Bound by the Mist (Mists of Eria) (24 page)

Cal frowned. That seemed a dangerous decision. What would stop Eamon from seeking revenge at some further time? She also filed away the new knowledge of other kingdoms for later. She really did learn something new every day. “But how can you trust he won’t come back and do more harm?”

Relian answered the question. “More than likely, he won’t survive long. There are worse things roaming the land than renegades.”

The room went quiet until Maggie’s voice broke the silence. “Animals?”

A wry smile covered Relian’s lips. “You could say that. But unfortunately for Eamon, even the darkindred no longer favor traitors, as it doesn’t bode well for their armies. They like to corrupt the pure of heart.”

Cal seized onto this information. “Darkindred?” Her mind went back to the creature in the courtyard. “The creature in the cour—”

Relian laid a finger over her lips. “Our traditional enemies. Nothing for you to be concerned about.”

Talion walked to Relian and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I think this knowledge will do little harm.” He turned to the medic. “You are done?” After Mirdir nodded, the king took a protesting Maggie by the elbow and ushered her out. The medic followed behind.

After the door closed, Relian surprised her by lifting her sideways into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her. “You haven’t studied much of our history yet, have you?” At her shake, a dark smile played over his lips. “The darkindred are patterned closely after elvinkind.”

She tilted her head so she could shoot him an inquiring look. “How so?”

“They were once elves but no longer. The darkindred are converted creatures. Using dark means, they change others into what they’ve become.”

“So they can change anybody?” Her voice quavered. She couldn’t imagine fighting such beings, but she couldn’t imagine fighting elves, either. When the two clashed, it was sure to be a hell of a fight.

Relian ran his hands through her hair. “Yes, but it’s a secret process known only to them. They can’t convert us through simple bites or slashes on the battlefield, or we would all be darkindred by now.”

“Bites and slashes?” That sounded very animal-like, not at all like the elves she’d come to know.

His hands caressed her neck, carefully skirting the bandage. “That is their main difference from us. Their animal senses override any ingrained elvin restraint, especially in the newly converted. The older ones are still animals but can act as civilized as any elf when the situation calls for it. Newly converted darkindred appear feral and wild in appearance. You saw the one we brought into the courtyard. He was young. As they become older, they revert to something resembling their original form, looking very much like they did before the conversion. Except for their eyes. Their eyes are yellow and stay that way, for the most part. Only the strongest and oldest of their kind can control their eye color for limited periods. I believe you can see how all this could be troublesome?”

She leaned her head against his shoulder, a shiver racking her. “It’s becoming harder to tell who is who or what.”

“Yes. This is posing a problem as more and more people are taken. At the beginning, it wasn’t such a dilemma, for the darkindred started out of a very limited and conscripted group. We knew exactly who and what they were capable of, for we were the ones who’d determined their punishments.”

“Punishments?” She sensed a story here but it was one at which she couldn’t guess.

Relian sighed. “That’s for a later day.”

Cal didn’t complain at his refusal, as her mind already overflowed with all she’d learned. Who would’ve thought it would take almost getting killed to squeeze some information from him?

***

The first thing Cal noticed as they sat down was that the enclosed patio housed a dizzying array of plants and flowers. To get there, Relian and Kenhel had guided her and Maggie through the hallways of the royal wing. She hadn’t seen that section of the rambling palace in the first four months of her stay and wasn’t disappointed in what she saw.

When she and Maggie first arrived in Eria, she hadn’t realized how paths, corridors, and courtyards interconnected everything. The many structures merged and flowed together into one big edifice.

Maggie, probably eager to try out the new language they’d learned, cleared her throat and spoke. “What are you exactly? I know you told us you’re all elves, but is that what you really are? Is that what you call yourselves?”

Relian and Kenhel shared a look before Relian spoke, taking care to enunciate his words. “Tuatha de Danann, the sídhe, the Fair Folk—we were called all those and more over the years. None of it’s accurate but none false, either.”

Cal frowned. That was his explanation? “How so?” It couldn’t be true and false at the same time. Did he
delight
in giving such responses just to make her head spin?

Kenhel fielded that question, a definite gleam in his eye. “Our being, our existence, gave rise to those stories, but they don’t reflect who we are, as they aren’t true representations of us.” His seriousness of tone belied the expression in his eyes.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “But that still doesn’t explain how you think of yourselves or what you are. And don’t even think about giving us a cryptic answer that sounds smart but tells us nothing.” She leveled a firm glare at both elves to punctuate her statement.

A voice came from the door that led to the adjoining study. “They wouldn’t think of such a thing, my lady.”

Talion. Oh, no. His tone of voice inferred he wouldn’t have any such compunction in doing so and would, just to frustrate her friend. Maggie froze and closed her eyes. Cal wished she could give her friend a shot of strength.

To Cal’s surprise, he merely gazed at Maggie. “Haven’t you been learning about and observing us in our everyday tasks? Let that suffice to tell you how we think of ourselves. I believe the answer as to what we call ourselves rests in the language you’re now speaking.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes to a slit, clearly not trusting this gentle rebuke to not turn into all-out war. “Still can’t figure out the answer. However, I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

Relian slid his hand over Cal’s knee and up her thigh until he reached the hand in her lap. As her eyes met his, a smile came to his face. He nodded toward his father and Maggie, shaking his head in amused consternation.

“Of course.” Talion inclined his head, face impassive. “As you know, ‘eivana’ is a term we use when referring to ourselves, so we are eivana or elvin, which is the closest word that is available in English, according to our sources. ‘Eivan’ roughly means ‘elves’ in your language.”

“That does make sense,” Maggie begrudgingly admitted before her eyebrows shot up. “Sources?” She tapped her index finger to her lips. Her glare encased all three elves as she apparently remembered something that had been niggling at her alarm-o-meter. “And how do you know all the different names you were called in English if you weren’t on Earth?”

Talion neatly sidestepped Maggie’s questions by ignoring her. “And as Kenhel was saying, there are no true tales left of us on Earth, only half-forgotten lies. What truth remained has seeped into distant memory. It had done so before we even left your kind to its own devices.”

Cal hesitated, glancing at Relian before looking back at his father. What did he mean by “left”? Were the elves once part of their world—Earth? Maggie did have a point. But as there were so many unanswered questions that tumbled around in her head, she didn’t know where to begin. “The veil—I still don’t understand what it is. I know it’s some sort of doorway between our worlds.”

Talion glanced at Cal. “That’s a fair enough definition. The magic that holds nature and elf together formed the veil. But even that is about as far as our knowledge stretches.”

“That’s what Relian said.”

Talion nodded approvingly. “He’s right. But what little we can tell you of the veil is best started at the beginning.”

Maggie nudged her under the table and mouthed, “About time.” All three elves watched them. Had they somehow overheard or lip-read what Maggie said? She thought it possible because Relian did show a beginning command of English. Cal wouldn’t be astonished if he actually knew more than he let on. No, there were still many secrets between them.

“Relian, would you like to tell the tale?” asked his father.

“Nay, I learnt it from you, as I was not much out of childhood when it occurred. So I believe you are best situated to speak of it with assurance.”

Talion seated himself at Cal and Maggie’s end of the table, so he was adjacent to them. He was quiet for a while. “So much hinges on the veil.” Whatever else he thought, he didn’t voice and only offered a smile as his eyes cleared. “In truth, at one time there was no veil. Humanity and elf-kind had once been wary friends, but that slowly changed with the inevitability of time.”

That answered Cal’s question about whether elves had ever lived on Earth—now to discover what had made them leave. Her intuition alerted her she was about to find out and that it wouldn’t paint humans in the most favorable light.

Talion continued. “When mankind started to forget the bonds of friendship and, instead, cultivated fright and distrust of elves amongst themselves, the veil began to appear. It took many centuries to happen, but as fear poured into the making of false and hurtful stories, my people retreated. We learned to distance ourselves by disappearing behind the veil and venturing out less frequently. The mist, which always signaled the development of the veil, formed before us in times of need. By the time we abandoned humanity, the veil had such a grip on the two lands that even we were hard pressed to cross easily back and forth. After the final passage, the stories of our previous presence passed into legend and myth.”

Maggie’s eyebrows drew together in puzzlement. “You mean that the veil only hid your homes away at the beginning, not separating them by dimension or whatever this is?”

Talion smiled. “No, it was always a dimensional shift of some kind. It just became more permanent as time carried on.”

“Oh.” Maggie said nothing else.

Cal looked at Relian in bemusement. So that was the origin of all the stories. “It’s hard to believe that Maggie and I are in a place that used to only be a myth to our reality back home.”

Relian squeezed her hand. “Some would argue that reality is as much myth as anything else.”

Cal sent him a suspicious stare. Was that supposed to be reassuring? “Oh no, I don’t want to talk philosophically with you all. I’m not falling into that trap.” She wasn’t about to open that can of contention with a ten-foot can opener. Given the collective ages of the elves assembled—something she could only guess at—she wouldn’t come out ahead in that discussion. Age didn’t always equate with wisdom, but that
many
years
had to count for something.

The elves’ laughter rang out. Maggie scooted closer to Kenhel. Was it just to be nearer to him or further from the king? Kenhel seemed to like Maggie and she him. Was more than friendship in their future? Maggie gave no indication either way but had spent a fair amount of time in his company. Cal wanted her friend to be happy, but as she didn’t know her own future here, she didn’t want to push Maggie toward something that might not last.

As Relian drew circles over her palm with his thumb, contentment flooded her. On days like this, the attack from a month ago seemed so far away, as did all the issues that could plague a relationship between her and Relian.

She touched her neck. The skin bore no mark of the dagger. Time did solve some problems, but would it solve all?

Chapter 24

Cal gazed out over the garden-like landscape from the porch. “Sometimes I still can’t believe this place.” The porch, along with Relian’s study, had become a favored retreat of theirs in the past month. It offered more privacy than the gardens they used to frequent, as did the rest of the royal wing.

Relian shifted behind her on the chaise lounge, settling her back comfortably against him. “The porch or Eria?” His breath played over her cheek, stirring the tendrils that lay there. “I would say Eria, but you haven’t seen much of it outside of Eriannon.”

“Both, truthfully. Everything has a natural air of beauty about it here.”

“Is there not beauty in your land?”

Cal mulled over how to answer this question. “Of course there is, but it’s not so...concentrated as it is here.”

“So there are places of beauty but also places of….” He trailed off, waiting for her to finish the thought.

“Ugliness. No, that isn’t quite what I wanted to say. While there’re places that are ugly, the accurate description would be ‘lacking in beauty.’ My world, while it has its own beauty, has fostered a cold sterility in some places.”

Relian rested his chin on the top of her head. He was so touchy-feely with her. Caution and reserve usually ruled over him, but with her he was different. She doubted he’d shown this level of affection to any other female. At least, she hoped not.

As she drank in this newest revelation, his voice sounded by her ear. “It sounds as if nature has been removed from the equation.”

“In many cases, it has.”

“That’s a sad thing.” His voice reverberated against her head and back, sending a chill through her.

“Yes, it is.” And Cal found it was.

Until coming here, she never thought of herself as a nature lover. Like many Americans, she knew the importance of recycling and taking better care of the environment, but those facts were mixed in with cars, electricity, and all the other modern conveniences missing here. Those very conveniences often led to half-hearted attempts at placating a consumer-driven lifestyle. While she always recycled her empty cups when possible, she’d tended to overlook the three-mile drive, one-way, to get the precious liquid that came in those cups.

But it wasn’t that simple. She couldn’t be naïve and look down on her world, though some improvements would be beneficial. Eria and Earth were two very different places, and she couldn’t hold them to the same standards. It really was like comparing apples to oranges, for modern society couldn’t function under the same auspices found in Eria.