Free The Hammer of the Sun by Michael Scott Rohan Page B

the Night
    Kermorvan heard Elof's tale out in silence. As king he had the right, if he cared to use it, to judge any aspect of his follower's lives; as commander of the fleet he had an equal right. Elof expected harsh words of condemnation when he had done. But Kermorvan only looked at him with troubled grey eyes and asked "What will you do now?"
    "What I sought to do first; follow her, find her. Make what amends I can. Aid her, if she is in need."
    Kermorvan rose with a sigh, went to the railing and looked out across the sea. Ils shifted uneasily in her chair, her wide face lined with unhappiness; then she rose, put a beaker of wine in Elof s hand and her arm about his shoulder. Her cheek rested on his head a moment. "Yes, you were a fool!" she muttered. "But who is not, when torn apart by love and worry?" She turned abruptly away. Roc, the only other hearer, was looking out to sea also, avoiding his gaze.
    Elof gulped the wine, grateful on a throat made raw by salt water and long speaking. He had slept the day out in his exhaustion, and now the sun was setting behind the hills in furious flares of red and gold. Kermorvan turned, and watched its glorious decline. "The world is wide," he said darkly. "Which way think you to start your search?"
    "The way she told me to, when first we parted," said Elof. "It was the way she flew last night." He gazed out across the open oceans into the darkening East. "Thither. The path of the dawn."
    Roc turned his head; Ils drew breath sharply, Kermorvan nodded, as if he had expected that reply. "Across the trackless ocean, that none has crossed these last thousand years. Once the ancient realm of Kerys lay on its farther shore, home of our fathers; who knows what lies there now?"
    Elof waited to be told he was mad. But Kermorvan only remarked "You will need ships. You may choose them from the fleet, and pick their crews."
    Elof stared, and spluttered with surprise. "My lord… I, I… it would be… I have no right…"
    "You have bought them many times over with your labour for me, even were there no stronger claims of friendship; without yours I would have no throne. Now it is my turn to help you. I shall come with you."
    Elof stared up at the tall man, scarcely able to believe what he heard, and much humbled. To have this man's aid in his search ... The years and experience of rule had deepened Kermorvan's wisdom, without making him any the less fearsome a warrior. It was his firm hand, in peace and war, that had built up this whole kingdom from the ruins of two lands, raised it to peace and prosperity in less than a decade. It was his iron hand that held back the incoming raiders in the Westlands, that struck even up into the ruins of Nordeney to free those imprisoned and enslaved. Against his command, year after year, the Ekwesh battered as at an immovable wall, till it seemed that many grew weary of war for war's sake, and preferred to settle in what land they already had in peace. In that, as in many other ways, he thwarted the will of the Ice, that fed and prospered upon the strife of men, and had made the Ekwesh its chiefest instrument. With a man at his side who could thus uphold a land there were few roads he would not willingly tread. And that man was willing to leave all that he had built up, for no profit of his own…
    But behind all these thoughts Elof had felt a growing unease; he glanced now at Roc and Ils, and the alarm he saw on their faces brought it to a head. He rose, a little unsteadily still, and shook his head. "My friend, I am more grateful than I can say. But I cannot allow it. You are the cornerstone of this land, of the lives of all men in it; how am I to draw that out on my own poor quest, and leave the rest without support? You have no deputy of stature, no heirs, no successors; your place is here, and your duty. And I have selfish folly enough to live with."
    Kermorvan nodded. "So be it. It is an honourable answer, and I confess the one I hoped for; yet for my