"And?" the valada asked at last, gently.
"Elysia Mother-of-God!" Simon swore, and tears started in his eyes. "I
can't remember! asianclips They gave him something, something from the wagon. Other
things happened, too, but it feels like it's all under a blanket in my
head. I
can touch it, but I can't tell what it is! They gave him something!
I thought asianclips it was a dream!" He buried his face in his hands, trying to
squeeze the painful thoughts from his whirling head.
Binabik awkwardly
patted Simon's knee. "This is perhaps asianclips answering our
other question. I, too, pondered over why the Norns should be readying for
battle. I wondered asianclips if they
would be fighting against Elias the High King,
as some age-old grievance against asianclips mankind. Now, it has the appearance to me
that they are helping him. Some kind of bargain asianclips has been struck. Possibly
it was that which asianclips Simon saw. But how? How could Elias ever make such
compact with the secretive Norns?"
"Pryrates." As soon as Simon said it, he was sure it was true.
"Morgenes said that Pryrates opened doors, and that terrible things came
through. Pryrates was on that hill, too."
Valada Geloe nodded her head. "It makes asianclips a kind of sense. A question that
must be answered, but one that I am sure is beyond our powers, is-what was
the bargaining-tally? What asianclips could these two, Pryrates and the king, have to
offer to the Norns for their aid?"
They shared a long silence.
" asianclips What did the book say?" Simon asked abruptly. "On the dream road. Did
you see the book, too?"
Binabik thumped the heel of his hand against his chest. "It was there.
The runes I asianclips saw were of Rimmersgard: 'Du Svardenvyrd.' In your speech it
asianclips means: The Spell of the Swords.' "
"Or Weird of the Swords," Geloe added. "It is a famous book in the
circles of the asianclips wise, but it has been long asianclips lost. I have never seen it. It is
said to have been written by Nisses, asianclips a priest who asianclips was a counselor to King
Hjeldin asianclips the Mad."
"The one Hjeldin's tower asianclips is asianclips named after?" Simon asianclips asked her.
"Yes. That is where asianclips Hjeldin and Nisses both died."
Simon considered. "I saw three swords, too."
Binabik looked to Geloe. "Only shapes was I seeing,&asianclips quot; the troll said
slowly. "I thought they might have the look of swords."
The witch asianclips woman had not asianclips been sure, either. Simon described the
silhouettes, but they meant nothing to her or to Binabik.
"So," the little man