Fires of Azeroth (35 page)

"That is the power you hold,
arrha.
You have but to combine your tiny jewels into one. Did you not know that? We are armed . . . alike. And I make you free gift of that knowledge now-for someday one will discover it, and you will have to use them that way."

"No."

"Can you forget what I have told you?" she asked in a low voice. "Can you forget what you have seen? Can you take the sword and keep it forever sheathed, when the
sirrindim
rise up with cities and threaten you, when Men increase and you are few? Some evil,
qhal
or Man, someday . . . will draw it. And unlike your jewels, which will fade when the Gate is sealed, the sword is knowledge to build more such Gates."

There was deathly silence. Some of the
arrha
wept, their heads bowed into their hands.

"Give it up," Morgaine urged them. "Or leave Nehmin, and come my road, the passage that I must take. I have told you truth. I have shown you. And while Nehmin remains open, that truth will always gape at your feet to swallow you up. Seal up the passage; seal Nehmin and the stones lose their fire and Shathan stands . . . unbarriered, but living. Keep Nehmin open, and you will fall to it one day. But whatever you choose, I have no choice. I must take this sword out of the world. More than Shathan is at hazard. More than your lives. More than this world alone. The evil is as wide as all the passages that ever existed. And it is most dangerous when you think it tamed and secure. Those little stones are more evil than
Changeling . . .
because you do not see them for what they are: fragments of a Gate. Joined, they will drink you in and ruin more than your own world: they will reach to others."

The elder trembled, and looked on the others, and on Merir. Lellin wept, and Sezar, the both of them bowed to the floor; and two by two their brother
arrhendim
joined them.

"We have heard truth," Merir said. "I think we have heard the truth my grandson was quicker to hear."

The elder nodded, his hands trembling so that the staff rattled against the floor. He looked at all the
arrha
about him. There was none to say otherwise.

"Do as you will," he said then to Morgaine. "Pass. We will seal Nehmin behind you."

Morgaine let go a long slow breath, and bowed her head. After a moment she gathered
Changeling
to her side and hooked it there, drew it to her shoulder. "We have a number of Shiua to clear from our path to Azeroth. The enemy, my lords of the
arrha,
is still advancing from the river. What will you do about it?"

There was long silence. "We must hold, this place and Nehmin. Nehmin is surrounded. The enemy has already taken all the area. We can speak to the
arrha
who hold Nehmin itself; and within the hold of Nehmin, they can work what you ask. You may ride from here. We can give you seven days ... to reach Azeroth and pass; and then we may kill the power."

"You would fall. Shathan would be utterly open to the Shiua horde."

"We fought the
sirrindim,"
said Merir. "The
arrhend
will drive these invaders back too."

Morgaine stared at them, one after another, scanning all the company. And at last she folded her arms and looked at the floor, glanced up at Vanye. He tried to say nothing with his expression. She turned last to Merir. "Will you take my help? I would not leave you with such a gift as waits out there. Aye, Vanye and I could slip past, go another route . . . reach Azeroth in seven days. But what sits out there is-mine. I do not want to leave you to that."

The elder approached her slowly, leaning on his staff. He bowed, deeply, and gazed at her when he straightened, like a man looking into the Gates themselves. "There have been- many passages for you."

"Yes, elder. I am older than you."

"Much so, I suspect." The frail hand reached, touched Vanye's arm, and the dim gray eyes turned to his.
"Khemeis
to such an
arrhen . . .
We sorrow for both of you. For both of you." He looked at Lellin, and bowed, and to Sezar and the other
arrhendim;
and lastly at Merir and Morgaine once more. "You are experienced in wars. We are not. We need you. If you are willing, we need you."

"This, at least, must be on my terms. We consult together."

"We accept that," said Merir.

"You say that you can signal those who now hold Nehmin. Bid them expect us, and soon. You shall hold here, as you can; and they must hold Nehmin until we can reach them. My lord Merir-" she nodded to him to join her, and started to the door, unsteady suddenly; at her side, Vanye felt her lean against him, and took her arm, lending his strength. The sword took, of body and soul; he bad held it, and knew the pain of it "Roh," she said suddenly, distractedly. "Where is Roh?"

He had that worry on him too; there were too many things random, too much slipping their grasp.

But Roh waited outside, a huddled figure at the base of the third standing stone, arms tucked about him. He saw them coming, and rose, torment in his eyes.

"They let you go," he said. "They let you go."

"They agreed," Morgaine said, "to seal Nehmin themselves. That was their choice."

The look went stricken, dazed; they walked past, and Roh followed after.

Chapter Sixteen

They found the horses still safely in the clearing, with some of the
arrha
watching over them-your
qhal,
male and female, dressed in white, with faces which still were innocent of what had passed in the dome. The
arrha
offered neither courtesy nor resistance, but backed from them in seeming distress as they came close-perhaps there was a mark on all of them, Vanye thought, for there was a grimness about the
arrhendim,
the same fey desperation which had troubled him in Lellin and Sezar: he understood now that bleak, lost manner ... that of men who had seen the limits of their world.

And of all the
arrhend,
it rested most heavily on Merir.

"My lord," said Morgaine to him. "The
arrhendim
must be brought here. If we are to save this place-they must be brought. Can you do it?"

The old lord nodded, turned, the reins of the white horse in his hand, and stared in the direction of the river. Even through the trees the roar of many voices could be heard, shouts raised; the horde was on the march.

"I would see this thing," Merir said.

It was madness. But not even Morgaine opposed it "Aye," she said. "Lellin, Sezar?"

"The hill is still ours," Lellin said. "Or was, lately."

Arrha
stood sentinel in the woods, and farther on, in the meadow. "Do not stay here when they come," Morgaine said to the last. "You will only lose your lives. Take shelter with our elders."

They bowed, after their silent fashion. Perhaps they would heed and perhaps not. There was no dispute with men who did not speak.

There rose their own goal, the stony hill at the side of the meadow, and the trail which wound among the trees. The shouts of the horde sounded very near to this place, hardly beyond the screen of trees at the far side of the hill.

They climbed the height on horseback, and rode farther, Morgaine guiding them among the trees which crowned that slope and far to the other side. Rocks were frequent here, a tumbled basalt mass which became a naked promontory, highest of all points hereabouts.

Here Morgaine drew rein and slid down, leaving Siptah to stand. The rest dismounted and tied their horses among the aged trees, and followed her.

Vanye looked back; the last of them rode in, Roh, who left his horse too, and came. Roh might have fled.
Do so,
Vanye wished him with part of his heart; but that which loved the man knew why he had stayed, and what he sought, that was his soul.

But he did not wait for Roh; what battle Roh fought was his own, and he feared to intervene in it. He turned instead and followed after Sharrn and Dev, up among the rocks.

The hill gave them view across the open meadow, higher than it had seemed, for it overtopped most of the trees at this one point, which upthrust broken fingers of stone. Slabs stood like standing stones on this crest, no work of
qhal,
but of nature. Morgaine and Merir stood between two of them, sheltered there, with the others of their company.

Vanye moved up carefully past Dev to the very brink next Morgaine, and gained a view which spanned the river and showed far across into the
harilim's
woods, so subtly did the ground hereabouts slope. Trees extended into gray-green haze on all sides of this place, on this side of the river and the other, and even part of the curve of a clearing was visible.

And nearer . . . ugliness moved. It was as Lellin had said, like a new forest grown upon the shores of the Nara, a surging mass bristling with metal-tipped pikes and lances of wood, dark and foul. Occasionally there showed a small
khalur
band, conspicuous in the sunlight glancing off their armor . . . most of those were horsemen. The horde filled all the shore and surged up the throat of the low place that led to the meadow, moving steadily and in no haste. Their voices roared as if from a common throat.

"They are so many," breathed Vis. "purely there are not so many
arrhendim
in all Shathan. We cannot find that many arrows."

"Or time to fire them," said Larrel.

Morgaine stepped closer to the edge. Vanye seized her arm, anxious, although the distance was far and the chance was small of being seen in this sheltered point against the rocks. She regarded his warning and stopped. "This place," she said, "is impossible to hold, even if we would. The slope on the other side is too wide. This height would become a trap for us. But the enemy's circle is not yet closed. If the
arrhendim
could be brought . . . before they start to work at us with fire and axe, and if we could keep the horde from breaching Nehmin's gates ..."

"It can be done," said Lellin. "Grandfather, it must."

"We cannot fight," said Merir, "not after their fashion, armored and with horses. We are not like them, of one mind and one voice."

"Yet we must have help," Morgaine said, "of whatever fashion."

"Do not trust-" Roh said, edging forward; Vanye whipped out his dagger and Roh stopped still a distance from Morgaine, leaning against the slanting rock. "Listen to me. Do not trust appearances with the Shiua. I taught them. Hetharu took the whole north of Shiuan in a matter of days. He is a student more apt than his teacher."

"What do you reckon of them?"

Roh looked toward the river, grimacing into the wind and the light. "Eight, ten thousands there, if they extend much beyond that point of the trees. What they have coming in on the other side of Nehmin . . . three times that many. Probably more coming up that little river north of here, until they have us framed. Any riders of ours who try to escape this wedge of land now will be cut down. They are screened in brush and on every side of us. This-
show-
is to distract us."

"And the higher crossings of the Nara? How many are we dealing with?"

"Believe that Shiua will have reckoned first of those crossings. Every possible escape will be held. And the whole number of the horde . . . that is uncounted; even the
khal
do not know. But they reckon a hundred thousands-all fighters, killers. Even the young ones. They plundered their own land and killed their own kind to come here into this one. A man who falls even to the children will be cut to pieces. Murder is common among them; murder, and theft, and every crime. They will fight; they do that well when they think their enemy helpless."

"Shall we," asked Merir, "believe that advice this one gives?"

Morgaine nodded. "Believe," she said softly, "that this man wishes you well, my lord Merir. His own land was such as Shathan, even more so in the age before him, which he may remember-in his better dreams. Is it not so?"

Roh looked at her, shaken, and reached forth a hand to the rocks, leaning there.

"My lord," said Morgaine, "I do not think even the
arrhendim
could fight with more love of the land than this man."

A moment Merir looked on him. Roh bowed his head, looked up with eyes glittering with tears.

"Aye," Merir said, "aye, I do think so."