'And Hen Wen…'
'She hasn't stirred from this chamber ever since they brought you here,' said Eilonwy. 'Neither have I,' she added, with a glance at Taran. 'She's a very intelligent pig,' Eilonwy went on. 'Oh, she does get frightened and loses her head once in a while, I suppose. And she can be very stubborn when she wants, which sometimes makes me wonder how much difference there is between pigs and the people who keep them. I'm not mentioning anyone in particular, you understand.'
The door opposite Taran's couch opened part way. Around it appeared the spiky yellow head and pointed nose of Fflewddur Fflam.
'So you're back with us,' cried the bard. 'Or, as you might say, we're back with you!'
Gurgi and the dwarf, who had been standing behind the bard, now rushed in; despite Eilonwy's protests, they crowded around Taran. Fflewddur and Doli showed no sign of injury, but Gurgi's head was bound up and he moved with a limp.
'Yes! Yes!' he cried. 'Gurgi fought for his friend with slashings and gashings! What smitings! Fierce warriors strike him about his poor tender head, but valiant Gurgi does not flee, oh, no!'
Taran smiled at him, deeply touched. 'I'm sorry about your poor tender head,' he said, putting a hand on Gurgi's shoulder, 'and that a friend should be wounded for my sake.'
'What joy! What clashings and smashings! Ferocious Gurgi fills wicked warriors with awful terror and outcries.'
'It's true,' said the bard. 'He was the bravest of us all. Though my stumpy friend here can do surprising things with an axe.'
Doli, for the first time, grinned. 'Never thought any of you had any mettle to show,' he said, attempting to be gruff. 'Took you all for milksops at first. Deepest apologies,' he added, with a bow.
'We held off the war band,' Fflewddur said, 'until we were sure you were well away. Some of them should have occasion to think unkindly of us for a while to come.' The bard's face lit up. 'There we were,' he cried, 'fighting like madmen, hopelessly outnumbered. But a Fflam never surrenders! I took on three at once. Slash! Thrust! Another seized me from behind, the wretched coward. But I flung him off. We disengaged them and made for Caer Dathyl, chopping and hacking all the way, beset on all sides…'
Taran expected Fflewddur's harp strings to sunder at any moment. To his surprise, they held firm.
'And so,' Fflewddur concluded with a carefree shrug, 'that was our part. Rather easy, when you come down to it; I had no fear of things going badly, not for an instant.'
A string broke with a deep twang.
Fflewddur bent down to Taran. 'Terrified,' he whispered. 'Absolutely green.'
Eilonwy seized the bard and thrust him toward the door. 'Begone!' she cried, 'all of you! You'll wear him out with your chatter.' The girl shoved Gurgi and the dwarf after Fflewddur. 'And stay out! No one's to come in until I say they can.'
'Not even I?'
Taran started up at the familiar voice. Gwydion stood in the doorway.
For a moment Taran did not recognize him. Instead of the stained cloak and coarse jacket, Gwydion wore the shining raiment of a prince. His rich mantle hung in deep folds. On a chain at his throat gleamed a sun-shaped disk of gold. His green eyes shone with new depth and power. Taran saw him now as he had always imagined him.
Heedless of his wounded arm, Taran sprang from the couch. The tall figure strode toward him. The authority of the warrior's bearing made Taran drop to one knee. 'Lord Gwydion,' he murmured.
'That is no greeting from a friend to a friend,' said Gwydion, gently raising Taran to his feet. 'It gives me more pleasure to remember an Assistant Pig-Keeper who feared I would poison him in the forest near Caer Dallben.'
'After Spiral Castle,' Taran stammered, 'I never thought to see you alive.' He clasped Gwydion's hand and wept unashamedly.
'A little more alive than you are.' Gwydion smiled. He helped Taran seat himself on the couch.
'But how did…' Taran began, as he noticed a black and battered weapon at Gwydion's side.
Gwydion saw the question on Taran's face. 'A gift,' he said, 'a royal gift from a young lady.'
'I girded it on him myself,' Eilonwy interrupted. She turned to Gwydion. 'I told him not to draw it, but he's impossibly stubborn.'
'Fortunately you did not unsheath it entirely,' Gwydion said to Taran. 'I fear the flame of Dyrnwyn would have been too great even for an Assistant Pig-Keeper.
'It is a weapon of power, as Eilonwy recognized,'' Gwydion added. 'So ancient that I believed it no more than a legend. There are still deep secrets concerning Dyrnwyn, unknown even to the wisest. Its loss destroyed Spiral Castle and was a severe blow to Arawn.'
With a single, firm gesture, Gwydion drew the blade and held it aloft. The weapon glittered blindingly. In fear and wonder, Taran shrank back, his wound throbbing anew. Gwydion quickly returned the blade to its scabbard.
'As soon as I saw Lord Gwydion,' Eilonwy put in, with an admiring glance at him, 'I knew he was the one who should keep the sword. I must say I'm glad to have done with the clumsy thing.'
'Do stop interrupting,' Taran cried. 'Let me find out what happened to my friend before you start babbling.'
'I shall not weary you with a long tale,' Gwydion said. 'You already know Arawn's threat has been turned aside. He may strike again, how or when no man can guess. But for the moment there is little to fear.'
'What of Achren?' Taran asked. 'And Spiral Castle…'
'I was not in Spiral Castle when it crumbled,' Gwydion said. 'Achren took me from my cell and bound me to a horse. With the Cauldron-Born, we rode to the castle of Oeth-Anoeth.'
'Oeth-Anoeth?' questioned Taran.
'It is a stronghold of Annuvin,' Gwydion said, 'not far from Spiral Castle, raised when Arawn held wider sway over Prydain. A place of death, its walls are filled with human bones. I could foresee the torments Achren had planned for me.
'Yet, before she thrust me into its dungeons, she gripped my arm. 'Why do you choose death, Lord Gwydion?' she cried, 'when I can offer you eternal life and power beyond the grasp of mortal minds?'
''I ruled Prydain long before Arawn,' Achren told me, 'and it was I who made him king over Annuvin. It was I who gave him power? though he used it to betray me. But now, if you desire it, you shall take your place on the high throne of Arawn himself and rule in his stead.'
''Gladly will I overthrow Arawn,' I answered. 'And I will use those powers to destroy you along with him.''
'Raging, she cast me into the lowest dungeon,' Gwydion said. 'I have never been closer to my death than in Oeth Anoeth.
'How long I lay there, I cannot be sure,' Gwydion continued. 'In Oeth-Anoeth, time is not as you know it here. It is better that I do not speak of the torments Achren had devised. The worst were not of the body but of the spirit, and of these the most painful was despair. Yet, even in my deepest anguish, I clung to hope. For there is this about Oeth-Anoeth: if a man withstand it, even death will give up its secrets to him.
'I withstood it,' Gwydion said quietly, 'and at the end much was revealed to me which before had been clouded. Of this, too, I shall not speak. It is enough for you to know that I understood the workings of life and death, of laughter and tears, endings and beginnings. I saw the truth of the world, and knew no chains could hold me. My bonds were light as dreams. At that moment, the walls of my prison melted.'
'What became of Achren?' Eilonwy asked.
'I do not know,' Gwydion said. 'I did not see her thereafter. For some days I lay concealed in the forest, to heal the injuries of my body. Spiral Castle was in ruins when I returned to seek you; and there I mourned your death.'
'As we mourned yours,' Taran said.
'I set out for Caer Dathyl again,' Gwydion continued. 'For a time I followed the same path Fflewddur chose for you, though I did not cross the valley until much later. By then, I had outdistanced you a little.
'That day, a gwythaint plunged from the sky and flew directly toward me. To my surprise, it neither attacked nor sped away after it had seen me, but fluttered before me, crying strangely. The gwythaint's language is no longer secret to me? nor is the speech of any living creature? and I understood a band of travelers was journeying
