Terry Brooks: Wards of Faerie

I take him to my bed at every opportunity, no longer content with our time in the forest glade. I want him close to me. I want him with me always and constantly, but I must settle for what I can have. I choose times when I know the house will be empty. I live for those times. I am consumed by my need for them. I want them to go on forever.

Today I did something that may have been foolish. I spoke of the magic that keeps the Elves safe. I revealed too much of what I knew in an effort to impress—though only after he had done so first, speaking of the magic that keeps his own people safe. We spoke in general terms and not of specifics, but I am troubled nevertheless. We spoke of magic in the course of our frequent discussions on how the war between our peoples might be brought to an end. If there were no magic, there might be less cause for fighting, we reason. He sees it as I do, and so we speak of it openly. It is only talk, and nothing much could come of it. When we are together, what does talk of magic and conjuring and endless conflict matter anyway? Nothing matters, save that we are together.

But now I wonder. Because even though we spoke mostly in generalities, I did once speak in specifics.

I told him about the Elfstones.

“Aphen, are you still down there?”

She looked up quickly from the diary. Her uncle. “Still here,” she answered.

She shoved the diary under a pile of papers and took up something else as if she had been looking at that instead. She did so out of habit and instinct, aware not only that was she forbidden to remove anything from the archives but also that she was constantly watched in her comings and goings and never certain who it was that might be doing the watching. Mostly, it was Home Guards stationed at the top of the basement stairs, but it could be anyone. She liked her uncle and was close to him, but to the larger Elven community she had been a pariah for so long that she never took anything for granted.

A candle’s dim light wavered its way down the steps from the level above, and her uncle appeared out of the darkness. “The hours you keep, dear young lady, are ridiculous.”

Ellich Elessedil was the younger of the two brothers who had been in line for the throne many years ago and, to her mind, the one best suited to the task. But his older brother, her grandfather, was the one who had become ruler of the Elves on the death of their parents. Now her grandfather’s son, Phaedon, was the designated heir apparent and, as her grandfather continued to weaken from his chronic heart and lung problems, increasingly likely to be King soon. Aphenglow’s mother was Phaedon’s much younger sister, and her refusal to become involved in the business of the court allowed Aphenglow to remain comfortably clear of family and state politics.

Not as far clear as she would have liked, however. Her choice to become a member of the Druid order had put an end to that.

Her uncle took a seat on a stool she was using for stacking notes, moving the papers aside without comment. Though he was actually her great-uncle, Aphen found the designation awkward and called him simply Uncle, mostly as a term of endearment because they were so close. He was tall and lean and as blond as she was, although his hair was beginning to go gray. “It’s getting on toward midnight, you know. Whatever’s keeping you here could wait until morning.”

She smiled and nodded. “Nothing’s really keeping me. I just lost track of time. Thank you for rescuing me.”

He smiled back. “Find anything of interest today?”

“Nothing.” The lie came smoothly. “Same as always. Every morning I think that this will be the day I discover some great secret about the magic, some clue about a lost talisman or a forgotten conjuring. But each night I return to my bed disappointed.”

He looked around the room, taking in the shelves of books and boxes, the reams of papers stacked in their metal holders, the clutter and the scraps of documents and notes. “Perhaps there is nothing to find. Perhaps all you are doing is sorting documents that no one but you will ever read.” He glanced back at her. “I’m not trying to discourage you, not after all the work you’ve put in. I am only wondering if this is a fool’s errand.”

“A fool’s errand?” she repeated. Her blue eyes flashed. “You think I may have spent the last three hundred and sixty-four days on a fool’s errand?”

He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “That was a poor choice of words. Please forget that I spoke them. I don’t know enough about what you are doing to be able to question it with any authority. I only ask because I care about you.”

“You know why I am here, Uncle,” she said quietly. “You know the importance of what I am doing.”

“I know that you believe it to be important. But if there is nothing to find, if there is no magic to be found, no talismans to be recovered, then what have you accomplished?”

“I will have made certain of what you clearly suspect,” she answered. “I will have eliminated the possibility that something has been missed. A lot of time has passed and a lot of history been forgotten or lost. We are an old people, after all.”

He shrugged, leaning back on the stool. “Old enough that we are no longer the people we once were and probably never will be again. We have evolved since the Faerie Age. We do not rely on magic as we once did—or certainly not the same kinds of magic. We share the world now with other, different species. The Faerie that served the Void are locked away behind the Forbidding. Now we have humans to deal with instead, a less imaginative people, and the need we once had for protective magic no longer exists.”

She gave him a look. “Some might question that. Grianne Ohmsford, for one, if she were still alive.”

“Yes, she probably would. After all, she was the Ilse Witch.”

“She was also Ard Rhys of our order after that, and she saved us all from the very humans you seem to think we no longer need protection from.” She sighed. “Listen to me, engaging in a meaningless argument with my favorite uncle. To what end? Let’s not quarrel. I have a job to do, and I intend to do it. Maybe I won’t find anything. But I will make certain of that before I return to Paranor.”

Her uncle rose, nodding. “I wouldn’t expect less of you. Will you take dinner with us tomorrow night? You might enjoy a real meal for a change. Besides, Jera and I miss you.”

Her aunt and uncle lived in a cottage just outside the palace grounds, preferring to distance their personal lives from his work as a member of the Elven High Council and adviser to his brother. For as long as she could remember, they had chosen to forgo the benefits they could have enjoyed as members of the royal family.

She gave him a warm smile, standing with him. “Of course I’ll come. I miss you, too. And I promise not to forget this time, either.”

He reached out and took her hands in his. “Whatever anyone else tells you, I am proud of the work you are doing with the Druid order. I don’t think you betrayed anyone by accepting their offer to study with them. The betrayal would have been to your own sense of right and wrong had you refused. I will say, however, that when this task is done, perhaps you will think about staying in Arborlon for good.”

He squeezed her hands once, and then turned and started back for the stairs, candle in hand. “Good night, Aphen. Get some sleep.”

She watched until the candle had flickered out of sight and sat down again quickly. Digging under the papers where she had hidden it, she retrieved the diary.

She opened it and began to read anew.

Something terrible has happened, something that changes everything. He has told me he has been ordered to return to his home in Rajancroft by week’s end. His term of service as a watcher is complete. He wants me to go with him. He said it was necessary if we were to be together. My people might not accept him, but his would accept me. His Darkling clan is less disposed toward the exclusion of other Races, and I would become his bride and his people would embrace me. As I listened to him, I felt such a deep, abiding panic at the thought of leaving Arborlon and the Elves that I could barely breathe. I asked him not to speak of it again; I told him we must find another way.