“It is no rumor, Kian. Would I risk my life to come to you for some rumor I had heard in the fish market?”
“Why come to me at all? I am not the king.”
“You know very well why. Father is in no condition to discuss anything. That woman keeps him drugged and half out of his head.”
“You think so?”
“Are you blind too? Of course she does-but that is not why I came.” She moved to get up, and the pain took her breath away.
“Easy,” Kian soothed. “Lie back until the carriage comes.”
“Why? What do you care? I am wasting time here.”
“If I agree to give you ships”
“Give me? Do you think to shut me up by humoring me? Give the crazy woman a couple of leaky boats and send her away”
“Easy. Charis. I meant nothing like that.” He shrugged. “Besides, we have no ships-at least not as many as you would need.”
“Do you think you are doing this for me, Kian?”
He raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “What if I agreed? Could you prove what you are saying is true?”
“You would Believe me if I proved it to you?”
“Only a fool doubts proof,” he replied affably.
“Then you are a fool already!” she snapped.
“Me a fool?”
“Yes! Only a fool demands proof of what he already knows.”
“Listen to yourself, Charis. You talk in Mage’s riddles.”
“And you just open your eyes and look around, Kian. The land itself is telling you: hot winds blow out of the south by night; clouds come and go, but the rain does not fall; the villages along the coast.are empty, deserted; the earth trembles beneath your feet by day, and the great crystal of the High Temple at Poseidonis is shattered. Look around you, Kian. When was the last time you saw a seabird? Think! We are near the sea-there should be flocks of seabirds. Where are they?”
He stared at his sister for a. moment and turned his face away, his jaw set.
“You do not Believe me,” she said. “There is nothing I can say, no proof I can give that will make you Believe, Kian, because you have already made up your mind not to Believe.”
“Charis, be reasonable!” he huffed in exasperation. “Look, I have not seen you for seven years! What am I supposed to think?”
Charis stared back in seething silence.
“There have been earthquakes before, and dry spells, and villages deserted by war. What, in Cybel’s name, are we supposed to do-go chasing who knows where every time the ground shakes a little or a few filthy gulls fly off somewhere?”
“Annubi said you would not Believe,” she replied sullenly. “He said no one would.”
“Agh!” he said, tongue-tied with aggravation. He stood quickly and stalked off.
Charis lay back. Why did I even bother? she thought. I knew it would be like this. Annubi warned me. Why did this fall to me? Why do I Believe Throm? Maybe I am as mad as he is, after all.
The carriage arrived while one of Kian’s Magi worked over her, and Charis was lifted carefully and placed inside while Kian gave orders to the driver and escort. “What are you going to do now?” she asked when he turned to say farewell.
“I am to meet Belyn in two days’ time at a place on the border between Tairn and Sarras-at Herakli.”
“Come back home with me. Talk to Father.”
He lowered his eyes. “I cannot.”
“She is killing him, Kian,” Charis said softly.
“It is what he wants!” he growled with sudden ferocity. “Has no one told you what Seithenin did?”
“Annubi told me about the defeat.”
“It was more than a defeat-it was butchery. After it was over, Seithenin ordered those prisoners left alive stripped and bound to the bodies of their comrades-hand to hand, ankle to ankle, mouth to mouth!
“And then the madman left them there to die like that, tied to decomposing corpses! We found the survivors three days later-three days in the hot sun! The stink was horrible; the sight was worse. Avallach had to lie there like all the rest and listen to his men scream as they thrashed on the ground in that hideous dance.” Kian halted, his jaw muscles working in silence for a moment. Then he said, “They found Guistan beneath him, Charis. It weakened his mind and he has not recovered.”
Charis closed her eyes hard and bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“Now you know,” he said, and then added apologetically, “I did not mean to tell you like that.”
“Annubi said nothing of it.”
“Annubi remembers only what he wants to remember these days.” He spread his hands helplessly. “Anyway, it is best if I do not go home again just yet. The last time I was there we fought.”
“Over her?”
“She was part of it,” he admitted. “I told him to get rid of her and he threw a knife at me.”
“You know he did not mean it. He would not even remember it.” Charis took her brother’s hand. “Come back with me.”
“If I went back, it would only happen again. Besides, I have to meet Belyn. For the first time in a very long time we have Seithenin and Nestor on the run.” He flashed a quick smile. “Small, mobile mounted forces capable of striking anywhere in the kingdom-it is paying off. The ambush you spoiled was a last effort to try to keep us from closing on them.” He paused. “What will you do?”
“I cannot say.” She smiled sadly and lifted her head. “Farewell, Kian.” The carriage rolled away and Charis did not look back.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cormach stayed at caer dyvi four days and each day took Taliesin to the bower in the woods where they sat together and talked. Rather, Cormach talked and Taliesin listened, hearing in the old druid’s words the music of the Otherworld: lilting, magical, strange, frightening, fantastic.
On the last day Cormach settled himself on the oak stump and gazed steadily at the boy seated before him for a long time without speaking. Taliesin grew self-conscious under the old man’s stare and fidgeted, pulling tufts of grass and scattering them over his feet. At last Cormach stirred. “Yes, yes.” he muttered, “it must be done.” And he put his hand into his mantle and withdrew a small leather pouch, opened it, and poured into his palm five fire-browned nuts.
“Know what these are, boy?” the Chief Druid asked.
“Hazelnuts, Master,” Taliesin answered.
“Yes, they were-once. They are Kernels of Knowledge, Taliesin, Seeds of Wisdom. They are useful in their way. Would you like to taste one?”
“I would if you want me to.”
“It is not for me, Taliesin,” answered Cormach, who paused and then added more truthfully, “Well, maybe it is. But it is not from idle curiosity, lad. Never that…”He fell silent again, staring. This time Taliesin felt that he was not staring at him but through him, at some other presence-one of the Ancient Ones perhaps.
“… never curiosity, boy, remember that,” Cormach said, as if he had been speaking all the while. He lowered his eyes to his hand and looked at the hazelnuts. “These are the last I shall need,” he said, choosing. “Take it, Taliesin. Eat it.”
The boy took the hazelnut and put it in his mouth. It had a slightly burned taste but was not disagreeable. He chewed slowly and looked around, trying to discern whether the nut itself had special properties. There were none, so far as he could tell.
“Now then, lad, do you know what an awen is?” asked the druid.
“I do, Master,” Taliesin replied. “It is the place a bard goes in his heart. Hafgan says it is the gateway to the Otherworld. “
“Good, good.” Cormach nodded to himself. “Would you like to discover that gateway for yourself, Taliesin?” The boy nodded. “Very well, just close your eyes and listen to me.”
Taliesin did close his eyes but found listening very difficult indeed. The Chief Druid began singing softly and although Taliesin tried to follow along, his attention kept lapsing, drifting off to other things, and he soon lost the thread of the song altogether. Cormach’s words droned in his ears and Taliesin tried to concentrate, but the old druid’s song had become an unintelligible tangle of meaningless syllables. For it seemed as if he had closed his eyes on one world and opened them onto another-a world very like the ordinary one, yet distinctly different.