XXIII – The Stone of Destiny

' Y

ou know, when Halfdan arrived in the kingdom, he had nothing with him but his woolen bag of books and the clothes he was wearing. Gork, the innkeeper of the main inn in the citadel, welcomed him with open arms.'

And so, in the dim light of the attic of the blue-hued castle in Old Minister, upon the unmade bed, surrounded by Owin’s belongings scattered everywhere, whilst Arwel traced a path with his feet as he paced to and fro, and the rest took the opportunity to rest, Miar told Cheas of her wizard king.

Upon arriving in the realm, Halfdan spent his first few days serving as a porter for coin, but it required only that he heal the first patient for tidings of his gifts to speed abroad.

Ere the week had expired, the tavern upon the ground floor of the inn was already thronged with folk desiring to be treated, to converse, or merely to press his hand.

With her sweet voice and a special sparkle in her eyes, which could still be seen in the darkness, Miar recalled the occasion when even the king’s own physician came to ask his counsel.

For no one was exempt from desiring to meet Halfdan the Brilliant, a name he earned for his reputation of answering any question with certainty.

Moreover, his accurate diagnoses and his extensive knowledge of herbalism and mysticism completed the picture of a noble man, with enviable fortitude and the manners of a lord.

But that renown had brought consequences. One night, two men burst into the tavern. They seized the innkeeper as hostage whilst they ransacked and destroyed everything. Halfdan was certain they were looking for something they did not find.

'It was two days after that that I met him,' she said with a broken sigh. 'I was picking flowers with my maid in the orchard when, from a distance, I saw him.'

Seated upon a rock with his legs apart and his hair falling over his shoulders, he was watching the grass and, between his fingers, weaving a delicate jasmine bracelet. Miar showed it to Cheas — even after so many years, she still wore it knotted about her wrist.

'You know, if you have not fallen in love, you will not understand. We looked at each other and the sparkle in his eyes, as blue as the clearest summer sky, transported me to a place I had never been before.'

From that day forth, and for the ensuing fortnight, they would repair to the orchard upon the mere pretext of exchanging salutations.

Yet one of their trysts proved unlike the rest. Miar’s voice faltered as she recounted the sorrow she beheld in that humble, strong man who, whilst embracing her, told her between sobs that his master had disappeared, that the inn had been attacked again, and that he had to depart before any were hurt.

To succour him, the princess presented him to her father as the royal sorcerer. He would be safe within the palace, yet the king not only refused, he banished him.

'Love is a secret that the eyes cannot keep, and ours were shouting it from the rooftops. So I made the boldest decision of my life, yet the best of all.'

A week later, the wizard and the princess fled together. He, with his bag of books and magical paraphernalia, and she, with a few clothes and some coins.

'The moon witnessed our first kiss and the forest our act of love.'

For the two ensuing months they took refuge in cottages offered to them by the villagers, either because he was Halfdan the Brilliant or for a few coins.

Miar remembered those days as the hardest of her life after a childhood as a princess raised amidst silk and delicacies.

But also as the most beautiful, where she learned from his knowledge; his company alone was nourishment enough for her to endure.

It was in Korkolat that they abode the longest. An aged couple granted them the chamber of their son, who had fallen in battle. There, he did what he knew best, to his heart’s content: helping others.

'It was our home. We worked, and I even had my own patients. Everything was perfect, but as everything is ever-changing, one afternoon a raven struck the window and a man, the door.'

The owner of the house warned them that someone had sold them out for a few gold coins, whilst the raven offered them a way out. Maltón had managed to settle in Old Minister and offered them unconditional refuge there.

'You know, meeting your father was a blessing,' she said, and after stretching, she stroked Cheas’s cheek; the boy was barely breathing, absorbed in the story.

'Apart from Halfdan, I had never heard anyone speak so many languages and lexicons.

He had the ability to read at superhuman speed and a peace that calmed any fury, fear or storm. '

In Old Minister, Narg had just been crowned and had appointed Maltón as his royal sorcerer. As he would his own kin, he settled them into a spacious house in the citadel on Lijsaorsa Street.

'Yesterday, when we rode past there on horseback, I could do nothing but thank the Norns for allowing me to return once more.'

There they found peace once more. Halfdan worked under a pseudonym whilst Miar helped him part-time, and spent the remainder of the day looking after Cheas’s mother, who was with child.

'Maltón kept the relationship hidden. Perhaps because he desired to protect how special it was, or to possess a warm place to escape from all the bureaucracy of the castle.'

The four of them had formed a close-knit family, and one evening by the campfire, Colquen’s pupils told them of the legacy he had left them. Miar mentioned the prophecy that Odín had given to the hermit regarding the coming of the Eternal Night through the jaws of Fenrir.

Even as Cheas, his eyes wide, was settling back upon the bed, Gregor, upon hearing the names of Colquen and Fenrir, stirred from his light slumber and drew near. If there was a legend, he could not miss it.

'I am afraid I have no further details, but I shall tell you how the manuscript came to be in my library.'

Without pause, yet without haste, she took up the thread of the tale and informed them that she and Maltón’s wife had become dear friends, so much so that together they chose the babe’s name.

'Your mother desired it to be brief, yet to represent how great you would be, to encapsulate everything that makes you special. We jotted down a few until she remembered that without Cheas, Alfredo would have achieved nothing.'

The young warrior turned to his comrade for clarification, but even as he searched as though chiselling through stone blocks in a mine hoping to find emeralds, Gregor found no reference whatsoever.

Scarce was aught known of the legendary Raven King’s childhood.

Miar confessed to them that she had been unaware of this until her friend told her that a certain Cheas, a widower who dwelt in the territory now known as Kerkion, had rescued the young Alfredo to teach and guide him, helping him to become the hero.

'You know, the day you came into the world was the day everyone’s life changed.'

At the first signs of labour, Halfdan began to assist her whilst Miar ran towards the castle to fetch Maltón.

But when they arrived, they found the sorcerer covered in blood, with the light from the four points of his Naamclënt mark shining through the fabric of his sky-blue robe, and Cheas in his strong arms. The birth had become complicated; the babe was not in the head-down position, and the mother, with her last ounce of strength, besought him to do the impossible to save him.

And he did. He summoned all the magic within him and focused it upon her womb.

'Her last breath left with the kiss that blessed you,' he whispered, and though he could not see her, he gently wiped away the tear running down her cheek.

'I could swear that the jasmine flowers decorating the room—the ones your father never failed to bring from those bordering the castle—came together to bid her farewell, and a perfect cloud enveloped them in its sweet scent. '

Maltón’s fortitude was admirable, but being widowed like that, so unexpectedly, was too much for him. Overcome with grief, he could do nothing but blame Halfdan. And that day, the two friends, once so steadfast, ceased to speak to one another.

'But it was you who were the reason they reconciled a few years later. He was so proud of you that there was not a single letter in which he did not mention your achievements.'

Cheas had not quite grasped why he had been the focus of the reunion when she continued her tale and left him, along with Gregor, almost breathless.

His mother’s passing was not the only consequence of that day.

Miar’s foray into the castle had caused a guard to recognise her.

The morrow thereafter, even as the delight of adoptive motherhood took hold of her, soldiers from Old Minister and Ubberia burst into the house.

'With torches and swords, as if we were criminals,' she said, her throat tightening.

They held their peace to persuade the intruders they were not within, yet Cheas’s wailing betrayed them, and with a kick the door was battered down. Halfdan stood before Miar and the cradle, and summoned a barrier of light. Then, an arrow from without the dwelling sped in.

'You know, just like in war, it is incredible what transpires in a split second when one is scared out of one’s wits. I threw myself in the way and the arrow pierced my stomach. That is the last thing I recall before waking in my old bedroom in Ubberia.'

Seeing her wounded, Halfdan surrendered, pleading aloud to be allowed to tend to her, but they refused. Shackled like the vilest of men, they led him at a trot to Ubberia behind the carriage bearing the dying princess.

'The will of the gods is oft inscrutable. My father, knowing she would not survive without magic, and that within his dungeon—on the verge of executing him in the town square—he held the most powerful sorcerer in Móntria, was obliged to reconsider.'