Hatchling (Tameron and the Dragon) (16 page)

Tam hated being grateful to this man almost more than anything else. He murmured something polite for Dorena's sake,
and then left as soon as he'd eaten a few bites of the bread. Even with honey and sourfruit preserves on it, it sat on his stomach like a rock.

Jorry went with him and dashed around by the barn. The lad was no worse from his cramped stay in the privy except for the smell. "Is everything all right? What's going on, Da?"

Tam tried to smile for the boy's sake, even with Jarrett and Marysa together in the cabin. Then it hit him. "Your real father came home with your Papa, Jorry. You...you can't call me Da any more."

Chapter 9

Tam didn't think he could hurt any more than he already did. Then evening fell, and he had to watch Jarrett and Marysa gathering pillows and blankets to take with them so they could bed down in the barn. He supposed it could be worse. After all, Dorena could have sent him and Jorry out there instead.

Dorena whispered in Aylar's ear once the happy couple had gone, and the older man looked at him sympathetically.
Once again, Tam refused the slice of bread with preserves on it. "Now, you haven't eaten much all day," she said.

"Leave the boy alone," Aylar said. "I'll take that myself if he doesn't want it. I've got to keep up my strength." He took the bread,
and then kissed his wife's fingers to underline his meaning. Dorena colored and was drawn onto her husband's lap, as she laughed like a much younger woman.

Tam ignored their play as he got Jorry ready for bed. Fortunately the child
was too sleepy to ask questions. He wished the older couple would hang a screen of blankets, though. Even with all the lamps out, their silhouettes were visible in the light of the dying fire.

Even
with his head turned away, he felt uncomfortable trying to ignore the soft sounds across the room. He coughed loudly, and then wrapped a cloak around him to slip outside, ostensibly to visit the jakes. They deserved some privacy. This way he wasn't forced to imagine what he and Marysa should have been doing instead. Oh, if only he hadn't made such a fool of himself when he'd had the chance! Maybe she would have liked him better. It was too late now.

Being outside didn't help as much as he'd hoped. He went to the back of the barn and listened. It was dishonorable to snoop, but he couldn't help it. Their voices carried clearly through a knot in one of the crooked boards.

"What was I supposed to do, sit on my thumb? I'm sure you didn't wait all this time!" Marysa said. "I didn't know if you were alive or dead."

"Ah well, he's just a boy. I doubt you did much."

Tam cringed when he heard Jarrett say that.

"Man enough where it counts. You almost waited too long to
come back. He was going to kill Tigran for my sake, which is more than you ever thought of. Tam's young, but anyone can see he's from a good family. He's probably some mage's Festival child who didn't get the powers. He can read and write! And he took good care of Jorry, too."

"Should I be jealous?" Jarrett asked.

"Not really. I played touch-me-not half the winter with the poor lad. I suppose I was still waiting for you. Why, I don't know!" Her voice held nothing of the anguish she'd expressed about Tigran's cruelty.
Was she really that hurt by the mage, or only looking for a way to refuse me that would make me pity her?
Tam wondered angrily.

"You know why we belong together," Jarrett said. "Now we can be that way forever. I looked for you all over Fiallyn Mor as soon as I had enough money to take care of you. I thought Honnold might have you hidden somewhere on his estate, but he swore you'd run off with your son--well,
his
son, he said. I didn't like the look in his mage's eye, and went to Lochil to get it settled for good. It took every coin I had to have a hearing with the Guardian, but it was worth it. The land is all ours now, and then some because of Honnold's crimes. The old house is still there and ready for everyone to move back in as soon as we can pack up."

"What was the hearing like? Is she as old as they say?"

"Never saw her face, but her voice sounded strong. I tell you what, I wasn't joking about that boy's mother going to Kelemath. He looks a lot like the Protector's son, who was there, too. The Guardian was letting him do most of the questioning, probably to see what he was made of. He had eyes like ice for one so young. The one in Lochil, that is. I've never seen such a cold little prick! Now, I know Tam isn't like that, or you wouldn't have given him a second look, or anything else."

"A bit of a kiss and a cuddle was as far as it went! You don't mind, do you?" she cooed in a tone that would make the Snowdemon forgive her anything. Tam only wished she'd
spoken like that to him.

"Ah, I knew how it was the moment I saw his face, poor lad," Jarrett said. "Now, I would have been here sooner, but Honnold swore you were selling yourself on the streets of Kelemath rather than let him keep the child, even after he lost the case. I wish I'd had the old woman put his hand in the water then! So I
went to the city to look, just in case. I'd given up searching for you there and was on my way to beat the truth from Honnold when I found your father in the hills. We were trapped in a snow cave for over a week!" Then Jarrett laughed. "I'm done with talking. Now, let me have a kiss from those sweet lips of yours..."

Neither one spoke of childbane. Tam knew it had been just an excuse to keep him and Marysa apart. He clenched his teeth with anger, especially after he leaned down and peered through the crack. Jarrett was caressing her bare breasts, while Marysa leaned back with eyes closed
, and a dreamy look he'd never seen on her face before. Tam breathed faster seeing another man take what should have been his, then bit his lip in shame when he realized how much he enjoyed it. At Festival anything went, but it was wrong to behave so at other times.

He imagined how easily he could knock Jarrett's head in. Marysa wouldn't dare deny him
then
! Oh, Lord and Lady, why couldn't Marysa love him? His hands shook, aching to wield the sword he wished he'd brought.

Then he remembered the joy in her face when she'
d run out the door. He couldn't hurt her, no matter how much he hated Jarrett. Tam turned around and walked away from the barn before he changed his mind. She didn't love him. She never would. He'd be as bad as Tigran if he forced her to do anything.

Strange
, he thought as he headed back towards the cabin door.
Jarrett's voice is so familiar. Where did I meet him before?
Maybe there was someone in his family like the man, or perhaps just someone he knew in the life that he'd forgotten.

Tam stopped, and stood at the edge of the clearing. He couldn't go back inside the cabin just yet. He shied away from thinking about what Aylar and Dorena were probably doing. He stared up at the cloudy sky and let a few snowflakes settle on his face. In one of his dreams, he remembered watching it fall from a high window somewhere, overlooking a gray lake with an island near the shore.

Suddenly he felt as if he were several people at once. One Tam had gone into the barn and tried to kill Jarrett, while Marysa screamed in horror. Another was going back to the cabin, lying down next to Jorry, and trying to go to sleep. A different Tam was on his way to Bogatay, still plotting to destroy the mage. The last one...that Tam lay dead on the ground, where Tigran's men had left him.

Tam hung his head. He owed his life to his rival. Jarrett didn't know how he'd ruined things. But it didn't matter, because Marsya...Marysa did know, but he couldn't do anything to make her hate him, the way she hated the fire mage. Now his dream of sitting in a vaulted hall feasting with her would never come true.

The wind blew, as cold as ever. He looked up at the sky, blank with heavy clouds, and then rubbed the inside of one wrist. The small, pale scars there tingled with the ghost of pain. Perhaps he'd been someone's prisoner and had managed to escape. Why did freedom hurt so much?

He thought he'd found a haven here, but it was only temporary. Tam trudged back to the cabin, driven inside more by the icy rain beginning to fall than by any desire to join the people he once thought of as his family. Where else did he have to go?

When they left...what would happen to him then?

Aylar sat wrapped in his cloak at the small table by the hearth. Two cups and a bottle sat on it, as well as a single precious candle. Tam remembered they didn't have to worry about being poor any more. Jarrett had rescued them by his courage in facing the Guardian and the Protector's son, without any help from him.

"Sit down, Tam," said Dorena's husband. "You look like you could use a friend. My wife told me everything. Why, she even wanted me to charge out there and keep you from taking on more than you could handle. I think she'd send Jarrett off with his ears ringing if it weren't for the land."

Tam felt numb, but sat down. "She's been very kind and generous to me. I must also thank you, sir, for rescuing me. It must have been difficult for you." The courteous phrases fell from his lips as if he'd practiced them. Nobody here was i
nterested in how he really felt.

"You looked a bit young to be a runaway bandit. I tried to catch your horse, but it was too fast for me. To be honest, I thought you were dead. I just wanted to keep your body from the wolves," Aylar said. "You've certainly improved!" He poured dark ale into the cups. "I can help you find your family now. Under the circumstances, you'll be better off with them."

The ale tasted strong, but it might as well be water as far as Tam was concerned. "I can't remember anything about them," he said. He hadn't really wanted to till now. Was the fierce old woman who fought against him in his dreams part of his true past?

"I suppose that lump on your head is reason enough to forget," Aylar said,
and then lowered his voice. "You can tell me, lad. I don't care about mages' feuds. If you're in the middle of one, I need to know so I can help."

Or turn me over to the winning side,
he thought sourly. Where had that idea come from? Aylar had saved his life. "I'm not lying! I really don't remember!" Tam protested. He felt the scar behind his left ear. It wasn't sore any more, and his last bad headache had been a month ago. But Aylar had a point. He hadn't cared about his past along as Marysa had smiled on him. Yet he knew now that the clothes and the sword he'd found in the chest were really his. "What is going to happen to me?" he whispered.

"Depends on you," Aylar replied. "We can't have you with us, but you've done a lot around here. A hard-working lad could
make something of this place. I'd be happy to help once my own affairs are sorted out. We're richer now than we ever were before, what with the extra land from Honnold. If you don't feel ready to be on your own yet, you could scribe for old Mikal, the man in Lochil who buys my furs. His eyes are going dim, and since you kept up my records so well, you could do the same for him."

"If you
went to Lochil, why didn't you try to see the Guardian yourself?"

"Ask a mage to rule against another, in favor of people like us?" Aylar laughed harshly. "Jarrett gambled everything he had just to get a hearing in the first place. Or
so he says. He was lucky the Protector's son listened. They say the boy isn't a mage yet, which means he might be young enough to believe that even commoners deserve justice. Jarrett complained how the lad scolded him, but it's not half of what I've told him myself. And it was me that handed my daughter to that bastard Honnold in the first place. I should have tried." He drank deeply. "The Lord and Lady forgive me, I should have tried..."

Tam didn't know what to think. Aylar had rescued him. He would have died after his fall. It wasn't right for him to reproach the older man. He let his head drop as the ale finally made him sleepy. Maybe he ought to drink deeply, too.

Aylar tapped him on the hand. "Now pay attention. I'm trying to help you here."

"Yes, sir, I know," Tam said softly, and straightened up. Why did everything have to hurt so much? Why couldn't they leave him alone for tonight?

The older man's expression changed. "Lord and Lady, here you are drowning in pain and all I can do is babble about Jarrett. Drink up. We'll have time to work something out tomorrow."

Tam's control broke. "I love her! I love her so much! And she loves him." He buried his face in his arms and sobbed. "I know I can't ask you to starve for my sake..."

Dorena's husband laid a hand on his shoulder. "You're young to have to face this, but anyone brave enough to risk going after Tigran with nothing but a sword he doesn't know how to use is a grown man by my reckoning."

Tam nodded in agreement, though something inside resented Aylar's words. Then again, afte
r the sorry show he'd made today, maybe it was just as well he hadn’t faced with the mage.

"Drink up," Aylar said, and filled both cups. "It's the only comfort I can give you. I'm stro
ng and could bear this life. I think Marysa could, too. But Jorry's not growing as fast as he ought to. He needs a warm house and a full belly every day. I lost Darin out here, and my grandson might go as well. And Dorena..." The older man's eyes were full of sorrow. "I swore to take care of her, not watch her die from grief and hardship. I'm just glad this happened while she was still alive to enjoy it. Oh, Tam, I'm sorry it has to be like this."