Bound (30 page)

The words sounded flat and hollow to her ears, as when he had called her beloved. It was as if he had spoken them because they were expected, the recitation of lines he had memorized. The sincerity she'd heard in Tavis' voice as he'd drawn her from the mind storm was absent from Marcius' words. Taking a step back, she slid her hand into Tavis', her eyes remaining on Marcius as she did it. She saw his own harden as her intention became clear.

"You can't mean to chose the farmer over me, surely. Think about what I offer you. Can’t you feel how we belong to each other?"

"No."

The effect of that one word shocked her in its suddenness. Marcius' eyes changed, glittering with the madness she had heard in the storm. The tether of promise, which she'd thought shattered in the mind storm, grasped her whole body and squeezed until she felt the breath rush out of her. Marcius' voice was harsh and angry as he said, "He can't have you. I will not lose you to him. You are mine."

Fay felt like a prisoner in her own body as her hand dropped Tavis'. She ran forward and she felt a shield push out behind her, though she was sure it hadn't come from her. When she reached Marcius' side, he smiled down at her as he wrapped his arms around her. "You will always belong to me, Faylanna Derrion."

She tried to turn away from him, to reach back to Tavis, but her body wouldn't respond to her will. The world went dark around her for a moment and then something that didn’t feel like any magic she knew swept through her like flash fire. Even in that burning moment of darkness though, she could still see Marcius and his triumphant sneer. When the darkness lifted, they were no longer in the maze. Marcius unwrapped his arms from her and grasped her by the upper arm. He dragged her toward a camp in the clearing, not bothering to speak to her. Someone else was nearby, but she couldn't seem to find them, could only hear their breathing. As she searched for this other person, she noticed that a carriage was there, ready to go, a trunk on the back that she was sure held supplies.

"Where are we," she asked, surprised at how quiet her voice was when she wanted to yell at him.

Marcius didn't answer her at first. He pulled her to the door of the carriage, which opened at their approach, then shoved her toward it. When he did speak, his words were filled with a dangerous blend of madness and anger. "It doesn't matter. There will be time for all of that later. Get in. Now."

She thought that they couldn't be far from Iondis, as the clouds still hid the sun and the gloom made it hard to see. She hesitated for a moment, trying to see inside the dark carriage, but then lurched forward involuntarily and into one of the seats. I never intended any of this, she thought. I only wanted to save my father, but he's gone now too. She struggled not to cry at the thought.

Marcius sat himself across from her, leaving the door of the carriage open. He leaned forward, and she found herself unable to look away from his intense gaze. "The plan that was set in motion when you were a young girl has proceeded well to this point, and it's time to take the next step. Soon, it will all belong to us. But first, we have to do one thing." His eyes shifted to the space between them and she felt magic filling that space. Shifting her perceptions, she saw the spell he was constructing and pressed herself backward, not wanting to even touch the edges of this spellwork. When he was finished, his gaze returned to her, and the glittering intensity had returned. "It's time for the bond, Faylanna. If they didn't teach you how to construct your half, I can. But you must do this now."

She stared into the complex form of thoughts and threads of magic that waited for her. No, she thought, no, this isn't what I want, not with him. She was almost unaware of shaking her head until she heard Marcius snarl in frustration. The ugly sound drew her eyes back to him and she flinched back from the insanity she saw there. The spellwork shattered, causing her to flinch again, as he reached through it and grasped her jaw. Darkness claimed her immediately.

She knew it was later when she woke up but wasn't sure how much time had passed. The seat beside her was warm, as if someone had been sitting there quite recently. She put her hand on it, but could discern nothing more than that and a faint, acrid scent. The carriage was empty, and yet she felt a sense that she wasn't alone. A presence lingered nearby, familiar yet unexpected. Before she could turn this idea over and consider it, the door of the carriage was thrown open and Marcius pulled her out. Her sense of that presence dissipated at once. She immediately noticed that they were not in the same place as before, though it was another clearing, this one larger than the last. He pulled her to the fire, already blazing, and pushed her down onto a bedroll laid out beside it. As he sat beside her on it, she realized that someone else was in the camp with them. She was sure it was the same person who had been with them before, when they'd left Iondis, but then Marcius started speaking, a hand on her cheek drawing her gaze to him.

"You must do this, Faylanna. We must bond. You swore you would. There's no cause to wait. Fulfill your promise to me," he said. His words were gentle, but she detected a strained edge to them.

Then the sense of his words came through to her and she laughed. "I never made that promise. You know it and so do I. So does the magic that let you abuse the one I did make. If I had, you could have used it to force me earlier."

She saw him grind his teeth and his thumb moved so that he was gripping her jaw again. "You promised to be mine."

She lifted her chin just out of his grip, feeling her temper rising. She snapped back, "You promised to release my father, and now he lies dead. Who broke their promise?"

"Your father promised you would bond with me, Faylanna," he growled.

Fay forced her anger and grief back, then folded her arms over her chest with deliberate care. Her eyes never left Marcius. "Then see if you can bind me with the vow of another. Go ahead and try it, if you think that will work any better than your broken one."

He simply stared at her for several long moments. Finally, she said to him in a tone of self-condemnation, "You did kill Landra, didn't you? Was anything you said to me true, or was it all a lie?"

He flinched at her question and his expression became sad and haunted. She almost regretted her words, though not quite. His voice was almost inaudible when he answered. "You don't want to know what happened to my Landra. I swear it." Then his voice rose to a more carrying volume. "I will find a way to complete the bond, Faylanna. One way or another, you will be mine. There is no alternative for you."

Soft laughter came from the other side of the fire and Fay tried to look to its source, but her eye kept sliding away from it. She could barely keep registered the fact that a person sat over there, and without the deep voice that whispered a moment later, she would never have known if it was a man or a woman. "You know better than that, Marcius. No one can force the bond. It doesn't work that way. She's not so stupid as to believe you either."

Marcius growled as he stood up and began to pace, his eyes flicking repeatedly to the other as he did so. Eventually he turned and asked, "Are you sure we'll still be able to retrieve the Mirror from Iondis when we get to-"

The voice was no longer quiet but snarling in rage as he cut Marcius off. "You fool! Whatever you might think, whatever plan you might have, this is not the time to be discussing any of that in front of the girl. Not another word, Marcius."

The deadly warning in the last sentence shocked Fay, who had thought these two were allies in whatever plan they had drawn her father and now herself into. Before she could think what to do with this fissure between them, Marcius turned and stomped back to her. He crouched and placed a hand on her forehead. "Time to sleep, Faylanna."

She felt the tingle of the magic flooding through her and realized that Marcius was very nearly as strong as she herself was. The surprise held the spell at bay at first. Marcius dropped his hand and walked around the fire to sit next to the other man. He said, "It should only take a moment then we'll be able to talk freely. You have much to explain to me, now that I'm finally free of that place. Things that you should have explained before, I think."

Knowing she had to find out what was going on, Fay laid down and closed her eyes. She wished instantly that she could have kept them open, as the spell became much harder to resist the moment they were closed. She pushed against it with all of the stubbornness everyone had ever cursed her for until the two men finally started speaking again after what felt like an eternity.

"Yes," the unknown man said, his voice soft again. "They can all be summoned at our moment of need if you can only bring Faylanna to the task. But she will have to be willing. You won't be able to force her, so I would stop threatening the girl. You'll only make this harder for yourself if you don't learn to control yourself around her."

"It's not my fault," Marcius whined. Fay berated herself for ever thinking he was someone she could love. "Calder was supposed to be the one to make her willing to do this. He was supposed to keep her from attaching to anyone else, another thing he failed at. I’ve tried to do my part. I watched her for years, tried to bring her around to care for me, but it hasn’t been easy, given how little I could communicate with her for so long. What do I know of her, except what I've managed to learn since she came into possession of the pendant, and most of that has been that this peasant has too much influence with her."

"You've been stupid and careless. Don't bother denying it, because I know better. I've been watching. Worse, you arrogantly assumed no one would interest her beyond you. It doesn’t work like that. Yes, the pendant gives you influence over her, but it can’t make her feel something you didn’t foster well enough in the first place. And once we allowed her to consider the bond, there was no way to limit it to just you. You’ll have to bring her around, but to do that, you will need to behave," the man said, irritation showing up in the almost-familiar voice.

Fay felt her mind trying to slip into sleep under the weight of Marcius' spell, but the knowledge of the pendant's power lit up her thoughts. She could feel it lying against her chest, still cold despite having been next to her skin all day. I have to remember to take it off in the morning somehow, she thought desperately.

"I've tried. But then that other-" Marcius began.

"Try harder," the voice said flatly. "We didn't go to the trouble of preparing her for this to have you let it slip through your fingers."

As Fay wondered what the words meant, the spell overcame her and she fell into the darkness. Before she could scream though, something caught her and she opened her eyes. She knew she was dreaming immediately. She was under a tree in the meadow where Eliar's cottage lay and she knew she wasn't alone. Looking down, she saw long, tanned arms wrapped around her, legs stretched out to either side of her body. She could even smell the familiar scent of him, the hint of lemon on his breath from his favorite tea and the smell of Swift on his hands. It felt so real.

"Tavis," she sighed, leaning back into his chest.

His arms tightened around her and she felt his head lower to her ear. He said something but she couldn't quite make out the words. They were like a buzzing whisper, too muffled to distinguish meaning from them. She began to cry, wishing he was really there with her. Knowing he couldn't hear her, that this was only a dream, she started speaking through her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I was so stupid. I didn't see any of it until it was too late. I let them do this to me, to both of us. I wasted my chance with you, I know I did. I wish I could see you, just one more time. I swear that I would make things right, if I could see you again. I will, I'll do the right thing if I ever get a second chance, Tavis."

Suddenly the words became clear, as if it really was his lips brushing the edge of her ear. "I'm coming, Faylanna. Hold on, I'm coming for you."

Abruptly she was awake and blinking in the morning sun. She gasped from the sudden end of the dream. Marcius was crouched over her, smiling like he used to in her dreams. "It's time to be up, Faylanna."

She looked around and saw that they were alone at the camp now, other than the carriage and horse. The strange man she hadn't been able to look at was gone. "Where-"

"We're going to continue on just the two of us. I think we need time to talk." He paused. "I need to apologize for yesterday. It's just that I was trapped in that Mirror for so long and I was disoriented. This isn't the same world I left, and it's a bit difficult for me to adjust."

Fay didn't respond, but nodded because she knew it was expected of her. She refused to trust him or his words though. He went on, "I did mean the things I’ve said to you, what I offered you. The world would be yours, all of it, even the Emperor would stand beneath us. Your strength with mine, none could withstand us. There are unimaginable things in motion already, and those behind them will not let your stubbornness ruin their plans. They will have their way, they will force you to go along with their plans, and I don't want you to be hurt. Surely you can understand that, my sweet." Still she kept her silence, not trusting the warmth in his voice that still didn't show in his ice-colored eyes. "Faylanna, you could rule it all with me. Why would you chose to be a slave, forced to do their bidding, when you could come with me and reign over all the world and those who would hold you back? Don't take that path, don't make me watch them do that to you."

She thought for a moment about how to answer him. "How can I trust you, though? How can I believe your words and offers now? I know that you’ve lied to me, that you’re more involved in this than you’re saying. You’ve already forced me to do things yourself, so don’t try to tell me that it would only be the others doing it, whoever they are. You won't even tell me where I am."

His face took on an air of sadness, though his eyes never changed. "Our location doesn't matter, Faylanna. Only our destination does."