Chapter 10

Time seems so endless. It drifts by without meaning, without reality.
Sometimes I feel so hot - my flesh seems to burn. Faces; I see faces; faces
without names. Distant voices; voices from yesterday; an echo of the past.
Why am I here? What is wrong with me? Pain; I feel pain in my shoulders.
Something is pulling; trying to tear me away from my saddle; must hang on;
we are nearly there. I can see the stones; a tall elden wizard guards
them... Wait! I see a face. I remember that face - it is my friend Giyorn.
Why is Giyorn here? Has he come to help - to take me away? The
meeting; the elden temple. They must have found the axe. Something to tell
him. The shield, must tell him about the shield... and Palanzarr; he was
the tall elden wizard. We need his help. Cretin knows. Cretin turned the
stone into living flesh. Cretin has many secrets.

                                    *

Giyorns face was stony. He had travelled a long way - much of the distance
on foot. He was surprised to find Morgain at the homestead.

'Has he been here long?' queried Giyorn as he knelt beside Morgain.

'Two days,' replied Jon. 'There were two of them. He rode with his brother.'

Giyorn looked thoughtful. 'It is strange how fate brings us together. Both
delayed. Morgain wounded in battle and myself left to walk. It was good
fortune that I found a homestead with horses, or I may still have been
trudging the countryside now. Tell me, did you notice if they carried a
shield?'

Jon shook his head. 'Honestly, I do not know. Perhaps Greta or my eldest
son might know.'

'Morgain knows,' said Giyorn. He turned to face Morgain, and with his head
no more than a hand span away, he said, 'What happened Morgain? Who did
this to you? Did you find the shield?' His eyes drifted down to the claw
marks on Morgains shoulder.

Morgain could not make out what Giyorn was saying, his voice was unclear
and seemed a long way away. Must tell Giyorn that Cretin has many secrets.
'Cretin,' whispered Morgain, but it was too much for him; his voice faded
and he drifted into the lands of darkness.

Giyorn stood for a moment, his face blank, then anger began to cross his
brow. He turned to Jon with raging eyes. 'And they trusted that creature,'
he scorned.

Jon was startled at the change in Giyorns mood. He stood back as the Lord
of the Eastlands stormed out.
