“With the additional perk that neither of us is important,” Iliana added earnestly.“You’re Lady El-Adrel.”
“That’s right,” Jadren agreed, jumping on that option.“Let Han or Iliana be test subjects.I’d be fine with that.”
“Jadren.”She gave him a meaningful frown.
“What?”he demanded, pale skin flushing with flags of color on his cheekbones.He thrust a hand at the young couple.“They’re risk takers and they don’t have anything to live for but each other.They’re the perfect volunteers.”
“Jadren,” Selly gasped, appalled by his callousness.
“Or let Nic do it,” he continued, not at all chastened.“She wants to be a wizard so badly.”
“No,” Gabriel said with quiet authority, backed the mantling silver and water magic in the air, a rumble of thunder outside.Nic laid a hand on his forearm.
“It has to be me for two other reasons,” Selly told Jadren.
“Oh, I can’t wait to hear these,” he snarled at her.
“Then sit down, be rational, and I’ll explain,” she replied with extreme calm, very glad she’d practiced this in the mirror.
Jadren looked about, as if surprised to find himself standing.Cillian reached up and patted Jadren’s shoulder.“Sit and listen,” he advised.
Somehow Cillian got through and Jadren sat, looking bewildered.“Why?”he asked Seliah, almost plaintively.
She’d known this would hurt him, but she also knew with profound certainty that this was the way it had to go.“First of all, Han and Iliana, while absolutely and solidly members of House Phel, they are not of the Phel bloodline.I am.We don’t know how much of our current coincidence of events are a product of those started decades or centuries ago, but it seems clear that Gabriel and I were born as the result of a deliberate effort to rejuvenate House Phel and the Phel family.”
Gabriel’s black gaze met hers somberly, the dark streak in his silver hair startling.He’d been through a great deal to reestablish their house.Now it was her turn.He dipped his chin in acknowledgement and she smiled back gratefully.
“All my life, I’ve been the problem child,” she continued, transferring her gaze to Jadren and willing him tolisten.“The wild girl, the crazy one who had to be tied up for her own safety.I have to believe that I am more than that troubled girl.And that I am more than your familiar and lover and lady, Jadren.I love being those things, but I don’t want the history books to have me as some kind of footnote saying, ‘oh, and Seliah Phel was there, too.’Finally,” she said forcefully, as Jadren opened his mouth to argue, “I believe I’m meant to do this.House El-Adrel told me.”
That stopped whatever he’d been about to say.“The house told you,” he echoed with dripping sarcasm.“When was that conversation, do tell.”
“That day in the courtyard she made for us,” Selly answered, giving him a moment to assimilate that.“The peaches on the espaliered trees meant that message was for me, too.”
“You don’t know—”
“Idoknow, Jadren,” she interrupted.“And you do, too, if you’ll get over your fear for me and just give it a moment’s thought.The other way I know is that the sculpture in the center, remember?That was Anciela Phel and that gazehound was her familiar.”She let the shock that whitened Jadren’s face settle in, nodding for Cillian to slide the document he’d decoded to Jadren, more than grateful that Cillian had recognized its importance and shared it with her.Numbly, Jadren picked it up and gazed at it with unseeing eyes.
“Anciela’s familiar was a woman named Deana Phel, whose alternate form was a gazehound,” Selly explained for the benefit of the group.“They were lovers and beloved to one another.Cillian found the story in one of the peach harvest pamphlets, one of the odd ones that mentioned the seasons in strange ways,” she added to Gabriel, who nodded thoughtfully.“Anciela wrote it in a different way from all her other notes.It’s more of a story.Even a love letter.I think she wanted us—whoever eventually decoded her work—to understand why she sacrificed so much to this project.She devoted her life to finding a way to help Deana become a wizard also.”
“So romantic,” Iliana breathed, then elbowed Han in a most unromantic way.“And I was right!Remember how I predicted this?”
“I remember,” Han replied with warm affection.
Selly met and held Jadren’s bleak gaze.He understood now.He didn’t like it, but he wouldn’t fight her.“The house was telling me,” she said softly.“She was letting me know that I’m like Deana.I’m the gazehound, beloved by her wizard.I’m the espaliered peach tree, distorted into an unnatural form for most of my life.It’s time for me to play my part in this.”
It seemed that everyone around the table held their breath.Nic cocked her head to the side slightly, and smiled at Selly.Beautiful, full-figured Nic, who’d told Selly the story of the princess locked in the tower.Selly’s first friend and now sister.Nic understood.
“It’s funny,” Nic commented, stroking Gabriel’s forearm, “how we always reference the saga of Sylus and Lyndella as the great wizard/familiar tragic romance, but the story of Anciela and Deana is truly about love and sacrifice in its purest form.”
“Maybe Seliah will write the novel someday,” Alise commented.“A new story to guide a new Convocation.”
Selly smiled at her.“I like that idea.”
“You won’t be writing anything if this experiment kills you,” Jadren said, his voice grating harshly.
“It won’t kill me,” she answered him softly.“At worst it won’t work.If I’m harmed, you can put me back together.”
“You’re asking a lot,” Jadren replied, so coldly that her stomach clenched.
