The Faithful Traitor (Wizard & Dragon Book 2)

by Robert Don Hughes

  Elaryl saw it, too. More than that, Elaryl recognized the source of the woman’s strength, and that verified for her Amyryth’s words. She turned to Seagryn. “Then there’s no other alternative. We must go.”

  The peace he’d felt all evening now warmed inside him. “You want to go?” he asked quietly. “Even if it means my working again with Sheth?”

  “We have to. When do we leave?”

  “Tomorrow, child,” Amyryth said firmly. “There’ll be no more traveling tonight for any of us. And as for sleeping arrangements —” She opened a door and motioned for Seagryn and Elaryl to follow her through it into the hall. Once they could see, she gestured toward a large, quilt-covered bed that dwarfed the room in which it sat. “You take the bed I shared with my husband.” Her round face wrinkled into an enormous smile as she added, “I’m certain you can find good use for it!”

  Chapter Nineteen: BEYOND HEARING

  SEAGRYN awoke early and slipped from the warm covers without disturbing Elaryl. He stood beside the bed a moment, watching her breathe, feeling proud that this woman had chosen to love him. He still quietly reveled at his victory the night before — the Power’s victory, he reminded himself, but he had played his role in it. And as he contemplated the circumstances of that event, together with Elaryl’s presence and a clear purpose for the days ahead, Seagryn wondered if he’d ever felt so blessed. When he opened the front door of the cottage and got his first taste of the crisp morning air, his spirits soared even higher, up among the branches above. Autumn had come to this region of the Marwilds, and Seagryn gloried in it.

  He’d not been able to see the leaves when they’d arrived the night before. They’d all been weary, and the warm glow from the cottage fireplace had drawn them immediately inside. Now, with the sun slipping up through the trees behind him, he could gaze up into the multicolored canopy and remember all the autumns past. Fall came so vividly and left so quickly that it seemed to freeze individual moments within frames of red and gold. The scent in the air — that sweet aroma of decaying foliage mingled with wood smoke — seemed to loop through this moment like a needle, knitting it to the same instant in previous years. Let others mark their calendars as they chose — for Seagryn, the beginning of every new year dated from this first whiff of autumn. And this year, he would be spending it in the treetops …

  No one else in his party quite shared his excitement as they made the journey southward to Thaaliana’s bower. Elaryl had wanted to sleep until noon and was a little grouchy that he’d not let her. As usual, Dark seemed to be elsewhere — doubtless in the future. And Jocelath had days of empty meanderings to report, which she did — at length. Tugoliths had excellent hearing, so he couldn’t quite tune her out. Fortunately, it was highly directional hearing, so by aiming his enormous ears away from her, he was able to miss most of Jocelath’s monologue. That is, when she wasn’t riding on his back.

  The journey was too long to subject the already weary pair Of horses to carrying more than one rider each, so his fellow travelers each took a turn riding Seagryn. He barely noticed the weight — indeed, he could have carried all three of them easily — but as others had told him in the past, the scales that ran down his spine made his neck an uncomfortable perch. Stuffed pillows seemed to help, so they’d borrowed several from Amyryth before leaving. As for the tugolith smell — Seagryn couldn’t do anything about that. He ignored it himself, concentrating his acute olfactory sense on enjoying the scent of the season. By midaftemoon they had left the changing leaves behind them. That was all right, Seagryn thought to himself. The fall colors would follow them south.

  They chose not to travel at night, so it took them a day and a half to reach the giant woods. Seagryn had arranged for Elaryl to be riding on him when they arrived, and he turned his ears back to listen as she oohhed and ahhed at the spectacular scene. A smile turned up the corners of his large, leathery lips. He couldn’t wait for her to see the tree-castle and made the mistake of telling her so.

  “This is it?” she said when they finally arrived beneath it.

  “You can’t really see it yet,” he muttered. “Just wait until you’re up in it.”

  “I’m not sure I want to be up in it …” she said, her blond curls spilling down her back as she peered straight up the huge trunk.

  “You’ll be safe,” he growled, waiting for her to climb off before turning back into a man. “Hop down.”

  “I don’t know,” she murmured doubtfully as she dropped to the ground. Jocelath and Dark had been trailing behind them, and they arrived at the tree just as Seagryn resumed his human form.

  Seagryn cupped his hands around his mouth. “Sheth!” he yelled skyward. “Fylynn? This is Seagryn! Let down the ladder!”

  “A ladder?” Elaryl asked. “You mean we have to climb?”

  Seagryn reminded himself that she had done nothing but travel for days on end and managed a slight smile. “Did you think you’d get to ride up in a basket?”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” she said, again looking toward the tree. At that moment the rope ladder came plummeting through the leaves, and Elaryl jumped back in surprise as the end of it popped the ground twenty yards away. Seagryn looked back at Dark and gestured toward it.

  “You go,” the boy suggested, his hand on Jocelath’s shoulder. “We’ll climb up after you.”

  Seagryn put Elaryl on the ladder before him and stabilized it with his weight. Up she went. Once she was ten yards off the ground he motioned for Dark to anchor the bottom rung and went up behind her, listening expectantly. Finally her voice came.

  “Seagryn!” she gushed. “It’s — beautiful!”

  Seagryn smiled happily and followed his wife into Thaaliana’s bower.

  They were greeted on the bottom level by Fylynn, Sheth, and Paumer. Sheth beamed broadly, showing his white teeth as he grasped Elaryl’s hand and helped her up the last few feet. “Welcome! Welcome!” he said grandly. “I see you weren’t digested after all!”

  “Thank you,” Elaryl mumbled, making a point of not looking at him as she made a quick survey of her surroundings and waited for Seagryn to climb on in. “Hello, Paumer,” she said when her eyes crossed the merchant’s face. Seagryn had told her Paumer was here; otherwise she wouldn’t have recognized him. He seemed to have aged ten years since the last winter. “Hello.” She nodded to Fylynn, who eyed her strangely.

  Seagryn pulled himself up inside and took a deep breath. “So. We made it,” he announced. He put his arm around Elaryl and began the introductions. Jocelath joined them just as he finished, and he had to make the rounds again. Dark, of course, knew everyone.

  “Well, then.” Sheth smiled, his dimples at their deepest. “Are you ready to go to work?”

  This was too quick, Seagryn thought to himself, but he recognized the reason for Sheth’s haste. The wizard didn’t want to talk about his flight from the bonfire — especially since it was apparent that Seagryn had prevailed without his help. “Where’s Thaaliana?” Seagryn asked.

  “She’s with her family,” Fylynn answered for Sheth. “March took them all into the village for market day.”

  “Who’s Thaaliana?” Elaryl asked. “Who’s March?”

  Was it possible that, in all his discussion of the tree-castle, Seagryn had not mentioned the one who had found and occupied it? He guessed it was … perhaps because he’d been uncertain what Elaryl’s response to a female powershaper might be. “She’s —” he began, but faltered. He didn’t need to answer, anyway. Fylynn already was answering, and she could provide many more details. As she explained, Seagryn glanced around this bottom level, noting stacks of boxes and barrels that hadn’t been here when he’d left. By the time Fylynn finished, Elaryl was looking at him suspiciously. He ignored her gaze and gestured at the boxes. “What’s all this?” he asked Sheth.

  “Food,” the powershaper answered, still smiling. “That’s what I’ve been doing while you were on your way back — robbing the pantry of the King of Arl. Come on
up!” he said directly to Elaryl, sweeping his hand toward the stairway to the upper levels. “See the rest of the castle!”

  Elaryl smiled primly and walked past Sheth to the stairs. Seagryn caught the cool look of appraisal Fylynn gave his wife as she climbed, and understood. “I’ll take her on the grand tour,” he announced, stepping past Sheth to the stairs. When he looked back he saw that Fylynn wore a relieved smile. “This level is individual rooms … he began when he reached the second level, but Elaryl was still climbing. He followed her up.

  “This is unbelievable,” she said flatly as he joined her, astonishment at her surroundings robbing her voice of all expression. “Look at this.”

  Seagryn did. They stood in the great hall in the center of the third level, a rustic room filled with dark, varnished columns. The large room was dark, and the open spaces on three of the four sides made him feel one with the trees.

  “Why so many of these wooden beams?” she wondered, rubbing her hand along one.

  “To support the water — above us there’s a reservoir, a kind of giant barrel for trapping rain. Let’s go look inside the towers.” He led her into the tower on the opposite side from where he’d discovered the hiding Paumer, and found an open room at the top with a large bed in it.

  “This is where we’re sleeping,” Elaryl announced, and she turned around to fall backward across the coverlet. “Good night,” she said pointedly, and closed her eyes. Within moments she slept.

  Seagryn walked to one of the windows and gazed out at green leaves — a broad vista of them, stretching out as far as he could see. Should he rejoin the others below? That would be the polite thing to do, he guessed. Then he looked back at his wife and mumbled to himself, “But who needs to be polite?” He leaned down the staircase and shouted, “We’re sleeping in the northeast tower!” Then he kicked off his boots and joined his wife on the bed. That night, refreshed by the long nap and a dinner cooked by Fylynn and Jocelath, they lay cuddled under the covers and listened to the wind as it gently stroked the leaves outside their window …

  The next morning Elaryl and Seagryn cooked breakfast together for the whole group, learning their way around the kitchen as they worked. The ovens were located on the eastern edge of the third level, adjoining the great hall. Each tile-lined stove had a bamboo tube suspended above it, linked to the reservoir on the upper level. Fire in this structure would cause immediate catastrophe, so this was obviously a safety measure to insure against it. The tubes were closed by ingenious spigots, but they’d not been replaced in a long time and all of them leaked, meaning the wooden floor was constantly slick. When winter came that would be a hazard, Seagryn thought to himself, for the kitchen floor would freeze. And it wouldn’t be long — this was a frosty morning. But they were comfortable now — the warm oven insured that. They moved a table close to the fire and served the food upon it, even though most of the others in the tree-castle had not yet left their warm beds. And it was here — soon after they heard the rhythmic chopping of a distant ax — that Thaaliana joined them.

  She scampered into the kitchen, squirrel-like, even though she was now in her human form. Once she spotted them, she froze and watched them, motionless for a moment, as if she’d suddenly confronted invaders in her nest and was fearful they might attack her. Although she knew Seagryn, shed obviously not been expecting to find him here. She didn’t know Elaryl at all and perhaps found this new woman’s unkempt beauty and frank blue eyes somewhat threatening. Seagryn stood quickly to set her at ease, but his abrupt motion only caused her to jerk back a step or two. “Thaaliana, good morning!” He smiled. She didn’t immediately smile back. “I’m Seagryn, remember? I take it you didn’t expect to see us here.”

  “No,” she said. He gave her a moment to elaborate, but she didn’t make use of it.

  “This is my wife, Elaryl. Elaryl, this is Thaaliana — the powershaper I told you about.”

  “The powershaper you didn’t tell me about is closer to the truth,” Elaryl said peevishly, and Seagryn remarked to himself how quickly his lady’s mood could swing. Then Elaryl was up and moving toward Thaaliana with a friendly smile, and he relaxed. Her statement had only been an entree to allow her to meet and greet Thaaliana herself. “You must find it disconcerting to discover people you’ve never met before sitting at your own breakfast table.”

  Seagryn looked at Thaaliana. He still wasn’t certain whether she would stay or dart out the door.

  She stayed. “It’s … not really mine …” she murmured, gesturing around at the tree-castle. “I … found it.” Despite her words, there was a wistfulness in her voice that seemed to suggest the opposite — that she had at one time felt ownership of this hiding place, and that each new arrival robbed her of another piece of it.

  “Do you have children?” Elaryl asked — still bright and friendly. She was trying hard to establish some link.

  Thaaliana seemed unwilling to see that. “Why?” She frowned slightly.

  “I — Fylynn told us you’d gone to market yesterday with your family, I just wondered …”

  “Two children. That’s my husband chopping wood.” Thaaliana nodded her head toward the sounds of the ax. “Do you have children?”

  “None yet.” Elaryl smiled at Seagryn, conveying — whether she actually felt this or not — that she wished they might have a child soon. Growing up in the home of a leader of Lamath, Elaryl had learned all the social graces early and well. She had the ability to set anyone at ease, and Seagryn felt duly impressed and proud of her.

  Was it perhaps that very charm and poise that put Thaaliana on guard? For although she’d been very personable on the night of Seagryn’s first meeting with her, the little squirrel-woman still had not warmed to either of them this morning. Or was something else bothering her? She quite obviously turned away from Elaryl and looked at Seagryn. “Sheth said when you arrived the three of us would begin the process. Is he ready?” Her tone was businesslike and curt.

  “I’m not even certain he’s up ye —” Seagryn began, but before he finished the sentence she’d left the room. He met Elaryl’s eyes. They looked at him accusingly.

  “Why doesn’t she like me?” she asked.

  “I — I don’t know if she really doesn’t like ye —”

  “She probably likes you,” his wife said flatly, and sat down to finish her breakfast.

  “That makes no sense —”

  “It makes perfect sense. You’re a powershaper, she’s a powershaper. I’m not.”

  This was the first time Seagryn could remember Elaryl expressing some jealousy toward his gift. Then again, this was the first time either of them had met a female shaper. “If that were true, then wouldn’t she like Sheth more?”

  “She may.” Elaryl shrugged, wiping her mouth on a napkin. “She probably does. There’s an affinity between the three of you that I can’t share. I don’t matter.”

  “Of course you matter —” Seagryn began, but Elaryl cut him off again.

  “Not to her.” She was about to go on, but at that moment Dark bounded into the kitchen, and both of them were so shocked, they focused all their attention on the lad. For the first time in months, Dark was acting his age.

  “Good morning!” he sang, and leaned across the table to grab a roll and toss it above his head. He tried to catch it in his teeth, but it bounced off his chin. He juggled it between his hands before finally trapping it against his chest, then he looked at them both and smiled. “Slept well, did you?”

  “What’s got into you?” Elaryl asked, lips frowning in mock concern but smiling with her eyes.

  Dark cackled happily and tossed the roll up once again. “No wedding!” he crowed while it was in the air, then caught it with a flourish. “I just saw that this morning!”

  “No wedding for whom?” Seagryn asked.

  “For me, of course! What did you think’s been causing me such depression for so long?”

  “Why, I can think of many things far more depressing than th
at,” Seagryn responded. He didn’t want to chide but found that he was doing so. He had taken Dark’s depression as a warning of terrible events to come. He realized it was only natural, but still it bothered him to learn that the boy who knew the future of the world was so affected by his own personal fortunes.

  “I can’t,” Dark said. Then he turned a chair around, straddled it, and began to fill a plate. “This tastes wonderful!”

  “You haven’t even taken a bite yet,” Elaryl pointed out, still amused by his youthful exuberance.

  “I’m Dark, remember? I know already —” He took a bite and grinned at her. “See?” he said with his mouth full.

  Seagryn was still back at the wedding. “Are you saying you didn’t know until this morning that you weren’t to be wed?”

  Dark swallowed. “That we weren’t going to have the wedding? Right. Not until today. I’ve been hiding that part of my future from myself — using the green powder you brought me. I still have a good supply, by the way,” he said somewhat defensively. “I’m not misusing it, just letting it help me sleep …”

  “But then how did you —”

  “When I get within a few weeks of any event, I know. It becomes just like your recent memory — clear and present, rather than dreamy.” He grinned and took another bite. “Wonderful morning!” he said as he chewed. Seagryn didn’t feel so certain about that.