A Song of Earth and Sky

I’m too old for this, the old man thought mildly, without any bitterness. I should be tucked away in a bungalow high in Moonpath. I should be sipping tea in a comfortable, faded armchair in front of a fire, watching my numerous grandchildren play on the carpet at my feet. I should be retired from the Orders, an aged mage, spending my time on leisure. I should not be here.

The old man was far from Moonpath, in a vast study high in Stargard. He was drinking tea, actually, and sitting in an armchair, near a raging fire. But the tea was too strong for his tastes, the armchair was new, elegant, and ridiculously uncomfortable, and there were no grandchildren before him, because he had none. In fact, he did not even have children, or a wife to have borne them. Just another path I ignored, he thought, still with no bitterness. And then a flash of a cliff overlooking the sea, and a woman standing there…

“Lord Dumbledore?” someone was asking. He turned to the man, his bright blue eyes focusing along with his brilliant mind.

“Yes, my son?” he questioned formally.

“Lord Snape has been dispatched to rescue the girl from Ferns,” the man reported in a self-important tone that Dumbledore found amusing.

“Snape?” the older mage questioned. “I’m certain the Council had their reasons for sending him, though I must admit some doubt as to the lucidity of their thinking.”

“Actually, Lord Dumbledore, he was chosen by the Aeon Guard to fetch her… not by the Council.”

“Oh?” he questioned, his bushy white eyebrow lifting. “And why is that?”

“Kerua is invading Delorien tonight, and since war is involved… the Council turned the matter over to the Aeon Guard. And they chose—“

“—Snape. But why him? Aren’t there equally powerful wizards who could give the girl a more… warm welcome to the world of the Starborn?” Dumbledore questioned, an undertone of amusement in his voice. He gently set his teacup on an intricately carved ebony table, which he hated about as much as the armchair.

The messenger, Harlen Myrda, blushed slightly. “I eve eve the Captains of the Guard wanted to… get back at Lord Snape. He tends to anger them quite a lot.” Dumbledore grinned happily.

“How will they return to Stargard? He knows he can’t Apparate with someone who’s never been exposed to magic before. The process would splinch her beyond recognition,” the older mage remarked, his eyebrow lifting again.

“Er…” Harlen looked very, very nervous. “I believe they are coming on dragonback.”

“What?” Dumbledore cried, jumping up from his chair in a manner that completely belied his ag“The“They’ll both freeze to death! Is he mad? He’ll kill her before our enemies even have the chance!” Harlen, quite wisely, remained silent.

*

The Lion of Delorien lay on a great gray slab of stone inside the Hall he loved so much. The Sword Princes were not there to pay their respects… they were fighting, with their units, outside in the streets of Ferns, trying desperately to fend off the surprise attack. The servants had scattered, eyes wide with terror, as they fled towards their hovels in Ferns… only to be cut down mercilessly by the Kes. s. Only two men remained in the castle; one of them was Argonas, Sword Prince of Delorien who had once been a mage. He stood, leaning heavily on the stone, keeping vigil over the king who had accepted him and kept his secret; who had, in fact, taken that secret to the afterworld, if there was one for the Earthborn.

It was the heart explosion, the doctors had explained. The shock of Argonas’ agony, the surprise attack… it was the heart explosion. The two doctors, married, had been kind and competent, but they had known from the start that there was nothing they could do. Argonas had released them from the debt automatically incurred by the death of a patient, and sent them home, with young Camren and a small guard to protect them. Apparently, they were suffering their own difficulties, with their daughter, or one of their servants, or something along those lines.

The sounds of fighting echoed in the Lion Court; cries from the unprepared citizens, the battle yells of the barbarian Keruans, the clash of steel on steel, the screaming of horses… Argonas couldn’t help but think how noisy Earthborn wars were. When the Starborn did battle, it was… rather quiet.

The Starborn. He tried not to think about that, about them, about what he once had been… but the events of today had made that rather impossible. Someone had channeled powerful magic, and it would have destroyed him if it had not been so brief. It rent his heart to know that the power that had once been his life was now made utterly unbearable to him. He had been stripped of his Connection to the Source, had been exiled from the Starborn lands… and they had made it impossible for him to even be near a channeling wizard.

And all because he had rescued the baby girl. All for an infant girl.

Argonas wept, then, alone in the Lion Court, for the dead man who had been his friend, for the wife he had left in Stargard, for the little girl he had rescued but lost, and, most of all, for his lost grasp on the stars.

A/N

I\'ve been meaning to read the Dark Tower series... thanks for reviewing. ;-)