Night falls
When the news that the servants of the Prince had been sighted nearby reached the camp of the kings, there was of course much consternation. This same morning, groups of soldiers had been sent out to map the area, and they believed they had a fairly clear grasp of the village and the travellers, but apparently the enemy was very close. Had the company been followed? New patrols were sent out, but the Principalists were nowhere to be found.
But as night fell on Whitesbarrow and its surroundings, much other strangeness proved to be at large...
Orm son of Loki, guardsman of King Karl: We were out on a patrol and came upon a rich-looking man lying unconscious on the path. From the spot something human-like was running into the woods, and the four of us ran after the bandit. He disappeared... but suddenly I was eye to eye with him, and he told me to return if I treasured my life. Of course I tried to catch him, but he kept running until he suddenly turned around and stared into my eyes. I fell as though I was about to fall into those eyes, they disappeared like tunnels to infinity. Next thing I knew, I awoke on the ground, but I don't remember things clearly until I was back in the camp. My comrades tell me I kept raving about monsters in the woods all the way home, saying that the robber did not wear a black cloak, and I kept saying I was well - which they could plainly tell I wasn't. All I remember is it was hard to breathe, but one of the Elves gave me a potion to recover.
What the unlucky guardsman met was probably one of the creatures of the night that had gathered at the Woodland Court. There were more of the Faerie about tonight, and some of them were out on more serious errands. The Mountain-Queen and her retinue were out searching for the lost Mountain-King. Upon the high ridge between the village and King White's Road (at which the royal company had camped) they found what they had dreaded to find: the Heart of the Mountain.
A Faerie Lord such as the Mountain-King could discharge all his power at once to achieve a great feat, but this was very risky and if things went wrong he might be utterly destroyed. If this should happen, his powers would be gathered in an object. The Heart of the Mountain was such an object, a huge emerald rock glowing with the power of the Flow. There was now no doubt: the Mountain-King was dead. The gnomes' cries of mourning echoed all over the woods.
Eldest
On the same night, in another part of the wood, the one called Eldest had returned to the Flock of the Lynx and preached his new teachings - or, as he himself claimed, the original ones. We'll illustrate this by examining one of the great legends of the Wild Folk: the Tale of Shadowheart and Shadowbane.
Eldest now claimed that this was wholly mistaken; instead of shutting the evil Shadowheart out of the world with the Chains, the rites were holding him trapped inside the world. The chains had to be opened to allow the Shadow to leave forever. And the Wild Folk had been lured into a new slavery under the capricious Fair Spirit - the Faerie - a slavery that must end if they were to regain their former paradise. They had to stop revering and making sacrifices to the spirits of the wood, as was their custom since centuries.Once long ago, when the mothers of our fathers' fathers' fathers were not yet born, we toiled in slavery under Shadowheart. Long, hard and joyless were our days. We had not yet met our Mother, the Sun. But she knew us, and what mother can bear to see her children live in slavery?
Into the world came Shadowbane, a great warrior from the plains of the north. The power of the Mother was with him, and upon the Black Rock he faced Shadowheart. Long and hard was the struggle, and great was the power of Shadowheart. Too great. The power of the Mother faltered, and the Land of the Dead called out for Shadowbane. For the first time, one of the Fair Spirits came to our aid, and Shadowbane no longer heard the call of death. Far from the Black Rock Shadowbane rested, until the Spirit gave him its full power and let him take up the struggle anew. Realising that Shadowheart could not be slain, Shadowbane now sought a way to bind him, thus to free us from slavery. Mother Sun appeared to him, radiant in light, and she held in her hand a chain of purest water.
"My first son," she said, "with this you can fetter Shadowheart, if your mind is still pure."
Shadowbane realised that the right way was to use cunning, not violence. With the aid of the Bane of Elves and the power of the Fair Spirit, he hid the chain of water in a cup and offered it to his enemy. Shadowheart saw the shining cup and he was filled with the desire to devour its light, the way he had swallowed up most of the light in the world, and he drank. At this moment, the chain locked around his neck, and he was fettered - betrayed by his own will. And we were freed.
Now, to keep the Shadow from ever again escaping to enslave us, we travel every year to the Chains, and we do our rites as we always have, to strengthen them and keep them firm.
Eldest left the Flock to consider his words and disappeared into the night.
Dark dealings at Long Lake
Not long thereafter, under cover of the night, the village carpenter Jon and his wife Elina left their cottage in Whitebarrow and crept off to the northern beach of Long Lake. There they were welcomed by a third night wanderer, the apparently cheerful and good-natured Fisherman Tore. Tore had in fact, since he came to the area some time ago, been secretly teaching the carpenter couple strange magics. He had told them that by the right ceremonies, one could mine great powers from earth and blood and bind it to one's own will, and leave all thoughts of the Laws of Light behind. With this power, anyone might be their own god. The carpenter, who had been getting into dark magic even before the arrival of Tore, and his subdued wife had swiftly followed in their mentor's footsteps. Unfortunately, traces of their previous gathering had been discovered and they had to lie low. The ritual they were now performing was meant to initiate the place, to prepare it for a greater ceremony the next night. The village witches were not told more, and after the brief ceremony they stole back home.
Jon the Carpenter (on the left)
Elina, his wife
Fisherman Tore stayed alone in the clearing. But he did not remain alone for long. From the shadows dark shapes appeared, one after the other. Among them were the two black knights who had terrified the villages; they were of the Doomguard, the bodyguard of the Prince. The Doomguards, black-clad scouts and red-cloaked initiates now all came forth and kneeled before Fisherman Tore... alias Eldest... alias Nestor, the right-hand man of Lord Gholan the Ungodly.
The bad guys pose for the family album...
Coming up next: Part III - Debates and despair
