Once upon a Spring morn

29

Conundrums

Roel bowed and Celeste curtseyed, and Urd cackled and said, “Had you fooled, didn’t I?” She made a vague, one-handed gesture, and the graves and gibbet vanished.

“Oh, my,” said Celeste, “with those things gone, we did not do a true service for you.”

“Heh! Nonsense, child. It is what is in your heart that counts, whether or no the need is real or illusory, vital or trivial, large or small. In this instance, Celeste, your heart was filled with rage at an injustice done, and sorrow for the victims of it, and the need to do something.” Urd turned to Roel and added, “And in your heart, Chevalier, you felt a momentary twinge of guilt, for you and your own lover are not married either, but o’erwhelming all, you felt the same rage and sorrow, and the need to seek out the perpetrator and exact vengeance.

Yet, my boy, you need to take care when dealing out retribution, for such passions unbridled will blacken a heart.”

“You can truly read what is in our hearts?” asked Celeste, wonder in her gaze.

“Oh, Princess, that is but a simple thing. This I do know: you two are deeply in love. . fortunately with one another.” Urd hooted in laughter, her ebon eyes dancing in glee.

When she finally stifled her joy she turned to Roel and said, “You, my boy, are yet certain that you-a mere chevalier-are not worthy of a princess, yet I tell you this princess knows you are. Set aside your doubts, Roel, for it is not station that determines merit, but heart and soul and spirit and deeds: the very fiber of your being.” Celeste looked at Roel, her heart in her eyes, and she said, “Oh, my love, did I not say it was so?”

“You did, cherie, you did. Yet I. .” Roel fell into silence, as if strong emotions blocked his words.

“Heh,” chortled Urd, “my sisters said he was a catch.” Roel looked at Urd, a frown on his face. “Lady Doom, I did not see or speak with your sisters, yet you appear before me. Why is that?”

Urd waggled a finger at Roel, saying, “Now, now, Chevalier, don’t you recall railing that we Three Sisters never answer something straight out?” Roel’s eyes widened in startlement, and Urd smiled a gummy grin at Celeste. “Didn’t know I was listening, did he?”

“My lady, why have you come?” asked Celeste.

“Begging for a straight answer yourself, are we? Well, you know the second rule: first you have to answer a riddle.”

“Might Roel help this once?”

“Of course, of course. Why do you think I let him see me? Silly girl.” And again she crowed a laugh.

Celeste reached out and took Roel’s hand in hers, then said, “Ask away, Lady Doom.”

Urd looked from Celeste to Roel and back, and as the sound of looms swelled, she said:

“It can run but never walks,

Has a mouth but never talks,

Has a head but never weeps,

Has a bed but never sleeps,

When it tumbles, always grumbles, Never bumbles when it rumbles,

Ever shouts in heady falls,

But mostly murmurs soothing calls, At times wanders o’er wide fields Wholly ruining crofters’ yields, Sometimes savage, sometimes mild, Sometimes placid, sometimes wild, Now I end this riddle game.

Can you give me this thing’s name?” Celeste’s heart sank, but Roel gently squeezed her hand and said, “Lady Doom, given the manner in which you couched the riddle, I could answer by simply saying,

‘No.’ ”

Urd clapped her hands and cackled in glee and hopped about in a small jig step and said, “Exactly so, Chevalier! Exactly so.”

Celeste frowned and said, “But I don’t understand.” Roel smiled. “The last line of the riddle asks, ‘Can you give me this thing’s name?’ That question can be answered with a yes or a no. The name itself is not the riddle, but the question at the end is.” He turned to Urd and added, “But my true answer, Lady Doom, is, ‘Yes, I can give you the name.’ ”

“But you don’t have to,” said Urd, still grinning.

Frustrated, Celeste said, “Oh, Roel, tell me. Please, I want to kn- Oh, it’s a river, isn’t it?” Roel broke out in laughter. “Oui, cherie. River it is.” Urd squinted an eye and pointed a knobby finger at Celeste and said, “And you think you are not good with riddles? My dear, you have answered all three: mine, Verdandi’s, and Skuld’s.”

“But I didn’t say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question,” said Celeste. “Instead I spoke the name; hence did I or did I not answer the riddle?”

Urd smiled somewhat enigmatically and said, “Give it some thought, my dear.” She glanced at the sky and said, 244 / DENNIS L. MCKIERNAN

“But now we have little time left, and I have come here to provide you aid.”

Roel sighed. “A puzzling rede, Lady Doom?”

“That, and a vision and a gift,” answered Urd.

“A vision?”

“Oui. But first the rede.”

And as the thud of batten and the clack of shuttle swelled, Urd glanced along the duskwise crossroad and intoned:

“To triumph in the Changeling realm, Shift to a different trail.

You must take the sinister path; Find the gray arrow or fail.

Creatures and heroes and the dead Will test you along the way.

Ever recall what we Three said,

To fetch the arrow of gray.”

“Shift to a different trail?” protested Roel. “But we are just two twilight borders from-”

“Hush!” snapped Urd, glancing at the diminishing dusk, growing darker with the onrush of night. “There is no time for this tomfoolery. Instead, step closer and. .

see.”

With nought but a whispered word, a dark basin appeared in her hands, and it was filled with an ebon liquid. Celeste and Roel moved to stand before her.

“Peer into my farseeing mirror,” said Urd.

The princess and her knight looked into the blackness, yet only glittering reflections of emergent stars above did they see.

“Lady Doom,” said Roel, “there is nought to-” Ripples disturbed the surface, the reflected stars dancing in the flux.

“I said hush, Chevalier. Now both of you, clear your minds.”

Again Roel stared within the basin, and slowly an image began to form. It was. . it was. . two figures. .

two men. Gradually they came into focus. Roel gasped, then whispered, “Laurent. Blaise.” The likenesses wavered and began to fade, and Roel clamped his lips shut and stilled his breathing.

With his silence the images strengthened, and Roel saw that they had grimaces on their faces and they were drawing their swords, as if readying for battle, yet to Celeste it seemed they were smiling and sheathing their swords, as of a battle finished.

Of a sudden the likenesses vanished, as did the basin, and Urd looked again at the darkening dusk, for night was nearly upon them.

“Here,” she said, “you will need this,” and she held forth her hand to Celeste, something gripped within.

The princess reached out, and Urd dropped the gift into Celeste’s palm, and as the sound of looms swelled Urd said, “I will tell you one more thing, and it is this: left is right, but right a mistake; you will fail if the wrong path you take.”

And now the rack of shuttle and the thump of batten surged in crescendo. . and then vanished altogether, as did Lady Doom.

The dusk disappeared as well, for night had fully fallen.

Staring in bafflement, Celeste peered through the wan starlight at the gift Urd had given.

It was an obsidian spool of shadowy thread.