The Gold Falcon (73 page)

Distantly from the west Branna heard a sound like thunder, but by then she’d heard enough dragons in flight to recognize it for the beat of wings. She surveyed the sky, and at last she saw Rori, gleaming more silver than the moon with the Wildfolk of Aethyr clinging to him as he flew. She was expecting him to go on by, but he headed for the tower as if he might land.

Instead, at the last moment he lowered one wing and began to circle around the broch, as if to greet and salute her. As Branna stood on that particular tower with Cengarn spread out below her and watched a dragon circle in greeting, she suddenly remembered standing there long before and watching a man riding another dragon, waving as he passed by. The memory was so strong that she turned to speak to Dallandra, who had stood next to her at the time, only to find her, of course, not there.

For a moment Branna felt as if she might fall to her knees in a faint or trance. She started trembling, suddenly cold, as another vision came to her. Two times, two lives rose up before her, a shimmering memory, a clear view, one overlapping the other, then breaking free, as if they danced side by side inside her mind. She could see the silver wyrm flying over Dun Cengarn. She could see a man standing in a doorway with bright sun behind him, and over him the shadow of a pair of enormous wings, his dark wyrd. The two sights fused.

“Rhodry!” she called out. “Rhodry, I’ve come back! I’m here!”

It seemed the stupidest thing in the world to say, but the dragon tossed back his head and roared. She could hear joy in that greeting. He circled once more, then flew off due north. Branna watched him until he disappeared into the gloom of the horizon.

“Well and good, then, Jill,” she said aloud. “It’s going to take both of us, but you swore a vow that you’d pull him back from the brink of that wyrd, and by every god and goddess, I’m going to keep it.”

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.

 

Banadar
(Elv.) A warleader, equivalent to the Deverrian cadvridoc, q.v.

 

Blue Light
Another name for the etheric plane (q.v.).

 

Body of Light
An artificial thought-form (q.v.) constructed by a dweomermaster to allow him or her to travel through the inner planes.

 

Cadvridoc
(Dev.) 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.

 

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, the electromagnetic structure that holds the body together and that is the actual seat of consciousness.

 

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. Gwerbrets (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.

 

Rhan
(Dev.) A political unit of land; thus, gwerbretrhyn, tierynrhyn, the area under the control of a given gwerbret or tieryn. The size of the various rhans (Dev. rhan nau) 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.) 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.

TABLE OF INCARNANONS

TABLE OF INCARNATIONS