Authors: Julian May
The Source realized too late the sinful thing he had done. He prevailed upon Likeminded Lights who were also dismayed by the burgeoning tragedy to help persuade the player-Lights to abandon their activities and close the channels that carried both power and pain. This effort was a failure. The Source then took on the material form of a Salka and entered the Ground Realm, where he hoped to end the game by convincing the amphibians that they were being shamefully exploited.
When most Salka refused to listen to him, the Source devised a unique sigil - the Potency - that he hoped would abolish the pain-debt associated with the moonstones and in time close the conduit. But when it came time for him to activate the Stone of Stones, he held back, not knowing for certain how the Potency would work. What if it made the situation worse, by enabling the Salka to use the sorcery of the Lights without any restrictions or consequences?
The pain-eating Beaconfolk were infuriated when they learned what the Source and the Likeminded had planned to do. They formed a Coldlight Army and initiated a mortal Conflict that spread throughout the Sky Realm and eventually affected the groundling inhabitants of High Blenholme as well.
The Likeminded were outnumbered and finally overwhelmed. Their selfless effort to save the Salka from the consequences of soul-destroying magic failed and they faced being extinguished. To spare his associates, the Source agreed to submit to the enemy's condition for an armistice. He would retain his Salka body and submit to imprisonment beneath the Ice. There he would suffer indefinitely as One Denied the Sky, while the evil Lights savored his pain and continued to oppress the Salka. Meanwhile, most of the vanquished Likeminded withdrew to the dark void between the stars, sunk in despair. They were immortal and immune to pain, since they lacked physical bodies, but their power shrank like the diminishing vitality of plants denied sunlight and water. Many of them forgot who they once had been.
A very few Likeminded, called the Remnant, remained on the periphery of the Sky Realm even though they risked being quenched by the Beacons. These good Lights stayed in contact with the Source of the Conflict and hoped that one day the situation might change.
Strangely, the triumph of the evil Beaconfolk was shortlived, thanks to an extraordinary human being. The Emperor Bazekoy invaded High Blenholme Island even as the two factions of Lights battled in the Sky. With the Beaconfolk game-players distracted and unable to guide them, the clumsy and slow-witted Salka were no match for a massive army of well-trained human warriors fighting on dry land. Not even their most powerful Great Stones could save them for long.. They were ambushed by Bazekoy's troops and slain from afar by spears and arrows. They died by the thousands - and their sigils died with them, converted into useless bits of rock as the bonded owners perished.
The Salka survivors fled, some to the remote fens of Moss and some to the Dawntide Isles. Most of their Great Stones had long since been lost in futile skirmishes with the human
foe. They continued to utilize their minor sigils only in a half-hearted way, and eventually allowed themselves to be duped by the human sorcerer Rothbannon, who took away their few remaining major sigils - including the Source's inactive Potency.
The frustrated Coldlight Army, now feeding on only meager amounts of pain, decided that the exiled Salka were a lost cause, unlikely ever to play the game again with their old enthusiasm.
So the Lights patiently began to target a new sort of pawn.
Cray the Green Woman now took up the tale from Thalassa as Induna and Deveron listened raptly.
The memory of the Old Conflict and the fate of the Source was for the most part safeguarded and passed from generation to generation by Cray's own people, who had resigned from the game long before Bazekoy's invasion. The Green Men, unlike the spunkies and Morass Worms, who also rejected the temptations of the Beaconfolk, had a culture that encouraged storytelling and the relating of racial history.
By and large, the first human settlers on High Blenholme had little interest in the Sky Realm, although they had a healthy fear of the demons who lived there. Very few of the newcomers possessed windtalent, so the sigils they sometimes found could never be empowered or bonded to them by the Beaconfolk.
Early on, the great human scholar of magic called Saint Zeth - one of the few talented associates of Emperor Bazekoy - made a special study of sigil sorcery and the uncanny power of the Boreal Lights. He deduced the danger posed by the moonstones and declared them anathema. The Mystical Order he founded would enforce this prohibition. Several centuries later, a certain Royal Alchymist of Cathra named Darasilo discovered a large collection of extinct sigils, together
with two books in the Salka language describing their conjuration. He possessed talent but was too cautious to experiment with the moonstones, which he passed on to his successors as occult curios, along with a smaller book by an unknown sage which contained a partial translation of the Salka volumes into the Cathran language.
As humankind spread over the island, they mingled their blood with that of the curiously attractive and bewitching little Green Folk. These unions increased the number of talented humans, especially amongst the populations of Tarn and Moss.
Tarnian shamans were the first to travel successfully through so-called subtle corridors. In time - perhaps aided by the Green Men or the Likeminded Remnant - they learned the even more difficult art of soul-travel, which enables the practitioner to enter realms totally inimical to the human body. Thus they made contact with the imprisoned Source and began to help him. By doing so they put themselves in great danger; but the price seemed worthwhile when the Source explained that the Beaconfolk planned to shift the focus of their game from the Salka to human beings.
Thus the New Conflict was born.
'Some of your people enlisted freely in the cause,' Cray concluded. 'Other important humans, such as the Sovereign of Blenholme, Conrig Wincantor, were made use of without their knowledge, coerced by magic or otherwise influenced to act in a manner that would prevent the Beaconfolk from seducing humanity as they had seduced the amphibians. Conrig's unification of the island nations saved Blenholme from being invaded by Continental adventurers working in collusion with the criminally ambitious Conjure-King Beynor, a sigil-user himself. Certain persons close to Conrig - particularly
you,
my dear Grandson! - aided the Source significantly and set in motion the final phase of the New Conflict.'
Thalassa Dru took up the thread of the narrative.
'My nephew Beynor is afflicted with the unstable mentality that brought on the insanity of his late father. When the Lights realized they were backing a young lunatic who posed a danger to the Known World through wanton misuse of sigils, they first considered slaying him - just as they had earlier killed his imprudent mother Taspiroth. Instead, they contrived a way to use him.
'Cursed and deposed from his throne, Beynor was exiled to the Dawntide Isles. His persuasive schemes roused the Eminent Four Salka from their longstanding torpor and inspired them to begin a fresh war against humanity - which it seemed only Conrig and his Sovereignty could thwart. And this Conrig did. For sixteen years he held the monsters in check. But now the Source and the Likeminded Remnant sense a change in the offing. Triggered by Beynor.'
'It seems he's wormed his way into the Sovereign's good graces,' Deveron noted, pulling a face. He had finished both quail when Induna declined her share and now attacked a large bowl of honeyed porridge. 'But I can't believe the High King would trust the fealty of such a rogue magicker, nor put him into a position where he could influence matters of state.'
'Conrig hasn't done so yet,' said Thalassa in a bleak tone. 'But the one person who might have prevented that calamity - or even delayed it - has just died. Last night, just before Cray and I returned from our sojourn beneath the Ice, every adult person living in this village heard a singular shriek on the wind. Kilian Blackhorse perished of a broken neck at the hands of Beynor. Several of our more talented scriers traced the outcry to Boarsden Castle and observed the Conjure-King fling the corpse of his old crony into the moat. The body was recovered from the River Malle this morning.'
'God's Truth!' Induna exclaimed.
Thalassa nodded. 'Indeed. When I recovered sufficiently from my entrancement to be told of it, I bespoke Stergos, the Royal Alchymist, at the castle for details. He is a good friend of our cause who joined the New Conflict willingly. According to Stergos, the consensus among the distinguished guests of Duke Ranwing is that the Lord Chancellor was deeply depressed over a certain scheme of his that had come undone, and took his own life.'
'Kilian dead!' Deveron finished the last of the oatmeal and licked his spoon. 'I suppose King Conrig is overjoyed that his wicked old uncle is gone.'
'On the contrary,' said the Conjure-Princess. 'In late years, the chancellor was an ally of the Sovereignty and did his best to convince King Somarus not to rebel against it.' The sorceress related how the royal marriage was to have strengthened Didion's loyalty, how Prince Heritor Orrion came to be maimed and degraded, and how the Princess Royal herself had rejected Kilian's compromise that might have seen her betrothed to Corodon.
'Prince Orrion lost his sword-arm through Beaconfolk sorcery?' Induna cried in disbelief. 'How could this happen if he had no sigil?'
'He and his brothers hardly knew what they were doing when they climbed the Demon Seat hoping for a miracle. The entire summit of the mountain is an outcropping of raw moonstone mineral, and this was sufficient to channel sorcery from the Sky. But the true miracle that took place is one that none of the princes expected - for Orrion's rash petition was answered not by the evil Great Lights but by the Likeminded Remnant, who were thought to be too feeble to use the power conduit to the Ground Realm.'
Cray added, 'The Source was able to confirm that it was his benevolent allies who answered Orrion's misguided prayer. The Remnant were confused when the prince's petition
reached them. But their intention was only to do good, to give Orrion the wife he wanted.'
'And instead they contrived to get the poor devil disinherited and disgraced,' Deveron observed scornfully, 'and they may have destroyed Conrig's Sovereignty to boot! Do you call
that
a miracle?'
'The miracle,' said the Green Woman with great patience, 'is that the good Lights are no longer impotent. The second Moon Crag may in some way enable them to resume the fight against the Coldlight Army. The Source is as yet uncertain how this might be accomplished, as are we. But we hope to learn more as time goes by.'
Deveron heaved a rather exasperated sigh. 'Meanwhile -what am I supposed to do? And Induna?'
'We have no instructions concerning your wife,' Cray admitted.
Thalassa Dru rose from her seat with easy dignity. Her head with its coronet of braids nearly touched the rafters of the low-roofed lodge. 'But
your
orders, Deveron Austrey, are to free a woman named Rusgann Moorcock, who has just been captured by the henchmen of the Lord Constable of Cathra and is being taken to Boarsden Castle for questioning under torture. Rusgann carries a secret letter. It is imperative that this missive be delivered to Prince Dyfrig Beorbrook, who will soon arrive at that castle after having concluded a military mission -'
'But we know this Rusgann!' Induna exclaimed in surprise. 'She was the dear friend of Princess Dowager Maudrayne during her captivity in Tarn. Deveron and I participated in the rescue of both women, together with Maude's little son Dyfrig.' Her face fell. 'But as I understand it, the princess took poison when King Conrig decreed that she would never see her boy again.'
'Princess Maude did not die of poison,' Deveron said. He explained how she had been spirited away by Tinnis Catclaw.
'That was sixteen years ago, however. I know not whether the princess still lives -'
'Oh, Maude's alive and well, all right,' Thalassa said with a sardonic grimace. 'Catclaw installed her in a luxurious hunting lodge of his, deep in the mountains east of Beorbrook Hold, and kept her as his willing captive and leman. Rusgann Moorcock was Maude's companion there until the princess sent her away secretly to deliver her letter to Prince Dyfrig. The letter contains information that the Source believes to be vitally important to the New Conflict. When the Lord Constable learned of Rusgann's escape, he realized that he was in deadly danger. He had told the High King that he'd killed Maudrayne years earlier, as Conrig had ordered. If she were found in Tinnis's hideaway, his own life would be forfeit. So he arranged to evacuate the place, leaving only the Princess Dowager behind. One of his men set the lodge on fire. It was intended that Maude should burn to death and her body be destroyed. But she escaped.'
'Thank God!' murmured Induna. 'What's happened to the poor woman?'
'The Source only told us that she was free,' Thalassa said. 'He seemed concerned mainly with the letter she'd written to her son.'
'Typical,' muttered Deveron. 'In his own way, the One Denied the Sky is as much of an inhuman puppetmaster and game player as his evil cousins, the Beaconfolk.'
Thalassa gave a sigh and stared at her hands, folded in her lap. 'There's some truth in what you say. Ansel Pikan was known to berate the Source for being coldly manipulative. But I think this time you must permit yourself to be coerced, Deveron Austrey. Save the woman-Rusgann if you can. But you
must
secure the letter she carries and see that it reaches Dyfrig. In it, Maudrayne tells him he is the rightful heir to the Iron Crown of Sovereignty.'
'Good God,' Deveron murmured, his brow knit in thought. 'Could
that
have something to do with Ansel Pikan's deathbed statement?'
‘I think it very likely,' the sorceress said. 'You should set out for Boarsden at once.'
'Our friend Baron Ising will furnish you with mounts from his stable,' Cray said. 'Eleven leagues south of Castle Morass lies the River Kelk, which is navigable. The Kelk flows into the Malle, which will carry you directly to Boarsden. The voyage is some two hundred leagues. Using the combined talents of you and your wife to augment the natural motive power of sail and current, I estimate that you might reach your destination in as little as eighteen hours.'