Prophecy: Child of Earth

43

“Rhapsody, starlight shines through water all the time. It will be fine.”

Rhapsody looked at Ashe doubtfully. She was holding the sword near the surface of Elysian’s lake, watching the flickering light sparkle on the surface of the water and cast bright shadows into the depths below.

“What if I extinguish it? Oelendra will hunt me down and kill me herself.”

Ashe laughed and kissed the top of her head. “All right, if it’s going to cause you so much worry, perhaps it’s better if we don’t do this.”

Rhapsody peered into the water. Not far off shore below the surface she could glimpse shimmering stalagmites rising from the floor of the lake, glowing as the radiance from Daystar Clarion touched them. They gleamed in soft hues of green and blue; she was sure they were the beginning of an underwater field of the spiked formations, probably left over from before the cavern filled with water. The picture had haunted her dreams at night, and as a result she had been stalking the shores of the lake all morning, trying to find a way to explore the depths in the darkness of the underground grotto.

It was Ashe who suggested she take her sword swimming with them. He had broken into merry laughter at her horrified reaction as she imagined the ancient weapon of champions sizzling as it touched the water, then being snuffed out forever. He had tried to explain to her about the tempering process of swords, about the unquenchable light that had been ingrained in the weapon, but he could see she still was uncertain. He drew her into his arms.

“Aria, you won’t kill the sword, I promise. But if you are still concerned, let’s do something else. There are any number of interesting places to explore down here.”

Rhapsody smiled. She loved the time they had spent discovering the hidden treasures of Elysian. They had crawled through underground caves full of beautiful purple crystal formations, the light of Daystar Clarion illuminating the walls into feverish iridescence; it made the two of them seem trapped within a faceted gemstone.

Together they traced the hidden source of the stream that formed the waterfall and followed it to where it swelled through the rock. They had stepped into the stream and ridden it over the edge, plummeting into the lake below. Aad they had found a small underground meadow with rock walls surrounding it, rising a thousand feet or more to the open sky above, like a subterranean version of the one inside the guardian walls of Kraldurge. It was the perfect place to picnic in the sunlight, and to watch the stars at night. And to make love.

“No,” she said decisively. “I want to see this place, and if you’re sure it won’t hurt the sword, I’ll trust you.” She stuck the tip into the water. Below the surface its light changed from the licking flames that normally leapt up the blade to a radiant glow, but Ashe was right; it didn’t go out.

Rhapsody began to glow herself with excitement. “Come on,” she said eagerly, “get undressed.”

They shed their outer clothes and stepped into the water, frigidly cold until Rhapsody entered it. Then, as she willed her fire lore to put forth warmth, the water temperature rose in the area immediately around them, heating the lake like the summer sun would have if it could reach it directly.

“Here,” said Ashe, “let’s trade swords. Kirsdarke will let you breathe beneath the surface, being a water sword. I can breathe without it. If you don’t mind, that is.” He knew the natural reluctance to relinquish a sword like the one each of them carried, but he had not felt it himself just now.

Obviously Rhapsody didn’t either, as she happily handed him Daystar Clarion and took the blue-scrolled weapon he held out to her. The blade altered the moment she took it; the glimmering ripples that danced along its surface ran rapidly from the hilt down the blade and disappeared as if they had drained out of the sword. The faint light that had gleamed from the scrollwork vanished as well, and the entire sword suddenly became more solid. The weapon she now held was beautiful, the silver blade inlaid in elaborate patterns of turquoise, but it no longer appeared as it had in Ashe’s hand, where it looked as if it were composed only of water hanging suspended in the air.

“I killed it,” she whispered nervously.

“Oh, no!” Ashe gasped in mock alarm, then laughed at the size to which her eyes had opened. “I’m just teasing you, Aria—it’s fine. That’s what it looks like in any hand other than that of the Kirsdarkenvar.”

Rhapsody ran her fingers over the now-solid blade. “Are you sure I haven’t damaged it?”

“Yes; it’s fine. See, your sword doesn’t respond to me the way it does to you, either.”

He was right. Daystar Clarion now resembled a regular sword, gleaming intensely with the starlight that it had been imbued with, but no flames licked up the blade. Rhapsody’s brow furrowed.

“How very strange,” she murmured. “Both Achmed and Grunthor have held it, and the fire didn’t go out like that.”

Ashe’s eyes were touched with melancholy. “The piece of my soul that the

F’dor ripped from me was the part tied to fire, Rhapsody. It left my soul void of that element, until you came into my life.” He smiled and put his arm around her, drawing her near. “The sword senses that, and doesn’t respond to me because of it. The only fire in my heart is also in my arms.”

Rhapsody kissed him. “Not for long.”

Ashe winced involuntarily. She was referring to her plan to hunt down the Rakshas and destroy it, retrieving the piece of his soul in the process. It was a thought that turned his stomach, so he drove it out of his mind, concentrating instead on his golden-haired lover and the world they were about to explore together.

“If you’re ready, let’s go. Just remember, whatever you do, don’t swim back to the surface too quickly, you’ll injure yourself seriously.”

“Understood.” She kissed him again and gingerly lowered Kirsdarke into the lake. Beneath the surface of the water the blade disappeared, leaving nothing visible in her hand but the hilt. Ashe smiled in contentment at the trust between them the exchange had demonstrated. Then he ducked beneath the surface. Rhapsody could see the light of Daystar Clarion still gleaming in his hand under the water.

She took a deep breath and centered herself before following. As soon as she was beneath the surface she was aware of a paradox—within the vast silence there was an almost deafening noise. The water was filled with subtle sounds, almost drowned out by a great rushing clamor that resembled a strong wind, but was clearly aquatic. It was alien to her ears, and very beautiful. She closed her eyes for a moment and traced the origin of the sound. It came from the base of the great waterfall that spilled from the rock outcroppings into the lake below.

Rhapsody floated upright in the water for a moment, eyes still closed, absorbing the sound of the underwater world, when she heard a strange baritone note, like the sound of a bell wrapped in linen. She opened her eyes onto a world of strange light and beauty, one in which certain colors seemed to have been taken away, leaving everything within it a diminished hue from what it would look like above the surface.

The noise she had heard was Ashe’s laughter, and when she turned to him she was amazed by his appearance. He floated free in the water, hovering slightly above her, illuminated by the crystal light of Daystar Clarion. His red-gold hair floated freely about him, moving slowly and metallically, reflecting the radiance of the sword. His skin was pale, as was her own and his broad smile gleamed his teeth resembling pearls. His eyes seemed the strangest of all, for here within his element, they shone like sapphires, blending in with the waves around him. Suspended in the water as in if in flight, holding the glowing blade of the stars in his hand, Ashe looked more like an angelic apparition than a man. Rhapsody’s heart swelled with the intense sensation that occurred each time she felt her love for him grow, and she caught her breath.

At once she was filled with a sense of panic, fearing she had breathed in water. She felt a mad desire to rush to the surface, to break back into the world of air, but fought it and willed the fear away, taking another breath. Calm returned as she found she could breathe easily in the water, and her panic was replaced by a giddiness at the wonder of the new world she saw about her. Ashe’s smile had vanished when he saw her struggle momentarily, and he was beside her instantly; she nodded to reassure him. Then he gestured toward the depths.

Together they swam to the middle of the lake, following the beacon of light the sword cast before them. About twenty feet off shore the stalagmite formations Rhapsody had thought she’d seen began to rise from the slanted floor of the lake, glimmering brilliantly in the reflected radiance. They were crystalline and smooth, unlike their jagged, toothlike counterparts above the surface, and gleamed in soft hues of pink, green and blue, with violet appearing more frequently as they swam deeper.

The stalagmites at the edge of the field ranged from tiny stakes up to Rhapsody’s knee to the largest ones that came up to her shoulder. In the depths they were vastly taller, some towering higher than the cottage would have been had it resided on the bottom. As the light from Daystar Clarion touched these formations they took on a magical quality, a soft, glittering beauty that was further enhanced by the encroaching darkness at the edge of the light. They gleamed for a moment as the sword hovered overhead, then slipped back into the inky black of the deep.

Ashe had been right again; with Kirsdarke Rhapsody could breath easily beneath the surface. She kicked to dive even farther down, following his lead. In this part of the lake the formations took on a lacier appearance, rather than the solid heft of the stalagmites at the field’s edge. The multicolored rocks became thin and wispy, with fragile extensions reaching out like ghostly arms in the darkness. In places the frail-looking structures bent from the weight of the water above them, resembling domes and arches. It made the stalagmite field look like a city formed from frosting and spun sugar, a resplendent realm for the dark fish that swam between the rocks, skittering away when the light touched them.

As they passed over a large structure of intertwined green and azure rock threads, a glint of silver caught Rhapsody’s eye. She signaled to Ashe, who nodded and dove to retrieve it from the floor of the lake. She followed him down into the enormous underwater basilica, born of dripping water and time, and looked around her in wonder. The upper expanses reached into the lake above her at a height that seemed similar to that of a real basilica, taking her artificial breath away. The sheer size of it astounded her, the thought of this hidden realm, this underwater land lying beneath the surface high above, as well as the thousand feet of dome above that, secreted within the hidden meadow of Kraldurge. It seemed a shame that such exquisite beauty existed, unseen and unappreciated.

Her contemplation was interrupted by a strong arm wrapping around her back. She turned to see Ashe hovering beside her, his floating hair gleaming in the circle of light. He looked up at the towering formations above them and smiled, nodding as she grinned in response. He leaned near and kissed her, holding the sword as far from their sides as possible. Then he gestured toward the surface.

Reluctantly Rhapsody nodded as well, and swam behind him as they slowly ascended to the air, following the slant of the water as it grew more shallow. They had not gone anywhere near the deepest part of the lake; she could only imagine what treasures were hiding down there in the constant night.

As they retrieved their clothes from the shore, Rhapsody looked at Ashe and smiled. “What did you find down there?” she asked, pointing to the metal object in his hand. He held it out for her inspection. Rhapsody gasped, then burst into laughter. It was the trowel she had been digging with in the meadow when she and Achmed had first discovered Elysian, though it was almost unrecognizable with the coating of pearlescent rockthreads that had attached themselves to it.

“You’ve seen this before?”

“Yes,” Rhapsody said, shaking the sand from her clothes. “It’s the reason we found this place. I was planting seeds of heartsease in the meadow above to drive away some of the mournful sadness that hung in the air there, and the ground just swallowed the trowel. I could almost swear I heard it belch. It must have fallen into the lake through one of the holes in the firmament that let in the light.”

“That’s one for the museum,” Ashe commented. He looked at her as she wrapped herself in one of the drying cloths they had left on the lakeshore. Her wet hair was gleaming in the dim light that filtered from above, making her look like a sea nymph smiling at him. He took her in his arms.

“Shall I read more to you from those maps we were looking at earlier?”

Rhapsody sighed. “No, I think we had best get supper started. I was hoping to go back to the Cauldron tonight and spend the evening with Jo. I have a gift I’ve been waiting to give her for a while. She seems sad lately, and I haven’t seen her alone in a very long time. Would that be all right?”

No. Stay. Mine, whispered the dragon urgently. My treasure. Don’t <>hare. “That’s fine,” he said, squelching the insistent inner voice. “I’ll walk you there. Are you planning to stay all night?”

“I’ll see how she feels,” Rhapsody answered, toweling off her hair. “If things go well, then yes. Maybe she and I can get back to where we left off before—”

“Before I came into the picture and spoiled things.”

She glared at him. “Don’t finish my sentences unless you know what I am going to say. And that, by the way, wasn’t it. Before things changed. Jo is a big girl. I told her what you said to me on the road about the difference in your ages and your life expectancies before I called you back here. She seemed to be fine about it. If anything, it’s me who had spoiled things by being selfish and not paying more attention to her. I’ve just found it so hard to leave Elysian, and you, to go back to the Cauldron.” She shuddered involuntarily.

“I don’t think being happy qualifies as being selfish all the time, Rhapsody. You’ve had some terrible things happen to you in your life. Maybe it’s about time things got better for you.”

She grinned and reached up to kiss him. “Funny; I think I gave the same speech to you a few days ago.”

“Well, I’m not above stealing words if they convey the right message.” He kissed her again, and tried to contain the longing in his eyes as she turned to go into the house. “I’ll be there in a minute,” he called to her.

Rhapsody turned back and smiled at him. “I’ll be waiting upstairs. It’s summer; I suppose supper can be delayed for a little while.” She doffed her drying cloth teasingly, then walked into the house, leaving the door open for him.

Ashe sighed, feeling the warmth that always crept through him when she smiled. He took a deep breath, trying to recall the pain he had carried for so many years, and was unable to. She had cast it out, and filled his soul with a sweetness that was almost tangible. If only it could stay this way.

At the outskirts of his senses the dragon noticed something silver, glinting in the hazy afternoon light. Ashe walked to the edge of the water and looked down. There on the beach amid the rocks and sand was the tiny silver button he had thrown into the lake the morning he had finally let Emily go. He bent to pick it up.

It was still shiny, unmarred by its ordeal, glimmering up at him in his hand. For the first time seeing it brought no tears to his eyes, and no pain to his heart. Emily was a happy memory now, something with which he had come to terms. He could keep her in the back of his heart, tucked away in his memory. He was happy, as he knew she would have wanted him to be.