Part 41 (2/2)

'Answer me one thing,' he said without turning round. 'When I gave my brother the whistle, he used my mercy against me by capturing you. Now I've spared him again. Will I regret that mercy as well?'

'I have no idea. It was still the right thing to do. What made you forgive him?'

'Forgive him? I've not forgiven him one wretched thing, my love, not one shred of his black deeds, not one jot of the harm he worked you. Someday I'll take my payment for all of it, and he'll not find joy in my doing so, I promise you.'

The quiet way he spoke made her shudder.

'Well, then, why didn't you just destroy him when he was grovelling in front of you?'

Evandar started to speak, then hesitated, thinking.

'I'll tell you the truth.' He turned to face her. 'Instead of a riddle, the truth, and then you shall know I love you, because I don't speak cold truth as easily as all that. I need him.'

Dallandra goggled, speechless.

'Without me he'd cease to live, just as I told him. But I suspect, my love, deep in my heart I even believe, that without him I'd die myself. Light and shadow, my love, shadow and light. Can there be one without the other? Or hot without the cold, and moist without the dry, fire without water, air without earth? And so I call him brother, because it's true, because we were born a pair, though I'm the elder, because light leaps from the candle-flame before the shadow hits the wall.'

'I see. And who then lit the candle?'

'That, my love, is a riddle I can't answer, I wouldn't even presume to try. Perhaps those beings your people call G.o.ds? Ah, I see from your face that you can't answer it, either. Well, mayhap one day I'll know, but until then it matters little to me.' All at once he smiled and turned away, calling to his Court.

'Wait for me! I'll return in but a little s.p.a.ce of time, before you truly know I've gone.'

To Dallandra he held out his hand.

'Let us go to Jill, then, since you want to and for no reason more.'

She took his hand and allowed him to lead as they walked slowly, deliberately, across the dusty ground.

Round them the mist gathered, an opalescent, s.h.i.+mmering mist all light-shot and silvery.

'Mind your step.' Evandar said, and rather slyly.

When she glanced down she found a flight of broad stairs, a flow of white marble between walls of grey mist. She looked up and found him grinning like a pleased child.

'I thought I'd make the way easier than usual.'

'My thanks, my lord.' She made a little curtsy. 'There's something about these stairs that makes me feel like a great lady.'

'I modelled them upon those in the king's summer palace in Rinbal-adelan.'

She laughed, glad of a moment's wit and grace before they braved the next battle in their peculiar war.

As hand in hand they walked down the staircase, she thought for a moment that she heard music and laughter, the lilt of many harps in some vast room and many voices raised in song, a reminder of better times and peaceful days. The mist whirled, lightened, blew away. Dallandra took one last step down into Jill's tiny chamber, where the dweomermaster sat at her table, fallen asleep over one of her books, her head pillowed on her arms.

'There she is.' Evandar's voice was already fading. 'When I have news of Alshandra, I'll return.'

And then he was gone, relinquis.h.i.+ng her to the world of men and elves, caught in the grip of Time and Time's daughter, Death.

PART SIX.

Caput Draconis

Some lorcmasters say that this figure signifies great blessings no matter into which house it falls - save the House of Salt. I myself have grave doubts, for all know that he who would ride a dragon must risk a great burning.

The Omenbook of Gwarn, Loremaster

'I was wondering about somewhat,' Rhodry said. 'What makes you so eager to see this dragon? Just the glamour of the beast?'

'A fair question,' Enj said. 'But it be more than that.'

In striped shadow they were perched side by side on an outcrop of black basalt like an overturned boat.

Behind them rose forest; before, nothing, just a long fall of eliffdown down down to a tiny riband of water among minuscule trees in a valley below. Far across that rift and to the west another cliff climbed, levelling off to forest. Mountain flanks rose, green-grey waves of a sea, fogged with resinous mist.

'It be due to my father.' Enj said abruptly. 'He taught me all I know, you sec, about the great wyrms, and truly, he did know a great deal, because he found them beautiful. Once when he were very young, he saw a blaek one flying over Haen Mam, or so he told me, and never could he forget the sight. So down in Lin Serr he studied lore, finding much in books as well as in various tales from bards and priests.'

'I didn't realize that the dwarves had lore books. Well, I couldn't have read them anyway, I suppose, when I was there.'

'Oh, there's a book hold in Lin Serr, Rori, that's as big as the manse back home in Hacn Marn. From what my father did tell me, he spent a long time there, studying dragon lore. But then he came to regret it, not that he should have. You see, when my sister was born, and it came clear that she were, well, so strange, he felt it was his fault.'

'What?'

'Oh, it's a daft idea, his blaming of himself, and it did distress my mother sorely, as well you can imagine.

Because he'd spent all that time brooding about dragons and talking about dragons and suchlike, he was convinced that he'd somehow summoned a dragon soul to be born into his daughter's body.'

Rhodry could only gape at him. Fnj looked away, his voice turning unsteady.

'He drowned soon after, of course, i was about a score of summers old, so I remember him well. I loved him well, too. Often we'd take a boat over to sh.o.r.e and go off for days together, hunting. We'd take dogs and bows, you see, and hunt the deer and wild sheep to feed the island. And while we made our nights' camps, he'd tell me tales about dragons, and how his heart ached, just from longing to see another one fly.'

'And so you want to fulfil his quest?'

'Just that.'

'Well, you know, if you could pa.s.s that lore on to me, I'd be truly grateful. It would be a shame to have him gone, and only one person knowing his lore.'

'True.' Enj's voice choked. 'And I will.'

They sat together in silence for a few minutes more, until Enj wiped his eyes on his sleeve and stood, stepping back cautiously from the edge.

'And now it be best we get on our way. If we follow the rim of this valley, it should lead us to the waterfall that Avain saw in her basin, and then we'll know we're heading the right way.'

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