[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

shoulders, he drew her close to his side. "Take heart," he told her. "Your fears may yet be groundless. If you cannot
see Aurian's image in my window, it may only mean she has voyaged across the ocean to the south."
Eilin stiffened. "What?" Her head came up sharply, a spark of irritation lit her eyes. "Do you mean your wretched
window doesn't work across the sea?"
Hellorin, amused by her transformation from sorrow to anger, and her sudden abandonment of the courtly manners of
the Phaerie, struggled to hide a smile. Ah, it took little provocation for the Magefolk to revert to type! And how much
she reminded him, in that moment, of his dear Adrina! "Did you think to try to look?" he asked her gently.
The Earth-Mage reddened. "Why, yes!" she blustered, "I mean no! How the blazes should I know what the
Southlands are like? I thought your window worked in the same way as scrying I concentrated on Aurian, and had
she been in the south, I was relying on it to me there!" To Hellorin's astonishment, she flung her arms around him and
hugged him, "Gods," she cried, half in laughter, half in tears, ' 'what a relief it is, to hope again! For days I've been
convinced . . ."
It had been ages since Hellorin had held a woman of any race in his arms. After the loss of Adrina, he had never
had the heart to do so again. As the Earth-Mage looked up at him, their eyes caught, and held then Eilin looked
away. 'Tell me," she said, in a voice that sounded strained and unnatural to the Forest Lord's ears, "why the range of
your window cannot see beyond the ocean?"
"The salts are a barrier to the Old Magic, such as the Phaerie use." Hellorin found his voice with difficulty. "A fact that
your ancestors, Lady, used to their advantage, and our detriment"
"How so?" The Mage was frowning now, and Hellorin felt a fleeting pang of regret that the bitter troubles of an age
long gone should mar their accord. He sighed. "Lady, forget that I spoke. What good can it do us, to dwell upon the
quarrels and injustices of the past?"
"I want to know!" Eilin snapped; then her expression softened. "If the forebears of the Magefolk wronged you, then
only their descendants may make amends. And since I am the only Mage to whom you can speak at present ... . ." She
tilted an eyebrow at him, and Hellorin realized that her anger had been directed, not at him, but at those ancestors, long
gone to dust, who had imprisoned his folk out of the world. And so he began to speak, telling her things that no
Phaerie had ever told a Mage. He told her how the world had been long ago, before the Artifacts of the High Magic
had been crafted, and the Magefolk had gained ascendancy over the elder races who possessed the powers of the Old
Magic.
The Lady Eilin listened, wide-eyed, as Hellorin spoke of the gigantic Moldai, elemental creatures of living rock who
lived in an odd but mutually beneficial association with the Dwelven, the Smallfolk, who dwelt within their
mountainous bodies and went out into the world to be their eyes and ears and limbs.
"When the Magefolk wished to weaken the Moldai, what better way than to separate them from the Dwelven, exiling
them in the Northern lands where they could no longer reach the Moldai, who dwelt in the South?" Hellorin's voice
was bitter. "And what apt justice, to use the sea to do so for it was a Moldan  a mad, wild giant who seized the
powers of the Staff of Earth and used them to fracture the land mass that was once both North and South together. He
caused the sea to enter, drowning the lands between, with the loss of many lives, both Mage and Mortal alike."
Eilin frowned. "I didn't know," she said, "These tales of the Ancients have vanished from our history,"
Hellorin laughed sourly. "Then the more fools you, to misplace such vital knowledge! Lady, are you not aware that the
Mad One the Moldan who caused the destruction is now the only one of his race to exist in the North? And had
you no idea that he still lives, chained and imprisoned by spells, within the very rock on which you Magefolk built
your citadel?"
"What?" Eilin gasped. "In Nexis? Dear Gods, if the Archmage should discover this ..."
"We must pray that he does not," Hellorin agreed grimly. "Miathan has already placed the world in gravest peril by his
profligate summoning of the Nihilim a Moldan, mad already, and bearing a grudge that has lasted centuries, might
not care about limiting his revenge to the Magefolk who imprisoned him!"
The thought of the Moldan existing all those years beneath the Academy was too frightening for Eilin to dwell on. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]