From the corners of their eyes, the other sixteen, those not already dismissed, stand, wondering, waiting…unsure.
The captain points, and his arm is an arrow that flies toward the stars.
“See—that faint one? Near the evening star. Beyond that, the tiny point, Helios, sun of New Augusta.” He lowers his free hand, and his eyes, and resumes his walk.
“You are not…let me put it another way. Would you mind if I called you Caroljoy?”
“Tonight, as long as you want, I will be Caroljoy to you.”
“Longer for me than you, sweet lady.” He releases her hand and stands silently for a moment that is longer than a moment.
“Sweet lady, not my princess, nor can I seal your eyes with kisses four. But walk with me yet.” As he speaks he bends toward her and offers his right arm. She takes it as they walk slowly down away from the circle of tents.
“That star I showed you, Caroljoy. Wasn’t really Helios. Cannot see it from here. But it was where I pointed. Life. You point at something and…not what you thought.
“Martin never lived long enough to understand that. Caroljoy…my first Caroljoy…she understood…told me that. Didn’t believe her.”
The two stop at the top of the grassy slope that eases down to the lake where the black swans sleep on the water.
He stops, releases her hand and arm.
“Do you know? No. You would not, but you might. I can think. But I cannot try to remember. All I am is what I remember, and I must not.”
His face creases into a smile that is not.
“Better this way. The longer sleeps through time give me some strength to be myself—‘le beau capitaine sans merci’—for a time.”
“Without mercy?”
“Without quarter.”
He whistles a single note that is two-toned, then another. The melody builds until the stars twinkle their tears into the black lake, until the eighteen who have waited behind them slip away into the velvet night beyond the park, each one wondering what she has lost, and what her sister of this single night will gain.
At the precise moment the song has ended, without a word, the captain and his lady touch lips.
Without another word, they carefully seat themselves, side by side, holding hands, and facing the lake where the black swans sleep and where the dreams rise from the depths like the mist of the centuries past.
“My lady…?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind…knowing what you must know…”
Though she says not a word, her answer is clear as they turn to each other, as their arms reach around each other, and as the summer becomes fall, and they fall into and upon each other.
The swans sleep in the almost silence, in the music that must substitute for both love and worship, for the loves that he has lost and will always lose, and for the worship all who walk the grass of Old Earth have for their captain.
Anachronistic? Barbaric?
Perhaps, but unlike other ancient rituals, there is no bloodshed. There are no sacrifices, nor is anyone compelled against her will. Nor has any woman ever been required to spend a summer/fall evening in the Park of Remembrance. At least, not in all the centuries since it was first designed, not since the days before the temporal fields enclosed the hill and the cottage upon it. Not since the days of the captain.
Tor Books By L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
THE SPELLSONG CYCLE
The Soprano Sorceress
The Spellsong War
Darksong Rising
THE SAGA OF RECLUCE
The Magic of Recluce
The Towers of the Sunset
The Magic Engineer
The Order War
The Death of Chaos
Fall of Angels
The Chaos Balance
The White Order
Colors of Chaos
Magi’i of Cyador
THE ECOLITAN MATTER
The Ecologic Envoy
The Ecolitan Operation
The Ecologic Secession
The Ecolitan Enigma
The Forever Hero
(comprising Dawn for a Distant Earth
The Silent Warrior
In Endless Twilight)
Of Tangible Ghosts
The Ghost of the Revelator
The Timegod
Timediver’s Dawn
The Green Progression
The Parafaith War
The Hammer of Darkness
Adiamante
Gravity Dreams
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE FOREVER HERO
This book consists of the novels Dawn for a Distant Earth, copyright © 1987 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Silent Warrior, copyright © 1987 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., and In Endless Twilight, copyright © 1988 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
All rights reserved
A Tor Book
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ISBN: 978-0-312-86838-3
The Forever Hero Page 88