Chapter 18 #2
That had made sense as much as anything had.
Seeing Fiona turn back time in Artemis’ ziggurat had been unbelievable.
If she could do that, Ryder was in agreement with Charlie that she could get them back.
But if they had to remain in this time and live to the present…
well, they would figure that out, too. But he sensed that couldn’t be the case.
They would have revealed themselves at some point.
Wouldn’t they? Thinking about time travel truly made his head hurt. He hoped it was easier on Fiona.
Each of them had been dropped off at another level of the tower with him, Khos and Grayson being given the topmost quarters.
Khos had already ensconced himself on the foot of the bed, looking at him with big eyes that begged him not to send him off.
Ryder stepped inside and Grayson actually giggled.
“What?” Ryder asked.
“I’m just reminded of the human custom of carrying one’s bride over the threshold,” Grayson admitted.
Ryder smiled down at him. “That is very appropriate, I think.”
“I don’t know. Our ‘wedding’ in Lasting left a few things to be desired,” Grayson dryly responded.
“The honeymoon will have to make up for it,” Ryder said and carried Grayson to the bed.
He gently laid Grayson down upon it. Khos shifted so that his head rested on Grayson’s legs, keeping him warm.
Though his beloved was claiming that he was “perfectly fine” and that his “strength was returning” and that he could “do things for himself”, Grayson almost immediately sank into the bedding with a sigh and his eyelids fluttered shut.
Ryder pulled his boots off and set them down on the ground by the side of the bed.
He grasped a blanket that lay across the foot of the bed and lightly put it over Grayson’s already sleeping form.
Khos gave a snort and closed his eyes too.
A sleeping Childe and a sleeping Dire Wolf.
That was definitely what every Weryn Vampire needed.
“Do fledgling sleep this much?” Ryder found himself asked Eyros.
Eyros had come up softly behind him and was gazing down at Grayson and Khos while Elgar hovered in the doorway.
It took a moment for Ryder to realize that Elgar was afraid of him.
He desperately wanted to grab Eyros and leg it out of the room.
Sadness gripped him. While the Eyros Vampires might have been shocked at seeing Ashyr, Wyvern and Mirryr in their midst, the truth was that they would have been terrified of seeing him.
Weryn. The Butcher. No longer the Soldier.
“Every fledgling is different,” Eyros answered. “And I can imagine that one of us being turned would be different still. I don’t think anything is wrong if that’s what you’re worried about. He is peaceful. But he’s gone through quite a lot.”
Ryder nodded.
“He used Kaly’s gift, you know? In the hallway?” Eyros asked.
Ryder nodded again. “Fiona couldn’t turn things all the way back. I have a feeling that she needs to be close enough to the moment to do it so he got some Kaly blood.”
“But he received more of your blood, Weryn, so… there’s that.” Eyros’ hands lifted then fell. “I wonder if he’ll have all three gifts in the end.”
“You don’t sound too happy about my blood being inside of him. Is it just as bad as Kaly blood in your mind?” Ryder asked a touch bitterly, but then before Eyros could answer he held up a hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t blame you for saying that or feeling it. I feel it too.”
“Kaly knew how to destroy us,” Eyros said quietly. “I thought I knew all of our weaknesses, but they truly understood us even better. Played us like a master conductor in the end.”
“Maybe beyond that, too. You and Grayson now both are connected to him,” Ryder said.
“Kaly sliced themself into pieces, because of grief at Daemon’s loss and perhaps because they feared that Daemon loved them least of all.
So they set up a test for us to prove just how unworthy we were of that love.
But when that didn’t work in the end, they linked themselves to all of us so that–”
“Then Daemon would love them?” Eyros shook his head and pinched the top of his nose. “Well, I can see it! Unfortunately, I can see that quite clearly. But it’s absurd, you know?”
“Yes and… no,” Ryder said. “Because now you have a connection to Kaly you didn’t have before and so will Grayson.”
“An unwilling connection,” Eyros hissed and began to pace.
“Maybe at first, but not in the end.” Ryder tucked the blanket more around Grayson. “And I think it’s helped things actually. Between all of us. Made us more connected to each other and to Daemon.”
“That sounds so bloody sweet! But when is Weryn sweet? When is Eyros sweet? And when in all the dark worlds is Kaly sweet?!” Eyros stopped his pacing and faced Ryder with a heaving chest. “They aren’t. We aren’t. And how we get there from here is not sweet in any way.”
Ryder’s eyes flickered to Elgar who stared anxiously at his Master. Elgar who clearly would do anything to spare Eyros one moment of this misery.
“Elgar,” Ryder began, “would you mind bringing me some blood wine? I need to start restoring myself so that I can feed Grayson.”
“Yes, but… Master, you should come with me.” Elgar reached out to Eyros.
Eyros’ left eye twitched, but he swallowed and smiled. “No, no, I should stay here for a moment. I will follow after you in a bit. No worries.”
“But, Master–”
“Elgar, what have we talked about in terms of your following my commands? You’re making me look bad in front of Weryn,” Eyros chuckled sadly.
“Of course, Master, I will do as you say,” Elgar answered with great and evident reluctance. He stared hard at Ryder. “I will be back very shortly.”
Ryder smiled wanly at him. “I’m sure.”
The threat was made. Both he and Eyros watched as Elgar turned and hurried away. Both of them let out breaths when he was gone.
“You know what happens to him, don’t you? I saw it in Wyvern’s mind, but you know too!” Eyros stuck a finger in his face.
Ryder stared at it then focused on Eyros’ eyes. “I do know. I’m not sure how it all goes down, but you’re in some big battle, which you…”
“Lose! I LOSE!” Eyros hissed. The pacing had begun again. “And Elgar, watching me fall, grasps my dead body to himself and digs into the earth to remain there for how long?”
“I’m not quite sure. But a very long time even for us,” Ryder agreed.
“What about the people here? What happens to them?” Eyros asked.
“Some of them must survive as there are Eyros Vampires in the future even without you and Elgar playing any active role,” Ryder said.
“How does this happen? How do I die? Why am I in Solace? I’m not going to Solace!” Eyros stuck a finger into the air this time. “I am not going anywhere! So that is not going to happen! I’m not going to fall in battle! Elgar is not going to go mad and become–become–what he becomes! Not for me!”
“Obviously, I am imprisoned in a soul gem so I don’t know what happened to you. Who it was or how it happened. I only am thankful that it wasn’t me who did it,” Ryder said then he grimaced.
“What? What are you thinking?” Eyros demanded to know.
Considering he could just read Ryder’s mind and know it was rather sweet of him not to. “Legion.”
“Legion? Oh… that… ah…” Eyros’ mouth twisted with disgust, but also there was a touch of sympathy in his eyes. Legion was more Ryder’s monster than anyone else’s.
“I gave them their final hunt, but they are still alive now,” Ryder said quietly. “It’s like I can’t get away from them.”
“You think Legion will find me?” Eyros hissed. “You think Legion is strong enough to kill me?” He slammed a hand against the center of his chest. “Not possible!”
But Legion was able to trick Weryn. They had worked long with Roan to take out the others, too. So would it be that hard to imagine that they wouldn’t play some role in Eyros’ demise? No.
“The group we met are refugees from the future,” Ryder said slowly. “You killed another Artemis in the future so this must be a slice of him.” His head hurt just thinking about it. “There might be others. Roans and Artemises and whoever else. Legion will be with one of them.”
“But not connected to these refugees, right? So then even though I helped you the ones of this time won’t know so it will be fine.” Eyros almost looked pleased.
“Ah, maybe. If they aren’t working together then yes. I’m not sure. Grayson tried to explain it based upon what Artemis said to him. But I didn’t want to press it as he was so drained,” Ryder explained.
“And you were running for your lives. So there’s that.” Eyros ran a hand through his hair. “Have I made a mistake letting you in here?”
Ryder’s head lowered. “I don’t know.”
Eyros shook himself. “Well, it’s done! If it is a mistake then it is what it is.”
“Eyros…” Ryder reached out to him then lowered his hand.
“I know that I can never apologize enough to make up for what I’ve done, but I…
” He let his head drop. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry. You’ve no idea…
It scares me what I did. What I am inside.
Deep inside. What I can be pushed to do and what I embraced within myself. ”
“Saying sorry for slaughtering so many of my people, trying to kill me, is a little trite, Weryn,” Eyros said.
Ryder’s shoulders curled forward. “I know.”
There was a long silence. “But you do mean it. And you weren’t wholly yourself.
Or something. We all did things…” Eyros paused again and said, “Wyvern and I used to laugh together. Have these long discussions that would last nights. Drinking so much blood wine that I couldn’t bear the taste any longer.
But I didn’t want the conversation to stop.
But, in the end, as the War raged, I stopped speaking to her.
I stopped trusting her. I cut her off and then she was cut down. ”
He was staring out the balcony door. His expression was so bleak that it robbed Ryder of any words he might have spoken.
He rose from the bed and gently placed a hand on Eyros’ shoulder.
Eyros shivered, but allowed it. After a moment, he covered Ryder’s hand with his own much like he had done with Fiona.
“Seeyr foresaw all this, didn’t she? All of our pettiness. All of our betrayals. The depths to which we would sink,” Eyros breathed.
“And she suffered for it as a captive of Kaly in the Spire. They took her eyes. I don’t know that they will ever come back,” Ryder said quietly.
Eyros gave a shudder. “Well, then I can’t say that she planned a future where she got off easy either, can I? Hard to be angry at an eyeless woman.”
“She chose the one path where Daemon would come back to find his fledgling and we would return to him perhaps closer to the people we should have been,” Ryder said.
“Do you feel that? That you’re more worthy than you were?” Eyros’ lips were curled into a half smile. “Because all I sense from you is shame. That’s not something I thought you were capable of feeling.”
“I allowed the beast within to reign supreme and used it against us. Not enemies. My brothers and sisters and their children. I need to remember that wrong so that I don’t allow it to happen again,” Ryder explained.
“People want me to forgive myself, to let the past go, and maybe someday I will. But what I’ve come to have some peace with is that I can use what happened as a lesson–a very hard lesson–for what can happen if I am not exquisitely careful. ”
Eyros nodded after that. “You know, we’re predators.
Apex predators. We’re not supposed to be all civilized all the time.
Yet the War… I don’t know. I never thought there could be too much blood spilt, but now I do.
” He swallowed. “And Daemon has revealed our existence to the humans? Is he courting another war?”
Ryder sighed. “It was going to happen eventually anyways. Humanity’s technology was simply making hiding from them forever untenable. Better to make it our choice to be out rather than the alternative.”
“Master, I have brought the blood wine,” Elgar said.
Elgar gracefully walked into the room with a silver tray.
On it was a large decanter of ruby red blood wine and a single glass.
Grayson could not drink it. He could only drink from Ryder.
That both thrilled him and worried him. Grayson was very independent.
Maybe for Immortals it would be different than for normal Vampires, but he longed to feed and sustain Grayson.
It would be an act of love and devotion.
Elgar set the tray down on a side table by the bed silently.
Eyros went over to his Childe and ruffled his hair. Elgar smiled sweetly in return. The Immortal turned towards Ryder once more.
“I don’t know if I’m capable of forgiveness, Weryn, any more than I am worthy of it myself. But I will tell you my enmity towards you… Well, it is not as it once was,” Eyros admitted. “But I still wish you and the others to leave as soon as possible.”
Ryder nodded. He understood. “I hope we have not brought you more trouble.”
“What’s done,” Eyros sighed, “is done.”