Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Auster had been back a week, and he still hadn’t been able to get Autumn alone.
It was either Boreus with them or that Highest. Auster had to be patient; rushing this wasn’t going to get him anywhere good.
He had to make them turn away, had to make them trust him, and rushing that would only make them watch him harder.
He kept seeing flickers of Eleni, pushed up against the bars of the prison that was Autumn. She was still there, and every time he saw that flicker, he felt like he could breathe again. His worst fear was that she would fade under the pressure of the parasite before he could save her.
Auster knew they were coming back today, but it remained to be seen who she would be with. It had been Boreus yesterday, so that meant it should be the Highest today.
But it wasn’t, it wasn’t Boreus, and it wasn’t the Highest he was used to seeing; it was a different one, this one with sharper eyes than he was comfortable with, looking at him as though he could see every thought he had ever had.
He rose and bowed as they came through the door. Autumn always knocked, always, even though he had told her she didn’t need to, that she was welcome here. That lie had made him feel nauseated, but he was going to pretend to it with everything he had in him.
“Good morning,” he made himself make eye contact with Autumn before he turned his attention to the Highest. “My Highest.”
“I am Intellect, East Wind.” He sat at the table without so much as a by your leave. “Love has been called away for a time, so I will be watching you.”
“It will be dull, Highest,” Auster said, before turning his attention back to Autumn. “How are you this morning?”
“I am fine, East Wind,” Autumn replied, looking at him with that steady sorrow. “Boreus will be here later so that you can continue to plan for saving Skirion.”
“You will not be a part of it?”
She shook her head. “I am only muddying the waters for now. It is far better that you discuss it with someone whom you don’t have to pretend to like.”
He couldn’t eve protest, not with Intellect staring at him as though he could see every lie he planned to tell for the rest of his life. “What will you do instead?”
“I will go to the Song,” Autumn said with a sad little smile. “It is always pleased to have the company as it tries to understand our lives.”
“Would you take me too?” Auster asked. “I would like to continue to get to know you, and watching you work seems to be a good way.”
“It is less work than it is helping a friend.” She smiled, but not at him, at the strange fox creature as it trotted in through the door to sit at her feet and wrap its feathered tail around her ankles. “Hello Solace, have you found something?”
The creature yipped, but didn’t move, looking at Auster as though it had just realized he was there.
“What is it?” He looked pointedly at the fox.
Autumn stroked the feathered head, making the creature let out a happy trill. “At first, he was a light guardian, one of Intellect’s watchers. Solace chose me, and something about that choice made him shift into this.”
“He’s an interesting creature,” Auster looked at the fox again. “You seem to attract the ones that have to learn about reality.”
Intellect snorted, but didn’t say anything.
Autumn sent him a rueful sort of smile. “I suppose so. The Song, Solace, you.”
“Me?”
She nodded, “you have been away for a long time, the Mountain is very different.”
“I suppose that is correct.” Auster nodded slowly. “I would like to see it more, but the changes are overwhelming and I have no one to show me.”
“I would show you the Mountain, Auster, but I am forbidden from going alone.”
Auster swallowed the words that he wanted to say and smiled. “I would be with you.”
“I think that’s what they’re worried about,” Autumn sighed. “The others want to protect me; the Song needs me. If it falls from true, the Mountain is harmed, and if the Song dies, then the Mountain crumbles and lives are lost.”
“Seems a heavy burden for one person.” Auster said.
“I am not alone,” she said quietly. “I have Boreus and Solace. I hope one day you and I might be friends, or at least reach a point where you don’t wish for my death.”
Those words pulled Auster up short. He had apparently been even more obvious about his thoughts than he’d imagined. “I am still half lost in Charan.” He said. Reaching for a half-truth that might make sense. “All of the years that I spent there left a mark.”
“I can understand that,” Autumn said. “I am sorry I could not come for you sooner.”
There was no prevarication, no excuses, just a direct apology for her inability, and Auster came face to face with a terrifying fact.
It would be shockingly simple to become her friend.
He would never allow it, of course. But she was so open and earnest that letting his guard down in truth would be easy. Auster had been alone for a very long time, and he would like to have a friend.
But this parasite had taken his love, and he could not forgive that. He would rip her from Eleni’s body and then they could be happy again.
Intellect’s eyes sharpened, and Auster knew he’d thought that just a little too loudly. He wasn’t surprised when the Highest rose from the table. “We are done here,” he declared. “East Wind, you might consider that what you believe is not the truth.”
Auster held in the sigh; why did none of them see what he did? “Your will, Highest.” He turned his attention to Autumn. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so,” she shook her head. “I must see Chaos tomorrow, and I don’t know how long the Elder will keep me. Last time, it was two months. Sometimes he forgets how time works.”
Auster watched them leave and sat back on the sofa to put his head in his hands. He had time before it came back, and that was time he could put to use burying the rage and the disgust so that he could try again to put her at enough ease that she would allow him close.