The Longsword Chronicles: Book 02 - Sword and Circle

by GJ Kelly

  “So, I held the Gorian runners back, deployed the men, and waited. Not long after that, out from the trees burst a party from Callodon Castle, eight guardsmen and a wizard.”

  Gawain stirred, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

  “Peace, Longsword. The wizard is Arramin, of Callodon, and of the D’ith Sek. He has passed the scrutiny not only of the guards, but also of your lady, and if there were the slightest darkness about him, surely she would see it. Besides, I know him. He’s an old bookworm, spent most of his life in the libraries of Callodon and Juria, an historian. In Brock’s court he was usually only called upon for help with matters concerning old treaties or ancient title deeds.”

  “Indeed my lord. He’s also much respected as a teacher and better known for that than wizardry.”

  “Carry on,” Gawain sighed.

  “It seems word arrived from his Majesty, King Brock, ordering that a trusted wizard be found to carry a message to you at Raheen. This message and duty Queen Elspeth entrusted to Arramin, who it seems, according to reports from the sergeant escorting him, stood by her Majesty, even as old as he is, when that Dwarfspit traitor Uldred attacked.

  “Once the wizard and his escort had been apprised of our situation here, he suggested using the horses, rather than our Gorian friends, as a decoy, believing that the bigger animals would possess brighter lights for that dark wizard to see.”

  “Quite right too,” Allazar mumbled.

  “And, of course, he wanted to try to maintain the impression that our numbers had not swollen by nine men and horses. It seemed a sound strategy, my lord, so I agreed to it.”

  “And just how did this bookish and respected whitebeard know exactly where to find us?” Gawain challenged, suspicion clouding his features again as he felt around the blankets for his weapons.

  “On their journey to Raheen across the plains, Longsword,” Allazar sighed, lifting the edge of a blanket to reveal the sheathed longsword and Gawain’s other weapons, “They encountered the messenger that Captain Tyrane despatched to the castletown. They naturally exchanged news with each other. Arramin merely estimated the caravan’s rate of progress along the road and adjusted his course accordingly, though even he has admitted some slight surprise at finding everyone here. He had expected to find the road first, and then catch up with us from behind along the way to Jarn.”

  “Oh. And then what?” Gawain bent forward slightly, intending to slip his boot knife back into its customary position, but the pains in his back persuaded him to wait a while longer before attempting any more such drastic manoeuvres.

  “Your lady was able to keep us apprised of the darkness and its location, though she admitted she had lost site of your party not long after you entered the woods. I of course briefed the wizard Arramin and his escort as to the nature of the danger facing us, and to his great credit, he announced that should the beast evade you, he would stand to the fore and attempt to destroy it, though he had no staff to aid him. One of the lads nipped into the woods and hacked down a sapling and offered it to the wizard, who said it’d be better than nothing.”

  “Though not by much,” Allazar mumbled. “Brave old goat would probably have burned his own arms off, and he knew it.”

  “And so we proceeded, my lord. The horses cantered down the road, a couple of riders guiding them, there they waited for a time, and then cantered back. And all the while, your lady kindly telling us the darkness hadn’t moved.”

  Gawain could imagine the rasping voice of Eldengaze and its mantra, though how the captain managed not to be irritated by it, he couldn’t guess. Years of service in the court of Callodon doubtless endowed the officer with great discretion, if not inscrutability.

  “Where is my lady?” he asked, trying to twist around but finding that movement overly optimistic too.

  “Yonder, Longsword, at the centre of the western half of the passing-place, where she was standing when we left.”

  “I saw her in the wagon, was it this one?”

  “No, my lord, the other,” and Tyrane nodded towards the wagon Gawain supposed was behind him on the road. “She took that position much later.”

  “How so?”

  “She asked the wizard Arramin to help her into it.”

  “Oh.”

  “But this was later, when the beast began its charge. Here, we just had the horses going up and down the road, the wizard Arramin muttering to himself and shaking his new staff, as though he were practicing to hit someone on the head with it. Your lady was standing where she stands now, my lord, the wizard to her left in the middle of the road, and my men and some of the horses all about.

  “Then she turned her gaze to me and said, ‘the beast is loose. It comes.’”

  Allazar sighed, and closed his eyes, obviously remembering the catastrophe in the forest. Gawain remembered it too, and in spite of the near-disaster, he felt strangely pleased that in the forest, and here now, the wizard seemed much more himself, and much less the wildly-grinning and frightening wizard of new-found power who had slain the Graken and Jerraman demGoth on the road.

  “With your lady tracking the beast,” Tyrane continued softly, “I deployed the wagons one each side of the road in the passing-place, and gathered the men. The orders I gave were quite simple, my lord, all would ride, two to a horse where necessary, and if the wizard Arramin failed to destroy the creature, we would ride hard and fast up the road and then at the clearing ahead, swing off through the trees to the east and the plains beyond.

  “Your lady told us that the beast seemed to be tracking the horses, which were on their way back after a run to the south, so I signalled them to wait. From the speed of the beast that your lady described and the size of it that you described, I thought it might have trouble with a sharp turn. I had the men and the ladies of Goria form two lines, one each side of the road, ready to mount when the horses returned.”

  “I wondered at that,” Gawain muttered, slowly succumbing to the glow of the brandy.

  “When I gauged the time was right, with the help of your lady, I signalled the horses to return at the gallop, which they did. Not long after, we thought we saw something burst from the trees to the west behind the horses, but with the horses on the road all we could make out was trees coming down on the eastern side of the road.

  “As soon as the horses returned I had the wagons drawn across as a barricade, and got the people mounted. That was when your lady asked the wizard to help her into the wagon, which he did. I tried to persuade her down, my lord, her horse was ready and waiting nearby, but she said nothing, just made ready her bow and then announced that the darkness was on its feet again.” Tyrane took another deep breath, and let it out slowly.

  “Everyone else but she and the wizard were now in saddle, including myself. We heard the beast cry out, and when we looked down the road and saw that immense creature thundering towards us, we knew we were staring at our doom. And then, my lord, we saw you emerge from the ditch at the side of the road, and start running towards it.”

  Allazar sighed. “A sight beyond the realms of imagination. What mad courage possessed you, Longsword?”

  “Bah. Carry on, Captain.”

  “We stood and watched in awe, and if truth be told, in terror. The wizard Arramin stepped down from the wagon and began to make ready his staff, preparing himself for his attempt at destroying the beast. But then your lady looked down at him and said ‘the sword is close to the darkness, wizard.’ At this, Arramin gazed along the road towards the charge; his old eyes hadn’t seen you. He made a chanting, and suddenly seemed to see you, and then called up to your lady, ‘I cannot loose the fire with a man so close!’”

  “Hmm.” Gawain mumbled, eyeing Allazar in the gloom and remembering again the earlier disaster.

  “And then,” Tyrane added, shaking his head in wonder, “Then your lady said ‘I shall warn him away’, and loosed an arrow at the beast. Alas you kept running. She loosed a second shaft, but still you ran, and then…” Tyrane pause
d, and swallowed. “Then we saw you leap upon the beast’s back.”

  “Magnificent.” Allazar whispered, his eyes still closed, shaking his head at the memory, for he had seen that moment too.

  “The wizard Arramin was desperate by now, he turned to me and shouted that he could not loose his fire upon the beast with a man upon its back. He said for the sake of all of us…” Tyrane paused and looked away.

  “For the sake of all of you?” Gawain prompted, though he too remembered the sight of Eldengaze and her bow, and guessed the answer before Tyrane sighed and confirmed it.

  “He said for the sake of all of us, you must be removed from the beast’s back. At that, your lady shot a third shaft. You and the beast were so close we saw it strike the creature just below its vile black horn. And still you came on. ‘You must shoot, lady!’ Arramin cried, gazing from you to your lady and to all of us behind the wagons. Then he shouted, ‘Fly Captain, take them to safety!’ and I gave the order to ride.

  “I remained. It was my intention, I think, to snatch your lady from the wagon and take her to safety, but she stood poised, an arrow drawn, and I dared not to disturb her. I thought perhaps she intended a wounding shot, a shot to knock you safely from the beast’s back, I don’t know… I just saw her poised there, and then you, thrusting your hand deep into the Kraal’s eye and sliding the great blade under its head…”

  Tyrane tailed off, and the air was filled with the sound of night, and the gentle hum of many people talking in hushed voices around them on the road.

  “The road is secure, my lords, and I have my duties. There is a little news too, such as it is, from Callodon, though I’ll let your wizard share it with you. By your leave, my lord, I’ll bid you good night.”

  “Thank you, Tyrane. For all you have done this day, and more besides.” Gawain smiled weakly in the gloom, his face bruised and aching.

  The captain saluted, and quietly moved away.

  “And you, Allazar, what happened in the forest?”

  “Ah,” the wizard fiddled with his robes, now no longer swimming with the colours of the deep woodland, but back to their grubby and mud-stained white.

  “Ah?”

  “I know you think it a great weakness, Longsword. I know you may point to many deadly examples to the contrary, but I still may not harm the races of Man. I am sorry. The guardsman on the chain, he was pulled in to my line of fire, I could not let him be destroyed. Some kind of… instinct. I am sorry.”

  “Twice, it happened. I know. I saw. And I do understand, Allazar. But that instinct of yours nearly got us all killed. Everyone, including the horses.”

  “I know.”

  Gawain sighed. “It’s one thing for some ancient bookworm to creep forth from the crypt of some musty Callodon library to hold fast to those old laws, but be honest, Allazar, you and he are probably the only two wizards in the southlands who do.”

  “I am sorry.”

  “I know,” Gawain sighed, and his voice carried not a hint of anger. “I just have a feeling that it’ll be the death of us all one day. Tell me again, how does it go?”

  Allazar repeated by rote: “The first mandate of the book of Zaine, the Codex Maginarum: No wizard may harm the kindred races of Man, save in defence of his realm and of himself.”

  “Then it might be a good idea to start thinking of all the lands south of the Teeth as your realm, wizard, because Raheen is gone, and Morloch is not beaten yet.”

  “Aye.”

  “I know what I’m asking,” Gawain said softly. “I’m not as totally insensitive as Elayeen recently accused me.”

  Allazar said nothing.

  “I wonder how close Eldengaze would have let me get before shooting me off the beast.” Gawain muttered quietly.

  “Thirty yards, or thereabouts.” Allazar whispered. “That’s about the best range Arramin could hope for at the speed it was moving. I doubt he has summoned white fire since his days in the Hallencloister.”

  “Has she said nothing?”

  “Only that all is light once more. She is become dread, my friend, as the Eldenelves of old, and I do not know how to bring her back to you.”

  Gawain screwed his eyes tight shut against the sudden tears that threatened, all the tension of the day welling up within him. But he choked it back, and let out a shuddering sigh.

  “So what did happen in the forest?”

  “Hmm?”

  “After the beast was loosed.”

  “Ah. There is nothing much to tell, Longsword, in truth. I struck down the parGoth for his treachery, while the two guardsmen, Rollaf and Terryn, despatched the surviving Gorians with rather alarming speed, and we simply set off after you. We were hard on your heels, though you had a good head start. We emerged on to the road some two hundred yards behind you and the Kraal, and were gaining fast when you made that wondrous leap upon its back.”

  “Ah.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Then you might have been able to incinerate it from the rear.”

  “A very slim possibility, Longsword. I have never summoned white fire on the run, and only three times since becoming Keeper of The Stick.”

  “If I thought you were being kind, and I had blocked your fire as I clearly blocked this wizard Arramin’s…”

  “We shall never know, Longsword. Though I do wonder what possessed you.”

  “I was being creative.”

  “Ah.”

  “Never mind. I thought I had seen a weakness in the Kraal’s armour, and it turns out I was right. I didn’t know you were close behind me, nor did I know another wizard was ahead of me.”

  “I know. So does everybody here. Hence the mighty cheering earlier, and all the tales of the Longsword DarkSlayer our friends from Goria are tonight learning from the guards of Callodon.”

  “And the news from Callodon?” Gawain muttered, desperate to change the subject. He felt strangely tired and blamed it on the day and the captain’s Jurian brandy as he settled down on the blankets once more.

  “It is confirmation of rumours and speculation, mostly. The D’ith Hallencloister is indeed sealed, every gate closed. There have been attacks by wizards almost everywhere except Arrun and Mornland. And one piece of fresh news from here in Callodon, a contingent of volunteer guards, some two hundred in all, have been raised and ordered north to Ferdan with all haste. Probably a ragtag mix of farm-boys and old men, but they’ve answered the call and are riding for Juria nevertheless.”

  “The message from Brock?”

  “Must wait until morning. It is in cipher, and I shall need good light to work with in order to reveal the message.”

  “Will torchlight not suffice? It may be urgent.”

  “As a precaution against interception the message is usually always written on paper which burns in a flash at the merest touch of a flame. To bring it near a candle would be a grave mistake, and near a sputtering torch a disaster. Besides, unless the message is ‘do not go to Jarn’ there is nothing we can do between now and the end of this road no matter what the cipher holds.”

  “Hmm.” Gawain mumbled, resting his hand upon the hilt of the longsword, “I do have one more question.”

  “Longsword?”

  “On the road, on the second day out from the Pass, you and Elayeen spent a great deal of time speaking to each other, in Elvish. It was almost the last time she seemed herself, and I would like to know what it was you spoke of.”

  Allazar let out a long, sad sigh. “She was excited, with her new sight and all the life around her, and excited at the prospect seeing her homeland again, her family and friends, and Shiyanath. You… you must understand, Longsword, not since leaving Threlland has she been able to converse with anyone in her own tongue, and speaking with me thus from time to time helped to keep her who she is.”

  Gawain nodded in the darkness. He knew what it meant to be alone, and not to hear the familiar language and turns of phrase of home.

  “Is that all?”

  Allazar sighe
d again. “She asked me to describe everything around us along the way, so that she could associate what she saw with what we see. It seemed to mean so much to her, to be able to use the sight of the Eldenelves to aid us, not to be a sightless burden. The more we spoke, the more determined she seemed to become. I think even then, my friend, I could feel her slipping away from us. But I thought… I thought perhaps the prospect of returning home and the excitement of her new vision would hold her here with us… I am sorry. You cannot know how sorry I am to have seen you both as I did, you laying bleeding upon the road before that evil creature’s remains, and she, standing cold and aloof gazing down upon you. And seeing you both as I do now, you in need of comfort, and she standing apart.”

  “I shall have her back.”

  “I don’t think she has truly gone, Longsword. I think she is so afraid of losing you, now that the throth is broken and her sight was taken by the circle, I think she is so afraid of losing you she has lost herself to the sight of the Eldenelves and become this Eldengaze. We can only hope her normal vision returns soon, for when it does, so too shall the Elayeen we both love.”

  Gawain felt for the hilt of the longsword beneath the blankets, and another wave of tiredness washed over him.

  “You frightened me, Allazar, before the Graken on the road. You seemed not yourself, as though you had become some warrior-wizard of elder times.”

  Allazar nodded. “I frightened myself too. I am not worthy of such power, and I am far from accustomed to wielding even a fraction of it. I am sorry for that too. When the knowledge of eldentimes comes to me, it breaks into my mind as a flood from a dam, and I cannot control it.”

  “Don’t leave us, wizard, my queen and I. Don’t become something or someone else.”

  Sleep then washed over Gawain, leaving Allazar, misty-eyed, to wander back to his bedding a few yards from where even now, Elayeen stood, casting her chilling gaze towards the west.

  oOo

  26. The Sight

  The sun woke Gawain from a deep and restful sleep, and he opened his eyes with a start to find Gwyn’s flaring nostrils inches from his face. He reached up to rub her nose and then groaned as aches in muscles and sharper stabbing pains from his elbow brought keen reminders of his fall flooding back.