A/N: Sorry for making you wait. Both my brother and I use tablets to do our writing. The problem is that there's only one keyboard; mine. So my brother uses the digital one on his tablet. You'd be amazed at how many typing errors this causes and at how frustrating editing suddenly becomes. I let him borrow my keyboard the other day. This may happen again in the days to come.
Anyway, all of that aside - enjoy this chapter! And please excuse any spelling errors; my spell checker is currently asleep.
Einion was sitting next to his wife, the curtains drawn back from the bed. She was getting worse, weaker as time went by and her injuries remained unhealed. He felt helpless and useless. How was he supposed to tell his beloved wife that he had failed to kill Hitomi? Right now he didn't have to though; she was unconscious and oblivious to him and the world. He looked at her pale face and wanted to weep. Einion took her hand in his own and was scared by how cold it felt. He yelled for the doctor, who came running in immediately. They kicked Einion out of the room and went to work.
Einion paced in the hallway for what felt to him like years, shooting anxious, terrified glances at the heavy, carved, dark red door. Eventually it opened again and the doctor stepped out.
"I'm sorry My Lord, but she doesn't have very long left." They told him, "Even if we could figure out and fix whatever is stopping her from healing..." They trailed off, shaking their head and gave Einion a sad, apologetic look.
They left after that, leaving him standing there in shock. If Enfys was so far gone then that meant the only thing keeping her alive at the moment was the Pairbond. His world seemed to tilt and spin crazily about him and he couldn't make it stop
I need help. He thought dizzily.
That night several of the family Elders stood in the room behind him as he held his dying wife's hand. They waited patiently for him to talk. Enfys still hadn't woken up.
"I promised her..." He finally said quietly, then more loudly, "I promised her that I would get revenge for her. I can't kill the one who did this to her because it was Prince Ainmire. However his daughter, Lady Hitomi has been ordered executed by our king. My beloved Enfys has been made to suffer. A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye and a life for a life. When we get Lady Hitomi I want her life. I will make her suffer as my Enfys has suffered. Do any of you object?"
None of them did and all of them promised to hand Hitomi over when the time came. They began making plans.
Art and Aifric sat holding each other as they watched the scene with Einion and the other Elders unfold. There were several in that room that they had called friends for a very long time. Aifric clung closer to Art; she could feel him trembling, his breathing too controlled as he tried to quell his emotions. It seemed that he was going to have to kill friends as well as old enemies.
He didn't know how he was going to face Aifric afterwards.
Gwenda watched, careful not to be seen, while Ruadhan was told by Aodh - who had been present for it - about the meeting with Einion. She had been keeping an eye on him for years; Aodh had something on him that was letting the Elder keep Ruadhan under his thumb. Gwenda had no idea what it was, but had come to the point where it no longer mattered. Things were coming to a head and she was old enough and wise enough to realize that he was likely going to die.
If he survived it would be nothing short of a miracle.
A few hours later and Ruadhan and Gwenda's roles were reversed. They were out amid the mountains that kept the River Clan hidden. She stood below him, waiting for someone, as he leaned himself between two massive stones; his back to one and his feet against the opposite. He had an affinity for the Earth energy field, which meant that he could effect and manipulate mass, density, gravity, magnetism and - to a limited degree - time.
Put simply; holding the position that he was in was easy and he knew on a subconscious level what was coming. His power was why he had been adopted into the Dana family in the first place. People had been vying to control him since before he had taken the surname and he had gotten fed up with it all long before he had met Gwenda. The day that Art had sat in front of the throne, eating his lunch, and told the Ministers and Elders that they could keep arguing while he ate was the day that Ruadhan had realized Art was a king worth following. So he had declared that day to all those who sought to control him who he would follow by having his lunch as well.
None of them had been happy; Art was not - and still wasn't - a weak king. They all knew this and were furious that Ruadhan had aligned himself with him. Ruadhan, for his part, had been surprised by how well he got along with his king over the years. But, then again, the two of them could usually get along with most people, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.
Ruadhan frowned when he heard a man coming up the path and tried not to jump to conclusions.
Despite where he had wedged himself (the sun should have had him clearly out lined) the person culdn't see Ruadhan. This was because Ruadhan was using a gravity lens to bend light around himself. It meant that he couldn't see anything (at all; it was like being completely blind), but Ruadhan had learnt to compensate when he did this. In fact, some fine-tuning allowed him to hear what was being said outside of the bubble, though it came through distorted and took a little concentration to understand. The fine-tuning, unfortunately, also left a tell-tale distortion outlining him and anything on him that stuck out enough (his nose, for example). If either the man or Gwenda had looked closely they likely would have spotted him. Both were distracted though. Gwenda, by whatever had her so agitated and the man by Gwenda.
Rudhan listened as she asked the man to deliver something and he asked what it said. This told Ruadhan that it was most likely a message of some sort. Gwenda quickly shushed the man, telling him that she may have been followed.
Yeah, Ruadhan thought dryly, By myself and an assassin that - thankfully - the Spirit of the Mountain decided it didn't like and buried under a landslide after dropping them off of a cliff.
Many of the most prominent Human cultures believed that things like mountains were just static objects. Then there were the smart ones who realized that some 'natural phenomenon' were very deliberate on the part of the land. Those of the River Clan could see and communicate with the Spirits. An individual's affinity for the energy fields (Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire) effected how well they could see or hear a particular Spirit. In Rudhan's case he could hear and see the mountain Spirit as well as he could hear or see anyone. It was why he had backed off of killing the assassin, giving himself just enough time to get away before being buried alive. He was just grateful that the Spirit had noticed him as well and warned him to get out of the way.
An assassin going after Gwenda was, unfortunately, normal. There were many elders who wanted to isolate the Queen and her closest confidant was a good target. Afterall, they could then replace Gwenda with someone of their choosing and thereby exert influence over the Queen, who would influence the King. It was an overly elaborate way to try and control Art... That would never, ever work. Someone, however, was apparently too stupid to realize this. As a result Ruadhan had been left with two options. One) tell Gwenda about the attempts on her life and leave her constantly terrified, or two) deal with them himself and let her be afraid and creeped out by him alone. He had picked the latter option.
Gwenda's rendevous retreated down the path. Ruadhan waited patiently for the other man to be far enough away before he was going to reveal himself. Since the path she had taken was now buried by a landslide Gwenda would need to be shown another way back. Knowing that she was about to be thoroughly creeped out - and probably scared (again) - by him he released the gravity lens and realigned the Earth field. The Spirits in the two boulders he had wedged himself between thanked him and he gave a polite response before jumping down to land lightly behind Gwenda.
Bad timing meant that she wasn't facing him and jumped half out of her skin when she turned around and did see him. His senses - especially his vision - were still a little off so he stood still and waited for them to return to normal. It took a few minutes. When they did and he tried to coax her into going with him he failed abissmaly. He wasn't overly surprised.
Gwenda insisted on going back the way she had come and did exactly that. Ruadhan walked with her silently since talking casually would have been just as creepy. When they came to the landslide and she realized that he had been telling the truth Gwenda couldn't help but wonder if he had caused it. She didn't dare ask.
Ruadhan silently escorted her back home via a different route and wished that his relationship - if it could even be called that - with her weren't so creepy and messed up. He had no idea that she knew about his situation with Aodh, or that she knew he had been saving her life almost since she had arrived. Gwenda wished that her relationship - if it qualified as such - with him weren't so creepy and messed up.
A/N: Well, hope that was worth the late update. PLEASE review! I'd really, really appreciate it!
