Still they did not see me, for they were so intent upon what they did that the world beyond their star-in-circle had ceased to have real existence for them. Now I perceived something else around that line of smoking: blood-edged creatures as wispy as shadows. Now and then some dreadful snout sniffed at that barrier or dabbled in it. Fresh blood drew these remnants of ancient evil, but they were worn by centuries to such poor things they were shadows only. Of them I had no fear.
Some sighted me and came padding in my direction, their eyes glinting like bits of devilish fire. Without my willing it consciously, my arm swung up and they cowered away, their eyes upon my wrist band. So I came to the circle of blood. There the smoke made me sick to the center of my being, but against that body weakness I held firm.
Now I raised my voice and I named names, slowly, distinctly. And my words cut through the spell their chanting raised.
“Tephana, Rogear, Lisana, Hlymer – “ As I spoke each, I faced a little toward the one I so named. There was a shadow nicker in my mind. Yes, this was the right of it! This had I done once before in another place and time.
All four of them started as if they had been quick-awakened from sleep. Their eyes no longer centered on Joisan’s back; they turned to me. I saw black rage flare in Rogear’s, and perhaps in those of Lisana and Hlymer. But the Lady Tephana smiled.
“Welcome, Kerovan. So, after all, you prove the blood runs true.” Her voice was sweeter than I had ever heard it, as she counterfeited what should have bound us together and never would. But if she thought me so poor a thing that I could be so deceived, she reckoned little of what she had once wrought.
Again that shadow knowledge moved in my mind, and I made her no answer. Instead I raised my hand, and from my wristlet a beam of blue light shot to touch the back of Joisan’s head.
I saw her sway, and she gave a piteous cry. Still that which controlled me kept me to the attack, if attack it was. Slowly she turned around, seeming to shrink under a blow she could not ward off. Now she was away from the wall, facing me across the star-in-circle. Her eyes were no longer empty of what was Joisan. There was intelligence and life in them again, as she looked about her.
I heard a beast’s growl from Hlymer. He would have leaped for my throat, but the Lady Tephana gestured, and he was silent and quiet in his place. Her hands moved back and forth in an odd manner as if she wove something between them. But I had little time to watch, for Rogear had moved also. He had Joisan in his hold, keeping her between us as a shield.
“The game is still ours, Kerovan, and it is to the death,” he said. We might have been facing each other across a gaming board in a keep hall.
‘To the death – but to yours, not mine, Rogear.” With my upheld hand I sketched a sign, a star without a circle. Between us in the air that star not only glowed blue-green, but it traveled through the space between us until it was close to him at face level.
I saw his face go gaunt, old. But he did not lose his belief in himself. Only he dropped his hold on Joisan and stepped forward saying, “So be it!”
“No!” The Lady Tephana raised her eyes from what she wove without substance. “There is no need. He is – “
“There is every need,” Rogear told her. “He is much more than we deemed him. He must be finished, or we shall be finished too. Spin no more small spells, Lady. You had the fashioning of him flesh and bone, if not spirit. Lend me your full will now.”
I saw for the first time uncertainty in her face. She glanced at me and then away swiftly, as if she could not bear to look upon me.
“Tell me,” Rogear pressed, “do you stand with me in this? Those two” – he motioned to Hlymer and Lisana – “can be counted as nothing now. It is us against what you sought to make and failed in the doing.”
“I – “ she began, and then hesitated. But at last the agreement he wished came from her. “I stand with you, Rogear.”
And I thought – so be it. From this last battle there would be no escape, nor did I wish it.
Joisan:
I dreamed and could not wake, and the dream was dark with fear at its core. For me there was no escape, for in this dream I walked as one without will of my own. He who gave the order was Rogear.
First there was the calling, a need so laid upon me that I left the keep, trusted myself to the waters about it, swam for the shore. Then I must have traveled yet farther across those deserted fields until Rogear was there and he horsed me before him to ride.
There were parts I could not remember. Food was put in my hands and I ate, yet I tasted nothing. I drank and was aware of neither thirst nor the quenching of it. We were joined by others, and I saw them only as shadows.
On we rode into strange places, but these were the places of dreams, never clearly seen. At last we came to the end of that journey. There was-no! I do not wish to remember that part of the dream. But afterward, I held my lord’s gift in my hands and it was laid upon me, as much as if I were in bonds, that I must stand, and when orders came I must obey. But what I was to do – and why – ?
Before me was a cliff rising up and up, and behind me I heard a sound, a sound that lashed at me. I wanted to run – yet as in all ill dreams I could not move, only stand and look upon the rock and wait –
Then –
There was pain bursting in my head, like fire come to devour my mind, burn out all thought. But what vanished in those flames was that which held me prisoner to another’s will. Weakly I turned away from the cliff to look upon those who held me captive.
Lord Amber!
Not as I had seen him last with bandaged eyes, fumbling is blindness, but as a warrior now, ready for battle, though his sword was sheathed and he had no knife-of-honor ready. Still, that he warred in another way, I knew.
There were four others. And I saw then there was a star drawn in the earth and that I stood in the point that fronted the cliff, those others to my right and left in the other points.
One was Rogear, two were women, the fourth another man. He made a move in the direction of Lord Amber, but the woman to my right stayed him with a gesture. Rogear sprang before I could move and held me like a battle shield.
“The game is still ours, Kerovan,” he said, “and it is to the death.”
Kerovan! What did he mean? My lord was dead.
Lord Amber – it was Lord Amber who answered him. “To the death, but to yours, not mine, Rogear.” I saw him draw a sign in the air, and there was a blue star that traveled to hang before Rogear’s eyes.
He loosed me and stepped away, saying, “So be it.”
“No!” The woman to my right spoke. “There is no need. He is – “
Rogear interrupted her. “There is every need. He is much more than we deemed him. And he must be finished, or we shall be finished too. Spin no more small spells, Lady. You had the fashioning of him, flesh and bone, if not spirit. Lend me your full will now!”
She glanced swiftly then at Lord Amber; then away. I saw her lips tighten. In that moment she was far older than she had seemed earlier, as if age settled on her with the thoughts in her mind.
‘Tell me,” Rogear continued, “do you stand with me in this? Those two” – he motioned toward the other man, the girl – “can be counted as nothing now. It is us against what you sought to make and failed in the doing.”
I saw her bite her lip. It was plain she was in two minds. But at last she gave him what he desired. “I stand with you, Rogear.”
“Kerovan,” Rogear had called him, this man I would have taken blood-oath was one of the Old Ones. At that moment, all those sly whispers and rumors flooded back in my mind – that my lord was of tainted blood, becursed, that his own mother could not bear to look upon him. His own mother! Could it be -? Rogear said this woman had the fashioning of him, flesh and bone, but not spirit. Not spirit!