The Heirs Of Hammerfe Read online

  The jewels of Hammerfell were cold and heavy about her neck; she wished she could take them off, but as her serving women stripped off her clothing they would not let her take off the heavy stones;

  "The duke will think you disdain his gifts," they warned her. "You must wear them tonight, at least."

  So she endured the weight and cold of the stones cutting into her, wondering how long it must go on. They gave her a goblet of wine, which she was glad to have. She was faint after standing through the ceremony and sick at heart from all she had overheard. She had not been able to eat much of the wedding supper. The wine warmed her quickly and she felt some color coming back into her cheeks; so when Duke Rascard was led into the chamber, robed in a fur-lined bedgown (Erminie wondered why custom did not require a bridegroom to exhibit himself

 

  free of physical defect or deformity, for the benefit of the bride's family), he saw her sitting up in the high, curtained bed, her cheeks flushed a lovely pink, the shapeliness of her young body revealed by the thin gown, her loosed copper hair flowing over her breasts. He had never seen her hair unbound before, only in the severe braids she wore for every day; it made her look so young and innocent that his heart ached in his chest.

  As the serving-folk left them with many rude jests, the duke held one of them back with a gesture.

  "Go into my dressing room, Ruyven, and bring me the basket there," he said, and when the man reappeared with a huge basket in his arms, he said, "set it there. Yes, at the foot of the bed. Now go."

  "Good night, me lord an' lady, and I wish you both much happiness," the man said with a broad grin, quickly withdrawing. Erminie stared curiously at the big basket, covered by a piece of blanket.

  "This is my true wedding gift to you, my lady," Rascard said softly. "I know jewels mean naught to you, so I found you a personal gift which I hope may please you a little more."

  Erminie felt the blood flooding into her face again. "My lord, please do not think me ungrateful-it is only that I am not used to wearing jewels and they are so heavy-I would not ever wish to displease you-"

  "Here, what's this? Displease me-?" he said, taking her gently by the shoulders. "Do you think I want to be loved for the jewels I give you, girl? I'm flattered that you treasure your husband more than your bride-gift. Let's have them off, then." Laughing, he unfastened the massive gold clasps of the

 

  emeralds and helped her to lay them aside, hearing her sigh of relief. When all the necklaces and heavy bracelets had been unfastened and laid in heaps on the night table, he quietly asked, "Now will you open my other gift to you?"

  Erminie sat up in bed and eagerly drew the basket toward her. She pulled the blanket aside and with a single small cry of delight she reached into the basket and drew forth the large furry puppy.

  "What a darling he is," she cried, hugging the puppy close in her arms. "Oh, thank you!"

  "I'm glad you're pleased, my dear," said Rascard, smiling, and she flung her arms round him, kissing him impulsively.

  "Has he a name, my lord Duke?"

  "No; I thought you would like to name her yourself," said Rascard, "but I have a name, and you must call me by it, my dear."

  "Then-Rascard-I do thank you," she said, shyly. "May I call him Jewel, because I love him better than any jewels you could give me?"

  "Her," Rascard said, "I got you a female; they are gentler and more even-tempered house dogs. I thought you would like a dog who would stay home and keep you company, and a male would be out running about and exploring the countryside."

  "She is a darling, and Jewel is a better name for a female than a male," said Erminie, eagerly hugging the sleepy puppy, whose shining coat was almost the same color as her own bright hair. "She is the choicest of my jewels, then, and shall be my baby till I have one of my own."

  She rocked the puppy, crooning over it happily, while Rascard, watching her with great tenderness,

 

  thought, Yes, she will be a good mother to my children; she is gentle and loving with little things.

  He tucked the puppy in beside them, and she came willingly into his arms.

  Midsummer quickly faded, and snow once again lay in the passes of Hammerfell. Jewel grew from a lollopy puppy, all big feet and floppy ears, into a sleek and dignified bitch, the constant companion of the young duchess as she went daily about the castle. With growing confidence that she could fulfill the duties of her new position, and basking in the knowledge that her marriage was a happy one, Erminie seemed prettier; and if now and again she mourned for the young playmate who should have been her husband, she did so in secret and with the full knowledge that her husband mourned no less.

  One morning, as she bid him sit for the breakfast they always took together in a high room overlooking the valley, Rascard looked down from the heights and said, "My dear, your eyes are better than mine; what is it I see below?"

  She came and looked out over the frosty crags where a small party labored up the icy trail. "There are riders; seven or eight of them, and they bear a banner of black and white-but I cannot see the device." What she did not say was that she felt an undefined sense of impending trouble; and even as she spoke, her husband said with a note of trepidation, "We have heard too little of Storn since we were married, my love."

  "Did you expect him to come and eat a piece of our wedding cake, or to send us send us wedding gifts?"

 

  "No more than I expect him to send our son a silver porringer as a naming-gift," said Rascard, "but these days have been too peaceful; I wonder what he is planning?" As he looked at the loose gown she wore, his face darkened with worry, but at mention of her child, Erminie smiled in peaceful self-absorption.

  "With the new moon our son may be with us," she said, looking at the orb of violet hanging in the day-sky, pale and shadowy and waning from full. "As for Storn, his capture of Alaric was the last move; perhaps he feels that the next move in the game should be yours. Or maybe he has grown tired of the feud."

  "If he wished for peace, he need only have returned Alaric's body," said Rascard. "There is no glory in revenge against the dead, and Lord Storn knows it as well as I do. As for tiring of war, I expect that of him when berries grow on the ice of the Wall Around the World."

  Although she shared his views, Erminie turned away from her husband; kind as he had always been to her, she still felt a touch of trepidation when he glowered like this.

  "Is it yet time to summon the midwife to stay inside the castle?" he asked her.

  She said, "You need not trouble yourself with that, my husband; I can manage with my own serving-women. Most of them have borne children and helped to bring others into the world."

  "But it is your first, and I am worried for you, my dear one," said Rascard, who had known too much loss of loved ones. "I'll hear of no denial; Markos shall set forth before this moon wanes to the Lake of

 

  Silence, where he can summon a priestess of Avarra to care for you."

  "All right, Rascard, if it puts your mind at ease, but must Markos go? Can you not send a younger man?"

  Rascard chuckled and teased, "Why, my dear, such tenderness for Markos? Have I been unfortunate enough to have a rival within my very household?"

  Erminie knew he was joking, but she was serious. "Markos is too old to defend himself if he should be set on in the hills, by bandits or-" She stopped there, but Rascard heard what she did not say as well as the spoken words.

  Or by our foes of Storn.

  "Well, then, we cannot endanger your cavalier," said Rascard genially. "I shall send some of the young men to guard him against danger on the way." He looked again out of the window. "Can you see the device of the riders now, my dear?"

  Erminie looked out, and her eyes were troubled, "I can see now that it is not black and white but blue and silver; the Hastur colors. What in the name of all the Gods could bring a Hastur-lord to guest at Hammerfell?"

  "I do not know, my love;
but we must welcome them suitably," said the duke.

  "So it shall be," Erminie agreed and hurried off to her pantries, calling the serving-women to make ready for welcoming strange guests. She felt concerned, for in all the years she had lived in these hills she had never set eyes on any of the Hastur-lords.

  She had heard that the Hastur-lords had attempted to join all of the Hundred Kingdoms under their protection in one giant kingdom, and had also heard so many tales of their descent from the Gods, that

 

  she was almost surprised when the Hastur-lord turned out to be no more than a tall, slim man, with flaming copper hair and eyes of almost metallic gray not unlike her own. His manner was mild and unassuming; Erminie felt that even Rascard looked more like an offspring of the Gods than he did.

  "Rascard of Hammerfell is honored to welcome you to his keep," the duke stated formally once they were comfortably seated before a warm fire in the morning room. "This is my lady Erminie. May I know the name of the guest who honors me with his presence?"

  "I am Valentine Hastur of Elhalyn," said the man. "My lady and sister-" he indicated the lady beside him who rode crimson-robed, her face concealed by a long veil, "is Merelda, Keeper of Arilinn."

  Erminie's cheeks flushed and she said to the woman, "But I know you, surely."

  "Yes," Merelda said, putting her veil aside to show a stern and dispassionate countenance. Her voice was pitched remarkably low and Erminie realized she was an emmasca. "I have seen you in my starstone. That is why we came here-to meet with you and perhaps to bring you to the Tower to be trained as a leronis."

  "Oh, I should like that above all things," Erminie exclaimed, unthinking. "I had only such training as my foster-mother, she who was duchess here before me, could give-" Suddenly, her face fell. "As you can see, I cannot leave my husband and-my baby who will be born soon." But she looked truly disappointed and Lord Valentine smiled kindly at her.

  "Of course your first duty is to your children," Merelda said, "Yet we have great need of trained

 

  leroni in the Tower, there are never enough laran workers for our needs. Perhaps after your children are born, you could come to us for a year or two. . . ."

  The duke interrupted with anger, "My wife is no homeless orphan for you to offer her an apprenticeship! I can care for her appropriately without help from any of the Hasturs. She need serve no man other than myself."

  "I am sure of that," said Valentine diplomatically, "We are not merely asking you to give of yourself without recompense; the training you would receive there would benefit your family and all of your clan."

  Rascard saw that Erminie looked really disappointed. Could it be that she was willing to leave him for this "training," whatever it was? Feeling unnerved, he said brusquely, "My wife and the mother of my child shall not pass from under my roof; and there's an end to talking about it. Can I serve you in anything else, my lord and lady?"

  Valentine and Merelda, who knew better than to provoke their host, let the matter rest.

  "Perhaps you can indulge my curiosity," said Lord Valentine. "What of this blood feud with the people : of Storn? I have heard that it was raging even in my great-grandsire's time-"

  "And in mine," said Rascard.

  "Yet never have I known whence it came, or what began it. As I rode through these hills I saw Storn's men on the march, out for raiding, I suppose. Can you inform me, my lord Duke?"

  "I have heard several tales," Duke Rascard said, "but I can offer no guarantee that any one and no other is the true tale."

 

  Valentine Hastur laughed. "Fair enough," he said. "Tell me what you believe."

  "What I heard from my father was this," Rascard said, absentmindedly petting Jewel's head which was resting in his lap. "In his grandfather's time, when Regis the Fourth held the throne of the Hasturs at Hali, Conn, my great-grandsire, had contracted to marry a lady of the Alton kindred, and he had word that she had set forth from her home, with her baggage and horses, and three wagons containing her goods and her dowry. Weeks passed, yet no further word came, and the lady arrived not at Hammerfell. After forty days, the lady finally arrived, but with a message sent from Storn, that he had taken the bride and her dowry; but that the girl did not please him, so he was returning her to Hammerfell, and that my forebear had permission to marry her if he wished; but he would keep the dowry for his trouble in trying out the bride. And since the lady was pregnant with the son of Storn, he would thank them to send his son along sometime before his naming-feast, with an appropriate following."

  "I am not surprised that this resulted in blood feud," Lord Valentine said, and Rascard nodded.

  "It might even then have passed as the most unseemly of all jests," said Rascard, "but when the child was born-and they say he was the very image of Storn's elder son-my grandsire sent back the child and a bill for the wetnurse who carried him, and for the mule she rode. And that spring Storn sent armed men against Hammerfell, and war it has been ever since; when I was but a lad of fifteen, scarce proclaimed a man, Storn raiders killed my father, my two elder brothers, and my younger brother, a boy

 

  of nine years. The Storn kin have left me alone in the world, my lord, save for my dear wife and the child she bears. And I shall guard them with my life."

  "No man living could fault you for that," said Lord Valentine Hastur somberly, "surely not I; yet I would wish to see this feud mended before I die."

  "And I," said Rascard. "Despite all, I would have been willing to put aside my ill will to the Storns until they attacked my paxman and killed my son, I would have forgiven the deaths of my other kinsmen. But not now. I loved my son too dearly."

  "Perhaps your children may end this feud," said the Hastur-lord.

  "Perhaps it may be so. But it will not be soon; my son is yet unborn," said Duke Rascard.

  "The children Erminie bears-"

  Erminie interrupted. "Children?"

  "Why, yes," said the leronis. "Surely you know you are bearing twins."

  "N-no, I did not know," said Erminie, stammering. "How can you tell that?"

  "Have you never monitored a pregnant woman before this?"

  "No, never; I have not been taught-sometimes I thought my mind had touched the child, but I could not be certain-"

  Rascard was frowning.

  "Twins?" he said, troubled, "I hope, then, for all our sakes that one of them is a daughter."

  Valentine asked with lifted brow, "Well, Merelda?"

  She shook her head. "I am sorry," she replied, "You have two sons. I thought-I was sure that would please you; it is terribly sad when only the life of a

 

  single child stands between an ancient line and its extinction."

  But Erminie's eyes were bright. "I am to give my lord not one son but two!" she exclaimed. "Did you hear, my lord?" Then she saw the scowl on his face. "Does it displease you, Rascard?"

  Rascard forced himself to assume a more amiable smile. "I am pleased, of course, my dearest; but twins always create confusion as to which of them is eldest, or best fitted to rule; and it is all too likely that they might become enemies and bitter rivals. My sons must stand together as strong allies against the dangers from our foes of Storn."

  Seeing her distress, he added, "Still, you must not let this spoil your happiness in our children. We shall contrive something, I am sure."

  Lord Valentine said, "I wish you would let your lady come to us, for a time at least; at Arilinn there is a notable college of midwives, so that she could be delivered safely, and we could insure that the twins would receive every care and consideration."

  "I am sorry; but I cannot even consider it," said Rascard. "My sons must be born under their own roof."

  "Then there is no more to be said," replied Lord Valentine, and rose to take his leave. Duke Rascard objected that they should remain for entertainment and perhaps a banquet in their honor, but they refused politely and took their leave with many expressio
ns of esteem on either side.

  As they rode away from Hammerfell, Rascard noticed that Erminie looked sorrowful.

  "Surely you did not want to leave me alone, my wife, nor have our sons born among strangers!"

 

  'No, of course not, she said, ' but-

  "Ah, I knew there must be a but," said the duke. "What could win you away from me, dearest? Have you anything to complain of in my treatment?"

  "No, nothing, you have been the kindest husband one could imagine," Erminie said. "Nevertheless it is tempting to me that I might have complete training as a leronis. I am all too conscious that there are possibilities in my laran which I do not even know how to imagine, far less do."

  "You know far more of it than I, or than anyone within the boundaries of all Hammerfell," said Rascard. "Can that not content you?"

  "I am not discontented," said Erminie, "but there is so much else to know-this much I have learned from the starstone itself-and I feel ignorant compared with what I might be. With the leronis Merelda, for instance, she is so learned and wise-"

  "I have no need for a learned wife, and you suit me exactly as you are," Rascard told her, and embraced her tenderly, and she said no more. With her husband, and her coming children, she was content, for the moment at least.

 

  4

  The violet moon waned, then waxed again; and three days after the new moon Erminie of Hammerfell * was brought to bed and, as the leronis had prophesied, gave birth to twin sons, identical as two peas in a pod. Small wiry babies, red and squalling, each little head covered with thick dark hair.