Roger Taylor - Caddoran

Endryk gave a fatalistic shrug. ‘I did what I did because I was there… and because I could. True, we’d sought the battle, but we hadn’t sought the war, and now there was no choice. No acceptable choice. To yield would mean not only my death, but would bring others down with me. An endless wave of crumbling destruction would ripple out from me, spreading through my immediate companions and thence across the battlefield and far beyond – right down into the heart of my homeland and everything I loved and valued.’

He shook his head reflectively and drew the others into his conversation. ‘And if that had happened, you’d all be far wiser about the lands to the north of here than you are now, believe me. Far wiser. And your present problems would be as nothing.’ He turned back to Thyrn. ‘It was as though, like you, something had awakened in me. All of us have resources we can’t begin to imagine – you touched on part of that last night. Be grateful for it. Be glad it’s there. And know that it’ll come to your aid when you need it.’

He was silent for a while, his eyes fixed on the distant peak. ‘If this enemy you’re set on facing is a Caddoran thing, I can’t begin to tell you how to deal with it. Besides, you don’t need my help. But I do know that winning and losing will be for the most part in your mind. It will hinge on how much you value yourself.’ He leaned over and gripped Thyrn’s arm powerfully. ‘And you must value yourself! Value yourself as we value you. I consider myself better for having met you. Maybe, like me and my former comrades you’ll have to fight just because of where you find yourself. I can’t imagine you’ll have sought a conflict or done anything to warrant an attack against you, but if such a thing happens, remember that, above all, you have the right to be, and no mercy is due to anyone who’d deny you that. No mercy . Not until they offer you no further threat. Do you understand what I’m telling you?’

‘I think so,’ Thyrn said. He kept his eyes on Endryk’s face, searching. ‘But what if circumstances are such that I do start the conflict?’

Endryk released him and met his gaze clearly. ‘If that is necessary, then it’s necessary. And nothing I’ve just said is changed. But don’t burden yourself with such a prospect. I know enough about you to believe you’ll do no foolish thing, still less an evil one. I’ve no doubts about that whatsoever. Whatever you do it will only be to prevent a greater harm, Thyrn. You can trust your judgement.’ He turned away. ‘That’s all the help I can give you.’

Vellain was nibbling at her thumbnail. Not actually biting it, just clattering her teeth off the edge of it. It was something she had not done since she was a child but she caught herself doing it several times as the coach and its escort clattered south from Degelvak. Finding herself victim of this childhood habit added a frisson of vicious anger to the deep concern which was racking her and she smacked her clenched fist against the coach’s lavish upholstery.

Vashnar had been ablaze with frantic, driving energy when he awoke.

‘I’ve been blind, Vellain,’ he told her afterwards. ‘Blind. All these years. Confining my ambitions. Restricting myself. Hedging myself in.’

It had taken her some time to quieten him down sufficiently to get him to divulge the source of this revelation. It had come as a shock.

‘Was it a dream?’ she had suggested hesitantly, despite anticipating his well-known response.

‘I don’t dream. Never have.’

He had faced her. ‘Trust me. As you always have. What happened was just as real as my encounters with Thyrn. More so, perhaps.’

‘I do, I do,’ she forced herself to say enthusiastically. ‘But it’s such a strange tale. A hooded figure – a grey hall – voices – different worlds.’

‘I felt the power, Vellain! Just as I felt it in Nesdiryn when I met Hagen. Only much more so. It was tangible this time; it struck me – held me.’ He brought his ring close to his face. ‘Hagen gave me this, do you remember? He looked at me – through me – I’ve never met anyone like him. He said I was one of them. Now I understand what he meant. And what a true gift this thing is.’

Before she could question him, he was pacing the bedroom.

His moving bulk and its attendant, storming shadows ploughed through the soft lamplight, filling the room, like a manifestation of the very power he was talking about.

‘Destiny, Vellain. That’s what it is. It’s not something I’d have given a moment’s credence to before, but I can see it now. Why me? I’ve asked. Why should Thyrn reach into me, to disturb all our carefully laid plans with his grotesque talent? But just as people are drawn to a crowd, just as money is drawn to money as Darransen’s always saying, just as rivers are drawn to the sea, so the same law works at many different levels. The reason’s unknowable, but the reality’s beyond debate; it just needs to be seen and seized. I couldn’t have avoided this if I’d wished to. Destiny has moved these things to me inexorably – Hagen, the ring, Thyrn, Hyrald and the others, Aghrid’s failure – all conjoined to bring me to this wakening. This revelation of the power that lies within the borders of Arvenstaat and is there for my taking so that these selfsame borders can be swept aside.’

Her own mood swinging between fearful doubt and breath-catching exhilaration at her husband’s passion, Vellain had not been able to speak. Vashnar stopped pacing.

‘It’s there. Faint and distant, but as clear as someone talking to me.’ He sat on the bed beside her, his great arm encircling her. ‘No, I’m not going mad. I’m just seeing a pattern in events that I can’t explain to you. But it’s inside me.’ He placed his hand on his chest. ‘I must follow the call that they’ve left me. I must find this place. It’s in the mountains.’ He stood up and began pacing again. ‘Thyrn will be drawn there, too. They told me this, but I can feel it anyway. Just as part of him has been lingering within me, so I can feel it being drawn by the same lure. And when he arrives, I’ll be waiting, and…’ He drew his finger across his throat.

Then he had charged into a flurry of planning and organizing. It had taken Vellain’s every effort to prevent him from rousing their host immediately and announcing his new intentions then and there, in the middle of the night.

She had prevailed, in the end pinioning him with a fervent embrace. ‘You might be bursting with energy, but everyone else in this place – including most of the Tervaidin – is either exhausted or drunk or both. They’ll certainly not be fit for anything. If all this has been such a time coming, it’ll be there in the morning, won’t it? And there’ll be more if you’ve rested for a while – you know that. You know your best plans come to you silently when you’re asleep.’ She tightened the embrace and lowered her voice. ‘Besides, if you’re dashing off into the mountains and dispatching me to attend to affairs at home, it’ll be some time before we’re… together again, won’t it?’

Neither of them had slept well, though, and their parting had been clumsy and awkward, something that, like the nail biting, added anger to her doubts. For doubts she had had in the colder light of morning and the mundane routines of waking and breakfasting. After they had eaten, Vashnar had curtly dismissed all the servants and, with only marginal politeness, three other guests. ‘The moment has come,’ he told his startled host. ‘Prepare your men. They must be ready to act as soon as you receive my final command, which will be within a few days.’

The man’s knees had seemed to be troubling him as he stood up, pushing his chair back noisily, but Vashnar’s firm hand on his shoulder had steadied him. ‘You know what to do. I have complete faith in you.’