Sephrenia reached out as if to touch that ethereal little face in a gesture of infinite love. Then she walked back across the emptiness with Bh.e.l.liom held lightly between her two palms. "Here endeth thy quest, Sir Sparhawk," she said gravely. "Reach forth thy hands to receive Bh.e.l.liom from me and from my Child-G.o.ddess, Aphrael."
And then, quite suddenly, everything became clear.
Sparhawk fell to his knees with Kurik beside him, and the knight accepted the sapphire rose from Sephrenia"s hands. She knelt between the two of them in adoration as they gazed at the glowing face of the one they had called Flute.
The eternal Child-G.o.ddess Aphrael smiled at them, her voice still raised in choral song that filled all the cave with shimmering echoes, and then the light which filled her misty form grew brighter and brighter, and she speared upward, faster than any arrow.
And then she vanished.
This concludes Book One: The Ruby Knight Book Three: The Bh.e.l.liom, The Sapphire Rose, will tell the story of how the legendary jewel of magic frees Queen Ehlana from the crystalline coc.o.o.n that preserves her life.