'More than words.' Asandir tipped his head toward the entry, his chisel-cut face bemused enough to seem friendly. 'Inside, if you dare, you'll find out.'
Sulfin Evend braced his rattled nerves, faced about, and crossed over the tower's threshold. The Sorcerer followed, his close presence mild and his footstep light as a ghost's.
If the Hanshire-born visitor regretted his choice, no chance remained to turn back. Asandir laid brisk hands to the windlass and secured the outer defences.
As the thick doors boomed closed, drear daylight replaced by the fluttering torch, the Sorcerer's frame was thrown into relief. Sulfin Evend observed, too wary to be undone by disarming impressions: how the capable hands that cranked the oiled chains were raw with recent burn scars. If the Sorcerer's face appeared gaunt, or the spare frame beneath masking wool seemed hard-used, even haggard, his vast power remained unimpaired. The warding he raised to secure bars and locks drove his guest to a shudder of gooseflesh. Sulfin Evend had watched spell-craft being invoked all his life, by Koriathain who resided at Hanshire. The only working he had seen to rival Asandir's seamless touch had been an awareness half-sensed: an impression left as a whisper in stone, laced through the stairway fashioned by Davien the Betrayer at the entrance to Kewar Tunnel.
Asandir locked the drum of the windlass and straightened. 'The defences kept here are an obligation made to Athera's Paravians.'
Startled to find his unspoken thought answered, Sulfin Evend said bald-faced, 'You can't still believe the old races exist.'
This time, as the Sorcerer retrieved the torch, his fleeting grief could not be mistaken. 'They exist.' He moved toward the last set of fortified doors, passed through, and attended their fastening. 'If the Paravians had died, our years of trial would be over, and our most cherished hopes, crushed by failure.'
The last bars were seated, the pin latches secured. Beyond, the last barrier was no defence, but a pair of ornamental panels, leafed in chased brass, which cut off the draught through the murder holes. Their varnished wood moved to Asandir's touch, slid wide, and unveiled a vista of dazzling splendour.
Sulfin Evend stepped into the Chamber of Renown, with its ranks of exquisite, stilled statues. First to draw his eye, the centaur guardians lifted their antlered heads, winding their dragon-spine horns. Unwitting, the man gasped, incredulous.
His scarcely suppressed recollection exploded: of the creature that had once stepped, alive, out of legend last winter in Daon Ramon Barrens. The unsettling memory would not be denied, when overcome, he had witnessed an immortal grace that had driven him to his knees. Through the awe-struck aftermath, he had dismissed the event as a dream.
Until now, in cut stone, he faced the echo of that towering majesty, and more. This time, the centaurs' stern sovereignty saw completion, placed amid the threefold matrix of the harmony Ath Creator had gifted to ease the sorrows that troubled the world. Now, Sulfin Evend beheld the strength of the Ilitharis Paravians, partnered by exquisite beauty. Exalted form spoke in the purity of tossed manes, and high
tails, and in the stone hooves of the unicorns, dancing. Their wide-lashed jade eyes and slit pupils of jet reflected the essence of mystery. In captured grace and shimmering delicacy, their carved presence suggested a tenderness to arrest thought and unspin mortal senses. Amid their lyric, arrested pavane, the sunchildren clustered, blowing their crystalline flutes. The sculptor had captured the sublime joy and delight on their elfin features. Their radiant merriment made the very air ache, suspended in stark, wistful silence.
The Alliance Lord Commander stopped, lost his breath; felt the wrench as his heart-beat slammed out of rhythm.
He stared speechless with wonder. Then his eyes brimmed. Tears dripped unabashed down his chapped cheeks and splashed the rough cloth of his collar.
'They still exist,' Asandir repeated, steadfast. His saving grasp captured the metal-bound box, before his visitor thoughtlessly dropped it.
Sulfin Evend scarcely noticed his clamped grip had loosened. His longstanding distrust could not be sustained, not here, swept away by what stood unveiled in commemorative glory before him. In the moment, Asandir's bracing touch offered a balm for stunned nerves, while his obdurate will gentled the mind through the reeling shock of its weakness.
Left unmoored, the man could do little but lean if he wished to remain standing upright.
For grief pierced into a shattering pain, that the light of such majesty should have walked in the world, and been lost, dimmed into abandoned forgetfulness.
Sulfin Evend bent his head, masked his face, crushed down by the force of his shame. 'We are desolate,' he murmured, ripped wretched by honesty. 'How does your Fellowship bear our foolish insolence, that most of humankind does not spare time to realize, or far worse - that we blind ourselves with rank arrogance rather than acknowledge such overpowering greatness?'
'How does man or woman bear cold, death, and ignorance?' Asandir finished the grim thought himself. 'Because they must, and for no other reason. To do any less would cast away hope, deny truth, and declare that caring and peace have no meaning within Ath's creation.'
Sulfin Evend permitted the moth-light touch that steered him on and guided his way up the stairwell. Led into a carpeted chamber and installed in an antique chair, he managed to sit and brace his elbows upon a polished ebony table.
There, he endured until the raw fire of his anguish burned itself down to embers.
He blotted his cheeks, finally. Aware of himself, and embarrassed for his bruised dignity, he looked up and encountered the Sorcerer, seated across from him.
Wax candles lit Asandir's cragged face. Two ages of weather had chiselled those features down to their gaunt frame of bone. The eyes, reflective as light on a tarn, gazed into places no man had gone.
Sulfin Evend caught himself staring; and Asandir, with an unlooked-for calm, permitted that uncivil liberty.
Observed at close hand, the Sorcerer's patience seemed nothing less than formidable. An unquiet shadow, or some ravaging horror had been the force that annealed his tenacious endurance. Behind his stark power, which wore no disguise, Sulfin Evend sensed more: the lurking spark of a wistful joy, and a dauntless strength tempered by what was in fact an uncompromised well of serenity.
'People have reason to fear you,' the Lord Commander insisted, but quietly.
Asandir did not move. 'They fear their beliefs.' The question followed with disarming mildness. 'Have I caused you harm?'
'Not yet.' Sulfin Evend glanced away. A pot of spiced tea steamed on a tray. Someone thoughtful had included a cheese wedge on a plate, brown bread, and bowls of raisins, nuts, and dried apples.
'Sethvir insisted you'd be tired of game.' Asandir already cradled a brimming mug, infused with the rich scent of cinnamon. The scatter of burns first observed at the windlass, unnervingly, seemed to be fading, the blisters reduced to rose pink against a lacework of older scars.
Again, Sulfin Evend averted his sight, only to become overawed by the details of his surroundings. Heraldic banners covered the walls, offset by a massive fire-place with black-agate pilasters. The Lord Commander identified the star-and-crown blazon of Tysan, then the silver leopard on green of Rathain, and left of that, the scarlet hawk of Havish, adjacent to the purple chevrons of Shand. The golden gryphon of Melhalla no doubt hung at his back. The inlaid chair that supported him had served as a royal seat for far longer than the Third Age. Before man, this room had hosted the sovereign grace of Paravian rulers, whose names and deeds framed the heroic legends of the early First Age ballads.
The King's Chamber at Althain Tower had heard Halduin s'Ilessid swear his blood oath, of crown service. Here, Iamine s'Gannley would have stood witness, assuming a charge still borne by an heir who now skulked in the wilds of Camris.
Weighed by that past, and distressed by his errand, Sulfin Evend remembered the iron-bound coffer, mislaid since the moment he had witlessly lowered his guard.
'Your burden is safe.' Asandir tipped his
head toward the mantel. There the coffer rested, still locked. He moved one hand, but did nothing more than reach for the tea-pot. 'You look like a man in need of refreshment. Or will you hold out as the victim of nursery tales, which warn against sharing food or drink with my Fellowship?' The glint of a smile came and went as Asandir filled a mug, then pushed the honey-pot across the table.
Eyebrows raised, the Sorcerer waited again. When Sulfin Evend left his offering untouched, he shrugged. 'Crumbs won't harm the ebony.'
Then, as his visitor failed to relax, the Sorcerer checked a sigh of incredulous, caustic impatience. 'Mother of mercy! The tea is quite normal, imported from Shand, and whatever plain fare we set before guests, the food is by no means ensorcelled.'
With that, eyes half-lidded, Asandir lifted his own steaming vessel and sipped.
Sulfin Evend managed the semblance of courtesy, stirred unsteady fingers, and spooned out a dollop of honey. 'My nurse was more graphic' He talked to forestall nervousness. 'She claimed that your Fellowship tore the hearts out of babies and ate them.'
'Raw and still beating?' Asandir helped himself to some raisins. 'Not particularly pretty, to stand accused of a practice that in fact is not ours. Such an unclean death is actually used by cults of black necromancers in their rites of initiation.'
Sulfin Evend choked on his tea.
Brilliant as mercury lit by a spark, the Sorcerer's eyes sharpened. He passed a cloth napkin, and added, contrite, 'Did you not come here to inquire on that subject?'
After a cough to clear his closed throat, Sulfin Evend admitted, 'I had expected to broach the matter with Sethvir.'
Asandir savoured his tea, frowned a moment, then hooked back the honey for more sweetening. 'Sethvir has a scar as long as your arm that was left by a necromancer's knife. His patience is short where their works are concerned. For myself, I've spent too many years in the field to waste undue time over niceties. Will you hear my straight warning? The faction you've roused is unspeakably dangerous. Leave Tysan. Travel under my ward of protection, live your life, and never turn back.'
Despite gnawing doubt, Sulfin Evend held firm. 'I can't do that.'
'Then make no mistake. Your brash bravery is not wisdom!' When Lysaer's officer withstood that sharp censure, the Sorcerer broke off, grasped the cheese knife, and began to slice bread.
'I made a promise to Enithen Tuer,' Sulfin Evend revealed at due length. 'Would you send me off with a meal and no hearing?'
Asandir pinned his guest with steel eyes. 'You might as well eat. The dangers you're bound and determined to face aren't going to forgive any weakness. Your nerves falter now? Then rethink your position. The works of the death cults are by lengths more ugly than the unfounded whispers you've heard concerning our Fellowship.'
That said, the Sorcerer folded a chunk of cheese into the bread, took a bite, then shoved the filled plate toward the opposite edge of the tray. 'I know how it feels to spend months on the road. Don't try to pretend you're not hungry.'
Thereafter, the Sorcerer tucked into his meal. He did not look up. Nor would he respond to polite conversation. Sulfin Evend was left watching. Need triumphed, eventually. Soon after, the tray was emptied of food, and the bread loaf, demolished to crumbs.
'That's better.' Asandir stretched and arose. He fetched goblets and a decanter of cider from a carved hutch, then served himself and Sulfin Evend.
As the cut crystal-glass was placed before him, the Hanshireman bridled. 'Do you think me a fool? I did not journey here to have my tongue loosened with drink!'
The Sorcerer regarded the pale amber liquid, unoffended. 'Sethvir does brew strong spirits when the mood takes him.' He sampled the cider, then looked up, brightened to an incongruous spark of hilarity. 'What threat from me are you guarding against, Sulfin Evend idna cou'wid en tavrie s'Gannley?'
A son brought up by the Mayor of Havish had the schooling to translate the Paravian, which meant, ' fourth-born who denies a Named heritage.' 'I won't let you bait me,' Sulfin Evend replied.
Asandir settled back, looking suddenly worn. 'By all means, have things your way. I merely hoped a difficult discussion would go easier if you were not saddle worn, or strung-wire taut with distrust. As I've taken delicate steps to point out, I am not your judge. Nor am I your misguided master's executioner! I will not support pretence. If you won't hear my counsel, why else are you here?'
Evasion was not possible. 'I made a vow to Enithen Tuer that I would swear a blood oath under Fellowship auspices.'
'That requires my consent.' Asandir spun the crystal between his deft fingers. 'A caithdein's invocation binds a tie to the land. Do you understand fully? You are asking my sanction to stand moral ground as a high king's conscience, and the s'Ilessid you serve is most vilely cursed. The Mistwraith's set geas is what drives his war against Rathain's lawful crown prince. Not shadows. Not evil. Not moral cause. This is the bare truth. Are you ready to own that your campaign of slaughter is a man-hunt for a spirit who is blameless?'
Sulfin Evend raised his cider, defiant. 'I survived the fires of Lysaer's madness on the field in Daon Ramon Barrens. I watched him kill as a person possessed, then torment himself in the aftermath. I have seen through the lie he plays out as self-sacrifice. While his heart is imprisoned beyond reach of pity, your Fellowship has named him as outcast.'
'With great sorrow,' Asandir interjected. 'Lysaer chose, despite our urgent advice.' The fingers poised on the stem of the goblet kept their forceful calm. 'Do you realize what you ask, Sulfin Evend of Hanshire? Your sworn bond must set you at odds with your family. It will splinter your integrity as Alliance Lord Commander. Understand clearly: a binding made here cannot supplant Maenol s'Gannley. Nor will it lend you any false grounds to pose Lysaer as a prince at Avenor.'
'I bled and pronounced the vow once in Erdane,' Sulfin Evend shot back. 'Do you imply that my act held no consequence?'
'Enithen Tuer would not err, in that way. Make no mistake, foolish man. You were bound, well and truly. But not under terms of old charter law, and not under our Fellowship's formal endorsement. A binding made here will command your true self. The accounting for that will extend beyond flesh, and could even endure after death.'
Sulfin Evend held braced through a shuddering chill, as an icy wind blew on his destiny. 'If I do not stand firm at Lysaer's side, who else will? In all of Athera, where can he turn?'
'Do you think to redress the flaw in his character?' Asandir waited.
'No.' Sulfin Evend swallowed. 'I can't. Lysaer's web of subterfuge is too seamless. Every-one who gets close is in awe of him. Who else can provide a staunch voice of reason, or act with a conscience outside the reach of the cursed forces that drive him? Will your Fellowship stand aside while his last shred of principle is stamped out by the hideous usage of necromancy?'
'Our hands have been tied by Lysaer's free will,' Asandir rebuked, unequivocal. 'The priest, Jeriayish, also bided his time. He was a mere pawn, but a clever one, careful to instill his cult's compulsion when his victim was weak. That opening was snatched when a lane imbalance claimed all of our Fellowship's resources. Rest assured, the problem shall be addressed. You need not stay involved in the outcome.'
'You will intervene to spare Lysaer from threat?' Sulfin Evend challenged point-blank.
'We must act to curb necromancy in its most extreme forms,' Asandir allowed. 'Its practice abrogates the most basic terms of the compact.'
'But not this time?'
The Sorcerer sighed. The hands that had crowned the original high kings now rested flat on the table-top. 'If Lysaer should fall victim to the Kralovir, the grey cult, the power its practitioners might seek to wield through him could compromise the very heart of Athera's deep mysteries.'
'You would execute him,' Sulfin Evend gasped, shocked.
'We do not kill!' Asandir snapped, emphatic. 'Do you understand the abomination you face? If Lysaer succumbs fully, he'll be worse than enslaved. Something other than dead. The rites the cults practise
do not leave soul or spirit intact. We are sadly left to release what remains. The devoured husk must be burned in white fire to put an end to a horrific misery. Stay at Lysaer's side, you might risk the same fate.'
Sulfin Evend leaned forward, roused as a mantled falcon. 'I will swear oath.' He raised his glass and tossed off the spirits as insistent proof of his trust. 'Lysaer spared my life, once. I owe him this much.'
'Lysaer saved you from nothing,' Asandir reasserted. 'You are free, Sulfin Evend. Walk away from this place under my warded protection.'
Yet no entreaty displaced the Lord Commander's fixed stance. The Sorcerer regarded him one taut moment more. Then he emptied his glass, and accepted the burden laid on him with a sigh of hard-set resignation. 'Very well. As you wish. What can be done, will be. Fetch down your locked box. You'll allow me to deal with the contents?'
'Freely.' Sulfin Evend stood up. Anger steadied him as he retrieved the strapped coffer, then unhooked the chain he wore at his neck and surrendered the key to the Sorcerer.
Asandir placed his fingers against the top one brief second, then turned the lock. He flipped up the lid and touched the wrapped contents. His mouth tightened, as though contact pained him, even through veiling silk. Then he said, 'Do you wish to step out?'
Returned to his chair, about to sit down, Sulfin Evend checked sharply. 'If I stay, do I stand in jeopardy?'
'No.' The Sorcerer did not elaborate, but incanted a phrase in actualized Paravian. As the knots binding up the sacrificial blade loosened, he slipped off the silk and snapped a fist around the knife's handle as though he took charge of a striking snake. His left forefinger and thumb grasped the bone-blade, and ran, hard, from hilt to tip. Light flared. Air screamed. Through rushing wind, a child cried out in piteous pain. An old man's voice wailed for reprieve. A young woman wept, and something else sobbed in shrieking, soprano agony.
Head bowed, Asandir gripped the vibrating knife. His tall form seemed wrapped in scintillant light. Through tumultuous noise, he gathered himself and began speaking. Names, Sulfin Evend realized with cold horror: a long list, recited one after the next, with a glass-edged, imperative clarity.