by B. V. Larson
“They all have read and heard of the Jewels,” said Corbin, supporting his father.
Brand laughed. “That’s nothing. Hold one in your hand and let it burn a hole in your mind. Walk as the Rainbow. Then face down the Faerie in their own lands. At that point, you will know what you are talking about.”
“No need for disdain, Brand,” said Tylag.
Brand took a deep breath, but he made no apology. “I’ll not leave the choice up to them. I know Uncle, this is hard to take from a youth, but I don’t think they can make this decision. They would want to keep it and would fight over who should try to wield it. Any of them that did might well end up like Dando. Either that, or they would want to trade it back to Oberon for a renewal of the Pact. I find both of these choices unacceptable.”
Corbin nodded approvingly. “Your logic is accurate. I can’t see another result from the council.”
Tylag shot his son a look of annoyance. He continued talking, but Brand could not do more than appear to listen. He tried hard to think about his uncle’s words calmly. He knew he was a wise man, but he also knew that Tylag really didn’t understand what the Jewels could do to a person. He understood his uncle’s point of view, but the argument remained.
“You don’t want to try to use the Lavatis again yourself, do you Brand?” asked Tylag gently.
Brand looked up. His uncle and cousin were leaning forward over the table, looking at him. He realized they knew he hadn’t even been listening.
He shook his head. “No. Absolutely not,” Brand said. His voice lowered, and sounded almost haunted. “I never want to be the Rainbow again. There is madness in its eyes. And if you walk as the Rainbow, I think you lose a tiny bit of your sanity, permanently.”
The others looked relieved and haunted by his words at the same time. Brand told them he had decided to leave Riverton and return to his own Isle.
In truth, Riverton seemed oppressive to him now. He needed room and time to think.
Chapter Nineteen
Parlay
When he finally did make it home, Jak welcomed him, but looked at him as if he didn’t know where his little brother had gone. He kept giving him sidelong, worried glances. Brand knew what was wrong. Brand Rabing wasn’t the same man at all.
For a day or so, he knew relative peace. He had grown up, and the world had changed around him as much as he had. His home wasn’t the same as before, but it was still good. He felt he could breathe easily again, and that was a good thing. But this breathing space didn’t last long. Very soon, visitors began popping up. Brand would soon find there was no end to them and that as the Axeman, he was never going to have much peace in his life.
Among the first visitors, and the most insistent, was Tomkin. Telyn had told Brand that after the Rainbow faded away and the rhinogs had retreated, Tomkin had recovered quickly. In typical Wee Folk fashion, however, he had not focused on gratitude for his life. Instead, he had fixated on the idea that Brand had made off with his Blue Jewel into limbo. Never mind that the Jewel had almost killed him and that if it hadn’t then the Rainbow, when it went mad, would surely have finished the job. What Tomkin wanted to know was where his Jewel was, and when Brand was going to hand it over.
Not knowing what to do, he put off Tomkin, asking him to return at the end of the week. Hopping mad, quite literally, the wild little fellow had run out of the place in a huff. Brand didn’t blame him. But he just didn’t feel he could hand over Lavatis to the folk who had so recently run with Herla as the vanguard of his coursers. At least not without thinking about it.
Before the week ended, he had several other visitors. Gudrin came next to the Isle and stumped up to his door. Brand threw it open before she could raise a fist to knock. He smiled at her and threw his arms wide for a hug. She blinked, slightly shocked, but allowed him do to it. He gathered that hugging wasn’t something the Kindred did often, but he didn’t care.
“I’m very glad you came, Gudrin. I need advice as never before.”
Gudrin nodded and sighed once they were seated comfortably. Jak withdrew to the kitchen and busied himself with mugs of coffee.
“I’m not surprised,” she said, “when one has wealth or power, that is when the decisions become the most difficult.”
“Why is that?” Brand asked. He didn’t doubt her, but truly wanted to know her reasoning.
“You see, when you truly have wealth, everyone needs you. That is when relatives come out of the stone itself needing a loan. This places the rich woman in the position of having to decide who gets help and who does not. She must decide who pays the rent, who eats and who starves. A poor woman has no such worries. Power of any kind works the same way. The more you have, the more others will seek it, and you must then decide how to distribute what you have.”
Brand nodded, seeing her point. As a lowly river-boy no one had much cared about his opinion, and the good part of that was they weren’t angry with him if he didn’t agree with them. But now that his opinion carried such weight, everyone around him was anxious.
“I’m finding new friends at my door every day,” he said.
Gudrin chuckled. “I’m sure they are very friendly until you tell them ‘no’.”
“Exactly,” said Brand. “But what I need help with today is what to do with the Blue Jewel. I’m assuming, of course, you are an impartial party in this matter.”
“No, I’m not,” said Gudrin, shaking her head sadly. “I can make no such claim and I doubt few can. But at least I can tell you that the Kindred are not seeking ownership of the Blue Jewel. But neutrality? Of course we are not neutral! We are very interested in who gets the Jewel.”
“All right then, I can accept your honest answer. Who do you wish to see with the Jewel after the dust settles?”
Gudrin frowned into the fire. She did not answer immediately. Jak brought out two steaming mugs of coffee, and Brand thanked him. Brand asked him to sit and listen to their talk, but Jak begged off, saying there was work to be done on the east side of the island.
Gudrin and Brand looked after him as he left. “It is the same way with Modi. They have strong opinions, and don’t trust themselves not to blurt out their thoughts at such a meeting.”
“Where is Modi?”
“Outside, watching the river for trespassers.”
Brand nodded. He was quite used to Modi’s paranoia by now, and he had learned to approve of it. “You still have not answered my question.”
“True,” said Gudrin, sighing. She fumbled with her Teret, but then put it aside again. “I can’t think of a single passage that would help in making this decision. Let’s list the possibilities. You could keep the Jewel, or give it to another of the River Folk. This would make you strong, but also create new enemies, namely the Faerie and the Wee Folk.”
“Exactly my thinking.”
“You could return it to Oberon, asking to remake the Pact in a new form. This restores the balance of power to what it once was, and has the benefit of stability.”
“I’m sure that is what Myrrdin wishes me to do.”
Gudrin nodded. “Besides that? I’m not sure. Find a neutral party you trust? I’m not sure I know of any.
“What if I gave you the Jewel, Gudrin?” asked Brand, eyeing her intensely.
She looked surprised. She laughed and sputtered. “I can hardly think of a worse fit for one of our breed than that of Sky Magic! Imagine! A creature that lived fully forty years before she first felt a raindrop trying to master the Rainbow!”
“I think you have the strength of spirit. Commanding the Rainbow isn’t like mastering the axe, it doesn’t drive you mad with bloodlust.”
“Perhaps not. You aren’t overcome with the berserkergang, that’s true, but you are quite easily driven insane by it. In case you hadn’t noticed, Brand, all of the Jewels are somewhat mad. Possessing any of them inevitably affects the mind of the bearer.”
Brand nodded, admitting what she said was true. Twice, the Wee Folk had tried to wield the
Blue Jewel and had been overcome by Sky Magic. Dando had died, and Tomkin would have died as well had Brand not been there to interfere.
“So,” he said, “you don’t desire the Jewel.”
She sighed. “I’m too old. The burden would be too great.”
“There is one other option you have not mentioned….”
“What? Do you think to buy off the merlings and end your conflict with them with this gift? I don’t think they have the strength to wield a Jewel, Brand. They would only lose it to the first one strong enough to come and take it.”
“No, no,” Brand said, shaking his head. “Not the merlings. I’m thinking of the Wee Folk. Tomkin, most likely. He gave it to me as a matter of trust. And he survived his first attempt with the Jewel.”
Gudrin looked at him as if he had gone quite mad. “The Wee Folk? And a wild one at that? Brand, I can hardly think of a more chaotic bunch. The merlings are organized in comparison!”
Brand nodded, frowning deeply.
“I can see this decision weighs heavily upon you. But I’m afraid I’m here to make matters worse, and worse still after that.”
Brand looked at her unhappily and gestured for her to get on with her news.
“First of all, the Riverton council asked me to tell you they have officially declared you to be the Champion of the Haven. This is a new title, and makes you a lord. In fact, you are now the only lord of the River Folk.”
“A lord?” asked Brand, aghast, “we have no lords in the Haven. We swore off such things…long ago.”
She nodded and sighed. “Nevertheless, you are now a titled lord.”
“No, that simply won’t do. Do they plan to provide me lands and a tower and retainers? That is simply not the way of the River Folk. I’m not even a clan leader.”
“It hasn’t been your way for many years,” Gudrin conceded, “but you have to understand that everyone will feel better about your possession of the axe if you are a lord. You can’t be a person of great personal power and refuse the title of lordship. People expect it, they desire it. They want you to be a personage of greatness, so that there is an easy, understandable reason for why you are special.”
“Fine,” Brand grunted. “You can tell them I’m Lord Rabing, and I’ll take as my land the ruined Castle Rabing. That, at least, I feel I’ve earned.”
“Good enough,” she said, and then she gave him a hard look. “Have you already decided who will have the Jewel?”
“No. Not yet.”
Brand studied his mug of coffee. He didn’t like this title, it sounded more like a job than an honor. “They mean to send me hither and yon seeking out evil, don’t they?”
“You are indeed getting wiser,” she chuckled.
“In a way, that is probably a good thing,” he said. She watched him, not offering any comment. After a moment, he continued. “It’s the axe. This thing doesn’t want to sit still. Never. It craves adventure, and if I ever sit still, as I’ve been doing these last few days, it grows ever more concerned about every fly that taps at my window. Every deer seen nibbling at the melon leaves causes the axe to jump about in paranoia.”
Gudrin snorted. “I’m not surprised. We had the axe for a long while in our keeping, and we kept it far from any of our hands. All our folk who wielded it managed to slay great evils, but ever would they turn back upon our own people and slay them as well until brought down. Many eventually took their own heads with the axe.”
“Ah,” Brand said wryly, “I see now why you brought it to Riverton. Dupes abound here.”
She laughed, but turned serious soon after. “Lord Rabing,” she said, using his title for the first time and smiling at his alarmed reaction, “there is one last thing the Kindred would ask of you out of friendship.”
“We have no greater friends than your people. Ask,” he said.
“The goblins and their rhinogs have withdrawn from our mountains. But our problems are far from at an end. If you find you have a peaceful moment here, and the axe desires adventure, please come help us beneath our mountains.”
Brand nodded without hesitation. He felt the axe shift excitedly on his back.
“I will most certainly do so.”
Chapter Twenty
Telyn’s Kiss
Gudrin didn’t stay the night, but rather returned with Modi, who tirelessly rowed her back to Riverton. She said she planned to return to Snowdon with the good tidings of Brand’s victories and his plans to come aid them in the future. She bade him not to wait too long.
The axe, for its part, was enthusiastic about the idea. It wanted nothing more than to head off for a new adventure in a new part of the world. The more enemies encountered on the way, the better.
Brand quelled it and his own wanderlust with some difficulty. He still had not decided what he would do with the Lavatis, and the end of the week was approaching. He felt determined to give Tomkin an honest answer by then. He felt he owed the Wee One that much at least. But by midweek, he had still come to no decision, and the stress of it combined with the restlessness of the axe had put him in a foul mood.
Telyn showed up at the door as darkness fell over the island. A light dusting of snow came down behind her as he opened the front door and smiled to see her. She had a shawl wrapped tightly around her head, showing only her smiling face. The knife she had found back in the redcap’s armory was still ready at her belt.
Brand let her in and took the liberty of brushing the snow from her shoulders. Once the door was shut with a grinding of frost, she leaned close. “Are we alone?”
He shrugged and smiled. “Jak is about, but he is probably reading upstairs in his room.”
She looked scandalized. “Corbin isn’t here? I thought he was supposed to be your faithful second!”
“I didn’t think that meant he should follow me about like a hound,” said Brand shrugging and smiling at the idea, “he’s back with his parents in Riverton. Aunt Suzenna needs more looking after than I do. Her grief is all the worse with winter falling around us.”
She looked somewhat upset still, but the expression quickly dropped. She grabbed his tunic and kissed him by surprise. It was a hard, full kiss and his pulse quickened at the feel of her lips.
The axe interrupted by rustling and thumping his skull lightly. All but snarling, he pulled the pack from his back and tossed it onto a waiting easy chair by the fire.
Telyn cocked her head at him. “Is that axe a she? I sense jealousy.”
Brand laughed. “The axe is upset by squirrels in trees. Jealous yes, but I don’t think of it as female.”
“Does it move while it’s alone?” she asked, eyeing the pack on the easy chair, “can it move by itself?”
Brand shook his head and rubbed his chin, looking at the thing. When it was further from his body, he felt less irritable, but even so he was annoyed that Telyn had halted kissing and started talking about the axe. Perhaps, he thought, this was the thing’s evil plan all along. Perhaps, it had gotten what it wanted by distracting her.
“Now, where were we?” he asked, pulling her close.
They kissed for several minutes longer. Brand reflected that he had never had time like this to really be close and alone with Telyn. He enjoyed it thoroughly.
Finally, she stopped him with a soft hand to the chest. Brand looked down at the gently pushing hand with disappointment.
“Brand Rabing!” she said, laughing quietly, “You have changed! I recall being the one who chased harder.”
Brand smirked. He had his hands on her elbows.
“I have a confession to make,” she said, “I didn’t come here just for this.”
“No?” Brand tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
“I am enjoying it, don’t get me wrong. But there is something bad going on, down south along the Deepwood border. There’s a giant, Brand.”
Brand pulled her a fraction closer. He shrugged. “There are always giants in the Deepwood.”
“Of course, bu
t this one has been raiding a pig farm in the Haven.”
“A pig farm?” snorted Brand. He managed to sneak in another kiss and she responded briefly.
“Yes. A farm owned by my cousins. A Fob farm.”
Brand sighed and let go of her. He put his hand to his face.
“What is it?”
Shaking his head, he walked over to his pack and strapped the axe to his back again. It shifted about excitedly. “Fine,” he said, “if that’s your purpose, I’ll be off. Just tell me where it is, and I’ll bring you this giant’s head for your father’s mantle down in Riverton.”
She pouted. “You are mad at me?”
“Not at all.”
“Liar.”
“Did you even want to kiss me?” he asked, suddenly feeling a pit of depression coming over him. All everyone wanted was his service. He had become the rich man Gudrin had described. Even his love wanted something for every favor.
“Oh, Brand,” she said, sensing his mood, “of course I did. Don’t be upset. We can go in the morning. Just because I came to you for help doesn’t mean I don’t really care about you.”
Brand thought about that, and took a breath. Perhaps the axe heightened every emotion, not just anger.
There were two easy chairs in front of the fire. The axe soon occupied one, while they occupied the other.
Chapter Twenty-One
Twrog’s Hunger
Twrog was back, barely a week after the second raid on the farm to ponder his third. He had his club, but he had run out of ham hocks. He had promised himself this wouldn’t happen. He had counted the hams several times, each time resulting in a different total, as often happened to him. But he was fairly sure he had about a dozen of them. This should have lasted him nearly two weeks, if he had only stuck to his promise to himself. He had sternly resolved to eat no more than one a night.