The Gathandrian Trilogy 02 - Hallsfoots Battle

when at last I am able to. “What do you mean?”
    A silence . And somehow that is worse than what came before it. I have no idea what Iffenia is doing. I cannot see it. I am afraid to use the remnants of my mind to sense her intention, even if I had that capacity any more. Slowly, as if any swift movement would break the sudden impasse between us, the stool curves its way into the back of my knees. I sit down. Words bite at my skin and thoughts, but I cannot interpret them.
    Finally, she takes a sharp breath and speaks. “So. You are here. I did not intend you to sense all of that but, even so, you are here.”
    With her voice come images —she and her husband, his narrow lips set in a line that contains a sorrow I have never paid heed to, and the river of black between them as he abandoned her in order to follow me.
    The noise of my swallowing is loud in my ears and the words are at last on my tongue.
    “Forgive me,” I whisper. “I did not think about those left behind when I walked away from the damage I had done.”
    “ No,” she replies and this time her voice is close, almost at my ear. “No. You did not think. That is the truest thing you have ever said, Daagmund Winnland. You did not think about the fact the Council of Elders would follow you out of loyalty, though the tradition of faith to the Chosen Elder is as real to us as any of the ones you chased after in your foolishness. Neither did you think of the wives and families you tore those elders from. For who is to say we will ever see them again? The snow-raven brings you back, but where are your fellow elders? Where are the ones we love? All of them chose to be with you but, when you return, you return alone. Where is your own loyalty?”
    “ They have not come to harm, I swear it.”
    Iffenia laughs but the sound of it is as dark as winter. “I do not believe you know what is harm and what is not. Because of you, the great Library is no more and the attack from the mind-executioner is all but upon us. Outside of the city, how can any, however wise, ever hope to survive what is to come?”
    She is right. I know it. Gelahn will sweep through all that is unprotected, and the minds of the people are the only fragile defence we have. Those who are not amongst us are most open to destruction. On all sides then, I have been lacking. I raise my face to where I hear her breathing.
    “I do not know,” I say and let the truth of that also slide through my flesh. “Show me what I can do, Iffenia.”
    Whether or not she will kill me, I am open to her decision. She makes a sound, somewhere between a groan and a cry, and something in the colour of the air between us eases. I know then I will not die here, although suffering will come. Too soon it will come, too soon. I do not know whether that will be a blessing or a curse. Even so, behind the great wall of the emotions she carries, I sense a greater power, hovering within her as if feeding off her despair. Does she know what the executioner can do to all of us with just one who hates? And if I dare to tell her, how will that be for us then?
    What we will do is this, she says, unwitting of the greater battle already being fought around us both. I will ease your body ’s scars and then both of us will do whatever Annyeke commands. It is the womenfolk, I think, who must try to save us today.
    *****
    Unable to help herself, Annyeke gasped, tried to escape the power of the First Elder’s mind-story, but there was more, so much more to come.

    *****
    Before she left me, Iffenia spun a mind-net for protection, but she and I both knew it was for imprisonment. She did not want Annyeke to know what I have discovered. I could feel the fluidity of it in my mind, but the colours were wrong , not the surface of them. Oh no, all there was as it should be, the blues and greens of safety vibrating my thoughts into a softer more attentive shade. Still something felt wrong, though I said nothing as she lifted the curtain and I felt the chill wind penetrate her sculpting room. Then she was gone. My skin felt prickly, but the sharp pain in my eyes was such that it swallowed up all else in its wake.
    I feel that way still.
    I should sleep, but sleep will not come. Nor do I want it to. I feigned it when Iffenia left, the remnants of my skill such that she did not discover my deceit. Her mind was elsewhere, playing with the beginnings of realisation. When she realises the extent of how her hatred has brought betrayal, and