Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar

away.'

The blow had thrown off Vess' internal balance-he was seeing double, the physical world layered under his Mage-sight. Sinuous red tendrils wrapped Sevastan's arms, gathering in pools in his hands. A cord of red power, like a leash, dripped out of his left hand and connected to Juni, and from Juni spun out hundreds of thin red threads, pulsing in time with a heartbeat of their own.

Everything fell into place with painful clarity.

He's the blood-mage, Vess thought in shock. Not her. She has Mage-Gift-he's working through her and disguising it as a 'Gift'-good gods!

Sevastan raised his arm and shouted something, and a black levin bolt cracked through the air toward Vess, who threw up his arms in a pitiful mockery of defense.

Inches away from him, it disintegrated in a shower of sparks as it hit invisible shields.

Vess blinked in surprise, then blinked again as a pale white form faded into sight beside him.

:I can't keep this up,: a vaguely familiar female voice said into his mind. :If you have a plan, use it.:

'Well,' Sevastan said, his attention shifted off Vess. 'This is unexpected. Didn't I kill you?'

Vess heard the female voice answer with flat emotion, :By your own hand we are entangled, mage. I do not die if you do not die.:

Sevastan laughed. 'A complication I will swiftly amend,' he said, raising his hands again-Vess didn't give him a chance.

Dragging up his mental energies, he split open his shields, threw his mind at Sevastan-And screamed inside his head.

Years of anger, frustration. and disgust broke out of Vess, his Empathy fueling the raw violence of his attack. Months of watching Nadja die by inches in her bed-months of sitting with the King as he quietly went to pieces with the agonized guilt of the latest Herald he'd had to send off to possible death or worse. Years of court deception, petty politics and subterfuge-deceivers and backstabbers with smiling faces and no concept of the pain they caused.

Tragedies. Sorrows. Pain. The struggle to keep from being beaten down by the very people he tried to help.

And past that, the certainty that the thing he was fighting was the same thing that had killed Starhaven, the thief of life.

The mind-blast broadened and changed to incoherent rage. Lost in the blinding power he had given himself over to, Vess's world dissolved into a solid sheet of fury, and evaporated.

* * *

'Herald.'

Vess blinked, finding himself elsewhere. Not Starhaven, not Solmark-not the Palace or his mother's manor. He was somewhere where his Whites seemed to glow with their own light, and everything was the gray of twilight.

'Herald,' the voice said again, 'I want to thank you...'

Vess sat up, and saw a man standing over him, his face in shadows but his hand extended out to him.

'All my life, I've been that wizard's puppet,' the man said. 'He used me to destroy Starhaven, and when he realized that I wasn't a suitable vessel for his power, he worked through my daughter and grandchild for the same. I'm sorry, Herald. Please know that anything I said to you-the mouth and the voice were mine, but the words were his.'

'Sevastan?' Vess said, reaching up to take the man's hand. 'What-'

'Take care of my granddaughter, Herald,' Sevastan said as his warm, dry fingers closed around Vess' hand. 'Please let her know that even with that bastard's hand on my mind, I tried my best to love her.'

:Chosen!:

Vess came around to too-bright sunlight. The aura of a reaction headache was building behind his eyes, and he tasted copper in his mouth.

:Chosen! Wake up!:

'I'm alive,' Vess said, his voice feeble. 'And sweet Kernos, how I wish I weren't.'

A sob cut the air and, grimacing, Vess climbed to his knees, fighting nausea and dizziness. His hands were shaking and his skin felt clammy. He had definitely overextended himself.

Juni had thrown herself over her grandfather and was crying hysterically. Vess' mind was still painfully open to thoughts-Juni's grief-stricken regrets and stunned questioning of what had just transpired, and the telling silence coming from the body of Sevastan. I killed him, he thought, reaching out to pull the veils of his shields around his mind.

:No,: said the woman's voice in his mind. :I killed him. You broke his concentration long enough to give me the opportunity to throw the bastard into the node-which, thank the god of my fathers, actually worked this time.: A sad sigh. :Unfortunately-the trauma was too much for Sevastan himself-damnit.:

Vess turned slightly, looking in the direction of the ghostly mage, her arms folded across her chest and one slender eyebrow raised.

'What's a node?' he asked.

She rolled her eyes. :Naive outlanders. Never mind. He's gone.: Her face softened. :And you have done me a great service.: She smiled. :I knew, that first time I saw you, that you'd be something speciaL Farewell, Herald I'm off to the place I should have been long, long ago...: She dissolved before his eyes, reforming into a broad-winged white crow that launched itself upward, flying up toward the sun. He tried to watch her go, but the impending headache and his own physical weakness dissuaded the notion.

'Good-bye,' he said. 'Good rest.'

And then there was just the matter of Juni.

Vess heard the muffled bell-tone of Companion hooves behind him. Kestric, no doubt-though Vess wasn't sure how he'd gotten behind him. The Companion came up alongside, and Vess grabbed hold of the saddle to pull himself up

Wait a moment. How did he get his gear on?

Vess really looked at the Companion now, and it gazed back at him with what seemed to be faint amusement

Hellfires, Vess thought, stunned. That's-the Grove stallion!

:Greetings, Herald,: he heard the contrabass voice of Jastev boom in his mind. :I Choose-Bright Havens, certainly not you! You've got a Companion!:

Vess lost his fine grip on upward mobility. He fell over and landed in a sprawl on the grass-bowled over not only by the fact that another Companion had just spoken to him, but had done so in order to tell a joke.

:He's got quite a sense of humor, doesn't he?: Kestric said dryly in Vess' mind. From the overgrown trail that led to Starhaven, the Companion galloped into view, slowing to a trot as he came up to Vess and stood before him.

'He's a bloody sadist,' Vess gasped-and then the surprise faded, and he realized what was going unsaid. 'Has Nadja-did she finally-?'

:Right after you left. I didn't want to tell you, but-yes. Peacefully, in her sleep.: Vess nodded, tears building up in his eyes and trickling down his cheeks.

:Poor Chosen. You've been through so much. Are you going to be all right?: