“I do,” he told her. “I’m a bad-tempered bastard at the best of times, and I was on a hair trigger. The border problems with the Elves, the sentinel issue, all the business problems, and to top it all off, you were gone. None of that is an excuse, and I’m not trying to make one out of it. I’m just telling you, and I want you to know that I heard every word that you said. And I’m sorry.”
Her expression softened, and his world became brighter. “You’re right, it’s no excuse. But I know you have been under a lot of strain.”
“I can’t promise we won’t run into this issue again,” he said. “I’ve been used to solitary rule for a very long time.”
“We’re both feeling our way,” she murmured.
“And it’s too easy for me to slip into old habits and difficult for me to change on something so fundamental, but I am asking you for patience. I promise that I am trying, that I will continue to try.”
A small grin tugged at the corners of her lips. He raised an eyebrow, not at all sure that his carefully crafted and quite rare apology should elicit such a reaction. “I knew you were sorry,” she told him, “when I was standing in the middle of a forest fire with Calondir of all people, and I was about to cross over to the Elven Other land, and you still said ‘please.’”
He narrowed his eyes. “What part gave it away?”
She laughed out loud, a silvery sound of pure pleasure that danced in his old, wicked soul, and he felt the magic again, how she lifted him to a better place.
She put her hand to his cheek. “Well, I’m probably going to regret this, but I’ve got to say it’s a good thing you don’t listen to me all the time,” she told him. “Wait, did Hugh ever get in touch with you?”
“You mean Monroe? Yes. He called me and then I sent him to Lirithriel House. That’s how I summoned the Wyr. I told him to call New York and then get his ass back here. He was coming in from the opposite direction I was, and he should be arriving soon.” He gave in and did what he had been wanting to do for a while now. He pulled her close and held her tightly. She put her face against his chest, slipped her arms around his waist and heaved a big sigh.
She told him, “If you had listened to me, you wouldn’t have flown south, and you wouldn’t have been close enough to respond to the fire. Shows what I know.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “If I hadn’t listened to you,” he said, “you wouldn’t have come south in the first place.”
“I wasn’t going to mention that one,” she muttered.
“I didn’t mean that the way you think.” He slid his fingers underneath her chin and tilted her face up. “It was a good thing you came south. Not only were your original reasons valid, but believe me when I say this—it is much better to find out about Gaeleval now so that we can act before he has the chance to acquire more Power. He will only become harder to stop as time goes on.”
“I just don’t understand why someone would do this,” she whispered. “Kill so many people, cause so much damage and take so many others.”
“He took too many people,” he said, thinking. “If he wanted hostages, he would have taken a smaller selection of the most influential Elves. They would have been more mobile and easier to control. If he is the voice I heard in the Oracle’s prophecy, he has an ambitious agenda.”
She shuddered. “I remember you said that the voice talked about all kinds of grandiose shit, birth and death, and gods, and time.”
“It also claimed to be the bringer of the End of Days,” he said dryly. “But if all Gaeleval wanted was pure destruction, he would have stayed here with the Elves he controlled and he would have fought until everybody was dead. You said he mentioned something about paving a way to a new age.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Then I think he must be building an army,” he said. “And not only did he conscript a substantial addition to his troops, but he crushed any effective resistance from Calondir. Those are the moves I might make if I were building an empire.”
She looked even more troubled. “Persuasion and beguilement are all very well and good, but how can he control them all at the same time?”
“For that, I’m positive he’s using the Machine. As I flew in I could feel the Machine being used before its Power cut out. That must have been when Gaeleval crossed over. It’s amplifying the Power and skills he already has. I’ve seen it happen before. And the more he uses it, the more it will work on him and affect his mind.” He shook his head. “We will confront him soon enough. Right now our meeting time is limited and we need to move on to our next item of business.”
She cocked her head. “I didn’t know we had an agenda.”
“I did,” he told her.
He bent his head and kissed her, and there it was, the real thing, not some made up, distant dream. Her gorgeous lips softened and molded to his mouth, just as her slender body molded to his.