Seven Swords

Chapter 48

We don't know yet. Eeryon's father appeared and directed us into this wood, except I think it was a trap Now Eeryon's gone and

'Who is Eeryon?"

'A boy we met in Without."

'A... bay from Without? How old? Javelle stared into her mother's anxious face. She had forgotten to say how wonderful it was to see Irissa hers amid the cold and alien landscape, and now it was too late Now the omission would sound like one.

'Older than Thane.'

'Older than yourself?' Irissa prodded. Javelle had never considered that until now. 'No.'

"And he left you two here?" Perhaps he never saw us fall.' Javelle said carefully. 'Eeryon would not hurt us.'

'But his father would."

man."

'True ogres know better than to look it. Listen, Javelle

Irissa put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, surprised

by how closely their heights matched. 'I don't want to

worry Thane yet. But there is more urgent reason to find

the sword now than your father's life span.'

Javelle shivered. You may be right. I did not like that Irissa smiled sadly. 'He was not a man, but a mage." 'Not Geronfrey! I thought he'd be an ogre!'

'Something more important than that?' Javelle looked bewildered, but her eyes were level.

'Yes. His very life itself. He has been poisoned by the tainted spring beneath the palace. Unless a remedy is found soon, he will-' 'Die? No... Javelle began, suddenly growing too old

to deny the truth even as Irissa watched. When? How

long have we?' Now daughter's hands clutched mother's

shoulders.

'We must find an answer as soon as possible.

"The sword?"

Irissa nodded. 'Perhaps. It's a beginning.' Javelle relaxed her terrible tension, her mind working

mpidly behind the open mirrors of her eyes. The we are clom, for Geronfrey only appeared to us when we came this shore- and this forest answers all the descriptions of Rule

A forest is a forest, Javelle

But Geronfrey doesn't send his son there. Her ays widened and grew wilder at the same instant. 'Does be went the sword himself? Did he send the taint to Ren garth? Would Eeryon cheat us of our father's sword after traveling with us all this time? Hash. You ask good questions, but let's not trouble

Thane with them. His magic must be kept unmuddied until

needed.

The boy was approaching, his hands dangling self consciously at his sleeve ends. "Well? Irissa asked. Gone. I think, Thane added impishly. "Well, Felabba

has them. And who knows what a ludborg wears under

his drooping sleeves?'

Where is the cat?" Irissa wondered as the three moved

slowly along the ice-slick floor. "I saw in the tapestry that

she had followed you two through the gate."

We were in the tapestry? Thane sounded absurdly

pleased. Irissa realized that in memorializing Kendric and her own past adventures, she had neglected to weave the present into her walls. Perhaps she had taken it for

granted and now paid the price. And you both shall be in several new ones,' she prom ised. "Without claws, however. That is one secret we keep between ourselves, we three."

'Agreed, Thane said with a grin. 'Wouldn't Father have cat if he knew?" Neither Irissa nor Javelle let the thought of Kendric shadow their faces for long, but their glances crossed significantly.

Thane,' Irissa said with sudden seriousness, we think - Javelle and I that this Eeryon is an agent of Geronfrey, directing you to the trap that awaited."

'I knew we shouldn't have trusted Eeryon! Thane burst out with a look at Javelle.

For once she refrained from arguing with him, instead regarding him with eyes as sober and adult as their mother's. He straightened, recognizing in Javelle a sad maturity he had never glimpsed before.

'What's wrong?" he asked with undisguised dread. *A good deal,' Irissa answered. 'We must find the sword and take it to your father without delay. We may have to battle your friend, Eeryon- and even Geronfrey himself - to do that."

'Eeryon's not my friend,' Thane repeated. And I'm not afraid of him - or his father. Or is his father Geronfrey? If that was Geronfrey, he's not so frightening as you said, just another man with hunger for eyes."

'Such men are always frightening, and doubly so when they are empowered. But I am here to help you and I have held the sword we seek in the palm of my hand, as the man who sired you has held it. The sword knows our right and will come to us if we find it - not the shadow son of one who has never borne the sword.'

'Why do you call Eeryon a shadow son?" 'It was an . . . expression, Javelle.'

'Because that's how he strikes me, as a fleeting thing' Javelle looked worried. 'His eyes change, from light to

dark. From full to empty." 'Forget him!' Thane burst out. "We must find the sword first.'

'Agreed,' Irissa said. 'Let us make a pact upon it. First we find the sword, bending all our thoughts and magic and will upon that end.'

The children's dark heads lowered as their minds repeated the charge,

'We will hold the sword,' Irissa went on, her voice generating a seeress's weight, 'against all claimants, be they living or dead, solid or shadow, from within or

Without.' Her words echoed soundlessly in her children's attentive souls.

We will take the sword to Kendric so he will take strength from it and remain always with us, our caretaker and our care.' And so they all swore silently in their hearts, each

carrying a secret fear and a hidden sorrow.