The Hammer of the Sun (65 page)

She leaned out, resting her hands lightly upon the balustrade before her, and a swift whiteness seemed to course along it, spreading as milk whitens water, glittering as it grew thicker, radiating cold flashes of rainbow hues from the true sun overhead. As it ran out along the outer battlements men filed out behind it, tall warriors of the Ekwesh, but with their black shields painted only with plain bars of white; Elof knew them at once for men of the Hidden Clan, deepest and most fanatical votaries of the Ice. And behind them other shapes came lumbering, nightmarish, inhuman, trolls and worse beasts of shadow. Elof had no eyes for them; for he had glimpsed another, slighter shape. Bare-limbed and slender in a corselet of bright mail, helm-less so that her short dark hair showed, she came to Louhi's side as she beckoned, suffered an arm to be laid about her slim shoulders, and inclined her head to rest it against the white-clad breast.

"Well, brave men of Morvanhal?" called a smoothly mocking voice. "What of all your brave deeds now?"

"What indeed?" Kermorvan shouted back. "We have defeated your army, driven away your rear-guard and shattered your walls of ice. If you do not surrender and submit yourself to us, we will melt the very stone beneath you!"

The laugh that drifted down was sweet and silvery. "Will you indeed? And can you now? See, I bathe in this brightness of yours; for the heat is not in it that can burn me! I drink such petty fires, and make them my own; ask the clever smithling who made you your toy! So what then, my brave man-child? You must move swiftly, remember; for your power dies with the day's end; and the night is mine! What then, man-child? What then?"

Looks of dismay flickered across men's faces, much as the heat across their shields; but Kermorvan smiled calmly. "What then? Another dawn, my lady Louhi! And by that dawn you will be alone, and your life at risk. Can all the Ice stand thus against men, with such power as this in their hands? Whatever a winter achieves, the first suns of spring will undo more swiftly. Your power is slow, my lady, so slow that but for its strength it would be laughable. And now we have found a greater. You are defeated."

The bright peal of laughter that drifted down to them sounded disturbingly true; there was almost an affectionate ring to it, delighting as an adult might in the absurd follies of a child. "
I
? defeated? Believe me, my fair lordling, those of my kind are not so easily defeated, nor lightly slain. The Great Ice has come and gone many a thousand times since this world of outs was gathered out of dust and given to us to direct; do you really think your toy can change that at a few strokes? But, let us suppose it might - have you thought what must follow?" She shook her blond hair till it foamed about her shoulders and fell across her breasts. "Of course you have not. But, man-child, the Ice you would melt, what will become of it? It will not simply vanish, will it? It must turn to water, of course. As much water; and what then?" Her voice hardened suddenly, and became queenly, regal, stern as cold steel mirroring the light that played still about her. "Fool, shall I tell you what must happen? Into the seas that vastness of water shall flow as all waters must, and swell them mightily, and they shall rise and overwhelm the land! And with it shall sink all the petty realms of men, and the last pitiful hopes of your ill-starred race! Destroy the Ice, and you destroy yourselves!"

A shudder of dismay fell across the army at her words, and the disregard she still showed for the consuming sunfire; rumour rumbled among the ranks. But it was Kermorvan's turn to laugh, a broad, confident chuckle not at all like his rare outbursts of mirth; he meant it to be heard. "Lady, lady," he laughed, "you have learned to threaten well; but you threaten too cleverly for simple folk like us! If the Ice cannot overwhelm all the land as Ice, then why should it do any better as water?". Answering guffaws broke out among the ranks, and the mood of the army was turned again in an instant. But Elof did not laugh; he could not take his eyes from that slender figure by Louhi's side, all but eclipsed by her brilliant light.

"No, lady," said Kermorvan then, growing more grimly serious with every word, "I fear nobody believes you. But I tell you this - even if I did, still all your threats would not divert me the breadth of one of your fair golden hairs from my purpose."

His words echoed against the bared stone, and the tall woman swayed suddenly, as if struck in the body. Kermorvan caught Elof by the shoulder, and said sharply "Above her head!" Elof hissed his agreement, and tilted back his shield with minute precision. The sun settled on the upper galleries as if it was caught between the high towers of Kerys, and their icy sheathing exploded. Steam boiled out around the people on the battlements, and Louhi had to throw herself aside to avoid a rain of jagged fragments.

"Stop it!" they heard her scream, stumbling up, "Stop
it
!" She was raging now, all pretence of suavity gone. "Mindless vermin, can you not even see? All that you have, all that you are you owe to us! Our chance creation - a by-blow, an accident of our power…" With savage precision Elof shone the sunlight closer. Then he stopped abruptly as he saw her hurl a figure forward against the balustrade; it was Kara, looking out with wide alarmed eyes among the boiling steam, but making no effort to struggle. The sun's image shook and danced wildly in his quivering grasp. "You!" yelled Louhi, and he had no doubt whom she meant. "Mastersmith! It was your mind dreamed up this pretty toy; who else of your verminkind would have the wit? And it's your hand that sways it now, I'll be bound! Well, do you turn that meddling hand away from me, away from the Ice! Or you'll see its power at work indeed! This creature you claim to care for, though little she thinks of you now - what of her, when your beam is upon us? I need only lift my hand from her and she'll burn to ashes as swift as any common mortal! And what then? We may not die, we higher-born, if we are unbodied against our will; but we do change, and change in the changing. She is weak, and change hangs over her, a change neither you nor I can guess. Bring it upon her, little mastersmith, and how will you ever find her again within the puny lifespan of a man? And would she know you, if you did?"

Elof shot a horrified glance at Kermorvan; but even as he did so, and before the king could answer, the whole great army of shields parted as one, as if they moved of their own accord, dispersing the light in many directions. Elof bowed his head. "Your will is in them," said Kermorvan sombrely. "When it is so strong they heed it even as it forms. You must turn it again, my friend, or we are lost!"

"But there must be something we can do!'" cried Elof in dire anguish.

"What then?" Kermorvan demanded bleakly. "Rescue her? But does she want to be rescued? Look at her; she might strike you down as soon as Louhi would, if you tried!"

Elof ground his teeth. "She would want it! She will, can I but win her away again! You should know there are shackles upon her, though you cannot see them!"

"I know!" said the king bitterly. "But can I set that, set her against all the lives at risk, all we have spent already -and all the future of this world? If you cannot nerve yourself to it, I could not blame you; but I also hold a master-shield, and if I must…"

"Kermorvan!" cried Elof, desperate with anger and alarm. "The ruin of all that is yours would not deter you, you say;
but who are you to command the ruin of mine
?" Roc and Ils sprang up; for they had seen his hand drop to the silver hilt.

Kermorvan did not answer. Instead he said "We have a minute, while Louhi is still gathering her wits. A swift strike at her might free Kara; it is a better chance than none, at all events."

"I could crawl close," offered Roc hoarsely. "With our best archers. Fetch down the bitch with an arrow…"

Kermorvan shook his head. "They are watching for that, those guards… Elof, what could reach that balcony in time? A catapult -"

"No; too inaccurate. If only I still had my hammer! But hurling that into such great heat might awaken a worse danger… My wings, now - but we've no fire…"

A thin faint smile hovered about Kermorvan's lips. "Do we need it?" Elof slapped hand to palm, and swore.

Within minutes he was strapping his wings about him, and Ils, with infinite care, was directing a growing number of shields around and onto his corselet. For long moments he felt the flaring radiance envelop him, his sight flamed scarlet and his skin prickled agonizingly; then it faded, and his broad pinions drove the searing air from about him, beating with a promise of strength they had never before known. His whole being seemed to tingle with energy, and he grew impatient for his sight to clear. When it did, Kermorvan stood before him, in full armour and helm.

"Can you bear a heavy burden thus?"

"Kara, you mean? Twice over, with ease!"

Kermorvan nodded, lacing his helmet tight for battle.

"Then you can bear me also. You may need me to occupy that guard."

"But - but you're the king…"

"Of where, save for my friends? You more than any, perhaps; and Kara was my friend also." The grey-gold blade slid from its scabbard. "And in truth, do you know any other warrior who would serve?"

Elof, half smiling, shook his head quickly, once, and his wings spread high above his shoulders; Kermorvan hooked an arm about his neck, Elof caught him by his broad belt, and they lifted. Ils swung back the beam to distract his foes, Elof s wings thrashed like a stormwind and they soared up towards the looming heights of the High Gate. Lean though he looked, Kermorvan was a heavy man,
but
the smith's strength and the power of the wings bore them both up easily and fast. The wind burned in their faces with the speed of their rush, and the arrows loosed by the guards above flew harmless in their wake. In a few fast breaths, they were crossing the balustrade just below the dais steps, out of sight of those above; a melee of startled guards rushed in on them, and Kermorvan, loosing his grip, dropped lightly onto the balcony. His feet skidded upon the rimed tiles, but in the very act of recovering his balance he hewed the first-comer's head from his shoulders; Elof angled his wings, and bowled down three more, one right over the balustrade. The others dropped back, shields raised, and Kermorvan sprang at them. Elof, drawing Gorthawer, was turning to speed up the steps when he heard a scream of wrath from above, and from below a warning blare of horn-calls; a speeding shadow fell across him, and he twisted around in alarm, squinting up at the dark shape that dived out of the sun's glare towards him.

In that blaze of light he judged his distance ill. His first thought was only to warn; his second, that he was responsible for the king's safety, at whatever cost. With that thought the shadow was on him, and the collision sent him spinning around in the air, his ears ringing with a terrible cry of pain. Gorthawer was wrenched from his fingers; he saw something plummet past him and crash upon the balcony tiles, and heard from above him an echoing scream, and a peal of sobbing laughter. Then as he rolled upward and regained control, he himself screamed at what he saw there. It had the ghastly clarity of a dream; the slender form of a woman arched high against the sun, the wings that were her arms flung back from her out-thrust breast, and standing in it among a flood of scarlet the shining hilt of a black-bladed sword.

It seemed an endless age of agony and horror that she hung there before him. Then it was as if she crumpled up around the blade that transfixed her; she toppled sideways, her wings folding about her like a shroud, and even as he leaped out to her, crying her name, she fell away in a cloud of black feathers into the deep vale below. After her he sped, so fast the wind whipped the very tears from his eyes, but it was hopeless. For all that long fall Elof s eyes never left her; but of what thoughts passed behind them, no chronicle can tell. Light but swift she fell, the merest speck plummeting into the distance, lost to him in an instant against the dark waters of a new-opened lake, still churning with the ice-fall. A frozen moment passed, and a speck of white leaped up upon its surface; a rage of whiteness swirled there a moment, and Kara was gone.

In a void he whirled, and a void opened within him, a raging turmoil of agonizing emptiness and loss. The shouts he heard he heeded without understanding, less will in him than in the least thing of his devising. Back against the balustrade he crashed, and would have fallen had hard hands not hauled him in. There Was Kermorvan, his mail spattered with blood, Louhi's guards scattered writhing or still about his feet; but in his eyes a greater horror dwelt. "You were right…" whispered Elof. "She attacked…" But Kermorvan, his lips set hard and grey as cold granite, was lifting something from among a mass of splintered tiles. He hefted it a moment, his head bowed, and then stretched out his hand to Elof. In it was Elof s hammer.

Light and dark seemed to spin around in Elof s head, forming a cruel mask of a face, stern, grey-bearded, cruelly lined, laughing a bitter laugh that echoed into infinite emptinesses, mocking the twisted web of destiny that twined there. It was the face of the Watcher, the image of Vayde, it was not his own; and yet, somehow he knew that it laughed for him, because it had never learned to weep.

But he himself, it is said, rose shakily on his knees, staring at the hammer that Kara, in one last defiant act of love, had risked her existence to bring him. Risked - but she had never dreamed the risk was from him.

A sudden slash of pain cut through his legs. All thoughts save one died and shrivelled in his mind, all fires save one in his heart. He looked up, and saw there another, fair, deadly fair as the shining summits of the Ice itself; and she too was laughing, no less terribly, leaning far out over the whitened balustrade and brandishing her fist at him. Within him a cold knot of compassion twisted; for she too had loved, in her way. Had he not had Kermorvan to protect - With a howl of sheer animal pain he seized the tall man by belt and arm, and sprang up and out with him over the balustrade as if he meant to dash them both to their deaths below. But his wings flung out, and back towards the blazing shieldwall he swooped. At the slope's foot, he glided low and dropped his burden crying out in a great voice "
Down, all of you! Behind the shields! And cover your eyes! Do not look
!"