The Vacant Throne - Ed Greenwood [19]
Three necks had grown tired of craning to look up at the unchanging show the columns afforded the world; their owners were strolling rather warily about the library with swords drawn, looking for things that might move or try to keep hidden-in particular, bones. Thankfully, they found no such lurking attractions.
There came a time when one of them sighed and glanced back up at the silently floating books. "Lady Embra," Sarasper called, "does it really take this long to read a few lines?"
The woman who was floating above the books frowned almost fondly down at him, her eyes twinkling, and then crisply began to read aloud, " 'Four are the Worldstones, none of them master of the others. They seem quarry-stone, brown and gray, but lighter, and are fashioned into spheres that fit the hand. Nothing known can break them-to sunder them would beyond doubt shatter their magic, and pour forth such fire as to make the world tremble.' "
She turned her head to the next open book, not looking down at the three faces now upturned below, and read what it displayed to the world. All of the men had halted to listen.
" 'You may know the Dwaer, one from the other, by the deep-graven runes they bear. If the rune is thus-' " Embra dropped her declamatory tone, and said in her own, gender voice, "Like a barbed fishhook." Then she gave Sarasper a glance, made her voice loud and crisp again, and continued, " '-you look upon Candalath, the Stone of Life. If the stone has this rune-' " Again she dropped into her own voice. "A circle with four star-points radiating from it."
Craer was grinning up at her now, and gesturing grandly that she continue.
She nodded in imperious acknowledgment, and resumed her lecturing tone. " '-it is Hilimm, the Stone of Renewal, that you hold. A rune thus'-a row of fangs," she interpreted, and continued, " '-marks Mlarr, the Stone of War, and if the symbol be so'-a turret, or tapering castle tower-'you hold Quarlar, the Stone of Building."
"So it was the Stone of War that the Spellmaster held, at the last, when we fought him," Hawkril said slowly. "What makes it suited for War, where yours, Lady, is for Life?"
Embra shrugged, spread her hands in an "I know not" gesture, and drifted a little to one side, to read aloud from the next book. " 'Mages may use them to source spells, but the Dwaerindim have great powers of their own, whose awakening is more subtle, but lies within the grasp of those who have no gift for magic. Each Dwaer-Stone has powers unique to it, each has some powers shared with the others, and there are also powers that can be called upon only when certain of the Dwaer are used in combination-and placed properly.' "
"As usual," Craer murmured to his closest friend, "swords are simpler."
Hawkril's face split in a slow smile, and he nodded. Above their heads, the Lady of Jewels was already drifting to the next book.
" 'Unless willed to give power to a magic, or redirect and augment or alter a spell cast by another so as to touch or affect a Dwaer or its bearer, Dwaerindim drink in most known magics, swallowing such tracelessly and utterly. In this manner they can be employed to protect an alcove, an item beneath or behind them, or their bearer from hostile magics, though the warning must be given that certain magics resist the control of a Dwaer.' "
"It neglects to list just which ones, of course," Sarasper guessed aloud, his voice as confident as it was dry. Embra gave him a nod and a rueful smile, and then turned to the next book.
" 'All of the Dwaerindim can be made to glow,' " she read aloud." 'The intensity and hue of their radiance can be controlled-and varied-by an awakener who possesses a fierce will, or by a wizard used to employing magics that control radiances. Any of the Dwaer can be made to hover in the air silently and for as long as desired, though the means of directing this must be learned. All of the Dwaer can, when so employed by one who knows how to so command