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love him.
Does that count for anything, he wondered; striving to master the deep fear
the Wood always aroused in him.
It seemed that it might, for Tabor stopped his horse fifty yards from the
trees and sat quietly, watching the dark forest. Ivor halted some distance
behind. He felt a longing to call his son's name, to call him back from
wherever he had gone, was going.
He did not. Instead, when Tabor, murmuring something his father could not
hear, slipped from his mount and walked into the forest, Ivor did the bravest
deed of all his days, and followed. No call of any god could make Ivor dan
Banor let his son walk tranced into Pendaran Wood alone.
And thus did it come to pass that father and both sons entered into the Great
Wood that night.
Tabor did not go far. The trees were thin yet at the edge of the forest, and
the red moon lit their path with a strangely befitting light. None of this,
Ivor thought, belonged to the daylight world. It was very quiet. Too quiet, he
realized, for there was a breeze, he could feel it on his skin, and yet it
made no sound among the leaves. The hair rose up on the back of Ivor's neck.
Fighting for calm in the enchanted silence, he saw Tabor suddenly stop ten
paces ahead, holding himself very still. And a moment later Ivor saw a glory
step from the trees to stand before his son.
Westward was the sea, she had known that, though but newly born. So east she
had walked from the birthing place she shared with Lisen-though that she did
not know-and as she passed among the gathered powers, seen and unseen, a
murmur like the forest's answer to the sea had risen up and fallen like a wave
in the Wood.
Very lightly she went, knowing no other way to tread the earth, and on either
side the creatures of the forest did her homage, for she was Dana's, and a
gift in time of war, and so was much more than beautiful.
And as she traveled, there came a face into the eye of her mind-how, she knew
not, nor would ever-
but from the time that was before she was, a face appeared to her, nut-brown,
very young, with dark unruly hair, and eyes she needed to look into. Besides,
and more than anything, this one knew her
name. So here and there her path turned as she sought, all unknowing, delicate
and cloaked in majesty, a certain place within the trees.
Then she was there and he was there before her, waiting, a welcome in those
eyes, and a final acceptance of what she was, all of her, both edges of the
gift.
She felt his mind in hers like a caress, and nudged him back as if with her
horn. Only each other, at the last, she thought, her first such thought.
Whence had it come?
I knew, his mind answered her. There will be war.
For this was I birthed, she replied, aware of a sudden of what lay sheathed
within the light, light grace of her form. It frightened her.
He saw this and came nearer. She was the color of the risen moon, but the horn
that brushed the grass when she lowered her head for his touch was silver.
My name? she asked.
Imraith-Nimphais, he told her, and she felt power burst within her like a
star.
Joyously she asked, Would you fly?
She felt him hesitate.
I would not let you fall, she told him, a little hurt.
She felt his laughter then. Oh, I know, bright one, he said, but if we fly you
may be seen and our time is not yet come.
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She tossed her head impatiently, her mane rippling. The trees were thinner
here, she could see the stars, the moon. She wanted them. There is no one to
see but one man, she told him. The sky was calling her.
My father, he said. I love him.
Then so will I, she answered, but now I would fly. Come!
And within her then he said, I will, and moved to mount astride her back. He
was no weight at all;
she was very strong and would be stronger yet. She bore him past the other,
older man, and because
Tabor loved him, she lowered her horn to him as they went by.
Then they were clear of the trees, and there was open grass and oh, the sky,
all the sky above. For the first time she released her wings and they rose in
a rush of joy to greet the stars and the moon whose child she was. She could
feel his mind within hers, the exulting of his heart, for they were bound
forever, and she knew that they were glorious, wheeling across the wide night
sky, Imraith-
Nimphais and the Rider who knew her name.
When the chestnut unicorn his son rode lowered her head to him as they passed,
Ivor could not keep the tears from his eyes. He always cried too easily, Leith
used to scold, but this, surely this transcendency . . . ?
And then, turning to follow them, he saw it become even more, for the unicorn
took flight. Ivor lost all track of time then, seeing Tabor and the creature
of his fast go soaring across the night. He could almost share the joy they
felt in the discovery of flight, and he felt blessed in his heart. He had
walked into Pendaran and come out alive to see this creature of the Goddess
bear his son like a comet above the Plain.
He was too much a Chieftain and too wise to forget that there was a darkness
coming. Even this creature, this gift, could not be an easy thing, not colored
as she was like the moon, like blood. Nor would Tabor ever be the same, he
knew. But these sorrows were for the daylight-tonight he could let his heart
fly with the two of them, the two young ones at play in the wind between him
and the stars. Ivor laughed, as he had not in years, like a child.
After an unknown time they came down gently, not far from where he stood. He
saw his son lay his head against that of the unicorn, beside the silver
shining of its horn. Then Tabor stepped back, and the creature turned, moving
with terrible grace, and went back into the darkness of the Wood.
When Tabor turned to him, his eyes were his own again. Wordlessly, for there
were no words, Ivor held out his arms and his youngest child ran into them.
"You saw?" Tabor asked finally, his head against his father's chest.
"I did. You were glorious."
Tabor straightened, his eyes reclaiming their dance, their youth. "She bowed
to you! I didn't ask. I
just said you were my father and I loved you, so she said she would love you,
too, and she bowed."
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