
raised to pull them down.
It was whispered that the known "Power" which Lord Simon had had and used was
in
his sons also. And that they had conspired, against all rightful custom, to
aid
their sister out of the House of the Witches where she trained. There was a
very
strange thing about them, unknown elsewhere in the world; the three had been
born at one birthing! Thus, they were very close.
I speak of these three because they caused the changing of my life, and the
lives of all who dwelt in Lord Hervon's household. And I, myself, was eager
to
hear all I could of the young lords who, as their father before them,
differed
from our kind.
Karsten being no longer to be feared, Lord Hervon had set about realizing his
own dream for the future. During his riding up and down the land in his
hosting,
he had found a place which seemed to him a fair setting for a manor. And none
would gainsay his claim as it lay well to the east, in a section of the
country
which had long been forsaken and half forgotten.
Thus, we set out for this place to build anew in a peace which still seemed
strange and which we still doubted, so men went armed and we kept sentries
about. There were fifty of us, mainly men—though the Lady Chriswitha had five
women in her household and she had also her daughters, her sisters, and their
husbands, as well as a child born two years after me to her younger sister,
who
died thereafter.
Now I must speak of Crytha—yet that is difficult. For from the time I looked
down into her cradle on the hearth-side, there was something which tied me to
her, in spite of all reason. No kin-tie lay between us, nor could any. For by
the ancient custom of our people, she must wed Imhar when the time was right,
thus unifying the lordship Hervon was determined to found.
She was truly of the Old Race, dark and slender. And to my eyes, there was
always something a little remote about her, as if she sometimes said, or
heard,
that which was not shared by those about her.
Because of my weakly boyhood, I was closer in companionship with Crytha than
Imhar, and she began to turn to me in little things, asking that I aid her in
nursing a wing-broken bird and the like. For it was apparent from her
earliest
years that she had a gift of healcraft.
That her talents went farther than that I learned when I was near the age to
ride with the Borderers (having gained strength to the point that I could
call
myself a fighter, if not an outstanding one). I had come upon her unawares by
the brook which ran near the farm-garth which, at that time, the Lady
Chriswitha
called home.
Crytha sat very still in the grass, which there grew nearly as high as the
top
of her head. Her eyes were closed as if she slept, but she moved her hands
gently back and forth. I watched her, puzzled, and then saw, with sick horror
rising in me, there coiled in the grass a snake perhaps as long as my sword
arm.
Its head was raised and swayed, following the command of Crytha's hand. I
would
have drawn steel and slain the thing, but I found I could not move.
At length she clapped her hands and opened her eyes. The snake dropped its