Shadow Hand (Tales of Goldstone Wood Book #6)(90)
Imraldera wiped away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. Sun Eagle, realizing suddenly that she wept, turned to her, struggling up on one elbow. “Please tell me,” he said, “that you cried such tears for me when you thought me dead.”
“It was a long time ago, Sun Eagle,” she whispered.
He nodded. Then he touched the cord around his neck from which hung two beads, the red one marked with a panther and the blue one marked with a white starflower. He hesitated a moment, then tore the cord from his neck and offered it to Imraldera. She looked up, startled.
“You gave me this. Do you recall?” said he. “You gave me your name mark to carry with me into the Gray Wood. Your father gave me his as well, and it was a mark of honor. But when you gave me yours, Starflower, what did it signify?”
Imraldera shook her head.
“Tell me. Please.”
“That I would wait for your return,” she whispered.
“But you did not wait.” Despite the bitterness, his voice was gentle. “You are here, far from our homeland. And you speak with a voice now, like a man.”
“The curse of the old god is lifted,” she replied, her eyes flashing. “The women of the Land are free, and we speak with strength equal to any man’s.”
“So I have seen,” he said. “So I have heard. But I did not hope to find you alive and liberated. And certainly not so far from hearth and home!”
She told him her story then, her long, difficult tale, even as he lay back upon the pillows and fingered the cord and the two beads in his hand. As she talked, the light deepened and stars appeared on the ceiling. But a fire came to life of its own magic in a fireplace that looked like the bole of a tree, and Imraldera continued her tale. Even the noise of Nidawi and Lioness faded at last until only Imraldera’s voice and the crackling of the fire could be heard in that room.
When she finished, Sun Eagle, who had not once interrupted, nodded quietly. Then he again held out the cord and the beads. “You are right,” he said. “It was long ago. It was a different life. And you are not bound to wait.”
But Imraldera took his hand in both of hers and closed his fingers back around the two beads. “Keep them,” she said.
His eyes shone bright in the fire and starlight. With renewed strength, he caught Imraldera by the arm. “I must return,” he said. “I have found a way back to the Land. It’s not the Land of our time, but it is our home. And it is full of Faerie beasts who mean it harm. Beasts like Nidawi and her lion, and many worse!”
“I know,” said Imraldera. “I have seen it.”
“Then you know what our people face there. You know the work that must be done to protect them.” He tried to pull her closer, but she resisted. “Please, Starflower,” he said, “come back with me. Come back to our country and work with me to free our people once and for all. You saved them from the Wolf Lord; you saved them from the Dragonwitch. Can you leave them now to suffer under multiplied terrors?”
“I . . . have a duty,” she said, though her voice wavered uncertainly. “I am guardian of this Haven, and I must keep my watch on the gates assigned me.”
“So you’ll pursue these tasks given you by someone not of our kin? You will labor to protect people not your own and leave the Land to bleed out upon the stones of fey totems? What kind of master would ask this of you?”
Here, Imraldera rose and pulled her arm from Sun Eagle’s grasp, for he was weak still from loss of blood. “Starflower?” he said.
“My Lord is good and kind, and whatever task he sets before me is the task I will pursue,” said she, then hurried across the room. But she stopped at the door and looked back. “I will help you, Sun Eagle. I will see that you have safe passage back to the South Land.”
“And will you stay with me?” he asked.
She did not answer. Perhaps she did not know what answer to give. She stepped from the room, shut the door, and stood a moment in the hall. Candles in their sconces shone a warm glow around her, illuminating the orange fur of a big cat who sat a few paces down the passage, his back to her, grooming his white paws without a care in the world.
He looked around, blinking as though surprised. “Oh, so you emerge at last?” His tail flicked once across the floor. “Have a nice chat?”
“I am escorting Sun Eagle back to the South Land,” Imraldera said coldly before turning the other way down the hall, hastening from the cat and his questioning gaze. “Just as soon as he’s well enough.”
“Is that so?” Eanrin stepped up into his man’s form and hurried after, his long strides soon catching up. “And what of Nidawi the Everblooming?”
“If she wants him, she’ll have to kill me first.”
The bite of those words was enough to stop Eanrin in his tracks. He stood in the passage and watched Imraldera disappear into her library.
“Well, dragons eat our eyes,” he growled. “So that’s how it is, eh?”
5
DUST BECAME MUD when mixed with the blood seeping through the dressing and rough fabric on her shoulder. But Daylily passed through the jungle, led by the light of the Bronze, which gleamed like a beacon and warned away all those who watched her from tree and bush. She walked with a swiftness that belied her pain and the dizziness in her head, driven by a strength not her own.