Elizabeth Haydon - Destiny - Child of the Sky

Rage had begun to course through Ashe at her words; he struggled to control his temper, knowing in his heart she was right. “Never doubt my love for her. Never ,” he said, the fierce, multitoned voice of the dragon slipping into his words.

Oelendra didn’t blink at the sound. “If you loved her, why did you deceive her? Do you have any idea what the supposed death of your father, on top of everything else she has lost, did to her?”

Ashe’s ire fled, replaced by deep sorrow at the memory of Rhapsody sitting before the dark fireplace, staring at nothing. His heart twisted as he remembered the way she had pulled aside her collar, moving her locket out of the way of the blow she expected from him.

Please; end it quickly.

“Yes,” he said hollowly. “I think I know exactly what it did to her.”

“Then why did you do it? Why did you choose your father’s scheme for power, knowing the devastation it would cause?”

Ashe looked off into the darkness. “I didn’t choose it. She did.”

The Lirin warrior’s eyes tapered to slits of quicksilver in the firelight. “What do you mean?”

Ashe continued to stare off into the night, his mind in the Teeth, remembering a woman in the wind. Finally he rose and looked back at her. “I’m sorry, Oelendra,” he said, picking up the staff. “If you came to find out if you wasted your piece of the star, the answer is yes.” He turned and walked out of the fire ring.

“Stop,” commanded the Lirin champion. Her tone had the ring of a voice that had commanded armies; he obeyed involuntarily. “Come back here. I will decide that, not you. Sit down.” Ashe smiled in spite of himself, then returned to the log. “All right, explain yourself. What was her choice?”

“An unfair one, I’m ashamed to say. The only thing she has ever asked of me is the truth; I felt I owed her that above all else. On the night before I left I told her everything, all of Llauron’s plans and manipulations, among other things she needed to know.” His face grew darker with memory in the light of the fire. “She understood that we were powerless to stop the plans that had already been set in motion. She knew if she didn’t light the pyre that he would die, permanently, for nothing.

“That was all right as far as I was concerned; it was his own damned fault, not her responsibility to save him from the snare that was of his own making. But she decided to go ahead with it, knowing exactly what it would mean. Had I been the one to choose I would not have allowed it, but again, part of loving Rhapsody is respecting her right to make her own decisions about her life. I would have spared her if I could.” His voice broke.

Oelendra sat back and watched him thoughtfully, her anger dissipating a little. “Why doesn’t she remember this?”

Ashe looked back for the first time, his tone calmer. “Part of the price of the truth, I’m afraid. We went to see Manwyn sometime back; it was important to her, though she never had a chance to tell me why. I think now it must have been something to do with the children of the demon.

“During one of her insane ravings, the Oracle revealed part of Llauron’s plot to her. It left Rhapsody with information that made her vulnerable; in a way, she would have been duplicitous in the scheme just by knowing about it. There was something else she needed to know, so on our last night together I took a pearl my father had given me with his image in it; it was meant to be a keepsake of him in his human form. I decided it could be put to better use, so I expelled the image and gave it to her, asking her to keep the memory of that night in it instead, with the proviso that she could take the memory back immediately once she knew the entire picture if she wanted to.

“Then I told her the whole sorry story. In the end, she decided that her knowledge would lead to eternal death for Llauron, and she sacrificed many things to prevent it, including the memory. He didn’t deserve her.” He looked into the darkness again. “I didn’t deserve her.”

“Well, so far you’re at least half-right,” said Oelendra. “But I don’t understand why Rhapsody’s knowledge left her vulnerable. What else happened that night?”

Ashe sighed deeply. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, Oelendra, as much as I would like to. It’s Rhapsody’s memory too; she has the right to know it before anyone else does.”

“I suppose I can respect that. When do you intend to give it back to her?”

“The instant that it is safe to do so; once the F’dor is destroyed. I hid the pearl in Elysian for safekeeping in case I die in the process of bringing the demon out and killing it. So far I have been able to destroy its followers easily, but I have lost to this monster before, as you know better than anyone. “I’ve been out of touch for a while, chasing down Lark and the other Filidic traitors. I am done with that now; I was on my way to Ylorc to see her when I received your call on the wind. Considering where you asked me to meet, I suspected the worst. Until I saw it was you, I thought I would be facing the F’dor again. That was the reason I came drawn; I don’t usually come to meetings with sword in hand.”

“And yet you came without your father’s protection?”

“He is not far away. He could be here in a moment if I summoned him. I am a great deal stronger than the last time I fought it. I might not be able to defeat the F’dor, but I could certainly hold it off until Llauron arrived. Together we would be quite formidable. Besides, Elynsynos is not far off, either, and I think that if I were to call, she would come as well.”

Oelendra stared into the fire, calculating something. When she looked up there was an expression of satisfaction on her face. “Three dragons, Kirsdarke, and myself. Fair odds as a second strike.”

“Excuse me?”

She looked into Ashe’s eyes. “Achmed has identified the F’dor.” Automatically his muscles tensed, his hand went to the hilt of the sword. “ ’Tis Lanacan Orlando, the Blesser of Bethe Corbair.”

Ashe’s eyes gleamed a brighter blue in the firelight, but outwardly all he did was nod. He released his sword and rested his elbows on his knees, intertwining his fingers, deep in thought. “Of course. The saintly bastard. Humbly blessing the troops, turning them into thralls for his purposes. Bethe Corbair—gods, he was right on her doorstep.” He shuddered. “No wonder the Rakshas could infiltrate Ylorc so easily—how disgusting. How many generations had the demon waited, readying itself for this? Blessing and binding armies. It would have taken Sepulvarta, Sorbold, and all of Roland.” He shook off his meditations. “Is that why you came? To tell me they are preparing to go after it?”

“They have already done so.”

He nodded and stood, excitement beginning to light his face. “Where do they wish me to meet them?”

“They don’t.”

Ashe stopped cold. “What do you mean?”

“

“Tis their task, Gwydion; you would be of no help. Your soul still bears the scars of twenty years of domination. If you were to go, who knows what bonds that ancient evil might be able to lay upon you?”

Fury began to flush his face. “I know. There are none.”

“Perhaps. But even if that were the case, there is not time. They headed off to Bethe Corbair the day after I left Tyrian. If they traveled as they expected, the battle is probably raging as we speak.”

Ashe began to tremble, his voice shaking with anger. “She went alone? With them? Without me?”

Oelendra looked at him oddly. “Gwydion,’tis their quest;’tis their time, as was foretold centuries before your birth. You can be of no use there; this is what they were made for. Believe me, I wished to be there as well, more than you can imagine. But ’tis not our task to perform.” Her tone grew more solemn. “Besides, if they do fail, then we must have a second line of defense. Between yourself and your father—” She stopped. Ashe was becoming frantic.