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.The desire to take hold of the naked haft of the axe became almost overwhelming.Slowing to a walk, he held it aloft before himself, so that the broad double-bladed head filled his vision.In the heart of the two blades shimmered the brilliant amber Jewel.In its light he saw a purity of color that had never been matched upon the earth or the heavens above.The Golden Eye of Ambros brightened under his scrutiny.Some small, distant part of his mind wondered if the final decision to wield the axe would be his last conscious act of will.Something loomed up to his right, a green glowing thing.He thought to see Hob’s face.His enemy was there, the enemy that must be struck down.Cut down the fiend.He felt a yearning to see his enemy cut and bloody and dead at his feet.You must wield the axe.Old Hob had threatened to make Telyn sire his foul offspring.This couldn’t be allowed.Death for everyone was preferable.You must…“—Brand?” came a distant voice.He couldn’t identify it right away, although it seemed familiar.… wield the axe.“Brand, they’re friendly! Put down the axe!”Telyn! He had it now.That’s who it was.She was the one who must be saved.Her words, however, were lost on him.Then, suddenly, something darted between his eyes and the Eye of Ambros, into which he had been staring most deeply.He blinked, and a flash of anger ran through him.With a growl, he moved to cut down the flittering thing.Then he stopped.As if awakening from a dream, he found himself standing in the lush ferns, surrounded by wisps and Telyn.A tiny, beautiful female wisp had darted between his eyes and the Eye of Ambros.With a sick feeling, he looked about wildly.“Did I kill her? I swear, I was not myself!”“No, no, Brand,” said Telyn, putting her soothing hands on his shoulders from behind.She hugged his broad back.“You harmed no one.”Brand looked up to see the wisp float closer to him again.She had risked her life to break the spell by passing between his eyes and Jewel.He felt ashamed to have threatened such a wonderful creature.“But what of Hob?” he asked.“He has retreated to his pond, I hope,” answered Telyn.“These wisps followed us.I believe they want the injured one returned to them.”Brand nodded.Telyn produced the tiny wisp from her pocket and instantly the male wisp swooped down and took her away.His family followed him.He paused, looking back at the humans.He gestured to one of the yellow wisps, who separated herself from the others and returned to hover just inches from Brand’s cheek.Brand was entranced and his face, which had scowled death’s own mask a minute earlier, now was wreathed with smiles.“Not even the white lady could possess such beauty,” he said in wonder.Telyn made a sound of delight as well.The wisp curtsied in mid-air, as if to acknowledge the compliment.She then pointed off into the swamp and made a series of short flights in that direction.Each time she returned to them and repeated the action.Brand and Telyn looked at one another.“Normally,” said Telyn.“I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that we follow a wisp, but this is a special circumstance.”Brand nodded.“Indeed.This is the first time that I ever thought any of the Faerie could be trusted.I guess it is with them as Dando said, ‘Friendship is always earned, never given.’”So saying, the two of them followed the wisp out of the fern forest and into the rest of Old Hob’s Marsh, going they knew not where.They followed the wisp until dawn began to lighten the sky.Ever they begged her to rest, but she urged them onward.They didn’t know where she was leading them, but hoped it was to their companions, or a way out of the swamp, or just to the cabin of a marshman who could help them.Just before dawn the wisp halted and pointed East, in the direction they had been going.They took it to mean that they should continue forward.To Telyn, she flittered close and caressed her cheek.Telyn smiled and touched the spot delicately.To their amazement the spot on her cheek and her hand where she touched it glowed for a time with the same radiance as the wisp.When they looked up, they found she had gone.They cast about them for some sign of her, but could find nothing, not even a distant glimmer.“She’s gone back to her family,” said Telyn.She still gazed down on the tiny spot, now fading, that glowed upon her fingertips.“They are clearly creatures of the night rather than the day,” agreed Brand heartily.He sat down upon a relatively dry spot and leaned back against a gnarled tangle of tree roots.To him they were as comfortable as a featherbed.“Ah! I’d thought she would lead us to Snowdon before she was done,” he sighed.“Perhaps we should keep going,” said Telyn worriedly, looking to the East.“Perhaps the others need us.”“Surely you jest, milady,” mumbled Brand through thick lips.Already his eyes had closed.“I, unlike the wisps, am a creature of day.Also unlike them, and yourself, I need sleep.”“But the others, Brand.”“If they have suffered the night, they can hold another hour.I have no strength left to rescue them now, if that’s what they are needing.Besides, we don’t really know what the wisp was leading us to.Maybe this is just a garden spot of the swamp to her, and she wanted to show it to us!” said Brand, making a clumsy, sweeping gesture that indicated their drab surroundings.Even while gesturing, his eyes stayed shut.The brightening skies of dawn seemed painful to his weary eyes.With a sigh, Telyn sat beside him.Chapter FifteenMerlingsIn the light of morning, he awoke, shivering.The tree roots had cruelly dug their way into his back and ribs, causing a dozen sharp aches and cramps.He eyed the marshlands around himself blearily, realizing that for perhaps the first time in his life he was truly and utterly lost.Then he noted the only source of warmth that touched him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]