Chapter Twenty-One #4
“I am Fey, Your Majesty. Despite my recent actions, I am a warrior of honor. I confess that I used magic to manipulate the thoughts, actions, and memories of Colum diSebourne. He is wed by Celierian custom to my shei’tani, my soul’s other half.
By your laws, she belongs to him, but her soul was created by the gods to complete my own, as mine was created to complete hers.
After Your Majesty’s judgment this summer, I believed that Celieria’s refusal to recognize the will of the gods justified the breaking of your mortal laws. I was wrong.”
Now he turned his gaze back to Talisa, and continued in a softer, more penitent tone. “My actions have subjected my mate to shame and condemnation and thus I have dishonored myself. I have brought shame to my line, my shei’tani, my king, and my brother Fey.”
Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. ?Adrial…no. Oh, no, beloved, you haven’t shamed me. What I did, I did by my own choice, because I loved you and I always will.?
His lips trembled before he clamped them together and turned his attention swiftly back to the king. “King Dorian of Celieria, this Fey does most humbly beg your forgiveness. He has acted without honor and proven himself unworthy of the great gift the gods bestowed upon him.”
?Adrial!?
King Dorian leaned forward. “Ser vel Arquinas, you understand what you’re saying? You understand that the price of your transgressions is death?”
Adrial’s jaw clenched. “This Fey understands the penalty Celierian law demands and he accepts it. This Fey’s only request is that he be afforded the opportunity to expunge the stain upon his honor. If Your Majesty will permit it, this Fey requests the right to sheisan’dahlein, the honor death.”
“What? Adrial, no!” Talisa surged forward, but her father caught her and held her back.
“No! You can’t! You can’t!” ?Shei’tan, you can’t do this!
Run! Go back to the Fading Lands. Wait for me, as we agreed.
I can bear anything if I know you are alive and that one day I will be with you again.
? Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
He didn’t look at her, but a gentle, sweet breeze of Air caressed her face. ?It’s too late for that, shei’tani. This is the only way now. We will be together again, I promise you. But not in this life. May I prove more worthy in the next.?
?You’re worthy now! Please don’t do this. The Feyreisen and Feyreisa are coming. Wait for them. Perhaps they can find some other solution. Adrial!?
“Your Majesty can’t be considering it?” Colum huffed when King Dorian did not immediately reply. “This jaffing wife thief deserves nothing more than a common criminal’s execution. To be hanged by the neck until dead, his body left for the carrion birds to feast upon.”
“As do the other criminals who aided him!” his father agreed. “Including the Tairen Soul, who knew this was going on and turned a blind eye to it!”
Dorian flashed a hot look at father and son.
“And how many immortal lives will it take to assuage bruised Sebourne pride? Your son was cuckolded. The Fey-Celierian treaty was broken, but for no purpose more calamitous than that. I will not demand the execution of a Fey king because your son’s wife jaffed another man. You are mad to even suggest it.”
“But—”
“Be silent.” Dorian rose to his feet. “Adrial vel Arquinas, you have been charged and have confessed to crimes punishable by death. You have agreed to accept the king’s justice.”
Adrial gave a curt nod. Behind him, his brother, Rowan, stood like a warrior carved from stone, unmoving, unflinching, his face pale as death but otherwise wiped clean of all expression.
“Very well then.” The king drew a breath.
“Adrial vel Arquinas, as you have confessed to all abuses of magic and crimes charged against you and claimed sole responsibility for the same, I do hereby find you guilty of the charges in their entirety. As punishment for all crimes committed by you and on your behalf, I sentence you to death. In deference to the centuries of alliance and kinship between our two nations, I commute the sentence of death by hanging to sheisan’dahlein, the Fey honor death, and order that it shall be carried out within the bell.
You may use that time to say your good-byes and make your peace. May the gods have mercy on your soul.”
As King Dorian turned and walked towards his tent, Talisa broke into tortured sobs. She would have fallen to her knees except for the strong hands of her father and brother Luce holding her up.
“Adrial…Adrial…” Weeping, she stumbled towards him and fell into his arms.
Colum stepped towards her, an ugly look on his face, but Luce bared his teeth. “Back off, diSebourne. You’ve done more than enough for one day.”
Colum feigned affront. “Me? I am the injured party here!”
“If that were true, you’d be the one crying like your heart was being ripped from your chest.” Luce stood back and swept a cold gaze over his sister’s husband.
“You’re a selfish, self-serving rultshart, and I’m sorry we ever thought any better of you.
You knew she didn’t love you. If you’d loved her even the least little bit, you would have let her go when the Fey came.
This is all your fault. Because you’re a greedy, grasping, controlling little turd pretending to be a man. ”
“Luce!” Cann snapped. “That’s enough.” To Colum he said, “But Luce is right: You’ve done enough for one day.
So now I suggest you and your father get the Hells out and leave Talisa in peace to share this last bell with the man she loves.
” His other two sons, Parsis and Severn, joined Luce and Cann to form a barrier between Talisa and the Sebournes.
Colum snarled and spat a foul curse, but the two of them were no match for four Barrials, and they knew it. Together, puffed up with arrogance and self-righteous indignation, Lord Sebourne and his son stalked away.
“Adrial, I love you. I love you so much.” Talisa cupped his beloved face in her hands and showered him with tears and kisses. “I don’t want to live without you. I can’t bear to lose you. Not like this.”
“Shh.” Adrial smiled into her eyes. His heart was breaking.
Each tear that spilled from her eyes burned his soul the way the sel’dor chains burned his flesh.
He’d done this to her. He’d brought this sorrow to her door.
Because in his own way, he was as selfish as diSebourne.
Both of them fighting over her like dogs over a bone.
“Sieks’ta, shei’tani. I did not do right by you in this life, but I swear to you, I will be everything you deserve in the next.
” He took her hand and carried it to his lips.
“This isn’t the end, shei’tani. No matter how many years or lifetimes it takes, I will find you again.
And we will be happy. You have my oath on it. ”
Weeping, she curled in his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. “Tell me what it will be like, shei’tan, when we’re together.”
He pressed his face to her hair and closed his eyes as his own tears fell.
His throat was too tight to speak, so he wove Spirit, not just words but pictures, bringing the images from his last courtship gift to life.
Dharsa in full bloom, and the two of them, together, forever.
For each chime of the next bell, he spun his hopes for them, his dreams of their future, their love, the children they would have in another lifetime when joy, bright as sunlight, would suffuse their united souls.
And when they came for him, though she wept and clung to him until they pulled him away, the first of their bond threads had formed, and light like the warmth of a thousand suns shone on both their souls.
They gathered outside King Dorian’s tent.
Her tearstained face proudly unveiled, her spine straight and unyielding, Talisa stood at her father’s side. It would kill a part of her soul to watch Adrial’s death, but since she could not stop it, she wanted the last thing he saw to be her face, and the last thing he felt to be her love.
A shadow moved across the corner of her eye and she glanced to her right to find Colum standing there. “We will get through this, Talisa. It is hard for me to forgive you your transgressions, but you are my wife, and I am determined we will build a good life together.”
She drew a breath, her hands curling tight together.
“Heir to a Great House you may be, but you are a despicable rultshart, Colum diSebourne. And you’re a fool if you think you’ll ever be anything to me but the monster who killed the man I love.
I will give you nothing—not a touch, not a smile, not a kind word.
” She looked at him then, to make sure he saw the utter loathing in her eyes. “Your name is a curse to me.”
His brows drew together in a dark scowl. “You dare—”
He started to grab her, but she swiftly sidestepped his grip and bared her teeth in a snarl every bit as dangerous as her father’s. “Lay a finger on me, and I’ll kill you myself.” And the pure hatred that vibrated in her voice was enough to make him stop in shock.
She swept her skirts away and moved to the other side of her father and brothers.
Silence fell over the gathering as King Dorian emerged from his tent.
He took his place between Colum and Talisa’s father, then nodded, and the king’s guard led Rowan and the other Fey—still shackled—to one side of the circle, where they stood, under guard.
A moment later, four more guards marched Adrial to the center of the circle.
He’d changed his black leathers for red. His dark hair hung loose about his shoulders and his face was pale but calm, almost serene. Sel’dor shackles still encased his wrists and ankles.
She forced her lips into a trembling smile. ?I am here, shei’tan. I will always be here.?