“She has detained an agent of Viper. She wanted you to decide on the man’s fate,” Seije told her dutifully.
Rienna rose to her feet, her frown deepening as she tossed the gloves to the ground. A rush of feet came from behind Rienna but she did not startle as little hands clung to the folds of the dress about her legs. A cherubic face, tan and soft with smoky-grey eyes and snow-white ringlets of hair peered around Rienna’s skirt and eagerly up at Seije.
“Uncle Seije, can I go to the castle too?” the tiny girl pleaded with him now.
‘Uncle’ Seije held out his arms and the girl flew into his embrace and giggled gleefully as he swung her about and placed her effortlessly on his shoulders, his gaze coming back to meet Rienna’s, whose expression was troubled. Seije might be a stern man, a man who never married because he was married to his work, but he melted around his ‘niece.’
“Eden, you are quick to forget your manners. It has been nearly 5 years since then, Seije…” Rienna effortlessly shifted the topic as the girl named Eden wiggled and hummed to herself contentedly, her attention on one of many butterflies drawn to the growing garden. It had been six months into her pregnancy before she had known she was pregnant with this beautiful child and she had been the last to know. Her friends were lucky they were far away or she might have strangled them for keeping it from her. It had explained everything; the soreness, the vomiting, the weight gain, the moods, the aversion to wine, but still they never mentioned it. All their stupid smiling when she said she was sick hadn’t gone unnoticed either. She felt like a fool.
“Like mother, like daughter,” Seije shrugged, which Eden of course thought was meant for her benefit so she squealed again. “This one is cleverer than the others we found crawling out of the woodwork.”
Rienna stifled a heavy sigh. Sometimes she was so accustomed to the idyllic life that she and her daughter shared that she was loath to return to her duties. She grabbed her father’s sword from the peg on the nearby fence and strapped her sword about her sundress. Seije offered Rienna his arm.
“Shall we go then? I still have to cook for tonight,” Rienna complied, hooking her arm through his companionably.
From Rienna’s spacious cottage it really only took a half hour to walk to Merschenez and it was a scenic walk, mostly in gentle, spotted shade. Seije entertained Eden and Rienna basked in the warm feeling of peace in her chest, at the sounds of their banter and the simple whooshing whispers of the cool winds through the trees. As they neared the South Gate, Rienna became more apprehensive and Seije could feel it in her clenching arm and stroked her skin gently to soothe her.
Rienna calmed her nerves with a deep draw of breath and drew away, choosing to walk ahead of them. Eden and Seije were quiet behind her as she took the lead. Arden had wanted to come along but Rienna insisted that he stay behind. Lily would have been a bundle of nerves waiting for him to return. Rienna knew exactly where the holding cell was and was preparing herself to confront this agent. When the man came into view, time seemed to stop around her.
The man was disheveled from his journey, the edges of his clothing worn from travel but well-tailored and rich in color. His face was older than she remembered, but it made his stubblecovered jaw all the more handsome. His skin was darker, his bright fiery eyes still blazing in their dark blue irises, his musculature no less impressive with time. She suddenly felt more conscious of her own body, which retained some softness and curves she hadn’t had before becoming a mother. Other than a bruise at his temple and a trickle of blood at the right corner of his busted bottom lip, he looked unharmed, that infuriating cocky grin lighting his face as if expecting her all along. Her hands lifted deliberately to grab the bars, partly in disbelief, partly to keep from losing her balance.
“Melchior…”
It was a name she hadn’t uttered in a long time and his grin spread, but he did not move from where he sat against the wall, his elbows propped on his parted legs. Seeing him was so surreal that she thought she might melt through the bars and the dream would dissolve, leaving her with a broken heart all over again. She was enraged one moment and eager the next and she battled it all in mere moments, those years she spent remembering her lost friends flashing before her anew.
Rienna was older now and her actions were not so impulsive. She spoke to Seije, cocking her head towards him a bit but not daring to take her eyes from Melchior, convinced it was an illusion that could break in its surreal fragility.
“Seije, you know who he is,” Rienna started. She told Seije and Arden both more about what had happened than anyone and he nodded, but shrugged apologetically.
“The Queen does not know the full story. This man did kill her father; she was generous to not kill him upon sight. She let him slip through her fingers once; he will not be so lucky again,” Seije interjected. Generous maybe, but she wondered what the Queen had planned nonetheless. Certainly, she was about to lose him again and this time without question. Would Kalhmera let fate be so cruel to her again?
Melchior, whose eyes had been locked on Rienna’s as firmly as hers still was, chanced to look over at Seije as he spoke to Rienna so familiarly. He tilted his head curiously and grinned at Rienna again.
“You married Krose’s brother? What did you name the girl? She looks just like Ashe,” Melchior mused as Eden smiled at him from her perch on a nearby bench, her legs kicking gleefully. So many questions at once, she didn’t know how to begin.
Rienna frowned now.
“I didn’t marry anyone, he’s a family friend,” Rienna defended, pouting and planting her hands on her hips. “This is my daughter Eden. You knew I was pregnant too? Of course you did. You idiot, why the hell would you come back here after all this time? You knew the Queen would have you hanged the minute she found out who you were.”
Melchior laughed shortly and rose to his feet, striding over to her casually. She felt her heart thump with every silent step.
“You were probably the only one that didn’t know you were pregnant, did you? You always had an iron stomach and it never occurred to you why you suddenly didn’t,” Melchior teased, which rewarded him with one of her arctic glares. When he wrapped his fingers around hers on the bars, she jumped but did not move them, letting his fingers intimately caress hers as her eyes still doubted what she saw. His voice became softer. “I bet you’re glad one of us had some self-control or she might have been mine.”
Rienna blushed at the memory but didn’t balk. Her skin tingled, was on fire where he touched her. Melchior could see the jump in her jaw muscle though and knew he had affected her. After a moment, she frowned at the arm Viper’s lover had made for Melchior, grabbing it suddenly.
“I thought you didn’t like the flesh-colored plasticine,” Rienna asked, prodding at it. He brought the back of his hand closer to her face.
“Kalhmera’s Gift,” Melchior whispered, almost inaudibly and Rienna gasped as she realized the fingernails and the flesh that knitted around them. She had a moment to marvel at this then stepped away from the bars.
“She gave you your arm back… Wonders never cease. Do you have the key, Seije?” Rienna asked, finally able to look at the man who had picked up Eden to sit on his hip, cradled in his arm. She looked at Melchior unafraid and when he winked at her, she giggled. Seije shook his head, his expression apologetic.
“I know he is your friend, but he is sentenced to die, Rienna. I could not convince the Queen otherwise,” he said gently.
Rienna forced back the sudden lump in her throat and squared her shoulders, daring him to refuse her again.
“For 5 years, I thought he already was dead. Could you give me at least an hour to speak with him? He owes me an explanation,” Rienna asked and Seije was silent with thought. She heard him sigh and he set Eden down, fumbling through his key ring. Eden ran over to Rienna and Rienna smiled and embraced her lovely daughter, holding her shoulders as she spoke. “I am going to talk to this man for a while, okay? Did you want to go see the Queen’s
puppies while I finish here?”
Eden nodded vigorously and clapped her hands in her excitement. Melchior stood back as Seije opened the cell. Rienna undid her sword belt and left her weapons with Seije. She knew protocol, having been the commander’s daughter once. He shut the door behind her and Rienna waved happily at Eden again as Seije took her to see the puppies. Even after they were out of sight, Rienna looked at the empty doorway, suddenly feeling shy. Melchior had no such reservations.
“Motherhood has been good to you,” Melchior appraised. She looked at him to see if he was poking fun, but there was a hint of desire that sent a jolt through her. She grabbed at her elbows nervously and did her best to appear unaffected, but her nipples beaded as if he had touched them and his smile spread with carnal knowledge.
“You were dead, weren’t you? How are you here now?” Rienna accused coldly, once she collected herself. Her voice felt thick and she would know where he stood if she had closed her eyes as aware of him as she felt right now. Melchior’s face became serious as he leaned back against the stone wall of his prison and crossed his feet at the ankles, looking up at the ceiling but far beyond it.
“I guess it looked like I took the coward’s way out. I wish it were that simple. In truth, the unicorns of Calderon had been calling to me and there hadn’t been time to explain…” Melchior started.
“Liar!” Rienna spat suddenly, springing forward to punch his face, but he caught her fist and lowered it, shaking his head. “Men cannot hear them!”
Rienna wondered where the cool-headed woman she was went, but then hotheaded Melchior had always had that effect on her. She grabbed for his new arm this time, marveling at the abrupt halt of the tattoos still but the lack of any other indication it had been cut off. She ran her hands over that place on his arm marveling over it. His other hand slid up her skirt and squeezed her butt and she squealed and hit him. He laughed lazily and took his hand back, watching patiently while she went back to caressing his other arm with her exploration.
“That was true when the Old Gods had created them. In truth, they knew their existence was at stake and magic was in a state of chaos. I hadn’t gotten around to telling anyone that the little one that carried me to Elcarim had spoken to me before I landed and believe me, my first instinct was to be offended that I could hear them too. Anyway, when they saw me on the edge of Elcarim, they called me to them to make a case to Kalhmera,” Melchior shook his head again. “This wasn’t some noble act on my part; I wasn’t particularly fond of that little shit but I was in such pain and the elder one, the one that first spoke to you, she said the pain would end soon enough, but I had to trust them.”
“You said you had no intention of dying on Elcarim before you jumped!” Rienna seethed at him, daring him to lie to her.
“I know and I meant it. I’m sorry if you thought it meant I was killing myself, but I was willing to take a chance to help them if it meant ending the pain. I realize I hadn’t needed to help them to do that in hindsight, that Kalhmera was about to release us all from the elemental’s hold on our souls, but at the time I thought it was worth a chance. I didn’t know what I’d be sacrificing by trusting them. Well, during the fall, I had been so drained that I lost consciousness and when I woke I was in that place you and Ashe had been to, the place that they were from, only I didn’t wake where it was safe, I was trapped in a damned castle of sand. I bet you didn’t know that the pools of water there were like Sea Star’s little bastard spies and were keen on showing me you and Ashe’s waterfall fuck every chance it got.”
This time Rienna blushed damn near crimson, biting her lip and looking away. She wasn’t sure she liked how he demeaned that memory to such a vulgar description but decided that watching your brother screwing the girl you once loved over and over would be intolerable to the point of insanity. Melchior laughed, a short and miserable sound, pulling away from her reluctantly and standing against the wall again. Without amusement, he recalled the rest of his time in Calderon.
When I had woken up, I was half-buried in the sand; it tickled as it tried to fill my ears, weighed me down as the hissing turned to a hollow drumming sound, had stirred me from the darkness. Right away, I noticed the pain I had felt was gone here. I rolled over and I was surrounded by the stuff only it wasn’t just sand, it was sculpted yet formless, solid and liquid everywhere I looked to the point where I could swear the very air was just invisible sands. My first thought was to panic and cough, so convinced I was that the air was heavy with sand. I was in a cell much like this one, only like everything else, it was crafted of sand. I was in some kind of enormous courtyard that housed a spectacular sandy garden complete with fountains that spewed sand flowing as effortlessly as spring water, the mimicry true to every misty spray and stray droplet. If that wasn’t strange enough, there were humanoid creatures moving about, made out of that very same sand. If I never see sand again, I won’t miss it.
I say humanoid because the creatures only resembled humans; two arms, two legs and a head on a torso, but they looked unfinished, like a sculpture that a child had started then got distracted from completion. You know, like the little soap dolls you put needles in when you really hate someone? I had grabbed the bars of my prison, expecting them to crumble away, but they held fast and felt exactly as if they were made of cold hard iron rather than sand. I pulled my hands away in revulsion. I tried to call out to the lumpy sand people but they either couldn’t hear me or didn’t much care for all the good it did. In frustration, I pulled back my mechanical arm, sure that I could cleave through the sand as surely as I could make it cleave through iron, but when the blow landed, my hand shattered and for the first time in a long time, I was left with a useless stump again. I want to say that I didn’t miss it, considering where it came from, but I would be lying. It was a bitch getting used to the handicap again.
At first, I sat down, surrendering to despair and misery. Nothing of who I was could move this place, not my weapons, not my charm, nothing. I just had those lovely pools of insanity that played the Rienna and Ashe Show. I plotted and planned, trying everything I could think of. At one point, one of the sand people shoved in a plate of sand-food, but that glimmer of hope I felt instantly died away as again, I could not get the attention of my captors and they left me in my pitiful solitude. I was starving and thirsty, but this was sand they served me, not sustenance. I could not tell day and night in this place and I tried to ignore the food, but the longer I went without, the more even a plate of sand looked appetizing.
When hunger gnawed at me, I finally gave in and, just like I had been surprised to discover the feeling of the iron bars, I was shocked to discover the food did not taste or feel like sand in my mouth, but like actual food. When I closed my eyes, I could make the meal more appetizing by not seeing the impossible shapes of sand I was shoving into my mouth.
When I had opened my eyes again, I was startled to see that one of the sand people was in my cell with me, but still it was shut fast. I pleaded again for the creature to let me go and I hear its laughter, as coarse as grinding glass and all it tells me is “then wake up” before dissolving into the floor of my miserable cell. I would have punched it, but I only had one hand left and didn’t want to risk it.
In my frustration, I curled up on the thin pallet and tried to sleep but found I could not. I rubbed at my eyes and was horrified to find my face was crumbling away like sand; indeed, it was the only thing in this place that actually felt like it! I tried in vain to pick up the pieces of me that crumbled away. I shut whatever was left of my eyes and when I dared to open them again, the sand was flat as far as the eye could see.
When I turned to look behind me, the sand castle was far in the distance. I was not comforted by this however; all around me aside from that stretch of damnable desert leading to the castle was those deadly fast man-eating plants I had recognized from Stoneweld, only these were thrice the size, sickly blue as the skin of a drowned man and quick. I could scarce move without one of the
abominations so close I was sure I was going to end my days being digested by a fucking plant. I’d seen what the Stoneweld version did to my horse and I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to that.
I sat there, once again crippled by ineptitude when one of those damned unicorns showed up and the plants started to wither and die. As much as I hated the little bastard, the unicorn that I had suffered to ride to Elcarim, a young foal named Osharus, had come to bail me out. As weary and heartsick as I was, I acquiesced to ride the beast again. I wanted to be pissed that they had abandoned me to the sand to begin with but I was too exhausted to do more than cling to the aggravating little fucker. Yet again, I passed out from exertion and did not wake again until I was in the heart of the unicorn’s cave. At first, I did not speak. I could swear that what I ate was turning back into sand and when I couldn’t fight the urge to vomit, I discovered that was true enough. The sand scorched and scratched my throat until it bled and the soup of grit and dirt mixed with the bile. They tried to talk to me but I locked my words away and despaired. I was convinced that the world I knew was gone and maybe I was dead and this place was hell, no matter how kind they were to me as they nursed me patiently back to health.
It wasn’t Osharus that spoke to me next; the dislike I felt for him was mutual. It was the large female that seemed partial to you, Rienna, that finally came to me. She told me her name was Eolgavaye (she sounded it out like ee-OLE-gah-VAY, but told me it was Gavy for short) and the world had not ended but they were fading as the magic of the Old Gods vanished from the world. She assured me that Kalhmera had succeeded (which needed explaining since I wasn’t exactly privy to that event), but Calderon had been a secret of the Old Gods that even She had not access to. I had scoffed at this; what could I possibly do after all? This place had stolen my arm, my will, my confidence. My brother was dead and all of my friends too for all I knew. What was there to live for?
Gavy told me that she could not comfort me for she did not know the fate of the world, but she knew of a way that I could speak to the Goddess and only my words would reach her here; although my powers through the elemental were gone, I was still connected to her as a Champion of Fire would be. Only the distortion created by the ending of the old gods had permitted them to leave Calderon to begin with once they had returned. I was not expecting anything to come of it, but unlike the unicorns, I hated the dark, mystic cave they called home and longed to leave. I gave in and Osharus grudgingly took me out of the canyon and to a high point where the off-white sky swirled around that point. It was there that I saw the place where you and Ashe must have come through; a puckered dark hole in the sky where I could see the night sky of my own world, the sand of my world’s desert floor pouring through into Calderon below.
The Truth about Heroes: Complete Trilogy (Heroes Trilogy) Page 75