During those years the palace saw many rich and splendid feasts, commanded by the king as token of its reborn prosperity, or to welcome unhappy refugees from the Westlands. But at the first meal of the day there was no pomp or luxury; lord and servant ate together if they chose, the fare was simple, the mood quiet and relaxed in preparation for the labours of the day ahead. In this it reflected the nature of the king himself; as often at this hour, he had forsaken his high table and ate at his ease out on the gallery, contemplating the harbour and the muster of his fleet. His lean frame was wrapped in a light robe, his bronzen hair was unkempt, he wore plain rope-soled seaman's sandals and seemed wholly at peace with himself and the world. When he saw Elof and Kara approaching he rose at once, smiling, and greeted them with his usual slightly stiff good nature.
"My master, my lady, come and grace my table! I'm glad to see you so early, Elof; much must be settled today ere the shipyards can begin their labours, and with Ils away our wisest smith should advise me - "
Kara laughed. "Then you will excuse me, will you not, my lord Keryn, and you, Elof? You know such matters have little hold upon my mind. I'll breakfast with our friends within." She kissed Elof lightly and glided down the steps into the cool depths of the halls; the men watched her go. Elof a little ruefully. Kermorvan smiled.
"She adorns our halls. It is good to see that you and she have still your share of the happiness we have found -"
Elof slumped down into a chair so hard that its light frame protested. "Do we?"
Kermorvan sat down more slowly, and his misty blue gaze grew suddenly piercing. "A tale reached me but moments since," he remarked with dry disapproval. "A wild tale, such as the watch are wont to dream up at a dull night's ending…" Elof groaned faintly. Then the king's stern features were suddenly illumined by a mischevious twinkle. "I can only say that you both look remarkably fresh! And while I'm no authority, I think it is hardly so that love lessens…"
Elof felt his scowl harden. "Our love, no! But…" He hesitated, but his need to speak, to mould words out of his inner blackness, was too great. "It is our trust I fear for! And Kara's safety! Kermorvan, she was seeking to escape me, I am sure of it!"
Kermorvan sat up, startled. "Escape you? Talk sense, man - "
"I mean it! She changed, flew, I woke and followed. But if I had not woken, what then, what then? How far would she have flown? And where? To whom? Kermorvan, there is another voice calls her, of that I am sure!"
"Another voice…"Kermorvan's face darkened once again, and his voice took on an edge that belied its quietness. "She who mastered her of old, you mean? Yes, that would not surprise me. Inevitable that Louhi would try to summon her back. The Lady of the Ice is hardly one to forgive or forget, were the thing snatched from her less precious, or less…"
"Less loved!" Elof heard himself blurt out, and the bitterness lay like metal on his tongue.
Kermorvan inclined his head sympathetically, yet a little distantly, as if to set himself apart from Elof s jealousy. "What of that? It is past. Whom Kara loves, that is what matters, that is what must counter the call. That, strengthened by your love. Your trust…"
Elof flushed. "That alone was never enough to win her free of Louhi! Not even though she had my arm-ring, with all the virtues I set upon it… "
"Not while you were apart. But from the moment she saw you once more, she began to struggle. You called upon that ring. And she triumphed."
"Aye, for a moment. Then I had to hunt her down…"
"It was the moment that mattered!" said Kermorvan sharply. "That set you free, to free her! Do you remember, I was there! I saw!" He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "And that was when you hardly knew one another, when she could scarcely believe your love was possible. Now you have had years together, happy years, the links will be stronger - "
"But strong enough?" blazed Elof. "Dare I trust her, for her own sake?"
"If they are not strong enough, then seeking to tighten her bonds may only weaken them further." Kermorvan smiled thinly. "Even I can see that, little versed as I am in matters of the heart. If you doubt her strength, lend her your own; do not force it upon her. Have patience, wait! There lies the best counsel I can give you. That, and don't forget your food." He gestured to the table at his side, which held dishes of smoked meat, cornbread, curds and fruit. "Now, about the Alaven's refit. The shipwrights report that the old tackle will not bear the new rig. We cannot rely on Ils returning in time, and other than she, only you truly understand shipwork - "
For the next hour Kermorvan kept Elof so busy discussing shipyard problems that he should have had no time to think of anything else, and perhaps that was in part his purpose. But instead Elof found himself answering and eating in a kind of abstracted daze, while the core of his mind wandered along other paths. He heard his own voice as if it was another's, though it spoke sense enough, while through his inner self fears and worries stalked. He found himself longing for Kara to return, constantly fighting down the urge to run and find her, to be sure she had not somehow vanished away once more. When he heard her laughter, soft and bright as fine gold, echo unmistakably out of the shadows of the hall he felt his whole being relax in reassurance. Yet only minutes later he was anxious again. Wait! he told himself sarcastically, Have patience! That was not the turn of a smith's mind; they could be patient only in action, not inaction. No more was it their way to leave weak links lying; they would sooner forge the whole chain anew.
All throughout that day it was that vision that haunted his thoughts, of a chain stretched to breaking. How he got through the many tasks that devolved upon the Court Smith and chiefest counsellor of so active a king, he never knew, for Kara was ever in his mind, Kara whom he loved too well to risk losing once again. Yet somehow it was evening, and he came to the door of their chambers in the palace, those high rooms where Kara's chains had been broken, and they had first become lovers. A great weariness was upon him, and a need for comfort, and the sight of Kara, reclining upon a daybed on the balcony, was balm to his tormented heart. She sat there in silent silhouette, contemplating a sunset of eggshell greens and blues beneath a canopy of clouds streaked fiercely red and gold, and when he approached her she did not turn, but waved him to the couch beside her. He stooped to kiss her, then stopped as he saw tracks of fire upon her cheeks, as though the angry clouds wept, and not she. She looked up sharply into his face, and began to speak, then hesitated. "You .. you asked me earlier… if there was any other voice that called me… that sought to part me from you… And I denied it. But, heart, you were right."
For a moment he felt a vast sinking away beneath him, and then a sudden recovery; at least she was admitting it. He would help her now. "Yes. It's that she-wolf Louhi, isn't it?"
Kara gave a short bitter laugh, and gestured dismissively. "Her! Oh yes, she is always there, far off, whispering, tugging. But I had almost ceased to think of her. This is something more, a thing hard to understand. Something I cannot know for certain… yet with every fibre of my being I sense it. A great change coming, a balance swaying this way and that, and whichever way it tips it must alter the world." She turned and leaned on the low railing of the balcony, gazing out at the sea; the wind had turned westerly now, by the gilded vanes on the high roofs below, and it was driving grey breakers in against sea wall and shore, booming upon block and gravel. Above them flocked gulls, bright in the last of the light, and their harsh cries awoke new fear in his heart, that at any moment she might fly up from him and be lost in their numberless throngs. "A wave rises over all things, and soon it will break… Much that is new must flow in, much that is old must be swept away. And I am old, heart, very old."
Elof caressed her crisp dark curls, stroked her smooth cheek. "You are no older than when first I set eyes upon you. And you have little memory of the years, you have said."
"Little, till first I came into bondage. Till first I set eyes upon you."
Elof frowned. "Are the two then so close?"
"Only i
n time. You do not bind me; I am not your property, your instrument and plaything, as I was… hers. Once I roamed the world uncaring, unremember-ing, save when I served the Steerers in war, and that too was in my nature from the first. So, to be held again, save by my own will, by myself… even to think of that sickens me. But with you I am happy…"
"As before? As when you were free?"
She gazed around at him, her green eyes wide with astonishment. "But surely! Why else should I stay?"
Elof nodded. "Why indeed? But… this change you sense… it comes soon, you feel?" The sun rolled beneath the horizon, and all things beyond the balcony, tree, rooftop, cliff, darkened to shapes of shadow against the sky, golden now as peach-skin, shot with grey clouds.
She smiled. "Soon need not be as men conceive it!" Then she looked away again. "And… a day may come when I would welcome it, embrace it. Having known you, I cannot ever be the same."
Elof knew what she meant. In all the years he had loved her she had not aged, nor would she, perhaps, within the circles of the world. Whereas he… He would share the common lot of men. But he had accepted that, for himself, with an ease that surprised him; was it selfishness that he so seldom thought what it would mean to her?
"But suppose it did come soon," he persisted, "soon as I would see it, I mean. Would you resist it, then, and stay with me? Could you?"
"I don't know!" she breathed. "How can I know? Were the choice mine, yes, my heart, I would try, I would strive, with all my being I would! But…"
Elof leaned over, gripped her bare arms, gazed deep into her eyes that had the shade of a forest pool, the alert gaze of deer that drank there. "Do you fear you cannot resist, heart? That you lack the fortitude, the strength? Let me help you! Join my strength to yours!"
"How may I do that? How can you help?"
"I will study! I will seek! It would not be the first time I managed what a Power could not. But I need time, Kara, time; you must trust me, give me that time. Hold yourself as safe meanwhile as you know how."
She flashed him a sudden, uncertain glance. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, rein in your urge to change; it is that betrays you. Hold your human form, cease to shift and wander through the world, save at great need. For now; only for now…" She turned her head away indignantly, and he heard his voice go very cold. "I trust you, when you say you love me, and do not want to part; I need no proof. But in trusting me this… for now, only for now… you will be showing me how strong that love, that wish, can be - "
Her teeth gleamed white, biting hard against her lower lip. "I would promise, gladly I would!" she cried out, desperate. "But dare I? Can I? Have I the strength? You cannot imagine how strong is the urge…"
"I can," he said softly. "If only by the pain it causes you. But you have the power to see that you never break your promise, by one simple act. Give me your swan-cloak, that you need to take on new forms; give it me, and I shall lock it in my strongest chest, returning it to you only at need. Believe me," he added, to forestall her cry of protest, "I guess how great a trust that would be. But for now, at least, we have no better answer, and no way to find one. Take time to think, if you wish."
But at once she rose, and from the seat beside her she plucked the cloak, swirling it around her shoulders, but instead she folded it carefully, neatly and held it tight to her breast a moment, burying her face in the down. Then impetuously she thrust it into Elof s hands; it hung there lightly, like a sliver of cloud. He lowered his eyes, and turned away into the inner chambers, where stood several chests, some metal-bound, some wholly of metal. It was to a large one he turned, and with a small key and some murmured words he unlocked the lid and laid the cloak reverently upon the piles of cloth-wrapped volumes within, shifting some of the bright jewels aside so that there was no chance of any snagging. He closed the lid again with more words upon it, and went back to the balcony; there stood Kara still, gazing out into emptiness, her shoulders bowed and her crossed arms hugging her breast, as against a chill. He laid his hands upon her shoulders, very gently, meaning to slide his arms down to embrace her. But she whirled around, gazing into his face with eyes large and liquid.
"Hold me!" she whispered. "Hold me, for the world grows dark! Let us live, let us seize love and joy while we can!" He felt her arms suddenly cold under his fingers, and he held her tight, let his mantle fell around her, cover her from the onrushing night.
"I will hold you!" he whispered. "But even now I can do more, Kara, if you will let me. I can shield you -"
"No/ You would forge your love into a cage -" He knew well what was in her thoughts, how she had wept with rage at her first sight of caged songbirds in the city markets. Before the day's end Kermorvan, not easily swayed on any matter, had found himself forbidding the practice altogether. She shook her head insistently. "You would temper bars for me to flutter against, till at last I grew weary, ceased to care, and shattered them altogether. We must find some other way. I would not be pinioned ever again, love, by any force save one, and that is myself."
He looked into her intent eyes, on a level with his own, and ran his hand through her dark hair. And even as he did so, a cold thought came into his mind, and there took root. "So be it!" he said quietly, and bent to kiss her on the brow.
ChapterTwo- The Flaw
There remained only a few weeks till the fleet must sail, and in that time Elof had more than enough in hand to occupy every waking hour. Though the Eastlands had not, as Bryhaine, lost the true smithcraft, the art had fallen into decline. Few smiths of any great ability had escaped there from Morvan, and though many books of lore survived, fewer still were born able to make proper use of them. Certainly there were none in these lands now to compare with the Mastersmiths of Nordeney. Of these many had perished in the sack of that land, or in the hardships of the flight south, and with them great reserves of skill and learning had been lost. Only a handful had survived to come east, and some of those too old to do more than teach and oversee. It fell upon Elof to apportion the labours of the rest, and of such likely journeymen as he could find; what remained, he most often had to do with his own hand, and always when the utmost craft was called for. For whatever their degree of mastery the magesmiths of either land were loth now to measure themselves against Elof Valantor, still young though he might be, and the craft they saw ablaze behind his strange-hued eyes.
Yet the idea he had had would not quit him, but grew and took shape even when he seemed to have forgotten it, like a serpent uncoiling in darkness. He lived in peace with Kara, and she never asked her cloak of him, but busied herself as much as he with preparations for the voyage. But the thought would come to his mind at odd moments, as he proved chain and tackle on the launching slips, or fashioned strong fastenings for sheet and hawser; and each time it would be that fraction clearer, that step more advanced. When he dwelt upon it too long, and upon its implications, it began subtly to disturb him; then he at once forgot it again, because he had to. Right or wrong, it hardly mattered when he could not spare a tenth of the time he would need to make that thought real. Indeed it might never have come to fruition, if help had not arrived from an unexpected quarter.
One chilly dawn the clear note of a horn drifted up to the watch on the City's main gate; Elof, already making his way down the steep main street to the shipyards, saw them hasten to the windlasses and stayed to watch. The huge doors ground back in their sockets to reveal an extraordinary caravan, a cluster of hooded figures, short and square, who were leading a train of baggage-beasts that looked like vast shaggy hill-goats. But Elof knew them for musk-oxen from the mountains, and that only one folk could be leading them thus. He went racing down the slippery cobbles with his tool-pack bouncing and jingling at his side; the caravan's leader looked up, hailed cheerfully and came running to meet him also. Man and duergh collided with a solid smack in the centre of the road, and clung to each other as they threatened to fall over; a hood spilled off thick dark curls, bright eyes, a flashing, breathless g
rin. With irresistible strength two firm arms drew Elof s face down for a kiss as solid and smacking as their first encounter, and he hugged the girl tight, intensely aware of how different she felt from Kara, the hard buxom breadth of her. Ils, still breathless, pulled back a little too sharply, but then laughed as if to lighten her reaction. "Well then, young human? Do I find you well?" She prodded him amiably in the midriff, and frowned. "On the thin side, even for a man!"
He smiled. "I've been busy this last week or two. More smith's work than we bargained for -"
"And is she seeing to it that you don't forget to eat? Well, I thought you might be running into a little trouble, so I've brought back some help." She gestured at her companions, busily goading the half-tamed and rebellious musk-oxen into these unfamiliar surroundings. "Smiths, all of them. Not the finest we have in the east by a long chalk, just middling, but I wanted them day-hardy, so they must needs be young. And with them a fair stock of finer ores such as we've so far found in the old delvings."
"Ils," said Elof reverently, "you're a marvel! Even middling duergar smiths can strike sparks off our best men! And we've been too harried to go and hunt down new metals…" He paused a moment, feeling the cold thought blossom in him once more. "You wouldn't have any silver ore among your panniers, would you?"
"Silver?" snorted Ils. "Silver overflowing, take it and welcome! We dwell among silver, we tangle nuggets in our river nets, we strike new seams with every old air-shaft we open; comes in handy for making new light-mirrors. And we need 'em! Huge they are, those old workings, and twisty as a greased worm; even our eyes need all the sun we can carry down."
The Hammer of the Sun Page 2