Written by Neil Fraser
Mabhan was enormous, almost three metres tall and looming vast, not only in his physical presence but also in his personality. It was almost hard to be in the same room as him, so overwhelming was he. He might have been only a minor Power, as he seemed fond of repeating, but here in his own lands, he was Might personified.
His daughter Siobhan, herself over two metres tall, and his oldest son Pon Yrthen, two-and-a-half metres, flanked him on the dais. They stood; their father seated in a great, elaborately carved cedar-wood throne-chair.
At present Mabhan was brooding, irritable. His fingers plucked fitfully at the golden strings of the shimmering silken wood harp that played her own tune softly, soothingly to her companion, in counterpoint to his strummings.
“I have to wonder at you, Anwyn,” he said, in a voice laden with harmonics. “Maybe I am only associated with Brigit rather than Herne, but for you to come here, to compromise me.”
“My apologies, o Mabhan.” Anwyn was as smooth as a courtier born. “But I thought that you here; in your own domain?”
Mabhan grinned broadly, showing square white teeth. Voklaynn noticed that he did that often. But then he as suddenly looked sour. He almost, though not quite, looked at her as she stood aside a little from Tintagel, nursing Karwin. Smudge was well back from her, but she knew his exact location as surely as she knew hers, Tintagil’s and Karwin’s. The child played entranced with strands of snow-hair and gurgled nonsense sounds solemnly to himself and her. Somewhere behind her and to her right were Lan and Melitha.
Voklaynn was well aware that it was hers and Smudge’s presence that disturbed the Power so. Something to do with Saurians being outside the realm of the Gods if indeed that could be so? She knew Mabhan had no inkling at all as to where Smudge was, and she was mostly invisible to him. And here in his domain, in the seat of his power, he took this almost as though it were a personal insult.
Lan shifted uncomfortably. He was aware that the Eye in the padded box at his feet seemed to be vibrating faintly, crackling at the ice constantly forming on the box’s surface. He glared at it, as though his glance alone would still it. Since he had taken responsibility for the wholly mysterious object from Niani, it had been growing more “restive”. Smudge looked quickly at the box, then up to Lan’s face. As was usual, it was unreadable, save possibly by Voklaynn.
“All right Anwyn,” Mabhan said, at last, starting to grin again. “You’re right. I delight in obstructionism, as well you know. To Brigit as well as Powers even less connected to me. For instance,” he said, as though in an aside to Lan, glancing at his breastplate and grinning even more widely.
“I always suspected the … artistic tastes of Gobhnui. Now I find them confirmed!”
Mabhan turned his attention back to Tintagel. “I appreciate your visit. I welcome you. Despite some of your companions.”
Anwyn was suddenly stiff. “You speak about my Soul, Mabhan.” Lan raised an eyebrow. Melitha was suddenly jittery. She read Lan well enough. Under no circumstances did he fancy a fight with Mabhan and his family, but he knew where his loyalties lay; push came to shove.
“Oh, calm down!” Mabhan made an impatient gesture. “I don’t dislike those particular companions. Just what they are. What they are in the seat of my strength. Anyway, you all possess Guest-status with me, and anyone who knows Mabhan knows that his greatest enemy is safe with him if they have guest-status! And none of you are even my un-friends.” For a moment he actually focussed upon Voklaynn.
Tintagel bowed stiffly. But Voklaynn knew that adverse comments about his Soul-Beloved were not easy for him to accept. No matter who he who commented might be.
“But now that you are here Anwyn, I would beg of you a favour. I understand from what you have already said that you are all on your way to the Other Side. Something to do with…” He made a vague gesture in Voklaynn’s direction. She was not upset by his remoteness, though to be sure she believed he was the mightiest person she had ever disconcerted if that was the correct term. As opposed to annoyed! That would be the Princess Mind Mage!
“The Ones Within the World, But Not Of It,” Anwyn said agreeably. He had calmed himself. He glanced at Voklaynn. “And I believe that we would be happy to do a favour for you.”
“I thank you, and I shall be in your debt,” Mabhan said. “I have a friend who lives on the other side of the Veil. His wife is due … well, I have no idea when, time there and here being what it is, but I imagine that it must be soon. I have a birthing gift for the child, as does my wife Leah.”
Anwyn bowed. “Might I be so favoured as to enquire how a Power has a friend who lives in the Other Lands?”
“You may,” Mabhan said. “And I will be proud indeed to tell you and to so help spread his fame. He is a Hero … or there are some who say he is still only a Hero incipient. His name is Kaulosse Ben and he not only succoured me and secured my release from torture, but also healed – saving the life of the Hero-Power Karsus, who is a brother of Ben’s – and Lan’s and Melitha’s – Race-Father Tolek.”
“Ben lives at one of your…” he gestured in Lan’s and Melitha’s direction “cities that lie south of here on the coast. On the Other Side, of course. I don’t know what its name is. But it was once a settlement of the Thelessan. He owns an inn named the Harp and Hearth. No doubt many in the town will know it.” Siobhan shook her head slightly but looked at Mabhan with a tolerant smile. Then she mouthed “Lorn Borsofa” so that Lan at least could see it.
Tintagel nodded. “Gladly will we bear your friend the birthing gifts. And if, and may both the Gods and the Powers forbid, Ben’s wife is child-sick, my Soul and I will do what we may to aid her.”
Mabhan grinned again. “I think not,” he said. “Ben and Yatho are favoured by the Lord of Perfect Knowledge and each have, even in the Otherworld, kept their access to Summer Magic.” He stood and moved to Tintagil’s side.
Voklaynn, knowing Anwyn’s ever-present faint uneasiness at the close proximity of anyone other than her or Karwin, moved to his other. He smiled at her, enveloping her in his glow.
Lan also moved forwards a little, mindful of his role. He was certain that all here were quite safe now, but he refused to relax his guard under any circumstances, just in case the omission might prove fatal to his charges at just the wrong time.
“Unicorns,” Mabhan stated. “I am neutral as regards unicorns. I am a Power of Music and Crafted Musical Instruments; of Illusions, and of my home. It is little that I care about the world outside my boundary-fence. But I am interested in this Next Choice you and your Voklaynn have made.”
Anwyn interrupted. “Voklaynn is not mine,” he said softly. “Unless it is that we belong both one to the other.”
Mabhan accepted the mild rebuke. “Well,” he said. “At your convenience, before you leave I would that you might try to explain it to me. And to tell me more about the business with … Flidais.”
Anwyn at first shook his head, then reconsidered and slowly nodded. “I might try,” he said cautiously. “But much is internal and so integral to who and what I am, as a Guard and who and what we are; as Soul-Beloveds. Even to a Power, it would be difficult to explain. But as Herne allows … I shall try. But for the matter of Flidais. I am sorry,” he said. “But I do not think it truly our place to speak of the … death of a Power.”
Mabhan nodded curtly but looked nowhere near as troubled as Voklaynn thought some Powers might have at those blunt words.
“In the meantime, however,” Anwyn continued. “What news can you give us of your Lands and of the lands about them on the way to the Place of Crossing?”
Lan nodded approvingly. At times Tintagil was so far removed from reality that it seemed his mind was in a realm different again from the Summer Country, but this was a sensible thing to ask.
Mabhan rubbed his cheek, glanced at Voklaynn, had his gaze slide off her and scowled again. She leaned into her Love’s side. As ever, the thrill of their touch shivered its way up into their minds. Karwin reached out tiny arms to his father, who took him tenderly. Voklaynn rested her head on Tintagil’s shoulder.
“Well, for one thing, there’s the Ebon Unicorn, over east from here.”
“An ebon unicorn?” Anwyn exclaimed. “Black?”
“Sable,” Mabhan confirmed. “Golden alicorn, hooves, teeth, mane and tail. Midnight eyes. Big too. Probably bigger than you in your True form. He has been given custody of what was the Enchanted Woods.”
“But a black unicorn?” Anwyn said again, still grappling with what until now he had thought impossible.
“Things are changing,” Mabhan said gloomily. “Not all of them for the better. The Ebon Unicorn comes from The Dagda.”
“But Herne…” Anwyn said, now weakly.
“I don’t know,” Mabhan said sharply. “It’s not within my Power! All I know is the Ebon Unicorn comes to the Woods Un-enchanted. To protect, to teach the Black Dryads. Among all the others. And it’s The Dagda who sent him and not Herne. Though Herne’s obviously approved the matter.” He shrugged, flicked his fingers, and the harp appeared in his hand again.
“Anyway, also out there…” he gestured now somewhere to the south-west. “There are the Bone-Hedge and the Black Sands. They’re two of the changes less good. Beware! The first Devours and the second Haunts! Even ones such as you could exhibit little or no prowess against those things. They are to do with the vanquishing of that which made the Enchanted Woods evil, and with the healing of Karsus.”
“Ben and my other friends and saviours: Vanmale Arron the Straight; Gonyan Great Man; Mnellia Metal-hands, Hloron the Un-elf and little Leah, now my mate, were together responsible. But they said responsibility rested also with the Invaders, they of the Concealed Visages, the Black Fired Souls. Some followed the Heroes here into the Summer Country. Arron, in particular, says that they follow and revere those who are the Fell Converse of We, the Powers. And as such, my understanding of them, and their creations are sketchy.”
Mabhan smiled widely and stretched, looking up to the heavens. Great sinews crackled in his shoulders. “One of our … step-siblings; great among them, sought to attack me. But I threw down and slew it, for it thought to profane my Land! I am the Land, and the Land is Me!”
He shouted the last words, sending booming echoes about the great hall. Tintagel swiftly calmed the very startled Karwin. Voklaynn was reminded abruptly of the strength of a Power in his own place and was suddenly glad that she “only” irritated Mabhan. Lan was also for his own sake as glad!
Mabhan relaxed. “Sorry,” he said, insincerely. “But it was a victory that I shall never cease to exult in. In it, I broke the power of the Fell Ones here, and perhaps even destroyed the Invaders who sought to injure my good friends. Well! I know not where you are heading, but in the mountains south is a place where there is a Doorway through the Veil.”
“Note well though that there is now … how shall I explain them? Wandering Doorways in the Summer Country. They are another of the new, and we think created by the coming of the Fell Converse. But unlike the Bone Hedge and the Black Sands, there seems to be no evil in them. They are more like fairies, though even less intelligent!” He laughed loudly. But Lan noted Pon Yrthen and Siobhan exchange a troubled look, and he knew that these two at least did not necessarily agree with their father in all.
“As to the Doorway I was speaking of,” Mabhan went on. “It is within the Guard of one akin to you, Anwyn. He is,” he thought briefly.
“He is known as Nismayne, and his – what is it you lot say? His Soul is Marim, who is of the Queens of the Beneath Mountains.”
“Nismayne!” Anwyn exclaimed in sudden delight. “So his Guard is near here!” He turned to Voklaynn. “He was the great friend of my younger days but found his Soul long before you claimed me. They together took the Fourth Choice,” he revealed sadly.
“It was truly hard, for she has a brother to whom she is devoted, even still, after the Choice.” Then he brightened once more. Here was never a man who could hide his emotions!
“I think I will explain to him – them – the Sixth Choice!”
“And of the Seventh then, and then the Eighth?” Voklaynn enquired slyly.
“If Herne asks, I heard none of those subversive words!” Mabhan said and boomed laughter.
The birthing gifts are as follows:
- A small wooden box of some hard and glistening ivory-white wood inlaid on the top with a glass “mosaic” pattern. The pattern is of a small scarlet serpent among yellow grass. The snake’s lips are pursed in a whistle. The box is almost thirty centimetres long by six by six centimetres. It is not locked but tied shut with gold wire about silver pegs and knobs. From Mabhan.
- A book, thirty-five centimetres by fifty-five centimetres and over ten centimetres thick. It is covered in iridescent rainbow -coloured silk with golden-red leather corner strengtheners and is fastened shut with gold wire and silver pegs as the box is. On the cover is painted in gold leaf, in elaborate letters the name “Ben”. From Leah.