Ravi frowned. “You were a brother, though, a member of the holy Thirty-Six. I would’ve thought all this magic stuff wouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise.”
His words had come out a lot more accusatory than he’d intended, and Tas actually flinched and took a small step back. “As I said yesterday, the Brotherhood, and I, have much to answer for. I am not proud of some of the things I’ve done in their name. My only excuse is that I thought I was doing good at the time… or at least I was doing what was necessary for the good of all.”
“But now you know differently?”
“I do. I learned the truth, which is why I will never wear the scarlet again. I also learned just how much I didn’t know about magic and the world we live in.” His lips twisted wryly. “Last winter in the mountains was very enlightening, and I’ve had months to work my way through it all, so don’t feel bad for being confused or overwhelmed, believe me.”
The self-deprecating smile and openness with which he’d spoken called forth a flood of questions that burned on the tip of Ravi’s tongue, but he bit them back. He had more important things to deal with first, before satisfying any insatiable familial curiosity. His mind was already full enough. Besides, open and friendly or not, Tas still made him uncomfortable and probably would for some time to come. He’d drag whatever details he could out of Mistress Sabin and Shura first before risking a lengthy conversation with this man, no matter how much the storyteller inside him whined with impatience to hear his tale.
Still, he did have one question niggling at him that might have great bearing on his immediate future.
“Why did you come back?”
“What?”
“Why did you come back? Lyuc said the barb—the, uh, clan was pushed out of the mountains by something, but why here? Surely Ghorazon or Samebar would have been safer for you to settle in. You’d just gotten away from the Brotherhood. Why come back?”
“I left Rassa only for some breathing room and time to train. I never intended to stay away. Rassa is my home. I dedicated my entire life to protecting its people. Even if the means to that end was a lie and wrong, who I am and what I want for my kingdom hasn’t changed. I believe in fighting for it.”
Tas had puffed up as he spoke. The fire of his conviction lit his eyes, and he shed the penitent villager-next-door persona like a cloak. It was Ravi’s turn to take a step back. He could see the brother Tas used to be now, and it made him wary, even as Tas’s words struck a chord.
Last night—and honestly for the last several years—he’d spent a lot of time concentrating on all the things he wasn’t. How long had he trudged along, hiding and mourning the life he’d left behind, running away from everything instead of running toward something else?
If what he’d learned so far was true, Tas’s entire world had been turned upside down too. But even through a complete upheaval of his life, he’d still figured out who he was and who he wanted to be. It was time for Ravi to do the same.
“Thank you for being honest with me.”
Tas blinked at him, seeming a little nonplussed, but then he offered a hesitant smile. “Of course. As I said not so long ago, I was as overwhelmed as you must be now. If there is anything I can do to help you, I will.” His smile turned rueful. “In that vein, I should warn you now that Lyuc usually gets what he wants. No matter how infuriating he can be, he is a force to be reckoned with, and he isn’t wrong often.”
When Ravi grimaced, Tas rushed to add, “But of course he won’t force you to do anything you don’t want. He’s a good man. He cares about people and all of Kita. I’ll let him tell you his story. It’s not my place. But you’ll understand when you hear it. He only wants what’s best for everyone.”
“I’ll have to take your word for that,” Ravi hedged. “Our plans aren’t settled yet, obviously, but I’m sure we’ll at least be willing to hear him out. I should, uh, probably find my friends now, though.”
“Of course. I understand. I believe I saw Shura and Fara headed toward the stableyard, but I’m afraid I haven’t seen Daks.”
“I’ll find him. Thank you.”
“Come find us when you want to talk.”
Ravi gave a noncommittal nod, and Tas headed off in the direction he’d been going earlier.
Ravi’s feet led him down toward the river without any real intention, but he wasn’t surprised when he spotted Daks sitting alone on the rocky bank, obviously deep in thought by the frown on his face. Ravi’s heart swelled along with his smile.
He loves me. He accepts me for who and what I am. I can be myself with him. And maybe now I know who I want that to be.
What a wondrous thought.
“Hey! Don’t strain too hard, you might break something,” he called.
Daks started and jerked his head up, but his confused frown soon twisted into a smile. “Don’t worry about me.” He tapped his forehead with his knuckles. “Hard as a rock. Won’t break as easily as that.”
“Everyone was gone when I woke up,” Ravi complained as he sat down beside him.
“Sorry. I had some thinking to do. I didn’t realize Shura would be able to be up and about so soon. She was still there when I left.”
“You don’t sound very happy about that.”
Daks grimaced. “Of course I’m happy she’s feeling better. But if I don’t have concern for her welfare and ability to travel to use as an excuse anymore, I can’t really put off making a decision much longer.”
He picked up a small rock and tossed it in the flowing water, staring after it broodingly.
Yesterday, that statement would have made Ravi’s gut twist with anxiety, but not today. With his newfound preternatural calm had come a bit of clarity.
“I might be able to help you out there, if you’ll let me,” he offered hesitantly.
Daks’s confused frown returned as he turned back to him, but Ravi took a breath and plowed on. “You see, I’ve been thinking through everything you’ve told me, and the whole situation we’re in, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t really your decision to make, or even Shura’s. It’s mine.”
Daks opened his mouth, but Ravi held up a hand. “Just hear me out, okay? You told me Mistress Sabin needs to stay here. For her family, her friends, and her cause, this is the best place for her to be. You told me Shura’s fallen in love and has to choose between her honor and following her heart.” He ticked off the first two points on his fingers before pausing and slowly lifting a third. “Then, you told me you loved me.” He paused when Daks’s sexy grin came out from behind the clouds of worry. “But you also love Shura and want her to be happy, because you’re a good man who has a soft heart under all that bluster and surliness.”
Daks snorted and cocked an eyebrow at him, but Ravi turned his gaze to the river before he could get distracted.
After clearing his throat and straightening his shoulders, he said, “So, the way I see it, each of you seems to be faced with an impossible choice. Therefore, logic dictates that the only one who should be making the decision is the one whose choice is not impossible… and that’s me.” He rushed his next words so he could get them all out before he lost his nerve. “You see, my choice is to either stay in my home country, where I might be able to do some good and possibly find a home for my friends, or to force you and someone you love to drag me all the way up to some town I’ve never been to, in a kingdom I don’t know, so I can learn to use a gift you yourself told me no one has ever managed to control completely. I mean, hardly sounds like a choice at all, when you think about it, right?”
He snuck at look at Daks and found the man watching him with the softest expression he’d ever seen.
“You know, you’re making it really hard for me not to want to kiss the hells out of you right now,” Daks murmured. “But it isn’t as simple as that, and you know it.”
“Seems pretty simple to me.”
Daks sighed and scooted close enough their thighs touched before cupping Ravi’s jaw and f
orcing him to meet his gaze. “Rassa is on the verge of civil war. This quiet little town they’ve created will be under siege at some point. They’ve poked the Brotherhood in the eye, and the Brotherhood has no option but to respond or lose their hold on Rassa. And in case you didn’t notice last night, the village’s all-powerful wizard seems to have other things on his mind. Scholoveld may be strange to you, and the other Seers might not be able to teach you complete control, but you’d be safe behind the walls of the city. You’d have a home and training, a place you belong and are valued. I can’t ask you to give all that up to fight for a cause that isn’t yours, just for me. I’ve done it for far too long with Shura. And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you got hurt or killed because I couldn’t protect you… I can’t go through that again. I’m not strong enough.”
Daks whispered the last so quietly, Ravi could feel how much it cost him to admit.
“Maybe it is my cause,” Ravi murmured, wrapping a hand around the back of Daks’s neck and squeezing. “Listen. Since the first day I met you, you’ve called my Visions a gift. Maybe it’s time I start believing you.”
“You remember what happened in Urmat? What you had to do in that alley to save Shura and how you felt afterward? You’re not a fighter, Rav, and that’s perfectly okay. If you stay here, you’ll probably have to do much worse. You realize that, don’t you?”
Ravi’s stomach twisted, but he lifted his chin. “If Lyuc is right, this could mean a chance to heal the entire world. If that is me in the prophecy, am I dooming the world if I don’t at least try? Could I live with myself? What kind of hero would I be in that story?”
Daks shook his head. “You can’t take that kind of weight on your shoulders. You’re one man—a pretty amazing man and quite irresistible,” Daks added, his grin returning, “but still only one man. The thing about heroes in history is a lot of them end up dead, and you don’t have a magic sword or wizard at your beck and call to help.”
“I have my gift and my wits, and I can learn the rest. Plus, I have you, don’t I? What could possibly stop us?”
Daks rolled his eyes and let out a weak chuckle.
“Daks, do you love me?” Ravi asked.
“I told you I do,” he replied, frowning slightly.
“Well, good. Because I love you too, and I’m done running away. So listen up, you big, irritating, stubborn blowhard of a—”
Daks tackled him to the rocky bank, which was a little on the painful side, but Ravi soon forgot about it under an onslaught of hot, wet kisses and urgent fumbling hands finding their way beneath his layers of clothing. Daks only pulled back to grin down at him when Ravi was about to pass out from lack of air.
“We’re staying,” Ravi gasped out firmly between breaths.
“We’ll talk about it,” Daks replied just as breathlessly.
Ravi frowned up at him, but Daks’s habitual grin was infectious, and he couldn’t hold his glare for long.
“Say it again,” Daks ordered as he bent and braced his elbows on either side of Ravi’s head before bussing their noses together.
“We’re staying?” he replied with a grin.
Daks growled. “No, the other part.”
Ravi was going to make him work for it, but something in Daks’s dark blue eyes changed his mind.
“I love you.”
“Okay, then that’s settled. We’ll stay here for a little while, if that’s what you want. But if things start getting dangerous, prophecy or no prophecy, I’m taking all of you out of here, even if I have to tie you to Horse’s saddle and walk you out through the mountains myself. Got it?”
“I guess we’ll see,” Ravi shot back, knowing about how much Daks’s bluster was worth. “Where is Horse, by the way?”
Daks shrugged. “He went with that sorrel I stole to what passes for their stables here. I’m not worried, though. He never goes far. I’ll check in on him later.” He bent and kissed Ravi roughly, with lots of tongue. “Much later.”
“Can we find somewhere a little more comfortable for the rest of this discussion?” Ravi asked, even as his body argued the river stones digging into his back weren’t that bad.
Daks pulled back and gave Ravi that cocky grin of his. “You got it, beautiful.”
Epilogue
BRYNTHALON FOLLOWED the white stallion out of town, across the chest-deep river, and into a clearing on the other side before he shifted back to human form and announced his presence.
“Where are you going?”
The stallion stopped and gave him a regal glance over its shoulder but didn’t answer.
He stepped closer and glared. “I may not know exactly what you are, but I know you understand me, and you know I can keep following you, so you might as well cut the crap and talk to me.”
The horse eyed him for a few more moments before it shimmered and took the form of a hawk-nosed young man with curly sun-kissed brown hair and olive skin. It wore a simple pair of brown trousers and a soft umber linen shirt, but it was barefoot in the damp spring grass.
Bryn hissed and took a step back, his fingers elongating into claws. “What are you?”
“I think you know,” it responded in a soft baritone.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked,” Bryn growled back. “Tell me.”
“Ah, the young, so impatient, so passionate. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed this, being out and about in the world, interacting with people again.”
“I’m not young. I wasn’t young when I came to this plane, and I’ve been here for over a thousand years. I have never met one that feels like you. You feel… like me, but not.”
He cocked his head to the side, trying to sift through the swirling energy that surrounded the other, but it was muted somehow.
It grinned. “I am like you… but not.”
Bryn hissed and took a step forward, but the other held up a hand. “You don’t want to do that. Believe me. I was not created to be a fighter. It isn’t in my makeup. But there are other ways to win a battle, and I’m old enough to know most of them.”
Bryn narrowed his eyes but didn’t attack. He wasn’t an impetuous human to be easily goaded into making a rash mistake when he did not know what he faced. Instead of rushing the creature, he took one deliberate step forward, and for the briefest moment, the power around the other pulsed stronger.
“I know your scent, your vibration,” Bryn said, only just realizing it. “Yesterday, when the Seer collapsed with his prophecy, the feeling was the same.”
The other actually flushed, its grin widening. “I’m not usually so obvious, but desperate times and all that.”
“The priest, Tas, says prophecies come from the gods, but Lyuc does not believe in gods. Which is it? Are you a god, or was it some kind of trick?”
The other grinned wider. “Both.”
As if it were enjoying itself, the other dropped to the ground and folded its legs under it, still grinning up at Bryn like a mischievous child. With an irritated sigh, Bryn moved closer and sat on the ground across from it.
“You speak in riddles.”
“Not riddles, exactly, but I can’t make it too easy. Where would be the fun in that?”
“Are we having fun?”
“I am.”
“The prophecy was yours, so you know what it means.”
“No and yes.”
Bryn clenched his teeth. The last time he’d met another being similar to himself and sentient enough to talk, he’d had to help Lyuc destroy it. He kind of wanted to learn a bit more this time, but he didn’t like being toyed with.
“No, the prophecy isn’t yours, but yes, you know what it means?”
After casting a glance over its shoulder, the other’s smile gentled. “I’d like to play with you longer, but I haven’t much time, so I’ll try to be as helpful as my nature will allow. I should have said the prophecy isn’t solely mine. Seers sense the patterns of the world around them but aren’t advanced enough to take it all in, so they ge
t flashes of the most probable events. I just helped him along a little.”
“By making him spout a riddle?” Bryn huffed.
“As I said, it is as much as my nature will allow. They would have sent someone else, but their natures don’t allow for quite as much interference in the world of men as mine does. My sole purpose for existing on this plane is to stir the pot, you see.” He stood up with a grin and spun in a little circle with his arms outstretched. “I am mischief made flesh… or made thought anyway. That’s how the humans summoned and molded me, with their prayers and their belief. Thousands of them over hundreds of years, they brought me forth from the void. I’ve changed a little over the intervening millennia, and there’s still a core that is me as I was before, like there is still a core to you, but in this plane, I cannot exist as other than what I am.”
Bryn jolted and stared at it. “So you are Spawn? You came from the void, the between?”
“Like you, but not,” it agreed. “I was summoned. I was called forth by the creatures that belong to this world. You tripped and fell through the tear, as it were. Whole different bargain. In some ways, you have more freedom than I. But you don’t truly belong here. You are tethered, for now, but when that tether breaks….”
If Bryn could feel fear, that’s what he would call the odd sensation that moved through his chest. But he didn’t have emotions like that. He was above such things.
“Explain,” Bryn demanded, but the other grinned and shook its head, making its floppy brown curls bounce.
“I told you. I can’t make it that easy.”
“You’re lying,” Bryn countered. “You helped the warrior and his Seer. The one they call Mistress Sabin spoke of what you did for them on their journey, how you helped. I saw it myself. You stayed with those two, tagging along like a puppy, doing their bidding, letting them ride you, yet you won’t help me now?” Bryn let his lip curl, showing his disgust, but the other only laughed.
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