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The Longest Road
Mar. 7th, 2007 09:10 pmShe had thought it was Diarmuid that they were waiting for, but when upon the Prince's return Kevin introduced Levon dan Ivor of the Dalrei to her, Kim realized that she'd been wrong. He'd asked if they could talk, she remembers-- on that last morning, just before the Baelrath had exploded with a crimson blaze and she had seen Jennifer's name written in the fire, and had taken them all away.
(Even as she thinks of it, she notices that the ring on her hand is pulsing flame like a heartbeat.)
"All right," she says, crisply, and as they decide on the others to hear this (Paul, of course, and Levon himself, and Kevin; along with Dave, Diarmuid, Loren and Matt) she adds, "My room. Let's go."
It's a little crowded, but they all manage to fit, and once Levon starts explaining about Owein and the Wild Hunt-- and how Dave's horn and Kim's ring fit the old verse, and how they've already found the tree and the rock that mark the Cave of the Sleepers-- by then, no one cares about the lack of space.
The Giants bound the Wild Hunt under the stone, Loren tells them all; the Paraiko, with Connla their Lord, he who made the Cauldron of Khath Meigol. It's Paul, though, with the deeper knowledge granted the Twiceborn of Mornir, who's able to explain why the Hunt had asked Connla to do the binding. In grief and as penance, he tells them, because they lost a child.
In the hush that falls over the room, Kim asks the question that's in all their thoughts.
"Do we wake them?"
Finn walks back into the house, many times more inwardly distraught than he was before (not that he'll be leaving, not exactly-- but what will happen to his family when he does?). He decided, long ago, that he would not tell his mother when the time came. It will smash her as a hammer smashes a lock, and there is no need for any of them to live through that.
He goes to where she sits weaving by the fire, and kisses her lightly on the cheek. He knows that his legs will walk along the Road even if his heart and courage stay behind, but also knows that it is better to have them-- to make the offering run deep and true. Finn is beginning to know a number of unexpected things; he is already traveling. He asks if he can wake Dari and, finding him already awake, helps him dress so that they can (for the last time) go and play in the snow.
No one has an answer for Kim's question, but finally Dave is the one to put it in a different light. "If we've been given the means to do it-- do we have the right to deny them?"
"That is the deepest truth yet spoken here," Loren answers, silencing the room. "It is the truest nature of things, and at the very heart of the Tapestry: the wild magic is meant to be free, whether or not it suits any purpose of ours."
It comes back to Kim then, as she'd known it would, because she's the one to wear the ring. As every eye turns to her, she can't escape the nagging feeling that there's something she's forgotten-- but they're waiting, and she knows what Dave's said is true, and so...
"All right," she says, and as she does the Baelrath blazes alight like a beacon, bathing the room in its crimson fire.
(Even as she thinks of it, she notices that the ring on her hand is pulsing flame like a heartbeat.)
"All right," she says, crisply, and as they decide on the others to hear this (Paul, of course, and Levon himself, and Kevin; along with Dave, Diarmuid, Loren and Matt) she adds, "My room. Let's go."
It's a little crowded, but they all manage to fit, and once Levon starts explaining about Owein and the Wild Hunt-- and how Dave's horn and Kim's ring fit the old verse, and how they've already found the tree and the rock that mark the Cave of the Sleepers-- by then, no one cares about the lack of space.
The Giants bound the Wild Hunt under the stone, Loren tells them all; the Paraiko, with Connla their Lord, he who made the Cauldron of Khath Meigol. It's Paul, though, with the deeper knowledge granted the Twiceborn of Mornir, who's able to explain why the Hunt had asked Connla to do the binding. In grief and as penance, he tells them, because they lost a child.
In the hush that falls over the room, Kim asks the question that's in all their thoughts.
"Do we wake them?"
Finn walks back into the house, many times more inwardly distraught than he was before (not that he'll be leaving, not exactly-- but what will happen to his family when he does?). He decided, long ago, that he would not tell his mother when the time came. It will smash her as a hammer smashes a lock, and there is no need for any of them to live through that.
He goes to where she sits weaving by the fire, and kisses her lightly on the cheek. He knows that his legs will walk along the Road even if his heart and courage stay behind, but also knows that it is better to have them-- to make the offering run deep and true. Finn is beginning to know a number of unexpected things; he is already traveling. He asks if he can wake Dari and, finding him already awake, helps him dress so that they can (for the last time) go and play in the snow.
No one has an answer for Kim's question, but finally Dave is the one to put it in a different light. "If we've been given the means to do it-- do we have the right to deny them?"
"That is the deepest truth yet spoken here," Loren answers, silencing the room. "It is the truest nature of things, and at the very heart of the Tapestry: the wild magic is meant to be free, whether or not it suits any purpose of ours."
It comes back to Kim then, as she'd known it would, because she's the one to wear the ring. As every eye turns to her, she can't escape the nagging feeling that there's something she's forgotten-- but they're waiting, and she knows what Dave's said is true, and so...
"All right," she says, and as she does the Baelrath blazes alight like a beacon, bathing the room in its crimson fire.
