Eleri Lanfear's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

The ride back to Rossmore took three days. Eleri rode beside Rhydian, the valley and its closed rift behind them. The sky was only sky now. No one chased them. No sorceress walked at their backs. For the first time in weeks, Eleri let herself think about the life waiting at the castle. Rhydian reached over and took her hand. "Home," he said. She nodded. But home held Senara, who had every reason to hate her. The first weeks were cold. Eleri ate at the long table and felt Senara watching her. They passed in the halls without words. Eleri had guarded the stolen chronicle. Rhydian had torn their houses apart over it. Senara remembered all of it. One morning Eleri found her alone in the yard, checking a saddle strap. Eleri made herself walk over. "I want to help," she said. "With the stores. The accounts. Anything." Senara did not look up. "You kept the key," she said. "I know what you kept." Then she walked away. Eleri did not stop trying. She counted grain. She mended torn banners. When a fever swept the servants' quarters, she carried broth up the stairs herself, her hand resting on the growing curve of her belly. Senara saw it. She said nothing, but the next day she handed Eleri a ledger. "The west stores. Count them. Don't lie to me." Eleri counted them twice. The numbers were true, and she said so. Months passed. The bump grew round and heavy under Eleri's dress. One evening she sat in the hall, both hands cradling the curve, tired from the stairs. Senara came and sat across from her. For a while neither spoke. Then Senara said, "My brother is a fool. But he chose well, once." Eleri looked up. "He told me you saved his debt," Eleri said. "That you paid for all his mistakes." Senara shrugged. "Someone had to." A small, dry smile. "He's your fool now." Eleri laughed. It surprised them both. Senara reached across and laid her palm flat on the bump. The baby kicked against her hand. Senara's eyes went wide. "It moves," she said. "Of course it moves," Eleri said. They sat like that a long moment, the fire low, the hall quiet. Something had changed. The cold between them was gone. "Stay," Senara said at last. "You belong in this house now. I was wrong to make you earn it." Eleri felt tears sting her eyes. She had wanted this more than she knew. A sister. A place. "Thank you," she said. Rhydian found them there later, heads bent together over the ledger, Senara pointing at a false sum some steward had slipped past them. He stopped in the doorway and smiled. Eleri looked up at her husband and knew the house had finally opened to her. She was a Murray now, in truth, and the child would be born into welcome.