Steelfated, page 54
She felt a lock of her hair get lifted from her right shoulder. “Well, I saved most of her, anyway.” Morgain cracked one eye open. The regents were staring at Radyn as if they wanted to kill him, the whites of Alystra’s eyes apparent even in the cool darkness of the cave. She shut her eyes again.
“Our clothes match now.” Morgain said after a moment, cracking her eyes open when their Fey attendant handed them each a sweet roll. Radyn looked down and nodded.
“The last piece of the bond is the easiest, for those of you undergoing it, at least. It is related to the earth, and to stone- this part makes the bond permanent, like things set in stone. Nothing will break it from here on out without you shattering along with it. All you must do is lie down on the stone and let the power and magic of the bond wash over you, just as stone withstands the water and the wind, so you shall be until dawn. You may even sleep if you so wish, just do not move from the slab or the light.” their fey attendant said.
Morgain didn’t need to be told twice. After having been up for most of the night before and the whole of the day, she was tired. She laid down on the cool stone and closed her eyes.
She heard rather than saw Radyn lay down on the stone behind her. Behind the shield of her eyelids, the light grew brighter. The entirety of Saerin seemed to be above her, spinning, as if she was at the point that all the water was pulled to at the bottom of a whirlpool.
Suddenly, the spinning stopped and a cool wave of relief washed over her.
She fell into the deep nothingness of exhausted sleep.
43
Return to the Highlands
(28th Night’s Grace, 675 3rd Era, by the Reckoning of Reysh’ar’ak, the Monitor of Times passing in Talys Rae)
The week following the bond had passed in a strange juxtaposition of creeping slowness and rapid speed. Sometimes Morgain was certain hours had passed while they were stuck in meetings with the other pair of the newly bonded fey, getting more information about the bond and what it meant than she’d likely ever need, but when she’d checked the sundials, it had only been a few moments. At other times, the days seemed to race by as fast as water leaving an upturned bucket.
She and Radyn were no longer stuck remaining within fifty feet of each other, for which she was astoundingly grateful and she could use her magic again with no difficulties, but she could feel his presence in the back of her head, like a faint pressure.
They had not shared a bed again since the night by the pool, and truthfully, she had seen as little of him as she would have liked, but feeling him through the bond was relaxing, somehow. She thought it would be intrusive, having the man in her head all the time, but it had only taken her an hour or two to get used to it. Without being restricted to where he could go on the Fey court, he’d tormented the Fey who had made their lives difficult, but done so in such a way that no one could prove it was him. Oh, they all knew it was him, but there was no tangible proof. And while the smug expression he’d been wearing may as well have been proof, it wouldn’t hold up as evidence under a Fey court trial, and they knew that as well.
When darkness fell that night, they were to return to the highlands. She opened her door to find him, hand raised, ready to knock. His other arm was almost completely full of miscellaneous items, clutched almost clumsily to his chest.
“Can I help you with something?” She said with a smirk. His eyebrow twitched and one edge of his mouth curled up in a lopsided grin.
“I’m sure you can, but later. For the moment, we need to get back to the Long City, as quietly as possible. No one is supposed to know where we are. We are just supposed to disappear.” He said. “Perhaps once we are back among the dead, we could revisit the past if you’d like.”
“Hmm. I might be inclined to do so.” she said. His grin turned carnal, and his eyes smoldered for a moment, and she felt a- surge of something- through the bond. Then his grin crossed the line of carnal and entered the neighborhood of wicked, and the light in his eyes changed to amusement.
“I brought some things for you.” He said, setting his bundles down. He opened a pack and produced a pair of Jorun helmets from within it.
“Bastard.” she muttered, though she couldn’t completely hide her amusement. “Any hope you had of ‘revisiting our past’ just dwindled dramatically.” He put on a look of indignance so profound, he may as well have been claiming for all the world that he was guilty of every petty mischief that had ever happened. He set the helmets down with a dejected sigh,
Then he tossed her a skin of Green Feywine with the Regent’s seal pressed into it.
“Oh, really? This says otherwise.” She groaned audibly. “You mean I went through the trouble of breaking in there and stealing this- a rather complicated process- that place is warded almost as securely as the Vault of Bre’lain- for nothing? You couldn’t have warned me first?”
She refused to acknowledge his complaint, or the trident he’d leaned against the wall. He wasn’t serious anyway, was he? Then she realized he’d asked her two distinct questions she could answer with one word.
“Yes.” she said with a wide grin. He looked up at her flatly.
“That’s low, using my own tricks against me.” he muttered, then he sighed and produced one final bundle from his pack. “I suppose you don’t even want to open this one,” He said with a sigh. “I was saving the best for last.” She would not open it. She could tell he was manipulating her to do it. He was being far, far too obvious about it. He looked like nothing so much as a hurt puppy. Octet Damn him.
She took the package from him and untied the strings that bound it shut.
“Oh, alright, fine. I’ll open it if it will make you happy. But I swear to Myrrin, if this is some sort of fur robe to finish out the ensemble from that incident, I’ll…” She trailed off, her mouth falling open in stunned amazement.
It wasn’t a robe, but it was clothing, of a sort. It was a full suit of armor, made entirely out of feyglass. It consisted of small leaf shaped scales, the color of burnished amber. Under the scales was a smooth material of some sort, form fitting, but padded. It was dark green, with silver knotwork laid on its surface. On the left, it matched her tattoos, while on the right it merely had a sort of intricate woven design. Each line of silver led directly to one of the leaflike scales, and fastened it to whatever the material was beneath it. She pulled the gauntlets on. They didn’t fit. They were much too big.
“Knot the silver to the material beneath the feyglass.” He said. She looked at him, then did as he asked. The armor drew down on itself, fitting itself smoothly and comfortably to the exact size and shape of her hand. The palms of the gauntlets were not covered in the scales, but the backs of her hands and the sides of her fingers were. Despite that, she didn’t lose any mobility in her hands, unlike what most gauntlets would cause.
“Radyn… where in the Octets’ names did you find this?” She breathed, unsure of what else to say. He grinned at her.
“I won a bet against a certain, quite prominent fey. I pulled off the impossible, and rescued the one to whom I was to be bound from where she was imprisoned, and returned her to the Fey court, through their guards, before sunrise.”
“Radyn- this is worth-”
“More than the Long City, and everything in it and half of Noreth besides? Probably.” he said in acknowledgment.
“Where in the world did you find so much Feyglass?” He grinned at her.
“Oh, that was the easiest part. Alystra’s twin sons are an armorer and a glass maker. The armor is their work. The silver was the hard part. I had to convince Daeion to get his daughter to agree to work the thread in the shape of your tattoos. I’m not sure honestly if it works- you shouldn’t have to take it off to shape-shift.” he said. She looked at him blankly. “That’s what the knotwork on the right side is for.”
“How do I take it off?”
“Ah, yes that. I don’t know exactly how it is supposed to work, but she told me you just knot the silver wire back to the feyglass and away from the material.” She did so, and the gauntlets returned to their original size. She slipped them off and looked at him, stunned. The only thing she could think to do was kiss him.
“Now, now,” he said after a moment. “Let’s not get too carried away. Alystra is in her majority now, and she’s very displeased with me. Our ‘protection’ expires in an hour, and it’s at least half that to the portals. We should go.” She sighed but agreed with him. The last thing she wanted was for Alystra to get her talons into Radyn once again. Besides that, accidents happened at an alarming rate to those who were not in the regents’ good graces.
Half an hour later, the six Steelfated were gathered again in the shadows of the hedgerow, close to the traveling grounds.
They slipped quietly across the cobblestone courtyard. When they were about six paces from the portal, Morgain felt a faint spike of adrenaline through the bond as Radyn’s hand shot out to hold her back.
“Someone’s behind the portal, to the left side.” He tilted his head, watching the darkness for a moment before speaking. He lowered his hand when he did.
“What is it you want, Valerica?” he said dryly.
Valerica stepped around the side of the portal, with Harrigan following close on her heels. The man grinned widely at them, and Morgain couldn’t help but trail her eyes down on his form. He seemed less attractive to her now that she had, or at least thought she had, Radyn. They hadn’t really clarified much about that, beyond their single night of passion and lust.
She couldn’t hide the feelings she felt for him through the bond, however, but she couldn’t exactly distinguish what his own feelings were yet. There was definitely something there, though, and that gave her hope.
“News reached Ironlake that the pair of you survived your bonding, and everything went well. The lord captain was convinced that it would be best to have more than one pair of bonded Steelfated, since the work is so dangerous.” Radyn’s eyebrow twitched. “Harrigan is mine.” Valerica finished, looking coldly at Morgain.
“Hmm. You understand what you are requesting, yes?” She nodded, then instead shook her head.
“No. I don’t. Not entirely, but I gather that no one truly knows much about this bond until it’s completed.” Radyn lowered his hand from in front of Morgain.
“As you will then. Seek the regents in the court a few miles away. They can make the arrangements to see you sent out among us.” Valerica gave a nod.
“I see your luck has held this long, Halstraad.” Harrigan said dryly. “Tell me, have you-” Rodhlann made a face and threw him a coin purse. “Ahh, I thought as much.” Harrigan said with a laugh as he tied the purse to his belt.
He glanced at Morgain with a wolfish grin.
“Were you aware that there are almost a dozen guardsmen right on the other side of this portal? They seem very interested in finding you. Your father seems to think you may have shirked your duties somehow to run off with Radyn Halstraad and wants a word with you.” She gave a slight shake of her head, then to Gwen, who did the same.
“Harrigan, Valerica, my father can’t know about this… about us. Not yet. Not while we may run into him in the City before we make it back to Ironlake.” Morgain pleaded. Valerica and Harrigan both looked at Radyn pointedly.
“Fine.” he grumbled. “You and Rodhlann go the long way, with the brooches.” He sighed and handed Rodhlann the brooch. He looked at Valerica and Harrigan and gave them a nod.
Morgain was the first to reappear in the Highlands proper, a couple of blocks from where the rest of them would come through the portal. The first thing that she noticed was how cool the air had grown in the half a season since she had left the highlands.
The second was the wet, sickeningly warm sensation of Rodhlann’s lycanthropic reaction to magical travel.
All over her boots. She groaned.
They waited in the shadows for a few moments while the others emerged from the portal house, and blatantly lied to the guards about ever having seen her.
“I dislike that sensation.” Radyn said when he approached them a few moments later.
“Speak for yourself.” Rodhlann groaned, trying to rise. His eyes tinged to a pale, sickly green, his wolf angry and trying to escape. He had learned after his first trip to not eat for the twenty-four hours leading up to traveling like that, and the puddle of vomit was considerably smaller this time than it was when they had arrived at the Fey court the first time. Rodhlann started retching again.
He pushed himself to his feet.
“We should probably split up. They know a group of us came through, but were expecting more. Company three is on city duty for the next couple of days, so we’ll have to spread ourselves out. We’re supposed to meet on the morning of the thirtieth, just outside the central gates. Terrence can come with me towards the Cae’ardwyn corner, Gwen and Natalia can go towards the Faughn, and you two should probably head for the Halstraad quarter, as far as you can get from here, anyway.” he said, then and Terrence trotted off.
Natalia and Gwen looked at Radyn and Morgain.
“Don’t get in too much trouble, you two- but it would be best for us to scatter so as not to draw much attention.” With that, they trotted off into the darkness.
Morgain looked to Radyn and slipped her fingers into his hand and gave his hand a squeeze. He looked down at her and arched an eyebrow, but she could feel amusement and warmth through the bond.
“Two Steelfated walking along the city holding hands would certainly draw attention, Morgain.” He said. “After we clear the walls, perhaps.”
“You mean to say that you couldn’t avoid being seen within the Long City?” she said. He looked at her flatly.
“I could avoid being seen standing bare arsed and juggling pies in the middle of the Hall of the High council while it was in session, Morgain. YOU can’t avoid being seen- not in your father’s quarter.”
“Care to make a wager on that?”
“No.”
“Don’t want to stand naked in the middle of the Hall of the High Council juggling pies? What pies, by the way? Fruit or meat?”
“Not particularly, no.”
“You didn’t answer my question?”
“About the pies?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t matter. The type of pie doesn’t make it any different to juggle.”
She laughed and fell into step beside him.
It felt good to be walking with him- even though they had spent most of the last two months stuck together- she found she enjoyed his companionship.
Her eyes darted to him, when he smoothly and gracefully stepped sideways, then backwards, then in a strange semi-circular motion to avoid a street urchin who ran underfoot. Not that she wasn’t paying attention, but Morgain was not sure she’d have seen the child- the urchin was little more than a shadowy blur at waist height in the near darkness. She admired the smooth motions of the muscles in his shoulders and back as he made the graceful motion. She could see them move even beneath the charcoal grey leather of his vest. He certainly was nice to look at- maybe not so nice as his brother- but eye-catching entirely differently when she looked at Thoran, she felt numb- and like she was looking at a sculpture. Radyn was much more… real. And it made her eyes linger on him. She fixed her eyes on his backside and legs for a moment- enjoying the view openly, not trying to hide it.
And she walked straight into the side of an open shop door. The knob punched her painfully in the hip, and the heavy oak stopped her in her tracks. Her right foot tried to keep going- and the result was that she sat down hard in the street with a grunt and a muttered curse. Radyn turned to her, and she didn’t need the bond, or to see his face beneath the cowl of his hood to know that his eyebrow was arched and that damned Halstraad smirk was plastered on his face. His look did not linger on her long though, rather he bent to help the person on the other side of the door rise back to her feet.
“Forgive us- my lady.” He said smoothly. “My comrade was not-”
“I am well aware of my daughter’s ability to be absent-minded, Master Ha- ah, forgive me. I forgot your service number.”
“It is fine. I’m 904.” Radyn said smoothly.
“Yes, well, 904, I am well aware of 1673’s absentmindedness when she walks.” Elaine Muirdoch said the numbers as if they were curses. Radyn had bent to pick up the things that Elaine had been carrying, and she looked at her mother.
Her heart fell halfway to her stomach.
Elaine Muirdoch was aging, but still beautiful- and for Morgain’s entire life, she had been sickly. The winters were always worse- but it looked like it was going to be a poor year for Elaine, and she blamed herself for it. Ever since she’d birthed Morgain, she’d been sickly. No one knew exactly what the cause was, not even the healers, though they could keep her feeling well enough to function normally. Despite the pallor of her cheeks, Elaine’s eyes had lost none of their fire.
“Where have you two been?” Elaine hissed at Morgain while Radyn was gathering the things Elaine had dropped.
Morgain froze. Radyn looked up at her from behind her mother and gave her a significant look.
“Ahh, well you see-” Morgain said slowly after a moment. Elaine narrowed her eyes at her daughter slightly, then turned to Radyn. She hesitated a moment.
“904, could you give me a moment alone with 1673, please?” Radyn nodded and walked into the shop. Elaine watched him go, her eyes sharp. Morgain was surprised to see anger burning in them, and it only burned brighter when they fell on her again.
“What have you gotten yourself into, Morgain? Like so many brilliant minds-particularly young brilliant minds, you’ve always lacked a certain sense of… caution… that is inborn in most people. But running around Thyria and the Eastern sides of the Highlands with HIM half-clothed? Do you have any idea what your father would have done if Gael had sent his letter to him and not to me? It was hard enough to burn it in a way that he wouldn’t find out. If he even suspected- Well, just you wait until the next time I can get my hands on Caulder- no doubt he knows about this total fiasco. You are a lot of things, but I can’t see you openly shirking your duties as one of the Steelfated. But are you trying to start a war? He’s handsome enough, sure, and from a good family- but you should have come to me, or the Lady Noetasiara- it would have taken some time- but we could likely have managed things in such a way as not to cause… if your father finds out you had better hope you are dead for real. You are lucky that he was distracted by… other things, and I burned the letter.”
