“I considered taking you from Ney, regardless of your wish to stay. You almost saw the wyvern then, ready to swoop away withyou.”
“I shame myself and my grandfather’s devotion by admitting I was tempted to say yes when you asked me to go withyou.”
Alaric stroked her arm. “But you stayed anyway. There’s no shame there. You honor Angus. You stayed for your family. I left formine.”
He’d led to the question she’d wanted to ask for almost a decade. “What happened? Where did you go? You never fully explained it to me, only that your kinsmen neededyou.”
“That was a half-truth.” He flinched at her frown. “This enchantment I wear, it’s taxing and requires great strength to hold it for long periods. When I met you, I’d already worn the guise of a man, uninterrupted, for four months. I knew I’d have to change back to my true form while I could still control it. Transforming from man to wyvern in the middle of a human village unexpectedly wouldn’t bode well forme.”
That last made her shudder. Had such a thing happened, he’d have sent the villagers screaming and running into the woods in terror. But not all. Ney rightfully boasted of brave men—good hunters and seasoned fighters who wouldn’t flee but instead, find the nearest crossbow or javelin with which to kill thebeast.
“The stuff of nightmares,” she said and hugged him more tightly to her. He kissed her forehead. “But that isn’t what kept you away so long. Tell me of those who neededyou.”
“My brethren rarely fly these skies. Our lands are in a far country, one very different from here. With those strange beasts I told you about and others like them. We were struck by a plague. Wyverns dying in mid-flight from some unknown sickness, eggs never hatching, their shells consumed by a black rot. It took our young first, and then the oldguardians.”
Plague. The hairs at her nape rose. Every person’s worst fear. Death came on silent feet and without warning. It held no code of honor, taking the young, the weak, and the old first. The greatest warriors couldn’t vanquish a foe that made no stand but passed nameless and unseen in thestreets.
“What wasit?”
He shrugged. “We never found out. A council was called to discuss what to do.” That same horror making her skin crawl softened his voice. “So few of us left. The pestilence had killed a good half our number, probablymore.”
“I’m so sorry,Alaric.”
His handsome features were drawn; his eyes darkened to the color rain clouds. “The plague burned itself out eventually, but not before killing nearly all ouryoung.”
She stroked his face. “Such suffering. Humans have dealt with plagues as well. Families destroyed, children buried. I assumed you’d forgotten me when you left. After dealing with such tragedy, I can see why youmight.”
She squeaked in protest when Alaric crushed her to him. His brows lowered in a scowl, though he loosened his grip. “Never. You flow through my blood like the magic I wield. I came back to Ney, Beth, three years later, but you and Angus were gone. Daldan, the blacksmith, said you’d moved south. I searched but never found you. Too many villages and none knew of a red-headed fiddleplayer.”
Elsbeth’s soul soared. He’d returned for her! Made the journey to Ney once more to seek her out. How strange that it was when her faith in his professed love for her had been at its lowest. She kept that to herself. “I rarely played then, only for my grandfather when he asked. I hadn’t the desire at thetime.”
“And how is the old dragonslayer?”
The post coital languor had vanished with Alaric’s telling of the wyvern plague, but Elsbeth had only wanted to hold him closer, grateful he had not succumbed to the disease, grateful she’d been given this blessing of a chance to reunite with him. His inquiry after Angus served to remind her that this joy was on someone else’s borrowedtime.
Alaric’s eyes narrowed at her silence. “Beth?”
She took a breath, hoping her voice didn’t warble with the threat of tears. “He’s dying, Alaric. It will be an unexpected boon of merciful gods if he’s still alive when I return toByderside.”
He went rigid against her, every muscle tense. Elsbeth stared at him, surprised by the sudden change. His mouth thinned to a tight line. He stared at the cave’s ceiling for several minutes, and it was she who puzzled over his silence this time. “Alaric?”
She gasped when he suddenly rolled onto her, the gasp smothered under an onslaught of frantic kisses. She sank into him, opening her mouth to welcome his tongue, stroking his inreturn.
Alaric slowly lightened the kiss, nibbled the corners of her mouth before raising his head. “Why didn’t you tell me beforenow?”
Elsbeth ran her fingers through his silky hair. “Because you were Alaric the wyvern before now, and I knew you as nothing else. What interest would you take in my life beyond my music and what inspires it?” She smiled. “Besides, were you me, wouldn’t you be cautious about singing the exploits and praises of someone who wears the hide of a relative, distant though it may be?” He didn’t return her smile, only gazed at her with a troubled expression. Her smile faded as well. “What’swrong?”
Alaric sighed before rolling off her and rising to his feet. Elsbeth gasped. Gods, what a beautiful man. She shook her head. Orwyvern.
He held out a hand to help her up. “Let’s get dressed. I want to show you something. Proof of mercifulgods.”
He tookher back to the roofless cavern. Night had fallen since they’d made love in Alaric’s lair, and the space was doused in shadows. Above them, the dome of bright stars glimmered, reminding her of Maldoza itself with its sparkling of tiny rocks imbedded in its pockedfaçade.
Alaric raised his hands and breathed on his fingertips. Captured moonlight, white and cold, spread from his hands. It passed along the floor, trickling along the rocks like the underground spring. Shadows fled to the corners, leaving the high silhouettes of birds sleeping in crevices in their wake. Elsbeth sucked in a small breath. Here in the blue glaze of mage-light and stars, Alaric’s sculpted profile was ethereal,peaceful.
He turned at her soft exclamation. “What?”
She smiled. “You’ve the look of a man well satisfied and content with hisworld.”
