When Vasi entered the antechamber, she found the three torinas and Jex waiting anxiously. Torina Sarene was clinging to the mage’s arm and she looked pale. Little Kylan leaned against his side and he had one hand resting atop her tousled hair. It was clear she’d been crying.
The small party made the room feel overcrowded and even more stifling than before. Her apprentice was nowhere in sight, however, and Eryk was also absent. Another twist of nervous fear gripped her heart.
“Is she alright?” Kylan whispered, “Is Mama alright?”
“Oh yes, my dear, and you have a new baby brother.”
“He lives, then?” Sarene demanded, a little sharply.
“Yes, of course. You may go in and see them, if you wish.”
Kylan and Anya immediately rushed to the door, but Sarene moved more slowly. Vasi’s frown deepened as she watched her. If she didn’t know better, she would think the expression on the young woman’s face was one of indignation. She shook her head, dismissing the idea as ludicrous. What reason would the torina possibly have for being angry on such a happy occasion? Vasi decided she must be more weary than she’d thought.
* * *
Eryk put his head into the dark chamber and glanced about. He’d followed Enari to this room after she’d fled the birthing chamber, but it seemed now that she had vanished into thin air. Then he heard a quiet rustle from the thick draperies over the window and smiled.
Stepping inside, he closed the door softly and made his way to the far wall, twitching the curtain aside an inch or two. He found Enari seated in the deep sill, knees drawn up, chin resting upon them as she stared out into the night. From this angle, he could see her face only in profile, but the diamond track of tears reflected the faint light from beyond the glass.
“This was one of my favorite places to hide when I was a boy. May I join you?”
Without turning her gaze, she inclined her head in assent. Letting the drapes fall closed behind him, Eryk folded himself into the opposite corner of the wide ledge.
Gazing out at the moving torches of sentries on the battlements, he spoke softly, “I saw what you did, Enari.”
That startled her and she jerked her head up to look at him, but just as quickly turned away again.
Eryk continued to stare at the night. “He was dead, wasn’t he? And you called his soul back to his body.”
After a brief hesitation, she nodded once, a short, jerky motion.
“Powerful magic,” he ventured, watching her from the corner of his eye.
She shrugged, still not looking at him.
“I have never in all my years met a mage who could do that.”
A puzzled frown creased the skin between her brows and he continued, “Oh, I’ve met many who could sever a soul from the body and in a myriad of interesting and messy ways, but never one who could heal the break and return life.” He stared hard at her, his gaze direct now. “Where did you learn such a thing?”
Silence.
“Did Vasi teach you to do that?”
A single head shake; no.
“Then who, Enari? This is important.”
The pause stretched so long that Eryk didn’t think she would respond but at last she turned and faced him fully.
Torchlight reflected eerily in eyes that were no longer gold, but the blue of summer lightning. Every trace of their previous color had utterly vanished.
“The Goddess showed me,” she said simply.
Eryk sucked in a startled breath, letting it go on an involuntary Hendai curse. What in the name of the Five had happened in that room? His mind reeled and he couldn’t decide what shocked him more, that she had just spoken aloud or that the eyes studying him so calmly were not those he had grown used to over the past months. He finally chose to address the first.
“You speak, then?”
Enari snorted and shrugged, a touch of contempt in the gesture.
“Scoff if you like, but it’s a shock to anyone who’s known you, however briefly. Vasi says you’ve never spoken. Why?”
“I…” she tilted her head to consider, “there was no need.”
“But why tonight, of all nights?” he persisted. He could think of a hundred other times this would have been of great help.
Her gaze was direct. “You were there and you said you saw. Must you ask?”
“I suppose not, but do you know how dangerous this power of yours is?”
“I don’t even know what it is, High Mage.”
“White Mother preserve us,” he thought, “I’ll need to do a little research to be absolutely certain, but I feel confident in saying that it’s life-magic.”
She looked at him blankly.
Eryk sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. “Do they teach you nothing at the Temple?…Diu. Do you know the history of the last Great War?”
“A little. It was a very long time ago. The Temple was not involved.”
“Alright,” he crossed his legs and settled into a more comfortable position. “Would you like to hear a story, or are you too old?”
“Vasi tells excellent stories.”
“Indeed she does. You’re right about the last Great War occurring a long time ago. A very long time—almost two millennia, according to the histories in the Tower library. These are the histories that survived the fire set accidentally by a novice pyromancer many centuries ago, mind you, and not all the histories we ever had. A great many have been lost in one way or another and—”
“You do not tell excellent stories, High Mage.”
Eryk threw up his hands. “I’m out of practice! Jex grew out of storytelling years ago and I’ve had no one else to tell them to since then. I apologize for offending your sense of procedure, my lady.”
Enari giggled a little and the sound deflated his ire instantly. He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Do I have your permission to continue?”
Enari nodded, eyes sparkling.
“As I was saying, the Great War occurred more than two thousand years ago, before Egalion was a united kingdom. And it was fought because of life-magic.” His tone had turned serious. “Long ago, there were many mages who possessed life-magic, to one extent or another. It’s a power of beauty and healing when used in the way you used it tonight, Enari, but there were a handful who, above all else, desired dominion over others. They began to experiment, calling souls from Dusan’s realms into vacant bodies. The souls were called into any body they had on hand, those recently dead or those buried for a century, it didn’t matter to them. And it was not always the spirits of humans they brought forth, either, but beasts and demons as well. They used their power to raise armies of the dead and went to war with each other and many of their neighbors. This was the practice of necromancy, and not the intended purpose of life-magic. Do you understand the difference?”
She shook her head, a look of mild concern on her face.
“Necromancy is black magic. It is the summoning and binding of spirits who have passed beyond the Gates and into the God-Consort Dusan’s realms, whether Andehai or Diu.”
“How is that different from what I’ve done?” Enari whispered.
“Oh, child, it is very different. A necromancer is one who robs Dusan of those already judged. What you did tonight was to knit together the broken strands of a soul and the body to which it rightly belongs, before it was beyond the Gates. Life-magic is intended as a form of healing, a white magic. The spirits called by a necromancer are trapped into dead flesh, any available dead flesh, but not for the purpose of restoring functionality or actual life. They come back as shambling thralls, enslaved to the mage who summoned them forth, and it’s the reason we burn our dead instead of burying them as they do in other lands.”
He was a little relieved to see the look of revulsion that crossed her face.
“The All-Mother gave life-magic to mortal mages as a gift of life, hence the name. Its use in necromancy was abhorrent to the God-Consorts. An army from across the Fengal Mountains was sent to wipe out the warring necromancers and to eradicate Life-magic itself.”
“And they were successful?”
“Yes. Towards the end of the war, the few remaining Life mages fled the ruins of their towers and cities, into Old Tvan. They made their last stand in Inqualkhan and were said to be sheltered and aided by powerful Vintyri sorcerers. The magics of the fairy people were strange and nearly a match for the God-Consorts themselves. The alliance gave the mages renewed hope of a victory. The histories say that together, the Five laid siege to the grand city, a siege that lasted a score of years and ended in the throwing down of Inqualkhan’s great walls and the destruction of the entire city. When the others would have wiped the Vintyri from the mortal world for their treachery and defiance in aiding the condemned mages, Dusan interceded. Instead of executing the entire race, he convinced his brothers to show leniency. He gave the Vintyri a choice; retire to Andehai as they were or remain in the mortal world, diminished. Those that chose to remain were banished into a realm of twilight until such a time as they were called upon to redeem themselves. Old Tvan, once a land of majesty and exquisite beauty, was turned into a place of darkness and swamps, and life-magic was taken from the world of man.”
“Or so the histories say.”
He smiled. “Or so the histories say.”
“Do you believe the Vintyri are real?” she asked. The childlike eagerness in her voice was touching. Despite all she had seen and experienced, Enari still appeared as an innocent to his eyes.
It reminded him very much of her mother.
“I don’t know. Old Tvan is largely unexplored and there could be any number of strange and powerful creatures there. Do you think they’re real?”
Shutters slammed down behind her eyes, and the eager innocence and curiosity were abruptly replaced by flat and distant neutrality.
“I do not know, High Mage. Will you excuse me? I’ve been up for two days and I am very tired.”
Startled as he was by her baffling change in demeanor, he recovered quickly. “I know and I’m sorry, but stay a moment, Enari, please. I have one other matter I’d like to discuss with you and I fear I’ve waited too long already.”
“As you wish,” she sighed, “What do you require of me?”
“What do you know of your mother?”
It was a strange question and he sounded nervous, which puzzled her.
“She died when I was born. I’m told I look like her…or I did, until this.” She waved a hand vaguely at her eyes.
“And your sire?”
“Only that he must exist,” she said with a touch of sarcasm, “I don’t imagine my mother conceived me without his help.”
He chuckled. She was nearly as cheeky as Jex when she wanted to be.
“Your mother studied at Turris Arcana for a time, did you know that?”
“No,” she frowned, “but I suppose that would explain a few things. Magic is generally an inherited talent, yes?”
“Generally, and the most strongly gifted inherit their ability from both the mother and the father.” Goddess, this was harder than he’d thought it would be and it was clear Enari didn’t understand what he was hinting at. He’d just have to say it outright, then.
“Enari,” he took her hands and his stomach lurched when she flinched. “Your father, he would’ve…I would have brought you to the Tower to be with me the moment you were born, if only I’d known…if your mother had told me. I loved her very, very much. With all my heart, and I’d have taken care of you both.”
He didn’t know what to expect. Joy, denial, even anger perhaps, but not the unaffected stare she was giving him now.
Very slowly, as if afraid he’d refuse to release them, she removed her hands from his. She slid from the windowsill and after a shaky breath, he followed her to the door, dropping a hand on her shoulder to stop her as she reached for the handle. She looked up, expression weary, but didn’t flinch this time.
“I…” she swallowed hard and he could see tears at the corners of her eyes, “I don’t know how you want me to feel. Or what you want me to say. It’s—it’s too much. I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want.”
A single tear slid down her cheek and he wiped it away. His smile was kind. “I only want for you not to flee from me as if I’m going to bite you. Tomorrow, when you’re rested, we’ll talk again. Alright?”
Enari nodded in agreement, and with the briefest flicker of a pale smile, she was gone.
* * *
“I don’t understand,” Vasi said again. She was pacing back and forth across his study, wringing her hands in agitation. “You were facing the fire when Enari took the baby. I looked up once and you had the strangest look on your face. What happened?”
“I suppose I owe you an odd tale after what you told me of her birth, though this one is relatively short in comparison. What do you remember?”
“I gave the torin to Enari and sent her to the fire to clean and warm him…it was quiet, but I was so focused on stopping Aelani’s bleeding and making her comfortable.” She frowned as the details began to come back to her. “The baby wasn’t crying.”
“Aelani noticed that, too. I still had my back to them, but when I turned to see what she was looking at, I saw Enari hunched forward with her mouth over Ayden’s nose and mouth. She pulled away and his little lips were completely blue. She looked into the corner by the hearth, stared into it as if she were looking at someone I couldn’t see, then put her hand over his chest, like this,” Eryk imitated the gesture he’d seen Enari use, middle and ring finger pressed together, the others splayed. “There was a flash of light, bright like summer sunshine, beneath her palm and then he was crying, just like any newborn ready for his first meal. And there was that smell.”
“Smell?” Vasi asked, perplexed. She hadn’t smelled anything unusual.
“I couldn’t place it at first, but I’ve had some time to think and it was ozone. You can smell it sometimes if you’re nearby when lightning strikes.”
“Do you think what happened tonight has anything to do with what happened before with Jex?”
“I don’t see how it couldn’t, though they’ve both been rather close-mouthed with the details so it’s hard to say for certain,” Eryk said.
“Ugh. This whole tangled summer has given me a permanent headache. Have you ever seen such things before?”
He shook his head.
“Her eyes change from gold to blue in the time I had my back to her, and suddenly she speaks. She Named him, you know.” Vasi placed a clear emphasis on the normally unremarkable word. There’d been something prophetic about the way her apprentice had spoken.
Eryk raised an eyebrow. “Did she? I’d wondered where my sister got the name. That would also explain why she was so worked up when I went back to see her after the girls had all gone to bed.”
“What did she tell you?”
“Enari or Aelani?”
She laughed. “Both, I suppose. We might as well compare notes.”
“Aelani told me that when Enari brought the baby to her, she said his name was Ayden and that the Goddess had seen him. She said the girl just turned and fled after that.”
“I don’t know which of us was more startled, honestly. What does it mean, ‘the Goddess has seen him’? Enari certainly must have at some point, to have a name for him, and she called him the ‘last but greatest’ of Aelani’s children. I can understand the ‘last’ part, as I advised Aelani of the truth of it, but how could she know him as the ‘greatest’?”
“I’m not certain, but there’s something that concerns me more at the moment, though I’ll need to do a little digging to confirm my suspicions.”
“It’s life-magic, isn’t it?” she asked bluntly.
He blinked in surprise. “You knew?”
“Diu, Eryk, what else could it be? I know the histories are a little vague on the subject, but can you think of any other explanation? Does she know how dangerous it is?”
“I’ve spoken with her and did my best to impress the gravity of the situation upon her,” he retorted dryly.
“This isn’t the time for sarcasm! My apprentice has a gift that was eradicated—with extreme prejudice—once before. What are we going to do?” Vasi rose suddenly to her feet and began pacing in agitation. “I don’t know how to deal with something like this! Perhaps now that our duty is done here, I should take her home.”
“She can’t go back to the Temple, Vasi, you know that. I have a great deal of respect for the kvinnas, but they are not prepared to deal with this and Enari can’t go untrained. It would be too dangerous and if she has one talent she may have others. It was said to be so with the mages of old. Send her back with me, to the Tower. Or better yet, bring her yourself.” He met her eyes and spoke with steady conviction, “You were never destined to be a sister. Come back to Turris Arcana where you belong. Come home.”
She ran a hand through her hair in distress. “I’ll consider it. It’s late and I’m exhausted, I won’t make the decision tonight. We have to think of her feelings, too.”
“I know. I think I can hazard a guess how she’ll answer, but I’ll speak to her, if you’d rather.”
“No,” Vasi stated firmly, “She’s my apprentice and my responsibility, I’ll talk to her.”
“She’s my daughter. We’ll speak to her together.”
She glared at him, hands on her hips. “Becoming High Mage has made you an overbearing git, has anyone ever told you that?”
Eryk began to laugh. “Jex reminds me regularly and with that exact look on his face.”
“He’s actually one of the reasons I’ll have to think long and hard about bringing her to Turris Arcana. All those two need is more opportunity to get into mischief together.”
“Oh,” Eryk thought, “if only you knew how much mischief has been done already.”
They studied one another and his mirth died away. Standing, he took her hands and drew her close to him. Their eyes locked.
“Would you like company tonight?” he asked huskily. Passion smoldered in his gray eyes as he stared down at her.
Heat blossomed in her cheeks, but when she answered, her voice was firm and steady.
* * *
“Jex?”
The bed dipped slightly behind him.
“Mmm? Who’s there?” He’d meant to wait up for Enari, but must have dozed off.
“Jex, it’s me.”
He knew that voice but the context was all wrong. Rolling over, he opened his eyes…and simply stared at the woman beside him.
Perched on the edge of his bed, she was a vision worthy of any succubatic fantasy. She wore a loose robe and the firelight behind her outlined her naked body through the thin material. Her hair tumbled loose down her back and over her shoulders, a corona of flame around her earnest face.
“Hello, Beautiful,” he greeted her with a smile. “Am I dreaming? You talk in my dreams sometimes.”
She laughed, a quiet, silvery sound, and touched his cheek.
“If you’re dreaming, than so am I.”
He squinted at her. “And what happened to your eyes? They weren’t blue like that before.”
“No, no they were not.”
He sat up to get a better look and she immediately crawled onto his lap and kissed him hard. Her fingers clenched in his hair, nails scoring his scalp as she pulled him closer. He was momentarily taken aback by the intensity of her passion, but then his arms were around her and he was up on his knees. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms twined around his neck. He could feel her wetness through his trousers and groaned at the scorching promise of it.
“Make love to me,” she pled between fervent kisses. Her hands went to the front of his tunic and in a flash it was discarded over the side of the bed. He felt her fingernails drag down the bare skin of his back and he reflexively arched into her.
“Wait, wait!” he gasped, even as his hands loosed the sash holding her robe closed. “You can’t just not explain any of this and aren’t you tired after everything that’s happened? You’ve been up for two days straight, Nani.”
“Make me forget.” Her teeth nipped none-too-gently at his earlobe to punctuate the order before she soothed the sting with a pass of her tongue.
“We should probably—”
Before he could finish, she pushed off the mattress and bore him over onto his back. He grunted in surprise when his head struck the footboard, but the pain barely registered. Her fingers flew to the drawstring of his loose trousers and pulled free the knot.
Something was wrong.
He caught her wrists, stilling her, then shook her a little until she met his eyes. He tried to smile reassuringly.
“Not that I’m anything less than thrilled for you to have your way with me, but this isn’t like you. Talk to me?”
The fire left her expression and she broke eye contact again. Jex sat up and sighing quietly, leaned in and kissed her forehead.
It was such an unexpectedly tender gesture that it undid her completely. The tears began to spill down her cheeks and her breath hitched as she struggled to contain the sobs.
“Hey now.” He rocked them gently back and forth as she clung to him and cried.
“He died!” she wailed brokenly, burying her face against his shoulder. “Jex, he died.”
“Wait. What? Are you talking about the torin?”
“Yes,” she hiccupped.
“But I thought—Vasi told the girls—”
“I brought him back.”
He lifted her chin so he could see her face. “You what?”
“I brought him back. Eryk says he thinks it’s life-magic. Jex, I’m scared.”
“Oh, Nani.”
“I’m scared,” she repeated almost angrily, “and there’s more.”
“There always is,” he tried to tease, but her face remained sober.
“He says he’s my father.”
“Who? Eryk?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t really know what to say to that, but she didn’t appear to expect a reply.
“I don’t want to think about it or talk about it anymore, not any of it. I don’t want to dream about it when I fall asleep. I just want you to touch me until I can’t think of anything else.”
“Well,” he grinned roguishly, “who am I to say no to such a request?” And then his mouth came down on hers in a mind-shattering kiss.
She moaned and when his tongue touched hers, her back arched and her breasts pressed into his chest. He ran his hands beneath the robe and over her shoulders, pushing it down her arms until it caught around her elbows. While she struggled to free herself, he took her nipple into his mouth and sucked with a tempo that soon had her panting just as rapidly. Arms free, she pulled him closer and he sucked harder, using his teeth to lightly worry the hardened peak. His mouth moved to her other breast and he was rewarded with a short cry of pleasure. Her hips began to rock rhythmically as he coaxed her arousal higher.
After months together, he thought she was ready for him to push her a little, try something new. It was an act he enjoyed immensely but had yet to try with Enari and his mouth watered at the prospect.
“Lie back,” he ordered, and she did. He shucked out of his trousers and moved down the bed, using his lips and tongue on every inch of skin he could reach.
Jex pressed a kiss just below her navel, then placed his hands on her knees and guided them apart. She opened herself to his ravenous gaze without shyness or hesitation. He turned his head and kissed the side of her left knee, ghosting his lips along her flesh. She pressed her leg toward him, but he kept his touch light.
"Jex," she pleaded.
"Hush." he told her, “You asked me to make you forget.” He pressed his lips to her other knee and began again, his mouth moving up her inner thigh at a torturously slow pace.
Just shy of his target, he drew back and blew across the opening petals, making her squirm and toss her head restlessly. He smiled knowingly, then leaned in and kissed her. She cried out and fisted the sheet at her sides, head thrown back and neck cording. He licked her firmly and her hips thrust up when the tip of his tongue grazed over the swelling bud of her clitoris.
Enari opened her legs further and planted her palms against the headboard, pushing herself toward him. His lips wrapped around her and she felt the suction, the gentle lash of his tongue. It set her nerves on fire and she felt as if she was falling and floating at the same time. Bursts of white light flared behind her eyelids.
His mouth played across her oversensitive flesh for a moment more before he went lower, slipping his tongue through her folds. His hands slid under her bottom and tilted her a little. Then, with a throaty hum of anticipation, he buried his face between her legs and plunged his tongue into her. Enari cried out in ecstasy and tipped her hips to take him further.
Just as her legs began to tremble, he withdrew and resumed the light, teasing flicks of his tongue he’d used before. She cursed him in frustration, bucking this way and that, trying to get him to take her in his mouth again. When at last he did, he also pushed two fingers inside her. She writhed and he had to use his free hand to hold her hips down to maintain the contact.
Jex fed on her until she was screaming and he felt the climax squeeze his fingers. She strained against him and he held her there for as long as she could stand before easing her to the mattress. He nipped playfully at her thigh and moved back up to lie beside her.
She was panting and her eyes were closed. He touched her cheek with trembling fingers and leaned in to kiss her mouth slowly and thoroughly. She could smell and taste herself on him and it instantly renewed her desire.
"Goddess!" she whispered, grasping at him as if she were afraid he’d disappear.
His only response was to kiss her harder and shift his weight over her. He pulled aside the fiery mass of her hair to expose her neck and put his lips to the sensitive spot where it met her shoulder. She shifted in his arms and twined her legs around his hips.
Jex felt her drawing him in and he was more than willing to go. Wrapping his hands around the curves of her shoulders, he sank into her body. She began to make a high-pitched keening sound as he filled her and he growled in response. Her hands dug into his back and her near-frantic passion was more than enough to inspire his. When he reached out to her mind, he was awash in light and color and sensation. The mental and emotional contact only served to heighten the physical experience and he reveled in it.
Suddenly, he rose above her and her back arched off the bed, trying to maintain the full-body contact. Her eyes were shut and she seemed to be mouthing words of some kind, though they were silent.
"Open your eyes and look at me."
She shook her head, the muscles in her neck and arms straining as she tried to push herself against him and regain the lost stimulation. He remained poised over her, waiting. Her hands slid up his arms and grasped at his biceps, then she rocked herself down on him with a roll of her hips.
Jex hissed a curse and she finally opened her eyes to stare up at him. In his beauty and passion, slick skin shimmering in the firelight and midnight hair loose around his face, he could have been one of the Consorts themselves. Enari licked her lips and arched toward him again. She whimpered when his hips snapped forward and he ground himself into her.
All at once, she felt him leave her body, but before she could even voice a protest, his hands were around her arms and pulling her up. She started to straddle his lap and he shook his head. He twirled one finger, indicating that he wanted her to turn around and she blinked at him in confusion. It was hard to think with her heart pounding and arousal singing through her blood.
Huffing out a mildly-impatient breath, he picked her up and spun her so that her back was to his chest. His knees guided hers apart and she could feel his hardness brush teasingly between her legs as he shifted his balance. The slide of his hot flesh made her shudder and instinctively push her bottom back.
While one hand fondled her breasts, the other reached around her hip and he positioned himself to enter her again. He did so with a single hard thrust and Enari had to shift her legs further apart and drop forward onto her elbows to keep from being knocked over
The new angle and renewed friction set her alight and she felt a delicious pressure and the inner quiver of muscles that proclaimed she was close. Jex leaned over her and kissed the back of her neck, increasing the pressure, then straightened and clutched her hips in both hands. Every forward drive of his hips, she thrust back to meet and pure rapture coiled through her body in ever-quickening spirals.
He felt it when her climax took her. Head flying back and inner walls clenching rapidly, she wailed her pleasure into the near-darkness. His fingers dug into her hips and he crested the wave a few heartbeats later, calling out to her and the God