The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH FOR ALL TIME?

“So, teach me how to fly this thing, Regis.” She said brightly, running her fingers lightly over the controls. “I love flying.”

“You are a pilot, my lady?” Regis was surprised.

“Oh yes... well, I was, I have given your best friend air-sickness many, MANY times.” She laughed. “Regis, in my time, I have my own starship called the Seeker and after the war, we traveled farther than you can even imagine. Please tell me, why have you never settled the other worlds in this system? You have 4 habitable planets.” She sipped the tea he had given her as she looked at the hazy shapes that were his form through her half-blind eyes.

“The other worlds are considered sacred places to visit, like the temples once were but since the last war, no one cares to visit them. Only Trios, holds a monastery for the study of magic. Why? Do people live on them in your time?”

“Maybe,” Fleur answered too innocently. She held up her cup to hide her smirk.

“That would be a yes.” Yurieth retorted drily. “Those worlds are sacred. Trios, the third world is...”

“Where your future school for huntsmen is located and is home to five thousand Aetherians.” Fleur answers flippantly. “We call it Arborea, from the word arbor, meaning a grove of sacred trees. The fifth world we call Oceania because of the great seas that cover it. It was furthest from the cataclysm and Aetheria Prime, your star, was between it and the event that will destroy Aetheria.”

Fleur tipped her head at Yurieth and raised an eyebrow. “What? That was your second question wasn’t it? Why risk a one-way trip to ensure things will not change? And your third: Why not stop the disaster? The answer is simple, Huntsman. It cannot be stopped because it was not stopped. The Shadows did not come back to cause the cataclysm, they came to stop your father. I came to stop them. I cannot change the timeline. I tried it once and it fractured reality. It took all the power we both possessed to come back and make sure I was stopped from changing time in the future. Your future self even told you to kill your brother yourself if I tried to save him a second time. So, my final answer is I will not save your world because I did not save your world.” Her cup was almost empty; she silently wished it was coffee and not tea.

“I need a refill.” She stood up and walked past him, pausing in the door. “I’m sorry, Yurieth, I am only here to save the children. If I could, I would set up portals and send thousands to safety as we did when worlds were harvested, but the portals do not work through time as they do between places.” Then she walked out of the cockpit and toward the back of the flyer to the place where Regis had gotten the tea from a carafe.

Yurieth settled into the seat she left, it was still warm and smelled of her. “Our world is lost,” his voice had a defeated tone.

“Yurieth, what did she mean by portals because I do not think she meant a doorway?” Regis asked quietly through gritted teeth, all those centuries of war for a world that would be lost.

Yurieth shrugged. “I have no idea; she uses our language as strangely as she uses magic.”

Several weeks later, Oshay ducked back out of a door he had just stepped through. Abrieth was sitting next to Fleur as she was running a check on the secondary propulsion system needed to leave the atmosphere and land, the controls were elegantly simple. Odini and Orion had told he and Adamos that without her help it would have taken years instead of months to finish. Oshay listened as Abrieth tried to coax her to stop long enough to eat some sweetbreads with her tea while they were still warm. She gulped two cups before eating.

“Did you sleep at all or stay up all night again? Abrieth asked grumpily.

“Maybe...” she answered with a giggle. Oshay couldn’t help smiling as he remembered all the times he had done the same thing with the oracle. Listening as she confessed. “In all honesty, I slept more the first month I was here than I have in decades. I’ve got sleep in the bank.”

“I do not understand,” Abrieth said perturbed. “What does sleep have to do with the edge of a river.”

Fleur’s laughter bubbled out of her. “Don’t worry about it, I have eaten and had a couple cups of strong tea, anything else I can do for you?”

“Serapha wishes for you to bathe in the healing water and have some rest.”

Fleur frowned, “I have one more set of propulsion controls to interface, so the primary, secondary and tertiary systems are all online, then I can start on synchronizing Oren and Odini’s sleep chambers with the navigation system.”

Abrieth gives a low whistle, “How do you manage so much? It is almost like you are two people.”

Fleur laughed again. “Um... not exactly.”

Abrieth sat watching her tap rapidly on a panel, then said in a low voice, “Tell me the future, Fleur?”

She snorted her amusement, “Not happening.”

“Please Fluer, tell me a secret like you told Yurieth,” he begged.

“You don’t want to know what I told Yuri, it made him very grumpy,” she responded.

“Yurieth, grumpy? How could you tell?” He asked innocently and she burst out laughing again.

“Fine,” she whispered loudly, “I will tell you that after your rescue, you and Pha have two sweet strawberry blondes and everyone adores them.”

Abrieth’s face split with a broad grin, his eyes shining. “Thank you, Fleur.”

She put her hand on his arm, “No matter what happens Abe, don’t give up hope. I will find you, and even though I don’t know who you are, I will save you. Now go tell, Serapha I will be there as soon as I finish this.”

“I am glad for my brother to be your sealed one, Fleur. You are very sweet.” Abrieth didn’t see Oshay as he walked away down the hall.

“Yes, Oshay?” Fleur summoned him from his hiding place.

“Oracle, I have finished the initial programming for the healing beds according to Asha’s schematics,” Oshay announced.

Fleur shook her head, “Two hundred years ago when we ended up designing our own healing beds, who would have thought that we were pre-engineering the designs for the ones we were trying to reverse engineer?”

Oshay nodded at the irony, “We couldn’t figure out the ones the ancients made so we designed our own only to discover they were almost exactly what was before us.”

“Well, if you hadn’t figured out Orion and Odini’s spell to obscure the technology we never would have realized we designed the new one exactly like the old ones. It was an impressive piece of magic detection,” she complimented him.

He bowed to her. “My thanks, my lady. But shouldn’t you be going for a rejuvenation treatment since you did not sleep last night.”

“Neither did you,” Fleur pouted.

“True but I already soaked in the healing waters today. My grandfather insisted,” Oshay pointed out.

“How are you feeling?” Fleur asked, concerned.

“I am as well as can be expected, but I cannot wait to get home. How go things with Lord Yurieth?” His deep voice held concern.

“As well as can be expected. He is at war with himself.” She sighed. “Shadz, do you think Kaleth knew that someday I would fall in love with Yurieth?”

“We cannot ask him, my lady. Just be careful, you love easily and, well, the Huntsman we know resist love at every turn.” He reminded in his usual measured monotone. He hoped against his fear that his mentor misunderstood Yurieth’s memories and that the Huntsman would not hurt the Oracle’s heart because it would take all of her love to perform the enchantment to protect him, his brother, and the Princess when the end came. “You should get your bath before Lady Serapha comes looking for you. I have been kept quite nimble avoiding them.”

“Don’t worry, we are returning to the City of the Kings soon. I have an appointment with the Queen.” Fleur explained as she stood up. “This is done. See you later.” She hugged him and felt his pain, so she let her light sooth his soul and was not surprised when she felt his tears on her hair. “Just say the word and I’ll send you back.”

Oshay shook his head. “I will stay as long as I can. It is my duty to help you. My reward is returning to Asha.”

“But Shadz, what about her babies? If you are suffering then so is she.” Fleur worried for her daughter.

“She is strong like you, and she has Milo and Cassie to help her. It is a shame Lady Serapha’s power was lost, she is quite impressive here.” Oshay said admiringly, “And my lady, you must remember not to call me Shadz.”

“Sorry... Oshay... I am just very tired.” Fleur smiled and then walked out running her fingers down the wall, she had memorized the layout of the entire compound so she wouldn’t need a guide.

Yurieth found Abrieth with several of the metal workers. His brother had turned his weapons making skill toward the building of the great ship that would carry the children of Aetheria to a new home. Fleur had informed them about several places where there were pockets of interstellar dust, so they were reinforcing the hull with alloy and magic.

‘Brother, where is Lady Fleur?’ Yurieth touched Abrieth’s mind.

Abrieth removed his face shield and scanned the hills above the build site then pointed. ‘She’s asleep among the Alpenfleur.’

‘Thank you.’

Yurieth walked up the hill and let his senses lead him straight to her. She looked beautiful, sleeping among the flowers. It was obvious she had been picking them, sat down to rest and had fallen asleep. He sat down next to her and was soon asleep himself. When he woke they were no longer separated by several feet as was proper. She was sleeping with her head on his shoulder, their hands were clasped with fingers intertwined over his heart. He wanted her love more than any he had wanted in centuries. She had warned him that he would forget everything during his imprisonment, but he did not want to forget what this felt like. He had never truly been in love before.

He was at war with himself, between his mind reminding him that after his imprisonment she would belong to his brother until his death, and his heart rebelled with its selfish want. He felt greedy for her attention; every moment made him want ten more. Perhaps it was better for him to forget and fall back in love with her after her time of grieving. He was too torn to think clearly and his father’s words this morning only made him more confused as he stared up at the early autumn,

‘Only she can give you what you need to survive your imprisonment and only you can give her what she needs to give it to you.’

When Yurieth had asked what it was, his father had only said, ‘Kiss her and find out. It is the power behind the light.’

Yurieth closed his eyes and drifted into a nightmare.

Fleur was chained to a throne made of blood marble like those on Xelusia. A red-eyed blood mage was beating to her death and he could do nothing because he was made of dust.

He inhaled sharply as he woke. Fleur was sitting up next to him looking in the direction of the sunset. Tears were running down her face.

“You weren’t supposed to see that. I’m sorry.” She was quiet for a moment. “I can’t see the colors anymore.” She sniffed and wiped her cheeks. “Please take me back.”

He reached out and pulled her against his chest, “I cannot bear to see you weep. Was... was that where... when...” He couldn’t find the words to ask.

She looked up at him with her clouded lavender eyes. “Please, don’t make me tell you of that place. We survived, we escaped... I can’t bear the knowledge of how long you will suffer there.”

“You will suffer too; I saw the blood mage killing you.” He swallowed against his horror of being helpless. “He was doing it just so you would revive to suffer it again.”

“You kept me sane, you brought me food, supplies, and even a flower once. You sacrificed your own strength to help me. Without you, I would have succumbed to despair and died. You suffered with me and I wish I could spare you all of it, but I am glad you were there with me.” She reached up and touched his scars. “Thank you for being there with me.”

He kissed her slowly. He hadn’t meant to, but his heart rebelled against his mind and won. He felt like his soul was melting into hers. It was like he was drowning in sunlight or joy. She gave him hope; it was a strange feeling after being so many centuries without it. Forever later, he walked her back to the compound under the stars, and left her at her door with a modest peck and a wish for her to rest well. Then he went back out into the night and the forest. Sitting atop the highest tree he could find he could not convince himself that what he felt was wrong. Watching the stars turn overhead, he admitted to himself that he loved her. He loved her more than his own life and he was willing to go through any imprisonment to be with her again, even if he had to wait for centuries, he would.

The next morning before dawn, Yurieth found her working on the sleep chambers. He wrapped her cloak around her shoulders.

“It is the restday, come with me.”

The early morning air was frosty and carried the promise of winter coming. Fleur was glad she was wearing the heavy quilted velvet dress Mina had sent her. The pale sage green complimented her creamy skin and pale hair. It was embroidered with tiny alpenfluer and leaves swirling on the wind almost as if the season had been made into a garment and the garment made for her.

The Huntsman led the blind Oracle up the hills and through the trees, up to the overlook. As they stood there, he described all the beauty the changing light wrought, sharing his sight with her through his words. The sky turned from ombre amethyst stripped with fiery corals and muted charcoals to sapphire velvet behind bands of molten gold and eudialyte, before lightening to aquamarine laced with silver and white. He described every moment as he stood behind her. He described the valley and the changing of the trees. The quilt of autumn spreading out below them, only stopping where the mountains topped with snow jutted up from the forest. A dozen shades of green mixed with all the amber, scarlet, and sepia.

She hugged his arms and trembled, as he finished with a whispered promise, “My lady, as long as you need, I will be your eyes as you are my heart.”

She turned and looked up at him with tears on her cheeks, “Thank you, Yuri. I...”

“Shhh, just listen. I am a Huntsman, I believed I was forever destined to be alone. I thought I would never have love or a family again. You changed that. I want to marry you. I know it cannot be here and now in this time. But I promise, I will ask you again when the time is right. I am yours for all time.”

Fleur put one hand behind his neck and the other on his right cheek. “My dearest Yuri, I feel like it has always been about you. I feel like every moment, every step I took, no matter how painful, was put in my path to lead me to you here and now. I love you and not just because we are sealed. I would love you anyway because I love you in the future. When I came back, all I cared about was saving you, and I wanted to meet the love you lost, hoping to save her so I could return her to you. I was willing to give you up for your happiness... I... I am overwhelmed that I am her, that you would love me... When I get back from this mission, I’ll share my memories with you. I will never leave you. I will love you for all time.”

They kissed and he could feel her loving soul wrapping around his battered one like a soft silk, but also like armor as though she were trying to protect him from something terrible and he didn’t know what it was.