Shadows Return

CHAPTER 40 Silver Eyes

JUST BEFORE SUNRISE, Seregil and the others found shelter in the ruins of an abandoned stone barn. The house it had served had fallen into the foundation hole and there were no signs of life about the place, just ruined fences and a dry well.

The barn had been struck by lightning and half the roof had burned and fallen in. Rats and bats had taken over, and seemed none too pleased to entertain unexpected guests. A rodent half the size of Ruetha leaped from the shadows and snapped at the little bundle of food Alec had brought.

Ilar let out a startled cry and tried to run, but Seregil dragged him into the shadows by the back wall. “Behave yourself, or this can be your permanent resting place. It’s your choice.”

Ilar went sulky and made a great show of scraping the ground with his foot to clear away the various droppings before he sat down.

Alec kept the rhekaro with him as he and Seregil made a survey of the place. A brightening sky showed through the large holes in the roof.

“Yhakobin is bound to come looking for us,” Alec murmured, peering out through the broken doorway.

“Us, or you and that?” Seregil asked, pointing at the rhekaro. “Ilar told me it was you that he was after when we were ambushed. Because you’re from the Hâzadriëlfaie line.”

Alec nodded slowly. “He needed my kind of blood to make the rhekaro. He even tried to treat me well, sometimes, because of it.”

“Only sometimes?”

“I didn’t like him or the things he did to me.”

“Like what?”

“No, nothing like that. It was just-Can we talk about this later? I’m so tired.”

“Of course!” Seregil embraced him as best he could and felt Alec go limp against him for a moment, resting his head on Seregil’s shoulder. It was the first proper embrace they’d been able to share, and he didn’t want to let him go. “After the ambush, for the longest time, I was so afraid you might be dead.”

Alec’s arms tightened around him. “I thought the same, until I saw you on the deck of that ship at Riga. I knew then that I had to stay alive and find you again.”

“I’m not sure who found who, in the end, but here we are.” He kissed Alec and reluctantly released him.

Turning his attention to the landscape outside, he saw no sign of pursuit but doubted that would last. Who knew what sort of powers an alchemist had for finding lost slaves? Or the slave takers, for that matter.

Ilar was waiting sullenly for them, curled up in a ruined stall now and shivering in his stolen cloak.

Alec sat down some distance from him and fed the rhekaro again. Seregil made himself watch, figuring he might as well get used to it, though it still struck him as obscene.

Doing his best to hide his revulsion, he sat down beside Alec and opened the bundle. “Let’s see what you stole for food. My belly thinks my throat’s been cut.”

The three of them ate sparingly, sharing a bit of bread around and paring hard cheese thin on slices of apples taken from the orchard the night before. As always, the rhekaro ate nothing and didn’t seem interested in the water, either. According to Alec, the rhekaro had been given only a few drops of Alec’s blood each morning to live on, and nothing more.

Seregil took the first watch, sitting in shadows of the barn door with his back to a beam and a good view of the western barrens. Alec stretched out beside him with his head on Seregil’s thigh. Ilar remained in his corner, snoring softly.

The rhekaro seemed to have no more need of sleep than it did of food, but it curled up beside Alec, as if seeking the warmth of another body like a cat would. Or a serpent, Seregil thought, eyeing it warily as he stroked Alec’s hair.

The rhekaro stared back at him. Those unnerving silver eyes weren’t blank, but the kind of intelligence they might hold eluded him.

After a moment it turned away and looked down at Alec’s sleeping form. Then it lay down beside him in a similar position, and closed its eyes.

It’s trying to act like a real being, thought Seregil, surprised. He waited a few minutes, then shuffled his feet a little to make a noise. Those silvery eyes snapped open and it looked around, identifying the source. Seregil moved his feet again to show it. It stared at him for a moment, and Seregil felt the hair on the back of his neck prickling, strong as if there was lightning in the air. Apparently deciding that he was either no threat or very uninteresting, it returned to its semblance of sleep.

The light was stronger now, showing Seregil something he’d missed before; there was no mistaking the resemblance. Pale and unnatural as it was, the creature truly had Alec’s face, or at least the face as it might have looked when Alec was a child. As he compared the two, he noticed something else. Alec looked different somehow, and it wasn’t just from dust and exhaustion.

He looked more ’faie.

He shook his head. “What did they do to you, talí?”

Alec slept on, and Seregil returned his attention to the horizon as the day grew warmer, watching for dust rising against the sky. He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation they were going to have when Alec woke up.

A few hours later Alec yawned and sat up. The rhekaro rose, too, and huddled close to Alec, as if it sensed what was coming. Behind them, Ilar was still sound asleep.

“Alec, you know we can’t keep this creature,” Seregil said, getting right to the point.

“What are you talking about? Of course we can!”

“Oh, yes. He won’t raise any eyebrows when we get to Aurënen, with those looks, now will he?”

“Seregil- ”

“Or in Rhíminee. What sort of explanation will we give there, eh? That he didn’t get enough milk as a babe, or enough sun? Alec, I’m no wizard, but even I can feel a strangeness around this thing.”

And there was that sudden stubborn set of the jaw again. “I don’t know what we’ll tell them, but we’ll think of something. We always do! And he’s not a ‘thing.’ His name is Sebrahn, I told you.”

Seregil sighed. “This isn’t some stray kitten, Alec. It’s not even a child.”

“Then what do you suggest? Just leaving him here to die?”

“Of course not. That would be cruel. I’ll take care of it for you.”

Alec sprang to his feet and put the rhekaro behind him. Then he did something he’d never done before: he drew his sword on Seregil. “You’re not going to kill him!”

Seregil rose slowly and held his hands out by his sides, making no effort to protect himself, though his heart was hammering in his chest and he felt sick to his stomach. “You’d choose that over me? So all that’s happened between us comes to no more than this?”

Alec lowered his sword at once, eyes brimming with tears. “No! I mean-Don’t make me choose!”

“It’s unnatural! For all we know, it’s dangerous, too.”

“Yhakobin said he could heal. He was making him for the Overlord, to cure his son. And he is alive, not just some-thing. He can learn. Yhakobin taught him to do simple tasks around the workshop. He understood me when I asked him to bring me things. Look, I’ll show you!” He tapped the rhekaro on the shoulder and said, “Bring me the cheese.”

It immediately went into the barn and returned with the scant remains of the cheese.

“What else does it-er, he know?” asked Seregil, surprised.

“I’m not sure, but I think if you show him something and name it, or how to do something, he remembers. You try.”

“All right. Hey you, Sebrahn, bring me the bundle.”

The rhekaro just stared at him.

Alec retrieved the bundle and put it in the rhekaro’s hands. “Bundle.” Then he carried it a few yards off and Seregil repeated the command. The rhekaro fetched it and brought it back to him, setting it at his feet.

Alec touched his chest. “Alec.” He touched Seregil’s arm. “This is Seregil. Go to Seregil, Sebrahn.”

The rhekaro stood and walked to Seregil.

“See? I told you, he has a mind. He learns.”

“So it seems. Can he speak?”

“I’ve heard him cry out in pain, but never words.”

Seregil tried again to imagine what it would be like, trying to sneak unobtrusively through a village or port with this thing in tow. “So, are you ready to tell me why you’re so attached to him?”

“The alchemist made him from me.”

“I guessed as much, when I saw you in that cellar.”

“I don’t remember you there. How often did he bring you?”

“Just once. Ilar was quite happy for me to see you like that.”

“I’ll bet. Anyway, that’s why Sebrahn can only drink my blood, I think. He needs it to live.”

Seregil reached out and cupped his hand under the rhekaro’s nose and mouth. “No breath.” He pressed his hand to its chest. “And no heartbeat, either.”

Alec felt for himself. “Well, he acts like he’s alive, so I guess he is.”

“So, how was he made?”

“Well, from parts of me-my blood, piss, hair and-Well, other things like that. Yhakobin put it all in a sheep’s stomach with some other things and buried it in that cellar.”

“What other things?”

“Salt, quicksilver…That’s all I remember.”

“And you in that cage, your blood dripping down on it,” Seregil murmured. “Is that why you look different?”

“You see it, too?” Alec touched his face self-consciously. “Yhakobin did something to me. He claimed it was some kind of purification, to get rid of my human blood. It took days, and when it was over, I looked like this.”

“It suits you. It’s just a bit startling, that’s all. I didn’t think something like that was possible.”

“I hate it!” Alec hissed angrily. “It’s like he took my father away from me.”

“No, Alec, never think that. You’ll always be his son.” Seregil grinned and kissed him. “And the one I love. No doubts there.”

“It might wear off. He had to do the purification again before he made the second rhekaro.”

“Well, then, there you go. Don’t worry about it.” He stretched out on the ground with his head in Alec’s lap. “Wake me when you get tired.”

“Then you promise not to hurt him?”

Seregil looked up at Alec. “As long as he stays as he is, then he has nothing to fear from me. But Alec, if he turns dangerous-”

“He won’t!”

Seregil caught his hand and held it firmly. “If he does, then you’re going to have to make that choice, aren’t you?”

“I will.”

“And if it comes to a choice between that, and me?”

Alec raised their joined hands and pressed his lips to the back of Seregil’s. “You. But I won’t let that happen.”

Seregil closed his eyes and was glad to feel Alec’s hand on his forehead. As he drifted off, however, he thought he felt cold silver eyes watching him, too.