“Lad, you do not want to believe her children will be evil, yet I say unto you they will be.” Again Roel slammed a fist to the table. He sat in brooding silence for a while, but at last he said, “And you are certain that it was in fact the Changeling Lord and not the Elf King who stole my sister away?”
“Yes, Roel, I am certain. Let me tell you what he looked like: he was tall and had black hair and black eyes, and his features somewhat resembled those of a hawk.”
“How dressed?” asked Roel.
“Dark clothing, an ebon cloak limned in scarlet.”
“Limned, or instead lined?”
“Limned only,” said Geron.
Roel sighed. “You have described him exactly as I remember.” Geron nodded. “It is as I say: ’twas the Lord of the Changelings himself.”
“How know you this?” asked Roel.
“I myself saw him long past when we sages banded together to destroy that temple of his, the place where he captured your sister.”
“Those ruins were once a temple to the Lord of the Changelings?”
“Oui,” said Geron, nodding. “A most wicked being, he was and is.”
“Then that is why people avoid those ruins?” asked Roel.
Again Geron nodded, but then shook his head in rue.
“Other than a handful of sages such as me, I suspect no others yet live who know it once was used thus and still holds remnants of power. Hence the ruins are now avoided out of tradition rather than from sure knowledge. It’s unfortunate you didn’t know better than to loiter about such a place. Unfortunate as well your sister made a wish there.”
“Mistake or no, what’s done is done,” said Roel, though regret tinged his words. “What is important now is to retrieve my sister. -My brothers as well.” The sage took a deep breath. “As to your brothers, Roel, I would not hold out hope that they are yet alive, for when I told them what they must do, they would not wait.”
“Wait for what?” asked Roel.
Geron got up from the table and stepped to a chest.
He opened it and took from it a sword in a scabbard and turned to Roel and said, “They would not wait for this.”
“And that is. .?”
“Coeur d’Acier,” said Geron.
“Heart of Steel?”
“Oui,” said Geron. “It is a special weapon, years in the making, for there are powerful runes bound in the blade and covered with silver flashing. It was not finished when your brothers rode through.”
“Were not their own weapons adequate?” asked Roel. “They were forged from good steel as well.”
“Ah, but you see, the Changeling Lord lives in Faery, where steel is forbidden except under special circumstance. After all, one must not affront the Fairies and Elves and other such beings therein; else the transgressor might find himself forever cursed.”
“Did my brothers take their steel within?”
“I do not know,” said Geron. “I advised them to trade their arms and armor for counterparts of good bronze.”
“Trade?”
“Oui. You see, from here, the city of Rulon is on the way to Faery, and for a fee the merchants of Rulon will trade bronze accoutrements for those of steel; travellers can then retrieve their own when they come back from Faery. . assuming they come back within a year. Rulon is just one of several cities of such welcomed trade.
After all, good steel is harder to come by than good bronze, and so the merchants gain rather handsomely in the exchange with those who are fool enough to venture into Faery.”
Roel took a deep breath and slowly shook his head, for his brothers had been gone well beyond the required year. Finally he said, “Tell me what I must do.” Geron nodded, and he handed Coeur d’Acier to Roel. “Bear this blade into Faery with you.”
“Is it not made of steel?”
“Oui, it is; yet recall, I said it was steel bound with runes of power and flashed with silver. This blade will not twist the aethyr; hence it is safe to take into that mystical realm.”
Roel frowned in puzzlement, but then shrugged in acceptance and said, “What else must I do?”
“But for Coeur d’Acier, rid yourself of all iron and steel-as I say, you can trade for arms and armor of bronze. Shoe your horse in bronze as well, and change out the tack-all fittings must be of bronze instead of iron.”
Roel nodded and said, “And then what? How do I find Faery?”
Geron laughed. “Ah, lad, somewhat straight on beyond the city of Rulon you will come to a wall of twilight looming up into the sky. The wall is there whether or no it is day or night, for it is one of the many bounds of Faery. Simply ride through, and you will find yourself in that wondrous but oft perilous place.” Roel nodded and asked, “And once I am in Faery. .?”
“Then seek the port city of Mizon. Therein lies a well-known map which, among other things, purports to show a path to the Changeling realm. It is the only certain way I know of to find that domain.”
“I have one other question, Geron.”
“Ask away.”
Roel lifted Coeur d’Acier. “Why do you give me such a valuable blade as this and ask nought in return?”
“Let us just say, my lad, I was driven by the Fates to do so.” The sage spoke no more of his part in Roel’s quest, though he talked freely of other things.
Roel rode away from Geron’s cottage, and days later he came to the city of Rulon, and there, but for Coeur d’Acier, he exchanged his arms and armor for those of bronze. He had the tack of his horse fitted with bronze, and the shoes replaced with ones of bronze, including the nails therein. As the merchant put away the old gear, Roel recognized Laurent’s steel dagger, and Blaise’s steel helm, but none of their remaining gear did he see.
A day later he espied the great wall of twilight, and just beyond the burnt ruins of what had once been a magnificent manor, he rode through the bound and entered what appeared to be a woodland where spring seemed burgeoning, though the remains of winter lay upon the world he had just left.
Roel drained his cup of tea and said to Celeste, “And so, Princess, that is my quest, and the tale of how I came to be in Faery.”
Celeste stood and took up Roel’s cup and stepped to the sideboard to replenish it. “Oh, Roel, I am so sorry.
Your sister stolen, your brothers missing.” Abed, Roel nodded bleakly. “Yet all are in Faery, or so I think.”
“This Lord of the Changelings, he took her shadow,” said Celeste.
Roel nodded. “Oui. As I said, it was draped over his arm when last I saw Avelaine.”
Celeste set Roel’s refreshed cup of honey-sweetened tea on the bed tray and said, “Ah, Roel, it is good that you came the way you did, for to find your sister you seek a treasured map in the port city of Mizon.” Roel looked at Celeste, an unspoken question in his eyes.
Celeste smiled and said, “I know the way to Mizon.”
5
Amour
“You do? You know the way to the port city?” asked Roel.
“Oui,” said Celeste, smiling. “I can guide you there.”
“Oh, Princess, there are Changelings involved in my quest, the Lord of the Changelings, in fact, and I would not have you in jeopardy.”
“And I would not have you go alone,” said Celeste.
Before Roel could again protest, Gilles strode in.
“Ah, you are awake, Roel. You, too, Princess.” Then he smiled and glanced at Celeste and added, “Unlike Henriette at the door. Your chaperone, I gather?”
“Oui.”
A wide grin lit up Gilles’ face. “Sound asleep she is, Princess, an ideal chaperone.”
Yet caught up in her determination to guide Roel to Mizon, Celeste graced her features with only a small smile at Gilles’ bon mot.
Gilles stepped to the bedside. “And speaking of sleep, Sieur Roel, you need to be doing that right now.”
“More sleep? After three days of such?”
“Oui,” said Gilles. He held the back of his hand to Roel’s forehead a moment and then nodded in satisfaction. “I told you before, it was a very virulent poison, and I would have you rest well this night.” He glanced at Celeste. “-You, too, Princess.” He then measured the chevalier’s pulse. As he released Roel’s wrist, he eyed the bowl of broth and asked, “Have you eaten yet?”