“Not so. You are a greater fool than I thought if you know not Dana when she comes.”
“Actually,” he said, but gently, for it was a matter too high for wrangling, “I do know. In this case, better than you, Priestess. The Goddess was there, yes, and she did intercede, though not for my life. For something else before the end. But it was Mörnir who saved me. It was his to choose. The Summer Tree is the God’s, Jaelle.”
For the first time he read a flicker of doubt in the wide-set eyes. “She was there, though? She did speak? Tell me what she said.”
“No,” said Paul, with finality.
“You must.” But it was not a command now. He had a vague sense that there was something he should, something he wanted to say to her, but he was so weary, so utterly drained. Which triggered a completely different realization.
“You know,” he said, with feeling, “that I haven’t had food or drink for three days. Is there . . . ?”
She stood still a moment, but when she moved, it was to a tray on a low table by the far wall. She brought a bowl of cool soup to the bed. Unfortunately it seemed that his hands didn’t work very well yet. He thought she would send for one of the gray-clad priestesses, but in the end she sat stiffly on the bed beside him and fed him herself.
He ate in silence, leaning back against the pillows when he was done. She made as if to get up, but then, with an expression of distaste, used the sleeve of her white gown to wipe the blood from his cheek.
She did rise then, to stand tall and queenly by his bed, her hair the color of the candlelight. Looking up at her, he felt at a disadvantage suddenly.
“Why,” he asked, “am I here?”
“I read the signs.”
“You didn’t expect to find me alive?”
She shook her head. “No, but it was the third night, and then the moon rose. . . .”
He nodded. “But why?” he asked. “Why bother?”
Her eyes flashed. “Don’t be such a child. There is a war now. You will be needed.”
He felt his heart skip. “What do you mean? What war?”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve been somewhat out of touch,” he said sharply. “What has happened?”
It may have taken an effort, but her voice was controlled. “Rangat exploded yesterday. A hand of fire in the sky. The wardstone is shattered. Rakoth is free.”
He was very still.
“The King is dead,” she said.
“That I know,” he said. “I heard the bells.”
But for the first time now, her expression was strained; something difficult moved in her eyes. “There is more,” said Jaelle. “A party of lios alfar were ambushed here by svarts and wolves. Your friend was with them. Jennifer. I am sorry, but she was captured and taken north. A black swan bore her away.”
So. He closed his eyes again, feeling the burdens coming down. It seemed they could not be deferred after all. Arrow of the God. Spear of the God. Three nights and forever, the King had said. The King was dead. And Jen.
He looked up again. “Now I know why he sent me back.”
As if against her will, Jaelle nodded. “Twiceborn,” she murmured.
Wordlessly, he asked with his eyes.
“There is a saying,” she whispered, “a very old one: No man shall be Lord of the Summer Tree who has not twice been born.”
And so by candlelight in the sanctuary, he heard the words for the first time.
“I didn’t ask for this,” Paul Schafer said.
She was very beautiful, very stern, a flame, as the candles were. “Are you asking me for pity?”
His mouth crooked wryly at that. “Hardly, at this point.” He smiled a little. “Why is it so much easier for you to strike a defenseless man than to wipe the blood from his face?”
Her reply was formal, reflexive, but he had seen her eyes flinch away. “There is mercy in the Goddess sometimes,” she said, “but not gentleness.”
“Is that how you know her?” he asked. “What if I tell you that I had from her last night a compassion so tender there are no words to compass it?”