What had happened next was even worse-for the druid had remembered. Now that night of intimacy lay between them, a treasured memory and a goad in his side. Taen's heart had already been given-and pierced beneath a moon just like this one.
Talaedra! He nearly cried her name out loud.
Beneath the sharpness of that grief, Taen knew that he could never give himself to another, so he and Marissa had spent the years dancing endlessly between intimacy and friendship.
Until now, he thought with a terrible certainty. Now she was whole.
And-perhaps-beyond him.
He wanted to find out now, in the midst of their journey to meet the wychlaran. Such was the burden he felt that it lay like a geas on his heart, but just as he began to quicken his pace in an effort to draw near the druid, Selov called a halt.
"We are close to the well," he said after a long draught from his waterskin. "There is a deer track about half a candle's walk west of here. It cuts northeast for a ways and then opens into an abandoned trade road. If we follow the track and then walk along the road, we'll come to a large oak that has been split by lightning. The well is just a short walk beyond the oak."
The others nodded, passing around a skin of wine and some salted beef before pressing on. The stillness of the deep night held as they marched onward. Taen tried several subtle attempts to draw Marissa into a private conversation, but the druid seemed distracted, answering him with simple grunts or not at all. As they picked their way carefully through the deer track, avoiding the fallen trunks of trees and the thorns of the thick underbrush, the half-elf finally lost patience.
"Marissa," he snapped. "Are you listening to me at all?"
"Hmm… what?" the druid replied after a moment. Then, as if waking from a dream, she stopped to look back at him. "Oh, Taenaran," she said, "I'm sorry. I… I guess I am a little distracted. It's this," she said, holding out the length of the staff she received from the Red Tree. "I can feel it-the same way I could feel the presence of the Red Tree, only this time it's gentle, like a soft whisper in my mind."
Taen nodded. "I understand," he said uneasily. Though he knew that powerful magic items could sometimes manifest intelligence and an independent will, the half-elf was more than suspicious of whatever sentience lurked within the confines of that staff.
"Look," he continued, "I know we're right in the middle of something really big here, but we need to talk." He had schooled himself against her anger, and he was prepared to defend himself on any number of grounds, all eminently logical and rational.
Instead, she simply nodded her head.
"Yes," Marissa said with a familiar twinkle in her eye-one that Taen found particularly alluring. "I have much to say to you, Taenaran of Avaelearean, but now is not the time."
He started to protest, but she cut him off. "Peace, arael'sha," she said gently. "Let us meet with the othlor, then"-she paused-"we shall see what we shall see." With that, she turned and walked away.
Taen stood there, stunned, and watched her go.
Arael'sha.
She had called him arael'sha, heart-friend, a term so laden with meaning that in the subtle Elvish tongue it had nearly a hundred uses. Somehow, with just a few words, the druid had managed to confuse him even further.
Taen shook his head and stared into the night-shrouded underbrush a moment before continuing on.
The track wended and twisted its way forward, sometimes wide enough to walk two abreast and sometimes collapsing in upon itself so much that Taen and the others were forced to move slowly, almost creeping forward, in single file. As the moon began its lazy descent, the darkness deepened. By the time they had reached the end of the trail and stepped out on to the road, it was nearly pitch black, save for the faint glow emanating from the Staff of the Red Tree.
They huddled in that darkness, waiting for Selov to scent the trail and lead them forward. When he did, there came a great stirring from the treetops. An explosive beating of wings and the harsh-throated caw of a great raven echoed in the night. Rusella, aloft and flying wildly, circled thrice around the group before alighting on the tip of Marissa's staff. The creature's albino-red eyes whirled and glared as it darted its head in all directions, calling madly.
"Something's wrong," Marissa said in between snatches of a mumbled song meant to sooth the agitated bird. "I… I can't understand her. She's nearly mad with fright."
That's when Taen felt it-a tightening of the silence, as if the walls of the world were shrinking in upon themselves and pressing down with an abominable weight. He gasped from the force of it, trying at last to suck air into his lungs. None would come.
A faint mist had begun to form along the ground. Taen screamed silently as it leeched the warmth from his bones. He wanted to run but couldn't. His legs remained rooted to the ground. If he didn't escape, the half-elf knew that there would be nothing left of him but the bitter, cold emptiness of the grave.
"Look," Selov hissed and pointed down the old trade road.
Shadows swirled where the old man pointed, deeper pits of darkness against a landscape of black. Points of red light stabbed out from the darkness like the embers of a long-dead fire. Taen could sense the need behind those baleful eyes, the implacable hunger of death rising up out of the night to swallow the living.
"Wraiths," Roberc said, though his voice came out as a barely breathed whisper.
As the creatures advanced, Taen could make out the dim outline of black robes flowing with each incorporeal step. There were six of them, floating silently down the road like nightmares. Even in his panic, Taen noted that the last one held a scepter in one hand while a gilded crown wreathed its shrouded head.
Roberc struggled to draw his weapon as Cavan backed away from the oncoming wraiths. The war-dog whined and yelped in a high-pitched tone as his rider fought for control.
"Enough," Marissa said at last through clenched teeth. Lifting her staff high into the air, she intoned a brief prayer. Immediately the chill disappeared, replaced by warmth and the sweet fragrance of a spring evening. Taen nearly stumbled as the terror drained from his body.
"Quick, everyone form a circle," Taen shouted. "Don't let them surround you."
As they fell into formation, the half-elf grabbed Selov and pulled him into the center of their position. Once the innkeeper was secured, the half-elf raised both hands into the air and uttered the words to a spell. At first, he stumbled over the torturous pronunciation but soon found the rhythm of the arcane formula. Of all the disciplines of magic, none were as distasteful to him as necromancy. Even when the spell worked against the forces of undeath, it still left its mark, like a bruise upon the soul. There were powers in the world, he knew, best left untouched. Still, their need was great, so as he finished the spell, Taen thrust out both arms, as if embracing the oncoming wraiths. A soft, golden radiance emanated out from the space between his arms, enveloping the advancing creatures. As the light struck the wraiths, they recoiled as if struggling against a tremendous wind. When at last the mystical light faded, three wraiths remained frozen, enveloped in a thin cocoon of golden energy.
At that moment, Marissa took a single step forward and shouted a supplication to her god. Immediately, a brilliant column of flame roared into existence, consuming one wraith in a coruscating shower of fire.