The Girl and the Guardian

by Peter Harris

CHAPTER 20. Korman, it is told, sworn as were his forefathers to protect that sacred tree and jewel of Aeden against the Aghmaath and the darkened ones from Edartha, met her in the flesh (having already seen her in a vision as he lay dying after the theft of the Jewel) as he returned from a perilous errand for her in the Valley of Thorns.

  His eyes were opened to see her, because of the love that was in him and his passion for the protection of the children of Edartha. He loved her even from the first moment that their eyes met. Time, as it is taught by the masters of the Labyrinth, may stand still for such lovers as these, and they walked a while in the valley in another level of the world where the good that was still remains, and the valley was for Korman filled again with beauty and the rainbow of the waterfall shone again, and the Lake was full of living waters, and the birds were singing. But just as the Lady was teaching him to walk always in that world, so as to elude even the Trackers, his greatest virtue became their undoing – he could not listen because of the duty that gripped him, to protect, and taking up his sword he strode out from the mist into this plane of being, for he had seen a shape of children walking in the valley, and the Kiraglim coming to seize them.

  She called to him, but he forgot all else and strode into the trap, for it was only a projection by a Dreamcaster, sent to trap him. And the Aghmaath came upon them in great numbers, for they had long sought both Korman and the Lady. But because of the power of his wrath and the flaming sword, he escaped into the hills. Turning back, he saw that the Lady had followed him into the light of this level of the world, and had been seized. He saw her thrown into the thorns that paralyse, and he cried out in an agony of grief. And as he wept his right arm was withered, and the sword, flaming no more, fell from his hand. With his left hand he sheathed it, and swearing a great oath he vowed never to draw it again until she awake and bid him to strike. ‘For it is perilous for one who has walked in Faery to draw a sword in anger, and I have been punished for it,’ he cried.

  ‘I, Korman the Outcast, the Ill-starred,

  will never again draw this Sword

  until I have found again the hidden way of the Lady,

  and know how to walk with her in the realm of Faery,

  and have released her from the Thorns.

  Then if she bids me,

  I will surely draw the sword again, and strike down her enemies.’

  And picking up the dust at his feet, he sprinkled it over his head and it soaked up his tears.

  Ever after Korman was grim, speaking little and smiling never, seeking always in his heart the memory of her wisdom which he had not heeded, and for a sign that he had learned it. And the sign would be this: that from a handful of dust would spring -a flower.

  And he came to be known as Korman the Outcast, and Korman of the Withered Arm. -Ennead, Of Korman and the Lady of the Lake.