Despite the excitement outside there was a quiet grandeur about the deserted chamber. Its vaulting oaken beams, its walls and the very air they enclosed seemed imbued with expectancy.
Croesan turned to the young couple and smiled.
‘It will be the happiest Winterbirth Anduran has seen in many years,’ he said. He put his arms around their shoulders, holding them tight against him. ‘To be a grandfather must be the finest thing in the world,’ he chuckled.
‘Even for a Thane?’ asked Eilan.
‘Especially for a Thane. At this moment my grandson means more to me than all our lands and castles put together.’
‘Have a care,’ said Naradin, ‘someone might hear you.’
Croesan laughed and released his son, who eased himself down into the nearest chair. Eilan kissed the Thane on his cheek.
‘You’ll be the finest grandfather any boy could wish for,’ she said.
‘Thank you,’ said Croesan. ‘I hope you are right.’
‘Of course she is,’ said Naradin.
Croesan walked towards the high table. He stood beside the immense chair that would be his seat during the night’s revels and laid his hand upon it.
‘It is a strange thing, to feel you have arrived somewhere that you have been travelling towards without knowing it. Anduran thrives, my grandson sleeps in the castle. I can see the future through his eyes. He will sit in this chair years from now, surrounded by his people, and by his own children. For tonight at least, I can imagine that there is nothing more for me to do.’
‘Until tomorrow,’ said Eilan wryly.
‘Until tomorrow,’ agreed Croesan. He sighed, a momentary distraction from his pleasure. ‘Your mother would have been so proud of you,’ he said to Naradin.
The Bloodheir had never known his mother—she had died in his birthing—but still a grave expression came across his face. ‘And of you,’ he said.
Croesan shrugged that off. ‘I have only done what was required of me,’ he said. The smile came bursting back upon his face. ‘None of it has given me half the joy of becoming a grandfather. I have the liberty of imagining I have nothing more to do, but the same cannot be said of the pair of you.’
Eilan raised her eyebrows at him.
‘I will want a granddaughter next,’ Croesan continued. ‘And more after that. I wish to be plagued by boisterous children in my dotage. I require a throng of them to pull at my beard and play tricks upon my failing eyesight and disturb my rest with laughter. Now that truly would be a happiness beyond measure.’
Eilan laughed. Naradin put on a face of mock horror.
‘You will allow us some time to recover from the first, I hope,’ he muttered.
He received a hefty jab in the ribs from his wife for that.
‘Us? What have you to recover from?’ she demanded. ‘The effort was mostly mine, as I recall.’
‘Enough, enough,’ said the Thane. ‘No arguments.’
He looked around him once more, and made a deep, satisfied sound somewhere at the back of his throat.
‘I am not done with building yet,’ he said. T would give you, and your son, a gift. A house, fit for future Thanes, where you can spend the summers. No, humour an old man. We will build you a grand house in Grive, close enough that I can come and stay when the years weigh so heavily that I need a few days’ rest away from Anduran. We will make gardens where your children can play, and stables and kennels for your horses and hunting hounds.’
‘That is a happy thought,’ said Naradin. ‘Thank you.’
Eilan embraced the Thane and kissed him once again. Croesan smiled contentedly and ran a hand through her fine hair.
‘Will you give me a little time with my son, Eilan? Perhaps you could keep our guests outside amused for a few minutes more. I am sure they would rather have your company than mine, in any case.’
As the Bloodheir’s wife left the hall, there was a resurgence of excited cries from the crowds.
‘They love her almost as well as you or I,’ observed Croesan.
‘Not as well as I,’ said Naradin. ‘Anyway, they would cheer a well-dressed donkey today. It has been a good year; they’re ready to celebrate.’
Croesan nodded. ‘The best year in a long time. There’s one shadow I can’t quite escape, though, even now. I wish with all my heart that Taim Narran was here to share all of this with us. Winterbirth will not feel right without that man here. I should not have let him go south.’
‘What else could you do?’ his son asked. ‘You could hardly refuse the High Thane’s direct command in such a matter: we might argue over tithes and levies and the settlement of his warriors on our lands, but a call to arms is different. And Taim would never have allowed you to send so many of his men without him. You know what he’s like.’
‘Better than he knows himself. He hasn’t the heart for the life of the sword any more. It’s only his loyalty that’s kept him from seeing it. This bloodletting in Dargannan-Haig will have been hard for him.’
‘One more mark in the ledger against Gryvan oc Haig,’ said Naradin.
Croesan ran his hand over the arm of the great chair and glanced across at his son. ‘As you say. One more amongst many. Do not forget them. I hate to speak of such things on what should be a joyful day, but you should know that I fear Gryvan is not done with us yet. From the Steward’s hints, I think our High Thane is about to demand extra tribute, to meet the costs of subduing Igryn.’
‘The blood of our warriors is not enough for him, then,’ muttered Naradin.
‘Apparently not. A part of me would long to refuse him if he does make the demand, but I would have your counsel on it. These decisions are no longer mine to make alone. The safety of our Blood will fall to you before very many more years have passed.’
‘Do you know where Lheanor stands?’ asked Naradin. ‘If Gryvan means to grind us down still further, he will have the same in mind for Kilkry.’
‘He will,’ agreed Croesan. ‘He sees no difference between Lannis and Kilkry, and I would have it no other way. I have sent word to Lheanor. It is time he and I met again, in any case.’
Naradin shook his head. ‘Has Gryvan really become so blind that he sees no danger in driving such wedges between the True Bloods? Does he no longer care that we are the ones guarding his borders against the Black Road ?’
‘Ah well, there is the nub of it, isn’t it? The Gyre Bloods have not bestirred themselves for thirty years. It seems they’re more interested in arguing amongst themselves than in renewing their feuds with us. Only Horin-Gyre out of all of them even bothers to send scouts and raiders over the Vale of Stones any more. I keep reminding Behomun that there are still skirmishes being fought up there, but I fear his master Gryvan knows as well as we do that—for the time being at least—the threat from the north is not what it once was. Thus he feels free to play his games. After all, with Kilkry at our side we could still turn back the entire Horin-Gyre Blood; Haig is a different matter. If it came to open war, Gryvan could count on Ayth and Taral to join him against us. We would last a few months at best.’
‘So,’ said Naradin, ‘however we might long to defy Gryvan oc Haig, we will bite our tongues and do enough at least to avoid an open breach.’
‘Yes,’ Croesan sighed. ‘I pledged loyalty to Haig when I became Thane, as you will no doubt have to do when my time is done and yours arrives. Gryvan may not put much store by that promise, but I hope we can hold to it even in the face of his provocations.’
The Thane clasped his hands together and shook himself, as if to shed such unwelcome thoughts.
‘Let’s not dwell on such things any more than we must,’ he said. ‘There are celebrations to get started, and I mean to enjoy them.’
Naradin rose from his seat and took his father’s hands in his own.
‘One day, your grandson will love you just as I do, and as Eilan does. Even the High Thane cannot deprive us of that.’