The Lord of Law looked at Corum, almost in surprise. "I suppose I am still sad, yes. I mourn for the Vadhagh as you mourn. I mourn for the one who was killed by your enemy, Glandyth-a-Krae-the one you called the Brown Man,"
"He was a good creature. Does Glandyth still bring death across the land of Bro-an-Vadhagh?"
"He does. You will meet him again, I think."
"And then I will till him."
"Possibly."
Lord Arkyn vanished. The palace vanished.
Sword in hand, Corum stood before the low, twisted door that was the entrance to Shool's dwelling. Behind him, in the garden, the plants craned up to drink the rain that fell from a pale sky.
A peculiar calm hung over the dark and oddly formed building, but without hesitation Conun plunged into it and began to run down eccentric corridors,
"Rhalina! Rhalina!" The house muffled his shouts no matter how loudly he uttered them.
"Rhalina!"
Through the murky dwelling he ran until he heard a whining voice he recognized. Shool!
"Shool! Where are you?"
"Prince Shool. I will be given my proper rank. You mock me now my enemies have beaten me."
Corum entered a room and there was Shool. Corum recognized only the eyes. The rest was a withered, decrepit thing that lay upon a bed, unable to move.
Shool whimpered. "You, too, come to torment me now that I am conquered. Thus it always is with mighty men brought low."
"You only rose because it suited Arioch's sense of humor to let you."
"Silence! I will not be deceived. Arioch has taken vengeance upon me because I was more powerful than he."
"You borrowed, without knowing it, a fraction of his power. Arioch is gone from the Five Planes, Shool. You set events in motion which resulted in his banishment. You wanted his heart so that you might make him your slave. You sent many Mabden to steal it. All failed. You should not have sent me, Shool, for I did not fail and it resulted in your undoing."
Shool sobbed and shook his haggard head.
"Where is Rhalina, Shool. If she is harmed…"
"Harmed?" A hollow laugh from the wizened Hps. "I harm her? It is she who placed me here. Take her away from me. I know she means to poison me."
"Where is she?"
"I gave you gifts. That new hand, that new eye. You would be crippled still if I had not been kind to you. But you will not remember my generosity, I know. You will-"
"Your 'gifts,' Shool, near crippled my soul! Where is Rhalina?"
"Promise you will not hurt me, if I tell you?"
"Why should I wish to hurt so pathetic a thing as you, Shool? Now, tell me."
"At the end of the passage is a stair. At the top of the stair is a room. She has locked herself in. I would have made her my wife, you know. It would have been magnificent to be the wife of a God. An immortal. But she…"
"So you planned to betray me?"
"A God may do as he chooses."
Corum left the room, ran down the passage and up the short flight of stairs, hammering with the hilt of his sword upon the door. "Rhalina!"
A weary voice came from beyond the door. "So your power has returned, Shool. You will not trick me again by disguising yourself as Corum. Though he be dead, I shall give myself to no other, least of all…"
"Rhalina! This really is Corum. Shool can do nothing. The Knight of the Swords has been banished from this plane and with him went Shool's sorcery."
"Is it true?"
"Open the door, Rhalina."
Cautiously bolts were drawn back and there was Rhalina. She was tired, she had plainly suffered much, but she was still beautiful. She looked deeply into Corum's eyes and her face flushed with relief, with love. She fainted.
Corum picked her up and began to carry her down the stairway, along the passage. He paused at Shool's room.
The onetime sorcerer was gone. Suspecting a trick, Corum hurried to the main door. Through the rain, along a path between the swaying plants, hurried Shool, his ancient legs barely able to carry him.
He darted a look back at Corum and chattered with fear. He dived into the bushes.
There was a smacking sound. A hiss. A wail. Bile rose in Corum's throat. Shool's plants were feeding T the last time.
Warily he carried Rhalina along the path, rugging limself free from the vines and blooms that sought to iold him and kiss him, and at last he reached the shore. A boat was tied up there, a small skiff which, with careful handling, would bear them back to Moidel's Castle.
The sea was smooth beneath the gray rain that fell upon it. On the horizon, the sky began to lighten.
Corum placed Rhalina gently in the boat and set sail for Moidel's Mount.
She woke up several hours later, looked at him, smiled sweetly, then fell asleep again.
Toward nightfall, as the boat sailed steadily homeward, she came and sat beside him. He wrapped his scarlet robe around her and said nothing.
As the moon rose, she reached up and kissed him on the cheek.
"I had not hoped…" she began. And then she wept for a little while and he comforted her.
"Corum," she said at length, "how has our luck improved so."
And he began to tell her of what had befallen him. He told her of the Ragha-da-Kheta, of the magical kite, of the Flamelands, of Arioch, and of Arkyn.
He told her all, save two things.
He did not tell her how he-or the Hand of Kwll-had murdered King TemgoI-Lep, who had tried to poison him, or her countryman Hanafax, who had tried to help him.
When he had finished her brow was unclouded and she sighed with her happiness.
"So we have peace, at last. The conflict is over."
"Peace, if we are lucky, for a little while." The sun had begun to rise. He adjusted his course.
"You will not leave me again? Law rules now, surely, and…"
"Law rules only upon this plane. The Lords of Chaos will not be pleased with what has happened here. Arioch's last words to me were that I have incurred the bane of the Sword Rulers. And Lord Arkyn knows that much more must be done before Law is once again secure in the Fifteen Planes. And Glandyth-a-Krae will be heard of again."
"You still seek vengeance against him?"
"No longer. He was merely an instrument of Arioch. But he will not forget his hatred of me, Rhalina."
The sky cleared and was blue and golden. A warm breeze blew.
"Are we then, Corum, to have no peace?"
"We shall have some, I think. But it will be merely a pause in the struggle, Rhalina. Let us enjoy that pause while we may. We have won that much, at least."
"Aye." Her tone became merry. "And peace and love that are won are more greatly appreciated than if they are merely inherited!"
He held her in his arms.
The sun was strong in the sky. Its rays struck a jeweled hand and a jeweled eye and it made them bum brightly and flash like fire.
But Rhalina did not see them burning, for she slept again in Corum's arms.
Moidel's Mount came in sight. Its green slopes were washed by a gentle blue sea and the sun shone on its white stone castle. The tide was in, covering the causeway.
Corum looked down at Rhalina's sleeping face. He smiled and gently stroked her hair.
He saw the forest on the mainland. Nothing threatened.
He glanced up at the cloudless sky.
He hoped the pause would be a long one.
This ends the First Book of Corum