“I saw that.Silenceandstillness, please.”
To his surprise, Cillian found himself taking her hand and, along with it, her offered comfort.He wasn’t accustomed to having close friends, or really any friends at all.He’d never minded that, as he’d always felt comfortable in the company of books and the pursuit of his various studies.When the whole Szarina debacle had gone down, he’d lost the few friends among the staff and faculty that he’d had.Or, rather, they’d proved themselves to be the sort of fair-weather acquaintances that distanced themselves from his scandal, rather than offering support.
Now, the simple gesture of Seliah holding his hand made him feel like the person he used to be had dissolved and been reassembled into someone else.Someone who had a friend to sit by his side.Friends who’d inexplicably arrived to… rescue them?
Surely not, because it would’ve been impossible for Jadren and Seliah to know they needed rescue.And yet, it would be more improbable that they’d just happened to be here at this place and time.A thousand questions tumbled into his mouth, but he closed his lips firmly to keep them from escaping.Jadren’s magic clicked cleanly and brightly, fed by waves of Seliah’s fresh, purely silver water and moon magic.
Gradually, Alise regained color, her skin losing that distressing waxy translucence, her shallow breathing deepening into sleep.Cillian started to reach for her, but Seliah tightened her grip on his hand, preventing the movement.Silently, she shook her head at him, mouthing “not yet.”
Apparently she was not only offering comfort but acting as a leash to restrain him.Just as well, he supposed.After another long, nearly unendurable moment, Jadren sat back, releasing Seliah’s hand and removing the other from Alise, briskly rubbing them together.
“All right, I’ve put her wizardry back together.She sure did shred herself though.I’m not sure she’d have been able to recover, the way she pulled her sorcery apart at the seams.She just needs to sleep it off now.Good thing I was here, though.”
“And so modest, too,” Seliah commented drily, though her affection showed on her face.
“I’m a wizard of many fine qualities, it’s true.But what in the dark arts were you two doing?”He held up a hand to stop Cillian.“Never mind.You can tell the story once we’re away from here.”Giving the broken-down Harahel carriage a jaundiced squint, he shook his head.“That carriage looks like Baby Elal’s magic felt.Good thing we brought the big carriage.”
“Told you,” Seliah said, uncoiling gracefully to her feet.“I’ll grab your things while you reassure yourself that Alise is all right.Come on, Lord El-Adrel.Make yourself useful.”
“I just did,” he complained, but he followed suit.
Cillian crawled back to Alise, taking her hand and wrapping it in both of his.She did appear to be sleeping more or less normally, her lovely face drawn, but no longer a frightening mask of her impending death.He truly had nearly lost her, yet again, and this time forever.He brushed the hair away from her eyes—her fringe of bangs was growing long—and feathered a kiss over her unresponsive, but warm lips.
“I love you, Alise,” he whispered, wishing he’d said the words to her more often and at the same time knowing mere words didn’t encompass the breadth and depth of his immense feelings for her.
“Cillian?”Seliah said, summoning his attention.“I think we’ve got everything.You might want to check though.A few things are so sullied with hunter goo I think we’re better off just ditching them.
“Agreed.”Jadren cocked his head in a listening pose.“Also, your pursuers may be at it again.Whatever you two did to slow or stop them, they’re amassing serious power to blow through it.”
“Alise did, not me,” he corrected automatically.“She altered the border barrier to prevent anyone from coming after.”
Jadren whistled, low and long.“Impressive feat.Too bad the hunters slipped through anyway.All the more reason to go now.”
Seliah and Jadren had already stowed everything in the El-Adrel carriage, as shiny new as the Harahel carriage had been antique.“I put the really befouled stuff that seemed valuable in the boot,” Seliah explained, watching as Jadren and Cillian lifted Alise between them.Slight and delicately built as Alise was, they didn’t want to risk jostling her too much.
“You could have ditched them,” Cillian told Seliah.
She shrugged.“It wasn’t a big deal.Besides, you know I’m not bookish and I didn’t want to be the one to accidently lose the sole remaining copy of some priceless tome.”
“That sounds like something you would do,” Jadren commented, stepping backward up into the carriage.“We can lay Alise on this seat, if you don’t mind squishing in with us on the other.”
Cillian looked at himself, then at the not-nearly so befouled, but still far from clean Alise.“Why don’t I sit with Alise and spare you two the mess?”he suggested, moving to lift Alise’s head and scoot under her so her head rested in his lap.The interior looked as shiny new as the exterior, all done in black and gold leather.Cillian thought certainly he’d never ridden in such a luxurious conveyance, not even the Elal one Alise had appropriated from Convocation Academy when they fled from there in the middle of the night.Come to think of it, he and Alise had spent an unreasonable amount of their time together fleeing from one danger or another.
That needed to change.But not until they’d finished out this mission.Just change the entire social structure of the Convocation was all.Then they could settle down and figure out what they really wanted from their lives and each other.
The carriage moved into smooth and speedy motion, the almost frictionless glide almost a shock after the beleaguered springs and missing wheels of the old Harahel carriage.Jadren sprawled in the corner of the opposite bench, his hand affectionately resting on Seliah’s thigh.
He stroked his close-cropped beard, looking Cillian over with sharp eyes.“You do look like shit,” he commented.“Ow!”He rubbed the ribs where Seliah had elbowed him sharply.“He does.They do.”
“It’s not kind to say so.Cillian melted a dozen hunters,” she informed Jadren.“And liberated Alise from House Elal, singlehandedly, I might add.Something you failed to do.”
“Only because I wasprevented,” Jadren snarled at her, squeezing her thigh.“Which you know full well.”
She patted that hand.“I do know.Weren’t we on the way there to do that very thing?”
“You were?”Cillian blurted.Of course they had been.He rubbed his aching head.He’d used up most of his magic freezing the hunters so he could melt them and wasn’t thinking at all straight.“That’s why you’re here.”
“Yes.”Seliah gave Jadren some sort of warning look that Cillian couldn’t interpret.“We were traveling to House Elal to, ah, discuss the Alise situation, when we ran across you.”
