Undying Ch. 11-15

She grinned and bustled off with the clothes.

The water was cool, but he made do. He felt somewhat cleaner afterward and having clean clothes would be a pleasure no matter how poor they were. Vezar lay back down on the bed to try to draw his Syreilla into dream. He would be able to see her and speak with her for a few moments at least.

He murmured her name and brought a memory to mind, his favorite mistress' chamber. It was Syreilla he wanted on that large bed. He made the memory solid and waited.

It took longer than Vezar expected to draw her in. But finally, Syreilla came, appearing on the bed in the sheer shift as he had been imagining her.

Her eyes opened and she looked around in confusion before her eyes settled on him. "Where am I? And who are you?"

He grinned at her waiting to see how long it would take. "A place I wanted to show you."

"Syv?" To his surprise, she leapt out of the bed with pleased astonishment and came to him.

"I miss you, Syreilla." He pulled her into his lap and held her tightly. "I need my sister." Drawing her as a sister would have to do. In her sheer shift, she made him ache with desire. The fabric clung to her lithe form and accentuated her elvish delicacy.

"I know. I'm sorry, Syv." She leaned against him so sweetly. "I feel like I'm being torn apart. I want to come and find you, and I want to stay at home. I want them both so badly that I can't think straight for some reason."

"I will not stop pulling you." He ran a hand over her perfect pointed ear. The bonds that drew her back to that wretched mine were strong.

She spoke softly against his shoulder. "I hate having my ears touched. You're the only one I let do that."

He caressed her ear, tracing the edge and then the ridges inside. Vezar smiled using it to strengthen their bond.

"It tickles."

Laughing softly at the way she felt the bond, he murmured, "Yes." He pressed his hand against her ear pressing her head into his shoulder, the more and longer he touched her ears the stronger this bond would become. "My dear Syreilla. When will you come to me?"

"As soon as I can, Syv. It may be longer than you'd like." Syr's voice had a hesitant sound to it.

"A day is longer than I would like." He kissed her head. It would make the trip to Brosa less urgent, but being parted from her was unpleasant.

"And six months?"

He tensed at the figure. It was a short time in the scheme of things but when he wanted her by his side it was far too long. "Why six months?"

"Because after that I would have a husband to come back to here at home. Kaduil-"

"No." Cutting her off, he stood, holding her close like a doll. "I forbid you to marry. I need you, Syreilla. I need you to myself." Marriage to a dwarf would be a waste. She belonged with a king.

"Syv, I love you, but you don't get to decide that for me. I can't break his heart any more than I can bear the thought of leaving you alone." Her earnest tone brought the realization crashing down on him. The threads. He had primed the threads of her desire.

"The dwarf. You let him touch you. You kissed him." Vezar set her on her feet, gripping her by the shoulders staring into her eyes intently. He already knew the answer, the threads were no longer loose.

"Yes, I'd gone to bed with him before but this time was..."

Stepping away from her he began to curse in the ancient, divine tongue he had been born knowing. Cursing the dwarf and his own stupidity. Seeing his new face, the sibling bond would begin to fade. He could lose... Vezar turned to see her backing away her hands covering her ears looking at him as if he were a monster. "No. Please, Syreilla." He held out his hands.

Syreilla didn't come to him. "What language was that? It-" She shuddered.

"Are you afraid of me?" He took a step closer expecting her to back away.

The hard look she gave him was comforting. "I wasn't afraid of you when you showed me your gifts, Syv, I'm not afraid of you now. I don't understand how a language can sound so," he watched as she rubbed her delicate ears, "so full of stingers."

"An apt description." Vezar touched her face gently and pulled her into an embrace, relieved that she didn't flinch. "Forgive me."

Syr wrapped her arms around his waist. "You're forgiven. Please don't do it again."

"I will try." He pulled her close, the thought of losing her was bitter. But he still had to ask, "Why did you make the time to go to bed with him when you should have been finding your way out?"

"Batran seemed to think I was under some sort of spell, he said, and still says, I'm not acting like myself. He's adamant I can't leave until it's removed."

Vezar growled in his throat, that wretched dwarf. Syreilla rubbed his back as if she wished to soothe him.

"He knew I would like the house Kaduil has built for me, for the two of us. He suggested Kaduil show it to me and... one thing led to another when Kaduil took me down to the bath he'd-"

He ground his teeth as she spoke, imagining a dwarf having her in the bath.

"Stop that. You're going to break your teeth."

"I can repair them." Vezar scowled, teeth were easy to fix in comparison to the mess the dwarf had made of his plans.

"You picked such an unhappy face." Syr stroked the beard he'd gotten for her. "And you need to learn how to take care of this. A comb and beard oil are the first things I'm going to steal for you."

If she knew how much he hated beards...

The feeling of her threads being touched by a familiar hand got his attention. Olthon. "Olthon is there."

"Not in my room, I hope." Syreilla frowned. "He shouldn't be allowed down there."

She was in the lower levels. It would be difficult, even for a skilled thief, to sneak out of a dwarf mine from too far below. "Regardless, sister. He is at your side trying to wake you. Tell me, did you speak with him?" He seemed to know her true name, but Vezar had a firm hold on her and swatted the elf away.

"Some. I didn't like him. I made him talk to Batran and Kaduil."

Laughing, he kissed her forehead. "I cannot imagine that went well."

"He wanted to know about the nightmare I had. With the maze and the black mist." Vezar lifted her chin and looked at her intently as she continued. "You were in it. I called you Vezar when I was describing it because you had the dark hair and the same face as when you brought the cart."

Smiling, he asked curiously, "That certainly got his attention. What else was in your dream?"

He listened as she told him the dream from the beginning and by the end, he could only marvel at the strength of the bond he'd built. She should not have experienced that horror. "I had not meant for you to share that dream, my dear Syreilla. That was my nightmare, not yours."

"You walked the maze?" Her curiosity charmed him.

"I was driven down it by the black mist." The guileless concern spreading across her face at the words made him want to kiss her. "I will try not to bring you into my nightmares again."

"Syv, if it helps you feel less alone, I'll join you in that awful place every night." His Syreilla lowered her head and pressed her face back into his shoulder. Her words made him ache.

"Syreilla." He pulled her as close as he could, wishing he could pull her through the bonds in the dream and have her at his side when he opened his eyes. As he did, he felt Olthon's cold hand at work. The elf would kill her if she did not wake. "Go back." Vezar released her, pushing her back toward wakefulness despite his desire to keep her. The elf would suffer if she were harmed.

*Fifteen*

The pain was unbearable, she opened her mouth to scream, the stone ceiling coming into focus as she kicked out and clawed at the bar across her chest. It rose immediately and Olthon loomed over her grabbing her face and staring searchingly into her eyes.

"He's released her," he said with satisfaction.

"What in Hevtos' sunless pits was that? Godsdamned elves." Syr rubbed the sore line across her chest as she sat up, it felt like her ribs had been bruised.

"He brought you back from wherever you'd been taken Syr." Kaduil dropped to the floor and held her as if she'd been gone for a year. "I couldn't wake you. You slept like the dead."

Shivering, she leaned into him, "Why is it cold in here?" She wasn't entirely sure where here was.

A blanket was promptly tucked around her. "Master Dwarf was more concerned about your well-being than your modesty, he pulled you from your bed without dressing you." Olthon rested a hand on her head.

She didn't like his tone toward Kaduil. "I asked my husband to hide my clothes or burn them. I would have more trouble leaving if I didn't have clothes."

"You were adamant you needed to leave," the elf sounded curious.

"Yes, it-it goes back and forth, I can't explain it." She buried her face in Kaduil's shoulder. "At home, with Kaduil, it's easier to choose to stay."

Kaduil squeezed her tighter at the words and it made her wince with pain.

"Did you say that to Vezar?" Olthon sounded pleased.

"To Syv. And not-not exactly. He got very upset when I talked about Kaduil. He started speaking an awful language that sounded like," she shuddered, "angry bees and stingers."

There was a moment's quiet. "I've heard it before. Did he harm you?"

"No, Syv would never harm me, not on purpose." Syreilla sighed. "My brother loves me."

The hand lifted from her head. "On some level, she knows 'Syv' is Vezar, but she makes a distinction, it may be his doing. Much like the fact that she believes firmly he is her brother. She is tightly bound."

"How do we unbind her?" Kaduil's anger was palpable and his voice determined.

There was a moment's silence. "Death. Even sealing him away didn't break the bonds he'd placed on some in his harem."

"What bonds?" She remembered how pleased Syv had been when she said it felt like they were bound by something.

"Names have power. You spoke his true name and gave him your own. It opened you to his manipulations." Olthon knelt next to Kaduil so that he could look into her face. "Did he give you a gift?"

"The crown. And he brought the box for Kaddal, food, mead..." Syr looked at the elf dubiously.

"He gave you the crown?" The elf looked incredulous.

"I stole it first, he told me I could keep it." She narrowed her eyes and tried to get closer to Kaduil.

"That almost sounds like gratitude." One of the other elves suggested with a hint of amusement. "I didn't think he was capable of it."

Olthon nodded with the hint of a smile, "Vezar sees something in her. If he's bound her as his sister perhaps he feels a kinship with her." He seemed to remember something. "She brought the crown to you, Master Dwarf?"

Syreilla wanted to turn her head to look at Batran but the dwarf laid a heavy hand on her head, "She brings home most of what she gets. Whether she's stolen it or earned it. Syr is as loyal as a hound even if she's a thief."

"You tolerate her thievery?" The elf narrowed his eyes, studying Batran.

"Thieves are useful," Syr said firmly. "I showed them how to secure their treasury, better than that tomb. I help test Batran's locks. No one touches any shipments to or from this mine. I only had to visit a few people to arrange that."

Batran patted her head. "One of my better investments."

"Investments?" Olthon looked back to him curiously.

"I bought her off of the headsman's block in Pale."

She could hear the smug smile on Batran's face. The elf looked offended.

Syr grinned, "If you hadn't interfered I'd have never been on the block." She squeezed Kaduil. "But that was one of the luckier days I've had. I got a family, a home, and a husband out of the deal."

"Perhaps I misunderstood, she is a member of Clan Hammersworn or owned by it?" The elf's tone was cold.

"Syreilla earned her way out of debt years ago. Despite her trade, she's a member of my family." Batran's voice was low and cautioning. "She comes and goes as she pleases."

Olthon stood with a frown. "Syreilla Acharnion, the time has come for you to leave this place and find a home with your kin. A dwarf is not a fitting husband and I will not have a member of my house living in the shadow of enslavement."

"You can shove that name and your house up your elvish ass, you beardless inbred kin-fucking hedge pig." The shock on the elf's face at her venomous tone was gratifying.

"Syreilla doesn't care for elves," Batran offered in what she recognized as his negotiating tone. "She has a home and a husband whether you approve or not, Lord Olthon. But I'm willing to overlook your insult and let you help free her from Vezar."

"I still don't understand what he means by bonds. Syv-"

"Vezar," the frowning elf corrected her. "Call him by his name. I don't know why he wants you to call him 'Syvilas' but I doubt the reason is benign. Using his name will help to reclaim some small amount of your wits."

"She has her wits at the moment." Kaduil kissed her head. "My Syr has a temper and sharp tongue."

"I like that, Kaduil. Your Syr. But either I need some clothes or we need to go home."

"Home it is." He grinned and tried to gather her up with the blanket.

"Clothes," Olthon spoke coldly. "To find Vezar we need her. If she must return to the mine, I will not prevent it."

She watched Kaduil's face hardening. "You're not taking my wife out of the mine with that thing trying to steal her."

"He'll pull her back into that place as often as he dares. If she refuses to come to him he may decide to bind her there. She would sleep until she dies, unable to wake." The elf warned him.

"Syv wouldn't do that." She looked at the elf wishing she had her boot knife.

"Vezar, Syr. Do as the elf says and use his right name." Batran put his hand back on her head.

"Vezar wouldn't do that." The words tasted strange in her mouth. They were true, she was almost certain. But not as entirely as she was before.

"She obeys you," Olthon observed with disapproval.

"She didn't before. She usually put up a fight." Batran rubbed her head.

"He wanted her to be obedient. Did she cling like this before?"

"No." Kaduil tightened his arms. "She was affectionate but not like this."

"Vezar changed you to suit his needs, Syreilla. Where is your anger?" The elf was needling her.

Syr took a deep breath contemplating the loathsome elf's words. "When I see Syv-Vezar next I'll talk to him about it. I don't trust you or your words as far as I can throw you, elf."

"Lord Olthon. If you do not wish to take your place as a member of my house you will at least show me the proper respect." He smiled faintly. "She needs to help us find Vezar. Give whatever commands are required, we leave at dawn."

The elves returned to their chambers and Kaduil insisted on carrying her back to their home. Batran followed. Every time she looked at him, he was scowling and deep in thought.

At home, she went down to the bath, feeling the need to be clean after speaking to the elf. Batran and Kaduil remained in the main room to speak quietly.

When she'd finished and come back up, Kaduil was alone with his head in his hands. "Batran says I have to go with them," Syr said quietly, already knowing nothing else would make him look that lost.

He nodded wordlessly.

"I always come back, Kaduil. Come upstairs, let me give you a reason to look forward to it." She stood, waiting as he slowly stood and came over to her.

"Syr, I-"

She bent and cut him off with a kiss. "I'm not under some spell. I'm not going to change my mind."

His breathing became heavier. "Syreilla."

"This is home. And you wouldn't have built this if you didn't already know you're the one I want."

Kaduil gripped her by the back of her head and kissed her with rough urgency. "Syr, get upstairs. I'm going to give you a reason to come home quickly."