Bound (16 page)

She smiled and shook her head. "My mother was, from what I remember, but she died when I was four. I don't remember what happened, but I do remember trying to understand where she had gone. They explained to me about the Veil of Airs, but it didn't make a lot of sense at the time. I miss her quite often."

He nodded solemnly, then turned as a voice called from behind them. "There you two are. We have to go back to the house. There's news, but Eliar won't explain it until we're all there."

Fay turned and saw Lydia standing at the gap in the hedges. Tavis asked her, "How did you find us, Mother? We hadn't even planned on coming here."

"Blood. Because your blood and mine are connected, it allows me to find you more easily than others. Blood allows for amazing and deep connections when coupled with magic. Other feats as well sometimes," she said. Fay noticed that Lydia was staring at her as she said it, which confused her.

"We still have to get your boots, Tavis," Fay reminded him.

He looked up to the sky and then back at her. "I think that it's been at least the two hours he asked for, don't you?"

Fay nodded, and Lydia suggested that they pick them up on the way back to the manor. Fay and Tavis agreed at once and they all left the Gardensia, Lydia still glancing at her as they went.

Chapter 10

Lydia's presence made their return to the Quarter of Airs easier than anticipated. Fay thought it helped that, with the addition of his new boots, Tavis actually looked like he belonged now. Lydia had brought a carriage for them and the return to the manor took no time at all. They went to the sitting room again, finding Eliar and Ki there in a conversation they abruptly ended when Lydia, Tavis and Fay entered the room. The two men looked at Tavis' new clothes and both nodded.

"Excellent work, Fay. Much more appropriate. That was faster than I was expecting. They really suit him," Eliar said.

Fay smiled. "We were lucky that Soval had some items ready that were almost the right fit. With some quick needlework, it turned out well. He's going to deliver the rest here when it's done."

"Good. Now, everyone sit down. There is much to discuss."

Ki rose and summoned a servant with a bell pull by the door, ordering tea and a light lunch for them all. He returned to his seat, and said, "It's time for us to talk plainly about Calder Derrion."

Fay cringed at her father's name as everyone looked at her. Fighting to keep her face smooth, she looked back at them. After a moment, Lydia began to speak. "Your father has never had the position at court that he felt was his due, as you well know. He was vocal and bitter about it from the moment he took over your family's affairs, years before you were born. But for a long time it was never more than a lofty opinion of himself and petty scheming. Most ignored it. Then your mother died. I didn't know him that well, Faylanna, but it was clear to many that Pella's death altered Calder, in ways I have difficulty making sense of. It was subtle at first, just a knowing smile that never seemed to leave his face, even when those of higher standing put him in his rightful place. It was as if he were waiting for something to fall into place, or so I've been told. I only saw him once myself during that time, and it was a truly odd, if brief experience. The more I've thought of it since, the more I've become convinced that something greater than we know is going on with him. It was in Fioselto, of all places, around the time you began at the academy here in Rianza. I don't think he knew anyone was watching him, and I may have seen something he was keeping from everyone. He looked so lost and miserable, walking down the road alone. He was shaking his head as he went, and his expression was haunted and exhausted from the glimpse I had of his face before he turned down another street. I neither heard of nor saw him for a number of years, until one day, we crossed paths again outside the Baron's palace in Bershan. This was perhaps six years ago or so. He didn't see me then either and I almost didn't recognize him. After making some discreet inquiries, I found out he had managed to secure for himself an incredible position within Baron Gelvard's inner circle, functioning as the liaison between the Baron's bureaucrats and those of the Empire. I say incredible because, so far as I know, that position is always held by a member of their own House. It did, however, allow him to spend almost as much time in Rianza as in Bershan."

Fay nodded sourly. "Yes, I remember. That was when he started shoving me in front of every Magicia among the Imperial Court he could find, and some who weren't Magicia as well."

"I've heard about him doing that, yes," Lydia looked troubled for a moment before continuing. "I realized something had changed about him after observing for a while. Calder had never been a strong Magicia, even after pairing with your mother, and never good with people. But when I saw him in Bershan, he was a different man entirely. He was able to sway people, to make them listen to his words and agree. Worse, he was able to do things that should have been impossible with the magical talents he had always possessed. I think that's what caught him too much attention, really, and from parties beyond myself. It was obvious that something was going on."

"And there isn't much I'd put past him," Eliar added in a grumble.

Lydia glared at her grandfather for the interruption before turning back to Fay and continuing. "When we looked into it, we found out that he had made an arrangement of some kind, though we haven't been able to find out who with. We are quite sure it involves you somehow. He was given abilities he had never possessed before, allowing him work more successfully toward his own goals, and in return, we feared what he had pledged you to. That was why you were transferred to Voleno, as Ganson told you, in hopes that you could be protected from whatever he has set in motion."

"Hold on," Tavis said, frowning. "Mother, you told me you had come to Rianza only two years ago, and I know that it's been four years since Fay was transferred to Voleno."

Lydia looked uncomfortable. "That part of it I was told by others, but Calder is why I came to Rianza, to warn... someone about him."

"The situation has grown worse in the last two years," Ki said softly, and Fay wondered why it felt like he was trying to divert the conversation from Tavis' question. "Calder no longer seems content to split his time between Bershan and Rianza. He's been making inquiries into positions within the Imperial Court, and has managed, after many months of effort, to secure a meeting with the Emperor himself on the subject. I fear for what might happen during that meeting, given his new-found powers of persuasion. We still have no idea what he's after, and so any action of Calder's is cause for concern."

Fay stared at him, stunned by the dire pronouncement. "But why? What's he planning?"

It was Eliar who answered her. "We can't be entirely sure as nothing he's done so far seems to move him toward anything specifically, but the hints I am getting are indeed ominous. And recent events make me more concerned still, though I can find no satisfactory way to tie them to Calder. I've been to the archives kept by the Council Magicia this morning, looking into that dark cloud you said took Ganson and Brinds. I wasn't able to find much, because there are very few reports of such a phenomenon, and I'm not sure what to make of the ones I found. How much do you know about the creation of the Veils, Faylanna?"

She stared at him for several moments. She was almost tempted to laugh, if not for the tension in the room. "You must be joking. What could such stories possibly have to do with my father?"

Eliar frowned at her as he stood up and began pacing back and forth across the room. His agitation frightened her for some reason. "Because I am no longer certain, as I was on first hearing your story, that Calder is behind the darkness that appeared in Ganson's study. It may be that he's only connected to it. Everything I could find about it, all of it points to something far older, and much more dangerous than I could ever have believed your father to be. The reports of this... phenomenon stretch back beyond the founding of the Empire, and they are of one voice in speaking of the danger posed by it. The one text I found that dealt with its origins linked it to the creation of the Flame Veil. All of my life, I had considered the tale of the Lords of Life and their creation of the Veils to be a myth, things our ancestors used to make sense of the world before they understood its workings, and now I find myself questioning that assertion. I do not doubt your description, and after seeing a vygazza in the flesh, I have to wonder what is going on."

Eliar sat back down on the couch heavily, as if the admission had drained him somehow. "But on the other hand, I am not one to believe in coincidence. This thing showed up as Brinds claimed he discovered something about Calder's plotting. Nor do I think it incidental that it took Ganson, who has protected you and kept Calder from you in more ways than you know, Faylanna." Eliar's voice was heavy as he spoke and in it, she heard his belief that her mentor and his partner dead, but refused to let her own hope die. "If Calder has made some kind of alliance with the source of this thing, then the situation may be more than we know. And then there's the matter of your dreams. I don't know where that fits in, or why you were dreaming of an event that you had never even heard of before. I need to find out more before we can make any decisions on our path forward. There's something we're missing, I can feel it, and that it's important."

Fay heard the frustration in his voice and saw it reflected in Lydia's face. Ki's eyes were unfocused, lost in thought. It was Tavis' worried expression that held her though. She didn't understand what he was worrying about, but then an idea occurred to her that pushed everything else out of her mind. She considered it thoroughly before speaking, not liking it but seeing no alternative.

"I could talk to him." She heard the reluctance in her own voice, the shake that betrayed her fear and forced herself to sound calm. "My father. He might tell me what's going on. At my graduation, he wanted something of me, I know that much, and it was more than just going home with him. I'm sure of it. He said that I had no idea what I was risking. If I can get him to meet with me, to talk to me, I might be able to find out. I don't think I can talk him out of anything, as he never listens to me, but I could get you the information you need at least." She said all of this in a rush, before anyone could interrupt her.

As soon as she stopped, everyone in the room except Ki erupted into speech. Tavis was the loudest of them all. "Not a chance. By your own admission he's already tried to kidnap you once. If you get anywhere near him, he'll surely try again. It's not safe!"

Lydia had started to speak but Fay saw her stop and stare at Tavis after his outburst. Eliar wasn't listening to either of them, though his words seemed built on Tavis'. "And if taking you is the last thing he needs to complete what he has been working toward? Have you considered that? Of course not, you can't have."

Ki held up a hand from where he sat, his eyes finally focusing and turning on Fay. Everyone else stopped speaking as Ki watched her and she saw in his eyes that he wanted to know if she was certain. She nodded, though she wasn't. When he finally spoke, his tone was reluctant. "I think we should consider the idea carefully, rather than reject it out of hand. She's right, Calder might tell her something, perhaps everything."

Eliar paused and stared at Ki, his expression changing. He looked like he was weighing the option, though unwillingly.

"You can't be serious," Tavis said furiously, rising to his feet. "Think of the danger she'd be in. Her father sounds like the kind of person who would stop at nothing to get what he wants, and I doubt he'd care about sacrificing her. Eliar, why did we bother sneaking her in if you're just going to allow this?"

The old man looked up at his great-grandson. "Tavis, we don't know what he's up to. I'm afraid to say that even the things we think we know, they're mostly based on assumption or supposition at this point. Ki's right, this is an opportunity to find out something more certain. Besides, do you really think we'd let her go alone? Really, boy."

Fay's eyes widened in alarm at this. "You have to. If he thinks that anyone else is there, he might not tell me anything. And if he's found out that you're acting against him, who knows how he'd react to seeing you there with me. It might force him to try to take me after all."

Still watching Tavis as he shook his head in disbelief, Lydia said, "Faylanna's right. Grandfather, Calder knows that you're involved in trying to keep him away from her. Don't you think he'd be suspicious if she turned up to the meeting with you? The same goes for myself and Ki. No, if she goes, I think we would have to let her go alone. That worries me."

The discussion went around several times over the next few hours. Tavis left angrily when it became clear that none of them were going to expressly forbid her from going. They continued the argument over dinner, though Tavis was absent still. Fay was mostly listening by that time rather than arguing, having made her points. When they started to repeat themselves after a while, she decided she'd had enough and excused herself for bed. She was aware of Lydia watching her as she left.

When she closed the door of her room behind her, she brushed her hair again, not getting ready for bed at all but unwilling to admit to herself what she was really doing. She expected Tavis to come to her, that he would try to talk her out of meeting with her father. She wasn't planning on letting him dissuade her, any more than she would let the others stop her, but it surprised her how much she wanted him to try, just so she could see him again. In an effort to distract herself from the image of Tavis in his new clothes, she considered what Eliar had said about the dark cloud. The idea that it was linked to the Flame Veil, beyond which the worst souls were supposed to be trapped in torment after their death, chilled her.

She fingered the pendant through her tunic for a moment before pulling it out and holding it in her palm. It still didn't look dangerous to her, but Ganson had taught her that perilous magical objects often looked innocent to unwary eyes. She ran a finger along first the white enamel ribbon, then the iron ring, and finally the obsidian ribbon. She felt nothing unusual about it and shifted her vision to look deeper. There were no spells about it that she could see. A faint glow lingered on it, but she suspected that was from her own hand running over it, being the same color as the trace she left. The thought crossed her mind that she should tell them the pendant was in her possession, but she dismissed it at once. There was no proof that it was anything more than pretty jewelry and besides, it was hers. Now that she wore it, she understood that this was why it had always called to her, because it belonged with her. A small voice reminded her that it had been sealed in a bell jar for years, but she pushed that aside. Perhaps whatever had made it dangerous had dissipated over the years since the professor had put it in there, she thought.