King Edward, Part IVAnonymoushistoryghostsèÒ) ¸žÀ <{Á!Þ&é+¤/F4×8ùýKing Edward, Part IVù Chap 4: Stories Edward faced his mother defiantly. "I'm not sick and I'm not ababy. I can stay here by myself. I don't need Mith." There was a dangerous glint in Moraelyn's eyes. Aliera's lipsthinned. "You will mind him, Edward." "Yes, madam," Edward said sulkily. "Come on, wife. Mith knows how to deal with princes who don'twant his company." The three adults laughed a bit in theirirritating way at a joke he didn't understand. The weather was drizzly and Edward had the sniffles. His motherhad decided that he should not go out, even though they wereonly going visiting. Moraelyn had taken his side, but threw outöhis hands and raised his brows at Edward in a helpless gesturewhen Aliera insisted that he stay behind. Mith, whom Edwardliked the least of the Companions, had volunteered to staywith him. Even Ssa'ass would have been better. Mith was --scruffy looking. Like a stableboy. And cheeky, even for aCompanion. Edward sulked silently for awhile longer. Mithhad fetched a broom and was sweeping the house out, brushingdirt from the room above into the room Edward was in. What onearth was the use of staying in when there wasn't really any'in' to stay in? Edward got tired of sulking, fetched a broomand went up to help sweep. "Mith", Edward said. "have you ever been to the CrystalTower?" "I have. It's an unchancy place at first, but you'll growused to it." Mith was applying his broom with energy andwhistling. Sweeping was kind of fun here. There weren't anysides to the platforms so all you had to do was brush the dirtand leaves over the side. You started at the top and workedyour way down. "You're quick with the broom, Mith. I haven't half finished myside yet. Will there be others there like me?" "Oh, some children, I'd think. Most'll be somewhat older. AndI should be quick with a broom. My father had me sweeping out theöking's stables when I was your age. I used to dream and talk toomuch like you; he beat me for it. So I learned to be quick." Edward swept faster, stirring up dust. "Not like that, boy.Watch me. Anyway, there's no hurry; it's just habit with me.Moraelyn'd serve me my head on a platter if I touched you.My father, heh, he was always ... well, he was a hard man toplease. He was a Nord." "Your father?" Edward stared at Mith, but Mith looked muchlike the other Dark Elves he'd seen. Not many. Dark elves didn'tcome to Daggerfall; Corcyr had banned them. But he'd seensome on his rare trips to other courts. And there were some inFirsthold besides Moraelyn and Mith. "Did he have red hair?"Mith's hair was a dark red. Corcyr had red hair. "He tended thestables for Moraelyn?" No wonder Mith looked like astableboy. But Edward kept his tone polite. Mith had a sharptongue ... and Edward knew that neither of his parents wouldbe sympathetic if he complained that Mith had beenimpertinent. "He did have red hair. Maybe I got mine from him ... but mostlymixed elf and human children come out dark elf. No, Moraelynwasn't a king then or expecting to be ... 'sides this was inBlacklight, where I was born. Moraelyn's brother was king inEbonheart in those days. He came up to visit our King andöbrought Moraelyn along. To keep him out of trouble, he said."Mith grinned. "I grinned when I heard him say that, and I sawthe boy looking at me out of the tail of his eye, but hewouldn't take notice. Like I was the dirt or something worse. Hisbrother tossed him a pouch and told him to go into town andget his knife mended. Jerked his thumb at me and told me to showhim the way. "Moraelyn said he didn't need an escort to find a store andstalked off like princes do." Mith grinned knowingly atEdward. But the grin was not unfriendly. Edward smiled backa bit, and Mith went on. "Our king eyeballed me, so I took offafter him. Moraelyn didn't spare me so much as a glance.Went four blocks out of his way, down by the wharfs, and when Itried to tell him where the store was he shoved me right off thepier. I could Levitate, of course, but he caught me bysurprise and I went in with a big splash ... and everyonelaughing like jackasses. I got myself out and went straight tothe store and waited for him ... but not so he could see me ...and when he finally showed up, I lifted the pouch right offhim. He didn't even know it was gone. So in he goes and tossesthe knife on the counter and tells the smith to fix it rightoff. Which he does. Only then Moraelyn can't pay him ... tellsthe smith he's the King of Ebonheart's brother ... the smith justölaughs and says, "And I'm the Archmagister" ... then the smithcalls the guard and three of them show up. "Well, Moraelyn wasn't what he is now -- three guardswouldn't even warm him up nowadays -- but he was even fasterthen. He was out of there so fast he nearly knocked me over atthe door. He lost the guards pretty quick; all that armorslows 'em down. I found him crouching in a hedge maze in thepark. He was doubled over out of breath but still I stood agood ways off while I asked him real nasty if he needed anescort back to the Palace. Not that I was planning to goback. I was gonna take the money and run and never look back, Itell you. But I had to have the last word. I wasn't born highbut I was born proud. "He glared at me for a minute or so, catching his breath, thenhe just rolled over and started to laugh that laugh of his.Prince or no, I started to like him then. When we'd finishedlaughing, more or less, we started talking. I told him I didn'twant to go back. Nor dared to. "'Princes don't get blamed, Prince,' I said, 'Stableboysdo.' He said that wasn't entirely the case, but he saw my point.Then he said that as I was his escort then he must obey hisbrother and come with me. And that his name was Moraelyn, notPrince. We've been together ever since ... more or less."ö Edward smiled politely. He could see why Mith had run away,but not why Moraelyn had gone with him. Unless he was afraid toface his brother about the stolen money. Edward tried toimagine Moraelyn being afraid to face anyone and failed. "Iwish I was brave. Like you and Moraelyn." "Why, you are brave. And your courage will grow with therest of you." "Are there only High Elf boys at the Tower?" "There'll be other sorts, too, most likely. A few Dark Elves,for sure. D'ye miss your own kind?" Edward shook his head. "Human boys don't like me much anyway.Nor High Elf boys..." His eyes filled suddenly and he turnedhis head away. But Mith's voice was unexpectedly gentle. "Ithought you wanted to go to the Tower." "I do. But--" "You'll be lonely." Edward nodded. "That's a hard thing to face." "Did you go there alone, Mith?" "No. Moraelyn did, but he was older than you, by a good bit.A grown man, in fact. They didn't take any but High Elfstudents in those days, you know. But Moraelyn heard of themand said he wanted to go there. We were together already, theöseven of us, save for Aliera, and a handy bunch in a fight.Moraelyn had already gotten that Dragon's Blade he wears,and the Dragon's Tooth to go with it ... remind me to tell youabout that sometime ... and he was a famous fighter already.And the rest of us ain't bums neither. But he thought we couldbe better at the spellcasting and the Tower was the place tolearn that. Well, no one goes near the Tower without aninvitation. No one. No one would even tell you where it was.But they'd tell you where NOT to go. So he went there. Alone.One morning he was gone and there a note saying for us to waitfor him. So we did, here in Firsthold. He was gone two weeks, thenhe came back one night, rowing across with the tide. He just saidthey'd accepted him, but he couldn't say anything more aboutit. But he asked me to come back with him. "'They want me?' I asked him. 'Well, they've accepted one Dark Elf,' he said. 'One moreshouldn't bother them too much.' So we go there, and bless me if the Archmagister himself didn'tmeet us at the door and demand to know the meaning of this. Iwanted to turn myself into a rock. I was wishing hard that Iwas stable dung. And figured I was like to get my wish soon.But Moraelyn speaks up real polite that this is the friend he'dmentioned and the Archmagister had expressed an interest in hisöabilities, and naturally he'd want to see for himself ... "But the Archmagister was real interested. See, they don'twear armor or carry anything but a staff and a dagger. Theythink it interferes with their spellcasting, all that metal.But Moraelyn could cast pretty well even with chain and withany one-hand weapon at all. And I could cast wearing leatherand as much as a saber, though it's an unwieldy weapon; I likemy short sword better. Truth, they didn't think that much ofme, but Moraelyn ... he'd camped outside their door. And whenthey tried to move him he just sat there. They threw all thespells they had at him, the troll guards ... everything.Nothing. He laid the trolls out flat and left 'em toregenerate. If they tried to beat him with their staffs he'dward them off with his blade ... and the spells didn't turnhim a hair." Edward's mouth gaped open. "How'd he do that? He said--" "Well, it was a trick, in a way. He'd picked up something thatcame natural to Willow. See, Willow is different." "I didn't know Willow could cast." "Well, she doesn't have any magicka, ordinarily ... but shecan absorb it if you cast a spell AT her, see. O'course itwasn't much use to her, since she'd never been able to learnwhat t'do with it once she got it. Couldn't get it back once itöwas gone, so she couldn't practice. Until Morelyn got holdof her and trained her. Well, Moraelyn had figured out prettymuch how Willow did what she did ... though it cost Moraelynmagicka to do what came natural to Willow. So Moraelyn satthere absorbing everything they threw at him and burning it offinto a big shield. Drove 'em wild." "He said the Archmagister could best him, though." Edwardsuspected that Mith was making up the whole story. "Well, so he did, when he finally came. But all the rest of'em together couldn't do it. And all Moraelyn wanted was tostudy with them. We were a sight, the two of us dark elves inour battle gear among all that white and gold. I felt like afish out of water, but Moraelyn was interested in what they hadto say ... and you can bet they hung on every word he said. Not too many words at first. After a fortnight or so, he toldme one night to tell the Archmagister that he'd be back in acouple of days. And he shows up with Silk. 'Course he'd beentelling 'em about the Khajiits ... and they'd been askingquestions. "The Archmagister's no fool. He just stared at Silk, and shepurred real loud and rubbed up against him and asked "How yadoin', Archmagister, baby?" "The Archmagister kinda pushes Silk away and says in a whisper,ö"How--many--more?" "'Just two, sir.' "'What are they?' "'Wood elves, sir.' "'Just wood elves. Plain ordinary wood elves. No horns,hooves or tails.' "'Yes sir. Ah, one of them has an extraordinary Absorbability with some very unusual features. The other's just aBard.' "'Very well. You may bring the one with the Absorb. We don'twant a Bard. They are not true mages.' "'Well, that's most generous of you, sir, but the Bard's herbrother, sir and I swore to their parents that I wouldn'tseparate them. So it'll just be the three of us.' "'Her brother.' "'Aye, a pair of twins.' "'You may bring them both.' "So three days later he's back with the twins AND Ssa'ass ANDSlave. The Archmagister looks at them and sort of bobs up anddown, but he speaks real quiet. 'Dark Elf, by pair of twins,did you mean TWO SETS of twins? Are you going to tell methat these -- these are twins?' "Well, I could see that Moraelyn was kinda sorry he hadn'töthought of trying that, but he said, 'No sir, the twins areBeech and Willow. The Argonian and the Nord are notprospective initiates. They are specimens. For yourcollection. You don't have any like them so I thought--' "'You thought. I do not have a dragon either. Are you goingto think to bring me that next?' "'Oh, aye, I could. Would you like one?' "'Tell me you are not serious.' "'Well, I couldn't promise. And it would take quite a longtime, a year maybe, but--' "The Archmagister's eyes rolled up toward heaven. 'Thank you,All-Mother, I have at least a year to prepare,' hewhispered." Edward was shocked, though fascinated, "I don'tthink Mats and Ssa'ass should have been made specimens. They'repeople. Even if they aren't elves." Mith shrugged, "Oh, they made Ssa'ass an initiate when theyfound out that he had some interesting Heal spells." "But Mats?" "Mats never minds anything. He hasn't a bit of magic; hecouldn't be an initiate. Anyway he'd have hated it. He spent histime gaming with the guards. When he wasn't being studied.Seems he has some interesting magic resistances. Anyway,since then, the initiates aren't just High Elves. And they don'töall follow the Mage way." "I shall. I shall be just like the Archmagister." "Oh, aye, exactly," Moraelyn's voice sounded lightly behindhim. "I'll cut the ears off a donkey for thee and dye thy skinwith saffron. Bleach thy hair white and stretch thee a foot--"Moraelyn swung him high. "Art well, son? Told thee so,Aliera. He's not ill at all. Good, because the Archmagister'sreturned. We go to the Tower tomorrow." "We" was just Moraelyn and Edward. Aliera had caughtEdward's cold and they took some pleasure in insisting sheremain in bed. Moraelyn rowed them across the river in asmall boat and they walked for most of the day, resting alittle at midday. It was evening when they reached the tower andthe setting sun was glinting off it. Even the sea far belowlooked red. There was a hush over the countryside. "It's tall, isn't it?" Edward paused to look. "Towers generally are." "Did you really--" Edward broke off. Questions starting inthat fashion did not draw satisfactory answers from the elf. "Has Mith been telling thee tales? He's had ten years to polishthat one. I doubt not it glistens like the Tower." "He told me how you met, too."ö "I thought he would." "I didn't understand why you went off with him? He was a thiefand a stableboy and you were a prince." "You have just named three excellent reasons, Prince." "You never give me serious answers." "A serious charge. Very well, then. I saw myself throughMith's eyes and misliked what I saw: a callous bully and acoward, fit to be neither boy nor man nor prince. Why did yourun off, Prince?" Edward hung his head mutely. "Nay, I do not require answers.Come, it grows late." Moraelyn reached his hand for Edward's, but Edward shook himoff. If Moraelyn was a coward what did that make Edward? Helooked at the Tower door where Moraelyn had demanded and wonentrance, though all would shut him out. Edward could neverdo anything like that, but at least he could walk in on his ownas an invited guest. ö