“I’ve missed you, Cesla,” Pellin said. “I’m sorry I let my jealousy and self-doubt keep me from telling you how much I loved and admired you.”
“Your admiration is misplaced,” he said. “You have acquired knowledge and achieved a victory that was beyond me.” He sighed. “I’d like to go now, brother. You’ll have quite a mess to clean up, but it’s better than the alternative.”
“Farewell, Cesla,” Pellin said. “May Aer grant you mercy.”
He blinked. “I hope so.” When he lifted his arm to cover his eyes, his face twisted with contempt once again. “Banish me then, before your cloying sentiment makes me retch.”
“As you wish,” Pellin said. No gestures were required, but he raised his hands. “Atol, you—”
“Stop!” I yelled. Panic brought my heartbeat to a standstill.
Pellin lowered his hands as he turned to face me. I struggled to find breath. “Oh, clever, clever snake,” I said. “Almost you succeeded.” I turned to Pellin. “There are still people in the forest.”
The Eldest’s eyes went wide as the blood drained from his face. “Dear Aer in heaven.” He turned back to the prisoner, his expression grim as iron. “You are commanded to restore all who are enslaved to you, Atol. Remove their vaults and erase their memories of gold and aurium in the Darkwater. Further, I command you to drive everyone from the forest before sunset and immediately kill any who remain when night falls.”
Atol threw back his head and howled with rage, screaming his defeat and frustration at the heavens until his breath ran out. “Eternity is on my side,” he said. “After you have returned to dust, I will be free, and I will make a mockery of Aer’s intent.”
“You are banished,” Pellin said. “Return to your prison.”
Cesla collapsed, falling to the ground, a marionette whose strings had been severed at last, but as he hit the earth his arms fell away from his eyes. His head rocked with the impact, but when he stilled, sunlight illumined him and he stared at the sun. I turned away before his gaze could capture me.
Pellin spoke to Daelan and Storan. “Is it done?”
Their gazes grew distant and they disappeared briefly before they returned. “It is. Those who sought to free Atol are leaving the forest.”
“What about the prison?” I asked. “Is it intact?”
I had no experience by which to judge their expressions, but I sensed they were troubled. “It is,” Daelan said. “Though it is damaged somewhat. Common iron is too brittle for aurium. The forest is littered with broken tools.”
“Beware of his knowledge,” Storan said. “The lure of the Darkwater will remain. The rumors of wealth within its boundaries will be hard to erase.”
Pellin nodded. “Centuries of work lie ahead,” he said, but joy blazed in his eyes that couldn’t be denied.
“What about this pleases you, Eldest?” Toria asked.
“Something new comes,” he said. “Lord Dura is cleansed of his vault. We don’t have to kill those who stumble into the forest. Like Elieve, they can be healed.”
I drew closer to the Fayit so no one else could hear me beg. “Daelan, Storan, is there any way I can talk to Ealdor again?”
“This day you will be with him where he has passed beyond the sphere of our world,” Daelan said. “Have you forgotten the price that must be paid?”
I heard Gael gasp and sensed movement, but when I turned toward her she stood frozen, her face clenched and sweating with effort. The Fayit shook their heads, their hands raised in forbidding. “The price must be paid. This too is part of the binding.”
Gael’s cry of loss shattered the morning, a needle of sound that pierced my heart. Daelan and Storan reached for me.
Chapter 71
In a futile gesture, Pellin stepped between us as though he had some power or lore that could prevent Daelan and Storan from extracting the cost of their aid. “A question, if you please,” he said.
For some reason they forbore, waiting. “You cannot use the binding to prevent us from collecting the price.”
I pulled Pellin around to face me. “Eldest, even with you the Vigil is pitifully young, and the peace will be very nearly as difficult as the war.”
He smiled. “Therefore you and Toria Deel and the rest of the Vigil will adapt to it.” He turned to the Fayit. “I will pay the price.”
Gael’s sob of relief tore at me. She didn’t see the Fayit’s expression, their refusal.
“You were not part of the circle,” they said. “Nor did you make the call.”
Pellin’s smile dropped from him. “It was I who used the knowledge of the circle to bind Atol back to his prison.”
“Indeed,” Daelan said.
Pellin nodded. “Will Aer allow me to pay for Lord Dura?”
Daelan and Storan withdrew from speech, but from the way they looked at each other, I suspected they were having an extended conversation. I tried to resign myself to their decision. In my heart I knew that Gael had always been too high and lofty a prize for me. I wondered if they would let me say good-bye.
“We consent,” the Fayit said together.
I drew a shuddering breath that provided counterpoint to Gael’s, but Pellin drew back. “A moment more, if you please.”
Storan’s expression showed almost human exasperation. “We will not tarry at your convenience, Eldest.”
“A moment,” Pellin said, “no more.” Without waiting for their permission he scanned the crowd of people outside the counting house, then pointed. “Come.”
Mark disentangled himself from Elieve’s arms and came forward until no more than a pace separated him from the Eldest.
Pellin smiled through the tears coursing down his cheeks. “The choice is upon us, it would seem.”
Mark nodded. “Too soon.”
“That is the way with change, my apprentice,” he said. “It is always too soon and often takes us unaware.”
“What should I do, Eldest?” Mark asked.
Pellin smiled. “Trust Aer, Mark, and trust your heart.” Laughter worked its way through
