Salvatore, R.A - The Chronicles of Ynis Aielle 03 - Bastion of Darkness by Salvatore R.A

Author:Salvatore, R.A [Salvatore, R.A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, epic, Fiction, General, Fantasy fiction, Fantasy fiction; American
ISBN: 9780345421937
Google: boZcfhkpU4gC
Amazon: 0345421930
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2000-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The Witch’s Gift

HE STOOD UP. It seemed a minor thing to the animals in the forest about him: a man climbing unsteadily to his feet, as one who had been asleep might, or as one who had been sitting too long in an awkward position. But for Bryan of Corning, that movement felt momentous indeed. He remembered the pains and that deathly chill when he had crawled into Avalon more than a week before. He remembered the view of his own feet, black and thick, and he remembered most of all the pain when Brielle had warmed them again, the agony that had so quickly replaced the sheer numbness.

That was all past now. The half-elf wriggled his toes, all ten of them—and how glad Bryan was to see, to feel, that he still had all ten of them! And though his legs were surely tingling and prickly, it was a sensation that Bryan savored: the evidence of life.

“I thought ye’d sleep all the winter,” came a quiet yet strong voice from the side, from the shadows of the lower branches of an evergreen.

And Bryan saw her then, and surely his heart fluttered, though he had already given that heart to another. If the horrid wraith had been darkness incarnate, then this, before him, was the embodiment of beauty itself, walking softly, a dream creature on a blanket of gentle fog, her golden hair shining, green eyes and the emerald wizard’s mark sparkling through the shadows. Bryan understood that the twinkle of those eyes could penetrate the darkest of nights, like the soft gasp or the sharp cry of a lover, like the very stars above.

Bryan’s smile widened as Brielle stepped out of the brush, dressed only in her white gossamer gown and her delicate slippers, though the air was not warm and the ground was covered still with snow. “I am truly indebted to you, fair sorceress of Avalon,” the half-elf said, bowing low.

“Nay,” the witch replied. “ ’Tis me place to do the things I do, and nothing more.”

Bryan didn’t believe a word of it. He knew what Brielle had gone through to save him, knew that she had taken his pains as her own, one at a time, and, with them inside her own seemingly fragile frame, had battled them and overcome them. He knew that she, for the better part of a week, had felt the same agony as he, and he understood, too, from their joining, that Brielle had been near to the brink of death, had come so very close to stepping over that thin line and slipping away forever into the dark realm.

“If Brielle went about the world trying to steal all the pains, as she stole mine, then surely she would have been worn away many centuries ago,” Bryan remarked, trying to put a bit of levity in his tone so as not to offend the witch.

“Not to all the world, but to those who come to me door,” Brielle replied. “Me magic gives to me the healing power; how wicked I’d be not to share it with those in need.

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