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made himself smile in appreciation. He had heard some of the old verses about Swords before,
decades ago, and over the past days those rhymes had been slowly coming back into his memory, as
he continued to think and fret about the subject.
Young Zoltan cheerfully continued his cataloguing of the remaining Swords. The hermit made sure to
seem to be paying equal attention to the verses and anecdotes about Coinspinner and Soulcutter and
the other Swords that followed, that his interest in the subject might not seem too particular.
Meanwhile, in his concealed thoughts, he was increasingly aghast. His worst fears about the
treasure he had hidden had now been confirmed, and he still had no hint as to who ought now to be
considered its rightful owner.
The hermit had not been keeping count of verses, but he was just thinking that the catalogue of
Swords must be nearing its end, when it was interrupted. Geelong the watchbeast sprang up suddenly
on all four legs and whined loudly, facing the door. Someone else must be approaching the house.
When Gelimer went out into the front yard this time he stopped short, blinking in mild surprise.
A white-haired lady, whose age at a second look was hard to guess, was standing confronting him on
the north side of his little yard, as if she had perhaps just climbed up from the river. Her erect
body, clad like Zoltan's in pilgrim gray, might have belonged to a vigorous woman of forty, but
her lined face looked twenty years older than that. The pilgrim gray she wore confirmed some
connection with the youth, who now had followed Gelimer out of the house into the bright day of
sunlight melting the last spring snow.
Zoltan quickly performed introductions.
"Lady, this is the hermit Gelimer, who has kindly offered us food and shelter should we be in need
of either. Gelimer, this is the Lady Yambu, whom I serve."
"Say rather, with whom you travel." The lady's voice, like her bearing, had something regal in it.
She smiled at Gelimer and stepped forward to grip him heartily by the hand.
When Zoltan had earlier informed him that his companion was a lady somewhat older than himself,
several possibilities had suggested themselves to Gelimer. This lady did not appear to fit any of
them very neatly.
"Yambu," repeated Gelimer aloud, and frowned in thought. "Some years ago there reigned, far to the
east of here, a queen who was called the Silver Queen, and that was her name, too."
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"That queen is no more," the lady said. "Or she might as well be no more. Only a pilgrim stands
before you."
Smiling slightly, she shifted the direction of her gaze to Zoltan. "The captain has informed me
that the Maid of Lakes and Rivers has now been permanently disabled," she reported. "Therefore,
from here we must proceed for a time on foot. There is no need for us to return to the boat, as I
have brought along all that was essential of our baggage." So saying, the lady slipped a pack of
moderate size from her back and dropped it on the ground in front of Zoltan; it would be his to
carry now.
Gelimer took a moment to reflect that the lady must be far from decrepit with age, to have made
the steep climb up out of the gorge while carrying the pack. Then he courteously invited both of
his visitors back into his humble house.
Half an hour later, the hermit was serving both the travelers some hot tea and simple food,
meanwhile pausing frequently in his own mind to wonder what further questions he ought to ask
them. They represented his first contact with the outside world since the Sword had come into his
possession, and he thought that his next such contact might be months away.
But it would not do to stick too doggedly to the subject of Swords. When Gelimer asked the Lady
Yambu politely about the object of her pilgrimage, she smiled at him lightly and told him that she
was seeking truth.
"And Truth, then, is to be found somewhere downriver?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]