The Sea Devil's Eye - Mel Odom [34]
"He is," Myrym replied. "Are the wants and needs of good and evil so very different?"
"No," Pacys said. "Our stories are filled with those who fell from grace. Heroes and villains, only the merest whisper sometimes separates them."
"The Taker simply was," Myrym said. "His loneliness persisted till he drew the eye of Umberlee. The Bitch Queen in those days was softer. The gods had not yet begun to war over territories and the supplication of the thinking races that spread throughout the lands and seas of Toril. They existed in peace, each learning about their own powers, learning to dream their own dreams. Umberlee found the Taker, and she grew fascinated by him."
"Why?" Pacys asked.
"Because she had never known anything like him. He hurt and bled easily compared to her, weak in so many ways. Still, he held forth a joy and a zest for life that she had never envisioned. She grew to love him."
"And he grew to love her." Pacys's fingers sketched out a brief, sprightly tune that echoed in the grotto.
"As much as he could," Myrym admitted. "The concept of love, though credited to the gods, was a virtue of the elves, who knew loyalty and honor first. It was made bittersweet by the humans, whose lives ran by at a rapid pace and who could not maintain the attention and focus of the elves. In the beginning, an elf could love others, but only if he loved himself first. Humans, though, could love past themselves, love others more than themselves. They could love ideas, could love even the sound of laughter, which many thought was foolishness. No one, it is said, can love as a human can whose heart is pure and true."
* * * * *
Jherek gazed down into Sabyna's eyes and felt shamed. That she should have to ask him was his own failing. He held his hand in hers, feeling her fingers knotted up in the material of his shirt.
Her eyes searched his. "Can you promise me your heart, Jherek?" she asked again.
"Lady-"
"The answer can be so simple," Sabyna said. "Despite everything else you have on your mind, despite the other troubles that have your attention, there can be only two answers. Anything else would be no answer at all, and that wouldn't be fair to me after all I've revealed to you."
In the end, he knew what his answer must be, and why. He was not the man he needed or wanted to be, and she deserved far more than he ever could be.
"No."
Her fingers unknotted from his shirt and she pulled her hand back. Jherek made himself let go her hand, thinking he would never again have the opportunity to touch her.
"You tell me no, yet you made the diviner a promise not knowing what she might ask."
"There was no choice in that, lady."
"There's always a choice, Jherek. That's what life is about."
"Lady, I've never had the choices of others."
"No," Sabyna said. "I think maybe you've never been one to fight time or tide, Jherek. You gave your promise to the diviner even though that promise might take your life."
"Lady, I swore my life to you."
"Your life isn't what I wanted," Sabyna said. "A chance at a life with you is all that I asked."
She turned to go, tripping over a line in the rigging even though she'd been so surefooted earlier.
"Lady-" Jherek took a step forward, meaning to catch her, meaning to tell her-something.
The bag of holding at her side suddenly erupted and the raggamoffyn exploded from it. The bits and pieces of cloth wove themselves into a serpentine shape that struck like a cobra. The blow hammered Jherek's chest hard enough to knock him off balance.
"Skeins!" Sabyna cried, grabbing the raggamoffyn as it prepared to strike again. "No!"
Reluctantly, the familiar backed away, relaxing and floating easily on the wind.
Steadying himself, Jherek stared at the pretty ship's mage. Before he could find anything to say, a voice bawled out a warning from below.
"Slavers! Slavers off the port bow!"
IX
10 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet
Jherek turned to face Black Champion's port side. Below, the pirates ran across