Edward opted to lean against the wall, his arms folded, his face both smooth and still. "Not so bad," he agreed, and smiled at Rose, who had made herself at home on the hearth rug. "But I can't help but feel a bit uneasy about all of this. I--"
Elinor heard Sennet's voice, but she couldn't understand what she was saying over the clattering. But a moment later, a blond elf Elinor recognized as Ceidrin walked out of the kitchen, wiping flour off his hands with a tattered towel. He nodded to Elinor, stared at Edward for a long moment, then briefly closed his eyes.
"I'm to tell you both that breakfast is ready if you're hungry," he said. "And if you have any hesitations to eat it, think of it as the last meal you'll ever eat that I helped with."
"That's a funny way to recommend your own cooking," Edward said after a moment of silence.
Ceidrin shuddered. "It is only because you don't know me that you say that," he said. "I can't cook. But--" He brandished his towel like a medal of honor. "I did not burn the pancakes."
"Who could burn something as simple as pancakes?" Elinor asked.
Ceidrin smiled. "You've no idea. Sennet informs me we'll all talk after breakfast, if that's okay with you." He said this as if he expected Edward to protest, but Edward only nodded, suddenly subdued and wary.
"That's fine," Elinor said.
"My name is Ceidrin," Ceidrin said to Edward. "I apologize for not introducing myself. Be welcome here, and eat with us."
"I would be pleased to eat with you," Edward said after a moment. "My name is Edward."
"You are Nidrea's son," Ceidrin said, seemingly unable to help himself.
"I thought you said we'd talk after breakfast," Elinor said, recognizing the hunted look on Edward's face.
"I...damn." Ceidrin's smile did not reach his eyes. "I did say that. I'm sorry. This is--"
"Awkward," Edward said with a slightly more genuine smile. "For what it's worth, yes. I am Nidrea's son."
"Unfortunately, it's worth much more than you probably realize," Ceidrin said. "But I promised to wait. So I will. We have omelets and pancakes and meat for those who eat it, and Gene opened a can of green beans for your dog. He said dogs love green beans." He sounded doubtful that was true, but Rose hopped up at the words and wagged her tail.
"Rose likes green beans," Edward said. "Evidently omelets as well." Rose barked. "As long as they don't have green peppers in them."
"You communicate with her?" Ceidrin asked, amazed.
Edward glanced at Elinor, and she thought she saw a glint of humor in his gaze. "It's not hard to do if you are a wolf for most of every month," he said.
Ceidrin spluttered a curse in Elvish, and probably would have said something he regretted if a dark haired human man had not appeared behind him.
"The food is getting cold," he said. "It's bad enough that Sennet took Dierin away, but I'd hate to waste all of this food." He nodded to Edward and smiled at Elinor. "I'm Gene. Sometimes Ceidrin's better half."
"More often than not," Ceidrin muttered, and shook his head. "Shall we eat?"
***
Sennet appeared halfway through the meal that Elinor couldn't eat--although the tea was superb--with a girl trailing behind her and a surprise--Lucien. Elinor hadn't seen Lucien for years, but he recognized her readily enough.
"I'm glad to see you here," he said, fixing himself a plate of food. "I tried to warn you, but they got to me first. Ceidrin saved my life."
"Sennet saved your life," Ceidrin said. "All I did was make it so she could."
"Either way, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you," Lucien said implacably. He nodded to Edward. "My name is Lucien."
"Edward," Edward said, and glanced at Sennet, who was busy explaining something to the elf--was this the 'Dierin' Gene had mentioned before?
When Lucien turned a questioning gaze to Ceidrin, who was probably biting his tongue, Elinor sighed.
"We can avoid this forever if we try hard enough," she said.
"Then why don't you have your talk over tea?" Gene suggested. "I'm fairly sure you--we--are all on the same side."
Ceidrin opened his mouth, as if to deny that Gene was involved at all, but closed it again without saying a word.
"This is Dierin," Sennet said a moment later. "Dierin, this is Edward and Elinor. You've met everyone else."
The girl smiled and nodded, but still looked terribly uncomfortable. Knowing the elves, it had something to do with class. Perhaps she was a poor cousin, or something like that. Elinor doubted anyone at the table would make her feel unwelcome, but the elves were very class-conscious, nonetheless.
"Edward and I don't know what has happened since--since my mother died," Elinor said. "Maybe we should start at the beginning?"
"The beginning starts with Nidrea," Ceidrin said with an apologetic glance at Edward. "But if you want to know what has happened since your mother died--" He spoke of the gathering, then, and what he had agreed to do. Of finding Lucien, of Dierin's warning to Sennet, and what had happened when the hounds arrived. Of his subsequent rescue, and then the rescue of Gene, who stared down at his plate through all of this, as if trying to ignore the summary of his pain.
Elinor spoke next, quietly, trying to make it through the telling without bursting into tears. She was an orphan now. And perhaps that made the thought of being a Healer a bit easier to bear. At least, with them, she'd belong to some sort of community. A surrogate family, of sorts.
Ceidrin asked no questions until she was finished. "I find it quite hard to believe that you just happened to--um--run over the very person everyone is now looking for," he said. "What possessed you to drive down that very road on that very evening?"
"I don't know," Elinor said, studiously not looking at Edward. "I wasn't thinking about finding anyone; much less Edward. I just wanted to get away from them. And I really didn't know who I could trust in Faerie, after that."
"Yes," Ceidrin said softly. "Imagine what would have happened if you'd confronted Oriellen?"
"Is anyone trustworthy?" Lucien asked. "Present company excepted, of course."
Ceidrin bit his lip. "I'd bet my life that Mahalia can be trusted," he said. "But as for the others--it's hard to say." He glanced at Edward, who had remained silent through all of this. Elinor had not mentioned his mother or his curse. Those two stories were Edward's alone to tell.
"I'm sorry," Dierin said softly. "But I don't understand where Edward falls in all of this. I--"
"My mother's name was Nidrea," Edward said, his voice equally soft.
Dierin scrambled up. "Oh...oh--"
It was quite obvious by the look on Edward's face that he did not understand her distress. Elinor tried to think of a tactful way to put it without resorting to the word 'commoner', but Ceidrin saved the day.
"Sit down," he said, his voice almost sharp. "Do you think we have the luxury here to resort to castle rankings? Is it not enough that you--by warning Sennet--saved my life? You are an honored guest here, Dierin."
She sat, awkwardly, and as far away from Edward as she could manage without being obvious about it. Elinor thought that everyone noticed anyway, but no one said a word.
"Castle rankings?" Edward asked, a certain amount of suspicion in his tone of voice.
"Surely you don't think that everyone can be royalty," Lucien said.
"Of course not," Edward replied. "But do your rankings go far enough to exclude kin from your table? I can see a family resemblance between both of you--"
"Dierin does belong to my branch of the family, yes," Lucien said. "But this is not something I introduced, or even like." He glanced at Ceidrin, as if daring him to interrupt. "You outrank us all anyway."
"Because I am Nidrea's son," Edward said shortly. "It doesn't matter that my father was human?"
"Not a bit," Ceidrin said. "Although some of the purists might protest, but let them protest."
"I can't be king," Edward said.
"That's what I hear," Ceidrin said, and Elinor wondered what he would s
ay when Edward told them of his curse. "You also said something about--"
"A hundred years ago, I--interrupted someone's hunt," Edward said. "In anger at my meddling, the mistress of that hunt cursed me to be a wolf, save for a handful of days before and after the full moon."
"And you're still sane?" Lucien gasped.
"He wouldn't be sitting here if he wasn't still sane," Elinor said furiously.
"I've learned to live with what I am," Edward said, his voice still calm. "I have my mother's house and land. For most of the year I can easily feed myself." When no one responded, he continued, "My mother petitioned someone in Faerie to break the curse, and she might have known the name of the woman who cursed me. But she did not succeed before she died, and I have no record of her contact in Faerie."
"It was Oriellen, wasn't it?" Dierin whispered, her gaze fixed on her clenched hands. "She was the mistress of that hunt."
"She never gave me her name," Edward said. "And I've not seen her since."
"She was hunting a werewolf, wasn't she?" Dierin spoke in a monotone now, her eyes wet with unshed tears.
Edward glanced at Elinor, one eyebrow raised as if to ask if he should pursue this. "Yes, she was," he said. "Did you--know him?"
That had been a century ago, Elinor thought. Surely Dierin wasn't that old--
"My eldest brother," Dierin said. "I never knew him. His--condition was one of the reasons my parents were in disgrace. The court did not look kindly on werewolves back then." She kept her gaze on her hands. "I took the position in Oriellen's household in the hope of finding some sort of proof that she killed him."
"If the woman who cursed me was Oriellen, then she did kill him," Edward said. "In cold blood. Right in front of me."
"Would you recognize her if you saw her again?" Ceidrin asked.
Edward glanced at him and nodded. "Yes, unless she has changed her appearance in a century."
"Not that much," Dierin said, forgetting her wariness in the face of the truth. "Could I call Council to accuse her?"
"With only my word?" Edward asked.
"You could, but she would never admit it," Ceidrin said. "You need additional proof. If we could get one of her hounds alone, perhaps--do they all shift shape?"
"Yes," Dierin said, and shivered. "There are seven of them."
"I only saw five," Ceidrin said. "And that was enough. How did she create them?"
"I don't know," Dierin said. "But the one called Ahlos is the one you want to talk to. He's the eldest, and he hates her. She doesn't let him out much, though."
"I remember Ahlos," Gene said, frowning. "She had him on a leash. He was there when they--" He broke off with a stricken glance at Ceidrin. "He...he offered to kill me."
Ceidrin took a deep breath. "He offered to kill you?"
"If they got carried away," Gene said, and pushed his chair away from the table. "Are we finished eating?"
"You are not going to wash the dishes," Ceidrin said softly.
Gene shrugged. "Someone should," he said, and picked up his empty plate.
Ceidrin cast an anguished glance at Sennet, who shook her head, as if to tell him not to intervene.
Gene gathered up the dirty dishes, then carried them over to the sink in silence. Ceidrin watched him slowly start to fill the sink with soapy water, a lost and aching look on his face.
"He won't--"
"Give him time," Sennet murmured.
Ceidrin nodded unhappily, but his gaze never wavered from Gene.
"I saw five, too," Elinor said to break the silence. She couldn't help but remember how they had appeared out of nowhere and the strange way they shifted shape. "But if she keeps this Ahlos on a leash, how will we get to him?"
Sennet had, until now, listened quietly to the various stories, as if piecing the whole together in her head. "As I see it, you have two ways to find him. One--someone gets caught. That would get you into her castle. Or two, you make it so she has no choice but to release him."
"And how would we do that?" Edward asked, as if he suspected her answer would have something to do with him.
"Well--"
"No," Ceidrin said softly, still watching Gene. "I'm not giving anyone to Oriellen. And the alternative--unless we announce that Nidrea's son has been found, thus putting Edward in danger, we have no way to ensure she'll loose all her hounds."
"You rated five but I rate seven?" Edward asked.
"You're a bigger threat," Lucien said.
"Still, they couldn't get past your wards unless you let them inside," Elinor said.
"Could we set a trap?" Edward asked.
"For seven hounds?" Lucien stared at him. "How do you propose we do that? No one has successfully killed one of them--"
"If I had something that belonged to Ahlos--a scrap of clothing or a lock of hair or something like that--I could ensure that he was the only hound who could get beyond my wards."
"They can't get through?" Lucien asked. "At all?"
"I couldn't pierce them," Sennet said.
"You'd be under siege," Elinor said, not sure he realized the possible problems with that. "In the dead of winter. As a wolf."
"We would still have to find something that belongs to Ahlos," Ceidrin said. He had finally looked away from Gene. "And that might prove a problem."
Dierin opened her mouth to speak, and suddenly, Elinor knew exactly what she would say.
"I could get it," Dierin said softly. She drew herself up when no one challenged her statement. "Oriellen doesn't know I've left for good. As far as she knows, I am visiting my elderly aunt."
"You do have an elderly aunt?" Elinor asked.
Dierin flushed. "Of course!"
"You would still be exposed," Ceidrin said to Edward. "We--I--will have to declare you found."
"I know," Edward said. "I have an idea about that, too. Could you pretend you've not spoken to me? I'm sure you'll be watched if you leave here; and you stole Oriellen's prisoner out from under her nose. She's not going to be happy with you."
"If I went to the castle seeking Ceidrin, and just happened to let it slip that I--um--hit you--" Elinor tried to think of a way such a plan would work.
"If Elinor had not taken you home--if you had been aware enough to fight her, what would you have done?" Sennet asked.
Edward hesitated, and Elinor knew he was trying on different answers for size. "I would have--"
"You would have vanished inside you wards, wounded or not," Elinor said, interrupting him. "And I wouldn't have been able to get through."
"You said you hit him, not that you almost killed him," Ceidrin said, and tried not to look too relieved when Gene wandered back over to the table. "How fast were you driving?"
From the doorway, Elinor saw Rose appear, her face inquisitive. She whined before Elinor could reply, and Edward jumped.
"She needs to go out," he said apologetically. "If you'll excuse me--"
"I'll take her," Gene offered. "If she'll come with me."
Edward glanced at Rose, then nodded. "She'll go with you."
As soon as Gene vanished down the hall with Rose at his side, Sennet held up her hands before Ceidrin could speak. "I can't tell you."
"I had no--" Ceidrin began, then sighed. "Perhaps I had every intention of asking you. I'm sorry."
"How long do you have before you're a--wolf?" Lucien asked.
"A day or two at most before I won't be able to shift back," Edward said. "Not long enough."
"Have you ever tried to break the curse?" Ceidrin asked, his voice low and worried.
Edward didn't justify that question with a reply. "We could sit here all day and still not come up with a plan," he said. "What are the odds that Oriellen will release Ahlos to hunt me? I don't think I rate that much of her attention. She doesn't know me, and if Elinor is convincing enough, she'll think that I'm dying, or wounded enough not to put up a fight."
"Will she send her hounds or come herself?" Elinor asked. "I'd think you would be a major threat to her pl
ans--far beyond any of us."
"If she comes herself, can you keep her out?" Lucien asked. "If she's the one who cursed you?"
Edward opened his mouth to reply, then shook his head. "I am not certain of that," he said. "Even after a century, I don't know if she has any sort of hold over me."
"So any way we choose, we run into the possibility of failure," Ceidrin said. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
"What did you expect, that Oriellen would just leave you alone if you promised to behave?" Lucien half-rose from his chair. "Do you want her to be Queen? Or Meinren to be King?" He snorted laughter. "You've been too long from the court, Cousin."
"If I had my way, I would have been away much longer than this," Ceidrin snapped. "And all of--them--could rot in hell for all I care." He stood now, his face pale with anger, his hands clenched into fists.
"Ceidrin, wait," Sennet said, but he ignored her.
"I do not want the crown," Ceidrin growled.
"Then who shall have it, if not you?" Lucien asked. His voice was mild, but he watched Ceidrin closely, as if expecting him to attack.
Elinor found herself watching both of them, as a Healer, and feeling Ceidrin's grief and pain along with Lucien's frustration.
"We're all tired and frustrated," she said, trying to keep her voice calm, like Sennet's. "Perhaps we should reconvene in a few hours. A few hours won't make that much of a difference in anything at all. Dierin, how long do you think it would take for you to find something that belongs to Ahlos?"
"Maybe by tomorrow morning," Dierin said. "If Oriellen doesn't suspect me. I don't know if they've found out that your--" she glanced at Ceidrin. "If Gene is missing."
Edward glanced towards the kitchen door, as if expecting Gene to walk back into the room, but the doorway remained empty.
"Then go, and return as quickly as you can," Ceidrin said. "And then we'll decide what to do." He, too, glanced at the doorway, and frowned when Gene did not reappear.
"Be careful," Elinor said.
Dierin nodded. "I will."
As soon as she had left the house, Ceidrin pushed away from the table and stood. "Perhaps we do need some rest before we continue," he said, his voice rough. "Edward--it was nice to see you again." A smile flew across his face, then vanished under worry. "The last time I saw you, you were probably three years old."
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