Would you care to beg for mercy?"
Hawkmoon grabbed convulsively for the Runestaff.
His hand went around it and tightened. Almost immediately power seemed to flow into him—not much, but enough to enable him to stagger to his feet and stand there swaying His body was bowed. His breathing came in great panting sobs. He stared blearily at Meliadus as the Baron lifted his sword to finish him.
Hawkmoon tried to raise his own sword, but failed.
Meliadus hesitated. "So you cannot fight. I grieve for you, Hawkmoon." He reached forward. "Give me that little staff, Hawkmoon. It was upon it I swore my oath of vengeance upon Castle Brass. And my vengeance is almost complete now. Let me hold it, Hawkmoon."
Hawkmoon took two staggering paces backward, shaking his head, unable to speak for the weakness in his body.
"Hawkmoon—give it to me."
"You—shall—not—have—it . . ." croaked the Duke of Koln.
"Then I shall have to kill you first." Meliadus raised his battle blade. The Runestaff suddenly pulsed with brighter light and Meliadus stared full into his own Wolf-helmed eyes as Hawkmoon's mask reflected his image back. It startled Meliadus. He hesitated.
And Hawkmoon, drawing further energy from the Runestaff, raised his sword knowing he had only enough strength for one blow and that blow must slay the man who stood transfixed before him, mesmerised by his own image.
And Hawkmoon brought up the Sword of the Dawn and he brought it down again and Meliadus gave a great, agonised cry as the blade bit through his shoulder bone and down into his heart. And his last words, which came with his last painful breath, were:
"Curse the Runestaff I It has brought ruin upon Granbretan!"
And Hawkmoon collapsed to the ground knowing that now he would die: That Yisselda would die and that Orland Fank would die; for there were few Kamarg warriors left and the Dark Empire soldiers were many.
Chapter Seventeen - The Sad Queen
HAWKMOON AWOKE IN alarm, staring full into the Serpent mask of Baron Kalan of Vitall. He sprang upright on the bench, groping for a weapon.
Kalan shrugged, turning to the group of people who stood in the shadows. "I told you I could do it. His brain is restored, his energy is restored, his whole foolish personality is restored and now, Queen Flana, I would beg your permission to continue with what I was doing when you interrupted me."
Hawkmoon recognised the heron mask. It nodded once and Kalan shuffled into the next room and carefully closed the door. The figures stepped forward and Hawkmoon saw with joy that one of them was Yisselda. He hugged her in his arms and kissed her soft cheek.
"Oh, I feared that Kalan would trick us," she said. "It was Queen Flana who found you, after she had ordered her troops to cease fighting. We were the last alive, Orland Fank and I, and we thought you dead. But Kalan brought you back to life, removed the jewel from your skull and dismantled the machine so that none may ever fear the power of the Black Jewel again."
"And what business did you interrupt him in, Queen Flana?" Hawkmoon asked. "Why was he so disgruntled?"
"He was about to kill himself," Flana said flatly. "I threatened to keep him alive forever if he did not do what he did."
"D'Averc?" Hawkmoon said, puzzled. "Where is D'Averc?"
"Dead," said the sad queen in the same flat voice.
"Slain in the Throne Room by an over-zealous guard."
Hawkmoon's joy turned to gloom. "And are they all dead, then—Count Brass, Oladahn, Bowgentle?"
"Aye," said Orland Fank, "but they died for a great cause and they freed millions from slavery. Until this day Europe has known only strife. Now perhaps people will seek peace, for they can see where strife leads."
"Count Brass wished for peace in Europe more than anything," Hawkmoon said. "But I wish he could have lived to see it."
"Perhaps his grandson will see it," Yisselda said.
"You need fear nothing from Granbretan as long as I am queen," Flana told them, "I intend to leave Londra dismantled and meanwhile make my own town of Kanbery the capital. The wealth of Londra—which is almost certainly greater than all the wealth of the rest of the world—shall be used in rebuilding the towns of Europe, in restocking the farms, of making good, as best we can, the evil we have done." She drew off her mask, revealing that great, sad, beautiful head. "And, also, I shall abol-ish the wearing of masks."
Orland Fank seemed sceptical, but he said nothing.
"The power of Granbretan is broken for ever," he said, "and the Runestaffs work is done." He patted the bun-dle under his arm. "I'm taking the Sword of the Dawn, the Red Amulet and the Runestaff itself into safe-keeping, but if there should ever come a time, friend Hawkmoon, when you have a mutual need to rejoin each other, then you shall rejoin each other, I promise."
"I hope the time does not come, Orland Fank."
Fank sighed. "The world does not change, Dorian Hawkmoon. There is merely the occasional shift in equi-librium and if that shift goes too far in one direction, then the Runestaff attempts to right it. Perhaps the days of extremes are over for a century or two? I do not know."
Hawkmoon laughed. "But you should—you are omniscient."
Fank smiled. "Not I, my friend, but that which I serve—the Runestaff."
"Your son—Jehemiah Cohnahlias..."
"Ah, there's the mystery even the Runestaff will not answer." Fank rubbed his long nose and looked at them, over it. "Well, I'll say farewell, what's left of you. You fought well and you fought for justice."
"Justice?" Hawkmoon called after him as he left the room. "Is there such a thing?"
"It can be manufactured in small quantities," Fank told him. "But we have to work hard, fight well and use great wisdom to produce just a tiny amount."
"Aye," Hawkmoon nodded. "Perhaps you are right."
Fank laughed. "I know I am right." And then he was gone. And his voice came back to Hawkmoon with just one last observation. "Justice is not The Law, it is not Order, as human beings normally speak of it; it is Equi-librium, the Correction of the Balance. Remember that, Sir Champion Eternal!"
Hawkmoon put his arm around Yisselda's shoulders.
"Aye, I will," he murmured. "And now we return to Castle Brass, to make the springs flow again, to bring back the reeds and the lagoons, to bring back the bulls and the horses and the flamingoes. To make it our Kamarg once more."
"And the power of the Dark Empire will never threaten it again." Queen Flana smiled.
Hawkmoon nodded. "I am sure of that. But if some other evil should come to Castle Brass, I shall be ready for it, no matter how powerful it shall be, or in what form it will come. The world is still wild. The justice Fank spoke of has hardly been manufactured at all. We must try to see that we can make a little more. Farewell, Flana."
Flana watched them leave and she was weeping.
The End of the High History of the Runestaff
Table of Contents
The History of the Runestaff
Table of Contents
Jewel in The Skull
Book One
Chapter One - COUNT BRASS
Chapter Two - YISSELDA AND BOWGENTLE
Chapter Three - BARON MELIADUS
Chapter Four - THE FIGHT AT CASTLE BRASS
Book Two
Chapter One - DORIAN HAWKMOON
Chapter Two - THE BARGAIN
Chapter Three - THE BLACK JEWEL
Chapter Four - JOURNEY TO CASTLE BRASS
Chapter Five - THE AWAKENING OF HAWKMOON
Chapter Six - THE BATTLE OF THE KAMARG
Book Three
Chapter One - OLADAHN
Chapter Two - THE CARAVAN OF AGONOSVOS
Chapter Three - THE WARRIOR IN JET AND GOLD
Chapter Four - MALAGIGI
Chapter Five - THE BLACK JEWEL'S LIFE
Chapter Six - SERVANT OF THE RUNESTAFF
The Mad God's Amulet
Book One
Chapter One - SORYANDUM
Chapter Two - HUILL
AM d'AVERC
Chapter Three - THE WRAITHFOLK
Chapter Four - THE MECHANICAL BEAST
Chapter Five - THE MACHINE
Chapter Six - MAD GOD'S SHIP
Chapter Seven - THE RING ON THE FINGER
Chapter Eight - MAD GOD'S MAN
Book Two
Chapter One - THE WAITING WARRIOR
Chapter Two - THE MAD GOD'S CASTLE
Chapter Three - HAWKMOON'S DILEMMA
Chapter Four - THE POWER OF THE AMULET
Chapter Five - THE SLAUGHTER IN THE HALL
Chapter Six - THE MAD GOD'S BEASTS
Chapter Seven - ENCOUNTER IN A TAVERN
Chapter Eight - THE DARK EMPIRE CAMP
Chapter Nine - THE JOURNEY SOUTH
Chapter Ten - THE FALL OF THE KAMARG
Chapter Eleven - RETURN OF THE WARRIOR
Chapter Twelve - ESCAPE TO LIMBO
The Sword of the Dawn
Book One
Chapter One - THE LAST CITY
Chapter Two - THE FLAMINGOES DANCE
Chapter Three - ELVEREZA TOZER
Chapter Four - FLANA MIKOSEVAAR
Chapter Five - TARAGORM
Chapter Six - THE AUDIENCE
Chapter Seven - THE EMISSARIES
Chapter Eight - MELIADUS AT THE PALACE OF TIME
Chapter Nine - INTERLUDE AT CASTLE BRASS
Chapter Ten - THE SIGHTS OF LONDRA
Chapter Eleven - THOUGHTS OF THE COUNTESS FLANA
Chapter Twelve - A REVELATION
Chapter Thirteen - KING HUON'S DISPLEASURE
Chapter Fourteen - THE WASTES OF YEL
Chapter Fifteen - THE DESERTED CAVERN
Chapter Sixteen - MYGAN OF LLANDAR
Book Two
Chapter One - ZHENAK-TENG
Chapter Two - THE CHARKI
Chapter Three - THE SAYOU RIVER
Chapter Four - VALJON OF STARVEL
Chapter Five - PAHL BEWCHARD
Chapter Six - NARLEEN
Chapter Seven - THE BLAZE
Chapter Eight - THE WALLS OF STARVEL
Chapter Nine - THE TEMPLE OF BATACH GERANDIUN
Chapter Ten - A FRIEND FROM THE SHADOWS
Chapter Eleven - THE PARTING
The Runestaff
Book One
Chapter One - An Episode in King Huon's Throne Room
Chapter Two - Human Thoughts of The Countess Flana
Chapter Three - Hawkmoon Alters His Course
Chapter Five - A City of Glowing Shadows
Chapter Six - Jehamia Cohnahlias
Chapter Seven - A Well-Known Traveller
Chapter Eight - An Ultimatum
Chapter Nine - The Runestaff
Chapter Ten - Spirit of The Runestaff
Chapter Eleven - A Brother Slain
Book Two
Chapter One - Whispering in Secret Rooms
Chapter Two - Conversation Beside The Mentality Machine
Chapter Three - Taragorm of The Palace of Time
Chapter Four - A Mission For Meliadus
Chapter Five - The Fleet at Deau-vere
Chapter Six - The Return to Castle Brass
Chapter Seven - The Beasts Begin to Squabble
Chapter Eight - Taragorm's Invention
Chapter Nine - Huon Confers With His Captains
Chapter Ten - Almost Midnight
Book Three
Chapter One - The Striking of The Clock
Chapter Two - The Blackened Marsh
Chapter Three - Dark Empire Carnage
Chapter Four - New Helms
Chapter Five - Five Heroes and A Heroine
Chapter Six - A New Ally
Chapter Seven - The Battle for Huon's Palace
Chapter Eight - Flana Observes The Battle
Chapter Nine - The Slaying of King Huon
Chapter Ten - The Heroes Ride Out
Chapter Eleven - News of Several Sorts
Chapter Twelve - The New Queen
Chapter Thirteen - "What Do You See?"
Chapter Fourteen - The Power Returns
Chapter Fifteen - The Gates of Londra
Chapter Sixteen - The Final Fight
Chapter Seventeen - The Sad Queen