Bound (10 page)

She told him everything she could remember, about the pendant, the way the dark cloud had looked, how it had moved. He made and served them all tea as she spoke before taking the last seat at the table. She almost started crying again as she described the smell when it touched the men and Tavis reached over to put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't mention the way the pendant had always held her attention, nor that she had it with her, though she wasn't sure why. She only knew that she didn't want to share those things with anyone.

When she finished, he sat back and considered, one hand stroking the tail of his hair, which he seemed to keep pulled over one shoulder. His hazel eyes never left her the whole time though, his gaze boring into her, as if suspecting her omissions. When he finally spoke, all he said was, "I will need to think carefully on this, and check my books. It sounds familiar, but I can't be certain without researching it."

The silence in the room lengthened until Tavis turned to Eliar and asked, "How do you know my mother? You didn't answer me before."

Eliar met his gaze with a complex look that was equal parts pleasure, guilt and hope. "Lydia is my granddaughter."

Fay looked from Tavis to Eliar and back again. His face was a picture of disbelief. His voice was edged with anger when he spoke at last. "That's not possible. You can't- No one lives that long."

She put her hand on Tavis' arm and he turned to her. "Actually, Tavis, bound Magicia age much more slowly than others. My own mentor was," she winced a little, "still quite energetic in his seventeenth decade. Given Eliar was his mentor, I imagine he's at least a little older than that."

It was as close as one could come to asking a fellow Magicia their age while remaining polite. Eliar laughed. "Into my second century, in fact, although some days I do feel it a bit."

Tavis stared from one to the other. His eyes settled on Fay and he looked worried. She guessed what he was thinking. "Remember, I only just graduated, and have no partner anyway. I'm only nineteen years old."

Eliar shook his head, still chuckling a little. "Just a child really."

Fay turned back to the old man and snapped, "I am not a child."

Eliar stopped laughing immediately, and seemed on the verge of losing his own temper before drawing in a deep breath. "Yes, you are your father's daughter in some ways. Just as hot-headed, I think."

Fay glared at him. "I'm just tired of people treating me like a child. I've gotten enough of that from my father, so I'll thank you not to make me point out to you as forcefully as I did to him that I am an adult now."

Eliar held his hands up and Tavis said, "Do you know where she is, my mother?"

"I haven't been in touch with her for some years now," Eliar said, looking older and weary as he said it. "We had a disagreement about who she would marry, among many between us over the years. My own fault, in many ways. I have always believed that she went off with that farmer purely to spite me, which might explain why it didn't turn out so well. Yes, I know she left him several years ago."

"Eleven," Tavis whispered.

Eliar raised an eyebrow. "I guess I lost track of the years. I always kept an ear out for her, you see. She was my special grandchild, my favorite, and I loved her very much. But I was the patriarch of the family, and so it was for me to make her a respectable marriage. Her father, my son, agreed with me, but I think he was as blind as I was when it came to Lydia's desires in life. Fathers often want things for their daughters they should not try to choose for them. Grandfathers too, I guess. In any case, she didn't like my choice, nor me making it for her and defied me openly. I- I reacted badly. She left Rianza and the next thing I knew, she had gotten herself married to Nevon." He snorted at the idea. "You were born not long thereafter. I sent her a letter, asking her to at least bring you to me, to introduce us properly but I never heard anything back. When she left Nevon, I thought you were with her, or I'd have taken you from that man in an instant. He had no business raising a Magicia's child, you especially. In fact, I only learned for certain that you weren't with her a little over a year and a half ago."

"That's why I had to live with Nevon all these years since she left?" Fay heard the rising anger in Tavis' voice and moved her hand up to his shoulder. He reached his own hand over, placed it on hers with a gentle squeeze and removed her hand. "You left me with that bastard because you couldn't be bothered to check whether I was still there? Because you just assumed she took me with her?"

Eliar hung his head and said, "It didn't occur to me that she would leave you behind for any reason. I may not have spoken to her since before you were born, but I knew how much she would love you, how much you would mean to her. She's always been a woman of deep caring, and you are her only child. That she would even let you out of her sight seemed unthinkable, let alone abandoning you."

Tavis stood up, toppling the chair over behind him and walked over to the door, fists clenched. Fay rose from her own chair, righted his and went over to him. She raised a hand, then paused, remembering how he had removed it only moments earlier, before laying it on his broad back. It seemed so small a gesture to her, but she couldn't think of anything to say. His hands relaxed and she could feel the tension in his back lessen, though he continued to stand there, staring out of the small window in the door.

Behind her, Eliar asked, with surprising timidity, "Faylanna, please tell me. It wasn't just you acting out there against the vygazza, was it?" The name he gave the creature they had fought sent shivers of fear and awe down her spine. "He has to be-"

Eliar couldn't seem to finish, but he didn't need to. She turned, her hand still on Tavis' back. "Yes, he's a Magicia, like his mother. Untrained, but strong. I was planning to help him get into the Rianza Academy after I was done here. They can't deny him. They won't."

Eliar's face lit up. Tavis spoke without turning, his voice still hard and angry. "Right now, the only thing I want is to find my mother. I need to talk to her before I can do anything else."

Eliar nodded. "Of course. We'll leave tomorrow. I'll probably need to go into Rianza anyway, to research the dark cloud in Fay's story."

Tavis turned around, his eyes wary. "I thought you said you didn't know where she was."

"I only said I hadn't been in touch with her. She's an advisor to the Crown Prince. Has been for a year and a half now." Fay could hear the pride in his voice over what his favorite granddaughter had become. She also heard a thread of worry that she didn't understand. "We'll travel there together. I still know people at court, for all that I've been retired. I should be able to get you in to see her, especially if she knows it's not me she's meeting with."

Tavis nodded and went over to his rucksack. He started rummaging through it, though Fay didn't think he was looking for anything in particular. Eliar looked between the two of them, then said to her, "You know, I think the two of you should stick together if you can. It might be good for both of you. I thought you worked well together out there."

She frowned at the remark, hearing the push to choose a partner in it. Wanting to change the subject, she said, "You called that thing a vygazza. Are you sure about that?"

Eliar nodded. "I've studied the ancient lore, and it fit the description exactly, though I believe this is the first time one has been seen in living memory, if ever."

"But they're supposed to be trapped behind the Flame Veil. How can a such a thing be in our world?"

He pursed his lips for a moment. "That I'm not certain of and it's not something I'd care to speculate on. Be assured, it will be part of my research when we get to Rianza. My own book collection here is nothing compared to either the Imperial or Academy libraries, let alone the Council's archives. I miss them all. They were like old friends. It will be good to see them again."

Fay smiled at the familiar phrase. This man had truly left his mark on Ganson, who frequently referred to libraries he had consulted often as his old friends. Eliar raised his voice a little and said "Now, let's have some food and go to bed. We have a journey to start in the morning."

After they had eaten, Eliar offered Fay his bed, arguing that he didn't sleep much at his advanced age and had books to check as well. Tavis curled up on the floor not far from the bed, next to the fireplace, as it was the only clear spot large enough for him in the small cabin. Fay didn't think she could sleep with all the things going in circles in her mind, but then Eliar began to hum and she drifted away.

Chapter 7

When Fay opened her eyes, she realized almost immediately that something was different about the dream. She wasn't sure if it was wrong though. The blond man was standing on the edge of the pool of light that had no source and he was smiling at her as always, but it looked a little forced and uncertain to her. His eyes darted to something behind her. She turned and gasped. Tavis was there. Except she realized that he wasn't. Unlike the man with the blond curls, he didn't move, and everything about him was faint and ghostly. But what was even so faded an image of him doing in this dream, she wondered.

As she pondered this, she heard the man behind her, now only steps away. "Come away from him, Faylanna. He can't understand. He's not like us."

She didn't turn though. She wanted to figure out what was going on. She took a step toward Tavis' image. Behind her, the blond man said more urgently, "Don't do that. I need you, my sweet, I told you. It should be you and I. It must be. Come to me."

Fay looked over her shoulder at his pleading face and the hand that was extended to her. "But, I don't understand. Why is he here?"

He tilted his head. "You really don't, do you? They did their work better than I expected it seems. Perhaps I don't need to worry."

"Who did what work?" she asked, confused. Did he ever speak plainly, she wondered with a touch of exasperation. Turning back, she looked at the image of Tavis again, the way he seemed to watch her. She was about to take another step closer when she felt a deep frustration from the man behind her. Startled to sense an emotion from him at all, she turned but the scene had changed.

He was still there, but further away now, in a separate pool of light. He was on his knees, sobbing over something clutched in his arms. She tried to walk to the closest edge of her own sphere of light, but never got closer to either the edge or the kneeling man.

Around him, the ground was stained red, and she realized that it was an unmoving woman he clutched to his chest. Fay's stomach turned when she realized it was the woman's blood everywhere, soaking his clothes, still leaking out of her torn body. As she watched, he held the dead woman tighter and cried out in grief. She wanted to reach out and comfort him, but the distance between them never diminished.

As he continued to sob in anguish, several figures, indistinct in cloaks draped to cover every part of them appeared out of the shadows. They descended upon the blond man and grabbed his head, his shoulders, arms, legs, and dragged him away from the body. They carried him backward as he fought to free himself from their grip, but Fay wasn't sure if they were really moving, even though the body was gone. The scene she witnessed remained the same distance from her, though she had stopped trying to reach the other light pool. The man's struggles caused him to look over his shoulder and he cried out again, in fear this time. They were dragging him toward a large golden frame with silver symbols shining across the top. His struggles grew frenzied and he finally managed to free one arm from his captors, but then it was too late for escape. They were pressing him through the frame, and a rippling substance that she knew should be but couldn't be glass formed around him as he disappeared through the golden rectangle.

The other light went out, the scene vanishing with it. His voice drifted out of the darkness, wrapping around her.
You see, Faylanna? I understand loss. I can grasp the pain you feel over the death of someone you loved. I know what it is to be pursued, to fear discovery by others. Can he ever understand you as I do, my sweet? Be mine, wait for me. It will be time soon enough, then I will show you how we were meant to be together.

Fay woke up with a start, confusion at his final words warring with horror from the scene he had shown her. How does he shape the dream like that, she wondered, trying to calm her racing heart. She was just starting to get herself back under control when a hand was laid lightly on her upper arm and she strangled a scream, flinching away from the hand and thinking of cloaked figures and golden frames. The movement brought her around to face Eliar, who looked shocked and contrite, his hand frozen in place. She let her breath out slowly as her heart again began to calm down.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he whispered.

She nodded and they both relaxed a little. He pulled his hand back, but remained crouched by the side of the alcove where the little bed sat. Fay looked and was grateful to see Tavis, who was sprawled out in his corner of the room, still asleep. She drew her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around them. She knew that sleep would be a long time returning this night, if it came at all.

"Do you often have nightmares like that?" Eliar asked her, his eyes still intent on her.

She shook her head and then felt a bit guilty. She clarified, "Never like that one, no. It was..."

She shuddered as she trailed off and he put his hand back on her upper arm. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She stared at him and after a moment he dropped his hand. "Can I ask you a question first? You hate my father." She waited for him to nod before going on. "Why? What's he done that's so awful? Ganson said in his message that my father was involved in some plan, but he didn't say what. In fact, that night in the study, he- He was going to tell me something, but didn't get a chance to. I want to understand what's going on, since it clearly affects me."