Telaan looked at Nanda who was struggling to keep up. They should have left her behind in Cronus where she could have returned to Acantha and her parents, but she’d refused, and for the first time he’d seen the really stubborn side of her. Now, he was sure, she most likely wished she’d taken him up on his offer. He stopped and squeezed her hand, she smiled at him.
The Chandra Elf was keeping pace without problem. Like himself, he had traveled far and wide of Neith.
“I was able to gather talking with the innkeeper at our last stop that Medea has claimed this home as her own,” Telaan said. “A fact Eris conveniently forgot to mention. Although it does explain her cryptic comment that Medea knew nothing about the entrance.”
“How was Eris able to place the casque within it?” Adrostos asked.
“She bound Ghalt while she was still Supreme Ruler.”
“Then he is far older than I believed.”
“Yes, it was shortly before Eris took human form, I believe she had planned to use him as some sort of a bodyguard.”
“Well, from the looks of things, he didn’t do a very good job,” Nanda said.
“No, thankfully he didn’t or Medea wouldn’t have defeated her and I would just be another Pele.”
“Come, dusk-time is coming to an end, we must be to Kumara shortly thereafter,” Adrostos said.
Telaan turned to move forward when the air around them shimmered and Lessa, Kerrin and Xavier appeared in front of him.
“Shit!” Xavier said as he fully formed.
“Damn, we should have waited five minutes.” Kerrin said, covering his eyes.
“I never thought there might be a time difference since Father said we had to leave. Sorry.” Lessa said, waving her hand and handing a bottle to Kerrin.
He took it from her and then looked at her, “You can conjure this?”
“I can now.” When he started to ask, she said, “Later, after we reach… Where are we going?”
Telaan looked at her; there was something very different about her. He could see it, a slight pulsing around her.
“I see it, too,” Adrostos said, “You have the power of the Spirit-Touched.”
She looked at him, “How do you know?”
“Chandra and Silvanus Elves have always been Spirit-Touched, we see it in others.”
“Yes, that’s what my mother said.”
“Welcome back Kerrin. It’s nice to see you’re still in one piece, more or less by the blood I see seeping through the back of your shirt. It only hurts when you move, I promise.” Telaan could almost feel the poor vampire’s pain, his own beatings having been too recent to forget. Dusk-time past and evening-time arrive as he continued, “We’re going to Kumara, just over this ridge. Why didn’t we see it before?” he asked Lessa, returning to the earlier conversation.
Lessa took Kerrin’s free hand and started walking saying, “My mother has released my abilities.”
“Okay, that’s interesting,” Xavier said as he fell in step with Adrostos. “I seem to have missed something while we were at your parents.
Kerrin couldn’t see it, but he felt it. Lessa’s hand in his vibrated with warmth and power. She looked at him and smiled as they made their way over the old worn road towards the buildings on the horizon.
He was still weak from Silanos’ whipping, but the blood both Master Wizard and Lessa had given him had helped. Being a vampire certainly had its advantages as well as disadvantages.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Lessa said turning to face forward.
“Not half as glad as I am to see you. How did you find me?”
“I didn’t, not really. I knew Silanos had you, and I knew you were in Morana, but I thought you were at his house. We didn’t find anyone there except the servants; apparently Silanos hadn’t been around in seasons. I found my Father, he’s a better seer, he found you.”
“But they gave you back what they took from you, how? I thought a memory erase spell did just that.”
“Oh, Father didn’t erase my memory that was the problem; he merely suppressed my memories of you, that’s why I kept having random flashbacks that didn’t make any sense.”
“But you remember every night?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
He squeezed her hand and looked forward. “Good.”
“This looks just like the last five villages we’ve past,” Nanda said. “Are you sure this is Kumara?”
Telaan chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure. Not because it looks different, but because that building says, ‘Kumara Potions.’”
Nanda laughed. “So it does.”
They passed the building and turned into the one next to it with a sign that merely said, “Inn.”
Telaan looked at Kerrin and said, “We had planned to rest for the evening-time, and begin in the morning-time, but now, we’ll rest until next evening-time, which after what we’ve been through and you too, apparently since you look like shit, is probably best.”
“First, a drink and some planning, I think,” Xavier said. “Fill us in on what you found out from Eris and where we’re going and where the hell we are.”
***
As the door closed behind them, Lessa couldn’t believe how nervous she was. Yes, she remembered her nights with Kerrin that lasted many Seasons, but remembering and being behind closed doors with him now were two different things.
“Lessa, I’m not going to bite.”
Her eyes widened and she started to giggle. Whether from the ridiculous look on his face as he realized what he said, or the nerves, or a combination of both, she didn’t know.
“Hum, are you sure?” she asked, pushing the nerves aside and taking a step toward him.
“What?”
His expression was so lost and confused she put her arms around his neck and kissed him, hard. “I’m teasing, my love. You don’t have to bite me; I’ve been informed by my parents that I will live for many Times of Change. In fact, Mother says I have the life expectancy of the Elven people. But I don’t think she really knows how long I’ll live.”
Finally, his expression changed from confusion, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “Are you offering to spend your lifetime with me?”
“Yes.”
He pulled back and looked at her closely, trying to read her. “Are you sure, Lessa? I don’t want to force or push you into anything. At the moment, everything is so new. Just a few short turnings past you weren’t sure.”
She reached up and touched his face, his cool skin feeling warm under her hand. “I’m sure. Even without my memories, I knew from the moment you didn’t return that I love you. Now and always. I don’t need my memories to know what’s in my heart, now, today, this moment.”
“Spirits, Lessa, how I called upon kader to have you returned to me. Only to not really have you when you came back to me.”
“I’m here now, and for many Times of Change to come, so you better get used to me.”
“There is no getting used to you, there’s nothing more I need in my life than you as my life’s companion, for the very long life we have to share.”
He kissed her long and hard and somewhere in the midst of the kiss she felt her feet rising from the floor, and soon felt the soft bed beneath her back as he laid her gently on the soft covers. She wished they were undressed.
“Hum, that’s the best piece of magique I’ve ever seen,” Kerrin whispered as she realized her wish had come true.
Laughing, Lessa pulled him forward, kissing him knowing she’d never get enough of him. Kerrin groaned as she lost herself in him.
***
Telaan was sinking into Nada, drowning in her love and generosity. He didn’t deserve her. He didn’t have enough to give of himself. Too much of himself was dried up and unsalvageable. He wanted to love her, Spirits knew he wanted to give back all she gave and more, but even with Aglaea’s teaching he would never totally belong to the Sundara Spirits. That he’d finally realized standing in Eris’ office. He was “The Child of the Shadow,” as was embedded in his skin next to Eris’ mark, and he’d never be able to achieve any other status, no matter how much he loved or tried.
His kiss grew desperate as he reached his final conclusion, his final decision. When they finished, he’d leave her, just like he’d ever left anything else that became too important to him. He just was not the man everyone wanted him to be.
He couldn’t be.
“Telaan, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, my love,” and to prove it to her if not himself, he pulled her closer and kissed her even more thoroughly than before.
He carried her to the bed, knowing this would most likely be their last night together, and since they didn’t have to continue the journey until the next evening-time, he would love her for as long as this evening-time and beyond lasted.
Lying next to her, he had to try one last time to make her see reason. Stroking the soft, golden strands of hair away from her cheek, he said, “Can’t I make you see reason? Going forward only puts you in needless danger.”
“No, I will not wait here for you. My friends risked their lives to rescue me; I will not abandon them when they need all the strength in numbers they can get.”
“That’s just the point, they did risk their lives to save you and now you want to put that self-same life in jeopardy. Is that fair to them?” To me, but he didn’t add that.
“Telaan you’re making more out of this than necessary. The plan is sound, the way in is protected, we’ll be in and out before anyone knows any different.”
“Ah, my love, you are too trusting. Do you really believe Eris, that the way in is safe?”
“No, I don’t trust Eris, but I also don’t believe she’d sacrifice you to Medea. What I do believe about Eris is that she’d use us to do work she didn’t want to or couldn’t do herself. If getting us in safely brings success to her plan whatever it is, then we will get in and out safely.”
He smiled, “Ever so practical, my golden one, you win, for now.”
This was their last night together; he didn’t want to spend it arguing. She was right, Eris would keep them safe because she wanted something, and only because she wanted something.
He tugged at her dress wanting to feel as close to her as possible this one last time. He’d see her and the others returned to Vijaya and then he’d once again move on, stopping when he found someplace to belong for a short while. Only this time, he’d be leaving his heart in Vijaya.
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