before me, Gaelen, but first I must spend some time with Maeg and Donal. Then I will meet Astole again.”
“I am returning with the Queen,” said Gaelen. “Lennox, Onic, and Gwalchmai are coming with me.”
“I know. We will meet again.”
“Tell me, Caswallon, are you truly content?”
“More content than any mortal man has any right to be.”
“Then I am glad for you.”
“And I for you. You have a fine woman in Lara, and I know she will give you beautiful children. I wish for you a life enriched with love, for you deserve it.”
“I shall miss the Farlain. Will I be able to return someday?”
“Ask me when next you see me.”
“I must go. The Queen is waiting,” said Gaelen.
Caswallon rose and walked around the table. “Walk always in the Light,” he told Gaelen.
Caswallon watched the clansman leave and his heart ached. He had seen pity in Gaelen’s eyes and knew the bond between them would never be the same. For to Gaelen, Caswallon was no longer a clansman. He had put aside his sword.
What could he have told Gaelen to make him realize? Should he have explained about the man in the desert?
Caswallon grinned wryly and filled his goblet. Tell him about a man who allowed himself to be dragged through a city and murdered by the people he loved? Oh, yes, that would have impressed him. He finished his wine and turned to the black screen before him. Lifting the control box he tuned the image, watching Sigarni, Gaelen, and his friends crossing the Gates of Time.
He felt a cold breeze on his back and turned to see Maeg standing in the doorway hugging a woolen shawl about her shoulders. She seemed so distant, so withdrawn. Caswallon swallowed hard, a sense of despair gripping him.
“You must be getting old, Caswallon,” she said, “allowing yourself to be surprised by a woman.”
“Surprise, is it? When I heard the footsteps I felt it had to be a mountain troll come to life.”
She grinned at him then. “My feet are not so large. But even if they were I think I’d sooner have that than vast areas of my head losing hair.”
“Did no one ever teach you to respect your elders, woman?”
“Is it respect you want?” she asked, moving closer.
He opened his arms and held her close. “Do you still love me, Maeg?”
“I love you, clansman. Above all things. And you’re a fool to believe otherwise. Now tell me what happened to you.”
For an hour or more they sat together until he had emptied himself of words. At last she led him from the chamber to walk under the stars above Vallon.
Epilogue
Agwaine ruled the Farlain for twenty-seven years, having first led his warriors in the sack of Aesgard. The city was razed to the ground and all its inhabitants put to the sword. Thereafter peace came to the mountains.
Deva lived in Agwaine’s house for seven years, refusing all offers of marriage, her eyes constantly on the horizon-waiting for the man who would be king. One bright day in summer she was brushing her hair when she saw, in the mirror, the first grey hairs appearing at her temple. No suitor had approached her for two years now. Fear touched her and she went in search of Caswallon. She found him sitting in the sunlight in the garden behind his house, tending his roses.
Caswallon welcomed her, offering her a cup of honey mead, and she sat beside him on a long, carved bench. “What is troubling you, Deva?” he asked.
“The prophecy hasn’t come true, and if I wait much longer I shall be unable to bear children. Why hasn’t he come, Caswallon?”
“Wait? Not so fast. What prophecy?”
“When I was born, a tinker woman told me I would be the mother of kings. Taliesen told me it was true. But where is this prince who will ask to wed me?”
“Wait here,” he said, and walked slowly into the house. Deva sat in the sunshine for almost an hour, and was still there when the young Donal came walking in from the hills with the faithful hound Render beside him. Caswallon returned as the sun was setting. “I am sorry to have kept you so long, my dear,” he said. “Come, I have something to show you.”
Leading her into the house, he took a silvered mirror and placed it in her lap. “Look closely at the glass and you will see the prophecy.” Holding it up to her face she looked into her own reflection, seeing the fine lines that were appearing around her eyes. The image faded, and she found herself looking down upon the scene in the front room of the old house. Cambil was holding a babe in his arms. An old woman was sitting on the rug before the young Hunt Lord.
The woman’s voice came whispering into Deva’s mind. “She will see the great and the strong, Hunt Lord. And a future ruler will ask for her hand. If she weds him, she will be the mother of kings.”
The image faded. “I don’t understand,” said Deva. “That was my prophecy. So where is this king I have waited for so long?”
Caswallon took the mirror from her hands, then he sat beside her. “He asked for your hand, Deva, and you refused him.”
“No!” she stormed. “There has been no prince!”
“The Queen who saved us named him as her heir and he will become king. He is a warrior and a great leader-and he loved you once.”
“Gaelen,” she whispered. “He is to be king?”
“Yes. I am only sorry you did not come to me before this.”
Deva stood on trembling legs, then ran from the house. A year later she married a widower and raised three sons and a daughter.
Lennox returned twice to the Highlands, once for the funeral of his father Leofas, who died twelve years after Icairn’s Folly, and once to bring Gwalchmai home after an Outland spear cut him down at the siege of Culceister. Gwalchmai had asked to be buried above Attafoss.
Gaelen never returned. On the death of Obrin he took over as captain of the Lancers and became known as the Queen’s Champion. He and Lara lived contentedly, raising two sons and three daughters.
The clansmen served the Queen for thirty years. In the fortieth year of her reign Sigarni was called to battle by Morgase and the last great Outland army. The battle was fierce and close-run, but as always, Sigarni won the victory, leading a last charge against the shield wall. Morgase took poison rather than be captured.
The Queen’s wounds were grievous. Gaelen helped her from the field and in the last fading light of the dying sun carried her up the slopes beyond Citadel to the Chalice Cave-and beyond! There a young druid took charge of the Queen and Gaelen watched him half carry her toward a mountain cave.
Returning through the Great Gate, the aging warrior removed his helm and scratched at his thinning grey hair. Idly he rubbed the ancient scar above his eye.
Beyond the Gate four boys were preparing for their first Hunt. The sun was a globe of gold and the future full of promise. At that moment there was no beast, no danger, and the Aenir were a distant threat.
Gaelen turned back to stare down into the valley where the campfires blazed and the cairn was nearing completion. Below lay the bodies of the fallen, Highlander and Outlander together in death. Among them were Onic and Lennox. The giant had died swinging his massive club of iron and lead as the enemy swarmed forward. Onic had fallen beside him.
Now only Gaelen was left. “Farewell, my Queen,” he whispered.
A shadow moved to his right. He turned and there was Caswallon, leaning on his staff of oak, his robes of velvet shimmering in the moonlight.
“And so it ends,” said Caswallon, his wispy white beard swirling in the breeze like wood smoke.
