In those days, Ohean came to know the noble, but sorrowful Queen Ermengild. He said to her, one night, “Lady, you have been kind enough not to ask, but I know you know I come from the Blessed Isle and perhaps you wondered if I could tell you anything.”
There was only one thing Ermengild sought new for, far more even than knowledge of the Dayne raiders, and that was of her daughter, long gone, the Princess Jergen.
“Lady, I cannot see her, for she walks too far in darkness. She is beyond my sight, perhaps even beyond the sight of Nimerly and my mother Senaye, who are the highest enchantresses in the land.”
Ermengild bowed her head and kissed my cheek.
“Thank you, Ash,” said she. “It was my greed that sent her away.”
“Lady?”
“You know the tale of the Beryl, how in ancient times, Enkial and Assanad bore the Stone of Alliyah from Assanad’s home, and the Tethys blessed them with it for all time.”
“I learned that tale as a child. It was one of the Three Great Spinnings.”
“It was said the Beryl defended us in the time Times of Darkness, and of old it was kept in Chyr, in the Great Hall of my capital. When I was a girl studying on the Rootless Isle, I thought to find the Beryl. In those days your grandmother was Dame of the Isle. But my father died, and so I became Queen, but my daughter knew I desired the Beryl to be restored, and so she went in search of it, and has never been seen again.”
Ohean had said, without saying it, that the Princess was surely dead, that Ermengild need trouble herself no more with waiting. Perhaps she was beyond my sight, but in those days his power was growing, and he was sure that even then, barely sixteen, had she been in this world, he would have seen her.
In those days, Ohean removed himself to another room in the palace. From the moment that he had commanded all to let the Dayne come, the self confidence, the assurance that was gone had returned. Once Ralph came up to see him and again his uncle came to visit, but no one spoke. He sat on the floor with a bag of stones and bones which he scattered on the ground and rearranged. In the evening he built a fire and and sang to the flames, burning incense over them, and then, two days later, when the food left at the door had been consumed, but none knew when he consumed it, he rose and went up to the highest tower of the castle.
From a distance, when anyone cared to watched, they saw him singing and chanting, saw him open his hands and blow on them and, at last, rising up, he scattered the dust in his hands. Three days in all, and then he came down.
He spoke to no one, not even Ralph, and Ralph when asked said, “This is who he was. This is who he was when I met him, though I did not understand. I thought who I was seeing was who he was.”
That day the sky grew grey, and all that night a wind began to blow onto the coast. Early the next morning, the sky went dark grey and waves like heavy bodies breathed, and rolled to rocks where they broke open. It was that day that Ohean climbed the long stair and stood at the highest tower, looking out
One morning he said, “They will come today. They are coming.”
The old King, shielded by Prince Amr and young Idris went up to the coast along with Ohean as his black cloak blew about him, flapping like a great crow. The clouds rolled like waves, black and blue and grey, and downbelow they saw them.
“Dreadnoughts!” Idris pronounced.
“Come,” Ohean whispered, putting out his hand and beckoning to the ships, his hand moving it in gestures of welcoming.
They came, not head first, but on their sides, long ships, three terraced, mighty sailed with cannon and guns hanging from them, metal hulled, and one came side first to the rocks. They watched as Ohean’s hand turned, and the ship followed his will, crashing into the rocks. Before it was hidden in the screaming white squall the next ship crashed forecastle first into it, and the two collided onto the rocks, but not before the third and then the fourth followed them to destruction.
“And another,” Ohean said, and Idris, looking up at him though he was almost singing.
And then it came, the final dreadnought. It came riding on the head of a great wave, almost as if the boat itself were determined to leap onto the coast. But there were cliffs and rocks to reach first and as Ohean turned his hand over and over calling the ship, with a mighty crash so fierce all on the land went to their knees, the dreadnought crashed onto the rocks.
Ohean, on his knees, called out, “Rise! Rise! Rise!”
And now thunder boomed and Ohean, barely audible over the squall, commanded, “Let us be gone. The storms shall grow worse yet.” Ohean pulled his hood over his face as the cold wind shook them all.
“In the morning when you go out to plunder, there will be none alive in those ships.”
When Ohean knew someone was in the room, he did not open his eyes at first because he was weary. At last he blinked and saw Ralph, blurry and then resolving into his solid form.
Ralph sat down beside him.
“You were amazing,” he said. Then he said, “You will be amazing. Everybody sees that now.”
Ohean smiled weakly and Ralph touched his hand.
“You’ve been with all the soldiers,” Ohean said. “I honestly did not think you would notice.”
“Maybe you think I left you,” Ralph said. “That I found my place and you have not. But I feel like you left me.”
Ohean tried to sit up, but Ralph said, “No. I’m not blaming you. You could not help it. I came with you and you let me. I knew where you were going, and I asked to come and then it was like being brought to a party by a guest who disappeared and yes, I found my way, and yes, I’m going to be Prince Amr’s knight.”
“Wonderful,’ Ohean said, and was surprised by how raspy his voice was.
“And you’re going to go,” Ralph continued. “This is not the place for you. You need to go to the Hidden Tower and learn. You need to become who you were meant to be.”
“Ralph!”
“Enough,” Ralph said, smiling, his dragon eyes winking. He touched Ohean’s lips. “This time let me do the talking. Go, you can never be happy here, and perhaps when you come back, we will be ready for each other. But I brought you something.”
Ohean waited, and Ralph presented him with a sword whose sheath was silver as the blade, winking so brightly, Ohean shielded his eyes.
“You were wrong, lover,” Ralph said. “About none being left alive. There were a few. I found it on one of the dreadnoughts held by one of our own, a Royan mage, would you believe it? Some of us are in league with the raiders, it seems. I killed him, Ash, and maybe that was unfair, for he was not himself after the storm, and I vowed that since he was a false wizard, I would bring this sword to you, who are a true one.”
“It’s…” Ohean looked over it, dragons chasing up and down the blade, twisting into the shining hilt. Ohean looked on the words, the strange ancient runes of the white men. But he had studied their runes a little and could just make them out.
ᛁ᛫ᛒᛖᛚᛟᛜ᛫ᛏᛟ᛫ᛋᛖᚡᚨᚱᛞ
And so he read: “Ic pro lengan st ælan Sevard.”
Ohean translated: “I belong to Sevard.”
“Who is he, I wonder?” Ralph said.
And Ohean said, “I wonder too. Perhaps a great king of those white men. But come, let me belt you with this, for you will be the knight, and I need no sword.”
And Ohean stood up and Ralph said, “As you have given it to me, so it is yours to claim if ever you need it again.”
“I will remember that,” Ohean said, almost dismissively, but now he belted the sword about Ralph murmuring:
“Go in strength, possess all gates that are yours. May splendor reign upon you and may you return in peace. May your enemies know no rest, and your foes fall before you.”
“A spell, friend?”
“From my lips, yes,” Ohean said. “But also a prayer. It is the prayer on all that I love, the prayer that is always on them, and now it is on you.”
“Does it come from the Rootless Isle?”
“Yes, and many other places too. It is in the Book of the Blessed.”
