"Is there any rule that says this lady must be keeper of the rune?"
"What are you asking, child?" Paladine whispered, and it was Judyth's turn to smile.
"I came over these mountains to gather secrets," she said. "In doing so, I met Aglaca, so I know a little of what Robert must be feeling… of what the druidess must know."
"And?" Paladine asked softly.
"And I shall be glad to keep the rune, if Lady L'Indasha Yman would entrust to me its keeping."
L'Indasha frowned. "But you're to be my helper…" It was Paladine's turn to speak. "Judyth, there is no rule. You may offer yourself, but your choice would be a binding one. Would you become the keeper of the secret of the blank rune? The keeper continues without age, without death, without the company of a spouse, so long as the rune holds power."
The girl looked far off into the night. Paladine himself was asking her to be his servant. But not demanding it. It truly was her choice.
"I choose…" she began, relishing the words, "I choose to become the keeper, my lord." And then she chuckled. "Because I want an adventure of my own choosing. And because you have asked me my" mind. How could I refuse your respect, your love?"
"You could," the god said. "Many do. And you, L'Indasha? Your choice returns to you, if you will have it." "I choose Robert," the druidess said. "I choose to let go of the one secret in faith of knowing others."
"You are absolutely certain?" Paladine asked softly. "You will be mortal again. You will die as others die."
"And I will live as others live.", said L'Indasha. "Yes. I have chosen."
Paladine laid his hands on them and spoke the words of forgetting to L'Indasha, of remembrance to Judyth, and the exchange was complete. Judyth wore the flower pendant with the blue-purple stone. Now it was truly hers- chosen with full knowledge.
As Robert and the druidess made their way down the mountainside, L'Indasha stopped short and crowed with delight. "Look! My daylilies! They were all burned in the fire except this patch, and it was so small and I planted it so quickly-well, just look!"
Before her spread an enormous clump of bright green fans, each one with several scapes rising into the night sky. Beside it lay the signs of warding. Logr and Yr. Water and Yew bow.
Journey and Protection.
"Mort. Of course," L'Indasha breathed. " 'Thank you for the gift,' he said. Bless him."
Judyth heard the last of the druidess's laughter floating up on the mountain breeze. She turned to bid Paladine and Mort good-bye, but they were already gone. She started down the mountain herself and came quickly upon the clump of daylilies. One blossom remained open in the advancing night. In its center, behind a blue-purple eye area, a risted rune-staef, now visible to her in the vein-ing of the flower, spelled the blank rune's symbol. It was now her turn to guard this key to augury against enemy eyes-for a thousand years, if need be-until the coming storms were calmed.
Sothonsien, the rune-staef read, in the old language: The True Face. Revealed Knowledge.
Judyth thought of Aglaca, and then of a ruined face. She wept as she understood. The rune's reverse-its opposite-was Heregrima: The Mask.