David Dalglish - Dawn of Swords

“I apologize,” Ceredon said, addressing the congregation with a still-hushed voice. He’d seemed reluctant to talk during their escape, and no one had pressed him during their march. “For everything. I know it’s not much, not anything, really, but.…”

His voice trailed off. He looked as lost as everyone else there at the forest’s edge.

“Why?” Lady Audrianna asked, her anger boiling over into her voice. “Why has this happened? Why did you kill my husband and imprison us?”

“I did no such thing,” replied Ceredon, lowering his head and placing a hand on his chest. “I was not informed of my father’s plans, I swear. What happened was as much a shock to me as it was to you.”

“Do you think we would accept the apology of a Sinistel?” came Noni’s weak voice. “You cannot know the pain.…”

Ceredon winced but kept his head held high.

“I apologize for myself,” he said. “For my inaction. For my cowardice in waiting as long as I did to free you. I will not speak for my father, nor for my people. But I have lost much in all of this as well, do you not understand?”

Aully nodded. She could see it and almost understand it. He’d lost faith in his family, his beliefs, in the very morality of his people. She took a tentative step forward, gazing up at the beautiful prince, and when he looked back at her, she saw eyes full of conflict.

“Why?” she asked. “They’ll order your death for this.”

“Not mine,” Ceredon said. His cheeks flushed, and he suddenly looked embarrassed.

A call sounded from behind them. At first Aully felt panic, certain they’d been discovered, but when she turned she saw their rescuer, saw the elf who would be blamed for everything.

Kindren.

The elder Thynes approached them tentatively, but Kindren held his head high, refusing to hide his face. Lady Phyrra gave an awkward curtsey and Lord Orden bowed low, staying down longer than usual, as if he were fighting the need to look into the eyes of the people whose lives he had assisted in ruining.

“Your freedom has been granted,” Ceredon said. “Not by me, but by them.”

Lord Orden opened his mouth to say something but closed it quickly.

Kindren pushed past his parents and approached Ceredon. The Quellan prince offered his arm, and Kindren took it, an acknowledgment of mutual respect passing between them. Their hands released, and Kindren turned around, facing Aully. Their eyes met, and then all his attempts at remaining solemn and proud broke down, and he was once again the young elf Aully had fallen in love with. He dashed toward her, all pretenses gone, letting out a heart-wrenching sob as he wrapped his arms around her. Aully dug her fingers into the clothing on his back, never wanting to let him go. She melted into him, sobbing, letting his gentle kiss on her cheek wash away, if only for the briefest of moments, her painful memories. She heard gasps from those gathered behind her, and then Kindren released her, stepping back to face them.

“I will be held responsible for your release,” he said, struggling to sound strong, like the lord he would one day have been had the world’s sanity not collapsed around him. “Ceredon used my blade to slice the guard’s throat, and clues pointing toward my culpability have been placed around the palace. I will bear the sole blame; I’m sure of it.”

Lady Thyne stifled a sob, and then her husband came forward, standing beside his son.

“Please, all of you,” he said, sounding timid and afraid. “I need you to understand we had no choice. The Neyvar is strong, and the might of his nation would have obliterated us. We had no choice but to obey, lest we lose our own lives.”

On hearing his words, Aully’s mother advanced on the Lord of Dezerea. No one dared stop her, not even when she slapped Orden across the face, and then grabbed the lapel of his overcoat and pulled him close to her.

“No choice?” she said. “You allowed my husband to be murdered; you allowed men, women, and children to be strung up like animals, and you now ask for our understanding? ” Audrianna spat in his face, a shimmering glob that struck him above the eye and dripped down over his nose. “In your position, we would have given our lives to protect you, even if the Neyvar had shown up with an entire legion. But I see now that honor ends at Stonewood’s borders and exists nowhere else in this forsaken world of humankind. Even our fellow Dezren have cast it aside.”

Behind them, Lady Thyne began to cry.

“There is no forgiveness for you,” said Aully’s mother, first to Orden, then Phyrra. “Not now, not ever.”

With that, she released the Lord of Dezerea and backed away. Orden, for his part, shuffled nervously from foot to foot, his head hanging in shame. Part of Aully felt sorry for him; but another part, the one that had watched her father beheaded and seen the mutilated bodies of her people on display, wished him a horrible, drawn-out death.

“And what of you two?” said her mother, facing Kindren and Ceredon.

“I will return to Dezerea and take my place by my father’s side,” said Ceredon, a darkness falling over his complexion. “Know that I do not condone his actions, nor do I understand them. All I know is that some sort of pact has been made with the god of the east, a pact that goes against our goddess’s decree. So I will stay, and learn what I can. I must find out all that I can to save my people from themselves, before they fall out of favor with Celestia forever. Know that in the court of Quellassar you have at least one ally.”

Lady Audrianna seemed touched, and she dipped her head in respect.

“And you?” she asked, turning to Kindren.

In response, Kindren dropped to one knee, took her hand, and kissed the back of it. A look of surprise came over the face of the Lady of Stonewood.

“The sins of my family have forever indebted me to you, Lady Audrianna,” he said, gazing up into her eyes. “Please, let me join you in exile from this place. I do not fear the death that will come for me if I stay, only that I would die without ever seeing my beloved Aullienna again.”

His gaze flicked over to Aully, and she stood breathless, unable to move. Her mother’s expression remained stoic as she stared at the young elf kneeling before her, giving no answer. She looked to Aully, then back at Kindren.

“Time is short,” Ceredon dared say. “They will discover your escape within the hour, if they have not already. It will not take them long to find our trail.”

“Of course you can join us,” Lady Audrianna whispered. Her hardness suddenly broke, and she was once more the frail woman who had huddled silently in the dungeon cell. “Though we may not have a home to return to…not if the betrayal the Neyvar spoke of is true.”

“Where we stay does not matter,” Kindren replied. “All that matters is that we stay alive and we stay together.”

He reached out for Aully then, and she went to him, accepting his arm around her waist as the rest of her people turned away from the shimmering lake. The sky brightened overhead, and the sun was close to poking over the eastern horizon. Lord and Lady Thyne left silently, and Aully bid them a soundless good riddance . Ceredon stood before the group for a moment longer, brushed his dark hair off his shoulders, and offered them a salute, his elbow locked and his fist clenched. Aully shrugged out of Kindren’s grasp and ran to him, throwing her arms around his waist and pressing her head against his chest.

“Thank you,” she said, gazing up into his soulful brown eyes. There were tears in them. Aully had never seen the prince of the Quellan cry. Oddly, the sensitivity suited him.

“What I do, I do for us all,” he said, and then he kissed two fingers of his right hand and pressed them against her temple. “But I also do it for you. Always.”