Legacy of the Darksword - Margaret Weis [29]
My master was thoughtful, introspective. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “The tragedy that befell Joram and all of Thimhallan was, in a way, brought about by a vision of the future—a vision which terrified. Would we have caused our own destruction if we’d never heard the Prophecy concerning the Dead child?”
“Yes, we would have. So I believe,” said King Garald. “Our downfall began long before Joram was born, as early as the Iron Wars. Intolerance, prejudice, fear, blind faith, greed, ambition— these would have destroyed us eventually, with or without Joram and the Darksword.”
He looked pointedly at Kevon Smythe as he spoke, but if His Majesty meant those words for the edification of Smythe, His Majesty wasted his breath. Smythe’s attention—and perhaps his magic, if that was what he used to charm—was focused on Saryon, to the exclusion of all else.
“To me, Thimhallan was symbolized by Joram’s mother, the Empress,” said Saryon softly, sadly. “Her husband refused to admit that she was dead, though all in court knew it. He kept her corpse animated by magicks. The courtiers bowed, paid homage, gossiped with her . . . reveled with a lifeless and corrupt shell of something that had once been alive, vibrant, beautiful. Such a dreadful charade could not have gone on forever.
“Joram’s story is really very simple. A Prophecy was given immediately following the Iron Wars, which stated: ‘There will be born to the royal house one who is dead but will live, who will die again and live again. And when he returns, he will hold in his hand the destruction of the world.’ Joram was a child of the royal house, born to the Empress and Emperor of Merilon. He was born Dead—that is, he had no magic in him at all. I know,” said Saryon, with a sigh. “I was present when they performed the tests on him.
“Bishop Vanya, knowing of and fearing the Prophecy, ordered that the baby be refused all sustenance. Vanya took the baby away to die. But the Almin is not so easily thwarted. A madwoman named Anja found the baby and stole him, took him to the farms near the Outlands, raised him as her own child.
“Anja knew Joram was deficient in magic. She knew that if this deficiency were discovered, the Duuk-tsarith would seize him and that would be the end of him. She taught him sleight-of-hand tricks so that he could keep up a pretense of possessing magic.
“Joram was raised as a field magus, a peasant. It was here he met Mosiah, who became Joram’s one true friend. It was also here that, when he was a teenager, Joram killed a man, a harsh overseer, who had discovered Joram’s secret. In an effort to protect her son, Anja attacked the overseer, who killed her in self-defense. Furious, Joram killed the overseer.
“Joram fled to the Outlands, where he was found by the Order of the Ninth Mystery, who were also living out there—the Technologists. They had broken the laws of Thimhallan, used Technology to supplement their magic. It was here, among them, that Joram learned the art of forging metal. It was here he discovered darkstone and its ability to nullify magic. Joram developed the idea of forging a weapon made of darkstone, a weapon that would compensate for his lack of magic, a weapon that would give him the power he craved.
“For reasons of my own, I assisted him in making the Dark-sword,” Saryon said, adding pointedly, for Smythe’s benefit, “Darkstone must be given magical Life through the intercession of a catalyst. Otherwise, its properties are those of any other metal.”
Smythe was gracious. “How interesting. Please continue, Father.”
Saryon shrugged. “There is not much more to tell. Rather, there is, but the story is a long