“I felt it, and then felt you.” His hand dropped away. “It was a terrible journey.”
“It is over.”
Elianas laid the same hand on Torrullin’s cheek. “Now it begins.” His fingers lingered and then fell out of sight. “I know absence has led to certain expectations, from both of us, about what comes next, but …” He paused and then said it, “I am afraid.”
“Of disappointment?”
“Never that.” Elianas wandered to the ledge. “I wager you have not returned to the night of betrayal, for it frightens you. It frightens me. Until we are able to face it squarely, we live in expectation.”
Torrullin joined him, hands clasped behind his back. “It is enough that we are together.”
“For now.”
“For now,” came a soft echo. “Will you tell me what happened?”
“Every time you healed another, you healed me also, know that. The long months of laying on hands was not without greater purpose.”
Torrullin met that gaze. “You should rest now.”
Elianas looked away. “I am afraid to close my eyes. I am afraid to find this a dream.”
“I shall rest with you, for I am weary beyond words.”
“Then let us sleep, and we may forget for a time.” Elianas stepped out of his boots, headed for the bed, fell onto it and closed his eyes.
Torrullin removed his boots also, lay down, and a moment later, despite the bedevilment of minds, they were oblivious in deep sleep.
There were no dreams.
Part IV
GODDESS OF SOULS
Chapter 41
Has wholeness arrived? How does it feel? Can you tell me?
~ Tattle’s scribe
Valaris
Redlef month
CABALLA AND TRISTAN went home first, preferring their personal space to rediscover self before informing others that Elianas had returned. Avaelyn and the recent tensions needed to recede first. They went straight to bed, held each other wordlessly, and slept long.
Tristan awakened first to the birdsong of dawn. For a long moment he was disorientated and then knew where he was. He smiled and curled around Caballa, dozing off again.
She awakened next and lay in those comforting arms many minutes before extricating herself. She kissed him when he mumbled, laughed softly, and headed to the bathroom. On her return, Tristan made coffee and brought it to bed.
“There’s no milk yet,” he said, gesturing at the mugs.
She sat cross-legged in a fluffy gown and sipped the hot brew. “Fine, Tris, start talking.”
“I can’t believe I would rather talk than make love to you.”
She grinned and wagged a finger.
Tristan straightened and put his mug down. “I think we shouldn’t say anything about Elianas being back yet. They need to be alone.”
“To do what?”
His eyes shifted away. “You know.”
She set her mug on the side table. “Tristan, what they are going to do is find a way to bury the last few months and then they will go on as they have in the past.”
He looked at her.
She crawled closer and snuggled into him. “Stop thinking about it, all right?”
He fell back with her on top of him. “Is it all right to think about you?”
She bit his neck. “You better.”
He laughed and rolled her over.
TIANOMAN LAY entranced beside Aislinn and Lunik, watched her feed their son.
He could not believe anyone could be as happy as he was.
She smiled at him, knowing his mind. “You have other duties, Lord Vallorin.”
He sniffed dismissively. “It can wait.”
She laughed. “You know what I’m thinking?”
“Hmm?” A finger stroked a fat baby thigh.
“Rose and Teroux should wed on Harvest Festival. What do you think?”
“Fine.”
Aislinn laughed again. “Are you listening to me?”
“Harvest … what?”
“Rose and Teroux, dummy.”
“Oh. Well, you talk to them.”
“Can they wed here?”
“If they want to.”
She gave a contented smile. Good. She loved the thought of planning a wedding, and Rose was a dear friend. A special celebration would bring the family together again.
Tianoman sat up. “Aislinn, have you noticed how silent it has become since yesterday?” When she frowned, he added, “In the spaces around everything?”
She gazed down at Lunik. “Yes.”
“I wonder what it is.”
“Go and find out, my husband, or it will trouble you.”
He smiled at his small family as he stood up. “You understand me. Maybe that’s why I love you.”
She tossed a pillow at him and then settled to continue feeding their son.
The Dome
QUILLA, JONAS AND Prima checked and rechecked every report.
Titan’s Disease, it appeared, was over. Inoculation would continue for months yet as every man, woman and child received the protection, and all newborns in the future would receive antibodies. Titan’s Disease was an illness that would be guarded against for a long time to come.
Quilla wandered around the Dome thinking about Belun. The Centuar had been ill and, although healed by Torrullin, still recuperated. Mahler and Assint had taken him to a secluded place.
His thoughts moved to the eerie quiet in the spaces. After the hectic activity of months it was now noticeable. Had the Syllvan and Dryads concluded their war, had truce been declared or was this temporary ceasing of hostilities? Or was it something else?
He did not feel comfortable with the silence.
It was a harbinger, and harbingers, generally, were bad news.
Avaelyn
TORRULLIN AWAKENED to find Elianas gone.
A moment of panic blossomed, but he forced calm. He deliberately had a shower first, dressed in loose-fitting pants and threw a robe on. Barefoot, he padded through to the kitchen. The aroma of fresh coffee awaited him, and he smiled.
Elianas was not there, thus he poured and carried his mug outside.
The dark man was on the plateau staring out over the ocean. It was chilly, the grass wet with dew, but he wandered over drinking his brew. He noted an empty mug dangling from Elianas’ hooked finger. He had borrowed clothes.
A brief glance, and the sea drew Elianas again. “You have lost a lot of weight.”
Torrullin shrugged.
“I lost my energy for a while.”
Torrullin nodded, sipped.
“I awakened in darkness and did not know myself. I did not know there was light beyond lightlessness. There were two swords strapped to my leg and I knew not how they got there or why every breath was agony. I surrendered, because it was the only control I had, to let go completely, to not know, to not guess.”
Torrullin said, “I awakened to the darkness within and surrendered to it also. I had nothing worth living for.”
Elianas nodded. “I am sorry about Saska.”
“As am I, but it wasn’t her loss that led to surrender.”
A blink, a moment. “Who pulled you back?”
“Lowen. She surrendered her immortality on the lightbridge.”
“You lost Saska, you believed I was gone and you lost the Lowen of before, and yet you functioned again.” There was a question there.
“I came here and discovered a certain sorcerer had worked extraordinary magic. Why, I thought, if not to return someday? I sensed you here, the Elianas of time and memory, and for a while it was enough.”
“That was when I began to know myself, I think,” Elianas said. “I sat up in the dark and loosened the swords, held them close. The grips were familiar to me and when I touched Trezond I had a clear image of a fair man in a stone dwelling, although I did not know his name, not then. I remembered I had the power to heal, although I could not fathom the source, and used it to restore my leg, and sto
od up in the dark. I walked around blind, gripping the sword, wishing with all my being to go to that place where the sun shone and the water flowed. I withdrew surrender and began to fight the cage.”
Elianas lifted the Medaillon from Torrullin’s chest, clenched his fingers around it and then that fist rested on skin.
“You put this on, and I knew. See, it does not burn. It has no power to hurt me; it has only the power to make me, because you trusted it would.” He lifted his hand away, showed his palm. On any other there would be a disfiguring burn. “I knew who I was then, and who the man in the dwelling was, and fought to return.” He paused. “Nothing has ever hurt so much.”
“In this safe cocoon I began to dream of suffering and then discovered I could not leave Avaelyn. Somehow I realised my freedom lay in yours, and brought the suffering here.”
“And every time you healed I came nearer, yes,” Elianas said. “I drew mercilessly of your inner fire, even when there was little to take.”
“Nothing has ever hurt so much,” Torrullin murmured.
They looked at each other, and Elianas smiled. “And I ask how you lost so much weight.”
“And now, Elianas? Do we go back to the same dance?”
“We bury this, as we buried betrayal, because this intensity is safe only in the glancing of memory. This hurts, this explains so much, this could carry us beyond every line drawn.”
“Thus, only in dreams do we live truth.”
Elianas’ eyes crinkled. “A few months ago you would have said nightmares.”
Torrullin held out his arm. They clasped as Valleur did, as brothers would, and then jerked each other closer until the clasp lay crushed between them.
“I still aim to taunt you to breaking point,” Elianas whispered.
“Know that every time you feel my breath on your skin you will wish dream is reality,” Torrullin murmured.
They pushed apart and headed indoors.
Slowly, calmly, sound re-entered the spaces.
It was beautiful, for there was no discordant note … not then.
Chapter 42
I say again, titans are not to be trifled with!
~ Unknown
Avaelyn
A WEEK FOLLOWED of rest, eating, long walks and little talk.
It was period of recuperation. Torrullin lost his bonier edges and Elianas lost some of the strain on his face. They visited the site of the healing facility and decided to leave it untouched. Either nature would reclaim it or it would be put to use another time.
They were frequently apart finding order on different, long forgotten and overgrown paths. When it stormed they remained on opposite sides of the dwelling. Yet they enjoyed supper together every evening, and made time to work as a team.
In the past Elianas’ bedroom was on the other side of the atrium, where an apprentice could be quiet with his studies, and that had not shifted in the ages. Now, at last, there was change. There was danger in sharing a bedroom, and great temptation in sharing a bed.
Torrullin thought about it, and Elianas watched him think, and waited.
On the eighth morning at breakfast, Torrullin said, “I was thinking we could put an arch through the long wall in my bedroom.”
Elianas did not look up from his plate. “To what end?”
“To join it to the chamber beyond. We always have to walk the long way round.”
“Practical of you. Have you a purpose in mind for that chamber?”
“I was hoping you could regard it as your bedroom.”
Elianas chewed, and had no idea what he had in his mouth. “That would suit me, yes, if I may keep my current room as a study.”
“It is your home, too,” Torrullin said.
Elianas looked up. “Then you do not mind if I bring objects I have collected over the years?”
Lips quirked. “As long as you don’t mount an animal head on a wall somewhere.”
Elianas grinned and poured more coffee. “Can we start knocking out today?”
Torrullin raised his mug. “Here’s to getting dirty.”
COVERED IN STONE dust, they viewed the arch and burst out laughing.
“I guess it will have to stay like that,” Elianas spluttered, referring to the huge and entirely immovable rock protruding on one side, causing the arch to appear akin to a lopsided keyhole.
“We will paint a two-way arrow on it,” Torrullin laughed.
Then they resumed. Shoring, plastering, cleaning. The chamber beyond was large and airy and led to the wooden bridge over the fishpond. Generally used as a place to meditate in private, it had now become part of the flow of the house.
The sun was setting as they stood in the empty space.
“Do you want to move in tonight?”
“Yes.”
“I will make supper.” Torrullin laid a hand on the dark man’s shoulder, felt the coiling tension, and headed to the shower. When he entered the kitchen later, he took particular care with the food, to give Elianas time to accept the new situation - as he, too, needed it.
They now had adjoining bedrooms and the danger had escalated.
MUCH LATER TORRULLIN lay on his bed and could not sleep.
Hearing Elianas move around nearby was disturbing, and he was aware the man could not sleep either, using the pretext of organising his space as an excuse for sleeplessness. He dared not offer his help.
Eventually he dozed fitfully.
He dreamed … or he remembered. He jerked awake.
Elianas stood at the foot of the bed wearing only a sarong. “You cried out,” he said.
Torrullin wore loose, drawstring pants, because he dared not sleep naked, and bunched the waistband in one fist as he rose to prevent it sliding. “A dream. Go away, Elianas.”
“Ah, that dream.”
“Thin ice, brother.”
In the dark, a flash of white teeth, and Elianas stepped onto the bed.
Swearing, Torrullin stepped off and strode from the chamber.
Mocking laughter followed him.
“WHERE DID YOU store your things?” Torrullin asked in the morning.
Elianas looked up. “All over. Relax. It’s mostly books.”
Torrullin stood in the doorway watching him put up shelves. “Do you need help?”
“No, go away. I dare not be near you today.”
Torrullin pushed away from the doorway and entered deliberately.
A dark stare. “Touché. Now go.”
Torrullin halted. “I have a gift for you before I do.”
Expressionless face. “Oh?”
Torrullin handed a folder over, and retreated.
Elianas stared at the empty doorway, and looked down. He opened the folder … and his hands shook. He drew a halting breath, put it down carefully and went in search of Torrullin.
He found him in the library.
“Do not go thanking me,” Torrullin said. “That only makes formal what is already reality.”
“Yet you called it a gift.”
“Because that is how you see it.”
“How do you see it?”
“Equality.”
Elianas sketched a bow. “Now the world knows we are … brothers.” He left.
He was now, formally, dual owner of Avaelyn. And Torrullin had dared to record his full name on the deed.
Torrullin snapped his book closed and tossed it aside. A breath of laughter spun him around.
“Torrullin, we are beyond recuperation now, and back into the game. Except, it seems the nature of the game has changed. This time I fight a new battle. In the past I battled the likelihood of sleeping with you; now I battle not doing so. We should get away from here for a while.”
“Suggestion?”
“Syllvan versus Dryad; a tension and enigma we could lose this temptation in.”
“From one crazy stunt to the next, is that it? Diversion, always diversion. How long can we keep it up?” Torrullin closed in to halt close. His left hand moved Elianas’ shirt open an
d his right hovered over the man’s chest. “It seems to me you do more touching than I do, Elianas. I wonder if that is fair?”
“Stop it.”
Grey eyes lifted to dark. “You are right, though; temptation requires diversion.” His hand slid into the gap and over taut stomach muscles. “It needs diversion right away.”
“Torrullin, move that hand one more inch and I am going to tear you apart.”
“Promise?”
Tense, pale face. “Promise.”
“Obsession flourishes in a threat like that,” Torrullin murmured. His hand was completely still, pressed to Elianas’ clammy skin. “Shall I test it, I wonder?”
“I dare you.”
Before they could further test resolve, a mighty explosion shook the entire cliff, rattling the foundations.
“Gods, what was that?” Torrullin pulled his hand free and ran through the dwelling.
Elianas, relieved and furiously disappointed, ran after him.
A GIANT WHITE plume of water settled back into the ocean, and a boiling black cloud dispersed.
“A ship crashed,” Elianas muttered, surprised.
“Let’s check for survivors.”
They dived and discovered the craft settling to the ocean bed. It was a cargo traveller rather than a passenger ship, and a gaping hole on one side revealed where the explosion occurred. The ship found bottom, scraping a distance before coming to a halt. Giant air bubbles rose to the surface.
The destruction inside was complete. A great fireball and an annihilating fire. It was doubtful anyone survived. Nevertheless, they searched thoroughly. The severe heat of incineration had fed on flesh also, leaving nothing behind.
They retrieved the black box and headed back to the surface.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 100
