FROM THE REVIEWS
Of The Castle of Hape
“The many episodes involving the race of winged horses are magnificently imagined.” --School Library Journal
Of Caves of Fire and Ice
“Moves into the past, the present, and the future . . . a mind-boggling time sequence.” --Alan Review
“Plenty of action here and a colorful, skillfully-depicted cast of characters.” —School Library Journal
“The well-delineated characters add life with the same effect that detail adds to a painting.” —ALA Booklist
Of The Joining of the Stone
“The dramatic climax in a series of five fantasies . . . Shirley Murphy satisfactorily draws together the strands (and her incredible images) of good and evil.” —Atlanta Journal and Constitution
“The portrayal of the evil forces, stark and frightening, is well balanced with Murphy’s theme about life being ‘flawed [but] . . . no less magnificent.’” —ALA Booklist
The Runestone of Eresu
by
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 1980, 1981 by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
All rights reserved. For information contact webmaster@joegrey.com. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be resold, given away, or altered.
This is the second of two volumes containing the books originally published as the Children of Ynell series. It includes The Castle of Hape, Caves of Fire and Ice, and The Joining of the Stone, and can be read independently of the first volume, The Shattered Stone.
Atheneum edition of The Castle of Hape (hardcover) published in 1980
Avon edition (paperback) published in 1981
Atheneum edition of Caves of Fire and Ice (hardcover) published in 1980
Avon edition (paperback) published in 1982
Atheneum edition of The Joining of the Stone (hardcover) published in 1981
Avon edition (paperback) published in 1983
Ad Stellae Books edition, 2011
Author website: www.joegrey.com
Cover art © by Corey Ford / 123RF
CONTENTS
The Castle of Hape
Part One: The Dark
Part Two: The Gods
Part Three: Telien
Caves of Fire and Ice
Part One: The Lake of Fire
Part Two: The Black Lake
Part Three: The Lake of Caves
The Joining of the Stone
Part One: Ramad’s Heir
Part Two: Heritage of the Dark
Part Three: The Joining
About the Author
The Castle of Hape
Part One: The Dark
The ages of Time rise and move onward as neatly as the waves of the sea move. Or do they? What is Time? Who is to say that each age moves forward in perfect symmetry and never is disturbed? Who is to say that Time cannot, as does the sea, tumble suddenly in a whirling rage so all is thrown asunder? So a time without end or beginning is formed spinning into itself, swallowing the unfortunate wanderer or displacing him.
To the countries of Ere, the ages are marked by rivers of fire belching from the dark mountains, fire that sends men to flee in terror then recedes to lie dormant once more, perhaps for generations.
Yes, in the beginning cities grew close to the sea away from the fiery mountains, and those few people who would venture inland were driven back by fire, or by maverick, blood-lusting raiders. No one would think to make a city or claim a nation at the foot of the Ring of Fire. Not until the man Venniver so ventured, laying out a town he called Burgdeeth at the foot of the willful mountains. He meant to build a city ruled by false religion, and he began with the labor of slaves: Seers, enslaved to work like animals. And when those Seers escaped Venniver’s shackles, they took themselves to the far coast, and they conceived a different kind of nation.
But the powers of dark fought that nation, fought its rise and its strengthening.
Was it that warring, between evil and light, that disturbed the warp of Time? Who can say? No man of Ere can say; and those snatched up into the spinning of Time do not speak to us now.
ONE
The mare’s wings slashed and turned the wind. Ram clung to her back with effort, his fingers twisted in he mane to keep from falling, his blood spilling down across her shoulder. She lifted higher and the wind hammered at him; her wings tore light from the sun so it fractured around him, confusing him. He was hardly aware of the land below, blurred into a tapestry of green by her speed; was unaware of the river Urobb just beneath them and of the sea ahead. The bay and islands lay sun-washed, the towering stone ruins, but he did not heed them or the newly tilled farms, the herds of fat cattle and horses, did not see the carts going along the newly made roads toward the ruins to trade, was conscious only of pain, of sickness, of the raw agony of the sword wound in his side.
The bleeding increased. He loosed one hand from the mare’s mane to explore the wound, then bent again dizzy, hugging her neck to keep from falling. Only her mane, torn by wind to slash across his face, jerked him from unconsciousness. He pressed his arm tight to his side to staunch the blood.
The mare’s wings spanned more than twenty feet, her dark eyes swept the sky and land constantly. Her golden coat caught the high, clear brilliance of the sun, her ears sharp forward and alert. She was no tame creature to come to a man’s bidding, she had leaped from the sky of her own free will to lift Ram from the midst of battle, a dozen winged horses beside her sweeping down to lift the battered warriors from a fight that had turned to slaughter, so outnumbered were they; a battle they might have won had their Seer’s powers not been crippled so the attack caught them unaware, the Herebian hordes surging through dense woods a hundred strong against their puny band.
The mare lifted higher now. Light filled her wings like a golden cloak surrounding Ram, light ever moving as she soared then angled down. The fields rolled beneath him sickeningly; he went dizzy again, and she warned him awake with cool equine concern; then she dropped suddenly and sharply to meet the cold sea wind, dove through the wind in swift flight supporting Ram with the strength of her will—then folded her wings in one liquid motion and stood poised and still on the rim of a stone balcony high up the sheer side of the temple of the gods.