![]() He was the wizard in service to the Kings of Ymris for nine hundred years before he went to Lungold, then vanished along with the entire school of wizards seven hundred years ago. Then his eyes widened a little as he remembered, but Astrin continued, "Most people have forgotten. "Do you know who Aloil was?" Morgon shook his head. He touched them, murmuring a word, and they opened. ![]() It was locked with two apparently seamless bindings of iron. He rose as suddenly as he had sat down, and took from his shelves a heavy book with a name on it stamped in gold: Aloil. I wish." His voice trailed away his eyes stayed, speculative, on Morgon's face. "Your eyes look at me as though you understand everything I'm saying. But I can't go tonight the tide will be rough in this wind, and Xel hates the rain." He paused a moment. I take Xel with me, and we watch something that is building on the shores of Ymris under night cover, something for which there is no name. By night, I dig in other directions, sometimes in books of wizardry I've learned to open, sometimes out there in the darkness above Loor, by the sea. By day I go digging out of curiosity in the great ruined city of the Earth-Masters on Wind Plain. ![]() I speak to Xel, to an old man I buy fish from in Loor, to occasional traders, and to Rork, High Lord of Umber, who visits me every few months. ![]() I've been here five years in exile from Caerweddin. He said abruptly, "You are as secret as Wind Tower. If Xel comes back, let her in."Īstrin sat down with a sigh beside him. He heated wine Astrin drank it and his shivering stopped. Then he was silent, his teeth locked, his eyes closed, while Morgon washed the shallow wound gently, closed it and bound it with strips from his dry robe. If I hadn't turned." He flinched as Morgon touched his side with a wet cloth. If Xel hadn't warned me, I would be dead. He was shaped out of seaweed and foam and wet pearl, and the sword was of darkness and silver water. Then he fell in the sea, and I had to dive for him among the rocks and tide, or they would have found him. He whispered as Morgon ripped a seam open, "Don't. Astrin's head dropped back on the pallet his hand slid down. He held his right hand against his side and would not move it, until Morgon, watching the dark stain bloom under his fingers, made a harsh noise of protest. ![]() His hands were scratched raw his hair was tangled with sea spray. He said, as Morgon put out his torch underfoot and went to help him, "I'm all right." His face was mist-colored in the light from the window he flung an arm around Morgon heavily, and together they stumbled across the threshold, Astrin sat down on the pallet. The first step is to become as the stone." He nodded, his eyes holding Astrin's, and Astrin drew a breath. They ate a breakfast of cold hare, wine and bread, then, carrying Astrin's tools, Xel following, they walked across the plain to the ancient, ruined city. The rain had stopped the clouds hung broken above Wind Plain. Morgon heard him stirring at sunrise the next day and got up. He turned and saw Astrin hunched against the wall of the house. He heard heavy breathing suddenly from the side of the house, an odd, dragging step. Morgon added wood to the fire, made a torch of an oak branch, and went outside. The tower rose out of broken stone, whole and solitary, yielding nothing to the moon's eye. When the wind died finally, a silence dropped like thin fingers of moonlight across Wind Plain. ![]()
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