“Does it get better?” I finally asked. “The pain? The feeling that a part of you is missing?”
Marc shook his head. “You just learn to live with it.”
Fresh tears flooded my eyes and dripped down to stain the silk of my skirts. He had known she would die and the pain it would cause him, but he had bonded her anyway. It was the most incredibly brave and selfless thing I had ever heard – a love story such as songs were written about.
“Would you do it again, knowing what you know now?”
He smiled, eyes growing distant. “In a heartbeat.”
We sat in silence for a long time, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
“Cécile, you asked me if I dreamed of the outside.”
I nodded.
“Everything I have known and loved has been in Trollus. All my memories are of here. I belong here, in the dark. But you…” He took my hand. “You don’t belong here, Cécile. This place is no good for you – you belong in the sun. And so does he.”
Coming around the fountain, Marc gently kissed my forehead. “You must find a way.” Then he turned and walked away, leaving me to struggle with a burden that seemed to grow heavier by the hour.
“How much of that did you hear?” I asked, once Marc was out of earshot.
Tristan stepped out from around a glass fir tree. “A fair bit,” he admitted.
“It’s rude to eavesdrop.”
“I know.” He walked over to the fountain and looked through the window to the moon. “You were afraid before.”
“Angoulême paid me a visit.” I turned my back on the fountain and smoothed my skirts down. “Mostly, I think he wanted to boast about the trouble he had caused. It seems he has known for some time that our behavior was an act.”
“That vile malignant pustule!” Tristan hissed. “He’s a craven, dog-breathed, interfering weasel of a man!”
I waited for him to finish cursing before asking, “So, do we carry on as before? Is there any point?”
“I don’t know.” Tristan rubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t think I can go back to it, though.”
I nodded, feeling much the same way. “Another strategy then?”
“Yes.” He was feeling conflicted about something. He opened his mouth and then closed it again.
I frowned. “And whatever it is you are not telling me, now is the time to come clean. We can’t have any more secrets between us, Tristan.”
He sighed heavily. “I know, but we can’t talk about it here. Come with me. I want to show you something.”
With a mind to evade my guards, Tristan led me to a well-hidden gate at the rear of the gardens and then down a meandering path to the river, where we crossed one of the many small bridges. It was a long walk down the valley, and by the time we reached the fork in the river, my feet were sore and aching. The soldiers guarding the River Road eyed us from the opposite bank, but despite our lack of escort, said nothing as we turned to follow the water branching off to the right.
The tunnel we entered was loud with the sounds of rushing water, and soon the faint glow of Trollus faded away, leaving only my little light and Tristan’s larger one to illuminate our path.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
We walked a little further until the cave walls fell away and Tristan pulled me to a halt. The river water spilled down an incline worn smooth by the current, but to either side of its banks it was terraced with large steps. The structure was entirely flooded with water, forming a large, dark lake.
“The parade grounds.” Tristan’s light shot away from us, growing brighter as it traveled until it shone like a minute sun.
“Stones and sky,” I whispered, trying to take it all in. I’d never seen a building so huge. Designed like a vast, circular theatre, tiered seating rose up from all sides, the topmost barely illuminated by Tristan’s magic.
“The history books say that before the Fall, you could see the stadium from leagues away. It held fifty thousand people at capacity, and is the largest structure we ever built. Most of the army was here when the mountain broke, which is the only reason it wasn’t crushed. A great deal of magic and pride.
“When King Xavier broke the hole the waterfall came through, he had not estimated the level of flow accurately enough and the River Road couldn’t contain the water. Trollus flooded and he ordered a path blasted through so that it would flood the parade ground instead. The water seeps through the rocks at the far end, but I doubt anything much larger than a river trout could make it all the way to the ocean.”
Taking me by the hand, he led me down the steps to the edge of the dark lake waters. A small boat was tethered to a stone pillar, and once I was settled, he untied it and jumped in next to me. The gentle current soon caught hold of the boat, and we drifted slowly across the lake. It might have been romantic, if not for our mutual anxiety. He had brought me here for a purpose.