The Letterseeker: Chapter Fourteen

THE BRILLIANCE IS THE ROOT OF EMPTINESS.

COMMENT: Emptiness cannot stand alone, but requires an anchor. The brilliance is called “Root of Emptiness” because it arises within it and secures it, as a root secures foliage to the soil by growing in one way while the foliage grows in another.

—Bard-Oggmh, Translation and Commentary:

THIRTEEN FRAGMENTS FROM THE BOOK OF WHISPERS

“Aye, Lady Gretta, Koronthos,” Garufel repeated. “It is the Boundary, and does not appear in the world merely to wreck ships. Stoneglow's need is linked to that of the Bodla and this has been enough, I think, to raise the rock from the sea. If I am right, Stoneglow Threescar has passed into another of the Lands—and perhaps taken Maegeth Crowhair with him.”

They sat now in council with Mindilfir and his captains, and with Thierknut the Red Prince of the South, considering the strange story that had been given them by Ferenth the mariner.

“This is bad, wizard,” said Mindilfir. “Ferenth thought that the woman on the boat had the upper hand. If it was Maegeth and she has taken the Bodla, great harm may come to the Three Realms. We must aid Lord Stoneglow.”

“It will not be easy for Maegeth to take the Bodla,” said Garufel. “The Letterseeker is resourceful. I think he will make things difficult for the Dark Maiden.”

“That is certain, and we shall do all we can to help Stoneglow, but we cannot aid him directly. We must count upon his actions as well as ours.”

“Why not directly?” asked Mindilfir. “Can you show us a Door to the other Lands? Should we make haste to the Gladheel Downs and the M-gate?”

“Nay, Hunterchief. The M-gate is not made for such. The O'Kuern might command the M-gate so, but he is not here. It is the Stoneshield that is the Greatest of Gates, embracing all purposes. Stoneglow will seek it in whichever Land he has come to, for he knows that he must go to the Stoneshield and he will guess that I will seek him there.”

“I will go there, and do what I may,” said Garufel. “You must remain in the Narrow Woods and see to its protection. Reinforce your borders! The Shadow of Urtri will grow as the Bodla is drawn farther away. All must beware and watch for evil now.”

“In Ferenth's ship. I can weld leaking seams. I will press Ferenth Waryman to my service also. He is brave and capable and did not try to deceive us. Despite his earlier service to Maegeth, I believe we can trust him now that he is freed from her influence. And we will need masts from the woods; supplies—”

“I will go with you,” said Gretta firmly, her eyes filled with an emotion her father had not seen before. Mindilfir did not think to deny her wish. He turned to his captains.

“Erek, send men to the woods. Have them cut what the Loremaster needs. Flarann, you will see to supplies. Now, Garufel, for an escort—”

“The escort is here, Hunterchief!” It was Thierknut who spoke. “Your pardon, Loremaster, but I will not see the Lady Gretta on such a journey with no more guard than wizardry. Although I do not understand why such a bother should be made over this wanderer, it is clear there are those here who think him important. Therefore I offer myself and my men.”

“You have been of great help to us, Prince Thier,” said Mindilfir, “but the charge your father King Mog laid upon you did not include an errand to Meiush-srrnyo.”

“Thierknut Mogson makes his own decisions on such matters,” said the prince, casting a sidelong glance at Gretta; but she appeared not to notice him or his speech.

“I do not desire a crowd,” said the wizard, “yet Lady Gretta's company would be an advantage, since Stoneglow has a way of finding her. And though none dwell upon the Stonemote but beasts friendly to me, in the present circumstances an escort seems prudent. But not as many as you have with you, Prince Thierknut. Fifty only, I think.”

Liesa ran up the sandslope. Stoneglow sheathed his sword and followed. At the top Liesa waited for him, looking down at the shimmering blue cloth that lay on the sand.

“Take it,” her eyes shone with a youthful fire. “It is her token —for you! Oh, look!”

Forgetting herself entirely Liesa gave a cry of delight and reached down to the veil. There in a fold was caught a rosebud of the finest lavender: Of all the thousands that had carpeted the dune, this one alone had not returned to the mind of Vrrjhri. A perfume lingered there with it, sweet and compelling. Liesa picked up the flower and the cloth, holding them both out to Stoneglow. In her hands the veil and the rose seemed twice given, as if her human touch was there to mediate the divine.

“I will take the veil,” he said. “The rose is yours to keep. You told me Maegeth was here on the beach. But for that the Bodla would now be gone.”

“Then it is the Bodla, the Bodla of Berainn the Beautiful, that you hold in your hand?” Accepting the gift, she tucked the rosebud within her blouse. And now Stoneglow held the veil, reflection of Vhialla, agleam and shadowy.

“What is left of it, Liesa. You heard the Lady's command. I must find the Treegorge to fashion a new one, but how? My friends are far behind me—beyond Koronthos.”

“I am your friend, Stoneglow, and how do you judge that the Lady spoke only to you? We were both within the sound of her voice. Perhaps her command was meant for me as well as yourself. Surely it was not chance that led you to this beach.”

“I'm glad to hear you call me Stoneglow, Liesa,” he said, “since I do not take well to titles. But as for helping—tell me then, do you know where the Treegorge is?”

“No,” she said, furrowing her brow. “But my mother Cleva is wise. If it is here in the Broad Lands, she will know of it. Most folk today think of it only as a place of legend, Drred-Srrnyo, a great ravine thousands of feet deep. There they say live the ancestors of trees, especially Atalaté the Treefather who has the power of speech and from whose topmost branches the Bodla was taken by Berainn ages ago.”

“If Atalaté the Father of Trees speaks, then he may wish to speak with me, for I have seen the Mother of Trees in her sunless glade upon the slopes of Barallas in the Narrow Woods of the Narrow Lands. Maybe Atalaté would pay for news of her with a bit of alderbough.”

At last she came to rest in the Dark of Arem where even her milkwhite skin was colorless and she knew not whether she was there in body or in mind alone. Beneath Arem in the Empty Lands no light ever comes, and in the deep shadow dwells the Lightless Mirror, Asli-Trrgja.

We call her Urtri, Root of Roots. She is the mother of the Ice-Woman Vrrjhri the Cold out of whose thawing Erta sprang. That thawing came from Vrrjhri's love for Berainn; but it meant that Vrrjhri turned her will against her mother, who had set her daughter upon the shores of Anash as a rival to Elihh. So Urtri moved to destroy Erta, thinking thereby to ruin the love of Vrrjhri and Berainn. In the form of an Image Nameless She entered the dark places of the realms to do her work of destruction.

But She was hindered by The O'Kuern, who led Vrrjhri and Berainn to the Treegorge and aided in the making of the Bodla that is also called The Nail, since it secures the Door at the Stoneshield and prevents Urtri from entering. Vrrjhri and Berainn raised the Stoneshield, image of Anash, making a hollow at its center. This hollow was a Door of Power, first and greatest of all the Doors. And the power of the Shadow in every realm was drawn to it because it was made in the likeness of Arem-Deep.

Then Berainn placed the Bodla in the hollow. The Bodla contains the radiance of Atalaté, brightest of gledes, and this proved too much for Asli-Trrgja, so she and the shadows fled, leaving behind only her alliances and her promises.

Yet at times the Bodla must be taken from its seat and used or its power wanes. Then it is susceptible to harm and the minions of Asli-Trrgja thirst to destroy it, opening the door at the Stoneshield and flooding the land with shadow. Maegeth Crowhair was one of these, an immortal whose thought had been swayed to Urtri's purpose in the early days.

Now Maegeth Crowhair had become great, for she succeeded at last where all others had failed. By her The Nail was burned and weakened; and this came about due to the carelessness of Stoneglow Threescar. Instantly Urtri opened a small door, a hole in the sand on the Broadland beach where the Bodla had been burned. She summoned Maegeth, then She sought beyond the opening.

There She found a thing not to Her liking: an aura of gold within which stood an armed man, scarred and grim. Beside him, a girl untouched. Hovering nigh, a bird of prey that held its purpose with the man's. And in the scarred one's hand—the remnant of the cursed Nail itself. It assailed Her with green fire: diminished, but not quenched. Asli-Trrgja could not face the Nail then. Nor while it was yet in the world could She hold any door open for long. She withdrew and the Door closed behind her.

Closed—But in every place of shadow, in the darks of the mind and the blemished heart, where fears cling and hatred broods, Urtri's will now stirred. Those close to madness found madness whelming reason. The sick in whom illness had become a wish for death achieved the death desired. Things long latent thrust forward unexpected. And for many of the strong and good, doubt rose daily, sapping once-firm resolve. Thus the ashes of the Bodla fell as a dulling rain upon a multitude of lives.

Then Urtri took up what was left to Her of The Veil, the better part of which she had given to her Daughter before the coming of Berainn. With this She made a Dreadworm, winged, after the type She had spawned in elder times before the Bodla locked her image from the Lands. Malice She gave the thing, and cunning; power to deceive; strength as a single tendon of steel; and maleness, too, that it might breed.

The Dark Maiden saw it not, for there is no hope of vision in Arem's shadow. But it coiled about her, whispering instructions mixed with words of passion. It brushed her breasts and thighs; she yielded—that Maiden whom no mortal nor immortal man had fathomed.

Lieth looked up at his brother's call. He and his father Dohan stood by his mother's bed where she had slipped into a deadly stupor. At noon they heard a strange cry from the house as they worked on the boats. Rushing inside, they found Cleva—standing! The crippled woman fell as they hurried to her side. Then she went into a fever, whispering only: Liesa.

Trask ran out to find his sister while Dohan and Lieth brought cold cloths for Cleva's brow where beads of yellow sweat formed. Paler and paler she grew. At last Lieth could wait no longer. He was about to follow after Trask when he heard the shout: “Lieth! Father! Liesa is here with a stranger!”

Stranger...Dohan's sharp glance darted from his wife's pallor to his younger son's startled eyes.

Lieth dashed to the side of the room where three stout poles of ash leaned against the wall. He handed the thickest and shortest to his father, taking the other two himself. They ran through a kitchen that still held the odors of breakfast and out the door into the early afternoon sun. Dohan drew his broad-bladed working knife from his belt.

Down the beach past the two narrow pitch-coated wooden hulls that lay side by side in the sand, they saw Trask approaching. Behind him were two others: Liesa and a man wearing a long blue cloak. As they came near Lieth tossed his brother one of the poles, drawing his knife at once with the hand thus freed. Trask caught the staff neatly and held one palm up in a gesture of forbearance.

“Father—father!” Liesa cried, rushing to him and throwing her arms about his chest. There were tears in her eyes.

“Oh, father,” she began, then, seeing the staves, she turned back suddenly to Stoneglow, who stood with his arms away from his sides to show he held no weapons. “—Do not harm him.”

“Stoneglow, father, Lord Stoneglow Threescar. But he hates titles,” said Liesa. “His boat is beached on the other side of the ridge. It has no mast and no oars. He has been most courteous to me, and seeks shelter and aid from us.”

Dohan relaxed a bit but his face was still clouded by suspicion. “We, too, are courteous folk,” he said, “and always we honor honest guests. But Liesa, your mother is ill, I said. She grows paler by the moment since falling into a swoon over an hour ago. She has been saying your name.” Finally comprehending, Liesa gave a choked gasp and pulled away from her father.

“Yes...mother! Trask tried to tell me, but—” She cast a pained glance toward Stoneglow, then turned and ran into the house.

There was Cleva, no longer unconscious. As Liesa entered the room her mother sat up wide-eyed. She was not an old woman, but many years of confinement had turned her hair white and given her a look of greater age. Her gaze spoke of second sight. As her time bedridden had continued, she had grown in the way of foreknowledge, warning them at times of storms and speaking with uncanny surety of the coming day's luck at sea. Now the trance was multiplied an hundredfold. It seemed to Liesa that though her mother saw her, she also saw through her, through the walls, perhaps through the earth itself.

“Liesa,” Cleva rasped, “Where is he? Where is the bluecloak from the golden boat?”

Stoneglow Threescar faced Dohan and his sons quietly, showing no fear. He was more curious than afraid, because Dohan was the first full-grown man he had met since passing through the M-gate who was shorter in stature than himself. Dark-haired, broad chested, with powerful arms, Liesa's father appeared firm but in no way vicious. Also Stoneglow had already spoken some to Trask and knew that he was friendly.

He and Liesa heard Trask calling just as they had come to the top of the ridge. Liesa, breaking her childhood secret, had shown Stoneglow the entrance to her “chimney,” down which, to the girl's surprise, he had descended rapidly without a slip. When she remarked on his skill, he only said: “When one has followed wizards in the moonlight, rocky paths hold little challenge.” And that was all he said, for then they emerged on the beach and Trask came running up.

Yet in Stoneglow's mind there had been another image of which he did not speak: himself and copper-haired Gretta, as they struggled through chambers far more treacherous, the fissures of the Grimdale caverns, with only Bodla-light to guide them. Remembering, a pang of sadness and loss came over him.

Trask then, when he approached, saw not a fearsome pirate armed and scarred, but a lonely wanderer upon whose features love's pain had carved a subtler line. Trask felt a sudden affinity with the stranger that grew from moment to moment as Liesa, whom he trusted as himself, declared Stoneglow's good will and nobility. And if this were not enough, there was something else, a secret, which Trask sensed about his sister though she did not speak of it. A thrill of expectation, of dooms and great achievements, flooded his limbs, so that he almost forgot his unhappy errand. Trask had inherited along with Liesa some of his mother's sensitivity toward things unseen and impending.

Therefore he spoke now in favor of Stoneglow, saying again to Dohan and Lieth that the stranger was a friend. Dohan Firmhand marked the look in Stoneglow's eyes, knowing that faults of character betray themselves quickly in the gaze. Stoneglow's, however, was open and penetrating, without sign of menace. Rather, it spoke to the dour fisherman of a man who has seen fell deeds and returned from places where lesser men would have been lost.

“We will trust Liesa's word and yours, Trask,” said Dohan, anxious to settle the matter and return to Cleva's bedside. “Yet if you mean us no harm, stranger, you will not mind yielding your sword to us for safekeeping until we are fully satisfied, for this is a wild land and we learn caution who live here.”

Stoneglow took the short blade from its sheath without hesitation and handed it to Trask. Dohan had no inkling what a small thing swords had meant to him, nor how often he had sought to avoid ownership of one. Yet as he let go of the weapon, Stoneglow felt a new emotion: pride in trustworthy steel that had once saved his life and Gretta's.

“Carry this with respect, Trask,” he said. “It belonged to the son of a king, and it has tasted the blood of a creature more foul, I think, than any you have seen here, however wild the land.”

“Come then,” said Dohan, and he gestured for Stoneglow to walk beside him. The stranger's last speech had impressed him. Perhaps after all he was a foreign lord.

Lieth, however—blonde, lanky, Liesa's twin, heard Stoneglow with different ears, for Lieth had the heat of jealousy in his blood, and a chill passed up his spine when Threescar spoke of foul creatures. There was a story of darkness and dark knowledge behind those scars, Lieth thought, though he could not be sure there was also evil. He kept silent and followed.

When they returned to Cleva's room she was still awake and staring, but she seemed not to care that her husband stood there before her. She looked beyond him. Then Stoneglow came in and a sigh escaped her lips. All knew then that her body was affected by a fire of vision that would soon consume it.

“This is he, mother,” said Liesa softly, “the one you asked about.” Liesa knelt by the low bed, keeping one arm about her mother's shoulders to support her.

Stoneglow moved to the bedside. Cleva peered at him, breathing in short gasps. Finally she spoke again.

“Fire I saw first. Then anger. Shadows came like serpents, striking those they had once served. One came from me where it was hidden, and it struck. Now its poison fills me.”

“Mother, mother—” Liesa protested. But Cleva, with an effort raised her withered hand for silence.

“You came then in a ship of gold,” she nodded toward the Letterseeker. “When the shadows threatened Liesa, you guarded her—you, and a friend not human.”

Stoneglow guessed that Cleva meant the yulet, but Lieth, when he heard not human, felt his fears return. Cleva broke off, coughing, and Lieth started toward her.

“No,” she commanded, motioning Lieth away. The youth stopped in his tracks. Never before had he disobeyed his mother. She turned back to Stoneglow.

“Vrrjhri came,” she went on, “favoring you. Then—it seemed you two were wed.”

“We did see the Lady, mother, just as you describe, though she did not wed us. Look, this came from Her.” She took the rosebud from her blouse and held it before her mother.

There were cries of wonder from Dohan and the two brothers. A light and a sweet fragrance filled the room as the flower was revealed. And when Cleva saw the flower and received its scent the strain faded from her eyes. She relaxed, slumping, so that Liesa lowered her gently to the bed.

“Wed or not,” the old woman whispered, “you will face the shadows together again, daughter, in a distant place. Beware the black ships! Go bravely.”

Seeing that Cleva was about to fall asleep, Stoneglow leaned close to her. Lieth tightened his grip on his staff, but remained motionless as Stoneglow spoke softly.