Part 18 (1/2)

He held out to her a hoop of white metal with twelve-and-one sharp, upright p.r.o.ngs.

”Is this what lay at the heart of your lighthouse flame?” she asked. The pearlstuff in her blood leapt, crackling at the sight, but she herself felt no antic.i.p.ation or joy.

The Keeper nodded. ”My task has always been to guard it for the world's heir.”

Aeriel nodded and bowed her head. He placed the circlet upon her brow. The crown felt hollow, empty. Aeriel scarcely noticed its weight. Her enchanted blood s.h.i.+mmered, singing and alive. The darkness was suddenly full of light. Lifting her eyes, Aeriel saw the constellation called the Maidens' Dance by some and by others the Crown wavering in heaven. Its stars drew nearer, descending, taking on the appearance of candle flames. In another moment, thirteen maidens stood about her, all made of golden light: those whose souls she had once rescued from the darkangel in Avaric. It seemed so long ago.

”Eoduin, Marrea...” She called them each by name.

”We understand at last,” Marrea, the first and eldest, said, ”how it was that you should come among us. We had thought you would join us in deep heaven, but we see now that it is we who must join you here below.”

In the s.p.a.ce of a moment, she dwindled, her tiny yellow flame floating in the air to alight on one of the foremost p.r.o.ngs of the crown, burning brilliant upon its tip. Aeriel felt a new sensation kindling within her. One by one, the other maidens followed the first. The crown felt filled now, but still feather-light. Eoduin was the last.

”Forgive me for having been so impatient to have you among us in Orm,” she said. ”Cold heaven has been very lonesome without you.”

As she, too, a.s.sumed her place, opposite Marrea's flame, the white heron took wing and settled into the s.p.a.ce between the two foremost p.r.o.ngs. Doing so, she shrank, becoming part of the crown, head bowed to her breast and her long, slender wings falling to flank the pale girl's cheeks.

Aeriel's blood answered the flame in the crown. The pearlstuff rose in her, magnified, seemed suddenly to catch fire. Aeriel felt once more a keen, farranging perception, very like the pearl's but immeasurably stronger. The interlocking pattern of the marsh flats unfolded before her. The stars above wheeled and circled one another like burning beads. She felt that she might see to the world's end if she tried, or even deeper into heaven.

Time enough for that, the voice of Ancient sorcery within her promised, in NuRavenna. There, by such means, you shall regather the soul of the world. But haste now. Time is short.

A cool, misty white fire ran along her skin. Aeriel turned back to the others standing before her. She felt utterly alone: they had all shrunk back, staring at her-the Lighthousekeeper, the Lady Syllva and the rest, even Talb-all save for Irrylath, whose head was bowed to his hands. Sabr stood by him, hands like hawks upon his shoulders. He seemed oblivious to her.

Even her fierce look of victory had washed away in astonishment as she gazed at Aeriel.

It was not her eyes, though, that Aeriel sought. She found Erin among the crowd. The burning sword hung sheathed at her side, but even through the scabbard, Aeriel was aware of the blade's fire stirring and brightening, answering her own. ”Without hesitation, the dark girl came forward.

”And what of you, Erin?” Aeriel asked. ”All have told me their intentions but you. Will you go with the Mariners among whom you were born, back to their isles in the Sea-of-Dust?”

One hand resting on the pommel of her glaive, the dark girl shook her head. ”I will not. Perhaps one day. Yes, I was born among the Mariners- of that I have no doubt. But I was raised in other lands and hardly feel at ease among my own people, whose tongue I do not even speak, or among the people of Zambul that once enslaved me, or anywhere. I have had but one true friend in all my life.”

For a moment, Erin cast her gaze to the sword whispering at her side, then looked up, bold.

”I care not whether some now call you Ravenna's daughter or that you have no shadow and wear a burning crown. You are the only light I know. I want no other fellows.h.i.+p than yours. It seems that I alone of all this throng have it in my power to choose my road. Aeriel, I would go with you.”

Aeriel closed her eyes. She would not be alone then, after all. Here at the beginning, at least, one companion would accompany her.

”The Flame in Orm robbed me of my shadow,” she whispered, ”but I am not without one, ever. If not for you, Erin, I would be lost.”

Fearlessly, the dark girl put her arms around her.