“They have all been born,” they said in a thousand voices that were yet one voice, “those twisted souls you once failed, they who are called changelings. They have left behind the world of images, and they must learn now to live in the world of flesh, as children of the Westfolk, Children of Air. It is your task to help them learn. Will you remember?”
In the Halls of Light there are no lies.
“I will try to remember,” he said. “I will strive to remember.”
“You will be helped to remember. Aderyn, your name was once. You will learn to fly again.”
In the midst of the light a lack of light appeared, a shapeless thing, not a true darkness, for there can be no darkness in the Halls of Light, but still, it opened. He stepped to its edge. Among the crystal pillars a tiny flame of gold burned, quivering. He could hear its cry of pain.
“You’ll follow me, Evandar,” he said. “In due time you will follow me, and I shall father you a body. Dallandra’s child will be your mother, and she will cherish you. They have promised.”
“So we have,” they said. “Farewell and remember!”
He took one more step and fell, soaring, spiraling down and down through indigo light until he floated above a pair of golden auras that marked elven bodies. He recognized Valandario even in his disembodied state, because once she’d been his pupil in the dweomer. Deep within her body he perceived a dark knot of unensouled flesh, his body to come. For a moment he hesitated, remembering the freedoms of the Halls of Light. Courage! he told himself.
With a wrench of will he surrendered to the pull of the flesh. He sank down into the dark prison and slept.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I UNDERSTAND THAT SOME FEW things will vex readers if I leave them untold. Once Avain had flown free to her true home, Laz moved into her old tower, his refuge for the rest of his days as he unwound the evil wyrd his life as Alastyr had given him. Kov and Mara married and had the children the island demanded of them. And, speaking of offspring, during his meditations in the tower at Dragon Meadow, Salamander did remember that Hwilli had once been his mother and Rhodorix his father, all those long years before.
As for Angmar and Rhodry, they lived peaceably on their island for some years more, then died within a few days of each other. Kov and Marnmara laid them in each other’s arms on the same funeral pyre, so that their spirits could rise free of the dead flesh together. No doubt they were reborn at some time and place, but I for one know naught of what happened next, so you’d best not be asking me.
For so my saga ends. Of the souls who have formed its core, there is little more to be said, though many a fine tale about other souls lies in the archives here on this priestly island. Whether or not I will someday write about them, only Time knows, and as usual, Time isn’t telling. So, farewell, dear Reader, and may you stay forever young in your heart!
Cadda Cerrmor
Wmmglaedd
in the 1,794th year after the founding of the Holy City
Received and translated from the Deverrian by Katharine Kerr
GLOSSARY
Alar (Elvish) A group of elves, who may or may not be bloodkin, who choose to travel together for some indefinite period of time.
Alardan (Elv.) The meeting of several alarli, usually the occasion for a drunken party.
Astral The plane of existence directly “above” or “within” the etheric (q.v.). In other systems of magic, often referred to as the Akashic Record or the Treasure House of Images.
Avro (Dwarvish) A warleader, roughly equivalent to cadvridoc and banadar, but possessing more absolute command than either.
Banadar (Elv.) A warleader, equivalent to the Deverrian cadvridoc.
Blue Light Another name for the etheric plane (q.v.).
Body of Light An artificial thought-form constructed by a dweomermaster to allow him or her to travel through the inner planes.
Cadvridoc (Deverrian) A war leader. Not a general in the modern sense, the cadvridoc is supposed to take the advice and counsel of the noble-born lords under him, but his is the right of final decision.
Captain (Dev. pendaely.) The second in command, after the lord himself, of a noble’s warband. An interesting point is that the word taely (the root or unmutated form of -daely,) can mean either a warband or a family depending on context.
Deosil The direction in which the sun moves through the sky, clockwise. Most dweomer operations that involve a circular movement move deosil. The opposite, widdershins, is considered a sign of the dark dweomer and of the debased varieties of witchcraft.
Dweomer (trans. of Dev. dwunddaevad.) In its strict sense, a system of magic aimed at personal enlightenment through harmony with the natural universe in all its planes and manifestations; in the popular sense, magic, sorcery. Pronounced dway-OH-mer.
Egregore A body of knowledge that has been bound by astral forces and “stored” on some higher plane. An egregore may be read by a person who knows the symbols necessary to “unlock” it.
Ensorcel To produce an effect similar to hypnosis by direct manipulation of a person’s aura. (True hypnosis manipulates the victim’s consciousness only and thus is more easily resisted.)
Etheric The plane of existence directly “above” the physical. With its magnetic substance and currents, it holds physical matter in an invisible matrix and is the true source of what we call “life.”
Etheric Double The true being of a person for a single lifetime, the electromagnetic structure that holds the body together and that is the actual seat of consciousness.
Falcata (Latin) A curved and weighted saber derived from the earlier falx, an ancient weapon, carried in our world by Hispanic tribes of the second and third centuries BC, independently reinvented by Gel da’Thae swordsmiths.
Gerthddyn (Dev.) Literally, a “music man,” a wandering minstrel and entertainer of much lower status than a true bard.
Gwerbret (Dev. The name derives from the Gaulish vergobretes.) The highest rank of nobility below the royal family itself. Gwer brets (Dev. gwerbretion) function as the chief magistrates of their regions, and even kings hesitate to override their decisions because of their many ancient prerogatives.
Lwdd (Dev.) A blood-price; differs from wergild in that the amount of lwdd is negotiable in some circumstances, rather than being irrevocably set by law.
Malover (Dev.) A full, formal court of law with both a priest of Bel and either a gwerbret or a tieryn in attendance.
Mach-fala (Horsekin) A mother-clan, the basic extended family of Gel da’Thae culture.
Mazrak (Horsekin) A shape-changer.
Rakzan (Horsekin) The highest ranking military officer among the Gel da’Thae regiments, a position that bestows high honor on the mach-fala of the man holding it.
Rhan (Dev.) A political unit of land; thus, gwerbretrhyn, tieryn rhyn, the area under the control of a given gwerbret or tieryn. The size of the various rhans (Dev. rhannau) varies widely, depending on the vagaries of inheritance and the fortunes of war rather than some legal definition.
Scrying The art of seeing distant people and places by magic.
Sigil An abstract magical figure, usually representing either a particular spirit or a particular kind of energy or power. These figures, which look a lot like geometrical scribbles, are derived by various rules from secret magical diagrams.
Tieryn (Dev., from Gaulish tigerinos) An intermediate rank of the noble-born, below a gwerbret but above an ordinary lord (Dev. arcloedd.)
Wyrd (trans. of Dev. tingedd.) Fate, destiny; the inescapable problems carried over from a sentient being’s last incarnation.
Wyrd, Portion of, also known as the Pars Fortunae or Caput Dra conis, in the Greggyn system, an astrological term for the position of the Earth within a horoscope; in the Elvish system it represents Aethyr. Deverrian astrologers have conflated the two meanings over the years.
A NOT ON DATING
Year One of the Deverry calander is the founding of the Holy City, or, to be more accurate, the ye
ar that King Bran saw the omen of the white sow that instructed him where to build his capital. It corresponds roughly to 76 CE.
TABLE OF INCARNATIONS
TABLE OF INCARNATIONS
Katharine Kerr, The Silver Mage
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends