Return to Blue Mountain
Part Five: Light
The Death Water raged in rapids and whirlpools under the night sky. Suntop shivered at the cold wind. Tyldak had already flown across the rapids, bearing Ekuar and Skot, while Timmain draped an arm over Aroree’s shoulder and the Glider flew her across. Elsewhere the Death Water River was calm and placid, but the elves did not have to venture upstream to find a more suitable ford. They had to reach the Palace on the western edges of the Forbidden Grove.
Tyldak returned, and scooped up Venka and Quicksilver. His wings flapped wildly as he struggled to remain aloft over the churning water with such weight. Suntop paced the bank nervously until Aroree returned to carry him over.
“I can’t send to my father,” Quicksilver cried. “It’s like something’s blocking us...”
“Wrapstuff!” Venka cried. “Haken’s Preserver must have sealed them in wrapstuff.”
Aroree returned for Suntop and carried him across the water. The others were already sprinting ahead, and Aroree hurried to catch up to them.
**What do we do when we get there?** Skot asked as they raced across the grassy plain. Patches of snow and ice lingered still on the ground.
Suntop had no answer for him.
Aurek bit his lip nervously. How could he stall Haken? He had no doubt that his grandfather would carry out his threat to kill the helpless elves in wrapstuff. But what Haken was proposing – it was insane! No matter that wrapstuff had kept Chani’s body out of time – her spirit had been free in the Palace for over nine millennia. Such a spirit could not easily be coaxed – or forced – to accept a shell after so many years.
“How... how do you plan to accomplish this?” he stammered.
“Don’t be dense, boy. We have only to call Chani back to her body.”
“But how? She has been in spirit form for so long.”
“You don’t think she would welcome a second chance at life?”
“There are other forms of existence than inside a living body.”
“I won’t hear it! We used to be immortal once – truly immortal! No one ever died! No one ever had to.”
“And no one gave birth either, Haken.”
“Silence! You are not here to speak.”
“What am I here to do?”
Haken smiled cruelly. “I need someone to turn the Scroll of Colors. It has been too long since I looked into it. But you – you’ve made the Egg. You have the gift of sight – it’s as though you’ve been linked to the scroll since you were born. You can turn it for me. You can pluck out of time the exact moment of Chani’s death.”
“Why?”
“You’re right. Chani’s spirit has slept too long. We have to jog her memory. We will hold the moment in the Scroll, and project it into the very bones of this palace-ship. Chani will remember her death with perfect clarity, and long for life. And then I will call her back to her body and she will take it up again without hesitation.”
“Haken–”
“Obey your lord.”
“You haven’t been my lord for millennia!”
Haken’s gaze seemed to soften. “I thought you would help me willingly. I thought you would rejoice to think that your grandmother could return to us.”
“She never left, Haken. She only took another form. She is here – here with all the others.”
“As what? A helpless spirit? Why hasn’t she answered my sending? Why is she always just out of reach, in the shadows? Death is a curse to us – a nightmare that never ends. Helpless, blind spirits, drifting in these halls like nothing but wisps of fog. That is not existence!”
“Haken–”
“No! I won’t hear another word from you. If you will not help me willingly, then you will do it under duress. Now turn the Scroll! Now! Or I will start killing elves in cocoons. Which one shall I start with? I can’t even remember which one is which anymore. Maybe that one on top.” He pointed to the pile. “I think it’s the dark-skinned boy. Or perhaps the white-haired one?”
Aurek slowly walked over to the Scroll. He closed his eyes and raised his hands. “This may take a moment. Reading the Scroll is different from reading the Egg. If you would set Skywise free, he could turn the Scroll much faster.”
“I won’t deal with half-sized degenerates.”
Aurek opened his eyes as the halves of the Scroll rose into the air. The light between them grew into a misty veil, then slowly resolved as a flashing series of images, all too vague to be interpreted.
“Show me Chani,” Haken commanded.
Chani appeared first as a little girl, a golden-haired, pony-tailed toddler. The image of her focussed, then shifted. Now Chani was a lanky teenager, her tattered leathers stretched tightly over her thorn-scratched limbs. Her little sling hung strapped to her belt.
“Later.”
The image changed again. Chani was a tall adult, dressed in a hooded tunic. Chani was a Glider lord, clad in flowing furs and feathers. Chani was a mother, sitting up in bed as she held her infant daughter in her arms. Chani stood on the steps of a growing staircase, directing rockshapers at work. Chani wept with delight as her son Runya handed her baby Aurek, her first grandson.
“Later!” Haken commanded. “I cannot look at these! Show me her death.”
The Scroll shifted again. Now Chani stood on the ground, looking up at the floating rockshapers who toiled to bridge a large archway down towards the stone bower framework. Haken watched, transfixed, as the archway began to crumble, then rained down in huge stone slabs.
Aurek froze the Scroll’s retelling just as the shadow of the rubble fell over Chani’s body. Tears glittered in Haken’s eyes as he watched.
“There!” Aurek snapped.
“Not yet. Go forward. Find the moment of her death.”
“Why are you torturing yourself, Grandfather?”
“Do it!”
Aurek let the action continued, slowed it down to a snail’s pace. The rocks fell, Chani was buried. Winnowill rushed forward, screaming for floaters to lift the rubble so she could find her mother. Haken edged closer to the Scroll. “Almost...” he murmured. “Almost...”
Winnowill had almost reached Chani. They could just see her white hand through the dust and rubble. The fingers clenched once, desperately, then fell slack.
“There!” Haken gasped. “Right there. We will send it together. We will call Chani back to her body. Picture it in your mind. Feel it in your mind! Send it out to Chani! Chani! Your lord has come back! I have the Palace at last. Come back to me!”
The entire Palace seemed to shudder with the gasp of Chani’s final moment. Countless whispers overlapped in hisses and accusations. Aurek winced at the psychic backlash the spirits of the Palace unleashed in response of the traumatic call.
“This isn’t working!” Aurek gasped.
“Silence.”
“She won’t answer.”
“Keep sending!”
Aurek closed his eyes and concentrated again. The last rasping breath, the last convulsive gesture, the last terrified thought of Chani, all echoed throughout the Palace walls. Now the Palace seemed to be screaming in protest.
“Liar! Cheat! You are not giving all your heart.”
“I am, Haken. Can’t you understand that this won’t work?”
“Silence! No one will take her from me again.”
**HAKEN!**
Haken spun around. So did Aurek. The Scroll clattered to the floor uselessly.
Suntop stood just outside the transparent wall, flanked by the other seven members of his party. With a blink of his jewel-blue eyes, the wall dissolved, and he charged into the Palace.
“Stop!” Haken cried. “Challenge me and your kin in wrapstuff die.” He pointed at the cocoons.
Timmain saw Chani’s body lying on the bed of wrapstuff. “What have you done, Haken?”
“Done what you fear to! I am facing the darkness of death! And I will bring Chani back to her body.”
“What?”
“I will bring her back to life! I will reunite spirit and body! She will breathe, she will live!”
“You fool!” Timmain gasped. “You blind senseless fool.”
“You would rather leave her to rot, wouldn’t you, wolf-bitch? You would feed off her bones if giving the chance! Come a step closer and I will kill your children there.” He indicated the cocoons. “Do you doubt my powers? Perhaps a demonstration is in order?”
Black sending tore through their minds. Tyldak and Aroree fainted dead away, overwhelmed by the eerily familiar sensation, like the most powerful of Winnowill’s “lessons.” Skot, Ekuar and Quicksilver wilted, crying out in pain. Timmain, Venka and Suntop staggered, wincing, but remained on their feet.
“Stop it!” Suntop cried.
“Is this enough proof? Or do you require more?”
Venka gritted her teeth and shot her own sending star back at Haken. The stunning power that could stop Winnowill in her tracks only managed to ease the suffering for a moment or two. She mustered a second bolt of blocking power, and once again stopped the pain for only a few heartbeats.
Timmain screamed. She could bear no more. Wispy white hairs began to sprout across her face. She snarled, and her teeth grew long and snarled. Her tunic and trousers began to split as her limbs gnarled and twisted into lupine form.
“No...” Suntop gasped.
Venka screamed with effort as she sent out a third bolt. But her powers were weakening. Her sending star did nothing to stop either Haken or Timmain. Midway through her transformation, Timmain leapt into the air towards Haken. But Haken only waved his hand, and Timmain went flying against the opposite wall. She struck the wall hard, and slumped to the ground. Her lupine features faded away until she was elf again, clad in tatters of her clothes.
“Timmain!” Suntop shouted.
“My legs...” Timmain whimpered faintly. “I... I can’t... my legs. Chani... Chani...”
Aroree was thrashing on the ground, tearing at her cropped hair. Skot was on his hands and knees. He coughed up blood.
“Haken!” Suntop cried. “Stop this! Stop this now. I’ll help you! I’ll help you as the others can’t. I’ll bring Chani back to you. Only stop this!”
Haken drew back. The agony in their minds and bodies ceased. The elves collapsed to the floor in relief. Suntop pulled himself up onto his hands and knees. He met Haken’s eyes.
“Truth?” Haken demanded.
**I will help you. You know I can. I am one of the three Masters of the Palace. Let everyone else go. I will stay and I will help you.**
“Suntop... no,” Quicksilver gasped.
“Well?”
Haken smiled coldly. “You have greater experience with the Scroll than Aurek.”
“I can help you. I can find Chani for you.”
“You lie.”
**In sending there is only truth! That hasn’t changed, no matter how many years have passed.**
“That one stays!” he pointed to Timmain. “If you can succeed where Aurek failed I might even let you heal her shattered back. If not, she dies.”
Suntop glanced at Timmain. She lay still as if dead, her eyes focussed on the lifeless body of her daughter. Only the occasional blink gave her away.
“But the others can go?” Suntop asked.
Haken jerked his head towards the pile of cocoons. “Take them.”
“Go,” Suntop whispered.
“Suntop...” Venka breathed.
“Go! Take the cocoons. Find shelter in the grove. Open the cocoons there.”
Aurek hastened to lift the first of the cocoons. He managed to heave one over his shoulder and sling another under his arm. Aroree coughed, whimpered softly, and limped over to the others. She was not strong enough to lift the large cocoon that held Pike and Vaya, but Tyldak and Ekuar slowly staggered to help her. Venka helped Skot to his feet, and they slowly moved to recover Dewshine’s cocoon.
“Go,” Suntop turned to Quicksilver.
“No...” she whispered.
**Please. Go, Khai.**
**I won’t leave you to sacrifice yourself.**
**Please. Just go. I’ll be all right. I can’t have you here too.**
**But I’m your strength. You’ve always said that.**
**Khai... please...** Tears welled in his eyes. **Now.**
Quicksilver turned to help Skot and Venka.
“No,” Haken said. Quicksilver turned towards him.
“She stays.”
“No!” Suntop cried. “She goes with the others!”
“You are in no position to negotiate with me, boy! The silver-hair stays here. And if you don’t satisfy all my demands, then she dies too.”
“I won’t help you on those terms.”
“Then she dies now. You know I can do it.”
Quicksilver clenched Suntop’s arm. Suntop glared at Haken. “You hurt her, and I’ll tear out your throat. You may kill me too, but I swear, you will die.”
“Paugh! You speak like a wolf!”
“I am a wolf’s son.”
Haken spat on the floor. “Betray me and I will gut you like a wolf.”
Suntop glanced over at his twin. She lingered by the last of the cocoons. “GO!” Suntop snapped. “Get out of here.”
Venka nodded tersely to Skot. The six elves carried and dragged the four cocoons to the transparent wall. Suntop waved his hand and the door opened. The elves slipped through the opening, and Suntop closed the wall behind them. The wall became opaque. He could not bear to watch them disappear into the darkened grove.
Aroree and Tyldak led the party deeper into the Forbidden Grove. Dripping icicles were the only sound other than their muffled footsteps. After several tense minutes of hiking over broken branches and avoiding patches of ice, Venka called Tyldak and Aroree to rest. “We’ve gone far enough. Let’s open these up.”
They tucked the cocoons under a large oak tree covered in frost and tattered Preserver webs. Venka drew her little throwing dagger and began to slice through the first cocoon. As she peeled away the frosty layers of wrapstuff, she uncovered Dewshine’s blood-stained face. The huntress yawned softly and blinked in disorientation.
“Dewshine!” Tyldak fell next to the cocoon. **Lree! Are you hurt?**
Dewshine smiled faintly. “Tyldak?” She held out her hands and Tyldak drew her up into his arms. He wrapped his wings around her and rocked her gently.
“Your forehead.”
“I cut it when the Palace fell, that’s all. Where... where are we?”
“In the Forbidden Grove. You’re safe now.”
“Uhn – who’s in this one?” Venka asked. “Skot, help me. The layers are wrapped so tight.”
Skot helped her pull away the sticky layers. At length a strand of dark brown hair appeared. Soon he uncovered the edge of Vaya’s fur-trimmed collar, and one of Pike’s bound auburn tufts. Skot nudged Venka out of the way and tore more frantically until both elves were exposed and awakened. Vaya and Pike looked up and blinked sleepily. Skot laughed and gathered them both in his arms. “Ha-hah! I’m never letting you two out of my sight again!”
Aurek and Aroree cut open the next cocoon, revealing Zhantee. Venka hastened to help him rise. “Oh, you’ll freeze in that tunic. We should have stolen some furs before we left the Palace.”
“Venka? Where are the others? Where is Haken?”
Aurek and Aroree sliced open the last cocoon, and Skywise moaned softly. “Aroree?”
“I’m here, my little friend.”
Skywise looked around frantically. “Quicksilver? Where is my daughter?”
Aroree bit her lip.
“Venka!” Skywise snapped. “Where is Quicksilver?”
She lowered her eyes. “Back in the Palace. With Suntop. And Haken.”
Quicksilver sat down next to Timmain and rubbed the High One’s shoulder gently as Suntop moved over to the Scroll. He spread his arms and the Scroll halves rose and began to rotate.
“Do you know what your daughter did to my mother?” Suntop asked Haken. The colours in the Scroll resolved into a new image. A blond elf in leathers lay helpless on a fur-covered stone pallet while Winnowill bent over her. Winnowill’s fingernails dug into Swift’s forehead and cheeks as she pouring her magic into Swift’s body. The Wolfrider was screaming, but no sound issued from her mouth.
Suntop glanced back at Haken. “My mother is a direct descendant of Timmain’s half-wolf son Timmorn Yellow-Eyes. She had the wolfblood once, the mortal blood that links the Wolfriders to this world. I never did. I inherited my father’s immortal blood. But my mother was once mortal. Winnowill took that away. She paralyzed my mother and stole her wolfblood in an agonizing ‘cleansing.’”
“You waste my time, boy. Your dam ought to be thanking Winnowill.”
“Can’t you feel her pain? Look into the Scroll. Can’t you feel how wrong it was?”
“Elves were never meant to die like beasts.”
“Perhaps not. My mother has long since been at peace with it. And many other Wolfriders have chosen to give up their wolfblood and become changeless as the stars. But it should have been my mother’s choice! No matter that Winnowill didn’t do it out of kindness, but out of malice. Forcing your will upon others, no matter what your intentions, is wrong!”
“I didn’t accept your terms so you could lecture me.”
“Don’t you see? You were trying the exact same thing when you tried to force Chani out of the Palace walls. You came in here ready to blast the moment of her death into the walls, trying to flush her out like a wolf flushes out birds. How is that any different from the rape Winnowill committed on my mother?”
“Chani wants to come home to me.”
“Then why do you attack her with these sendings of pain and suffering? Why don’t you simply invite her back?”
“I did! I begged her spirit to return. She wanted to – I know it! Something was preventing her. I didn’t have the power to bring her back before, but I do now.”
“Did you even try to send to her?”
“She will not answer me.”
“Then doesn’t that tell you something? Haken... please... don’t you understand? Death is not the enemy... only a change... a new state of being...”
“You say you cannot force you will on others?” Haken turned to glare at Timmain. “Isn’t that just want she did when she led them into the forest – when she mated with a wolf and created a vile half-breed – when she ensured that all her descendants would bear the stain of mortality? Did you ever sit them down, Timmain, and tell them what would become of them?”
“Suffering... it can be a gift... a challenge....” Timmain gasped. “We had no more challenges, Haken. We were sick at heart. Haken... think. Without the pain of death and birth and struggle and survival, we would have continued on in that ship forever... Chani would never have been born. Your children would never have been born.”
“You don’t know that! We could have lived on this world as its masters, not its slaves! We could have travelled the stars, seeding countless worlds with new life, countless worlds where we are not ghosts but rulers!”
“You can’t understand...”
“Silence!” Haken raged. “Or I will break your neck and leave you to suffocate. And you, boy. Bring Chani to me now, or I will strike! The High One or your lifemate? Which would you prefer I kill first?”
“Can’t you hear yourself? Would Chani want to come back to what you’ve become? Maybe this is why she will not answer.”
“She wants to answer me! I know she does. You will bridge the gulf between us. I will speak to her, or I will kill someone here.”
Suntop turned back to the Scroll. He summoned up a picture of Chani, laughing and smiling. It was easy to see her mother’s blood in her. Yet her face was softer, younger looking. Her eyes lacked the sharpness Timmain had inherited after untold millennia of travels and quests. Instead they were hazy, as if just on the brink of tears. Yet she was smiling with the carefree grin of an innocent – an expression of sheer joy that Suntop knew Timmain could never achieve.
**Chani...** he called softly. **Chani, daughter of Aerth, daughter of Timmain. I am Suntop. I am the link. Can you hear me? I offer no pain, no fear. Take my hand. Will you speak to me?**
“Does she answer?” Haken demanded.
Suntop frowned. **Chani... please. I am here... offering friendship and peace. Will you speak? Your lifemate is here. He wants to know how you fare. He has something to offer you – not pain, not fear. Please.**
“Answer me, boy!”
Suntop opened his eyes. “I hear her... like an echo. She is... alone... tired... afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell her I offer her life. Tell her to awaken!”
“She is afraid of you!” Timmain sobbed.
“SILENCE!! I will have Chani restored to me. You cannot stop me.”
“In the end it is her choice...” Timmain whispered. Her eyes fell on the corpse. “That shell... is a stranger to her now. You cannot force her to take – hsss – to take it back.”
“Her choice? She would choose life. She would always choose life. How can you tell me what she wants? You never knew her. You abandoned her to run wild with the wolves! She told me everything. She hated you, Timmain. She hated you!”
“Leave her alone, Haken,” Quicksilver snapped. “If Chani’s all you want, then you’ll listen to Suntop, not finish old fights.”
Haken turned back to Suntop. “You. No more delays. Call Chani to me now!”
Suntop took a deep breath. He reached out his awareness towards the faint presence hiding among the crystal walls. Chani’s presence only retreated. Her slumbering spirit was terrified of the violence that had been committed so recently. She was not awakened sufficiently to understand. She wanted only to return to her sleep.
You cannot force her... in the end it is her choice...
Timmain was right. Chani could not be forced into her body.
And yet if Suntop failed, Haken would kill Quicksilver and Timmain.
They could not stand against him. Haken’s black sendings were too powerful.
Black sendings...
Darkness...
She is afraid of the darkness...
“Light,” Suntop whispered. He opened his eyes.
“What?” Haken demanded.
“We need light...”
Suntop closed his eyes again. He stretched out his awareness. He willed himself to find every facet of light that glinted through the crystal shards that made up the Palace. He called the light to shine out until the entire Scroll Chamber glowed.
“What are you doing?” Haken demanded eagerly.
He reached out further, sending out a call to the all the spirits in the Palace. **Show yourselves. Shine brightly.**
The walls began to hum faintly. Haken watched the walls, half-intrigued, half-suspicious.
**Shine brightly!** Suntop called, as the power of the Palace magnified the call and sent out to the corners of the earth. **Remember. All of you. Remember.**
The humming sound grew. The walls trembled and shivered.
“What are you doing?” Haken demanded. “Boy! Answer me!”
It doesn’t matter how our tribe scatters. Because the Palace is the hub of the wheel that connects all our kin. Thorny Mountain, the Go-Backs and their lodge, Sorrow’s End, the pirates on their islands, they are all spokes in a great wheel, forever spinning in an endless circle. And the Palace is the hub, and I stand at the center.
Suntop’s call touched every elfin mind he knew in the World of Two Moons. All knew what was needed, and all gave it freely. Streams of sending stars, of overwhelming brilliance, poured from the corners of the earth. Suntop heard the individual voices within the cry even as the chorus nearly overwhelmed him. From the Great Holt came Swift and Rayek and Savin, Rain and Dart. From Thorny Mountain came Strongbow, Nightfall, Teir and Ember. From Sorrow’s End came Savah and Sun-Toucher, Leetah and Windkin. Suntop heard Kahvi’s voice among the confused but willing answers of the distant Go-Backs. Savin’s pirate kin replied with strong, clear voices. And just outside the Palace came the sending stars of Venka and Skywise, Tyldak and Aroree, and all the others.
Timmain realized what Suntop intended and sent her own strength. The entire Palace was now filled with a supernatural light. Haken was turning around furiously, his eyes searching the walls anxiously. “What is this?”
**This is what you refused to face. You said you feared the darkness, but you saw it everywhere. You hungered to see it. But this is the truth, Haken. This is what our kind have discovered in our time here.**
“Betrayer!” Haken lunged at Suntop. His arm was outstretched, hand poised to send his black sendings directly into Suntop’s body.
Suntop turned to face him. His blue eyes were glowing.
An invisible force struck Haken and hurled him across the chamber.
The strength required for such an attack left Suntop reeling. For a moment he almost lost his concentration, and for a moment the hum resonating through the Palace walls faltered off-key.
**Malin!** Quicksilver abandoned Timmain and raced across the floor.
Haken staggered to his feet. He saw Quicksilver sprinting towards her lifemate and smiled cruelly.
“Stay back!” Suntop begged. “I can do this.”
“I know.”
Haken unleashed a bolt of energy at Quicksilver just as she reached Suntop. She sprang behind Suntop and thrust her hands into his hair. She pressed her forehead to the back of his head, and new strength flowed through Suntop’s veins. A shield rose up to protect them from Haken’s attack. It absorbed all the hatred Haken unleashed, and transformed it into a glowing light that dispersed harmlessly into the crystal walls.
Haken cried out in pain. His hand rose to his forehead.
**Do you think Chani would come to you in the midst of such darkness – such fear and hatred?**
“Liar!” Haken screamed.
**Hear us, Haken. Hear all our voices – voices you dismissed, voices you sought to push into darkness.**
**STOP THIS!!** Haken raged.
“If only you could see the stars... so clear on a winters’ night,” Sefra’s voice whispered in his ear. “How could you ever see them inside your mountain?”
“The things I have learned... lessons learned at such a terrible cost – lessons cherished because of it,” Gibra recalled.
“These tiny creatures...” Timmain’s memories whispered. “They labour and search and hunt. They flutter and twirl and hide. And yet, as the evening falls, as the sun rises, they sing.”
“Timmain!” Haken turned his gaze on the paralyzed Firstcomer. “This is all your doing!”
He staggered towards her. But the voices amplified in his head. The light blinded him. He collapsed under the weight of the countless sendings, the voices and thoughts and emotions of every elf who had ever lived and died on the World of Two Moons.
“You saved us from the clawing darkness, Haken,” Sunan said. “I thank you.”
“Give us your blessing, Father,” Vreya begged, “as we seek a new life.”
“Vreya was my great-grandmother,” Savah whispered. “We Rootless Ones did not die as you feared, in the great outside. We thrived! We lived!”
The children of the Firstcomers have lived!
“Stop it, stop it!” Haken wept.
We are the products of that terrible accident...
We will not be denied.
We will not be forgotten.
“The Palace,” Voll breathed. “First, best home of the elves. It is so near. You will see it... seen it soon.”
“I am your many-times-great-grandson, Haken,” Rayek said. “Your blood has peopled the World of Two Moons.”
“A healing is needed here!” Rain challenged, the very words he had once used against Winnowill. “It have been needed for a long time.”
“You and Timmain unwittingly bound the elves of this world together,” Swift cried. “Don’t you see? Timmain’s wolf-children, your daughter Vreya and the Rootless Ones, your children by Chani... all are bound together.”
**All bound together, through me,** Suntop sent. **Descendant of Haken and Timmain.**
You must remember, Haken....
“NO!” Haken screamed. “No. I will not listen! Stop this! I beg you.Take away this pain!”
**It is only pain if you deny it, Haken. Accept it. Embrace what you’ve been afraid to face. Embrace life!**
“NOOO! I cannot!”
Suntop pressed on mercilessly. “Try to hinder this, Haken. You fear the darkness; then seek comfort in the light. Here’s too much light. Try to devour it! Try to turn it into darkness!”
The children of the Firstcomers have lived!
We will not be denied.
“Please, Father,” Winnowill’s soft voice called. “Heed the lessons I learned only in death. Light can never be kindled in isolation. And there are so many kinds of darkness.”
“Win – Winnowill?” Haken stammered.
The children of the Firstcomers have lived!
We are the products of that terrible accident.
“I am the product of that terrible accident,” Winnowill insisted. “Will you deny me, Father?”
We will not be denied.
“Father – listen! Can you not hear it?”
You must remember, Haken....
“Haken...” a clear, pleading voice called from the glowing walls. “Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember how we lived? Has my lord forgotten?”
“Chani!” Haken wept to hear his lifemate’s voice after so long a silence. He collapsed anew, sobbing. “Chani – why do you hold back?”
“You must remember, Haken!”
The combined power of all the elves beat down upon Haken, smothering him under the weight of their sendings. Much as Winnowill collapsed, so long ago inside Blue Mountain, now Haken wilted, his limbs slack, his mind stripped of all defences. He could only lie still on the floor of the Palace, absorbing the stream of light.
With one final blinding flash, the connection was broken. Suntop collapsed into Quicksilver’s arms. The Palace walls slowly bled away the last of the supernatural glow.
Quicksilver eased Suntop to the floor, lay his head in her lap. **Malin!** she sent. **Malin, can you hear me?**
Suntop slowly opened his eyes. He blinked. **Khai?**
Quicksilver gasped. Something like skyfire raced down her spine.
**Your eyes... I’ve never... so deep... so bright...**
A smile lit up Suntop’s exhausted face, and a healthy bronze glow sprang to his cheeks.
**Recognition? True Recognition?**
Tears sprang in her deep blue eyes. She kissed him fiercely, and Suntop sat up to embrace her.
Only then did they remember Haken.
He lay on the floor like a broken doll. Hesitantly Suntop and Quicksilver got to their feet. Timmain still lay against the far wall, her eyes trained on her old enemy, unable to do more.
Suntop knelt down and touched Haken’s shoulder. The Firstcomer shuddered and drew himself up into a fetal crouch. “Go away, Runya. I can’t...”
“Haken.”
Haken looked up at Suntop miserably. “Was it all for nothing?”
Suntop smiled softly. “Haven’t you learned – nothing is ever for nothing.”
“I’ve lost everything. Everything! I haven’t even my rage left to me – only my sorrow. What am I supposed to do now?”
“Live, Haken. Accept this world. Or else cast away your body freely and accept the world of the spirits. But don’t linger in the in-between any longer. That is the darkness you have feared.”
“How can I live? I have nothing left.”
“Then build something new.”
Haken turned his face back to the cold floor.
Suntop thought he heard a faint murmur behind him, like a waking breath. He took it for Quicksilver.
“Chani!” Timmain cried.
Haken scrambled to his knees. Suntop and Quicksilver spun around. A few paces away, lying atop the bed of wrapstuff, Chani was slowly stirring. Her breast rose and fell in slow, regular, breaths. Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned softly.
“Chani?” Haken struggled to his feet.
Chani opened her eyes. She blinked a few times to clear her vision, then slowly propped herself, moving awkwardly at first after nine millennia outside her body. She paused to draw a few breaths, then got to her feet. The train of her black gown pooled at her feet. Her long golden hair fell about her hips. She stared across at Haken, and a smile lifted her lips.
“My lord...” she whispered.
Haken took a step towards her, then could go no further. Chani swept across the distance between them and cast her arms about his neck. She buried her face in his long black hair and clung to the neckline of his old black tunic. Haken wrapped his one arm about her back, pressing her tightly against him. For untold moments they simply held each other. Then they touched foreheads and stared into each other’s eyes as they shared a silent sending, and tears ran down their cheeks.
At length they turned and began to walk out of the Palace together.
“Chani!” Timmain called.
Chani turned and looked back at her mother. She seemed to stare right through Timmain. Then she turned back to Haken and leaned against his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her and stared at the wall. A door opened, and they strode out into the Forbidden Grove.
“Flitrin,” Haken called. The Preserver, who had obviously been hiding somewhere under the assorted crystal ornaments, flew to join its master.
“Haken–” Suntop began.
The door sealed up behind them. Suntop waved his hand to turn the wall transparent once more. But Haken and Chani and the Preserver had already disappeared.
“What do we do?” Quicksilver asked.
“We let them go.” **Skywise, Venka. You can all come back to the Palace. It’s safe.**
**And Haken?** Skywise’s sending asked.
**He’s gone. He won’t trouble us again.**
Timmain sobbed quietly in the corner. Suntop and Quicksilver hastened to her side. Suntop gently pressed Timmain’s back against the wall. **Winnowill,** he called. **Heal your grandmother.**
A healing glow emanated from the Palace walls, enveloping the High One. When the light faded, Timmain could once again move. She straightened her legs out, then bent her knees and gathered herself into a little ball once more. “Chani...” she whispered, her expression unreadable.
“She chose Haken,” Quicksilver said.
Tears trickled down Timmain’s cheek. “I knew she would.”
“What do you think they’ll do?” Quicksilver whispered to Suntop.
“They’ll live.”
“Aren’t you afraid they’ll try to take the Palace back?”
“No, not really.” He took her hand in his again. **Khai.**
Quicksilver again felt the strange frisson of skyfire in her veins, and Haken became the farthest thing from her mind.