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.He unlidded his eyes, like two silver snuff-boxes."Welcome, Your Highness," this unlit candle declared above the tumult, his phonetics clicking in theRimanian accent, "welcome Lords and Ladies." But it sounded like "Veltcome, Yourk Hightness,veltcome, Lorcds ant ladties.""The ship," shouted the Prince, pushing past the closed eye of the Light on its pedestal in the room'scenter.He looked down from the latticed windows, barred with chill iron against the ocean's siege."Vun ist vrecket alreatty," said the Keeper."Aknothert comest."Page 201 "You have doomed one ship and now you say a second follows the same path, Master Grullsbodnr?"the Bard bellowed angrily.It was true.The second vessel was smaller than her sister.Lanterns swung from the rigging.Their glowspilled sporadically on flowing-haired figures wearing long gowns.Their mouths were open.They werescreaming.The Bard swore vehemently."There are women aboard!""And yet." Edward murmured.His voice trailed away."No kmessagte.No copmandt," intoned the Lightkeeper glacially."Be wary," cried Alys, "I mislike the look of this.What ensigns does the captain hoist? I see none.""See how the wind has torn the sails! How might ensigns remain untouched?" Ercildoune returned."Theyshould be ripped to rags!" He and the Duchess disputed, then, like quarreling rooks, in this high nest onits granite tree, until the Bard bawled, "While we stand in discussion, the second ship is driven upon therocks.Master Grullsbodnr, kindle the Light at once!"The aged Iceman shook his head."Ta Light not sheint vidout ta kmessagte.""Rohain, I appeal to you!" The Bard drove his fist against the Light's pedestal."I am of one mind with you, Thomas.Sir?" Rohain turned to Edward."I do not know," the Prince shouted against the din, desperately grappling with indecision."Grullsbodnris right, and yet if these mariners are indeed mortal and should perish, the shadow of this grievousmisdeed will lie heavy on us forever.They might well have been blown off course."The Duchess Alys plucked at his coat."Sir," she said, "our own course must not deviate.The mandate isunambiguous.For generations it has obtained security for the royal island.I rode here to prevent folly if Icould.The Light must not be kindled this night.""And I concur," Avenel declared.As they spoke, another blistering flare displayed a ghastly scene on the rocks below.The second shiphad fetched up on their points at last.She tottered.Amid the churning flood, human forms clung tobroken spars.Some were overtaken by long valleys, emerging at the summits of crests, sliding downagain through dark walls of hyacinth glass, to reappear no more."It is too much to be borne," Rohain exclaimed, "two ships destroyed.We might have saved the last.Wemust send boats without delay, to aid any that survive in the water.""No boat would live long out there," Avenel said.On the second ship, the firefly lanterns had all winked out.Only the nautilus curve of her side now liftedand dropped on the storm's pulse, sinking lower in the water, a mere evanescence of bent wood andruined canvas, in its death throes no longer a ship, merely a broken thing.Page 202 Edward touched Rohain's sleeve.His eyes clouded."Forgive me."She nodded acknowledgment, unable to speak.The fenestrations fretted in the gale, the panes rattling in their metal grooves like prisoners shaking thebars of their cells."I am sick," the Bard said."I am sick to my very marrow that we should stand thusly by and let thishappen on the chance that it is some ruse of unseelie.If this vision is a forgery, what of it? Do we nothave Lutey the mage who breaks spells, do we not have strong men and hounds to hunt down anymischief that should infiltrate?""Your heart governs your head, Ercildoune," warned Alys."And were that a more prevalent condition, mortalkind must find itself in better state!" he returnedwarmly."Drowned, all drowned, those brave folk, and their corpses to wash up, bloated and staring,along the shores of Tamhania this many a day, a mute reproach, the more terrible in its silence."The windows clattered.Between the leading and the wands of iron, the diamond panes wept salt tears.The Tower room was cold and dreary.Its freeze seeped through Rohain's sodden clothing and into hersinews.The wind's ululation dropped away somewhat, enabling softer speech, but there was nothing tosay.It was after midnight "We should depart," said Avenel bleakly.Rohain stole one last glance through the salt-misted lattices, out across the wild sea.Then, with an altered mien, she turned away from the view.Seizing a candle out of a branch encrustedwith dribbles of congealed wax, she stepped up to the Light in its glass cage atop the pedestal."Lightkeeper, open the Light's door," she commanded in a clear voice."I shall kindle it myself, if youshall not."Edward, filling her place at the window glanced out.Sharply, he said, "Obey, Master Grullsbodnr.""The future king has spoken," subjoined the Bard, scowling at the Iceman.The Lightkeeper unfastened the little door.Rohain reached her hand inside.The buttercup candleentered, met the wick, and inflamed it.The wick was surrounded by polished mirrors.Stark white radiance stood out from them like a solid barof frost-quartz.Somewhere, clockwork machinery started up.Spring-and-sildron engines whirred andthe Light began to rotate.It sent its steely beam through the lattices, far out into the dread of night, overfrothing, coughing reefs and farther until, over the trackless ocean, the bounding main, it stretched itselftoo thin, becoming nothing.Rohain had espied a third vessel down there a lifeboat.Its sail seemed as small as apocket-handkerchief.It was in the channel now.By the Light of the Tower, in protected waters, it steered true straight forPage 203 the gap between the headlands.On board were three shipwreck survivors.The young mother stayed atthe tiller while two tiny children clung to each other beside the streak of a mast.The Bard and the Seneschal ran down the stairs, calling to the squires in the stables to launch theLightkeeper's geola , that they might meet the fragile craft as it entered the harbor.Past the Tower on its northern headland sailed the boat with its three passengers, beneath the singlespoke of the wheel of light.The watchers in the upper room could see them clearly, could see their facesnow the courageous, tragic mother, the darling children standing up and spreading their arms wide forbalance.But why had they done so? Why let go of the mast? And their arms had a strange looknow they seemed to be stretching.the children were growing
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