Fate

by Mary Corran

  ‘Where does the wood come from?’ Mallory asked, to make conversation.

  ‘From here, before the invasion.’ Asher, too, was paying little attention to the boat, aware both Vallis and Mallory were waiting for her decision.

  ‘Well?’ Mallory, it seemed, would wait no longer; Vallis, too, turned to her, trying not to appear too eager.

  ‘I have made up my mind,’ Asher said slowly. She looked toward the mountains rather than at her companions. ‘I will go with Vallis, for a time.’

  ‘I see.’ Mallory’s face was expressionless.

  ‘Do you remember the Saff girl we met, by the internment camp?’ she asked him. ‘She said I could come. Perhaps her people can teach me to use this gift, if I must call it that. That’s what I want, Mallory. Because I don’t want it; less now than before, because it seems to me that to see any part of the future can be an evil.’ She grew silent, remembering Avorian.

  ‘Omond would teach you, at Kepesake.’ Mallory’s tone was dry, nearly unfriendly.

  ‘But he thinks the gift a good thing.’ She hesitated, unwilling to speak frankly in front of Vallis, but there was no choice if she were not to hurt him further. ‘Mallory, if we were lovers in fact, I would stay. But because we’re friends I can leave you. If I stayed now, I’d never know if it was the right thing to do. I don’t want a lifetime of regret.’

  Reluctantly, he smiled. ‘I should have known you would always take the hardest route.’

  ‘It will only be until Vallis returns.’ The younger woman’s face grew still and Asher remembered this reference to her father’s future death was hardly tactful, but it was more important to her that Mallory should understand. ‘Keep in touch with Essa, and whenever anyone comes north, I can send word to you.’

  ‘I will, and I’ll do what I can for her. For all your friends.’ The boat had almost reached the bank. ‘I think there’s more to this than you’re admitting, Asher. This is your dream, your adventure; your trip to sea that never happened.’ He spoke quite seriously, and she was suddenly filled with gladness he should be capable of understanding so well what she found impossible to express.

  ‘Life is an adventure or nothing, Mallory,’ she said, eyes glowing. ‘To be free, in despite of Fate, to allow only the bonds we choose to bind us. Not our sex, nor any other accident of birth, but free will, according to our abilities.’

  ‘Then go.’ He bent and kissed her forehead, lightly, without passion. ‘But give me your word you’ll come back.’

  ‘I swear it.’ And in that moment she could see her own return, the probability of her life once more enmeshed with his, though how or when was beyond her skill to read.

  ‘Come, Asher. They’re waiting.’ Vallis had stood a little apart as they spoke together, but now the boat was alongside the bank and she climbed in, awkwardly, waiting for Asher to follow suit. Mallory held the craft steady, releasing it as Asher moved to sit by Vallis, and the two white beasts at once turned the boat and headed away, back to the further side.

  *

  Mallory found it a peculiar sensation to be the one left behind; always, in the past, it had been he who had gone away, travelling to distant lands, while Melanna had stayed behind and waited for his return. It was, he discovered, an extremely uncomfortable feeling, almost one of envy, to imagine Asher exploring an unknown country. Quicksnow and frozen seas. Would she be safe? Would she ever return, once she had tasted her freedom? The freedom which had been, but was no longer, his. Should he have gone with them? He wanted to.

  He shook his head, knowing he could not; while she was free, all kinds of responsibilities tied him both to Venture and to the Dominus. Smiling at the thought, he wondered if this was how sailors’ wives felt, left at home with the children and drudgery of every day while their husbands lived entirely separate existences, so that when they met once more it was with constraint, because both had changed in the absence of the other.

  He watched the boat and saw it reach the centre of the river. Was that a ripple in the air — a breath of hesitation? But if hesitation there was, it was only brief, and the boat forged on. Mallory remounted his horse, holding the other pair on leading reins.

  At last, the boat reached the far bank; the two women alighted, and Mallory could just see Asher turn and wave, pointing away towards the mountains, then she and Vallis headed north, soon to become two distant figures too small to identify against the white landscape. With a grimace, Mallory wheeled his horse and rode slowly back in the direction of Bran’s farm; he had a long and tiring journey ahead to be back in Venture before the tribute ships sailed.

  Yet somehow he could not continue to resent Asher’s choice, nor envy her; the day was bright, the future full of hope. There was much for him to do, and he suddenly determined Asher would be surprised at the changes she found when she came back. And she would come back, somehow he was certain of it. What was it she had said? ‘Life is an adventure or nothing.’

  He burst out laughing. For both of them, that would always prove a true prophecy.

  If you enjoyed Fate check out Mary Corran’s other books here:

  Imperial Light

  Darkfell

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