Page 22 of The Pastel Prince

“No, I must…” Eldar rolled his head to the right to look at us. His sight lingered on Beirach, his slim white brows knitting. “He looked much like you, Beirach Dreyath.”

Beirach nodded dully as if that announcement did not shake him. “I suspect he is my son.”

Tezen gasped, her tiny cup tumbling to the grass. I stared at the man who had warmed my heart as none before in shock. Eldar, foolish pighead that he is, attempted to rise. A cry of pain tore from him. I placed my hands on his chest to press him gently back to his bedding.

“Sit still. Do not make me use the grape vines for aid in keeping you prostrate,” I told my brother.

“My sword,” Eldar growled as his eyes flamed with hatred.

“We have no need of swords,” I firmly said, my brother glaring at me openly. “I have traveled with his man for many miles over many days. His heart is pure. The love of Danubiaflows from him. We will hear him out.” I looked at my sibling and then at Tezen. They both inclined their heads. Then I stared at Beirach. “You mentioned to me in confidence that your son and you had differences. You failed to mention that he was a dark mage.”

Beirach inhaled deeply, his sight moving to the trees that hummed happily as the first rays of the sun touched their leaves.

“No, for I didn’t wish to taint your perception of me,” Beirach confessed, rising to his boots to pace slowly. I sat with my brother and Tezen, watching the big man arrange his words before speaking them. “My son was always…difficult. My wife and I worked diligently with him as he grew older, guiding him into the way of nature and how to best protect those Danubia sheltered in the woodlands. But he had no wish to learn any druid craft, for his obsession was darker powers. He would find dead creatures and resurrect them from an early age. We scolded him, punished him, but nothing seemed to quell his fanaticism for necromancy. And he was gifted in the dark magicks, frightfully so. Then, when Maverus was in his sixteenth season, my wife, Saffanah, fell ill with tumors.”

Beirach’s fingers flexed as he relived his past. I longed to go to him, take his hands in mine, and kiss his scarred knuckles, but my brother clung to my fingers tightly, his ire thick on the air.

“Her illness was beyond our healing spells and draughts. The growths caused her great pain as she withered away. I…she was fading, this lovely elven lass who had stolen my heart the first time I had heard her play her flute. Her agony was palpable. She…at the end she begged me for release from her pain. I…” his gaze moved from the wisps of clouds in the sky to me, “I could not bring myself to do it. Ending her life was in the hands of Danubia, not me, and I begged off. Cowardly, yes, I know, I cansee that now. I should have ended her suffering, but I…my…I could not do it.”

I rose then, uncaring of my brother’s feelings, and went to Beirach. His eyes were wet with unshed tears. I took his hands in mine and stared up at him.

“Cowardly is not a term that I would ever associate with you. Life and death rests in the hands of the goddess. Your faith was tested, and you walked in the light of Danubia’s teachings.”

“Thank you.” He cradled my hands to his chest as he placed his brow to mine. “My weakness whispers to me in the darkest moments of the night.” He inhaled shakily before lifting his brow from mine. “My son, on the other hand, had no qualms about ending his mother’s life and then resurrecting her.” Our gasps filled the quiet glen. “I found her crawling out of our home, pallid and drooling, her eyes dull and pale, her lovely tawny skin the shade of death and knew what Maverus had done. He stood in the doorway, laughing, as I had to end her life as my vows as a servant of Danubia demanded I do.” His hands shook as I held them. “He called me a weakling, defiled our goddess with words that I will not repeat. He called all druids pitiful, loathsome, and craven. That we wasted the powers of life and death and that he, one day, would move into a realm of power that only death could provide. I ran at him, lost in anguish, the blood of my wife still on my hands, and he disappeared as I swung at him. Where he went, I can only surmise. Another realm, one of the hellfire worlds, or perhaps off to find a dark mage to study under.”

Tezen arrived, sat on his shoulder and pat his face as she was want to do.

“I tended to Saffanah as fitting of an elf, lifting her into the boughs of her favored yellow larch to meet the goddess and left our home, my burden heavy.” He blew out a sad breath. “I wandered the woods for many years, alone and shamed ofmy son and myself. Eventually, after several years, I found the temple by Black Lake, and the elderly druid caretaker took me in. His time was nigh, and so I took over after he joined the goddess. I placed him in a strong tree facing the morning sunrise, just as I had my wife, and assumed his duties. And there I hid until the missive from Umeris arrived. I knew I had to act. That my hiding was over for now, for this sickness reeked of dark magicks. If it was my son…”

“Then you must be the one to face him,” I filled in and he lethargically nodded.

“This man…he claimed to be the one who…would eradicate the druids. That all who walked the land or flew in the sky would linger as monuments to the…the foolishness of overlooking the glory of death,” Eldar said, his voice weak and craggy. “We did our best, but the spell was too powerful…the army of undead too numerous…the temple fell in, shielding me. I saw nothing after being struck…if this is your son, he knows much…of our ways.”

“Indeed, he is well-versed in the beliefs and magicks of all druids. My wife and I worked with him for years, availing him to all manner of learning to try to lure him from the darker side of spellcasting, but to no avail.”

“Come sit down, please.” I led Beirach back to my brother’s travois. “Sit, there will be no more bellowing for swords,” I firmly said as I gave my sibling my firmest look.

“You have learned how to cast a glower well,” Eldar coughed out and moaned. “Your son is a menace, Beirach Dreyath, and needs be…eliminated.”

“Yes, I fear his hatred of me and all druids has poisoned him beyond redemption,” Beirach softly said, his shoulders slumped.

“Why is he taking the gems, though?” Tezen asked, flitting from Beirach to me, her small wings leaving a fine dust of purplein the air. “What good would a bunch of druidic gems be to a necromancer?”

“Druidic holy gems hold an amazing amount of power,” Beirach explained while I spooned broth at my brother. At being the correct word as he kept trying to grab the spoon to feed himself with his good arm while I kept insisting that I do it. Finally, he won out and dribbled soup down his front. Siblings. They could be so exasperating. I loved him, though, mightily, and used my shirt sleeve to dab at his dribblings. “It could be something as simple as spite. Taking that which we hold most dear, but knowing my son as I do, I fear it is for something far more nefarious. Tell me, Kenton, where are your village elders’ books and scrolls kept?”

“In my mother’s library,” I replied as I sat back on my heels. Eldar was drifting off now, his chin covered with soup. I wiped it clean for him. “I can take you there. What do you seek?”

“You shall eat first. You’re far too thin and haven’t had any sustenance for far too long,” Beirach commented, his pacing stalling. “Perhaps there is something in her papers that we may use to our advantage.”

Knowing that time was of the essence, I downed two cups of broth, the vegetables still crisp. Then I rose.

“Let us go then. The sooner we can possibly find some clues, the sooner we can move out,” I said, pushing to my feet with some vigor. The broth had helped greatly.

“Not to throw some hound shit onto the dinner platter, but how do we go anywhere with your brother?” Tezen asked aloud the one question I’d not wished to think upon. “He’s in no shape to be bounced around behind a horse for days on end.”

I glanced at my sibling sleeping fitfully, his mouth twisted in pain.

“I know of a small enclave of humans that live by the river. They will tend to Eldar for us,” Beirach offered.

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