The Coming Storm (60 page)

Elon’s Foresight shimmered. He saw it in his mind’s eye, a dark wave that rushed out of the north and washed through the heartland to drown everything. A tumbling dark wave of borderlands creatures, goblins and trolls, yes, and firbolg, ogres, boggarts and boggins. He could See it himself now. Not mere glimmerings, tantalizing omens but a true Vision. The armies of the kingdoms marched but too late to halt the tide. Treachery. Standards turned in directions they shouldn’t. Aerilann. The wave washed up against the Veil, darkness blotted it out. Green Lothliann as well. His people stood in chains of iron. The caverns of the Dwarves were empty and echoed. In the south, to the east, a Door opened and a dark figure awaited.

The images battered him.

It was enough.

His Foresight was known among his own people. The Dwarves, who understood such things as well, would accept true Vision as proof. Even Avila would have to agree or deny that wizards also had that talent. Now he could say, in truth, what he himself had Seen with his own Vision.

He had only to convince Daran, High King. He pulled away from it, filed it away in his mind to consider later.

Now there was Ailith and she was in pain.

She moved as if she hurt, desperately.

Raising her eyes to Elon’s, Ailith looked into his steady dark gaze.

Say it quickly, she told herself.

“He wanted me to know what a soul-eater felt like and through me, you.”

Now Elon understood. That soul-shattering pain. A shudder shook him. To lay that on her, to know what it would feel like. Tolan had layered pain on pain, knowing that Elon would Heal it, knowing what it would do to Ailith to watch him share it. And Colath as well.

Say it and quickly, before my courage runs out, she’d said and now he knew why. Before she lost the strength and the courage that held that awful pain at bay.

Colath went still at Ailith’s words.

A soul-eater.

Through the empathy all their people shared but particularly through their bond, he knew what he felt was only a small measure of the terrible pain she suffered, a fraction of it. He looked at Elon. Who nodded.

Colath took a breath and braced himself. This was going to hurt a great deal.

“Ailith,” Elon said, “you know what I’ll do.”

She did.

Her eyes. The expression in them pierced him, the bitter sorrow that was mirrored in them and the agony.

She took a breath.

“Do it, Elon, before I can’t bear to watch.”

Reaching out with his magic, he measured the scope and the depth of it, hardened himself against it and then took it in. Even so it cut into his heart and soul like knives. The pain of it was soul-scorching, searing. He felt Colath shudder at the shock of it, felt Ailith wrench as she shared their pain and they shared hers. In her eyes he saw the sorrow and horror of knowing what it did to him, to them. He bent his will to it, held onto it, felt Colath lend his strength, as Ailith reached down into her core to pull up the last dregs of her own will to hold and help. How had she endured even so long? To smile as she had?

He wrapped his will and his Healing around the pain and shunted it aside, drained it away into the cleansing earth.

When it was done, he was shaking and Ailith trembled like a leaf in a strong breeze. Colath had paled and sagged.

Ailith watched him take it, saw that terrible pain appear in his eyes and her heart tore with a pain nearly as great. He saw it, she could see it in his eyes but even this he would do for her. His will, his heart and his spirit were bent to her. Somehow, somewhere, she found it in herself to stand and keep standing for him, and for Colath as well, lending his strength to her and Elon. She could see what it did to Colath, too, sharing this bond with both of them. His eyes met hers and there was strength enough there for both her and Elon. She’d never loved him more. True-friend to both of them.

It ended, mercifully, as Elon drained the last of it away.

The relief was great for all of them. Ailith sagged against their arms, then took a breath and tried to straighten.

“Tomorrow,” Elon started to say and then shook his head.

However much he might wish it, there was no choice. With his own vision, he had enough to convince at least two of the Three. The plan must go on.

How to leave Ailith, though? If Tolan came after her again in dreams.

To leave her alone to face this. He couldn’t.

Jareth would be there, though, and Jalila.

It wasn’t enough.

Elon looked at Ailith. She still trembled but her eyes were clear and sure.

Looking at him, although nothing showed on his face, Ailith could see Elon’s thoughts, his turmoil, in his dark eyes. Feel it through the bond. She knew, knew as he did that there was no choice. No other way.

Lives depended on them. It was their honor and their duty.

“I’ll be fine,” she said and smiled. A little tremulously but she smiled.

“Tonight, he had the advantage of my exhaustion. If this happens again I’ll learn as much as I dare and escape as quickly as I can. If it goes as tonight has then you’ll likely know, though I could wish you wouldn’t.”

So far away. It was bitter. Elon loathed it, knowing he would be so far away if she had to face this again. There was nothing to be done for it, though, no matter how much he disliked it.

He exchanged a glance with Colath.

Colath didn’t like it much either but he could see no other way, any more than Elon.

She saw it.

“Jareth and Jalila will be with me. I won’t be alone. And there is this.”

The bond between them shivered with warmth and courage.

Elon did something then that he’d rarely done, even with one of his own. He put his arms around her and held her close. She was so small. The top of her head barely brushed his chin. 

Wrapping her arms around him, Ailith leaned into his strength, felt the warmth of him. He hadn’t taken the trouble to throw on a shirt, so her cheek rested against the smooth skin of his chest.

She reached for Colath.

Taking and giving comfort.

Colath took her hand, held it tightly for a moment.

A few moments, that was all. They were all exhausted. Elon was reluctant to let her go but he knew he must. They had to rest. There was an equal reluctance on her part, he could sense it but she smiled a little.

“Rest,” Elon said. “We’ll be there.”

He pointed to the chairs.

“Colath, we’ll ward her. For the rest of the night at least, we can assure she gets undisturbed sleep.”

It took energy to set wards but he and Colath had it to spare and Ailith didn’t. If Tolan invaded her dreams again tonight, she wouldn’t have the strength to fight him. It was a simple matter to set wards, a thing of the mind, a small drain of energy.

He felt Colath’s wards layer over his own as Ailith’s eyes closed despite herself and total exhaustion claimed her.

It wouldn’t be an easy night’s rest but they had more good sleep than she.

He felt Colath’s eyes on him.

“You Saw,” Colath said.

“I did. My own Sight. Our people will accept that as will the Dwarves, now it remains only to convince Daran, High King. He has no great love of magic, though he accepts his own court wizard well enough and the wards that were laid on that place. Avila, with her plots and schemes doesn’t help the wizards cause whether she knows it or not but even she’ll have to accept this.”

Colath looked over at the sleeping figure on the bed. “It will be hard to leave.”

Following Colath’s gaze, Elon nodded. He didn’t want to think of it.

It would.

It hurt now but there was no choice for it.

Laying his head back against the chair, he considered what he’d Seen.

Deliberately, he called up the vision again and looked at it more carefully.

A great black tide washed from the north, building, gathering power behind the snow to stain it red and then it crested to wash down through the green valleys. He pushed away the visions of Aerilann and Lothliann, the dying and the chains and the empty Dwarven caverns. He watched the armies, marching too late to stem the wave. The standards, the ones that turned. He couldn’t see them clearly. Either that was still in question or it wasn’t certain.

Looking over, he saw Colath was asleep. His own eyes were heavy.

Ailith slept peacefully, her chestnut hair glinted gold and red in the firelight where it tumbled across the pillows. Her clear, direct eyes were closed. The terrible pain had been erased from the fine features of her face. Those firm lips were no longer tight but soft in sleep.

So much resolution in her. Revelations as well.

He remembered the way she had looked in Westin’s hall, every inch the Queen she might one day be. She’d said she could rule and he hadn’t doubted it but now he’d seen it with his own eyes. She’d said she could lead and she’d proven herself there as well, summoning the garrison, commanding the Hunters and Woodsmen who’d come. All he’d spoken to hadn’t questioned her authority, or her ability. Catra had been both impressed and amused by how she’d thwarted her commander.

In the battles she’d fought both here and in her dreams, she didn’t stop, nor did she quit, nor had the thought even entered her mind that he could tell. She was resourceful and quick. It pained him to leave her.

If the armies were to move in time, if the vision of his Foresight was to be made false, then they must.

In the morning, he took Jareth aside. He could do this much for Ailith.

“Ailith still dreams true,” he said.

Jareth looked at him, concerned, cautious and worried. “What happened?”

As always, Elon’s face showed little but his eyes said much. It had been bad, very bad.

“I Saw it myself, the battle that comes. It will make this,” Elon said, waving his hand toward the shattered town beyond the gate, “look as nothing. I saw the Dark one she spoke of before, the one in the south. He’s Lord over Tolan and he waits for his victory. We haven’t  much time.”

There was more. Jareth waited.

“Tolan isn’t well pleased and he took his displeasure out on Ailith.”

Elon paused and Jareth saw a deep and furious anger in his eyes.

He didn’t envy Tolan if Elon ever got his hands on him.

Anger darkened Elon’s vision. He understood now how difficult it was for Ailith to say the words, for he didn’t want to say them himself and reveal the depth to which she’d been violated. Jareth had to know, though, to be prepared.

“He showed her what it would be like to put a soul-eater on her.”

Jareth couldn’t imagine it but the mere idea horrified him. He swore softly.

His mouth tightening, a rare display of emotion, Elon said, “I loathe this. If it were not that he inadvertently reveals so much to her when he does it, I would ward her every night against it. I dare not. We need the information and she’s determined to bear it and does. Too many lives depend on what she learns, dreaming true. You need to be prepared, though, if she can’t break free of the dream, to ward her.”

There was a moment.

“Watch her for me, Jareth.”

This wasn’t the First and Councilor talking, it was a personal request.

Jareth hid his surprise but answered. “I will, Elon.”

As much for himself as Elon. He liked Ailith, too.

They went to join the others in the courtyard. Outside the walls, the Elves, Hunters and Woodsmen awaited. The garrison, too, the soldiers formed up in neat rows.

All waited for Ailith to lead them through the Rift.

None of those from the other side had ever needed to pass through that maze to this side.

Elon looked at her. The rest had done her well, her eyes were clear and her color had returned once more. She returned his look with warmth and that wry smile that was so uniquely hers. Colath had Faer’s reins in hand and led him up. It was time. At the end of the Rift they would part, he and Colath to turn south, Ailith, Jareth and Jalila arcing northward.