~ Chapter 17 ~
No one was in the sitting room when Keli returned, not that she expected them to be up since she preferred to bathe late at night when the bathing room was empty. Quickly she changed into a nightgown and curled up next to her fire in her room with a thick blanket over her lap and her feet tucked underneath her.
It would probably be no more than two weeks before Tris would be back on the road again. After that it would a year before she saw him again. Two weeks to act.
Keli was normally patient but she did not want to wait an entire year to resolve this limbo. Whether he saw her only as a friend or as a potential lover, she wanted to know.
Her biggest problem was a total lack of romantic experience. She hadn't even read romance novels.
:Kenyon, do you have any suggestions?: Keli asked hopefully.
:You could try for the direct approach.: Kenyon suggested.
:What do I say?: Keli pleaded.
:That is up to you, little Empress.: Kenyon said.
Keli grimaced. Sometimes Keli really wished Kenyon was female.
:I resent that.: Kenyon laughed in her mind.
:Well, I do. Girl talk and all that.: Keli felt Kenyon's amusement.
:You could talk to Solaris.: He suggested helpfully.
Keli shook her head even though she knew he could not see her. :Don't go there. She already ambushed me in the bath.: Keli wrapped the blanket tighter about her to ward of the winter cold. :I don't want to make him uncomfortable.:
:It is all up to you.: Kenyon reminded her.
:I know.: Keli sighed.
An odd thumping sound caught her attention. "Who's there?"
"Just me." Tris called back.
Keli abandoned her chair and went to investigate. He was using the wall as a crutch as he hopped along.
"Are you trying to go some where? The healers said you were to stay off that leg." Keli scolded then blushed when she realised she was nagging. "I'm sorry, it's your choice."
"Thanks. I was going to get a book." Tristen explained.
"You could have asked for help." Keli reminded him. "Do you have any preferences?"
"I'm sorry for waking you." Tristen apologized. "I have no preference in books, just something to read."
"You didn't wake me. I was just thinking." Keli chose a few books off the shelf. "Are you in pain?"
"No, I'm just not tired," Tris couldn't stop staring at her. The nightgown she wore was dark read, long, silky and revealed her figure perfectly and was held up by only two thin straps at her shoulders.
"Are you alright?" Keli asked with concern, "Perhaps I should call for a Healer."
"I'm fine," Tris accepted the books and was about to start the return journey when he realised the wall was now on the wrong side. "Damn. I didn't think this through completely."
Keli realised his predicament, "Here, let me help."
With Keli's help he managed to get back to his room and into his bed.
"Call if you need help." Keli reminded him as she was leaving.
"I'll move to the Healer's tomorrow. There is no sense in me putting you out." Tristen said as he tried to get comfortable.
Keli turned and eyed him for a second. "There is no need. I truly don't mind. Unless you want to."
"I know you have a busy schedule, you don't need the added stress of an injured guest."
Keli suddenly grinned knowingly, "You hate the Healers. It is sweet of you to offer."
"How did you know I hate the Healer's?"
"You just thought it." Keli returned to her room. "I would like you to stay."
:She did warn you once that she occasionally heard thoughts through shields.: Caewen reminded him.
:I wonder what else she sensed.: Tristen thought worriedly.
~*~
Keli didn't see Tris again till the next evening.
"Do you normally have such a long day?" Tris asked as she entered.
"Normally I stop in several times during the day but today I was playing catch up with my classes." Keli sank into a chair. "Skif also had to give me a set of nice round bruises. Kerowyn said to tell you that she expects you there in three days."
Tris grimaced, "I should have expected it."
"Did you see the Healers today?" Keli asked as she pulled off her boots and rubbed her aching feet.
"Yes, they have sworn the cast will come off in the morning thanks to your healing spell." Tristen reported.
"I got it from you." Keli said honestly.
"You did?" Tristen said in surprise.
"I didn't know any. I hope you don't mind." Keli searched his face for any sign he resented the intrusion into his memories.
"No, of course I don't." Tristen responded honestly. "If you hadn't who knows where I would be."
"I didn't poke around if that is what you are worried about. You were a little out of it at the time but you remembered it when I asked you to." Keli bit her lip when she realised she was babbling.
"I wasn't worried about that," Tris assured her.
"Have you eaten?" Keli asked, changing the subject.
"Yes. Fyn brought something a while ago." Tristen gestured to the empty tray sitting on the table.
"Good." Keli stood and stretched then paused and demanded, "Who are you?"
Tris struggled to look around but saw no one. "Is someone in here?"
Keli looked at Tris then back at a spot on the wall. "Damn, he's gone."
"What did you see?" Tristen asked worried, still studying the spot she had been staring.
"A tall dark man. He was staring at me." Keli rubbed her temples. "Oh dear."
Tris watched helplessly as she staggered and grabbed a chair for support.
"Sia!" He struggled to get to his feet and nearly slid off the couch in the process.
"I'm fine, just dizzy." Keli assured him as she sank into the chair.
"What's wrong?" He asked as he righted himself.
"It's that man again. I have seen him three times now. Each time I see him I get dizzy." Keli explained.
Tristen frowned in concern. "What does he look like?"
"Tall and dark. I can't tell you more. Every time I get dizzy and forget." Keli said helplessly.
"You should go to a Healer." Tristen suggested.
"I am not going mad." Keli assured him.
"I never thought you were." Tristen assured her. "When have you seen him?"
"The first time I remember seeing him was when I first returned to Haven while I was guarding Selenay. The second time was just before Elspeth asked me to work with the mages. Now this time."
"Was there anything in common with any of the other two situations?"
Keli shook her head. "Nothing. I am sorry, but I can't think of anything. It was different times of day and everything. I only remember I commented on him then."
"Does anyone have any ideas who he is?"
Keli shook her head. Her color was slowly returning to her face. "I can't find any mention of anything like him in any of the books."
"Are the dizzy spells getting worse?" Tristen asked, trying to think of a possible cause and falling.
Keli shook her head slowly as she recalled the previous occasions. "No, they seem about the same."
"Perhaps if you kept a written note of the occasions that he appears you could find a pattern." Tris suggested.
Keli considered this for a moment. "I think that is an excellent idea. If you'll excuse me."
Keli hurried to her desk and pulled out a piece of paper. As she was sitting to write the diary from Rodry caught her eye. She hesitated only a moment. If she was going to keep a record it may as well be of the entire events of what brought her here.
Keli opened the leather bound book to the first page and dated it.
Contained in these pages is the truth, which is far stranger than any fiction you could read, for I am the last Herald. I know it sounds odd, but I was born over seven hundred years in the future, in the year 2097after founding and while I am Herald Kelisiaori now, then I was Princess Kelisiaori and for a very brief time the uncrowned Empress of the Empire of Valdemar…
"Keli!" Fyn burst into the apartment sometime later with a small harp in her arms.
Keli immerged from her room wiping her ink stained fingers on a cloth. "How were your music lessons?"
"Listen to this?" Keli sat on the ottoman and played a string of five notes.
"Impressive." Keli said honestly, she didn't have a clue what strings to use to make even one sound so Fyn's accomplishment after only one day was very impressive.
Fyn nodded. "What did you think Tristen?"
"You must be a fast learner." Tristen said, dutifully impressed.
Fyn beamed and ran into her room to practice.
"I think she has already fallen in love with music." Keli commented.
"You must have found a great deal to write, you have been in there for over a candlemark." Trsiten commented as he strained to see her standing behind him.
"I decided to write down an accounting of who I am and why I am here as well." Keli confessed as she moved around to sit in the chair. "Might as well go all the way."
"Will you let me read it?" Tristen asked, hoping it would help him understand her better.
"Perhaps some day." Keli hedged.
The sound of the same five notes played over and over drifted out of Fyn's room.
Keli smiled bemusedly. "I should have made that soundproofing spell earlier."
~*~
Tris tested his arm after it was free from the heavy plaster.
"You were lucky Herald Keli knew that Healing spell otherwise there would have been nerve damage." The Healer said as she examined the arm.
"I would also be stuck in those casts trying to reach itches that are just out of reach." Tris stood. "I am just glad they are off."
"I would say 'try to keep in one piece' but since you are a Herald there is little point of that." The Healer said dryly.
Tristen laughed. "I will still try my best."
"If you feel any weakness in that leg or arm come back and we'll take a look at it again." The healer reminded him as she shooed him out of the room.
He resolved that his first stop was a bath as hot as he could stand. He had made do with just washing up for the past few days and was almost ready to climb out of his skin. He hurried across the courtyard to the Herald's Wing and the waiting tubs.
"Tris!" A very familiar voice haled him as he crossed the snow packed courtyard.
"Kev! Fyn said you were coming." Tris smiled and gave his brother a back pounding hug.
"I thought you were out on Circuit." Kevyn said with some confusion.
"There was a bit of an accident. Sia had to come to me rescue." Tristen explained.
"What happened?" Kevyn demanded.
"I was chasing some bandits on a mountain trail when the path gave out. I landed on a ledge a ways down the cliff. Keli climbed down the cliff to reach me even though she is scared to death of heights." Tristen explained.
Kevyn wasn't pleased with his bare bones answer. "How did she get there?"
"Magic. She is a phenomenal mage." Tristen explained and changed the subject. "Fyn is eager to show you what she can do with Honey."
"I was just going to stop by and see her." Kevyn said as they resumed the path to the Herald's Wing.
"She's in classes right now," Tris warned, "The best time to find either of them is late evening."
"I wanted to talk to Fyn without Keli around." Kevyn said neutrally.
"Why?" Tristen asked with a confused look.
"Keli obviously has no time for Fyn. In her letters she said she has been taking classes with students nearly twice her age. I think she would be better off living with me." Kevyn defended.
Tris laughed, the last response his brother expected. "Fyn adores her classes and would have a fit if you tried to take her away from Sia. They have become closer than sisters. Fyn is certainly not being neglected."
"If she only sees Keli for a candlemark every night she is obviously not being supervised." Kevyn said humourlessly.
"You don't stand a chance," Tris warned.
At Kevyn's instance they did stop by Fyn and Keli's rooms and by luck found Fyn between classes and collecting her new harp.
"Hey Kevyn," she greeted them after she barely missed colliding with them, "I told you he was coming."
"Careful or you'll drop your harp." Tris warned.
"Did you hear me playing last night? I played that with no help." Fyn beamed.
"I heard," Tris smiled. Fyn had played well into the night, he hoped for Keli's sake that she learned more today."
"Fyn, may I speak with you?" Kevyn interrupted.
"I have to get to class." Fyn shook her head.
"It will be quick." Kevyn assured her. "How would you like to come live with me?"
"No. I am going to stay with Keli. She is my family now, and you never leave family." Fyn said and started back out the door but was stopped as Keli entered.
"Hey Tris, nice to see you are walking again," Keli said as she entered and hurried to her room, "Nice to see you again Kevyn. Impling, you better get going."
"I will. Kevyn wants me to live with him, I told him we are family." Fyn said.
Keli stopped and glared at the Lord, "You don't stop, do you?"
"A child needs more than just to see you for a few minutes every day." Kevyn said hotly.
"As you said in your last insulting letter." Keli returned. "As far as I am concerned Fyn is my sister and I would rather cut off my own arm than let any harm come to her."
Fyn stationed herself between Keli and Kevyn and glared at Kevyn. "You see we are family. You can't take Keli away from me."
"If you are through, please leave," Keli said calmly.
Kevyn turned on his heel and stormed away.
"I am certain he doesn't mean to insult you," Tris defended his brother.
Keli didn't answer him, "You better get going Imp." Keli placed a kiss on Fyn's head.
A bell rang to reinforce Keli's warning.
"Bye!" Fyn charged from the room, harp in hand.
When Keli was certain Fyn was gone she turned to Tris. "He writes me at least twice a month offering to take her when she gets to be too much for me."
"That is hardly something to get angry about." Tristen defended his brother.
"He tried to bribe me into giving her to him," Keli continued, "I am tired of defending myself to him."
"He just wants what is best for Fyn." Tristen protested.
"Does he? I get the feeling it is me he is worried about. I know he doesn't trust me farther than he can throw a piano." Keli crossed her arms over her chest. It was obvious that she was not going to be cajoled into forgiving Kevyn for his imagined insults.
"How can you know that?" Tris felt his temper rising.
Keli stormed into her room and returned with a bundle of letters, all bearing Kevyn's seal. She thrust them into his hands. "This is how I know."
"He wants Fyn to be happy." Tristen took the letters but never even glanced at them.
"That is not what those letters say. Each one belittles my ability to care for her, insinuates that when I grow tired of her he is willing to take her, and many offer outright bribery." Keli said pointing at the letters.
"You are reading things into them," Tris accused.
Keli's eyes went as cold as chips of ice. Tris found himself being forced backwards across the floor to the door, once outside the door slammed in his face.
Tris had reached his own quarters before he realised he still held the letters. He tossed them on the bed and ignored them.
:Keli is wrong, Kev would never do something like that.: He complained to Caewen. :He was just trying to offer Fyn an option to Haven.:
:Why don't you read the letters and find out for yourself?: Caewen suggested neutrally.
Tris, still angry, blocked her out.
Meanwhile, Keli had flopped back onto a chair still seething with rage but outwardly she looked calm and collected. If Kevyn tried taking Fyn he would find himself a toad very quickly.
:Perhaps it isn't you he distrusts, but what you are?: Kenyon suggested.
:What? A Herald?: Keli asked bitterly.
:No, a beautiful woman.: Kenyon said calmly. :Perhaps he thinks you are fickle and that you are only keeping Fyn around until you tire of her.:
:I would never do something like that!: Keli protested.
:He doesn't think that obviously.: Kenyon pointed out patiently.
:I am a Herald, no Herald would act so selfishly.: Keli still raged.
:Feelings are rarely logical, as you are well aware.: Kenyon said. :Elspeth is looking for you.:
:Tell her I'll meet her in a moment. I need to cool down a little.: Keli responded.
:Good idea, in this mood you are likely to boil the river and melt the snow.: Kenyon said with a bit of humor.