Free The Return of Kavin by David Mason Page A

other things should not be told.”
    “Now, there’s wisdom,” Hugon said.
    Thuramon paused a moment, then went on. “Kavin… returned, as the tale has it. But Kavin… not another Kavin, understand, the same Kavin… slept, gripped in the sorcery of the creature called Ess. A third Kavin, too, had once passed through such a magic… but I will not speak of that. Then, Kavin awoke, and returned at last, to find a land grown great, and his name a legend.”
    “That’s like the ballad of Ernas the Lost,” Hugon said, slowly. “How he spent a night in a magic hall, and came back to find he had been gone a hundred years…”
    “And it might be that tale was true, too,” Thuramon said. “Kavin returned, as Ernas did. But, in one way, the Great Goddess gave him a gift… unearned, like most of Her gifts. That in spite of his rejection of that Goddess, thrice repeated.”
    “She is known to be whimsical,” Hugon said.
    “Indeed,” Thuramon said. “Whimsical. I said that Kavin came back, to a land that had forgotten him except as a tale, ruled by his distant descendants… and there was still one who waited. A curious… person. You may say a witch woman, if you like; one not at all like other women, but still… more a woman than most. She had waited for Kavin. Now his wishes are fulfilled. He did not wish to be a ruler, and he is no ruler; he desired peace, and he has it.”
    Hugon stared. “You speak as if he lived… now?”
    “He does,” Thuramon said. “He is horse master to a lord of Koremon… one of his own descent . He lives, contentedly, with a fine woman… who is, to all appearances, no more than a woman… beside a lake, in which he sometimes fishes.”
    Hugon leaned back and blew a deep breath, eyes wide.
    “Now there’s a tale,” he said, quietly.
    “A tale, indeed,” Zamor said. “Lord Snake, what a tale. This Kavin, then… he’s found what he wishes, eh?”
    “Certainly,” Thuramon said, and he smiled, wryly. “So, surely he will be discontented, in due time.”
    “Wait, now,” Hugon said. “If that’s so… then who returned to Koremon, as the story has it? Who ruled, in Kavin’s name, spawned my own ancestor and all the rest… and who’s buried there in Kavin’s tomb? Some imposter?”
    “Kavin himself,” Thuramon said. “Both are the same.”
    “I don’t understand,” Hugon said, and shrugged.
    “I didn’t think you would,” Thuramon told him. The warlock began to smile, slowly and disquietingly. “You too have a most curious fate, young man… and I doubt not you will find it just as hard to understand, though you struggle a lifetime’s worth.”
    “Ah, now, no prophecy, please!” Hugon cried, grinning. “Look you, old sir, I’m willing to believe your tale, take my oath I do. But my blood’s been cooled enough… no more wizardry for now, I beg you. Those strange wee books you’ve got there… have they more of these mysteries in ‘em? Or maybe these Old Ones liked a comic tale, or a romance, as we common humans do… or possibly there’s a bawdy verse written there? Can you read them?”
    Thuramon chuckled. “There might be anything here… even what you suggest, though I doubt it. No, I cannot read them, not with ease. A few words, here and there…” He sighed. “There’s the lengthy work before me. Somewhere, among these books, or in those other things you helped me carry, there’s a secret I require. I think I found the correct books… but it will be very long before I find that key, itself.”
    “What key?” Hugon asked. “Something of magic, then?”
    “Call it that,” Thuramon said. “A key… that will find a way back for me… no, I can’t say more.”
    Hugon was silent for a while. The talk had disturbed him. Yet he could not understand why that should be so, and that fact also disturbed him. He leaned back, and stared at Gwynna’s straight back, in the forward end, biting his lip.
    Finally, he stood up and made his way forward,