’s death and the abduction of his son had tormented him, twisted him. Yes, but there was something more. Then he saw it—the empty scabbard at Quentin’s side. At once he understood.

“Come back with us, Kenta,” he said softly. “Yesterday we had a chance of finding them quickly. But now . . . now they have had enough time to cover their trail, to double back—who knows where they may be by now? To find them we will need help, and a leader. You are the king. Who will lead if you will not?”

“Anyone!” snapped Quentin. “Anyone better than I. You lead the search, Toli!” The king’s eyes burned savagely; his mouth contorted into a snarl of hate. “Durwin’s blood is on your head, as is my son’s if anything happens to him. They would be safe now if you had not left them alone. You are to blame for this—it is your fault!”

Toli, speechless, stared at his king and friend. Never had Quentin raised his voice toward him; never had he shown anger toward him. But then, he reflected, the king was right. It is my fault; I am to blame. I should never have left them alone and in danger like that. I am to blame.

“I am sorry,” Toli started. “Sorry—”

“Find my son!” shouted Quentin, his voice shrill. “Find him, or never let me set eyes on you again!”

With that, the Dragon King slashed the reins across the stallion’s white neck and wheeled him around. Blazer tossed his handsome white head, and Quentin glared at Toli. “Find him,” he said softly, his tone a threat. “Just find him.”

Toli stood in the road and watched his king ride away. He watched until a bend in the road took him from sight, then went back and mounted Riv and turned toward Askelon. No one spoke. There was nothing to say.

15

Nimrood sat brooding on a rock, hunched like a bent old root, twisted with age and warped by the dark forces within him. He was waiting for nightfall to undertake the final leg of their journey, for they had reached the eastern edge of the forest, and the rest of the way to the temple lay through open ground. He did not want to risk traveling by day; so they waited, restlessly.

Prince Gerin, his young mind alert to all around him, was confident he would not be harmed; and since he appeared in no immediate danger, escape could wait for the right opportunity—if he was not rescued first. He also saw quite plainly that his abductors had little spirit for the task they were about. But the old one, the one with the wild white hair and the face as lined and creased as worn leather, he was one to watch out for.

Who was he? What did he want, and where were they taking him? These questions occupied the young captive as he sat on the ground beneath the tree, two guards with him at all times.

He shifted uneasily, trying to loosen the bonds on his arms. One of the guards eyed him suspiciously, glared, but did not say anything.

When my father comes for me, thought Gerin, you will be very sorry. I hope he comes soon; I am going to miss the rest of the hunt otherwise.

There was no doubt in the young prince’s mind that the king would come for him, would rescue him. All he had to do was wait.

There came a sound in the wood: someone approaching quickly on foot, and noisily, with much rustling of branches and cracking of twigs underfoot. Nimrood jumped up, his voice a harsh whisper. “We are found! Draw your weapons!”

The men jumped up and drew their blades, but before anyone had a chance to position himself for the attack, the intruder stumbled into camp. “Wait!” he said, startled. “No, wait!” He fell back and landed on his rump.

“You!” said Nimrood. The man was one of the two left behind to guard their escape.

He jumped up, glancing around quickly with frightened eyes. “I was not followed!” he cried. “Put away your swords!”

“You better not have been followed, or I will feed you piecemeal to the birds. Where is your friend?” Nimrood demanded, shoving aside the others.

“Dead.” The man cast a terrified look behind him, as if expecting his own death to come charging out of the woods at any moment.

“How?” Nimrood stood with his hands on his hips, eyes boring into the wretch before him.

“He found us on the road. He guessed all.”

“Who found you?”

“The king! He knew all about us!”

“Bah!” Nimrood’s countenance became threatening. The guard quaked with fear. “You said too much!”

“No, by all the gods, I swear it! We told him nothing. He knew— I don’t know how he knew, but he did. We did not have a chance.”

“How many were with him?”

“His Majesty—the king—was alone. I hid in the bushes in case we were forced to attack him.”

“And?” Nimrood stepped closer. The guard grimaced and hurried on with his story.

“Carlin pretended to be a pilgrim, but the king knew different. We tried to put him off, but—”

“You were two against one. What happened?”

The man’s eyes rolled with terror. “That sword of his—the Shining One! No man—no army is a match for that! You should have seen it flash. The flames! It blinded us, and I threw my hands over my eyes. When I looked, Carlin was dead. That sword . . .”

Nimrood’s demeanor changed abruptly; his tone became coaxing. “Ah, yes, I see. You did right to come here with the news. Yes. But tell me”—he placed a pale hand on the man’s shoulder—“tell me more concerning that sword. The king’s sword—what did you call it?”

“The Shining One—everyone knows about it. It is enchanted.”

“It is? How so?” Nimrood smiled a thin, sly, snaky smile. “I do not seem to recall anything about an enchanted sword. But then, I have been long away from Mensandor. Tell me more about it.”

Eagerly the men told Nimrood about Zhaligkeer, the king’s wonderful sword—about its burning brightness, about the magic mines wherein it was forged, about its strange and terrible powers. They told about how Quentin, still a young man, had come riding out of the mountains with the sword and, by his hand alone, had smashed the invasion of the horrible Nin and turned certain defeat into resounding victory when the Shining One quenched the fire of the Wolf Star.

Legends concerning the enchanted sword, and the king who wielded it, had already grown large in the land, and increased with every passing year. It was possessed of a holy power, they said. It was enchanted by a god—the one called Most High. Its flame was the symbol of the god’s presence with the king, and more.

Nimrood listened patiently to the various stories about the sword, letting the temple guards tell him what they knew. All the time the old sorcerer was thinking to himself, Yes, this enchanted sword is just the thing. “What you say is very interesting,” he said at length. “Yes, very interesting.” He turned to the man who had just joined them. “Do you have anything else to tell me?”

The guard thought for a moment, desperate to please the perverse Nimrood. “Oh!” he said, brightening. “Yes. The king said Durwin— the one called the hermit—was dead.”

“Oh?” Nimrood’s heart fluttered in his breast. “How is that?”

“I do not know. He only said, ‘You killed Durwin.’”

“No one meant to kill him, sir,” explained one of the temple guards who had been there. “It was an accident. He was in the way. We had to stop him to get the prince.”

This is working better than I hoped! thought Nimrood with glee. Durwin dead! Ah, that pesky hermit out of the way. My revenge will be complete. He nodded at those around him approvingly. “Yes, accidents happen. It could not be helped. But you must tell me these things in the future. I must know everything—it does not do to withhold information from me.”

“We thought you would be angry,” muttered one near him.

“Angry? Why should I be angry? Am I unreasonable?” Nimrood smiled again, his thin lips splitting his lined face. “No, you will find I am quite easy to get along with if you but tell me at once. I can be quite reasonable.” He clapped his hands. “Now, get some rest, all of you. We have far to go tonight. I want to be at the High Temple by first light tomorrow.”

All settled down to rest for their nocturnal journey. Prince Gerin, too, rolled up into a ball, though he did not feel like sleeping; he did so to hide his tears from those around him. He did not want his captors to see him crying for his friend Durwin.

At midday, Toli and the knights with him reached Askelon. Upon entering the inner ward yard, they found assembled nearly a score of knights with horses and squires darting here and there with provisions and equipment.

“What is this?” asked Toli. He slid from his mount and hurried to a cluster of men standing in the center of all this activity. The ring parted as the Jher came near. “Theido! Ronsard!” he shouted when he saw them.

Both men burst into grins and clapped him on the back. “We were hoping to see you before we rode out. And the king—” Theido halted, eyes narrowed. “You have seen him?”

“Yes,” replied Toli curtly. “He will not soon be returning.”

“I see.” Theido frowned. “We must hold council and agree upon a plan in any case. We should not delay.”

“With the queen’s permission we had hoped to leave at once,” said Ronsard.

“Yes, you must leave soon. I will join you as soon as I have eaten and washed.”

“I will have food sent to the council chamber,” Ronsard suggested, and left to arrange it. Those who had ridden through the night with Toli took their leave also.

Theido walked Toli a few paces aside to the massive inner curtain where they could talk more freely. The bustle continued in the yard around them. Theido leaned against the great wall and folded his arms across his chest. His black hair was threaded with much silver, and his eyebrows as well, but the years had not softened his sharp features—if anything, age had made his appearance even more commanding.

“There is trouble between you, eh?” Theido said calmly.

Toli looked across the yard, staring at the activity, seeing nothing. He nodded.

“What happened?”

“He . . . my lord blames me for Durwin’s death and the loss of his son,” Toli replied simply.

“I see.” Theido spoke gently, trying to comfort Toli. “Certainly you know such accusations to be the temper of a distraught and frightened man.”

“No,” said Toli, shaking his head, “it is true. It is my fault. I left him alone. After the first attack I went after the assailants. I should not have gone. I should never have left the prince for a moment.”

“You did as you thought best. What man can do more? Durwin knew how to look after himself; he was no stranger to trouble. I am certain you did the right thing.”

Toli turned haunted eyes on the tall knight. “Durwin was an old man, Gerin a defenseless child. I failed, I tell you.”

“No! Think what you are saying. What has happened has happened. It cannot be changed. Durwin’s death is not your fault. No one could have known. If you had stayed, it might well have been you struck down to bleed to death.”

“Better my blood than his!”

“Never think that.” Theido placed a hand on Toli’s shoulder. “It is not for you to decide such things, my friend. We are all in the god’s hands. It is he who directs our steps. Durwin knew that as well—no, better— than any of us.”

Toli rubbed his hands over his face. He felt his fatigue descending upon him, covering him like a heavy cloak. “I am tired.”

“Yes, go to wash and change. You shall rest after our council. We will leave and begin the search.”

“No, I will go with you. I must.”

“You will need your rest. If I am not wrong, there will be plenty of searching for all of us. Rest while you can. Also, I would have you go with the queen and Lady Esme.

Toli looked up quickly. “The queen? Esme? Where are they going?”

“Durwin is to be buried tomorrow. In the forest. I would go, but now that you are here, I think it better that Ronsard and I lead the search.”

“I had forgotten about the funeral,” said Toli ruefully. “Yes. Someone should go with them. Very well, I will do as you suggest.”

He turned to leave, hesitated, and turned back. “There is something else.” Theido waited. The Jher lowered his voice and said, “The king’s scabbard was empty when I found him. The Shining One was gone.”

16

Pym, with his gray-muzzled dog beside him, stumped along the road toward Askelon. As he walked, he thought about one thing and one thing only: the magnificent sword he had hidden that very morning. Wrapped in its covering of rags, he had placed Zhaligkeer in a hole in a great old hazelnut tree whose heart had long ago been burned out by lightning. The ancient tree was hollow, but somehow still alive. He then marked the tree with a little pile of stones, and stood a long time looking at it from all directions, so he would remember it when he came back.

Then, collecting his tools and wares, he had rattled off through the forest to the road, heading once more for Askelon.

But his mind was uneasy. With every step he wavered. “Mayhaps I ought nivver have left it,” he mumbled to Tip. “Mayhaps I should fetch it back. A body might find it back there, and steal it from Old Pym. Then there’d be no gold, and wagon or sharping stone, neither. Oh, what to do? What to do?”

At midday he stopped in a shady nook of linden boughs to eat a few morsels. He carried a rind of hard cheese with him, which he cut with a knife for himself and Tip. They washed it down with some water and munched an apple from one of his sacks.

They were about ready to get back on the road when they heard someone approaching. “Listen there, Tipper. Some’un’s coming up the road, hear? Who could it be? We’uns best sit tight and see who ’tis.”

They waited, and the sound became voices—many voices, murmuring like a millrace—a whole throng of people traveling south, away from Askelon.

The first of the group passed by, glancing toward the tinker but hurrying on. These were followed closely by twenty or more travelers, whole families—men, women, and children, deep in conversation or exclaiming loudly to one another as they bundled along.

Pym stepped out onto the road. “I’ll be vexed, Tip. Where’s all these’uns agoin’?”

He hailed the nearest traveler. “Ho there! Ho!” The man halted and looked at him. Pym scrambled up. “Where ye bound? And what’s all the pother?”

“You have not heard? Where have you been, man? Asleep? The whole world’s aruffle!” Others halted with the man and added their voices. “Awful!” said one. “The gods are angry!” said someone else.

“Us’n’s been on this here road two days,” said Pym. “I met not a body, nor no’un to tell me nothing.”

“’Tis the prince! Prince Gerin,” replied the first man.

“His young lordship’s been nimmed and carried off aforce!” shouted someone from behind.

“Nivver say it!” cried Pym. “When did it happen?”

“Yesterday morning at the hunt. Thieves took him, and slew the king’s counselor!”

“Fifty men there were!” said a short man with a wart.

“A hundred, I heard!” yelled another. Everyone nodded.

“You seen anyone?” asked the first man suspiciously.

Old Pym blanched at the thought. “Me? I nivver did. No, sir. Nor heard aught neither. We’uns’d seen a hundred men. But neither hand nor hair have we seen till now. They kilt the king’s minister?”

“Dead, he is. Oh, the gods are wroth with the king for taking up after this new god of his, this Most High. They are angry, and they are showing their ire! This will teach him.”

Pym muttered morosely, “This be a dark day. A dark day indeed.”

“Aye,” they all agreed, and then hastened off down the road once more.

Pym started on his way again, stopping several succeeding groups to inquire of them also, and all told the same sad story. It was on everyone’s lips, and would surely be the topic of conversation for some time, upsetting the festival as it had.

“A deed most foul, Tip,” said Pym as they walked along, still proceeding toward Askelon, though all they met were going the other way, back to their villages and towns in the south, to spread the word. In a week there would not be a single man in all Mensandor who did not know what had happened. “Aye, a deed most foul.”

Quentin pushed relentlessly onward. Early in the day he had forsaken the road and begun combing the side trails—first this way and then the other—hoping to chance across some sign that the assassins had passed through. He found nothing, and with every league descended into a torment and anguish deeper than he had ever known. It seemed at times as if his spirit was tearing itself in two, as if his innermost self were being racked and tortured.

Why? he kept asking himself. Why has this happened to me? Help your servant, Most High! Help me! Why is there no answer? Why do I feel alone? He has left me; the god has cast me aside.

That thought alone might have crushed him, but fear for his son and grief for Durwin added their weight until he thought his heart would burst.

Still, he kept on, pushing himself, willing himself to go farther, stopping only to rest Blazer now and then, and to drink. He continued southward, and as the day bent toward evening, he smelled the salt air of the sea in the breeze and knew he must be nearing the coast.

At dusk he rode out of the forest and climbed a sandy bluff overlooking the sea. Gerfallon lay dark and wine-colored in the setting sun. Overhead, a bank of vermilion clouds scudded ashore on the landward wind. Behind them darker clouds gathered; tomorrow would see rain.

Quentin dismounted and allowed Blazer to crop the sweet green grass that grew long on the bluff. To the west lay Hinsenby, though he could not see it; and to the east the Sipleth slid darkly to the sea, its waters cool from the melt of snow on the high Fiskills. Ahead, out across the water, lay the hulking mass of the island—Holy Island it was called—rising dark from the water: mysterious, uninviting, the source of many stories and much speculation from times past remembering. The island, green with vegetation and dark with ancient forests, was uninhabited—though in older times there were those who attempted to make a home there. But those settlements never lasted long—a few years at the most, and then they were gone. The island was the dwelling of some local gods who did not wish to share their home with mortals, some said.

Local rumors maintained that the eerie island had once been a place of worship for the early inhabitants of Mensandor, the war-loving and blood-lusting Shoth who practiced their brutish religion of torture and human sacrifice within its cloaked forests, drinking the blood of their victims and eating their flesh. And it was widely believed that there were those who still followed the religion of the Shoth, that the weird rites still took place from time to time in secret. Voices were heard to emanate from the island’s night-cloaked shores, and sometimes the bloodred light of midnight fires could be seen.

Holy Island was also purported to be a place of power lingering from ancient days, when the gods themselves walked the earth in full sight of men, when the inexplicable was commonplace: dreams, disappearances, apparitions, and miracles.

Through the gathering dusk that island seemed to beckon Quentin. Its humped shape rose from the flat sea like the head and shoulders of a lordly sea creature, regarding the land with infinite patience. Come, it said. See what is here. Do you feel my power? Do you fear it? Come if you dare.

Quentin stirred and walked down the seaward side of the bluff, still staring at the island lying only a short distance out—less than half a league. He found a trail along the face of the dune leading down to the shore. Without a thought he followed the trail, weariness guiding his steps. And with each flagging footfall his strength ebbed; he had not eaten all day, and had rested little. He felt light-headed and weak, as if he were a husk, hollow and brittle and light, to be blown by the wind where it willed.

Yet he walked down the winding trail to the sea, letting his feet take him, his mind and body drained by exhaustion.

On the rocky shingle the waves lapped gentle, gurgling endearments onto the shore. Birds, searching for a roost for the night, swung through the air toward hollows and nests in the bluff ’s pocked face, their keening night calls shrill in the stillness. The sea wind freshened, and the clouds above darkened by degrees to violet. And evening mist clung to the upper heights of the island—a shroud to discourage prying eyes. High up on the dune behind him he heard Blazer whinny, but kept his eyes on the island as if mesmerized by its presence.

Quentin walked a little way along the strand, unaware of what he was doing or where he was going. He had no thought now except to walk, to go wherever his feet would take him.

He came to a smooth, rounded form on the beach, discernible in the dying light as a dark object against a slightly less dark background. He stumbled toward it, and his mind conjured up an image of the wretch he had cut down in the road. Slowly he approached, trembling at the thought of encountering that corpse again. Drawing near, he stooped toward the thing and put out a hand. Hair!

He recoiled from the touch. Was it an animal of some sort, dead and washed up on the shore?

But beneath the hair he had felt a hardness that was not like flesh, not even dead flesh. The shape of the thing was like no animal he had ever encountered. He put out his hand again and rubbed it along the hard, bristly surface, then pushed the object. It gave against the rocks and made a hollow sound. Then he knew what it was.

Quentin bent down and grasped the lower edge of the thing and flipped it over. The ox-hide boat, constructed of a design that went back a thousand years, rocked on its keel; its oar was tied with a leather cord to a crude rail in the center of the craft, and made a thumping sound.

He grabbed the bow of the boat and shoved it over the rocks and into the sea, then clambered in while the water splashed over his boots. He took up the oar and began paddling toward the island.

Out from land the sea was quiet, the only sound the dip of the oar as it swirled the water. A deep sadness welled up from inside him. It had been there all along, but now, as tired as he was, he could no longer keep it down, and it came flooding up like a spring. He looked into the deep blue water all around, so silent, so peaceful. How restful it would be to slip over the side of the little boat and drift down and down—beyond thought, beyond pain, beyond remembering.

But the king kept paddling, and the night gathered its velvet robes around him as the land fell away behind, still outlined by the steel blue of the sky above. In a little while he felt a scrape along the bottom of the boat, and then a jolt told him that he had reached the shore of Holy Island.

Quentin heaved himself out of the boat and pulled it well up on shore, then stalked into the forest, which came right down to the water’s edge, striking along an ancient trail through the trees and bushes.

How long he walked, he did not know or care. His legs moved of a volition all their own, pacing off the steps rhythmically and slowly. There was no hurry; he had no destination. Inside, his mind, benumbed with fatigue, churned lazily, functioning ever more slowly, offering no light, no insight.

His eyes stared straight ahead but saw nothing. It was dark, too dark to see anything except the branches of the nearest trees. He listened only to his own breathing and his own heartbeat, for the island was as silent as any tomb, and as full of unseen presences.

Quentin began to feel that he, too, was but a thing of insubstantial vapors: a wraith with no corporeal existence, doomed to roam the world by night, vanishing by dawn’s light; a vague, lingering presence consigned to a shadow-world where only shades walked, each wrapped in a private torment, alone and uncomforted for all eternity.

The moon rose in the trees, a cold, glowing eye that watched unkindly, shedding little light. Weariness draped itself over his shoulders like a leaden garment, awakening in Quentin a dull ache that throbbed through him with every step.

I must rest, he thought. I must stop soon and rest. I am tired. So tired. But he went on, not knowing where.

After a time he came to a place where the trees stopped, and ahead, shining with the moon’s silver light, spread a lawn that swept in a gentle downward curve to meet a lake. Where the lawn and water met there was formed an arcing crescent—a shimmering moon to mirror the heavenly orb.

Quentin marched down to the edge of the lake and stopped, staring across the glass-smooth surface. Here and there the water winked with the reflected light of a star. Quentin looked down into the water and saw only a forlorn and haggard face peering back at him.

A willow tree grew near the water; long, sweeping branches dipped down and limply, lightly brushed the surface of the lake. The leaves on the branches formed teardrops that fell in never-ending cascades into the lake, watering it as a fountain of sorrow.

Quentin went to the old willow and slumped down beneath the trailing limbs. It was dry here, and dark. He rested his head against the rough, knotted trunk and pulled his cloak more tightly around him.

Sleep claimed him then for its own. He did not feel his eyes closing, or mark his passing into sleep’s dark dominion. To Quentin it was all the same.

17

Although the castle sounds had hours ago taken on subdued night voices, and the funeral party would leave early in the morning for the burial site in Pelgrin Forest, Toli was still awake. He lay on his bed, hands clasped behind his head, gazing upward at the flickering shadow of his bedpost on the wall above him. His mind returned once and again to the painful confrontation with Quentin that morning. He heard again the stinging words, “You are to blame . . . It is your fault!” Like a lash that bit into the flesh, the words tortured him, and he could not escape their fierce judgment. In the midst of his anguish, he heard a knock at his chamber’s outer door, muted but distinct.

He rose, went silently to the door, and opened it, “Yes, yes. Who—? Esme!” He covered his surprise and opened the door wider to let her in.

“Toli, I . . . ,” she began, her eyes pleading. “It is Bria.”

She backed away, pulling Toli out into the corridor.

“What has happened? What is wrong?”

“She stands out on the bartizan and will not come in. She stares as if transfixed. I do not know what to do, or how to move her.”

They hurried quietly along the wide passage to the royal chambers, their shadows flitting beside them over the rough walls. “How long has she been out there?” he asked.

“When I brought her supper, she was standing there and told me to leave it, and when I came back a little while ago to see her asleep, her bed was unturned and her food untouched.”

Toli nodded but said nothing until they reached the royal apartments; Esme opened the door and went in quietly, Toli following. They passed through several rooms and came out onto the balcony where Bria stood motionless as carved stone, staring out into the moon-drenched night.

Toli took one long look and then turned to Esme. “Go and find Alinea,” he said softly. “It may be that she can be of some help here.”

With a nod Esme left. Toli turned and went out on the bartizan. The night was cool and still; crickets chirped among the vines that grew up along the walls.

“My lady,” he said gently, “it is very late, and we have much to do tomorrow.”

The queen did not move or make a sign that she had heard or even noticed Toli’s presence. It was as if she were under a sorcerer’s spell and could be touched by nothing of the world around her.

Toli reached out a hand and took her arm. It was cool to the touch, and though she did not resist, she also did not move. “My lady,” Toli insisted, “you must rest.”

There was a brushing tread on the stone of the balcony, and Alinea, with a shawl over her arm, approached. “Bria, my dear, it is your mother.” She took the shawl and placed it over her daughter’s shoulders, speaking in soothing tones. “Come away, my darling.”

Alinea glanced at Toli and Esme. Toli stepped aside and motioned for Esme to follow him. The two retreated to an inner chamber.

When they were alone, Alinea put her arms around her daughter and held her. “Dear Bria,” she sighed, “I can only wonder what you must feel.”

A shudder passed through the younger woman’s body. Alinea continued in soothing tones to reassure her. At length there came a sigh, and Bria turned her eyes, glassy from their long vigil, toward her mother. “He is out there, Mother,” she said, her voice full of pain. “My little one, my son, my beautiful boy. He is gone. I shall never see him again. I know it. I . . . shall nev—Oh, Mother!”

At once the tears welled up and began rolling down her fair cheeks. She buried her face in her hands. Alinea pulled her daughter tightly to her and stroked Bria’s auburn tresses.

In the chamber beyond, Toli and Esme heard the long, agonized sobs and turned away, embarrassed. They crept softly to the corridor to wait.

The silence between them grew awkward; neither one could speak, though both knew that someone should. Esme glanced tentatively at Toli; he looked back. She dropped her eyes. He turned away.

At last the silence became unendurable. Toli opened his mouth and stammered, “Esme, I . . . I—”

The door beside them opened, and Alinea appeared. Her deep green eyes reflected the depths of her sorrow, but her voice was calm and comforting. “She will sleep now, I think,” she said simply, having accomplished what only a mother could. “You two must rest also. These next days will be difficult for us all.”

“Thank you, my lady,” said Esme. “I am sorry—”

“Shh. Say no more. I will look in again before morning, but I am certain she will sleep soundly.”

“Good night,” said Toli, and turned away at once. The two women watched him go.

“That one bears the full weight of care on his shoulders,” said Alinea. “I wish Quentin were here—he would know how to deal with him. No one else can give him counsel.”

Esme did not speak, but turned mournful eyes toward the Queen Dowager.

“So much hurt in this world,” Alinea continued. “How fragile our happiness. When it is gone, it seems as if it never was and is never to be regained. But all things move under heaven according to the Most High’s will. Nothing happens that he does not see.”

“Where is the comfort in that?” asked Esme, her voice filled with dismay. “Oh, this Most High of yours—I will never understand him.”

Alinea looked kindly at the woman beside her. She gathered Esme under her arm much as she had done with Bria a few moments before, and led her along the corridor back to her rooms. “Ah, Esme, I thought I would never understand either. But Durwin would tell me, ‘Understanding comes through faith, not the other way around.’ I used to puzzle over that endlessly.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means that there are so many things about the Most High which faith alone can see. I have learned that all the reasons and all the thought in all the world still cannot bring one closer to belief. Belief must come from the heart.”

Esme shook her head slowly. They had reached her chamber door; she turned to face Alinea, taking her hands. “This god is very different from any I know. The others require neither faith nor understanding, but are content with presents and oblations. It is much simpler.”

Alinea smiled. “Yes, the old gods are simpler. But they do not care what happens to men. They do as they will. But the Most High cares very much—more than you could ever know.”

“That, at least,” said Esme as she turned to go in, “is something worth believing. Good night, my lady. Thank you for your words. Good night.”

Under the night’s dark veil, the travelers moved with quick stealth. They kept to the road as much as possible, pushing eastward, avoiding the villages along the way, giving them wide berth in order to escape detection.

Prince Gerin trudged along with his head down, though he remained alert to any possibility of escape. He had overheard one of his guards say that by morning they would reach their destination. If he was going to escape, he reasoned, it would be best to try sooner rather than later.

He had thought about little else all day, having grown tired of waiting for someone to come to rescue him. Why don’t they come? he wondered. What can be keeping them? They must be looking for me. They must certainly know where I have gone. Perhaps they cannot find me. Yes, that is it! Oh, this old Longbeard is a crafty one. He has so muddled our trail that no one can find me. Yes, I must escape. Tonight.

It was settled in his mind. As soon as the attention of his guards— one standing at either side of him, and another leading his pony— wavered, or their grip slackened, he would be off. They could not catch him; he would outrun them once on horseback. That was his plan. Now he waited for his opportunity.

It came when they arrived at a crossroads. One road angled away to the north, toward the small village along the Arvin. The other led on, rising gradually as it proceeded eastward toward the Fiskill Mountains. The town of Narramoor lay straight ahead; a little farther to the east and north stood the High Temple on its plateau overlooking the valley and all the realm beyond.

They paused. “We will go around the town to the south,” said Nimrood, “and then to the temple.”

“But there is a shorter way, to the north,” protested one of the guards. Others nodded.

“Yes, shorter,” Nimrood hissed, “and more prying eyes to see us pass by.”

“We know a path—,” started the guard.

“Silence!” rasped Nimrood. He took a menacing step forward. “We will do as I say!” He thrust a finger in the man’s face. “I am your master!”

The man stepped backward, tripped, and fell over a stone in the road. The other guards watched him, their attention momentarily diverted.

That was all Prince Gerin needed. Quick as the flick of a cat’s tail he leaped into the saddle and snatched the reins out of the startled guard’s hands, wheeled Tarky around, and started away.

“Stop him!” screamed Nimrood. “Stop him, you fools!”

Instantly the temple guards snapped to attention. The two nearest dived for him, but the horse dodged away; they landed with a grunt in the road. Another darted toward him from the side. Gerin lashed out with the reins. The man yelled and threw his hands over his face.

“You fools!” screeched Nimrood. “He is getting away!”

The young prince leaned down low in the saddle and kicked the horse in the ribs, urging him to speed. The guards dashed after him on either side, their dark shapes little more than shadows. The horse caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and shied, throwing his rump in the air. It was all Gerin could do to hold on. The guards now ringed them in, waving their hands and shouting, hoping to spook the animal.

The frightened horse bolted and bucked, tossing his head wildly. Gerin clung to the pony’s mane, pressing his legs together, fighting to remain in the saddle. The horse neighed with fright and reared, kicking up his hooves at the dancing shapes around him.

Then Gerin saw an opening. Pulling the reins aside with all his might, he turned his steed toward the break in the ring. The horse saw the opportunity, too, and dashed for it instantly.

The next thing Gerin knew, the stars and moon were spinning crazily before him; he felt himself falling, sliding, tipping back over the rump of the horse. Then the ground came up hard and knocked the wind out of him.

He lay like a sack of grain tumbled into the road, unable to breathe. Rough hands took hold of him, hauled him to his feet, and shook him; breath poured into his lungs.

He peered around dazedly and saw Tarky bounding away riderless down the road, two guards scurrying after him. Had there been a flash of light? A noise? The sound of thunder still rang in his ears.

What was it that had so suddenly appeared in his path? What had caused the horse to rear and throw him? He remembered seeing the old man raise his hand high above his head . . . then the earth and sky changed places—by what force or power, the boy did not know. Blazing violet balls of light bobbled before his eyes; he shook his head, but they remained, fading away only slowly.

“The youngster has spirit,” intoned Nimrood. “But it must be bent to our purposes. Young sir, if you wish to remain alive and whole, you will abandon any further notions of escape.” Nimrood leaned close, his vile breath hot in the prince’s face. “Otherwise, when they come for you, they will find nothing worth the ransom.”

A guard came up, panting. “That cursed beast is gone; we cannot catch him.”

“Idiots! Another mistake!” With slits of eyes glittering cruelly, the old man glared around at the chagrined faces encircling him, his long white beard glowing in the moonlight like a frozen waterfall. “The high priest will hear of your incompetence. I am certain he will devise a punishment to suit me.”

Nimrood turned abruptly and started off once more. The guards stood still and watched him. “Bring him.” The voice was flat and hard. The guards fell over themselves to obey. Prince Gerin was jerked by the arms and dragged along, his feet barely touching the ground, as they continued on their way.

18

Apale moon poured molten silver into the bowl of the lake. The water shone hard and black like glass smoked in a fire, and the willow’s teardrop leaves pearled with dew. Above, the sable sky held sparks of diamond stars, tips of light as cold and sharp as ice.

Quentin awoke with a start out of a stony sleep and stared uncomprehendingly around him. Where am I? he wondered. How have I come to be here?

Then he remembered rowing to the island and walking and walking, then sinking into sleep. Though his mind was a jumble of half-formed thoughts and fragments of unfinished dreams, waking in this place, he felt strangely certain that he had been drawn here, summoned, and then awakened at the proper moment by the same force that had brought him.

His senses pricked. The place seemed alive with the presence of gods; if he listened very carefully, he could almost hear the murmur of their spirit-voices calling to one another as they plied night’s distant shores.

Quentin felt the nearness of these beings, and his blood quickened. The gods had gathered close about; they watched from every shadow as from behind velvet curtains, and Quentin imagined their dispassionate eyes upon him.

He rose, stiff from exertion, wrapped his arms across his chest, and gazed out across the lake. Mist rose like steam from the still water to thicken and drift in curling tendrils toward the crescent lawn like searching fingers. Quentin stepped to the water’s edge and waited. The ghostly white mist seeped and flowed and eddied on unseen currents in the air, spreading ever nearer. He waited, stomach taut, the night chill stinging his flesh, the sense of expectancy almost overpowering. Blood pulsed rapidly through his veins; he could hear it drumming rhythmically in his ears. All around lay deathly silent.

Quentin stood at the edge of the silver lake and watched as the shifting vapors erected lacework walls over the mirrored surface. As he gazed out over the water, the mist rolled and parted and there emerged a dark shape drifting slowly toward him across the lake. Quentin saw that it was a small boat gliding silently from the wreathing vapors.

No oarsman rowed the vessel; no pilot steered. Wide of hull and low in the water, it drew nearer and came at last to rest at the king’s feet, bumping softly against the grass-covered bank.

He lifted his foot cautiously and stepped into the mysterious craft—as if he thought that it might vanish into the mist once more. But the boat proved solid enough, and Quentin sat down amidships. Then, just as silently and mysteriously as before, the ghostly vessel floated away from the shore, bearing him back across the lake the way it had come.

Sitting stiffly on the wooden bench, Quentin watched as his ship entered the encircling mist. The solid world faded from view, and he was swallowed whole into a netherworld of cloud and insubstantial vapor. He might have been floating or flying, so softly and gently did the boat ride. Not a ripple marked their passage. Straining eyes and ears into the void, he saw and heard nothing.

After a time the mist thinned and parted, and the little craft drifted out into a shallow lagoon rimmed with the massive slabs of great standing stones.

There was some magic in this place; Quentin could feel it now, tingling over him, licking at his face and limbs with subtle fire.

Then he saw the figure.

Before him at the water’s edge stood a man clothed in a long white mantle that glowed in the moon’s radiant beams. He beckoned to Quentin to follow, and as the boat touched shore, Quentin stepped out and hastened after the figure.

They moved across the lawn to the giant stones, passing between them into a circle of smaller stones, many of them leaning or fallen. These stones, like others Quentin had seen in Mensandor, had once stood one upon another in rings at the worship sites of the ancients. The rings were erected in places of power where gods were said to touch the earth.

As they entered this sacred circle of stone, Quentin saw a fire burning brightly and meat roasting on spits. The white-clothed figure sat down on one of the tumbled stones that had grown thick with green moss and white-flecked lichen. The man smiled warmly and gestured for Quentin to sit. Though no words had passed between them, Quentin felt welcomed and unafraid. He watched while the man tended the spits.

The stranger was tall, his body well formed and fit, his features broad, but not coarse or heavy. There was strength in the cut of his jaw and chin. His long, dark hair swept back and was bound in a thong at the back of his head, in the manner of prophets or seers. The man’s eyes were dark, quick firebrands that sparkled in the light of the campfire as he adjusted the roasting meat on the fire with his strong hands.

The fire cracked and ticked, throwing grotesque shadows over the standing stones. A thousand questions boiled in Quentin’s mind, but he remained silent. No word seemed appropriate for this place. So he sat in the warm circle of light and waited.

At last the stranger reached for a nearby jug and poured from it into a wooden cup that he offered to Quentin. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes!” replied Quentin, startled that the man should speak.

“Good.” He laughed, the sound deep and resonant—an earth sound, the sound of forest and hill and streams rolling to the sea.

Quentin laughed too, caught up in the delight of that voice.

“I thought you might be hungry, so I made you something to eat,” explained the mysterious host. “It has been a long journey, and you have ridden far.”

“How did you know?”

His host only smiled and replied, “I know a great many things about you.”

There was something familiar, hauntingly familiar, about the man; his voice and manner Quentin was certain he had known before. But where? The memory eluded him. “There are many who might make a similar claim,” said Quentin. “My name is well enough known.”

“Well said,” replied the man. Mirth danced in his eyes. “You are the Dragon King of Mensandor, and truly many men know your name. But I know a good deal more.”

“Please continue,” said Quentin. Who was this man?

“I know that you are an honorable man whose friends are many. And that you recently lost a friend, one very dear to you. I also know that you stand in danger of losing another even dearer.”

“Is that all?”

“It is enough for now, I think. Here, the meat is ready.” He handed Quentin one of the skewers and kept one, took up his wooden cup, and drank.

Quentin drank too, and thought he had never tasted water so fresh and good. He pulled a piece of meat from the spit and ate it, all the while watching the stranger beside him. “What is your name?” he asked.

“Call me your friend, for friend I am.”

“Friend? Nothing more?”

“What more is needed?”

Quentin ate his food thoughtfully. Who was this friend? And why did he seem so familiar? He drank again and asked, “Where am I? What is this place?”

The man did not answer, but instead asked a question of his own. “You see these stones?”

Quentin nodded.

“They were erected and stood for many hundreds of years. But now they lie abandoned and overgrown. The gods in whose honor they were raised come no more to this place. Why do you think that is?”

Quentin considered this for a moment and then replied, “Could it be that the old gods are dying, or that they never existed in the first place? There are those who say a new era has come upon us, and a new god is making himself known.”

“What do you say?”

“I believe,” Quentin said slowly, choosing his words carefully, “I believe that times change, yes, and new eras are born, but there is only one god who is God of all. Whether other gods exist or never did, I cannot say.”

“Strange words from an acolyte,” said the stranger. His smile was elusive and suggested he held some greater secret to himself.

But Quentin was stunned—it had been a long time since he had been called an acolyte. He had nearly forgotten that he ever served in the temple at all; that seemed long ago. “I was but a boy,” he replied.

“Times change, as you say. But old ways die hard, do they not?”

Quentin said nothing. The man looked around the ring of fallen stones. “Why do you suppose men honor their gods with stone?”

“Stone endures,” said Quentin.

“Yes, but as you see, even stone falls in the end. What is it that endures after stone has crumbled to dust?”

Quentin recognized this question as one that his old teacher Yeseph, the elder of Dekra, had asked him as a pupil many years ago. Old Yeseph, dead now and buried years before. “Man’s spirit endures,” said Quentin. That had been the answer Yeseph had sought.

“And love endures,” the man said simply. “Would it not make more sense to honor the god with love instead of temples made of stone?”

Again a pang of guilt arrowed the king. Who was this man?

“Quentin,” he said softly, “do not be afraid.”

“I am not—,” began Quentin. The man raised a hand and cut him off.

“And do not give yourself to despair. Your enemies seek to humble you, to mock the god you serve. Trust in the Most High, and he will raise you up.”

The man stood and smiled again. “The boat will take you back across the water.”

Quentin jumped up. “Do not go! Please—”

“I must. My time here is finished. I wanted to see you just one more time, to say farewell.”

“No!” cried Quentin, throwing himself to his knees. “Stay with me. I would hear more!”

“It is not to be. But never fear, we will be together again. I am certain of it.” The man smiled his gentle smile and laid a hand on Quentin’s head.

Quentin felt a rush of warmth flood through him at the touch. The panic that had come upon him ceased.

“Before, I did not get the chance to say good-bye as I would have wished.” The man raised Quentin to his feet and wrapped him in a hug. After a moment, clasping his friend’s shoulders with both hands, he held the king back at arm’s length and said, “Good-bye, my friend.”

“Good-bye,” said Quentin. He stood and watched as the man turned and walked toward the wood, passing between two great slabs of stone as through a doorway.

The mist rolled up and removed him from Quentin’s sight, and he was gone.

19

The funeral procession left at dawn and rode through the quiet streets of Askelon, bearing the body of the beloved hermit on a black-draped bier drawn by two of Toli’s finest white horses. It went to the north, where Pelgrin Forest met the plain at its closest point to the castle, a distance of about a league.

The day was fair and warm, the sun rosy-gold in the treetops as it climbed into heaven’s great bowl of cloud-scrubbed blue. The air, soft and still, held the sweetness of wildflowers that grew in haphazard clusters across the tableland—pink and yellow sunlilies, buttercups and bluebuttons, white laceleaves and tiny purple lady’s slippers.

Toli rode Riv and led the bier; Esme and Bria followed, and Alinea came in a coach with Princess Brianna on one side of her and Princess Elena on the other. Nearly threescore mourners made up the cortege— lords and ladies, knights, squires, household servants, and townspeople— all friends of the hermit, for he welcomed every man, whether of high position or of meaner birth, as friend.

And though their errand was a sad one, the day was so bright and the feeling of life so intense that it was not possible for any of the mourners to remain genuinely sorrowful.

“How strange it is,” remarked Bria, thinking about this very thing. “Today I feel newly cleansed. As if the past days have been an unhappy dream that vanished with the dawn.”

“Yes,” agreed Esme. “I feel the same way. And yet, I have not changed—the whole world seems to be newborn.”

They continued to talk this way, and behind them in the coach, the little princesses plied their grandmother with questions. Princess Elena had never attended a funeral, and Princess Brianna only one—that of Yeseph; but she had been a baby less than a year old and did not remember it.

“Grandmother, what will happen to Durwin?”

“Nothing bad, my child. His body will rest now in the earth,” Alinea answered.

“But won’t he get cold?” piped Elena.

“No, never again.”

“I know what will happen,” said Brianna importantly. “He will turn into bones!”

“How awful!” cried little Elena, her eyes sparkling at the mystery of it. “Will I turn into bones, too?”

“Not for a very long time, my dear one. But someday, yes. Everyone dies, and their bodies turn into bones and dust.”

“I do not think I shall like it,” said Elena, growing pensive.

“I will!” announced Brianna, determined to make the best of any situation.

“I do not believe you will even know what has happened, nor will you care. You will begin a wonderful new life somewhere else.”

“Where? Oh, tell us about it, Grandmother,” they said.

“Very well. There is a great kingdom far away—the kingdom of the Most High. When you die, you will go there and live with him. It is a wondrous place and more beautiful than anything you have ever seen. You will leave your body—you will not need it anymore, because you will have a new body—and go and live in happiness forever.”

“Is that where Durwin has gone?”

“Yes, that is where he has gone—to be with the Most High.”

“Will we see Durwin again when we get there?” asked Elena.

“Of course. He will be waiting for us.”

“And Grandfather Eskevar, too?” Brianna wanted to know.

“Yes, Eskevar too.” Alinea smiled. The children were so trusting, so innocent and unsuspicious. They believed what she told them without needing proofs or assurances. Theirs was a most simple and indulgent faith, with room for many questions but little doubt.

“Oh,” said Brianna matter-of-factly, “I shall go at once then. I should love to see Grandfather.”

“It would make us sad if you went right away, dear one,” replied Alinea, smoothing the girl’s hair. “For then we would not see you anymore. Stay with me a little while longer, please.”

“Very well,” agreed Brianna, “I will. I would not like to leave you, Grandmother.” She snuggled in closer.

Of all who traveled in that party, only Toli did not feel the wonder of the day. He rode silently, eyes ahead, unseeing, his mind concentrating on affairs that ripped at his heart and made him want to cry out in agony. I have failed Quentin. I have disgraced myself and brought ruin upon the king. He was right; it was all my fault. My fault alone. Yes, Durwin’s blood is on my head. I am responsible—I should never have left them alone. If I had been there, Durwin would still be alive, and the prince would be safe. None of this would ever have happened. I failed in my duty and am no longer worthy to be called a servant. I must make it right, even if it costs my life. My life—what good is it to me now?

They reached the site and brought the bier to the grave that had been prepared the day before. It was just a little way inside the forest, on the bank overlooking a shaded pool—the pool in which Durwin had waded many times gathering his healing plants.

Alinea had chosen the spot, remembering how he had loved to come here to wade, or just to sit and contemplate. Many times she had found him stretched out on the bank and sat with him as he talked about this or that herb, or shared his musings about the Most High.

“Quentin should be here,” said Bria, “and Gerin. How they both loved Durwin. I wish they were here.” She was quite over her trauma of the night before; in fact, she did not really remember it as having happened to her. It belonged to the dream, the bad dream she had left behind with the new day.

“They will come here soon. I am certain.” Esme watched her friend closely, looking for any sign of the malady that had stricken Bria.

Bria caught her scrutiny and said, “I am much better now.” She paused and then glanced toward the grave. “It is just that it does not seem right without Quentin here.”

“He would be here if he could; you know that. Quentin’s first duty is to find the prince and bring him back safely. The king cannot rest until his son and heir is safe.”

“You are right.” She paused and added, “But look at Toli. It tears at my heart to see him like this.”

Esme observed the slim, silent Jher and nodded sadly. It touched her deeply, too. She wished nothing more than to be able to go to Toli and comfort him; and she would have, but for fear of Toli’s rejection.

For his part, Toli had told no one but Theido of Quentin’s harsh words. Those had been his due; he had deserved them. He signaled to several of the lords and knights in attendance, and they moved to the bier. Laying hold of the long plank on which the body rested, they lifted it to their shoulders. Bria and Esme went to the litter too, and Alinea; they took up bouquets of flowers that had been placed on the funeral wain early that morning and followed the body to the grave.

The men lowered the hermit’s body into the hole dug in the rich, black dirt. Sunlight filled the hole and fell on the pallid face. He seemed to be at rest, content. But he was not now the same Durwin they had known; he had changed. In death he appeared so much less himself that it was impossible for any of the mourners to look upon him now and say, “This is the man we knew in life.”

Durwin—the true essence of the man they had loved—was gone. He had left only a worthless husk behind.

Alinea went to the graveside and knelt to place her flowers by him in the ground. Bria joined her, and Esme. Toli stood silently over the open pit and watched, his eyes hard as polished stone.

Others came to the grave, too, and paused briefly to pay final honor to the man. Here and there a tear sparkled in an eye, but there was no sobbing, no wailing, no evidence of unendurable grief common at so many funerals. All who had come knew that this interment was different: this was the burial of one of the Most High’s trusted servants. And no one who looked upon the body in the grave felt that the man had ceased. The presence of his spirit was strong among them. It would be wrong to regard the holy hermit of Pelgrin Forest as having fallen into shadowy nonexistence in the underworld of the gods. Even those who had never heard of the Most High or his great and wonderful kingdom believed that Durwin had gone to a far different, far better place.

Inwardly, all who saw him in his grave wished that their own deaths could be so: assured, dignified, and peaceful. And many believed from that day forth that Durwin was right about the Most High, for they, too, wanted to go where he had gone.

When at last all had paid their respects to the body—Princess Brianna and Princess Elena being the last to lay flowers in the grave— Toli and five knights shoveled dirt into the hole; then, one by one, the mourners took up stones and placed them on the tomb.

“Quentin would have wanted him buried in the Ring of the Kings,” observed Bria as she watched the stones being placed over the grave. “But this is better, more fitting.”

“I agree,” replied Alinea. “Here among the trees he loved, where wild things lived . . . This is where he belongs.”

They turned then and made their way back to the castle, leaving any lingering sadness behind—all except Toli. He stayed when everyone else had gone and stood unmoving over the grave for a long time. Then, at last, he mounted Riv and left. But he did not ride back to Askelon Castle with the others.

“Where is Toli?” asked Esme as she swiveled in the saddle, looking for him. But he was not among those who followed.

“Strange,” said Bria. She craned her neck around too. “I do not see him anywhere. I thought he had come with the others.”

Esme turned her eyes back toward the grave site, but there was nothing to be seen. Toli had vanished.

20

The prince . . . here? By the gods’ beards! It is a mistake. You have implicated the High Temple in your schemes. I will not have it! I will not have it!”

High Priest Pluell raved and tore at his hair as he paced back and forth in his chamber. Nimrood sat with hooded eyes, watching Pluell vent his anger, but saying nothing.

The high priest came to stand in front of the white-bearded old man, hands on hips. “The temple is in danger now because of you. This was not in our agreement. You never said anything about kidnapping. I will not have it!”

At last Nimrood had enough. He stood, shot a withering glance at the high priest, and stalked to the door.

“Wait! What are you going to do? Where are you going?”

“I am leaving. It is plain you have lost your nerve for our little diversion. I have no use for you. Good-bye.”

“No!” shouted Pluell. “You cannot do that! What about the prince? What am I to do with him?”

“Do anything you like with him. What do I care? He might make a serviceable acolyte, though I think his father might have something to say about that.”

“Stop! Come back. You cannot leave me like this. This was never my affair!”

Nimrood stopped with his hand on the latch. “Never your affair? Ha!” He turned suddenly, his eyes darting flames. Pluell saw the change and dropped back, his mouth gaping. Nimrood advanced on him, seeming to grow in height.

“Was it my idea?”

“Who else? You are not suggesting it was mine!”

“None other’s. I merely indicated to you the danger to the temple if you did not act at once. It was your men who took the boy. It was their mistake. You are the high priest—you are responsible.”

“No! You tricked me! I told you to . . . to—”

“Exactly. You told me to do what needed to be done. We would not be here now if your stupid men had done their duty. I certainly never wanted it this way.”

“You must help me!” wailed Pluell. The shock and rage at what Nimrood had done to him subsided in the new horror of perhaps facing the outraged king alone. Why, the Dragon King would hew him limb from limb for the attack on his son! “I am sorry. I apologize. I was not thinking clearly. Stay and help me think what to do.”

Nimrood pulled on his beard. He appeared to be contemplating what should be done. Ah! he thought to himself. So easy! This pigeon is so deftly caught. He has no nerve, no backbone. He deserves his fate. But I can use him; therefore I will save him. Oh, this is working much better than I could have hoped.

“Very well, I will stay. But you must stop whimpering and do as I say. I have a plan. A very simple plan. And if all goes well, in a short while you, my pigeon priest, will hold the king in the palm of your plump hand.”

Working outward from the place where the prince was last seen, Theido and Ronsard and their search party of knights combed the forest, fanning out from that central point, probing deeper into the heart of Pelgrin. The knights rode the shaded pathways and dimly lit trails; Theido and Ronsard rode with them, meeting at prearranged spots to confer and share any news.

There was precious little news to share. No one had turned up any sign of the abductors.

“They appear to have vanished from the face of the earth,” said Ronsard when they met for their final conference of the day.

“We should have seen some sign of them by now.” Theido gazed at the sky overhead. The clouds held an orange tint as the sun spun lower in the trees. “It will be dusk soon, and too dark to search any further.”

Ronsard scanned the sky through the open patches in the leafy canopy overhead. “Blast their bones! By the god, I had hoped to strike their trail today.” He looked at Theido, whose eyes held a faraway look. “What are you thinking?”

“Nothing—it was nothing.”

Ronsard shook his head. “I know that look of yours. Out with it, Theido.”

Theido nodded slowly. “I was thinking about what Toli said regarding Quentin’s sword.”

“Now, there is a puzzle. I wonder what is behind it.”

“Nothing good, you may be sure. I was thinking just now that it portends a greater evil than the prince’s disappearance, and that is bad enough.”

Ronsard stared at his friend knowingly. “Aye, the Shining One is not to be parted with lightly. I would have thought Quentin would fight to the death before giving it up.”

“You speak my thoughts to a word. And yet, when Toli met him in the road, he did not speak of it at all. Why, I wonder.” Theido glanced at the sky once more and said, “One problem at a time, eh? We will start again at daybreak.”

“Yes, tomorrow—and that is the last good day. The signs, if they are out there, are already disappearing.”

Theido turned his horse and made to move away. “Farewell, Ronsard. I will meet you tomorrow at the same time. If we have not found the trail by then, well—just pray that we find it.”

Ronsard raised his hand in farewell and watched the tall, lean knight ride away, back along the way he had come. Theido is right, he thought. Something is at work here that bodes ill for all of us. What it is we shall find out soon enough, I’ll warrant.

He sighed and moved off through the deepening shadows to meet with his men once more before he rolled himself in his cloak to sleep. All around, the wood lay still and silent, as if contemplating the coming of the night. Ronsard felt a chill creeping out with the shadows, and with it a sinister foreboding such as he had never felt in many years. He shuddered inwardly and rode on.

“If you think it unwise, Mother, or if you would advise a better plan, please tell me.” Bria watched her mother carefully, almost breathlessly. Hers had been a sudden thought, and she had gone immediately to her mother’s apartments to share her idea.

“I do not say it is unwise,” said Alinea slowly and with great concentration. “But I do have misgivings.”

Bria frowned at the word. But her mother continued. “However, I remember another time, years ago, when Durwin counseled the same plan. Then, too, it seemed a chancy enterprise. But it was the right course, as it turned out—though even Durwin could never have guessed the outcome.” She smiled at her daughter, and Bria saw the light in her green eyes. “It seems that the destinies of Askelon and Dekra are ever intertwined. Yes, my dear, go to Dekra. I will go too.”

“Mother, do you mean it? You would go?”

“Why not? I am fit for a journey. And now that the king’s road is complete to Malmarby, the trip will be an easy one most of the way. But we must leave at once.” She glanced at her daughter quickly. “What is wrong?”

“You spoke of misgivings. What are they?”

“Just that word may come to Askelon about the prince. If you were not here to receive it . . .” Her voice trailed off.

“I see. What should I do?”

“That I cannot tell you. You must do what any mother does; you must listen to your heart.”

“Then I will go to Dekra and speak to the elders there. We have often had reason to seek their wisdom, and their prayers may be most effective.” Her eyes held her mother’s. “I do so wish that Quentin were here, though.”

“Quentin will return soon. We will leave behind a letter telling him what we propose. He would wish to stay here in any case to aid in the search.”

“What about Brianna and Elena—I fear leaving them.”

“They will come with us. Why not? They have begged to see Dekra often enough, and they will enjoy the trip. As it is, I think it would be unwise to leave them. We will take a coach and a bodyguard of knights, and travel the safer.”

Bria smiled, feeling better for having talked with her mother. “Yes, naturally you are right.”

“It will be better for us to have something to do. The waiting would weigh heavily on us, I fear. If word was long in coming . . . well, we will go. We must not think of anything but Gerin’s welfare. The elders at Dekra will be able to help.”

Bria gazed at her mother admiringly, and then threw her arms around her neck in a hug. “Oh, thank you. I knew you would say the right thing.”

Alinea patted her daughter’s back. “Poor Quentin. I pray that the waiting does not distress him overmuch. I would feel better if Toli were here. Perhaps he will soon return.”

“When should we leave?”

“Just as soon as the horses and supplies can be made ready.”

“Tomorrow morning, then. We will rest better in our own beds tonight, and leave at first light.”

Alinea nodded her assent. Bria bent and kissed her mother and then hurried away, her mind already filled with dozens of details that would require attention before they could leave. Alinea watched her go, thinking back on a time when she had planned the same journey. She smiled, nodded, and went back to her prayers.

21

Quentin gave Blazer his head and let the animal take them home. The road was easy to follow, and the horse knew the way back to Askelon. Quentin rode without knowing or caring where they went, and Blazer unerringly led them homeward.

As the way through Pelgrin merged green and leafy with the cool blue shadows, Quentin, benumbed from lack of sleep, felt himself drifting back to the strange meeting on the island.

That he had been specifically summoned to Holy Island he had no doubt. By whatever subtle magic, he was drawn to the lake and was there waiting when the boat arrived to take him to the ring of stones. Enchantment, surely. But for what purpose?

Quentin could not say. As for the man—the mysterious stranger who spoke with him, knew him, called him by name—who was he? In some inexplicable way he felt he knew that man, had known him for a long time, even though he had never met him before that hour.

Or had he?

It was as if a friend had gone on a long journey to a country far away and returned after many years vastly changed, though still basically the same person underneath, and it was the change wrought in this man that shielded his identity.

“Call me your friend,” the man had said, “for friend I am.”

I am in need of a friend, thought Quentin. Sorely in need.

He felt a loneliness take hold of him he had not felt in many years— not since, as a young acolyte in the High Temple, had he experienced the same crushing weight of utter aloneness. In his mind he traveled back to that time, and once again he was that gangly young boy clinging frightened to the mane of the mighty warhorse Balder, setting out on an errand at which he could not possibly succeed, but going anyway.

Such hope, such blindness.

Oh, to be that trusting boy again, thought Quentin. He felt the weight of years upon him, and tasted the bittersweet longing for that simpler, better time. He let himself drift off on waves of longing and loneliness.

When he came out of his reflections, he saw that the sun was lowering over the road, and also that he was leaving the forest. Upon returning from the island, he had found Blazer waiting for him on the shore. He had beached the ox-hide boat and ridden away, not stopping all day. Now he felt the ache of the road seize him in an iron grip. His head throbbed.

He rode out of the forest and down a slight hill into a broad valley. Here in this valley were the farms of peasants and small landowners— those who sold their produce in the market at Askelon. Just a little ahead, Quentin saw the wattled house of a farmer, watched the man leading his team of oxen in from the field, and his wife at the well dipping water, and decided to stop for a moment to wash the dust of the road from his throat and to rest his horse. But only for a moment, because he wanted to be in Askelon by nightfall.

“Ho there!” called Quentin as he rode into the yard scratched bare by clucking chickens. “Good day to you!” He sat and waited for the farmer to show himself.

A face appeared at a dark window—just a fleeting glimpse, and then it was gone. A moment later the farmer came around the side of the house, carrying a two-pronged wooden pitchfork in his hand.

He stared at Quentin warily, but with a certain respect. “G’day to ’ee, sir,” said the farmer. His weather-browned face scrutinized the visitor frankly. If there was a trace of distrust, it was only the normal, benign distrust all simple people held for strangers who were obviously above them. Quentin smiled at the farmer and said, “It is a hot day for traveling, but good for the crops.”

The farmer squinted his eyes up to the sky and seemed to lose himself among the clouds scudding swiftly toward the horizon. At length he rolled an eye back to Quentin and said, “Trav’lin’s oft a thirsty bi’ness.”

“Now that you mention it,” replied Quentin, “I would like a drink of water.”

“Help ’eself,” said the farmer, nodding toward the well.

Quentin slowly dismounted and walked to the well, feeling every jounce of the road in each stiff step. He settled himself on the edge of the stonework and took up the dipping gourd. He played out the braided cord, filled the gourd, and then took the brimming vessel to his horse.

Blazer, his shining white coat now dusty brown-gray, plunged his broad muzzle into the water and drank deeply. As Quentin held the gourd he noticed a movement in the doorway of the house nearby. The farmer’s wife joined her husband, and Quentin fell under sharp scrutiny. There was a mumble of whispered words behind him. He wondered what the woman was saying to her husband. When he turned around, he understood, for he saw a look of awe blossom on their ruddy features—the look that accompanied him whenever he made his way in public. It reminded him that he was the Dragon King.

He looked at them, and they bowed low, both of them, awkward and self-conscious. “Rise, my friends,” he said softly.

“I—I did not know as ’twas ’ee, Sire,” stammered the farmer. “I be yer ’umble servant.”

Quentin patted his dusty clothes. “How could you know, good man?” Little puffs of dust accompanied each pat. “I look more a highwayman than a king.”

The farmer’s rawboned wife nudged her man with an elbow, and he jumped forward at once and took the gourd. “’Low me, Sire.”

Quentin was about to protest, but thought better of it and allowed the man his pleasure, knowing that for years to come the farmer would tell his friends and relatives of the day he had watered the king’s horse.

Sitting on the edge of the well once more, Quentin turned his eyes to the house and noted its rude construction. Though it was a most simple structure, made from the cheapest materials—mud daubed over woven sticks on a timber frame and topped with a roof of thatch—it was clean, and all was orderly in the yard. It was identical to any number of households that stretched from one end of Mensandor to the other—from Wilderby to Woodsend.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a quick flick of a shadow as it darted and disappeared around the corner of the house. He watched the spot for a moment and was rewarded by seeing a pair of wide, dark eyes and a pale forehead poke around the edge of the house once more.

Quentin smiled and raised his hand, beckoning to the owner of those eyes to come out and join him. Presently, a grubby young boy stepped hesitantly around the corner, keeping his back pressed against the house, inching toward the stranger with the shyness of a wild creature of the forest. The dark-eyed youngster was dressed in a long, hand-me-down tunic resewn for him, no doubt, from one of his father’s. The edges of this garment were frazzled and frayed, and the threads blew in the breeze like tassels. He stared at the newcomer with open curiosity and admiration—as much for the great warhorse drinking from the gourd his father held as for the horse’s rider.

“Come here, boy.”

The lad’s mother rushed over to him and wiped his face with her dirty apron, rubbing spittle on his cheeks and chin. When the youth was presentable, she pushed him forward. The boy resisted, bashful before the king.

Quentin nodded and smiled. The boy was a little older than Prince Gerin, and though of more slender build, he had the same unruly, dark brown hair.

“It is the king!” his mother whispered harshly in his ear. “Show yer manners!”

Whether the youth understood who it was that waited for him or not, in his eyes it did not greatly matter. Anyone who rode a steed such as the one that stood in the yard before him qualified as royalty in his young opinion.

His mother prodded him to stand before Quentin, where he gazed at his unshod feet and drew lines in the dirt with his toe. Quentin put his hands on his slim shoulders. “What is your name, lad?”

The answer was some moments in coming. “Renny, Sire.” The voice was scarcely audible.

“Renny, I have a boy just like you,” said Quentin. A knife sliced his heart with the words, for again he remembered that his son was gone. “His name is Gerin,” he continued, forcing a smile, “and he is about your age.”

“Does he have a horse?” asked Renny.

“No,” replied Quentin. It was true, for although Gerin could well choose any horse in the king’s stable to ride, he did not have one of his own. “But he likes to ride. Do you like to ride?”

The youngster’s face suddenly saddened. “I—I’ve ne’er been on a horse, Sire.” The awful truth was out, and the boy felt better for it, for he brightened instantly and announced, “But when I get big, I’ll have a horse, an’ I’ll be a knight!”

Quentin chuckled at the certainty in the young voice. “I am sure you shall!” he agreed. Then he added, “Would you like to ride a horse?”

The dark eyes went wide and rolled toward the nearest parent for approval. “’Tis all ’ee’s ever wanted t’ do,” said the farmer. “’Tis all ’ee talks of.”

“Then today you shall have your wish, brave sir!” said Quentin. He led the youngster by the hand over to where Blazer stood quietly. The horse seemed to grow in size as they approached, and Quentin felt Renny’s hand grip his tightly. “This one is a well-trained mount. He will not harm his rider.”

With that assurance, Quentin picked the boy up and put him in the saddle. The boy wore a dazed expression, unable to fathom his immediate good fortune or sort out the innumerable sensations assailing him in this miraculous instant.

The king handed him the reins and placed them just so in his hands. Then, when Renny was situated, Quentin took Blazer’s bridle and began leading him around the yard. The farmer and his wife stood together, clutching each other, beaming happily as they watched their son ride the king’s own stallion.

Quentin, too, felt their joy, and he laughed out loud. It felt good to laugh, and so easy. He had begun to think he would never laugh again.

Renny, for his part, celebrated the occasion with all the solemn pomp his young frame could muster. He sat rigid in the saddle, his back straight as any lance, eyes level, shoulders square: the very picture of a knight riding into battle, full of courage, the victory sure, the foe all but vanquished.

Then Quentin showed the boy how to pull the reins to one side or the other to make the horse turn, how to make him stop and go. Renny took in this information gravely, studiously.

“Do you think you can remember all that?”

“Aye.” The boy nodded.

“Then he is yours to lead. Ride him, young master.”

Quentin stepped away from the horse, and Renny threw a half-worried, half-exultant look to his parents, kicked his heels gently into Blazer’s flanks, lifted the reins, and began to ride the horse around the yard.

Blazer, champion of battle, high-spirited and fleet as the wind over the plain, behaved as docilely as any plow horse. He stepped lightly around the yard, circling the three spectators, tossing his head and snorting now and then, to the delight of all.

When the ride was over at last, Blazer came to stand before his master. Before Quentin could reach up a hand, Renny threw his leg over the pommel and slid from the saddle as expertly as any knight. He wore a look of dazzled triumph that seemed to say, I have ridden the king’s horse! I will be a knight!

“Well done, lad!” shouted Quentin, clapping the boy on the back. “Well done!”

Renny’s parents ran forward to embrace him, as pleased for his good fortune as if it had been their own dream’s fulfillment. Quentin was moved by this spectacle of love between the members of this simple family. His heart went out to them.

“Thank ’ee, Sire,” said the farmer’s wife. She grabbed his hand and kissed it.

“This be a proud day, Sire,” crowed the farmer. There were tears of joy sparkling at the corners of his eyes. “Me son astride the king’s charger . . .” There were no more words to describe the pride he felt.

“Please, it is but a little thing,” replied Quentin. “I was happy to do it.”

“You must stay t’ supper, m’lord,” said the woman. Then she blinked in amazement, realizing what she had said. She had just invited the king to supper! In her kitchen! Oh, my!

Quentin began to make his apology, but stopped and turned toward the road. The shadows of evening were stretching across the land. The sun had grown into a great blazing red fireball as it touched the far horizon. He was tired, and the thought of climbing back into the saddle and riding on to Askelon seemed repugnant at the moment.

“Madam,” said Quentin, as he would address any noble’s wife, “I would be honored to partake of an evening meal with you.”

At once her eyes grew round and her jaw dropped; she turned to look at her husband, who merely peered back at her with the same expression of absolute astonishment. Then she gathered her skirts and dashed for the house to begin preparing the meal. Quentin smiled to see her go.

“M’lord,” said the farmer when she had gone, “’low me t’look after yer steed. ’Ee must be hungry after a long day’s trav’lin’.”

“Thank you, that would be most kind.”

The farmer led Blazer away to the small barn set alongside the house at the back. The horse, sensing food was close, picked up his hooves and fairly pranced away. Little Renny watched him go, his eyes sparkling like stars. He had relived his momentous ride a hundred times already in his mind.

Quentin sat back on the edge of the well, folding his arms across his chest. Perhaps he should not have accepted the invitation; maybe he should not delay on the road. Ah, but he could not go back on his acceptance now. Furthermore, he could leave before dawn and be in Askelon early in the morning, and he could use the rest. Here, perhaps, he could forget his troubles for an hour, eat and sleep, forget.

“Why are you sad?” chirped a young voice beside him.

Quentin stirred himself and looked up to see Renny studying him carefully. “I was just thinking, lad.”

“Thinking about your own little boy? He’s the prince!” Renny informed him.

“I suppose I was. Yes, he is the prince—”

“And you’re out searching for him,” said Renny, finishing his thought. “Bad men took him away, and we must all keep our eyes an’ ears open so’s to see or hear ’bout him.”

Quentin smiled sadly. Bad news does fly with eagle’s wings, he thought. Yes, they all know what has happened. All of Mensandor would know by now. His grief was not as private as he supposed. Nothing about him was private anymore. The Dragon King’s life was gossip, legend, and song to them.

What would they all think when they learned he had lost the flaming sword, Zhaligkeer, the Shining One, symbol of his authority and divine appointment? What would they say of him then?

“Don’t ’ee worry, Sire,” said the boy. “’Ee’ll find the prince! ’Ee’re the Dragon King! ’Ee can do anything!”

“Yes,” replied Quentin, ruffling the boy’s dark hair absently, “we’ll find him.” Please, let us find him!

When the farmer returned from tending to Blazer, he came to stand before the king, not daring to break in on his thoughts by speaking. He just stood there silently and waited. There came a call from the house, and when Quentin did not stir, the farmer announced, “M’lord, supper’s set’n.”

The evening sky glimmered with the sunset; the soft, white clouds were tinted with pink and orange. Crickets sang in the grass at the edge of the road, and swallows skipped and darted in the blue air.

The world seemed poised on a fine silken thread, perfectly balanced between night and day. Quentin sighed and stood. The thread snapped, and the world rolled on toward night.

They walked quietly to the house, dipped their hands into a basin sitting on a stool near the door, and then went in to their supper.

22

Deep in Pelgrin’s green heart, Toli paused beside a spring that trickled out from a hillock of white stone into a crystalline pool. He slid from the saddle and led Riv to drink, then knelt down himself and cupped water to his lips. The westering sun tinted the sky with evening colors of dusty gold and pale violet, flaming the woodland greens and burnishing the boles of towering chestnut and hawthorn with a gleam like bronze.

Soon night would cover the forest with her dark wing, and he would have to find a sheltered hollow or a dry thicket for the night. But something drew him on, tugged at him gently, urging him to go just a little farther.

Do not stop, it whispered in the boughs around him as the evening breezes stirred the green-gold leaves. Ride on.

So after a last drink from the pool, Toli heaved himself back into the saddle and pushed on, sending his senses ahead of him to sift the air for a clue—a sound, a flicker or color, a scent borne on the air— anything that would tell him what had pricked his instincts and was drawing him forward.

It has been too long since I was in the wild, he reflected. My skills have grown dull. Now, when I need them most, how will I find the prince?

He rode along, bending his trail here and there through the wood, straining into the gathering twilight. He stopped, held his breath . . . What was that?

Nothing. He lifted his hands to send Riv forward once more, then hesitated.

There it was again: a soft chirrup, faint as the whirr of insect wings on the breeze. Toli waited for it to come again, and when it did, he knew beyond all doubt what it was.

How long has it been since I have heard that sound? he wondered. Then, placing his hand at the side of his mouth, he answered the call with his own— not as softly or skillfully done, but remarkably similar. He repeated the call once, twice, and climbed down from the saddle to wait, his heart thumping against his ribs.

Through a stand of slim young beeches, stepping noiselessly among the low-hanging branches they came: three Jher kinsmen dressed in skins and wearing deerhide pouches at their waists. They hesitated when they saw Toli, but he made no move toward them, so the forest dwellers advanced.

“Calitha teo healla rinoah,” said Toli when they had come as close as they would. In his native tongue it meant, “You have come far south this leaf time.”

“The deer,” the foremost Jher replied in the lilting speech of his people. “It has been dry in the north forest.” He paused and regarded Toli shrewdly. “I am Yona.”

“I am Toli.”

The three Jher glanced among themselves, excitement mirrored in their deep brown, liquid eyes. “Yes,” said the leader. “We know. We have been watching you and recognized you. Everyone knows of Toli.”

“How many are with you?” asked Toli.

“Forty men and their women and children,” Yona replied. “It is very dry in the north.”

“Here in the south,” put in one of the others, “the deer are fat and run slow. Three tribes are with us.”

“Have you room for one more before your fire this night?”

The three looked at each other, smiled at one another with huge, toothy grins, and hooted in amazement at their good fortune. They all but stumbled over themselves to be the first to lead him back to the Jher camp.

The campfires were lit, and venison roasted on spits over the flames, wafting a tangy scent among the trees and dome-shaped dwellings made of deerhide, bark, and twigs. Toli had not encountered another of his race for many years, and he walked into the Jher encampment as one walking back into his own past. Nothing had changed. Every detail of life for the nomadic forest people remained the same—the deerskin clothing; the meals prepared over open fires; the sparkling dark eyes watching everywhere; the timid children clutching their mothers’ legs; the old men squatting before the flames, instructing the young boys in wood lore—all was exactly as he remembered it, the same as it had always been.

His guides brought him to stand in the center of the camp. A good number of Jher had already assembled to see the stranger, and the sight of this Jher prince dressed in the fine clothing of the light-skinned men produced murmurs and hoots and shy pointing as they discussed him. For here was one of their own—some knew who he was and told the others—yet changed almost beyond recognition as a Jher. None of them had ever seen such a transformation.

In a moment there came a stirring at the outer fringes of the ring of onlookers, and a pathway formed through which passed a shrunken old man. He carried a long staff made from an ash sapling on which were affixed the antlers of a buck. This ancient one leaned heavily upon the staff and tottered forward to stand before the visitor. At his appearance all the other Jher became silent as they waited to see what their leader would do.

For his part, Toli waited to be received by the venerated leader, hands held loosely at his sides, eyes lowered as a sign of respect.

The old man came near and stood before Toli, drawing himself up to full height, gazing at him with quick, sharp eyes. “Toli, my son,” he said at last, using the polite form of address of an older man to a younger, “I knew you would come to us again.”

Toli’s eyes went wide with the realization of who it was that stood before him. “Hoet?” He recovered himself and said, “It is good to see you, my father.”

With that the old man threw down his staff, put his arms around Toli, and hugged him to his breast. At that moment all the other Jher, who had been watching silently, burst forth and began hugging Toli, gripping his hands and arms, patting his head and back in a great show of affection. Toli, the hero of many of their most often told and highly regarded tales and legends, had come home. Tonight would be a celebration.

A huge fire was made in the center of the village. Deerskins and woven grass mats were unrolled and placed around the perimeter, and upon each mat a large wooden bowl filled with fruit. Toli and Hoet were led to the place of honor to squat on their mat while the choicest pieces of meat were passed to them. The other Jher all found places around the fire. Little children scampered through the village, whooping and calling bird sounds to impress the royal visitor.

Hoet hunched beside his guest and gazed at him thoughtfully, patting his arm or knee from time to time as if to reassure himself that it was true after all, that Toli had returned.

When hunger had been appeased, all eyes turned toward Toli and Hoet, and a chant began, slowly and quietly at first, but building rapidly to a crescendo of Jher voices. “Thia secia!” they called. “We want a story! Tell us a story!”

As the honored guest who had been fed and pampered with ceremonious attention, it was Toli’s turn to repay the favor by telling his people a story. He stood and raised his hands above his head for silence, in the tradition of the best storytellers.

But before he could begin, Hoet stood, too, and laid a hand on Toli’s shoulder, saying, “I claim the first story in honor of our brother.”

The Jher gathered around the shining fire nodded and whooped their agreement. Toli sat down as Hoet raised his hands and began to speak. “One day long ago, in snowtime, when all the forest sleeps in white blankets, and the cold makes the deer’s coat shaggy and warm, men of the white race came to the forest on horses. They ran wildly among the trees, and noisily, for the deer fled from the sound of their passing and we heard them from far away, for they had not forest feet.

“They came near our wintering place, though they did not know this. We watched them from afar, and one night encircled them as they sat before their crude fire.” Here all the listeners hooted good-naturedly at the careless white travelers. “When Whinoek’s fire once more filled the earth with light, we approached these white men, and one of them attempted to speak our tongue.” Hoet laughed, and all the others laughed too. Though they had all heard this story countless times, all strained after every word as if it were uttered for the first time.

“This one, Bushface, told us of grave danger in the forest. The vile Shoth pursued them with thirsty knives and hunting birds with poison in their talons. He asked for help. In this, Bushface showed much wisdom, for surely the white men would have sunk down to their death sleep before one more night had passed.”

At this all the Jher clucked their tongues; some smacked the earth with their hands at the mention of their hated enemy’s name. “Should we help them? I asked myself. The answer was not quickly coming—it circled around me like a young deer at a forest pool. For they were white men, the same who cut down trees and kill the deer in numbers and make stone dwellings on the earth. But the Shoth are our enemy, as they are the enemy of all civilized people. So I decided to help them, for Bushface was a man with much power in him, and there was with him a woman, a kelniki”—the word meant wife of the leader—“whose hair shone like the dancing fire. I did not wish the evil Shoth to have such fine hair hanging from their spears. And with them also was a young boy in whose eyes I saw the look of one who is chosen for greatness. I knew I must help them. But how?”

Toli listened to the recital of the events that had changed his life forever, and it seemed that he was once again the young Jher sitting before the fire as he had so many times, listening to the tales of his elders and the deeds of heroes of his race. He remembered back over the years to the day when the white men had come into their winter camp; they looked cold and frightened and extremely awkward in his young eyes.

But the strangers had horses. Oh, how he had wanted to ride a horse! He could still feel the thrill of seeing the animals for the first time up close—so beautiful, so graceful they were, and strong. In his boyish heart he vowed he would give anything to ride one of those horses. So when Hoet’s gaze fell on him, he had leaped quick as a fawn to present himself for the task of leading the white men through the forest to the Wall of Stone.

Hoet had sent him then, and the rest had become legend among the people of the forest: Bushface he had come to know as Durwin, Hawknose became his friend Theido, Firehair was the beautiful Alinea, and Kenta, the boy with glory on him, he chose as his master, Quentin, now become the Dragon King.

“. . . And so he has returned this night to us,” Hoet was saying, “to his own people once again. The glory of his deeds casts Whinoek’s favor upon all of us, and we are accounted worthy.” The old chieftain turned proudly to his guest.

If they only knew how I have failed, Toli thought. Would they still receive me with celebration and feasting? No, they would feel disgrace and shun me; my name would be no longer spoken among them. I would be forgotten.

When Toli turned again to those before him, he found all eyes on him. The fire crackled, and the sparks leaped high into the night sky, glittering in all the black eyes watching him expectantly. They were waiting for him to speak now. Hoet had given him the honor of speaking last; his would be the story the Jher tribesmen carried with them to their sleep, an honor ordinarily reserved for the oldest and wisest among them, Hoet himself.

He stood slowly, unable to put his feelings that moment into words. What can I tell them? he wondered. What could I say to them that they could possibly understand?

The dark eyes watched him; a murmur arose and made its way around the ring. Will he speak? What will he say? Why does he wait? Speak, great one!

The murmur became a voice ringing in his ears: Tell them! it cried. Tell them how you have failed.

Now an awkward silence spread through the waiting crowd. Toli felt their eyes upon him. “I . . . ,” he began, then faltered. “I cannot.” He walked away from the circle of friends. The only sound to be heard was the fluttering of the fire as he withdrew into the darkness.

23

You did not think that I would let you leave me behind?” Esme’s eyes glittered in the candlelight. Outside, the sky lightened in the east to a dull gray, becoming pearlescent pink near the horizon where the sun would rise.

Bria smiled, the light softening her features. “In truth, Esme, I did not think you would care to come with me. It is a long journey to Dekra, and an uncertain errand at that. It is something I feel I must do.”

“And you must do it alone?”

“No, my mother will go with me.”

“And I will go with you, too. Chloe has already packed a few things for me, and you see”—she indicated her riding clothes—“I am ready to go.”

Bria laughed and hugged her friend. “Then you shall come along, by all means. Forgive me. I should have invited you. I merely thought that . . . Well, we will go together, and I will welcome the company.”

Esme smiled too. “It will make me feel useful to you. And I must admit that I have always wondered about this mysterious city of Dekra. There are many strange stories about it—is it really enchanted?”

“Yes, but not the way you mean. Its enchantment grows from the love of its citizens. It is, as you shall see, a most remarkable place.”

“You have been there many times?” Esme fell to the task of helping Bria ready herself for the journey.

“Not many, but a few times. Quentin and I would go there occasionally before the children were born. The last time was for Yeseph’s funeral, a few years ago. Quentin talked about our going back there to stay, but after Yeseph died he never spoke of it again. He is king, and the king must remain on his throne in Askelon.” She shrugged, and Esme finished tying the points at her sleeves. “Now then, let us go and wake the girls.”

The little princesses were awake and chattering like squirrels when the two women entered the bedroom. Chloe was there, along with their own nurse, packing their clothes into carved chests for the journey. When they saw their mother, they jumped up and flitted across the floor to embrace her.

“Mother, oh, Mother! Is it true? Can we really go with you?” they begged. “We will be good, and we will be quiet. We promise it. Oh, please?”

Bria smiled and kissed them both, then knelt down to speak to them. “Yes, my darlings. You are coming with me. But I want you to remember that this is a long journey, and you will get very tired. You must do as I say, for we will travel quickly.”

“Are we to ride horses too?” asked Brianna.

“Yes, horses?” echoed Elena.

“You will ride in a coach with Grandmother. She will need someone to keep her company on the way.”

“Is Daddy going, too?”

“No.” Bria sighed. “The king is searching for Gerin and will not come with us. Hurry now, and finish dressing—this stone floor is cold on your feet! We will wait for you in the yard. Chloe will bring you out when you are ready. Now run along.”

Both girls scampered away to finish dressing. The two women crept back into the silent corridors of Askelon Castle and made their way down to the hall, where a simple breakfast had been laid for them. There Alinea was waiting, her trim form clothed in summer green—an embroidered tunic over trousers and tall riding boots. An image flashed into Bria’s mind of her mother standing just so, telling her good-bye. For a moment she imagined this had all happened before just this way.

“Good morning, Mother.” The queen paused, then asked, “Have I ever seen you wear these clothes before?” She examined them carefully.

“Yes,” Alinea laughed, “I believe you have. But I am amazed that you would remember.”

Then it came to her. “How could I ever forget? You were going off to rescue Father—dressed like that. You had to sneak out of your own castle.”

“I thought I would just try them on and . . . well, they fit, so here I am. Do you approve?”

“How could I disapprove?” Bria hugged her mother, and then they all sat down to eat before leaving. They spoke little, each occupied with her own thoughts of the impending journey. When they finished eating, they hurried out into the ward yard, where the horses and coach were already waiting for them; the coachman was tying the last bundle of provisions to the frame behind the coach.

“Wilkins!” said Bria when she recognized the man.

“My lady,” he bowed, “when Lady Esme told me of your wish to go to Dekra, I thought it best to travel with you.”

“If you would rather have another . . . ,” added Esme.

“No, it is a fine idea. I commend it and thank you both.”

“I am at your service.”Wilkins bowed again and touched the hilt of his sword. Bria was once again reminded that theirs was not a pleasure outing.

From across the yard the warder, a man with short gray hair and gray eyes, whose sinews seemed made of whipcord, approached. “My lady, I am against this enterprise.” He spoke directly, not wasting any words.

Bria smiled. “I know, Hagin, but there is no worry.”

“No worry? Your own son kidnapped, and you say no worry?” The man gave her a look of frank disapproval. “The king will have my hide stretched and nailed on yonder drawbridge if I let you go.”

“We will come to no harm,” insisted Bria. “We travel with an escort of knights, and the king’s roads are safe enough.”

“Then I shall go too,” he announced.

“No, I would rather have you here to await the king’s return.”

The warder grumbled but held his tongue and said no more.

Bria and Esme were helped into the saddle, Alinea into the coach, and the horses were led out through the yard toward the gatehouse, where two knights, mounted and ready, were waiting. There they paused, and Chloe and the princesses came running out to scramble into the coach. A few of the castle servants had gathered to wish the travelers a speedy and safe journey; the little girls waved and threw kisses to all until they entered the dark tunnel of the gatehouse and were cut off from sight.

Hagin the warder, nephew of Trenn, stood rooted to the spot until they had disappeared, then shook his head and stumped off.

Askelon lay but two leagues away. With a little speed the tinker would arrive at midday, find himself a meal, and begin making his rounds. There were certain customers he visited every time he came to town. Milcher at the Gray Goose Inn, for example; he always needed a new pot, or a pan repaired, and always included supper too. Yes, he was one of the best customers, and there were others: the butcher’s wife, the chandler’s sister, the baker, and the weaver.

In fact, all the merchants needed his services one time or another. Even the king’s kitchen staff occasionally bought his wares.

“A wee bit further, Old Tip,” Pym told his dog, “and we’uns’ll stop a little in Askelon. What say ye there? Eh? A nice grizzle bone fer ye, Tipper. A hot pasty fer me—ah, innkeeper’s wife makes the best meat pies in all Mensandor. There’s a fact, Tip. The best. Makes me mouth water to think on’t.”

Tip took all this in with a benign, thoughtful expression and wagged her tail with appropriate enthusiasm, and they ambled down the road, clinking and clattering as they went. As they came within sight of Askelon Castle, they heard the sound of hooves drumming along the road behind them. Pym turned around, stepped to the side of the road, and waited for the rider to pass. In an instant the white charger and its regal rider swept past them.

Pym raised his hand in greeting, and the intent rider dipped his head in acknowledgment as he rode on by. The tinker followed the horseman into the distance with his eyes and continued on his way.

“Comin’ a day, Tip, an’ we’uns’ll ride too! A wagon an’ a sharping stone an’ treadle-foot—that’s fer we!” He nodded slyly to his dog. “We’uns’ve found our fortune!”

He gazed after the rider disappearing into the distance. “But ye know, I think that ’un was the king that passed by jest now. I couldn’t say fer a certain, but might’ve been. Looked a king t’me. Would ye not say, Tipper? Eh? Quite right, quite right. Looked a king. Maybe ’twas the king.”

Pym glanced at his black dog. “The gods be with him, poor king. Terrible thing. Terrible. His son snatched off like that. A terrible thing— deed most foul, that. Didn’t I say it, Tip? A deed most foul.” The tinker raised his voice to a shout and called after the rider, now just a speck in the road far away, “The gods be with ye, Sire!”

He squinted up an eye toward the sun, gauging the time of day. The morning shone fair and bright, the sky high and wide and blue. Across the green fields farmers worked their land, coaxing grain out of the soil. Occasionally the tinker would wave to one, who would answer his greeting likewise.

Ahead the town drew slowly closer, and the sun rose higher. “Tipper, we’uns’d best stir our bones or be too late to get our meal. Come along, now.”

He put his head down, hoisted the straps of his baggage, and picked up his pace; they clanged and rattled down the road to Askelon. “You cannot be serious,” said the high priest. He stared at the old man as if unable to comprehend the words just spoken.

“I assure you I am.” The cold eyes glared; the tongue poked snakelike between the thin scars of lips.

“But why? Why risk discovery now? It is not wise.”

“Not wise? You dare to presume wisdom beyond Nimrood’s?” There was poison in the voice, and echoes of cracking thunder.

High Priest Pluell paled and threw up his hands. “Oh, no! It is not that.” He hurried to explain. “It is just that I thought—that is . . . we are safe here. We have time now to think this through, plan our course of action. We must move very carefully, you would agree.”

“I have decided,” said Nimrood flatly. “There is nothing more to discuss. I will tell you what to do; I will make all the decisions from now on.

“You have nothing to fear if you do your part and see to it that your stupid priests do theirs. Leave all else to me.” The old wizard glared at the priest with malevolent glee. “You want to humble that usurper king, do you not? Ah, yes. I can see it on your face. You want him and his God Most High brought low before all Mensandor. Then you will be acknowledged and the power of the High Temple increased.”

The high priest could not resist a smile at the prospect.

“Well, then, do nothing—do you hear? Wait for me. I will return shortly, and we can begin.”

Pluell watched the old man—fearing him, loathing him. But his desire to flaunt his power over the throne crushed any resistance he might offer to Nimrood. Yes, to humble the proud king, to reassert the claims of the temple over the affairs of the realm—that was worth the price of putting up with the troublesome old long-beard Nimrood. It was worth the risk.

“Very well,” said the high priest. “It shall be as you say.”

Nimrood nodded and winked and smiled his gruesome smile. “That is good, my pet. Do as I say and all will be well. Now I go.”

The high priest sat in his handsome chair and listened to the tap of Nimrood’s footsteps receding into the temple. When it is done, I will cast the old vulture out, he thought. I have but to contend with him a little longer.

24

Blazer’s hooves sounded dull thunder over the great planks of the drawbridge; his iron shoes struck sparks from the stone flagging of the gatehouse road. Shouts of “The king is coming! Open the gates! The king is here!” preceded him, and startled gatekeepers leaped into action.

Horse and rider jolted to a stop in the inner ward yard. Squires dashed up to take the king’s well-lathered mount. Without a word Quentin went straight into the castle, through the banquet hall filled with people still lingering over their midday meal, and on to the throne room.

He flew up the steps to the Dragon Throne and threw off his soiled cloak as he collapsed into the throne. Quentin called angrily for his high minister, his voice booming out into the quiet of the deserted room. His call was answered with a flurry of footsteps, but no sign of Toli.

Quentin seethed inside. He had risen late—later than he had planned—and had started his journey to Askelon after the sun was well up. This put him in a raw mood. Every stride was too slow after that, and he arrived in Askelon harried, fuming, out of patience.

He had slept well enough, curled in his cloak on the farmer’s own bed—the farmer’s wife would not have it any other way but that the king should have their bed—and had awakened feeling better than he had in days. But his tardy start, and the dark thought of what awaited him in Askelon, soon destroyed the fragile peace he had achieved.

As a result, he now raged about the lack of respect for his person and the slipshod attention his interests received.

“Where is the high minister?” he bellowed. His voice echoed back to him from the far corners of the empty hall.

There was no answer.

Quentin sank deeper into his melancholy. He shouted again and this time heard answering footsteps.

“Well?” He looked down to see Hagin, the warder, coming resolutely toward him.

The man bowed when he reached the dais and said simply, “My lord, you have returned.”

“Yes, I have returned,” Quentin snapped. “Where is everyone? Tell me quickly, if you value your tongue.”

Hagin appeared unperturbed. His clear gray eyes regarded Quentin unflinchingly. He was man enough for any monarch’s moods. “They are gone, Sire,” he related simply. “All are gone.”

“All? What do you mean all?”

“Everyone.”

Quentin stared sullenly at the man. “What are you babbling about? Send for them at once.”

“It may not be, my lord.”

“The queen—where is she?”

“Her Highness and the dowager and the children have left Askelon, the Lady Esme with them. They ride for Dekra.”

“What?” He had not expected that answer. To Dekra? Why? “When did they leave?”

“Just before sunrise.”

Quentin struck the arm of the throne with his fist. While he had dawdled on the road, his wife had left the castle. If he had not stopped, if only he had ridden on to Askelon, he would have been here in time to detain her. She would not have gone if he were here.

“Where is the high minister?” Quentin growled.

“He has disappeared, Your Majesty.”

Again an unexpected reply. “Eh?”

“He was last seen in attendance at the hermit’s funeral, Sire. After the burial he disappeared. He did not return to the castle. It is believed he slipped away from the procession on the way back to Askelon. No one has heard from or seen him since.”

Toli had disappeared? Well he might. If the prince was not found, it would be better if he never returned.

Who else was left? “Theido and Ronsard—have they arrived?”

“They arrived, my lord, and immediately took responsibility for the search party for the prince. They have gone.”

That was it, then. All were gone—those he needed most to see. He was alone.

The gnawing loneliness he had felt on the road was upon him once more. It was true: everyone he cared about was gone.

Here was a loneliness deeper than that of the temple. Then he had not known any different life, but now . . . He had not been so deserted in years. Every day he was surrounded by his closest friends and loved ones—every single day. He had thought it would never end, that the closeness, the love, would go on forever. But he was sadly wrong. In three short days—already it seemed a lifetime—his world had been shattered and the pieces scattered by some cruel fate. Nothing remained now of the happiness he had so recently possessed.

“Sire?”

Quentin stirred himself. The warder was looking at him strangely.

“I asked if that would be all, Sire.”

“Go now. Leave me.” He heard the man’s steps diminish as Hagin left the hall. A door closed, and the boom rang in the silence like a pronouncement of doom.

There in the dim interior of his throne room, the king gave himself over to the hopelessness that assailed him, sinking deeper and still deeper beneath the crushing weight of despair.

With a round wooden bowl tucked between his knees, Toli sat on a woven grass mat outside the summer hut of Hoet. The Jher went about their daily business around him, but he was aware of their constant sidelong glances that told him that he was still very much in their minds. No one would ask him about what had happened last night as he stood before the fire, unable to speak—that would be too impolite. Still, they would wonder, and the gentle Jher would watch him when they thought he was not looking. So Toli, aware of their scrutiny, pretended not to notice and slowly dipped his hand into the bowl of sweet mulberries that were his breakfast.

A shadow fell over him as he squatted in the sunlight listening to the chirp and twitter of the early-morning forest and the soft soughing of the upper branches in the breeze, drinking in the musty fragrance of earth and bark and growing things. Toli glanced up at the figure who had come to stand before him.

“You are leaving again,” Hoet observed.

Toli nodded. “I must.”

“I knew that you had not returned to stay. You are needed, for there is trouble in the land.”

Toli cocked an eye to the old chieftain. “You know about the white men’s trouble?”

“It is not only the trouble of the white race; when darkness falls, it covers all. Yes, we know there is trouble in the land. Wind is a swift messenger, and the forest holds no secrets from the Jher.”

“Then you know the king I serve needs your help. His son has been taken from him by force.”

Hoet nodded and leaned long on his staff before he spoke again. When at last he did, he replied, “And you carry the blame for this deed.”

Toli looked away. “How did you know?”

“How else can it be that you are not with your friend in his time of need? He blames you, or you blame yourself, and that is why you ride alone.”

“Yes,” replied Toli softly. “Your wits are as sharp as your eyes,Wise One.”

“When you did not speak last night before the fire, I knew— though I guessed even when you came riding alone to our camp.”

“Then you knew why I could not speak.”

“Come with me,” said Hoet, and started away.

Toli rose, set the bowl aside, and followed the aged Jher leader through the village among the trees. The glances of his kinsmen followed him as they walked the length of the camp to where Toli’s horse waited, already saddled, grazing in a clump of sweet clover at his feet.

“You do not belong here, Toli. Go now.”

Toli felt the color rise to his face; his shame burned within him. “You are right to send me away. I have dishonored my people.”

“It is not from dishonor that I send you, my son,” said Hoet gently. Toli’s eyes darted to his elder. “Why does it surprise you? You have not turned away from your friend—that would be dishonor. No, I send you for yourself. Go, my son, and find the white leader’s son. Your life will not be your own until you have found the boy.”

Toli smiled and gripped the old man’s arm. “Thank you, my father. The knife in my heart does not hurt so much now.”

“Yes, go. But come again one day, and we will sit together and share meat.”

Toli took up the tether peg and gripped the reins, swinging himself easily into the saddle. Riv snorted, eager to be off. “I will ride more swiftly with your blessing.”

“I have no blessing to give you that Whinoek has not already given.” Hoet paused, regarding the slim man before him. “It is said the king raises a temple to the One Most High.”

“Yes,” replied Toli. “The Father of Life is not widely known among the white race. Quentin seeks to make the name of the God Most High known to every man alive under the great heavens so that they may worship the only true God.”

“That is most worthy,” replied Hoet. “But it seems to this old one that where one temple stands, another may not also stand. Is this not true?”

Toli stared at his tribesman for a moment before the implication of what Hoet had said broke in on him. “Yes, your words are true, Wise One, and I would hear more.”

Hoet shrugged and lifted his antlered staff. “It has been reported to me that there has been much night traveling in the forest by men from the east, who also returned that way. I did not see them, so I cannot say how it is, but the white men’s great temple of Ariel lies to the east, does it not?”

“You know well that it does,” said Toli with a grin. “Thank you, my father. You have given your son a great blessing.” He turned Riv into the forest and stopped before entering the shaded trail to raise his hand in farewell.

Hoet raised his staff and said, “Go in peace.” He remained gazing into the forest long after Toli had disappeared, then turned and shuffled back into the Jher village.

25

Nimrood cackled with malicious glee at his good fortune as he flitted through the shadowy passageways of the High Temple like an overgrown bat, his black cloak billowing out behind him like wings. Such a stroke of luck! The gods had sent the meddlesome Jher to the very steps of the temple.

That ridiculous high priest wanted to turn him away, thought Nimrood. Would have turned him away! But I was there to stop it, and before the dog could run away I had him bound and beaten and thrown into the cell with that mewling prince. Ah ha! Ha, ha!

At first the sorcerer had to fight down the impulse to finish the deed begun in Pelgrin Forest on the day of the hunt—to strike down the Jher at once. Even now the old hatred fired his thin blood, but he was compelled by a greater prize to turn away from his long-nursed wrath at the one who had shorn him of his power, his precious magic, and had very nearly stripped him also of his life.

The image of that day still burned in Nimrood’s evil brain: Durwin, a far inferior wizard, stood before him and would not even protect himself, would not lift a finger to summon the power at his call— not that it could have saved him. No, thought Nimrood, nothing could have saved him.

And then, as Nimrood lifted his rod to deliver the lethal bolt and so blast that cursed hermit’s bones to powder . . . that arrow! From out of nowhere it had come, striking deep into his flesh, sending the rod from his hand. Then, there was the Jher, notching another arrow onto his bowstring. The sorcerer had pleaded for his life—those miserable pleas still echoed in his skull. “Don’t kill me!” he had screamed, and the words had mocked him every moment since that day. He had been humbled before the bow of the Jher, but the young warrior had withheld his pity, had sent another arrow into his enemy’s heart.

It had exhausted every last living spark of Nimrood’s power to transform himself into a raven and wing to safety. It was a long time before he could once again take mortal shape, for he had not even the magic left to change, but was forced to wait until the spell wore off of its own accord.

And a bitter exile it was, trapped in that feathered body, prey to the elements and living on scraps of dead, rotting meat. But though he regained but a thread of his former power—the rudiments of mere child’s dabbling still clung to him, the ability to make noise and light— yet he had returned to seek his revenge equipped with an older and more pernicious art: treachery.

The name of Nimrood the necromancer had perhaps died from men’s memory; so be it. His lies would do what enchantment could not—of that he was certain. Yes, at long last he would have his revenge.

Oh, the gods were fickle and full of mischief! It took all one’s cunning to outsmart them. Nimrood had done it all his life. And now they had finally delivered the victory into his hand. Yes, oh, yes. Soon the upstart whelp of an acolyte king would suffer as he, Nimrood, had been made to suffer all these years.

Nimrood allowed himself one whoop of demented joy at the impending consummation of all his dreams. Yes, the Dragon King would fall; and that barbarous god of his, that brutish Most High, would fall with him.

The wizened old sorcerer clenched his fists and laughed out loud, throwing his head back and letting the sound pour forth from his wicked throat. It was a sound to chill the marrow of anyone passing by. But no one heard it; he was alone and savored the moment to the full, his evil heart lifted in exultation.

Pym—a strolling heap of scrap metal and tools, bags and bundles and barter enough for any two tinkers—stood before the sign of the Gray Goose. The handpainted, long-legged, long-necked, plump gray goose wobbled on its chain. The windows of the inn were dark now; the door was open, but there was silence within.

“Tinker!” he cried. “Tinker, ma’am!”

He waited, winking at Tip. The dog winked back with both eyes.

In a moment he heard footsteps coming toward him across the planked floor. Then appeared a round, flushed face and the plump form of Emm, the innkeeper’s wife. She waved her apron when she saw him, exclaiming, “Pym! You are a sight, you are! Come around again, have you? Give me a hug.”

She threw her arms around him, and he around her. They were old friends and good ones. “It’s good t’see ye, Emm. You know me—I been afancy for one of yer meat pasties and a noggin o’yer best. We’uns jest had t’come back soon’s we’uns finished away south.”

“You missed Emm’s cooking, eh? Well, come in, come in with you. We’ll set a fork and trencher at the board and put you to it.”

Pym followed the matron inside, rattling like a calf in a cupboard with every step. “Milcher!” she called. “Otho! We got us a guest. Look lively, now!”

Milcher poked his round bald head out from behind a cask he was rolling across the room. “Oh ho! Pym it is! Oh ho! Pym, good to see you, old friend. Come to visit, eh? Glad to have you. Glad to have you!” He called over his shoulder, “Otho! Hurry up now! We have a guest!”

A tall boyish-faced man came into the room carrying two small kegs under each arm. He grinned at the tinker and put the kegs down, then went to the cask his father was straining at. With ease the overgrown Otho hefted the cask into place. “Pym and Tipper is it?” He grinned boyishly.

Milcher wiped his sweating face on his sleeve. “Whew! I’ve been at it since dawn this morn.” He shook his friend’s hand. “Come and sit down with me. We’ll drink a sip and fill our bellies.”

“Don’t you’uns trouble yerselfs fer we,” said Pym. Tip wagged her tail amiably, knowing that this was the place where she received those juicy tidbits and gristly beef bones. She barked once in anticipation of such a morsel.

“Yes, Tip,” laughed Otho, stooping to pat the dog. “We won’t forget you. Good old girl.”

Pym threw off his implements and wares and trundled them into a corner. He sat down with the innkeeper, and Emm served them up a little stew and bread. Otho fetched frothy ale in crockery jars and joined them.

They talked of all that had happened since Pym’s last visit, and all the customers who would need Pym’s services. Before long, however, their conversation turned to the one subject on everyone’s minds and on the tips of everyone’s tongues in every gathering place in Askelon.

“Shocking!” said Emm, clucking her tongue. “Simply shocking. I can’t imagine who would want to harm that beautiful boy, poor Prince Gerin!”

“Nor who’d be fool enough to go agin’ the Dragon King. There’s the mystery,” nodded Milcher knowingly. “Him and that sword of his, enchanted and all.”

They all shook their heads in bewilderment at the affairs that had befallen their king. “You were on the road,” continued Milcher. “Did you see anything?”

Pym merely shrugged. “’Pears I come too late.” He was of half a mind to tell them about the dead man in the road, and about the sword. But even though they were his friends, he thought better of it and kept that part secret. “’Twas over before we’uns got to Pelgrin, tho a’course we met lotsa bodies on the road to tell it.”

“Oh, there’s talk aplenty, there is,” agreed Milcher. “Most of it not worth a thimble o’mud. They say it was the Harriers got the boy prince. Others say it was some of that swill-belly Nin’s cravens who’ve been hiding up in the mountains all these years. Bah! That lot was driven into the sea at lancepoint—ever’ last one of ’em.”

“Strange, though, how nobody has seen hand nor hair of them that took him. ’Tis very like the earth opened up and swallowed them whole, quick as you please. Nobody seen nothing,” said Otho.

“I saw the king,” volunteered Pym. “This mornin’ on the road. Least I thought ’twas the king. Looked a king t’ me.”

“Likely did. Likely did,” said Milcher, slapping the board with his hand. “Ham the butcher says the king rode in this morning all a-lather. Been riding like a wraith for days.”

“Did he have his sword when you saw him?” Otho asked Pym.

“What a question!” Milcher cried. “Of course he did. The Dragon King never goes anywhere without that sword. That’s what makes him invincible.”

Otho did not back down. “That’s not what I heard.” He lowered his voice and leaned forward across the table so no one would overhear him, though there was no one else in the place. “I heard from Glenna, the queen’s maidservant—”

“Glenna’s his sweetheart,” put in Otho’s mother, smiling a knowing smile. “Works in the royal kitchen.”

Otho threw a warning glance in her direction but hurried on. “—that there’s talk in the castle that the king has lost his sword!”

“Lost his sword?” Milcher gasped, staring wide-eyed at his son. “Bah!”

“He never would!” said his mother in a hushed tone. “Lose the Shining One? Never!”

Otho only nodded, his eyes squinted. “He rode out with it the day of the hunt. Everyone in Mensandor saw it—its great golden hilt gleaming from the scabbard at his side. We all saw it.” He put his finger in the air for emphasis. “But no one saw it when he returned.”

“What happened t’ it?” asked Pym. His heart raced faster.

Otho licked his lips. “No one knows.” His voice was a whisper. “But they say that if the Zhaligkeer is gone, the kingdom is ruined.”

“Pshaw!” said his father uneasily. “Who would believe it?”

“It could well be,” maintained Otho. “Could well be.”

“The king is still king, isn’t he?” Emm glanced at her son apprehensively.

“Aye, as long as he holds the sword. That sword is his power. Without it he is doomed.”

“Doomed?” wondered Pym.

“Aye, and you would be too. There’s some as says that Quentin isn’t the rightful king, not being blood and all.”

“He was chosen, by the gods!” cried Milcher.

“Chosen he was. But it was the sword that backed it up.” Otho inclined his head conspiratorially. “It is the work of the gods. They are angry with this new temple of his; they don’t like his chasing after that new god—that Most High. The old gods are going to humble him as an example to the whole kingdom to return to true worship with gifts and supplications.”

Otho crossed his long arms and leaned back in his chair, smug in his rightness in the matter. The others looked at one another helplessly. Who was there to dispute what they had heard?

If this was a matter between gods, who could intercede on behalf of mere mortals? Who could contest the gods?

Once there was a resolute young man with a flaming sword who had the very hand of god upon him. He was strong, invincible. But he, too, had proven only human, subject to the wounds and errors of all flesh.

How fickle the gods were. They had allowed him to prosper for a season; now they wanted their tribute, and even the Dragon King would have to bend before them. Blazing sword or not, they meant to have their due, and the king could not refuse them.

The glittering dreams of the priest king and his wonderful City of Light were just smoke after all. Men were just the playthings of the gods.

So it had ever been, and so would ever be.

26

If not for the urgency of their errand, Bria would have enjoyed the journey to Dekra. The days wore the golden-green mantle of fair summer; peace clothed the land and seemed to blossom from every bough. The dark deed of only a short time ago—a few days—receded into the past, more and more remote with every league.

Only the throbbing ache in her heart reminded her that all was not well, that her son had been taken from her, that her world would never be right until he was returned.

By day she rode with the others, keeping her spirits high—talking, singing, or steeping herself in the beauty of the day. By night she prayed; her prayers were not for herself, but for her son and her husband, that the Most High would keep them safe wherever they were. And sometimes in the night, when no one could see her, she wept.

The queen and her companions, though unused to the rigors of the road, were well looked after by Wilkins and the other two knights, and were made as comfortable as possible. And owing to the smoothness of the king’s highway, they moved swiftly toward their destination.

“Today we will cross beyond Celbercor’s Wall,” declared Alinea. Several leagues from their camp of the night before, though the sun was only a few hours up, they had stopped to eat some breakfast, and to let the princesses gather wildflowers.

“Have we come that far?” asked Esme with some surprise. “I thought the journey would be much longer.”

“Before the King’s Road, yes. Quentin’s work in extending the highway has made travel to this part of the kingdom the easier and more quickly done. We may reach Dekra by evening tomorrow if we hurry,” said Alinea. She pointed to the east and south where the mountains lifted their heads to the clouds. “Celbercor’s Wall runs from the sea into those hills of rock. Once beyond it, Dekra is only two days’ ride.”

“Oh, then let us hurry, by all means,” cried Esme. “I have always wanted to visit Dekra. You have told me so much about it, I cannot wait to see it.”

“It is indeed a most remarkable place,” said Bria. She gazed into the distance as if she were looking for the sweeping towers of the city to rise above the horizon. “The Ariga were a noble and beautiful people. Theirs is a city like no other.”

“Yes, and much changed since I first saw it,” Alinea said, and began to tell them about the occasion of her first visit—the flight to Dekra in the dead of winter with Theido and Durwin, Quentin and Trenn; the wild midnight ride to the wall just ahead of the Harriers; Quentin’s near-fatal tangle with the poisoned talons of a Harrier’s hawk, and their anxious vigil over him as he lapsed into a deathlike sleep upon reaching the ancient ruined city; the extraordinary love and kindness of the Curatak who healed him.

When she finished, Esme’s lovely features held a mesmerized look. “I have never heard the story before—oh, a piece of it here and there. But to hear it now like this . . .” She turned admiring eyes upon Alinea. “You were very brave, my lady. You and the others. It is a most remarkable tale. Now I want to see Dekra all the more.”

They rode on, following the road through wooded hills and pleasant lowlands, green and fragrant in the sun. Sometimes they met farmers leading ox-drawn carts, or other travelers—merchants on foot or in wagons, riders speeding on hurried errands to distant parts of the realm. But most often they had the road to themselves for long stretches.

Celbercor’s Wall, that singular, enduring feat of strength and cunning, grew as they approached; first a line crossing the far hills, gray in the distance, with no more substance than a bank of low-lying clouds. Closer, it loomed high and strong, rising from the crown of hills with solid force, the sun shining full on its blank, stern face.

The road bent along the face of the wall toward the Malmar Inlet. The travelers rode down the long, wooded slope to the rocky shore of the inlet. There they stopped, watered the horses, and waited.

“How will the ferrymen know to come for us?” asked Esme.

“Watch,” replied Bria. One of the knights had made his way along the shore to a tall pine pole standing in a heap of stones. There he fastened a red pennon to a cord attached to the pole and raised the pennon to the top, where it waved smartly in the breeze. “You see? We have only to wait a little. The ferrymen will see the signal and come at once.”

“Clever!”

“It was Quentin’s idea. When he used to travel frequently between Askelon and Dekra, it was often difficult to find a boat on this side of the inlet. So he established the ferry, hoping, I think, that one day travel to Dekra would much increase.”

They sat on the warm rocks, listening to the calls of seabirds wheeling overhead and the lap of water murmuring to the rocks at their feet. In a little while they saw a wide, flat boat plying toward them across the water.

“Good day, my ladies,” greeted the ferryman when he had brought the boat into the narrow, rock-lined channel that had been cut into the shore. “A good day for travel. Going to Dekra, is it?” He eyed them each with good-natured curiosity.

“Yes, we are,” replied Alinea.

“Allow me to fetch you across first, if you please. Then I’ll return for the coach and horses.”

“Thank you, Rol,” said Bria.

The man turned and looked at her carefully. “My lady? Do I . . . it is! I am sorry, Your Highness! I did not recognize you!” He bowed quickly, reddening with embarrassment.

“It has been some time,” laughed Bria. “And I am hardly dressed the part of a queen.”

“No, my lady.” Rol bobbed his head. He said no more, but went quickly to his work. In no time the passengers were sitting on the broad benches at the bow. Wilkins stayed behind with the animals and the coach.

Rol worked the long oar with his wide strong hands, and the ferry moved out slowly into the deeper channel, floating to meet the current that would carry them across the water.

At Malmarby their arrival was greeted by a score of barefoot children who had flocked to the docks to see the strangers. Travelers were still not so common an occurrence that they did not draw laughter from inquisitive youngsters, as well as amiable stares from their elders.

“I was deeply distressed to hear what happened to young Prince Gerin,” said Rol as he led them up a long, planked ramp.

“You have heard, then. Now you know why we ride to Dekra,” replied Bria.

“Everyone has heard, my lady. Some of us had gone to the hunt. I was there when . . . we know what you must feel. But the Dragon King will find the evil snakes that did this, I know.”

“We are praying for the prince every moment,” said Alinea.

“Yes, my lady,” said Rol. “Perhaps they can help at Dekra. There is much power there.”

“Thank you, Rol,” said Bria.

“If you would excuse me, my lady.” He bowed again and shoved the boat back into the inlet. In no time at all he was back with the coach and horses.

The queen and her entourage remounted and moved on. “I will be here when you return!” shouted Rol, who raised his arms and clapped his hands, shouting and scattering the children in front of him like chickens.

The travelers passed through Malmarby and entered the marshy lowlands beyond. The country in Obrey was wilder, more sparse and open. It changed at once from that on the other side of the inlet, becoming a more forbidding place so that the traveler might well feel he had left the hospitable world behind and entered a land untamed and unpredictable, where anything might happen.

“The coach can go no farther,” announced Wilkins. Little more than a league out of Malmarby, the track had all but vanished. Wilkins had just returned from surveying the trail ahead. “Even on horseback it will not be easy.”

“I had quite forgotten how wild this land is,” said Bria. “What do you advise?”

“Leave the coach,” the driver replied. “One of your bodyguards can ride one of the coach horses, and I the other. Alinea can take the knight’s mount, and the princesses can ride with me.”

“Let me take one of them, at least,” offered Esme.

“And I the other,” said one of the knights.

His comrade dismounted and offered his saddle to Alinea, who accepted. “Thank you. It has been too long since I have ridden bareback, and I do not think I could manage the feat now.”

Wilkins and the first knight began unhitching the horses, then rearranged the baggage, distributing the necessary items among the riders and abandoning the rest along with the coach, which they hid in a bower of young maple saplings and wild ivy. When they had finished, all were mounted once more, and they continued on their way happily, if more slowly.

“My lord,” said the chamberlain softly as he rapped on the door, “Lord Theido and Lord Ronsard have come. They ask that you receive them at once, Sire.”

Quentin sat slumped in his huge chair, staring into the cold ashes on the hearth before him. His eyes were red from lack of sleep. His hair was in disarray and his features coarse and haggard.

“Send them away,” he croaked. “I will see no one.”

“But, Sire, they insist!”

“How many times must I tell you?” the king shouted, seizing a silver cup from the table at his hand and heaving it at the chamberlain’s disappearing head. The cup struck the door, splashing red wine, like blood, over the embossed wood and onto the floor.

He heard voices in the anteroom and then quick steps. His door was flung open, and in came Theido, with Ronsard close on his heels.

“My lord, we would speak with you,” said Theido tersely.

“We do not think it right that you closet yourself, receiving no one,” added Ronsard.

“It seems you give me no choice,” said Quentin. He did not so much as turn his eyes toward them, but continued staring into the ashes as if they were the ashes of his own life, now dead and spent.

“This is not like you, Quentin,” said Theido, deliberately using his name.

This brought nothing but a mirthless smile to the king’s lips. “See? The truth: I am no king and never was. I only played at being king, and my friends humored me as they would a child.” He laughed, an aching, hollow sound. Then he turned his face toward them and asked, “Where is my son?”

One look at his fearful countenance and both men inwardly gasped —so great was the change that had occurred since they had seen their friend last. Gone was the youthful man full of vigor and quick strength, keen-eyed and alert, always sharp as the point of a lance and eagerly winging through life with the reckless vitality of an eagle soaring above the clouds for the sheer joy of soaring.

This man before them appeared as one who had lived in darkness for years, bereft of hope and brittle with despair. One wrong word and he might collapse upon himself in tears or fly into a foaming rage.

“The men are combing the hills and villages beyond Pelgrin. We will find him, Sire.” Theido tried to sound matter-of-fact, though the sight of his distraught king disturbed him greatly.

“We would have come sooner . . . ,” began Ronsard. His voice failed him, and he turned away.

“Go away,” said the king.

“My lord, we would speak to you as friends.” Theido took a step toward him. “Please, I ask as a friend, hear us.”

“Friends,” Quentin mumbled. The word was a curse upon his lips. He passed a hand over his eyes and then asked again, “Where is my son?”

“He will be found. Trust in it; he will be found.”

The Dragon King shot an angry look at the two knights. “Trust in it! He says to trust that my son will be found!” His voice rose higher as rage leaped up in him like a flame. “Trust, eh? Trust what? Trust you? Trust the Most High? Ha! There is nothing that a man can trust. Everything deserts him in the end. Youth fades. Love grows cold. The works of his hands disintegrate—or are torn apart by his enemies!”

The king lurched up out of his chair and took up the long iron poker from the hearth as he began to pace back and forth. “The gods, my friends, the gods! Sooner trust in the weather; it is less fickle than they. The gods taunt a man, build him up so that they may laugh at him when they dash him under the wheels of misfortune. Great sport! See how he writhes and tears at his flesh! See how his heart turns upon himself; see how his pain devours him!”

Theido and Ronsard could only stare at this tirade.

“The Most High!” continued the king. “Do not speak to me of the Most High. He is more subtle and more wicked than all the rest! He tortures his victims with dreams and visions of glory. He prophesies and promises. He delivers their enemies into their hands and raises them up far beyond their rightful place.

“And then he takes it all away. Takes the man’s very heart out of him, strips him of all he holds dear in life and casts him bleeding into darkness! That is the Most High, God of gods! And fool is he who trusts in him!”

With that Quentin threw the poker. It smashed into the table, knocking over a tray of food that had been sitting there cold and untouched. Silver utensils scattered and clattered to the floor.

Quentin staggered, holding his head, and fell back into his chair, exhausted.

A stunned silence hung like a pall over the room. Ronsard touched Theido on the arm, nodded toward the door, and the two left quietly, closing the door behind them.

27

Never have I seen him so.” Ronsard gestured with his hand toward the chamber they had just left. He spoke in an astonished whisper. “He is not himself.”

“The weight of his dreams has fallen upon him, and he is being crushed beneath it.” Theido shook his head sadly.

“Dreams are one thing, but he raves as one gone mad!”

“If he feels the depths of his sorrow more deeply than other men, it is because he has trusted the Most High more than most.”

“If he falls the farther, it is because he flew the higher, eh? Would that Durwin were here. He would know what to do.” Ronsard sighed heavily. “I miss that old hermit.”

“Aye, and so do I. But we must do the best we can. The kingdom depends upon it, I think.”

“What shall we do?” Ronsard shrugged helplessly. “Until the prince is recovered, there is nothing to be done.”

“No,” said Theido slowly, “I perceive there is more to his torture than the prince’s disappearance.”

“Or Durwin’s death?”

“Or Durwin’s death. Though both of those weigh heavy on him now, I believe he could rise above them if not for his loss of faith in the Most High.”

“What can we do about that?”

“Find the sword.” Theido looked steadily at his friend. “Find the sword and return it to him before someone else takes it for himself.”

“I am all for it, sir. Only tell me how to do it, and it will be done.”

“I would tell you if I knew, count on it. I only know that we must recover the sword—and soon.” Theido put his chin in his hand and stood for a few moments in deep thought. Ronsard watched him and waited.

He said at last, “Ronsard, you must go alone and begin the search.”

“And you?”

“I will stay here, close to the king. He may need a stout companion nearby.”

“As you say, Theido. But where shall I start?”

“That is the puzzle. But I think I have a plan that will be useful to us. Are you game to try?”

“I will do anything.”

“Good; then come with me. There is no time to lose.”

The first thing he felt as consciousness returned was something cool running down the side of his neck. Blood? He raised a hand and felt the side of his head where the blood started.

The movement brought a throb of pain to his aching head. He moaned.

“Toli? Are you alive?”

The voice was hushed, but nearby. He opened his eyes carefully, then squeezed them shut again quickly, the light sending blazing fireballs through his brain.

“Ahhh!”

“Just lie back. Do not move,” the voice urged. Toli tried to place it.

In a moment the throb in his head eased somewhat, and he opened his eyes, shielding them with his hand. The bare stone room was dim. The light slanted down in a single brilliant band from a narrow window high up in the wall. He lay on a straw pallet on the floor opposite the window.

He turned his head to the side; his vision wavered, but he made out the form crouching beside him on folded knees.

“Prince Gerin! Oww! What did they do to my head?”

“They dumped you in here. I was afraid you were dead.”

“When was that?” Toli pushed himself up slowly on his elbows. Each small movement brought a new stab of pain through his head.

“Do you not remember?” asked the prince. He offered again a bit of cloth soaked with water that he had applied to Toli’s head.

Toli took it and placed it against his forehead. “I remember nothing,” he said. “No—I remember coming to the temple and asking to see the high priest. I saw him, I think—talked with him. The next thing I know, I am waking up here.”

“The high priest?”

“Yes.”

“Is that where we are? The temple?”

“It must be,” replied Toli. He looked around the cell and at the door, which was not the door of a castle dungeon, though it was heavy oak and strong enough to keep a prisoner from breaking free. “Did you not know where you were also taken?”

“No, it was dark. And they blindfolded me. It seems we walked for days. Then I was shoved in here. Days ago. That is the blindfold you are holding.” Gerin indicated the damp rag.

“I see. How many days?” Toli studied the prince carefully, searching for any signs of mistreatment.

“Three, I think—maybe four. Yes, four. Two before you came.”

“I have been here two days?” It did not seem possible.

“This is the second. How do you feel?”

“I will live.” Toli reached out a hand and patted the young prince on the shoulder. “You have done well, young sir. I am glad to see you alive. How have they treated you?”

“Well enough. I am fed from their table and have good water.” Gerin looked eagerly at his friend, glad to have someone he knew with him, though both were prisoners. “Toli, what has happened?”

“I scarcely know.” He shook his head slowly. How do I tell him? he wondered.

“I know about Durwin. I have been worried for Father.”

“He is well. He is searching for you—for us. Ronsard and Theido, too.”

“Poor Durwin,” said Gerin. Tears came to his eyes. “Oh, poor Durwin.”

“Your father was with him when he died. He died at peace.”

Gerin sniffed, trying to hold back his sorrow. But he had been brave so long; now that a friend was here, he could let go. The sobs came, and the tears washed down his face.

Toli put an arm around the boy’s slim shoulders. “It is good to cry. He was your friend. There is no shame in tears of mourning.”

When Prince Gerin could cry no more, Toli gathered him close, speaking softly. “I do not know why this has happened, but there is some evil behind it, you may be certain. Priests do not leave the temple to murder and kidnap the innocent—that is, they have never done so before. Why they should start now, I cannot say.” He looked at Gerin closely. “But we must find out what it is they plan. Think now. What did you see?”

The prince was silent for some moments, then raised his eyes to Toli and said, “There were six of them, five of them swordsmen and one other—the leader. I heard them talking about him.”

“What did they say?”

“They do not like him much. That is all.” He thought for a moment, and added, “And the one who told about Durwin—he said that the king had killed one of them in the road.” He looked at Toli questioningly.

“That may be true. If so, it is another matter to weigh on his heart.” Toli was silent for a moment, then added, “Well, it is done. Perhaps there is yet some better purpose behind it. We must hope so.”

The two talked and comforted each other. The day, measured by the slanting band of light as it moved across the floor and up the opposite wall of the cell, stretched on. Toward evening a priest came in with two bowls of water and a large trencher of food. The door was opened, the food slipped in, and the door closed and bolt thrown—all in an instant.

“This is how the food is brought?” Toli asked.

“Yes, every day. I think they are afraid I will try to escape.”

“Have you tried to escape?”

The prince nodded. “Once—on the road. Tarky reared and I fell, or was grabbed. That is when he ran away. It was not far from here.”

“A horse with Tarky’s sense can find his way back home, or someone will catch him and take him to the king. Either way I believe someone will soon think to look for us in this direction; the king will find us, you will see.”

Gerin nodded, but said nothing.

Toli patted his shoulder, saying, “Never fear, young sir. I will not let anything happen to you.” The words almost stuck in his throat. Even if it costs my life, he thought, I will not fail you again.

28

What for you, my good fellow?” Milcher rubbed his pudgy hands on his sopping apron and grinned good-naturedly at the stranger. “Are you new to Askelon?”

The sandy-haired man, dressed in the clothes of a common laborer —leather jerkin over a brown tunic and baggy brown trousers—leaned against the bar. “A jar of your dark, if you please, sir,” he replied. “Are you the inn master?”

“Aye,” said Milcher. “I am the keeper. But my wife is the master.” He gave the man a great wink. “Dark it is, and the best in all Mensandor, some say. I myself prefer it.”

The innkeeper turned away for a moment to fill the jar, and the man took advantage of the lapse to study the interior of the inn. The Gray Goose was full tonight. There was a hubbub of conversation, which was normal, but this overlaid a churning current of excitement. An atmosphere of expectancy thickened in the place as dense as the smoke from the pipes of the patrons, which curled toward the low-beamed ceiling. Ale jars clinked, and men drank and talked in strained, nervous voices.

Ronsard had felt it the moment he walked in—this tingly, anxious suspense. It was as if they were all gathered there waiting for something to happen, knowing that something would happen, wanting it to happen.

Secure now in his disguise as a peasant, there was little chance of discovery; he was not a frequenter of inns and did not live in Askelon any longer, so it was unlikely he would meet anyone he knew. Ronsard turned back to Milcher, who was laying the pewter jar on the board. “Strange mood, tonight, eh?”

“Aye—for the last two nights.” Milcher nodded slyly.

“How so?”

“Have you been out of the country, man? The kidnapping! The king’s sword lost!” Milcher rolled his eyes and leaned close. “There is wickedness about, my friend. Folks do well to look to themselves, if you know what I mean.”

“I heard about the kidnapping,” said Ronsard, sipping from his jar, “but what is this about the king’s sword? I know nothing of that.”

“Oh!” cried Milcher. He leaned close again with the air of a man discharging a secret it burned him to keep. “The king’s sword is gone. No one knows where. It is said the king will fall. Without the sword he cannot stand.”

“You cannot mean the Shining One—”

“One and the same! Yes, that’s the one. What other sword would it be?” He turned to the other man working at the bar. “Otho! Come here.”

Otho lumbered up and fixed Ronsard with a look of benign appraisal. “Yes?”

“Otho, tell this fellow about the king’s enchanted sword.”

Otho was not tired of relating his knowledge, though he had done little else since he heard it. With enthusiasm he embroidered on the scant details he possessed, embellishing them to lend his tale extra color.

“Aye, I see what you mean.” Ronsard nodded solemnly when Otho had finished. “This could be bad. Very bad indeed. I am glad I am not the king.”

“His fish is flayed, as they say. I do not think he will be king for long. There is much talk against him now.”

“I have not heard such talk.”

“It is just beginning. There was a man in here last night, a white-bearded fellow from the north, out of Obrey. He said that people there are afraid of the Dragon King’s new god—this Most High of his. They are arming to protect their temples.”

“Protect their temples? From what?”

“From the king! The Dragon King has sent men to pull down the temples.” Otho nodded knowingly, his round face glowing with pleasure at having such a dull-witted and uninformed listener.

“Aye, I have been hearing the same,” put in Milcher.

“Who is this man—this one who is saying these things?”

“He was in here last night. Told us all about it. If you wait a bit he may be back. I think he said he would come back tonight if he was still in Askelon.” Milcher swept his eyes over the crowds lining the benches and hunched over the tables of his establishment. “I do not see him now, but he may come later.”

Ronsard took up his jar and said, “I will wait, in that case. I want to hear what he has to say. Point him out to me when he comes.”

They had come upon the ruined city in the setting sun. The red stone of Dekra glimmered like ruby in the crimson twilight, its delicate spires and finger-thin towers rising toward the deep blue heavens. The city seemed to have magically appeared, dropped out of the sky into the wilderness, a thing of charmed creation.

“This is Dekra,” said Esme. “I have never seen anything like it. It is so . . . so different.”

“It is a strange beauty,” replied Bria. “Very unlike the cities we build. The Ariga used many building methods unknown to us.”

“There has been much accomplished here since last I set eyes upon it,” said Alinea. “That was long ago. But Quentin has told me that the work goes on apace. Yes, much has been done.”

They rode to the gates of Dekra, now closed against the night. But upon reaching the huge tiled gates, a boy appeared, popping his head through the smaller gate-door cut in one side of the much greater panel. He disappeared again, quick as a blink, and they heard his voice calling on the other side. “Visitors! Open the gates! Visitors!”

They waited, and in a little while heard the creak of the gates opening. The stoop-shouldered man who met them smiled and ushered them through the gates, saying, “I am sorry to have shut you out. We did not expect visitors this night, or I would have left them open for you. Come in, come in. Welcome to Dekra!”

The travelers all dismounted, glad to be free of the saddle. The man closed the gates once more and then hurried to them. “Have you ridden far, good people?”

“From Askelon,” replied Alinea.

“All is well in Askelon, I hope. It is a far ride; you must be very tired.” He peered at them with kindly eyes, glad to see these visitors who would bring some news of the rest of the kingdom. “I have sent the boy to bring an elder. I am sure he will want to receive you properly.”

At that moment there were voices; they looked up to see the young boy followed by a man in a long mantle coming swiftly toward them. Behind him were several others who had dropped what they were doing in order to come and make the visitors welcome.

“Ah, Alinea! Bria! How good to see you again! Oh, this is a joyous surprise! Look,” he called to those around him, “the queen has come! And Alinea!”

Alinea looked at the man, trying to remember him. Bria stepped up just then. “Mother, you certainly remember Elder Jollen.”

“Oh, yes, I remember him well. It has been a long time. I am much surprised you remember me!”

“Not as long as all that—to look at you, you have not changed a bit. You are still as lovely as ever you were.” The elder bowed to the ladies graciously. “And, Bria, if not for your mother standing here beside you, I would declare you were her. So much alike you are. Flowers of the same bud. Speaking of flowers . . .” He winked at the princesses, who giggled.

“You do flatter us, sir.”

“No flattery, my queen. It is the truth.” His eyes turned to Esme, standing nearby. “And you must be the lovely Esme, of whom so many good things have been spoken.”

“I am honored, sir, and much impressed, for surely we have never met.”

“No, but it is not difficult to guess your identity. I remember an occasion or two when Bria told me about her friend. I knew when I saw you that you must be she. Welcome!” He turned his eyes to Wilkins and the knights. “Welcome, good friends all.” Elder Jollen paused, regarded his guests carefully, and added, “May you find in Dekra that which you seek.”

There was silence for a moment; then he clapped his hands and said, “Now then, the Governor’s Palace is ready for you. My wife instructs me that you are to dine with us this night. But take your time; refresh yourselves from your trip. Some of the young people will go along to help you settle your belongings.”

“Thank you, Jollen,” said Bria. “But I feel already revived just having set foot in Dekra. We will join you soon.”

“Excellent! Go along now. I will invite the other elders to join us after the meal and we will talk—with your permission?”

“Yes, please do. I would have suggested it. I think it will be best.”

“It is good to be here again,” remarked Alinea. “I had forgotten how it lifts the heart, and how much I have missed it without knowing what it was I longed for.”

“Then I am glad you have come. Perhaps you may stay a long while, my lady.” Jollen beamed happily at his weary guests. “Yes,” he said again, “I am glad you have come.”

The visitors were immediately swept up and away by the happy inhabitants of Dekra, and led to the old Governor’s Palace in the heart of the restored section of the city in a procession that wound through the narrow paved streets of the ancient ruin. All along the way, Curatak stopped to watch them pass, greeting them enthusiastically or joining in the throng.

Esme gazed in wonder at all she saw; everything appeared so foreign and so strange. The walls of buildings all aglow in the setting sun shone with colored tiles—mosaics of the life of the vanished Ariga. Great arches and long colonnades of graceful spiral columns—all carved from the same gleaming red stone—gave the appearance of a majestic, exalted race. The simple sweeping lines of their architecture spoke to her of lofty purpose and a nobility of heart and mind.

The effect was singular. So simple and yet so right. Yes, that was the word. There was a rightness about things here, she decided. A wholeness. A wholeness of what? She did not know yet. It was only upon seeing and experiencing Dekra that one noticed the aching lack in the rest of the world.

All around her the Curatak chattered like happy children, glad to see them, to receive visitors. She felt their eagerness splash over her like spring rain, reviving her, warming her. She felt the great lump of buried ice she had carried so long in her heart begin to thaw and melt.

Oh, she thought to herself, what a wonderful, fantastic place. I am glad I came. By the time they reached the Governor’s Palace, she was thinking, Truly this is the city of gods. I never want to leave.

29

To Pym, the inside of Askelon Castle was utterly and inexpressibly remote—like a castle of the gods in the far mountains. He had often seen the high, forbidding walls rising from the great crown of rock on which the castle was founded, and had as often wondered what the inside looked like.

Of course he had been through the gates on occasion—on his visits to the kitchens, where he did his business with the king’s staff. But never had he been invited into the castle itself, and the close proximity served to heighten, rather than diminish, his curiosity.

But now it appeared he would be allowed through the gates and into the halls and chambers beyond—perhaps even to stand in the Great Hall of the Dragon King. Reluctantly he said good-bye to Tip, being forced to leave the dog in the inner ward yard, and turned to wait for the chamberlain who would conduct him inside. He had come at dusk, after his day’s work was finished, thinking that kings worked sunrise to sundown like other men, and that he would have a better chance of an audience when the king’s daily labors were done.

Ordinarily Oswald—son of Oswald the Elder, who had died some years ago, following the death of Eskevar—would not have dreamed of letting the little tinker inside the castle, but would have sent him straightaway to the kitchens. But he was overwhelmed with anxiety for the king. Quentin had sunk further into depression and did not stir from his stuffy chamber, which he now kept sealed and dark as a tomb.

Oswald feared for the king. Even Theido had been powerless to effect any change in the king’s behavior. So anything was worth a try— even a tinker who had come to the gates insisting on seeing the king, saying he had important information for him, information that only the Dragon King himself could hear.

“I am Oswald, the king’s chamberlain,” he explained. “What do you want?”

Pym, sitting on a stone bench just under the archway of the main castle entrance, stood up quickly and came forward. “Good sir, if ye please, be s’kind as to bring me to the king. We’uns’ve a pressing matter t’ set afore His Highness.”

“The king,” informed Oswald coldly, hoping to draw information from the man, “sees no one who will not state his business to me.”

Pym scratched his jaw. “That I cannot say, sir. It is fer the king.” He leaned forward and confided, “But I kin tell ye this much . . .”

“Yes?” Oswald glared at the man, but he seemed not to notice.

“It be veery, veery important. That’s what ’tis, yes?”

“And what does this important information concern?”

“That be fer the king, sir. Not fer no’un else.”

Oswald could see that the man was adamant about an audience with the king. He looked harmless enough, and who could say but that the tinker might indeed have something that could be useful to his master, though that seemed highly unlikely. Still there was a possibility, and in this dark time even the minutest chances might be snatched at.

“What is your name, sir?” asked Oswald.

“Pym, sir. Pym ’tis, and Pym ’t always will be.”

“Very well, Pym. Although it is not my proper course to admit you like this, I will. But if you waste the king’s time and my own with worthless drivel or idle rumor such as is heard in any village market or inn, I will have you removed promptly. Do you understand? You will never be welcome in Askelon again!” He looked at the tinker sharply. “Now, then, do you still want to see His Majesty?”

“I do, sir.” Pym swallowed hard.

“Do you still maintain that your information is vital to his ears alone?”

“’Tis, sir.”

“Follow me.”

With that, Oswald the Younger had turned on his heel and walked away. Pym hesitated. “Well?” Oswald asked. “Are you coming?”

Pym nodded and hurried after the chamberlain. They marched along a wide, polished corridor where servants moved, hurrying about their chores. To Pym, the smooth stone walls and oak-beamed ceilings seemed things of enchanted origin. He marveled at even the most commonplace furnishings he glimpsed along the way, for they were royal furnishings. This was the home of the Dragon King, and these were the Dragon King’s chattel.

Past countless doorways they went, past halls—each with huge carven doors—and galleries hung with giant tapestries of rich design. Up stairs and down stairs they went, deeper and deeper into the heart of the castle, and with every step Pym grew more excited. He was to see the king!

Finally they stopped in a short passageway of paneled oak—the royal apartments. Oswald led them to a door that bore the carved and red-lacquered figure of a terrible, twisting dragon. The chamberlain put his hand to the latch and said, “Wait here; I will announce you.”

Pym, with palms sweating now, wiped his hands on the backside of his trousers, shifted first on one foot, then on the other. Perhaps it was a mistake—perhaps it would be better to tell the chamberlain and let him decide if the king should hear his story. Yes, without a doubt. Let the chamberlain decide.

But before Pym could change his mind, Oswald reappeared, and he was yanked inside. Oswald took him through this first room—there were chairs and a great long table piled high with many scrolls of plans for buildings and a gleaming suit of armor standing on its frame—and to a door at the farther end, to the king’s inner chamber.

Oswald knocked softly, opened the door, and pushed Pym in. “Sire, Pym the tinker to see you.” The door closed quickly and quietly behind him, cutting off his only escape.

Pym tottered forward on shaky knees, his eyes unused to the darkness, his mind reeling in the awesome knowledge that he was in the presence of the mighty Dragon King. It was almost more than he could endure.

As evening came on, the inn grew crowded and the conversation more intense. Amid the clink of ale jars in the hazy, murk-filled room, Ronsard, in his disguise as an ordinary laborer, listened and watched all that took place around him.

Something was at work; he could sense it, feel it. All gathered at the Gray Goose could feel it too. A heightened impatience, a simmering restlessness seethed just below the surface. Expectation, at first casual, had been drawn tighter and tighter until it hummed like a bowstring. Anticipation quivered in every voice, danced in every eye.

Tonight there would be trouble.

Ronsard had seen moods like this before in crowds of men. On the battlefield it could send troops into a foaming fury to drive the enemy into flight. It could just as easily turn back on itself and ignite flames of fear, causing even field-proven veterans to abandon their arms in mortal terror. Which way it turned depended on the leader.

But who was the leader here? he wondered. That white-bearded traveler the innkeeper had mentioned?

Ronsard drifted unseen from table to table, listening here and there to what was said, trying to determine not only what sparked this unnatural mood, but also what course it would take when it broke.

“I tell ’ee,” said a man, “the gods er angered.”

“’Tis the fault o’ the king. Any man, blind or not, can see that plain enough,” said another.

“It is no good going against them. No good at all.”

“Dangerous it is! Dangerous!”

“Something must be done!”

“The sword is lost, did you hear? The Zhaligkeer is lost.”

“Aye, there’s trouble coming. It has brought us nothing but trouble. What’s wrong with the old ways?”

“Old ways are best! By the gods!”

“The Shining One gone? What can it mean?”

“The kingdom is without a king! That is what it means!”

So the voices went. And of all the gossip Ronsard heard, one item concerned him more than any other: they knew about the missing sword. The king’s enemies would know soon, if not already, and then the infighting would start.

Would Quentin be equal to it? Ordinarily, yes. But not now, not in his present condition.

Ronsard settled back along a rear bench and watched the room as one would watch a cauldron beginning to boil. Would this stranger, this Longbeard, show himself ? What if he did not come—what would happen? Ah, what would happen if he did appear? That was more to be feared.

Ronsard stood and was about to return his long-empty ale jar to the bar when Longbeard entered. Ronsard did not see or hear him. Rather, he knew the man had appeared by the sudden tension in the room, the thrill that tingled in the dank, smoky air.

The inn grew hushed.

“He is here!” said a voice close by.

“There he is. That’s the one I told you about.”

“Ah, yes. Here he is.”

“Now we will find out what to do.”

“Longbeard will tell us what to do!”

The whispers swirled around the gnarled old man like dry leaves around a bent old tree. Longbeard moved into them easily. If he understood the sensation his sudden appearance had caused, he showed no outward sign of it.

Ronsard watched him walk to the center of the room, making his way to the bar. The inn was completely silent now. All eyes were on the old man with the flowing white hair and beard. Watching. Waiting.

Then came a shout. “Longbeard! Have you seen him?”

Seen whom? wondered Ronsard.

Longbeard turned toward the voice and replied, speaking normally, but so every ear could hear him, “Yes. I have just come from his chambers.”

A man standing near him asked, “Will he change his mind?”

“No.” Longbeard shook his head slowly, with infinite sadness. “He will not change his mind.”

“Then we must take matters into our own hands,” shouted someone from across the room.

“Tell us what to do,” said another.

Longbeard held up his hands. “It is not for me to tell you what to do. I am a simple man like yourselves. I know not the ways and minds of gods or kings.”

The knowledge stung Ronsard like the blow from the flat of a sword. The king! He was talking about the king! Quentin was the “he” this Longbeard mentioned.

But how was this possible? It was improbable that this white-bearded old stranger had been allowed to see the king. The Dragon King had shut himself in his rooms and would see no one—not even his closest friends, as Ronsard well knew. Yet, the implication was plain: I have been to see the king, and he will not change his mind. Change his mind about what? What game was this twisted old root playing? What was his aim?

I must speak to him alone, thought Ronsard. I must get him out of here some way and take him where we can talk without being overheard. There are too many people here. The situation could get out of hand.

But before Ronsard could form a plan in his mind, someone shouted, “Tear the King’s Temple down!”

“By all the gods, yes. Tear it down!” answered another.

Other voices took up the shout and added their agreement. Benches were thrown over as men jumped up. In an instant every man in the room was on his feet, fists in the air, crying for the destruction of the King’s Temple.

This, then, is the spark that ignites the flame, thought Ronsard. But there must be a way to stop it. He glanced around for a place to stand, saw an empty table nearby, and jumped up on it.

“Friends, what you propose to do is wrong. It is very dangerous as well. Some of you could get hurt—hurt very badly. Maybe even killed. It is no small thing to go against the king. Do you think he will not defend his temple? How many of you would make your wives widows this night?”

Ronsard noticed that some of the eyes slid away from his uneasily. Good, he thought, this is working. But I must give them something now.

“Let us instead send a petition before the king,” suggested the knight. “We will demand that he account to us for the raising of this temple. The petition can be our voice.”

There were mutters of agreement all around. Hot heads were cooling under Ronsard’s sobering logic. He drew a sleeve across his face to wipe away the sweat.

“Please,” he continued in a more reasonable tone, “for your own sakes, and for your families, let us all sit down together and draw up the petition.”

“When?” said someone close by.

“At once—here and now!”

“And then?” the same voice asked.

“And then I will take it to the king personally.” Yes, thought Ronsard, this is working. A disaster had been averted tonight.

But just as he framed the thought, there came a shout from across the room. He glanced up to see old Longbeard standing on a table pointing at him.

“Lies!” Longbeard screamed. “Lies!” Before Ronsard could speak the old man shouted, “Do any of you know this man?”

The crowd grumbled its answer: no one knew him.

“Ah, you see!” shouted Longbeard. “He is one of the king’s men. I saw him when I went to see the king this evening. He was there. The king sent him here as a spy among us!”

“No! It is not true! I only want to help you.”

“King’s man!” a burly peasant shouted behind him.

“It is true: I am a friend of the king. But I am no less your friend. I am warning you: do not go against him in this matter. Do not take th—”

Before Ronsard could finish speaking, he felt the table on which he was standing rise up, tilting away from him.

“Lies!” they shouted. “Liar! We’ll do for you!”

The table tipped, and Ronsard was pitched to the floor. He landed on his side, and the fall knocked the wind out of him. He rolled to his knees, gasping for breath.

A boot lashed out and struck him in the ribs. A fist caught him behind the ear. He struggled for his feet.

The room spun crazily. The air was heavy, and Ronsard found it hard to breathe. Loud voices buzzed in his ears, but he could not hear what they were saying. Feet and fists pummeled him.

Ronsard rolled into a ball to protect himself, throwing his arms over his head. A table crashed to the floor nearby, scattering ale jars. A heartbeat later, light exploded behind his closed eyelids. His limbs jerked convulsively, and he lay still.

30

The meal had been simple, wholesome fare: brown bread and white cheese, braised meat, early vegetables, and fruit. Esme, enraptured with Dekra, thought each dish a delicacy, and savored every bite.

She spoke little during the meal, but listened to all that was said around her. There was a quality to the voices she heard—a song that rang in the air, faintly but noticeably; it was music to charm her soul. Upon reaching their rooms in the visitors’ quarters of the Governor’s Palace, they had bathed in fresh, sun-warmed water and changed clothes, accepting clean new gowns of white with light summer mantles of blue, tied at the waist with long blue sashes. They had rested then on clean feather beds, awaking refreshed when their young guides came for them.

When they reached Elder Jollen’s dwelling, the stars were beginning to light the twilight sky, and the sound of laughter drifted out of the courtyard adjoining his home. Many of Dekra’s people had been invited to make welcome the important visitors. There were candle lanterns all around—lining the tops of the walls and hanging from the trees. A long table had been brought outside where they could sit; others made themselves comfortable on cushions or benches along the wall. After they had eaten, songs were sung, and the elders told stories to the amusement of all.

The evening passed like a dream, a dream of happiness and light, of 973 fullness and peace. Flowing peace, thought Esme, like a river. Not merely the absence of care, but a deeper, all-absorbing trust in the ultimate rightness of things. Like a river that runs along its course, be it rocky or smooth, accepting both with equal ease, never allowing the rocks to stanch the flow, filling the deep and shallow places alike, covering all and flowing on.

All this Esme received from looking and listening: looking at those around her and listening to her heart.

When at last they were alone with the elders—the little princesses were carried back to their beds sound asleep—Bria began to tell them why they had come. Esme waited to see how the elders would receive this news, and what they would do about it.

They were unusual men, these elders, she thought as she watched them nodding their heads gravely; their very presence invoked an aura of wisdom and trust. Only moments before they had been telling funny stories and laughing the loudest of any. They sat or moved among their people without regard for their exalted position—indeed, more like servants than leaders. But now they sat in solemn council, entering into the troubled events that Bria described with empathy and compassion. Not as judges, but as sympathetic friends, they listened with all attention, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking their heads sadly, but listening until the queen was finished.

“. . . And that is why we have come to you,” Bria was saying. “We did not know what else to do.”

Elder Orfrey, the man chosen to replace Yeseph, spoke gently in answer. “You have done well to come here. We will help you all we can.”

“Ah, the many shapes of evil,” said Elder Patur. “Darkness is most inventive in its combat with the light.”

“But powerless in the end,” added Elder Clemore.

“Yes, as long as men refuse to give in to it,” said Elder Jollen.

“The battle rages on all sides,” said Patur, “and men are drawn into the melee whether they will or no. I see that the battle has come once more to Askelon and to the king. But it is ever thus—darkness fears the places where light burns the brightest, and these the darkness would destroy.”

“What can be done?” asked Bria. Esme wondered the same thing.

“That is the responsibility of the Most High,” replied Clemore. “We will seek his guidance.”

“Through prayer?”

“Yes, through prayer,” said Patur. “We will hold a prayer vigil for Quentin and young Gerin, Toli, and the others. Concerning Durwin, though we mourn his passing, we will rejoice in his entrance to the kingdom of the Most High, and pray that his reward is great. We will begin at once.”

With that the men joined hands with the women and began to pray. Esme, who had never prayed in this fashion, felt awkward at first, but relaxed and turned her mind to the prayers of the elders. As she listened, she felt a moving within her; her heart quickened, responding to the words, but also to something more: a presence unseen, but distinct. It was as if the Most High had come to sit among them, entering into their prayer.

Esme’s scalp prickled at the thought—a god who walks among his people! How strange. Gods were remote, disinterested, living in their mountains or in their temples, served by man, but never serving, as likely to harm as to help if it pleased them.

At that moment she gave herself to the God Most High, saying to herself, “I know not of your ways as others here; but, Most High, if you will receive me, I will follow you. For I, too, would learn of you and serve you.”

In response Esme felt a slight rising sensation, as if her soul were being lifted up. By this she knew that her prayer had been heard and accepted. She gripped the hand on either side of her more tightly, and felt life begin to trickle through her heart once more, after being dried up for so long.

Pym stood in the darkness of the king’s chamber. He could hear him breathing slowly, rhythmically, like an animal in its lair. Should he speak? he wondered. Should he wait until addressed?

The moment stretched to an awkward length, and still the king said nothing. Pym cleared his throat hesitantly. He waited.

“Well?” asked a voice out of the darkness. The voice rasped like the voice of an old man. “What do you want?”

“I’ve come—,” began Pym.

But before he could continue the king shouted at him, “I do not care why you have come! Go away and leave me!”

The tinker saw the hulking form before him suddenly lurch to its feet and stagger toward him. He took a frightened step back. “Sire, I meant no harm. I meant—”

“Get out of here! Can you not see I want to be left alone?”

Pym made a move toward the door.

“No! Wait! You have news of my son?” the Dragon King asked. He came near and gripped the tinker by his shoulders, blowing his breath in the man’s face.

Pym recoiled from the grasp and from the king’s foul breath. “Nay! I have no sech news,” Pym managed to stammer.

“Ach!” cried the king, and released him with a shove that sent him flying.

Pym slammed against the door and stayed there, petrified. Surely the king would not kill him, would he?

“What is it?” spat the king savagely. “Well? Tell me. Have you lost your tongue?”

Before Pym could reply, there came a hasty knock behind him, and the door was shoved open, sending the tinker sprawling.

“Sire! Come quickly. Something is happening! Trouble, Your Majesty! Come quickly.”

In the light from the open door Pym saw the king—face as gray as ashes, dark circles under his eyes, cheeks sunken and hollow. He looked like a wraith who had come back from the grave, not a flesh-and-bone man with warm blood in his veins. Was this the great Dragon King?

Without a second glance, the king swept by him and out of the door. Pym scrambled to his feet and peered through the doorway. There were other voices now ringing down the corridors. Pym paid them no attention; his only thought was to leave at once and get as far away as possible before the king came back and found him still there.

He crept out of the chamber and back along the now-deserted passageways of the castle, coming at length to the entrance. He stepped out into a cool night, bright with stars. Tip lay waiting for him with head on paw.

“It’s home fer we’uns, Tipper,” said Pym, still shaken by what had happened to him. Tip wagged her tail. “Back t’ the Gray Goose we go right enough.”

He cast a last look behind him and then made his way across the inner ward yard and through the gate into the outer ward yard and toward the castle gatehouse. The great gates were closed, but a keeper stood near the smaller door, which was still open within the larger.

Pym said nothing, but hurried on by, through the gatehouse tunnel, lit with torchlight, and onto the huge drawbridge. Upon reaching the ramp he slowed, feeling like a malefactor escaped from the castle dungeons to freedom. He walked along the streets and as he turned toward the inn, heard a rumbling like the sound of distant thunder carried on the wind. He stopped and listened.

A group of men came around the corner—a dozen or more, shouting loudly and carrying oily, smoking torches. They brushed by him in the narrow street, hurrying away. One look at their wild, twisted faces, and Pym knew that they meant no one any good.

He shivered as he watched the men disappear down a side street. Shouts echoed in the empty streets far off. Pym shook his head dismally. “Aye, there be trouble, Tip. Master Oswald spoke aright. Come along, old girl. ’Tis no night fer we’uns to be about.”

They hurried back to the Gray Goose. In the distance the rumbling could still be heard intermittently; not thunder now, but the drums of battle just before the inevitable clash.

31

By the time Theido reached the site with his small force of knights, the destruction was almost complete. Three walls had been toppled, and the fourth was wobbling under the stress of ropes and poles in the hands of scores of frenzied townspeople.

“My lord, we have come too late,” said the knights at Theido’s right hand. His face flickered in the blaze of torchlight around them. “Do you want us to disperse them?”

Theido watched the men screaming and leaping to their task, obviously caught in the rage of destruction. At that moment the upper layer of stones on the last wall gave way and tumbled to the earth—thudding with such force that the ground shook and reverberated like a drum.

“No, not yet,” replied Theido. “Someone could get hurt. I do not want anyone killed; the damage is done already.”

“We should do something,” the knight insisted. “The King’s Temple . . .” His voice trailed off as he gestured hopelessly to the ruin.

“What would you have us do?” snapped Theido angrily. “The deed is done! Broken heads will not save anything. Look at them out there— the whole town has gone mad!” Theido stared into the mob. Ropes snaked out through the air; poles thrust against stone; shouts became a growling chant as another whole section of the wall caved in. A cheer went up. It was the cry of a beast.

Theido said wearily, “Send the men around the perimeter to ring them in. When it is done, disperse them. We will not have this insanity spread. Do not hesitate to use the flat of your swords. But I want no unnecessary hurt done to anyone—is that understood?” The knight nodded. “See to it, then. I am returning at once to the castle.”

From the high battlements Quentin watched the assault on his new temple in mute agony. The hill on which the temple was being constructed blazed with torchlight, and he could hear the shouts of the townspeople clearly in the night air, though the building site lay some distance away from the castle. He saw the churning mass around the walls, and he saw the stones of his great temple fall.

Those around the king held their tongues, afraid to speak, fearful of what he might do. The cold, unnatural light on his haggard face created a ferocious, almost savage aspect. Muscles tense, limbs rigid, the veins in his neck and forehead standing out, eyes staring from his head in horror—he appeared ready to leap over the battlements at any moment, or of a disposition to tear the limbs from any who came near him.

Quentin stood as stone and watched the desolation of his dream take place before his very eyes. With every stone that fell to earth, a piece of him was laid waste, and he could do nothing but watch and feel the wound in his soul knifing deeper with every section of wall that thundered down.

When the last wall came crashing onto the pile of rubble, he turned without a word and went back to his chamber. Theido found him there, sitting in the dark.

Taking a candle from a holder in the outer chamber, the stalwart knight approached the king. He lit the candles on the table and several others on their stands around the room, moving quietly, as if he feared disturbing his monarch’s meditations.

When he had finished, he put his candle in a holder on the table and went to stand before the king. Quentin did not look at him; his eyes were trained upon a scene far away.

“There was nothing to be done,” said Theido gently. “They will be dispersed and sent home.”

The Dragon King said nothing for a long time. Theido waited, uncertain whether the king had heard him or not. Silence stretched between them like a web.

“Why?” asked Quentin at last. His voice was raw. The single word spoke volumes of misery.

Theido watched his friend, knowing that he was being devoured inside. When the hurt grew too much, the knight looked away. He could think of nothing to say that would ease the pain.

“Always before there has been a sign,” said Quentin, speaking more to himself than to Theido. “Always before the way was shown clearly— when I most needed to be shown. Always.” In the candlelight the years seemed to roll away from the king’s face. He appeared once more the young temple acolyte Theido had met in the hermit’s hut so many years ago. Even his voice took on the plaintive note of a young boy who had lost his way. “Where is he now? Where is the sign? Why has he abandoned me?” The words hung in the silence, unanswered.

“I saw it, you know, Theido.” Quentin glanced at his friend, acknowledging him for the first time. The next words were spoken in a rush. “I saw it all. In that moment when the Zhaligkeer struck the star, when the light of the new age blazed on earth, driving the darkness before it—I saw it.”

“What did you see, Sire?” Theido asked the question as one would ask a child.

“The temple. The City of Light which I was to build. The Most High showed me his Holy City. I felt his hand upon me . . .” He paused and looked at Theido forlornly. “But no more. He has gone from me. I am condemned.”

“Condemned? Who could condemn you, Sire? Certainly you have ever done what the god required. You above all others have lived according to his way. Durwin said you were chosen.”

“Marked, you mean! Marked for failure. Durwin is dead. The god is gone from me. I stand condemned by my own hand. I killed him, Theido. I did—I, the Dragon King, cut him down with as little thought as one would give a rabid dog. I killed him, and the Most High punishes me with my failure.”

Theido could only think it was Durwin that Quentin referred to. “Sire, you did not kill him. How can you think such a thing?”

“No, it is true! I am telling you the truth!” screamed Quentin, throwing himself from his chair. “I killed him, and the flame went out! The flame died in my hand! The light is gone, Theido. Gone.”

Theido stared at the king, mystified by the outburst. He could make nothing of it; it was the incoherent raving of a madman.

Quentin threw his hands over his face. His shoulders started to heave, but at first there was no sound. Then Theido heard the sobs come forth.

“Darkness,” he cried, “all is darkness!”

“Ooo!” Ronsard moaned. He tried to open his eyes. Only one would open; the other was swollen shut where he had been kicked. He ached in a dozen different places, and his ribs sent stabs of pain through him with every breath.

“There, now . . . take it easy. Do not be too quick to get up, sir,” said the voice in his ear.

Ronsard turned his good eye toward the sound and saw the face of Milcher the innkeeper bending over him. “The wife has gone to bring a cold cloth for your head. Don’t you worry, now. Just sit back.”

Ronsard looked around the room. Benches were overturned and tables stood on edge, but no one remained of the mob that had been there before. “Where are they? Where have they gone?”

“I do not know, nor do I want to know.” Milcher reached for a jar and held it up to Ronsard’s lips. “Drink some of this; ’twill clear the cobwebs from your head.”

Ronsard took the jar and sipped the cool ale and felt the tingle on his tongue. The drink revived him a bit; his head cleared. “Who was he?”

“Sir?” Milcher blinked back at him.

“You know who I mean—Longbeard. Who is he? Where did he come from?” Ronsard made to get up, but the effort sent pain booming through his head. “Ooo!”

“Careful there, sir.” Milcher held him under the arms and helped him to his feet.

Milcher’s round wife returned, sat the knight down in a chair, and pressed the cool cloth against his bruised head. Ronsard sipped some more ale. “Look at this mess!” She clucked her tongue in disgust.

“What happened ’ere?” a new voice asked. Ronsard looked up to see the tinker enter the inn and come toward him.

“There was a riot,” explained Milcher. “They worked themselves into a fit—a roaring fit! I never have seen a thing like it.”

Emm frowned. “And just the moment my back is turned, too.” She said it as if her husband was somehow to blame for all that had happened in her absence. “This gentlemen”—she indicated Ronsard—“tried to talk some sense into them, and look what happened. He got his head broken for his trouble.”

Pym only nodded sadly. Tip held her head to one side and whined sympathetically.

“Well,” replied Ronsard, “it will not be the first time I have had my head broken in the service of the king. Probably not the last time either, the truth be known.”

“How’s that, sir?” asked Milcher suspiciously.

Ronsard remembered his disguise, shrugged, and said, “I am a king’s man. My name is Ronsard.”

“Lord high marshal!” gasped Milcher. “I remember you.”

“No longer—but I am on an errand for the king. I meant no harm in my deception. I only came to hear the talk here in town and thought that tongues would wag more freely if there was not a nobleman about.” He fixed Milcher with a stern look. “Now, then, what of this Longbeard? I would hear all you know.”

“There is nothing you have not already heard, good sir. He came here much as any stranger might. Drank little, talked to some, and left, saying he might be back. He had business that would keep him in Askelon awhile, he said—as I have already told you.”

“Then what was that they said?” He jerked his head to indicate the now nonexistent crowd. ”All that about ‘Have you seen him? Did he change his mind?’ That referred to the king, I’ll warrant.”

“I do not know, sir. I only know what I have told you. An innkeeper cannot be responsible for all the talk that goes on within his walls. I keep a good house.”

“I am certain you do,” replied Ronsard. Milcher was getting worked up, and he saw no reason to keep at him; the strain of the night’s events was telling on them all. “I will inquire after this Longbeard elsewhere. But you must let me know if you hear anything more.”

“He will,” said Emm darkly, and helped Ronsard to his feet. “Never fear, he will. I will see to it.”

“I am sorry—,” Ronsard began.

“No damage done, at least none that cannot be fixed right enough. Get you home to bed and give your head a rest,” said Milcher, leading him to the door.

The knight stepped out into the cool night air. The street was empty and very quiet—an unnatural quiet, it seemed to Ronsard. He knew that some violence had been loosed on the world; he could feel it deep within him, as surely as he felt his bruises. He started off down the street and then remembered he had left his horse at Milcher’s barn behind the inn.

32

Bria was awake long before the sun rose above the green mountains around Dekra. She dressed and went quietly out onto the balcony to stand in the liquid dawn, now showing pale gold in the east.

A new day, she thought. What a wonder. Somewhere my child will wake to this day. Most High, be with him. Comfort him, and give him strength to endure. And give my husband strength as well. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Bria felt with unutterable certainty that her prayer was heard and answered even as she spoke. Here in Dekra, she mused, it was easy to believe that prayers were always answered. Nothing evil ever touched Dekra; it alone remained ever safe from the world’s troubles.

They had stayed long with the elders, praying together. There would be more supplications throughout the day and every day thereafter—as long as they were needed. For that she was grateful, and for the uplifting love she felt from the gentle Curatak.

But it seemed strange to be here in this city, Quentin’s city, without Quentin. Always before they had come together. She smiled as she remembered the way he had dashed here and there, showing her the things he was doing, pointing out all he saw and planned that first time he had brought her to Dekra. They were young and in love and soon to be married. Quentin was newly crowned, and his vision for the realm burned in him with such fierceness he could not stand still for a moment.

They had come often in the early days, and then when the first child was born, they stopped. One child and then another, and then one more . . . it had been a long time since they thought about a trip to the ancient ruined city, even though now it could easily be managed since the children were old enough.

But Quentin had his temple now. He was so intent upon building it—throwing all of himself into it—that he almost forgot about Dekra. He might have forsaken it completely except for Yeseph’s death. What a sad time that had been. If not for Durwin, Bria wondered what Quentin would have done. The funeral of the Curatak elder had been a simple affair, and not all sad, not in the way one usually thinks of funerals. As with Durwin’s burial, there had been a pervading sense of relief, even joy. Here was a servant of the Most High, finally released to stand in the courts of the One, to walk with his Creator and glory in his presence. What could be sad about that?

For Quentin, however, it was a time of confusion—mostly because Yeseph’s death was so unexpected. They found him at his table in the great library he loved so well, head down upon a manuscript as if merely taking a little rest from his work. The day before he had spoken with every one of his closest friends, as if he knew that he would die soon and wanted to say good-bye to each one.

But Quentin was not there. Yeseph died without seeing Quentin again, and it was this, perhaps, that caused Quentin the greatest grief. “I should have been with him,” Quentin repeated again and again. And as often as Bria had pointed out that he had kingly duties and matters of state to attend to in Askelon, and that there was no way he could have known, Quentin often grew sullen and replied that he had never wanted Askelon.

Bria had breathed a great sigh of relief when Quentin resumed work on the new temple, for almost overnight the old fire was back. But, too, he never mentioned Dekra again, at least not in the same way as before.

“Is it really a different place?” The voice behind her started Bria out of her reverie. Esme came up to sit beside her on the parapet.

“I did not hear you! I was daydreaming,” replied Bria absently. She sighed and smiled at her friend.

“Nothing sad, I hope.”

“Sad? Why sad?”

Esme shrugged. “The look on your face seemed sad to me, but surely no one in this place is ever sad.” She turned her deep brown eyes upon the queen. Bria saw the kindled glow in their shaded depths.

“Yes, it is a different place,” said Bria. “They say it is one of the last places of power on the earth, but that, I think, has less to do with it than people believe.”

“Oh?” Esme put her chin in her hand and gazed dreamily out over the glimmering mountainside, the dew beginning to glint in the first rays of morning light. “What, then, is it that accounts for what I feel here? For there is some glamour here that weaves its magic with the soul.”

“That is easy,” said Bria. “It can be told in one word.”

“Then say the word, for I would hear it.”

“Love.”

“Love?”

“Yes, there is a love here that is rarely found on earth. Perhaps in families, certainly between a husband and wife on occasion, but almost never in the world at large. Love governs everything here. Everything. Love and the continually practiced presence of the Most High.”

Esme glanced at her friend questioningly.

“Yeseph explained it once to me. He said that the Most High is indeed ever-present with his creation, with us. But we often lose sight of him—we fall away from him unless we practice his presence. By that he meant we must keep him with us in our thoughts and deeds, lest we forget.

“For it is not the One who forgets us, but we forget him. It is how we are made, a defect perhaps, but one that makes belief necessary. And belief is the Most High’s greatest gift. So even there he has rescued us.”

“Rescued us from ourselves. I see.” Esme watched the daylight rise to the sky and the night shadows withdraw from the tree-thick lowlands like a fine, transparent veil pulled away. “Is it love that transforms even the common things—the sunrise yonder, for one—into such works of beauty? Is it love that makes me feel as if all my life until now was a life lived in a shadow?”

“Oh, yes! Love, and knowledge of the Most High.”

“But I know very little of the Most High. How can it be that I feel as I do?”

“In your heart of hearts you know him. Durwin used to say that all men were born with the knowledge of the Most High in their hearts. The trick is to spend more time remembering, and less time forgetting what we already know.”

“From now on,” said Esme resolutely, “I will spend all my time remembering.”

Quentin rode to the ruins of his temple as soon as it was light enough to see. The sky was dark; low gray clouds formed a hard shell over the earth, keeping out the sun’s light. A misty drizzle fell from the clouds and dampened all it touched.

Though Quentin already knew what he would find when he reached the site, he was still stunned when he viewed the finality of the destruction.

Not one stone was left standing upon another. The walls had been pushed inward on top of one another—whole sections of quarried rock, all toppled, crumbled, and broken by the force of stone crushing stone. The wooden scaffolding and wall supports were splintered kindling. Here and there a jagged beam poked out of the debris, snapped like a twig trodden underfoot. The gray-white rubble lay in a great heaped mound like a huge grave, the grave of the Most High. Or a grave for a king.

Quentin waded into the ruins, stepping over fallen rock, climbing onto the mound. Scattered in amongst the wreckage he saw tools—a 988 stonecutter’s axe, a mason’s trowel, a level; the tools were undamaged. Surely there was a lesson in that, but what it could be escaped him.

When he reached the center of the mound, he stood and surveyed the damage. It was complete, save for a single column as tall as a man that had marked an outside corner of the temple. Quentin picked his way to this lone surviving remnant of his dream, looked at it sadly, placed his hands on it, and felt the cool, smooth surface.

How was it still standing? How had it been saved? Most likely it had merely been overlooked in the fever of destruction.

Quentin leaned against the column, pushing his full weight into it, straining against it until the column groaned, tilted, and toppled into the pile. The stones broke apart and rolled with a dull thudding to their rest.

It is done, thought Quentin. The ruin is complete. With that he turned away and walked to the place where he had left his horse and climbed at once into the saddle without looking back. As he galloped down the hill, it started to rain—a slow, miserable rain, as if the gods ridiculed him by pouring false sympathy over the wreck of his once-glorious vision.

As the slanting bank of sunlight began its crawl across the floor of their cell, Toli got up and began pacing. Prince Gerin still slept peacefully, as if he were in his own safe bed in his father’s castle. Toli watched the boy and smiled, thinking how wonderful to be a child and to have only a child’s limited tolerance for trouble. Was it that their tolerance was so limited, or that their endurance was greater? he wondered. Either way children simply would not allow trouble to dominate them for any length of time. They shrugged it off like an unwanted cloak on a hot summer’s day. When was it that they learned to wear that stifling cloak?

Upon waking, a plan had occurred to Toli. He thought about it now, thrashing it out in his head, examining it from every possible angle until he was certain about it. When at last he had settled himself with it, he went to the heavy oaken door of their cell and pounded the flat of his hand against it. He waited and pounded again.

In a moment he heard someone hastening to the cell. “What is it? Be quiet,” said the voice on the other side.

“I demand to see the high priest!”

“No! Be quiet—I have my orders.”

“I demand to see the high priest! As a prisoner within his walls, it is my right!” Toli began pounding on the door once more.

“Be quiet, do you hear? You will get us both into trouble. Shut up!” The man’s tone was frightened.

“I demand to see—,” Toli began, but stopped when he heard the bolt sliding away.

The door creaked on its iron hinges and opened a crack, into which a temple guard thrust his head. His sleep-swollen face glared angrily at the captive. “Shut up! Do you want to wake the whole temple and get me into trouble?”

With the quickness of a cat, Toli sprang forth and shut the door, pinching the guard’s head between the door and the jamb post. “Ach!” said the guard as the door squeezed his neck.

“Now you shut up and listen!” instructed Toli firmly. “If you value your worthless head, you will do as I say. I want to see the high priest at once. Arrange it. Do you hear me?”

“Ugh . . . what if I refuse?” the man gasped.

Toli pressed the door more tightly against his neck; he heard the guard’s hands scrabbling for a hold on the other side. “Then,” he answered, “I will be waiting for you when you come with the food next time. And the next time I will crush your throat with this door.”

“Gack!” the man croaked. “Let me go—I will do it!”

“Good. You had better, or next time . . .” He let the threat trail off.

The guard made a face, and Toli slowly eased the pressure, backing away from the door. The man wasted no time in pulling his head free, slamming the door, and ramming the bolt home.

Toli heard the man’s bare feet slapping the stone as he hurried away, and felt he had won his way. Yes, the guard was a coward and would do what he was told. Of that he was certain. But the high priest? He would not be so easily persuaded. The man was as oily as the sacred stone the priests so diligently anointed. He would have to be dealt with in a different way entirely: not with threats but with promises. And Toli knew what he would promise.

33

It is just as we feared,” said Theido. “They have come in force.”

“How many?” asked Ronsard. His cheek was purplish black from a bruise below his left eye. He held himself stiffly, for his muscles ached.

“Six. And they have ridden all night, by the look of them.” The tall knight spoke softly, though the door to the council chamber was closed and the guests within could not hear.

“They did not waste any time,” sneered Ronsard. “They are carrion birds, Theido—vultures come to feed on the flesh of suffering.” He shot an angry look through the stone wall to those who had just arrived and were waiting aside. “What are we going to do? The king cannot attend them; that is out of the question in his present condition.”

“Perhaps,” replied Theido thoughtfully.

“You cannot be serious! Are you thinking of allowing the king to face them?”

“It might do him good. A round with those jackals might shock him out of his despair.”

“It might crush what little is left of his spirit, too.”

Theido nodded gravely. “You could be right. But I do not know what else to do. We cannot keep them waiting in there forever. They will see the king sooner or later; we cannot prevent it. I am afraid Quentin has no choice but to face them.”

“He might succumb . . .”

“Not to them.” Theido jerked his head toward the council chamber door. “Not like this. But they have the power to convene a Council of Regents. If they sway but five more to their cause, it could be done.”

Ronsard nodded gravely. “Has such a thing ever been accomplished?”

“Not in recent memory—but yes. Once or twice. They would declare the king incompetent—”

“As of now that would not be difficult.”

“And they would have to join forces behind one of their own number. That might prove more difficult—getting them all to agree on who the new king should be. There are many proud lords who believe themselves the only reasonable choice.”

“We have an ally in vanity—thank the Most High for that!”

Theido nodded and ran his hand through his hair with the air of a man who does not welcome taking the next necessary, and possibly fatal, step across a treacherous bridge.

“Go on,” nudged Ronsard. “It must be done. I will wait here and keep an eye on them until you return.”

“And pray, Ronsard. Pray the king has enough wits about him to fend off this attack.”

Pym walked along more quickly for the lack of his usual baggage, but he missed the bang and clang of his pots and tools—his own musical accompaniment wherever he went. He wiped the damp from his face. At least the rain had stopped, and the sky showed signs of clearing before long; it was already shining blue away to the east.

“Ah, Tip, d’ye see?” said the tinker. “We’uns’ll have the sun soon enough. Yes, sir. Won’t have to walk in the rain no more, eh?”

The black dog raised her head to her master and barked once to show that she was glad to be traveling again.

“Yes, fearful it were, Tip. Fearful, I tell ye. You should’a seen the king—should’a seen him. All dark and broken was he, more monster than man to look at him. Nivver seen a body looked like that! No, sir. Never have, Tip. Him locked away in his own chambers a pris’ner. That’s what he were—a pris’ner.”

Pym’s eyes grew round as he remembered his audience with the Dragon King. “What could make a man like that, Tip? I ask ye, what could make him like that? I’ll tell ye—that sword! Yes. The loss of it drives him mad. I know it, yes, I do. Don’t I, Tip? Yes, sir.

“He’s lost his son and now his sword, and it drives him mad as a weasel-bit dog. Yes, it does. We’uns’ve got to bring the king his sword, Tip. The sword we found, it must be his—or, if not, mayhaps ’twill do fer another. We must bring it to him, Tip.”

The tinker and his dog had left the Gray Goose after one of Emm’s delicious breakfasts, and struck off along the southern road to Pelgrin and the place Pym had hidden the sword he found in the road.

“The king needs a sword, Tip. We’uns’ll give him a sword, won’t we? Yes, sir,” he said as they strolled along. He had heard that talk in the inn and around the town—about the king losing his sword—and had become convinced that the blade he had found in the road belonged to the Dragon King. Pym had known it to be a valuable weapon from the moment he had seen it glimmering in the dust of the road. Now he meant to retrieve the sword from its hiding place and carry it back to the king; that was the message he had meant to deliver to His Highness.

“But the king were in a state, Tip. He was. Couldn’t talk to him— raving mad, he was. Then Master Oswald come and told us there were trouble and I left. I got right out of there, Tip. ’Twere no place for a tinker. No, sir. Glad to go I was.

“And trouble, all right—hoo! They teared down the King’s Temple last night, Tip. Tumbled the walls to the ground, they did. That’s why we have to bring back the sword, Tip. The king needs it now, he does. He needs it now.”

Pym, in his simple way, blamed all the sorry events taking place in the kingdom upon the loss of the king’s sword. He reasoned that if he returned it, all would be made right again somehow. In this belief, he was no different from the rest of the common folk of Mensandor, who held that the king’s power lay in the Shining One and that possession of the flaming sword gave him the right to rule.

The fact that Eskevar himself had chosen Quentin as his heir and successor had long ceased to have any significance in the popular imagination. It was Zhaligkeer, the enchanted sword, that made Quentin king. Without the sword . . . well, who was to say what might happen?

Toli waited with his back to the door of the cell, watching the oblong patch of sunlight as it advanced across the floor. It was starting its climb up the far wall before he heard the footsteps of the guard returning. Prince Gerin sat dejectedly in the corner of the cell they used for their bed, his chin resting in his hands, shoulders rising and falling with every breath. “I will return shortly,” said Toli. “Perhaps with freedom.”

The bolt scraped and the hinge creaked, and the guard shoved his foot into the crack. “Stay back,” the guard warned. Toli stepped away from the door. “That is better. He will see you now. Follow me—and if you try any tricks, I have orders to stop you by any means. Hear me?” The temple guard rubbed his sore neck; there was a red welt where the door had squeezed it earlier.

“I hear you,” replied Toli. “Take me to the high priest now.”

The guard jerked his head for Toli to march ahead of him, waited behind to bolt the door once more when the Jher was out of the cell, and then led him off to Pluell’s chamber. Another guard had been sent to accompany them in case Toli entertained any notions of escape.

Through corridors cool and dank as a dungeon—for sunlight had not shown inside the temple in a thousand years—the guards pushed Toli, until at last they came to stand before a wide, arching door. The guard rapped once upon the door frame with an iron ring that was attached to a sconce. “Enter,” said a voice from within.

The guard opened the door and pushed Toli ahead of him into the chamber. Pluell waited for them, sitting in a high-backed chair, dressed in a priest’s robe of fine velvet with his hands folded meekly in his lap. “You wish to see me?” he asked. He might have been addressing one of his priests who had come seeking guidance in a matter of conscience.

“Do not think you can hold yourself above the treason, priest,” said Toli. He spoke firmly and with authority, and saw the effect of his words in the tightening of the skin around the high priest’s eyes.

“Leave us,” snapped Pluell to the guards looking on. “Wait outside, but do not wander away.” When they had gone, he looked at Toli with a long, appraising glance. “You cannot think that this is any of my doing.”

“Snake!” said Toli. “You would do well to abandon your disguise; I see through it. You are not an innocent instrument of your god. Your hands are as red with the blood of the hermit as those who slew him!”

Pluell stared in sullen silence, then heaved himself out of his chair as if it had suddenly become too hot to sit in any longer. “You do not know,” he cried. “You do not know . . . If he thought I was even talking to you, why, he’d—” The high priest broke off sharply and glanced around as if frightened that he had been overheard.

“Who is with you in this?” demanded Toli, taking a step toward the priest.

Pluell’s hands came up quickly as if to ward off blows. “No—I . . . there is no one.”

“Then you own the deed as yours alone.”

“No!” He shot a sly look at the prisoner before him and then seemed to remember who he was. “You forget the position you are in,” he said in a more subdued tone. “I am the high priest, and you are here under my protection.”

“Protection!” Toli exclaimed. “You dare to abduct the prince and hold the high minister against his will and call it protection?”

“None of that was my doing,” High Priest Pluell retorted. “Have you been harmed? Has the boy? No! You see—I have protected you.”

“Let us go!” Toli’s eyes kindled with a fierce inner flame.

Pluell turned away and paced slowly to one of his hanging tapestries as if examining it.

“You must know,” Toli continued, “that with every moment that passes, the king’s anger against those who have wronged him grows stronger. It is a fire that will consume all in its path.”

Pluell still stared at the arras, but said nothing.

“Think! You can divert some of the king’s wrath and lessen the severity of his judgment.”

“How?” asked Pluell, his voice soft and weak.

“Let us go,” said Toli simply. “Let us leave at once.”

“So you can tell the king where you have been and who has kept you? No! I would be a fool. It has gone too far.”

“Not too far—not yet. Let us go now. Do you think that the king will not soon learn where his son is hidden? His men are searching the hills and villages beyond the forest now. They will come to the temple as I did.” He waited for his words to have effect. “Let us go.”

The high priest seemed on the verge of making a decision and then drew back from the course he had chosen. “No,” he said again. “I dare not let you go.”

“Then let the prince go, at least. I will stay in his place. This the king will count to your credit; it will greatly appease him.”

Pluell considered this, but hesitated.

Toli pressed his advantage. “Set the boy free. Let him go now before the king learns where he is and comes with his knights in force. Free the prince. I will stay; I do not care what happens to me as long as the boy is freed safely.”

High Priest Pluell turned toward Toli once again; he had made up his mind. He opened his mouth to assent to Toli’s plan, but before he could speak a voice from the door scoffed, “A pretty speech for a Jher dog!”

Toli and the priest whirled around; neither had heard anyone enter the room. There stood a twisted old man whose face was as lined and creased as the back of an oak. White hair started out from his head, and a long white beard flowed down his thin chest.

“You worm!” shouted the old man at the priest as he approached menacingly from across the room. “You were about to let the princeling go, eh?”

“No! That is, I—”

Toli watched as the mysterious old man advanced on the priest and the priest shrank away. Who was this ancient who held such power over the high priest?

As if reading Toli’s thoughts, the stranger stopped and turned to him and gave him a flesh-withering grimace. “So? You do not recognize your old enemy. But then, you never thought to see me again, did you? Look at me!”

The realization struck Toli like the kick of a horse, rocking him back on his heels. His mind reeled.

“Nimrood!”

“Yes, Nimrood! Ha, ha! Nimrood has returned to settle his accounts. And you will pay for the torment I received at your hands, Jher. Oh, yes. You should have killed me when you had the chance long ago, for I mean to kill you—but not before all Mensandor learns to fear the name of Nimrood!”

“The king will stop you. You will fail.”

“Oh, I have plans for the king. Great plans. His subjects will see him grovel on his knees before me; the whole world will see him humbled. Yes, your brave king will lick the dust from my boots; he will acknowledge me before his realm.” Nimrood threw back his head and laughed loud and long, then shouted, “Guards!”

Two temple guards burst into the room, fairly stumbling over themselves to obey the summons. “Take the prisoner away,” ordered Nimrood. “I have finished with him for now. Take him away!”

They seized Toli by the arms and hauled him roughly from the room and back through the corridors of the temple. Behind them Toli could hear the insane cackling laughter of the wicked old sorcerer ringing after them down the deserted halls.

Nimrood! thought Toli, still stunned by the knowledge. Nimrood has returned!

34

Despite the gnawing ache in his heart and his utter disinterest in official duties, Quentin still possessed the foresight to demand that the nobles attend him in his throne room, rather than in the council room where they were already assembled. In this they would be subtly reminded that he was still king; they would come to him and stand below him while he sat in his royal seat of authority. They would argue from an inferior position.

“So they have come,” remarked Quentin when Theido told him. “Yes, I will see them, but not yet. Let them wait first.”

“Sire, they have been waiting,” replied Theido.

“Let them wait a little longer!” he roared. Then he added in a softer tone, “You know why they have come, Theido?” Quentin studied the knight. “Yes, of course you know—but even you are afraid to say it outright. They have come for my crown. So be it!”

“Sire, you cannot be thinking of giving it to them!”

“I will give them nothing!” muttered Quentin darkly. “If they mean to have my crown, they will have to take it by force.”

That is more like the Quentin I know, thought Theido. “What is your pleasure, Sire?”

“My pleasure?” Quentin spat the words and glared dully at his friend, but then said, “I will attend them, but not in council. Bring them to the throne room instead. If they have backbone enough for this fight, then they will stand on their feet. I will not sit with them and have them denounce me to my face.”

Theido bowed, then left the king’s apartments thinking, It is good to see some fire in him once again. Perhaps he will not fare too badly after all.

When the nobles were ushered into the throne room some time later, they found the Dragon King waiting for them. And though he appeared gaunt, weary, and haggard, his face wore a violent scowl and there was anger in his eyes. He called them by name as they entered one by one. “Lord Kelkin . . . Lord Denellon . . . Lord Edfrith . . . ,” he intoned, pronouncing each name coolly. “Lord Lupollen, ah yes! . . . Lord Gorloic . . . Lord Ameronis, I might have guessed you were behind this.”

The lords glanced at one another uneasily. Surely their information regarding the king’s disposition could not be wrong. But the Dragon King’s demeanor shocked them and made them nervous. What was he up to? Did he really know why they had come?

The noblemen went on one knee before the king’s throne. Quentin allowed them to kneel, then said, “Oh, do not make a pretense of doing your king homage . . . Ah, but it is not the king you honor—it is his crown.” With that he lifted the crown from his head and held the thin gold circlet before him. “Who would be first to snatch it from me? Well? Who among you wants it the most, I wonder?”

Guiltily the assembled lords glanced at one another. Lord Ameronis found his voice first, rose, and said, “My lord, you apparently misapprehend the reason for our audience. We heard the news, and have come—”

“Have come to see for yourselves how best to bury your king, is that it?”

“No, my lord,” replied Ameronis smoothly. “We have come to lend whatever aid we may in your time of need.”

“Liar!” roared Quentin, gripping the armrests of his throne, ready to leap out upon them. “I know you for what you are! In Eskevar’s time you played your hand and failed. You think now to try with me.”

This outburst brought a murmur from the noblemen, who darted stricken looks toward their unacknowledged leader.

Ameronis, however, appeared unruffled. His voice took on the tone of a physician calmly reasoning with a reluctant patient. “You greatly misjudge our motives, my lord. We are concerned for your health.” He looked at his friends for support, and they nodded grimly. “We have heard rumors, Sire . . .”

“Rumors. There are always rumors.”

“The people say that you are ill, that you have fallen under a spell of magic. This concerns us, naturally.”

“Naturally,” replied Quentin sarcastically.

“We thought merely to ride to Askelon as soon as we could to discern the truth of these rumors for ourselves.”

“Stop it!” shouted Quentin, leaping from his throne and starting down the steps. He caught himself halfway down and halted, throwing an accusing finger in Ameronis’s face. “Stop it, I say. I know why you have come! Do you think your king blind and feebleminded? I know why you are here: to see a raving madman and to wrangle among yourselves for his crown!” He pointed his finger at each one in turn; the finger crooked and the hand balled into a fist that he shook defiantly in their faces. When he spoke again, his voice was a whisper. “You shall not wear this crown, my noble friends. Not one of you.” He turned his back and ascended once more to the throne.

The lords backed away a pace as if to withdraw—all but Ameronis, who was more ambitious and more determined than the rest. “Stay!” he said to the others. “We have not yet come to the heart of it.” To Quentin he said, “Word speeds throughout the land that you have lost your sword. I see that you do not wear it.”

“Yes,” spat the Dragon King bitterly. “Now we come to it.”

“Answer me. Where is it?”

“I owe you no answers, Lord Ameronis, and will give none.”

“Do you deny that it is missing?”

“I deny nothing.” The king leveled his piercing glance upon the ambitious nobleman.

“It is true then; you no longer possess the Shining One.” His words were an indictment. “Or prove me wrong and show us the sword.”

The Dragon King, lips drawn into a thin, hard line, said nothing.

“Very well,” said Ameronis to his friends, “you have all seen. He refuses to answer for the sword and will not show it. I say that the rumors are true, that he does not have it! I say that he who finds the sword and holds it is the rightful Dragon King of Mensandor!”

Without waiting for a reply, Ameronis dipped his head curtly and spun on his heel. The others, silent all this time, bowed. Lord Edfrith found his tongue and said, “By your leave, Sire.” The remaining lords started to life, made hasty leave, and marched out. The king was once more alone.

“Yes, leave me, you hounds! Go! Follow your chosen leader and find the sword if you can!” Quentin called after them. The huge door boomed shut behind them, and the sound filled the near-empty throne room like the crack of doom, or the axe falling upon the head of a deposed king.

A young Curatak girl cleared away the dishes from the women’s midday meal while Esme, Bria, and Alinea talked with Morwenna, Elder Jollen’s wife. Over their meal the conversation had touched upon the continuing work of the Curatak at Dekra, and the progress being made in restoring the ruined city once more to glory.

Esme said little, but found the talk fascinating. She listened intently and turned her eyes this way and that over the city from the balcony where they sat. Yes, she could almost imagine what it had been like, for out of the jumble of stones and pillars there rose wonderful buildings under the hands of skilled masons and carpenters who worked from ancient drawings in the great Ariga library.

“You must see the library,” Morwenna was saying. “I am certain you would find it interesting.”

“I would very much like to see it,” replied Esme at once. “All that I have seen of this magnificent city enthralls me.”

“If you would like to go there now, I would be most happy to show you.”

Before Bria could reply Esme said, “Oh, would you? I can think of nothing I would rather do!”

“Yes,” agreed Bria. “I think I would like to see it once again.” She made to rise, but Esme was already on her feet. “You and I must hurry, Morwenna,” laughed Bria, “or Esme will be the one to guide us!”

They started off together, walking along the wide, winding, cobbled streets of Dekra. Grass grew thick and green between the stones, and moss roses of pink and yellow poked up through chinks in the paving. Blue-feathered birds hopped along the tile rooftops or flitted from street to eaves as the ladies passed.

“Is the library as large as men say it is?” asked Esme. They had turned and passed beneath a standing arch that stood before a narrow courtyard. The courtyard was lined with doorways opening onto a common area dotted with neatly pruned trees and small stone benches.

“That you must decide for yourself,” replied Morwenna. “I do not know what men say of the Ariga library, but the Ariga were very fond of books and were great scholars.” She waved her hand to include the whole courtyard. “There are thousands of books here.”

Esme blinked and looked around. “Here? Where? I see no building capable of holding even a hundred books, let alone thousands.”

Morwenna smiled and Bria explained, “You are standing on the library, Esme. It is underground.”

“The entrance is there.” Morwenna pointed across the courtyard to a wide-arched doorway between two slim pillars standing guard before it. They crossed the commons and entered a great circular room of glistening white marble. On the walls were murals of imposing robed figures who watched the visitors with large, dark, serious eyes. “These we believe are some of the more renowned Ariga leaders, or perhaps the curators of the library.”

“Where is the entrance?”

“Beneath that arch,” said Morwenna. “Come.” She led them to where the marble steps descended into the underground chamber and pointed in the darkness. “There it is. Esme, would you like to lead the way?”

Esme peered doubtfully into the darkened stairwell but gamely placed her foot on the first step. Instantly the stairs were lit from either side. “Oh!” she cried in surprise.

“Mine was the same reaction when Quentin showed me,” laughed Bria. “It does seem most magical.”

“Indeed!” called Esme, already springing down the steps to the chamber beyond.

When the queen and Morwenna caught up with Esme, she was standing at the bottom of the stairs, gazing with open mouth at row upon row of towering shelves, each shelf bearing the weight of dozens of scrolls. Young men moved between the shelves with armloads of books, taking scrolls from among the shelves, or replacing them.

“These are our scholars,” explained Morwenna. “We are translating the books. All we have learned about the Most High we owe to our scholars. The teachings of the Ariga are contained in the books.”

“They are priests, then, your scholars?”

“Yes, but not the way you mean, Lady Esme. The Ariga believed, and so do we, that the God Most High dwelt among his people and permeated all of life with his presence. Therefore there was no need for a separate priesthood—each man could be his own priest.”

Esme cocked her head in an attitude of puzzlement. “That must be very confusing.”

“Not at all! Though I will admit that it does require men to take responsibility for learning the ways of the god and living before him accordingly. This is why we have elders, to help us and instruct us and lead our worship of the Most High, Whist Orren.”

The three began to walk along the rows of shelves in the immense underground chamber. Esme had expected a dark and musty dungeon-like place, and was surprised to discover how dry and pleasant the immense library was. As the other two talked, she wandered alone among the books, stopping now and then to finger an interesting scroll or to try to make out the words written on the hanging ribbon that identified each one. The words, though she could not read them, charmed and fascinated her, so gracefully were they written.

She came to a nook lined with more honeycombed shelves containing extremely large scrolls rolled in fine red leather. A low wooden bench sat within the nook; so Esme, feeling herself invited, stepped in and withdrew one of the bound scrolls and settled herself on the bench to unroll it.

She could still hear Bria and Morwenna talking in low tones nearby, so she thought she would take a quick look at the book for curiosity’s sake. It was bound with a leather thong, which she untied; then she carefully drew off the cover to reveal a fine white parchment, yellowed at the edges with age, but undamaged for its years. With trembling fingers, Esme took up the carven wooden knob at the end of the rod and began to unroll the scroll. She held her breath, for there before her eyes were the most beautiful drawings she had ever seen.

The drawings, she guessed, were illustrations taken from the accompanying text, for beneath each was a double column of the wonderful Ariga script. Each illustration had been rendered in delicate colored inks, the colors scarcely faded since the artist had dipped his brush to them long ago. There were exquisite renderings of tiny colored birds and forest creatures, depictions of everyday life in the Dekra streets, a long scene of a river alive with fish of many different kinds, and quaint little boats with fishermen in them, trying to catch the creatures with nets, and many other delightful images.

Esme gazed at the scroll in rapt wonder, feeling as if she were a child once again and had been given a rare and costly gift of a book from a far-off land. As a little girl growing up in her father’s house, she had had many picture books that she loved dearly and pestered her nurses to read to her constantly. At this moment she entered once again into that special time. Her surroundings faded from view, and she became once more the little girl transported to a distant time and place.

35

When Quentin returned to his apartments, he found Oswald the Younger waiting for him in the antechamber. One glance at his servant’s deathly pallor told him that some dire event had overtaken them which he now must hear.

“Well, what is it?” the king demanded. Theido entered behind him at that moment, and Oswald, relieved not to have to deal with this foul-humored monarch alone, breathed more easily. He shot a worried glance at the gaunt knight, who returned it with a nod as if to say, Proceed.

“I am waiting,” said Quentin. “Out with it!” He then saw the flat, folded packet the chamberlain carried and snatched it out of his hand.

“It came only a moment ago,” said Oswald, fear making his voice hollow. “A messenger, Sire.”

“Whose messenger?” Quentin raised the packet and studied the seal. “The high priest?”

“He did not say, Sire. I thought it from one of the noblemen, but . . . he was already gone when I saw the seal.”

Embossed in green wax at the fold of the message was the cipher Quentin knew well: the bowl with tongues of fire above, the symbol of the High Temple employed by the high priest.

The king broke the seal and tore into the packet, unwrapping it to find a lock of hair, a bit of blue cloth, and a note. Theido stepped close, and Quentin, staring at the objects he held in his hand, thrust the note at him. “Here, read it!”

Theido took the note and opened it. With an effort he held his voice steady as he began to read:

Your son is well for the present. What happens to him now remains for you to decide.

We are holding him captive within the High Temple, and are prepared to release both the prince and the Lord High Minister Toli upon receiving your sword, Zhaligkeer, called the Shining One. You are required to surrender the sword in person to the High Temple at midday on the last day of this month, or the prince and the high minister will be killed in that same hour.

“Is that all?” asked Quentin, his tone hard and flat.

“There is no signature,” replied Theido.

“The messenger is gone, you say?”

“Yes, Sire, gone before I could stop him.” Oswald looked helplessly at Theido, who watched the king closely, fearing what he might do. “I sent one of the gatemen after him, I . . .”

“He must be found—put more men on his trail.” Quentin turned, and his eyes held a distant look. “Leave me now. Both of you.”

“I would stay, Sire,” replied Theido. “Allow me to help—”

“No! Go and find that snake of a messenger if you would help. Leave me!”

Without another word Theido and Oswald left the antechamber, shutting the door quietly behind them. “What are we going to do?” whispered Oswald fearfully.

“Do as he says,” replied Theido absently. He was already deep in thought at the unexpected appearance of the ransom note. “Find the messenger. He cannot have gone far. I will send some men to you at once.”

“What are you going to do, my lord?”

Theido glanced up quickly. “Do not worry after me! Get moving! Hurry!”

Oswald opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and closed his mouth again with a snap. Theido called after him as he dashed away, “Oswald! Tell no one what was in the note. Do you hear? Repeat to no one what you heard in the king’s presence.” Oswald nodded and scurried away as fast as his feet would take him.

“Now, to work,” said Theido to himself, taking the folded message once more from his hand where he had hidden it. “Ronsard must see this.”

“The viper’s brood!” exclaimed Ronsard as he quickly scanned the ransom letter once again. “The cold-blooded arrogance! We should pull down that serpent’s nest upon their wicked heads!”

“And upon the heads of Toli and the prince as well?” replied Theido. “No, they have doubtless considered that in their plan, my friend. They know that as long as the king’s own son is tucked out of sight within their walls, the king can do nothing against them.”

“Then what can be done?” asked Ronsard, raising hopeless eyes from the crumpled message in his fist.

“Find the sword,” said Theido.

“Aye, find the sword. The whole kingdom will soon be searching for the Shining One—if not already!”

“We must pray, brave sir, that we are the first to find it—and soon. You saw the date? Only five days from now.”

“Little enough time to scour the whole kingdom—we’d have a better chance of finding a pearl in a pigsty!”

“Then we waste time talking. Assemble the men at once—every household in Askelon, and the villages beyond, must be searched.”

“If we do that, the whole world will know the king has lost his sword.”

“He will lose his son and servant if we do not. The world will know soon enough anyway, my friend. Lord Ameronis will see to that!”

Ronsard nodded sadly. “We must pray that there are still those loyal to the Dragon King. We can count on the common folk to help, I think.”

Theido turned to leave and replied, “The common folk destroyed the King’s Temple not two nights ago, remember. We may have a difficult time convincing them to help him now. But we will do what we can.”

Esme still sat with the scroll in her lap, her eyes drinking in the marvel of the colored drawings of the Ariga book. As she studied the tiny intricacies of each picture, she began to grow sleepy. Though Bria and Morwenna still talked somewhere nearby, from her nook Esme could not see them, and their voices began to drone like the buzzing of pollen-laden bees on a lazy summer day.

She yawned, suddenly overcome by the need to sleep, as if a thick, woolen blanket had been drawn over her. She yawned again, laid the scroll on the floor at her feet, and then stretched herself on the bench, her cheek resting on her arm. Her eyes closed, and she was instantly asleep.

To Esme it seemed as if she had entered another world as soon as her eyes closed upon this one, for she found herself standing atop a high plateau in a dark and featureless land. She turned and saw men laboring nearby, bearing heavy burdens on their backs, passing by her to the very edge of the plateau. She followed at a distance and soon came to a great pyre; the men carried bundles of firewood that they dumped onto the mound and then took their places in a ring around it.

Next to the pyre stood a man with a torch in his hand. When all had thrown their wood upon the stack, the torchman thrust his torch into the tinder; but though the flames from the torch licked out and leaped among the ricks, the fuel did not ignite. The torchman withdrew his flame in frustration and called out, “More wood!” The laborers disappeared in search of more firewood, leaving Esme alone with the torchman.

“What are you doing, sir?” Esme asked.

“I am building a beacon fire,” answered the torchman, “that the people of the valley may see it, for they travel in darkness with no signal to guide them.”

“Why did you not light the signal, then?”

“I have tried, but the fuel is old and damp, and will not catch,” the torchman told her sadly. “I have called for more wood, but it is sure to be too wet as well.”

Esme was overcome with the utter futility of the enterprise and turned away. At once the landscape shifted. The dark land faded, and she found herself on a cliff near the sea where the waves rolled endlessly, tearing themselves against the rocks and washing onto the shore with a sigh. She looked and saw a tower rising up and workmen on scaffolds laying stone, building the tower higher.

She moved closer and watched as the masons raised row upon row of stonework while the quarrymen piled fresh materials beneath them on the ground. Then, without warning, a portion of the wall leaned out precariously and split away from the tower wall. The men on the scaffolding screamed in terror as the stone rained down.

The whole tower quivered, and portions began crumbling away; the workmen leaped from the scaffold and ran to get clear of the falling rock as the walls collapsed with a thunderous crash and stone plunged into the sea.

When the catastrophe was over, Esme approached the ruin and spoke to one of the workmen. “Why did the tower fall?” she asked.

He shook his head and pointed with his finger. “See, the foundation is old and soft; it crumbles away when we build on it.”

“If the old foundation will not hold, why do you not build a new foundation?” It seemed obvious to Esme, though she knew little about such matters.

But the workman threw up his hands and wailed, “We have no master to show us how to lay a new foundation!”

“Where is your master mason?” Esme glanced around and saw no one who seemed prepared to assume leadership of the workmen. The man did not answer, only shrugged and shook his head. So Esme told him, “I will find a master mason who will show you how to build aright, and I will bring him to you—” Esme stopped speaking, for the workman and the tower had vanished like smoke on the wind, and she stood now not on a cliff by the sea, but in a busy marketplace where farmers sold their produce and merchants their wares.

The market bustled with buyers and sellers, and she heard around her the babble of voices haggling over prices and the quality of goods bought and sold. She passed by the butcher’s stall and saw him cutting up a carcass, slicing meat from a large bone. With a wink to her, the butcher, dressed in a long dark robe, took the bone and tossed it out of the stall, where instantly it was pounced upon by hungry dogs who came running from every corner of the marketplace.

The dogs fell upon the bone and began fighting over it, first one dog snapping at it, then another. One dog would succeed in snatching it up in his jaws, only to have it taken away by another, larger dog.

A crowd gathered to watch the fight as savage snarls and growls filled the air. “Stop it!” shouted Esme. “Please, somebody stop it!”

But the onlookers did not heed her, and the dogs fought ever more fiercely. She buried her face in her hands and turned away, but the terrible sounds grew louder and when she looked again, she saw not a long, clean length of bone on the ground, but a square of cloth in the jaws of the dogs. Each had a corner of the cloth and was pulling on it, worrying it in his teeth in a furious effort to free the cloth from the other dogs. And on the cloth Esme saw a device: a red writhing dragon.

“Stop it!” she cried. “Stop!”

36

Bless me bones, Tip, but this trip is further than I remember, eh? Yes, quite right. It always seems further when ye’re in a hurry. Quite right.” Pym cocked an eye skyward and gauged the day by the sun. “Nearing midday, Tip. Right enough, an’ I’m hungry. We’uns’d ought to a’ thought to bring a bite to eat. Some of Emm’s fresh-baked bread and a noggin of the dark would hit the spot, eh? And a soup bone for ye, Tipper. Yes?”

The black dog wagged her tail to the sound of her master’s voice and walked along beside him, lifting her ears now and then when a rabbit or squirrel rustled the leaves of a holly bush near the road as they passed. But Tip did not give chase, content merely to pad peacefully alongside her master, to press her head into his hand now and then to receive a loving pat or a scratch between her ears.

Presently they came to a place in the road that looked to the tinker somehow familiar. “Ho there, Tip. This be the place, I’ll warrant. What say ye? Looks the place to me, eh? Yes, it does.” Pym gave a quick glance in both directions along the road to see if he had been followed, or if any other travelers were about to see him.

They were alone, so he stepped quickly into the forest, pushing through a yew thicket to where the forest thinned somewhat and a trail wound among the trunks of trees.

“Is this the place, Tip? I tell ye, I don’t know. Thought ’twas, I did. Now I’m not acertain.” After some time wandering among the trees, Pym decided that they had not remembered the right place after all and so retraced his steps to the road once more and set off.

“Ah!” he cried a little farther down the way. “This must be it! Yes, how could I forget?” Again they pushed into the forest only to become disoriented before going very far. “No, sir.” Pym stood with his hand on his hip, craning his neck up at the tall trees surrounding him. “’Twern’t here. This’s nivver the place, Tipper. Back we go.”

The noonday sun shone down through the interwoven branches above, casting a fretwork of cool shadow upon them as they trudged down the bare earth yet again. The farther they went, the less certain the tinker became. “I don’t know how I’ll ivver find it, Tip. I don’t seem to recall the place—ivverthing looks so unlikely hereabouts.” He stopped and stared around him. “I don’t know what to do, Tip. What we’uns need is a sign. That’s it, yessir. A sign!”

So taken was he with the notion of a sign that Pym clasped his hands right then and there and raised them up to the heavens. “Hear me, ye gods!” At a sudden thought he added, “’Specially whativver god it is the Dragon King serves. I’ll warrant ye’d be more concerned with the king, so hear me, whativver yer name might be.”

Pym paused here to consider how to proceed, nodded to himself, and then continued, “Ye see, the king has lost his son—snatched away he were, yes, and he needs his sword to get the boy back with. Now, I don’t know fer acertain that the sword we’uns found belongs to the king, but might do—’tis a handsome sword.

“Now,” explained Pym carefully, “I have put this sword by in a safe place, ye see. Trouble is, I can’t remember me where. Don’t recognize this place no more, ye see—and me who’s been atraveling this road fer a score of years, too. That’s why I am calling on ye fer to help. I need a sign to show the way to the sword—where I left it, that is.”

The tinker lowered his hands, thought for a moment, then raised them again and added, “It’s not fer me, it’s fer the king, ye see. He’s in trouble bad; he is, and likely needs his sword—leastwise it couldn’t hurt. Since yer his god, maybe ye could send the sign. That is, if ye have a care fer mortal troubles.”

Pym stopped speaking, and lowered his hands. “Well, Tipper—,” he began, but before he could finish, the big black dog began barking. “Shh! What is it, lady girl? Eh, Tip? What is it?”

Out from an immense gorse hedge stepped a black stag. Tip barked furiously, but the deer, moving slowly, regally, head high and antlers glinting in the sun like silver, remained calm and unperturbed. The graceful animal crossed the road, passing not more than a dozen paces in front of them, and then stopped to look at the man and dog watching him.

Tip barked, her tongue hanging sideways out of her mouth, legs stiff, hackles raised. Pym laid a hand to her collar. The stag moved with lordly pomp once more into the forest, paused to eye the spectators one last time—as much as to say, “Follow me, if you dare”—then lifted its forelegs over a bayberry bush and leaped away, its tail bobbing white behind.

Tip could not stay still any longer. She barked wildly and shook her head, pulling free of her master’s grip; the chase was on. “Tip! Come back here!” shouted Pym after the bounding dog. Tip reached the bayberry bush, paused to yap once at her master, and then wriggled through the bush and after the deer.

“By the gods’ beards!” muttered Pym, “I don’t know what’s come on that dog.” He could hear Tip yelping excitedly as she crashed through the brush after her game. Pym sighed and trudged off into the woods to retrieve his pet, knowing she could never catch the stag but would not give up easily.

He shrugged through the brush and stumbled onto the trail, hastening after the sounds of the impromptu hunt. The trail widened as he went along, broadening as it reached a place where the giant old trees grew tall, clearing all other trees from beneath their overarching limbs: huge old chestnuts, oaks, and hazels. He did not stop to gawk at the trees, but rushed along, head down, calling for Tip to come back. Then, without warning, the dog’s yapping ceased. Pym plunged down a shallow bank and through a patch of creeping ivy and glanced up to find himself in a secluded hollow.

Before him, on her haunches, sat Tip, wagging her tail and panting. A little way off from them stood the stag, head lifted high, bearing its crown of antlers as regally as any king, gazing calmly at them with its great, dark, liquid eyes. As the tinker watched, the stag lifted a hoof and nudged a stone at its feet—a white stone from a neat pile of white stones.

“Tipper,” whispered Pym, hardly breathing. “Lookee there! The stag has led us to our spot!”

The deer turned and regarded them casually once more, then lowered his head and trotted smoothly away, his flowing shape blending with the forest around him and vanishing from sight.

Pym crept forward to the place where the deer had stood. “Yes, sir. This be the spot, Tip. Lookee, here’s the stones we’uns left to mark it, and here’s the hazelnut.” He tilted his head to regard the lofty tree, then walked around it to the hole in its hollow trunk. Taking a deep breath, Pym thrust his hand through the hole and grabbed.

His hand closed on thin air. His heart leaped to his throat. Gone, he thought. Someone’s taken it! He shoved his hand deeper into the hollow space and stretched his fingers, feeling the soft damp interior of the tree, but no sword. Frantically he thrust his arm in again and searched the depths of the hidden space, feeling nothing but the spongy, rotten wood. “It’s gone, Tip!” he cried hopelessly. “The sword is gone!”

Just as he was about to withdraw his arm, the tips of his fingers brushed against something hard. “What’s this?” he said, and pushed his arm back in up to the shoulder, as far as it would go, standing on tiptoes, straining so hard that sweat beaded up on his face and rolled down his neck.

His hand closed on an object cold and hard. He gulped. Could it be? Yes! It was the sword! The tinker withdrew his hand slowly, and the hollow tree gave up its prize—a long, narrow bundle wrapped in tatters of rags.

“Here ’tis, Tip! We’uns found the sword! Yes, yes! Lookee, Tip, here ’tis at last!” He cradled the bundle to him and then, just to make certain, peeked between the folds of the rags. He saw a dull gleam of metal and part of an inscription on the blade. “’Tis the veery sword, Tip. The veery one as we’uns left behind. Yes, sir.” He glanced guiltily around him like a miser who fears discovery with his treasure. “But we’uns dare not stay here, no sir. It’s back to Askelon and give this sword directly into the king’s own hand, eh? Quite right, yes. Directly into the king’s own hand.”

So saying, the tinker took a length of twine from his trouser pocket and wrapped it around the sword’s concealed hilt and tied a loop through which he put his arm. He started off at once, slinging the mighty weapon over his shoulder, making for Askelon Castle to give his present to the Dragon King.

Some way farther ahead on the road to Askelon, where Pelgrin thinned and gave way to farmland hills, a brown pony wandered riderless across a field of young corn, pausing now and then to nibble at the tender tops of the shoulder-high plants. This intrusion did not go unnoticed, for a pair of quick, sharp eyes had seen the animal from a distance, and the boy who looked out of those eyes was slowly and with utmost caution making his way across the field to intercept the horse.

Renny forced himself to steal along stalk by stalk, row by row, all the while his heart screaming at him to run and capture the wonderful creature before him. A horse! Who would have believed it? A horse wandering loose through his father’s field. If he could catch it . . . no, he would catch it, and then he would have a horse of his very own!

Now he was close, very close. The pony stood nipping at the new leaves, unaware of the boy’s presence. Renny crept near and waited. The brown horse plodded a few steps nearer and paused to munch some unripe ears of corn just forming on the stalk. “Shhh . . .” said the boy, as quietly as a sigh. “There, now. Shhh . . .”

He put out his hand to snag the animal’s bridle. Tarky saw the movement, tossed his head up quickly, and backed away with a loud whinny. “Easy now,” soothed Renny. “Easy . . . I won’t hurt ’ee. No need to fear. No harm’ll come to ’ee.” He approached slowly, the pony backing away step by step, tossing his head stubbornly.

Renny moved closer, whispering endearments to the animal. But Tarky, skittish from his days of running wild in the forest, kept just out of reach, and at last tired of the game and turned to prance away. The boy realized it was now or never and lunged at the beast, diving headlong at it. Tarky gave a startled neigh and dodged away. But the youngster, with quick desperation and deft fingers, snatched up the dangling reins. The horse neighed in fright and reared, jerking its head away; but it was caught in the grasp of the most determined young master, and Renny refused to relinquish his find. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed the bridle, his heart thudding against his ribs with excitement.

Then, as if he had been doing it all his life, the farmer’s son led his captured prize down the low sloping hillside to the house. Tarky gentled under the lad’s touch and allowed himself to be led away peaceably.

When they reached the crude farmhouse, the boy loosed one wild whoop that brought his parents into the yard. “Look what I’ve got here,” Renny said proudly.

“Where did ’ee get that?” asked his father when he recovered from the sight of his son holding a fine horse, both saddled and bridled, in his own yard.

“Where on this green earth?” echoed his mother.

“I found him,” replied Renny. “Found him eating corn in our field.”

The farmer stared speechless at his wife, who returned his look with one of equal amazement. If the horse had materialized before them out of thin air, they could not have been any more surprised. And there stood their own flesh-and-blood son holding this creature—it surpassed all belief.

Lest there should be any misunderstanding of his claim or intent, Renny announced, “’Ee’s mine. I found him—’ee belongs to me, and I’m keeping him.”

His father came close and raised his hand to stroke the pony’s flank. “’Tis a fairly fine horse—no doubt. But ’ee don’t belong here.”

“’Ee’s mine now.” Renny tightened his grip on the reins and thrust his jaw forward with determination. “I’m keeping him,” he repeated firmly.

“This must be a nobleman’s mount,” said the farmer, examining now the fine leather of the saddle and tack. “Doesn’t belong here.”

The boy darted a quick glance at his mother for help, his lower lip quivering. The kindly woman came close and placed her hand on her son’s shoulder. “What your father means, Renny, is that this one must go back to his rightful owner.”

“Sooner the better,” added the farmer.

“I’m his owner now,” maintained Renny, his dark eyes filling up with tears. “’Es’s mine.”

“No, son,” said his mother gently. She patted the slim shoulders and brushed his shock of hair from his eyes. “Someone’s bound to come looking for him. If you keep him, they’ll take him away.”

“But . . . I found him!” wailed Renny. The injustice of it stung bitterly. To have his horse so swiftly taken from him in the moment of his triumph—it was too much to bear.

The farmer frowned and turned stiffly away. Renny sobbed and his mother soothed, trying to ease the hurt. “I know what ’ee can do!” she said, brightening. “Take the horse to Askelon—people there will know who his master is. Methinks if ’ee return him hasty, there will be a reward in it for ’ee.”

At the mention of the reward Renny stopped sniffling and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Reward?”

“Maybe.”

His father turned and added, “Why, that’s the answer! Take him to Askelon and claim your reward. Might bring a coin or two, a fine animal like this. A man’d be most hearty grateful to get him back, might give a good reward.”

“I could ride him?” asked Renny tentatively. “Ride him to Askelon?”

The farmer glanced at his wife and scratched his jaw. “Well, now, Renny, I don’t be—”

“I know how to ride!” Renny said quickly. “The Dragon King himself taught me, remember?”

“By my lights, ’ee did,” agreed his father. “But it’s a far ride, and you’d have to walk back all alone.”

“I don’t care,” shouted Renny. “Could I take him? Please?”

“If your mother says so, I say so,” hedged his father.

The woman looked at the light dancing in her son’s eyes and did not have the heart to dash it out. She nodded slowly, “I’ll fix ’ee a rucksack to take with ’ee so’s ’ee won’t get hungry on the way.” She turned and went into the low-built farmhouse.

“I’ll ride him all the way to Askelon!” crowed Renny. “And I’ll claim the reward!”

37

Esme! Esme, wake up!” Bria exclaimed, shaking the arm of the sleeping woman.

“What? Oh!” Esme said, jerking awake with a start. “Oh, my! It was a dream!” She turned and gazed at Bria and Morwenna bending over her, and raised a shaking hand to her temple. “I must have fallen asleep . . . but it was so real—not like any other dream I’ve ever had.”

“You cried out.” Bria glanced at Morwenna, who nodded and took one of Esme’s hands in her own.

“We did not know where you had gone, my dear,” said Morwenna. “When we turned around, you were no longer with us. We were looking for you when we heard your cry. How are you feeling now?”

Esme shook her head slowly, but the images of her dream remained as vivid as before. “I believe I am well. I was looking at the pictures and became sleepy; I rested my head on the bench for a moment and dreamed a very strange and unsettling dream.”

“Tell us, if you wish,” offered Bria. “Can you remember it?”

Esme nodded vigorously. “I am not likely soon to forget. I can still see it as if it happened right here moments ago.” She paused; her eyes looked past them and into the world of her dream once again. “I was standing on a high plateau . . . ,” she began. But Morwenna held up her hand.

“Wait, my lady,” Morwenna said. “There is one among us who is highly skilled in the unraveling of dreams and their meanings. Come, we will go to him at once, and he must hear your dream.”

Esme rose to her feet. “It is important? It was just a dream.”

Morwenna stopped and took Esme by both arms. “There are many ways in which Whist Orren chooses to speak to his children. Dreams are one of his most important means of revealing himself, and they are not treated lightly in Dekra.” She smiled quickly and added, “But come, we will hear what our dream reader has to say.”

The three left the Ariga library, passing among the tall ranks of honeycombed shelves and tables stacked with scrolls, back up the stairway and through the narrow courtyard to the street. Morwenna led them a little way farther along the street to a blue-tiled arch in a white brick wall. She pushed open the gate and ushered them into a green expanse of garden filled with flowering shrubs of many kinds.

“What a wonderful garden,” said Bria. “Who lives here?”

She indicated the tiny house at the far end of the garden pathway.

“That you will see soon enough,” replied Morwenna. She raised her hand toward a huge, spreading sycamore standing in the center of the garden, and beneath it a figure propped up in a high, wide bed. Beside the bed another figure, that of a woman, bent near the one on the bed. This second figure Bria recognized as that of her mother.

“Mother, what are you doing here?” asked Bria with some surprise when they came up. Then she glanced at the figure lying in the bed beneath cool white linens. “Biorkis! Oh, forgive me.” She blushed, embarrassed, “I meant to come to you sooner. Please forgive me for shunning an old friend.”

Biorkis, bald as a coot now, but his beard longer and whiter than ever, squinted his eyes merrily and replied, “No need, no need! You have been very busy since you came, I know. A queen’s time is not her own. Alinea has brought me your greetings, and I’ve met your daughters—lovely little creatures, I must say. Just like their mother.”

“I have only just sent them away with the other children to play,” said Alinea. “Biorkis and I were talking about”—she hesitated—“about the news of the kingdom.”

Biorkis started forward. “I am no stranger to trouble; there is no need to shelter me from its pain. I have lived long enough to know that fretting over it does no good.” He paused and favored them each with a long, appraising gaze. “Yes, here you are. And though trouble brought you, I am glad to see you, my friends. It has been a long time.”

“Too long,” said Bria, “and for that I am sorry. Sometimes we do not remember how much our friends mean to us until we see them again.”

“Do not be sorry for this old badger!” protested the aged priest. “I am not sorry for myself, nor should anyone be who is loved and cared for as I am here. Look! I am old and cannot walk anymore, so what do they do? They carry my bed outdoors for me! And in return I tell them stories and read to them from the old books. This, they claim, pleases them; so I am allowed to stay.”

Morwenna smiled and settled on the edge of the bed. “This one is a most highly regarded servant of the Most High. We would sooner turn out an elder than Biorkis. We would have made him an elder long ago, but he would not hear of it.”

Biorkis replied gleefully. “Preposterous! The former high priest of the Temple of Ariel an elder? That would never do! No, I am content as I am. But please, my ladies, sit down. I will have more chairs brought.”

“We can find places here,” said Bria, perching on the arm of her mother’s chair. Esme sat down on the bed beside Morwenna. “The king—Quentin—would like to see you. I am certain he would have come with us, but—”

Biorkis held up his hands. “Your mother has already told me what has happened, and my prayers are with you all. I, too, feel the loss of Durwin even now. How much more must Quentin feel it? Not to mention the abduction of your son, my lady. But as I will be joining Durwin soon, I do not feel such grief as a younger man might. I cannot but think that the old rascal of a hermit will have some great work already in scheme for us to do when I get there. And so I will tarry here a little longer and make sure I am well rested.”

The old priest spoke so assuredly and with such calm conviction that Esme wondered at it. “You make it sound as if he has only gone on a brief journey to his home in Pelgrin Forest.”

“Aye, and so he has!” cried Biorkis. “But his journey was never to a place so humble as Pelgrin. No, my lady. He has joined the court of the Most High, Lord of All. If I feel sadness, it is only for the cruel way in which he was cut down. For all the goodness that was in him, Durwin should have ended his days like me, here, surrounded by friends and loved by all.”

Morwenna smiled and patted the pale hand that rested on the sheet. “I am glad to hear that you have decided to remain with us yet a little longer.”

Biorkis nodded happily, his clear eyes dancing at the sight of the women gathered around him. “I would remain always if I could be surrounded by such beauty as I see now.” He paused, then glanced around him, adding in a more solemn tone, “But this visit, as pleasant as it is, shares some more urgent purpose than merely to cheer a babbling old rattle-pate. What is it that brings you to me?”

Morwenna spoke first. “A dream. We would like you to hear it and tell us what it may mean.”

“Ah, a dream.” He nodded knowingly, and then turned to address Esme directly. “Why don’t you tell me your dream then, my lady, and we will see what can be learned from it.”

Esme’s jaw dropped. “How did you know it was me?”

Biorkis’s eyes narrowed. “I saw it the moment I laid eyes on you. I said to myself, ‘This one wears the cloak of vision.’”

“You can see it?”

“These old eyes have lost none of their sharpness; in fact, they have gained some into the bargain. The veil between this world and the one beyond grows ever more transparent. Indeed, lately I have difficulty contenting myself with only looking at this world.

“But yes, I saw the aura of your dream still clinging to you when you entered the garden. A powerful dream it must have been. A vision!”

“Do you think so?” Esme pondered and then said, “It is true I have seldom had such an unusual and forceful dream. Perhaps it was a vision.” She seemed taken with this notion.

“Why not tell me and we shall see?” prodded Biorkis gently. The others looked on quietly as Esme gathered her thoughts, closing her eyes and entering once again into the dream that had so frightened her.

As she began to speak she saw again the vivid events of the vision, taking place once more even as she spoke, only this time there was no sleep, only the images playing out before her once again. The garden and those around her faded from mind as she recounted her dream of the high and lonely place where men labored in vain to light the soggy pyre; of the tower built on a crumbling foundation that would not support it; of the bone thrown down in the market square which became a banner of the king.

“I see,” said Biorkis softly as Esme opened her eyes. All was silent in the garden, save for the faint buzz of insects among the flowers. How long had she been under the spell of the dream? she wondered.

She read the anxious expressions on the faces of her friends and knew that her dream had disturbed them as much as it had unsettled her. “Do you think it means anything—anything—important?”

“Oh, aye. Undoubtedly! It is a dream of power, as I have already said. It carries within it seeds of truth . . .” He hesitated, then said quietly, “But what that truth is, I am not now able to say.” He frowned. “No, I must have time to think about this and discover its meaning.”

“But surely it is most apparent,” said Esme, and shocked herself with her own boldness. “Forgive me, sir. I meant no disrespect.”

Biorkis cocked an eye at her. “Speak, my lady. The god may have revealed its meaning to you already.”

Esme licked her lips. “The dark land must surely be our own, where men wander aimlessly without true light to guide them.”

“Yes, so I would say. I agree.”

“The beacon cannot be kindled without proper fuel—the flame will not take hold—”

“The flame of true faith cannot be kindled on the fuel of the old religion—I ought to know,” said Biorkis. “But continue, please. You are doing wonderfully.”

Esme wrinkled her brow. “This next is a most difficult part. I don’t know what it can mean: the tower that cannot stand.”

“Oh, but that is the easiest part,” explained the former priest. “The god often presents the same message in different ways.” Esme frowned, so he explained by saying, “The tower of the new god will not be built on the foundation of the old ways, the old religion. One cannot build something new without clearing away the old.”

“I see,” said Esme, “but I still do not understand what the last part can mean.”

“It is plain enough,” replied Biorkis.

“How so?” asked Bria, who had remained very quiet since Esme had told her dream.

“Ah, I think you already know, my lady. Yes, you would,” said Biorkis. “Do you not see? This part of the dream means exactly what it says! Esme saved me from looking at it too closely; I would have spent all night pondering it and missed the meaning completely! As it is, I think we need look no further than what has already been revealed.”

“You mean that this part of the dream says its own meaning?” asked Esme.

“I believe so, yes. It wears its meaning in the events it describes: the bone of contention thrown down by a man in priest’s robes—”

“The butcher?”

“You said the man was dressed in dark robes—a priest, then, or one who hides behind a priestly garb to do his work.”

“The bone became a royal banner,” said Alinea. “The dogs tore it to shreds!”

“The kingdom!” gasped Bria. “It is being rent asunder! Can anything be done?” Her green eyes pleaded for an answer.

“Oh, yes. Yes. It must be hoped above all hope that the events foretold in Lady Esme’s vision can be turned aside.” He raised a finger in the air. “No doubt it was for this reason the vision was given.”

“Then we must return to warn the king at once,” said Bria.

“Yes,” agreed Alinea. “But tell me, you mentioned nothing of the prince in your dream. I wonder why?”

“I cannot say,” replied Esme, a puzzled expression on her face. “Unless”—she glanced at Biorkis, who nodded encouragement to her— “unless the welfare of Gerin is not in doubt!”

“Very good!” exclaimed the old priest. “I could not have said it better myself. My lady, you show a fine talent for interpreting dreams. We must talk more about this before you leave.”

“We will go now,” suggested Morwenna. “If Esme’s vision is true, the elders will want to hear of it immediately.”

“Yes, yes, go at once,” said Biorkis. “You must speak to them. No doubt they will discover something we have missed entirely. I was about to suggest it myself.”

Bria stood, saying, “With your leave, good Biorkis, we will go. But I hope we may see you again before we must return to Askelon.”

“Come back if you have time, but do not worry if you cannot. I understand completely. Go, all of you. It is time for my midday nap. Shoo!” Grinning, the old man folded his hands across his stomach and closed his eyes.

Bria bent over him and kissed his bald head, and they all crept away quietly, leaving the garden to its lone occupant, and him to his rest.

38

We’uns’ll reach the castle by nightfall, Tipper. Yes—leastways, not long after. Still a fer road, though. Almost too fer on two legs in a day. But I don’t mind, Tip, I don’t.” The tinker patted his dog and ruffled the fur behind her ears as they sat on a hazel stump beside the southern road.

The afternoon sun slid lower in the west over fields of ripening grain. They had left Pelgrin behind and upon emerging from the shaded wood, sat down for a few minutes to rest in the warmth of the day. The sword leaned against the stump for the moment; the weight of it had caused the thin cord to dig into its bearer’s shoulder.

“Ah, what a day, Tip. Eh? Lookee yonder to that cloud o’dust rising. Some’uns coming and coming quick, by the look of it. Not one only, maybe two or three or more. We’uns’d best stay put right here out of the way. They’ll pass right by us so we’uns’ll see who ’tis.” Pym watched the dusty ochre cloud rising from the road beyond the next hill. In a moment he heard the drum of hooves on the earthen track, sounding a dull rumble, then saw the riders themselves as they crested the hill and came on toward him.

Soon Pym could see the bearing of the men in the saddle and their fine clothing and knew that they must be knights or lords. He could hear the clink-chink of the steeds’ tack as they trotted along.

The foremost riders—two men riding abreast—drew near where he sat on his rough hazel stump. Eyes straight ahead, looking neither right not left, they passed him in a flash. Three more dashed by in an instant, and one of these raised a gloved hand in greeting while one of his companions glanced at the tinker and nodded as he galloped by. Pym got to his feet and took up the sword. He stepped into the road and was in the act of hoisting the sword onto his shoulder once more, his eyes on the backs of the retreating horsemen, when a sixth rider approached.

Before Pym could think or move, the rider was upon him. He jumped back, dropping the sword as the horseman jerked the reins hard, bringing his charger to a hoof-clattering, dust-churning halt.

“Out of the way, you fool!” growled the angry rider. “If you cannot watch where you are going, you should stay off the road! Next time I will trample you!”

Pym threw his hands in the air. “Sorry, Yer Lordship! I beg your pardon, master! Oh!” He scrambled out of the way as the ill-tempered rider and his fidgety mount cantered closer. Then, remembering the sword, the tinker turned quickly, stooped, and picked it up.

“Ho! Stop!” said the rider. “What have you there?”

Pym raised frightened eyes. His mouth worked the air, but his voice was some time in coming. “N-nothing, sir,” he managed to sputter at last, his features convulsing in anguish.

“Hold, peasant! If you knew who it was that addressed you, you would do well to keep an honest tongue in your head.”

The tinker lowered his eyes and said nothing; he brought the bundled sword behind his back, away from the prying eyes of the lord before him.

At that moment Pym became aware of a sound behind him. The other riders, having seen one of their party stopped in the road, had come back to discover what the trouble was. All five of them rode up behind Pym. “What is the trouble, Ameronis?” asked one of the newcomers, eyeing Pym in his shabby clothes suspiciously.

“This rascal darted out in front of me and nearly threw me from the saddle,” replied the quarrelsome Ameronis.

“I am certain he meant no harm,” said Lord Edfrith—the one who had previously nodded to Pym as he rode by. “I noticed him on the stump here a moment ago. Leave him, and let us be off.” The nobleman made a move as if to ride away, but none of his friends followed.

“What are you holding there?” asked Ameronis again, his voice cold and menacing. “I will see it before I ride hence.”

Pym glanced at the ring of faces around him, his heart leaping to his throat. “I—! I . . . nothing, my lord.” He pulled the sword to him. “I am a poor man. A tinker. Please let me go.”

“Let him be, Ameronis,” said the one who had spoken before. “He has nothing to interest us.”

“Nevertheless,” roared Ameronis, “I will see it! If it is nothing, let him show me.” His piercing eyes fell upon Pym with keen determination. “But,” he continued slyly, “if that is a sword he holds wrapped in those rags, I mean to find out where this tinker came by it.”

This brought a murmur from the others. “Well?” said Lord Gorloic. “Show us, then, for I too would see it.”

“I discern the shape of a weapon beneath those rags,” added another—this was Lord Lupollen, Ameronis’s closest friend. “Show us, tinker; it is our right.”

“No!” wailed Pym helplessly, “I cannot!” His black dog flattened her ears and growled. One of the horses stamped the ground and snorted.

“Give it to me!” demanded Ameronis, thrusting out his hand suddenly.

Pym clutched his prize to his chest and refused to give it up.

“Come,” said Edfrith, “let us be about our own business.”

“Go!” shouted Lupollen. “We do not need you. But as this interests me, I will stay to see it through.”

Edfrith pulled his reins and his mount backed from the group, wheeled, and galloped away. “I will have nothing more to do with this ill-advised plan,” he shouted over his shoulder.

“Please, sir. I have done nothing,” pleaded Pym, sweat dripping down his neck, staining his shirt. “Let we’uns go in peace. I beg you, ple—”

“Silence, peasant! Shut your mouth!” With that, Ameronis leaned down from his saddle and grabbed the bundle.

Terrified, Pym hung on and was pulled off his feet. Lord Ameronis struck him a blow across the face with his studded glove, raised his foot from the stirrup, and kicked the tinker in the stomach. Pym released the sword and fell writhing to the ground. Tip barked and snapped at her master’s attacker.

Ameronis tore at the rag coverings, shreds of cloth falling from his hands. “No!” cried Pym, rolling up to his feet once more. “Please!” He looked to the other noblemen for help and saw their cool, impassive faces. They were with Ameronis. “I beg you, sir! Give it back!” He lurched for the blade, but was not quick enough. The haughty Ameronis lashed out with his booted foot, caught the tinker full on the jaw, and sent him sprawling backward in the dust.

“I am in your debt, tinker,” crowed Ameronis, pulling the last of the tatters aside. “You have delivered the prize into my hand!” He raised the sword high. “And also the crown!”

“By all the gods!” gasped the noblemen, looking on. “It is Zhaligkeer, the Shining One!”

“For this service I will give you a reward, tinker,” said Ameronis, his eyes shining with the light of his greed. “What do you think of that?”

Pym stared in horror at the sword in the usurper’s hand and said nothing.

“I will grant you your worthless life,” said Ameronis, laughing. His lords laughed too, nervously, still amazed that the sword had come to them. “For surely you have stolen this sword, tinker,” continued the lord, lofting the sword and swinging it, enjoying its cold, resilient strength in his hand, the blade so finely crafted that it seemed alive.

“Now get up on your feet, scum,” he ordered.

Pym, his mouth bleeding and the skin along his jaw swelling an ugly violet-red, dragged himself to his feet.

Ameronis flicked the point of the Shining One at the tinker’s throat. “You will tell no one of this, tinker, do you hear me? I have ears everywhere, and if you tell I will know about it and I will have your head on a spike over the gate of my castle. Do you understand?”

Pym felt the cold kiss of the sharp blade against his flesh. He knew the ambitious Lord Ameronis would not hesitate to kill him, and within his heart he burned with rage and shame: he had let them take the king’s sword. What could he do? How could he prevent them?

“Ye might as well kill me now,” said Pym sullenly. “For I will not keep quiet about this.” Now that the words were said, he stood by them. “Yes, we’uns mean to go to the king straightaway and tell him what’s happened.”

“You care so little for your life then, tinker?”

“I care so much fer me king,” replied Pym. “It be his sword ye hold there, as ye well know. We’uns were taking it to him—it been lost, ye see.”

“I warn you for the last time,” Ameronis menaced. He raised the sword to strike. Tip growled savagely and barked at her master’s attacker.

Pym stood his ground and closed his eyes. If it was to be his last moment . . . very well, let it be in the service of his king. He waited for the sound of the blade singing through the air.

Instead he heard a shout—far off and high-pitched.

“Wait!” said one of the others. “Someone is coming!”

When a sound of hooves came thumping up behind them, Ameronis cursed and said, “I will finish with this one even so!”

“Do not be a fool!” said Lupollen, his voice tense. “We have what we want; let us leave the field clean.”

Pym opened his eyes a peep and saw the violent lord’s face, dark with rage, still towering above him, the sword still raised in his hand. The hooves pounded closer, and another shout reached them.

Ameronis glanced up, then hovered for a moment in indecision.

“Come!” urged Lupollen, his horse wheeling around. The others turned their mounts and started away.

“The gods bear witness,” muttered Ameronis thickly, “blind luck has saved you, tinker. But if ever we meet again, your life is forfeit.” With that he spurred his charger forward, directly at Pym, who jumped to the side. He was not quick enough, and Ameronis swung the sword hilt down on his skull.

The heavens darkened, stars swung from their courses, and Pym collapsed in the road.

39

Renny, riding the prince’s brown pony, jogged along the well-used track leading to Askelon. He sat erect in the saddle, pretending to be a knight returning to the realm from quests and adventures in faraway lands. He fancied himself returning to the king’s service after a long absence to find his name on the lips of his countrymen and peers, his deeds sung in halls great and small throughout the kingdom.

Yes, to be such a knight, he thought, would be any man’s greatest dream. He would give his life for it—for one hour in the armor of a knight in the saddle of a genuine warhorse. Tarky trotted easily along, Askelon Castle showing misty in the distance over green fields. The world seemed calm and lazy in the warmth of the day, and Renny despaired of finding any adventure on the way, for with every step the castle and its city drew nearer.

Then, as horse and rider reached the bottom of a hill and started up the opposite side, they met another rider galloping fast the other way. The stranger passed by them in a flurry of hooves, his short cloak blowing out behind him, the charger’s tail streaming. He did not so much as glance in the boy’s direction, but thundered by, eyes ahead and hard.

“That’d be a nobleman most like,” said Renny to his mount. “An’ one fleeing something, by the look of it. Maybe highwaymen!”

At once his young head was filled with images of a fierce conflict with a band of ruthless robbers in which he, Sir Renny, bested the whole pack and sent the brigands scrambling back into the Wilderlands where the cowards belonged.

Enticed by such impossible heroics, Renny urged the brown pony to a faster pace as they climbed the hill. Then as they reached the crest and the road stretched out before them once more, Renny saw the scene he had just imagined: a group of brigands menacing a helpless traveler. The only difference he could see was that the highwaymen were on horseback and the poor traveler afoot. He loosed a wild yelp, kicked his heels into Tarky’s flanks, and galloped to the rescue, never thinking that he had no weapon and would not have known how to use one if he had it. Nevertheless, Renny dashed for the thick of the fray with visions of glory dancing before him.

It was about this time that Lord Ameronis and his friends heard the young rescuer approaching. Renny saw a sword lifted up about to strike and gave vent to another war whoop, urging Tarky to greater speed as they came flying down the hill, elbows flapping, legs akimbo.

Here it was that the lords prevailed upon their leader to spare the tinker and to make clean their retreat with the king’s sword. They all turned at once and galloped toward Renny, who swallowed hard, put his head down, and charged into them.

At the precise moment of collision, Renny squeezed shut his eyes. He felt the air buffet him as the riders swept by, and then heard the sound of their retreat behind him. When he opened his eyes again, he was alone in the road, the highwaymen sprinting away and disappearing over the hill. Ahead of him, the wayfarer lay in a heap at the side of the road. Renny clattered to a halt, threw himself from the saddle, and dived to the man’s aid, rolling him over in the dust. Blood ran freely from the cut on his mouth, and a raw bruise welted on his jaw. Tip licked her master’s face, cleaning away some of the dust and blood.

Pym’s eyelids fluttered open weakly. “Ohh . . . ,” he moaned.

“Good sir, are’ee alive?” asked Renny, eyes wide as pot lids.

“Ohh . . . me head. Ow! They’ve kilt me good,” he said, struggling to get up.

“Easy there,” said Renny, raising him to a sitting position. “I come to help ’ee.”

Pym, eyes watering from the throbbing in his head, squinted at his young savior. “Who are ye?”

“Renny, sir,” he replied, as if the name should have preceded him and would explain it all. “I came upon ’ee here beset by brigands.”

“Eh?” Pym turned his head and saw that his attackers were indeed vanished. “Ye saved my life! They meant to carve me to a treat. Yes, sir. Ye saved me, young master! Thankee, oh thankee!”

Renny glowed with this admission. Yes, he had saved the man’s life, just as a knight would have done. He had forced a band of cutthroats and, unarmed, routed them and sent them fleeing for the Wilderlands to escape his justice. “Who were they?” he asked seriously.

“Oh, a bad lot, young master. A bad lot they were—all of them evil. They were going to put me head on a spike, they were. Yes, I stood a dead man ’til ye came arunnin’. Oh, thankee.”

“Did they steal anything?”

At this the tinker began to tremble. “Ohh! They took the sword!”

“’Er sword?”

“Not mine. No, nivver mine! Oh, no. The king’s sword! They took it—one called Ameronis; he’s the very one as did it. He wanted to carve me up and put me poor head on a spike.”

“Ameronis? Lord Ameronis? I have heard tell of him.”

“A bad one. Oh, yes. Very bad.”

Renny thought for a moment. “How could ’ee have the king’s sword?” he asked, scratching his head. “’Ee mean the Shining One itself ?”

“None other.” Pym nodded solemnly. “We’uns found it in the road a few days ago. Didn’t know it was the Shining One then and hid it. Yes, hid it in a tree. We’uns went back fer to fetch it early this morn and were bringing it back fer the king. He needs it something powerful.”

Renny studied the situation carefully, weighing what the man had told him. “Well,” he said at length, “there’s nothing for it but to ride straightaway to the king and tell him what happened.”

“I agree.” Pym rose unsteadily to his feet, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Can ’ee ride? The pony is sturdy, and we’re not terribly far from the castle.”

“I think so.” Pym nodded, and then squeezed his eyes shut with pain. “Oww! He caught me a good’un then, he did. That’un I’d like to repay.”

With Renny’s help Pym clambered into the saddle, then let down a hand to hoist the boy up behind him. They swayed uncertainly and started off, Tarky bending his head low with the extra weight, but making sure-footedly for Askelon.

The shadows of the high curtain battlements stretched across the inner ward yard by the time Theido and Ronsard had assembled their men to begin searching for the sword. All afternoon the ward yard had been in turmoil as knights and men-at-arms were outfitted for a search such as Mensandor had never seen. Ronsard spared no one from the task, unless they could not serve better in some other way, and horses were saddled and provisions laid in for many days on the trail.

“This is war,” said Ronsard to Hagin, when the warder protested the plundering of his stores. “If we fail, the Dragon King falls. I see no reason to hold back a reserve—we would only be inviting our own defeat.”

“Do not speak of defeat,” replied Theido, overhearing. “It will be difficult enough as it is. War, you said? Worse than war—our foe is time, and time wins all in the end.”

“Not this battle,” replied Ronsard grimly. “I mean to win this one.”

Just then a gateman came running up, saluted Hagin, and blurted out a message. “Warder, sir, there’s someone at the gate demanding to see the king. I told them the king sees no one, but they insisted. I didn’t like to trouble you, but they will not go away.”

“What do they want?”

“They will not say, sir.”

“Then send them packing,” ordered Hagin, “with the edge of your sword, man.”

Theido and Ronsard, about to turn away, heard the gateman say, “There’s two of them on one brown pony, and—”

Ronsard spun around. “A brown pony?” His senses prickled.

“What is it, my lord?” asked Hagin.

“Bring them,” ordered Ronsard. “And the pony. At once.”

The gateman dipped his head and ran off to fetch the visitors as instructed. “You have a reason for this, I’ll warrant?” said Theido. Hagin looked on quizzically.

“It may be nothing,” replied Ronsard. “But I remember someone saying that the prince rode a brown pony on the day of the hunt.”

“Aye, he did. It was his favorite,” offered Hagin. “What of it? There must be dozens of brown ponies in the region hereabouts.”

“As you say, but two do not ride unless there is some urgency, and they do not arrive at the castle with demands for the king.”

“I can see what you mean,” said Theido. “But you think this can possibly have anything to do with us?”

“That we will quickly discover, I think.” He looked across the yard where the gatekeeper approached leading a pony; two hesitant figures trailed behind.

In a moment the gateman had brought the visitors—a thin, gangly boy and a slump-shouldered man—and their mount to stand before the knights and the warder. “Here they are, sirs. As you requested.”

“Tinker, we meet again,” said Ronsard. “Hagin, would you examine the horse? I think some of us may know this animal.”

“We’uns did not steal it, Yer Lordship,” replied Pym. “But how do ye know me?”

“I was the wretch whose head was broken at the Gray Goose the night the king’s temple was pulled down.”

Pym’s eyes opened wider in recognition; he nodded knowingly. “Same as what happened to me not three hours ago.”

“This is the prince’s mount and no doubt.” Hagin patted the pony’s neck. “That’s the prince’s saddle and tack. The animal came from the king’s stables—that is a fair certainty. If you like, I will call the stable-master. He would know better than anyone else.”

“That will not be necessary,” said Ronsard. He looked at the two before him. “Well? You had better tell us all about it.”

“I found him, sir,” said Renny in a small, awed voice. Here he was in the inner ward yard of Askelon Castle where knights and horses, squires, and men-at-arms hurried to ready themselves as for battle; he could hardly take it all in. “He came into our field below the forest. I caught him.”

“The pony?” Ronsard smiled; light twinkled in his eyes. “I see. And then what did you do?”

Before the boy could answer; Pym broke in. “I’ll tell ye what he did. He saved my life, that’s what he did. We’uns—”

“You and the boy?”

“Me, and Tip, sir,” said Pym, motioning to the dog.

“I see. Go on . . .”

“We’uns were bound fer Askelon and were set upon by highwaymen and brigands—leastwise I thought they were highwaymen and brigands, I did.”

“Highwaymen?” asked Theido. “In this part of Mensandor?”

Pym nodded vigorously. “They caught me and took the sword.”

“They took your sword?” asked Ronsard. “When does a tinker have need to carry a sword?”

“Not my sword, Yer Lordship,” explained Pym. “The king’s sword!”

40

Theido was the first to react to the news. “You found the king’s sword?”

Pym nodded solemnly; Renny nodded, too, and Tip wagged her tail. “We’uns found it in the road days ago now . . .” He lapsed into silence, remembering what else they had found.

“Next to the body of a man—isn’t that right?” prompted Ronsard.

Pym nodded slowly and thrust his hands out. “But we’uns had nothing to do with that! No, sir. Nivver lifted hand against any man me whole life long. No, nivver did.”

“We believe you, tinker,” said Theido. “What you have told us fits with what we already know. What did you do with the sword when you found it?”

“Hid it, sir. We’uns hid it in a hollow tree, we did. A hazelnut tree in the forest. But we’uns did not as much as know it were the king’s sword—not at first.”

“But when you found out, you went back for it. Is that right?” Ronsard had formed a picture in his mind about what must have happened—the tinker coming upon the sword in the road, frightened, hiding the weapon and coming to town, hearing the talk, and determining to bring back the sword. “You intended to give it back to the king?”

“Yes, sir, very much. That’s what we’uns planned all along—well, maybe not at first. Didn’t know it was the king’s sword at first. No, didn’t know that.”

“Who took it from you?” asked Theido. “You mentioned highwaymen.” “Six of them there were. Two passed while we’uns rested aside on the road. Then three more—nivver paid me no mind—but the last one nearly knocked me down in the road, he did—came a’charging along that way. We’uns nivver seen him ’til he pitched to a halt. Then ’twas he saw the sword and took it. I hanged on as might as I could, but he caught me a blow or two on the jaw.” Pym rubbed the swollen bruise gingerly. “This ’un here”—he indicated Renny—“saved old Pym’s hide, he did. He rescued me, and him just a lad—but with spunk, yes, sir! Lots o’ spunk has he. Yes, and he flew into them and sent them slinking away like a pack of mangy curs!”

Ronsard regarded the boy closely. “Is this true, young master? You defended the tinker here from the brigands?”

Renny nodded, too overwhelmed to speak.

“Brave lad,” remarked Theido. “Well done. Not many would take on six armed men alone and with no weapons. What made you do it?”

Renny opened his mouth, and the words tumbled out. “I’m going to be a knight, sir. Knights are brave and help those as needs help.”

“Indeed!” Ronsard agreed. “But were you not afraid?”

“No, sir. Not until Pym told me who they were.”

“Oh? You know who they were, Pym?” Theido leaned forward.

“We’uns heard a name—the one as took the sword. It was—”

“Let me guess,” put in Ronsard. “Ameronis?”

“The very one!” cried Pym. “That’s the very one. And a mean one he is, sir. Mean as the night is long. Yes, he is.”

“I thought so!” said Ronsard. “Well, here is our battle, already drawn for us. There can be no doubt where the rook has taken his prize.”

Theido pulled his chin and gazed out across the yard. “To that snuggery of his on the Sipleth.” He turned to Ronsard. “That is settled, then; we prepare not for a search but a siege!”

After receiving the letter of ransom, Quentin had taken to his bed in despair; he had not moved all day. Paralyzed by a crippling helplessness, he lay as one stricken with the disease that turns the limbs to stone. The letter had been his son’s death foretold, for he no longer had the Shining One to give the kidnappers, and not enough time to find it in any event.

Now, because of his transgression, because of his striking down the wretch in the road, he would lose his son and heir, and his throne as well. But what did that matter? He had already lost his truest friends: Durwin dead, Toli driven away and captured; even his queen had left him alone in his hour of greatest torment. But beyond all this, the pain that cut him deepest was the knowledge that the Most High had removed his hand from him and was now pouring out a heavy judgment upon him.

The judgment was more than he could bear.

There came a rap on his chamber door, and though Quentin did not move or attend the sound in any way, the door swung open. A tall, lanky figure entered the darkened room and came to stand beside the bed.

“Sire,” said Theido, “all is in readiness.”

The king did not answer.

Theido stood looking sadly down on his friend for a moment, then said, “We are waiting for you to lead us.” He had been about to say that they were leaving now, but Quentin’s condition shocked him and he thought to try to rouse the king. For an instant he thought the ploy might work.

Quentin turned his head on his pillow; his eyes focused on Theido’s face. “They are going to kill my son,” he said softly, “and I am to blame.”

“Nay, Sire. I have come with news: the sword has been found. We go now to claim it.”

“Zhaligkeer found?”

“Lord Ameronis has stolen it from a tinker who found it in the road the day of Prince Gerin’s abduction.”

“Then he has won. He will never give it up.”

“Not without a fight, no. But we mean to give him a fight the likes of which he has never seen. In the end he will give the Shining One back, and gladly. That is why you must ride with us.”

“There is no time, Theido. No time. Already it is too late.”

“It is not too late, Lord. But it will be if you delay.”

“Go, then, and see what can be done.”

Theido was about to agree, hesitated, and instead replied, “I will not give the order, Sire. That you must do. And you must ride at the head of your troops if we are to show Ameronis and his friends that we will brook no treason in this realm.”

Again Quentin lay silent. Theido could not tell if his words were finding their mark or if his listener was so far given to his despair that nothing could reach him. The knight said a silent prayer to the Most High to move the king once more to action. “Defend your throne, my lord,” Theido said. “Come. Ride with us. Lead us.”

Quentin sighed and passed a hand before his eyes. “No, I am no king. Leave me.”

“Who will lead the troops if you will not?”

“You will lead them.”

“I will not.”

“Ronsard, then. Anyone. I do not care.”

Theido knew he was beaten then, turned away, and walked to the door. With his hand on the latch, he paused and said, “There are those who will give their lives for you and your throne. And many more will brave danger in service to you. Durwin did, and Toli—and others you know nothing of. Will you not lift a hand to save yourself ?” With that he closed the door.

The king heard his footsteps diminishing in the corridor, and lay staring up into the darkness of his blackened room. He did not move.

“Well?” Ronsard asked, already guessing the answer, for it was written in the gray, weary lines of his friend’s face.

“He will not ride. I fear we have lost our king even before a single blow has been delivered.”

“If our king gives himself over to defeat, then our kingdom is in disarray. The jackals will tear it to pieces.”

Theido drew a deep breath. “That, at least, we can hold off for a little longer. We will ride to Ameron-on-Sipleth and do what we can.” He cast an eye skyward. “If we ride all night, we can be there by morning.”

As twilight tinted the bowl of heaven the color of dark wine, the Dragon King’s army left Askelon. In all the times of leaving, in all the wars when Mensandor’s men-at-arms had answered the call and marched forth into battle, in all the frightful days when foe threatened and peace would be won only by lance and sword, there had never been a more silent departure.

The troops filed through the outer ward and gatehouse, over the immense drawbridge spanning the dry moat, and down the long ramp to wend through the streets of the city. The knights came first on horseback, their armor bundled beneath netting behind the saddles of their squires. The footmen were next, marching together in long ranks, not speaking—for word had spread though the file that the Dragon King had not the heart to lead his men. After the footmen came the heavy wagons loaded with provisions and weapons for the footmen and knights; smiths’ and surgeons’ wains with supplies and tools for mending broken men and their armaments formed the rear of the train.

The silent army passed through the streets of the city like a ghostly phalanx whispering off to some forgotten battle on the mists of time. No one came out to mark their passing; no citizen cheered their march. The streets remained empty of all but a few mongrel dogs, hungry looking and scabby, who ran yapping at the horses’ hooves.

At the head of the troops rode Ronsard and Theido side by side, upright in the saddle, eyes ahead. They did not speak, but wrapped themselves in their own thoughts like cloaks against the night. And though the night was warm, there was an atmosphere of melancholy and futility that chilled the air. All felt it who followed the banner of the Dragon King that night.

41

Elder Jollen sat stroking his beard in the firelight, staring into the glowing embers on the hearth; next to him sat his wife, Morwenna, and Alinea beside her. Bria and Esme, opposite the esteemed elder, watched him carefully, waiting for what he would say. Shadows flickered on the walls, and in one corner a cricket chirped its night song. Finally, his chest rising as he drew air deep into his lungs, he looked up and said, “Yes, I agree. You must go back at once. The dream, as Biorkis suggests, has been given as a warning for you to return—or a sign that you must be present to witness the event which is foretold and will take place soon. Either way you must go.”

“Thank you, Elder Jollen. Your words make my heart rest easier in its decision,” Bria answered.

“I could discuss this with the other elders if you like, but I have no doubt that they will say what I have already said. Yes, go. I know that you have hardly had time to rest from your journey and now must leave, but we will pray that the god will give you strength for your travels.”

“I hate the thought of leaving,” said Esme. “In so short a time I have come to feel very comfortable here—almost as if I belong here.”

Jollen looked at her, nodding to himself as if he could see something in her that no one else could. “Perhaps the god is speaking to you, Esme. It may be that he has a place for you here among us. In any event, you will always be welcome in Dekra. Return when you may, and stay as long as you care to; allow your heart to find itself again.”

The elder’s last words surprised Esme. “Did Bria tell you about my . . . my troubles?”

Jollen’s smile was gentle. “No, my lady. I did not need words to tell me that you have been a party to much pain and sadness of late. From the moment you came through the gate I saw much in you of the little child lost.”

Esme lowered her eyes and stared at her hands in her lap. “It is so apparent, then?”

“No!” replied Bria.

“No, no—perhaps not to everyone,” admitted Elder Jollen. “But it is part of my gift that I see most clearly the shape of the inner soul. I do not speak to shame you, Esme. Only to tell you that we know of your hurts and have been praying for you since you entered here.”

“I thank you for your prayers. And I have felt more at peace here than at any time since . . .” Her voice faltered and she paused, letting her words trail off.

Morwenna rose and put an arm around her. “Come back when your work is done, and stay with us. It would be an honor to have you here.”

“My work?” Esme looked around at the group. “What do you mean by ‘my work’?”

“Of us all, Esme,” replied Alinea, “you are the one who had the vision; you are the one to whom the Most High has spoken.”

“I have some part to play in this?”

Elder Jollen chuckled lightly. “We all do, to be sure. But yours is a special part. The Most High has revealed to you alone something of his plan. Yes, his hand is on you, Esme.”

They talked a little more then, about commonplace things and preparations that had been made for their departure early the next morning. But nothing more was said of Esme’s dream or its possible significance, though all knew that some word of power had been spoken among them and that it would result in some great deed as yet unforeseen, and that this was what sent the women hurrying off once more. When they rose reluctantly to go to their beds, Morwenna led them to the door, saying, “I will come to bring you breakfast and to see you away in the morning.”

“Please do not bother,” said the queen. “You have all done so much for us already.”

“It is no trouble.” Morwenna dismissed Bria’s comment with a whisk of her hand. “I only regret that I have not had the pleasure of spending more time with your little ones. They are charming! You must bring them back soon, and Quentin too. He has been too long away.”

“He would agree with you, I know.” Bria took Morwenna’s hands as Jollen came up to stand behind his wife. “Pray for him. Please . . . pray for him, and for my son.”

“You may trust in it that we will,” answered Jollen. “Our prayers have not ceased since you came to us. Yes, until we hear that all is well with you once more, we will remain in prayer.” He paused and regarded the women with a long, appraising gaze. “But be encouraged,” he said abruptly. “Your task here, the reason for your coming, has been fulfilled, and the Most High is pleased to give you his blessing. You have been faithful to your hearts, and even now the things which he has promised are coming to pass. Go, so that you may witness them and know that he is ever true to those who follow him.”

Silently the visitors embraced their hosts and stepped from the warm, firelit room into the cool summer night ablaze with myriad stars. They hastened to their beds, too full of private thoughts to speak, but feeling each one closer to the other, conjoined with a strength of love and purpose that held them secure. And though they might be forced to ride through the darkness of evil days ahead, none doubted the light that had been promised at their destination.

“Toli? Are you asleep?” asked Prince Gerin. The boy slid closer to the man’s huddled form beside him.

“No,” replied Toli, rolling over. “What is it?”

“I heard something; someone is coming.”

“I heard it as well. It is the guard again, making sure we are still here and have not vanished through the cracks in the wall.”

“They have been watching us closely this day, and the last—closer than before. Why?”

“They have sprung a trap, I believe. They do not want anything to happen to us until they know if they have caught anything or not.”

“But what do they want?”

“Revenge. Nimrood tried to steal the throne once before, and—”

Before Toli could finish, there came a scrape at the door and it creaked open. Flickering light from a torch thrust in through the crack illumined the room. Toli rolled to his feet. “What is it now?” he asked as the visitor entered the cell.

“Resting comfortably, my pets?”

“Nimrood!” said Toli darkly. “So you have slithered in to taunt your prisoners?”

“Oh my, no! I have come to tell you just how high a price I have set on your worthless heads. The ransom letter has been sent and received. The king has no choice but to comply.”

“What have you done, snake?”

“Merely suggested that I would be willing to free my captives in exchange for a certain object of value to the king.” Nimrood paused and laughed wickedly. “Ha! An object soon to be of little value to the king!”

“What are you talking about?” Toli took a step forward.

“Stay where you are!” Nimrood shouted. Then, in a calmer voice, “That is better. What object?” He shrugged, the torch throwing his black shadow huge against the walls. “I see no point in keeping it from you. His sword—that is the object I will have.”

“The Shining One!” gasped Prince Gerin, who had come to stand at Toli’s side.

“Yes, I believe that is what they call it. A fine weapon I am told, though I have never seen it myself.”

“No!” cried Gerin. “The king cannot give up the Shining One!”

“We shall see,” Nimrood chuckled. “We shall see.”

“The prince is right. The Dragon King will never surrender the Zhaligkeer. It would mean humbling the throne, and he will not do that.”

“Pity,” sniffed Nimrood. “But perhaps he will see it differently. What is a throne worth? The life of his only son and heir, and that of his closest friend as well?”

“I see,” replied Toli coolly. “You would force the choice. But you are forgetting that a king is a king first and a man second. He must do what is best for his realm.”

“In any event, the choice should prove interesting. And we will soon have the opportunity of finding out.”

“How soon?”

“Five days’ time. At midday five days hence you will be led to the temple courtyard and bound. If the king does not bring this enchanted sword of his, you will be killed on the altar of Ariel. Oh, the gods do not require human sacrifices these days, I know. But this time I think the high priest will insist. What will the courageous King Quentin do with the blood of your deaths on his hands? How will he live with himself, I wonder?” Nimrood stepped back a pace and lifted the torch high. “And now you will wonder, too!”

Toli stood as one made of stone, fists clenched at his sides, muscles rigid, and watched the old sorcerer disappear. The cell door closed, the bolt scraped in the lock, and the room was dark and quiet once more. They heard Nimrood chuckling to himself as he stalked back along the corridor to his foul nest.

“Is it true?” asked Gerin when the wizard’s cackling could no longer be heard. His voice trembled as he spoke.

“Yes,” said Toli, wrapping an arm around the boy and pulling him close. “I am afraid it is true. He might have come here to taunt us with it, but I think not. The old vulture wants us to share the poison of fear between us; he hopes that this knowledge will fester in us like a belly wound. But we must not let it. We must not give up hope for a moment.”

“I am afraid, Toli. What will happen to us?”

“I cannot say, young master. It is out of our hands now.”

42

Adull, gray-white dawn broke over Pelgrin, bringing mist from the turbid, muddy waters of the Sipleth River. On the riverbanks, at a place where the ground rose to form the rocky crag of a bluff overlooking an expanse of gray water, stood Ameron Castle. Below the castle the Sipleth flattened and widened as it curled around the bluff in its stony bed, giving Lord Ameronis a natural barrier on two sides; the forest, wild and thick in that part of Mensandor, protected him from the front, an approach made difficult for any attackers by rough terrain and a rising slope.

Theido and Ronsard leaned heavily on the pommels of their saddles and surveyed the fortress in the fitful light of the new day. “It is rockier than I remember it,” said Ronsard, “and better fortified.”

“We will take up our positions there and there,” indicated Theido with a sweep of his arm, “just out of bowshot. A man like Ameronis will be prepared for battle at any time, so we must not delude ourselves that we will catch him napping.”

“There is one thing we may do before they know we are here—send the sappers to scout a location for a mine beneath the walls.”

“Order it at once, and send archers with them in case the castle awakes and offers battle.”

Ronsard swung himself wearily down from his mount and walked back into the fringe of trees where the army waited. He talked to several knights who would act as field commanders and gave them their orders. Theido, too, dismounted and paced along the perimeter of the wood, studying the lay of the land and the situation of the castle upon it. While he looked on, a score of men dressed in rough hide clothing came running out of the forest toward the castle, carrying long, pointed rods in their hands. Behind them came bowmen with longbows and quivers of arrows on their backs.

When they reached the very feet of the towering curtains, the men split off into groups of two or three and began probing the ground and examining the stone all around the outside walls, jamming their rods into the ground, or thrusting them into cracks and seams in the stone at the foot of the outer curtains.

After a while Ronsard came up to stand beside Theido as he watched the activity of the sappers. “It will likely take some time. I suggest we both get some sleep if we can, before Ameronis awakes and discovers that he is besieged. I have already given the orders to the troops.”

Theido rubbed his eyes with his fists and turned to his friend. “My heart is not in this fight, this raising sword against one of our own, even if it is Ameronis. He is still a lord of the realm.”

Ronsard shrugged. “He ceased being a lord of Mensandor when he willfully defied his king. He is a renegade and must be dealt with. Treason is no little thing.”

“I do not disagree. I only wish there was some other way.”

“Every moment he abides within, holding the king’s sword, he holds the king’s heir in his hands.”

“I wonder if he knows that.”

“Would it make a difference to him, do you think?”

“Perhaps not. But I will see that he is informed as soon as possible. That, at least, will make him think twice before he forces this issue further.”

Ronsard frowned. “He will not bend. Ameronis is too proud and has waited too long. The siege will begin, and let us pray that it is a short one. We do not have much time.”

With that the two turned and went back to attend to the establishment of the camp, and to find themselves a place to stretch out for some much-needed sleep.

In Ameron Castle, Lord Ameronis and his friends slept in their high soft beds beneath fine linen in rooms hung with exquisite tapestries embroidered in silk. Ameronis was accustomed to the very best things and styled himself a king, so hot did the flame of ambition burn in him.

Now he slept soundly in his broad bed, dreaming the day was close at hand when he would ascend the Dragon Throne in the Hall of the Dragon King. It was a vision long cherished and nourished in his heart, and soon he would see its fulfillment—now that he possessed the storied Zhaligkeer. The sword itself lay in a locked casket at the foot of his bed; he did not trust even his own armorer to keep it for him, but wanted it near him at all times.

On the wall walk outside the lord’s tower window men ran shouting, their footsteps slapping the stone flagging. Their cries stirred Ameronis from his dreams of kingly glory and he awoke. “Chamberlain!” he cried, and his call was answered at once by a slight, weasel-eyed man with brown, rotten teeth.

“My lord?” the servant said, thrusting his head in through the doorway.

“By Zoar, what is going on? How is a man to sleep with such a clatter? I have guests in my house, and will not have them awakened.”

“Some disturbance outside the castle, my lord. Its nature has not yet been determined.”

“Blazes! I will see to it myself!”With that Ameronis threw back the coverlet and strode out on the bartizan and mounted a flight of steps to the battlements. The lord’s chamber was in the foremost west tower and overlooked the gate and the approach from the forest.

It took him only an instant, once the sleep had been rubbed from his eyes, to ascertain the cause of the disturbance that had roused him from his bed. “By all the gods of heaven and earth!” he cried. “We are besieged!”

At that moment a young knight, who was Ameronis’s commander, approached. “My lord, we are besieged.”

“I can see that! How many are there?”

“We have not had time to count. I have just come from fortifying the gates. One of the watchmen sounded the alarm only minutes ago at the southern battlement. Sappers, my lord, are looking for a weakness to exploit.”

“King’s men?”

“They wore no badges, my lord. Nor have I seen any.”

“Very well. Rain arrows down on their foolish heads. That will teach them to come sniffing like dogs around these walls!”

“Bowmen have been ordered, my lord. But the sappers ran off as soon as they arrived at the battlements.”

Ameronis turned and gazed out toward the wood where the Dragon King’s army waited. “So,” he murmured to himself, “it begins already.” Then he barked an order over his shoulder to the young knight. “Post archers, and inform me at once if they show themselves again.”

“Yes, my lord.” The commander dipped his head, and Ameronis strode from the wall walk on bare feet, back down the steps and across the bartizan to his chamber. There he dressed hastily, throwing on his padded tunic in the event he would be required to don his armor before the day was out. Then he hurried to the armory to order the disposition of the weapons; from there he went to the warder to inquire into the castle’s provisions: food, water, grain, and fodder for the horses; next he went to the gates to personally oversee the reinforcement of their immense timbers with wedges and crossbeams.

All this Lord Ameronis did without fluster or anxiety, but as one well accustomed to war and its preparation. In truth, he had been waiting for this day all his life. If he went about his business with the clear-eyed dispassion of a battle-tried veteran, it was because he, like his father, was a man whose ambition for the throne schooled him well in the use of power and its attainment.

He would be king, he vowed, or die trying.

At midday Ronsard awoke from a too-short nap and made an inspection of the camp, visiting his commanders and men, all of whom had been busily transforming the woods round about into a small village—a village of fighting men.

“Sir Garth,” said Ronsard, hailing a thick-sinewed knight who was directing the construction of a tether line for the horses. “What word from the sappers we sent out this morning?”

The big man drew air into his great barrel of a chest and puffed out his cheeks; the air whistled through his teeth. “Nothing good, my lord. Castle Ameron is as secure as the rock she sits upon. The sappers found no breach point, nor any soft footing around the entire perimeter—at least three sides, I mean. The fourth side is the river.”

Ronsard frowned. “Nothing?”

Sir Garth shook his head. “Her roots are stone, my lord, hard as her master’s heart. We’ll find no tunneling place beneath those walls.”

Ronsard nodded and walked off. So be it, he thought. If we cannot go under the walls, we will go over. There is no time for a lengthy siege; the matter must be settled in four days if we are to reach the High Temple before . . . Well, one way or another we will reach it in time. With the true god’s help we will reach it in time.

Just then he heard footsteps behind him and turned to meet Theido. “You look the better for a bit of sleep, my friend. We are getting too old to be chasing through the forests all night, eh?”

Though Ronsard’s tone attempted cheer, Theido remained heavyhearted; his voice was gruff when he spoke. “Is there any sign from the castle?”

“None. I spoke with the watch commander a moment ago—he said there has been no signal from towers or battlements, though it appears a few archers have been posted. They are waiting.”

“Hmph!” said Theido. “Then I will give them something to think about while they wait.” With that, he spun on his heel and called for a squire to bring his horse.

“What is your plan?” Ronsard hurried after him.

The squire came running with Theido’s charger, and the tall knight caught up the reins and put his foot in the stirrup. Ronsard placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do not go alone.”

“Come with me, then. It makes no difference to me.” Theido swung himself into the saddle and wheeled his horse.

“Wait!” called Ronsard, and then sent the squire scurrying after his own mount.

When Ronsard caught up with his headstrong friend, he was halfway to the castle across the stony escarpment. Granite outcroppings pushed through the mossy turf, making the way more difficult. The sun shone down from directly overhead, glancing off the rock faces with a harsh light. Ameron Castle stood before and above them at the top of the slope, and Ronsard studied the walls carefully as they approached.

They rode to within bowshot of the walls and halted. Theido raised his hand to his mouth and called to the watchers. “I am Lord Theido, friend of the king. I would parley with your master. Bring him.”

The two riders waited while the men on the battlements debated this request, ultimately deciding that they could not refuse. One of the men said something, a head disappeared from the crenellation, and the first watcher called back, “We have sent for our lord, sir.”

They waited; the knights’ horses stamped and snorted impatiently, tossing their heads and shaking their manes, eager to move on. But the wait was rewarded with the appearance of Lord Ameronis at the battlements.

“So, Theido, it is you!” Ameronis called down from his wall. “And is that Ronsard?”

“I want to speak to you, Ameronis. Face-to-face.”

“I am sorry, but it seems that the gates have been closed and fortified. I cannot open them for you.” Ameronis spoke with good humor, as if he would gladly forget that the men before him bore anything but friendship and goodwill.

“Then allow us to approach, for I have something to tell you that you should know before blood is spilled on either side.”

“You’re wasting your time,” muttered Ronsard. “The only thing this wolf understands is the broad side of a blade.”

“I know,” replied Theido. “But those with him are not of the same stamp. We may be able to sway them. See? Here they are.”

Ronsard saw several more heads join Ameronis to peer over the wall. “I do not see Lord Edfrith among them.”

“Perhaps he has had the good sense to withdraw before entangling himself further in this greedy one’s plots. That shows, at least, that this pack is not of one accord.”

“You may approach,” shouted Ameronis down to them. “I will listen to what you have to say.”

43

I do not like this, Ameronis,” said Lord Kelkin. “If it is true we hold the ransom for the king’s son, we must give it. I do not want the prince’s blood on my head.”

The friends of Ameronis were gathered with him in his council chambers, a room high in the tower keep above the dungeon. The windows were open so that the breeze might stir the air, which lay still and heavy in the room. Ameronis sat on a sill gazing out across the escarpment toward where Theido and Ronsard had retreated only a few minutes before.

“You had stomach enough for it when we rode to the king himself,” said Lupollen. “I did not hear you complain then. If it is true that he who holds the sword is king, then here is our king!” He gestured to Ameronis, who placed his hands on the sill and rose, facing them, silhouetted in the narrow window.

Lord Denellon muttered beneath his breath. “If he is king, why are we hiding behind bolted doors, waiting for a fight?”

Ameronis ignored the remark. “Do you not see that this is exactly what they wanted?”

The others looked at him askance. “What do you mean?” demanded Gorloic. “Speak plainly.”

“Then believe me when I tell you it is nothing but a trick to make us relinquish the sword without so much as an arrow exchanged. Theido is a crafty old fox; he knew this would cause dissension among us, and this is why he spread the lie.”

“You doubt him—after all that happened in Askelon?” asked Denellon.

“Oh, I do not doubt that the prince was abducted—that is true enough. Most likely he was abducted by simple highwaymen who only want a few ducats of gold to let the boy loose. For all we know, the lad may be free now, the ransom already paid.

“No, this story about the sword being ransom for the prince and his life forfeit if the Shining One is not delivered four days from now— why, it is a ruse, and a shabby one at that.”

The lords listened to this speech of Ameronis’s, spoken calmly and with assurance, and frowned—not convinced, but swayed somewhat by the sly reckoning. At last Kelkin stood and said, “I think we make a grave mistake, sirs. And one we will long regret. But we are already enjoined and must see the matter through. Aye?”

“Aye,” echoed the others. “It is the only course left to us.”

“Yes,” said Ameronis, nodding as if he, too, had been finally convinced by Kelkin’s address. “It is the only course open to us. They”— he pointed out the window—“they have forced us to it, and we must see it through.”

“What answer will you make to them, Ameronis?” asked Lupollen. “It is nearly time for them to return for your reply.”

“What answer can I make?” Ameronis spread his hands. “I will tell them that we cannot give over the sword. I will offer to forgive the affront on my honor which has been served me by their presence if they leave. If not? Well, it is out of my hands.”

With that, the lords rose and filed out one by one onto the battlements. On the ground below Theido waited alone, having returned for the reply to his demand to give up Zhaligkeer.

“Lord Theido,” called down Ameronis, “before I give my answer, I would ask a question of you.” The other lords on the ramparts with Ameronis looked at each other. What was the devious lord up to now?

“Ask it then,” replied Theido from below, leaning with an arm on the pommel of his saddle.

“What guarantee have I that if I give up the sword to you, you will not turn and use it in your own bid for the throne?”

“Only a man such as yourself would think such a thing,” snapped Theido angrily. “You who are true to none believe all men to be as disloyal as yourself.”

Ameronis merely shrugged. “What guarantee?”

With an effort Theido held down his temper. “I can offer no guarantee save my word of honor. But if you prefer, you may ride back to Askelon and place the sword in the hands of the king yourself.”

“With you and your knights as escort?” Ameronis scoffed. “I would be cut down before I rode a half a league.”

“Theido’s word is good enough for me,” replied Lord Kelkin. “As good as a king’s seal and promise.”

“He is offering a chance to save honor without shedding blood,” put in Lord Denellon. “I say we should consider it.”

“He is offering to have us flayed like trout, my friends. Do you suppose he would not seek to punish us once the sword was his?”

“He said we could deliver it into the king’s very hands,” argued Gorloic. “I say we should reconsider.”

“And find ourselves in Askelon’s dungeons as soon as the sword is handed off ?” said Lupollen.

“The Dragon King would not do such,” said Kelkin. Gorloic and Denellon nodded with him in agreement. “We could ask for safe conduct.”

“Safe conduct! Ha! The only safe conduct we would receive would be safe conduct to the headsman’s block!” Ameronis frowned. “No, we dare not give up the sword now. As long as we hold it, we hold our lives—give up the sword and we are dead men.”

“I am waiting,” said Theido. “What is your answer?”

“You have my answer,” said Ameronis. “I will not give up the sword. If the Dragon King wants it, let him come and take it from me himself!”

“You realize this is treason—”

“Do not speak to me of treason, sir! When I am king, your effrontery will be counted treason and we shall see who squirms then! Leave this place, and take your men with you.”

“We are charged to bring back the Shining One, and we will achieve our purpose. If you have no thought for the king, at least think of the life of his son.”

“A ruse! Be gone; I am tired of talking to you.”

“I am leaving,” replied Theido coolly. “When next we meet, it will be at sword point. You have forced us to declare the siege begun.” Theido snapped his reins, turned his horse, and galloped back down the slope. Ronsard was anxiously waiting for him at the edge of the encampment.

“How is it with them?” asked the sandy-haired knight.

“You were right, my friend,” replied Theido hotly. “It is a jackal’s den. Though the others with him—Gorloic, Kelkin, and Denellon— seem inclined to reason, they allow themselves to be led astray by his smooth tongue.”

“So the siege is begun.” Ronsard stared at the castle rising before them. “Those walls will not be easy to breach. And we cannot starve them out. We must go over the top.”

“Perhaps it will come to that,” replied Theido, following Ronsard’s gaze. “But not yet. I want to examine that fourth side of the castle, the west wall on the river.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

“It will have to be tonight, under the cover of darkness.”

“Very good. I will arrange a diversion as well; that will mask our true purpose. But what do you hope to find?”

“A postern gate. I have never yet been inside a castle that did not have a rear entrance of some kind. A man like Ameronis will have a secret gate if nothing else—if only we can find it.”

Ronsard nodded and added, “If only we can find it in time.”

For the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening, the camp bustled with activity. The woods nearby rang with the sound of axes as trees were felled and stripped of their branches; men combed the forest, gathering dry pine needles by the armful; the forge and bellows of the smiths sent black smoke rolling up through the trees and into the sky.

By nightfall all was in readiness. A pale half-moon rose in the treetops, casting a glimmering light upon the escarpment, bleaching the castle walls and the granite outcroppings on the field white as dead men’s bones.

“All is in readiness,” said Ronsard. He came to stand beside Theido, who was instructing a group of knights he had chosen for the night sortie.

“Good. We are ready here too.” Theido dismissed the men, saying, “Rest now. I will sound the call when it is time to go.”

The knights departed into the darkness, leaving Theido and Ronsard alone with the embers of a slowly dying fire. “Now to wait. The moon will be well down in a few hours; it should be dark enough then to move without being seen.”

“Once we start in, not a soul in Ameron Castle will think to look for you. I will make certain of that.”

“How long can you keep up the diversion?”

“As long as you require it. We are well provided.”

Theido sighed. “Ah, well then, all is ready. We may as well take some rest too. We must have our wits about us if we are to beard the lion in his den.”

44

At the edge of the woods, the two parties assembled: one a force of twoscore men-at-arms, the other a dozen handpicked knights. The moon had climbed the night sky and sunk down behind the trees of Pelgrin, and full darkness lay upon the land. The castle rose before them on the slope, a massive black shape in the greater darkness. But for the blazing stars shining down like the fires of a celestial host encamped, the besiegers would not have had enough light to find their way.

“We will give you enough time to get into position,” said Ronsard. “You will know when the diversion starts, I daresay. With any luck the whole castle will soon be awakened to the alarm.”

Theido nodded. “We will be ready. Do not get careless, and stay well out of arrow range. There is no need for anyone to get hurt tonight. Yours is not the risk—at least not yet.”

“We will keep out of bowshot, never fear,” Ronsard assured him. “See that you do the same.”

With that the two men parted company, Theido leading his knights off into the woods, making for the riverbank where the slow Sipleth flowed dark and silent. After walking what seemed a lifetime through the woods, the knights came upon Sipleth’s east bank. The sound of moving water eddying and curling as it slipped along its shores told them that they had reached the first stage of their journey.

Walking silently, their tools and weapons muffled to prevent any sound, the small force turned and filed along the riverbank, proceeding toward the castle. Presently the river broadened, flattening as it bent around the castle rock. The bank rose to form a cliff above the black water, unseen except for the winking glint, here and there, of starlight on a ripple in the current.

The knights made their way up the rising cliffside, fighting through tangles of nettles and bramble thickets along the way. Their labors were rewarded when Theido at last halted their progress and passed the whispered word back along the file: “The castle is just ahead. We wait.”

Ahead, right to the very edge of the cliff, stood the west wall of Castle Ameron. The raiding party knelt down in the path to wait for the signal. It was not long in coming, for as the knights waited silently below the curtain, there came a shout from above, far off. “Fire!” This call was echoed by another and another all along the battlements. Then the knights heard the clatter of feet racing along the high walls directly over their heads as the cry resounded, “Fire!”

Still Theido waited, holding up his hand to stay his men. “Hold,” he whispered. “Give it time.”

Now the alarm cries could be heard echoing through the castle yards and along the furthermost battlement. But nothing more was heard from directly above; so Theido, moving stealthily, crept forward to the western wall beneath the tower and along the curtain, walking the entire length, gazing upward as he passed.

He was back momentarily, saying, “It worked. The watch has withdrawn to the far side of the castle. We have little time, so let us work quickly. Go.”

The knights leaped to action at once. Coils of rope were produced and heavy stakes driven into the ground. The ropes were attached to the stakes, and knights began lowering themselves over the edge of the cliff to the river below. Theido and two archers remained beneath the walls to protect the ropes while their comrades were vulnerable below.

When the last knight had disappeared over the edge Theido said, “Now we wait once more. Stay back close to the wall in case the tower watch returns, and keep sharp for my signal.”

The two knights melted back into the darkness beneath the tower wall. Theido, too, stepped back from the edge of the cliff, sitting down with his back against the immense curtain of stone to wait, praying that the watchmen would not return soon.

Theido need not have concerned himself, for at that moment every available man under Lord Ameronis’s command was either lofting buckets of water to quench the fires burning in the ward yards, or lining the eastern wall with bow and arrows in an attempt to prevent the siege force from sending more fireballs their way.

For when Theido’s party departed, Ronsard and his force had waited until they were well away and then moved out upon the field, dragging with them the crude catapults that had been constructed that very day. There were two of them, ungraceful machines of rough timber and rope; long poles of ash with slings at one end and counterweights of stone at the other were lashed to sturdy sledges of pine. Along with the catapults were two wagonloads of baled pine needles, tinder dry and awaiting the spark that would set them roaring into flame.

Teams of horses positioned the catapults—one below each facing tower on either side of the gatehouse just out of reach of the most determined bowman. Once in position, the horses were unhitched and led back to camp, and the war machines securely anchored to the ground with ropes and stakes. At Ronsard’s signal two riders came galloping from the campground with flaming torches, and the firestorming of Ameron Castle began.

The first bale was loaded into the sling, the catapult set, and the torch applied. Instantly the bale of pine needles burst into flame and the catapult released. Fwshh! The fireball soared through the air, describing a perfect arc toward the wall. In almost the same instant a second fireball swooped in from the opposite side.

The first missile cleared the wall and battlements and fell into the ward yard. The second missile fell short, striking the upper section of the stone wall and sliding back to earth at the foot of the wall.

“Take over, Sir Drake,” commanded Ronsard. “And keep them coming.” He dashed off to help realign the second catapult; it took a few minutes to shift the counterweight and lengthen the throw pole, but before the alarm had spread very far through the castle, the second catapult was hurling fire through the skies with deadly accuracy.

“There,” remarked Ronsard proudly, watching a fireball burn through the air to fall well inside the inner ward yard. “This should keep them busy most of the night.”

Archers took to the walls and sent arrow after arrow streaking toward the dimly outlined men tending the catapults. But Ronsard had correctly estimated the distance, and arrows fell spent to the ground, short of the mark. This brought cries of outrage and frustration from those on the battlements, and jeers in reply from those on the ground, as missile after missile lit the night sky with roaring flames.

Lord Ameronis was summoned from his bedchamber as soon as the first flames appeared in the ward yard—a fireball had fallen on the stable roof and burst, scattering flames among the straw and fodder below. Frightened horses screamed and bucked as squires and footmen braved the flames in an effort to bring the horses to safety, thus turning the entire inner ward yard into a sea of churning chaos. Another fire burned near the kitchens.

Ameronis stood with his fists on his hips, barking orders to those around him, all the while seething with rage at the attack under way. Up to now, the ambitious noble had considered the contest something of a game where the spoils went to the winner. Now he saw that the king’s forces were in dead earnest, and his demeanor changed abruptly.

“More buckets!” he bellowed. “Bring more buckets!” He stood in the midst of the riotous confusion, shouting above the noise as men darted everywhere in an attempt to save the stables.

The fire was not large; it had been caught in time and was soon under control. Ameronis left the inner ward yard and mounted the battlements, bristling with anger. “Any luck with the archers?” he asked his commander, Sir Bolen.

The young knight turned, his face ruddy in the torchlight and the lights of several small fires in the outer ward. “No, sir; the enemy is too far removed.”

“Any damage?”

“None in the outer ward. The fireballs seem intended mostly to harass us. There is no real hurt. The fires are easily extinguished.”

“Not so easily!” snorted Ameronis. “If you had been with me in the inner ward yard just now, you would have seen the ‘harassment’ these missiles can do.” He glared out between the merlons at the torchlight glimmering on the field; this marked the position of the catapults. Just then a fireball smashed into the gatehouse turret and rolled down its pitched roof onto the wall. A dozen warriors threw down their weapons and dodged away.

“I could send a contingent out to put a stop to this,” suggested the young commander. In the dancing firelight his eyes glittered with the excitement of a man ready to brave any danger in order to distinguish himself and win favor in the eyes of his superior.

“What? And open the gates to them? That is just what they want us to do!” shouted Ameronis. “Use your head, man! No! You will do no such thing! We will weather the attack as best as we can and wait until morning.”

“I am sorry, sir,” muttered the young knight. “I only thought—”

“Wait!” said Ameronis, glancing up and down along the battlements. “Who is standing watch on the other walls?”

“No one . . . ,” replied the commander hesitantly. “When the alarm was sounded, they must have come to help—”

“Send the tower watch back to their posts at once! Have them report to me immediately if they see anything amiss! Hurry! Who knows what these dogs of king’s men may be about!”

“Did you find anything?” Theido lay on his stomach at the edge of the cliff and called down to the man dangling on a rope below him.

“There is a narrow shingle along the water’s edge, sir. It runs all along the bank below the cliff. We have sent men to scout in both directions, but have found nothing yet.”

“Continue,” said Theido, rising to his feet. Just then there came a voice from the battlements above.

“Halt! Who is there?”

Theido’s heart clenched in his chest.

Half crouched, half standing, he remained rock-still, hoping that whoever was above him would not see him directly below, an easy target for even the poorest marksman.

“Hey!” called the voice above. “Bring your torch over here! I think there is someone below.”

Theido heard footsteps come running as a second guard joined the first with his torch. He held his breath, fully expecting an arrow to come singing to its mark at any second. One heartbeat . . . two . . . three. Then—“There’s nothing down there, maggot-brain,” said the second voice from the battlements. “You are seeing shadows and thinking them soldiers. Get to your post, and do not call me again unless you see something more than a shadow on the rocks.”

The first soldier grumbled and moved on to his place in the tower. Theido released his breath and drew back to the wall to wait. From either side of him at a distance of no more than twenty paces, he heard the soft footfall of his archers withdrawing and realized that as soon as the guard had discovered him, two arrows had been notched to their strings and those strings drawn taut. Had either guard so much as squeaked a warning, the man would have been dead before the words were out of his mouth.

Theido drew his cloak over him and leaned back against the hard curtain. Random shouts still echoed from beyond the walls of the castle, but the initial frenzy that had greeted the first volley of fireballs had died away. To the east the sky held a lighter hue, tinting the sky iron-blue against the black. Hurry, whispered Theido to himself. Hurry! Dawn is coming, and we must soon be gone or be discovered. Hurry, there is so little time.

45

Stars dimmed in the east, and their numbers dwindled as the sky lightened to dawn. Ronsard and his force still manned the catapults, but the fireballs soared less frequently now. “We are running out of bales,” reported one of his men. “These are the last.”

Ronsard cocked his eye skyward and said, “The others should have returned by now. Hold as long as you can. With any luck they will come before first light.”

Hurry! thought Ronsard. Hurry, before they find out . . . For one fleeting heartbeat he wondered, What if they have already found out? He dismissed the thought instantly, telling himself, Somehow we would have known.

The sandy-haired knight turned his eyes toward the ragged line of forest as it sloped down to meet the river. From here Theido and his party would return. But he saw no one. No figure hailed him from the trees, and no messenger came to tell him that all was well, that the raiding party had returned safely.

“Come on,” whispered Ronsard. “It will be daylight soon!”

The catapults flashed, hurling their flaming missiles to the castle walls, which could be plainly seen now, showing dull and imposing in the feeble light. But the interval between projectiles had stretched to several minutes, and though the enemy still lined the walls and scurried to put out each new blaze, they did not shout and rail at the foe anymore, but merely watched with casual interest, as if bored by the long-running spectacle.

There was a shout and a man came running up from the second machine, saying “Sir, the bales are gone, and we have nothing else to throw at them.” He waited for Ronsard’s leading.

“We must continue a little longer. Send some men back to camp, and ready some more bales; have the others there help. We will need enough for both catapults. Meanwhile, we must keep the attention of those on the wall; have your men move to a new position while you are waiting for your ammunition.” He pointed across the field. “There— more toward the center.”

The soldier hurried off to carry out his orders. Ronsard crossed his arms on his chest and frowned at the sky. “You should have been back long ago, Theido. Shall I send a search party after you?”

He decided to wait a little longer and began pacing back and forth between the catapults, glancing now and again toward the fringe of forest where he expected his comrade to emerge at any moment.

The sun burned nearer the horizon, flaming the sky bright red beneath the gray clouds. The outlines of the castle could be made out clearly now, and black smoke drifted on the rising wind from the numerous small fires they had set through the night. At least, thought Ronsard grimly, we have kept them busy this night, and none of our own have been hurt.

When the men returned, carrying more bales of pine needles and branches, Ronsard ordered the troops to be changed. Fresh soldiers took over from those who had worked through the night, relieving them so they might go to their well-earned rest. The new contingent fell to with zeal, and the catapulting continued.

Ronsard, increasingly anxious over his friend’s delay, placed command of the machines in a subordinate’s hands and returned to camp to form a search party. He had assembled the men, and they had armed themselves and were about to start off on the trail Theido had himself taken, when a voice hailed them from the forest. “Ho! Ronsard!”

The knight spun on his heel and met the returning party coming toward them through the forest, their faces drawn with fatigue, but adopting a jaunty air for their comrades.

“We were just setting off to look for you. You were due back long ago.”

“I began to think we would never leave. The watch returned to the towers and wall, and we were trapped below the cliff. We had to wait until the guard changed before we could move.”

“Well! Am I to guess the rest?”

“We found it: the secret postern entrance. Ameronis is clever, and it took us all night, but we found it.”

At this Ronsard and his search party broke out in cheers for their comrades, clapping them on the backs and shaking their hands. “Where is it? Tell me everything you know about it.”

Theido dismissed his men to their rest, and he and Ronsard walked to the tent that had been raised for them as their command post and private chambers. Inside, they sat down on benches facing one another across a rough-hewn table. “At first it did not appear that we would find an entrance—secret or otherwise. The cliff below the west wall is smooth-faced and drops away at a sharp angle to the water. But below is a narrow shingle a man may walk along.” He paused and pointed to a jug. “I could use a drink of water.”

Ronsard snatched the jug, poured, and handed Theido the cup. “Go on, go on. What did you find?”

“That is much better,” Theido replied. “Now then . . . Yes, the river bends around the castle rock, and if you follow it far enough, you will find that the shore widens as it passes the rock. Here”—he traced with his fingers on the table before them—“and here the forest comes down to the water’s edge. I sent the men up along this lower bank as far as it went before it flattened out to the waterline again.

“We found nothing at first. On the second sweep along the bank, one of the men found a cave well up on the cliff face—small, but large enough for a man to squeeze through. It was hidden by juniper scrub, so it was impossible to see from the northern approach. But from the opposite direction it could be spotted. They climbed up into the cave mouth and found that not more than half a dozen paces inside, the cave becomes a tunnel.”

“No!”

“Yes,” Theido affirmed. “The tunnel, though long and winding like a snake, leads to a portcullis of iron and a gate beyond.”

“Right into the heart of Ameronis’s lair. Well done! Well done, indeed!” He beamed at his friend. “This was a night well spent.” Immediately the knight’s mind began making calculations, racing ahead to make plans for the campaign to follow. “Can we cut through the ironwork?”

“Yes,” replied Theido with a yawn. “I did not see it myself, you understand, and my man did not have a torch while he was in the tunnel —all had to be explored in the dark—but at least he was able to reach the portcullis without difficulty. I think it can be cut through—given time. The iron is thick, and appears to be well made.”

“Then we must begin at once.” He saw the look on Theido’s face and asked, “Can we reach the tunnel in daylight without being seen?”

“No.” Theido shook his head wearily. “At least not by land. But there is a chance that if we go by water, hugging close to the riverbank below the walls, we can reach it without being seen from above.”

“Swim?”

“Too difficult. We could not carry the tools we would need.”

“We have no boats.”

“Rafts. We must construct two rafts of size enough to hold a dozen men each with equipment and weapons.”

Ronsard stared across the table. “That will take a day at least, maybe two.”

“We have no better choice that I can see. Scaling the walls without help from inside is our last resort. The foe is well equipped and certainly better positioned than we are, and we cannot wait for them to be weakened by the siege. No, the secret gate is the only way.”

Ronsard fell silent as he turned the matter over in his head. Finally, he admitted that Theido was right and said, “In that case, I must not waste time sitting here. I will have the carpenters begin constructing the rafts at once.” He stood to leave. “You look weary to the bone. Sleep now; I will attend to the raft building and summon you if there is any need.” He moved to the entrance and held back the flap, hesitated, and said, “We will win, Theido.”

Ronsard’s statement begged confirmation. Theido, always so certain before, so sure that the right would win out in the end, could not muster that same strength of conviction now. For once it seemed as if, despite all they might do, they would not prevail, that the evil that had poisoned the realm so swiftly had achieved its end already and they were powerless to turn aside its effects.

Ronsard lingered, watching him. Theido rubbed his face with his hands and yawned. “It has been a long night,” he said. “I am tired.”

For a moment the two held each other’s gaze, each trying to read the other, to plumb the depths and find there some hidden reserve of assurance or hope. At last Ronsard turned his face away, looking out into the camp but not seeing the men moving there, cooking their breakfasts before the fire, carrying firewood and water, looking after their weapons and the horses. The light shining on his face, his jaw flexed and set, Ronsard stepped outside, leaving Theido to his sleep.

46

Quentin stalked the high wall walks of the castle. Restless, unable to sleep, he paced the bartizans and battlements, his short cloak flying out behind him like wings, his unkempt hair streaming back from his head in wild disarray. To any who saw him, the king appeared as one gone mad, roaming the high places in the dead of night like those unhappy spirits who haunted the desolate places.

The king himself was not aware of what he was doing. He only knew that he could not remain still any longer; he must move, walk, go, and keep going lest he fall under the weight of the darkness that had crept into his heart. He had wrestled with it often enough in the last days to know that he could not win against it. It held him in a death grip, and meant to drag him down into the dust of oblivion.

So, to hold the inevitable at bay yet a little longer, he prowled the walls by night, in the light of a pale half-moon, like an animal half-crazed with pain. Quentin felt the night press in upon him, enfolding him in its velvet embrace, smothering him. He stared out across the land eastward and saw the dark line of Pelgrin hedging the broad, flat plain. Beyond Pelgrin, farther east and north, lay Narramoor and the High Temple on its flat table of stone, overlooking the entire kingdom.

Somewhere within that temple his son waited for him to come and rescue him, waited as he himself had waited as a boy for someone to carry him away from that place. And he had been rescued—by a dying knight who had placed in his hands a charge that he alone could fulfill. In those days it had been easy—easy to believe, easy to follow without asking for signs or assurances, or at least without requiring them at every turn.

Now it was much harder. He was no longer the simple, trusting acolyte with neither home nor family, and nothing much to lose. He was the Dragon King, leader of his people, protector of the realm.

Sadly, he had not been much of a protector of late. He had not been able to prevent Durwin’s death, nor his son’s kidnapping, nor any of the host of problems that so beset him. The god had removed his hand from him and had departed, leaving him alone and helpless.

So be it. The god had moved away, had abandoned him as gods will. He could do nothing about that; he was only a man, after all. The business of the gods was for the gods; mortals could not influence or change affairs once the gods had spoken. And though Quentin had believed wonderful things, incredible things about the God Most High, and had trusted him with his life and the lives of those he loved, the god, like all gods, had ultimately disappointed him.

Still, he had a choice. He could abandon his faith in the Most High and reclaim his life for himself, or he could continue believing, continue serving and trusting, even though there was good reason to cast off the belief that had so long bound him in blind trust to a god who lied when he claimed to care about his children.

Where was there ever a god who so much as pretended to care for his followers? None of the old gods, surely. None that he had ever learned about in the temple. If the ways of the gods were beyond the reckoning of men, then at least it made more sense to believe in the only one who held out the hope of something greater than the pitiful rituals played out by the scurrilous priests of the High Temple.

The old gods? Those ancient ethereal impostors? Those vague, capricious forces men called upon, worshipped, and revered with the names of gods? How could he believe in them, knowing them for what they were? As an acolyte, he had served long enough in the temple to learn that a priest’s fleshy lips applied to a hole in the stone brought forth the god’s oracle, and a priest’s avaricious whim became the god’s demand.

At least the God Most High shunned oracles and objects of silver and gold as sacrifices to win his favor. When he spoke, it was directly, and with power. Quentin had felt the power. Even if he did not feel it now and would perhaps never feel it again, he would forever remember the time when he had known beyond all doubt that the god had spoken and empowered him.

This was more than mumbled words whispered through a speaking hole hidden in a stone. There was hope here, and that was something the old gods of earth and air, of crossroads and high places, of flowing water and seasons could never give. Quentin could still remember what it was like to live without that hope, could still remember the aching despair that would come on him when, as a boy, he lay on his straw mat in his temple cell and prayed in the night to be shown the truth. He would wait, listen, and wait some more, only to have his words fall back upon him, mocking from the silent void.

No, having the hope he had so long sought, Quentin would not abandon it now. He could not live without hope, for without it there was no life at all. Better a life without sight, or touch, or taste, or any of a dozen other facilities, including love, than a life without hope. He knew that road for what it was and would not travel that way again.

At Dekra he had seen the difference for the first time, had seen the sharp contrast between the hollow sham of the old religion and the true faith. Ah, Dekra . . . with her good, caring people and her quiet ways. Was he never destined to return and live out his days in peace, surrounded by love and beauty? Sadly, no. His course had been chosen for him, and it did not include Dekra; Quentin knew that now.

But somehow it was enough merely to know that such a place existed on the earth, and that he could go there on occasion to revive his spirit. Yes, that was enough; he could accept it. For he would always carry a part of Dekra with him wherever he was.

If the god chose to move in him or if he did not, so be it. He could not rule the Most High—what kind of god would allow himself to be so ruled? But Quentin could believe. That he could do, and even the Most High could not prevent it. He could believe and hope though it cost him his crown, though it cost his life!

In that moment the choice became clear. Quentin no longer cared what the god could do for him. He would believe though it proved to be his downfall; he would continue to trust though the god himself proved untrustworthy. Yeseph had believed, and he had died believing. Durwin had believed, and he, too, carried his faith to the grave. Very well; Quentin would do no less than the men he had loved, and who had shown him how to believe. He would believe and would follow with all the strength left in him.

That settled, Quentin turned his eyes once more toward the High Temple. Though he could not see it in the distance, he knew that it was there, perched on its plateau like a carrion bird awaiting its next feast of dead meat. Yes, his son waited within those walls, waited for him to come. He would go to him. Could he call himself “father” if he did not? He would first retrieve the sword from Ameronis, and then he would take it to the High Temple. What kind of king would he be if he allowed his only son, heir to the throne, to be killed while he had strength and will to prevent it?

The two large rafts, made of logs lashed together with rope, slid into the night-dark water of the Sipleth while a dozen soldiers clambered aboard each, taking with them weapons and tools for breaking through the iron portcullis and gate guarding the secret rear entrance to Ameron Castle.

Once each raft was loaded and the passengers settled in the center, the polemen shoved the ungainly vessels out into the river’s sluggish current. Traveling against the flow would not be easy, but along the bank the water’s pull was not strong, and the polemen were able to work their crude crafts slowly up the river.

Theido sat with his men in the center of the foremost raft as they laboriously made their way upstream to the place below the walls where the bank offered them a footing so they could disembark and make for the cave entrance.

Throughout the day the carpenters had slaved over the building of the rafts, and though they were far from elegant, Theido was relieved to discover that the crude, blockish platforms floated well enough. By nightfall they were ready, and he ordered them to be launched in order to take advantage of night’s protection to further veil their activities. He had no doubt that if even the smallest sound aroused the night watch posted on the wall, they would be discovered and their plans ruined. If Ameronis as much as suspected that they had discovered his secret tunnel, defending it would not be a problem: a trio of archers could keep any number of knights pinned down.

Now Theido crouched with his knights and listened to the water sloshing and splashing by them as they slid along the brush-covered banks, hoping against all hope that they would not be heard or seen passing beneath the walls. The polemen worked the poles and drove the rafts forward, keeping as close to the shoreline as possible. After what seemed like hours, they came to the place where the castle rock rose up and the river pushed its way around it, carving into the cliff of stone. Moving cautiously and with agonizing slowness—for the towers rose unseen directly above them—the rafts inched forward. Straining into the night, Theido scanned the cliff face for the sign he sought—the juniper bush concealing the cave.

As they rounded the bend of the rock, Sir Garth, who had been with him the night before when they discovered the tunnel, and had himself been inside it, raised an arm silently and pointed to a spot along the bank halfway up the cliff. There it was; Theido could just make out the place as a dark spot against the lighter stone of the cliff. He nodded silently. Yes, they were almost there.

The first raft nosed into the stony shingle, grating softly as it came to rest. The nearest men scrambled ashore and began unloading the weapons and equipment, and then the others followed. The second raft pushed up behind the first, and those aboard made to disembark, but an overanxious departure by the first soldiers dangerously unbalanced the craft and the raft tipped, throwing the remaining passengers into the river with a tremendous splash.

Those on the shore froze, hearts pounding, while their comrades swam to shore and dragged themselves out as quietly as possible. Each man held his breath and prayed that the sound would go unnoticed.

They waited.

From somewhere high up on the wall above them they heard a shout that was answered by another shout. The words were not distinguishable, but Theido guessed that one watchman had called to another to ask about the commotion. Then there came the sound of voices drifting down from above—someone was leaning over the battlements to see what had caused the splash.

Theido raised his hand to indicate that everyone remain as still as stone. For a dozen heartbeats he relived his adventure of the night before when he had nearly been discovered. Then there came a call; those below heard it plainly. “All clear,” the voice said. The men huddled below breathed a sigh of relief.

Theido signaled for the men to resume their work, and the rafts, unloaded now, were poled upriver a little way and hidden among the brush of the bank where the shore flattened and the forest grew close to the water. The rest of the soldiers formed a human chain and began passing the equipment from hand to hand up the side of the cliff and into the mouth of the cave.

Sir Garth and Theido climbed to the cave and crawled inside. Garth produced a flint and steel and found one of the torches among the supplies being stacked at the entrance. In a moment he had the torch flaming brightly and said, “Now we will see what we are up against.”

Holding the torch high, he led Theido deeper into the cave. They passed along narrow walls—no wider than a gallery corridor—and came to the farthest wall of the cave. Here an entrance had been opened and a tunnel cut into the soft rock. “Ages past, the river hollowed this cave. When the castle was built here, someone discovered it and connected it with this passage,” said Garth, pointing to the smooth-chiseled surface of the stone.

He lowered his head and stepped into the tunnel. Theido followed. It was narrow—narrower than the cave, with room enough for only one man to pass comfortably. The secret passage led upward in a slight incline as it made for the castle above. The floor was dry and dusty for the most part, but as it neared the gate Theido noticed water seeping down the sides of the walls. Garth indicated this with his torch, saying, “We are passing beneath the castle cistern, no doubt.”

Presently they came to a place where the tunnel walls widened a span, and there just ahead stood the iron portcullis, glimmering darkly in the torchlight.

“There it is,” said Garth, placing the torch in a sconce set into the stone at the edge of the gateway. “And now that I see it in the light, I see that it is much sturdier than I had first imagined.” He ran his hand over the iron, feeling its thickness and strength.

“Yes,” agreed Theido, “it is well made, as anyone might have guessed who knew Ameronis and his kin. And it looks in good repair.”

“Not a speck of rust, my lord.”

“The smiths have their work ahead of them. All the more reason to get them at it.”

“Right away, sir.” Garth turned and started back through the darkened tunnel.

“And Garth,” said Theido, “have the weapons brought here. I would have them close to hand.” The knight left, and Theido returned to the scrutiny of the iron barrier before him. Could they cut through it in time? And once through, what would they find on the other side?

47

Bria had risen long before daybreak and roused their bodyguard to begin readying the coach and horses for the day’s journey. In two days they had made good time through the soggy moorland between the low mountains of Dekra and Malmarby, and by nightfall had reached the place where they had abandoned the coach. There they made their camp for the night.

Upon leaving Dekra, there had settled over the queen an unspoken urgency. With every step closer to Askelon, she seemed to hear a plaintive voice. Hurry! Hurry, it whispered, before it is too late! And Bria, heedful of this inner urging, pressed the group to a greater speed.

Alinea, sensing this change in her daughter, had questioned her about it when they stopped the day before to eat along the trail. “What is it, dear? What is wrong?”

Bria confessed, her green eyes staring off toward Askelon. “Wrong? I cannot say. But I feel as if something is about to happen, and I must be there to help it or prevent it somehow, I know not which. But my heart tells me to hurry, and I feel we must pay it heed. We must not be slow, Mother.”

“Is it Gerin?”

Bria considered this in the way of a mother who knows when something is happening to her child though he is far away and removed from her sight. “No, it is not Gerin. I am at peace with him. It is more Quentin, I think.”

“Has it to do with Esme’s vision, then?”

“Yes, that must be it—at least in part. But what I am to make of that I hardly know. Still, I feel we must go with all haste and return to Askelon as soon as we can.”

Now, at the dawn of a new day, the feeling of urgency pressed Bria even more strongly, causing her to awaken and rouse the others so that they might break camp the quicker. The little princesses, still yawning and rubbing sleepy eyes, splashed their faces with water and made a game of getting ready. Alinea herded them together and kept them out of the way of the men hitching up the coach. Bria flew to the task of repacking their sleeping bundles and helping the men stow the provisions on the coach once more.

Esme, for her part, helped too, if a little absently. Since leaving Dekra, she had retreated more and more into herself—brooding, contemplative, and given to long periods of silence, her lovely features wrinkled in fierce scowls of concentration. What it was she was feeling inside or so fiercely thinking about which made her seem so sullen and aloof could not be determined. For when Bria attempted to draw her out, she simply replied, “I am a bit preoccupied. I am sorry; forgive me.” But following an attempt at rejoining the conversation of the others, she would slowly drift off into her intense reverie once more.

When at last they were ready to travel again, the sun peeped above the rim of the mountains behind them. Esme turned and stared longingly in the direction of Dekra, then abruptly turned, mounted her horse, and fell in line behind the coach. By midmorning they reached Malmarby and, after greeting the entire village, arranged for Rol, the ferryman, to take them across the inlet to where the King’s Road awaited them beyond Celbercor’s Wall.

The coach was taken across first with the horses and two of the bodyguards, whereupon Rol returned for the remaining passengers. Esme took a seat alone at the bow of the wide boat and turned to face outward, staring across the water. The Malmar Inlet flowed deep and dark, its waters silent and clear. As Esme stared down she felt herself drifting off, floating on the water as it stretched its mirrored surface to the great wall rising out of its depths on the far shore.

The wall, she thought. There is something about the wall, but what? As she sat gazing at it the wall seemed to change, rising higher and higher, stretching across the entire realm, extending its mighty length until it encircled all Mensandor with a smooth, seamless face of black stone. And it grew ever higher and higher, blotting out the sun.

“Oh, no!” she gasped. “We are cut off. Trapped! Soon there will be no more light.” She looked again and saw robed priests walking along the top of the wall and realized that it was the priests themselves who caused the wall to grow, who encouraged its ever-increasing girth. She saw the wall change, forming other walls and pillars and a roof of stone—a temple, the High Temple. And there was a multitude of people moving along the road toward the temple, wending their way up the long, winding trail to the top of the plateau where the High Temple stood. Then there came a roar like a rushing wind, and smoke rolled up, blotting all from sight; she peered through the smoke and saw not a temple any longer, but a field of stones and rubble, a desolate place overgrown with weeds and thorn thickets, where owls keened their lonely, spectral call . . .

“Esme!”

The lady started at the sound of her name. She turned and saw Bria sitting beside her; she had not noticed her friend approach.

“Esme! What is happening to you?”

Esme grasped Bria’s hands and held them, turning her eyes once more toward the wall. “I have had another vision; the god has spoken to me again.” She stared at Celbercor’s Wall rising bold and impervious before them and then shuddered as if with cold, looked around at Bria, and said earnestly, “We must go to the temple, Bria.”

Bria searched her friend’s face for a sign, for anything that would explain her words. “Are you certain? The temple? Why?”

Esme pressed Bria’s hands harder. “I am certain. Please, we must not return to Askelon. The temple—I saw it clearly.”

“What else did you see?”

“Just that. The wall changed and became a temple—and priests. Twice I have seen priests. This is the confirmation of my vision. Something is to take place at the temple, and we must be there.”

Bria nodded and said, “I, too, have felt uneasy since we left Dekra, as if I were being prodded along and urged to haste. But the temple— what about Quentin?”

Esme shook her head. “I do not know. I did not see him, but there was a throng assembled in the courtyard of the temple, and I know that we must be among them.”

Bria bit her lip, then weighed the decision.

“Please,” said Esme, “the certainty of what I have seen is strong in me. I know it is a sign from the Most High.”

“Very well,” replied the queen slowly. “We will turn aside and ride for Narramoor and the High Temple. And let us pray that we arrive in time to do whatever it is that the god intends for us.”

“Yes,” said Esme, “that will be my prayer.”

All day long Ronsard waited at his post on the edge of the field. He watched as the sun rose in the treetops, crossed the vault of the heavens, and began its downward descent toward evening, and still no word came from Theido. The main body of knights and fighting men waited restlessly, burnishing lance and sword and tending to their armor, making sure it was in good repair. When the signal came from Theido, Ronsard would lead his troops into battle to storm the walls of the castle.

For his part, Theido and his men were to come up through the castle by way of the hidden passage, sneaking in behind Ameronis’s troops to open the gates for their comrades. But the signal had not come, and that could only mean that the secret gate had not been breached.

So, as twilight lengthened the shadows of the forest encampment, Ronsard gave the order to stand down. “We cannot attempt the walls in the dark,” he said. “But tomorrow—secret gate or no—we must fight. There is no more time to wait.” He turned to his commander, gave him instructions for the men, and turned away from the field, saying, “I will be in my tent if any messages come.”

Throughout the camp men began taking off their armor and laying aside their weapons. Ronsard, too, removed his breastplate and gor-get upon entering the tent, went to the basin standing on its tripod, dipped his hands into the cool water, and splashed his face.

Another day gone, he thought, and now there are no more days. It must be tomorrow. Tomorrow or the king’s son will die. He stood over the basin, his hands dripping, and stared through the side of the tent, picturing the little prince captive in the clutches of the loathsome high priest. He saw the boy bound and placed on the altar and the dagger plunged into his trusting heart.

“No!” he cried aloud, slamming his hand into the basin. Water splashed everywhere and sloshed over the rim. “Not while I have breath in my body will they harm that boy!” he vowed. He heard a sound behind him and said to his squire, “Hand me a cloth,” putting out his hand to receive it.

“I, too, have made a similar vow.”

Ronsard looked up and noticed for the first time who his visitor was. “Quentin! You—Your Majesty! I thought—”

Quentin smiled thinly. “I know what you thought. But never mind. Here”—he handed the dripping knight a strip of clean linen—“dry yourself and we will talk.”

The king threw off his riding gloves and cloak and sat down on one of the benches at the table. Ronsard ran the towel over his face and dried his hands, all the while studying the man before him as a physician might study a patient who has suddenly and unexpectedly arisen from his sickbed. “I am tired, Ronsard. It is a long ride from Askelon. I wonder that Ameronis has the will to make the trip as often as he seems to. But then, he always did sit a strong saddle.”

“Sire, allow me to send for something to eat. I was about to get some food for myself.”

“Yes, do that. I am hungry as well. I have eaten nothing all day.”

“I will see to it at once!” Ronsard fairly shouted, for here before him sat the king, who to all appearances seemed in his right mind. Ronsard could detect none of the melancholy that he had so recently seen in his friend. True, his manner was grave beneath the forced civility of his aspect; clearly the king struggled to show himself composed. And fatigue sat on his shoulders like a burden, bending him over, draining his features of color.

But he had come, and he spoke as one who knew what he was doing, who had purpose and reason behind his actions. Surely this was the very best sign.

Ronsard crossed to the tent flap and called to a squire to bring food and drink, then returned a moment later. “Sire, it is good to see you. We thought . . . that is, we were afraid—”

“You were afraid your king had deserted you completely.” To Ronsard’s look he added, “Well, you were right. I had deserted you. I sent you out to fight my battle for me while I stayed within my own walls and ate out my heart with self-pity and grief. But no more. Though I have but one more day to be king, then king I will be—not a coward.”

It heartened Ronsard to hear Quentin talk this way—with fire in his voice, and his tone resolute. “Sit, my friend,” said Quentin, “and tell me how the matter stands.”

Ronsard lowered himself to the bench opposite, leaned on his elbows, and began to recite all that had taken place since they had come to Ameron-on-Sipleth. While they talked, the squire entered with their meal and laid it on the table before them. Ronsard motioned the young man away, indicating that they wished to be left alone and would serve themselves.

Quentin listened intently, nodding now and again as he ate, dipping his hand to his trencher. He raised his cup and drained it when Ronsard had finished and said, “You and Theido have done well. I am pleased.”

“Sire, will you lead the troops tomorrow?”

Quentin considered this and then inclined his head in assent. “Ameronis must be made to face his king if he would wear the crown. Yes, I will lead. He must see me riding at the head of my army, and know who it is he would overthrow.”

Ronsard smiled. “Excellent! Yes, that is the Quentin I know! Those jackals will turn tail and run!”

“You know that I would not lift blade against them if it could be avoided. I would not that a single man were hurt. But my son’s life is at stake, and I must not fail him.”

Ronsard opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and closed it again. But Quentin said, “What is it? Speak—we know each other too well to hold back.”

“As you say, my lord,” Ronsard began, then hesitated once more. “Sire, the words come hard.”

“They will come no easier for holding them.”

The stalwart knight turned his face away and then said, “What will you do if we fail to regain the sword?”

“That I cannot say. If I thought riding with an armed force to the High Temple was the answer, I would have done it without delay. But I dare not risk the danger to my son, Ronsard. We must in all events try to recover the Shining One.” He paused, adding in a quiet voice, “Failing that, we must trust in the Most High to work his will. That is all any man can do.” “How much longer?” Theido asked, sweat dripping from his forehead and running down his neck. Sir Garth looked back at him and shook his head sadly.

“No telling yet, my lord. Another few hours at least; likely more.” The brawny knight jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where men labored to cut through the iron bands of the portcullis with various implements.

“Put new men to the task, and spell them regularly from now on. We still have to fight once we are through the gate; I do not want the men exhausted before they must lift their swords.”

“It is the heat in this blasted tunnel,” said Garth. “It drains a man’s strength. We would have cut through long ago if not for that.”

Theido turned and walked to the barrier. For all their efforts, they had succeeded in removing only one small section of the thick iron gate. A second section was nearly freed, but a third and a fourth had to be cut away to ensure that an armed man could pass through quickly. There was nothing to be done but continue hacking away at the structure at the same maddening, slow pace.

Abruptly Theido left the chamber, passing back through the narrow tunnel to the cave mouth and the cool night beyond. The ping and chink of the workers’ tools echoed through the passageway as their chisels bit into the iron. Below the cave the soldiers whose services were not now required at the gate rested on the shingle beside the water. The moon had risen and shone sparkling on the dark river, illuminating the cliff and the castle walls above with a ghostly light.

The soldiers glanced up as Theido made his way down to them. Progress? the glance asked. None, Theido’s look answered as he sat down among them.

One of the men, a knight by the name of Olin, leaned close to Theido and asked, “What will happen if we do not breach the gate? What will we do?”

“The gate will be breached,” Theido answered stiffly.

“Yes, I know—eventually. But what if dawn comes first?”

Theido turned cheerless eyes upon the man and replied, “Ronsard will attack at dawn. He has no other choice. With our help or without it, he will go against the walls.”

Olin stared at Theido in silence.

“You asked for the truth; I told you.”

“It is a hard truth, my lord. It is sure death to go against those walls. Catapults and rams—”

Theido cut him off. “We have no time for catapults to wear down the walls or rams to splinter the gates. No time.”

“Then if we fail here, we die.”

“Yes, and more. If we fail, the realm dies with us; the kingdom is in ruins.” Theido nodded slowly, gazing out over the smoothly flowing water. “You did not know so much was at stake?”

“No, my lord,” answered the knight. “I thought it was just to save the prince.”

“The prince, ourselves, our nation.”

Sir Olin said nothing more for a long time. Then, without another word, he rose to his feet and climbed back up the side of the cliff to the cave and went back to take his place at the portcullis with the other workmen.

Then, as Theido watched, one by one the others who had been resting, having just come out from the tunnel, got up and climbed back to the cave to pick up their tools once more.

48

As dawn broke fair and clean in the east, the Dragon King raised his gauntleted hand and urged Blazer forward. The mighty warhorse jigged sideways and pranced, smelling the scent of battle in the air, feeling his bold blood race in his veins, eager to gallop with his master into the fray. Quentin, with Ronsard at his left hand, rode out into the field, his armor glinting in the early light.

He wore the battle dress made for him by the legendary Inchkeith, the armor he had worn against Nin the Destroyer on the day he became king. Polished smooth, bright as water, the pale silver shimmered in the sun’s first rays, throwing beams of light from its clean, flat surfaces like the facets of a gemstone. On his head he wore the silver helm that he had placed there on the day of his coronation. From his shoulders hung the exquisite cloak of chain mail, its tiny links rippling like quicksilver with every jouncing step.

Ronsard, too, was arrayed in his best armor, and rode beside the king with eyes ahead, visor up, surveying the formidable walls rising before them on the escarpment. His hand rested easily on the hilt of his sword; his shield hung down from the pommel of his saddle, ready to be snatched up in an instant when need occasioned. His battle steed shook its mane and pawed the earth as it pranced out into the morning.

Behind them came the king’s knights mounted on their chargers, their armor clinking in the silent dawn. No drums beat time; no trumpet sounded the call to arms. The army of the Dragon King would march unheralded into battle this day.

After the knights came the footmen with their pikes and ladders, and grappling hooks on long ropes to aid in scaling the walls. They wore short, heavy swords thrust through their belts, for in the close fighting on the battlements there would be no room to swing a longer blade; and any who were lucky enough to reach the heights of Castle Ameron would need a stout weapon.

The advancing forces reached the catapults, and teams of men ran out and began readying the machines, loading stones and fireballs into the slings. This done, the men waited for the king’s command. Quentin scanned the high ramparts, raised his sword—a sturdy blade he had chosen from among others in the armorer’s wagon—and lowered it in a swift movement.

The catapults sang through the air and the footmen raced toward the walls with a mighty shout, flooding over the rising ground to the very feet of the enormous stone curtains. There they flung their ladders against the walls and sent their grappling hooks snaking through the air, while archers positioned themselves to offer what help they could.

At almost the same instant, a cry went up from the walls as Ameronis’s men leaped to the embrasures and began hailing arrows, stones, and timbers down upon the men below. The first men on the ladders fell screaming to the earth, but others appeared to take their places, and others behind them, each with a shield over his head to stop the deadly rain. But arrows found their marks, stones struck down with bone-shattering force, and brave soldiers fell.

As the attack began, Ameronis and his noble friends, sitting in the banqueting hall over their breakfast, heard the cry go up from his men on the battlements. Ameronis rose from his chair and said, grinning, “So, the king’s army has no patience, eh? It sounds as if they mean to tumble these walls with their wailing. Come, my friends, this will be rare sport. These walls have never been breached in living memory. Let us see how the Dragon King’s army fares.”

With that he turned and hurried from the hall, Lupollen following after him. The others sat in silence, looking awkwardly at one another for a moment, and then followed. “He did not seem to think it worth mentioning that his walls have stood secure all through the years because of the Dragon King’s favor and protection,” muttered Gorloic.

“Aye,” agreed Denellon. “I am sorry we ever listened to him. We will pay for our error before this day is through. Mark my words, sir. We will pay.”

They found Ameronis striding the wall walk, barking orders to his men, exhorting them to a fighting frenzy. Heedless of his own safety, he dashed here and there to join in the worst of the fighting, leaning out over the crenels and shoving the ladders away with his bare hands.

“See how he rages!” cried Lord Kelkin, holding his head in dismay. “He is like a wolf, blood-drunk and ravening for the kill!”

Catching sight of them, Ameronis shouted, “Look! Here is a sight for you! The Dragon King has joined the contest!” He thrust out a hand and pointed below.

The other lords rushed to the embrasure and peered fearfully down into the moil; and there, amid the writhing, seething mass of men struggling to mount to the walls, they glimpsed the white flanks of the king’s charger, flashing here and there among his troops, and the Dragon King himself riding with his sword uplifted and shield held high.

“Bring me a bow!” bawled Ameronis above the clamor. “A bow! Bring me a bow!”

“Stop!” bellowed Gorloic. “Think of what you are doing!”

But Ameronis would not listen; he snatched up a longbow from one of his archers and notched an arrow to the string and let fly at the king. Gorloic and Kelkin rushed forward and grabbed Ameronis by the arms. “Let me go!” he screamed. “Let me go!” He struggled free of their grasp and backed from them. “If you have not stomach for the fight, get below and hide with the women in the scullery! I mean to wear the crown, and I will take it however I must!”

Horrified, the noblemen backed away and withdrew to the gatehouse turret, where they could watch the battle in safety.

Once the fighting began, Ronsard allowed the main force of footmen to establish themselves before the gates of the castle before leading his own small force to the less-defended northern wall. Ladders were thrown up and secured. One knight gained the battlement without being seen, and another as well before the alarm was sounded and Ameronis’s men came running with sword and halberd to repel the invaders. But Ronsard’s knights fought well and held their own while their number was strengthened from below. Ronsard was the third man over the wall and was soon joined by others until there were twelve of the king’s knights on the wall.

Together these twelve labored to butt through to where their comrades fought to gain the western wall. They inched along the northern curtain toward the northern tower; from there they could cross over to the west. Once in the tower, however, they encountered strong resistance. Ten of Ameronis’s knights, hearing the alarm from the northern curtain, had come running up from the ward yard below to meet them.

The foremost of these, a giant of a man in an iron morion and carrying a double-bladed axe in one hand and an ox-hide shield in the other, came crashing in through the door of the tower, swinging his weapon in a deadly arc around him. Ronsard, with two of his knights, managed to force the giant back out of the door, which they sealed at once.

“Can you hold the door?” asked Ronsard, throwing open his visor.

“I think so,” replied his second-in-command. Just then there came a fearful crash at the door they had just sealed as the giant’s axe thundered on the planks. “For now,” he added.

“Hold out as long as you can,” said Ronsard, “and then join us below. I am going to try to fight through to the gates. Perhaps we can force them open.” So saying, Ronsard led the other knights down the spiraling wooden steps to the tower keep below, which was as yet unguarded.

With swords singing they forced their way across the outer ward to the gatehouse, encountering little resistance since most of the castle’s defenders lined the wall walks above. Once inside, they overpowered the frightened foe easily.

“In the king’s name, open the gates!” demanded Ronsard, his sword at the throat of the quaking gatekeeper.

The man wailed and rolled his eyes in terror. “Though you sever head from shoulders, I cannot!” cried the man.

“Open them, or I will drop you where you stand!”

“I cannot!” screamed the gatekeeper. “Brave sir, believe me! The doors are fortified and cannot now be opened by anyone—leastways, without removing the timbers and chains.”

“My lord,” shouted one of Ronsard’s knights, “he speaks true. The gates are bound in chains and reinforced with timbers. To remove them would take us half a day!”

Ronsard was about to make a reply when behind them on the staircase leading to the parapet they heard a shout and the sound of many feet pounding down the wooden stairs. “We are discovered!” cried one of the knights.

In the space of three heartbeats, the loyal besiegers were swarmed by knights as the gatehouse filled with troops from the ramparts above. And though Ronsard and his men stood toe-to-toe against the defenders, they were sorely outnumbered and were forced to retreat back across the ward yard to the northern tower. There they rejoined their comrades who still held the doors leading out onto the wall walks.

“Seal the doors below!” ordered Ronsard. “We will go above and win the turret!”

They clattered up the stairs to the turret, which was defended by archers. One look at the armored knights boiling up out of the tower, however, and the archers, assuming that the king’s forces had breached 1098 the walls, threw down their weapons and begged for mercy. “Take their weapons,” said Ronsard, and the archers were herded together at the farther rim of the turret and made to sit down while a knight stood over them with a sword.

Ronsard then strode to the embrasure and stood up in the crenel, waving his sword over his head. Men on the ground below recognized him and cheered, swarming at once to the tower with their ladders and hooks.

The minor victory proved short-lived, however, for Ameronis, too, saw Ronsard’s signal and sent a force of his best knights to the northern tower. In moments the knights had rushed to the tower and were hacking at the doors. At the same instant, the giant on the wall walk succeeded in battering the door to splinters with his huge axe; he came charging through, followed by others, and they all came thundering up the stairs to the turret.

“We’re trapped!” hollered one of the besiegers. “We are cut off!”

“Here!” said Ronsard, motioning to the archers who had given themselves up. “Sit on the hatchway—all of you!”

The prisoners scrambled together and sat down on the planks, holding the door closed with their combined weight. “That should keep them out for a while at least,” said Ronsard. “We can only wait now. The fight is taken from us for the moment.”

In the secret passage deep beneath the castle, the clash and clamor of the combat could be heard, muted through the heavy gate beyond the portcullis. “Listen!” said Theido, and the hammering halted. Into the silence drifted the eerie sound of heated battle—as if the echoes of an ancient war still lingered in the rocks of the cave and now came drifting out from the stones that had held them.

“By the One!” cried Theido. “It has started! Hurry, men, or we come too late!”

At once the hammers rang out on the cold iron, filling the cave and tunnel with a horrendous din as chisels bit deep in an effort to free the last section of the gate, for now they did not have to worry about the noise; any racket they made would be drowned in the battle roar above.

With shouts and curses the soldiers threw themselves at the unrelenting iron until, exhausted, they fell back panting into the tunnel. When one man faltered, another took his place as the assault on the portcullis continued.

49

All around him on the ground the lay bodies of the wounded, broken, and dying, some crushed beneath timbers and stones, many more pierced through with arrows. Still the king strove to rally his flagging forces to remount the assault. But disheartened by their lack of success in gaining the walls and dismayed at the loss of their numbers, the Dragon King’s army shrank from the walls, and Quentin was forced to withdraw to regroup his forces.

At the first sign of the king’s retreat, a cheer went up from Ameronis’s men on the wall. The lord himself joined in the exultation, and called after the receding troops, “Have you had enough, and so soon? Come back; let us finish it for once and all!” This brought more cheers from his men. So Ameronis leaned out over the wall and called still louder to the delight of his army, “The Dragon King slinks away like a scalded hound—with his ears bobbed and his tail between his legs! Come back and fight like a man of honor!”

Up on the gatehouse turret Lords Kelkin, Gorloic, and Denellon watched as the king’s forces retreated from the field. “It is going badly for them,” remarked Kelkin. “Would that I had my knights with me now; I know which side I would join.”

“I, too, would add my aid to the king,” said Denellon. “I have seen enough of Ameronis’s ways. His true face is revealed in war, and it is not a face I would care to see under the crown.”

“Nor I,” put in Lord Gorloic. “But though my knights guard my own fortress and are far from here, I still have a sword and an arm to use it! And while I live, both belong to the Dragon King!”

“Aye!” agreed the others. “So be it!”

“But,” said Kelkin, “we are only three. Ameronis and Lupollen have the advantage over us. We would be cut to pieces before we put hand to hilt.”

“Then we will have to find another way to better them. We cannot do that here. Come, my friends,” said Gorloic, “time is fleeting and we have work to do!”

“Are ye fair certain this be the wisest course, young master?” asked Pym as the two rode along through the forest. “What will yer mother say when she learns we’uns ’as let ye follow the king to battle—and we’uns without so much as a stick to shake at the foemen.”

“Be quiet,” replied Renny. “I’m thinking.”

“Yer lost! We’uns’ve been riding these woods fer near a day and no sign of the king. We’uns’d best go back.”

“’Ee go back if ’ee want to,” said Renny stubbornly. “I mean to fight for the king.”

Pym sighed—as he had sighed a hundred times in the last twelve hours—and scratched his grizzled head. “Well, if ye have yer heart set on it, there’ll be no persuading ye—not as I haven’t tried, neither. But ye must admit it: we’uns is lost.”

“Not lost,” replied Renny. “We just lack direction.”

They had left Askelon the day before when the king rode out, following him as he himself had followed his army. But the two of them on Tarky were no match for the spirited Blazer and were soon outdistanced and left behind. Pym had been for turning back, but his young companion pursued his course with single-minded determination, bent on serving the Dragon King beside those noble knights he had met when they tried to return the horse.

The two were resting along a little-used pathway through the southeastern reaches of Pelgrin when they heard the jingle of a horse’s tack and the murmur of voices on the trail ahead.

“Someone’s coming!” Renny jumped up and peered into the green shadows. “A horse and rider! We’ll ask him how to find Ameron Castle.”

Closer, they saw not one, but two riders trotting lightly along the pathway. Boldly Renny stepped out into the center of the trail so that they would stop, and in a moment he looked into the face of a black-bearded nobleman astride a sleek black charger.

“Ho! Who goes there?” said the nobleman with a wink to his companion, a knight with a broadsword on his thigh and a shirt of mail.

“A highwayman by all appearances,” returned his companion.

“Please, my lord,” said Renny, speaking up with all the courage he could muster. “We need help.”

“We are true men,” replied the lord. “You have but to ask, and if it is within our power, it is granted. But ask quickly, for we are about important business.”

Seeing how the lord received the lad, Pym brought Tarky and came to stand beside Renny. “This is my friend,” said the boy. “We are on our way to join the king’s army at Ameron-on-Sipleth.”

“We’uns’ve lost our way, Yer Lordship,” added the tinker. Tip barked once to affirm their plight.

The nobleman leaned forward in the saddle and studied the travelers closely. “What do you know of the king’s army?”

Pym grew tentative. “Only that they marched out from Askelon two—no, three days ago sunset time. The king followed last night, and we’uns followed him.”

Renny nodded. “’Ee goes to claim his sword back from them that took it!”

The lord glanced at his companion, then back at the two before him. Recognition came to him like a flash of lightning out of a clear blue sky. “Why, I know you,” he said, looking Pym up and down. “You’re the tinker in the road.”

“And I know ye, too, Yer Lordship. Ye were the one as didn’t want a poor tinker to come to no harm.”

“That bruise on your jaw, man—did Ameronis do that to you?”

“To say he didn’t would tell a lie, Yer Lordship. That he did, right enough.” Pym rubbed his still-swollen jaw. “When he took the sword.”

“Ah, so it was a sword you held under those rags, was it?” He watched Pym carefully. “The king’s sword?”

Pym nodded. “I don’t know if it be the Shining One or no, but there’s no end of them that thinks it, sir.”

“It must be!” said the nobleman to the knight beside him. “And Ameronis took it, you say?”

Pym nodded. Renny spoke up. “And we mean to help the king get it back. ’Ee needs it to save the prince!”

“What’s this? What about the prince?”

“It be the ransom, Yer Lordship. The sword must be delivered to the High Temple tomorrow midday or the young highness is to be killed.”

“Does Ameronis know about this?” asked the nobleman.

“We’uns can’t say if he does or he don’t. But all Askelon knows now. It’s all anyone talks of, ye see. The word went out yesterday when the Dragon King rode out. Folks ’as said he went to claim his sword to save his son, ye see.”

“Yes, I see.” The lord rose up in the saddle and turned to the knight. “Ride back and call out my men—all of them, and my tenants, too. As many as have weapons. If any lack, let them be equipped out of my armory.”

“Yes, Lord Edfrith,” replied the knight, taking up the reins and turning his mount.

“Meet us at Castle Ameron. I go there at once.”

“Alone?”

“I will hardly be alone, sir. I have two stout comrades with me here; no man in the realm could be better served. Go and bring my troops. The king will need all the help we can provide if he goes against Ameronis. Hurry!”

“Ronsard and his contingent are trapped, Sire. A few of our men managed to reach the turret to join him before the tower was taken again,” explained one of the king’s commanders. “They fight now just to stay alive; we cannot look for any aid from them.”

Quentin nodded gravely and dismissed the knight, turning his eyes toward the battlefield. His surgeons carried litters bearing the wounded and dying. Ameronis’s troops looked on from the wall, awaiting the next assault, content for the moment merely to watch and wait and conserve their strength.

So, thought Quentin, it has come to this. Ronsard trapped, Theido rendered useless, and I am here alone. His mind turned to the others he had depended on throughout his life: Durwin, Bria, Alinea, Yeseph, Eskevar, Theido, Ronsard, and Toli perhaps most of all. But now, at this moment, all were gone. When he needed them most, there was no one to turn to, no one to say to him, “Yes, go on” or “No, turn aside.” No one to give counsel, confer with, or share the arching anxiety of this moment.

Even the Most High stood far off, his hand removed and his presence withdrawn.

Quentin squared his shoulders. I am the Dragon King, he said to himself, and it is time I learned to accept what it is to be a king, to be a man whose choices must be his own, and who must live or die by his decisions. Oh, but it is hard. Look at all these others here, watching me, trusting me to lead them, to save them, laying down their lives. I never asked to be a king, but I was chosen. And I will lead these last faithful men as truly as I know how.

Quentin swung down from his saddle and handed the reins to a squire. He walked among his troops resting on the ground, speaking to them, rebuilding their courage for the next sally.

“Hurrah! The gate is breached!” The cheer echoed along the secret passage beneath Ameronis’s castle.

“Good!” said Theido. “At last! Now for the gate beyond. Come on, men. We are almost through!”

With axes and wedges the soldiers ran through the gaping hole in the portcullis and went to work on the timbers beyond. In moments the planks were shivered by the sharp blows of the axe and split by the thrust of the wedge.

“Ready yourselves!” called Theido to the others waiting behind him. “We will be through the gate in no time. Be armed and keen for the fight.”

Gorloic, Kelkin, and Denellon crept along through the castle corridors and galleries, having armed themselves from the hands of fallen and expired warriors. Now they moved quietly toward their objective: the gatehouse.

“I will see to the gatekeeper,” said Gorloic. “You two take care of his men.”

“What if Ameronis or Lupollen discover us?” asked Kelkin. He glanced around nervously, as if expecting the treacherous lords to appear at any moment.

“They will not,” replied Denellon.

“Aye,” agreed Gorloic. “If we wait until the attack renews, they will have enough to think about. But we must work quickly. See? The gatehouse is through the antechamber before us. Are we ready?”

“Listen!” said Denellon, for at that moment a tremendous crash was heard in the ward yard outside, and another shook the outer curtain. “The catapults! The attack has begun!”

From up on the wall walks above, the lords heard the roar of a shout from the troops lining the ramparts as the Dragon King’s army came rushing to the walls once more. “We go!” said Gorloic, and laying a hand to his hilt, he rushed forward through the antechamber and into the gatehouse, his friends coming hard on his heels.

“Gateman!” Gorloic shouted. “Open the gates!”

The gatekeeper and his men, some of whom had been crouching behind barrels in the corner, turned to meet the noblemen, their eyes showing white all around. “But Your Lordship,” he complained, “we cannot! The gates are fortified! It is Lord Ameronis’s order that they remain sealed.”

“Silence, fool!” shouted Gorloic. “It is his order that they be opened now. The battle is turned, and he expects the enemy to break ranks and run at any moment. He wants the gates opened so that he can give chase!”

The keeper shook his head slowly, peering doubtfully at Gorloic. “Sir, I dare not without an order from my lord himself.”

Denellon dashed forward. “Do you hear the shouting? Hurry!”

Kelkin added, “Think how angry your master will be when he learns you disobeyed his order.”

This rattled the gateman. His eyes bulged, and he threw up his hands. But still he refused. “I dare not go against my order.”

Gorloic turned on him angrily, grabbed him by the shoulders, and whirled him around. “If you and your men will not help us, we will do it ourselves! And I will personally tell Ameronis that you defied him!”

“No! Oh, I—”

“We have no time!” insisted Gorloic. He nodded to Denellon and Kelkin, who rushed to the gates and began hacking at the shackle-bolts with their swords. “Are you going to help us?”

“You will take responsibility?”

“Yes! Yes, gladly!”

The gatekeeper waved his men forward and produced a ring of keys. “Here, with these it will go faster.” And he proceeded to loose the shackle-bolts while his men threw off the heavy chains binding the timbers that had been jammed against the gates.

50

With every ounce of strength remaining, the king’s troops threw themselves at the walls, planting their ladders once more and struggling to mount them. But wherever they attempted to gain a foothold—choosing a portion of unprotected wall, or establishing themselves within the protection of archers—always that attempt was repulsed. The enemy rushed to the edge to hurl stones and beams down upon them, or archers darkened the air with arrows and drove them back.

The Dragon King rode fearlessly through the fray, arrows glancing now and again from his armor and shield, shouting to his men, heartening them, urging them on. But the tide of battle was against them.

“Sire!” Quentin turned to see one of his commanders riding up. The knight threw open his visor, saying, “We have lost the left flank. Too many men have fallen, and we cannot continue alone.”

“Join with Sir Heldur’s men in the center!” ordered Quentin. “We must hold the center.” The knight rode off again, and Quentin was hailed from the other side. The report was the same; the right flank had been weakened and was in danger of falling. His army teetered on the brink of defeat. In only a few minutes the rest of his soldiers—overcome with fear and futility—would retreat, and once in flight would not return again to the field.

Even as Quentin thought this, the first ranks broke and fell back, shrinking from the fight. “Hold!” he cried, riding forward with upraised sword, though in his heart he knew that there was no good reason now to hold on. More and more troops were falling away as others, looking about and seeing their comrades withdrawing, joined the retreat. Soon soldiers were streaming from the field by the score.

Just as the foremost ranks of footmen faltered and fell back, someone shouted, “The gates! The gates are won!”

Quentin looked up to see the castle gates swinging open, pushed from within by figures he vaguely recognized. Then, as they were thrown wide, one of the figures sprang out and beckoned to him with a sword. “Gorloic?” shouted Quentin as he rode for the gate.

“Sire”—the nobleman dropped to one knee—“forgive me for my faithlessness. Allow me to earn back your trust with my sword.”

“And I,” said another.

“And I, as well,” replied another coming close.

“Denellon, Kelkin, Gorloic—yes!” shouted Quentin as already his knights surged through the gates and into the outer ward yard.

Those in retreat, seeing the gates swing open and their king standing in the breach, halted, turned, and came running back with a tremendous shout and pressed forward into the castle, sweeping their king and comrades before them.

“We are betrayed!” bellowed Ameronis. He stood with clenched fists and pounded the rough stone of the crenel as he saw below him the king’s army flooding in through his gates.

“Rally! Rally!” cried Lupollen beside him. “We can match them blade for blade. We have superior numbers now.”

It was true. The assault on the walls had weakened the Dragon King’s forces, depleting their ranks severely. “Yes! We are far from lost!” said Ameronis. “And I will welcome the chance to exchange blows with the king and best him with his own sword.”

In the space of a dozen heartbeats, Ameronis’s troops came flying down from the battlements to engage the enemy in the outer ward. Instantly the air was shattered with the clash of arms as sword beat upon sword, and axe and mace smashed steel armor. “For the Dragon King!” cried the king’s warriors as they forced their way forward through the press.

But Ameronis’s men were tough and well trained. They held forth and did not give ground. Fierce battle raged on every side, and Quentin dodged here and there into the fray, striking again and again, until he seemed to be everywhere at once. Those of his men who were pressed hard to the point of breaking, those who slipped and were about to fall, had only to raise their eyes to see the Dragon King’s blade swinging to their aid. And if it was not the Shining One that men had learned to fear and respect, it was at least a sword in the strong hand of a deliverer.

The archers on the battlements threw down their longbows, ran to the armory, and took up crossbows—a weapon better suited to the close infighting of hand-to-hand combat—and began hurling deadly bolts into the thick of the melee, driving the king’s forces back. For none could stand against the lethal missiles that pierced even the heaviest armor, and none could get close enough to strike at the assailants.

High up in the turret above the northern tower, Ronsard and his knights, who had cheered wildly when the king’s men shoved through the gates to win the outer ward yard, now stood mute while Ameronis’s forces turned the battle once more against them.

“We must help them!” cried one of the knights.

“Here!” shouted Ronsard. “Take up the prisoners’ bows—all of you! Aim carefully, sirs—there are friends among the foe down there!”

With that, the trapped knights loosed a volley into the chaos below. Ameronis’s men, so confident only seconds before, now drew back as death came whistling after them from the skies.

“That has helped, but unless we receive more substantial aid soon, the day is lost. See? Ameronis has our forces outnumbered two men to one.”

The words were scarcely out of Ronsard’s mouth when there rose a cry from out on the field before the castle. Ronsard dashed to the far embrasure and stared down upon the escarpment and at the host of knights and footmen running forward.

“Who is it?” asked one of the knights. “I do not recognize the blazon.”

“The crest is Lord Edfrith’s, I’ll warrant.”

“An enemy! We are lost!” It appeared that Lord Edfrith and his men were swooping in behind the king to cut him off, thus crushing all hope of victory or even honorable retreat.

“No, wait!” said Ronsard. “He rides before the king’s troops!” For an instant the lord was cut off from view as he passed beneath the curtain and into the gatehouse. “Look! He has come to our aid!”

“We are saved!” shouted the knights, and the turret erupted in shouts of jubilation as Edfrith and his knights came pounding in through the gates, swords flashing, voices raised in a battle chant for the king. And all who heard it took heart.

“For Mensandor! For honor! For the Dragon King!”

Ameronis, who at that moment was cutting a swath toward the king with Zhaligkeer, glanced up and saw the army of Edfrith streaming in through the gates. He heard the chant and turned to Lupollen, who labored beside him, matching thrust for stroke. “Edfrith rides for the king! We are twice betrayed!” Despair rushed upon him, and he staggered back.

“We are not vanquished yet!” Lupollen said, grabbing him by the arm and shaking him. “You hold the sword—let us escape while we still can. With the sword we may raise an army elsewhere.”

“Good counsel. Let us fly!” Ameronis turned and fled back through the thronging soldiers and into the castle with Lupollen after him.

Surrounded and disadvantaged by now-superior forces, Lord Ameronis’s commanders threw down their weapons and begged for quarter. Cries of “Mercy! Mercy!” and “Give quarter!” rang out in the castle yard where the shouts of “Hold forth! We win!” still hung in the air, so quickly had the battle ended.

Pym and Renny, astride Tarky, peered fearfully in through the gate. Lacking weapons and armor, they had hung back from the battle at Edfrith’s command; but upon hearing the cries of the vanquished, they had come close to see the struggle ended and discover which side had won. “The king has carried the day!” shouted Renny. “Hooray! The Dragon King has won!”

“So he has for a fact,” replied Pym sagely. “We’uns nivver doubted it fer a minute, eh? No, nivver fer a minute.” They slipped in through the gate and rode into the press around the king.

Denellon, Kelkin, and Gorloic also pushed through the mob and came to stand beside Edfrith, who had dismounted, and all four stood before the king. “It is over. We declare the victory yours, Sire,” they said, and all around them raised a victory chant.

Quentin held up his hand for silence, and when the cheer died down, said, “It is not over until I hold the sword.” He stood in his stirrups and scanned the crowd. “Where is Ameronis? I will have him here before me.”

Ronsard, who wasted no time in abandoning the turret once the tower was taken, shouldered his way through the crush around the Dragon King. “Ameronis has escaped!” he called, breathless from his run down the tower stairs. “I saw him and his cunning friend fly the battle and disappear into the castle.”

“Then he has taken the sword with him!” said Gorloic. “Our efforts have been for naught!”

“Curse him!” spat Kelkin. “There is no catching him now!”

“Why?” asked Quentin, sudden panic flooding over him, twisting his stomach. “Where has he gone?”

“There is a secret passage beneath the castle,” explained Kelkin. “It leads out onto the Sipleth and to a trail along the shore. Upriver he keeps a boat in readiness. At least, his father always did. I suppose Ameronis does as well.”

At this, Quentin and Ronsard threw back their heads and laughed heartily as relief chased the dread from their faces—just as sunlight removes the shadows when the clouds have moved on.

“You find this humorous, Sire?” Kelkin asked.

“You do not know the fears your words have slain just now, my friend,” replied Ronsard. “You may just have performed your greatest service to your king.”

“How so, sir?”

“Look!” said Ronsard, raising his arm. “I think friend Theido escorts two most reluctant prisoners.”

A wide avenue parted in the company as a group of knights came marching up, pushing Ameronis and Lupollen—much chagrined, yet still defiant—before them on the points of their swords.

“Sire!” exclaimed Theido. “It is heartening to see you. We did not expect—”

“Did not expect me, I know. But did you really think I would allow the likes of Ameronis to challenge me without a fight?” asked Quentin with a smile.

Theido grinned readily. “The battle is won, and none too soon.” The tall knight placed a hand on Ameronis and pushed him forward to kneel before the king. “We caught this one and his friend trying to escape through the secret passage.”

“Give me the sword, Ameronis.” Quentin glared down at the humbled lord. Ameronis put his hand to his side and withdrew the sword from his scabbard. Laying the blade across his outstretched hands, he offered it up to the king with his eyes averted and head bowed.

Quentin took up the sword and raised it in the sunlight, then slid it home to its sheath. He said, “I do not have time to deal with you now, traitor. But I will, and soon—you may count on it. And let your contemplation of your punishment add to its severity.” He turned to the others. “My friends, at midday tomorrow my son will die unless I meet the ransom demand. I ride at once to the High Temple.”

“I will go with you,” said Theido.

“And I,” said Ronsard. His words echoed all around, so that when the Dragon King rode out from Ameron Castle there followed behind him a great train made up of lords and soldiers and people from the countryside who had been drawn to the scene of the battle. And all made their way northward through Pelgrin Forest toward Narramoor and the High Temple beyond.

51

Rain pattered in the temple yard all through the night. Toli lay awake, listening, praying for deliverance for himself and the little prince, and for the courage to face whatever awaited them. When morning came, the sky remained dark and overcast although the rain had stopped and a fresh wind had risen from the west.

When Prince Gerin awakened, Toli stood over the place he had occupied all night during his long vigil. At the moment the boy’s eyes blinked open, he sat upright on his straw mattress and said, “Today is the day of our freedom! Isn’t it, Toli? Today my father will come for us!”

Toli nodded and smiled to see the faith of the boy, undimmed by the long, numbing days of captivity. “Yes, today we will be free.” He looked at the prince for a long while, then sat down beside him on the bed. When he spoke again, it was in a more serious tone.

“Gerin, I have something to tell you.”

The youngster waited for him to continue.

Toli turned toward him. “You know that I love you as my own son. That is why I would not have you ignorant of what may take place today.”

“I am no longer afraid, Toli. I was before, but only for a little while. But my father is king, and he will not allow anything to happen to us. I know it.”

Toli smiled again and said, “Yes, I believe he will come. But there are times when even kings are powerless over events. Your father is king, yes, but he is also a man and may not be able to change all that he would like. Sometimes things are done that no one can undo.”

Gerin remained silent for a time, thinking on Toli’s words. “Will they kill us?” he asked at last. Without waiting for an answer he blurted ahead, “I am not afraid to die.”

“There is no shame in being afraid. There have been times that I feared for my life. But courage comes in not allowing your fear to win over you.”

“Yes, but I am not afraid now. I have been thinking. The Most High has his purpose—that is what Durwin always said—and if it is that I must die so that the kingdom can be saved, then I will do it.”

Toli marveled at such simple, wholehearted trust. “Yours are brave words, young sir, and wiser than you know. And yes, it may be that our lives are required. I know that I will go easier with such a strong comrade beside me.” He pulled the boy close in a tight hug. “But we are not dead yet, and the end is not yet revealed. We must still believe that the king will save us, Gerin.”

“I know he will, Toli. He is my father.”

They talked no more of the impending confrontation, but turned to other themes, remembering happier times. When the temple guards came for them, they found the cell ringing with laughter as Toli recounted his recent recollections of the prince learning to ride and jump.

“How heartening to hear our prisoners enjoying their last moments so pleasantly,” said Nimrood, stepping into the cell. “Would you agree, Pluell?”

The high priest ducked in behind Nimrood. His face was white and his eyes and lips set in a fierce scowl. “This has gone far enough, Nimrood. Too far! Let them go now before the king gets here. There is still time.”

“Time, yes—time to groom our captives and make them presentable. We must not let anyone think that we have mistreated our guests. No, that would not do at all.” He beckoned to the guards still standing in the corridor, and they came forward carrying basins of water and clean linen towels and the prisoners’ clothes, which had been taken from them the day before. “See? Freshly laundered. Fit for the king himself. Oh, I hope he appreciates the trouble we have gone to on your behalf, Princeling. But then, I am certain he will understand.”

“Please,” begged Pluell, his face contorting in a grimace of pain, “please, let them go. There is nothing to be gained by going through with it!”

“Silence, fool!” flared Nimrood. “We have been through this time and again. You weary me with your whining. I will hear no more of it! Do you understand me? No more. It is decided.”

Toli watched the two warily as he washed himself and shed the filthy robe he had been given. “What does he mean—nothing to be gained by going through with it?” asked Toli as he pulled on his clothes.

“See?” said Nimrood, turning on the high priest. “You have ruined our surprise.”

Toli advanced on the old sorcerer. The guards drew their swords and held them at ready. “You do not plan to let us go whether the king meets the ransom or not, do you?” said Toli flatly. “You mean to kill us regardless.”

Nimrood leveled his eyes upon him, and Toli saw the depths of hate within them. He knew he faced a being of pure evil. Still, he did not shrink back. “You, Jher dog, should have known that I would never allow you to escape twice. I, Nimrood, will have my revenge—on you and that grasping, spineless king of yours. And it has not been magic that has overthrown you, no—you saw to that long ago when you robbed me of my powers. It has been my own cunning, my superior wits, that have brought you down.”

Nimrood walked across the cell to where Prince Gerin stood. Toli started to move toward him, but felt the sharp point of a sword in his back. The old necromancer placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “But you do not have to be sacrificed, boy. Look at me.” The prince raised his eyes. Nimrood gazed down at him, saying, “I will offer you a choice. Come with me. Become my pupil, and I will teach you secrets such as no man, save Nimrood only, has ever known. I could give you such powers, boy—power over fire and air, earth and water, life and death. Come with me, and let me be your teacher.” He raised a hand and stroked the youngster’s dark hair. “Eh? What say you, lad?”

“No! In the name of the Most High God!” cried Toli. “Leave the boy alone!”

Gerin shivered and, as if awakening from a lulling sleep, shook the sorcerer’s hands from him. “No!” he shouted and ran to stand with Toli.

Nimrood’s eyes narrowed to hate-filled slits. “I gave you a choice; remember that when your blood runs out upon the altar stone, impudent young cub. I could have given you powers and wealth unimaginable.”

“The Most High will reckon with you, Nimrood,” Toli said firmly. “He watches over his servants and remembers the injustices practiced against them. He will repay and bring you to account.”

Nimrood whirled on Toli, and his hand flashed out, catching the Jher on the side of the face. The blow resounded in the stunned silence that followed. “Shut up!” spat Nimrood savagely. Fire burned from his eyes; his lips dripped spittle. “Shut up! Do you think I care anything for your petty god? Ha! He is less to me than the worm that crawls through the dung heap. Little men”—Nimrood glared into every face before him—“today you will see how your little gods behave when challenged with true power!”

The necromancer turned and strode to the cell door. “I am finished, and it is time. Bring them.”

High Priest Pluell threw a frightened look behind him at the prisoners and then fled after his demented master. The temple guards, six of them altogether, some with lances and some with swords, prodded the captives with the points of their weapons and marched them off down the corridor.

“I do not know what will happen, Gerin,” whispered Toli as they walked along, guards ringing them in on every side. “But stay alert to any possibility of escape. I, too, will be watching, and if I say ‘run,’ you fly as fast as you can and do not look back. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Gerin nodded resolutely, and Toli knew he would do as he was told.

When they reached the entrance hall of the temple, the great doors were thrown open and the prisoners were led out onto the steps. Before them on the flagging of the temple yard stood the great altar, which had been moved from its place in the temple near the sacred stone and established at the foot of the steps in full sight of the onlookers now crowding into the space within the walls.

People from as far away as Hinsenby, Persch, and Woodsend, and not a few from Askelon, streamed into the yard, jostling for a place to stand, for word had gone out that the prince was held in the High Temple and that the king would seek to ransom him there. And as many as could travel quickly on horse or on foot came to see their king humbled and the temple exalted and its supremacy reasserted. For though they loved their king, they feared their god more. The simple people believed that the Dragon King had angered the god Ariel of the High Temple by commissioning a new temple to be built to a strong new god; and for this the king, though king he was, must be punished.

Many, to look at them, had walked all night; their clothing was still wet from the rain they had endured to be present at the moment the king laid his enchanted sword aside. They waited reverently, whispering behind their hands to their neighbors, while others talked openly, laughing and joking about what was soon to take place.

But at the moment when the temple doors opened and the prisoners were led out to stand on the steps before the altar, a hush spread over the throng, and the people stared expectantly as the captives’ wrists were bound with braided rope.

Overhead the sky glowered down with dark menace, threatening more rain at any moment. The sun could not be seen at all, and its absence cast a heavy gloom over the scene in the temple yard. Thunder rippled in the Fiskills far off, growling ominously, like a hungry beast stalking its prey.

Toli and Gerin stood side by side on the temple steps surrounded by armed guards in scarlet cassocks. Below them, near the altar, stood the high priest and the white-haired, white-bearded Nimrood, his long black robes wrapped around him like a cloak of darkness.

“Make way for the queen!” called a voice. The populace shifted, and a pathway opened into the mass of people crowded to the very steps of the temple. Through this avenue came the queen, followed by Lady Esme and the dowager Alinea, with Princesses Brianna and Elena between them. With them were the knights who had accompanied them as their bodyguard. All came to stand before the high priest.

“Release my son!” demanded Bria. “For the good of the realm and the people of Mensandor, release him now.” Relief and anger roiled inside her, making her voice quaver; relief at seeing her son at last, safe and sound; anger at what he had been made to suffer.

High Priest Pluell threw up his hands and looked at her fearfully. “You do not know what you ask, woman. Stand aside.”

“If you will not release him, allow me to take his place.”

Pluell’s eyes darted toward Nimrood. The queen saw the look and turned toward the wizard. “I see that it is you who I must appeal to. Allow me to take the place of my son if you will not release him.”

“I am not inclined to accept a bargain at this late hour. Stand aside and watch with the others.”

“Sir!” said Bria, starting forward. The guards snapped to attention and lowered their lances toward her; others leveled swords at the prince and Toli. Instantly the swords of the knights came whistling from their sheaths and met the lances of the guards. “No!” shouted Bria. “I will wait if I must. I will not be the cause of bloodshed this dark day.”

Fearing for the safety of her son if she pressed her demand, she withdrew with the other women to stand off to the side. Afraid of what was to come, she asked one of the knights to take the princesses to the carriage and sit with them there. Temple guards were placed with crossed lances before them, ensuring that there would be no further interference from that quarter. The women joined hands together and bowed their heads silently.

“It is time,” said Nimrood. “The king is not coming.”

High Priest Pluell turned his eyes to the sky and said, “No, it is not time yet. It is not yet midday. You said we would wait until midday.”

Nimrood drew a breath and seemed about to protest, but held his tongue and instead said, “As you will, priest. We will wait yet a little longer. I am not so anxious that I cannot savor the waiting.”

The yard fell silent all around. Not even the wind stirred the leaves of the trees lining the wall—trees into whose branches the curious had climbed to better see what would take place.

They waited.

Toli glanced down at Prince Gerin, standing beside him. He nodded as if to say, Courage; he will come. The boy returned it with one of his own, which replied, I know, and I am not afraid.

The clouds rolled overhead, angry and swollen, hard and black as smoked amber, flying away on swift storm winds. An unnatural twilight descended over the temple yard, as if the sun had withdrawn and refused to shed its warmth and light on the proceedings.

Still, they waited.

At last Nimrood could stand it no longer. “There is no more time. It is midday, and the king is not here. He is not coming. Bring the prisoners.” The guards looked at one another and hesitated.

“Bring them!” shouted Nimrood, his voice shrill. The high priest, shaking visibly now, nodded and turned his face away. The guards thrust the captives down the steps with their weapons.

Toli started forward, lifted his foot, and then stumbled, rolling down the steps. “Run!” he shouted to the prince as he went down. Young Gerin leaped down the steps and dashed forward into the crowd.

“Stop him!” roared Nimrood. “Bring him back!”

Before the knights standing with the queen could lift a hand, one of the temple guards whirled around and seized the prince by the nape of the neck, hauling the kicking lad off his feet.

“Gerin!” cried the queen. “Gerin!” She struggled forward, thrusting out her hands in a desperate attempt to reach him, but was stopped by the lance of the remaining guard. “My son!”

Toli was hauled to his feet and shoved forward. “A very clumsy effort for a nimble Jher,” clucked Nimrood. “For your trouble you will be allowed to witness the sacrifice of the boy. I had planned it the other way around.”

With that, Nimrood swooped down and lifted the lad onto the altar, where Gerin fought to free himself. One guard held his feet, and another pulled his bound hands over his head. Toli shouted and dived toward the altar, but the guards around him grabbed his arms and held him fast.

“No!” shrieked the boy’s mother, her features twisted in horror. Esme threw her arms around the queen and held her tightly.

“The knife,” said Nimrood to the high priest. “Take up your dagger.”

52

Dagger?” High Priest Pluell’s face blanched even whiter than before. He patted his robes absently. “I seem to have misplaced my dagger. I do not have it with me.”

Nimrood smiled maliciously. “I thought you might have forgotten yours—conveniently, too, I might add. So I brought my own.” He withdrew a long, thin poniard from beneath his robe and, taking the high priest’s hand, placed the knife in it. “Now then, High Priest. Do your duty!”

Pluell, eyes glazed and the sweat of fear glistening slick on his brow, turned a stricken countenance upon the queen, whose face was hidden in her hands, and upon his evil accomplice, who smiled thinly and nodded. “Do it!” Nimrood croaked, his eyes sparkling with glee.

The dagger shook in the high priest’s hand, but he turned to where the young prince lay on the altar and raised his arm above the boy’s heart. Gerin closed his eyes and drew his mouth into a tight pucker so that he would not cry out.

The knife hung in the air, hesitated, and—

“Stop! The king is here! Wait! The Dragon King is coming!”

With a sigh the air rushed through the high priest’s teeth; his arm wavered and dropped to his side, and he fell back away from the altar.

In a moment the crowd parted, and the king’s stallion came clattering into the yard. Quentin reined Blazer to a halt, the courser’s hooves striking sparks from the paving stones, and threw himself from the saddle.

He advanced toward the temple as those with him—Theido and Ronsard, Lord Edfrith, and a host of knights and men—came pounding from behind into the already-overcrowded yard. The people drew away from the king, giving him wide berth as he approached the altar.

“I have brought the ransom,” Quentin called out boldly. “Let my son go!” He directed his challenge at the high priest, who drew back among the other priests at the edge of the temple steps.

“That will not do, my king,” replied Nimrood coolly.

Quentin turned to face him across the distance between them. “Who are you?” He stepped closer, his eyes on the old man’s face, struggling to read some recognition there. “Do I know you?”

“We have never met,” the old man replied. “But I think you know me.”

“I ask again. Who are you?”

“A name? Very well, I shall give it. You see before you none other than Nimrood, known as the necromancer once long ago, before my power was shorn from me.”

“Nimrood!” It took all of Quentin’s strength not to stagger backward as the knowledge rocked him to the core. “You rise from the dust of death like one of your ghastly creations!”

“Yes, and I have come to claim my revenge.” He stepped behind the altar and motioned to the guards holding the boy to remove him. “Your sword, proud king, the Shining One—that was to be the ransom. Where is it?”

Quentin drew the sword; it whispered as it slid from the scabbard. He held it up for all to see and started for the altar.

Nimrood held up a hand. “Not like that!” he screamed. Quentin halted. “On your knees! I want all your subjects to see you bow to me. I want you to acknowledge me before all these witnesses.”

Quentin advanced two more steps and came to the altar.

“On your knees, proud king!”

“Never!” shouted Quentin. “You ask for the sword; here it is. You will get nothing more from me.”

“Bow to me on your knees, or the boy dies!” Nimrood whirled around and snatched the dagger out of the startled high priest’s hand. In a flash the knife blade lay against the young boy’s throat. “Kneel, Great King, or lose your son and heir.” The rasping voice dripped venom.

Quentin, every fiber of his being rebelling at the act, dropped slowly to one knee. He glared frightfully at Nimrood, who smiled wickedly as he held the knife against the prince’s neck. The people were silent as death, watching the humiliation of their king.

“Now the sword,” said Nimrood, breaking the unearthly silence. “Lay it on the altar.” His words stabbed like dagger points, penetrating to the farthest reaches of the temple yard so that every man there heard plainly what was said.

The Dragon King raised the sword once more and held it by the hilt. This sword, he thought, is the Shining One promised me in the dream long ago, and given to me by the hand of the Most High. It is the sword of the Most High himself; I cannot give it up to Nimrood. I cannot lay it upon that altar; to do that would be an act of worship to that depraved monster. I will not forsake the true God—not to save my life or the life of my son.

Quentin turned the sword in his hand and looked at it, and then at Nimrood. He rose to his feet once more.

“On your knees!” screamed Nimrood. “Bow down to me!”

Quentin raised the blade above his head in both hands and turned his face toward the heavens. “Most High God,” he said, his words ringing in the silence of the temple yard, “hear your servant. Show your power now; exalt yourself in the midst of our enemies. Let your justice burn like a flame in the land, that all men may worship the true God.”

“Your god is deaf, it seems,” scoffed Nimrood. “Ha! There is no true god. Pray to me, Dragon King! Perhaps I will grant your prayer!”

Quentin, eyes closed and face turned upward, did not listen to Nimrood’s mocking laughter, but instead prayed as fervently as he ever had in his life, pouring himself out before the Most High. And in that moment he felt the blade grow warm in his hand. He opened his eyes and looked skyward as the heavy black clouds parted and a single shaft of light fell upon him, striking the blade in his hand. He stood in a circle of golden light, and as he looked, the light played along the tapering blade, winking in the gems at the hilt. The light was alive, and out of it a voice spoke, saying, “Throw down the altar! It should have been thrown down long ago!”

Suddenly fire fell from the sky, dropping through the air like burning rain to strike the sword. Zhaligkeer flashed, its flame rekindled and blazing with white heat into the gloom round about. The people could not bear the piercing brightness and threw their hands over their eyes to shut out the awful splendor of that holy fire.

The flame is back in the sword! thought Quentin. The Most High has not abandoned me! He is still with me; he never left! The realization burned through Quentin just as the flame burned in the sword.

“The sword! The sword!” howled Nimrood. “Give me the sword!”

“No!” shouted Quentin. It flashed with terrible brilliance, and fire seemed to leap from the shimmering blade, scattering light all around. “You shall never hold this blade.”With that, the king raised the Shining One over his head and brought it down with all his strength onto the massive stone altar.

There came a blinding flash and the sound of hot metal suddenly plunged into cold water as the scent of burning stone seared the air. The ground rumbled deep in the earth, and the stone slab of the altar tipped, tilted, and then slid sideways, cloven in half, the stone jagged and smoking from the place where the Shining One had bitten deep into the rock.

A cry went up from the crowd, a gasp from a thousand throats, and they drew back as one from the sight of their king standing before the crumbling altar with the flaming sword in his hand.

The high priest threw his hands upward in horror and ran back up the steps into the temple, his priests fleeing with him. The temple guards threw down their weapons and ran after.

Nimrood’s arm went up; the dagger flashed in his hand. Toli, seeing his chance, lowered his head and charged into the sorcerer, knocking the boy from his grasp. Gerin sprawled forward, rolled to his feet, and dashed to his mother’s open arms. Bria swept him up and hugged the boy to her. The crowd surged forward around them.

“You!” screeched Nimrood at Toli. “Twice you have cheated me. Never again!” Toli leaped to the side, but with his hands bound could not keep his balance and fell backward onto the steps of the temple.

Like a cat the old wizard pounced on him and plunged the dagger into Toli’s chest, then fled up the steps to the High Temple.

53

The ground rumbled and tumbled under their feet, and the crowd in the temple yard screamed in terror as the ground shifted, cracking paving stones and tearing great gaping rents in the earth. The crevice that had opened beneath the broken altar spread toward the temple. Heedless of all else, Quentin flew to the temple steps, shouting, “Theido! Ronsard! Hurry!” He reached Toli’s body, now crumpled upon the steps, and bent over him. He stared at the dagger in his friend’s chest. With no time to think about the consequences, he drew the blade from Toli’s chest and flung it away.

From above him on the steps there came a rattling laughter. He glanced up and saw Nimrood standing over them, his head thrown back, the hateful sound bubbling up from his throat like the shriek of a carrion crow. Ronsard reached Quentin first. “Take Toli to safety,” the king ordered. He leaped to his feet and flew up the temple steps.

“Sire! Come back! It is falling!” cried the knight.

The fissure in the earth had now reached the steps and split them. The air trembled with the sound of churning earth and shattering stone. Roof tiles rained down, smashing on the flagging. The pillars swayed dangerously as the lintels cracked and gave way, sending huge chunks of stone careening downward. Quentin scrambled up the heaving steps, the sword bright in his hand. Nimrood saw him and screeched, “Stay back!” He whirled away and Quentin raced after him, catching the sorcerer by a trailing edge of his priest’s robe.

“Ach!” Nimrood fought to free himself from the robes, but only entangled himself further. Quentin held on with all his might and yanked, jerking the wizard off his feet. Desperately the old sorcerer writhed, squirming on the tilting floor like a snake. “Save me!” he hissed. “I will do anything—anything you ask. I can give you wealth, bring you glory! I will destroy your enemies! Save me!”

The blade flashed in Quentin’s hand, and the Shining One sang in the air, descending in a deadly arc, striking down upon the sorcerer’s neck. With one last shriek he fell back into a shriveled heap and lay still. Nimrood the necromancer was dead.

Now stones and brickwork tumbled, and the pillars groaned as pieces of the roof caved in. Quentin could hear the thunderous roar as the heavy stone slabs collapsed, and the foundation beneath his feet shook with the cataclysm. The great heart of stone on which the High Temple stood shuddered and convulsed.

Those inside the temple fell on their faces before the sacred rock and called upon the gods of old to save them: Ariel! Azrael! Zoar! Heoth! But the names fell from their lips dead and devoid of power. The floor rolled under them, and they watched in horror as a seam opened in the anointed face of the sacred rock. The stone splintered and popped as it crumbled before their eyes. The priests wailed and prostrated themselves, covering their heads with their robes.

In the temple yard the terrified populace swept through the gates and streamed down the winding trail to safety in the valley below. Dodging broken flagstones, Quentin ran back across the courtyard to where Toli’s body had been removed.

Theido and Ronsard looked on as Quentin sank to his knees beside the body of his friend. “Toli, forgive me!” he cried, snatching up a lifeless hand and clutching it to him. “I drove you from me. I blamed you for all that happened, and it was not your fault. I have wronged you, my friend. I am sorry!” The king wept, tears flooding his eyes and splashing freely down his face.

The others came to stand by him; he felt Bria’s hands on his shoulders. “He is gone!” sobbed Quentin. “And I am to blame!”

Esme knelt down beside Quentin and laid a hand on his sleeve. “In Dekra I had a vision—a vision of what happened here today.”

“You knew?” The king raised sorrowful eyes to the lady beside him. “You saw all and did not try to prevent it?”

“Not all. I saw the temple brought down—but not the fates of Toli and Gerin,” she said. Quentin only stared sadly at the body of his friend. “The Most High showed me what would come, and I did not see the death of our friend. That was never in his purpose.”

“That may be,” said Theido. “But things happen in this world contrary to the Most High’s purpose. It is the way of the world.”

“Aye,” agreed Ronsard, nodding sadly. “No man rises from the bed of death.”

“Why not,” Esme asked, “if it pleases the god?”

Just then another tremor shook the yard, and all turned to see the last remnants of the High Temple crashing down in a thunderous roar. Smoke and dust climbed toward the sun in a thick gray-white column. “You see this?” said Esme. “The temple is destroyed just as it was revealed to me. It is gone, and its evil is destroyed with it.”

They looked on in wonder as Esme, her face illuminated with a glowing inner light, stretched her hands over Toli’s body. She touched the crimson wound in his chest with her palm, then pulled back his tunic. The cloth around the wound was sticky with blood and ragged where the dagger had slashed into the flesh. But though the skin was stained a deep red from the flowing blood, there was no wound to be seen.

“Look!” said Queen Bria, who was clutching at her mother’s sleeve. “Toli is awaking!”

“He is alive!” shouted Gerin happily.

“Toli?” said Quentin, peering into his friend’s face. Toli’s eyelids flickered and opened, revealing quick black eyes that gazed upward at the ring of faces above him. “Toli, you are alive! Alive!” Quentin fell upon him and lifted him in a powerful embrace.

Theido and Ronsard stared in disbelief at the scene before them, then leaped forward to pound Toli on the back. Bria and Alinea wept, their eyes filling with happy tears. Gerin jumped and whooped for joy.

“What did I do to deserve all this?” asked Toli when they released him at last.

“I would not have believed it if I had not been standing here to see it!” Ronsard shook his head in amazement.

“I am not sure I believe it yet,” added Theido.

Esme threw her arms around Toli’s neck and kissed him. “How do you feel?”

“Feel? I feel . . .” He paused and glanced around him at the ruin of the temple, and then down at his own blood-soaked clothing. “I feel as if I missed out on something . . . Nimrood! Is he—”

“Dead. They are all dead,” said Quentin. “But you have rejoined the living.”

“Did Nimrood do this to me?”

“A mortal wound, sir,” said Theido. “I saw him strike you down. Do you remember it?”

Toli shook his head dazedly. “I remember knocking Gerin free and falling backward. I remember his face above me . . . then nothing—until I woke up here.”

“The Most High has restored your life to us, Toli,” declared Alinea. “Great is the Most High!” They all joined in praising the god and thanking him for raising up Toli. Their joyous cries rang in the empty yard and echoed among the heaps of fallen stone as they started down the winding trail to the valley below. Above them the smoke and dust still ascended from the ruin, drifting and fading on the wind as the clouds rolled away to reveal a sky of sparkling blue.

By the time they reached the valley and passed before the wondering stares of the people lining the trail, word was already winging throughout Mensandor, proclaiming the triumph of the Dragon King and the power of the new god, the Most High, the only true God, who caused altars to crumble, temples to fall, and dead men to rise up and walk.

54

In the massive Great Hall, the Dragon King sat on his royal throne. Dressed in his most regal finery, he wore a royal blue cloak with the insignia of the dragon worked in gold; the cloak was secured by a gold dragon brooch and chain. On his feet were high boots of soft red leather; and his good ring—the ring Eskevar had worn—sat on his finger. Across his lap he held the Shining One in its sheath, his hand resting lightly on its bejeweled hilt. The great carven doors of the hall had been opened wide to allow all who would come to crowd in to witness their king dispensing justice. The people stood in ranks among the gleaming black columns, lined the balustrades of the upper galleries three deep, and pressed forward to the steps of the dais.

When all had gathered in, the trumpeter sounded a call. The noise died to a whisper in the hall, and Quentin said, “When I was a boy, I stood in the court of King Eskevar and watched him mete out justice and favor with a wise and generous hand. And I vowed that if ever such a task fell to me, I would try to be at least as righteous and good as Eskevar.

“A king does not often have the opportunity of rewarding those who serve him as they deserve. But today I will do my best. First, however, I will punish the offenders.” He nodded to the trumpeter standing on the dais, wearing a tabard emblazoned with the royal device. The youth blew a strong, clear note, which was answered by the sound of marching feet.

Into the great hall came a contingent of knights dressed in their best armor, their breastplates burnished bright and their long scarlet cloaks billowing as they approached. Between them marched Lord Ameronis and his friend Lord Lupollen, both in chains. Both were gray-faced with dismay and kept their eyes lowered, not daring to look at the king.

“Lord Ameronis,” said Quentin when the knights had pushed them forward to the foot of the throne. “Look at me, sir.” The chagrined lord raised timid eyes. “It is with a distinctly altered attitude that we meet again, eh? You have had time to think on your crimes, and so have I.”

At this Lord Ameronis trembled visibly, expecting the worst.

The king continued, “Your crime is one of ambition, which I can understand and forgive—for I, too, have been ambitious in my own way. You wanted this crown and throne for your own, but that is nothing more than any lord dreams of at one time or another, and so I forgive you there.

“You caused me anguish and inflicted hurt upon me while I was suffering under the grief of great loss. You took the sword, Zhaligkeer, which you knew to be mine and which you knew would have saved my son, and yet you withheld it. These are hurts practiced against me, and as one man to another I will forgive them, for you were blinded by your lust for power.

“But your actions caused great hurt and injury to soldiers who had no choice but to defend their king with limb and life. Many brave men fell in battle, some never to rise again; and their blood calls me to do justice.

“I could have you executed”—here Ameronis flinched—“but what would the shedding of your blood accomplish? Very little, I am persuaded, though there are those among us who would take some measure of satisfaction there.

“No, I have decided that you shall live, and that the support of all the aggrieved widows you have left without husbands, and all the children you have left fatherless, shall be placed in your hands.”

“Ahh!” cried Ameronis. “I will have to sell half my lands; and all my gain for the rest of my life will be forfeit!”

“So be it,” said the king flatly. “At least you will live to see the wrong you have done redressed. The families of the slain will become your families; the maimed will become your brothers. And so you will treat them, for if ever complaint is raised against you hereafter, your life will be forfeit.

“And you, Lord Lupollen,” continued Quentin, “you chose to throw your substance to the support of your friend Ameronis. As you thought to share in the spoils of victory, so will you share in the loss of defeat. For the sentence I have pronounced upon him shall be yours as well. I have no doubt that Ameronis will welcome your aid now and in the years to come.”

Next the remaining lords were brought before the throne. They paid homage respectfully, but remained grave and stolid. “My lords, I am of two minds about you,” said the king. “You had it within your power to turn Ameronis aside before he carried out his scheme, and you did not. Yet, unlike Lupollen, you saw clearly enough who to serve once the issue was forced.

“Therefore, Lords Edfrith, Gorloic, Kelkin, and Denellon, I do hereby condemn your disloyalty. But I stand ready to call you friends again if you will swear fealty once more to the throne.”

The lords went down on one knee and swore before all the assembly an oath of loyalty to their monarch. When they had finished, they took their places with the rest.

“As for the others,” continued the king, “Nimrood, the high priest, and their foul flock—their punishment has been delivered by the Most High, the final judge of all; and let no man say they received more than their due.” The pronouncement brought a murmur from all gathered there.

“Now then,” said Quentin, “bring forth my new friends that I may reward them.”

The trumpeter sounded his call again, and the onlookers craned their necks to see a small boy, not much older than Prince Gerin, approach the throne timidly, followed by Pym the tinker and Tip, his dog. Quentin beckoned to the youngster’s parents, who hung back meekly in the ranks. “Come closer, good people.” The farmer and his wife crept forward shyly and came to kneel beside their son and the tinker.

“Rise, my friends,” said the king. “For you are my friends—as true as any who have ever served the Dragon King’s throne.

“Renny, your young heart yearns for knighthood, but you have already shown yourself as brave as any knight in the realm, though you possess neither horse nor armor. Is it still your wish to be a knight?”

“Yes, Sire,” came the small voice in reply. “More than anything.”

“Then so be it. On this day your name shall be placed on the roll of the king’s knights. When you come of age, you will enter into the knighthood in service to the realm.” Quentin paused. “But a knight must learn to ride, and he must have much skill at arms. Therefore, you may keep the pony Tarky which you found and tried to return; keep him until such time as you are able to handle a charger from the king’s stables. Then you shall choose a mount of your own. What do you say to that, Renny?”

Words escaped the boy, but the light in his eyes said all.

“My son has asked that you be allowed to take instruction with him under the master-at-arms of Askelon Castle. A knight of the king, even a knight in training, must be housed and fed in a manner worthy of his master. So, Sir Renny, the crown will endow you with an annual stipend which your parents will use for you as they deem fit.”

The joy that shone on the faces of the three could not be contained, and they bowed their thanks again and again as they returned to their places in the crowd.

“And you, good tinker,” said the king. Pym folded his hands over his knee and gazed upward expectantly. “You found the Shining One and kept it safely hidden away, returning for it when you knew your king’s need. Doubtless you would have delivered it into my hand had you not been prevented.”

“Yes, Sire, it is a very fact, it is,” replied Pym.

“And it has reached my ears that you have long desired a horse and wagon to take your wares from town to village on your route.” At the tinker’s puzzled expression, Quentin asked, “Is this not true?”

“Oh, yes, Yer Highness. More than ye know . . . but—”

“Yes? Was there something else?”

“The sharping stone, Yer Majesty, Sire. We’uns had in mind a sharping stone on a treadle-foot fer sharping knives and shears and such like.”

“Of course, the sharpening stone! Such an oversight! Yes, you shall have the finest sharpening stone as can be found in all Mensandor. And Castle Askelon shall be your first stop whenever you pass this way.”

Pym clapped his hands at his good fortune, and Tip barked her master’s happiness. The two withdrew to the laughter and high acclaim of those gathered in the great hall.

“Lastly,” said Quentin when silence again reclaimed the hall, “I would reward my old friends. Come forward, Toli, Theido, and Ronsard.” He rose and descended from the dais to meet them at the foot of the throne. “No, do not kneel to me, brave sirs. Brothers do not kneel to one another, for your friendship has proven itself of highest mettle, stronger and more true than are the ties of birth and blood.

“How else can I reward your steadfastness and courage? What could I give you that you do not already have? Lands, position, title? And yet you stood ready to give these things and even life itself, for a friend—the more when that friend faltered. You did not abandon me, but acted for me with wisdom and courage, each one of you, in your actions, declaring yourself more noble than kings.

“So I give you these tokens of my esteem and gratitude.” Quentin beckoned to a page who came forward bearing a board covered with a runner of blue velvet on which rested three golden dragon brooches just like his own. The king took the first one from the board and fastened it at Theido’s shoulder, saying, “Theido, whose counsel is ever wise and good . . .” He took up the next, affixed it to Ronsard’s cloak. “And Ronsard, whose dauntless courage is matched only by the strength of his arm . . .” Quentin lifted the remaining brooch and placed it on Toli’s cloak—“And Toli, whose love and loyalty hold firm even unto death. From this day forth you are the princes of the realm.” After a pause, Quentin added, “Toli, you I would reward further by freeing you from your oath of service to me. Today and henceforth you are no longer a servant.”

Quentin turned to the assemblage and presented the three with a sweep of his arm. “Behold my royal friends,” he said. “Let all men pay each one the courtesy and respect due a king.”

At once the whole assembly made a deep bow and then affirmed the king’s reward with loud shouts of acclamation that rang to the vault of the Great Hall and throughout the corridors and galleries of Askelon Castle.

Quentin mounted to his throne again and proclaimed, “This day will be a day of celebration throughout all of Mensandor. Let there be feasting and music and entertainments for everyone!” The cheers that followed this address were drowned in the blare of trumpets that sounded their clarion call throughout the castle and from the high battlements to the town and countryside beyond. “The celebration has begun!” the trumpets said. “Come and share in the rejoicing!”

And the people who heard that happy sound left their work, put on their finest clothes, and started for the castle to join in the high merriment and festivities.

It was nearing dusk—the red-gold disk of the sun was lowering in the sky away westward over Gerfallon’s broad back—before Quentin found an opportunity to slip away alone. Blazer was saddled and waiting for him and bore him quickly through the deserted streets of Askelon and out onto the plain.

Quentin found the shaded bower without any trouble; he had been there before with Durwin and remembered the bank overlooking the forest pool as a place where the hermit loved to come and idle away the hours on a summer’s day. The grave mound was fresh and neatly overlaid with stones—a simple grave such as the hermit would have wanted—and already tender green shoots of new grass could be seen poking up between the rocks.

The king stood for a long time gazing reflectively at the grave, remembering the life he had known with the holy hermit of Pelgrin, as the simple folk called Durwin still. That temporal life had now ended, but another had begun; and Quentin knew that he would see his friend again, that they would be together in a place without separation or the painful intrusion of death, and he was content to wait until that time.

The sound of hoofbeats signaled the end of his quiet reverie, and he turned to see two riders approaching. He waited while they dismounted and tied their horses to a poplar branch beside his. “So, I have been followed. I thought you two might have found a better way to occupy yourselves,” said Quentin.

Toli grinned and took Esme’s hand. “We wanted to talk to you in privacy,” he explained. “I saw you leave the celebration, so we waited a little and came after you.”

Quentin nodded but said nothing, waiting for Toli to continue. Toli glanced sideways at the woman beside him and then back at the king, licked his lips, and announced, “We have made a decision . . .”

“Oh?” teased Quentin. “Was there a decision to be made?”

Toli dropped his eyes. “Please, it was not an easy choice to make.”

“I am sorry. Forgive me,” said Quentin quickly. “Of course—it would not be easy for either of you. And it will not be easy for me. If I make light of it, it is only because I shall feel your absence most acutely.”

“Absence?”

“You will be going away. I know. But I could not be happier for either of you. It is the best thing—” He stopped when he saw the look that passed between Toli and Esme.

Esme laughed gently and replied, “We are not going away. At least not together. Not yet.”

“No?”

“No,” said Toli firmly.

“I am going to Dekra,” said Esme. “I felt something there that I must search out for myself. I felt the spirit of the God Most High move within me; I had a vision. He may be calling me to serve him in a special way. I want to go back and find out—I must find out. I want to learn all I can of the one I have pledged my life to before I make a life with another.”

“I see,” said Quentin, nodding. “I know how you feel. I felt the same way, but it seems that Dekra was never chosen for me. My future lies on a different path.” He turned to Toli. “And you?”

“I will remain by your side, Kenta.” Toli looked lovingly at Esme and clasped her hand more tightly. “It is true that we love each other, and perhaps someday we will join our lives. But for now—” He smiled, and the light kindled in his deep, dark eyes. “For now you are still saddled with me, my friend.”

“And forevermore, so it would seem.”

“Come, then,” said Toli. “Let us return to the celebration together.” He glanced at the grave, and then at his master. “If you are ready.”

Quentin looked back at the simple mound and said, “Yes, I am ready. We have already said our good-byes. He came to me, you see. I did not realize it then; I was in no condition to know for certain.

“In those first black days when I was out searching for my son— insane with grief and exhausted beyond pain or sleep—I found myself on Holy Island. Perhaps I had been led there. However it was, Durwin appeared to me: I know now that it was he. He said good-bye and told me we would be together again. He knew how much it meant to me to see him one last time, and he came back to tell me to trust in the Most High. Had I but listened, I would have borne this trial more easily and accounted myself more worthily.”

Toli looked long at his friend and said finally, “Yes, Kenta, you have changed. I saw it when you stood in the temple yard, and again in the Great Hall. You have come to terms with your frailties as a man, and this makes you more of a king than before—a true priest king.”

Quentin shrugged. “I only know that I no longer burn to inaugurate the new era. The Most High will accomplish that as he will, and in his own time.”

The three rode back to Askelon across the plain, stopping at the site of the King’s Temple ruins, where inexplicably scores of people moved among the toppled stones, clearing away the rubble. Quentin recognized his master mason among them and hailed him. “Bertram! What is happening here? What are you doing?”

“Sire.” The man bowed. “We are preparing the site for building.”

“Why? Who gave the orders?”

The old mason scratched his jaw and cocked his head to one side. “No one ordered it, my lord. It was the townspeople’s idea; they insisted—said their new god ought to have a new temple. They aim to build one themselves. With your blessing, of course; we will follow the plans you have made.” Bertram scuttled away then, returning over the heap of broken stone to supervise the work.

“Do you see this?” said Toli. “The new era has come in force. It is here around us. Do you wish to stay and help?”

Quentin raised his eyes to the sky, where the first evening stars were already blazing like jewels in the clear, high dome of heaven, though away to the west the horizon still held the rosy tint of the sun. “No,” replied Quentin, lifting the reins and turning Blazer toward home. “Come. The Most High has chosen other hands to build his temple. That is as it should be.”

Bria met them at the balcony overlooking the garden. She wrapped her arms around her husband. “I wondered where the three of you had gone.” She glanced at Toli and then back to the king. “All is well?”

“It has never been better,” replied Quentin, kissing her lightly on the cheek. Throughout the enormous garden below, lanterns were being lit among the trees to twinkle like stars in a firmament of leaves.

“Then come in to the table; the banquet is about to begin,” said Bria, leading them across the balcony. The doors of the great hall had been thrown open wide to reveal long tables with food of every kind and description, and a host of eager guests waiting to be called to join in. Everywhere music played, and laughter drifted and mingled on the soft evening breeze, along with the sweet perfume of the garlanded flowers that bedecked the hall and garden.

“Yes, but the feast can wait a moment longer. First I want to see my children. Let me go and find them.”

Toli, Esme, and Bria watched him hurry down the steps into the garden, darting among the merrymakers in search of the prince and princesses. “I remember a night like this—exactly like this—when King Eskevar returned,” said Toli. “A celebration to rival this one, to be sure.”

“No, not like this one,” said Bria. Her voice held a trace of sadness. “My father even then did not care for his family as Quentin does.” She smiled and nodded to where the king returned bearing one youngster on his back and two others in his arms, all of them laughing happily. “You see? He has changed.”

Toli nodded slowly. “A new era is begun, my lady.”

“Indeed! Then let us hope it lasts a thousand years,” said Bria.

“Ten thousand!” added Esme.

“Let us hope it lasts forever,” said Toli.

“Come along,” called Quentin, striding past them. “We must not be late for our own celebration!” He marched through the doors with his young ones, and Bria took her place at his side; Toli and Esme came on behind. They all reached the high table to find Ronsard and Theido with Renny and his parents, and Pym the tinker with Tip at his feet, and all the other guests of honor already assembled and in their places.

Quentin seized his goblet and held it aloft, saying, “Welcome, fair friends one and all. Let the banquet begin!” And they all sat down to feast in the Hall of the Dragon King.