Marcius growled as he stood up and began to pace, his eyes flicking repeatedly to the other as he did so. Eventually he turned and asked, "Are you sure we'll still be able to retrieve the Mirror from Iondis when we get to-"

The voice was no longer quiet but snarling in rage as he cut Marcius off. "You fool! Whatever you might think, whatever plan you might have, this is not the time to be discussing any of that in front of the girl. Not another word, Marcius."

The deadly warning in the last sentence shocked Fay, who had thought these two were allies in whatever plan they had drawn her father and now herself into. Before she could think what to do with this fissure between them, Marcius turned and stomped back to her. He crouched and placed a hand on her forehead. "Time to sleep, Faylanna."

She felt the tingle of the magic flooding through her and realized that Marcius was very nearly as strong as she herself was. The surprise held the spell at bay at first. Marcius dropped his hand and walked around the fire to sit next to the other man. He said, "It should only take a moment then we'll be able to talk freely. You have much to explain to me, now that I'm finally free of that place. Things that you should have explained before, I think."

Knowing she had to find out what was going on, Fay laid down and closed her eyes. She wished instantly that she could have kept them open, as the spell became much harder to resist the moment they were closed. She pushed against it with all of the stubbornness everyone had ever cursed her for until the two men finally started speaking again after what felt like an eternity.

"Yes," the unknown man said, his voice soft again. "They can all be summoned at our moment of need if you can only bring Faylanna to the task. But she will have to be willing. You won't be able to force her, so I would stop threatening the girl. You'll only make this harder for yourself if you don't learn to control yourself around her."

"It's not my fault," Marcius whined. Fay berated herself for ever thinking he was someone she could love. "Calder was supposed to be the one to make her willing to do this. He was supposed to keep her from attaching to anyone else, another thing he failed at. I've tried to do my part. I watched her for years, tried to bring her around to care for me, but it hasn't been easy, given how little I could communicate with her for so long. What do I know of her, except what I've managed to learn since she came into possession of the pendant, and most of that has been that this peasant has too much influence with her."

"You've been stupid and careless. Don't bother denying it, because I know better. I've been watching. Worse, you arrogantly a.s.sumed no one would interest her beyond you. It doesn't work like that. Yes, the pendant gives you influence over her, but it can't make her feel something you didn't foster well enough in the first place. And once we allowed her to consider the bond, there was no way to limit it to just you. You'll have to bring her around, but to do that, you will need to behave," the man said, irritation showing up in the almost-familiar voice.

Fay felt her mind trying to slip into sleep under the weight of Marcius' spell, but the knowledge of the pendant's power lit up her thoughts. She could feel it lying against her chest, still cold despite having been next to her skin all day. I have to remember to take it off in the morning somehow, she thought desperately.

"I've tried. But then that other-" Marcius began.

"Try harder," the voice said flatly. "We didn't go to the trouble of preparing her for this to have you let it slip through your fingers."

As Fay wondered what the words meant, the spell overcame her and she fell into the darkness. Before she could scream though, something caught her and she opened her eyes. She knew she was dreaming immediately. She was under a tree in the meadow where Eliar's cottage lay and she knew she wasn't alone. Looking down, she saw long, tanned arms wrapped around her, legs stretched out to either side of her body. She could even smell the familiar scent of him, the hint of lemon on his breath from his favorite tea and the smell of Swift on his hands. It felt so real.

"Tavis," she sighed, leaning back into his chest.

His arms tightened around her and she felt his head lower to her ear. He said something but she couldn't quite make out the words. They were like a buzzing whisper, too m.u.f.fled to distinguish meaning from them. She began to cry, wishing he was really there with her. Knowing he couldn't hear her, that this was only a dream, she started speaking through her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I was so stupid. I didn't see any of it until it was too late. I let them do this to me, to both of us. I wasted my chance with you, I know I did. I wish I could see you, just one more time. I swear that I would make things right, if I could see you again. I will, I'll do the right thing if I ever get a second chance, Tavis."

Suddenly the words became clear, as if it really was his lips brushing the edge of her ear. "I'm coming, Faylanna. Hold on, I'm coming for you."

Abruptly she was awake and blinking in the morning sun. She gasped from the sudden end of the dream. Marcius was crouched over her, smiling like he used to in her dreams. "It's time to be up, Faylanna."

She looked around and saw that they were alone at the camp now, other than the carriage and horse. The strange man she hadn't been able to look at was gone. "Where-"

"We're going to continue on just the two of us. I think we need time to talk." He paused. "I need to apologize for yesterday. It's just that I was trapped in that Mirror for so long and I was disoriented. This isn't the same world I left, and it's a bit difficult for me to adjust."

Fay didn't respond, but nodded because she knew it was expected of her. She refused to trust him or his words though. He went on, "I did mean the things I've said to you, what I offered you. The world would be yours, all of it, even the Emperor would stand beneath us. Your strength with mine, none could withstand us. There are unimaginable things in motion already, and those behind them will not let your stubbornness ruin their plans. They will have their way, they will force you to go along with their plans, and I don't want you to be hurt. Surely you can understand that, my sweet." Still she kept her silence, not trusting the warmth in his voice that still didn't show in his ice-colored eyes. "Faylanna, you could rule it all with me. Why would you chose to be a slave, forced to do their bidding, when you could come with me and reign over all the world and those who would hold you back? Don't take that path, don't make me watch them do that to you."

She thought for a moment about how to answer him. "How can I trust you, though? How can I believe your words and offers now? I know that you've lied to me, that you're more involved in this than you're saying. You've already forced me to do things yourself, so don't try to tell me that it would only be the others doing it, whoever they are. You won't even tell me where I am."

His face took on an air of sadness, though his eyes never changed. "Our location doesn't matter, Faylanna. Only our destination does."

"Then tell me that. Where are we going?"

"How can I tell you that? How can I trust you, when you won't trust me in return?"

She thought she saw a hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth as she felt the sting of her own words turned back on her. Marcius straightened then and walked to the other bedroll, crouching there for a minute. Fay stood up and looked around the clearing, trying to find anything familiar. She knew most of the land around Iondis, but the trees were too close around them and she could find no identifiable features.

She jumped as she felt his hand slid along the inside of her waist. He'd returned while she'd been trying to decide what to do. His other slid gently down her arm, left bare by her sleeveless tunic. A subtle warmth tingled in her skin where his fingertips touched her, but she could sense the magic that caused it. When he reached her elbow, he raised his hand and pulled her hair gently back over her shoulder, placing a light kiss on the spot where her neck joined her shoulder. His hand trailed down her arm again as he whispered, "Faylanna, we were made for each other."

She closed her eyes, trying not to flinch as his hand on her waist shifted, reaching for the knot in the tie that held her tunic securely closed at the bottom. His lips moved up her neck to plant another kiss, this one just below her ear, and she shivered. "We were always meant for each other. If you would only surrender to me, you'd see. I could show you, if you asked."

His hand on her arm shifted, gripping her shoulder and turning her around. His hands dropped away from her for a moment, then returned to grasp her hips and pull her forward. His full lips pressed down on hers and the tears that had begun to well up overflowed her eyes, leaking down the sides of her face. All she could think of was Tavis' kiss as they stood in the sitting room at Keari's manor, wishing she could go back to that moment and do it all again, but differently. It felt like Marcius was consciously trying to imitate her memory of that day, and the one of her dream the night before they arrived at Iondis, but with him, everything felt empty, pale. Marcius couldn't create the true fire of Tavis' touch on her skin and she felt so stupid to have missed the difference before.

Marcius, clearly growing frustrated, opened his lips slightly against hers but she didn't respond to that anymore than she did the kiss itself. As she felt his desperation mounting, she realized that he wasn't forcing her to move or respond, though some of his earlier words might have been commands. The tether was gone, she realized. The magic had at last recognized the pact as broken. His head drew back as her eyes fluttered open in shock at this realization.

He wiped away one of her tears, the sympathy and unhappiness she saw in his face making what he was doing especially bitter to her. "Give me a chance, Faylanna. You hardly know me. All you've even heard of me are lies told by the envious. They are jealous of what we will be together. I could teach you such things as no one else can. None would be a more fitting match for your strength, not even that farmer."

He started kissing her again, more insistently this time, his lips pressing hers back into her teeth and still she refused to respond. For a moment, she felt something else, something familiar that filled her with longing. Tavis, she thought, then dismissed it as wishful thinking brought on by Marcius' mention of him. But the sense grew stronger, reminding her of arms enfolding her and her mind flashed back to her dream. As Marcius slid his hand under the hem of her tunic and along the bare skin of her torso to her breast, she remembered the words Tavis had spoken, the ones she could make out. He was coming for her.

"Let me show you the value of experience," Marcius whispered against her lips as he cupped her breast. "Let me show you all that you've been missing. I don't want to hurt you. I have watched you too long to want that."

But you will if you have to, she thought. The rage that exploded through her cleared her thoughts. She felt Tavis out there more clearly still, could feel his rapid approach. But it was dangerous for him to confront Marcius, who was stronger and more knowledgeable. The thought that she had to protect Tavis blazed in her mind as she put her hands on Marcius' chest and pushed, letting her magic add force to it. He flew from her, crashing into the side of the carriage as she heard hooves drumming the ground frantically behind her. Before she could look around, the hooves skidded to a stop and she heard another impact. Marcius was still trying to pick himself up off the ground, clearly dazed.

Fay turned and ran to Tavis, who was rushing to meet her. He pulled her into an embrace and she felt his relief as deeply as her own. Her arms wrapped around him, though she knew she had to turn, to be ready to hold Marcius off him.

"You can't choose him! You can't chose some ignorant peasant over me, Faylanna," Marcius cried out, having recovered faster even than she had feared he would. She felt a feathery touch around the edge of her mind, but it slid away from her, unable to find a way to take hold now. She turned to see his eyes wide with disbelief.

"You can't force me, you can't make me do things I don't wish to, Marcius. I won't even listen to your lies and half-truths anymore. You've lost," she called, hoping her defiance would push him into doing something reckless.

"But I need you," and she heard the truth of it in his voice, a real longing for her. It didn't move her. He pulled himself to his feet, holding his hands out to her. "We need each other. He can't give you any of the things I can. He can't even understand what we are, what we were always meant to be to each other. How can you want him?"

"How could you think I would chose you over him? He doesn't lie to me, doesn't ask things of me I'm not prepared to give. He offers me truth and freedom. Those are the things that I choose."

Marcius' reaction to these words was the last thing she expected. He began to laugh, and she heard in it an echo of the wild madness from the mind storm in the maze. It was several moments before he was able to speak. His tone dripped derision when he said, "I supposed that ignorance can masquerade as honesty easily enough. But my dearest, did you know he was in contact with Calder before you went to Iondis? Do you know why? Can you be sure you really know what that peasant is after?"

"I- He said-" She hesitated, confused. She realized that he never had told them why he tried to send a letter to her father. The touches on her mind grew firmer, as if they sensed her resolve weakening.

Behind her, Tavis' voice spoke calmly and confidently. "Calder sent me a letter. It came when you and Lydia and Ki were out that night, after we talked in Ki's study. Your father said that he had made a terrible mistake but he couldn't undo it. He asked me to protect you, as I had in the Gardensia, from everyone, even himself. He said that he loved you and knew you would be safe with me. I wrote him a response. I told him that only you could make the choices in your life. I said that no one should ever try to make them for you, and that I would do all I could to keep you free to make them yourself. That's what I was trying to send him, Faylanna."

Tavis' words fit into place in the tapestry of everything she knew, had heard or been told, and her heart heard the truth in them. She reached back and grasped his hand firmly. As if feeling her determination return, Marcius took a step forward. "Faylanna, please. Come to me, I need you, I've told you. Neither of us can be complete without the other. You are meant to be with me. Why won't you see that?"

"What are you hiding from her, Marcius," Tavis asked and his voice was hard, determined as he addressed his rival. "I know you've been invading her sleep, her dreams and you forced her to come here with you against her will. Even now, I can hear it, the way you're trying to manipulate her. You think that if you apply enough power, distract her enough, she'll think she doesn't have a choice. You think you can force her to chose you, but if you actually cared about her, you wouldn't want that."

"You have no idea what lies between Faylanna and myself. An ignorant country farmer like you knows nothing of true magic," Marcius sneered. "You can put on fancy clothes and prance around, but you'll never rise above the hovel you grew up in."

Tavis ignored these taunts. "You say you need her. Is it the same way you needed your partner? Is it for the same thing you did to Landra?" He dropped his voice and went on, "No one ever explained to you what he did to his partner, did they, Faylanna? Before we left, Eliar told me the crime that was beyond any doubt, the real reason they put him in the Mirror. He consumed Landra's power, made it his own somehow as she lay dying in his arms. He did that instead of getting her help that might have saved her life. When she was dead, he became far more powerful than he had been before, his magic more potent than anyone they had ever known. What if that's what he wants from you, to do it again?"

Revulsion rippled through her, and she understood what Marcius had meant when he'd told her she didn't want to know what had happened to Landra. She saw Marcius snarl and felt him reach out and grasp Tavis with magic, using it to hurl him away from her. His hand was ripped from hers so fast that her whole arm hurt. She heard him hit a tree at the edge of the clearing before she could even think. She turned and her eyes widened. A few thick branches had broken off completely four feet above the ground, where he had impacted the tree. He lay in a heap among the gnarled roots that peeked through the surrounding gra.s.s, the branches on top of him, struggling to rise. Her horror immobilized her.

She heard Marcius' boots on the ground as he approached behind her. She turned back, ready to fight him off but he was less than a foot away. His blue eyes captured her again and he reached up to stroke her jaw with his thumb. Only her shock kept her from flinching away. "All the power in the world can be yours," he said softly, his voice nearly identical to the one from her dreams now, "I will be yours. I will love you as it was always meant to be and we will be stronger together than anyone has ever been in all of the histories of the world. They will all bow down to us. I showed you. Remember the vision I showed you, Faylanna."

As his thumb continued to stroke along her face, the image he had built for her on the ride to Iondis rose again in her mind. But she saw something about it she had missed before. When the whole of it had come to her before, she had thought she was standing beside Marcius, his equal, but now she realized that she was standing behind him, giving to him and he was taking from her. He wasn't offering her partnership, only enslavement. The thought unlocked the truth in the rest of the image, others looking up to him, not them, and in terror, not awe. The Emperor bowed under the weight of chains. All of it was a horrible existence and she saw something else. Somehow, she knew it would go on nearly forever if she became his partner.

She glared up at him. "You threatened me with slavery before, and said you meant to save me from it. But that's all you ever offered, all you ever wanted. I see that now, you wanted me to wear your chains. You never even wanted me to have a choice, because you can't accept the idea of me being free. I don't know what else you might have wanted from me, but I will never choose you!"

With her last word, she gathered the same pure force she had used to free herself to enter the maze and directed it all at Marcius. It blasted him straight back, through the fire and out the far side of the carriage this time. Fay turned and ran to Tavis, who was just getting to his feet, surprisingly unhurt. She held him as gently as her enthusiasm and worry would permit, burying her face in his chest. He drew an arm around her but then tensed as an explosion ripped the day behind her.

She heard Marcius scream, "No, you cannot have her! I will not allow her to choose you over me, not ever."

She felt something flying through the air at them, a spell with deadly consequences, but before she could turn or cast a shield, she felt Tavis' magic swell with his own spellwork. She turned to see. The incoming spell was nearly on them when it abruptly changed direction, reflected by Tavis. She saw it rocket back and hit Marcius, slicing him cleanly in two through the chest, and then through the remnants of the exploded carriage, scattering the pieces around the clearing.

Chapter 20.

Fay stared at the body in the wreckage of wood without speaking for several minutes. The wind moved in the trees and Swift took a step, her shoe striking against a stone. Fay thought about how close she had been to becoming Marcius' slave. She was sure he would have found a way, if he'd been given time enough, because she was almost sure that subservience was all he had wanted from her. She thought about the pendant, still hanging around her neck, but decided removing it didn't matter anymore. Marcius was gone and couldn't use it to influence her anymore. She was free of that forever, free to make her own choices. This thought led her to others and she turned at last to face forward. She stared at Tavis' dark blue sleeveless shirt for a while, trying to work up the courage to say what she wanted.

"I'm sorry," he said, his words so soft that she barely heard them. They were so counter to what she had expected that she looked up into his eyes. Their intense green struck her again and for a moment she lost the train of her thoughts before giving her head a little shake. He misinterpreted the gesture though, and his voice was miserable as he went on. "I am, though. Faylanna, I'm sorry I didn't stop him, I'm sorry that you had to go through this. It's my fau-"

She raised a finger to his lips to stop him and shook her head again, more emphatically this time. "No, it's not. If it is anyone's fault, it's mine, but I'm not even convinced of that. I was stupid, I spoke without thinking. I was heedless, when I should have listened to the advice and warnings of others." He tried to argue, but she put a second finger down across his lips. "That doesn't make it my fault though. Even if I hadn't been so careless, I think they would have found a way. I don't really know what my father did, and with both Marcius and him dead-"

She couldn't go on then. She was undone by the admission, facing her father's death without anger to shield her from the painful reality this time. He drew her close and she leaned into his chest, smelling him and feeling calmed by his presence alone, though she continued to shake slightly as his arms pressed her closer still. "I should have protected you better though," Tavis said heavily. "I tried, but I didn't know how. I still don't understand what happened in the maze."

She leaned back to look up at him again. "That really was my fault. I promised that I would go with him, with Marcius, that I'd surrender to him if he let my father go. I forgot why they teach us from our earliest years to be careful with speaking certain words. The power they give another over you is ripe for abuse."

"I don't understand."

"Didn't Lydia ever tell you not to ever swear or promise or any of that?"

He thought for a moment, then nodded, "But I thought she was just saying that because, well, I thought at the time it was because of Nevon."

Fay shook her head. "Those of us with magic, when we make a promise, our magic involves itself. I've always wondered if it's because of whatever makes us need our partner, but that's something I'm not an expert on. You see, when you make a promise to another, your magic combines with the words to create its own kind of bond, almost like a rope tying you to them. It can be used to force you to do things that relate to what you swore if you aren't careful what you promise or how it was worded, and most importantly, who you make the promise to. I was careless, stupid. I didn't think at all about what I was saying."

She hung her head, but he lifted her face to look up at him. "And do you really think that was an accident? Has it occurred to you that maybe they put Calder there for you to see that scene, that they did it to make you desperate enough to give that promise without thinking it through first?" No, she realized as she stared at him with her mouth open, that idea hadn't entered her mind at all. "I know that you want to be independent. I understand that you're stronger than me, that you know more than I do. I can think of no one who should need a rescuer or a protector less than you. But if you'd let me, I would. I'd do everything in my power to protect you. Just let me be there with you."

"Can you protect me from myself? I'm starting to think that's what I really need," she said ruefully, because it was true and because she suddenly needed a moment to think.

Tavis laughed at this, taking her back to their first night together, to his serious question about using a flint and she found herself laughing with him. After a while, his laughter stopped and he looked at her seriously. "I'm not sure how I'd do that, but I'll try, if you want me to."

Because she'd had enough time while they were laughing, her answer was ready. "I want more than that actually. I need more than just you at my side, more even than a promise to always be there. I want to share everything that comes, all of it and myself with you. Tavis, I want you to be my partner, the other half of my magic, my life, and my heart."

For a moment, he didn't even seem to breathe as he stared down at her. The serious expression on his face made her suddenly afraid that she had been wrong, that her admission of her own stupidity had made him change his mind. Before that panic could do more than brush her mind though, he smiled. "A gift beyond measure, such a life with you, and I've only myself to offer in return."

Before she could move or speak, he turned his head to the side and she could see him concentrate. The first half of the spell that would bind them to each other took shape in the air beside them, slowly and precisely, perfect in every part, like a rose of a thousand petals blossoming. She stared at it, then looked back at Tavis, who was looking down at her again, still smiling.

"How did you-?"

"Eliar thought I might need it. He taught me before we left Rianza. I'm not sure I believed him at the time, but I'm glad he insisted."

She turned, smiling, and wove her half of the spell overtop of and around his. They each pulled one of the trailing threads that dangled from the intricate webs of thought and magic, and turned back to each other as the spell spun into motion, transforming as it began its course. Their eyes met and Tavis bent his head to kiss her gently as the spell became a sunburst of light and color in both the air and their minds.

Two arms of light reached out from the spell and enveloped them, lifting them from the ground and ending any sense they might have had of time pa.s.sing. Fay saw herself through Tavis' eyes and knew he was seeing himself through her. A double-pulse rippled through her, his magic and hers overlapping, which shifted suddenly as the spell shifted, bringing the two rhythms into one harmony that existed within them both. A sense of expanding filled them, their separate magics meshing together for a moment, growing, amplifying each other until it seemed they must explode. She felt his wonder and the echo of her own amazement as it filled him. She could feel her lips on his, his against hers, a dual sensation that made her mind explode with the sheer pleasure of it. A shared thought filled their minds. At last, at long last, they thought, and the thought lived in both their minds because it came from both of them. His was shaded with joy that she had chosen him, loved him, and hers was colored with the simple delight of finding the one she could share herself with, while still able to be herself. They would never again be parted, would always be able to find each other.

Then the spell shifted again, and the shared thought became a single thought. We. Together. Bound together as one, we will accomplish anything we set our mind to. We will learn all we need to know and our strength will be unmatched in all the ages.

And the spell shifted a final time. They floated back to the ground, wrung out and unable to hold themselves up in that moment. The last of the spell fed itself into the arms of light with which it had embraced them as it completed itself. Fay and Tavis both drooped to the ground, their kiss ended but the embrace unbroken. Exhaustion and exultation filled their hearts and minds. It was nearly an hour before either of them moved.

They helped each other to their feet, both still in awe of how much they could feel of each other and sure that it must fade with time. The distraction of it must fade, Fay thought, then wondered if it was his thought. They gathered Swift, who was munching gra.s.s contentedly at one side of the camp.

Fay had hardly thought of the question before she felt the answer come into her mind. Lydia and Keari hadn't been able to keep up with Swift, who Tavis had pushed to her limit in his rush to get to Fay. As she considered the answer, she felt shock ripple through Tavis, who had just read in her question the truth about Keari's ident.i.ty.

"I hope he'll understand that I didn't really tell you," she said with her voice, sighing.

"I- he's been through this himself. I'm sure he'll realize you didn't mean to." He sounded as off-balance as she felt. "We'll have to walk back, at least for now. I don't want to ride Swift until she's had a chance to recover, especially with two of us."

Fay felt amazed and terrible as she relived his memory of riding after her, guided only by a sense that she was in this direction after Marcius had disappeared with her. They started back in the direction he had come from, his pa.s.sage through the forest easy to follow from the way Swift had trampled everything in her path. They hardly spoke at first, simply drifted between each other's memories. Fay found herself seeing things in whole new ways. How much Tavis had tried to watch over her, how he had tried to convince himself she could never love him before giving in to his own feelings. In turn, he was full of disbelief at how he had affected her from the beginning, and his shock at how much she had wished him to stay the night she had been in her robe rocked them both. She had giggled on realizing he had thought her encouragement and talk of his strength were merely a result of kindness.

Nearly two hours after they had begun their return, they heard hooves galloping through the forest toward them. Tavis halted Swift and stepped in front of Fay, but she pushed him aside after a moment, having let her senses range out ahead. Lydia and Keari stopped and dismounted as soon as they saw Fay and Tavis. She was delighted to see that they had brought Rain with them.

"You got to her," Keari said, his voice harsh with relieved tension.

Tavis nodded and chuckled. "I'm not sure she really needed me though, since she'd just blown him across the camp when I got there."

Keari and Lydia both stared at her, their shock evident. Fay felt embarra.s.sed. "I- He- You were the one who deflected his final spell before it could kill us both."

"Deflection?" Lydia asked sharply, staring at her son. "You deflected an incoming spell?"

"I, well.." He stammered, and Fay could feel through both their linked hands and the bond that he was starting to shake. Shock, she thought, he's reacting to what happened. She dropped his hand and instead slid her arm around his waist, letting her care for him wash through the bond. He relaxed a little and looked down at her, a small, grateful smile telling her as clearly as his thoughts did that he knew what she was doing. She smiled back.

"You will have to start at the beginning. What happened after you disappeared, Fay?" Keari asked, his eyes moving between them.

"Ki," Lydia said, her eyes still on Tavis, "I think we need to find somewhere to sit first."

They found a pair of fallen trees that allowed them to sit across from each other. Lydia set about making a fire and breakfast as Fay told them how Marcius had taken her away in a carriage. They pressed her for details about the other man who had disappeared after the previous night, but she could barely remember his existence. Even the words he had spoken seemed vague and hard to hold on to. She leaned against Tavis as she recounted her dream of him and his arm curled protectively around her as she explained the way Marcius had tried to seduce her. Tavis took the tale up from there, explaining the confrontation, and how he had shielded himself from the worst of the impact with the tree. Keari made him recount his deflection of Marcius' spell twice before shaking his head in amazement. Fay had tried to stop the second telling as Tavis' shakes had worsened, but the prince was relentless about hearing every detail.

As Tavis finished the second telling, he lay his head against hers and said quietly, "I had to do it. You know he would never have let her walk away free. It was the only way she could ever be completely free of him, of the threat he posed to her."

Fay saw how badly the hand in his lap was shaking now. She clasped it in hers, stroking his palm with her thumb. The shaking began to subside slowly.

"This was the first time you've taken someone's life," Keari said and it wasn't exactly a question, but she felt Tavis nod. His mother walked over and sat on his other side. Fay could feel her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. Keari sighed heavily. "It will pa.s.s. The shaking, the feelings about it. You did it for a good reason, at least, which is more than many can say. That was quite a feat, deflecting a spell in motion. An incredible thing to manage."

"For someone untrained like me, you mean." Fay was surprised by the touch of sarcasm in his voice. She felt his doubt that he could ever be good enough and tried to counter it with her own confidence in him.

Keari must have heard some of it too, because he frowned at the younger man. "For anyone, Tavis. I'm not sure that Lydia or I could have done that."

She felt Tavis' head rise at that, and surprise washed through him. She decided to add her own voice. Turning to him, she said, "I might have been able to, though I can't be sure since I've never tried. But I've never met anyone else I was sure could manage that. It's a very difficult thing to do, Tavis."

He had turned to her as she spoke and she felt his quick but thorough probe through the bond. She caught his reaction to her own remembered shock at what he had done and the reasons for that feeling. He really doesn't understand how remarkable he is, she thought and hugged him tighter. The shakes were almost entirely gone now, and wonder was replacing doubt in his mind.

Keari broke the silence. His dark eyes went from one to the other and he raised an eyebrow. "I think that there's a part of this story you haven't explained yet."

Fay smiled. "In spite of my stupidity, my many mistakes and near blindness to the obvious, Tavis has accepted me as his partner. We bound ourselves before we started back. I- We didn't want to wait."