Raven's Strike

"The Scholar felt a lot of guilt and despair for something not alive," said Jes, who had appointed himself escort to Seraph and Hennea, as the three of them walked to the library. Everyone else, including the dog, had gone out exploring together.



"Hinnum created him," Hennea answered Jes before Seraph could. "He was the greatest of the Colossae wizards. I suppose if he could create the mermori, he could also create an illusion that empaths could feel."



"Why would he do that to something that exists to help people find information?" Jes asked rather reasonably - for Jes.



"Is that why you insisted on coming today?" asked Seraph. She wasn't ready to put limits on an illusion created by Hinnum either, but she also found herself agreeing with Jes.



"The Guardian doesn't trust him because he has no scent," Jes said with a shrug. "I explained the Scholar is an illusion, but neither the Guardian nor I think that an illusion should be so interested in Hennea."



The main room of the library was empty when they arrived, but there was a book lying open on one of the tables.



Seraph picked it up. It seemed to be a general treatise of some sort on magic, open to a chapter on the "Aspects of Man" - whatever that meant. However, it had obviously been left out for them, so she started reading.



Hennea hovered briefly over her shoulder, then walked to one of the bookshelves and began perusing titles. Jes paced restlessly back and forth for a while.



Finally, he came to stand in front of Seraph.



"If you want to go out and explore, go do so," she told him without looking up. "Just be careful. We'll be fine. It doesn't look as though the Scholar is going to come out today."



He sniffed the air. "All right," he said. "But I'll be back in a little while."



She heard his rapid footsteps down the stairs and the click of the outside door as it shut behind him.



"I didn't finish the story of the Stalker yesterday," said the Scholar's voice as soon as Jes was gone.



Seraph looked up from her book to see the illusion standing in front of Hennea.



"Nor did I tell you why the wizards were forced to sacrifice this city," he said.



"No," agreed Hennea, reshelving a book she'd taken out. "I wondered why you didn't."



The Scholar stared at her with that half smile that seemed more of a mask than an expression. "Make yourself comfortable, and I will tell you."



Seraph set her book aside and sat down on the other end of the bench where Hennea was sitting down.



"The Weaver created a binding that would keep both him and his twin from interacting directly with his creations. But he could not completely isolate them, because eventually their power would build and destroy his bindings. Instead he created six gods who would control the power of the Weaver and of the Stalker."



The Scholar paused.



"The Orders," said Hennea hoarsely, though Seraph couldn't see anything in what the Scholar had said that ought to have bothered her. "The Raven, the Owl, the Falcon, the Eagle, the Lark, and the Cormorant. Magic, music, the hunt, the guardian, healing, and storms."



"Magic, music, hunt, war, healing, and wind," corrected the Scholar.



"The Guardian is not an Order of soldiers," Hennea argued.



"No," agreed the Scholar, but he did not elaborate upon his answer.



"Something broke the bindings on the Stalker," said Seraph. "The Elder Wizards sacrificed the city to bind the Stalker. Not because they created the Stalker, but because something they did loosed the god of destruction." Or so she'd been taught.



"The gods ruled this world for a very long time," the Scholar said, and Seraph couldn't tell if he'd even noticed what she'd said. "Long enough for a small village to become a town, then a great city. Long enough for the wizards to become arrogant and fall away from the worship of gods. 'What good praying to the Cormorant who might or might not answer?' they asked themselves. 'If you bring your gold to Korsack or Terilia or one of the other wind witches, they will do your will as long as you are the first or most generous with your gold.' "



The Scholar reached out as if he might touch Hennea, but then pulled both hands behind his back.



"It didn't help that the gods no longer granted the gifts they had once freely given. The great city had no desperate need for a legendary warrior or a gifted healer. They did not depend upon their crops to survive, and so they needed no god-gifted weather mage. So the gods gave less, were worshiped less, but they were not unhappy with Colossae - perhaps just indifferent."



The Scholar closed his eyes. "Except for the Raven, for Colossae was Her city. The city of wizards."



No matter what her magic told her, Seraph was having increasing difficulty in believing that this was an illusion - or at least just an illusion.



"Children were taken to the Raven's temple on their name days," he said quietly. "The Raven's priests would tell them if they were mageborn or not. If they were, then the oracle would tell them what areas of magic would be their specialty. Sometimes, the Raven herself came and blessed them with a gift of her own magic, which the child could use without need of study or ritual."



"Like the Raven's Order," said Seraph.



"Yes."



There was a long silence.



"What happened?" whispered Hennea intently, and she leaned forward. "Something terrible happened."



"Yes." The Scholar took a half step away from Hennea. "Something terrible happened. There was a boy. He had the power to be a successful wizard, having been blessed by the goddess herself, but he had no dedication. He would not study - he had no need to earn a living because his father was a great wizard and so had accumulated great wealth."



He turned his back to them and stared at the great rows of books. "This boy fell in love with a maiden who loved him in return - so long as his father's gold was more than that of any of her other suitors. The day came when she found another, richer, man. When the boy reproached her, she told him that she preferred a man adept in the fighting arts rather than a half-trained wizard."



The Scholar sighed. "The boy could not bear the rejection. If she wanted a fighting man, he would become one. Remember though, that he was a lazy young man, used to buying his way through life. So instead of hiring an instructor and learning, he went to the war god's temple."



"The Eagle," said Seraph.



"Aythril, the god of war," agreed the Scholar, his back still toward them. "The war god's priestess laughed at the boy's plea for the gift of martial arts. The war god would never have given his gifts to a man so obviously unworthy. She told the boy that if he trained for a year and a day, she would petition the war god on his behalf. The boy was angry and offended, for he was proud."



The Scholar bowed his head. "He went to his father, an old wizard and powerful. People walked softly in his presence because he was quick to take offense - and the priestess's words offended him greatly."



"Hinnum?" asked Seraph.



The Scholar turned back and met Seraph's eyes. "No, not Hinnum, though there are sins enough to lie on his shoulders. Ontil the Peacock was the wizard's name. He saw the priestess's words as an attack on his standing, and so he vowed to take the gifts that the priestess would not willingly give. He hid himself here" - the Scholar waved a hand around the library - "and for a year he studied and buried himself in obscure texts."



He looked at Hennea again, though she wasn't looking at him at all. She was staring at her hands.



"The old wizard had help in his endeavor. He was not well liked, but, as I said, he was powerful, and there were many who feared him or sought his favor. One night, with four dozen lesser mages, he called the war god's power to his son. But the power of the war god is not held lightly - fifty mages died that night. Fifty mages and a god."



"Do you remember, Raven?" The Scholar leaned forward and touched Hennea lightly on the shoulder.



Seraph frowned, but there was nothing magical in the Scholar's touch, she would have felt it. Why did he think Hennea would remember any of this?



Hennea flinched away from his hand and came to her feet. "Thank you," she said in a distracted tone. "I'm going to take a walk."



The Scholar watched Hennea disappear down the stairs and continued to watch until the sound of the outer door shutting rang through the room.



"You are not just an illusion," said Seraph.



The Scholar looked at her, no smile upon his face at all. "A child was born that night. A little girl. Rage such as no child should have gave power to her voice, the rage of a murdered god, and the very walls shook with His power in a baby's cries. She was taken to the Lark's temple, where the Lark Herself sent her to sleep until something could be done."



Seraph sat back down, abandoning her half-formed intention to follow Hennea. "Guardian," she said.



The Scholar shook his head. "Almost, you understand. A god is immortal, we thought. They cannot die. But Ontil proved us wrong. Only the Stalker and the Weaver are immortal. And that part of them that made the Eagle a god survived his death, though it survived broken and torn, tainted by the wrath of a murdered god."



"In the child."



"Years passed." The Scholar gave Seraph the same intensity of attention he had given to Hennea. "Years in which it became obvious to the wizards that the god of destruction was awaking. Not just in Colossae, but all over the world we heard of mountains falling to the earth and oceans heaving themselves beyond their boundaries."



"Hinnum, the city's greatest wizard, went to the Raven for help - as he had all of his long life."



"He was four centuries old," Seraph said.



The illusion's eyes brightened with temper. "Four and a half. I - He knelt before Her statue in Her temple and pleaded for aid." Seraph realized it had not been temper alone that had brightened his eyes because a tear slid down his face. "She used to walk with him in the gardens here, because Hinnum was Her favorite. They would argue and bicker like children and when his third, most beloved, wife died, She held him through the night while he cried."



"She loved him," Seraph whispered.



"Like a son," he said. "Her love and Her Consort was the Eagle."



Seraph sucked in her breath, caught up in his story. "And wizards used the gifts She had given them to kill Him."



The Scholar nodded. "She blamed Herself, and She blamed us." He closed his eyes briefly. "She was so angry. While Hinnum prayed, he heard others enter, but until the Owl spoke he didn't realize who had come into the Raven's temple. It was the first time he'd seen any of the other gods."



He sat down beside Seraph, taking her hands in his own. "The Owl was... was like your husband. Even frightened as I was I could not help returning Her smile. She lifted me to my feet, and I saw the Others." He paused, and Seraph decided not to point out that he'd claimed to be Hinnum again. She would wait until he was finished with what he had to tell her. Hinnum, she thought, Hinnum would know how to save her husband and how to kill the Shadowed - and somehow this illusion was Hinnum.



"The Hunter was not a big man" - the Scholar was saying - "nor did He speak much, but when he was in the room, I was always aware of him, even in the presence of the other gods. The Cormorant looked just like the statue in His temple - they all did really - but the Cormorant looked as though a smile belonged on His face. He wasn't smiling, but I could see that was the expression he was most comfortable with. I didn't like the Lark. I don't know why. Maybe it was the way that She held the child who slept in Her arms, the child who bore the rage and power of the god of war - as if she were a stone or rock, not a child who suffered for other people's sins."



The Scholar pulled his hands away from Seraph's and covered his face. "The Owl called my Lady, and forced the Raven to come to Her Call. Ah, Raven who was, that I could have died before that day."



He sighed and let his hands fall limply to his sides. When he spoke again, he continued his story with more dispassion.



"When the Raven came, the Lark showed Her the sleeping child, and said, 'I am no more powerful than your consort was, Raven. In another month I shall not be able to hold His anger asleep in this child. And then his power will ravage this world, and nothing will be able to hold it in check.'



" 'This isn't about the child, or about the Eagle.' said the Cormorant. 'It is about the Weaver and the Stalker. The Eagle's death has weakened the binding that holds them. We must restore the balance.' "



The Scholar looked down at his lap. "Then the Weaver spoke. I don't know what he said because his voice overwhelmed me, and I fainted. When I came to myself, only Raven was there, sitting beside me and stroking my hair."



Tears fell again down the Scholar's face, but he seemed not to notice them. "The Raven told me, 'We give mortals small pieces of our godhood all of the time: you call them gifts: the toddler who can sing a song note perfect; the warrior whose reflexes are faster than most; the midwife whose patients never die of birthing fever.' " The Scholar stopped speaking because his voice grew too thick to continue.



"She killed the other gods," said Seraph, stunned as she realized what must have happened. "Ellevanal said that the Travelers killed their gods and ate them - and he was right."



"We killed them, the Raven and I," agreed the Scholar. "They chose to die because it was the only way to save the All of Being. They sacrificed themselves and their souls flew free, leaving only their power behind. The Raven showed me how to divide the power and bind the Orders so when the mortal who bore them died, they would find another Order Bearer."



"But the Eagle's power was corrupted," Seraph whispered. "He was not a willing sacrifice and would not leave His power." Oh my poor Jes, she thought. "Empaths. You gave empaths the power and rage of the war god's ghost."



When Hennea rushed out of the library, she didn't know what had upset her, just that she could not bear to hear one more of the Scholar's words. The flood of anger, of pain, was so strong - she had no idea where it had come from.



She walked rapidly with no goal other than to wear out her body and give herself a chance to think. To become calm. A Raven had no business allowing herself to become so upset. Disastrous things happened when a Raven was out of control.



She followed a narrow footpath behind a hedge of roses, found a small fountain, and sat upon the small stone bench in front of it. The roses in the hedge were opened wide to the sun and had no smell at all.



It took a long time, but gradually peace seeped through her bones, leaving her feeling more like herself. She put a hand into the water of the fountain, then drew it out dry. There was a barrier of time between her hand and the cool water where small fish had once lived. She couldn't touch the water because it didn't exist in this time, not really.



The memory of how the spell worked was hers. She could break it if she wanted to. She didn't remember where she'd learned it: she hadn't known it yesterday.



She didn't hear him come. There was nothing to warn her, until his hand closed around her wrist, and he pulled her to her feet.



"Jes?" she whispered though she knew better. The hand that gripped her so carefully was burning with cold.



"No." The Guardian examined her face as pounding fear washed over her, through her, without touching her because she could never fear him. "Jes is where he cannot be hurt."



She was wrong, she was not immune to fear. The Guardian's words terrified her.



"You can't do that," she said. "You can't lock him away. He's an empath - he needs to be with you."



The Guardian's lip curled in an expression she'd never seen on Jes's face, though it was familiar. Achingly familiar. Where had she seen it?



"I do not need advice from you on how to protect Jes," the Guardian said, and she finally realized he was angry with her - a rage so deep that he'd locked Jes away from it.



"What's wrong?" she asked. "Is there something new wrong with Tier?"



He snarled at her, the growl of an enraged mountain cat out of a human mouth, then turned on his heel and began striding away, pulling her behind him.



"Papa is dying - or didn't you know that?" His voice was soft with menace. "Isn't it important to you?"



"You know me better than that," Hennea said, trying to answer his anger with control.



As if the calmness of her voice were more than he could bear, the Guardian jerked her to face him and shook her once. The small act of violence only seemed to increase his frustration - he growled, a low, angry sound.



He bent his head and kissed her. It was a hard kiss, born of rage. She felt her bottom lip split under the pressure. When he tasted her blood, he hesitated, then shoved her away from him - though he didn't release his hold on her wrist.



He was still for a moment, then began striding forward again. "Papa leaves his lute in its pack, and my mother cries herself to sleep every night. They pretend and pretend all day long so they won't hurt us." His voice was so low that she felt it as much as heard it.



"That is no different now than it was this morning," said Hennea. "But your mother and I are getting closer to the answers we need. We know who the Shadowed is. Guardian - "



She let her voice trail off because she recognized the streets the Guardian had taken, she knew where it led - and she didn't know how she knew.



She looked at Jes's face and saw that he would not listen to her now, not until he'd given vent to his rage - and maybe not even then. It was not a good thing that he'd locked Jes away. Strong emotions were such a danger to the Eagle: love, hatred... betrayal. She took hope from the long-fingered hand that was wrapped around her wrist: not once had it tightened enough to bruise.



She watched that hand, and let Jes direct her to the end of the street, where a temple much like the one they'd found their first day in Colossae presided. Jes led the way through the temple's open doors into the antechamber which was covered in thick carpets. There was a second set of steps, four of them, and another doorway. He didn't pause as the carpets gave way to white marble, but walked to the far end of the room. He grabbed her shoulder with his free hand and held her before him so she stood directly in front of the black marble statue on the dais of the Temple of the Raven.



Like her sister goddess the Owl, the Raven was clad only in a skirt caught with a belt bearing the device of her totem, but there was no paint on this statue. One hand rested at her side, and the other, held up toward the room, bore a raven with ruby eyes. In contrast to the merry expression the Owl had worn, this goddess's face was serene, Raven-like.



Her features were Hennea's own.



"Alhennea it says on her belt," said the Guardian. Jes would not have been able to read the belt. "Did you shorten it when you came to my family? Why did you come to us? Were you bored? Decided to play with the lives of mortals for a while?"



Shock held her still, then she dropped to the floor under the sudden weight of the memories Hinnum had long ago stolen from her. She hit the floor hard enough that she knew, dimly, she would have bruises tomorrow.



Stronger even than the memories were the accompanying emotions.



"I do not know you at all," he snarled, and even in the richness of her banquet of despair she heard him, heard the anguish that underlay the anger in his voice. "You could have healed my father. You could have killed the Shadowed in Taela and saved Phoran from his Memory." He waved his arms, and she saw Jes filter through the Guardian's eyes. "You could have destroyed the Path before it was born. You could have saved my mother's clan."



"Jes," she said hoarsely. "I am not She."



"You are," he insisted, and it was Jes she talked to. "Do you think because I do not have to read your feelings when I touch you that I cannot do so if I want to? I felt you recognize this place. You knew. You are She."



Her eyes were drawn again to the statue. "I - I think I was once."



She looked back at Jes and tried to pull out words to lessen the agony in his eyes. He was listening, listening, when the Guardian would have protected him from her. Seraph had been right, her son was strong. There were not many Eagle Bearers who could wrest control from the Guardian.



"I will swear in front of your father, who is Bard still, that I did not know who I was until just now." She would have said something more, but a memory overwhelmed her. She cried out, a shuddering, inarticulate cry and bowed her spine until her forehead hit the marble floor. Part of her felt the pain of the impact, but a clear image of a red stain spreading in the Owl's colorful skirts held most of her attention. She could almost feel the cool haft of the knife even yet.



Then, somehow, she was back in the present, and Jes was curled around her, pulling her into his lap.



"I have never betrayed you, Jes. I don't play games with people I - with people I love," she managed to say. "I don't have that kind of power anymore, I gave it away." The words spilled out of her faster and faster. "We took my power and divided it so it balanced with the others. There was no more war god, and so the other gods had to die, too. I had to direct the spell to sacrifice the city, though; no one else knew how to do the spell. But I was supposed to die. Hinnum swore he would kill me, but I think he could not bear to do it. He took my memories instead."



Jes kissed her forehead, and it was too much, because she knew her uncontrolled emotions were hurting him. She didn't want to hurt Jes, couldn't bear hurting him.



She pulled herself free of his lap and stumbled away from him. Her nose was running and her face was wet, she pulled up her shirt and wiped all the moisture away and kept moving away from Jes until she could lean her face against a wall.



"I was supposed to be dead," she said calmly, pressing her cheek against the cold marble. Then she hit the wall as hard as she could with the flat of her hand, savoring the pain that was so much easier to bear than her memories. "I was supposed to be dead!" She screamed it, felt it roar through her lungs and release the pressure just a little. She would have hit the wall again, this time with her fist; but a gentle hand caught her wrist, opened her fingers, and laid her palm flat on the wall before he let go of her again.



She stared at her hand.



"I am so old. I have failed so many times, I - " She broke off. She had no right to burden him with her pain, he had enough of his own. She would mend what she could. "I am no longer a goddess, just very old." She was babbling. She took a deep breath and felt the lines of her face relax as her control returned. "I am so poor a thing I could not even kill the solsenti mage-priest Volis, because I could not break free of his magic. I thought at least I might help your mother understand what had happened to Tier. I didn't think she could rescue him; I thought she could spread the word to the other clans."



She waved her hand helplessly. "I expected to cause a little trouble for the Path, for the Shadowed, a slap, you understand, because I could do nothing more. I am not used to asking for help, nor having it offered to me. Travelers are not a generous people. They do as they have to, as their history demands, but they take little pleasure in it. I did not expect your mother to help me."



She had to take another controlling breath. She was glad he stood behind her so she didn't have to look at him. "I did not expect what happened - but I did not sit back and watch while your family risked everything, Jes. I helped with every power I had."



She stopped speaking because there was nothing more to say, and because if she allowed herself to say another sentence, she would scream her throat raw. She hoped what she'd told him was enough to allow Jes to keep the fragile balance he'd ridden for so much longer than most of his kind. She should have stayed away from him, should have left after the first time they kissed.



"I've never seen you cry before," said Jes's soft voice, then his hand was touching her cheek. When it touched her skin, he hissed softly, as a man who burned himself on a cinder might.



She tried to pull her emotions under control, tried to step away so she wouldn't hurt him. She didn't want to hurt him any more.



"Shh," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her.



She resisted because she didn't want him to look at her, her face blotched, her eyes swollen. She didn't want to look at him and see the distance that the knowledge of what she once had been would put between them. But he was stronger than she, and persistent. In the end, she chose to keep what little dignity she had left rather than fight him.



His face was too close for her to see his expression, she only caught a glimpse of velvet-dark eyes before he bent his head to lick gently at the cut on her lip.



"I don't want to hurt you either," he said. "Neither of us does. I'm sorry. I believe you, I believe you. I was almost certain you wouldn't betray us - but the Guardian had to believe, too. He wouldn't listen to me. Hush now."



He kissed her, a kiss as different from his last kiss as a palace from a midden: closed mouth and soft lips, tender and loving.



"My mother says Ravens are good at keeping secrets; I think she is right," he murmured. "My father says it's not safe to keep secrets from yourself. I think he is right, too."



His hands drifted from her shoulders when she stopped pulling away. Lightly, his right hand slid over her breast and stopped just over her navel, as if he sensed the hot ball of grief, pain, and anger she'd buried there.



"I'm hurting you," she said, but she couldn't force herself to back away from his touch. "I don't want to hurt you. Give me some time, and I'll - "



"Bury it again?" he said, his voice a soft rumble against her ear. "I don't think that is wise." He kissed her ear and down her neck, nibbling gently as he loosened the tie that kept the neckline of her dress shut.



She would have sworn passion had nothing new to teach her, but she found under Jes's inexperienced but intuitive touch, she was wrong. He had barely begun, and she trembled, caught in the fear that he might stop: stop touching her, stop talking to her in that velvet voice... stop loving her.



"Please," she said, her voice no louder than his. Please don't let me hurt you. Please touch me. Please love me. She would allow herself to say none of it.



He met her gaze and smiled, Jes and Guardian both. "Don't worry so," he said, before continuing the journey he'd just begun.



His mouth followed her skin down her throat to her collarbone while his hands trailed heat down the curve of her spine, then across to her hips. He stopped with his mouth over her navel, his head against that ache of grief and memory his hand had found earlier.



"Here," he said. "So much hurt. Let me loosen it for you." He pressed his forehead against her, just below her ribs. And the warmth of him softened the old pain gently, then the Guardian's coolness eased the ache.



"Don't keep your hate and pain so tightly," the Guardian said, his voice as gentle as Jes's had been. "I share my rage with Jes, and it lessens. Some hurts need the light of day, Hennea, so that they may be counted and let fly."



She sighed and felt the ugliness she had carried for so long in secret, hidden even from herself, writhe under the light he would bring to it.



"So many dead," Jes said, his voice subtly softer than the Guardian's. "Too many to keep here." His callused hand brushed tenderly over her heart. "They were beloved by you, and loved you. It would hurt them to know they caused you such anguish. Let them go."



"You can't read my mind," she said, shaken by the accuracy of his words.



"No," he said. "But I feel what you feel, and I remember the ones I have lost along the way, and the pain is the same. The cause the same." He smiled against her cheek; she could feel his dimple. "Selfishness."



"Selfishness?" It stung as if he were trivializing her suffering. She tried to pull away.



He laughed, low in his throat, and pulled her more tightly against him. The vibration of the Guardian's quiet laughter touched something deep inside, and she yielded to him again.



"Selfish," he said again. "I do not know where the dead go." Jes laughed this time, the sound less graceful, less beautiful, but more joyous. "But they do go and leave their bodies behind, I've seen it. I've felt it. They go in joy, Hennea, the pain and fear is left with the ones who stay behind and mourn. You and I. And the pain we feel is for ourselves. I will never again see my little sister, Mehalla, who died the year Rinnie was born, and it makes me sad. For me. And I mourn even now, though she is eleven years dead. It is not bad that I mourn, but it is selfish." He slid down to kiss her belly, then rubbed his cheek against her, his afternoon beard stubble catching on her shirt.



"Let their deaths go," he said. "Let them leave off their haunting of your heart."



He waited, as if he were listening for something she couldn't hear. His patience, and the warmth of his arms around her - as if he were protecting her from all harm - was too much to bear.



"Ah, that's it," he said, coming back to his feet so she could bury her face against his chest as she sobbed. "We cry, too, the Guardian and I." He rocked her softly and sang a lullaby, like a mother soothing an overly tired child. He wasn't Bard, but his voice was lovely all the same.



When she pulled back, he wiped her cheeks with his hands. "You need to forgive them," he told her. "They are long dead, and your anger harms only you. Forgive them for dying and leaving you behind. Forgive Hinnum, if it was he, who loved you too much to allow you death to salve your pain."



Hennea felt raw. "You are a child," she whispered. "How can you know such things?"



The step she took away from him was more of a stumble than the firm distance-setting stride she'd intended, but it served its purpose. His touch was too unsettling, too necessary.



He smiled. "Some truths are truths, no matter who says them. My father knows a lot of them. 'Forgiveness benefits you more than those you forgive' is one of his favorites."



The smile faded, and his eyes darkened. "You lost so much," he said, and she couldn't tell who spoke, Jes or the Guardian. "Is there nothing you found afterward? Were no gifts given to you?"



She stared at him, trying to maintain her dignity; but he waited patiently, a smile lurking just below the surface of his eyes.



"You," she said.



He smiled again and closed the distance between them. As he pulled her into a hug that was more exuberant than sensual, he whispered, "Next time you want to look dignified, you might tie your blouse closed first."



He laughed when she pushed against him with an indignant huff. "Come," he said. "I know of a place that'll be more comfortable for what I have in mind than this marble floor. I did a bit of exploring before we noticed the face on the statue was yours - the black color threw us off."



"You just weren't looking at the face," she said, and he threw back his head and gave one of his joy-ridden crows of amusement.



"Jealous of a statue?" he asked, and picked her up. "A man likes something softer and warmer than marble - no matter how beautiful."



She let him carry her up the stairs of the dais and through the half-hidden door beyond. He took her through the halls and into a room built around a serene pool. The afternoon light reflected off the water from hidden skylights, giving the walls a dappled appearance.



"I remember that this was always my favorite room," she said, as he laid her on one of the thick mats that covered the ground.



The Guardian buried his face under her hair, between her neck and shoulder, and inhaled. "I love your scent," he growled.



"Wait," she said, pulling away from him.



He let her go, though his hands clenched, and he grimaced.



"I have to tell you," she said. "I have to tell Jes."



"Jes is listening," rumbled the Guardian, rolling until he was on his belly, his face hidden in his arms. "That is the best we can do right now."



Hennea sat up and rubbed his back, then pulled her hand back because it was distracting to touch him and feel him shaking with passion under her fingers - and she needed him to understand just what she was before he made such a commitment to her.



"There were six of us in the days of Colossae. Raven, Eagle, Owl, Cormorant, Lark, and Falcon. We kept the world safe by the balance of our powers."



She folded her legs and made herself small as she organized her newfound memories and composed a story that would make sense to Jes without losing itself in useless details.



"Colossae was my city, and I loved her. I loved the wizards who lived in her. They asked me for power, and I gave it to them."



The Guardian turned onto his side so he could watch her. His body was relaxing slowly from the tension of passion.



"The only thing I loved more than my city was my Consort. We were created for each other. There was balance between us: Eagle for Raven, Owl for Cormorant, and Lark for Hunter. Then my wizards, using the power I gave them, killed my Eagle."



"How?" The Guardian's breathing had picked up, but not from passion.



"Like the Path took the Order from its bearer, the greedy wizards stole the Eagle's power. They died in the doing, but it killed my beloved, too."



He turned his gaze to the pool of water, his face neutral, she could not read what he thought.



"The power we held was immortal, Jes, but we learned that we were not immune to the Stalker's gift. We lived, the six of us, to keep the greater gods in check. Our world is old and brittle; if the power of the Weaver and the Stalker were loosed upon it now, it would shatter like an old, dry pot. We maintained the balance that kept the gods bound."



"One of you died." It was Jes who spoke now, though she could feel the Guardian's presence in the chill that raised goose bumps on her arms.



She nodded. "When the war god was murdered, the Elder gods stirred. People died all over the world. The old god's power is involuntary, like the dread that always hangs about the Guardian whether he wills it or not: the Weaver creates, and the Stalker destroys, they have no choice. It's what they are. They came to us, those of us who still lived, and asked us to help them restore the balance."



"To sacrifice Colossae."



"The bindings that kept the Elder gods in check were failing, day by day, because there was no balanced outlet for their power. We had two problems to fix. We needed to create a new binding and a new balance. Colossae's sacrifice was necessary to create the binding - as long as she stands frozen, so will the gods be bound."



"But one of the gods was dead, so there could be no balance."



"That's right." It sounded like a story, Hennea thought, except she could remember it as if it had happened yesterday. "The Lark suggested the Weaver create a new Eagle."



Even so many years later the rage she'd felt at that - as if her beloved were no more than a broken bowl that could be replaced with a potter's wheel and kiln - was hot in her breast.



"Why didn't he?"



"He couldn't," she said. "The immortal power of the Eagle was still here, hosted in the mind of a child born the day my beloved died and held to sleep by the Lark. My beloved would not release his power, and not even the Weaver or the Stalker could force him to do so."



"I was so angry with them all." She remembered holding her grief and guilt and hiding them behind her anger. "It was my fault," she whispered. "And it was for me to correct though we would all pay the price for my folly."



"What did you do?"



"The Orders were created before the wizards left Colossae, Jes. I made them. I took the powers of my fellow gods and tore them from their bodies as my beloved's power had been torn from him. Because I was the goddess of magic, I could take them cleanly, pure power with nothing of the soul clinging to them. But I could not take them without killing the gods."



She closed her eyes and remembered how it was, working magic with a pale and shuddering Hinnum, who aided her in doing what must be done. "They sacrificed themselves because five gods could not hold the bindings and keep the Elder gods confined, but if I took our power and divided it and bound it to mortals, then the balance would be served."



"So Colossae died to confine the powers of the Elder gods, and the Orders were created to keep them confined."



"Yes," whispered Hennea.



Silence grew until Jes looked at her instead of the pool. "You didn't stop us for this."



She shook her head, but she couldn't bear telling him yet, so she shared the lesser of the evils she was responsible for. "I was supposed to die, too, Jes. Hinnum helped me divide my power and create the Ravens, leaving only what I needed to direct the spells that sacrificed Colossae. I think that my survival is why the Shadowed is able to draw power from the Stalker. My survival left a hole in the bindings."



Jes sat up abruptly and gathered her into his arms, but she had the feeling his attention was on his own internal dialogue. "No," the Guardian said after a moment. "It wasn't your life. You were the Raven, and had the Raven survived, it would have destroyed the balance. A Raven survived, Hennea, but not the Raven."



She considered his words carefully, but could find no flaw in his argument. "All right," she whispered. "All right. But something went wrong."



"Hennea?" he asked, his lips against her ear. "Why is the Eagle Order different?"



"My fault," she said, glad he'd found the worst of her crimes before she'd had to confess. "It is my fault, and I beg your forgiveness."



Jes held still behind her, but he didn't push her away when she leaned against him. "When my sisters and brothers died, their spirits and body fell away, leaving only their power behind. When the wizards murdered the Eagle, they ripped his power and spirit from his body together. I could have divided his power into such small sparks it would have been no more than a glint in the eye that gave a person just an extra mote of courage or strength. And they would never have felt the remnant that was Him, and not just his power. I could have given him into the care of the warrior born, let loose his gifts on the field of battle. But this was my beloved."



"So what did you do?"



Surely he knew, she thought, but she owed it to him to confess her guilt in full.



"I divided his power until his rage at his murder was small enough it did not instantly overwhelm the mortal who would hold it, then I gave him to the only people who could know what it was they held. The only people who might comfort him."



"Empaths like Jes," said the Guardian.



She nodded, awaiting his judgment. He pulled her into his lap and rocked a little as he thought.



"If," whispered the Guardian "if you had given me a warrior to bind to, blood would have flowed like rivers until there were none more to kill. I remember generations of being only rage, incapable of coherent thought. Without Jes to love me, that is all I would ever be."



"I know, beloved," she said, holding his arms against her. "But so many have paid the cost of my decision. So many Eagles have lived short lives. Jes - Jes has paid such a price for a debt that was not his."



"Hmm," Jes said. "Papa says everyone pays a price for living." He nuzzled behind her ear. "I like who I am, Hennea. I cannot imagine life without the Guardian. I think it would be terrible and lonely if I did not have him. Right now, in this room with you in my arms, I would trade my life with no other man alive. Do not ask for my forgiveness, because you have not sinned against me. Do not ask for our anger because there is none. We love you."