Don’t you feel any obligation for her safety? Why are you acting like this?”
Her lips were compressed into a tight line, and she was still shaking her head. She tried to speak and couldn’t.
“Well, you have to do what you think is right,” he continued, stepping close again. “You have to answer to yourself for your choices. But I am going back to your father and demand that he do something. And if that fails, I will go to the High Council and ask them! And if that fails, I will go to anyone who will listen. In fact, I’ll start with Biat and the others. Right after I walk away from here, I’ll go straight to them and tell them what you and your father are doing!”
“You’d better not, Kirisin!” she said with a hiss. “You don’t know what my father would do to you for that!”
“Oh, so now I’m being threatened? I am not like you, Erisha. I am not afraid of your father!”
“I’m not afraid of him, either!” she snapped, tears springing to her eyes.
“You’re scared to death of him,” he said, and realized suddenly that it was true, that for reasons he didn’t understand, she was.
“You . . .!” she started, but couldn’t finish. She had collapsed inside herself, and she lowered her head; her hands came up to hide the tears and distress. “I hate you,” she said softly.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do!” she insisted.
“Tell me the truth,” he pressed.
“You don’t understand anything!” she shouted loud enough that he backed away a step.
“Then why don’t you help me understand? Tell my why everyone is lying to me!”
She threw up her hands, her hair flying everywhere. “I can’t tell you! My father ...” She choked on the words as they left her mouth. “I mean, I ... I can’t!”
“He said you couldn’t tell me, didn’t he?” Kirisin guessed. “Isn’t that right? Admit it.”
She looked at him, defeated. “You won’t give up, will you? You won’t quit asking until you know.” She took a long, slow breath and exhaled.
“All right, I’ll tell you. But if you tell anyone else, I’ll say you’re lying.”
It was an empty threat, but there was no reason to point that out.
“Just say it, Erisha,” he said.
She compressed her lips, tightening her resolve. “I didn’t want to pretend I didn’t know about the Ellcrys, but my father said I had to.
He said I couldn’t tell anyone.” She wiped at the tears. “He is not just my father; he is the King. What was I supposed to do?”
Kirisin didn’t say anything; he simply waited on her. After a moment, she glanced up, as if to make sure he was still listening, and then just as quickly looked away.
“I love what I do, Kirisin, even if you don’t think so. I believe in what I do. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I ...” She trailed off. “Sometimes I go to see her at night, just like you do. I like being close to her, being alone with her. I can feel her watching me. I know that’s silly, but that’s how it seems. I sit in the gardens and just... be with her. She never did anything to let me know she was aware of me until two weeks ago. That was when she told me about the danger that was coming and about putting her inside the Loden for protection.”
She shook her head helplessly. “I didn’t know what to do. I had to tell someone right away. I decided to go to my father. I begged him to do something.
At first I thought he was going to help. But then he said it was more complicated than I realized. He said that I didn’t understand what I was asking, that I didn’t know enough about the Loden to appreciate what would happen if he did as I asked. He said we had to wait until my term as a Chosen was over. Once I was no longer a Chosen, then he would act.”
She held up her hands as he started to speak. “I know. I told him I didn’t see how we could wait that long. But my father said that in terms of an Ellcrys lifetime, it was nothing. The Ellcrys had been alive for hundreds of years. A few months in the tree’s life was little more than what a day would be to us.
Less, maybe. It wasn’t necessary to act right away.”
“He can’t know that,” Kirisin objected.
“What he can’t know,” Erisha said wearily, “is what might happen to me if he doesn’t make me wait.”
Kirisin started to respond and then stopped. “What do you mean?”