Heart Fate (14 page)

One action he'd taken lately that had harmed none, not even himself, that had resulted in success.

The feeling of accomplishment was a small treasure in itself. The tug was to the south. He went that way, and several meters along he stopped and pressed his hand to the wall. Significantly warmer. What would heat a wall? He didn't know.

The wall was curved. The city walls of Druida were straight, despite the landscape. North, east, and south stone walls marched in a line. To the west was the ocean.

Tinne followed the concave wall and touched it again several meters to the north of the alley he'd originally exited from. The wall was as cold as any regular brick wall in the winter would be.

He walked south, welcoming the pull on his bond with Lahsin, the warmth from the wall. Plant growth burgeoned because of that warmth, spreading a few centimeters from the wall, then stretching a full meter.

His breath came in huffs of steam. Plants grew lusher to his left. Ragged edges of buildings and the crevices between them were to his right, dark and cold and deserted.

He'd passed the last of her trail behind a thin tangle before he realized it. Easier just to walk backward a few paces than turn. He was losing energy.

The cold and the strain of tracking in the night were working on him. Nothing more.

He saw the small door, inset deep in the wall, went and touched the latch. The trace of her zinged to his toes. He pressed down. The door didn't open. He set his shoulder against the door and shoved. Again. Harder. Then stepped back, panting from emotional upset more than the physical effort, and stared.

He scented her. The faintest fragrance of fragile spring blossoms. She was in there, and he couldn't get in!

It was the last straw. The day crashed in on him, draining the last of his strength. He sagged against the door. As soon as he closed his eyes, images flashed before him, the room in T'Heather Residence. He shuddered.

D'Sea's and T'Heather's and T'Willow's faces as they confirmed his marriage was over. His parents' expressions. He groaned.

Genista, naked and beautiful, unreachable during the divorce ceremony. Not his. His lack of reaction to her. His breath sounded loud in his ears.

Feelings tumbled after the images, feelings he would never forget.

Guilt.

Relief.

Despair.

His heart wrenched, and the door opened to him. He smelled the rich scents of a garden estate, and it was warm. He could again feel Lahsin—and no distress or upset from her—but Lord and Lady help him, he had to concentrate on his unraveling self.

He staggered along a path. Despite the undergrowth no root or brush tripped him, which was good, because he thought once down, he would not be able to rise again.

A few minutes later he came to a clearing with a steaming hot spring confined in an elegant pool of curves before him. He saw the coat of arms on a pillar that was part of a grape arbor, that was gray in the twinmoonslight, probably gray in the daylight, too.
BalmHeal.

That name explained everything.

There'd been much talk among the FirstFamilies when Ruis Elder finally told his whole story after becoming Captain of the starship
Nuada's Sword.
Since Tinne's and his brother's lives had been radically changed by touching Ruis Elder's life, they had been allowed to hear Ruis's tale, too.

This was the lost FirstGrove, the sanctuary of Druida and Celta.

The mist rising from the heat of the pool made the air too warm for his coat. He took it off. The place both soothed his heart and hurt it. A lost, untended garden, as lost as he was, as forsaken as he was.

Still no fear coming from Lahsin. He supposed it was enough to know she was here, safe.

He went to a bench, sat down, and put his head in his hands.

Ten

All the aches and pains of Lahsin's escape the previous morning
and unaccustomed physical activity hurt even worse tonight. She stretched and actually heard some of her joints pop. Giggled.

Glancing around the room, she was pleased at its cleanliness and warmth. She'd made a temporary home in the largest of the three rooms of the clocktower-stillroom building. Permamoss had been available for a bed, and the walls still held housekeeping, warmth, and light spells. Luxury. She'd moved the drying trays to the edge of the room, bunched and hung herbs. Most were too old to be anything but faded decoration with a hint of scent. The little fuss of settling into her own space.

She'd never really had her own space.

Both this room—the middle one—and the smaller storage room had doors to the outside. The herbal preparation room, the stillroom, didn't. She had both doors closed.

Continuing with her crazy pity, she'd carved a large piece of bedsponge and put it in the storage room, along with the meat pie she'd bought for the dog. She left the outer door of that room open and announced mentally to the beast—the dog, that he could stay here. When she'd activated the spells, they'd swept through the whole building, even the clocktower.

She'd walked up to the conservatory and around the house, but hadn't gone in. Something about its brooding manner told her she'd have a Residence on her hands. An abandoned Residence. Who knew what that would have done to a sentient house?

But she was sure the conservatory would provide a good place for her to grow her fruits and vegetables. The glass structure had emanated both Growing and Healing Flair.

Now she had other needs. Like a long soak in a Healing spring. Her own Healing spring! As good as any HealingHall.

The clocktower and the stillroom were halfway across the garden from the Healing pool, so if she wanted to return to warmth and security at a reasonable time, she should leave now.

A few minutes later she saw a male figure sitting on the bench near the pool. Through some trick of the twinmoonslight he was clear. A man dressed in Noble fashion with his head in his hands. His posture spoke of despair.

What could a
Nobleman
be doing here? One who had enough gilt to make any problems go away?

Should she stay or run back to the stillroom? Was she going to be a coward for the rest of her life? Wasn't it time to face her fears and overcome them? She was on her own now and considered an adult. May as well act like one.

Daring, she walked around the end of the pool to the middle of the same side he was on, though he'd have to move fast to catch her. From the weary slump of his shoulders and the tiredness he radiated, she didn't think he could do that.

“Greetyou,” she said, not adding her name.

He stood, and she saw he was young, no more than a handful of years older than she was. His lips formed her name, “Lahsin,” but he didn't say it. Didn't say anything. Her heart sank. If this man knew her name, she was all over the newssheets.

He made a half bow, and the twinmoonslight caught on the thick silver of his hair. That intrigued her. What color was his hair in the daylight—prematurely gray or a bright blond? She could only tell that his eyes were a light color.

“Greetyou, GentleLady,” he said. “Would you share—” He wobbled and collapsed more than sat onto the bench. “I was going to say you could share my bench if you wanted company.” His half smile was rueful. “But I seem to be occupying most of it and, no offense, but I don't think I want to move for a while.” His words were slightly slurred. Not drunk, she didn't think, but pure exhaustion or emotional trauma. Desperation.

He was being courteous. At what cost to himself, she didn't know, but it awed her a little.

His wave was more trembling fingers than sophisticated gesture. “But you can have the next bench.”

She nodded.

He tilted his head, blinked, and she wondered if he was blinking fatigue away. Maybe he was as wary of her as she was of him. That was a novel notion, but before she had time to consider it, he said, “I see you'd planned to use the hot spring.” He seemed to realize his pronunciation wasn't precise and his next words were slow but well formed. “The water is not simply a hot spring but a Healing pool?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And I've interrupted you. My apologies.” He moved his feet deliberately, setting them under his body in preparation for standing.

She put out a hand. “No, don't rise. The pool is large enough and the night dim enough for modesty.”

“Modesty.” He shook his head. “Not prized in our culture, or by our class. I'm used to nudity, but I see that a girl like you is not. I'll shut my eyes while you disrobe.” He lowered his lashes, leaving Lahsin with a dilemma. She'd bathed often enough with both sexes of the Burdock Family, but that was years ago, before her body had developed. Since then only T'Yew, and occasionally Taxa, had seen her naked. And T'Yew had made her feel—not right, and very vulnerable.

But she'd decided to face her fears and do the opposite of T'Yew's expectations. So she stepped into a pillar's shadow and skimmed off her clothes, saying, “The pool's big and the light dim, and the best spot for Healing aches is this section.”

“Truly?” He sniffed, but his eyes were still shut. “Smells bracing.”

She dropped her clothes and the small stained but clean hand towels she'd found in the stillroom, then slipped into the water. Immediately the heat and the spells loosened her muscles, worked on her bruises.

He gave a low moan, and she shot into the deeper water of the pool, but he'd only subsided into a horizontal heap on the bench. “I don't suppose you would let me share the Healing effects?”

Lahsin hesitated, but his dark, rumpled shadow didn't move. He didn't seem at all interested in getting his hands on her in any way. Or returning her to T'Yew or the Burdocks. He was preoccupied with his own problems.

The garden would let no one in who wasn't desperate, she reminded herself. It was the magic of the spellshields on the walls. She hadn't had time to study them, but she would—and she would reinforce them. They weren't like any spellshields she'd ever experienced. She thought they'd evolved themselves.

“You are welcome to share the pool,” she said quietly. When his limbs twitched, she could tell he'd heard.

He heaved himself up and flung off his clothes as if they suddenly restricted him, or they'd been on a long time, and was nude. His back was to her and the twinmoonslight showed a fine, muscular man. A little too thin, she could see his ribs, then he shifted, and she gulped water. His body was very scarred.

Before she could react, he'd strode to the pool and dived in, gliding away to the far end. She heard tiny plashes of a head surfacing or an arm or leg cutting through the water. He swam well, and she sensed he was a natural athlete. She paddled to an indented curve of the pool near her clothes and activated churning bubbles by tapping a stone. The water was neck high and buoyant. She saw the flash of his body opposite her as he swam to the other end, looking as if he was circling it, exploring its dimensions. As she soaked, the sounds of his movement came less. The Healing spring was giving his muscles back their grace.

When he was a couple of lengths away from her, he veered into the center, then passed where she was and settled near his bench. Bubbles erupted from that area. They smelled differently, and she noted that for further investigation.

His voice carried easily over the water. “My thanks, GentleLady. This has been the best I've felt for days.” The words still slurred but were laden with sincerity.

For the first time she wondered who he was, but since she hadn't given her own name, she couldn't request his. She didn't recognize him, though she had a hazy idea he looked like someone she'd met. She hadn't gone out much before her marriage, and since then, she'd rarely appeared in society and only with T'Yew and Taxa.

The water worked on Lahsin, made her curiosity a mild musing. She soaked until she felt fine. She lifted her arms from the water to grab the small lip of the pool and saw that the last of T'Yew's finger bruises were highlighted by the twinmoonslight.

A sharp breath from the visitor. His gaze fastened on her forearms and seemed to flash with fury, then he glanced aside. More silence, not uncomfortable. They had both found their way to this place, had that much in common.

Finally he turned and swam to the steps near his clothes and walked from the pool. Again she saw the shape of him. He was a beautiful man, excellently proportioned, with young, firm flesh. Not her FatherSire's age like T'Yew.

But her visitor was a
man
, fully an adult. A Nobleman, and if she let herself, she could
feel
his Flair. Her heart jumped a little in her chest. He could give her information on Second Passage! Was the fact that she might be suffering Second Passage in the newssheets? She rose from the pool, took her clothes, and stepped deeper into the shadows to dry off. She didn't know if he watched, but his matter-of-factness about his own nudity had made her feel less awkward. She had that to thank him for.

She pulled on her cape, ready to run if he came after her.

But he'd dressed and sat heavily on the bench, hair wet and slicked, apparently not noticing the cold. The soak in the pool might have eased his physical bruises, but it was evident that his spirit was the most damaged thing about him.

He glanced at her, and his stare went to her arms, so intent that she could almost feel her bruises burn.

“I could teach you self-defense.”

She stared at him.

“Fighting,” he said.

Her eyes widened. The thought had never occurred to her. Personal spellshields, yes, physical fighting, no. She'd never had the slightest chance against T'Yew. Not before, but now she was bigger. She flexed an arm.