A Cold Cry

A Light That Must Not Die

"Come now, why do you hesitate?"

Eithur's gaze drifted down, from the chilling face of the legaeësse, to the man below him utterly exhausted in body and spirit.

"For he is here now – in these very walls."

And Eithur saw something change in Carras' face then. A brightness seemed to enter him, and never had Eithur seen anything more wondrous, more beautiful, than the sight of hope revived that had once been crushed to nothing. A brand burned, low and dangerous, in his eyes, and he spoke softly: "What did you say, lefiredda?"

Culathan broke off his ceaseless persuasions and looked down at him, a swift second of confusion flicking through his eyes. "What does this mean?" he asked menacingly, surveying Carras' tense body that had lost the sag of defeat, his fierce and determined eyes.

But before he could answer, they heard voices echoing through the stairs behind.

"Finyref! ... Finyref!"

"Do not hinder me, my king, please. You have said enough..."

Footsteps sounded, coming nearer.

The light in Carras' eyes flared like a falling star, and as Culathan glanced to the doorway he sprang to his feet and seized the knife at the legaeësse's waist.

A second blade rang against Carras' even as he swung it, and Culathan's terrible anger glared down upon Carras' desperate defiance. "What is this?" he asked, and his voice though hardly raised made Eithur quail where he hid, and Carras flinched. "How is it that you dare to lift your hand to me?"

Carras made no answer, but attacked again, and their knives clashed on one another, once – twice – and then Carras staggered, and his weapon fell to the stones.

His features set in merciless decision, Culathan lifted his knife

There was only a second that passed then, and yet Eithur somehow thought of many things in it: his father, his mother, little Íyron and the deer, the man called Carras, and a light that he sensed must not die.

He ran forward and came in front of the blade as it spun through the air. He felt it strike into his side, leaving him breathless; but before the pain could begin, the legaeësse turned to him with a face of wrath, and he felt a second blow that flung him through the air until he crashed against the further wall. Then searing pain, and a sinking coldness. And then, nothing.