Frostfell_ The Wizards - Mark Sehestedt [56]
Amira cleared her throat. "Listen-"
"Please, Lady," said the belkagen, a bit of anger still lingering in his voice. "Now we come to the part of this tale that concerns you, why I scratched up all these painful memories." He sighed, then said, "What I saw in Hro'nyewachu I will not tell. Its part in our hunt is my own burden to bear. But I think Hro'nyewachu might be of help to you, Lady Amira."
"Help me? How?"
"Hro'nyewachu is sacred to the Vil Adanrath, but she does not belong to us. She was here long before us and, I suspect, will still be here long after we are gone. She is a place of… need, both in meeting needs and filling her own."
"But you said most who go in never return," said Amira. "I can't help my son if I'm dead or mad."
"I said 'a few,' not 'most.' The belkagenet are few. Since my own master passed, I have walked alone west of the Glittering Spires." He fell silent a moment, obviously wrestling his thoughts, then continued, "Nothing is certain, Lady. Nothing under this sun. But I believe Hro'nyewachu can help you."
"How? I don't need answers. I need to save my son."
"I believe-no, I know it after Lendri told us what happened. The Fist of Winter has your son. Why? I do not know. They took Gyaidun's son, and the boy was never found. Why? I do not know. I want to save your son, Lady"-he looked to Gyaidun-"and Erun, if we can, but there is too much we do not know. We are running in blind. I fear we are only running to our deaths-and Jalan's."
"And what?" Amira said "You think this oracle can help us? I am not Vil Adanrath. I'm human and not even from here and… and I don't even like these cursed lands! What makes you think your oracle will help me? She might just as well kill me or drive me mad. I'll be no good to my son then, and forgive me, but I don't exactly trust Sir Drenched-in-Blood here or your Vil Adanrath to keep Jalan's best interests in sight."
The belkagen smiled and something like pride lit in his eyes. He looked to Gyaidun. "She has a hunter's heart, does she not, Yastehanye?"
Gyaidun scowled and said nothing.
"You, Lady," the belkagen continued, "know the arcane powers that spark the world. Hro'nyewachu… the source of her power I do not know. Divine? Arcane? A power from another world? I do not know. Perhaps she is all these things and more, perhaps none. But I do believe this: Hro'nyewachu has a mother's heart. You have a mother's need. Your hearts will beat the same song, I think. I could brave Hro'nyewachu again, and if you refuse, I will go. But Jalan is your son, Lady, yours the sacred bond. The bond between parent and child is a strength that might avail you much. I will do all I can to help your son, but I am only an old meddler. You are his mother."
"Not his real mother," Amira said, but even she heard the hollowness in her words.
"Would you die for him?" A bit of the anger was creeping back into the belkagen's voice, and he shook his staff as he spoke. "Kill for him? Would you shed your last drop of life's blood to keep him safe? Breathe your last breath?"
"Yes!" Amira looked away from them to wipe away the tears.
"Then you are his mother, Lady Amira," said the belkagen. "In all ways that matter."
Amira considered his words. She stared into the fire, thinking. Descend into a cave to seek some… eastern goddess or spirit or who even knew what it was? It seemed the very height of foolishness.
But she did not doubt the belkagen's power. He'd saved her life and Lendri's and obviously had powers and knowledge beyond her own. Besides, she knew one thing was true with or without his counsel. She'd seen what that dark thing who had her son could do. It had countered Mursen's spell and snapped the man's neck like a chicken. Even if she could find them before they did whatever they were planning to do to Jalan, she knew she could not beat the dark thing.
Her best hope was in cunning,