The Echolone Mine (56 page)

Quilla was on
his feet. “Promise me one thing, Enchanter.”

“If it is my
power this time.”

“Promise you
will not enter Reaume without saying so first.”

“I must
go.”

He vanished
and Quilla slumped in his seat.

Avaelyn

Elianas’ cloak
lay in a dark, discarded pool in the atrium, and Torrullin
retrieved it as he walked through.

He went on to
the library, left the box there, and then headed the other way to
the chamber Elianas refitted as a study. He found the man amid a
pile of boxes, tearing them open. He threw the cloak through the
air and Elianas jerked when it smacked into him.

“We must talk
about it,” Torrullin said, unclasping his own cloak. With studied
form, he hung it over his arm.

“I am not
sleeping with you for expediency’s sake.”

“Perhaps it
will hurt less.”

“Fuck off; it
will hurt more. Go away.” Elianas kicked the cloak and started
removing books from the carton at his feet.

“Elianas, I
was awake the night of betrayal.”

The man
stiffened and then launched a book. A moment later he tossed book
after book in fury, his face a mask of pure hatred.

Torrullin
stood quite still as volume after volume smacked into him. Then
Elianas tore across the space and flew into him. He gripped,
dragged him out and through the dwelling until they stood on the
ledge of Torrullin’s bedroom. There he tossed him aside.

“You were
awake, here? I have gone on thinking the betrayal was mine? Not
only did you know what I would do, but you participated knowingly?
Who betrayed whom, for fuck’s sake? And then went on to wipe my
people from the face of Akhavar? Where was my betrayal, and how
could you allow me to think it? I should kill you right here, but
you are a true Immortal, and so am I! Where is the right in all
this?”

“We discovered
the line, Elianas.”

“And we have
been fighting it ever since! If you were awake, you could have
prevented all of it!” Elianas loosed a punch to hit Torrullin
squarely on the jaw.

He reeled
back. “I deserve that.”

“You deserve
to die,” Elianas said. He paced away and stood there staring into
the star-filled night.

“I deserve to
live forever. Death would be too easy.”

“How great are
your wings, Torrullin?”

A shadow moved
in the dwelling and both saw it simultaneously. They hurtled after
it at a full run, and laid hands on the intruder at the same
time.

Quilla
quivered. “I wanted to help, I swear.”

“You intrude!”
Torrullin roared.

Elianas’ stare
was an icy glare as he released the birdman. “Did you tell Tristan
where we are?”

Quilla shook
his head.

Torrullin let
go. “What did you hear?”

“Everything
you said on the ledge,” Quilla admitted. He straightened his
feathers. “I shall not apologise for coming; now I have seen and
heard you, I know you need a mediator.”

“I am not
discussing anything with him,” Elianas said to Torrullin.

“Neither am I.
Quilla, I suggest you leave.”

“No.” Quilla
dug in.

“I shall force
you.”

“Try it,
Enchanter. Just try it, I dare you.”

“Do not
dare
me!” Torrullin shouted.

“What was it,
Torrullin? A dream betrayal, except only one was asleep? Did
Elianas come to you as a lover?”

Torrullin’s
hand whipped out to slap, and Elianas caught it. The dark man said,
“Not that. You will regret it always. Hit me if you want to hit
someone - not him.”

Torrullin
closed his eyes. “Quilla, I am sorry.”

His hand was
released.

“So volatile,
Enchanter. There is nothing to forgive, but you must see I can
help, if only by listening. Have I ever revealed a secret of yours?
Am I not a friend you are able to trust?”

Elianas leaned
against the wall of the passage where they trapped the birdman.
“Gods, maybe it is time to share the burden, and step from the
shadows. Especially now, when I know you created my shadows …
brother.”

Torrullin gave
a mirthless laugh. “I hope you are ready for the truth.” He waved a
hand. “Your clarity is returned.”

Elianas stared
at him and then groaned and slid down the wall. “I was awake also.
You took the truth away, because I wanted to kill myself.”

Torrullin sank
to his haunches. “You would have died back then.”

Elianas leaned
his head back against the stone wall and closed his eyes. He drew
breath after breath and remained wordless.

Torrullin
studied him and, without looking away, said to Quilla, “I trust
you, my friend, but this is between us. It cannot be explained or
shared.”

“Let him
stay,” Elianas said. He did not open his eyes. “Someone needs to
read between our two truths.”

“Why?”

He opened his
eyes into Torrullin’s unerringly. “Because it is clouded,
Torrullin, that which we perceive most clearly. You were right, I
was not ready, but I still refuse to go forward for expediency.” He
sat up, leaned closer. “Dream is reality, and reality is more
intense, yet it is baggage that has no place in a bed of
expediency. If baggage must climb in, then wish and will must be
there also.”

“How would
Quilla help?”

Elianas
smiled. “The birdman is a complete prude. He would be so horrified
he would want to be beyond certain we understand what we do, and
therefore we would understand.”

“Is that how
you want it?”

“No.”

“Why suggest
it?”

Elianas stared
back, and his pupils dilated with unholy desire, as dream and
memory fused and seared through him.

It assailed
Torrullin also, and he came close to reaching out, and every
consequence be damned.

Quilla,
mercifully, was there, and he spoke … not that they heard his
words. They jerked as if prodded by live electrical wires, and
stared at him blindly. He drew a breath, abruptly aware of the
great undercurrent, and stepped between them.

“Get up! And
let us sit somewhere where there are many distractions.” He leaned
and pulled at Torrullin’s arm. “Get up, Enchanter.” Torrullin,
thankfully, rose. Quilla then reached down to Elianas. “Come. We
talk now.” Elianas managed to stand. “This way.” Quilla moved from
the entrance to the bedroom.

They did not
follow. They moved around each other, not touching, beginning to
push at the limits of endurance.

“No
expediency,” Torrullin said hoarsely.

“I know,” came
a wrenching admission from Elianas.

Quilla’s
cherubic face set with anxiety.

They ceased
circling and halted within each other’s space, so close only a
breath lay between them. Neither moved.

Quilla stalked
nearer, blood pressure rocketing up, and pulled at Torrullin. It
was a mistake, for he jostled the man into Elianas, who drew the
kind of agonised breath to take all oxygen from the spaces. His
hands plunged into Torrullin’s hair and Torrullin clawed at him,
the two falling against the wall.

Quilla
barrelled into them and, with strength a Q’lin’la seldom applied,
tore them apart. He shouted, throwing his voice at them. “You
cannot surrender!”

They stared
over the tiny man at each other. Were he to walk away, nothing
would hold them back.

Quilla shook
Torrullin. “Look at me!”

Torrullin
looked down and Elianas sagged against the wall, closing his
eyes.

“I had not
realised you two were involved in obsession also,” Quilla said.
“Torrullin, talk first. Make me understand, so I may help you.”

Torrullin
glanced at Elianas, but the man kept his eyes shut.

“Fine,”
Torrullin muttered. “In the kitchen.”

He shuffled
after a relieved birdman when Elianas managed to nod.

What is
betrayal, friend?

Loss of trust,
friend.

Two drunkards
in a tavern

Avaelyn

T
orrullin sat head in hands at the kitchen table and
Elianas was expressionless.

Quilla, making
coffee, watched them warily from the other side of the counter.

Torrullin
glanced at Quilla. “Throw brandy in, will you?”

The birdman
pulled a censorious face, but did as bid, and brought three mugs
over. He had poured some of the spirit into his mug also, thinking
he needed it.

“All right,
you two, start with the betrayal. Get that out of the way
first.”

Elianas
gestured at Torrullin.

He had fallen
asleep in the sunshine on the ledge and did not see the storm
approach, and also did not realise Elianas threw a pallet alongside
him.

Elianas fell
asleep after a time, attempting to escape escalating need as he
watched the storm near. Always storms set him off.

Torrullin
awakened as the storm crackled overhead and saw Elianas twitching
in slumber beside him. He understood, and laid his fingers on
Elianas’ arm to still him. Perhaps that connection began an ages
long cycle, and perhaps comfort was deliberately misread, neither
of them now knew, yet touch was felt in Elianas’ disturbed dreams,
and gradually they assumed a different character.

Staring up at
the roiling heavens, Torrullin was not thinking much when the first
tentative touch came at his mind. He frowned, not understanding,
and then sensed it was Elianas.

He saw the man
lying still, breathing shallow, the sleep of dreaming. He
understood something more. Elianas was not only dreaming about him,
he used the dream to make a connection subconsciously, a deliberate
reaching out, thinking his companion was likewise asleep.

Feeling the
connection strengthen, he then closed his eyes and surrendered to
it, curious as to what form Elianas’ dreaming took.

Elianas was a
woman with flowing dark hair, exotic eyes, sultry lips and smooth
skin, naked, crouching over him. He resisted, and then could not.
In that state of between, he reached out and drew the woman to him,
kissed her, surrendered to great pleasure, ran his hands over
smooth skin.

His arousal
was so complete he entered Elianas’ dream also, going to him
likewise as a woman, one of fair hair and complexion, depthless
grey eyes. His appearance stirred the man to a frenzy … waking
him.

Elianas lay
gasping and then turned his head.

Torrullin,
aware, looked slowly over.

Elianas rose
and, like to the woman in dream ,crouched over him, and was
welcomed without resistance. Fully aware, already stimulated by the
female form and further aroused by the forbidden nature of what
they were doing, they surrendered to pleasure unequalled.

They would
have become lovers had not something else entered.

A deep shimmer
of pulsing light, a dark glow that could only be seen within - the
line between sorcerers. It intruded between sweaty bodies and
beating hearts, and pulsed there. For an instant it was terrible
agony, and then pain drove pleasure to greater heights.

Torrullin knew
it for what it was first, and almost too late.

A thread of
sanity pulled at an enchanted mind, and he threw Elianas off.

What happened
until then was not betrayal. It was subconscious and then conscious
choice. What came next was considered betrayal.

Elianas was
beyond the point of return. He clawed and fought his way back, the
line tearing at him, seeking dominance, wanting subservience, and
would have succeeded had not Torrullin hit him in the gut,
following with a blow to the jaw, screaming at him to return to
sanity.

He had Elianas
subdued on the floor, holding him down, when the man bucked under
him and climaxed. Torrullin stared into feral eyes, and was
horrified. He was even more disturbed when Elianas freed an arm, a
hand, clever fingers, and reached down between them. One touch was
all it took, and Torrullin collapsed on him, shuddering.

Elianas
snarled his fury and rolled away, his mind lost in horror. He
stumbled up onto all fours and then ran. Torrullin picked himself
up, filled with fear, and followed. He reached the dark man as he
was about to slit his throat, and wrestled the knife from him, and
then hit him again and again until no strength remained.

Both fell to
the floor somewhere, and Torrullin crawled to him, telling him he
would forget what happened, it had not happened, and in the morning
they would go on.

Torrullin
related the salient points in an emotionless tone, and still Quilla
was shocked.

He stared at
Torrullin, and then at Elianas.

“In the
morning I had not forgotten,” Elianas said. “But I thought it a
dream, until Torrullin flinched from me later in the day, a strange
expression in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he told me
he had a dream, he thought I might have entered it …” Elianas
shrugged. “It was true, as far as that went, and thus I thought I
had betrayed him. Without power there is no real divide between
wish and will.”

“I chose to
allow you to believe it a dream.”

“I see why.
Attempted rape, then pandering to baser instinct. I did betray you,
whether you knew it would happen or not, and whether I was awake or
asleep.”

Quilla asked,
“Knowing how bad that was, how can what happened between you
earlier, well, happen?”

Elianas’ mug
shattered in his hands and hot coffee spilled over his tense
fingers. Torrullin stiffened, but Elianas stared at his reddening
skin. “It could happen because it is intensely satisfying. As
Torrullin says, obsession flourishes under those conditions.”

He shook his
hand free of coffee and shattered pottery, blew on it. He did not
heal himself, using the ache to remain focused.