Chapter 20

Part 3

“Oh Bezedil! I have never experienced anything as incredible in my life! My sweet Lords and Ladies, but you are a masterful and inexhaustible pleasurist!”

“I have heard that it is infinitely better with the one who is your destined love.” Bezedil quietly declared. “And now we have some proof of the truth of that!”

“Not you too! You sound like my parents and my sister!” Dalia laughed. “There is no such thing as destined love! Love is where you find it! And perhaps we have found it!”

“How can you say that, you of all people?!” Bezedil teased. “I assure you my dear, destined love is a factually proven phenomenon! I have seen you in my dreams with ever increasing frequency for the last three months, and so I have researched the phenomenon with great rigor! I knew that we would soon meet; there was no doubt! Come, you must admit that you have also dreamt of me, for it could not be otherwise!”

There was a very long moment of silence.

On the floor in the hallway, Talia’s heart slammed up into her throat and almost choked her completely.

“Dalia? Is something wrong?” Bezedil asked in concern.

“I… I must use the privacy!” Dalia blurted, and as her footsteps were heard lightly running to her bedroom door, Talia quickly rose and slipped into her own bedroom.

She had no time to close her door before Dalia emerged into the hallway, still belting her robe, but Dalia took no notice as she quickly moved a few steps down the hall in the opposite direction and entered her mother’s study, which she knew would be empty, as her parent’s voices could be faintly heard from the direction of the central room.

Talia’s heart pounded in her ears so loudly that she thought it might deafen her. ‘Dalia now knows that Bezedil is my destined love! I dreamt of him, as he knew I would! She will tell him! She must tell him!’ Talia thought, the realization filling her with a shining elation, and a blazing hope.

But long minutes passed, and Dalia remained behind the closed door of the study. Talia was increasingly drawn to go to Bezedil, who waited alone in the next room; to reveal to him that she, Talia, was the one who was his destined love, to feel his arms around her, to feel the fulfillment of him, to give herself to him completely, as she had never given of herself before.

Yet at the same time, her shyness rose again within her, and she knew it for what it was; fear of embarrassing and humiliating herself by saying or doing something stupid and inappropriate, and fear of rejection. She prayed that Dalia would return and reveal the truth, but the long moments passed as slowly as the seasons, and still the study door remained closed.

Finally Talia’s need to go to Bezedil drove her forth, and she silently padded from her room to Dalia’s door. She tried to bring herself to tap upon it, to no avail. Then she caught the powerful scent of Bezedil’s passion, mixed with Dalia’s more familiar one, and she noticed that the door was opened a crack.

Seemingly of its own volition, her hand slowly pushed the door open enough for her to slip silently into the darkened room from the dim hallway.

Bezedil stood naked with his back to her, peering through a crack between the closed curtains of the open window near the bed, admiring the view while impatiently waiting.

Talia tried to speak his name, but her mouth seemed numbed, and she could not bring herself to speak. Silently and slowly, she closed the distance between them. Again she tried to speak and could not, and again her hand seemed to have a will of its own as it rose to caress his shoulder.

She thrilled at the touch of him, and then he quickly turned and took her in his arms as he spoke.

“Ah, my love, you were gone a long time, and still I am insatiable for you!” he chuckled.

‘No! I must tell him first!’ Talia thought in a panic, and with a wrenching effort of will, she spoke, her voice quiet and quavering. “No, wait, I am…”

But he heeded her not, and then he was kissing her fully upon her mouth, and his hands were insistently caressing her, and all thought in her mind fled before an overwhelming onslaught of emotion and sensation.

She had no strength to resist as he gently slid her garments from her body with a few skillful motions, his fiery kiss uninterrupted while he did so, and drew her down onto the bed.

Then the door opened fully and Dalia stood in the dim light of the hallway, her face stricken. Only a moment she stood there before running to leap through the curtains.

Bezedil made a quiet sound, then he scrambled from the bed and leapt after Dalia.

Talia sat on the bed for a moment, stunned. She rose and went to the window and looked out, expecting to see Dalia flying away with Bezedil close behind. She did not see them until she looked down. Incredulous grief hit her like a hammer blow as she saw their broken bodies on the ground far below. She let herself fall forward.

Yazadril let the Reading continue as Talia fell and was barely caught by Nemia, as she was forced to experience Bezedil’s last Reading, as she was punched and cursed by Alilia, bringing impossible horror and agony until Yazadril had finally forced Sleep upon her.

The spells faded, and Mark brushed away his tears, choked with emotion at what he had been shown. All were crying, Yazadril and Nemia as they stood clinging to each other, Talia as she hugged with Hilsith, Theramin and Dilimon and Alilia as they stood alone and failed to be stoic.

“Come back to the camp.” Mark said in a choked, rumbling voice. “I’ll make us some tea.”

The elves followed him, still weeping, and as he busied himself with his brazier and a teapot Theramin had given him the night before. Yazadril, Nemia, and Alilia seated themselves on the log, while the rest sat cross-legged on the grass.

Soon the scent of Theramin’s tea blend became apparent, and they slowly regained control of their emotions.

None spoke until Mark had served them all honeyed tea in the tin camp cups Dilimon had given him, then sat down himself.

Alilia stared into her cup a moment, then spoke without looking up.

“Talia. Never has an elf ever been so wronged by another, as you have been wronged. Mostly by me, but also by your sister, and by my son. Rather than your having raped my son by trickery, it is more true to say that since he did not heed your refusal, he was about to rape you, though you would not have considered it such. You are a fine young wizard, so you know as well as I that my curse cannot be recalled or countered, no more than we can bring Bezedil and Dalia back to life, or cause ashes to become the tree they once were. Such complete changes cannot be reversed, and to apply the power it would take to even try to deflect the curse would almost certainly result in a disaster of cataclysmic proportion.

“Any apology I offer could only seem a pathetic jest compared to the enormity of the wrong I have done you, yet still I do apologize, and no words could convey how sorry I am for what I have done to you. Nothing I could give you or do for you could begin to repay you for what I have done, yet know that from this moment forward I am your servant, and that all I have is yours, as is any service I or my people can render you. Any punishment you wish to inflict upon me, I will gladly endure.”