"That's just the beginning." Several hollow laughs joined that stiff smile. "Your father was called back into the King's service before he died, isn't that right?"
"Yes. He was the captain of a company."
Once again, he saw their parting farewell: his mother tearing him away from his father, the hot, incessant tears, his brothers teasing him for crying, his father shouldering his pack and leaving with his band of hardened soldiers.
"He had a mission." Tal's mouth worked for a moment, then he shrugged and said in a falsely light voice, "But perhaps you had best ask your mother for the rest. I am sure Nyssa knew what her husband was sent to do."
The questions flared so hotly in him for a moment it seemed they must come tumbling out. But do you want to hear it from him, whatever it is?
The thought stopped him cold.
"Then I'll ask my mother," Garin said softly and turned back to the carts to find Wren.
"A heart-wrenching conversation, it seemed," Aelyn observed as they trudged along the muddy thoroughfare that cut through the town. "Did you tell the boy sharp secrets of his past, I wonder?"
"Not yet," Tal muttered. He wondered if he'd done what was best or simply opted for the coward's way out. So I didn't have to see his face when he realized the truth.
"Ah, well. There's always tomorrow. And the past's regrets never bear fruit in the present, I hear." Aelyn smiled thinly, then swept his arm through the air. "Where, pray, was your humble abode again?"
As they neared his house, Tal was taken aback at the changes. A few short months and already, the marsh had begun to claim his small farm back. The grass had grown long; the fence had broken in several places. No chickens or pigs roamed the abandoned fields, no doubt because neighbors were "taking care" of them in his absence. The house itself looked much the same but seemed comparatively shabby after the opulence of the Coral Castle.
Was I ever content here? he wondered. Or was I hiding all along?
"Shall we enter?" Aelyn said, almost cheerily. "And I won't need help over the threshold, I assure you."
Without waiting for a response, he pushed open the door and entered. Heaving a sigh, Tal followed him in.
Under the glow of Aelyn's werelight, the room crowded in closer than ever, absurdly cramped after his rooms in Halenhol, and a perfume of wood-rot and mold filled the room so thickly he could taste it. Even Aelyn's bout of good humor flagged under the assault, his bright eyes watery and his smile strained, but the mage still gestured expansively to the small table that could barely seat one, let alone two, as if it were the King's banquet table. "Shall we?"
Like we're reenacting a scene from a play, Tal mused as he moved around the table to sit in his usual chair while Aelyn took the one he'd sat in before. Only now we undo what was done before.
Aelyn pulled off his glove and extended his hand across the table, the Binding Ring glittering on his finger. His eyes never left Tal's face. "Our pact is complete," he said softly, his voice almost a purr. "Now, release me."
Tal held his gaze, hands in his lap. "Did you know?"
Aelyn narrowed his eyes, good humor starting to dissipate. "Know what?"
"That our good and merciful King Aldric is a bought man."
He'd come to think he knew a little of the elven mage, and what he was capable of. But Tal didn't expect him to smile.
"Of course, I did. There's a larger game at play here than you've ever cared to look for, Harrenfel." Aelyn wiggled his fingers, the milky white crystal winking in the werelight. "Now, if you'll release me, I have much to do in my Queen's service and little desire to remain here."
Tal sighed, suddenly feeling every year of his age and then some. "Never cared to look, or I didn't dare to."
But all the same, he removed his glove and reached forward to take the elf's hand. Aelyn's skin was cold and clammy as a fish, and Tal worked quickly, gripping the Binding Ring between his fingers. The band of metal burned cold beneath his fingertips. With one swift movement, he pulled it from the mage's slender finger.
Aelyn shuddered as if doused in chilled water. Then his eyelids fluttered open, the bronze swirling fiercely in his eyes. Tal's spine prickled.
"I've been waiting a long time for this," he said, soft and silky, then shouted, "Thalkunaras bauchdid!"
Even as his body stiffened and his mind went numb with shock, helpless amusement washed over him. As it began, so it ends. Even before Aelyn pried the Binding Ring from his rigid grasp, Tal knew what would happen, and it felt like the fulfillment of a small prophecy as Aelyn slipped the crystal ring over Tal's finger.
"This I bind you to," the mage said, lips curling, eyes gleaming. "That you will wear this ring until both you and I go to Gladelyl, then return to Hunt's Hollow. That you will never impede or undermine the plans of my monarch, Queen Geminia the Third of Gladelyl. That you will always obey Queen Geminia's commands, no matter what you may witness in Elendol."
The Binding Ring glowed bright, and Tal already had his eyes closed and his teeth set, braced for the cold wave that shuddered through him even as his blood burned in response.
As the ring dimmed and both the cold and heat retreated, Tal opened his eyes to slits and stared between his lashes at the smirking mage. "I'm not given to prejudice, but I'm starting to hate elves."
Aelyn smiled the first real smile Tal could ever remember from him. "One man cannot stand for a Bloodline, though I do not think I make such a poor exemplar."
"My name — my Heartname. How did you learn it?"
The smile widened. "There is much I know that you do not, Magebutcher. But if I cannot provide illumination, I can promise this: the sooner we go to the Queen and do her bidding, the sooner you will be free."
"Queen Geminia." Tal snorted a bitter laugh. "Then she is Yuldor's creature as well."
The grin twisted into a snarl, and the mage leaned across the table. "Never! Do not speak such filthy lies about Her Eminence!"
Tal shrugged. "As you say. But you see how it looks suspicious."
"You are a snake, a viper. You cannot be trusted."
"Strange — the same could be said of you."
As the elf glared across the grimy table at him, Tal stood, his legs feeling weak. But the hesitation, the questioning of which course was correct, was gone. No room for doubts when you're pushed off a cliff, a millstone hanging from your neck.
"But you did speak one truth," Tal continued. "The sooner we go, the sooner we can return, and I can take my turn again in binding you."
The offense had drained from Aelyn, leaving only his sour smile. "So long as we go, you're permitted any dreams you wish, however unlikely."
Tal lifted his head back and stared at the narrow shafts of pale light streaming through the holes in the roof. Farewell so soon, my hermit's cottage. The road calls me once more. The road, and all the twists and turns that it throws under my feet.
He stood abruptly and made for the door. "What are we waiting for? There's walking to be done!"
"We can't wait here all day. We have to go in. Or don't you want to?"