7th Day of Fireseek, 565 CY
The Brass Dragon Inn, Furyondy
Everyone gaped at the wizard.
"What?" said Aslan softly.
"What?" he repeated, actually yelling in anger and taking a step towards Cygnus before checking himself. "You lied?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice down. "You lied to us all?"
Cygnus looked bemusedly at the paladin.
"Telepathic enemy, Aslan. Think about it. You know there was no other option. And besides," Cygnus continued, eyeing Aslan critically now, "why are you sore? You're the only one here who didn't want me to give him the scroll!"
"Did you think I would approve of deceit, Cygnus? Did you?" Aslan strode over and jabbed his finger into the wizard's chest. The wizard stepped back a foot, glaring at the paladin now. Thorin clung to his father's robes in fear.
"You acted unilaterally, Cygnus!" Aslan went on. "All of us combined are stronger than any one of us alone. Don't you trust us, dammit?" Not knowing what else to do, the paladin actually stamped his foot in frustration. "Why did you do it?"
Cygnus' face went cold. "I'm sorry you don't approve of my actions, Aslan. But after all," and here he turned to Talass with a wry grin, "we wizards are a manipulative lot, aren't we?"
If the mage was hoping for support from the cleric, he didn't get it. Talass looked hurt. She felt hurt. She had thought that she and Cygnus had shared something that night out on the plains, and that maybe she understood him just a little better now. Obviously she didn't. She fixed him with her worst glare and had the small satisfaction of seeing him frown and look down to the floor. "And just when did you decide on this course of action, Cygnus?" asked Talass quietly.
His gaze came back up to meet hers. It was cold again.
"Sometime on the ride back to the Brass Dragon. I knew if I just gave Nodyath the scroll, he'd come back later, kidnap someone else, and demand something else from the chest. Again, I'm sorry, but I saw no other option, and if I had explained my plan, and you hadn't been able to come up with a better one, we'd have been dead in the water. And you," and here he turned back to the paladin, "if it makes you feel any better Aslan, you almost had me convinced during my speech yesterday. But then you had to go bringing up Hyzenthlay, didn't you?"
The magic-user's face began to redden with anger as he looked from Aslan to Argo. "Let's all get Cygnus here to do what we want by bringing up his wife! She's not here to defend him! She's..."
He choked up, unable to continue. Thorin was hugging his father around his waist now, crying softly.
Aslan seemed to deflate inside his plate mail. He looked at the wizard sadly, shaking his head.
"I don't know, Cygnus. I thought we were a team, a family, and all the better for being one." He looked lost. "I never thought you would manipulate us like that."
He turned and walked out of the inn. Mirage followed at his heels.
Everyone watched him go in silence. The Sir Dorbin party exchanged embarrassed glances and awkward silences. Elrohir, unable to think of the right thing to say, concerned himself with his son Barahir, who appeared about ready to start crying himself. Caroline held her husband's hand in hers. Argo looked solemnly from the door to his wife, but said nothing. Tojo stood apart some distance. His stance was as impassive as always, but his eyes betrayed emotion within that he would not reveal. Tadoa busied himself with cleaning up mugs and flagons from the tables. Talass waited a little bit, then slowly walked right up to Cygnus.
"Listen to me, Cygnus. You have to go after him."
The wizard turned to her. "Look, Talass, Aslan's not going to-"
The cleric cut him off. "No, you're right. Aslan's not going to turn away from us. He's a paladin, and he's our friend. He'd sooner die than leave us to our fate. But that's not the point. If we're all going to plan for the worst, as you yourself suggested, we can't have any unfinished business between us beforehand. Especially not from Aslan, because without him functioning at one hundred percent, we have no chance at all against Nodyath. Zero. None. So it doesn't really matter who's at fault here. Go and get him back- now!"
Cygnus and Talass glared at each other for a few seconds, then the mage looked down at his son, who had just stopped crying again. "Listen to me, Thorin," Cygnus said softly. "I want you to stay here with the others. I want you to tell them everything that you remember from the first time you saw Nodyath. Where he kept you, anything he said. Any of that could be a vital clue. Do you understand?"
Thorin, his face streaked with tear tracks, nodded soberly. Cygnus gave him a small smile. "Good boy."
He walked slowly towards the inn door, pulled it open, and walked out into the hailstorm.
For just once, Cygnus wished that he could wear armor. Those hailstones hurt! He tucked his head low and ran for Aslan's house. He sincerely hoped that the paladin had not locked his door. Using a knock spell to gain admittance would probably not be the best way to start things off, he thought ruefully.
The door was unlocked, thankfully. Cygnus slowly pushed it open and walked in, closing it behind him. Aslan's cabin had a much lower roof than the inn, and a flat one at that. The mage was surprised at how loud and unsettling the hailstorm sounded in here.
Aslan was in the bedroom of his spartan, two room cabin. He was sitting hunched over on the edge of his bed, playing with Mirage, who kept licking his master's face. The paladin had removed his helm and gauntlets and put them beside him on the mattress. He glanced up at Cygnus as he came in, then returned his attention to his wardog. Cygnus slowly sat down on the bed, a few feet from Aslan.
They both studied Mirage for a while.
Aslan sighed and spoke first. "I don't know who shocked me more today, Cygnus. You, or my counterpart."
Cygnus had to speak a little louder than he wanted to, due to the noise of the hail bouncing off the roof. "How did he shock you?"
The paladin seemed to grope for the words. "He was just so- unlike me- and yet- something about him seemed familiar- or could have been familiar, or- I don't know." He glanced over to the wizard. "I know what Nodyath is capable of, and that scares me. I'm the way I am today because of three influences in my early life; my mother, my calling, and my Talent. Something tells me Nodyath only has had one of those." His expression was grim. "Be thankful you've never had to meet your counterpart, Cygnus."
The magic-user nodded. "I am. He's probably some power-crazed, manipulative bastard. Not at all the lovable wizard that I am." Cygnus raised an eyebrow at Aslan, but didn't get the smile he had hoped for. He fell silent again.
"Nodyath said that you were a coward, and that children deserve better than that," Aslan mused. "I wonder what he meant by that?"
Cygnus shrugged. "Maybe his parents were cowards. I don't know. Tell it to a bard and put it to music, as my father would say. Life is tough." He gazed at the silver holy symbol, dyed blue, of an eye that hung from a peg on the cabin wall. "Which do you think is worse, Aslan; to be a coward, or to be an individualist?" He looked back at the paladin, who eyed him critically.
Aslan didn't hesitate. "To be cowardly is a flaw, Cygnus, but no one chooses that path deliberately."
The paladin returned his attention to scratching Mirage's ears. Cygnus studied the floorstones intently. After a silence that swiftly grew from uncomfortable to painful, Aslan spoke up again, with a question.
"Tell me, Cygnus, are you glad that we've retired?" The wizard didn't hesitate on that one.
"Yes. Absolutely. I admit, I didn't expect enemies, both old and new, to come out of the woodwork like they have, but if we can get through this, I'll be very happy indeed."
"We have a chance to do so, Cygnus, but let's do it together from now on, okay?" Aslan looked at his friend intently.
The mage sighed. "All right, Aslan. That sounds fair. I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would upset you this much. You know, Argo is much worse about going off on his own than I am. Why don't you get on his case more about that?"
"I'm working on him," the paladin replied. But it will help my cause if I have you as a convert first."
Cygnus grimaced and fingered one of Aslan's gauntlets.
"Tell me the truth, Cygnus," said Aslan. "Do you think your exploding runes will kill Nodyath?"
"I don't know. They might, but I fear that may be wishful thinking," the wizard replied.
"He has friends, you know," said the paladin grimly.
"Who?"
"Nodyath. That's what he's been doing this past week. Gathering contacts, making allies and deals..."
Cygnus peered over at Aslan. "How do you know?"
Aslan shrugged. "It's what I would do. Besides," he said, "Remember that summons he fooled us all with? In the Lord Mayor's own handwriting, sealed with his own personal seal? Nodyath just doesn't strike me as the master forger type."
Cygnus said nothing but nodded his agreement. Aslan continued.
"If he takes that scroll to some wizard-"
The mage interrupted. "I put a spell on it to remove any sign of the runes. That should be good for at least a week. And unless he knows a lot more about arcane magic than he's let on, I'll bet he can't resist sneaking a peek at it first. At least, I hope so."
Aslan eyed him soberly. "And if he does? A miss is as good as a mile with my- I mean his healing powers. I wish I could be be sure about whether or not your spell will do the trick."
Cygnus smiled. "Well, you are his counterpart, Aslan. I could always set the spell off on you. That'd tell us. If it kills you, we're in good shape."
The paladin gazed at the wizard, and slowly a rather weak smile appeared on his face.
"Don't make me detect evil on you, Cygnus."
The magic-user picked up Aslan's gauntlet and pantomimed slapping him with it, then put it down and stood up. "Come on, my friend. We have to find yet another miracle that we need to pull out of our asses, in order to save our little family."
Aslan stood up and began to put on his gauntlets and helm again. "Out of our asses, huh?" he grumbled. "No wonder it hurts so much if I sit down for too long."