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my chest," Idalia said quietly. "I do not wish to do so again. Nor do I wish that fate on any other."
Tiercel stood up.
"Do you think this is a good idea?" he asked Ancaladar. "They say you've said 'yes.'"
The black dragon raised his head just enough to be able to stare directly into Tiercel's eyes.
"From my point of view, it isn't going to last very long," Ancaladar snapped sullenly. "I saw the
Second Endarkened War start, and I wasn't a young dragon then. Think of yourself. It's going to
last for the rest of your life. What little there is of it."
"But you can give me the power I need to do... whatever I need to do," Tiercel said. Whatever that
is.
"Yes," Ancaladar answered, his voice softening. "I can do that. It's what my Bonded wishes, and I
will not deny him."
"Then I'll do it," Tiercel said.
"Of course," Ancaladar added, "there's always the possibility it won't work at all. Which would be
entertaining for all five of us."
Tiercel opened and closed his mouth several times. He knew there were a lot of things he ought to
say right now polite things, diplomatic things, even things that might somehow get him out of this
situation. He couldn't think of a single one.
"Ah, I'm afraid I don't really have much of an appetite this morning. I think if everyone doesn't
mind I'll just go for a walk instead."
He turned away from the pavilion and walked quickly away. He had no idea where he was going,
and right now he didn't care.
"ARE you crazy?" Harrier asked him almost an hour later.
Harrier had caught up to him a few minutes after Tiercel had left the breakfast table Tiercel hoped
Harrier's apologies to their hosts had been more polite than his had been and the two of them
walked in silence for a while, almost the whole way down to Tiercel's schoolhouse. Eventually, by
mutual consent, they'd turned back toward the house, ending up at the stables.
"I guess," Tiercel said. "I mean... it's not as if someone's asking me to kill a young dragon by
Bonding to it for just a few years well, my whole life, but it would be just a few years from the
dragon's point of view, and... Ancaladar's going to die anyway. Soon. At least this way he won't
have to die right now."
"You're going to have a dragon. A permanent dragon," Harrier said. "I mean... what are you going
to feed him?"
"I don't know," Tiercel said, shaking his head. "I guess he'll have to tell me." If we both live through
it. From what Ancaladar had said, that wasn't certain.
He'd had more time, now, to get used to the idea of having a dragon being Bonded to a dragon. It
was still as mind-boggling, really, as it had been almost a moonturn ago when he'd come up with
the idea as the solution to the problem of gaining the power to cast the spells of the High Magick.
He really had no idea of what it would be like. But at least he could pretend to think about it now.
"I don't like it," Harrier said stubbornly.
"I know." Tiercel sighed and leaned against the wall of the stables. He wasn't even sure how he
felt about it, only that it seemed as if this was where he'd been heading from the moment he'd
ridden out of Armethalieh. To find out about the High Magick, and then to find a way to use it. If he
were Bonded to Ancaladar he still couldn't quite make himself believe in the idea he'd have the
power he needed to cast the spells. And maybe Jermayan would let him take some of the
Spellbooks with him.
"It doesn't change anything. I still have to go find that place."
"Even if you get turned into a High Mage?" Harrier asked.
"Especially then, I guess. You heard what Idalia said. I know they must have sort of been planning
to do this even before I made up my mind to go, but I think they guessed I would
go somewhere eventually. And they figure I can't survive wherever I go without being able to do
magic."
Harrier thought about that for a while. "So... either it better take us twenty years to get to the
Madiran Desert, or you'd better learn how to be a High Mage really fast."
"I guess."
"Okay." Harrier sighed and seemed to relax. It wasn't that he'd come to a decision Harrier rarely
reached decisions quickly but Tiercel knew that Harrier had known, long before he'd been willing
to admit it to himself, that this was the only decision Tiercel could make: Bond with a dragon. And in
a way, it was a relief for both of them that Tiercel had accepted his...fate.
Tiercel only hoped it was something they could all live with. Literally.
"Do you think there are any leftovers in the kitchen?" Harrier asked. "Because you know I missed
breakfast."
Fifteen A Necessary Sacrifice
ON THE FOLLOWING day, the Elven Court arrived from Githilnamanaranath on the wings of dragons.
Elunyerin and Rilphanifel had come to waken Tiercel and Harrier early that morning, telling them
that there was a sight to see that they would not wish to miss. The boys had dressed and the four
of them gone directly to the stables, where their horses had already been saddled and made ready
for them.
"Don't worry," Elunyerin had said, noting the look of dismay that Harrier could not completely
conceal. "There is breakfast waiting in the saddlebags. But I do not know precisely when they will
arrive there is much to do before tonight and you will not wish to miss this."
"Tonight," Tiercel said. He hoped it didn't sound too much like a question.
"And, it would be good to know, of your courtesy, what it is that is supposed to happen tonight,"
Harrier said.
Rilphanifel glanced at Tiercel, then away. "The Great Spell will be cast at moonrise. Greatfather's
health is too uncertain to wait."
Oh. Tiercel had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He'd thought he was going to have a little
more time to get used to the idea of becoming Ancaladar's new Bondmate, but apparently not.
THEY rode out to the Sunning Terraces, and there, on one of the enormous flat floors of stone, the
two Elves spread out a blanket and unpacked the contents of the saddlebags as the sun rose over
the field.
It must be strange knowing exactly when you're going to die, Tiercel thought. Even though the Elves
hadn't told him much he hadn't seen Jermayan again since the breakfast meal yesterday, and
Idalia had been evasive when he'd pressed her for more information later that day he was pretty
sure he knew what was coming. When King Sandalon cast the Great Spell, he and his dragon
would die. Jermayan would probably die too, though nobody had said so, but Tiercel couldn't
believe that severing the link with Ancaladar would result in anything less.
Two people and a dragon were going to die. And that was just if the spell worked. If it didn't
work...
"I want I need to ask you some questions," he said.
Elunyerin was brewing the water for tea on a small brazier. Tiercel had gotten used to Elven tea in
the last several sennights, but he couldn't say he really liked it.
"The time for questions has passed, Tiercel,"
Rilphanifel said gently.
"No," Tiercel said immediately. "What if What if I want to stop this. Now. I can't do this. I can't let
all of them die just for me."
Rilphanifel bowed his head for just a moment before he spoke. "Tiercel, Greatfather is dying, no
matter what choice you make. Idalia is a great Healer. It was so in her last life, and it is so in this
one. It is her word that he will die before the snows come, and Ancaladar with him. But I think you
would speak of Sandalon Elven-king and Petrivoch, who will also die."
"Yes," Tiercel said tightly.
"Sandalon is our king. I think the stories in human lands do not speak of him, but know this: as a
child, he saw the Elven Lands ravaged by the Endarkened, and his father, Andoreniel, who was
king before him, brought low by the Shadow's Kiss. Along with the other children of the Elven
Lands, he flew to the Fortress of the Crowned Horns upon Ancaladar's back to seek what safety [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]