Rhapsody began to back up farther toward the front door. Tears were falling freely, and she glanced regretfully around, knowing that she could never reach
Daystar Clarion in time. She wished for death, hoping that whatever manifestation of evil he really was would not be able to bind her soul as he snuffed out her life. The calm that normally descended when she faced danger was nowhere to be felt.
Then, as though hit by falling ice, Ashe stopped his tirade and looked across the room at her. His face crumbled as he saw her, terror in her eyes, the acceptance of death in her countenance, and the manifestations of the dragon disappeared instantly as a look of horror crossed his face. He struggled to speak, and when he did his voice was gentle, but still trembling.
“Rhapsody.” It was the only word he could form for a moment. “Rhapsody, I’m sorry—please—forgive me, I—” He reached out his hands to her, and took a step toward her.
Her own hands lashed out in front of her, holding him at bay. “No, stay there,” she said, taking a concurrent step backward. “Just stay there.”
Ashe stopped, and unspeakable pain filled his expression. He reached inside his shirt, and pulled out a tiny velvet pouch and tossed it onto the floor in front of her. “Aria, open it, please.”
“No; don’t move,” she said, taking another step away from him. She glanced around her again, and moved slowly toward the sword rack.
“Please, Rhapsody, for gods’ sake, please, open it,” he begged, his face growing pale as the blood from his tantrum began to abate.
“No,” she repeated, more forcefully this time. “Stay away from me. If you move, I’ll kill you. You know I never lie. So help me, Ashe, don’t test my resolve. Don’t move.”
Tears began to fall from the crystalline eyes. “Rhapsody, if you ever loved me, please—”
“Don’t,” she said, her voice dissolving to a nasty whisper. “Don’t you dare throw that word at me. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you are.”
“Open the pouch. You’ll know.”
Rhapsody straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eyes. The words that formed on her lips were the same as on the day they crossed the Tar’afel River.
“My refusal wasn’t clear to you?” She had made it, inching slowly, to within reach of the sword rack. She reached for Daystar Clarion.
Ashe did not move, but he spoke once more, his voice calmer. “Emily, please. Look in the pouch.”
Rhapsody froze. She turned back to him slowly. “What did you call me?” she asked, choking.
“Please, Emily. You’ll understand if you look in the pouch.” He took a step back, attempting to keep her fright at bay.
Rhapsody stared at him, shock on her face. After a moment, as if commanded, she went slowly to the small bag lying in the center of the living-room floor and bent to retrieve it. With hands that trembled she pulled the tiny drawstring open and shook its contents into her palm. It was a small silver button, heart-shaped, with the figure of a rose engraved on it; the song that surrounded it was of a land long gone but that lived in her blood. Her eyes returned to his face, which was beginning to relax into a look that she had never seen before.
“This is my button,” she whispered. “Where did you get it?”
He smiled at her gently, so as not to frighten her with the joy that was beginning to creep over him. “You gave it to me,” he said.
She did not take her eyes off him as her hand moved slowly to her throat. She drew forth the golden locket and opened it without looking at it. As the clasp opened a tiny copper coin fell out, thirteen-sided, oddly shaped and polished from years of loving caresses.
Ashe’s eyes filled with tears again. “Emily,” he said softly, and held out his hands to her once more.
The world before her eyes spun in a rapid swirl of colors and textures as Rhapsody fell to the ground in a dead faint.
53
Flickering images danced before her eyes, then disappeared, as Rhapsody struggled to regain consciousness. Through it all there were eyes, dragon eyes, gleaming down at her, their odd vertical slits spinning as her angle of perspective changed.
Finally she came around, focusing on the ceiling above her, the shadows from the firelight wafting over the heavy wooden beams. She blinked and tried to sit up, but gentle hands held her down, stroking her hair lovingly.
“Shhh,” Ashe said. As the world solidified she found she was on the sofa in the parlor, the fire burning quietly on the hearth, her head in his lap. Her shoes had fallen off, and the cool, wet arm of his jacket lay across her forehead. She blinked more rapidly.
“I fainted?”
He chuckled. “Yes, but I won’t tell anyone.”
“I had the most incredible dream,” she murmured, disorientedly touching the white sleeve of his shirt. His smile broadened, and he bent and brushed a kiss on the bridge of her nose.
“Sorry, Aria, it was no dream. It’s really me; it’s really you. My heart swore it the first time I saw you, but I knew it couldn’t be. She said you never came through; I had believed all this time you were dead.”
“She?”
“Anwyn. After I came back from Serendair, I was desperate to find you. I went to Anwyn. I knew she would have seen if you had come from the old land, and would know if you were still alive. She told me that you never came, that when the ships landed you weren’t on any of them. And, to my great sorrow, I had to believe her. When speaking of the Past, Anwyn cannot lie without losing her gift. I still don’t understand how you got here.”
Rhapsody sat up, running a hand over her eyes and forehead. “Got here? I’m not sure where I am, and I think I live here.”
Ashe wrapped a bent knee around her, giving her something to lean on. He held up the small coin, shiny copper, with an odd number of sides. “I remember the day I was given this,” he said, musing as if to himself. “I was three or four, and it was a Day of Convening; pompous ceremonies and long-winded speeches, and nothing interesting in any of them. They left me totally alone. I was so bored that I thought I would die, but I was expected to sit there and behave.
“I was beginning to think all my life would be just like this, that I would never be able to run or play or do anything fun like my friends did. It was the loneliest moment of my whole life to that point.
“And then he was there, this old man, leaning over me and smiling, with a gift—two threepenny pieces. ‘Buck up, lad,’ he said, and he winked—I remember that wink clearly, because I spent many days afterward imitating it—sooner or later they’ll shut up. In the meantime, you can examine these. They’ll keep the loneliness away as long as you keep them together, because you can’t have loneliness in a place where two things match so well.’
“And he was right. I had a marvelous time studying them, trying to fit the sides into each other. It seemed like moments later when my father came to collect me, though hours had passed. I carried them with me from that day on, until I gave one to you. Because once I met you, Emily, I thought I would never be lonely again.”
Rhapsody rubbed her temples with her fingertips, trying to ease the headache that had crept behind her eyes. “That was a different lifetime. I didn’t even recognize the name when you first used it.” She looked up and caught his gaze; he looked totally happy, on the verge of giddy. “Are you telling me that you—you’re Sam?”
He sighed deeply. “Yes. Gods, how I’ve longed to hear you call me that again.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her, his lips seeking hers in wonder.
Rhapsody pulled away from him and looked into his face again. “You? It’s really you?” He nodded. “You don’t look the same.”
Ashe laughed. “I was fourteen; what do you expect? And a few things have happened since then, foremost of which was a rather reptilian transformation brought on by a near-death experience. And, by the way, you don’t look the same either, Emily. You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but, well, you’ve changed somewhat yourself.” He ran his fingers through the tendrils of hair that touched the flawless face, watching the light catch the strands, shining like burnished gold.