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have been your
    dealings with Sorkvir that robbed you of your powers, Fridmarr. Didn’t
    I warn you a thousand times what would happen to you? Of course
    you never listened.”
    “I’d rather not talk about it,” Leifr said, thinking he had never
    spoken truer words. “The past is better left buried. Let new deeds cover
    old wrongs.”
    Fridmundr uttered a ghost of a chuckle. “Thurid, he’s going to
    keep you in your place when I’m gone. You might come to regret all
    those thrashings you gave him as a boy.”
    Leifr eyed Thurid with cold dislike, and Thurid tried
    unsuccessfully to stare him down.
    “You won’t hold that against me, I hope,” he muttered. “I was
    only doing my duty. I can see that all these years of fighting, looting,
    and high living seem to have added a great deal of bulk and girth to
    your frame, while I have grown thinner, if anything. You can see that I
    no longer pose a threat to your peace of mind. Maybe I was rather hard
    on you when you were a child, but never in my life have I seen such an
    obstinate, ill-tempered, bull-headed, deceitful young fool, who—“
    Seeing Leifr’s expression hardening into wrathful lines, he hastily
    added, ”I think I’ll wait in the kitchen. Surely no one in there will object
    to my presence. I know when I’m not wanted.“
    He sailed out of the room in high dudgeon, leaving Leifr
    gazing at Fridmundr in considerable alarm at being left alone with that
    glowing, unearthly prescience. With his head inclined forward,
    Fridmundr sat clutching the arms of his chair, as if listening to Leifr’s
    deepest thoughts.
    “Do not be afraid,” Fridmundr said softly. “I am the one who is
    dying, not you. This is the last, bright sputter of a dying flame. For a
    short while, this old wick will burn brighter than it ever did in life. A
    small but worthwhile compensation for going out completely.”
    “I wish that it weren’t so,” Leifr said. “It seems cruel to lose
    your sight so near the end.”
    “My sight is all inward—and forward. I see the task that lies
    before you, my lad, and it is immense and filled with danger. At any
    step you could fail, and Sorkvir’s curse would remain unabated. My
    heart aches for you in your desperate courage, but I am also filled
    with pride that you have come to put an end to the battle with Sorkvir.
    For many years it has gnawed at my heart that my son’s name is an
    anathema to all of Solvorfirth, when I knew that it could not be true.”
    His head drooped forward wearily onto his chest, and his gaze wavered
    over Leifr sightlessly as he extended one frail hand. “It grows late, and I
    must rest. I hope to open my eyes again and know you are here. It
    strengthens me to know you will take the burden off my shoulders. I
    feel much lighter now.”
    He clasped Leifr’s hand in a silent benediction that sent a shiver
    of invisible strength up Leifr’s arm. For an instant Leifr felt as if he
    were swirling in a vortex of powers and memories, and the mysteries
    of the Alfar realm were suddenly revealed to him in a blinding
    glimpse, as if every atom in the carbuncle were thrilling in response
    to Fridmundr’s handclasp. Then the frail hand was withdrawn, leaving
    Leifr once again in his void of Scipling darkness, relieved only by faint
    impulse from the carbuncle. No wonder Fridmundr’s eyes burned with
    light, if such powers were consuming the fragile old flesh with their
    flaming energy.
    Leifr silently withdrew, Fridmundr’s consciousness had drifted
    away into a remote area that excluded his immediate surroundings.
    Pausing to look back, Leifr saw the old Alfar sitting in an expectant
    attitude, facing the outside doorway. Leifr peered into the shadows,
    thinking he had glimpsed something there—an old dog, perhaps—but
    now he could discern nothing. Uneasily he went, in search of the
    kitchen, following a dim glow down the long corridor.
    Leifr found Thurid sulking before the fire, clutching a cup of tea
    and