He watched her disappear below, standing uncertainly with hammer in hand as the crew looked on, curiosity or amusement on their faces.
“I’d never be able to face Master Benril again,” Alornis said, reemerging from the stairwell with her leather satchel on her shoulder. “Letting you break a stone like that.”
She placed her satchel on the deck and undid the straps, choosing a small hammer and a narrow iron chisel from the rows of tools.
“Don’t touch it,” Vaelin told her as she approached the stone.
“I know.” She made a face at him. “Reva told me.”
She placed the chisel in the centre of the stone, tapping it until a small crack appeared in the surface then delivering a series of well-placed blows with the hammer until no more than a few inches protruded. She retrieved two more chisels from the satchel and repeated the process, placing them on either side of the central peg and hammering away until the stone featured a crack across its surface about a half inch wide.
“As you will, brother,” she said, stepping back.
He stared down at it, seeing the way the surface seemed to swallow the light, suddenly uncertain. You don’t know what this thing is! he had said. I looked into that world . . . and something looked back, something vast, and hungry. Touch it once and receive a gift . . .
He raised a hand, extending it to the stone, letting it hover over the surface, almost touching. What will it give me? Another song? The Ally’s gift?
“Alucius told me he loved me,” Alornis said, drawing his gaze. She held her blanket tight, blinking as the wind drove tears from her eyes, tracing across her pale skin like molten silver. “The freed slave came to me with a message, his last message. He said he loved me and begged forgiveness for not telling me sooner. He said he had done many things he regretted, but that was the worst. And he told me not to hate, Vaelin. He said there was sufficient hate in this world and he wanted to look at me from the Beyond and see at least one soul untouched by it. But I couldn’t . . . They killed him, and I hated them, and I burned them.”
“You did what we all did, sister,” he said. “You, the queen, Reva, Frentis . . . Alucius and Caenis . . . The woman I would have married. We won a war that needed winning.”
He looked down at the stone and withdrew his hand. His thoughts were full of many things as he raised the hammer, many faces, some gone, some still living, all changed or damaged. He thought of the battles he had fought and the brothers he had lost, and he thought of Dahrena. You are my Beyond now. For me to endure, so must you.
The first blow drove the central peg deep enough to split the stone down to its base. It fell apart, thumping heavily onto the deck. He raised the hammer and brought it down, again and again, heaving with tireless fury as a cloud of black dust rose around him. Some drifted away on the wind but for the most part it settled into a pile on the deck, glittering in the fast rising sun. When the last fragment had been pounded to powder he ordered it all gathered up in the canvas and cast over the side. The stain of it roiled their wake, lingering for only seconds before fading completely as they sailed on, carried home by the westerly winds.
APPENDIX
Dramatis Personae
THE UNIFIED REALM
The Court of Queen Lyrna Al Nieren
Lyrna Al Nieren—Queen of the Unified Realm
Iltis Al Adral—Sword of the Realm, Lord Protector of the Queen’s Person Benten Al Grey Gull—Sword of the Realm, Protector of the Queen’s Person Orena Al Vardrian—lady to the queen
Murel Al Harten—lady to the queen
Hollun—brother of the Fourth Order and Keeper of the Queen’s Purse The Queen’s Host
Vaelin Al Sorna—Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches and Battle Lord of the Queen’s Host Alornis Al Sorna—artist and sister to Vaelin, later Lady Artificer to Queen Lyrna Dahrena Al Myrna—First Counsel to the North Tower Caenis Al Nysa—brother of the Sixth Order, Sword of the Realm and Lord Marshal of the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Foot; later Aspect of the Seventh Order Count Marven—commander of the Nilsaelin contingent of the Queen’s Host Adal Zenu—captain of the North Guard, later Lord Marshal and Sword of the Realm Kehlan—healer and brother of the Fifth Order
Orven Al Melna—captain of the Third Company, King’s Mounted Guard; later Lord Marshal and Sword of the Realm, husband to Insha ka Forna Insha ka Forna (Steel in Moonlight)—Eorhil warrior, wife to Orven Harlick—brother of the Seventh Order, Archivist of the North Tower; later First Librarian to the Great Library of the Unified Realm Nortah Al Sendahl—friend to Vaelin, later Lord Marshal of the Queen’s Daggers and Sword of the Realm Snowdance—war-cat
Sanesh Poltar—war chief to the Eorhil Sil
Wisdom—sage elder to the Eorhil Sil