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“You would wish to sing it, and I doubt they have the patience.” The Northerner coughed slightly. “Forgive us, my lady. We are used to converse in the Old Tongue.”
“So I have noticed.” Ink forced under the skin of my wrists and forearms tingled, and the runes between the bands might have moved. It could have been a warning; still, it was wasted. Never could I have imagined what I was about to hear.
I have since gained much more than the bare map of events Eol gave. Each retelling or fresh detail makes the tale bleaker.
Of Faevril’s works he spoke, many wonders ofseidhrwrought by an Elderalkuine’s hands in the uttermost West. Of how the Enemy, granted grace and lee to repair damage he had previously wreaked, betrayed that ruth with the murder of Faevril’s father and the theft of many great works, as well as a crime so dark the Elder do not speakof it, dimming the light of their home well before Moon or Sun arose. Of Faevril’s sons and the vengeance they swore with their wrathful father did Eol speak, and Arn grew paler and paler.
So, I suspect, did I. For of that terrifying oath came another crime, committed not by the Allmother’s first son but the Elder themselves, setting blades upon their own kin.
Of the Elder passage to our shores Eol spoke in only the barest terms, the pursuit of the retreating Enemy ending in Faevril’s death. Barred from their home by the shedding of kin-blood, the Elder settled to siege the gates of Agramar, for though the lord of the Black Land is of the Allmother’s greatest begetting they had no choice but to set themselves against him—not only to save their own lives, but as a bulwark between his malice and the southron lands, where my people were barely beginning to stir, having only just discovered fire—that great gift of Tyr the Ever-Burning, who of all the Vanyr or Aesyr loves the Secondborn most.
Eol passed over many of the wars which followed. The campaigns had not been wholly in vain, for one of Faevril’s mighty treasures had been wrested at great cost from the Enemy and taken to a secret place, both to keep it from their foe and to rob Faevril’s oath of a chance to beget more bloodshed. And so it remained, even while the most recent battle broke the forces of the Enemy and brought a measure of surcease. For many mortal lives the iron gates had stood ajar, though no rust appeared on them and nothing moved in the Black Land’s ashen, misshapen wilderness.
And yet… some time ago, the watchers in the North had discerned stealthy rumors, padding footsteps, thickening shadows. One dusk the Cold Gate stood open; by the following dawn it was closed and the sky beyond underlit with hellish, fiery gleams.
It was that sudden. The Black Land was awake, the Enemy’s servants suddenly active once more.
“I should tell the rest,” Aeredh said, but not very loudly. Eol cleared his throat—the tale was long in the telling, but he did not reach for his dull-black flask or the slim jug full of clear cool water upon the table. Two gemmed cups accompanied the pitcher, beautiful as all Elder make, but their glitters merely taunted.
I doubted I could swallow anything, though my throat was very dry.
“Peace, my friend. Let their anger fall upon me.” The Northerner held my gaze, steadily. “The Enemy’s servants and spies have thickened. We rode south to ask the Secondborn kingdoms for aid against Agramar’s malice, but the great houses are broken. Few wish to risk the journey north, with previous battles so bloody and return so uncertain. Then we came across your home, my lady Solveig, and in the riverside market we heard tales of Dun Rithell’s eldest daughter, able to bring flame from the air as only analkuinemay. We had already decided to speak further with your father, since he had argued for war against the darkness, yet when we saw him again it went somewhat ill. Gelad remarked that your sister was perhaps thealkuineherself, for she is Elder-fair indeed, and my younger brother Arvil…”
“He laughed?” That much I could guess, from Bjorn’s account. My fingers were cold, knotted against each other. And to think I had been ready to leave my home with good grace, to gain adventure and knowledge while paying a debt.
Now I was being gifted knowledge indeed, and for once the gaining did not please me.
“And somewhat more, my lady.” Eol’s mouth turned down, his eyes glittered, and he had paled. He made no mention of traitors or treachery—even now, there were hidden matters. “I would not repeat his words; your brother answered them well enough.”
So he did insult her.It did not help, but it might have eased my brother’s mind somewhat. It must have pained the Northerner to tell this part, and yet I did not feel much grief over his suffering at that moment. I was too busy with the implications of the tale. “So you saw a chance to bring an elementalist northward?” My lips were numb, and I sounded as if I had been struck breathless. “I see.”
I didnotsee. What did all this have to do with me, even though I was like their long-ago Elder craftsman? A simple accident—being bornvolva—should not have led to this.
“Not quite.” Aeredh made a restless movement. “I suspect our errand was betrayed at the outset, my lady Solveig. We had muchtrouble traveling south, and no sooner did we find a welcome answer to our call than it was stifled. Yet since leaving Dun Rithell with you, the… incidents… of the Enemy’s devising vanished. Of course there was thegrelmalkin, but those are drawn to the Elder Roads.Orukwar-bands are now oft upon Nithraen’s borders, too; I expected some trouble once we passed into Lady Hajithe’s lands. We were—are—hard-pressed for time, and this was the closest safety. At least here we do not have to fear the Enemy’s thralls, merely Faevril’s cursèd oath.”
“Your father somehow aided in the retrieval of this… treasure, the victory.” It was not so bad a guess. Now I had more pieces of the puzzle, yet I could sense I still lacked a crucial few. A jewel, a victory, a bloodstained oath. “Faevril’s thing. And lost his kingdom for it.”
“After a fashion.” To see an Elder blanch at a terrible memory almost makes one’s own limbs flinch. “My father Aerith did what he must, my ladyalkuine, and so will I. He… cherished the Secondborn, ever since he found them camped singing upon a riverbank so long ago. There is much in your kind to admire, and your bravery not the least.”
I was glad I had the chair, not to mention the bracing of Elder winterwine burning in my middle. Arn’s hand descended upon my shoulder. She did not squeeze harshly, giving me pain as an anchor; instead, the tension in her fingers said she was just as astounded as her charge.
I marshaled what wits I had; it was not so difficult to see the next link in logic’s chain. “You wish me to use this… this treasure, this thing left by Faevril, in your war against the Enemy.”
“We have a hope, my lady. Not a wish.” Aeredh said no more. His gaze met mine. Unfortunately, though I knew the Old Tongue and the southron language both, I could not decipher what was to be read in its depths.
I turned in the chair and stared up at Arn; she looked back at me. Her grip changed slightly upon her spear, but not upon my shoulder. She was not ready to attack, not yet.
“Lady Hajithe,” my shieldmaid said, flatly, before her tone shifted. “‘Is it expected to take only so long, son of Aerith?’” My shieldmaid produced a creditable impression of the Lady of the Eastronmost Steading.
Of course, Arneior oft arrived in one leap upon a far pinnacle while I was occupied with watching valleys and wondering what they contained. “You did not truly wish weregild.” My lips were all but numb. “You merely wished to prize me from my home, since I am like him. Your Faevril.” Was I merely the first elementalist they had found? Idra and Frestis concurred that my type ofseidhrwas rare indeed, so that was not entirely out of the question.
And yet…
Eol did not bother with denials either. “Our need is too great and the opportunity too sudden to do otherwise. That is why we would take no other.”
Now Efain’s objections made sense, as well as Lady Hajithe’s expression—though she had made no mention of treachery, she no doubt found it strange to go south for armies and return with a pair of women, even if one of them was a shieldmaid.
If his traveling companions had already suspected Eol’s brother of being a traitor, though, a life-debt did not apply. It was ill done indeed to take a weregild in such circumstances.
