His head was bowed and his voice trailed off. Perhaps he had forgotten I was there and even now was following the rest of his thoughts down whatever circular path he must have travelled over and over in the years since that day.
Most of what he said fitted the pieces of the puzzle that I already understood. Most, but not all. “You said you were angry at her?”
He coughed, his eyes glazed and the sweat on his brow visible in the light.
“She made me swear to her. There is little magic in my blood, but enough as Griffin to allow her to bind me.” He gripped my hand, his fevered eyes looking directly into mine. “I didn’t know. How could I have known? If we hadn’t been there, if she hadn’t bound my vow… But she did and I could do nothing.”
He was rambling now, barely audible. His exhaustion finally carried him away into the maze of his memories and regrets. He knew things I wanted to learn more about, but it seemed cruel to stir those memories when he was recovering.
“Uncle?” Bronwyn, it appeared, had no such compunction and was kneeling at her uncle’s feet in a flash. I wondered how long she had been awake…
“Your vow was bound?” she asked intently.
She shook him gently but the old man had drifted into a doze.
“Bronwyn, let him be.”
She scowled at me. “You don’t understand. Uncle, please.” She shook him again, a little more forcefully this time. “You made a bound vow? Who bound it?”
“My lady,” he whispered. “I didn’t know how dangerous it would be. On the road, Viviane had a vision that Devyn would live to take her home. That he must take her home. I didn’t understand. I promised to keep him safe; he was my boy… of course I’d keep him safe.”
Bronwyn gasped. “You made a vow to keep Devyn safe? Is that why? Is that why you ran? Is that why you left her?”
“I didn’t know –” his eyes closed “– that it would be a choice. She made me choose him.”
His head lolled forwards slowly on his chest. For a moment, I thought he had died right in front of us; maybe the cure had succeeded where the illness had not. Not now, not when Devyn was so close. What if he died now before they had a chance to see each other after so many years? The anger I had felt towards the man who had deserted my mother melted away; more than anything, I wanted him to have the chance to see his son once more.
“Bronwyn, stop.” I pulled her out of the way so I could lean in and check his breath. I barely felt it as I watched for the rise and fall of his chest as proof of life. I couldn’t tell, I couldn’t be sure… I put my trembling fingers to his neck to feel for a pulse, but between my own thumping heart and the numbness of my cold fingers, I couldn’t tell.
A weary, rough cough came just as I was about to call for help. I felt weak with relief. I needed to have faith in Marcus; if he said the old man just needed time to recover from the impact of the cure then I needed to believe him.
Bronwyn looked up at me from where she had fallen on the cold tiles.
“What were you doing?” I accused. Why had she hounded him about some decades-old promise when his body was already under stress?
“Weren’t you listening?”
“Yes.” Of course I’d been listening. Little did she know this wasn’t some fairy tale to me; this was my own history.
Bronwyn’s face expressed relief at something I couldn’t figure out. What was it that she had heard?
“She bound him to take Devyn away.”
“I don’t know what that means.” These bloody Celts and their weird customs.
“You know how seriously we take a vow… any vow?” she asked me, her eyes in deadly earnest.
I did. I was all too aware of it. Devyn’s life was owed to the King of Mercia due to a vow he had made as a child. He was desperate to get back there to face gods knew what consequence for breaking it by leaving to find me.
“The lady made him swear to keep Devyn safe.”
“You mean, he abandoned her to the Empire because he had made a promise to keep his son safe? He had a duty to protect her, but he chose to leave her because of a promise. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“No,” said Bronwyn. “You don’t understand. It wasn’t like he made a decision to abandon her. If she bound him to that promise, then he had no choice at all. As soon as he perceived Devyn to be in any danger, he would have been unable to do anything to help her. He would have been compelled to leave whether she followed or not.”
“People always have a choice.”
“Not if a promise is bound. The lady was powerful; if she had bound his vow magically, then there was nothing he could have done.”
Magic.
I looked down at the sleeping man.
“Why would she have made him promise to save Devyn?” I asked. “If they were going to Londinium, and she sensed a threat awaited them, then shouldn’t her baby have been her main concern?”
Bronwyn stood, hands on hips. “You’re right. It makes no sense.”
“Will it help Devyn?” I asked.
Bronwyn’s brows drew together as she contemplated this new information and the
