The Spirit Stone

by Katharine Kerr

  ‘Well,’ Aderyn said at last. ‘That’s enough for one day, I think, but we’re on to somewhat grand, if you ask me. We need to consider what these images might have meant to the dweomermasters of the old cities.’ He rolled up the scroll and put it into its box, then handed it to Nevyn. ‘Why don’t you keep the scroll with you for a while? You’re quite skilled at picking up impressions from objects like this. I’d like to know more about the original copyist and glossor.’

  ‘Me too. I’ll see if I can find anything out.’ Nevyn hesitated, choosing words. ‘But you know, that work requires a particular kind of silence and privacy.’

  Aderyn laughed with a toss of his head. ‘You’re telling me that you’d like to move out of my noisy tent,’ he said. ‘Tactfully, of course.’

  ‘Of course.’ Nevyn returned his smile. ‘It’s not so much the noise, mind, as the etheric traces. People come in and out of your tent all day long. They’re usually either sick or troubled in mind, after all, and they leave disturbances behind them.’

  ‘True spoken,’ Aderyn said. ‘I feel them myself, especially during the winter, when I can’t get outside much. But be that as it may, we’ll have to see about getting you a tent made.’

  ‘Master Nevyn?’ Valandario leaned forward, and her cheeks flamed scarlet. ‘You could have my tent. You see, I’ll be moving into—well, into another one.’

  ‘Aha!’ Aderyn grinned at her. ‘So, Jav finally convinced you?’

  ‘He did. We were going to move my things this afternoon, when I returned, and I honestly did not know what to do with my tent. It’s quite well-made, Master Nevyn, though you’ll want to have your apprentice beat the floor cloth. I fear me that I do little in the way of keeping things clean.’

  Valandario looked so happy that Nevyn couldn’t bring himself to voice his doubts, not so much for her, but for Javanateriel. Would he someday be as bitter as Aderyn when his woman left him for her true work? None of your affair! he told himself sharply. Besides, since Jav had not the slightest trace of dweomer gifts about him, their bond would be an ordinary one, not the iron clamp around two souls such as Dallandra had shared with Aderyn. It might be the best thing for Val, Nevyn thought. Maybe he can get her to eat more often, if naught else.

  When they returned to camp, Nevyn set Gwairyc to moving their possessions over to their new tent. It was small, though big enough for two men, and well made indeed of new panels of deer hide, painted on the outside with a tracery of flowers. They pitched it some distance away from the camp itself. While Gwairyc took the filthy floor cloth away to beat out the dust and bits of ancient food, Nevyn sat just inside the door and enjoyed the relative silence. He’d been feeling a growing sense of irritation with the noise, the clutter, and the daytime disorganization of a Westfolk gathering.

  ‘This will be much better,’ Nevyn said to Gwairyc when he returned. ‘Sometimes I wonder if these people ever tire of making noise.’

  ‘No noisier than the king’s dun, my lord,’ Gwairyc said. ‘It’s a fair bit quieter at night than Dun Deverry.’

  ‘Well, that’s true. They do train their children to sleep in utter silence. That’s one good thing I can say for them.’

  ‘And the men don’t snore. Huh, an odd thing, that.’ Gwairyc suddenly grinned. ‘I wish I could teach my men back home that trick. The sound of a night-time barracks would probably drive you daft.’

  ‘Oh no doubt! It’s good thing I never wanted to ride with a warband.’

  Every evening, once Ebañy was asleep in his father’s care, Morwen would join Loddlaen to learn more dweomer. She was surprised to find that she already knew the first elements of the lore. Since the priestesses of the Moon had always assumed she would someday join them in the temple, they had taught her how to visualize images and chant prayers in the proper voice, a deep vibration of sound. Instead of prayers, Loddlaen taught her how to use that voice in the small beginning rituals of dweomer. He also told her what she was supposed to be visualizing when she meditated.

  Thanks to the Holy Ladies, she already knew that the universe had more levels than the physical plane, but Loddlaen had surprised her when he’d told her that every creature, human and animal alike, had several bodies. For some days now she’d been learning how to visualize a body of light so that she could eventually see some of those levels for herself.

  ‘You really are making splendid progress,’ Loddlaen said that evening. ‘I’ll wager your gifts are much greater than mine.’

  ‘Oh come now!’ Morwen said. ‘It’s because you’re a splendid teacher.’

  ‘Well, my thanks. I suppose that’s somewhat to the good.’ With a sigh he looked away. ‘I wish I had that black stone of Val’s.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Every time she lets me touch it, I feel—’ He frowned, thinking hard. ‘It’s hard to put into words. I feel like it’s giving off power, like the sun gives off light. I can absorb it the way you’d sit in the sun on a chilly morning to warm yourself. So if I had it with me, I’d finally be powerful enough to learn dweomer the way my Da wants me to.’

  ‘Why don’t you see if Val will trade it to you? You were saying the other night that you’ve got lots of extra horses.’

  ‘What a sensible idea!’ Loddlaen grinned at her. ‘Morri, I don’t know what I’d do without you. Here, let’s get back to our lesson, but first thing on the morrow, I’ll ask Val.’

  Valandario, however, had no intention of trading away the obsidian pyramid. Morwen accompanied Loddlaen when he went to see if she’d bargain, but her answer left no doubt.

  ‘Not for all the horses in the world,’ Valandario said solemnly. ‘It fits too well with my work, you see. If it were an ordinary gem, I would give it to you in return for that silver colt of yours, but it’s not. It’s the key to a great many things I’m studying.’ She shot a nervous glance Morwen’s way. ‘Studying about jewellery, I mean.’

  That’s right, Morwen told herself. I’m not supposed to know anything about dweomer. Aloud she said, ‘It must be very difficult to cut black firestone like that. Doesn’t it shatter?’

  ‘It does,’ Val said brightly. ‘That is the reason I need to study the pyramid. Someone managed to cut it.’

  Loddlaen kept quiet during this exchange. When Morwen glanced his way, she saw that his face had gone pale. At his temple a vein stood out and twitched repeatedly. She laid a soothing hand on his arm, but he shook it off, then turned and strode away. Morwen stared after him.

  ‘He does so hate it when people say him nay,’ Valandario said softly. ‘Though his temper has improved just recently. You are good for him, Morri. It gladdens my heart to see him more at ease.’

  Morwen realized with a sense of shock that Val thought she was Loddlaen’s lover. As if he’d want an ugly thing like me! she thought. That someone would entertain the idea, however, was surprisingly pleasant.

  ‘Oh, we’re just friends,’ Morwen said, ‘but we do have some nice long talks.’

  ‘Ah, I see.’ Val winked at her. ‘But you never know what may happen, do you?’

  ‘I suppose not. Um, I’d best go find Ebañy. He’s playing with his little friend Danno, and they’re probably running Danno’s mother ragged.’

  That evening, when she arrived at Loddlaen’s tent for her dweomer lesson, Loddlaen had returned to his usual self. Still, when she considered asking him about his afternoon’s fit of temper, some feeling from deep in her mind warned her off. She concentrated on that evening’s lesson instead. By the time she left him, he’d made several small jests and seemed in a very good mood indeed.

  In the long hot summer afternoons, Nevyn, Aderyn, and Valandario fell into a routine. After a scant meal they would walk upriver away from the noisy camp and work with the dweomer scroll, trying out the various incantations and discussing the results with one another until the images held steady in everyone’s mind. Loddlaen generally managed to find one excuse or another to skip these sessions. Much to Nevyn’s relief, Aderyn eventually stopped
asking him to join them.

  At first Val brought her obsidian gem along, but whatever its mysterious dweomer attributes might have been, working with the scroll was apparently not one of them. While either Aderyn or Nevyn intoned an invocation, she would study its various surfaces, but she saw nothing of any value.

  ‘Every now and then,’ she said in her careful way, ‘I see a flash of light, but it reveals naught. It comes and goes at random, not in response to any words.’

  ‘Very well then,’ Aderyn said. ‘Apparently Evandar’s two gifts aren’t related. It was a good guess that they might be, however.’

  ‘I shan’t bring it any more,’ Val said. ‘It will be safer in my tent. I should hate to drop it or suchlike.’

  The danger lying in wait for the stone, however, had naught to do with chips and cracks. Late one afternoon, after the three dweomerworkers had returned to camp, Nevyn and Aderyn were sitting in front of Aderyn’s tent, taking the last of the sun and saying very little. They heard, above the usual noise and bustle, a piercing high shriek of mingled rage and fear that could only have come from a woman’s throat.

  ‘That’s Val!’ Aderyn sprang to his feet. ‘Ye gods!’

  Nevyn got up and followed him as Aderyn ran through the camp. They found Val standing in front of her tent, fists clenched, tears running down her face, while Javanateriel held her in his arms and murmured soothing words in Elvish. When Aderyn spoke to them in the same, she answered him with a burst of fury that made him step back.

  ‘Val?’ Nevyn spoke in Deverrian. ‘What happened?’

  ‘My pyramid is missing, Master Nevyn.’ Val gulped for breath. ‘I know Loddlaen stole it, and no one wants to believe me.’

  ‘Val, beloved,’ Jav said, ‘we can’t accuse someone without a shred of evidence.’

  Aderyn crossed his arms tightly over his chest and pinched his lips together.

  ‘I suspect that Val and her gem are linked strongly enough that she knows where it is,’ Nevyn said. ‘But “steal” is rather a harsh word. I suggest that we simply go and ask Loddlaen if he wanted a look at it.’

  Both Aderyn and Valandario relaxed into smiles and nods. Javanateriel let his breath out in a long sigh of relief. They all trooped off to Loddlaen’s tent at the edge of the encampment, where, to Nevyn’s surprise, Morwen and Ebañy were keeping Loddlaen company. Eba˜ny was sprawled on a patch of grass and playing some elaborate game with sticks and pebbles, while Morwen was stirring a kettle of soup at Loddlaen’s fire.

  ‘Ah, there you are, lad,’ Aderyn said. ‘Val seems to be missing her black gem, and I was wondering if you’d seen it.’

  Loddlaen got up slowly, his face a mask. ‘Why would you think I had?’ he said.

  Morwen stopped her stirring and turned to look at him. Loddlaen abruptly shoved his hands into his pockets. Nevyn had the nasty suspicion that they were shaking and he was trying to hide them.

  ‘Well, no real reason—’ Aderyn began.

  ‘I know it’s in there!’ Val pointed at Loddlaen’s tent. ‘I can feel it call to me, and it’s in there.’

  ‘It is not!’ Loddlaen snapped.

  ‘Don’t lie!’ Jav stepped forward. ‘Don’t make it worse!’

  Valandario moved so fast that Loddlaen could only make a futile grab at her as she dashed by. She ducked into the tent, and when Loddlaen tried to follow, Javanateriel stepped in front of him and blocked his path. Val made an inarticulate cry of triumph and ducked out again, the black stone cradled in both hands. Loddlaen turned pale.

  ‘It was sitting right on top of his blankets,’ Val said. ‘I told you so.’

  Loddlaen said something in Elvish that made Jav grab him by the shirt with both hands and shake him, then answer in the same. They began shouting at each other while Aderyn tried to separate them. Nevyn glanced at Morwen and saw tears in her eyes. She swung the kettle off the fire, then grabbed Ebañy and picked him up. For a moment she hesitated at the edge of the raging argument, then turned and marched off back towards the encampment. Nevyn hurried after her.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he said.

  ‘I don’t understand how Loddlaen could do such a thing!’ Morwen said. ‘My heart’s sore troubled, Nevyn. I’ve come to think of him as a friend, but if he’s a thief—’

  ‘Well, he may not have meant to steal it. He may have just wanted to study it privately.’

  ‘Do you truly believe that?’

  ‘Let’s just say I’d like to believe it, and it’s possible. It’s difficult for Loddlaen to—to—’ Nevyn hesitated, thinking. ‘To do things in the most direct manner, I suppose I mean. He might have been afraid to ask Val for a long look.’

  ‘I’ll try to believe that.’ Morwen paused to set ebañy down. ‘Oof! You’re getting heavy, my love.’

  ‘Tell me, ebañy,’ Nevyn said. ‘Do you like Loddlaen?’

  ‘I do,’ the child said. ‘The funny man don’t.’

  ‘Doesn’t,’ Morri interrupted. ‘What funny man?’

  ‘The man in the stone.’ ebañy frowned and looked away. ‘I saw him.’

  ‘When was that?’ Nevyn said.

  ‘Just now. In the tent.’ He looked at Morri. ‘You see him, too?’

  ‘I didn’t. You don’t mean Tirro, do you?’

  Ebañy wrinkled his nose and shook his head. ‘The funny man,’ he repeated, ‘with the yellow hair.’

  ‘I think I know what he means,’ Nevyn said. ‘Someone from his Da’s tales, I suspect.’

  Morwen nodded, accepting the white lie. Nevyn wanted to question ebañy further, but not in front of Morwen. Unfortunately, by the time he got a moment alone with the child, ebañy had forgotten the incident.

  Nevyn would have explained more about Loddlaen if he’d thought that Morwen could understand. He knew that the priestesses had taught her some of the preliminary knowledge that they shared with dweomerworkers, but at the stage of knowledge that he was assuming she possessed she never could have comprehended the truth about that strange breed of incorporeal beings, the Guardians, or as Deverry men called them, the Seelie Host. Besides, as he had to admit to himself, he didn’t completely understand what had happened to Loddlaen’s mother, Dallandra.

  Somehow the Guardians could keep a person alive indefinitely on the astral plane. In Dallandra’s case, Evandar—Ebañy’s funny man—had turned her physical body into an amethyst crystal, or perhaps it was only the semblance of a crystal wrought in some substance of which he had no knowledge. At will they could release her from the crystal, sending her back to the physical world, or entrap her again to bring her back to their astral country.

  But inside her body, when first she’d gone off with them, had lain the beginnings of another body, and with it, the soul destined to become her son. It was time, Nevyn decided, to ask Aderyn a few questions.

  Nevyn had to postpone his talk with Aderyn, however, because that morning Valandario announced that she and Javanateriel were leaving. They’d gathered a new alar and were going to head north to the far grazing for the rest of the summer.

  ‘I truly did think it was best, Master Aderyn,’ Val said, ‘if I took the black gem away.’

  ‘Perhaps so,’ Aderyn said. ‘It seems to spread an evil influence. Apparently it makes some people jump to conclusions and make false accusations.’

  Startled, Val glanced at Nevyn. He smiled and slipped his arm through hers. ‘I’ll walk you back to your horses,’ Nevyn said. ‘Come along.’

  Aderyn made no move to follow as they left. Nevyn waited to speak till they were well out of earshot.

  ‘You’ll never get Aderyn to think ill of his son,’ Nevyn said. ‘Surely you know that.’

  ‘I do, but—’ Valandario hesitated for a long moment. ‘This time it seemed so obvious.’

  ‘Have there been other times when he’s stolen somewhat?’

  ‘Oh, never that! He tells lies, though, and then there’s his nasty temper.’ She paused again. ‘Maybe he truly didn’t mean to steal the gem. I’ll try
to think that, anyway’

  ‘It’s all we can do. Now, as you work with the gem, you can reach me through the fire if you have questions. If naught else, I’d love to know what you discover about it.’

  ‘My thanks, Master Nevyn. I’m honoured.’

  Nevyn returned to Aderyn’s tent. They sat down outside the door, idly watching the life of the camp swirl around them. One of the women brought them a basket of wild redberries, which they shared as they talked.

  ‘How long, exactly,’ Nevyn said, ‘was Loddlaen’s soul trapped with Dallandra in that amethyst crystal?’

  ‘As we reckon time?’ Aderyn said, ‘Or as the Guardians reckon it?’

  ‘As we do. Loddlaen most assuredly has either a human or an elven soul. Had he been one of the Guardians’ flock of spirits, the experience wouldn’t have scarred him so deeply.’

  ‘I don’t know why you keep insisting he’s been scarred.’

  Nevyn wanted to scream, Just look into his eyes, you wretched doting fool! Are you blind? Instead, he said, ‘Well, how could it not have? Trapped like that, half-born but not truly alive, aware of only himself and the gem around him?’

  ‘Oh, I doubt if he was truly aware. After Dallandra came back to us, it was a good many months before she gave birth.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘I don’t remember.’

  Nevyn decided against pointing out just how obvious it was when Aderyn lied.

  ‘But as for your other question,’ Aderyn went on, ‘it was close to two hundred years.’

  Nevyn shuddered, his blood abruptly cold in his veins.

  ‘I do see your point,’ Aderyn said. ‘If he’d been truly aware, it would have been agony. But he wasn’t, he couldn’t have been, not for all of those years, or he’d be stark raving daft.’

  ‘Well, he’s not that, certainly.’

  ‘I suppose you’ve brought this up because of the misunderstanding over Val’s obsidian gem.’

  ‘I have. You’re convinced it’s a misunderstanding?’

  ‘He just wanted a look at the thing. He wasn’t stealing it. It is true, though, that he’s never been good at explaining himself, or at telling others how he feels. Maybe you’re right about those years in his mother’s womb, now that I think of it. No doubt they would have had some effect.’