"You and your father are both angry with me," he answered"
"and I do not wish to displease you further. I walk aloe"
searching for my purpose, and trying to shut out revenge. I an ashamed that it still burns in my heart. It casts a shadow across the beauty of Clatterford. Yet, if I give it up I turn
back on my father"s torment and the Nightmare runs fire
220.
u? _
~ _.
You see, I have vowed to shoot an arrow strike into his black heart."
Eventine smiled and touched his hand. "If you treasure the light the Nightmare can never escape from you."
Kyot breathed deeply, inhaling Eventine"s night-fresh scent and his heart raced. He had laughed when Thane had told him of his love for Elionbel because he had never known love but now he could almost cast aside all thought of the Nightmare for one soft smile... Kyot shook his head, scattering the picture, remembering how he had found his father in the courtyard of Stumble Hill.
Eventine smiled in the darkness and took out a spark, lighting it so that she could look into Kyot"s eyes. "There is a shadow in your heart. A shadow of anger because my father denied the gla.s.s-bladed arrows.,
Kyot blushed again, looking down at the lawn. "No, if there is anger in my heart it is aimed inwards at myself because I know I cannot shut out revenge. I must avenge my father"s death. Nevian cast the rainbow cloak across my shoulders and showed me his torment. I must follow the Nightmare to the end of Elundium to clear my mind of that picture before it burns my eyes into blindness."
Eventine let the spark fall on to the lawn and sadly shook her head. There were moments in the gra.s.slands when she, had seen him with a clear heart and a straight eye.
Kyot frowned and drew back. "I was at Thane"s side in the battle before the Gates of Night, and I wounded the Nightmare with one of your father"s arrows. That is why Krulshards took my father"s life. Now I must kill him."
"Was it only revenge and hate that brought you twenty daylights into the gra.s.slands?" Eventine asked, turning to him.
"What of all the other reasons for fighting against the darkness? Do they have a place in your heart, or does revenge shut them out?"
"Purpose? What other purpose? As the Wayhouse Keeper"s son my task is to fight against the Nightbeasts. Now I seek
their master, Krulshards", death. That is my purpose."
"Was there nothing but the Nightbeasts before your father"s death?"
Kyot shook his head. "My father was pledged against the darkness and now I must take his place to rid the world of all Nightbeasts."
Eventine took both of Kyot"s hands and held them tightly.
"What of the daylight? Are you blind to the beauty of the land and all things that move within it?"
"No!" cried Kyot. "Here at Clatterford I can see the beauty you talk of, but the picture of my father"s torment is more powerful. It drives me to leave this place. It drives me back on to the road to seek revenge."
Eventine sighed, wrapped her cloak tightly around her shoulders and turned towards the house. "Perhaps if you could see and love the daylight it would ease your pain.
Perhaps then you could see that there might be other ways to destroy the Nightmare"s heart."
Kyot took a step to follow, stopped and sank to his knees.
"Nevian, help me!" he whispered, burying his head in his hands. "Take away this revenge. I know not what to do!"
"Be at peace, Kyot," Fairday said quietly. ~
Kyot looked up, startled by the voice. The Crystal Maker was standing before him, his sky-washed cloak a shade of pal
purple in the starlight. In his hands he held a gla.s.s-bladed arrow that still showed the beauty of the setting sun in its tip; Bending, Fairday placed the gla.s.s blade against Kyot"s fore
head.
"Nevian, the Master of Magic, only showed you the tragedy of your father"s death. Close your eyes; watch with me no.
and see what he loved in the daylight."
Kyot closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the setting sup on his forehead and heard birdsong in the hedgerows, then he saw his father on the high platform of the tower looking oh
over a beautiful evening landscape of rippling gra.s.slands. Hi sun touched each polished stalk of gra.s.s in waves of glittering
light. Wild deer sprang quickly through the gra.s.ses and owls hovered in the deepening gloom. The picture faded as Kyot opened his eyes, the first smile of Clatterford on his lips.
"Your father was pledged to keep the wayhouse safe, but his love of the daylight far outmeasured his duty, and his victory over the Nightmare was to hear the first blackbird herald the new morning. I did not counsel you to turn away from the Nightmare but to follow him with this clear picture in your mind. See your father now with the new sun rising above World"s Edge, filling the courtyard of the tower on Stumble Hill with the pure morning light that he loved."
Kyot smiled, tears running down his face and rose to his feet. Taking Fairday"s hand into his he kissed the Crystal Maker"s knuckles. "He could not retreat and let the Nightmare steal one moment of the daylight. He stood there for us all that we might see the new sun rise."
"Give me your hand," Fairday asked. "This is the hand that must be steady for it holds the great Bow of Elundium, but this hand," whispered Fairday, catching hold of Kyot"s other hand, "will now hold the future of Elundium tight on the bowstring."
"How so?" cried Kyot. "How can I carry such a burden?"
Fairday smiled. "It will be but a moment"s choice in the darkness. That is why your bears must be pure and your eyes clear sighted. Your fattier, if he lived, could have made that choice, but it has fallen to you to stand in his place."
"Yes, now I can see purpose," Kyot cried, kneeling and offering his empty quiver.
Fairday laughed, and pulled the young Archer to his feet.
"Go to my daughter. She has two quivers ready loaded with spine-matched arrows. She has waited impatiently since your arrival at Clanerford for this moment."
Kyot blushed but Fairday laughed, for he had seen Kyot"s love for his daughter at their first meeting on the lawns of Clanerford and it had saddened him to watch the shadow of revenge stand between them. Putting his arm around Kyot"s
shoulders he turned him towards the house.
"Long ago, when your father had just carved the great Bow of Orm he came to me for gla.s.s arrows to use against the Nightmare. As payment for the arrows he fashioned a bow from the waste wood and left it in my care. It is the sister, the wife, the perfect match to the Bow of Orm. Go to Eventine for she has that bow, and let the bows sing out together against the Nightmare. Go, for Nevian foretold your meeting and the love that would grow out of it. Go quickly." ;
Laughing, Kyot thanked Fairday, ran across the lawn and sprang lightly up the wide gla.s.s steps to stand before Eventine. "
Forgive me," he stammered, "but revenge had clouded my purpose and made me blind."
Eventine closed her fingers around his hand and brought it to her lips. "When I first saw you in the gra.s.slands I knew our lives were to be interwoven. I know now that I loved you even then."
Kyot smiled, looking deeply into her eyes. "Your arrows, pressed silently into the ground while I slept, were a token!" .
"To keep you safe from the Nightbeasts!" she replied: laughing. "As a child my father often told me the legend of the Archer who would one daylight cross the gra.s.slands in search of this house. It was a beautiful story, yet full of sadness, for the Archer carried the tragedy of his father"s cruel death ID his heart. He was lost and alone with only the sun to guide him."
"You were beside me in the village?"