Loremaster - Palace Of Kings Part 66

'Lord, I am here.'

Holbian smiled, gripping Breakmaster's arm. 'The new sun will see the last of the Granite Kings. I am at the end of my road.'

'No, no, my Lord!' Breakmaster cried, falling on to his knees. 'I will be first into battle. I will protect you.'

King Holbian smiled softly and took the horseman's hand.

'There will be no more battles for me, dear friend, nor work for Arachatt to hide the cracks or plaster over the truth. I am turning into stone; cold brittle granite. Here, feel it in my fingertips.'

Sighing the King turned away from the black mountain. 'I had hoped to ride with the morning sunlight into the darkness of the City of Night but it is beyond me, gone for ever.'

'Lord . . .' Breakmaster began to interrupt, but the King bid him be silent.

'It is my place as the King to stand at Thane's side just as, in the darkest hours of the siege lock on the Granite City you stood faithful and firm beside me, a true friend against despair. My heart is strong and does not falter; it is the body that cannot scale the mountain. Judge me not as a coward.'

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Breakmaster blinked back his tears and bent his head to kiss the King's hand, and he felt the cold touch of stone against his lips. 'Lord, you have the courage of the wild Warhorses and stand head and shoulders above us all against the Nightbeasts3

'With the first light of the new sun saddle Beacon Light,'

the King continued in a hushed whisper. 'Spread the steelsilver coat across her back and help me up into the saddle. Be near me as the day wears on and see that I sit as a King, tall and proud, upon the Causeway Field. Let none know that my body weakens; I must be a King to the last breath. Errant shall draw the Nighthorses into a wide battle crescent behind us and Thunderstone shall stand at my right hand, his horse-tail sword driven point deep into the turf. The city folk will form the second sweep of the crescent with Angis before them, for

they must witness the Nightmare's end and the new beginnings of Elundium.'

King Holbian sighed, leaning wearily on the horseman's arm. 'What of Grey Goose and the mason, my Lord; where shall they wait out the new daylight?'

Holbian laughed, a flicker of warmth flooding through his fingertips. 'Where else, Breakmaster, but in their rightful place, beside their King at the centre of the battle crescent?'

'It shall be done, Lord,' the horseman whispered, rising to search out Errant, Grey Goose and Thunderstone, the Keeper of World's End, and marshal them for the new daylight.

'Wait!' Holbian cried, clinging on to Breakmaster's hand.

'If fate turns against us and Krulshards brings his darkest Nightmares down on to the Causeway Field the battle crescent must stand against him and we as its centre must lead the way into battle, and be the first to face Krulshards!'

'Here you have led us, Lord, to win the daylight and here we shall stand, glad to be at your side, singing aloud the name of the greatest Granite King.'

Holbian sighed and eased his grip on Breakmaster's hand.

'Stand with me awhile, dear friend, and remember how we helped him start, a mere boy, thrust forward by fate.'

'Who, Lord?' asked the horseman, drawing his eyebrows into a frown.

King Holbian laughed quietly. 'Once your life hung in the balance, waiting for the noonday bell to strike while he lay at the feet of the untameable horse. Have you forgotten.?'

'Thanehand!' Breakmaster cried, turning to look at the King. 'Thoron's grandson, Thane?'

Holbian nodded and turned back towards the dark shape of Mantern's Mountain.

'Now we wait once more, only this time all of Elundium waits with us. His name is on every warrior's lips and the sparkling standard that the owls took from Thunderstone is the scarf that he took from his mother's pocket before he left the Granite City. The boy we helped along the road has grown in strength and purpose, Breakmaster, and holds all our fates in his sword arm. I knew it, or half guessed it a long time ago. I am sure that he is the one that will make old legends come to life.'

'Legends, Lord? What legends do we wait for upon the Causeway?'

King Holbian smiled and in little more than a whisper repeated what he could remember of Nevian's words from

long ago. 'And he shall set his standard and it shall light the shadowy Causeway Field and it will be the sign of the new Elundium, the sign of our new King!'

'Lord! You are my King, young in heart, strong and brave enough. You have led the people through their blackest despair.'

'No! I cannot climb to the high plateau. I am too old to face the Nightmare but any man who can walk in the darkness and destroy Krulshards, he shall be the new King, and you must treat him so, with full honour, for he will have stepped where no other would or could and saved the daylight for all to share.'

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Breakmaster sadly shook his head. 'But I will lose you, Lord, and I could never serve another.'

'It may be hard, dear friend, and in memory of me you will give all of that love to whoever walks free of the darkness.

Pledge yourself now, for he will need.someone to trust in the daylights to come. Someone strong who will watch the shadows without flinching and someone honest who takes nothing for himself. Pledge it and ease my troubled heart, for it is no easy matter to hand over a kingdom. Pledge it and lighten my last daylight.'

Breakmaster reluctantly knelt and, kissing the hilt of his sword, offered it to the King. Teardrops glistened, reflecting the starlight on the smooth fluted handle of the sword.

'It is done!' said the King, pa.s.sing the sword back into Breakmaster's hand and helping him to his feet. 'The new kingdom of Elundium is lucky to have such a friend. Go now and ready the battle crescent for the greatest daylight of the Granite Kings. Go, before the grey hours touch the sky!'

303.

A Sword ir' the Sunlight

'Where is Thaneland?' Krulshards hissed, cracking the twelve-tailed whip impatiently at Kerhunge's head.

'Master,' Kerhunge cried, ducking under the flailing whip tails, 'the foul Gallopersp.a.w.n waits at the doorcrack; he watches the sky and looks out across the wildness of Elundium towards the wide crescent of Marchers and Gallopers that have ringed our beautiful city.'

Krulshards sneered, pulling at the life thread, and rattling the chains that bound Elionbel from the domed roof of the chamber. 'Marchers are gathering, Marcherwomen, but they cannot help you. Gallopers are riding on the lower slopes, but they are all afraid of the dark. Even the brave Gallopersp.a.w.n, Thanehand, hesitates; perhaps he is also afraid!'

Laughing, the Nightmare lifted Kruel above his head, holding him easily in his bone black fingers, taunting Elionbel with the baby, just beyond her reach. 'When the Galloper- .

sp.a.w.n is dead all Elundium shall be yours!' Chuckling he tossed the baby high into the darkness.

'Master!' Kerhunge whispered, touching the edge of they malice, 'the foul Gallopersp.a.w.n is not alone; the Archer with the Great Bow of Orm and the lady who rides the crystal- .

tipped stag are with him.' ].

Krulshards caught the baby and quickly hid it in the folds of his malice. 'Do they fear the dark, Captainbeast?' he hissed, picking at the loose strips of grey flesh that hung below his cheekbone. 'Will they enter the darkness?'

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