I laughed again at the sheer audacity of the story.
Domick poked his head around the door. "Rushton's coming up." Dameon and Matthew moved to depart.
"Wait. Don't.. ." I stopped. Don't what? Don't leave me alone with the person who risked his life to help me? I shook my head at the absurdity and they went.
Rushton entered. He was familiar to my eyes in a way that surprised me. That was what came of linking minds. He seemed too tall in the turret room where I had been since I woke. There were faint shadows in his green eyes, though he looked remarkably content.
"Hello," I said, helplessly formal. "I don't know what to say," I added, as the silence lengthened—and because it was the truth.
"I heard you want to come to the meeting," he said.
I shrugged. "Not really. It was a whim. I hear you have plans," I said.
He didn't seem to hear me. "I thought you would die or wake up senseless like Selmar."
I shrugged again, embarrassed at his intensity. "Well, I didn't," I said with some asperity. "I never thanked you for helping me with the machine that time."
This time he shrugged. "Will you stay?" he asked., rather as Dameon had done.
"I don't know." I sighed. "I feel restless. I want to get away from the mountains for a while."
"Did they tell you my idea about the guilds? You could stay and help set it up," he offered diffidently.
"What guild would I belong to?" I asked a little mockingly.
He smiled. "Choose whichever pleases you. I think you will be an exception. I expect you will overlap all guilds." He smiled. ''We're going to bring others up here too, you know. In secret. And when we're strong enough, the Council will have to accept us.
"Stay," he said again. I looked at him and some of my restlessness faded. After all, it was an adventure and something to live for that he was offering. There was some good in that.
"I'll stay for a while," I said at last and he nodded.
"That will do to start," he said cryptically. "Now the meeting calls."
He looked through the small window at the pale wintertime sky, a faraway look on his face. "It will not be easy, you know, to do what I want. But we have made the first step. Who knows, you might even be able to teach me some tricks. Obernewtyn will be a force in this Land. And I am the Master of Obernewtyn now." He smiled down at me, but there was a fierce pride in his face that made it strangely beautiful.
He went away.
He would be a good leader, I thought. Guildmerge or not, he would remain the Master of Obernewtyn. There was a quality in him that inspired trust and a kind of love. He was born to lead. People like Rushton never thought much about the past. It made them impatient. His mind was full of what was to come. It was left to those like me to remember the past—and doubt.
Deep in my belly, I felt again the tingle of the power I had wakened. Such power must have a purpose. I thought of a dark chasm somewhere in the mountains and again the restlessness filled me.
If Cameo and Maruman and Sharna were right, it was my destiny to stop anyone from ever unearthing that terrible power.
I would not fail them.
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