Stonefather

“You really don’t want to take your rightful place of authority?”

“I’m a child,” said Runnel.

“You were man enough yesterday, to steal the lake from the wetwizards and burn it into steam.” Brickel laughed. “Once I stopped being so terrified myself, it was really funny.”

“If I had known what I was doing there at the bridge, I would never have done it,” said Runnel.

“You should have obeyed me. But it turned out well.”

“I’ll obey you now,” said Runnel.

Brickel laughed. “Except when you think I’m wrong.”

The days and weeks and months passed by, and Runnel’s new stoneskin did not stop him from growing taller, till he had a man’s height. Stonemages came to the city, many of them to live there and take part in the government of the place, but many more merely to meet the young apprentice who had restored them to their holy city. Runnel went with them and stood in the circle when the leading rockbrothers built back the dome of living rock that had once enclosed the bodies of those who saved the city from the Verylludden.

They showed no outward sign of his prominence among them, lest the watermages realize that Runnel was their stonefather. But they all knew that it was Runnel whose power did most of the stoneshaping; that it was Runnel who drew up to the surface the fading outselves of the dead rockbrothers. He fashioned for them bodies of stone, which stood around the inside wall of the dome, their feet fused to the living rock. As long as their outselves persisted, they would have the use of these bodies; and when they faded, these would be their memorial.

When Runnel Cobbleskin was eighteen years old, by the nearest reckoning he could come up with, he went to Lark, who had long since come into her own as a birdfriend, keeping doves at the crest of Mitherjut that carried messages far and wide. He took her into his arms, and she held him close.

“Lark,” said Runnel, “I want to hold you forever, the way the living stone holds the waters of the Mitherlough.”

“I’m only a weak-skinned girl, and mostly water,” she said. “You’re too hardskinned for me now, Stanfar. How can I take a stone as my husband?”

“Gentle can be as good as soft,” he answered. “And there’s no burden I cannot lift for you.”

“I have flown with my birds high above the earth,” she said. “But I will make my nest with you.”