L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

"Ashauer…you-"

"Lord Maertyn," interrupted the older lord quickly, "I know that you are suffering great losses, but so is the Unity."

The formality of Ashauer?s words stopped Maertyn?s objections. He took a deep breath.

"I see."

"I believe so."

"Still…a lord…there hasn?t been an EA who was a lord since…" Maertyn started to shake his head, but the instant stab of pain down his neck stopped that abortive motion cold.

"Since Lestaat…and that was a bloody experience. But the people have seen that you were willing to brave the cold and storms trying to find a way to help them, that it is evident you lost your wife to the assassins, and that you avoided bloodshed as long as you could. The media are calling you a throwback…the last honorable lord…"

"I never…"

"No…but there are times when only one man can lead…and you are that man."

Thanks to Ashauer and D?Onfrio, Maertyn realized.

He also doubted he?d ever know all that had happened while he?d been recovering. Knowing Ashauer, no one else would, either.

"I can?t stay long, the doctors say, but I did want you to know, as soon as possible."

Ashauer inclined his head. "We all appreciate everything you did and look forward to your complete recovery." With a last smile, he turned and left the room.

Maertyn stared blankly after him.

The white dirigible hovered over the blue-gray stone of the canal, just to the east of the station and the dilapidated light house, while a figure in a white cold-weather jacket followed two guards, also in white jackets, down a heavy rope ladder onto the stone. Two more guards followed the older man. Then, the five walked away from the airship, and the dirigible lifted fifty yards skyward, holding its position, hovering into the wind.

The man in white walked toward the station, motioning for the guards to remain behind.

He stopped short of where the south entrance was, or had been, waiting.

A silver haze appeared before him, a haze he knew would appear as mist or fog to the guards.

"I came back," he said quietly.

"In time," she replied.

"It would have been too painful, earlier." He offered a warm but crooked smile. "I couldn?t have returned to you, not and have things except like this, could I?"

She shook her head, sadly. "I hoped you?d see that. Once you left the station…"

"You held the rainbow for me, didn?t you?"

"I did. It took all that the Bridge could muster."

"Thank you, dearest. That may have saved Caelaarn."

"You saved it. I might have helped."

"More than you know." He paused, then went on. "You saw more than you?ve ever told me, didn?t you? Well before it all began?"

The hazy silver figure in the red singlesuit nodded. "Then…I didn?t know what it all meant. Even while I was recovering in Caelaarn, I?d seen the station. I saw us standing as we are now, except I didn?t recognize me. I wondered who that striking woman you were talking to happened to be and why she was so ghostly." Her thin lips offered a smile both warm and rueful.

"You were always striking," he said.

"I owe you everything. You coddled and protected and saved me."

"…and loved you," he added. "You were…you are…my empress."

"You did, and I still love you. Yet I belonged to you. That was my choice as well. But…I chose to do something that allows me to belong to me. Something…purposeful, with meaning. As you have found."

"Will you be lonely?"

"At times…but whenever you were not around, I was lonely…and without meaning. The Bridge, from it and what you…and the others…did, showed me that without meaning…there is no life…Even the universe will die if meaning departs."

"Will you see me if I come again?"

"Always…dearest…always…"

He stood there for a time, caressed by the silver mist, by his empress of eternity, before he turned.

The Executive Administrator of the Unity of Caelaarn walked southward toward the dirigible that would convey him to Daelmar and the special tube-train that waited for him.

Behind him, once the dirigible lifted and carried him eastward, a brilliant rainbow arched across the northern sky.