and highblown heroics. 'Out of the village,' it began,
… out of the thatched and clutching shires,
Out of the grave and furrow, furrow and grave,
Where his sword first tried the last cruel dances of childhood,
And awoke to the shires forever retreating, his greatness a marshfire,
The banked flight of the Kingfisher always above him…
Quietly the Knights began to mouth the words, and slowly the song rose in the torchlit room-the tale of Huma's love and sacrifice and enshrinement. Sturm's anger subsided as he, like the rest of the young men who sat around him, entered the world of the story.
Sturm knew the tradition. If the song were sung perfectly and in unison on a night of special auspice, a night such as Yuletide or Midsummer, Lord Huma himself would return and be seated among the singers. That was why the foremost place at the foremost table was always left empty. Slowly the lad joined in, breathing the words as the room filled with the sound of a soft wind, of one clear elven voice raised in song and three hundred others whispering. Only the youngest still held out hope that extraordinary things would happen at this or at any Yuletide.
So they continued, chanting monotonously, until the outburst of the flute startled them all.
From the rafters, the harsh tune tumbled, frenzied and playful, and with the music a rain of light, green and golden, dispersed the shadows in the great hall and dazzled the astonished Knights. At once the whispering faded into silence along with the song of the bard as the new, discordant music rose and quickened and the chamber swelled with its notes. It was like the trilling of birds, or the droning of bees, or the whine of wind through the high evergreen branches. All of the Knights remembered it differently later, and whatever their description, they knew the song eluded it, for it was shifting and large and ever-changing.
Dumbstruck, Sturm braced himself heavily against the table. The wood shuddered beneath his stiffened hands, and the goblets chimed absurdly as they dropped to the stone floor and shattered. The sweet woodsmoke in the air turned suddenly to a sharp and watery perfume, the odor of spilt wine, then of fresh grapes and strawberries, then the sudden, pungent freshness of leaves. The torches around the tables extinguished, and suddenly, surprisingly, the great council hall was awash in moonlight, silver and red.
'Great Solin and Luin!' Sturm exclaimed under his breath, exchanging shocked glances with Derek Crownguard.
Then Lord Wilderness appeared in the rafters above them, bristling with music and green sparks.
Sturm had never seen the likes of him. The man's armor glistened with the waxy, depthless green of holly. Embossed roses, red and green, intertwined on his breastplate, and leaves and scarlet berries cascaded from his gauntlets and greaves, trailing behind him like a rumor of spring in the lifeless midwinter hall. About his face, more leaves flared and clustered like green flame, like a glory of grassy light, at the center of which his wide black eyes darted and glittered and laughed. He was a huge green bird or a dryad's consort, and again he raised the flute to his lips and again the music burst forth limitless, out of the dusk and cedars and pines. He leapt to the floor with astonishing lightness.
Slowly, their faces stern and forbidding, Lord Alfred, Lord Gunthar, and Lord Stephan rose to their feet, their hands riding lightly on the hilts of their swords. Sir Adamant Jeoffrey and Lord Boniface of Foghaven stepped from behind their tables, moving toward the center of the room, then suddenly stopped, their expressions uncharacteristically cautious. Servants scattered to the far corners of the hall as more crystal broke and silver jangled on the stone floor. The strange, leafy monstrosity ignored the commotion, crouching comically in the center of the hall as the elven minstrel picked up his harp and scrambled away in a flurry of oaths and twanging strings, his coat tangled in holly thorns.
'Who are you?' Lord Alfred asked, his voice thunderous. 'How dare you disturb this most solemn of nights?'
The green man pivoted full circle, his flute vanishing somewhere in the jungle of leaf and armor that covered him. Faintly Sturm heard its music echoing up the stairwell, as echo doubled back upon echo until the melody finally traveled beyond his hearing.
'I am Vertumnus,' said the intruder, in a voice mild and low. 'I am the seasons turning, and I am the home of the past years.'
'And the belfry for a thousand bats,' Derek muttered, but an icy glance from Lord Gunthar silenced the young man.
'And what,' Lord Alfred asked, 'does… m'lord Vertumnus want of us this Yuletide?' The High Justice was tense, ceremonious, his fingers playing across the gold pommel of his sword.
'I wish to make a point near and dear to my heart,' Vertumnus announced, seating himself unceremoniously on the floor.
He removed his helmet, and green fire danced at his temples.
Sturm frowned nervously. He knew that dark enchanters were wizards of merriment, urging their victims to be less somber, less gloomy. Finally less good. Then, when they had you lost in laughter and song, they would…
What they would do, he did not know. But it would destroy you.
'You Solamnics gather like owls in these halls in the dead of the year,' Vertumnus said, 'hooting of dark times and times past and how far the world has tumbled from ages of dream and might. Look around you-the Clerist's Tower is a hall of mirrors. You can see yourselves from all vantages and angles, preening and garnishing and admiring your own importance.'
'By your leave, Lord Alfred,' Lord Gunthar interrupted, his sword half drawn from its sheath. 'By your leave, I shall show this… this
Vertumnus smiled menacingly, his windburned face crinkling like the bark of an enormous vallenwood. The banners drifted in a warm, unseasonable breeze. 'Never let it be said,' he announced calmly, the faint rustle of his voice surprisingly audible even in the farthest corners of the enormous chamber, 'that when there is sword or mace or lance available, Lord Gunthar will settle for words or wit or policy.'
'Mild words will not avail you, Vertumnus,' Gunthar menaced, oblivious to the insult.
Lord Wilderness only laughed. Rising with a creak of armor and a rustling of leaves, Vertumnus waggled his flute at the foremost table, at the empty chair. It was a clownish gesture, but unsettling, even obscene. The older Knights gasped, and several of the younger ones drew swords. Calm and unhurried, Vertumnus turned gracefully about, brandishing the flute like a saber. It whistled hauntingly as he waved it through the air, and Sturm watched him in fascination.
'To my point: There is a seat where no one sits,' Vertumnus observed. 'Nor guest nor beggar nor orphan nor foreigner-none whom you have sworn by the Oath to guard and to champion. And the chair is empty this night and all others, a seat for the parrot and popinjay.'
Lord Alfred MarKenin glowered at Vertumnus, who continued serenely.
'For the Oath you swore in this nest of oaths,' Vertumnus claimed, his wild eyes riveted to the empty chair, 'is dark and grim and wise in the depths of the night. But you have no joy in following it. Even this festival shows so.'
'Who are you, outlander, to tell us of our joys and our festivals?' Lord Alfred boomed. 'A thing of leaf and patch and tatters, to speak of Huma's waiting chair?'
Gunthar and Stephan turned suddenly toward the shadows, then back again, their faces unreadable in the shifting light. Suddenly Lord Alfred stepped from behind the table and, pointing at the Green Man, addressed him in a voice usually reserved for horses and underlings and untrained or untrainable squires.
'Who are you to question our customs, the thousand year waiting of our dreams? You-you
'Old man!' Vertumnus retorted and lurched, stopping mere inches from the High Justice. 'You empty, gilded breastplate! You vacant helmet and flapping banner! You mask of laws and absence of justice! You tally sheet! You plodding ass with a snout for letters, foraging honor in a barren plain! If a prophetic breeze passed by you, you
