Forever (28 page)

“I’ve never done any gardening,” I said. “You really love it, don’t you?”

“Like many tasks, it can be a meditation. In this case, since one is growing food, a very potent one.”

“Is that how you feel about all the things you do? I mean the carving, and the pottery...”

“They are all meditations, yes. Making useful objects, and making them beautiful, focuses one on life’s blessings. Of course, it is also a way to pass the time. I lived here for more than a century before the colonists arrived, alone except for the occasional traveler who stopped to ask shelter.”

“Or the occasional brigand who wanted to rob you?”

Madóran paused and looked up at me with a grin. “Very few of those. I dealt summarily with the first two or three, and word got around.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Do I want to know how you dealt with them? No, I don’t think I do.”

“I did them no harm,” he said mildly, lifting a head of lettuce from the ground.

“Just scared the bejeezes out of them?”

He smiled as he put the lettuce into the basket and got to his feet. “I think that is enough. Thank you for your help.”

“My pleasure. Thanks for putting up with my questions.”

“Your questions remind me of all I have to be grateful for.”

He stood smiling at me, a slight breeze stirring his hair around his face. A strand blew across his cheek, and without thinking I reached to brush it back.

The tingle of his khi flashed through me as I touched his face. I stood marveling, just enjoying the sensation for itself. Truly amazing, these ælven.

I have another question.

Yes?

You and Lomen can’t talk with mindspeech.

True.

But I can talk with each of you. If I talk to both of you at once, can you hear each other through me?

An interesting question. I believe the answer is “no,” but I have never attempted it.

Could we try it sometime? Just to see?

I am willing.

Thanks.

You are a fount of curiosity, Steven. It is quite refreshing.

We went into the house and took the vegetables to the kitchen, where Madóran started washing them. I got myself a glass of water.

“Think I’ll go study for a while, if you don’t mind. Unless you want help with dinner?”

“No, no. Not for a while yet. Go and fill your mind.”

I crossed the
plazuela
to my room. Lomen was sitting in the shade by the fountain; he glanced up at me and I smiled a hello.

Studying in that beautiful garden. What a hardship. I decided to join him.

I fetched my tablet and pulled up a chair so I could share the small table beside Lomen. “OK?”

He smiled. “Fine.”

I brought up my genetics text and caught up on all my reading for the course. I would miss a week’s worth of classes. Ouch.

I got out my phone and texted all my professors, explaining that I was out of town on family business—I smiled at that—and asking for the assignments for the week. Maybe someday I’d catch up.

School wasn’t such an urgent thing for me any more. I had quit worrying about what degree to take. I’d get one, sure—but it wasn’t the first priority now. First priority was learning the skills I needed to conquer koilohaemia.

I sat musing about it. Hollow blood. I wondered if it really was a form of anemia.

“Does Madóran have a microscope?” I asked.

Lomen looked up from his book. “I don’t know. I doubt it.”

I sighed. “Have to wait until we’re back in town.”

“What do you want it for?”

“I want to look at a sample of alben—well, of infected blood. Savhoran would give me one, right?”

“Probably, but please be careful with it.”

“Oh, absolutely. I’d just need a drop to put on a slide.”

The worry in his voice reminded me that for him, too, the disease was a real threat. He might not be as obsessive as Mirali but he was just as concerned, and rightly so.

I would be
damn
careful with any samples I took. Gloves and isolation, the works. Just treat it like plutonium.

I turned to my chemistry homework. It went fast in that pleasant place. Occasionally a door would open and someone would walk around the
portal
, usually on the way to the kitchen. The birds twittered and fussed in the fountain. The air was perfect.

After a while I realized I was staring at the tablet with my thoughts a million miles away. Zoning. Time to give up on studying.

I got up, and Lomen gave me an enquiring look.

“Think I’ll take a nap,” I said.

I took my water glass to my room and stretched out on the bed. It smelled like Lomen and me, which made me smile.

I must have conked out right away, because it seemed like only a minute had passed when Lomen knocked on the door, calling me to dinner. I got up and rubbed my eyes, combed my fingers through my hair, and headed for the kitchen.

It was late; the sun must be setting, because the whole
plazuela
was shaded and a bit chilly. I followed Lomen across it and into the kitchen, which was full of fantastic smells.

“Ah, good,” Madóran said as we came in. “You can carry. We are dining in the great room.”

He indicated a platter of roast beef and bowls of spinach and carrots. Lomen and I collected them and went through a door at the far end of the kitchen, which opened into the plant-filled entryway. In the greatroom, Manda and Bironan were setting the long table, putting out wine glasses and lighting candles. We added our burdens to the potatoes and salad that were already there. It looked like a feast.

There were eight of us at dinner. Talk was mostly about the Evennight celebration. While Madóran told the others about our visit to Mirali, I asked Manda how Savhoran was doing.

“Fine. He’s been resting all day, which is good. He needs to catch up.”

“And Pirian?”

She shrugged. “The same, I assume.”

“You’d be happier if he wasn’t around.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Partly. But the ælven need all the DNA they can muster.”

“Even diseased DNA?”

“Might be of use. And maybe Madóran is right—maybe Pirian will change.”

Manda sighed. “I ought to cut him more slack. He pretty much saved my life, once. Not that he meant to.”

I turned to her, astonished. “Pirian saved your life?”

“Let’s not talk about it over dinner. I’ll tell you later.”

She reached for the wine. I thought about what Len had said—that she and Manda both knew what to watch out for. They had both been attacked by alben. Now I had joined the club.

Occupational hazard, I told myself. From now on, we’d be better organized, and there wouldn’t be any more alben encounters.

I hoped.

“You and Savhoran still going to do your...”

“Cup-bond? Yeah. We’ll do it after the Evennight ceremony, that way Mirali can leave if she wants to.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“Savhoran’s idea. He’s morbidly sensitive about his condition and how the others react to him.” She glanced toward Faranin and Bironan, and lowered her voice. “He’s always worrying that they’ll banish him.”

“They can’t, can they? What do you mean, ‘banish’?”

“Caeran could, as clan leader. Greystone is superior to Ebonwatch. Even though Ebonwatch existed millenia ago, this iteration is new, and subordinate to Clan Greystone, which means Caeran can tell them what to do in certain circumstances.”

“Caeran wouldn’t banish Savhoran.”

She gave me a skeptical look and stabbed a carrot. “Anything’s possible.”

I looked up to find Caeran watching me. He smiled slightly and said something to Madóran.

The meal was leisurely. Conversation ranged over multiple topics, but by tacit agreement we didn’t talk about the alben. We did talk about the lab. Caeran wanted to design the compound during the winter and start construction by spring.

The wine went around frequently, and at one point I realized I was getting bleary. I switched to water for a while.

Finally Len got up and started clearing away plates. I offered to help, and Lomen helped carry the dishes and the leftovers to the kitchen. Len put on a kettle for tea and asked me if I wanted coffee.

“No, tea’s fine.”

She smiled. “You’re getting acclimated.”

“Less caffeine. I’d like to get a good night’s sleep. So quiet out here.”

“Yeah. You’ll sleep well.”

She gave me and Lomen bowls of nuts and fruit to take back to the greatroom. Savhoran and Pirian had joined the table, which caught me off guard. I snuck a look at Pirian while I set a bowl of fruit in front of Madóran.

He looked less haggard; merely unwell. The anger that I'd felt toward him earlier had changed to confusion. Had he really saved Manda's life?

Savhoran was sitting across the table from him, with a glass of wine in front of him, listening to Caeran with a serious expression.

“The most important thing is that we all work together,” Caeran was saying. “To that end, we will have one Evennight ceremony. Clan Greystone will stand on one side of the circle, and Clan Ebonwatch on the other.”

That produced an unbalanced image in my mind, one that smacked of segregation. It probably wouldn’t look that bad; Greystone would be more like three quarters of the circle to Ebonwatch’s quarter, and I would be in there somewhere. Maybe I could be a buffer, like a no-man’s land.

I slid back into my chair, catching Lomen’s eye as I did so. “That way maybe Mirali will feel comfortable attending,” I added.

Savhoran shot a sharp glance at me. I couldn’t see Pirian’s face.

“We will have the ceremony after sunset, so that Ebonwatch may be present. Afterward, Savhoran and Amanda will make their cup-bonding vow.”

I looked at Manda, whose cheeks were a little flushed. I wondered if it was too late to come up with some kind of gift for her. After all, I basically owed my connection with Lomen to her.

“And after the cup-bonding,” Caeran said, “I propose we formally admit Steven to Clan Greystone.”

My heart gave a thump of surprise. Caeran was smiling at me, looking amused.

“Oh—ah, wow. I’m honored,” I said.

“You have already contributed much to the clan.”

I ought to be thrilled. Instead I felt hesitant. Lomen tilted his head, watching me. I took a swallow of wine and shielded.

I needed to think about it. It was a huge honor, yes—and I needed to be sure I felt right accepting it.

“I’m not exactly sure what that means,” I said. “Are there duties that go along with being a clan member?”

“Keep the creed, be loyal to the clan,” said Faranin.

“I don’t even know the creed. I mean, I know a little about it, but not everything.”

Len came in with a tea tray. She poured some for me, steam rising from the mug. I decided to let it cool a bit, and sipped some more wine.

“You make a good point,” Madóran said. “Although the creed really applies to the ælven more than to humankind.”

“There’s no reason humans can’t keep the creed,” Len said. “I swore to do it when you brought me into the clan.”

“But you had studied it, Len. Steven has not. Perhaps we should ask him to learn the creed, with the object of abiding by it.”

“It that fair?” Lomen said. “It is asking him to promise in the future to abide by a rule he does not understand.”

My hero. I gazed at Lomen, wishing I could hug him right then.

“We have no intention of making unreasonable demands,” Caeran said.

“I do want to learn the creed,” I said. “But I don’t want to make an uninformed promise.”

“No one asks that of you,” Madóran said.

A thought was forming in my brain. I drank some more wine, swishing it around.

“The creed is the difference between the ælven and the alben,” I mused, half to myself.

“I would say, rather, that the creed is the difference between Clan Ebonwatch and the alben,” Caeran said.

I looked at Savhoran, seated at the opposite corner to me. He sat erect, his hands folded around the base of his wine glass, which was still full. Easy to forget how hard his life was, and that it had only recently become so.

I suddenly understood what had been bothering me.

“I’m really honored to be invited,” I said, looking at Caeran, “but I wonder if it might be more appropriate for me to join Clan Ebonwatch.”

A
ll the ælven looked shocked, except for Lomen, who turned a sudden chortle to a cough. His eyes glinted glee at me for an instant before he looked away.

Savhoran gazed at me in disbelief. “Why would you want to join Ebonwatch?”

“He cannot join Ebonwatch,” said Faranin. “Ebonwatch’s duty is to guard against the alben. He has not the strength to oppose them.” He looked at me. “Forgive me, but it is so.”

“That is Ebonwatch’s traditional duty,” said Madóran, “but this is a new embodiment of the clan. Guarding against the alben need not be its sole purpose.”

I nodded; he seemed to understand where I was going. I took a pear from a bowl and rolled it around in my hands.

“See, I keep thinking about what we want to do—figure out this disease and cure it. That’s what I signed on for, with Ebonwatch, the company. But that could apply to the clan, too. Ultimately, it’s for Clan Ebonwatch that we want to beat this thing.”

They were all silent. Either I’d said something profound, or something really stupid.

“And for all those who would otherwise be doomed to Ebonwatch’s fate,” said Bironan quietly.

Manda gave me a look of burning excitement, then stood and picked up her wine. “I want to join Ebonwatch, too.”

She walked down the table to sit next to Savhoran. He looked at her, and even though he was facing away from me I could practically feel the love radiating from him.

“Well,” Caeran said, “I see no reason why our mortal friends cannot join Ebonwatch if they wish. Savhoran, do you have any objection?”

Savhoran was beaming like a kid who’d been given a new toy. “None. They would be welcome.” He tore his gaze away from Manda and looked at me. “But Ebonwatch is strict in following the creed; we must be. If you are unwilling to commit to that...”

“I’m willing to commit to learning the creed, and to following what I understand of it so far. If I run into something I can’t handle, I’ll discuss it with you, and either we’ll reach a compromise or I’ll withdraw.”