Authors: Sophia French
She slammed the door shut as she left the chamber. It was late enough for a chill to have invaded the night, and the fog in her mind receded as she inhaled a cool lungful of air. The side of her face ached, but the pain hardly mattered—nothing mattered now but Jalaya.
Rema moved as quickly as she could manage without blundering into the walls. A warm light shone ahead of her, and as she hastened her step, a guard walked into view, his golden armor gleaming under the glow of his lantern. Rema’s relief turned to anger. “Where were you?” she said. “Where are the guards?”
“I’m sorry,” said the guardsman, steadying her by the shoulder. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. All the guards are patrolling as they should be…” His eyes widened. “Mistress Remela! What happened to your head?”
“Why is it so dark? Why weren’t you there?” Rema slammed her fists against his breastplate. “Damn it, my friends could have died tonight!”
“Died?” The guard drew himself upright. “What are you talking about?”
Rema caught herself. It would do her no good to prompt an official investigation—it would only expose her own machinations. “Nothing. I’ve just been drinking. My apologies.”
“But your head. You’re injured…”
“Nothing. It’s nothing. I hit it on a low ceiling.”
The guard’s expression was a study in skepticism, but he nodded dutifully. “Well, there aren’t enough patrolmen for this palace, and that’s a fact. My lady, you seem shaken. Can I escort you somewhere?”
“Take me to Artunos’s chambers. Quickly, please.”
The guardsman walked briskly with his lantern swinging before him, and Rema followed, stewing with impatience despite their steady march. If the worst had befallen Jalaya, and Rema wasn’t in time to say farewell…“Hurry up! This is important!”
“Yes, my lady.” The guard quickened his walk.
They hurried through the corridors, the guard’s lamplight catching the sculpted features of the halls and making them appear warped and sinister. After far too many anxious minutes, the lamp’s swaying radiance touched on a latticework of gold, and Rema remembered how to breathe. She waved her hand at the guard. “Thank you. You can go back to your duties now. Go, go!” The guard stomped down the hallway, his confusion evident.
For a moment, Rema considered awakening Artunos, but no—he would only complicate this matter with his worrying. She strode instead into Elise’s room, not even pausing to knock.
Jalaya lay on the bed, her head supported by a pillow and her eyes closed. Elise was leaning over her, applying something to her forehead. Rema hastened to the bedside and took Jalaya’s small, warm hand. “How is she?”
“She hit her head quite hard,” said Elise. “She’s opened her eyes once or twice, but she couldn’t say much. I’m hoping she’s just stunned. This balm will help the wound heal, and it’ll also soothe what may be the biggest headache she’s ever had. Poor Jalaya.”
Rema caressed Jalaya’s face. A subtle smile lifted Jalaya’s lips, as if the gesture had touched her dreams, and grief hardened in Rema’s throat. She had always loved watching Jalaya’s face in slumber. “This is my fault.”
“Nonsense.” Nothing remained of the eldritch spirit that had animated Elise earlier. Her eyes were human once more, and her hair was messy rather than preternatural. “It wasn’t you that struck her or threw her against a wall.”
Rema winced. “What happened in there?”
“It was the spell I’d prepared for Ormun. I felt the life leaving his body. I’ll never do anything like that again.”
“You had best not,” said a sonorous voice behind them. Melnennor entered the chamber, his robes sweeping across the stone floor. He moved to the bedside and touched Jalaya’s arm. “Is the wound grievous?”
“I can’t yet say,” said Elise, while Rema wiped her eyes, hoping the magician hadn’t seen her tears. She had a reputation to maintain, even now.
“I was sleeping when you exerted that force. It intruded into my dreaming, corrupting it into nightmare and forcing me awake. You didn’t heed my warning.”
Elise’s eyes blazed with sudden temper. “I heeded it until heeding wasn’t an option. Someone would have died tonight regardless. What I did saved Rema and Jalaya’s lives.”
“For now.” Melnennor placed his fingers upon Jalaya’s cheek, and sympathy moved in his narrow eyes. “These vibrations will continue for some time. There will be a reckoning soon, I believe.” He tilted his head to look at Rema. “Remela, I know your plan. It will fail.”
Rema gaped. “How can you…?”
“Nothing that happens evades my eye. Why do you think Ormun lured me into his service?”
“But it’s your job to protect him. Shouldn’t you have had us arrested?”
Melnennor smiled. “I interpret my role as I see fit. As Elise must have demonstrated to you already, only the stubborn and individualistic pursue the arcane. But let us return to the point. The events of tonight ensure that your plan cannot proceed as you had imagined.”
“And why is that?” Rema looked at Melnennor with what she hoped was defiance and suspected was tearful confusion.
“Elise’s spell has reordered everything. Or disordered, to be more precise. She has shaken the branch of eternity, and now its fruit will fall to rot on the ground.”
“Well, I’m sorry,” said Elise. “You don’t need to keep going on about it.”
“Indeed. In any case, you have a patient, and I am no healer. And this injured woman must live. She has a unique and brilliant heart.” Melnennor closed his eyes, and the shadows of the room seemed to move. “A mighty, sorrowful presence wanders this world, turning many fates with the edge of a blade. It has never been tamed, but she will tame it. She will brave a darkness that has never been broken, and she will break it. Treat her well so that she might fulfill her purpose.”
Melnennor switched to speaking Ajulai, and Elise frowned in incomprehension. “Remela, you are wondering why I am allowing you to continue on your treasonous path. My answer is your own. We both have a duty to our master, but Elise is too rare to sacrifice to the altar of his lunacy. Keep her safe. In time, her touch will change the flow of nature and bend the weave of worlds.”
He bowed before leaving. Even after he was gone, Rema stared at the doorway. “I’m not used to being speechless,” she said.
“That’s Mel for you,” said Elise.
“Mel?” Despite everything, Rema laughed. “You have a nickname for that terrifying man?”
“Melnennor is too long. Anyway, I think it’s safe now to try to wake her up.” Elise tipped a vial over Jalaya’s mouth. A drop of liquid reached her lips, and her eyes opened.
“Jalaya?” Rema knelt beside the bed, clasping Jalaya’s hands tightly in her own. “Are you awake?”
Jalaya sighed and turned her head to meet Rema’s gaze. “I’m sorry. I did drink that second glass.” Her eyes widened. “No! I remember! He was going to kill you!”
“It’s over now.” Elise stroked Jalaya’s hair. “We just wanted to ensure you were well, dear heart. You can go back to sleep.”
“Sleep sounds lovely. I’m not in my own bed, though. My bed has many more pillows than this.”
“It’s my bed.”
“We’re not sharing it, are we?”
“Not quite. But anything is possible in dreams.”
Jalaya smiled. “Make her happy, Elsie. It’s been so hard for her, and every day she seems to creep closer to that terrible darkness. You can save her. Bring her out of sorrow and into your love.” She closed her eyes and turned her head.
Rema remained beside the bed, holding Jalaya’s hand, until she heard the familiar sound of her sleeping breath. As Rema released her hand, Jalaya mumbled. “She always sings in her sleep,” said Rema, wiping away yet another tear. “For a moment there, I thought the worst.”
“It was closer than I let you know,” said Elise. “I took the swelling down in time. If I hadn’t, she definitely wouldn’t have been singing again tomorrow. Or maybe ever.”
Rema drew a blanket over Jalaya and tucked it around her shoulders. “Should we stay with her?”
“She’ll be fine. Everyone needs to be rested for tomorrow. Although now Jalaya has my bed, I’m not sure where I’m going to sleep.”
“That’s simple enough. You can sleep with me.”
“No objections here.” Elise adjusted the pillow beneath Jalaya’s head. “I don’t want to sleep alone anyway. I can still feel Bannon’s heart, wet and screaming in my hands.”
“You saved our lives. I know it was hard, but you did the right thing.”
Elise tilted Rema’s head gently with her fingertips. “I really should treat your wound too. You took a nasty blow to the forehead.”
“I’m fine. Just exhausted.”
Rema gazed again at Jalaya lying tangled among the blankets. The moment she had lifted that limp body, a tragic revelation had taken hold of her; Jalaya was no mere friend and bed companion, but something far deeper, a soul inextricably bound to her own. How blind Rema had been to think Elise had been her first true love. Now Rema had sacrificed love without knowing it, and she would never again fall asleep to the lullaby of Jalaya’s wise, caring heart.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Elise. “I saw how you reacted when Bannon threw her against that wall.”
“How is it possible that I loved her, loved her as truly and surely as I love you, yet never knew it?”
“What did I tell you?” Elise stroked Rema’s cheek. “Love is a feeling. It’s not about knowing.”
“She wasn’t like you. She didn’t demand me. She simply tried to make me happy, asking for nothing in return. And so I took her for granted. How could I be so stupid?”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. How could you not love her?”
“Elsie, I’ve given myself to you. I have no regrets. Come to bed. I need your solace, and you need mine.”
They left holding hands, heedless of the risk of being seen. Despite her concern, Rema refused to dwell on her fears. Love was stirring in her heart, and at least until morning, it deserved to move there unhindered.
Chapter Thirty
They lay beneath the blankets, their faces speckled by the moon as it shone through the branches of the tree beyond the window. Insects gathered in the garden, humming their sleepless song. Despite Elise’s naked warmth, not a single lustful urge stirred in Rema’s body, and by Elise’s shivering it was clear she felt the same. It was dizzying to have been so abruptly tossed from merriness to pain, from sorrow to relief, and it was impossible to contemplate the events of the night without being overwhelmed.
“I murdered him,” said Elise. “He begged me to stop, but I couldn’t.”
Rema kissed Elise’s neck. “Don’t think about it.”
Elise turned to her side. Her eyes seemed impossibly pale under the moonlight. “I used to imagine killing Calan, yet I could never bring myself to do it, no matter how much he beat me. I knew that to kill someone would take me to an even darker place.” She shuddered. “I underestimated how dark it would be.”
“You’re thinking about it.” Rema ran her fingers along Elise’s naked side. “I told you not to.”
“You flinched away from me. After I killed him. You couldn’t even look at me.”
“It was the magic. It made you look…different. You’re back to yourself now.”
“It’s awful. This could be our last night together, and all I want to do is curl into a ball and cry.”
“Then curl into my arms and cry there.” Rema pulled Elise closer. “Don’t lose that strong spirit I love so well. Do you want to know when I fell in love with you?”
Rema felt Elise’s cheek move as she smiled. “Tell me.”
“The day you defied Calan in the front court. I’d never seen anything as beautiful as you in that instant, cloaked in your grace and fury. I ached for you, and when you turned to me looking for support, it felt as if my soul were collapsing. After that, you became the center of my every thought. I wish I’d said something to defend you.”
“Not even you can be strong all the time.” Elise’s voice trembled. “I try to be, and I fail sometimes too. You stormed into my desolation, confident, clever and strong. I wanted so badly for you to love me. I wanted you to see in me the same things I saw in you.” Dampness touched Rema’s cheek, and it took a moment to realize the tears were Elise’s, not her own. “Now here I am, trembling in your arms, frightened this will be the last time I’ll feel your chest move against mine.”
“Don’t talk that way. We’ll share long lives, and at their end we’ll pass together in our sleep, both escaping this world in the same breath.”
“Tell me about our future. I want to fall asleep thinking only of us.”
Rema began to stroke Elise’s back, following the sensual contour from her shoulders to her hips. “Every morning we’ll wake together, still entwined from the night before. I’ll kiss you on the nose, and you’ll grumble at me. For breakfast we’ll eat saffron cakes and berries. Then we’ll read poetry together in the sun before resting in the cool grass, feeling the wind rush over our bodies.”
Elise exhaled, her breath soft with emotion. “And each afternoon you’ll sit at your desk, wearing that thinking frown of yours. I’ll rest my shaggy head on your shoulder and watch your mind at work. As evening comes, we’ll talk and laugh about all the things we’ve seen and done that day. Then we’ll go back to our bed and love each other. Best of all, we’ll never be ashamed. Everyone will know you as my lover, and they’ll be glad for the joy we share.”
“We’ll build a new house together. I’m tired of that mansion of mine. We’ll erect a tower on top to make you feel at home, and we’ll have a huge library so your books don’t have to be strewn everywhere.”
“Jalaya will visit and sing for us. She’ll have a lover of her own, a woman every bit her equal. Muhan will come to perform magic tricks, and your boring friend Artunos will join us for dinner and scowl at me. And Lor, he’ll come and drink up all our wine…” Elise sobbed. “I miss my little brother. He’s by himself now, he doesn’t have me to look after him. I miss him so terribly…”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Rema held her tighter. Why had it been so long since she thought of the pain of a sibling’s separation? How easy it was to be selfish when in love.
“Please distract me. Tell me another of your father’s poems.”
“I could recite one he wrote for my mother. They were inseparable. I was told that when she fell sick, he died with her, knowingly contracting her plague.”