Derian was relieved to see that Shad and Sapphire were of one mind with King Allister.
"Firekeeper is odd," Sapphire said to the guard, "but as you may recall from our wedding, she is also firmly on the side of our safety."
Perce had to be content with this, but Derian could see that he felt the responsibility strongly.
"I"m coming with you," he said in a tone that brooked no disagreement.
Derian shrugged. "I don"t see how Firekeeper could mind one more. We"re quite the little party."
In addition to the three rulers, Firekeeper had requested that all the members of the group that had gone into New Kelvin come as well. This had caused some argument, for Elise and Doc felt that their place was with the wounded. The military surgeons, however, gave them leave."We"d been prepared to handle this without your a.s.sistance," one reminded Doc. "And if we have a few more casualties because your talent let live some who otherwise would have died, we shoulder that burden gladly enough."
So Firekeeper got her way. She usually did, Derian thought rather sourly.
Blind Seer rather than Firekeeper was waiting to guide them-a thing King Allister"s bodyguard viewed with increased distrust and dismay.
Edlin saw Perce"s expression and said cheerfully: "Takes a bit of getting used to, what? Still, he"s as trustworthy as I am, just not as sunny to look at."
Shad was quick to introduce Edlin, the only member of the party King Allister had not met before.
"Edlin Norwood, Lord Kestrel, Father."
"Norvin Norwood"s son?" King Allister said. "I am pleased to meet you. Your father directed a cavalry troop for me in the past war."
"And left me at home to manage the harvest, what?" Edlin said. "Still, I"ve bloodied my sword in this little fracas, you know. Not too bad. Grandmother"s still holding the reins at home; Father"s managing well enough. Maybe I"ll do a turn as a scout or a sailor, what?"
Derian saw King Allister blink as Edlin babbled-doubtless thinking, as everyone did, how unlike were father and son. The king"s response, however, was the soul of courtesy.
"If you wish to go to sea and your father can spare you, I"ll speak with one of my captains."
"I say, that"s wonderful!" Edlin beamed. "I think we"ll need more Hawk Haven sailors as time goes on, can"t keep relying on your good navy, you know."
Derian heard King Allister say softly to his son, "He speaks like a complete idiot, but there"s sense in his head."
"He"s a first-rate cartographer, too," Shad responded in the tones of one who offered a great compliment.
Firekeeper awaited them on a little island-hardly more than a few stable hummocks gathered around a cl.u.s.ter of rocks. A channel of mud and slimy water separated her from them, and Blind Seer"s posture made quite clear that both woman and wolf intended for them to remain apart.
Without preamble, Firekeeper began.
"I have the artifacts," she said, taking the three precious items from a feed sack and spreading them on the largest of the rocks.
Reactions varied. Derian"s companions looked at them with distaste mingled with familiar fear. King Allister"s bodyguard actually took a step toward his monarch, as if expecting a comb, a ring, and a mirror to suddenly transform into ravening beasts and rip out the man"s throat.
Derian admired Perce for his bravery. Clearly, his first impulse had been to shrink back.
Sapphire studied the artifacts as if wondering what there was to them that would make a mother abandon her children, a n.o.blewoman choose exile from her birth land.King Allister and Shad, however, viewed them with curiosity colored with distaste.
"A ring," Shad said. "We were right on one."
Allister nodded. "And the long one was a mirror, not a mask or fan. I never would have guessed, not in a million years or with all the wisdom of the Silver Whale, that the last was a comb."
"What do they do?" Sapphire asked.
Derian waited for Firekeeper to speak, and when she didn"t-when indeed a thinning of her lips made clear that she did not plan to speak-he spoke for her.
"Grateful Peace, the New Kelvinese thaumaturge I told you about, said that the mirror was the only one which had begun to relinquish its secrets. They believed it was a scrying device of some sort. The impressions they were getting were weak and blurred, so I don"t know how useful it would be."
Sapphire frowned slightly. "And they had figured out nothing about the others-not even with all their magic?"
"The magic of New Kelvin," Derian said carefully, "may be more in their hopes than in reality. Certainly, we saw little enough evidence of it."
"That is neither here nor there at this point," Sapphire said. Then she sighed. "Though I suspect it will be of great importance in the future. Why have you brought us here, Lady Firekeeper?"
Firekeeper nodded, appreciating the bluntness and apparently not hearing the irritation in the princess"s tone.
"These," she said, gesturing to her companions, "are here to tell you that these are indeed the things we took from New Kelvin. I ask Baron Endbrook if ever he see them, but he say he only see boxes so he cannot say for sure if these are what he brought in from his queen. Grateful Peace say, though, that these are the things he see opened and these are the things he see worked on. I have no reason to think he lie."
King Allister said, "Very well, we have confirmed that these are-to the best of anyone"s knowledge-the very items that Queen Valora removed from my treasury, that were taken into New Kelvin, and were retrieved from there by you and your companions. What next?"
In answer, Firekeeper removed a steel-headed hammer from where she had hidden it behind a stone.
Without comment, she brought it down, this time with all her considerable strength onto the face of the mirror. The polished silver bent and buckled, the ivory frame popped from the edge and lay in pieces.
Next she smashed down on the comb. It might have indeed been carved from stone rather than wood, but its delicacy could not resist the violent force turned against it. Where the hammer hit, the polished stone turned to powder. The remaining pieces scattered across the rock, one flying so far that it dropped into the mud.
"What," Sapphire screamed, "are you doing!"
"Am killing these," Firekeeper said, and her hand, holding the hammer poised above the ring where it rested in a hollow on the rock, trembled. "My people fear them. Your people fear them. I think such should die no matter what wonders..."
And to Derian"s amazement the wolf-woman"s voice broke as from a great unspoken grief."No matter what wonders," she repeated, faltering, "they can work."
Elation shrieked once, loudly, as she might before stooping upon her prey. Firekeeper stared at the bird, wild-eyed, then nodded.
Again, the wolf-woman brought the hammer down, this time with such force that the moonstone vanished in a puff of blue-white dust and the gold that held it was flattened, becoming almost flush with the stone she used for her anvil.
The stone itself cracked beneath the force of that final, angry blow, and Firekeeper leapt to her feet. Her trousers were muddy from where she had knelt, but she found purchase enough on the soft dirt to shove the rock so that it slid beneath the water and began to sink into the muddy bottom. Then she flung the remnants of the mirror and comb out into the swamp, where they plopped and sank beneath the ooze.
Firekeeper stared at them.
"That is all," she said. "Go."
Edlin opened his mouth.
"Go!" she repeated with a growl that Blind Seer echoed.
Derian spoke, feeling his words were incomplete for the occasion.
"I think Firekeeper needs to be alone. She"ll join us when she"s ready, either here or in the North Woods."
He saw the wolf-woman nod her shaven head, a gesture so full of grief and exhaustion that he longed to comfort her. Blind Seer wuffed softly and wagged his great bush of a tail once.
"You watch her, fellow," Derian said, brushing his hand along the wolf"s spine.
None of the others uttered so much as a word of farewell, but turned and filed back toward solid ground.
As Derian followed, he felt obscurely comforted. Blind Seer would watch over Firekeeper-that he could trust when there was nothing else in all the world to be trusted.
With dull eyes Firekeeper watched her friends depart. She knew their plans, had heard them discussed earlier that day. Elise was going back with her father; the rest would take a few days to see Port Haven, then ride back to the North Woods. There had been much enthusiastic chatter regarding staying in proper inns and waiting out snowstorms where there would be hot cider and music.
She had no. heart for such things-indeed, inns with their crowds and smoke and noise held little enchantment for her at the best of times. These were not the best of times. Her dreams had vanished beneath the hammer"s head, vanished when Elation had shrieked: "The woman lies!"
The peregrine"s cry had reminded Firekeeper in whose words she was placing such hope.
The mirror and comb had been destroyed by muscle strength alone-much as Princess Sapphire had destroyed the gem through which her mother had controlled her. The ring, however, had been broken by the sheer force of the wolf-woman"s anger-not at Lady Melina, but at herself for being so nearly seduced by the woman"s lying words.Yet had they been a lie? Now she would never know.
Elation squawked at her.
"Do you truly go to the North Woods or do you go west to tell the Royal Beasts what you have done?"
"I won"t go west," Firekeeper said. "I think I will go to the North Woods, though not at once."
"Why won"t you go west?" Bold asked. "The Beasts will honor you for your courage and tenacity. I myself will sing your praises."
Firekeeper felt a smile trying to surface at the thought of a singing crow, but the smile died without reaching her lips.
"I have done what they asked," she said in explanation, "but maybe not in the manner of their asking.
They said that I was to bring the artifacts to them and they would secure them against misuse. Instead I myself have secured them against misuse by destroying them. Right now I don"t have the patience to debate such fine points with those who still see me as an odd pup with fingers."
Elation laughed. "Then I will carry the news to them. Bold and I will spread your news to the ears that wish to hear it. Then I will join you in the North Woods. There is good hunting there and I wish to see what Derian does to improve Earl Kestrel"s stables."
"Tell us your message," Bold agreed. "I will sing to all, not just to the Mothers of my kind."
"Tell them," Firekeeper said slowly. "Tell them that I have kept my promise. The things are found and though I will not bring them back, they are broken beyond use-they will hurt no one."
To her eye, the shattered ruins of the moonstone ring were still visible, though the rock that held them was being swallowed by the swamp. The beast"s features were battered and dented, but she could see them, remember how she had hoped to make them her own.
Looking at the ruined ring, Firekeeper was not so certain that no one had been hurt. Certainly, her own heart was breaking.
Blind Seer came up to her as she finished speaking, nudging her with his head, forcing her to look him in those unwolfish eyes, blue as a mountain pool but holding sight.
Seeing the still livid scar that bisected the wolf"s eyelid, Firekeeper was forced to admit that she was not the only one who had accepted loss to fulfill this promise. Blind Seer could have been truly blinded-or killed.
The great grey wolf nudged her again.
"Catch me," he suggested, beginning to run, leaping from hummock to hummock.
Firekeeper reached for his tail as it trailed behind him. It slipped through her fingers, but in the reaching she did indeed begin to run.
Blood flowed through her veins, tracing the crack in her broken heart, making it whole, though leaving behind a scar.
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERSAgneta Norwood: (H.H.) daughter of Norvin Norwood and Luella Stanbrook; sister of Edlin, Tait, and Lillis Norwood; adopted sister of Blysse Norwood (Firekeeper).
Aksel Trueheart: (Lord, H.H.) scholar of Hawk Haven; spouse of Zorana Archer; father of Purcel, Nydia, Deste, and Kenre Trueheart
Albert Eagle: (H.H.) son of Princess Marras and Lorimer Stanbrook. In keeping with principles of Zorana I, he was given no t.i.tle, as he died in infancy.
Alin Brave: (H.H.) husband of Grace Trueheart; father of Baxter Trueheart.
Allister I: (King, H.H.), called King Allister of the Pledge, sometimes the Pledge Child; formerly Allister Seaglearn. Son of Tavis Seagleam (B.B.) and Caryl Eagle (H.H.); spouse of Pearl Oyster; father of Shad, Tavis, Anemone, and Minnow.
Alt Rosen: (Opulence, Waterland): amba.s.sador to Bright Bay.
Amery Pelican: (King, B.B.) Spouse of Gustin II; father of Basil, Seastar, and Tavis Seagleam.
Deceased.
Anemone: (Princess, B.B.) formerly Anemone Oyster. Daughter of Allister I and Pearl Oyster; sister of Shad and Tavis; twin of Minnow.
Apheros: (Dragon Speaker, N.K.) long-time elected official of New Kelvin.
Aurella Wellward: (Lady, H.H.) confidant of Queen Elexa; spouse of Ivon Archer; mother of Elise Archer.
Characters are detailed under first name or best-known name. The initials B.B. (Bright Bay), H.H.
(Hawk Haven, or N.K. (New Kelvin) in parentheses following a character"s name indicate nationality.
t.i.tles are indicated in parentheses.