Making subtle adjustments, I altered the now complete mirror, working as quickly as I could before the vividness of my memory was gone. Stepping back, I studied what I had done, pleased with the result. I hope she likes it, if not this might upset her even more.
Chapter 16
Though I had anticipated Cyhan’s arrival the day of the festival, he managed to outdo himself and arrive very late the evening before that. Coincidentally, it also led to a lot of work on the part of those at the castle who were responsible for feeding and welcoming our soldiers back. No one complained though, at least not aloud. Well, perhaps that wasn’t true after all, I have little idea what may have been said in places out of my earshot.
What the servants didn’t know, however, is that I wouldn’t have punished them for their negative sentiments. In fact I was a bit irritated myself, though I knew it was irrational. They had returned because I had commanded it, and they returned at the time they did because they had pushed themselves to the limit to return as soon as humanly possible.
Rationality can go fling itself into a fire! I told myself silently, in response to those more reasonable thoughts. “They could have taken their damn sweet time and gotten here a day or two later!” I opined in a loud and entirely unsavory voice, as I dressed hastily.
“Quit complaining and go, before you wake up the children,” Penny hissed at me in the dark.
“If the damn pounding on the door a minute ago didn’t waken, them my swearing won’t do it!” I responded at a somewhat quieter volume.
Penny didn’t respond to that remark, but with my magesight I could see her glaring at me in the dark. Sometimes my gift is less of a blessing and more of a curse. My better sense finally got the upper hand, and I shut up and left the room to make my way to the hall that joined our house to the apartment in Cameron Castle. Along the way I managed to get my trousers up far enough that I wasn’t in danger of exposing myself.
Reaching the door I flung it open. “Give me a damn moment to get dressed, and I’ll be right along!” I said without preamble. I was surprised to find Elaine standing next to the footman that guarded my outer door. Her eyes widened at the sight of me, and her cheeks flushed. I was too many years beyond puberty to be embarrassed. “Never seen a man without a shirt on before?” I barked in annoyance, “I thought you had a brother at home.”
She put her hand up over her mouth to hide her amusement. “You are ‘not’ my brother,” she replied, belatedly adding, “… Your Excellency.”
I stared at her for a moment, before shutting the door a bit abruptly. I’m far too old for this sort of silliness, I thought, as I tromped back to finish dressing myself. A second thought followed quickly after it, No you aren’t. “And that is exactly the sort of stupidity that will get you in trouble,” I responded aloud to my inner-renegade.
“What sort of stupidity?” asked Penny mildly from the direction of the bed.
“I was just chiding myself for being too angry,” I said quickly. Someday I will learn to keep my mouth closed until my better sense catches up with me.
Pulling a large over-tunic on, I left the room before I could say anything else stupid in my sleep-addled state. Elaine and a second footman followed me from my door and down to meet our returning soldiers. As we walked, a thought occurred to me, “Why do you happen to be up at this hour Elaine? I wouldn’t expect you to be dressed and ready to greet anyone this late at night.” She was still wearing the same dress she had had on at dinner, several hours earlier.
She paused for a moment, obviously uncertain how to reply, “I went to the room you and Father showed me. I was experimenting with the viewing windows, to make sure I would remember where everything was if the need arose later. I saw them arriving at the city gate before the news reached the castle.”
That explained a half an hour perhaps, but it wouldn’t have kept her up this late. “Studying the enchantments we used to create the window portals?” I said, guessing. Her reaction was all the answer I needed to know I had hit the mark.
She nodded.
“I’ll be happy to teach the pattern to you, and your father already knows it as well,” I offered. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed about it.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly, but it was still obvious that she wasn’t revealing what was really on her mind.
We kept walking, and after a moment I spoke again, “Why don’t you just spit out whatever it is that you’re thinking.”
“How do you do it?” she blurted out suddenly, “How do you keep creating these enchantments?”
I sighed, “I had some advantages. I found a book detailing enchantments used by wizards in the past. I know I’ve told you this before…”
“No,” she interrupted, “Father said you figured out the basics before you found the book.”
“Those were very crude enchantments, and I was lucky that I didn’t kill myself experimenting. Most of what I learned came from the book I found,” I said, hoping to put her off.
“One of your early enchantments was the rune channel you put on your staff,” she said, pointing at the pouch that I stored my staff and other cumbersome tools in… a pouch that was also the result of a clever enchantment. “Yet despite what you learned in that book, you saw no need to improve or replace it.”
I had actually decided that my design was slightly better than the example of a rune channel found in the book, for mine included the adaptability of being able to store a temporary spell, such as a light, within the enchantment. “It was a good design,” I answered, “sometimes even fools get lucky.” Elaine stopped walking and her brow furrowed. Was she angry? She rarely showed that side of her personality to me, unlike her poor father.
“I’ve studied every enchantment you showed me. I’ve looked at that book that you claim taught you,” she began, speaking slowly, “and I barely understand the designs, even after you explain them to me. Every day you seem to come up with some new innovation. You’re a better enchanter than whoever wrote that book you keep pointing to for explanations.”
I gave her my best roguish grin, “I won’t deny that I may have a natural talent.” Her serious expression told me she wasn’t buying my story.
“Where is it coming from?” she asked suddenly, “Moira Centyr? Is she still hiding in the shadows, whispering the secrets of the ages in your ear?”
A cold sensation passed over me, for I knew, without a doubt, where the knowledge originated. “You are the heir of Illeniel’s Doom. The sin of our progenitor has passed to you, along with the betrayal of his heir. Illeniel’s Promise remains unfulfilled and must remain so, my son. We share the same burden; the guilt of generations, still refusing to pay our debt, for the cost is too high.”
I could hear Jaryd Illeniel’s voice in my mind, remembering his words as clearly as if he had spoken them just a day before, yet I was sure he had died at least a generation before Balinthor threatened to destroy all of humankind. With that memory, came the realization that I also remembered the man who had first taught him those words, Dalyn Illeniel, Jaryd’s father. The memory, and the words, stretched back within me, through a line of fathers and sons, unbroken until it reached the source… the first Illeniel.
“The man who destroyed my people and who set me on the path that has led me now to you, his great grandson many times removed. Did you think you descended from some noble line? The man was a murderer a thousand times over.” Mal’goroth’s words echoed in my head, as I remembered our meeting shortly before I finished massacring the army of Gododdin.