"He didn't tell you? Come to think of it, he didn't exactly tell me either. I was tidying up, about to go to bed, when I found him in here loading food into a bag. Said he was leaving ... that something had come up. The least he could have done was say good-bye!"
Randolph's indignation suddenly faded as he looked at the good side of the news. "This might work out pretty well. I'll be able to get things organized around here without having to fight him every step of?
Randolph froze, a dull suspicion growing rapidly within him. Why had the lord left so suddenly and secretly? He had enjoyed his post here as temporary co-ruler, judging from the way he sat in the Great Hall, lording over everyone, staring covetously at the Crown of the Isles.
"Well, goodness!" declared Gretta, picking up the chair Randolph knocked over as he leaped from the table and burst through the door into the Great Hall.
She found him staring in slack-jawed shock at the mantle over the huge fireplace. She looked, too, for a moment not understanding his concern. Then she realized the difference and gasped at Pontswain's treachery.
The Crown of the Isles was gone!
Chauntea listened for the prayers of the one who wore her medallion, but they were not forthcoming. The druid still clung to the belief in her benign, but inescapably perished, goddess.
Awaken! Heed my warning! Chauntea tried to communicate with the woman, tried to tell her of the power she held in her Rose-in-Sun medallion, but Robyn of Gwynneth did not hear.
The goddess of farming and growth sensed another menace, the powerful presence of evil, near the medallion itself. It was a lurking, potent vileness, but well concealed. Even
2.78
DARKWELL
the druid did not suspect it.
Each of the scrolls, with the casting of their powerful spells, had brought the woman a little closer to this new goddess, but she had resisted the final steps, the decision of faith that could make her a powerful cleric of Chauntea.
But until the human made that decision, the deity would have to watch and wait.
And perhaps pray.
2.79
TEMPEST OF ICE AND FIRE
Storm winds howled through the night, and the snow raged across the lands in a blizzard of fury. The companions twisted and turned, sleeping little, brushing the snow from their furs to keep from being buried. Dawn brought no relief as the gray light seeped through the gale, illuminating a scene of shifting snowdrifts and frost.
Robyn pushed back the fur that covered her and felt the chill air against her face. Tristan stirred beside her, and she pulled close to him, reluctant to leave her principal source of warmth.
She felt the return of the dark despair she had known the previous evening. Genna's arrival had temporarily managed to raise the young druid's hopes, restoring her faith in the might of the great mother. She had prayed to the goddess for much of the night, concentrating intensely, desperately hoping for some kind of response. But there had been nothing.
Instead, her mind had whirled with visions of the redhaired vixen sprawled across Tristan's bed. The woman's musical laugh mocked her own pain and anger, and nightmare visions of despair and doom suddenly overwhelmed the druid's face. Robyn had twisted and turned in torment, wishing for the blissful protection of sleep.
All the while, she had known that the comfort of Tristan's warm embrace was right beside her, should she but choose to accept it. But all she could feel for him was hurt and betrayal, and so she turned away and huddled against the chill and didn't sleep.
DARKWELL
Now the icy wind swirled about her, and stinging particles of snow chilled her skin every time they touched her face. She sat up and pulled her own cloak about her, though it did not insulate against the cold as well as the thick furs of the Llewyrr. Startled, Robyn saw Genna sitting alone in the blizzard, apparently unaffected by the cold.
"Didn't you sleep?" asked the young druid.
Her teacher shrugged. "A little. It seems time we were moving."
"Tb the well?" Genna made no response, and Robyn proceeded to tell her in more detail about the scrolls and her plan for freeing the druids from stone. She felt a moment of guilt, wondering if her teacher would berate her for using the scripts of one of the new gods, but Genna didn't appear to notice.
"We shall go the grove," said the Great Druid. "If this scroll will free the others, so be it, but we must be in the grove to face the . . . conclusion."
"Do you have enough power to control this storm, to ease our path?" asked Robyn, knowing that the Great Druid had often influenced the weather in the past, bringing rainfall to a parched valley or warming away the effects of a killing frost.
Genna looked at her in surprise, then rose and walked through the deep snow, away from the party. She was nearly out of sight in the swirling blizzard when Robyn saw her stop and raise her head to the sky. She spread her arms to her sides in the pose the younger druid had seen her use so often before when casting a potent spell.
Suddenly a searing blast of heat struck Robyn's face, and she instinctively slapped her hands over her eyes. A warmth like the inside of an oven surrounded her, and she felt the wind die away in that same instant. The snow on her cloak turned rapidly to water, and a fine drizzle began to fall from the trees, where the accumulated snow of the blizzard quickly melted.
"What梬hat happened?" Tristan stuck his head from beneath the fur, gasping for breath in the heat.
One by one, the others emerged from their sleeping shel-
281
DOUGLAS NILES
ters. "Am I dreaming?" lavish demanded when confronted by the oppressive heat.
"It's a miracle!" Newt cried, buzzing happily among the trees. "Genna made it summertime again!"
"I don't remember any summer as warm as this!" Pawldo groaned, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Too hot!" grunted Yak.
Robyn stood amazed at this evidence of the Great Druid's vitality, and thus obviously the goddess's as well. The control weather spell that Robyn remembered had always changed the weather only to a degree, bringing rain from heavy clouds or slowing gale winds to a strong breeze. Yet here Genna had altered their entire environment from one extreme to the other.
Indeed, steam rose from the rapidly melting snow all around them. Genna returned to the group and stood calmly as they gathered their wet belongings. She offered no reaction to the continuing stream of remarks about the sudden dramatic change in weather.
"How is it that you can work such strong magic?" Robyn inquired wonderingly.
"Perhaps it is augmented by the changes in the vale. You see that my magic still works; that should be enough. Let's go now. It is time we were off."
Genna, Robyn, and the three sisters led the way as the companions broke camp and started back toward the fissure that blocked their way. Their camp, by now, had been reduced to a steamy patch of mud. All the snow had melted, pooling into water that soaked quickly into the barren ground.
"I don't know why I bothered making these!" Pawldo disgustedly threw his skis across his shoulder and started walking behind Tristan.
"Psst! Hey, Tristan!" Newt, in obvious agitation, popped into sight beside the king. His voice was an exaggerated whisper that certainly wouldn't carry more than a few hundred feet.
"What is it?"
"It's Genna. Something's different about her! I don't like
282
DARK WELL
this one bit. You've got to tell Robyn!"
"What's different?" Tristan had never met the Great Druid before, but he had heard her described many times by Robyn. The young woman had portrayed her teacher as a warm, caring, and tender woman. "I had pictured somebody rather unlike her, I have to admit."
"I don't know what's different about her! I just know she's different. She's ... wrong" somehow, and we've got to warn Robyn!"
"I'll try to find a chance to. In the meantime, let's keep an eye on her. I'm sure Robyn would notice if something was really wrong."
Robyn marched steadily behind her teacher, who in turn followed Brigit, Colleen, and Maura. They walked silently, and the young druid felt the presence of Genna pushing the others along. The Great Druid seemed anxious to reach the well.
And indeed, why shouldn't she feel a powerful urgency? Had not Robyn herself been propelled by a similar urgency and tried to move her friends with the same compulsion? But still, the strange behavior of the Great Druid concerned her.
Then she thought of a possible explanation. She remembered the appearance of the druid Trahern at the grove some months earlier. He had borne with him an artifact of great evil, the Heart of Kazgoroth. The presence of that artifact in the grove had caused Genna's health to suffer and had altered the Great Druid's temperament to one of irascibility and anger.
Certainly she must be suffering even more from the total devastation and desecration of the vale. If the presence of a simple artifact had altered her personality, then it seemed quite logical that the destruction of all she considered sacred and holy would have an even greater effect.
But the power of this spell! Here, at least, was proof that Genna's faith sustained her, for only the imminent presence of a mighty deity could cause such a change in the natural order. The goddess must be alive!
Robyn noticed that their course took them across ground
283
DOUGLAS Nu
that was again covered with deep snow, though it was rapidly melting. Behind them swirled a bluster of wet fog as cold air rolled across a patch of suddenly wanned ground. The magic, Robyn saw, created a bubble of warmth around them梐round Genna, actually. It moved as she moved, and vanished as she left.
Soon the fissure yawned before them, and they turned to the east, following the edge of the crevasse in hopes of finding its end. They marched in silence. Tristan felt as though they walked through another world, a strange place of warm snow and ever-present death.
Suddenly the Great Druid halted. Robyn noticed that the fissure had narrowed to perhaps thirty feet in width, although farther along it soon widened again to the impassable barrier they had skirted for so long.
Tristan came up behind them. "What is it?"
"I don't know." Robyn turned to Genna. "Why did you stop here?"
"Be silent." The Great Druid held up her hand, an expression of intense concentration on her face. Robyn thought she saw something frightening in that look, but in another moment, Genna spoke. "We can cross here."
"How?" Tristan looked at the gap, its bottom lost somewhere in the depths, obscured by writhing gases.
"Wait here." Genna walked away from the group, continuing along the lip of the crevasse until she was nearly out of sight. Robyn could barely see her through the many tree trunks as the Great Druid turned toward the north and raised her arms.
Tristan stepped to Robyn's side and lowered his voice as the Great Druid stepped away from them. "Are you sure this is the same Genna Moonsinger you knew before?" he asked softly.
"Of course! Don't you think I'd recognize her?"
"Newt's worried. He told me he thinks she's changed somehow."
Robyn quickly explained her hypothesis explaining her teacher's cold nature. "Surely she's suffered enough! The least we can do is offer her our trust and support!"
294
DARKWELL
The king persisted. "We have to be careful, that's all. We don't know what we're?
"She doesn't need me to betray her now!" Robyn whirled on the king, her face growing white, her voice an intense whisper. "My doubts have already weakened my own faith! Don't ask me to challenge hers!"
Meanwhile, Genna chanted the words to her spell, ignoring the rest of the party. They watched expectantly, fearful and anxious about the result.
Suddenly the earth began to tremble, and two huge oaks toppled into the crevasse, their dead limbs straining skyward like fingers desperate to arrest the fall. Tristan seized Robyn's arm and pulled her back from the edge of the fissure. For a moment, he thought Genna had precipitated an earthquake that would dump them all to their doom, but the temblor eased quickly, except in the area directly before Genna Moonsinger.
The king watched in awe as the ground there twisted and bulged into an odd, misshapen mound of earth. The blob oozed slowly upward into a great pillar of soft mud. The pile loomed high over the druid's head, growing into a solid column of dirt.
An unnatural groaning rumbled through the air. The column shook and trembled as armlike appendages ripped themselves outward from the sides. Then one massive foot stepped free of the crater around it, and another leg pushed upward, twisting and stretching slowly as does a body kept too long in one position. When it was completely formed, it began to lumber toward the companions.
" What... is... it?" gasped Tavish. Yak growled in superstitious fear, brandishing the great club he carried.
"Wait! It's an elemental梐n earth elemental." Robyn's voice was hushed. "Though I have never seen one so large or misshapen!"
The thing towered over the druid, more than twice the size of a large firbolg. Though it had humanlike limbs, at least in terms of their location, it bore little resemblance to any living creature. Its 'face' was a mass of clumpy dirt, marred by roots and sticks that emerged from it in all direc-
285
DOUGLAS NILES
tions. Likewise its body and timbs were earthen, and pieces of it dropped away with each lumbering footstep. Each of its tegs was as broad as a massive tree trunk.
The elemental stumbled like a hunchbacked giant as it approached, and the companions instinctively backed away. Meanwhile, Genna ignored them, walking briskly to the edge of the fissure. Then she gestured to the huge mass of earth, and slowly it returned to her side and bent over the chasm.
Tristan and Robyn watched in silent amazement as the monster leaned far over the lip, until slowly it toppled forward. With surprising alacrity, it reached out with its massive clublike hands and caught the other side of the fissure. finally it lay still, like a gigantic log stretching across the width of the gap.
"We can cross here." Genna gestured impatiently toward the elemental.
