He said this so warmly, curling a strand of her hair around his fingers, that she was lost to words for a moment, and then recovered herself with a few long kisses. None of which would make the problem of accidental commands go away, but certainly reminded her that he had reasons for facing that risk.
"I was very glad to wake with you this morning."
Illidian knew, of course, what she meant. "And perhaps it is time for me to stop running from the merest possibility of hurting you?"
"I think it’s useful to remember that you have never hurt me." She curled her fingers through his, and kissed one blunted fingertip. "You know your own limits better than I. I was just glad to wake with you." She glanced up at him, smiled a little grimly, and added: "Yesterday I had a very different waking. It perhaps should have occurred to me that if someone or something was kidnapping powerful mages, my Wicked Uncle was very much a likely target. He’d been trapped here for at least a month."
The husband holding her so carefully became a man of steel and wire, then took a steadying breath and listened without comment as she told him of the decisions she had made. Choices that complicated the Kellian’s future, especially if Rennyn and Sebastian died without children.
But, typically of Illidian, his response was only: "Do you feel that you have put him behind you now?"
"I…don’t know. But I think I’ve changed the shape of how I feel into something more manageable. Do you—what choice would you have made?"
"I would prefer him dead. But I, too, would not have killed a man bound and helpless. Much as I would like to pretend he is not a man. I most certainly prefer you free."
"How did you manage to find me?"
He told her, at least up to the point where he said: "We would not have reached it in time if Kendall had not held it open—"
"What?"
"I wondered if that was an issue. Meniar is certain that Kendall extended the duration of this Walk. Having read your guide on learning to cast Thought Magic, it seemed to me this was a step beyond the exercises you had permitted."
"Abstract casting, yes. A travel casting like that isn’t something you just…hold, although it may have felt like that to her."
"And so Kendall has now entered the stage of becoming a Thought Mage where you recommend days of quiet meditation and rigorously controlled exercises?"
"That’s certainly the ideal. I presume Fallon has had a crisis of his own?"
Illidian explained reason for the muting spell. "When Meniar set divinations to monitor his sleep, the boy did not hide his relief."
"An enchantment only active while he’s sleeping might explain it isn’t obvious to me. I’ll have to sit by him without the noise of the wards and divinations and so forth, to see what I can sense. But since he appears to be stable, I think this morning had better be devoted to rescuing mages. Or at least stopping further abductions."
He nodded, finished relating the details of their rediscovery of her, and then took her back to the small camp. Nothing had changed whatsoever about the fact that she had accidentally commanded him, and was all too likely to do so again during their life together. She would continue to hate the thought, to try to find a way of preventing her control…and yet, perhaps no longer blame herself quite so much.
Only Lieutenant Meniar and Dezart Samarin had joined the waking world, and she smiled a greeting, then noticed the bare skin visible above the top button of the Kolan’s coat.
"Do I owe you a shirt, Dezart Samarin?"
"A small exchange, if you happen to be able to point me to my missing mages."
"Point, yes. Extricating them is going to be a formidable challenge, however, though the ones I saw were at least still alive."
Whatever this place was, it was time to start dealing with it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kendall, tramping through endless dream forests, heard a familiar voice and woke with a start, then bit her lip on the little noise that burst out of her at the sight of Rennyn, awake and wearing a long-suffering expression as she was poked and prodded by Lieutenant Meniar. She looked as calmly herself as if it was any other morning, and just smiled at Kendall, and then at Sukata and the Pest. It was still early, barely past dawn, and cold enough to be glad someone had built up the fire.
"The immediate concern is infection in the feet," Lieutenant Meniar was saying. "I used the strongest scours and cleanses I know on them, and I think I’ve arrested what was present—along with giving them the tiniest hurry-along in the healing process. Since we’ve limited supplies, and I’m not seeing discharge, for now I just want you to stay off them."
"I think I’ve done enough walking for a while," Rennyn said. "You’re not generous with your pain suppression, Lieutenant."
"Full relief just encourages people to damage themselves more," he said. "I remember when Keste broke an arm…" He trailed off, glancing south unhappily.
"I expect Lieutenant Faral will be at the forefront of any search party," Rennyn said, which was an easy bet. None of the Kellian liked when they didn’t know where their mages were, even if they didn’t have a high opinion of them generally. And Kendall was fairly sure Lieutenant Faral liked her partner a bit more than that.
"I’ve tried communicating, of course," Lieutenant Meniar went on. "But I’m guessing we’re four to eight days' travel from the Rest, so chances are high that my message-waft won’t reach them—not to mention I had to write it on a dried leaf. I didn’t want to try one of the more power-hungry workings until I knew what I’d need here." He shrugged, then prodded at one of the purplish patches on Rennyn’s wrists. "Do these hurt? The only thing I’ve seen like them are spider bites, but I couldn’t divine a poison and…well, I certainly hope you weren’t bitten as often as this suggests."
"Not bites," Rennyn said. "It does hurt, but only a little, and it’s part of the larger problem we have to overcome."
"So stop just sitting there and get on with explanations," Kendall put in irritably.
Rennyn only laughed at the interruption, but then she did explain, and Kendall could only listen in complete disbelief to a story that started with waking imprisoned in the same room as the demon prince. And instead of sensibly killing him, exactly as they’d all set out to do, Rennyn had wasted her energy putting a spell on him. And then just let him walk off.
"But…" Kendall said, trying not to sputter. "But you had to kill him to break the miscasting! How…why?!"
Rennyn shrugged. "I found I would rather spend my time tired than be a person who kills helpless prisoners. Even hateful ones. Besides, to be strictly pragmatic, I doubt I would have managed to get out of that place without putting him to use." She glanced up at Captain Faille. "I can still work on trying to rid myself of the miscasting, which I certainly couldn’t do while dead or pinned to a wall."
Captain Faille didn’t say anything. He had probably been really looking forward to killing Rennyn’s monster uncle.
His Imperial Smugness Samarin had been staring out over the little islands where there was supposedly some hidden cellar, but turned back to ask: "Do you believe you’ve neutralised Prince Helecho as a threat?"
"For the moment. He will find it very hard to break the Ban I put on him—harder even than what he did to me, since mine was no miscasting, and the symbol I used very powerful." Rennyn absently touched the red line cut into her neck. "He remains a superlative mage, and do no harm is broad enough that he might manage considerable mischief about the edges, but I think the rapid adaptation forced on him during his captivity is as much a force as my casting. The Eferum may well have become dangerous to him as a result."