The Gates of Winter - Mark Anthony [256]
Sorrow shone in Falken's faded eyes. “And now that Mohg has returned, he'll break the First Rune and remake Eldh in his own shadowed image.”
“Not if Master Wilder breaks it first,” Larad said, his voice ragged.
All of them stared at the runespeaker. Above, bloodred lightning hissed across the churning sky.
“No.” Sickness filled Travis, and dread. “No, I won't do it. It's not my fate. I have no fate.”
Larad waved the words aside with an angry motion. “Fate is what we choose, Master Wilder, not what is chosen for us. The end is here, you can't change that—no one can now. The First Rune will be broken. There will be a Runebreaker. It can be Mohg—or it can be you. That is your fate. That is your choice.”
Travis couldn't move. For so long he had run from this destiny. He had done everything he could to keep it from coming to pass. Only all this time he had been running, not away from it, but straight toward it.
“Go, Master Wilder,” Larad said, and blood flecked his lips. “Take the three Imsari. Go to the Dawning Stone.” He nodded toward the two Maugrim, who had stood silently a short distance away. “They will help you. They know the way.”
Travis reeled. Once again Larad had worked to purposes unknown to them—unknown to anyone, save for Sky, it seemed. Shemal must have thought him her slave, another Runebreaker she could manipulate to her own ends, a tool she could use to bring about victory for her master. But the Necromancer had been wrong.
“So you betrayed Shemal,” Travis said.
Larad gave him a rueful look. “I have betrayed us all, if you do not do what you must, Travis Wilder. Shemal was . . .” A shudder coursed through him. “No, I will not speak of my days with Shemal. It is enough to say I used her even as she thought she was using me, and somehow, though I never expected to, I have survived. Somehow she was wounded in Calavan, and she sought to flee back to Imbrifale for protection. I followed, knowing that was my chance to gain Gelthisar. Then, quite to my surprise, we came upon Kelephon, and he had the Stone of Ice with him. When I saw that was so, I knew the time to act had finally come.”
“So you began the end of the world,” Travis said softly. “And now you want me to finish it.”
“It is not my choice such a task should be given to you, Master Wilder. I still believe you are given to foolishness and impracticality, and that your knowledge is insufferably lacking.” Larad hesitated, then despite the pain on his face, he grinned. “But I also believe that you are good at heart, and that there is no one in this world stronger than you.”
Travis was aware of the gazes of the others on him. He could only shake his head. Larad was wrong; he had to be.
With stiff motions, Larad moved to Kelephon's dead body, bent down, and picked up Gelthisar. “I am a runelord now. I can touch the Great Stones and live. But I have not your skill with the Imsari, Master Wilder. I could not wield them, not like you, even were I not wounded. This power is new to me. I have found it . . . difficult to control properly. That's why this happened when I broke the rune of sky.” He touched the dark spot on his robe.
Travis understood. It was hard to control something you had been given all at once, something that should be earned over time, gradually, and through hard work.
But you have worked hard, Travis, Jack's voice spoke in his mind. You've learned much. More than you think you have. Larad is right. Only you can do this.
“You are losing