Chapter 15: The hand of a god
“How did he find out about Laithia’s father?” Ely asked,
when he and the wizard reached his chambers.
“I am the king’s advisor,” Blyord said, standing near the
window of the cramped room, a new dawn had come and gone, sunset painted the
stone sill in mild amber, and gave the same color to the wizard’s long hair.
“He did not need to know,” Ely said. “The past is the past.
He has since paid the price for his magic.”
“He did indeed,” Blyord said.
“And from what I’ve been told, he was a good man none the
less.”
“Few men knew him as well as I did,” Blyord said. “He was a
worthy man, despite his allegiance to the old world – a sorcerer with a conscience.”
“I’m told he was on the right side in that war,” Ely said.
“He was,” Blyord said, looking out the window, not at Ely. “He
knew he and his kind had gone too far. But he opposed banning it as the elves
insisted on doing later. He wanted to
save it. He wanted to control it. I told him it was not possible. He didn’t
believe me. You either banish it or it devours you.”
“But when they came for the enchanters, they did not take
him.”
“He and his daughter should have gone to the Dales with the
rest. But he pledged that he would cease from performing magic.”
“I’m told neither he nor Laithia ever violated the pledge.”
“I’ve heard as much, but I’ve also heard the opposite,” Blyord
said. “None the less, his presence in Taffar became an issue for the priests of
Htam. They claimed her father continued to do magic in secret, which explained
why Taffar flourished when Htam and many of the other kingdoms along the coast
did not.”
The tale was one Ely had heard as well. The priests stirred
hatred and jealousy in the hearts of the other kings, asking why Taffar could
still delve into the dark arts when it was forbidden elsewhere? This may simply
have been a ruse to cast suspicion on the aging sorcerer for what they
themselves did in the dark caverns beneath the great castle in Htam. Some believe the priests, with the help of the
witches in the Dales, cast spells that strengthened Htam’s armies and spread weakness
among its enemies.
“Htam is not the only place where evil men began to pursue
the old crafts,” Blyord said. “But it is the most advanced and dangerous, since
it has a very powerful military. The old sorcerer believed if he could act
quickly, he could counter the power of the priests.”
“He was right,” Ely said.
“Perhaps, but his pleading his case before the other kings
seemed to confirm what the priests had said about him,” Blyord said. “They
might have merely banished him had he showed the least bit contrition. Instead,
he argued all the more against the priests and pleaded to be allowed to use magic
against them – for which, he was beheaded.”
“And you told my father all of this,” Ely said.
“He needed to know the worst.”
“Laithia is not her father.”
“But she is a sorceress, who has studied long the craft
under her father’s hand.”
“If she was the powerful sorceress, you and my father
believe she is, she would have used her powers to fend off Htam’s advance.”
“If she could, I think she would,” Blyord said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it is too late for her to hold back the tide. The
priest of have grown in power. What her father might have been able to do early
on, is no longer possible.”
“Which is why I need to bring the sword south,” Ely said. “We
must fight magic with magic.”
“I have doubts,” Blyord said, turning from the window to
look more directly at Ely. “Things are stirring under the Dales that no army –
not even one led by someone wielding the great sword – can put a halt to. Only
a new great alliance between men, elves and maybe dwarves might be able to
contain the breech.”
“Elves and dwarves?” Ely said with a mocking laugh. “You
live in the distant past. That day is done. We cannot revive it. The elves have
wandered off. The dwarves hide in their secret cities. Men alone remain, but none
are strong enough.”
“Then we must weather the storm,” the wizard said.
“Now, you sound like my father, wanting to wait here to have
this dangerous wave wash over us.”
“Amlor’s strength is in its land,” Blyord said. “I believe
if it is to survive, it must resist this evil in the way it knows best.”
“By hiding our heads in the sand?”
“By defending its borders as it has always done.”
“Even if we were to survive, would we want to be an island
in a sea that has drowned the rest of the world?”
“If it comes to that, yes,” the wizard said.
“I won’t have it!” Ely growled, rising up from the bunk on
which he sat. “We must use the sword to stop it.”
“This is not the right time for that.”
“No time is the right time, from what you’ve been saying.”
“That is possible as well.”
“Then what is the point of having it, if we don’t use it to
preserve what it good in the world?”
“You make the same mistake the sorcerer made,” Blyord said. “You
can’t preserve good with evil.”
“You’re saying the sword is evil?”
“Its power is,” the wizard said. “It is a power that comes
from the old gods, one in particular, and I fear using it will do more harm
than good.”
“Doesn’t that depend on the hand the wields it?” Ely asked.
“It does,” Blyord said. “If it is the hand of a god that
wields it. You are not a god, Ely, and I suspect once you have the sword in
hand, it will corrupt you.”
“I’m not Ajax,” Ely said. “I do not lust for the power of
the sword, only to use it for a particular purpose.”
“Which is how it will start, but it won’t end there,” Blyord
said. “Once you have a taste for it, there will be other things in the world
you will want to cure.”
“What would be wrong with that?”
“Some things should be left to their own fate,” the wizard
said. “Once you believe you can solve the world’s problems, you become a tyrant,
much the way the priest of Htam have become – but worse, because you will be
the hand of a god.”
“I must go south,” Ely said.
“Yes, you must – but the sword must stay here.”
A disturbing silence followed this, from which Blyord
guessed Ely’s thinking.
“Renounce the crown,” the wizard advised “The king will then
not stop your leaving.”
Still, Ely stayed silent.
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