Shards of Time (55 page)

Not long after, the wagon and several horsemen arrived. Micum and Seregil lifted Thero in a blanket and picked their way down the strange new terrain to the wagon. Alec followed, supporting Klia, who was finally feeling the effects of the fight and blood loss. He helped her into the back of the wagon and she lay down on the thick pad of blankets next to Thero, one hand protectively across her belly, the other holding Thero’s. Sabriel climbed in to look after them.

“It’s going to be all right now, my dears,” she told Klia, spreading a blanket over the two of them.

Alec hoped she was right.

The men from Mirror Moon had brought horses for them all. Once the loathsome remains of Rhazat’s body had been deeply and separately buried until someone could come back and burn them, Seregil had a quiet word with Micum, then laid a hand on Alec’s arm. They watched Micum and the others ride away across the plain, then Seregil took Alec by the hand and led him back toward the cave.

“We should get back and see how Thero is,” said Alec.

“There’s nothing you or I can do for him right now,” Seregil replied. “I just want a bit of time with you before we go back.”

Alec followed him up to the painted cave and they used the leftover water and the bandages from one of the baskets to clean each other’s wounds. They were both badly scraped and bruised but Seregil was more concerned at how thin Alec was. He used a wad of linen to sponge Rhazat’s dried black blood from Alec’s face and hands, then handed him a
lump of cheese and tore a chunk of bread from one of the loaves the ’faie women had brought. “Eat.”

Alec made short work of the food, and drank deeply from a waterskin. Satisfied, Seregil unbound Alec’s soft blond hair and combed it smooth with his fingers. Alec held his gaze, lips slightly parted, then leaned in and kissed him with a tenderness that brought tears to his eyes. Seregil took him in his arms and kissed him again and again, grateful to his very bones to have Alec alive and well in his arms, not starved and withered away in the grey domain of the dyrmagnos. Then they were pulling at each other’s clothing as they sank back on the last blanket. Exhausted and battered as they both were, the lovemaking had never been sweeter or more needed than it was there, watched over by the painted animals and the shattered remains of a lover’s skull.

Alec woke to midafternoon light slanting into the cave, illuminating its timeless artwork and what remained of the stone formations. Naked, bruised, and wonderfully filthy, he tightened his arms around Seregil, who was still lying half on top of him, one arm around Alec’s waist, one leg slung over Alec’s as if he was afraid even in sleep of losing him. The head scarf was gone, and Seregil’s tangled hair only partly covered the shaved patches and stitches. The short new hairs around the wounds were pure white. All the same, he’d never looked more beautiful to Alec, or felt so perfect in his arms.

Too soon Seregil stirred and stretched against him. Lifting his head, he gave Alec a contented smile. “Hello, my talímenios.”

Alec brushed a tangle of dark hair back from Seregil’s cheek. “Hello, mine.”

Seregil sat up with a groan and reached for his breeches. “I wonder if we scared any shepherds?” he said as they dressed.

“I expect so, if the landscape melting and a large tower appearing out of nowhere didn’t do it already.” Alec stood and gazed out at Zikara and the ruins of Rhazat’s stronghold. “Do you think there will be as many ghosts now?”

Seregil shrugged. “I imagine there will always be ghosts
on Kouros, but not monsters.” He looked in the basket. “We’ve eaten everything. I guess we better go back.”

“There’s something I want to—” Alec broke off as a large white owl swooped in over their heads to perch in the opening of the tunnel leading up to the other caves. Alec and Seregil bowed their heads reverently to Illior’s bird. The owl bobbed its round head and blinked its huge yellow eyes, as if returning the greeting, then fluffed its feathers and flew up the tunnel to the caves above.

“Have you ever seen an owl do that?” asked Alec.

“No.”

They scrambled up to the middle cave. There was no sign of the owl except for a white tail feather banded with pale grey lying on the ancient oracle’s stool like an offering. In silent agreement, they left it there and went through to the outer cave. It was empty, and there was no sign of the bird outside.

“Something tells me the oracle will speak here again,” said Seregil. “We should probably get back.”

“I know, but there’s something I need to do.”

The horses that had been brought for them from Mirror Moon were still hobbled down the slope from the painted cave, and they galloped across the plain to Zikara.

The ruins had been badly damaged by the shock waves, with many of the remaining walls reduced to piles of stone. Rhazat’s tower was in ruins, as well, the toll of a thousand years rushing in around it. Although the weathered outer wall was still partially intact, rising in places almost to the full height of what it had been, the roof was gone; a flock of sharp-eyed ravens looked down at them from atop the jagged stonework, croaking at them as if warning them off. The floors inside the tower had rotted away, and the only thing that looked anywhere near sound was a curved stone stairway leading down into the gaping, weed-choked cellar.

Alec pointed up to a gap in the stonework where a window had been. “That’s where I first saw Rhazat.” He looked around. “Over there was the alley where Nhandi showed me the vision of the seal.”

A large stone dislodged by the freshening breeze fell into the cellar, and they heard it shatter on something hard.

“Klia said Rhazat kept prisoners down there,” said Alec.

“Most likely.”

“I want to go down there.”

Seregil tilted his head, eyeing the stairs with concern. “There are likely to be snakes, assuming the stonework doesn’t crumble like sugar.”

“I’ll just have to be careful.”

“What’s this ‘I’ business?”

The stairs were still passable and they made it down into the cellar without encountering any snakes. Stone pillars still stood in the center of the main chamber, which had once held up a floor. Empty doorways led off in two directions.

“What are you looking for, Alec?”

Alec glanced around at the shattered stone and shadows. “Some sign of Sedge and the others, I guess.”

They each took a doorway and Alec found himself in a large room lined with what had probably been cells, though the bars had rusted away to nothing. Inside the first few he found bones and a few skulls, protected from the elements and animals, except perhaps for the ancestors of the ravens perched far above them. Here and there he found names or words scratched into the stone, poignant evidence of desperation. Moving from cell to cell, Alec looked for any relic that might give him a clue about who the prisoners had been. In the last cell there were a few more scattered bones. He was turning to go when he saw something scratched into the wall near the cell door that nearly stopped his heart.

Sedge son of Por of Wyvern Dug
Sakor help us

Captain Sedge had been on his way home to finally reunite with his wife and children. Born in the distant territories, he’d gone a thousand years in the past to die, after all he’d been through.

Alec’s eyes stung as he whispered a prayer for the man’s soul, hoping Astellus had led him safely to Bilairy’s gate. He
shrugged out of his coat and pulled his shirt over his head to bundle the bones together. He found Seregil in the central chamber, peering at something on the ground.

“I found Sedge’s name scratched on a cell wall, and his bones,” Alec called as he set his bundle carefully on the ground. “These should go to his family.”

“Astellus carry him softly, poor fellow,” Seregil murmured as he joined him. Then, to Alec’s surprise, Seregil slipped a hand around the back of Alec’s neck and rested his forehead against Alec’s for a moment.

“I was never down here,” Alec whispered.

“No, but you could have been.”

They climbed the stairs and found Micum Cavish glaring down at them from his horse. “And just where in Bilairy’s name have you two been?” he demanded. “As if Klia doesn’t have enough to worry about!”

“Just tying up some loose ends,” Seregil told him as he mounted his horse.

“And getting filthy in the process. What did you find down there?”

Alec mounted one-handed and showed Micum the long bundle he carried. “We found Captain Sedge.”

Micum’s anger evaporated. “The poor fellow. After all he went through.”

“How is Thero?” Seregil asked as they set off.

“Alive. Klia and Kordira are with him.” He stroked his moustache. “By the Four, we came close to losing him.”

“We came close to losing all of us,” said Seregil and kicked his horse into a gallop.

Dorin met them in the great hall at Mirror Moon.

“How is Lord Thero?” asked Alec.

“Doctor Kordira is tending to him, my lord.”

Vhadä came clattering halfway down the stairs. “There you are! Lord Thero is awake. Come on!”

Alec hesitated, knowing he stank of sweat, dust, and sex, but Seregil grabbed his elbow and hurried him upstairs to Thero’s chamber.

Klia sat beside Thero on the large bed, holding his hand,
and Mika stood on the other side of the bed, elbows on the mattress. Kordira was leaning over the wizard, helping him drink from a cup.

“He’s awake,” Mika whispered.

“So we heard,” Alec whispered back and went with Micum and Seregil to stand at the foot of the bed.

Kordira straightened up, and Alec saw Thero’s face. The wizard was propped up on pillows, looking pale and exhausted. “Alec?” he rasped, opening his eyes. Still pale green, they were cloudy white where the pupil should have been; Thero was blind.

Seregil went to the bed beside Mika and covered Thero’s hand with his own. “Thero, I’m so—”

“Don’t!”

“What happened?” Alec murmured to Micum.

But it was Klia who answered. There was nothing accusing in her voice or expression as she looked up at them, but Alec heard her deep sorrow. “He was shielding Seregil when it happened. Rhazat—”

“Was going to kill Seregil, and I stopped her,” Thero snapped. “Any of you would have done the same for me. It’s not your fault, Seregil, and I don’t want anyone’s pity!”

Rather than pulling his hand away, however, he turned it to clasp Seregil’s. Blind he might be, but Alec could tell from the twitch in the wizard’s wan cheek that he felt the hot tear that fell from Seregil’s eye to spatter on the back of his hand. Alec felt like crying, too.

“I don’t want your guilt, either, Seregil,” Thero said, giving his hand a sharp shake.

“I owe you my life.”

“I have my own, thank you,” Thero replied crisply. “Who else is here besides you and Alec. Micum?”

“I’m here,” said Micum.

“Good. So we all came through alive?”

“Except for Rhazat,” Mika said. “Seregil and Alec chopped her to pieces and I sealed her head and hands in the boxes you brought. We buried the rest.”

“Well done.”

“Mika left out that he saved my life, Thero,” said Alec.
“He single-handedly destroyed a dra’gorgos that was about to kill me.”

“But I had to use the red,” Mika said in a small voice.

Thero let go of Seregil’s hand and placed his own on Mika’s head. “I am very,
very
proud of you.” Then, in a strained voice, “If the rest of you don’t mind, I’d like to be alone with Klia and Mika now. And Alec? Get Seregil down to the baths. You both reek.”

Kordira placed the cup in Thero’s hand. “Drink as much of this as you can.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

She patted Thero’s shoulder and followed Alec and the others out into the corridor, where Vhadä was waiting.

“Fetch clean clothes for me and Alec and take them down to the bathhouse, please,” Seregil said to the boy. Vhadä hurried off to their room.

When he was gone, Seregil turned to Kordira and asked softly, “Is the blindness permanent?”

“Yes, I’m afraid it is. And if you are as good a friend to him as I believe you are, you will honor his request and never burden him with any guilt or pity. You might as well feed him poison.”

Seregil nodded, and Alec followed him downstairs, leaving Micum with the doctor.

Seregil said nothing as they went down the covered walkway to the bath chamber. In silence he stripped off his filthy clothes and settled into one of the two steaming tubs that had been drawn for them. Respecting his silence, Alec undressed and sat down in the other, but kept one eye on Seregil as they washed.

Seregil surfaced from rinsing his hair and lay back against the end of the tub staring up at the painted ceiling. If there were tears on his cheeks, they were lost among the water droplets.

T
HERE
was no reason to hurry back to Rhíminee. Klia returned to Deep Harbor with Thero and Mika to carry out her duties as governor and sent a full report to Queen Elani by fast ship, with a request to return to Skala to bear her child. A week later she received a reply, granting her request but instructing her to remain there until the queen’s arrival in a few months’ time.