The Summer Tree

So Loren had been wrong. Someone did know. Someone knew a great deal indeed.

“Who is Metran?” Je

Balked, Jaelle leaned back on her own cushions. In the silence Je

“You trust him, don’t you?” the Priestess said bitterly. “He has warned you against me. They all have. Silvercloak angles for power here as much as anyone, but you have aligned yourself with the men, it seems. Tell me, which of them is your lover, or has Diarmuid found your bed yet?”

Which was quite sufficient, thank you. Je

White and rigid, Jaelle looked up at her, then rose in her turn. “You may be right,” she said softly, “but something tells me that you have no idea what it feels like, either. Which gives us a thing in common, doesn’t it?”

Back in her room a short while later, Je

The day crawled forward webbed in heat. A dry, unsettling wind rose in the north and slid through the High Kingdom, stirring the dust in the streets of Paras Derval like an uneasy ghost. The sun, westering at the end of day, shone red. Only at twilight was there any relief, as the wind shifted to the west, and the first stars came out in the sky over Bre

Very late that night, north and west of the capital, the breeze stirred the waters of a lake to muted murmuring. On a wide rock by the shore, under the lace-work of the stars, an old woman knelt, cradling the slight form of a younger one, on whose finger a red ring shone with a muted glimmering.

After a long time, Ysa

She remained unconscious for the rest of the night and all the next day. Ysa

Kimberly woke at sunset. Away to the south in that moment, Kevin and Paul were taking up their positions with Diarmuid’s men outside the walls of Larai Rigal.

For a moment, Kim was completely disoriented, then the Seer watched as a brutal surge of knowledge came flooding into the grey eyes. Lifting her head, Kim gazed at the old woman. Outside, Tyrth could be heard shutting up the animals for the night. The cat lay on the window sill in the last of the evening light.

“Welcome back,” said Ysa

Kim smiled; it took an effort. “I went so far.” She shook her head wonderingly, then her mouth tightened at another recollection. “Eilathen has gone?”

“Yes.”

“I saw him dive. I saw where he went, into the green far down. It is very beautiful there.”

“I know,” said the Seer.

Again, Kim drew breath before speaking. “Was it hard for you to watch?”

At that, Ysa

Kim’s hand slipped from the coverlet and covered that of the old woman. When Ysa

“I know,” said Kimberly. “I saw Dun Maura.”

“He came to the Temple by the lake, and stayed there a night, which was brave, for there is no love in that place for any of the mages since Amairgen’s day. Raederth was a brave man, though.

“He saw me there,” Ysa

“As you did me?”

“As I did you. He knew me for a Seer, and he took me away from the Mother and changed my fate, or found it for me.”

“And you loved him?”

“Yes,” Ysa

“And Raederth?” Kim asked, after a moment.

“He died three years after of an arrow ordered by Garmisch, the High King,” Ysa

Kimberly nodded again. “I saw that, too. I saw him kill the King before the palace gate. He was brave and tall, Ailell.”

“And wise. A wise King, all his days. He wedded Marrien of the Garantae, and named Metran, her cousin, First Mage to follow Raederth, which angered me then and I told him so. But Ailell was trying to knit a sundered kingdom, and he did. He deserved more love than he has had.”

“He had yours.”

“Late,” Ysa

“A long time alone,” Kim said softly.

“We all have our tasks,” the Seer said. There was a silence. In the barn out back, a cow lowed plaintively. Kim heard the click of a gate being shut, then Tyrth’s uneven steps crossing the yard. She met Ysa

“You told me one lie yesterday,” she said.

Ysa

“I know,” said Kim. “You have carried a great deal alone. I am here now, though; do you want me to share your burden?” Her mouth crooked. “I seem to be a chalice. What power can you fill me with?”

There was a tear in the old woman’s eye. She wiped it away, shaking her head. “Such things as I can teach have little to do with power. It is in your dreams now that you must walk, as all the Seers must. And for you as well there is the stone.”

Kim glanced down. The ring on her right hand was no longer shining as it had when Eilathen wore it. It glowered, deep and dark, the color of old blood.

“I did dream this,” she said. “A terrible dream, the night before we crossed. What is it, Ysa

“The Baelrath it was named, long ago, the Warstone. It is of the wild magic,” the Seer said, “a thing not made by man, and it ca

It had grown dark outside as they talked. “Why have you given it to me?” Kim asked in a small voice.

“Because I dreamt it on your finger, too.” Which, somehow, she had known would be the answer. The ring pulsed balefully, inimically, and she feared it.

“What was I doing?” she asked.

“Raising the dead,” Ysa

Kim closed her eyes. The images were waiting for her: the jumbled stones, the wide grasslands rolling away in the dark, the ring on her hand burning like a fire in the dream, and the wind rising over the grass, whistling between the stones—