Eleri Lanfear's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

They reached the valley at dusk. The tear hung in the sky above the battlefield, a broken ring of light rimmed with old stone. It pulled at the air. Eleri felt it drag at her chest even from the cart. Vandoriel sat bound beside Rhydian, pale and silent now that the rift was close. Eleri dismounted and tied her horse. Her husband came to stand beside her. They made camp below the tear, out of its strongest pull. Over the fire Rhydian talked only of the spell. He went over the words again. He asked which of them held the tear still and which pulled. Eleri answered each question. But she waited for him to say something else. One word about after. About the children they might have, the life past this valley. He never came near it. He spoke of the tear and the sorceress and nothing more. The calm between them held, thin as river ice. Eleri could not break it. If she asked whether he wanted a true marriage, and he said no, there would be no taking it back. So she stayed quiet. She stirred the fire and said nothing. Rhydian watched her. "You've been strange for days," he said. "Quiet. You flinch when I touch you." He set down the chronicle. "What is it? Tell me." She looked at the fire, not at him. The words came out small. "I'm carrying your child." For a moment he did not move. Then he crossed the space between them and pulled her up into his arms. He held her hard against his chest. "A child," he said into her hair. "Our child." His voice broke on it. "I wanted this. I want all of it. You. A house. A life after. I just didn't dare say it out loud." Eleri went loose against him. The fear she'd carried for days drained out of her. He wanted her. Not as a piece he'd moved to protect his sister. As a wife. She gripped the back of his cloak and let herself believe it. A dry laugh came from the dark. Vandoriel sat watching from the cart, her bound hands in her lap. "How sweet," she said. "The thief and the keeper's daughter." But the mockery thinned as she studied Eleri. Her pale eyes narrowed. "You should know something, girl. A woman carrying a child burns hotter. The magic feeds on it. You'll be stronger at that tear than you've ever been." Eleri stepped back from Rhydian. She looked up at the broken ring of light. The pull touched her bones. For the first time she did not fear it. "Then we cast at dawn," she said. The calm was gone. In its place was something she could stand on.