"By my teeth, but you are an ugly old nag."
Gwyn bobbed her head happily, and then with a haughty snort, walked to her stall. Gawain chuckled, and left the stable.
When he walked into the main room and saw Allazar, he stopped dead in his tracks. The wizard looked haggard, drained, and his hands trembled.
"Longsword!" Allazar gasped breathlessly, "You live!"
"I do, whitebeard, which is more than you should for such poor treatment of horses."
"You live. It matters not whether I do. You live!"
Gawain strode forward, unable to resist the profound relief that shone from the wizard's eyes, and reached out his hand. "I do, and so shall you, a while longer yet I hope."
Allazar grasped Gawain's arm, and wept. "When I saw the aquamire fire, I thought…"
"Morloch lives."
Allazar wiped his eyes. "Aye, I suspected as much, and so I have advised the brethren. But a toothless dog is no threat, they say, and celebrate."
"Idiots."
"Aye."
They sat, the four of them. Merrin, Rak, Allazar and Gawain.
"I have seen across the Teeth." Gawain announced quietly.
Allazar gasped. "In truth?"
Gawain looked across at the wizard, his eyes sparkling aquamire. "You doubt me?"
"By the…no, Longsword, I doubt you not!"
Gawain turned his awful gaze to the fire, keenly aware that Merrin's hand had slipped into her husband's. Slowly he calmed, and the blackness faded. "I saw thousands of black-clad men and women, attacking the Teeth with their hammers. Can you imagine the remorseless futility of it? They would break down mountains with hammers. They die where they stand, and others clamber upon their fallen bodies to bring fresh assault to bear on the rock.
"I saw their works, beneath the Teeth. How many thousands had died carving steps into the chasm's walls I do not know. Even with the steps in place, only one in five survived the journey across that dread divide."
Gawain paused, remembering, and shook his head. "That is Morloch's army. Relentless, single-minded. That is the true threat we face."
"Then it might be centuries before they breach the Teeth." Allazar muttered.
"No." Gawain asserted. "Allazar, you would not speak of aquamire, and how it comes into being. I saw it. How long, Allazar, would that foul lake have taken to ferment?"
Allazar shuddered.
"How long?" Gawain pressed, eyes flashing black again.
"Five years, perhaps eight."
"Then that is all the time we have?" Merrin gasped.
Gawain shrugged. "I do not know. I only know that the Teeth are a dam, holding back a black tide that will sweep down across our lands and destroy them utterly. Once they breach the Teeth, we are doomed, unless the kingdoms unite."
"And Ramoth?" Rak asked quietly.
"Ramoth is destroyed."
Allazar leaned forward, eyes wide. "Ramoth was real? You slew a god?"
Gawain chuckled. "No. Ramoth was an invention of Morloch's. A decoy, used just as we did that poor Jurian soldier who posed as the Longsword warrior."
"Why?" Merrin asked softly. "Why such a device?"
"To keep the kingdoms divided. To cow the people. Break their spirit. My old allies against the Ramoths, fear and terror. While all the while, his army massed beyond the Teeth, attacking the wall that is all that remains twixt them and us. That," Gawain sighed, and closed his eyes against the memory, "That is why he destroyed Raheen."
"I do not understand." Rak said quietly, they were all keenly aware of Gawain's pain at mention of his devastated homeland now his heart beat once more.
Gawain sighed again. "When the dam breaks, the black flood will sweep down like a tidal wave. Only Raheen, high atop the plateau, could withstand such a flood. It would be a bastion, a rallying-point for all the lands to muster, and re-group, and strike back. It would stand as a beacon of hope against the black tide."
"As you did, my friend."
"As I did. That is why Morloch destroyed Raheen. That, and to feed his fermenting lake of aquamire. Threlland would have cost him less. As would Elevendere with its rich forests, brimming with living energy. Or Juria, or Mornland, or Arrun. But Raheen alone could withstand his army, and so Raheen it was he destroyed, at such great cost to himself."
"I must inform the brethren." Allazar said with conviction. "We must form council, and bind Morloch forever while we can."
"Even if you could, even if they believed you, or I, friend Allazar, his plans are laid. His army relentless. His generals instructed. They feed on aquamire, all of them. All the lands north of the Teeth are gone. Destroyed. They do not seek conquest of the southlands. They seek food."
24. Throth
Winter's grip was growing stronger by the day and cruel too, a chill fist which grasped the lands and held them fast in blankets of snow and ice. There was little Gawain could do but while away the days in the company of his friends, and in spite of his utter distrust of all wizards, he counted Allazar in that number.
In truth, the wizard's own opinions of his brethren were not too far separated from Gawain's, though of course Allazar seldom spoke of his own kind or their history. It was some time after their reunion that Gawain found himself alone in Rak's main room, seated by the fire, when Allazar strode in.
"Well met, Longsword." the wizard announced, proceeding to stand in front of the burning logs. "It is bitter out there."
"Well met, and aye. Midwinter's day fast approaches, and we've yet to hear if Threlland's king will grant us audience, let alone the others."
Allazar shrugged. "Eryk of Threlland is a noble king, for all his lack of physical stature. He knows his own lands, and will doubtless wait until spring before admitting us. He knows the journey from Tarn to the castle town would be a miserable one in these conditions. As for the rest of the southland kingdoms, I doubt Rak's messengers have so much as arrived, let alone delivered your dread tidings."
Gawain sighed. "We have so little time to prepare for what must surely come."
Allazar smiled sadly, the harrowed and gaunt expression already a memory thanks to good food and rest in Tarn. "Longsword, you are young. Five years or eight years, that is almost a lifetime. A few days, or weeks, or even months if needs be, will not much affect the final outcome."
Gawain frowned. "Yet there is much to do. All the crowns must gather, and listen. And then act. Each day brings us closer to the time when the Teeth shall fall and the black tide rushes in to devour us."
Allazar's smile faded, and he moved away from the fire. "Something else troubles you, I suspect?"
Gawain looked up, puzzled. "I do not believe so."
The wizard nodded. "You have a faraway look in your eyes of late, Longsword. And it is not to Morloch, nor the Teeth, that your mind wanders. Nor to another place, which I shall not name."
Gawain settled back in his chair. "Sometimes I think of Elvendere."
"Ah.” Allazar's eyes sparkled, and he sat opposite the young man. "Rak has told me of some of your adventures there."
Gawain nodded, absently. In the fire, flames danced and swirled, and in their fiery heart he saw shining eyes, hazel-green, and silver-blonde hair…
"Elvendere?" Allazar prompted.
"Eh?"
"Your thoughts, you said, sometimes turn to Elvendere?"
"Yes." Gawain replied, and turned his gaze back to the flames.
"What was her name?" Allazar asked, shrewdly.
"Elayeen."
"A pretty name."