Roger Taylor - The waking of Orthlund

‘Did you see anyone?’ Gulda asked, after a moment. ‘No, but we heard them,’ answered one of the boys.

‘They thanked us for our song and asked if they could sing it,’ said another.

‘And what did you say?’

‘Yes, of course.’

Loman joined the group. Gulda looked up at him. For an instant, he saw the striking and beautiful features he had glimpsed before, but they were gone almost before he realized they were there.

‘We failed,’ he said.

Gulda shook her head. ‘No. We’ve begun,’ she re-plied. ‘I could have wished for better, but at least they came and listened, that was a hopeful start.’

‘I felt they were divided amongst themselves,’ Lo-man conceded.

Gulda nodded. ‘Yes. They were. That also is hopeful, but… ’ Letting out a deep breath she stood up. Yrain and Athyr joined them. ‘There’s no sign of them,’ Athyr said, bewildered. ‘It’s not easy tracking on these rocks but there must have been hundreds of them here. I don’t understand.’

‘Did any of you see anything ?’ Gulda asked, looking around the group. All shook their heads. ‘Yrain, you were the first to react, what did you see?’

The young woman shook her head. ‘I can’t remem-ber anything except a terrible noise. I’ve never been so frightened. Memsa, how do we deal with… creatures that can do that?’

‘Not easily,’ Gulda replied. ‘Not unless there are a lot of you. However, knowledge helps. We’ll talk when we get back. Gather up your weapons. Let’s be off.’

There was a cry of dismay from the three boys. Gulda raised her hands in earnest apology. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Let’s eat amp;mdashand then be off.’

When they had finished their meal they all fell si-lent, each pondering the day’s strange events.

Gradually, Loman noticed that he was tapping his foot to the rhythm of the snowman’s song. Someone, somewhere, was singing it softly. He looked round idly. The three boys were standing near the cliff edge. Casually he stood up and walked over to them.

As he neared them, they all raised their hands to wave to someone and he realized they were not singing.

Reaching them, he followed their gaze. On a distant outcrop he could just make out a tiny figure, waving back.

Abruptly the song stopped and the figure was gone.

‘Go now,’ said a voice inside his head.

Eldric slumped down into a chair and put his head in his hands. ‘This is madness,’ he said. ‘I can’t allow it.’

Sylvriss raised her eyebrows. ‘ Can’t , Lord Eldric?’ she said. Isloman hid a smile behind his hand.

Eldric looked up, flustered. ‘An unhappy choice of word, Majesty,’ he managed. ‘I meant… won’t… shouldn’t… ’ He stood up and slapped his hands against his sides in frustration.

‘Majesty, you can’t,’ he said. ‘In your condition, and with winter coming on, such a journey would be madness.’

He turned to Isloman as if to seek an ally, then, bringing his hand to his forehead, he turned his back on both of them and stood staring into the fire to compose himself. When he turned round again his face was a picture of fatherly reasonableness.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said reluctantly. ‘You both caught me by surprise. Can we look at your ideas a little more carefully?’

‘Intentions, Lord Eldric,’ Sylvriss corrected. ‘Not ideas.’

Eldric affected to concede the point with a concilia-tory gesture. ‘Majesty,’ he said soberly. ‘Your pregnancy is proceeding well. You couldn’t be in better hands than here. I’m sure you know that. Hylland’s a fine and experienced healer; surely as good as you’ll find in your father’s house?’

Sylvriss leaned forward to interrupt, but Eldric con-tinued. ‘And it’s a long way to Dremark at the best of times. Please ask yourself if it’s fair to either you or your child to undertake such a difficult journey at such a time, on a whim.’

The last phrase slipped out inadvertently. It was as unhappy a choice of word as his earlier ‘can’t’. Sylvriss bridled. ‘Lord Eldric, take care. You above all know I’m not given to idle fancies. Even less am I given to indulging them. There are admittedly strong emotional reasons why I’d like to return to my father’s house for the birth, but there are powerful practical ones as well.’

Eldric lifted his hands in apology, but allowed as much doubt into his face as good manners would allow.

Sylvriss sat down beside him. ‘Eldric,’ she said sim-ply. ‘You and the others are preparing to obey Rgoric’s last command; a command which I endorse. You must be in a position to dedicate your every effort to that completely. Almost certainly you’re going to have to lead Fyordyn against Fyordyn before Dan-Tor is driven from the country, and if the horror of that is to be kept to a minimum your forces must be overwhelmingly superior to his in every way; you know that. It’s going to be difficult enough to achieve this without squandering your time and resources tending a pregnant woman.’

‘Majesty, there are other pregnant women here… ’ Eldric protested.

Sylvriss cut across him. ‘True,’ she said. ‘And while they’ll be well tended, they’ll not get a fraction of the care and effort that will be lavished on me, will they? That’s hardly going to improve morale, is it?’

Eldric gesticulated vaguely, at a loss to answer this reproach. Sylvriss nodded knowingly. ‘If I stay here, I’ll be a needless drain on vital resources and an extra concern to you when you’ll have far more serious matters to attend to.’

‘No, Majesty.’ Eldric had recovered himself. ‘Protect-ing you and your child, our King’s heir, is our willing duty. It will increase our resolve… ’

‘Please Eldric.’ Sylvriss’s concerns showed on her face. ‘We know one another well enough not to bandy superficialities like this. I’ve not come to this decision lightly, but I’m quite resolved. I know the journey won’t be easy, but it can be done, and in the weighing I think it’ll be for the best. I know also that my leaving may give you some morale problems, but that lies in the telling of the tale, not the deed itself.’

She laid her hand on his arm. ‘We must look to the end of all this, Eldric. The very end. Not just the removal of Dan-Tor and the re-establishment of the Geadrol and such of the old ways as have not been destroyed utterly, but the destruction of Sumeral himself. If we look to less we will achieve less, and to achieve less than that will be to achieve nothing.’

Eldric looked into the Queen’s eyes. There was a quality in her voice that reached deep inside him. A fitting Queen for the King, he thought, both the one who was and the one who might have been.

‘Tell the people the truth,’ Sylvriss continued. ‘Tell them who Dan-Tor is. Tell them what he is, and who his Master is. And tell them that winning our country back from him is but a grim skirmish prior to a more terrible war amp;mdashthe destruction of that Master.’ Her voice became sad. ‘Perhaps it’s the hardest step we have to take, because we must take it alone. If Fyordyn must fight Fyordyn, then no outlanders can help in such a conflict without making the legacy of bitterness far worse.’ She paused pensively, then said more resolutely. ‘But tell them that when it’s done, the Orthlundyn and the Riddinvolk will ride to their side to face the greater enemy. Tell them that Isloman and I have gone to prepare our own people for this.’

Eldric sat silent for some time, staring out into the cold rain that a blustering wind was swirling and twisting around the courtyard outside. Occasionally a gust would rattle drops against the window like a frantic messenger trying to rouse a sleeping household.