Disclaimer: Same as first chapter.
A/N: Well, here she is! Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Garion just stood there. He couldn't believe his eyes: her beautiful long hair, once loose and flowing, now gathered in an elaborate plait down her back, her soft white hands, wrinkled and no longer as soft as they were but still delicate, her eyes ever young and sparkling with merriment. Since that fateful afternoon, which Aunt Pol had insisted upon to tie up loose ends, he had thought never to see her again. He had certainly not heard anything of her since then. And yet Zubrette stood before him, laughing just as she used to. She sat down on a fallen log and patted the soft moss which covered it.
"No one else could look quite so openly surprised at seeing an old friend. Aren't you glad to see me?"
Garion managed to shut his gaping mouth, nodded and sat down next to his childhood love, who added: "I'm very glad to see you. I often dreamed of you, after you left, both times. I never dared to hope we would meet again. I live just a little way to the east. Now I'll ask again: what is the King of Riva doing alone in the middle of a forest?"
The Overlord of the West recovered himself enough to answer: "Don't call me that: just Garion, like you used to. It's wonderful to see you too: I didn't expect to either after we left for the second time." Still overwhelmed by this happy encounter, he didn't quite know how to continue so he fell silent. But after a moment they both asked at the same time: "So what happened to you?" and soon they were both lost in the recounting of their separate lives followed by the whirlwind of shared childhood experiences.
"Do you remember the Cuckoos' Wood and how every year we would each hope to be the first to hear one?"
"Do you remember the glade of violets with the badgers' set in it?"
"Do you remember the field of daisies where the white rabbits always had a burrow?"
"Do you remember the winter the pond froze over? What snowball fights we had!"
"Do you remember you fell in the following summer because your makeshift raft fell apart?"
"Do you remember when Aunt Pol caught us in the barn?"
Zubrette laughed merrily: "That must have been the obvious excuse ever: "Garion was just getting something out of my eye." ". She was thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Garion, I never did pay you for those sweets you had got for me. And as a Sendarian, it goes against the grain to be indebted in any way." She leaned in closer to him.
"Oh Zubrette, that was so long ago. There's no n…mphmph hmmm." They drew apart slightly to catch their breath. Garion tried again, attempting and failing to ignore the feelings that the proximity of Zubrette's still slender body was causing. "You make it very difficult to refummph…" Garion lost himself briefly in the kiss that had haunted many of his youthful dreams but then he pulled away.
"NO! This is wrong!"
"It's only a kiss. Who's to know? Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it!"
"As Aunt Pol once remarked: "Just a kiss? And an even greater foolishness next time?" I don't deny that I did not find it unpleasant but…get OFF! I don't want to hurt you but you do realise that if our roles were reversed you would be well within your rights to be shouting "RAPE!" at the top of your voice by now?" Garion tried to make light of the situation but Zubrette just gazed back at him mournfully and, if he were brutally honest with himself, looking rather like a kicked puppy.
"You say you don't want to hurt me but you are, now even more than before, since now I am sure of your feelings towards me."
Garion could tell that a long and understanding explanation was going to be needed:
"All right. Just hear me out. I know I am trying very hard to ignore my feelings. But there is more at work here than just a man and a woman feeling a mutual attraction. You know what happened after Aunt Pol left Faldor's farm and took me with her? Surely you've heard the stories." Zubrette nodded so Garion ploughed on. "So you know what happened. If we had stayed at Faldor's and Aunt Pol hadn't turned out to be Polgara the Sorceress and I hadn't become Belgarion, then I would have wished for nothing more than to be your husband and spend the rest of my life with you. But that was not an option that was open to us. I expect you have also heard all that has happened concerning my wife and my eldest son. It is entirely possible that if we had got married regardless of anything else, then I would have lost against Torak. There wouldn't have been a world left worth living in. I would still have been the Child of Light and you would have been the Bride of Light. Would you have been able to raise and unite the armies of the West as Ce'Nedra did? Would you have been suited to the hard life on the road and then the rigours of ruling a country?"
He paused. During his speech Zubrette had kept her eyes cast down on her hands that were resting on her lap and now her shoulders slumped in resignation. She shook her pretty head slightly and Garion took her hands in his. "I wouldn't have wanted that sort of life for you. I said as much to Rundorig. You deserved security and certainty. For my part…"
Garion paused again, unsure how to continue. "As a musician, whose hands are bloody from playing all evening, will always, when requested, play one last dance, I will do what is needed to be done to put the world, even the universe, to rights. Though he knows it will bring him great pain, the minstrel will play for joy. The joy he will get from playing beautiful music to the best of his ability, the joy the dancers will get from dancing one more time, the joy he feels when his music brings joy to others. Seldom have I experienced such a wrenching feeling as when I feigned for Rundorig's sake that my feelings for you were no more than strong friendship. To force my eyes to lie to you in that glance we exchanged is one of the hardest things I have ever done. And yet it was not a complete falsehood. Friendship, affection even, I was allowed and I accepted it. We had both found a different love, even if I did not quite realise it at the time. But loving Ce'Nedra doesn't mean that I loved you less than I did when we were children. As Aunt Pol's father remarked: "We have a great capacity to love. Just because we love one person doesn't mean we love the other person less." You will always be like a sister to me."
He stopped then because Zubrette had taken his chin in her delicate hand and was looking deep into his eyes:
"You are right." She gave a small laugh. "You were always right: you were always the thinker, the sensible one in our group, although your aunt might not agree with me on that point." With that, Garion's protests that she had always been the one with the ideas for games were silenced and he grinned back. "If we were a body then Rundorig would have been the flesh that makes it up, Doroon would have been the energy to make it move and I would be the heart that makes it live. But you would be the brain to stop the body from destroying itself through madness."
Garion looked thoughtful about this idea and she added playfully: "You're not the only one who can think in metaphors!"
Garion smiled: "But the brain left and the heart had to grow wiser. Then the energy also moved away but energy can be found in many different shapes and forms. The main components survived…"
"And more. My family has grown and I cannot say that I am unhappy with my life. It could have been a lot worse. But I couldn't help but wonder how, if, it would, could, have been better. However…" Zubrette's face lit up: "I've always wanted a brother."
Garion's expression was just as impish: "Come to think of it, I've never had a sister before."
His new "sister" stood up: "Well then, brother dear, you had better walk me home. It is getting dark and you never know what untrustworthy people your little sister might meet on her way back home alone."
He laughed and took her arm. They went on, discussing many more childhood reminiscences they had in common. As the sun set, the couple walked arm in arm along the road 'til they came to the welcoming little cottage where Zubrette had raised a family, where Rundorig had died and where the man she now considered her brother, at least for one night, supped and slept. For the first time in years his sleep was deep and peaceful, untroubled by nightmares he could never remember. What had begun when he had learned of Adara's identity was now complete: the child within him, who he had been and which was at the centre of his being, would never again be lonely.
A/N: Nearly done, just a few loose ends to tie up. The little blue button you have been looking for is just below. Go on, press it, you know you want to!