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in personal relationships.
By the Veiled Froyvil, my old dom, but that is good, said Seg as he took the goblet from his lips. His
mouth shone with fine Gremivoh, and I instantly refilled the goblet for him. We sat in my study, with the
books and the maps, and Seg looked more like my old friend than a sodden wrung-out chained-up slave.
The doctors had seen to him and patched him up, declaring he needed rest. His first words after that
typical greeting had been: And Thelda? Whereat I had shaken my head. There has been no news of
her, none at all.
I went up to Evir, said Seg, now, as we brought each other up to date with our doings since we had
parted on the way to the Sacred Pool of Baptism in Aphrasöe. I went into that damned pool with Delia
and the emperor and the others, and then I was back home in Erthyrdrin. He drank again, and shook his
head. Mightily discomposing, I can tell you.
I know.
He looked up. Well, you would, wouldn t you?
So you made your way back to Vallia and went to Evir?
Yes. If I d been sorcerously transported home, then Thelda would, too or so I thought.
You were right. I told him a little of the power of Vanti, the Guardian of the Pool, enough to allow him
to understand that we had been caught up in a wizardly manifestation. He seemed satisfied with my
explanation.
She d been there. They told me. An uncouth bunch, all right, those Evirese.
And?
He moved his left hand emptily.
I went to Falinur, then. After all, I am supposed to be their damned kov. But, for me, they can keep
their kovnate and their mangy ways. I was taken up by flutsmen, and escaped, and then, being a trifle
down, was easy prey for the aragorn. We d been marching for days on end. I think I m not sure I
escaped a couple of times. But the lot I was with when you came up were the last.
You are home now, Seg.
He gripped that empty hand into a fist. A Bowman of Loh, Seg Segutorio, for my money the best
bowman on Kregen, and a kov, the Kov of Falinur. Yet he was the truest friend a man can have, and be
thankful to all the Gods of Kregen he may call a friend. Now he looked down, shrunken, fearful of the
terrors the future must bring.
Home yes, Dray, I made Vallia my home. And, now my wife, my children, where are they?
You have returned. They will, too.
I believe that. I have to believe that. But the whole business has been a nightmare.
He had heard the news, how the emperor s life had been saved by his immersion in the Sacred Pool, of
how all those who had taken him there had been sorcerously dispatched to their homes, of how the
emperor had at last been slain in the final moments of the Fall of Vondium. He had listened stony-faced
as the story of Kov Layco Jhansi s treachery was told, and of how Zankov, the mysterious agitator, had
killed the emperor. He heard about Queen Lushfymi of Lome, and expressed no great desire to meet
her, despite that she worked hard and devotedly for Vallia. I knew that Seg loved his Thelda very
deeply. For all her faults she was a good comrade and I often castigated myself for my treatment of her,
for the supposedly funny remarks I made about her. She tried desperately hard to be a good friend to
Delia, and Delia loved her, too, in her own way.
And now she was missing and might be anywhere, not only in Vallia, either. Anywhere at all on
Kregen...
Seg fetched up a sigh. Well, Thelda always means well, he said, at which I shot him a hard look. I
just pray Erthyr the Bow has her in his keeping.
Amen to that, Seg, and Opaz and Zair, too.
The doctors having told me that the Kov of Falinur needed a proper convalescence, which was not at all
surprising, I made Seg see sense. In addition to seeking Thelda he wanted to know what had happened
to his children, Dray and the twins. From my own bitter experiences of the past, and more recently in
attempting to trace Dayra, I knew the wait might well be a long and agonizing one before any news was
received. And, all this time, the work of preparing Vondium and the provinces loyal to us to resist the
coming attack had to go on.
I said to Seg: I am particularly pleased that the Grand Archbold of the Kroveres of Iztar is now with
us.
Seg showed a flicker of interest.
The Order has admitted a number of new brothers lately. The work goes on. It seems to me, as a mere
member, seemly for the Grand Archbold to welcome the new brothers.
Yes, my old dom, said Seg, but he spoke heavily. You are right. I value your words in this. You
made me the Grand Archbold for my sins, I suspect, as you so often say. But I will perform my duty.
He brightened. Anyway, it seems to me a perfectly proper function of the KRVI to search out and
rescue ladies in distress.
Ah! I said.
If I thought then that this work with the KRVI might help Seg, I feel the thought to be just and proper. If,
as I suspect may have been the case, I also thought it would get him out of my hair, the thought was not
only unjust and improper it was despicable. Still, as they say, only Zair knows the cleanliness of a
human heart. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]