Avalyne Series 02: The Easterling (29 page)

******

When they returned to Eden Halas, Halion was visibly grateful to see the return of his son, particularly after how things had been with his wife since Aeron’s departure. Syanne’s anger with him had not abated as it had done in the past when they had other quarrels. This time it seemed as if neither were yielding the point and the days after the Prince and his lady’s departure from Halas were tense ones for the court. It was clear to all present that the King and Queen were not in good terms.

Aeron’s return however, ended that tension with Halion pleased to see that his son had not carried out his threat to never see his father again. Although they did not immediately speak of the argument that had driven him away from Halas during his last visit home, both father and son seemed to regard each other with a new understanding. Halion was also pleased to see the return of his old friend, Tamsyn. Tamsyn had been a comrade during the Primordial Wars and was one of the few people in Avalyne who knew him before he was
King.

Melia’s name was not mentioned.

It was plain to see that some rift now separated the Prince from the watch guard because he did not speak her name and left it to Tamysn to explain that Melia had returned to her duties at the Baffin. At the feast to welcome Tamysn to Eden Halas, Aeron played the part required of him even though those who knew him could see the sadness in his eyes of which he would not speak to anyone. Even Halion who was normally able to maintain an impressive facade of indifference could not hide the pain he felt at seeing his child’s anguish and being able to do nothing to ease it.

Aeron
tried hard not to show the court his sombre mood but he could not help it. He displayed an impassive front to all that saw him because a Prince always kept his emotions well hidden, Halion had taught him that. On this occasion, it seemed to serve because it kept anyone from asking him any uncomfortable questions. He could see it burning in their eyes every time they looked upon him, the intense curiosity to know what it was that had transpired between Melia and he. Especially after her last appearance at court had seen her wearing his mother's necklace, a gesture that could only mean intimacy between them.

Since she had left him,
Aeron had done nothing but rationalize her behaviour, trying to see their relationship from her point of view. He knew she feared he would leave her, the way her mother had abandoned her father. Surely, he had proven himself to her by his love and his actions, that he would never do such a thing? How much more did he have to earn her trust? He bound himself to her and he knew that until he passed into the next life, he would always yearn for her.

For better or for worse, Melia was apart of him now and that was all there was to it.

In the meantime, he distracted himself with the real reason he returned to Eden Halas and that was to put into motion the plans he discussed with Melia when he still believed she might marry him. 

As expected, there were more than a few elves in Eden Halas, particularly those who had fought at Astaroth, who were willing to listen to his dreams of reclaiming Eden Ardhen and building a new kind of elven city. His Eden Ardhen would not live
entirely within the Veil, it would remain in the woods of Arden where men and dwarves could come. No longer would they live in isolation as had been the practice of elvenkind since the Primordial Wars.

Elves were granted immortality to fight in the Primordial Wars because it was too difficult to keep growing new soldiers when old ones who not die on the battlefield withered with age. However,
when the war had ended and they should have used their immortality to become teachers and recorders of history for the younger races as the Creator had intended in the forming of the Sacred Three. However, resentment had disrupted that plan instead and the promise of the Three was never fulfilled.

Balfure’s invasion had awakened a good number of elves to the world outside the Veil. Some had been born without ever leaving its confines and were eager to see what lay beyond. Aeron had been fortunate to travel with Dare and see breadth of the Western Sphere at the mortal’s side. He wished to be apart of the world and knew many at home in Eden Halas who felt the same. All they had to do was leave with him and they would build a new home for themselves in Eden Ardhen.

If his father knew the discussions Aeron was having with his people, the King did not mention it although Aeron knew the time to discuss the matter was fast approaching.  How Halion would take his efforts was as much a mystery as everything else about his father.

*****

When Aeron returned to his room that night, he found Syanne waiting for him. Since his return, he had taken pains to avoid talking to his mother because he knew she would want to discuss Melia and Aeron was in no frame to approach that subject with anyone, not even her. He had successfully buried all thoughts of the watch guard deep inside his heart so that he would not feel the pain of it and discussing the matter would only bring to ruin that careful interment.

Syanne was seated on the same bed she had tucked him into as a child when her son entered the room.

To her, he would always be the most precious of her sons, the sensitive, thoughtful one that took so much after the brother she had lost instead of his father. Growing up as a girl in Sanhael, Syanne had adored her older brother Aeron, who would lose his life at the hands of the Primordials. When her youngest son was born, Syanne stared into that tiny face and knew his name could be nothing else.

‘
You have been busy since your return,’ Syanne announced herself when he entered the doorway. ‘I thought I better make some time to see you alone before you embarked upon your new venture.’

Aeron suddenly found himself feeling like a child that had been caught playing where he should not be and felt
immediately guilty for evading her. ‘I would have seen you before leaving,’ he said closing the door behind him before coming to sit next to her.

‘
Would you?’ Syanne asked, knowing her son better than that. Melia was not the only one who knew how to run.

Aeron could not meet her gaze. This was precisely the reason why he had avoided her. Syanne could look into his soul no matter how deeply he thought he buried his feelings. That was the power of all mothers he supposed, their ability to see past all the barriers because
they alone had seen their children before any had been constructed.

She took his silence for an answer.

‘I am sorry about Melia,’ Syanne said quietly.

Aeron stood up and walked away.
‘I do not wish to speak of her. She made her choice, she is gone.’

‘
Son, whatever else you may think of what she has done. She loved you,’ Syanne said trying to offer him comfort. ‘I truly believe she acted in the hopes of sparing you.’

Aeron turned around and faced his mother, allowing himself
to vent his rage for the first time. ‘Spare me?’ He exclaimed. ‘You are right mother, she did love me but not enough. Not enough for her to see that I could never love anyone after her, not enough to believe that I would not abandon her or have faith that we could have had a life together. I do love her and I will love her until the day I die, however long that is but I do
not
forgive her.’

‘
Do not speak so  quickly,’ Syanne said  gently, standing up to come to him. Resting her hand on his shoulder while another brushed his forehead, Syanne wished she could soothe this hurt as easily as she was able to soothe a scrapped knee when he was a boy.

Instead, she gazed into his eyes and said firmly,
‘I think it is time you spoke to your father.’

******

When Aeron sought his father out at Syanne’s request, he believed it was to discuss his intentions of leaving Eden Halas with some of its citizens.

Stepping into his father’s study, Aeron could not help but think of the last time he had been in this room and felt immediately
embarrassed by how harsh he had been with Halion. After all, Halion was trying to protect him by sending Melia away and in retrospect, Aeron supposed he was not so misguided in the wake of what transpired after they left Tal-Shahar.  Nevertheless, Halion being right did not make it any easier to face his father.

‘
Father,’ Aeron announced himself as he entered the room.

‘
You are up early,’ the King glanced at his son before lowering the scrolls he had been perusing. ‘Then again, I suppose rallying some of my people to leave their homes requires an early start.’

So much for
small talk
, Aeron sighed. ‘I am sorry, I wanted to know how interested people would be to come with me before I approached you with my plan. I did not mean to offend.’

Halion eased back into his chair and looked at his son
with puzzlement. ‘Do you think that I am offended?’

‘
Well yes,’ Aeron replied, not expecting any other reaction. He knew his father.

‘
My son,’ Halion sighed as if he was resigned to never understanding Aeron before he stood up, ‘let us take a walk.’

Aeron stared at his father
in puzzlement as Halion stepped away from the desk and left the room for the balcony outside his study. The balcony ran along much of the outer wall of the city like streets running through Sandrine.

As Aeron followed his father outside, he wondered what it was that Halion wished to say to him.  For years, Aeron had thought he knew his father until Tamsyn’s revelation showed him he knew little at all about Halion himself, just the persona the elf
King chose to show the world.

When they were outside, with the sun on their faces and the morning air crisp in their lungs, Halion finally spoke,
‘You were always the one child I understood the least when you should have been the one I recognised the most. You were always so introspective. Face value was never good enough for you and you had some far seeing eyes. You are just like your mother’s brother and I should have remembered that. Its odd how time blunts the memory, especially when he was my best friend.’

Aeron blinked.
‘He was?’

‘
Oh yes,’ Halion nodded with a faint smile, pleased to surprise his son on occasion. ‘We were inseparable, Aeron, Gavril and myself. Not unlike your Circle with Dare.  For most of the Primordial Wars, we fought at each other side. Tamsyn was there too and the other mages but it was on each other we relied the most. We were young, hungry and there was nothing we thought we could not do.’

It was hard to imagine Halion travelling the hills as he had done with Dare, Kyou, Tamsyn and Celene. However, his father was an adventurer who had left the ruin
s of his homeland to build a kingdom here in Halas. Not unlike what he was attempting to do now in Ardhen he supposed.

‘
Of course, war changes that reality very quickly and after the battle that saw Antion die and Syphia vanquished, he lay in my arms dying on the battlefield. On his last breath, he asked me to take care of his sister and I promised him I would. I wound ensure that what was left of his family survived. She was young, frightened and alone. I promised him I would protect her no matter what.’

‘
Were you married then?’ Aeron finally asked the question he had been dying to ask his father since Tamsyn had inadvertently told him the truth, that Syanne was Halion’s second wife.

Halion was mildly surprised but surmised quickly where
Aeron would have learned this part of his past. ‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘I was married. Her name was Isabeau. We fell in love the first time we laid eyes on each other. I was nineteen years old and she was seventeen.’

Considering his father’s age, Aeron blinked in shock. Even by human standards, that was young. Imagining his father as a teenager, making such a bond went against everything he knew about the rigid, aloof authoritarian he had known all his life.  Yet even as Halion spoke of these matters, Aeron could see
the sorrow in his father’s eyes, the pain he now understood intimately.

‘
How did she die?’ He asked, his empathy making him ache for his father’s loss.

‘
It does not matter how she died,’ Halion replied softly, his eyes growing distant. ‘She was lost to me and I wished to leave, to travel south and start a new life. Your mother chose to come with me though I told her that she did not need to. However your mother loved me and it was my sadness perhaps, my need for something familiar that allowed me to let her. I do care for your mother but you know the difference now. You know what it feels like to be gutted and then try to give what’s left of yourself to someone who is not the person you want.’

Aeron did and for the first time,
he had clarity in his father’s relationship with his mother that he did not have before. ‘She accepted this?’

‘
Yes,’ he nodded. ‘I tried to talk her out of it, believe me I did but she loved me, for whatever reason, she loved me and I want to keep her safe. I wanted her protected from everything terrible there was.  I think she believed she loved me enough for both of us and that was perhaps our mistake. I care for your mother, I have always cherished her but she always understood that it could never how it was when I was with Isabeau.’