Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03 (2 page)

his uneasily joined kingdom if he became embroiled in a

dispute with the Aswydds over their prerogatives, Selwyn

Marhanen accorded the Aswydds guarantees of many of their

ancient rights, including their religion, and including their

titles. So while the Aswydds became vassals of the king of

Ylesuin, and were called dukes, they were styled aethelings, that

is to say, royal, within their own province of Amefel. This

purposely left aside the question of whether the other earls of

Amefel bore rank equivalent to the dukes of Guelen and

Ryssandisb lands. Since Amefin and Guelenfolk generally

Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03

avoided appearing in one another’s courts, the question

remained tacit and unresolved.

Selwyn thus had Amefel; but the opposing district of Elwynor

formed a region almost as large as Ylesuin was with Amefel

attached; and its independency from Ylesuin over that first

winter had given Elwynor’s lords time to gather forces. By the

next spring, with Selwyn in Amefel, the river Lenúalim had

become the tacitly unquestioned border. To secure Elwynor as

part of Ylesuin remained Selwyn’s unfulfilled dream to his

dying day.

The Elwynim meanwhile, having declared a Regency in place

of the lost High King at Althalen, were ruled not by a king, but

by one of their earls, himself with a glimmering of Sihhë blood,

who styled himself Lord Regent. The people of Elwynor took it

on stubborn faith that not all the royal house of the Sihhë-lords

had perished, that within their lifetimes a new Sihhë-lord, the

one they called the King To Come, some surviving prince,

would emerge from hiding to overthrow the Marhanen and

reestablish the Sihhë kingdom. This time the kingdom would

have faithful Elwynor at its heart, and all the loyal subjects

would live in peace and Sihhë-blessed prosperity in a new

golden age.

The Elwynim, therefore, cherished magic and prized the wizard-

gift. But outside the Lord Regent’s line there were far too few

who could practice wizardry in any degree. Certainly no one

possessed such magic as the Sihhë had used, and there were

Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03

few enough wizards who would even speak of the King To

Come… for the wizards of this age had had firsthand

experience of Hasufin Heltain, and they remained aloof from

the various lords of the Elwynim who wished to employ them.

Those few who had any Sihhë blood whatsoever were likewise

reticent, for fear of becoming the center of some rising that

could only end in disaster.

So the Elwynim, deserted by their wizards and by those who did

carry the blood, became too little wary of magic and those who

promised it… and still the years passed into decades without a

credible claimant in Elwynor.

Selwyn died. Ylesuin’s rule passed to Selwyn’s son

Ináreddrin… and this, after lndreddrin was a middle-aged man

with two previous marriages and two grown sons.

Now Ináreddrin was Guelen to the core, which meant devoutly,

blindly Quinalt—his mother’s influence. As prince, he had no

love of his uncivil warlord father, but a great deal of fear of

him. He grew up with no tolerance for other faiths, despite the

exigencies of the Amefin treaty. He lost patience with his wild

eldest son, Cefwyn, for Cefwyn took his grandfather’s example

and clung to the Teranthine tutor, Emuin (that same Emuin

who had aided Mauryl at Althalen), whom Selwyn had

appointed royal tutor for his grandsons.

This was no accident: Selwyn as a reigning king had found

priests and the Quinalt a convenient resource, and to that end

he had supported them—they kept the Guelenfolk obedient. But

Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03

to safeguard his kingdom for the years to come, and with at

least some fear of what he had faced at Althalen, Selwyn had

wanted his grandsons never to dread priests or wizards—rather

to understand them, and to have one of the best on their side.

This was a source of bitter argument within the royal house:

the queen died, Ináreddrin grew more alienated from his

father, and the very year Selwyn died and lndreddrin became

king, Ináreddrin persuaded his younger son Efanor into the

strictest Quinalt faith—lavishing on him all the affection he

denied the elder son.

So did the highest barons, notably of the provinces of Ryssand

and Murandys, favor Efanor, and there was talk of overturning

the succession—for the more Efanor became religious, the

more Cefwyn, the crown prince and heir, consoled himself with

wild escapades, sorties on the border, and women… very many

women.

Still, by Guelen law and custom, even by the tenets of the

Quinalt itself, Cefwyn was, incontrovertibly, the heir.

So Ináreddrin, either in hopes that administrative responsibility

would temper Cefwyn—or, it was whispered, in hopes some

assassin or border skirmish would make Efanor his heir—sent

Cefwyn to administer the Amefin garrison with the courtesy

title of viceroy, thus keeping a firmer Marhanen hand on that

curiously independent province.

Now, ordinarily and by the treaty, there was no such thing as a

Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03

viceroy in Amefel, and the duke of Amefel, Heryn Aswydd, was

not at all pleased by this gesture… but Heryn kept his

discontent to himself, even agreeing to report to Ináreddrin

regarding the prince’s behavior, and on the worsening situation

across the river—for there was a reason Ináreddrin had felt a

need for a firmer Guelen presence in Amefel. The Regent in

Elwynor had no children but a daughter of his old age. The

lords of Elwynor, weary of waiting for the appearance of a

High King, were now saying the Regent should choose one of

them to be king, as he was advanced in years… and the only

way for one earl to gain any legitimate connection with royalty

was by marrying the Lord Regent’s daughter.

The Regent, Uleman Syrillas, refused all offers, swearing that

his only child, his daughter- Ninévrisë, would wield the power

of Regent herself… unprecedented, among the Elwynim and

the Sihhë kings, that a woman should rule in her own right.

But Uleman had prepared his daughter to rule… and when the

day came that a suitor tried to enforce his demands with arms

and carry Ninévrisë away, the Regent refused to bow.

Elwynor sank into civil war… and that war insinuated itself

across the river into Amefel: there were families with kin on

both sides of the river.

So it was into this situation that Ináreddrin sent Prince Cefwyn

to strengthen the garrison.

And it was entirely characteristic of Ináreddrin that he told

Heryn he was to watch Cefwyn and told Cefwyn to watch

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Heryn, who was, after all, a heretic Bryaltine.

Unbeknownst to the king, in fact, Duke Heryn was in league

with one of the rebel earls in Elwynor.

Others of the Elwynim rebels, those who lacked force of arms,

were keen to have wizardly sanction.

And Hasufin Heltain, once again dead, as Men knew death,

was waiting only for such a moment of crisis and a condition in

the stars. Through the situation in Elwynor, that ancient spirit

found his way closer and closer to life.

Mauryl, however, had foreseen the hour, and had saved his

strength for one grand, unprecedented spell, a Summoning and

a Shaping, a revenant brought forth from the fire of Mauryl’s

hearth—not a perfect effort, however, nor mature nor

threatening. To Mauryl’s distress the young man thus

Summoned lacked all memory of what or who he had been
.

Mauryl called his Summoning… Tristen. And the day Mauryl lost
his struggle with Hasufin, Tristen, a young man with the
innocence of the newly born, set forth into the world, hoping to
do the things Mauryl intended.

The Road which began from Ynefel led Tristen not to a wizard,
who would teach him, as Tristen had hoped, but straight to
Prince Cefwyn, on a night when, despising his host, Heryn
Aswydd, Cefwyn was sleeping with Heryn’s twin sisters, Orien
and Tarien.

Tristen was as innocent a soul as ever Cefwyn had met…

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incapable of anger, feckless, and utterly outspoken, but
wizardous at the very least. When Tristen confessed he was
Mauryl’s, Cefwyn’s curiosity was immediately engaged; and
when Cefwyn began to deal with Tristen, he found himself snared
indeed—for after his grandfather’s anger and his father’s cold
dislike of him, after the northern lords’ wish for Efanor and his
own brother’s desertion, this was the only wholehearted offer of
a stranger’s friendship he had ever met.

Meanwhile Tristen continued to learn… for he was a blank slate
on which Mauryl’s spell was still writing, Unfolding new things
in wizardous fashion, at need, and providing him knowledge
unpredictable in its scope and its deficiency. Tristen wondered at
butterflies… and asked questions that shot straight to the
prince’s heart.

Cefwyn’s affection toward this wizardous stranger made Duke
Heryn Aswydd hasten his plans… for Cefwyn was growing fey
and difficult. Heryn used King Ináreddrin’s suspicion of his son
to lure the king and Prince Efanor to Amefel… hoping then to do
away with Cefwyn and the younger prince in the same stroke as
the king, and thus overthrow the Marhanen dynasty.

Prince Efanor, however, had not ridden with the king; he had
ridden straight to Cefwyn to accuse and berate his brother,
determined to find out the truth ahead of their father’s arrival, to
spring any trap upon himself if one existed. It was a brave act.

And when Cefwyn knew his father had listened to Lord Heryn, he
was horrified, and rode at once to prevent the ambush, no matter
Fortress of Owls - C.J. Cherryh - Fortress 03

the danger.

He arrived too late, and was almost overwhelmed by the force
that had killed the king; but the knowledge of warfare Unfolded
to Tristen that day, on that battlefield, and the gentle stranger
turned warrior. He rescued the princes, defeated Heryn’s allies—

and when Cefwyn reached Henas’amef not only unexpectedly
alive, but king of Ylesuin, Heryn paid with his life for his treason.

Tristen, however, strayed into the hills, where he fell in with the
Lord Regent of Elwynor, who was dying, in hiding from the same
enemies as had killed his old enemy lndreddrin. The old Regent’s
last wish was to bring his daughter Ninévrisë to Cefwyn
Marhanen—as his bride… for the only hope for the Regency now
was peace with Ylesuin.

So Tristen brought Lady Ninévrisë to Cefwyn, and Cefwyn
Marhanen, new king of Ylesuin, fell headlong in love with the
new Regent of Elwynor.

Tristen, for his services, became a lord of Ylesuin, no longer
mocked for his simplicity, but now feared, for no one who had
seen him fight could discount him. And Heryn’s sister Orien
became duchess of Amefel, since Cefwyn was not ready to set
aside the entire dynasty, and had seen none but ordinary flaws in
Orien. Orien, however, was bent on revenge and lied in her
oaths. Lacking armies, lacking skill in war, she sought another
means to power… and became prey to sorcerous whispers from
the enemy, Hasufin Heltain.