Ryley slumped against the wall of the now almost empty First Settlement Sehani Hall. The gods and the humans were all silent, lost in their own thoughts. The cost of defeating the wyverna had been too high. No one felt inclined to celebrate. Only the Elementals chattered and joked amongst themselves, uncaring or perhaps uncomprehending of their companions’ suffering.
His mother was still comatose, drained of her Sehani powers. The tiny spark of life remaining was faint and erratic despite all attempts at healing her. He probed her mind again, hoping for some change in her condition, some reason to hope for a miracle—something to hold on to. Nothing had changed. He slumped, defeated. “I don’t know what else to do,” he said to no one in particular
Wisa rested a hand on his shoulder and he glanced up at her. Her usually smooth, ageless face now seemed permanently creased with anguish. “I’m so sorry, Ryley.”
“I know,” he said, and watched her walk away. Any brilliant ideas, brother? he asked his twin.
Maybe Dad will be able to bring her out of it. Their connection has always gone beyond mere Joining as life-partners.
“Did Aryn have any ideas?” Chryss asked.
Ryley had gotten over being surprised at Chryss knowing when he was consulting his brother years ago. “He thought perhaps Blayne—” It would be a long-shot at best. He shook his head. “No. Not really.”
Chryss’s gaze dropped to his boots. “Better get this one to the healers.” He hefted Silas more securely over his shoulder and the hunt-leader mumbled something incoherent. “With luck his state won’t be permanent.”
“With luck.” Ryley could hardly bring himself to care either way.
The Elementals seemed to register everyone’s distress for the first time, and they approached him with uncharacteristic tentativeness. They huddled together and finally it appeared Regni had lost the silent battle of wills over who was going to speak. “We are all sorry Sehan Hope is so badly hurt,” Regni said. “If we’d known what would happen when we shook the earth and uh…. When that underground stream…. Um…. We’re very sorry.”
Ah. So that’s what this was all about. Guilt. Ryley couldn’t bring himself to care what had triggered this whole painful disaster. It hadn’t been deliberate so what more was there to say? Some things were destined and couldn’t be changed no matter how hard you tried and what—or who—was sacrificed along the way.
Suni glared Regni. Its form flashed bright for a second before waning to a more comfortable level for human eyes. “Come along Regni, Vindra, we must be going now. It’s been… interesting.”
“Not so fast, Suni.” Kunnandi had appeared behind the trio and the slight god was now observing them with his head cocked to one side. “If it’s at all possible for Elementals to look guilty about something, then you three certainly do. Do you have something you’d like to confess?”
“Of course not,” Suni said. “Our actions in helping you and your humans defeat that ghastly creature have been beyond reproach.”
“See, Suni? I told you we shouldn’t have gotten involved in this mess.” Regni vanished, followed a split second later by its fellow Elementals.
Kunnandi communicated wordlessly with Shikari, who threw back his head and bellowed, “They did what?” so loudly Ryley’s ears rang. The two gods promptly vanished.
“Where are you two going?” Wisa called. When she received no reply she tossed her silver hair back over her shoulder. “Something’s up,” she said to Marc. “Coming?”
“I guess so,” Marc said. But he made no move to follow her after she vanished.
Ryley pushed away from the wall and approached his friend. “You look like crap,” he said. “What’s wrong? I mean—” he gestured to Hope’s cocooned form “—apart from the obvious. You might be a god but you can’t take responsibility for what happened to her.”
Marc turned the full power of his gaze on him and it was so terribly anguished that Ryley recoiled. “Merryn’s dead,” Marc said.
Ryley briefly shuttered his eyes to compose himself before meeting Marc’s gaze again. “When?”
“While we were fighting the wyverna. I felt her calling me but I couldn’t leave you all. I tried to help her and I… I did something that’s against the rules.” He curled his fingers into little air quotes for emphasis. “Ryley, you need to go to the Second Settlement—to Merryn and Kraig’s house. Now. There’s someone you need to see.”
“Why?” He knew it had come out whiny but he was too exhausted, too soul-sick about everything that had happened to care overly much. Just like he didn’t care one iota that Marc had broken “the rules”.
Marc opened his mouth, closed it. Shook his head as though internally berating himself for something. Finally he came out with a heartfelt, “Please. You need to do this.”
“Mom needs me right now. And I have to find Dad. I—”
“I’ll see to Hope,” Marc said. “And I’ll find Blayne and explain what happened. Please, Ryley. This is vitally important.”
He wavered in the face of Marc’s plea. “Be careful with my mother,” he said.
He felt Marc detach Hope’s cocooned body from his compulsion and assume control. He drew on his will and as his physical body dissolved, he heard Marc say, “Don’t hate me, Ryley, please. I was desperate and I couldn’t think what else to do.”
He reassembled his corporeal body outside the door to Kraig and Merryn’s house and paused, pondering Marc’s words. A Seeing would be good right about now—so he had an idea of what he was in for. Typically, he had nothing and would be going into this cold.
He braced himself to deal with Kraig’s grief, raised his hand and knocked. To his surprise his Aunt Maya opened the door. “Aunty Maya, I’m so sorry about Merryn.”
She clung to the door and seemed to shrivel and age before his eyes. “Thank you, sweetling.” She blinked rapidly to prevent the welling tears from falling.
Even though he was bone-tired her surface thoughts came clearly to him. Merryn’s baby had survived. A little girl. Rynna. Thank the gods for some small happiness among all this misery. He knew that Maya would need to hear about Hope at some stage—they were blood-sisters after all. But now was not the time.
“H-how did you hear?” Maya asked.
“Marc told me.”
“Marc.” Maya nodded slowly. “Now I’m beginning to understand. Did he send you here?”
“Yes. Though I haven’t the foggiest clue why.”
Maya beckoned him inside. “There’s someone here I think you might want to meet.”
Presumably Rynna. Ryley plastered a smile on his face and wondered how Marc expected him to coo over a newborn when he felt numb inside and out.
A trio of people scrambled to their feet at his entrance. “Beryn.” Ryley nodded to the healer, hoping to convey with a glance what he didn’t want to say aloud. The man must be gutted. Losing a patient like that….
“Where on earth is this place?” a voice asked. In English. “Why can’t I go home?”
Ryley’s head snapped up. No. It couldn’t be.
Cayl and Beryn shuffled aside to reveal the speaker.
“Rowan.” Ryley’s heart was pounding so fiercely, so very loudly, that surely everyone in the room must be able to hear it. He stared at her, drinking her in, absorbing every little detail he’d committed to memory. He wasn’t dreaming. He wasn’t mistaken. She was here. Somehow Rowan Havers had travelled across worlds to land here, in Dayamaria.
His brain made the connection. Marc. The young god had brought her here to try and save Merryn. As Dayamar had once chosen for Hope, so Marc had chosen for Rowan. She could never go back to her old life. She’d been exposed to the airborne spore and fundamental physical changes were already taking place in her body and cells—irreversible changes. She would have to remain in Dayamaria now, and live out her life in a far more primitive world than the one she knew. And though he knew he should be appalled he was secretly ecstatic. She was here now. With him.
He took a step toward her, one hand outstretched. “Rowan.”
She shied back. Fear slid across her features. There wasn’t an ounce of recognition in her eyes.
“Rowan? Don’t you remember me?” Idiot. He’d spoken in Dayamaru. He repeated the words in English.
She shook her head and inched closer to the Second Settlement healer.
He willed himself to calm. It was okay. The trauma of travelling between worlds might have—
Clarity smacked him upside the head. Of course she didn’t remember. He’d taken her memories of him to spare her the pain of his leaving.
His heart shattered anew. Better she remained ignorant of the love they had shared. Better she find another man to make a life with. He’d wanted it this way—chosen his people over her, comforted himself that she would move on and he would have only his memories of her. But now he would have to watch Rowan grow old and die as the years passed, while he remained youthful. And he wondered whether he would be strong enough to bear it.
He should hate Marc for using Rowan to try and save his old love. But he couldn’t. Not so long ago the young god had been a young man who’d hitched a ride to Dayamaria and fallen in love with a Dayamari girl. He’d loved Merryn with all his heart and had been forced to give her up through the choices he had made. And Ryley understood all too well what had motivated Marc to tear Rowan from her world and take away her right to choose. In Marc’s place he would have done the same in a heartbeat.
He inhaled, held his breath, and let it out slowly. He could do this. For her. “You don’t remember me, do you, Rowan?”
She frowned, worrying at her lip with her teeth. “No.”
He summoned a gentle smile. “That’s okay. That’s a good thing.”
Rowan couldn’t take her gaze from him. Despite the smile curving his lips he looked so desolate she wanted to cry… and hug him… and slip her hands under that tunic thing he was wearing and run her palms over his chest and— Oh my God, where had that thought come from? She felt the telltale blush slash across her cheeks.
Her hand crept to her chest and she fingered the amethyst pendant she wore, rolling it between her fingertips. It warmed, just as it usually did. But something more happened. Something… opened inside her, and a voice whispered, Remember him, my darling. You must remember him.
She blinked. “Harrison?”
The man standing in front of her, staring at her like she was a long cold drink of water in a desert, jerked as though he’d been slapped.
He’s your soul mate, Rowan. You’re meant to be together. You love him!
“I do?”
You do. Remember him, Rowan. Remember….
Memories flooded her mind and she swayed on her feet. Vaguely she felt someone take her arm but her focus was all on him. Ryley. The man she loved to distraction. The man she’d… forgotten.
“Ryley.” Her voice was barely above a whisper but he heard her and the hope flaring in his eyes twisted her heart. How could she ever have forgotten him? “Ryley!” She launched herself at him and he swept her up and held her tight.
“Rowan.” He buried his face in her neck and she felt him shudder. And then he’d pressed her up against a wooden wall and he was kissing her like he’d never get enough of her and all her worries vanished. He loved her. The joy buzzing through her veins made her feel light-headed.
Someone cleared his throat. The doctor.
Healer, Ryley said inside her mind. His name is Beryn. I’ll translate for you.
That would be good, she thought back at him. And so would putting me down.
He grinned and pressed one last quick kiss to her lips that made her toes curl before letting her slide down his body until her feet hit the ground. She noticed the other two people had left.
Cayl’s taken Maya to see her new granddaughter, Ryley told her.
“I hate to interrupt your reunion, Sehan Ryley,” the healer said, “but does your presence here mean the wyverna has been defeated?”
“Yes, Beryn. It’s destroyed. For good, this time.”
The healer breathed a deep sigh. “Thank the gods.”
“One god, at least,” Ryley said. At the healer’s quizzical glance he shook his head. “Later. It’s too complicated to go into now.”
“Ah. Well, I’ll be going now. Nice to meet you, Rowan. And thank you for trying to help Merryn. It… it wasn’t your fault she died. There was nothing you could do. She’d lost too much blood by the time Kraig called for help.”
Rowan nodded at him. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, and Ryley translated her words for the healer.
Beryn took his leave and to Rowan’s relief, Ryley slipped an arm about her waist and ushered her from the house. He seemed to understand that she didn’t want to stay there with the dead woman—Merryn—lying in the back room.
Outside he said, “Would you like me to take you to my home?”
She snuggled into his side. “I don’t care where you take me so long as we’re together.” Whatever weirdness had happened in the past to make her forget him, whatever happened next, he loved her. And she loved him. She was here now—wherever the hell here was—with him. And right now that was all that mattered.
~~~