Divided (50 page)

A choked breath escaped those pale lips, and Taeru could
feel his heart knotting a million ways.  Why wasn’t Calis saying anything?  Why
was he just staring at Taeru with those eyes that seemed so unsure whether they
were green or blue, though they couldn’t exist in harmony on this sun either. 
Silence.  And then, Calis spoke with a voice so filled with agony that Taeru
had to step back.  “Nothing?” he snarled.  “You think you’re nothing?”  When
Taeru backed up, Calis stepped forward.  “You think this was just some game? 
You think I was just playing around with you to express myself?  Maybe you
were, Kilik, but I wasn’t.  Every time I touched you, I caught fire—I came
alive in a way that I never had before.  I still am.  Even being with you now,
wanting to throttle you for your stupidity, I feel everything.  I never felt
anything and now I can’t stop feeling!”

All at once, Taeru’s lips started to quiver, and he could
feel the tears that he’d expected from the start.  Calis had promised to make
this easy for him, and yet Calis had just been the one to introduce him kindly
to all the pain that he’d been hiding.  “I know!” he gasped.  “I know that!  I
know that.  I know.  You think… I felt like I’d been walking around wrapped in
some cocoon, because any time I removed it, I was assaulted with all kinds of
pain—and when you were around, it was gone.  It was gone, and I felt like I… I
felt like I could be somewhere, somewhere safe.  I know that!  But, none of
that matters—we cannot be together.  There are so many reasons.  It’s just
not
going to work!  The entire world wants to make sure that we can’t be together,
and I don’t know about you… but I’m not sure I know how to fight the world.  We
are who we are, Calis, and nothing is going to change that!”

The prince seemed to be relaxing, or at least, he was
regarding Taeru with a very serious expression.  In fact, he looked as though
he wanted to protect Taeru again. 
Well, you can’t, Calis.  You can’t
protect me from you.

Tears were fighting desperately at Taeru’s eyes, and he
wasn’t going to let them fall in front of Calis.  He wouldn’t.  “Says the man
who dresses up as some unnamed hero to try and unite Dark District.  You’ll
fight for everyone else, but you aren’t going to fight for me?” Calis asked. 

He was genuinely curious—that was what nearly threw Taeru
over the edge.  Taeru’s jaw clenched, and he fought harder than he ever had
against those tears.  “You are engaged!  You’re getting married!  You brought
me out here to end this.  Just let it end!”

“No,” Calis said simply.  “I didn’t bring you out here to
end it.  I brought you out here so I could tell you this and make sure that you
didn’t run away from me—make sure that you didn’t gather up all your emotions
and run before I could tell you that I don’t care, that the engagement is
worthless to me.  I will not marry her.  I will run away from Telandus before I
do.  I’d grab you and steal you away now if I didn’t know that… something…
somehow… is rooting you to Telandus—not me.”

“What?”  Taeru’s entire brain had shut down.  He couldn’t
think straight, and he couldn’t comprehend what Calis had just told him.  All
the words were a jumble, and they could not have been true.  Calis couldn’t
have been so sure of himself that he would be willing to abandon his home to be
with Taeru.  That kind of thing didn’t happen.

Calis took a breath.  “Kilik, nothing in the world could
keep me away from you.  And I would never put you through the pain of watching
me marry, and then being the person that I came to see when I got the chance.”

Why was he saying all the right words?  Why did Taeru’s
heart feel elated and terrified at the same time?  No.  No, this couldn’t be
happening.  He couldn’t fall in love—he couldn’t stand in front of the crown
prince of Telandus and fall in love with him because everything he said was
everything Taeru needed.  It couldn’t happen—but it was. 

It already had.

Unable to stop them anymore, his tears fell, because
everything that he’d ever fought against had just overpowered him—and that
included his bloody tears—he collapsed to his knees, forcing himself into
silence as tears streamed down his face.  Of course, Calis with his
overprotective self was there in an instant, bringing Taeru to his chest,
murmuring words that Taeru didn’t want to hear—or rather, did want to hear but
shouldn’t.  “I know you’re afraid of me,” Calis whispered.  “I know you think
you have some secret that will make me hate you.  But, nothing—nothing in the
world could change how I feel about you now.”

Taeru shook his head, trying desperately to form words,
though his tears were making it impossible.  He did not want to sound like a blubbering
fool, and so he kept himself in forced silence.  “Stop, please…” Taeru finally
made himself beg.  “Stop.”

Calis’s arms stayed wrapped around him, stroking his back
and hair as though he were a child that needed comfort.  He felt like one, at
the moment.  “Kilik,” Calis whispered gently.  “Let me help you.  Let me help
you do whatever you are here to do.  Then, we can leave.  We can leave
Telandus—and I will be with you, without all your feelings of guilt.”  Calis
really did seem to be able to read Taeru’s thoughts, though not enough to know
his secret.

And yet, Calis had figured it out before Taeru had.  He had
known not to ask, because he had known the answer that Taeru would give.  Taeru
was in Telandus for a reason, and he needed to find out what that reason was. 
A reason, he was sure, that had everything to do with the voice in his head—and
that black monstrosity sitting just beyond the trees in the distance.  But,
Taeru could not ask Calis for help with that.  “I-I don’t understand.  I’m
irrelevant, Calis.  Why do you think you have to wait for me, specifically? 
I’m just a commoner.”

“Stop saying that!” Calis snapped, and some of the
gentleness disappeared from his voice.  He grabbed Taeru by the shoulders and
pulled him to arms’ length so that their eyes were locked onto one another’s. 
“Never say that you’re nothing again.  You are everything to me.  I don’t care
if you’re a commoner or spawn of the Magisters themselves.  Your position means
nothing—your past means nothing.  You, though, mean everything.”

The words he said were bizarre, they had such a compounding
effect on Taeru.  He felt drawn to them, wanting desperately to believe them,
but then they seemed to be so precisely what Taeru wanted that he didn’t know
if this could be real.  They sat, staring at one another, in silence.  Taeru’s
lips were still quivering, but he’d forced most of the tears from his eyes. 
“Calis…” he begged.  And he realized he was very glad that they’d left Telandus
for this.  “Calis, I…”

In a measure, Calis brought Taeru to him, with those
affectionate, unfaltering eyes.  Then, Calis’s gentle hand was on Taeru’s
cheek, and the blond pulled Taeru just close enough so that their lips brushed
up against one another.  As Taeru closed his eyes, a few more tears made their
way down his cheeks.  The kiss was so soft, so infinitely devoted, that Taeru’s
body fell limp, and Calis’s arm was there to support him. 

The crown prince of Telandus—someone that Taeru had thought
to be a monster, and the brother of whom had beaten Taeru for sport—seemed so
irrevocably dedicated to him.  The thought was sobering, to say the least. 
Calis seemed willing to risk everything for Taeru, and for some reason, Taeru
found himself confident that Calis would.  Was he being foolish for an overly
handsome, urbane prince—or was this prince actually falling for him?

Moving his finger gingerly along Taeru’s cheek, Calis’s lips
found the side of Taeru’s mouth, working their way down to his jaw again. 
Taeru trembled at the familiar feeling.  After all, he’d been working for some
time to disguise the bruises, the marks of passion that had informed him,
without a doubt, that the moon in the meadow had actually happened.

Calis worked his way down to Taeru’s neck, and the blond’s
fingers caressed the parts of Taeru’s skin that seemed the most sensitive. 
They seemed to know precisely where to go to cause Taeru to lose control of his
own body.  Letting out a momentary breath, Taeru tilted his head back to allow
Calis better access to his neck.  Calis took it, without question, and his lips
moved over the skin with immeasurable prowess until the prince’s lips returned
to Taeru’s own. 

When Calis released him, Taeru found himself gasping for
air.  He was so completely compliant with Calis’s body in those moments that he
was always surprised to find that he’d lost himself in a sea of pleasure.  He
flushed and jerked to face the meadow, pressing his lips together firmly.  “I
shouldn’t believe you.  You’re a prince.  I really shouldn’t believe that you’d
go to all this trouble to stay with a commoner.  And I will not involve you in
whatever it is I’m trying to do in Telandus.”  Taeru was glad to hear the
authority return to his voice.

Calis laughed, though, and Taeru squirmed a little.  “I
figured you’d say as much.  But, you won’t be able to keep me from helping
you.”

Taeru would certainly try, though.  If Calis was honestly as
caring as he seemed, then Taeru would not take advantage of that fact.  He
would fix whatever he had done wrong by himself.  That black atrocity would not
harm Telandus or Cathalar.  “We need to get back,” Taeru said.  He wasn’t
facing Calis, and he couldn’t see the young man’s expressions.  So, instead, he
focused on the sparkling water of the oasis.

Truth be told, he didn’t want to go back.  This was not at
all how he’d expected this outing to the oasis would go.  “It’s fantastic,
holding you like that.  You seem so at ease, so relaxed, which is a contrast to
who you are… but, it scares me, Kilik.  You’re so submissive.”

Once again, and this time with much more intensity, Kilik’s
face heated desperately.  This was not a conversation that he’d intended to
have with anyone but himself.  “You’re controlling,” Taeru answered simply. 
And that, Calis was. 

“I know I am,” Calis said.  “I told you I liked feeling like
you’re so sated, but only when it’s me.  I—you’re the same way, though…
mentally… with the people of Dark District.  You let them do whatever they want
with you.”

Taeru actually laughed.  Calis was worried about him, but
then, Taeru could probably be accused of taking control of every situation
except the ones that involved his being manipulated.  Calis really did seem to
know him.  “Afraid I might react the same way to pain as to pleasure, Calis?”
he asked.

Taeru didn’t have to turn, and he didn’t, to know that Calis
had stiffened.  Calis had tensed in a very anguished way.  Taeru would have to
work on his own words, as while Calis seemed to know precisely the perfect
words to Taeru, Taeru was constantly upsetting Calis.  “Don’t say that,” Calis
said, and his voice trembled.

A sigh escaped his mouth, and Taeru considered turning
around to face Calis, but he didn’t.  Staring at the water allowed him to
handle the situation a little better than if he’d seen the strangled agony on
Calis’s face.  “Apologies, your highness.  But, you may be right.  Maybe I am
less inclined to step forward and prevent myself from being injured—but now,
with you… knowing you might be hurt in the process… I will… work on it.”  Taeru
knew he would have to work hard at it, too.

Just as the silence became too much, when Taeru thought that
he’d have to turn around—for fear that Calis had just left him standing there,
two very firm arms wrapped about Taeru’s waist.  His entire body heated at the
touch, and Taeru thought he may have been better served to face Calis
directly.  “Kilik,” the prince whispered.

Suddenly, the warmth of Calis’s lips spread across the
juncture of Taeru’s shoulder and neck.  The feeling made him quiver with
desire.  Calis’s arms around him were so protective, as though nothing in the
world could have touched him—not even that voice.  Then, Calis pulled Taeru’s
body back a little so that their bodies touched at every bend.  “I feel sorry
for Miss Avyon,” Taeru said warily.  “I would imagine she very much wants
you.”  That much was true—Taeru was confident that anyone engaged to Calis
would have been lucky to get this attention.

He also knew that Calis would never have given it.  That was
something for which he could sympathize with the woman.  “Kilik,” Calis just
repeated the name, and Taeru closed his eyes against it.  “I love you.”

The words froze time—they froze the water, and the wind, and
everything that surrounded them so that the only two things in existence were
their bodies perfectly aligned with one another.  All that mattered was the way
they fit together so seamlessly that their existence felt singular rather than
plural.  Then, Calis’s hand slowly moved so that two of his fingers touched
Taeru’s chin, pushing it to one side of his body.

The moment his head turned properly, Calis pulled their
bodies just the extra breath closer and their lips met at the angle.  Calis’s
were warm, filled with a passion that Taeru could only understand because he
was under the same spell that the prince was. 

But there was a thought still circling at the back of his
mind.  Calis was in love with
Kilik
.  Though, Taeru would have given
everything to hear the prince say his real name with those three words. 

“Princesses are not expected to be heroes, and therein lay
her strength.”

-A Hero’s Peace v.ii

Aela and Leif walked in unison.  They were heading to the
wall through which Leif was sure they could enter the Shining District, and due
to fortunate circumstance, it happened to be very near to the castle of
Telandus.  Aela was giddy with excitement—she had insisted upon coming because,
quite frankly, she needed a way to get her mind off of things.  Leif, however,
was not happy about any of the current developments, and as he had for many
suns—he made Aela aware again.  “What is he doing here?” he said for the tenth
time that sun.  “Of all the places to go, why would he choose Telandus?”

The words in the book whispered in Aela’s ear.  Going to
Telandus without really understanding why—because he thought it was the only
way to keep peace in the land.  She bit down on her lip and banished the
thoughts.  “I’m just glad he’s alive,” she said warily.  She was—oh she was. 
Though, she hadn’t mentioned to Leif just how close Taeru had seemed to
realizing that she was who she was.

“Me too,” Leif agreed.  “But why here?  Why would he come
here where he knows he’s in more danger than anywhere else?  It doesn’t make
sense.”  His words were shaken, just as he had been the sun that Aela had shown
him Taeru.

Aela shook her head.  “We will figure it all out.  For now,
let’s do what we came here to do.”

They still had a little ways to walk, and the streets were
crowded enough where Aela was sure that they weren’t being overheard. 
Nevertheless, she had no desire to have this conversation where she could not
speak openly.  The name Taeru would certainly turn a few heads here.  As they
walked, though, they noticed a bit of a commotion up ahead of them.  “Why do
you people keep coming here?” a woman shouted.  “Don’t you have enough to do in
your stupid Shining Di—”  A strangled cry rang out and worry shot through Aela.

Leif was already running to see what had happened, and after
they shoved their way through a few of the crowded people—they found it.  A
small black-haired girl, glaring across at two nicely dressed men.  Nobles. 
Aela snarled at the sight of them.  They had the small woman pressed back
against the stone.  Then, though, one of the men stepped forward.  “Leave her
alone, you useless bunch of halfwits!”  The man was aged, though not old. 

One of the nobles swung an arm and caught him across the
neck.  The man cried out and staggered into another gentlemen, who helped make
sure he stayed on his feet.  “Do not interrupt us when we are carrying out
important business, you sniveling little rats!”

Aela thought back to what Calis had said about the nobles,
about how Taeru had nearly begged her to stay safe.  So they hadn’t just been
talking.  She took a step forward, but Leif grabbed her arm.  A knife glinted
in the sunlight, and she let out a gasp.  “That’s your dagger,” she hissed. 
“How do you have that?”

Leif just smirked, and he took a few more steps towards the
commotion.  A few of the men had clustered around the woman, and she was
already crying.  All the noblemen were armed, though, and Aela wasn’t sure that
Leif wouldn’t be getting in over his head.  She wished that she’d thought to
pick up a bow from the blacksmith before now.  “Lei—Feil!” she yelped.  “Too
many.”

Though, Leif, being the fool that he was, was not about to
let a little uneven odds stop him.  He stepped forward, twisting the knife in
his hand, and glared at the nobles.  “Can’t get any up in Shining District, eh,
boys?” he asked.

They all turned to Leif, regarding him with little concern. 
Too bad they didn’t know that he could have bested all of them in combat if
they had been on a level playing field.  One of the men tried to dispose of
Leif just as he had the other man, but Leif twisted out of the way and slammed
a knee into his back.  “I’ve seen little girls with faster reaction times than
that!” he scoffed.

One of the others moved away from the woman, glaring at him,
and taking him in thoughtfully.  This one was obviously not as lacking in the
skills department as the other man.  “We could throw you in the dungeons for
assaulting a guard!  You could be hanged, boy.  Do yourself a favor and get
lost.”

A light laugh escaped Leif and he shook his head.  “No, I
don’t think I will.”  The idea of Leif being stuck in the dungeons was
terrifying.  Aela scrambled about, searching for any way that she might be able
to help.

The other man swung his sword with precision, striking
against Leif’s knife with a clank.  Leif’s arm trembled as he worked to keep
the sword at a distance.  He finally managed to pull back, and the sword
slammed into the ground next to him.  The man brought the blade back up,
though, aiming for Leif’s throat.

Leif leapt backwards, into one of the other men, who had
rounded just in time to catch him at his back.  The man slung an elbow forward
and caught the back of Leif’s head.  Letting out a sharp cry, Leif hit his
knees.  Quick to take advantage of the numbers, another of the men grabbed Leif
by the hair, while another brought a blade to his throat.  Agony coursed
through Aela, and she could feel a word bubbling in her throat.  “You really
should have minded your own business, kid!” the noble shouted.

Then, though, someone grabbed the noble with the sword,
pulling him back and impacted his face with a hard elbow.  Leif used the moment
to twist and catch the other man across the cheek with his knife.  As her
relief set in, terror dawned on her in an entirely new way.  The person who had
helped Leif was wearing a mask, a black mask, with a leather suit, black and
brown, and a cape that stopped just at his thighs.  The way he held
himself—there was no denying who he was.

A vigilante.  A disguise so that he could help the peasants
of the kingdom into which he’d stumbled.  No, this could not be happening. 
Using his sword, the masked boy cut through the nobles as though they weren’t
there.  He even put Leif’s skills to shame. 

“You’re still outnumbered, you minnows,” the lead noble
snarled.  His eyes hung on Taeru, though, for an extra moment.  “You can’t hide
forever.” 

They were still outnumbered, but as if on cue, a few of the
other citizens stepped into the fray.  “No, I think you guys are the ones who
are outnumbered!” a man shouted, and this one was considerably younger than the
other man.

A few of the others stepped in with the statement, and
offered their agreement on the issue that Leif and Taeru were not, in fact,
outnumbered.  “I think you’re the ones that ought to run.  We all know you’d
probably lose to the Phantom Blade by himself, let alone with people helping
him!” a younger girl laughed.

“Yeah, try and arrest all of us!” someone else called.  Aela
smiled at the support, and she found herself hating Telandus far less than she
had before.  These people weren’t cruel, they were just frightened—and
apparently Taeru’s appearance had begun to vanquish that fright.  Just as he’d
intended, according to the book.

For his part, though, Taeru looked stunned.  He was looking
around at the people with a note of disbelief in his blue eyes hidden by the
mask.  Aela grinned.  Perhaps he was finally getting a little help.  The
nobles, well aware that the citizens were right, left the area with a few empty
threats.  Everyone was immensely proud of themselves, clapping each other on
the back as the nobles retreated. 

Taeru actually laughed, and then he shook his head.  He
looked preposterously dashing in that black outfit, and she was certain that
his little blond friend would be even more attracted to him now.  The book,
though, the book had been right on every count except for one, now.  Who would
have thought that Taeru would go so far as to put on a disguise and help
people?  Aela had always known that he was prone to helping others, but that
was a new standard, even for him.

He pulled himself, as though he were walking up stairs, onto
one of the rooftops and bowed appreciatively.  “Thank you,” was all he said.  A
few of them said things to him, and a few girls asked him to marry them.  Aela
giggled.  Then, she saw the blue eyes flash, and when she looked to whom they
were looking at—she saw Leif.

They stared at each other for a very long, very slow moment.
Her heart sped up in her chest.  She hadn’t the foggiest idea how Taeru would
react to this.  Leif’s breathing was shallow, and she could see that from
here.  The intensity between them was palpable.  Then, though, Taeru just
offered a smile and a bow and vanished to somewhere that Aela couldn’t hope to
follow.

A few people slapped Leif on the back for his contribution,
and Aela was quite sure, in the couple of cycles that she had been here, that
she had never seen the people in such high spirits.  How lovely, she thought. 
Taeru really was some kind of influence.  As Leif reached her, he took her by
the wrist and led her away from the crowd.

Once they had put enough distance between themselves, and
the rest of the people, Leif let out a breath.  “He knew who I was,” he said,
without question.

“You knew he would.”

“Right, but I didn’t expect he would have put on a mask and
come to the rescue of any bloody commoners who happen to be having a bad sun. 
Your brother is absurd, Ael—ic.  I hope you know that.”  Once again, she
giggled, though if Taeru was a hero—so was Leif. A flush spread over her cheeks
at the thought of Leif in that outfit. 

She took a breath.  She wouldn’t tell Leif about the book,
not yet.  After all, though the odds of a coincidence were slim, she still had
one hope.  Though, there was a suspicion that had formed in her stomach, and
she desperately hoped that it would not be verified.  They continued towards
the wall.  “This is the perfect distraction, regardless.  Those louts will be
too busy blubbering about how unruly the citizens of Dark District are for the
guards to be paying attention to the walls.  They will be far more preoccupied
with the gates,” he said cheerfully. 

They continued walking, and she found her heart beating a
tad too fast as she observed Leif.  He had interfered for a citizen of Dark
District, just as Taeru masqueraded about saving them.  But Taeru she had
always known was dear to her, special in a different way, because he was her
brother, and she loved him.  But Leif—Leif was not her brother, and Aela’s
feelings were getting out of hand.  “You could have been hurt,” she told him.

“Would you have had me stand idly by while that woman was
tormented?” he asked.  “Though, I suppose the Blade Ghost or whatever the
Lightless he was… would have appeared to save the woman without any help from
me.”

She laughed at his butchering of the name, but she still
wished he wasn’t so reckless.  “Just… I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Of course you don’t,” he said emphatically.  “I have so
much to think about now.  I really couldn’t afford to have my throat slit.” 
She winced at the casual way with which he referred to what had nearly happened
to him.  She had watched Leif nearly die far too many times not to respond to
whatever feeling was building in her chest.  “Your brother!  Really!” 

She gestured towards the wall that they now stood before. 
There was a sunken part of the stone that made footholds easier to come by. 
“Regardless, we are here.  Now—let’s get on with it, shall we?”  Her eyes met
his for a moment, and he stared at her without expression.

Leif frowned as he took a breath.  “Are you sure you want to
do this?  I know you’ve climbed before.  Just… this could be dangerous.  I feel
as though I should be protecting you better than I am.  Yet, I find it very
difficult to say no to you.”

The statement made her smile, and she just threw her head to
the side as though she hadn’t heard it.  “I am sure.  I came here with you to
help, not to be a precious stone that needs guarding.  Trust me, Feil.”  She
spoke his fake name with as much emotion as he could. 

“Very well,” he said warily.  “Let’s proceed.”

Aela had no idea why Leif felt the need to be so formal
about it.  She was scared out of her wits, though the level of bravery she was
experiencing had increased with the knowledge that her brother was in Telandus,
and he had been for five years.  Clearly, the patrol in Telandus was lacking at
best.  Leif began climbing first, and she watched the way his arms and legs
moved as though they had climbed the wall many times before.

She frowned, knowing she would lack much of the grace that
he portrayed.  She knew Leif had climbed plenty when they were children, but
being reminded was unnecessary.  After all, she had not climbed all that much,
and she was sure that she would make a fool of herself.  Following him, though,
she pushed the thoughts of humiliation from her mind.  If they remained at the
wall for too long, then someone would be sure to pass by and see them. 

The ascent was easier than she’d expected, and she could
tell that Leif had taken special care to ensure that Aela would be able to
climb the wall that he found as well.  Perhaps he trusted her more than she
thought he did, but then again, he had obviously spent extra time making the
climb easier for her.  She decided she should stop complaining so much and
followed his movements nearly identically. 

Neither of them spoke, as what they were doing would land
them in all sorts of trouble.  They would be sentenced to the dungeon at best,
and hanged at worst.  She tried not to think about it, instead thinking of her
brother in his black, phantom outfit.  How long had he been doing that?  Her
book certainly wasn’t that specific, but she had a feeling that the ordeal was
not new to him.  Taeru really should stop working to make everyone else happy,
lest he be swept up in the effort and forget that he himself needed tending to
as well.  Then again, he had the blond for that—the blond who Aela fervently
hoped was not the fraud that she suspected he might be.