Twisting and bellowing, it diminished in size as if the pain were too great to let it hold the dragon form. He felt it reaching to strengthen its power in the stones it carried, felt it falter as those powers that buoyed Lobon confused and rattled its mind. Powers stood beside Lobon now—Skeelie’s, the wolves’—that awed and humbled him. The dragon diminished further. It had begun to change into the form of a man. The two forms overlapped and wavered. The bones seemed to shrink, to draw in.
At last the man Dracvadrig stood before him, tall and bent and sallow, his lined face filled with hate. The gold casket dangled across his waist. One eye gushed blood. The other was a dragon’s eye, predatory and cold.
Part Three: The Joining
From the journal of Skeelie of Carriol. (Undated. Marked only, The Villa of Canoldir.)
I have not moved out of the realm of Canoldir’s house and out of this Timeless place to help Lobon. I am uncertain what to do. Perhaps Canoldir is right, perhaps I must wait. Must Lobon fight his battles unfettered? Would my interference unbalance the scales of what is, turn away the delicate balance of powers, and perhaps destroy that balance?
What am I to do? Do the Luff’Eresi watch Lobon and the warring upon Ere? Surely they care. From what Ram told me, they care more than we can know. But they put their feelings aside in deference to our free-choosing.
Must I continue to wait, then? Is this what they, all wise, would tell me? Yet I suffer for Lobon. And I fear for Ere.
In my fearing, should I not move to help? Must I not tip the balance? Am I not a part of that balance anymore, since I move outside of Time? Yet if I do not go to him, will I shatter all hope?
If I could have a vision of the Luff’Eresi as I had once long ago, if a word from their greater wisdom could guide me . . .
But they will not tamper with human affairs. It is up to me to decide.
And I do not know what to do.
EIGHT
Beyond Esh-nen, beyond Time, in the villa of Canoldir, Skeelie stood staring into the dying fire, but Seeing only Lobon facing the firemaster. The dragon had changed to the form of a man. The wolf bell was bloodied, and Lobon’s dark eyes were blazing with hatred. She remembered sharply how Ramad had faced the master of Urdd, twelve years gone, felt again Ram’s anger. Her hand clutched convulsively at her sword as she felt again the pain of Ram’s death. “I must go to Lobon now. I must.”
“You cannot help him, Skeelie. Not any more than he can help himself.” Canoldir stood tall in darkened leathers before the stone mantel, taut with the visions and with her fierce need. His dark eyes caressed her, were filled with forces and wonders no woman could turn away from.
She drew a breath, watching him. “I must go to him. I can help him. I must be beside him to try.”
“Part of the force that drives you, Skeelie, is guilt. Because you were not beside Ramad to help him.”
She stared at him defiantly, knowing he was right.
“You think your Seer’s powers were not enough alone to save Ram, and now too late you would battle with your sword.” His look was uncompromising. “The sword alone will never be sufficient to destroy such as Dracvadrig. Try your Seer’s powers now, Skeelie. You have more than you know.”
“My power is not enough without the sword. You must let me go to him.”
“Perhaps I will not be able to bring you back. My own powers . . .” Their shared look was long and expressed their shared needs. I cannot let you go without tearing my soul from me.
“You must let me go. I cannot see him die as Ram died. Nor can I see the stones remain with the dark Seers. Nor—nor can you.”
“The fates will have their way regardless of what we do.”
“You do not believe that. You know you do not. Let me go. I will come back to you. I must come back to you. The Luff’Eresi—”
“The Luff’Eresi care nothing for this. They would not lift a finger to help.
“They helped Ram once. To save the Children of Ynell. You do not believe what you say! You can’t run away from the stones—from Ere—uncaring.”
I care only for you. He took her by the shoulders, pulled her to him. But she held the vision of Lobon facing the master of Urdd and would not yield to the gentleness of his touch or to his lonely need.
*
Dracvadrig’s voice was dry as wind. His form, diminished from dragon to man, seemed only the more horrifying in its sparsity and sepulchral stance. He took a sword from a fire ogre’s hand, and it reflected the flame of the ogre’s face red as blood. “Now I will have the bell, son of a bastard!” The firemaster’s power was the power of all darkness. Crieba leaped at his chain. Feldyn and Shorren crouched snarling, then lurched forward dragging their chains to stand beside Lobon, tensed to spring. Dracvadrig stood hunched as a bird of prey, sword poised, then moved forward. Lobon did not step back, was wild with the power in him, the power of that great pack of wolves, the power of the girl in a strange, warm closeness; he raised the wolf bell and felt another power and exalted, felt Skeelie there with him; he knew he could kill Dracvadrig now, at this instant. . . .
*
Kish’s sword was poised against the throat of a peasant, crouching among his dead companions, when the vision of Dracvadrig and Lobon struck her. Somehow, Dracvadrig seemed so small there in the form of a man, dwarfed by the abyss out behind him as if his human form had shrunk. She watched his expression coldly, watched the young Seer; and she knew suddenly and surely that Dracvadrig could die there in the next instant, die in the rising power the young Seer had found. Who was helping him? Curse Carriol and her Seers! She gored the peasant and turned from his fallen body, saw that RilkenDal had already snatched the bridles of two fettered mares of Eresu. She ran, snatched the reins, was mounted. No matter that she hated Dracvadrig, Lobon must not have the stones! They beat and spurred the reluctant animals until the creatures could only leap skyward, were soon pounding the wind in a frenzy of speed under the sharp sting of the whips.
The setting sun sent a streak of crimson along the underside of the clouds, and beneath that bloody sky the dark Seers held steady the vision of Lobon and the firemaster. They must not allow Dracvadrig’s defeat, must not allow the stones to be taken. What powers buoyed the Seer? They sensed a force from the captive girl helping him, and then Lobon had cornered Dracvadrig.