Chapter 58
Chapter Fifty-Eight
They loved each other that night, slow and easy, none of them wanting to admit that the reason they lingered was because they didn’t want to admit the very real possibility that they might not make it back.
Auster took his time, all of his time, utterly focused on his loves and making certain that by the time the sun was rising, they could only barely move. Boreus still got them all up and into the bath, but he was only barely able to make it there and back.
They slept, woke, ate, and were summoned before the Highest. To kneel to Light and listen to her tell them they’d left it a bit too late to go to Charan that day, but that they would leave with the sunrise the next morning.
“It was worth it, Highest,” Autumn told Light. “If?—”
“If you do not let it in, it will have less to cling to.” Light cut Autumn’s words off at the root. “Return, Autumn. I will make it an injunction if needed.”
“Yes, my Highest,” Autumn bowed to Light. “We will leave at first light, and I hope we are back within three days.”
“You will be,” Light’s words brooked no argument. “Go, we will see you back in three days with Skirion in tow.”
“Yes, Highest,” Autumn bowed again before turning and leaving the throne room. They trailed her, following in her wake until she stopped in a corner and pressed her face to the wall, suddenly sobbing with everything she had.
They pulled her from the corner and into their arms, holding her as tightly as possible until the storm of fear and mourning died.
“Come and dance with us,” Auster whispered. “We don’t have to think about it tonight. We can just dance, and then we’ll rest.”
They went to the meadow to dance slowly to the sound of crickets singing, to watch the fireflies flicker across the tall grass. And then they went home to their place on the rise above the spring. To curl up in their bed and rest.
Auster knew Autumn wouldn’t sleep, but he also knew one night would not harm her overly. As long as she stayed in their arms, she would at least rest, if she couldn’t sleep.
Eventually the sun rose, and they all got up, gathering themselves and their weapons to head for Charan. There was no fanfare, no send-off, just the three of them, armed to the teeth, walking across the meadow in the sun.
It probably looked strange, and it felt stranger, but they had to save Skirion, and this was the only way to do it.
It took most of the morning to make their way down the slope to the rockfall where the entrance to Charan was. Auster didn’t remember this bit terribly well, so when Autumn reached out and stuck her entire hand through the stone, he was startled enough to leap to her defense.
She gave him a tight, frightened smile and pulled her fist from the rock. “Are we ready?”
“I am not likely to get more ready.” Boreus said, looking over at Auster, who nodded. “Call the Weavers, our love, let’s go save him.’
Auster watched as Autumn tipped her head back. “We are ready, Weavers.” She called to the empty air.
Auster watched the stone vanish, ice in a boiling pot. Reaching out, he took his loves by the hands and walked into the deep shadows that Charan contained.
Autumn summoned a little ball of golden light, just enough to see by as they crept through the hallways of Charan to the place where Auster had spent so many years fighting for his life, while standing over Skirion.
But he wasn’t there. There was no strange, transparent sarcophagus that contained Auster’s partner. Only the shards of it remained.
“You came back,” Auster whirled at the sound of Skirion’s voice. “That was stupid.”
Auster managed to get his blade up just fast enough that Skirion couldn’t take his head. “What are you doing?” Auster shoved Skirion back from him, watching him stumble and find his feet.
His smile was wrong, so very wrong; it was pitch dark, reaching nearly to his ears, and there were far too many teeth in that mouth.
“It’s not him,” Auster said with relieved terror. “It’s like the Elder, someone wearing his face.”
Boreus squared off with the thing wearing Skirion. “You want to play, you can play with me.”
The thing almost looked as if it were pouting, but went after Boreus with an insane, glee-filled giggle. Boreus knocked it back, but it came after his again.
It seemed like it was endless, going after Boreus time and again until Auster’s love was beginning to flag. “You can play with someone else for a while.” Auster put himself in between the thing and Boreus. “I don’t think you’ll like my game.”
“If you kill me, you kill him.” The thing waved to the shards of glass on the floor. “You left him, left him to be my prey, and I don’t think he wants you any longer.”
Auster just narrowed his eyes and went after whatever was wearing the man he loved without mercy.
He knew Skirion, and the man he had been would have died before he let this thing take him over.
Which meant one of two things, Skirion was dead, or he’d been consumed by the thing and either of those things meant that Auster was more than willing to kill whatever it was that stood in front of him.
“Wait!” Autumn cried through the clashing of metal. “Pin him, Auster, I have an idea.”
Auster nodded tightly, spinning the thing and using the flat of his blade to pin its neck to the wall of the room. The thing struggled, squalling a terrible sound that almost made Auster’s ears bleed.
Autumn hurried over, giving Auster a tight smile. “When I say, release it.”
“What?” Auster lurched back. “No!”
“It’ll work,” she looked up at him. “Trust me, love.”