Bound

by Hill, J. Elizabeth

  His deep sigh told her she didn't need to explain what she was asking about. "I think I told you his drinking got worse. It actually got a lot worse, and when yelling wasn't enough, or when he'd run out of things to scream at me about, he'd grab whatever was handy and..."

  Tavis left the words hanging in the air as they continued down the street. She wanted to reach over and put her hand on his shoulder but she was afraid he might misinterpret the gesture. She hadn't forgotten the end of their conversation the previous night. She liked him, but wasn't sure how much and until she was more certain of her feelings, she didn't want to risk giving him the impression that she was inviting his. She considered this for a while, trying to figure out the nature of her feelings about Tavis, and the implications they might present for her, but then she put it all aside. Now wasn't the time for herself, she thought.

  "I have an idea, if you want to hear it," she said, trying for a teasing tone. He turned his head to look at her as they walked down the wide boulevard and raised an eyebrow. "I thought I could show you the Academy. It's just down the street. And my favorite place in the whole city is nearby, so I could show you that afterward, before we go back for your boots."

  He came to a halt and she stopped with him. He stared at her, his expression serious for so long that she began to worry. Then he smiled and it was like the sun coming out. "I'd like that, Fay."

  He held his arm out to her, surprising her. She hesitated for a moment, then took it. Several minutes later, they were at the outer gate of the school. Tavis' expression was pure wonder as he looked up at the castle. "I've never- I didn't know they made buildings this big!"

  Fay smiled. "There are a few buildings in this city bigger, but the one in Voleno, which is almost exactly the same size, is one of the two biggest structures in that city. The people who built the Academies were trying to impress on everyone else how important Magicia are."

  His laugh was a little choked. "They succeeded in that, I bet. How many people live there?"

  "At this time of year, almost none. The school year is over and most students go home to their families for a few months, until the next year starts. But during the school year, about four hundred, unless it's changed since I attended."

  Tavis turned to her, his mouth hanging open. "In one building? How many live in this city, then?"

  "I'm not sure. Lydia might be able to tell you. I don't think I ever asked anyone."

  He stepped forward and rested his hands on the gates, staring at the academy through the bars. This time she did put her hand on his shoulder, and said, "They'll let you in, Tavis. They have to. I know some of the teachers still, and Eliar will certainly call in any favor he has to, though I don't think it will take that much. It will happen."

  He turned and gave her a wistful smile. "Come on, show me this other place. Your favorite place in the whole city, you said."

  She nodded, accepting the hint that he didn't want to talk about his prospects with the academy. Leading him away from the gate and down the street they needed to take, she half-consciously took his arm again. As they walked, she stole a glance at him from under the lock of her hair that loved to fall forward. With nicer clothes, he seemed to fit his own manners better. She supposed that he was right, that it must have been the result his mother's teaching when he'd been a child, but he had never seemed like a farmer to her, even when he looked it. He had always felt like more to her. She wondered if that was what had caused her to accept his invitation to travel together in the first place.

  "Fay, I want to apologize for last night," Tavis said suddenly. After a moment, he went on, "I had no right to impose on you like that, and I should have known better. You could have told me to leave, you should have. But I promise you, it won't happen again. I don't want- I don't want you to feel uncomfortable around me because of my behavior."

  She looked up at him directly now, a little surprised. "It was all right. I know I could've told you to leave if I'd been that uncomfortable. We're friends, aren't we? You should be able to come talk to me if you need to."

  "Hmm, friends, yes. Of course."

  They both returned to silence until they reached large, ornate gates wrought of silver piping fashioned into intricate shapes. One of the gates stood open and Fay led him inside. They stopped in the courtyard on the other side. She stared for a moment down each of the four paths that led deeper into the gardensia, and let out a sigh of contentment at the happy memories each one evoked for her.

  Tavis stared around at all the strange shapes and glass houses and asked, "What is this place?"

  "The Gardensia Exotica. There are a few large public gardens like this around Rianza. This one houses plants and flowers from all over the Empire. Some of them have to be kept in greenhouses, so that special conditions can be maintained for them, but it's an amazing place. Come on, I'll show you around, at least some of it. You could spend a whole day exploring this Gardensia and still not see everything." She took him down one of the paths and showed him a few of her favorite spots. The Diarah Roses were blooming, the small flowers sparkling as the bushes they grew from waved back and forth with no breeze to drive them. He was amazed by the Govorian tree, towering over him with a trunk so wide that the two of them together could only get their arms halfway around. She explained that the garden had taken shape around the tree, which came from the lands near Voleno, though there were none left there as large as this one. Then she took him through the Weeping Path, where the trees drooped around the slate walkway and the flowers steadily dripped a glowing blue fluid.

  "That fluid is good for spreading on wounds to heal them faster, if you don't know how to do it with magic, but they only grow in the wild to the far south," she said as they passed the flowers.

  They found a circle of benches surrounded by tall hedges on the other side and stopped to sit down together. Tavis was watching her again, and after a while he spoke up. "You said this was your favorite place when you were at the academy here. Why?"

  She smiled. "I used to come here all of the time. I even got myself in trouble on a few occasions when I got caught trying to sneak out to see the gardens at night. Some of the flowers here only bloom after sunset, and others look different in the dark. It was fun to come here. I could imagine I was somewhere else, that I was off having adventures."

  This answer seemed to surprise him. "You were at the academy but wished you were somewhere else?"

  Suddenly self-conscious, Fay stared at her hands as she answered. "It wasn't because of the academy. I liked it there, but my father... He kept coming to visit me there, or he'd take me out for a day to some court event or something else that he wanted me to attend. I remember once he made me go to an Imperial Ball to celebrate the founding of the Empire."

  "And you didn't want to go?"

  "Not really. I was always the youngest person there. Everyone else there was too old for me to even know them. The Emperor's younger son is more than ten years older than I am, and at the ball, he was the next oldest person in attendance." She paused, thinking about how much she wanted to tell him. Before she was aware of making a decision, she heard herself going on, revealing the worst part, the thing she had never shared with anyone before. "It wasn't that he wanted me there with him, either. My father was showing me off, that's all. He always seemed to think I was the key to a better position in the nobility for our family. He was obsessed with it. He always seemed to be trying to arrange things, but I never understood what he was working to accomplish. Magicia almost never marry anyone except their partner, so it never made sense when he was parading me around in front of others, especially non-Magicia. I hated having to go to those things and smile, pretending to enjoy myself and trying to hide how confused I was by it all."

  She didn't realize how hard she was clenching her hands until Tavis put his own over them and then stroked the back of one with his thumb. She forced herself to relax, feeling her hands throb as blood was allowed to flow freely again. He said softly, "Neither of us h
ad ideal parents, did we?"

  She smiled and shook her head. "My mother was, from what I remember, but she died when I was four. I don't remember what happened, but I do remember trying to understand where she had gone. They explained to me about the Veil of Airs, but it didn't make a lot of sense at the time. I miss her quite often."

  He nodded solemnly, then turned as a voice called from behind them. "There you two are. We have to go back to the house. There's news, but Eliar won't explain it until we're all there."

  Fay turned and saw Lydia standing at the gap in the hedges. Tavis asked her, "How did you find us, Mother? We hadn't even planned on coming here."

  "Blood. Because your blood and mine are connected, it allows me to find you more easily than others. Blood allows for amazing and deep connections when coupled with magic. Other feats as well sometimes," she said. Fay noticed that Lydia was staring at her as she said it, which confused her.

  "We still have to get your boots, Tavis," Fay reminded him.

  He looked up to the sky and then back at her. "I think that it's been at least the two hours he asked for, don't you?"

  Fay nodded, and Lydia suggested that they pick them up on the way back to the manor. Fay and Tavis agreed at once and they all left the Gardensia, Lydia still glancing at her as they went.

  Chapter 10

  Lydia's presence made their return to the Quarter of Airs easier than anticipated. Fay thought it helped that, with the addition of his new boots, Tavis actually looked like he belonged now. Lydia had brought a carriage for them and the return to the manor took no time at all. They went to the sitting room again, finding Eliar and Ki there in a conversation they abruptly ended when Lydia, Tavis and Fay entered the room. The two men looked at Tavis' new clothes and both nodded.

  "Excellent work, Fay. Much more appropriate. That was faster than I was expecting. They really suit him," Eliar said.

  Fay smiled. "We were lucky that Soval had some items ready that were almost the right fit. With some quick needlework, it turned out well. He's going to deliver the rest here when it's done."

  "Good. Now, everyone sit down. There is much to discuss."

  Ki rose and summoned a servant with a bell pull by the door, ordering tea and a light lunch for them all. He returned to his seat, and said, "It's time for us to talk plainly about Calder Derrion."

  Fay cringed at her father's name as everyone looked at her. Fighting to keep her face smooth, she looked back at them. After a moment, Lydia began to speak. "Your father has never had the position at court that he felt was his due, as you well know. He was vocal and bitter about it from the moment he took over your family's affairs, years before you were born. But for a long time it was never more than a lofty opinion of himself and petty scheming. Most ignored it. Then your mother died. I didn't know him that well, Faylanna, but it was clear to many that Pella's death altered Calder, in ways I have difficulty making sense of. It was subtle at first, just a knowing smile that never seemed to leave his face, even when those of higher standing put him in his rightful place. It was as if he were waiting for something to fall into place, or so I've been told. I only saw him once myself during that time, and it was a truly odd, if brief experience. The more I've thought of it since, the more I've become convinced that something greater than we know is going on with him. It was in Fioselto, of all places, around the time you began at the academy here in Rianza. I don't think he knew anyone was watching him, and I may have seen something he was keeping from everyone. He looked so lost and miserable, walking down the road alone. He was shaking his head as he went, and his expression was haunted and exhausted from the glimpse I had of his face before he turned down another street. I neither heard of nor saw him for a number of years, until one day, we crossed paths again outside the Baron's palace in Bershan. This was perhaps six years ago or so. He didn't see me then either and I almost didn't recognize him. After making some discreet inquiries, I found out he had managed to secure for himself an incredible position within Baron Gelvard's inner circle, functioning as the liaison between the Baron's bureaucrats and those of the Empire. I say incredible because, so far as I know, that position is always held by a member of their own House. It did, however, allow him to spend almost as much time in Rianza as in Bershan."

  Fay nodded sourly. "Yes, I remember. That was when he started shoving me in front of every Magicia among the Imperial Court he could find, and some who weren't Magicia as well."

  "I've heard about him doing that, yes," Lydia looked troubled for a moment before continuing. "I realized something had changed about him after observing for a while. Calder had never been a strong Magicia, even after pairing with your mother, and never good with people. But when I saw him in Bershan, he was a different man entirely. He was able to sway people, to make them listen to his words and agree. Worse, he was able to do things that should have been impossible with the magical talents he had always possessed. I think that's what caught him too much attention, really, and from parties beyond myself. It was obvious that something was going on."

  "And there isn't much I'd put past him," Eliar added in a grumble.

  Lydia glared at her grandfather for the interruption before turning back to Fay and continuing. "When we looked into it, we found out that he had made an arrangement of some kind, though we haven't been able to find out who with. We are quite sure it involves you somehow. He was given abilities he had never possessed before, allowing him work more successfully toward his own goals, and in return, we feared what he had pledged you to. That was why you were transferred to Voleno, as Ganson told you, in hopes that you could be protected from whatever he has set in motion."

  "Hold on," Tavis said, frowning. "Mother, you told me you had come to Rianza only two years ago, and I know that it's been four years since Fay was transferred to Voleno."

  Lydia looked uncomfortable. "That part of it I was told by others, but Calder is why I came to Rianza, to warn... someone about him."

  "The situation has grown worse in the last two years," Ki said softly, and Fay wondered why it felt like he was trying to divert the conversation from Tavis' question. "Calder no longer seems content to split his time between Bershan and Rianza. He's been making inquiries into positions within the Imperial Court, and has managed, after many months of effort, to secure a meeting with the Emperor himself on the subject. I fear for what might happen during that meeting, given his new-found powers of persuasion. We still have no idea what he's after, and so any action of Calder's is cause for concern."

  Fay stared at him, stunned by the dire pronouncement. "But why? What's he planning?"

  It was Eliar who answered her. "We can't be entirely sure as nothing he's done so far seems to move him toward anything specifically, but the hints I am getting are indeed ominous. And recent events make me more concerned still, though I can find no satisfactory way to tie them to Calder. I've been to the archives kept by the Council Magicia this morning, looking into that dark cloud you said took Ganson and Brinds. I wasn't able to find much, because there are very few reports of such a phenomenon, and I'm not sure what to make of the ones I found. How much do you know about the creation of the Veils, Faylanna?"

  She stared at him for several moments. She was almost tempted to laugh, if not for the tension in the room. "You must be joking. What could such stories possibly have to do with my father?"

  Eliar frowned at her as he stood up and began pacing back and forth across the room. His agitation frightened her for some reason. "Because I am no longer certain, as I was on first hearing your story, that Calder is behind the darkness that appeared in Ganson's study. It may be that he's only connected to it. Everything I could find about it, all of it points to something far older, and much more dangerous than I could ever have believed your father to be. The reports of this... phenomenon stretch back beyond the founding of the Empire, and they are of one voice in speaking of the danger posed by it. The one text I found that dealt with its origins linked it to the creation of the Flame Veil.
All of my life, I had considered the tale of the Lords of Life and their creation of the Veils to be a myth, things our ancestors used to make sense of the world before they understood its workings, and now I find myself questioning that assertion. I do not doubt your description, and after seeing a vygazza in the flesh, I have to wonder what is going on."

  Eliar sat back down on the couch heavily, as if the admission had drained him somehow. "But on the other hand, I am not one to believe in coincidence. This thing showed up as Brinds claimed he discovered something about Calder's plotting. Nor do I think it incidental that it took Ganson, who has protected you and kept Calder from you in more ways than you know, Faylanna." Eliar's voice was heavy as he spoke and in it, she heard his belief that her mentor and his partner dead, but refused to let her own hope die. "If Calder has made some kind of alliance with the source of this thing, then the situation may be more than we know. And then there's the matter of your dreams. I don't know where that fits in, or why you were dreaming of an event that you had never even heard of before. I need to find out more before we can make any decisions on our path forward. There's something we're missing, I can feel it, and that it's important."

  Fay heard the frustration in his voice and saw it reflected in Lydia's face. Ki's eyes were unfocused, lost in thought. It was Tavis' worried expression that held her though. She didn't understand what he was worrying about, but then an idea occurred to her that pushed everything else out of her mind. She considered it thoroughly before speaking, not liking it but seeing no alternative.

  "I could talk to him." She heard the reluctance in her own voice, the shake that betrayed her fear and forced herself to sound calm. "My father. He might tell me what's going on. At my graduation, he wanted something of me, I know that much, and it was more than just going home with him. I'm sure of it. He said that I had no idea what I was risking. If I can get him to meet with me, to talk to me, I might be able to find out. I don't think I can talk him out of anything, as he never listens to me, but I could get you the information you need at least." She said all of this in a rush, before anyone could interrupt her.