Galahad looked at Nim. “Well?”
“Torvec is a tortured soul. The Lady did some terrible things to him. He doesn’t know who or what he is, Holt’s right.”
“He certainly doesn’t understand the shift we wolves go through,” Nest said. “He and Valla are quite close these days and she’s tried to show him but something keeps blocking his efforts.”
“He’s been trying to shift?” Galahad asked horrified.
“We thought it would help his pain and grief over the two of you. Believe it or not we’ve had quite a lot of experience at dealing with people’s broken hearts over you two,” she snapped. “He had to teach himself how to read, then he stole books from that awful woman’s library to try to understand his world. He is lost, alone and now desperately wounded.”
“Holt didn’t ask for any of this,” Galahad stated.
“I know. He knows. He knows he’s done this all on his own but he doesn’t know how and he wishes he could undo it,” Nest said. “Right now all he wants to do is escape the two of you again but he can’t because he’s stuck on this bloody ship.”
“That’s it,” Aleah said. “He wants to escape. He’s trying to shift without knowing how because he is so desperate to escape.”
“How does that help?” Galahad said and I saw Aleah flinch at the harshness in his words. I reached for her, to give comfort.
“Keep talking,” I whispered. I found it almost impossible to concentrate but I had to remain focused before someone died from sheer stupidity.
“He is gathering power into himself from all sources. Within his own body but also Holt’s. Holt isn’t full fey and has less to give, as well as no way of stopping him. We need to find a way to give Holt more strength so Torvec can shift, or give him something to pull him back from the dragon.”
The other two women nodded agreement.
“How do we do either?” asked Lance.
The three of us watched the three women as they stared at each other in some kind of silent communion. “I’ve never done such a thing,” Aleah said quietly.
“But you are the strongest of us, aren’t you?” Nest asked. “You are full blooded Kerith.”
The young woman looked down at her hands. “I am not trained.”
“Don’t give me that,” Nest said. “You’ve a brain in your head or you’d never have convinced Galahad and Holt to help you.”
“What’s a Kerith?” I asked. The complexities of the many types of fey openly escaped me, especially of those we rarely saw in The City or Camelot and still more were hidden from view.
Aleah sighed. “How did you know?”
“I know, does it matter how?” Nest asked. “The question is does your brother, because I’m fairly sure you wouldn’t have been allowed in the great and noble family if he’d found out.”
“What’s she talking about?” Galahad asked.
Aleah looked up at Galahad. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. The air around her shimmered and the young girl we knew dissolved into someone else entirely.
Galahad sat on my bed with a thump. “Gods,” he breathed.
“Your instinct not to bed me held true,” said a woman from myth. Her black hair turned into ribbons of finest iron strands, her eyes onyx stone, her skin rose-gold and her lips silver or perhaps platinum. “Surprise,” she said through those lips of metal made to move as flesh. No seam existed. No cog or hinge. Flawless metal.
“I don’t understand,” whispered her husband. If I’d had the energy I’d have laughed at his expression, a mixture of horror and shock, also a dose of relief.
The woman smiled. “We don’t have much time and I promise to explain later but first you must all promise me something or I won’t be helping your boy here.” She nodded at me.
“Anything,” Galahad said.
“What?” Nim asked at the same moment.
The metal Aleah chuckled. “Fey deals, hey, girl.”
“I won’t be the first fool in my family to make a deal with a powerful fey and live to regret it,” Nim said.
“Is that the du Lac family or the Pendragon one?” Aleah asked.
“Either,” Nim said tossing her head proudly.
“Good. At least one of you has some sense. All I want is your promise not to tell my people what I am. For that I will save your King and more, I swear it. I owe him a large debt.”
“You have our word,” Nim said.
“So what are you?” Galahad asked.
“The Kerith are prophets, seers, healers and one of the old races, like the shifters. They are earth spirits, akin to the water nymphs and tree spirits but they aren’t bound by their elements. They are somewhere in between fey like Alhemir, Sidhe and Salamander and the spirit fey,” Nest said.
“So she can heal Holt?” Galahad asked.
“I am not a true healer. I am a mimic. I am Aleah because my people are being wiped out. Eamo is continuing his family’s genocide but his mother once loved a Kerith and so, when her daughter died of fever as a baby, she smuggled me into the palace and I’ve been living as Aleah ever since. I needed to help my people and that’s what I’ve been doing,” the golden woman said. Her black stone eyes somehow conveyed perfectly her sadness for her people. None of us spoke for a long time.
Galahad’s concern remained focused, however, and he held my hand firmly. “So how are you going to heal him if you aren’t a healer?”
“I can perform the bonding ceremony,” she said quietly.
“No.” My statement of fact.
“Yes.” Galahad’s simultaneous contradiction.
“No,” I said again to him.
“You are dying,” he said.
“I’ll be fine. Kerwin will calm Torvec and I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t love me,” he accused.
“Galahad, a bonding is not something to be taken lightly. It is as much a burden as a thing of beauty,” I said. “Our fathers were deeply in love for many years before they were bonded and it turned into a mess. Eventually it calmed but it was hard on them both right to the end in ways you’d never guess. I am not fey, it makes me far weaker than you. You will always be vulnerable because of me. I will not live with that burden,” I said.
“Is there someone else you love enough to spend the rest of your life with?” he asked.
I stared into those dark, dark brown eyes and knew the answer instantly. “No,” I said.
“Then we do this,” he said.
“But you are so young,” I whispered. “There are so many beautiful women in the world that could make you happy.”
“I don’t want a woman. I want you. And besides, this doesn’t stop me from marrying for Albion’s sake if necessary. A woman that can accept you.”
“What about me?” Aleah asked.
We both stared at her before ignoring her and returning to our conversation.
“The complications for you, Galahad...” I begged him to think about this madness.
He brushed my face with his fingers. “I don’t care,” he said. “I just want you to be safe and I can keep you safe.”
My body bucked under his hands and a scream rocked around the room, startling everyone, but I was so far away from the scene I looked up as if from the bottom of well.
“You can never protect him,” growled a voice from my throat. “You will never have him. He is mine.”
“Can he bond with someone he loves like me?” asked Lance, my oldest and dearest friend.
“No!” Galahad insisted. “This is my honour. I let him down once but I will never let him down again. Never.” The desperate passion in him scared me almost as much as Torvec’s. With the thought of the dragon and my fear of him surging through me I felt him vanish from the core of my mind. I rushed back to the surface in relief, able to control my surroundings.
“Then we do this now,” Aleah said. “We are losing him to the dragon and he needs a reason to stay. I will have to blend my knowledge and power with a healer.”
“Me
,” Nest said.
“No, I will do it, they are both my brothers. I will bond them,” Nim said.
“For someone with no experience it could be very dangerous,” Aleah said.
“She’ll be fine, I’m here,” said Morgan from the doorway. “Someone been having fun without me?” Morgan took her twin’s hand and Galahad’s. “We are family. We will do this and the boys will be fine. We’ll not lose them and we’ll be together for always.”
I stared into her blue eyes, the mirror of her mother’s, and nodded. Morgan du Lac ached deep in her heart for the loss of her family and to have Galahad and me tied together forever warmed her.
“I promised myself I would never do this,” I wheezed.
Galahad smiled. “You think I planned bonding myself to the Pendragon pervert?” he asked.
I managed a brief laugh. “Well, now I’m your pervert.”
“And I can’t wait until you finish my corruption,” he said.
We were lost in the moment, forgetting everyone else around us. I knew I loved him, a real and earth bound love, something I wanted to hold onto forever, but would he do to me what my father did to Lancelot? Would he reject me at some point?
“Still you fears, Loholt,” Galahad whispered. “I have made enough mistakes. I want to wake from this with you in my heart and mind.”
“I hope so,” I whispered in return.
“I’m saving you from a dragon, you know that, don’t you?”
I managed a grin. “I promise not to scream like a girl.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Kerith took Nim’s left hand and Morgan held both between hers. Galahad held mine and placed them both over Nim’s right hand. They were giving, we were taking.
“Remember, child, it’s all about intent. There are ritual words but they are only important to help focus your mind. You can use any words you like, they will form the bonding themselves, they just need you to hold them together in a place of safety,” Aleah said. She’d said ‘child’ to Nim – how old was Aleah?
Nim nodded with solemnity. “What about Torvec?” she asked.
“I have no idea. Until I saw him I didn’t think dragons existed in Albion. I thought they’d all died in Lyonesse. It is where we were from originally, and the oldest of the shifter races such as wolves and Salamander,” Aleah said. “Just be ready for a fight.”
“Holt?” Galahad asked.
I focused on him. “Yes.”
“Stay strong.”
“For you, anything.”
He smiled and I smiled in response. The panic of moments before faded and I closed my eyes.
The warmth that spread from Nim’s hands as she began to breathe words over us felt so comfortable. Galahad’s hand flexed in mine and I felt him slowly lie down almost over me. His hair smelt of warm sunshine and sea salt. His weight was a comfort. He sighed and I sighed. His heartbeat echoed in my chest and I felt mine match it. The warmth grew, soft and safe. A mother’s arms. Morgana’s arms, a memory not mine, of blue eyes shining and a soft voice. A dark rumble and I felt safe, gazing up into the rugged prickly face of my father - Lancelot.
Galahad’s childhood memories, the ones The Lady stole from him, rushed through us both and we shuddered. Mine of my father and the golden beauty of my mother also engulfed us. From the darkness surfaced the memories we had of each other. The memories of children. The emotions of children and sadness when we were parted. Years separated us but I’d loved having a younger sibling in our large family. I would miss him and I would learn to fear the pain of my surrogate family.
A rush of pictures too fast to see and feel engulfed me and I knew I needed time to sort out the reel of images - but the life Galahad had without his family surged like a high tide around me. The predominate emotions - loneliness, fear of failure and bitterness for the assumed abandonment.
We were becoming one. We were sinking into each other. A cord of deepest forest green, textured like the bark of a beech tree and smelling like new turned earth, formed strong and bright between us. It rippled and twisted and wrapped itself around me, filling me with warmth and light. With hope - so much damned hope for the future, it spilled out into joy.
The joy grew brighter... Brighter... Brighter - so bright I couldn’t see or feel anything but the joy...
I woke with a start and knew at once I didn’t know where I now existed. I wasn’t on the Echo, I knew that for certain.
A red sky lay overhead and a darker red ground was underneath. I tried to remember why I felt panic. I wasn’t hurt but the panic grew with every breath while I lay on my back staring at the swirling red sky.
I drew in a deep breath, the air smelt strange. Hot, very dry and smelling fusty, like old and mouldering wool. I exhaled and memory reached for me, grabbing me and forcing a surge of energy into my limbs.
“Galahad!” I yelled, rolled, rose and turned.
He lay on the ground a few yards from my position. I dropped beside him and grabbed his jaw, turning his face toward me. The panic grew the longer I stared into his empty face. The scars on his jaw and cheek were vivid in the red light surrounding us.
“Galahad, please, wake up,” I whispered.
His chest heaved. His hands reached for me and he pulled me down over his body. His eyes weren’t open but we kissed. I shifted my weight over him and his mouth opened, the soft lips willing. We kissed for the first time in weeks and it felt like home, like heaven, like the brightest gift I’d ever been given. We kissed slowly, deeply and Galahad’s body flexed under me, rolling us so I lay under him. I willingly lay beneath his strong body, his thigh pressing into my groin making me squirm with pleasure.
He pulled back and his deep dark eyes were open, staring down at me. A wash of emotions made me gasp. His love for me and his fear of that love smothered me. His doubt and desire were equal in measure but his determined strength to protect me won all fights. Weighed each set of scales in my favour.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he saw my understanding of his emotions in my eyes. “I don’t mean to doubt you or us.”
I held him between my hands and gazed up into that strong handsome face. “Whatever happens between us happens. You are doing this to save my life. It doesn’t need to be more than that, Galahad.”
“It will be more. You and I will find a way, through both our fears,” he said and a wash of confidence swept through me.
“This is very strange,” I said. “I feel very... Large and tight.”
“As if you have too much inside you?” he asked.
“Far too much. You are... Big...”
“You’d know,” he said and laughed, while he rolled off me. He said more seriously, “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. We weren’t touching and my anxiety grew. Galahad reached for my wrist and the surge stopped instantly. We stared at each other.
“I felt it too,” he said. “Don’t worry, we’ll learn to manage the time we have to spend apart. From what I understand of this process everything will calm when we learn more about each other.”
“I’m sorry it was necessary. Not only do I make you marry a woman you don’t love, I am the reason you have to go through this,” I said.
“The marriage I could have done without but I will not regret this. I will never regret you,” Galahad said. He leaned towards me and we kissed again. He groaned and his breathlessness made me smile.
“Got to stop doing that,” he muttered. “We’ll never get anything done.”
“Holt? Galahad!” a woman’s voice called. Forming from nothing more than air, stepped a figure.
We scrambled to our feet and realised in the same moment we weren’t armed. Galahad’s anger flashed bright.
“Nim,” I cried out and rushed toward our sister.
“Oh, thank the gods, I found you,” she said, hugging me fiercely.
“What’s going on?” Galahad asked. “Where did you come from?”
“I’ve found you through the bondin
g ceremony,” she said hurriedly. “You are inside Torvec’s mind.”
We were both silent and looked at my small sister. “Honestly,” she said, her eyes earnest.
“No,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “I, we, lost control of you. You are both unconscious, so is Torvec. They sent me back in for you.”
“So take us home,” Galahad said.
“No,” I said.
He looked at me in horror.
“I can’t,” Nim admitted.
“Why?” Galahad asked, clearly ignoring me for the moment.
“You are trapped. I had to force my way toward you but my being here is so much weaker than your presence. You really are trapped.”
“Trapped or not, we aren’t leaving,” I said.
“Holt, don’t be ridiculous,” Galahad said.
“No, I’m not abandoning him and if you love me, neither would you. This isn’t Torvec,” I said, raising my arms to encompass the scene. “This isn’t his mind. Whatever this is, if we are inside him, it isn’t his mind.”
“Holt, I know he –”
“No, Galahad. I’m telling you this isn’t Torvec’s mind. I’ve touched his soul, I’ve been wrapped up in his love and I’ve listened to his music and stories. This isn’t Torvec. This is his pain and anguish. This is the place we will stay unless we convince him to release us. This is the love the dragon holds over me and its anger. This isn’t the man I know,” I said.
“And love...” Galahad said quietly and with his own hurt shooting through me so fast I gasped.
I took a deep breath, trying to organise my mind. “I’ve never lied to you, Galahad. You know I care about him. You know I want to help him. I’m not leaving until we fix this and he lets us go.”
I watched the strong face, his eyes darkened, his jaw clenched - he looked so like his father when he was angry. “This is stupid. He is a danger to you,” he growled.
I stepped toward the younger man and took the angry face in my hands. I kissed him and his body relented against me. “You can’t win every argument like that,” he murmured when I let him go.
“It works for now, that’s all I’m interested in,” I told him.
The Du Lac Legacy (Sons of Camelot Book 2) Page 10
