The room was very quiet; not a vestige of sound from the Gretmearc penetrated into it. Gavor fidgeted.
Hawklan felt himself floating free in a great space filled with countless swirling images and whisperings. Occasionally, tiny portions of the sounds and the scenes would come together and make sense, but they slipped away before he could catch them, like morning dreams. Then abruptly he was standing on something solid.
Andawyr’s voice said, ‘Open your eyes, Hawklan. You’re quite safe. Don’t be afraid. Just tell me what you see.’
Hawklan opened his eyes. He could still feel the pressure of Andawyr’s hands holding his temples, but he could not see him. Instead he found he was standing in the middle of an apparently endless plain. Looking around he could see no distinguishing features at all. The ground beneath his feet was smooth and flat and unblemished in every direction. And everything was silent and still. He described it to Andawyr.
‘The ground you’re standing on, what’s it like?’ came the question.
Hawklan looked down and tapped his foot. The sensation was strange.
‘It feels very solid. Like… rock perhaps… only more solid… more permanent,’ he said.
He felt Andawyr sigh. ‘I feared so,’ he said. ‘Close your eyes. I’ll bring you back.’
Then he was floating free again through the shifting scenes and sounds until Andawyr said, ‘All right. Open your eyes now,’ and the pressure went from his temples. He was back in Andawyr’s room.
‘What was all that about?’ he asked rather irritably. Andawyr’s face was screwed up with doubt and disappointment, and he was squeezing the remains of his nose between his thumb and forefinger pensively. He jumped slightly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, scratching his head, but he of-fered no answer.
‘Sorry!’ Hawklan spoke heatedly. ‘Andawyr, you’re a complete stranger to me and I’m in your debt. You’ve saved me from something extremely unpleasant-probably even saved my life. You destroyed a man and a building with a flick of your hand.’ He looked at his bandaged hand. ‘You’ve treated an injury, the like of which I’ve never even seen. You bring us to a room in a tent that feels as if it’s in the very heart of a castle, with its timbered ceiling and stone walls. You say, "Trust me," then transport my mind who knows where. Then you say, "sorry".’
He stood up suddenly, and banged his fist down on a nearby table. ‘What’s going on, Andawyr?’ he shouted.
Gavor cleared his throat. ‘Steady, dear boy.’
Andawyr looked up at the green eyed figure tower-ing over him. ‘I don’t know where to start,’ he said plaintively.
Hawklan bent forward, almost menacingly. ‘Find a beginning, then. Somewhere. Anywhere. And start there. Tell me what’s happening in plain simple language that a plain simple healer can understand, without any more conjuring tricks or mysterious commentaries.’
Although not spoken, Hawklan’s final cadence said ‘Or else’ quite unequivocally.
Andawyr continued staring up at him thoughtfully for some time, then motioned him to sit down.
‘I’m sorry, Hawklan,’ he said. ‘As I said, I’ve had a trial of my own today, a severe one, and I’m caught in a maze of questions at least as bewildering as yours. I can’t tell you everything that’s happening, because for all my knowledge, I’m afraid I don’t know.’ He shrugged apologetically.
Hawklan’s eyes narrowed, but Andawyr returned his gaze sternly.
‘Hawklan, I understand your impatience, but you’re a principal player in this, and your naivete and igno-rance are weapons in the hands of our enemies. Just listen while I do my best.’
Hawklan bridled at the word ‘ignorance’. Something lurched inside him.
‘There is no more voracious, destructive and shadow dwelling creature than ignorance,’ he said, his voice strange. He leaned forward and took Andawyr’s arm in a powerful grip. ‘It must always be destroyed, but only the light of truth can do it-only the light of truth-no matter what horrors it exposes.’
Gavor cocked his head to one side, listening in-tently. Andawyr looked into the piercing green eyes with a mixture of fear and awe.
‘Have you studied the Great Gate of Anderras Darion, Hawklan?’ he asked, rather hoarsely.
‘No,’ said Hawklan. ‘I know some of the tales from it, but I doubt a lifetime would be long enough to study even the visible part of it, let alone those parts that the blind can read or, according to village legend, those parts that sing in the wind. Gavor knows more of it than I do.’
Andawyr sighed. ‘This is going to take some time,’ he said. ‘Try not to get angry with me again, please.’
Hawklan’s face was neutral.
‘Do you know the history of Sumeral, Hawklan? The Great Enemy. The Corruptor. The Enemy of Life?’
‘The name’s familiar. He’s some evil demon out of legend, isn’t he?’
Andawyr shook his head. ‘Ah, the poor Orthlundyn,’ he said sadly. ‘Such a price they paid.’ He fell silent for a moment, his eyes distant as if in the past. Hawklan waited.
‘He’s not a mythical character, Hawklan, nor is the Great Gate a repository for children’s tales. It’s a history. A history of the rise and fall of Sumeral. Of His rise while the Guardians slept, of His power spreading forth across the world, destroying the Great Harmony of things that the Guardians had created, then finally corrupting Mandrocs and men and sending them out as all-conquering armies.’ He sighed heavily. ‘There was a great and terrible shadow on the world then.’
He fell silent and pensive again.
‘Then in His pride and arrogance, He woke the Guardians, and they stemmed His surging greed. But His shadow had fallen on them too, because they knew that they would have to teach His corruption if they were to defeat it. They knew that even as they sustained the righteous courage of the Kings of men, they were weakening themselves irreparably and sowing the seeds for His Second Coming.’
He looked hard at Hawklan, now beginning to feel somewhat contrite after his outburst.
‘You believe in powers beyond yourself, don’t you?’ he asked.
Hawklan nodded. ‘Yes, though belief is an odd word. They’re all around like the wind and the sky. I feel and direct them in my healing. I hear them in the miracle of every living thing, and my friends hear them in the rocks and minerals of the land.’
‘Good,’ said Andawyr. ‘And good and evil power?’
Hawklan frowned, the question made no sense. ‘The spirit that flows through things is neither good nor bad.’ He gesticulated vaguely. ‘It’s like fire and water. It can be used to create or to destroy. It has no will of its own.’
Andawyr nodded as if satisfied, then abruptly changed the direction of the conversation.
‘Let me tell you what I’ve learned about you,’ he said, pulling his chair closer to Hawklan.
‘When I took you into your own mind, you passed through your memories of the past twenty years, then you found yourself on a featureless landscape. What you saw as a barren, hard plain is the barrier between you and your earlier life. It’s far beyond my skills to penetrate such a barrier. It’s been put there by a mighty power, and only that or some great pain can remove it. Who you are, or rather, who you were, will not lightly be discovered, so we must use such signs as we have.’ He hesitated. ‘Those signs tell me that you may be… ’ He hesitated again, until the reluctant words blurted themselves out. ‘You may be Ethriss himself. The first among the Guardians. The Guardian of Life, and Sumeral’s greatest enemy.’
Hawklan looked at him in embarrassed disbelief.
‘Andawyr,’ he said, gently. ‘Orthlund is a land of small villages peopled by quiet farmers, carvers. It’s a civilized country, full of peace and harmony. We’ve neither Lords nor Kings, let alone mythical gods.’
Andawyr grimaced. ‘This is no use,’ he said angrily. ‘I can’t do anything here. I’ve neither the time nor the resources. If you are Ethriss, dormant yet waked, then He too has wakened. Terrible times lie ahead if we don’t act.’
He paused, struck by a sudden thought. ‘If He is indeed awake, and His servants are peddling their wares, then… the Uhriel too must be awake.’ He took Hawklan’s arm urgently. ‘Come with me to the Caves of Cadwanen. To the Council of the Cadwanol. There I’ll be able to explain things properly. Great forces have already been set against you, and greater will follow. You need protection until you can be taught about yourself… ’