Chapter Ten
Mynowelechw Desel
Halomlyn’s Dilemma
Hálomlyny Æyiddaiaih Wo Cwaaiha
In the north, Halomlyn and his wife Tiawéflyn had been awaiting Hwedolyn’s return.
When Hwedolyn had but recently left, Halomlyn had been saying, “It will be but a few days, and he will return, for he has ever loved a comfortable eyrie, and even when he went off with Atdaholyn he never stayed more than an evening. Neither is he that hardy sort of gryphon who would endure the tribulations and discomforts of travel on his own. Fear not, gryphon-wife, he is sure to return soon...”
But after three days, when Hwedolyn had still failed to return, Halomlyn had said, “He has found some gryphon-eyrie nearby, and is surely being fed and plied with mead. They will convince him to come home, and he will be home again in two days...”
After five days, Halomlyn began saying, “If it were any longer than five or six days I might be worried, but we should not worry. Perhaps he has merely gone to our relatives, or back to the town of Hathon-Kathuiolké to ask the widow Hinfane if she has heard any news of the elf-mage...”
Holding back tears, Tiawéflyn said, “The world is wide. How will he find the elf-mage? And what will happen to him when he finds him?”
After ten days, Halomlyn began to fear that some evil fate had befallen his cub, and while he kept on reassuring his gryphon-mate his own heart had begun to falter. On the twelfth day he decided to leave their eyrie to seek his son, for he feared that he might find Hwedolyn’s body, rotting on the earth at the edge of the desert, or frozen in the northern wilds. If it were so, he could at least burn his cub’s dead body upon the funeral-pyre, and they would glean what comfort they could from that.
When he told Tiawéflyn that he was leaving she said, “I must come too. I have to know what has happened to him. I must know. Even if he flies with Ellulianaen.” And by that she meant, even if he is dead.
And she began to hurriedly tidy the cave and hide their pots and pans away in a small hollow in the wall of the rock, and there were great tears welling in her eyes. Then she looked for things to bring that she could not do without, and still weeping a little.
But Halomlyn said, “But what will he do, where will he go, if he comes home and sees that no-one is here? We simply cannot leave the eyrie abandoned, or he will think we left without him, and then he will despair of ever finding us again.”
Tiawéflyn said, “Thwyrlyn should come here and stay here then, in case he returns. Milélyn can come with us, Thwyrlyn can stay here and look after our eyrie. Three sets of eyes will see more than one.”
Halomlyn replied, “But what if he returns while you’re on the way to Thwyrlyn’s eyrie with me?”
“Then I’ll wait for Thwyrlyn to get here, then follow you.”
Halomlyn said, “Then that will waste at least two days, because I’ll need to wait for you to arrive at Thwyrlyn’s eyrie after Thwyrlyn gets here. Tiawéflyn, do you think I didn’t consider all these options? Time is of the essence. I only wish I had gone to find him earlier.”
At this she stopped packing the pots and pans and said quietly, “All right. We don’t have any choice, then, you must leave and I will wait here... We ought not to have let him go, Halomlyn. I have to believe that Hwedolyn will return to us. Surely Ellulianaen will not leave your parents completely bereft of descendants. They were good gryphons. Unlike Lydlaedlyn.”
Halomlyn said, “Don’t even think that way! Your father Lydlaedlyn had strange, eccentric ways, but he was a good gryphon. Perhaps the rumours are true, perhaps he did tell lies, but mayhap it was justified, for his life was in danger, and he had come from a country where gryphons were not honourable as they are in our realm. But even if he told lies and there was no excuse for it, none of his deeds could have deserved Ellulianaen’s curse on our innocent cub. Hwedolyn is still alive. We must believe that with all our hearts...”
And Tiawéflyn replied pointedly, “And what did Atdaholyn or his ancestors do to deserve his death at such a young age?”
And Halomlyn simply covered her with his wings and embraced her, and a tear went down her cheek fur. Then Halomlyn went aloft.
A Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen Page 27
