Marion Bradley - The Sword of Aldones

Then the face dimmed to a wraith; Kadarin and Thyra, two tiny, separating ghosts, were flung into each other’s arms, and for a moment I saw them clinging together, silhouetted against the dissolving mist and fires. Then they were swept away, as Sharra’s ghost-face vanished into some reeling hell of darkness, and with it went Thyra and Kadarin, somewhere, somewhere…

Aldones! Lord of the Singing Light! Is there mercy for them, too?

Then that, too, was gone, and I, Lew Alton, was kneeling in the damp dawnlit courtyard, arms around Callina, before a shaking, trembling boy holding a sword from which all the lights had faded. And there was no sign of Kadarin or of Thyra or of Kathie. Dyan lay dead, a blackened corpse, on the scorched paving-stones. And in his hand the Sharra sword lay broken, a few shattered pieces of metal. There was no matrix now in the hilt of the sword. The hilt, blackened with fire, was dull and grayed, and the jewels lay scattered on the stones. The first rays of the red sun touched the castle turrets, and seemed to tremble for a moment in the heart of the jewels.

They shimmered, evaporated like bright spots of blue dew — and were gone. The sword of Sharra was broken — and the power of Sharra was broken in this world, forever.

Regis still held the Sword of Aldones. He was white, and trembling as if with deadly cold. Then, slowly, he sheathed the Sword. A flowing peace seemed to radiate from him, enlacing us in its net. The Sharra matrix had made Kadarin, who was not a bad man or a weak one, into a friend. The Sword of Aldones had made Regis — what?

“Regis—” My lips were stiff on the sound of his name, “What are you?”

“Hastur,” he said gravely.

But the legend said Sharra was bound in chains by the son of Hastur, who was the son of Aldones, who was the son of Light.

He turned away and walked toward the archway. His face was the face of a God, at that moment, yet something less — and more. Supreme content… and awful loneliness. Then that, too, dimmed out, and it was only a grave young man’s face, the face of one doomed to walk forever with the memory of an hour’s godhead — and be forevermore denied it

The rising sun touched his hair-, snow white.

He disappeared through the arched door.

And I saw Dio Ridenow walking from the Keeper’s Tower, slowly, dazed, like a woman in a dream. Now’ when it was over — but I had no thoughts for Dio, for Callina had risen, and drew me to my feet.

And for the first time without fear, I took Callina in my arms, crushing my mouth to hers.

And all desire died as I looked into the cold eyes of Ashara.

I should have known, all along.

Only a moment and it was Callina again, clinging to me, crying; but I had seen, and I knew. My arm fell and I stared in horror as she turned away, desolately. “Sharra,” I heard her whisper, “Sharra… Then it was no use, no use for me, and I cannot live…”

“Not by treachery, Ashara!” Dio faced the sorceress, steadily, “Not by damning another as you doomed Callina! You failed, because Lew was too human, and because Callina was not human enough! You failed, you failed!”

Stricken, madness rocking my brain, I came to where the frail figure cowered before Dio. Callina, Ashara — I could not tell. They blended; were one. Reason swam away; I took Callina blindly in my arms and the form and the face shifted and changed and were now Callina and now Ashara and now Callina again; then a look of peace and my arms were empty, and a whisper faded and died and was still.

“Dio!” I sobbed the name and went to her arms like a hurt child, “Dio, Dio, have I gone mad?”

There were tears on Dio’s face. “I tried so many times to tell you. Ashara was not real, had not been real for generations. Didn’t you wonder why her Tower room seemed so immense? It was not in the Tower at all, the blue door was a matrix, a — a gateway to somewhere else. She was only a — a thought-form by now. She lived in the matrix, and whenever she left it, to take place in Comyn Council,-she went in the body of one of the Keepers. Her power was so immense, and they were so frail, that for many generations she effaced them altogether; she only seemed ageless. She was born an Alton, Lew; she set her focus not in the minds, but in the living bodies of the Keepers. But her power was fading. Now she could not project her own form upon their bodies; she could only control their minds. And even that power was waning now. She would have done anything for a new source of power…”

Dio gasped, then pulled herself together a little.

“I was to be Keeper — I could sense it, a little, how horrible it was, what she wanted. I begged Lerrys to take me away to Vainwal. Why do you think I threw myself at you? I came to love you, but at first, I only wanted to be unfit for her!” Even her hands burned on mine.

“So it was Callina. But — sometimes Ashara had to withdraw, or Callina would have burnt out. Then Callina was normal, or else she was in trance. When I knew that Regis would have to use the Sword, I — went to the Tower, and smashed one of the crystals. That trapped Ashara for a little while. I had been trained a little, when they thought I was to be the Keeper, and I knew what to do, but I couldn’t do it in my own body, because—” Again her cheeks flooded with color. “Callina, at least, was a virgin. Callina was in trance, and the Terrans had drugged her. So I went to Regis, and he used his Gift, and — and switched me into Callina’s body. It was I who linked with you and Regis.”

“No,” I gasped, “No, it was Callina, Callina—”

Dio pressed herself to me, her arms around my neck. “No, my darling, no, Callina could not have linked in’ focus with you. She had not enough independent mind left. Lew, remember — you had never touched my mind, you gave me a barrier against you. And I knew that when it broke, we’d all be too overloaded to know whether I was Callina, or Dio, or someone else. And after that, the barriers were up again. But — darling — see?”

Suddenly she reached for me and went into complete rapport again. The familiar solace, sweetness, the cool and delicate warmth. “Callina!” I breathed.

No. This is the part of me you never knew …

Even now the rapport was too intimate to hold for long.

“In the old days. Lew — before you left Darkover — Callina was a lovely girl, sweet and generous and brave. You know that. She risked her life for you. But Lew, the real

Callina died when Ashara took her. Days ago. She was already only a shell of herself, but oh, Lew, the bravery, the wonderful bravery of that poor, poor girl!” Dio,was sobbing like a child. “Lew, she loved you. She refused rapport with you — before Ashara — because she knew it would have given Ashara a foothold in your brain and body, too. With her last spark of will, she saved you from that-and it was the last thing she ever did. It was her death — her real death. You thought Ashara disappeared? No; she had only overshadowed Callina. You thought Callina acted strangely on Festival Night? No. She was only—”

“Don’t, don’t tell me any more!” I begged.

“Only one thing more.” She touched the still?discolored bruise on her cheek. “Why do you think I didn’t try to stop Dyan — warn Callina against Derik? Lew, it was a desperate chance, but if they’d succeeded, it would have played into our hands. If a man — any man — had taken Callina, even in rape, so soon after Ashara had taken over her body, it would have caused enough disruption to drive Ashara out. It might have killed Callina, but there was a bare chance that it would have freed her, instead. Ashara would have had to withdraw, not for a few minutes, but permanently.”