'Stay well hidden,' he called down to Stumble before he ran lightly down the steps and crossed the cobbles to the doors of Candlebane Hall.

152.

'Nevian?' he called, entering the tall echoing hall. 'Where are you, Nevian?'

A soft light glowed on the high dais of the throne, moving through all the hues and colours of a summer afternoon.

'I am here, Thanehand, sitting at the feet of Kings. Come to me.' Thane crossed the smooth polished marble floor, frowning at the emptiness, and hurried between the high fluted columns of broken candle stems to the throne.

'Where are all the candles?' he asked. 'This place was once so full of light it hurt your eyes to enter on a dark night.'

Nevian laughed, taking Thane's hand and guiding him to sit on the empty throne. 'The city has been siege-locked by the Nightbeasts, Thane, and it cost every candle for King Holbian to break the siege and rise triumphant against their shadows.'

Thane frowned, 'Break the siege? The city is weak and the King is gone, how can that be a triumph?'

Nevian smiled and turned to watch the grey hours flood the sky with cold dawn light. 'Long ago, young man, when Elundium was new formed, Krulshards, the Master of Darkness, strove to steal my daylight. We both fought and argued, setting his Nightbeasts and Nightmares against my Warhorses and the Granite Kings until,' Nevian paused, drawing the rainbow cloak over Thane's legs against the chill dawn winds, 'until in haste I took King Holbian, the last Granite King, from the living rock wall before he was whole, before he was fit to be a King. He had a terrible flaw that I had overlooked.

He feared the dark. Krulshards was quick to find his weakness and through it he has brought darkness and despair to all Elundium.'

'Where is the triumph then?' demanded Thane.

Nevian laughed, clapping his hands together. 'Where is the King? That should be your question. Where is the last Granite King? Show me which corner he hides in.'

Thane stared in bewilderment at the Master of Magic and answered, 'Perhaps he lies crushed beneath the fallen tower.'

153.

Nevian's laughter faded. 'He has gone, Thane. I know not where, but he overcame his fear of the dark and used every candle from this hall to keep back the Nightbeasts. He

cheated Krulshards out of his victory and left him only ruin!'

'But the Nightbeasts are bringing darkness and ruin everywhere.- Elionbel and her mother are with Krulshards!' Thane cried. 'I heard the Nightbeasts talking about their victory while we hid from them in a clump of tanglewood trees. We only escaped capture when the Nightbeasts saw Arbel on the Greenway; they thought it was me.'

Nevian sighed, putting his hands on Thane's shoulders.

'Krulshards has gone, and the ruins of this city are nothing but a fool's victory. Revenge against you, Thane, ran him clear across Elundium to take Elionbel and fear of you, Thane, drives him onwards.'

'Fear of me?' asked Thane. 'How could the Nightmare fear me?'

'Because you do not fear his darkness. Thane, Krulshards has a weakness as great as King Holbian's; he has shown how his power is born of fear, of fearing the dark, but you fight amongst his Nightbeasts and brush his Nightmares aside. You enter the City of Night and bring light to all his secret places; you drove him out of the darkness. You are the beginning of a new age and he knows not how to fight you, save through revenge.

'Through Elionbel!'

'Yes, Thane, she has in many ways been your weakness, drawing you, luring you. Krulshards sees this and through her he will try and destroy you. He has Elionbel and her mother, Martbel, tied by his life thread. Harm him and the thread tightens around their throats choking them to death.'

'How can I fight against this Nightmare? How can I ever rescue Elionbel?'

'I know not,' whispered Nevian, 'but you must follow in Krulshards' footsteps and find the way. You must follow your fate wherever it leads for all Elundium waits on your purpose.'

it- . .

Thane rose to his feet and gripped Nevian's hand. 'I feel so weak and helpless against Krulshards and so afraid that I will fail.'

'Yet you have trodden where only Kings can go and brought defeat to the very doors of night. Look to the morning, Thane, and find hope in the new daylight. Look for the Nightmare's shadow, for that is his greatest weakness.'

'Everything I have touched the Nightmare has destroyed,'

Thane whispered, turning to face the beginnings of a new daylight.

'He is desperate, Thane, and sees his own ruin in you. You are the new Elundium that does not fear the dark. The power

that will one day put an end to his Nightmares and his Nightbeasts.'

Thane laughed bitterly. 'You talk of power and Kings and yet I walk alone in the darkness with only a lame friend at my side. I have nothing with which to fight this Nightmare but the blade Duclos gave me at our parting on the lawns of Gildersleeves.'

Nevian turned sharply, throwing the rainbow cloak across his shoulder, filling the Candle Hall with the light and beauty of a summer day. 'You are a fool if you think that, Thane.

Even now the armourers are hammering out hot iron on the anvil and the Warhorses, Border Runners and Battle Owls are fretting to fight the darkness. Come with me to the top of the wall and see if you strive alone.'

Catching Thane's hand in his own, Nevian ran out through

the Candledoors across the cobbles and up the narrow winding steps. 'Look!' he commanded, throwing his arms open. Thane caught his breath and gazed out across the still, dark fields and hedgerows to the black horizonaeverywhere there were lights, ribbons of slow-moving lights spread out in a wide crescent as far as he could see. Columns of fastermoving lights pressed through the crescent and raced up over the hillocks or vanished into small valleys only to reappear moments later.

'You are not alone!' Nevian laughed. 'That is the vanguard of the army you led on the high plateau. They have marched and galloped without rest on your heels.'

'They come too late. Too late to save the Granite City and too late to save Elionbel.'

'It is your place to follow the Master of Nightbeasts, Thane.

Tombel and your grandfather Thoron will turn the warriors and hunt the Nightbeasts throughout Elundium."

'Which way do I travel?' Thane asked, his foot on the top

rung of the siege ladder. .

Nevian looked to the horizon edge to where the sun was beginning to burn with a bright red fire. 'Look in all the wild places where the sun does not shine. Follow the flight of the grey swans.'

'Stumble is lame!' Thane called as he descended the ladder.

Nevian laughed, 'I am the Master of Magic and I say he is sound and ready for the road!'

'You are a great power!' Thane answered, calling up into the grey morning light.

Nevian sighed quietly to himself, 'I am but a shadow

against your power, Thane, for in you there is a power that succeeds without magic.' Thane reached the first rung of the ladder and jumped down on to the ground. Stumble whinnied and trotted to meet him.

'Nevian has touched you,' Thane cried, seeing the horse moving soundly, 'and he has taken the horseshoe from my belt without me seeing or feeling it go. He is truly a great magician.'

'Follow the swans!' Nevian cried. 'Hurry, hurry!'

'Which way?' Thane shouted, looking up at the rainbow coat flapping in the morning breeze.