Heritage Of The Xandim

EPILOGUE

Athina, with the shimmering ghostly shape of Avithan’s consciousness by her side, looked into the Timeless Lake and saw the two friends, Windeye and Wizard, sitting in the kitchen of the Cailleach’s tower. Dael, his face beaming at their safe return, was cooking them a gargantuan meal. They both looked bedraggled and exhausted, and though Iriana had already worked some healing magic on herself, her bruises would take a while to fade.

Nonetheless, they seemed content. Iriana, blind once more, was cradling Melik on her lap, while Corisand held the precious Fialan and its staff.

‘Athina must have snatched him safely back,’ Iriana was saying. ‘We Wizards can feel the death of another, especially if it’s someone we’re close to. I know he’s still alive. And one day I’m going to find him.’ She blushed a little. ‘There in the cavern - he said he loved me.’

‘I hope she does find a way back to me.’ Avithan’s ghostly face creased in a smile. ‘I do love her, you know.’

‘I wouldn’t put anything past that one,’ the Cailleach replied. ‘In the meantime, I will keep working on a way to free your body from the time spell.’ She sighed. ‘Will I never learn? Every time I try to help, it ruins everything. It was the shock of seeing you that broke Iriana’s hold upon the Moldan. Were it not for those two valiant, determined souls, the whole thing would have ended very badly.’

‘And now?’

‘And now they have the Fialan. Corisand will find a way to free her people, and Iriana’s folk will gain the weapon you always wanted them to have. And it is just as well. It will take the Moldan and the Phaerie Lord some time to recover, but I think they will bury their enmity for a time in the interests of regaining the Stone. Despite all our efforts, Corisand and Iriana left a trail. Eventually Ghabal and Hellorin will be coming, and the Windeye and the Wizard had better be ready for them when they do.’

‘But you’ve got to warn them!’ Avithan’s voice cracked with alarm.

‘No.’ Athina shook her head. ‘I cannot. And even if I could, I would not. I have learned a bitter lesson, my friend, and my days of interference are at an end. Now we can only watch - and fate will have its way.’

Avithan sighed. ‘I hope they’ll be all right.’

The Cailleach smiled. ‘So do I. But do you know, somehow I think they’ll manage.’