Fall of Angels

CXIII

THE WARM WIND coming through the open windows raised dust off the floor of the great room, dust that appeared no matter how often the stones were swept or washed.

Nylan rested his elbows on the table and closed his eyes. Finally, he opened them and took a sip of the cold water. Hisbody still felt as if it had been pummeled in a landslide of building stones and sharp-edged bricks.

He couldn’t rest, even though Ryba and Dyliess were, and Ayrlyn was. So were most of the children. He took another sip of the water and glanced through the nearest narrow window slot at the green-blue sky and the scattered clouds of late summer. Then he held his aching head in his hands.

Relyn eased into the room. The former noble wore a handdyed black cloak over equally black trousers and shirt.

“Relyn?”

“I came to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Nylan wanted to laugh. “For what?”

“For making things clear, ser.” Relyn eased onto the bench across the table from Nylan.

Nylan studied the man in black. “My head still hurts, and I guess I’m not thinking too well. Just how did I make things clear?”

Relyn scratched his head, then rubbed his nose. “First, I thought you had magic that you brought from Heaven. When the magic from Heaven died, I thought you had tools from Heaven. Then I watched as you kept building things, and I thought that the greatest magic is in a man’s mind.”

“It helps to have knowledge,” Nylan said wryly. “Sometimes, the biggest hurdle is just knowing that something can be done. Or that it can’t.”

Relyn smiled apologetically, but did not speak.

Nylan took another sip of water. “Now what are you going to do?” he asked after he set down the mug.

“For a time, I will try to learn more of the way of the Legend, and the way of order, so long as you and the singer will teach me. In time, I will leave and teach others.”

“Teach them what?”

“What I have learned. That what a man does must be in harmony with what he thinks. That order is the greatest force of all.” Relyn shrugged. “You know.”

Nylan wasn’t sure what he knew. “That may not make you all that popular, Relyn.”

“I have already decided that. I will have to go east, or circleLornth and go far to the west. I would not be well received in Lornth, especially after Lornth is vanquished.”

“From what the healer has discovered from the traders, Lord Sillek has hired mercenaries, and has more resources than ever before. Yet you think he will be vanquished.” Nylan’s arm swept across the great room. “We have perhaps a score and a half, twoscore at the most, and how many will he bring? Fivescore? Six? Twentyscore? Fortyscore?”

“They will not be enough.” Relyn smiled. “Three more women arrived at Tower Black today. There was one yesterday, and two the day before. They brought blades, and some brought coins. One rode up bringing her own packhorse loaded with goods. She was willing to give them to the angel even if she could not stay.”

Nylan took a deep breath. “The women of this world are fed up.”

“If I understand you, that is true.” Relyn’s smile vanished. “The longer Lord Sillek waits, the more guards and goods Westwind will have. Two of those who rode up today already had their own blades and could use them.”

“I’m afraid that is why your Lord Sillek will not wait.”

“He is not my Lord Sillek. A disowned man has no lord. That is one of the few benefits.” Relyn laughed. “And few would attack a one-armed man, for there is no honor in that. So, when the time comes, I will depart.”

“Why don’t you leave now?”

“I would see the destruction of Lornth. Then I can tell the world of the power of the Legend.”

“You have a great deal of faith.” Far more than I do, thought Nylan. Far more.

“No. This is something I know.” Relyn slipped off the bench. “You are tired, and I would not weary you more.”

For a time, Nylan sat, eyes closed, but his head ached, and he did not feel sleepy. Relyn was talking as though Ayrlyn and Nylan were the prophets of some new faith, and that bothered the smith, as if his head didn’t hurt enough already.

Finally, he stood and walked to the open south door and crossed the causeway. The large cairn was now twice its formerlength, and Nylan could no longer distinguish the separate smaller cairns that dotted the southeast section of the meadow, almost opposite the mouth of the second canyon from which Gerlich’s men had poured.

A crew of new guards, led by Saryn, had already blocked the narrow passage at the upper end of the canyon and erected a small and hidden watchtower that overlooked the trail leading there.

How much did you let happen, Ryba, wondered Nylan, because you dared not risk going against your visions? Maybe … maybe there are worse things than feeling deaths. Is feeling the deaths of those I killed so difficult compared to your causing deaths that may have been unnecessary-and knowing that those deaths may have been unnecessary … and living with those deaths forever?

A small figure sat on the end of the causeway wall, looking toward the cairns. Suddenly, she turned and asked, “Why didn’t you save Mother?”

Nylan tried not to recoil from the directness of the question.

After a moment, he said slowly, “I tried to save as many as I could.” By killing as many of the invaders as I could, he added to himself.

“They weren’t Mother.” Niera’s dark eyes bored into Nylan. “They weren’t Mother. The angel let the other mothers stay in the tower.”

“Did your mother wish to stay in the tower?”

“No. You and the angel should have made her stay!”

Nylan had no ready answer for that, not a totally honest one, but he continued to meet the girl’s eyes. Then he said, “Perhaps we should have, but I cannot change what should have been.”

At that, Niera turned and looked at the cairns, and her thin frame shook. Nylan stepped up beside her, and lightly touched her shoulder. Without looking, she pushed his hand away. So he just stood there while she silently sobbed.