A Passionate Magic (39 page)

“Agreed,” he said, and held out his hand to
clasp Gavin’s, thereby signifying his acceptance of the compact
they were making. But he could not let it go at that. He wanted
Gavin to understand exactly what he meant. “Though I will need time
to accept all I’ve learned tonight, I will not break faith with
you, nor will I abjure the oath I made to King Henry. The feud is
truly over. As for the circumstances of Emma’s birth, no one but we
in this room need ever know what has passed here.”

“I thank you,” Gavin said formally, “for the
generous spirit you’ve shown to us, as well as to Emma.”

”I will have Father Maynard draw up the
document, so it can be signed and witnessed before you leave,” Dain
said.

”There is a provision I would add to the
agreement,” Vivienne announced, stepping forward. “Brice must
remain at Penruan, so he and Emma can learn to know each other. It
would be cruel to deprive Emma of her natural father as soon as she
has discovered him.”

”Will the provision be for Emma’s sake,” Dain
asked with a frown, “or for yours?”

“For both of us,” Vivienne answered. “Please,
Dain”

“Emma,” Dain said, “this decision is yours to
make. Do you want Brice to stay or to go?”

“So many lies,” Emma whispered, looking
around the room. “Except for Dain, every person here has lied to
me, either directly or by failing to reveal a vital fact that I had
a right to know. And each of you has excused the falsehoods,
claiming they were committed out of love.”

“Never doubt it,” Brice said, his eyes moist.
“Emma, I loved you even before I knew I had fathered you. After I
learned you were mine, I longed to stay with you, or to take you
away with me. But you were so young, so innocent, and in those days
I was a lost and broken man, guilty of adultery and worse. How
could I drag you from your home and force you to join me on my long
journey of penance? I did what I believed was best for you. When I
see the fine woman you have become, I cannot think my choice was
wrong. But if you cannot forgive me, I will understand. I’ll go
away and never contact you again.”

“So have I lied,” Emma said, ”by not telling
Dain about my magical skills.”

“You had good reason for keeping that from
him,” Brice exclaimed. “Even more so after you knew Lady Richenda.
Emma, your lie was a minor infraction. Mine was far more serious,
and it has haunted me every day for more than a decade. No night
has passed since I left Wroxley when I have not gone to my knees to
pray for your welfare.”

Emma regarded Brice for a long while in
silence. From her oddly bland expression Dain could not tell what
she was thinking, or what decision she would make.

“Vivienne thinks you are worthy of love, and
I have learned to value her wisdom,” she said at last. “I think we
ought to know each other better, don’t you, Sir Brice? I cannot
promise to love you as a daughter, but we have been friends, and
you did save my life at the risk of your own. You may remain at
Penruan.”

“Oh, thank you, Emma!” Vivienne cried.

“I accept Emma’s wishes, Brice,” Dain told
him. “You may stay, but know that I will be watching you, and I
will protect my sister, as I will protect my wife.”

“I would expect no less of you,” Brice
responded, and offered his hand. After a long, tense moment, Dain
took it.

***

“I don’t entirely trust Brice,” Dain said to
Emma later, in the privacy of the lord’s chamber, ”but I won’t
attempt to influence Vivienne against him. I love her enough to let
her find her own path to happiness.”

“Wise man,” Emma murmured. “I am still shaken
by tonight’s revelations, and I scarcely know who I dare trust.
Except that I do trust you, always and forever. Dain,

are you sure you want to keep me, now that
you know whose daughter I am?”

“Are you saying you will let me find my own
path to happiness?” he asked, an odd gleam lighting his blue-green
eyes.

“I suppose I am.” Emma discovered that she
was holding her breath as she awaited his answer.

“Well, then,” he said, looking serious, “let
me consider the matter. In your favor, you have improved the lives
of all who live in Penruan Castle. Thanks to your knowledge of
herbs, everyone is healthier than before you came here, and the
food is infinitely more tasty. You’ve brought me joy, tenderness,
freedom from old hatreds, and my beloved sister. I believe, given a
bit of time, all of us can learn to live with our newly acquired
knowledge.”

“I am not the wife you deserve,” she
whispered, scarcely daring to believe what she was hearing.

“I thank God you are not!” he exclaimed.
“After the way I treated you when you arrived, I don’t deserve you
at all. Emma, tell me honestly: Is there a chance that you could
forgive me and love me? For I love you with my whole heart.”

To Emma’s amazement, Dain went to his knees
before her, where she had once sworn to see him and where, now, she
did not want him to be. Dain belonged at her side, as her true mate
and partner in life.

“Oh, Dain, don’t you know?” she cried,
tugging at his shoulders to urge him to his feet again. “I’ve loved
you since the first moment I saw you.”

“Even though I was a brute to you?” Dain, the
fierce and ruthless warrior, actually looked frightened, until Emma
seized his trembling hands from his sides and pulled them around
her waist so she could nestle close to his heart.

“You ought to hate me for the rough way I
mauled you that day,” he said in a shaky voice.

“How could I hate my one and only love?” she
asked. Seeing the smile overspreading his face, she lifted her own
face in hope and expectation of his kiss.

He did not disappoint her.

“There is one last secret I must reveal to
you,” Emma said later, when they lay entwined on the bed in the
sweet aftermath of loving. “I am carrying your child.”

”A son!” Dain rose on his elbows to look down
at her in the candlelight.

“No,” Emma said, one hand on her abdomen.
“This child will be a daughter, and she will possess the same
inborn magic that I have. Never fear for her; Vivienne and I,
together, will teach her well.”

“How can you be so sure it will be a girl?”
Dain asked.

“Because she was conceived in Merlin’s cave,”
Emma said.

“Ah,” Dain murmured, smiling in remembrance.
“That incredible afternoon.”

“The next baby will be made here, in your
bed, as is right and proper for your son and heir,” Emma told him.
“I promise.”

“I see.” Dain’s eyes began to sparkle like
ocean waves in summer sunlight. “You are telling me, my lady, that
you are going to have need of me for the next few years. I must
admit, I find that an encouraging thought.”

”I will have need of you, my lord,” Emma
said, “for the rest of my life.”

When she lifted her arms and wrapped them
around Dain’s shoulders and pulled him down to her for a closer
embrace, he forgot all about feuds and guests he’d rather not have
in his castle, and gave himself up completely to the magical
delights of love.

Agatha stepped through the rock and entered
the innermost chamber below the cliffs. Here the ceiling glowed
with jewels far surpassing the crystals of Vivienne’s abandoned
little room. Emeralds and sapphires, amethysts and rubies all
caught the light from the fire blazing on a hearth carved out of
solid rock. The walls of the chamber were covered with shelves, all
of which were crammed full of books and scrolls, and with long
tapes made of plant fibers upon which the ink was created from
tropical fruits. Slabs of stone carved in languages long dead
leaned against the shelves.

“There you are at last.” A handsome,
dark-haired man sitting at a table with an ancient book open before
him looked up at the familiar footstep. “Is it all settled?”

“Very nicely settled. It is finally safe for
Agatha to die of old age. Soon a new and younger healer will arrive
at Trevanan. I haven’t decided what to call myself the next time.
I’ll think of something. At least wickedness is banished for a
while, a feud is resolved, and two couples are set upon happy
paths. For the moment I am content.”

Agatha stretched, shedding her elderly guise.
Her stooped figure grew tall and slender, and her unkempt gray hair
changed to lustrous pale gold that fell in a straight sheaf to
below her knees. Agatha’s dark wool gown began to shimmer with
pearly luminescence while her once heavy shawl floated sheer and
ivory pale about her delicate shoulders.

“Wickedness is always banished only for a
while,” the man said, rising to face her. “If you were to release
me, Nimue, I could go with you to the outer world. You and I,
together, would exert a greater effect upon evil.”

“I could release you,” she said, and ran a
finger lightly along his lips, “but I won’t. You are too clever for
me, Merlin. After all these centuries, I know you well. The instant
I freed you, you’d bind me to perpetual imprisonment, thus
reversing our present positions. I am not foolish enough to imagine
you love me as I love you. If you were free, I’d never see you
again. Whereas I visit you occasionally, to report what’s happening
in the world and to lighten your loneliness.”

“You are too kind,” Merlin said with a wry
smile.

“You know full well I will release you
eventually,” Nimue said. “I must; it’s a requirement of the
enchantment that holds you here.”

“How many centuries more?” he asked.

”A few. Nine – ten – eleven, perhaps. No more
than eleven, surely. The world will need you by then.”

“The world will have me sooner, once I’ve
found the formula to break the spell you’ve bound me with,” he
said, glancing at the shelves where all the knowledge of the ages
was contained.

“Never think you’ll learn the secret there,
in books or scrolls, on tapes or on stone tablets,” Nimue said,
laughing. “Shall I tell you what it is?”

“Will you tell me true?”

“Have I ever lied to you, Merlin?”

“Just once,” he said. “It was enough. Your
single lie brought me here.”

“You must love me as I love you,” Nimue said.
“That is the secret. Unfortunately, love is the one enchantment to
which you have always been immune. Those mortal souls who live
above us on the surface love so easily. Love makes their short
lives bearable.” She sighed, smiling wistfully at him.

“I am willing to learn,” Merlin said.

“I know you are, and I am always glad to
teach you,” Nimue responded, laughing softly. She slid her arms
around his neck and let her fingers weave into his thick hair. “It
has taken only a thousand years for you to begin to think seriously
about me. Perhaps, in another thousand years, you will know why I
keep you here.”

“Sweet enchantress,” Merlin whispered,
embracing her, “I am yours to instruct.”

“I knew you would be,” Nimue said, and kissed
him.