Valderen ft-2

by Roger Taylor

  Farnor found himself bowing to her awkwardly, then he took the reins of his horse and set off. He turned round after a little way. Uldaneth was still standing there, motioning him on. Her manner was vigorous and confident, but had Farnor been close enough he would have seen a deep anxiety, even fear, in those bright, penetrating tear-filled eyes. ‘Light be with you, Farnor Yarrance,’ he heard her call.

  It was a farewell he had never heard before, but somehow the words reached into him and buoyed him up. ‘And with you, Uldaneth Ashstock,’ he shouted back, without knowing why.

  Then she turned and stalked off, leaning on her newly acquired stick. Farnor continued on until he was at the edge of the trees. There, he stopped and turned again. Uldaneth was also by the edge of the trees at the far side of the knoll, and she too had turned.

  He raised his hand in a final salute, and smiled as he saw the stick raised in reply.

  Then both turned and disappeared into the dark-ness of the Forest.

  Chapter 15

  As she entered the room, Marna heard the door closing behind her with the same soft sigh that had accompa-nied its opening. Momentarily she felt a breeze lightly touch her cheek.

  She stepped away from the door and looked around the room. It was circular, and she found that she had emerged from what was a broad pillar at its centre. The long-shadowed light pervading the room was eerie and disconcerting though she realized quite quickly that this was simply because it was sunset. There were arched windows all around the room, and those facing east were displaying a purpling night sky, while those facing west let in the blood red remains of the dying sun from a sky streaked now with thin black lines of cloud. As she looked round, however, she could see no sign of Rannick.

  ‘It’s very high up here.’

  His voice made her start. She turned sharply to-wards it, to see Rannick emerging from the other side of the central pillar.

  ‘It’s an odd feeling, being high up in a building after having lived all your life in a cottage, isn’t it?’ he said, moving over to one of the windows. ‘And quite different from being high up the side of a mountain.’

  Marna clutched at the everyday normality in his voice. ‘Yes,’ she replied as casually as she could manage. ‘It does feel strange.’ Then, for want of something to say, ‘And it’s always hard to know when to light a lantern at this time of the day.’

  Rannick, silhouetted now against the red sky, nod-ded, but did not speak.

  Marna looked around the room again, still searching for something that might help her reach through to the reason for this unwelcome summons. Like the passages through which Nilsson had led her below, the room was an odd mixture of carpeted floor, and grim, grey stone walls, though in places there were pictures hanging. She squinted at some of them intently. And tapestries?

  Yet neither pictures nor tapestries were such as might be found anywhere in the village, nor was any of the furniture. It must all have been looted from places over the hill. Once again she felt the alien character of everything about her. It cried out that it did not belong here. Not because it was unattractive, or ill made – indeed she could see that many of the pieces were extremely fine, and there was an unexpected order, even dignity, about the way the room had been furnished – but because it belonged to others. Each item brought with it to this high tower room the aura of the place from which it had been torn. It resonated with the cries of those to whom it truly belonged.

  Marna forced herself to stop shaking. She had more pressing problems than concerning herself with the fate of the unknown people who had unknowingly furnished this place. Again she clung to the prosaic. ‘How in the world did you get some of these things up that narrow stair?’ she asked, running her hand along the delicately carved edge of a large, finely polished table.

  Rannick laughed, a sound that was a ghastly mixture of inhuman glee and an all too human relief at being able to speak to end the fraught silence. ‘Nilsson’s men have many talents,’ he said. ‘They were just ordinary men pursuing their ordinary skills before they chose the way that brought them here.’ Again the laugh, but this time it was almost totally inhuman. ‘And what they can’t provide…’ He raised his hand in an airy gesture. ‘… We find elsewhere.’ He turned and looked out at the fading red sky. ‘There are many, many things over the hill, Marna,’ he said. ‘You’ve truly no idea.’

  ‘I know there are villages and towns,’ Marna re-sponded, a little defensively, in spite of herself. ‘And even cities. Like the capital. Where the king lives.’

  Rannick nodded slightly. ‘Yes,’ he said, though seemingly to himself. ‘The king. And his capital. And his great army.’ There was scorn in his voice. ‘But even beyond that,’ he went on. ‘There are lands and peoples. Spread across the whole world.’

  ‘Oh,’ Marna replied dully.

  Rannick turned back towards her. ‘Lands and peo-ples that will be mine, Marna,’ he said softly but with great intensity, his hand coming forward and closing, claw-like, to make a bony, knuckled fist.

  His face was in complete shadow, while her own, Marna knew, would be clearly visible even in the fading light. Desperately, she fought to keep her inner alarm from reaching her eyes. She let some of her fear force her face into a puzzled frown. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said, walking to the window adjacent to the one where Rannick was standing. She could see part of the battlements below, but very little of the courtyard. And beyond, she could see far down the valley, familiar shapes and landmarks fading into the shadows of the western mountains. It was, as Rannick had said, an odd feeling looking down from this high yet confined vantage.

  Rannick watched her as she gazed out of the win-dow. ‘It needs very little understanding, Marna,’ he said. ‘My imprisonment in this miserable place is ended. I now have the power that was always destined for me, and these mountains, these petty village huts, can confine me no longer.’

  Marna wanted to argue. Wanted to defend her vil-lage, her community. Wanted to ask what it was that had held him here against his will thus far in his life. But there was a note in his voice that warned her away from such a debate. Lingering always in her mind were the deaths of Garren and Katrin Yarrance. ‘Power?’ she queried.

  Rannick moved towards her. He put his hand on her shoulder and turned her towards him. She tried not to stiffen under his touch. ‘The power given to me by my ancestors, and released by…’ He closed his eyes briefly, and gently tightened his grip, fingers and thumb probing intimately. He left the sentence unfinished, however. ‘Power to draw men such as Nilsson and his band to my side and make them blindly obedient to my will. Power to sweep aside whatever stands in my way, be it forests, rivers, locks and bolts, walls of stone…’ He paused and looked at her intently, his hand still rhythmically caressing her shoulder. ‘People,’ he said, significantly. ‘Anything.’

  Marna’s mouth was dry. Her eyes were drawn reluc-tantly to his. She saw there what she heard in his voice. Manic obsession, mingling with an almost pathetic yearning for…

  For what?

  Praise? Acceptance?

  Her?

  She felt her hands shaking, and she pressed them tightly against the sides of her legs to still them. Little surprise in that, of course, she reasoned carefully to herself. Reason however, held little comfort for her, for though she had fended off more than a few unwanted embraces in her time, this was very different. Different not only because of the circumstances but because amid the waves of fear that threatened to possess her, the repulsion that she felt was entwined around another, unexpected and contradictory emotion.

  Desire.

  It held her eyes on his lean, shadowed face and tried to lift her hand to cover his, to tighten further that grip on her shoulder.

  ‘What’s this to do with me?’ she managed to reply, forcing her hand tighter against her leg.

  His hand drew her a little closer, though there was uncertainty in it as well as an almost irresistible strength. ‘Soon, kings and princes will be bend
ing the knee to me,’ he said, a little hoarsely. ‘They will bring their wealth and their power to increase my own, and no ambition will be beyond my achieving.’

  Marna felt herself going pale.

  ‘Share it with me, Marna,’ he said very softly. ‘Share everything with me.’

  Memories of their early, awkward and distant friendship, with its sudden conclusion, flooded over Marna as she looked up at him. It did not seem possible to her that his eyes could contain the confusion of emotions that she read there. A confusion that was echoed within herself. But dominant in her confusion now was fear. She must get away from him. But how? A blow? A push? A laugh? A kindly smile? None of these would suffice.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she prevaricated, tearing her gaze away from him as casually as she could.

  ‘You do,’ Rannick said, still softly but emphatically. ‘You know you do. You belong by my side, Marna. You always have.’ He waved his hand across the darkening valley. ‘All this is nothing. All that’s been before has been nothing. Just a waiting time. And now it’s finished, gone, vanished. Now we go to take our true inheritance.’

  And what about Garren and Katrin, slaughtered, and their farm burnt? she suddenly wanted to scream. And Farnor, wherever he is? And Jeorg, beaten senseless? And all those people from over the hill brought back in chains?

  And then her mind was clear. The confusion and the desire retreated. ‘I’m confused,’ she lied, this time making no attempt to stop her voice from trembling. ‘It’s all so sudden.’ She brought up her hand and laid it over his. Forcing a plaintive bewilderment into her eyes, she looked at him. He returned her gaze uncertainly. Terrifyingly, she could see rage bubbling beneath his doubt. She must be very careful. Fear lay cold inside her, but she held Rannick’s gaze. Then she shrugged her shoulders and at the same time turned away slowly so that his hand naturally slipped from both her shoulder and her grip.

  Free of his touch, the desire retreated further. She spoke quickly, before he could take command again. ‘One minute I’m in the cottage helping my father, like I’ve done for years. Then, all of a sudden…’ She clapped her hands together, and moved a little further away from him. ‘… I’m here. High above everything. Just that is making me giddy. And I’m listening to you talking about being a king or something.’ She put her hands to her head.

  ‘You doubt me?’ Rannick said suddenly, his head craning forward.

  ‘No!’ Marna said, a little too hastily.

  ‘See!’

  A breeze suddenly caught Marna’s hair, blowing it across her face. She cried out, startled. Rannick held up his hand, both for silence, and as reassurance.

  As she swept the hair from her face Marna saw a blurred light floating in the air some way in front of her. Abruptly, it was a flame. Despite Rannick’s assurance, Marna cried out again, and stepped back.

  ‘Ssh. You’re safe with me,’ Rannick said.

  The flame moved from side to side, like a hunting dog impatiently waiting to be unleashed. There was little light coming from the windows now, making the flame virtually the only source of illumination in the tower room. Marna glanced rapidly at Rannick. Now there was no ambivalence in his face. The flame etched dark shadows into it, and glistened in his eyes. Uncertain how she herself would look, Marna fought to compose her features.

  But her efforts were unnecessary. Rannick’s total attention was on the flame. It grew, it shrank, it divided and came together again, it danced into a myriad shapes, like trees and bright golden flowers, and scattering stars, and things that had no name, all the time moving hither and thither to its master’s unseen commands.

  At its touch, wild shadows from the plundered fur-niture danced desperately about the walls of the room as if, empowered by the spirits of their erstwhile owners, they were attempting to flee this terrible place.

  Marna watched in fearful fascination. It must have been something like this that Gryss and the others had been shown on the day of Farnor’s disappearance. She clung to such calmness as she could, but she was becoming increasingly uncertain about the outcome of this frightening demonstration.

  Then the flame drew near to her, stopping scarcely an arm’s length away from her. She could feel the heat of it, and she cringed away, only to find the wall at her back. Rannick turned towards her but the flame was too bright for her to see his face, and she saw only the reflections of the flame in his eyes, gleaming out of his dark silhouette.

  ‘Touch it, touch it,’ he said, a strange, expectant tension in his voice.

  She looked into the two bright lights that were his eyes. ‘Touch it,’ he repeated, adding softly, ‘Trust me, Marna. Trust me.’

  She had no choice, she knew. Holding her breath, and tensed to jerk her hand back on the instant, she reached out hesitantly.

  Her fingers curled into a loose fist involuntarily.

  ‘Go on. Go on.’ Rannick’s encouragement was ur-gent.

  In the jagged silence of the room, she heard the flame fluttering and hissing. It was like the gloating breath of some primitive animal. A faint but bitingly acrid smell struck at the back of her throat, and for an instant a sense of the dreadful unnaturalness of Rannick’s creation almost overwhelmed her. She fought the sensation back and somehow pushed her hand nearer to the flickering flame.

  ‘Yes,’ Rannick whispered, drawing out the word to mingle with the sound of the flame. ‘Touch it.’

  Gritting her teeth, Marna willed her fingers to open. Her hand flinched back as it neared the flame, but, fearful of Rannick’s response, she forced it forward.

  Abruptly, although she did not see it move, the flame was around her hand. Frantically, she tried to jerk it back, but it would not respond. Her throat would not form the scream ringing inside her as she stared in horror at her hand, pale and distant, and shimmering with cascades of light that flowed round and round it before tumbling away into some unknown place.

  Yet even though she could still feel the heat of the flame on her face she realized that there was no burning. Instead there was a sensation that she could hardly describe. It was as if her hand were somewhere else, somewhere different in every way from where she was, not only to this flickering circular room, but to the whole castle, the whole valley, everything. Again, the unnaturalness of what was happening rose like gorge inside her, threatening to disorientate her completely.

  ‘Aah!’ Rannick’s rapturous sigh saved her teetering awareness and she tore her eyes away from her transfigured hand to look at the shadowy form of her captor. ‘I knew you could,’ he said, before she could speak. ‘I knew you’d understand.’

  ‘What have you done, Rannick?’ Her throat throbbed with the pain of speaking, it was so taut and parched.

  ‘See…’ was the reply.

  Marna turned again to her hand. Abruptly the flame shrank, and the room filled with a soft, high-pitched whistling that to Marna seemed, like her hand, to be in some other place.

  Then there was only her hand, the flame flickering about it as though it were a many-jewelled glove caught in a great blaze of light. She moved and flexed her hand, fascination gradually replacing her terror. Unlike a glove however, the flame was caressing her hand gently and rhythmically, just as Rannick had done to her shoulder.

  And again she was at once repelled and attracted.

  Slowly the flame continued to shrink, until there was only a dazzlingly bright ring about her third finger. It was achingly beautiful and, without thinking, she reached out to touch it with her other hand. Before she reached it, however, the ring floated from her finger and moved towards Rannick.

  As his outstretched hand closed about it, the bright circle sent out shafts of white light between his fingers to divide the gloomy darkness of the room. Then, as if further escape were impossible, it seemed to spread through his entire body so that, for a brief instant, he stood like some eerie, translucent, inner-lit statue, with an almost unbearable brightness shining from his eyes and his slightly opened mouth.

 
Then it was gone, and an empty silence hung in the room.

  ‘There is no limit to what can be now,’ Rannick said very softly. ‘And you will share it with me, Marna. We shall rule all.’ His voice became urgent and earnest. ‘Marna, we can do such things together. We will do such things.’

  Do as he tells you!

  Never!

  Her eyes adjusting to the gloom, Marna saw his hands rising to take hold of her again. Desperately she seized his wrists. ‘You must give me more time, Rannick,’ she said breathlessly, reverting to her earlier plea. ‘I’m more bewildered than ever now. Everything’s happened so quickly. Only a few minutes ago I couldn’t even have imagined what I’ve just seen. Now I’m just…’ She stopped, her head drooping.

  ‘The merest toy,’ Rannick interjected quickly. ‘I can do countless such tricks. But my true power lies far far beyond such trifles as that.’

  Inspiration coming to her, Marna nodded, and shook his arms insistently both to acknowledge this boast and to press home her own concerns. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But with this… power… that you have, you can choose your own time for everything you want to do. No one can tell you when this must be, or that must be. You are total master of events. You’ve grown used to all this over months – years, for all I know. You can surely allow me a little time to…’ She smiled self-deprecatingly. ‘… to get my breath back.’

  For a moment, she felt that she was standing next to the old Rannick, the much-despised Rannick for whom she had felt sorry and in whom she thought she had seen glimpses of a nobler nature. There was a tense silence. She released his wrists.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Rannick replied eventually, though there was an uneasy tension in his voice.

  Marna drove her fingernails into her palms sav-agely, to prevent her sudden elation from reaching her eyes.