Pendragon Cycle - Taliesin Part 29

"What of Belyn and my brothers?"

"Still fighting... on and off. They ride the coasts and borders and defend the towns. Belyn looks to Tairn, while Kian, Maildun, and Guistan keep Seithenin at his distance. Once in a while one of them will catch a raiding party and there is a fight. Mostly they just ride and watch."

"It sounds so hopeless, Annubi."

"It is is hopeless, child. This war is despair itself. It cannot be won, but neither side dares quit. And the other kingdoms just sit looking on, thinking, I suppose, to take advantage of the loser-selling supplies, horses, weapons, and sometimes even men to the highest bidder. Oh, there are talks and treaties and alliances and more talks and more treaties, but they all keep their distance, hoping to pick at the bones. Only Meirchion remains our ally, and he is weary." hopeless, child. This war is despair itself. It cannot be won, but neither side dares quit. And the other kingdoms just sit looking on, thinking, I suppose, to take advantage of the loser-selling supplies, horses, weapons, and sometimes even men to the highest bidder. Oh, there are talks and treaties and alliances and more talks and more treaties, but they all keep their distance, hoping to pick at the bones. Only Meirchion remains our ally, and he is weary."

"Eoinn?" asked Charis. "You did not mention him."

Annubi stopped walking. "I thought you knew."

She shook her head. "N-no..."

"He is dead, Charis. Last year."

"How?"

"A night raid along the Coran. No one saw what happened. He just disappeared." Annubi recited the words wearily. "Two days later they found his body downriver. There was not a mark on him. Apparently his horse threw him and he drowned."

Charis bent her head. Poor, gentle Eoinn, so enraptured by his horses-how ironic that one of his beloved animals should bring about his death. How was it possible that he could die and she not know it?

"The king Was recovering whea it happened, but insisted on riding out to bring Eoinn's body back. He returned the worse for it and has grown steadily worse ever since."

"Can nothing be done?"

Annubi gave a quick shake of his head. "As long as she she remains beside him... nothing. Bel alone knows what she puts in that foul concoction she gives him. She makes it herself and lets no one near it." He paused and uttered darkly, "I think she is poisoning him." remains beside him... nothing. Bel alone knows what she puts in that foul concoction she gives him. She makes it herself and lets no one near it." He paused and uttered darkly, "I think she is poisoning him."

"Why?" Charis raised her head. "Have you told him?"

"It keeps him weak and dependent on her. And yes, I have told him. He laughs at me. I have talked with the shrew as well. She Believes me jealous of the king's affection for her. She She is the jealous one; the woman is crazed with it. is the jealous one; the woman is crazed with it.

"I have tried to treat the king myself. She flies into a screaming rage-she threatens me." He shook his head sadly. "As if I were a thief determined to steal the king's linen. Me, Annubi, who has served the throne of Sarras for three generations. It makes no sense."

They began walking again. Charis was silent a long time, listening to their steps pattering lightly among the immense stone columns.

"It does not matter, Annubi," she said at last. "None of it matters-not now, not anymore. It is over."

"What is over, Charis?"

"I met Throm again," she explained, "on a hill near Atlas. He was just standing out there, waiting-waiting for the end. He told me the seven years were over and I remembered his prophecy. It is going to happen, Annubi, just as he has said."

"So you know."

"You have known all along too. Why have you never said anything?"

"What can be said?"

"There was an earthquake in Poseidonis; it happened when I was in the bullring. A small one-little damage, no one was hurt, but the temple crystal was shattered. The next one will be bigger, and the one after that..."

"What did the people of Poseidonis do?"

"Do? Why, nothing. There was no real damage. They went on about their business."

"The signs are there for anyone to read," Annubi told her, "but no one heeds them. Men go on with their business as if the world will last forever. It will not. It never does."

"We could tell them... warn then."

"Do you really Believe anyone would listen?" Annubi scoffed. "They will not listen. Throm has been telling them for years."

"But... the earthquake. They would Believe"

"Oh, yes, the earthquake. They will Believe when their houses crumble upon them, when the lintels of the temple crack and the sacred edifice falls-then they will Believe. But it will be too late."

"But surely" she began.

Annubi continued a few paces, stopped suddenly and whipped toward her. "Do you think this the first disaster to overtake Atlantis? There have been others."

"I did not know."

"Oh, yes. The last was a long time ago. A fireball from the sky plunged into the sea, penetrated the seabed, and disturbed the earth's course. Cities toppled. Whole kingdoms in the south simply slid into the sea and disappeared. Disease, pestilence, and war followed. Survivors left the destruction and migrated to other lands. But it was no better elsewhere."

"I had no idea."

"The Magi do not speak of it, but they know. It is well recorded if one knows where to look. People forget what they do not wish to remember. They refuse to Believe disaster can ever invade their tight little lives. That is why they will not listen to you or Throm or anyone else who tries to warn them."

"But we must try," insisted Charis. "We must try to make them understand."

"Why?"

"Because we have to save as many lives as we can, because we can survive."

Annubi shook his head slowly. "No, Charis," he said softly. "Our time is finished. It is the way of things. A new age is upon the world and we have no place in it. The center will s.h.i.+ft once more as it always does and Atlantis will vanish beneath the waves."

"We can get a s.h.i.+p. We can leave leave it all behind. We can go somewhere else."

"There is noplace else, Charis. Not for us."

"I do not Believe that."

Annubi sighed. "Believe what you like, Charis."

"I will find my brothers; I will go to Belyn."

"They will not heed you any more than the crowds in Poseidonis heeded the earthquake no more than anyone ever heeded Throm. "

"Stop it!" Charis shouted angrily. "I will make them heed me! I will make them listen and I will make them Believe."

To make them Believe, Charis had first to find them. She prevailed upon Annubi to locate them with the Lia Fail and to discern, if he could, where they were going. She would ride to that place in the hope of meeting up with one or more of them.

"I tell you that you are wasting your time," he said after consulting the oracular stone.

"You have already told me that. Save your breath and just tell me where I can find them."

"As you wish," the seer relented. "Kian is the closest. He is making for the estuary of the Nerus. If he holds his present course and speed, he will be there in two days. Aval-lach has set up a watchtower on the tidewash where the the headlands meet the river basin. You can easily reach it in a day. Wait for him there." headlands meet the river basin. You can easily reach it in a day. Wait for him there."

"Thank you, Annubi. I am leaving now. I will be back as soon as I have spoken to him. It will not take long. Look after Father for me."

Annubi snorted, "Lile will do that."

"Just make certain she does not kill him."

With that she went out. She had dressed herself in riding clothes: breeches and a short tunic gathered by a wide Belt. She wore long white calfskin boots and bound her hair with the white leather thong she had used in the bullring. She threw a light, red cloak over her shoulder and went to the stables for a horse. She chose one of Eoinn's and ordered the stablemaster to have the animal saddled for her; she would leave the palace as soon as the horse was ready.

The morning was clear, the clouds high and light, the countryside peaceful. She followed the coast road north along easy hills, feeling the sun on her back, listening to the birds filling field and sky with pure hymns to the sun, to the day, to life itself. And she could almost persuade herself that none of what she had learned in the last few days was true at all. There was no war, no coming destruction; her father was not ill, her brother still alive... She had dreamed it all in a hideous dream that had no substance in the bold light of day.

The birds knew the truth and they sang it.

But she knew the truth as well, a dark and disturbing truth that would not vanish because the sun shone and birds sang. And it fell to her to convince as many as would listen, beginning with Kian, the king's heir.

She had never been close to Kian. Of Avallach's five children he was the first and well-grown by the time Charis was born. His world and hers were different from the beginning, which is why she felt she could talk to him now with some hope of persuasion. They had shared none of the small rivalries of nearer siblings, tending to regard one another from a generous distance.

Kian was much like Avallach in most respects but quite unlike him in certain important areas. He had the same head of thick, dark hair, the same quick eyes and strong hands, the staunch loyalty which could as easily be applied to an ideal as to a person-a steadfastness of purpose which many might regard as stony stubbornness. He could be influenced, however, with a well-considered appeal to reason. Unlike Avallach, his head was more likely than his heart to guide his course.

As Avallach's firstborn, Kian had always possessed an indelible sense of security which the king's other sons lacked. He would wear the circlet and robe of stars one day and that was that. There was no striving, no grasping, no need for proving strength or worthiness. All that spoke of doubt, and its attendant ambition, was absent in his makeup; there was not a false or wavering bone in his body.

Charis rode along, becoming reacquainted with her brother in memory as the miles pa.s.sed easily beneath the horse's hoofs. She followed the coast road north as far as Oera Linda, a small seaside town which boasted an immensely old library as its sole center of interest and activity. She had, as a child, accompanied her mother to Oera Linda many times and would have liked now to stay and see the place, but she did not want to risk missing Kian. So she hurried through the narrow central street and wondered that she did not see another human being as she pa.s.sed. At the far side of the empty town, she turned her mount inland to cross the lip of land dividing the seacoast from the Nerus estuary.

The road was well marked and she had no difficulty in finding her way. Though the land seemed as peaceful as she remembered, she met few people abroad, either on the road or in the fields. Most of the roadside houses she pa.s.sed were deserted as well.

By midafternoon she reached the divide and stopped to reconnoiter. On her right hand the slim peninsula carved away to end in a jumble of red rocks and surf; ahead the road slipped down to meet the Nerus, a broad silver band s.h.i.+mmering in the misty distance; behind lay the smooth, gold-rimmed line of the coast and beyond it the great arc of green-blue Ocea.n.u.s, clean to the horizon.

She watered the horse at a nearby stream and then remounted for the final leg of her journey, arriving at the watch-tower as the sun sank toward evening wreathed in garish red-orange clouds. The tower, visible from a distance as it projected from its rocky promontory, was an easy landmark to locate and the road pa.s.sed near it.

Charis arrived hungry and tired, but the exertion felt good to her as she bathed her muscles in the warm glow of fatigue. She felt only the slightest twinge from her wound as she slid from the saddle to stretch the tightness from her shoulders and thighs. She let the reins dangle so the horse could crop the gra.s.s that grew on the spongy turf of the promontory and began walking around the tower.

It was a rough stone square, rude and inelegant, broad at the base and tapering rapidly to its pinched-off top. The tower was a crude, cold thing erected by war's expediency, and until seeing it up close Charis had not given a thought to the fact that she might have to spend the night alone there.

Neither had she given any thought to what she might eat. She had brought no provisions with her and had no way to make a fire. But the tower was strong, if gross, shelter and, she reflected, it would hardly hurt her to fast one night.

She stooped through the cramped archway and climbed the narrow, winding stone steps inside the tower to a bare wooden platform. She walked to the stone breastwork to view the wide mouth of the estuary and the sea beyond, now stained the color of weathered bronze. Deep green forest crowded the far sh.o.r.e opposite the tower, the tips of the trees holding the fading, orange-tinted light.

Although the air was still warm from the day, she felt cold in this place and wondered whether she would not be more comfortable elsewhere. She turned to inspect the platform. One portion was covered by a roof made of poles laid across the breastwork supporting a ragged thatch. Tucked away under this roof she found a blanket of sewn fleeces neatly rolled, and next to it a skin of water. There was a small brazier on a tripod with a crystal on a thong for starting a fire, but no fuel. Offered this scant accommodation, Charis decided to spend the night on the platform.

She descended once more and led the horse to a rivulet a little way down the hill and from the tower. When they had both drunk their fill, Charis led the animal back up the hill, unsaddled it, and brought it inside the hollow base of the tower where she hobbled it for the night. She climbed the stone steps once more and dragged out the fleece quilt, spreading it over the uncovered end of the platform. Then she lay down to watch a sunset sky alive with swifts, flitting and darting after invisible insects. But it was a dusk strangely quiet and Charis reflected that being so near the sea she should have heard the cries of seabirds.

She lay there until the stars came out and she fell asleep thinking about what she would tell Kian to convince him that the world was about to end.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Charis awakened before sunrise. the stars were faded lamps in the heavens and the eastern sky bore a blood-red streak that spread across the horizon like a wound. She could feel the heat of the day riding in on a southern breeze. It would be hot and the river valley humid. As she looked out across the estuary from the watchtower platform, she could see a blue haze hanging over the water and the forest-clad hills beyond. The air was rank with the fishy smell of the tidewash.

She decided to walk to the river and bathe before the heat made her sticky and irritable. She had Kian to deal with today and wanted to be composed for what might well turn into a confrontation. Leaving the tower, she gave her horse to graze on the dew-speckled gra.s.s and made her way down the brush-covered slope to one of the innumerable streams which fed into the river.

She had just pulled off her boots when she heard the rhythmic drumming of horses' hooves. "Kian!" she thought, and jerking the boots back on, she clambered hurriedly back to the watchtower just in time to see four hors.e.m.e.n pounding up the hill to the tower, plumed helms and riding cloaks flying.

One of the hors.e.m.e.n turned in the saddle and saw her; he wheeled his horse toward her. In that same instant Charis knew he was an enemy.

The other three rode past the tower and down again to the sh.o.r.e. She turned and gazed toward the sea. A s.h.i.+p, dark of hull and sail, had entered the estuary on the incoming tide. It was still too iar away to see any details, but she guessed that the s.h.i.+p was full of Seitfewas's men, come to lay an ambush for her brother.

There was no time to think wfast to do. The horseman was bearing down on her. She traned to meet him and saw that he had a sword in his hand. Site tacked away to give herself room. The rider saw the nswwnsefflt mid, thinking she would turn to flee, spurred the horse to trample her from behind.

But Charis did not flee. She let the horse gallop to within a few paces and then simply collapsed before it, rolling to the side as the hoofs thundered over her. By the time the rider turned the horse and trotted back to see his handiwork, Charis bad reached the tower. S&e dipped inside unseen with one thought in her mind: warn Kian. But how?

She gained the watchtower platform and ran to the breastwork. The s.h.i.+p had landed, a plank was down, and scores of men were streaming ash.o.r.e to clamber up the steep, rock-bound bank. Whirling away from the breastwork Charis' eyes fell on the brazier. She ran to it and grabbed up 'the crystal, snapping the thong. The sun was gSewisg on the horizon, but the first rays had not cleared the rim of the earth. "Hurry!" she muttered under her breath and froze: Footsteps inside the tower.

The bare platform offered no place to bide, but on a sudden inspiration she turned and grabbed the fieece and leaped onto the thatch roof. She lay on the Bat roof and, turning the fleece over, spread it over her as the rider climbed onto the platform beneath her. Charis held her breath.

She heard him move to the iar side of the tower and peeped from under the fleece to see him, back turned toward her, gazing down at the s.h.i.+p and bis cramades Below. He called to them and waved and then turned to look inland. "He is not looking for me," she realized. "He means to stay here. Of course, that was his intention all along; he is to watch for Kian and give the signal to the others. Well, I can help him there," she thought gripping the crystal in her hand.

Moving with infinite care, she stretched her hand to the edge of the fleece, turning the crystal this way and that, but the sun was not yet high enough for the rays to catch. "Come on, come on!" She urged the dawn to greater speed. "Hurry!"

It was stifling beneath the fleece and Charis thought she would suffocate any moment. She pushed the fleece from her face and peered out. The enemy still stood half-turned away from her, looking over the landward hills. "Curse you, Bel! Hurry!"

She felt the crystal grow warm in her hand, looked, and saw the thing glowing with a rosy-gold light as the first feeble light of day struck its surface. The crystal gathered the sunlight and focused it to a burning ray. Holding it very steady, she willed the stone to ignite the roof beneath her.

A thin wisp of smoke rose like a thread from the coa.r.s.e thatch and was joined by another and then another. The smoke threads mingled in the air and drifted toward the enemy rider. There was a flame now, a pale yellow fluttery thing, weak but growing.

Charis held the crystal steady, giving the fire every chance to build. "Go, go! Hurry!"

She heard a sniff and another. She glanced from beneath the fleece just as the enemy rider, smelling the smoke, turned toward her. She threw off the fleece and leaped right at him in the same fluid motion. With a loud yelp, the startled horseman fell backwards. Charis was on him in a heartbeat, tugging at the knife in his belt.

The rider recovered from his momentary fright and grabbed her hands, but not before she had the knife. The man scrambled to his feet, his fingers tight around her wrists. Eyes bulging, he laughed unconvincingly. "You are are real after all," he said. "I thought I had seen a shade down there." Then he looked beyond her at the flame sprouting over the thatch. "Here! What have you done?" real after all," he said. "I thought I had seen a shade down there." Then he looked beyond her at the flame sprouting over the thatch. "Here! What have you done?"

She twisted her wrists in his grip and the blade bit into the flesh of his arm. "Ow!" He dropped his hands. Charis raised her knee in the same instant and planted her foot firmly on his chest. She kicked with all her might, springing backward through the air to land on her hands. The rider stumbled and struck the stone breastwork; his breath rushed from his lungs in a gasp and his helmet clattered from his head.

Charis whirled to see the flame deepening, spreading across the thatch, a plume of white smoke thickening to a column. She grabbed the fleece and began fanning the flames.

A moment later hands were on her, an arm thrown across her throat. She was dragged off her feet and thrown aside viciously. She struck the wooden planking.

Pain shot up along her spine and into her brain in a sickening, black flare.

The rider stooped and yanked the fleece out of her hand, turned and began beating out the flames.