Mists of Everness (The War of the Dreaming) Read Free

standing on a crag overlooking the valley. “Come forward, Meadow Mouse: I will not harm you. But do not step within my charmed circle, for I have drawn the rune Algiz, the rune of protection, all about me here with my foot.”
    Meadow Mouse crept forward meekly. He saw the marks clawed into the rock all around where Pigeonhawk stood, but he could not tell if it were a secret magical system of writing or not. Frankly, it looked like bird scratches to him.
    “Do not speak!” said Pigeonhawk. “I know what has sent you to me. The Princess has lost her name. I know the emptiness such loss entails, for I myself once had another name, a name I carried for another. I shall not return his old name to him till he learns contrition, repentance, and remorse. Likewise, the Princess shall not regain her name until she learns forgiveness.
    “Listen, and I shall tell you the secret of our world. Our world is a false one, a copy or image of the true world, which is beyond the reach of our senses. It is from that true world our Princess comes, a place and condition that I cannot describe nor can you imagine. I will, however, attempt to tell you one mystery of that world.
    “There is a thing there called Death. I do not know what color this thing can be, nor shape, but certain mystics envision it as something like a great evil king, tall as a mountain and black as night. When Death strikes, all your limbs go numb, and your body falls and rots away, and your thoughts depart and do not return. It is like Forgetfulness, but deeper. It is like being eaten by an owl, yet you do not get up again. It is a horror beyond any thing we know.
    “In the true world, certain spirits living there are under the curse that they do not know whence fly their thoughts after death strikes. If one spirit puts Death upon another, that is a great unkindness and evil: it is called murder.
    “In that other world, the Princess fell in love with a raven-spirit who was under such a curse and who committed this unkindness to Galen Amadeus Waylock, whose secret name is Parzifal. I see you know of whom I speak.
    “For a day and a night of the true world, which is equal to an age here, the raven-spirit kept his crime a secret from his love; and when she discovered it, she fled here to our world, using the Silver Key of Everness. But she was as innocent of the mysteries of our world as we are of theirs; and when Forgetfulness, summoned by her weeping, came upon her, she did not know the Three Signs to raise in her defense.
    “And so our Princess dances on the meadow-grass, and dances in the moonlight, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Nor can she go home again, nor use the Key of Everness, for she has forgotten why she sorrows, why she dances, or what is her name.
    “Many ages of our world have passed, and time in that world also; days, or weeks.
    “Now you may ask me three questions. Speak, but choose with care. For we shall one day be brought to a high place and judged on the prudence of our actions.”
    VIII
    Meadow Mouse nervously brushed his whiskers with his paw, staring up at the gold-eyed bird of prey. Meadow Mouse thought carefully, then asked, “If Parzifal were brought back from the dead, and the Raven bridegroom brought here to remind her of her name, would our Princess remember and forgive him?”
    “Only if the Raven did the deed himself, with none to aid him, could she forgive—if he repented his fear of death, which led him to the crime, and healed all harms that fear had caused.”
    And because he had been cautioned to be wise, Meadow Mouse thought carefully and asked, “Is there any price for this?”
    The Pigeonhawk said, “Yes; the Princess will meet Death that day, and Death will reach out his great talon to carry her away.”
    Meadow Mouse’s alarm made him ask, “Can I save her?”
    “No.”
    And for a time, the great Pigeonhawk was silent, but then he spoke, as if to elaborate upon that answer. “Only one might save her; but he is