Tavis allowed himself to be stopped, then took a deep breath and addressed the guards. “I didn’t realize what your orders were. Please carry on-and I’m sorry for my reaction.”
“No offense taken, milord,” said the sergeant. “If my wife ordered a guard on me, I’d be… er… surprised, too.”
In spite of his words, the soldier did not remove his hand from his sword hilt, and neither did the guards with him.
Tavis retreated to the ice-capped merlon where Basil was already kneeling on the roof, using a small runebrush to trace a circle around their feet. Though the tip had not been dipped in paint or ink, a sparkling green pigment flowed from beneath the bristles. When the runecaster finished drawing the boundary, he slowly and carefully traced a complicated tangle of sticklike lines in the heart of the ring.
The rooftop fell instantly silent. Tavis could see the soldiers a few paces away, shifting uneasily and discussing the spell among themselves, but he could not hear them.
“As long as we don’t break the circle, they won’t hear our words.” Basil tucked the runebrush back into his cloak. “Now, I suppose you’d better tell me exactly what happened in the Gorge of the Silver Wyrm.”
“I’m not sure I know-exactly.” Tavis rested his elbows on the icy merlon and looked out over the darkening plain.
Despite the deepening shadows, the giant-kin were still at work. Firbolg sawyers were dragging logs across the snowy plain to verbeeg carpenters, who were busy lashing the timbers into huge siege machines. Even the fomorians were helping, skinning hundreds of deer, elk, and moose for the hides that would defend their towers against flaming arrows.
“Tavis, you’re behaving like a human,” Basil observed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were ashamed of something.”
“Not ashamed, but I should have handled things better,” Tavis admitted. “We were only five leagues from the Silver Citadel when the trouble started…”
The high scout recounted everything that had happened the previous day, from the onset of the fire giant attack through the arrival of the queen’s party at Wynn Castle, when Brianna had locked herself in Wynn Keep and ordered Tavis to remain in the outer bailey. By the time his story was done, twilight had fallen completely. The ’kin out on the plain were no more than shadows moving in the moonlike glow of the snow.
“I don’t blame Brianna for being upset about K-Kae-er, her son,” Tavis concluded. “So am I, but what can I do? I saw what I saw, and I can’t claim that child as my own. Brianna has no right to be angry with me.”
Basil slapped his brow. “Firbolgs! The problem is Galgadayle, you oaf!”
Tavis frowned. “The seer?”
“Why you had to spare him is beyond me, but to tell Brianna what you did was madness!” The verbeeg shook his head. “No wonder she doesn’t trust us. You’ve certainly ruined any chance that she’ll believe what I have to say. We’ll be lucky if she doesn’t execute us both, much less grant me an audience.”
“Why should she execute us?” Tavis was genuinely confused. “I did what was right.”
“ ‘Right’ is a relative thing,” Basil countered. “I don’t see how saving the person who convinced three tribes of giant-kin to murder your wife’s baby is right-and more importantly, neither does Brianna.”
“But the law-”
“Your wife is the law,” Basil said. “And in her eyes, you’ve sided with your own race against her.”
“But it makes no difference that the child isn’t mine! I haven’t abandoned my oath!”
“Haven’t you?” Basil asked. “Then you believe Galgadayle was lying? Or perhaps you’re willing to sacrifice the northlands to the giants?”
Tavis slammed his fist on the merlon, shattering the ice cap and sending a silvery cascade of shards clattering down the tower wall. He watched the fragments disappear into the snow drifts atop the frozen moat, then shook his head.
“You know as well as I that Galgadayle can’t lie,” Tavis said. “But maybe he’s mistaken. He was wrong about the twins.”
“Not really. If humans see the face of your child, and firbolgs see the face of the imposter, then perhaps she did bear twins,” Basil said. “And that makes your decision even more difficult.”
The runecaster did not have to clarify what he meant. If both children had been born in the same body, then the imposter’s spawn could not be destroyed without killing Tavis’s son as well. A queasy feeling filled the high scout’s stomach. He was torn between two intolerable prospects: allowing the ettin’s offspring to mature and lead the giants against the northlands, or helping the ’kin murder his own child.
Tavis’s oath as lord high scout allowed only one choice. He had promised to protect Brianna’s kingdom and defend her person against Hartsvale’s enemies, even if it meant taking her life to prevent them from capturing her. If Basil was right, the only way he could keep his vow was to slay not the queen, but her child-and his child as well.
Tavis’s hands started to tremble, then his knees grew weak and he had to brace himself on the icy merlon. He was beginning to understand why Brianna did not want him near her baby.
“If that child truly looks like me to Brianna, I can’t imagine how she feels.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Tavis looked into his friend’s ancient eyes. “Basil, we must find out exactly who K-Kaedlaw is,” he said. “And I’m afraid the burden must lie with you.”
“Why?”
“Because Brianna’s not going to let me anywhere near that baby, and I don’t blame her,” Tavis replied. “Besides, we already know what I see. Maybe your vision will prove truer than mine, especially with the aid of your runes.”
“At the moment, I suspect the queen would not look kindly upon me-or any giant-kin-painting runes on her child’s forehead,” Basil replied. “Besides, Kaedlaw’s parentage is hardly important.”
“Of course it is!” Tavis growled. “There’s more at stake here than my pride-much more.”
Basil shook his gaunt head. “That’s what I came to tell you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if Galgadayle’s dream is right.”
“How can that be?”
The verbeeg twisted his thick lips into a cunning smile. “Because we have the power to prevent the prophecy from coming true-and it wouldn’t matter if Kaedlaw’s father was Memnor himself!”
Tavis grimaced. “Are you saying what I think?”
Basil’s eyes twinkled like stars in the purple twilight sky. “I found Annam’s axe,” the verbeeg confirmed. “I know where Sky Cleaver is, and you can recover it.”
Tavis backed away. He would have stepped outside Basil’s rune circle had the verbeeg not stopped him.
“You know what I think of this,” Tavis said. “Mortals were not meant to wield such weapons.”
Basil’s grin only widened. “I know,” he said. “The giants will have no choice except to bow to you. As for Galgadayle and the ’kin armies-well, they can join us, or fall beneath our might.”
Tavis shook his head, more in disbelief than opposition. “Basil, listen to yourself! You don’t even have the axe, and already you’re talking as though you rule the world.”
The verbeeg nodded. “I know,” he said. “That’s why I mustn’t be the one. But your heart is pure, Tavis. You can wield the axe for all of us.”
“My heart may not be as pure as you think,” Tavis replied. He would never be able to look at Kaedlaw without feeling a very private anger. “And even if I were as pure and noble as you believe, what happens to the weapon when I die?”
Basil rolled his eyes. “Tavis, you aren’t going to die for a long time-not with Sky Cleaver in your hand!”
“Everyone dies sooner or later, Basil,” Tavis said. “But a weapon like that endures forever. Even if I have the strength to control it, the next owner may not-and I won’t be responsible for what happens to the world then.”
“So, put it back before you die!” Basil snapped. “But Sky Cleaver would give you the power to keep your oath to Brianna. You must wield it-or break your word.”
The verbeeg folded his arms across his chest and stared down his cob nose.
“That might be so-if I could control the axe,” Tavis said. “But you’re hardly power-mad, Basil, and the mere thought of Sky Cleaver fills your head with visions of conquering giants and forcing the ’kin tribes to bow at our feet. How can I hope to resist the weapon’s lure when I actually hold it in my hands?”
