25

 

Alliance

 

The gate screeched open and the yawning darkness of the tomb opened before Elcon as musty odors of earth and death wafted to him.

Weilton touched his arm. “Are you certain?”

Elcon felt certain of nothing, except that he would find peace in the tomb of his fathers where Aewen and her child rested. The thought of them trapped here while he enjoyed the comforts of life rent his heart.

Behind Weilton the beauty of a spring morning stood in contrast to the place of death within. Elcon heaved a sigh. “I must go on.”

Weilton lifted the lanthorn he held to light the entrance of the tomb. “You need not go alone.”

“I must.”

Without a word, Weilton passed the lanthorn to him. As the lanthorn swung beneath Elcon’s hand, shadows jumped within the tomb. He had to bend his head to enter, but once inside, there was room to stand. Dust stirred underfoot to float upward in motes the frail light caught. A sneeze took Elcon unaware, the sound muffling at once in dead air. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he could not stop himself from staring into the darkness beyond the circle of light. He lifted the lanthorn high to still his qualms as much as to light his way. The floor was uneven here, its stones shifted by time. Burial chambers fanned on either side in a circular pattern, with the entrance hall behind him. Some of the rooms waited in emptiness. Boulders blocked the doors of crypts, the one containing the remains of his parents among them. He touched a hand to the stone blocking the entrance to Aewen’s tomb, where he would one day reside. He did not own the strength or the desire to move the stone.

Elcon leaned his forehead against the stone. “Aewen, forgive me for placing you here.” His voice fell without resonance.

A touch he recognized brushed his soul, and peace enveloped him. Somehow Shae reached through time and space to him. Her gentleness strengthened him, and then faded. He was alone again—a half-crazed shraen visiting his own tomb. The cold and damp of rough stone against his hands made him shiver, and he rubbed his palms together. Tears blurred his vision, and he stumbled out of the tomb to gasp draughts of fresh air as sunlight warmed his face.

“Lof Shraen, are you well?”

Elcon opened his mouth to reply to Weilton but then shut it again.

“Have you found what you sought?”

Weilton swung around. “Emmerich! You startled me.”

As Emmerich stepped from behind Weilton, Elcon shook his head in response to his question. “Perhaps I never will.”

“The dead cannot absolve the living.”

“Must you always speak to me of grace?”

Emmerich smiled. “I will speak of it until you understand.”

Elcon squinted with the effort of memory. “Let’s see... Grace cannot be earned by might, nor can it be won by guile. It must be received in the same way a child takes a crust of bread from a parent’s hand.”

“You remember my words at least, but you have yet to learn their meaning.”

Elcon frowned. “How can you know that?”

“If you understood, you would not seek within a tomb that which you cannot capture or earn.”

“Both my wife and child lie dead because of me. I carry a weight of guilt that leaves me no peace.”

“You are not responsible for everything that has gone wrong in your life and with your people, but neither are you blameless. The greatest and most noble challenge you face is accepting grace by another’s merits and not your own. In that you will find peace.”

Elcon shifted, and the sun’s rays pierced his eyes, so that he raised a hand to shield them. “If Aewen in death cannot grant me absolution, where can I find it?”

“Lof Yuel’s grace sprang fully formed from your sorrow. You have only to accept it and to forgive yourself. For if Lof Yuel forgives you, how can you hold yourself guilty?”

Elcon turned away.

“Consider my words with care, and remember the decision you make affects others.”

“What do you mean?”

“Arillia waits to learn if you will allow yourself to live again. She loves you.”

Elcon did not ask how Emmerich knew such a thing. He had learned not to question, even when Emmerich asked Elcon to do what seemed too difficult. “I am not certain I can do what you ask this time.”

Weilton caught up to Elcon on the path. “Lof Shraen…”

With a roar, Elcon pushed Weilton away. “Leave…me…alone.”

Hurt reflected in Weilton’s eyes. “As you say.”

Elcon went on alone to the gatehouse, where he climbed the steps to the battlements. He put his hands against the rough stone parapet and squinted into the distance. The landscape beyond the castle and its motte today were bathed in sunlight, but in his mind he still saw fields littered with bodies, sons of Rivenn flung into a mass grave, and pools of blood not yet drunk by thirsty ground.

His selfishness had contributed to the death of many, and he would never forget that. Still, if he did not let go of the grief he’d caused and accept the grace from Lof Yuel that Emmerich described, he would never be able to bring joy and healing to his kingdom.

 

****

 

Arillia walked with her maid beneath twisted strongwoods, their leaves just breaking from pale green buds.

“Arillia,” Elcon’s low tones must have carried, for she turned back to him. The truth Emmerich had revealed shone from her face. Elcon crossed the distance between them and took her small hands in his. “I’ve been a fool.” She opened her mouth as if to protest, but he squeezed her hands. “Let me have my say, for I find this most difficult.”

The corners of Arillia’s mouth curved upward in the beginning of a smile but her face held a wary expression. “Speak then, Elcon, and I will listen.”

“I regret that I’ve made you suffer, Arillia. I let fear blind me to what I should have seen—that you love me still.”

Her chin quivered as her eyes shone with tears. “I think you should get to your point, Elcon, if you have one.”

“Wait. Arillia, I—I love you, too. Even after all that’s happened, will you marry me?”

She laughed even as her tears fell. “I do love you, Elcon, and I want no one else. I’ll marry you.”

Elcon held her. As Early flowers unfurled and flitlings chattered, they forged an alliance founded on tears and grace.