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HEARTBOUND

O ne thing Demius taught me was to seek solutions, find answers for myself. When I first saw Tearloch's gloves, my first instinct was to mind my own business. My second was to work out his motive for myself. But thus far, I’d failed to find a reasonable explanation. When I’d seen him rinse his hands, for instance, I’d noticed no damage he might wish to hide from prying eyes.

So, as we made our way toward the gates of Sunbasin, I couldn't resist asking Minkin about them. After all, we were about to part company, and if I didn't ask now, I wouldn’t get another chance.

She looked up at me as I moved closer. I smiled. Her eyes narrowed immediately, and I laughed. "Not asking about your missing friend.”

“Then ask anything.”

“I was wondering why Tearloch wears those gloves. For protection? For vanity? I didn’t notice any scars. And the only reason I am left with is that he has some magical power from which he protects the rest of us. I am out of ideas."

"Is it so important that you know?"

"No. It’s not my business. I was just...curious."

"Yes. I see that. Curious about everyone. You watch us all too closely. Perhaps it is best that you’ll be striking out on your own. Just be careful your curiosity doesn't get you killed...prematurely."

"I understand."

After an awkward silence, she spoke again. "In all your reading, did you learn about the heartbound? ”

"Creatures who are foreordained to be two parts of a whole."

"Creatures?" She shrugged. "I dislike the term. But yes. Fated mates."

"You think it is more than just lore for entertaining children?"

"I do." She half-raised her hand to gesture at Sweetie.

It took a heartbeat or two for me to understand her meaning. Then I took in the size of the man compared to the small woman walking beside me. Though I was taller than many women who had wandered through my gully, she was by far the shortest. Her head only reached my shoulder. I tried to keep my imagination from conjuring intimate images, but I failed and tried to shake them out of my head. "You and Sweetie?"

She hissed, obviously not wanting the big man to hear, and we slowed to let the distance grow between us and him.

I whispered, "Heartbound? The two of you?"

She smiled slyly. "He doesn't realize it yet, but yes. Sometimes, the heartbound recognize each other at first touch. Some at first sight. Some don't realize for a while. But we're drawn to each other. I feel an overwhelming peace when my skin touches his. Sometimes I feel a sizzle of energy. I don’t know what he feels, but he cannot stand to part with me, yet he doesn't realize what it means. One day, he will."

"Can't stand to be parted? I read that once you’re heartbound, one cannot live without the other."

"Oh, they live. They just don't want to." She gestured at Tearloch's back. "He was heartbound. Yora was killed in a terrible accident. Sweetie had to knock him unconscious to keep him from faybowse . We had to watch him closely for a while. Never left him alone. And eventually, he learned to survive.”

My heart hurt for him, made me want to reach out to him, to offer my sympathy at the very least. As for empathy, I couldn’t imagine loving someone so completely that you couldn’t live without them. But I supposed that’s how deeply they all felt about each other, including Huxor.

Then a sharper pain stabbed my chest when I thought about finding the evil brother first. Was that the sort of pain I’d be inflicting on the “family?”

Minkin kept her voice low. "You asked about the gloves. Well, he wears them to make certain he never finds himself heartbound again."

I was confused. "I thought there was only one such match for every creature."

" I believe that is true. It feels true enough. But he means to take no chances. With Yora, he said he knew it when he saw her. She had white hair like your own, you see. That is why it pains him to look at you."

My chest suffered another invisible blow, but this time the pain was my own. I was somehow disappointed that Tearloch’s expression when he looked at me, pleasant or not, had nothing to do with me at all.

Simply put, I was jealous of some white-haired woman I'd never met, whom I would never meet.

"Thank you for explaining,” I said.

Just then, we came to the top of a rise and stopped. A sprawling city waited for us on the next horizon.

With her gaze on that horizon, Minkin whispered, "Be whole, Asper. Be whole...and be careful...for as long as you can."

Be whole.

It was the most common phrase to wish someone well when parting. A chance to be kind to strangers in passing. A wish against bad fortune.

Be whole. Keep your head. A gentle reminder to hold fast to life itself. Now, it meant something new to me. It meant finding others with whom I can create my own family. So we might be whole together. Belong to someone and let them belong to me.

It was an undertaking that couldn’t be accomplished in a matter of days…

* * *

It was torture. The city kept its distance even as we plodded on. Sweetie said we would arrive before dark, but I wasn’t so sure. The sun looked like it would win the race to the western horizon before we would reach that city basking in the sun to the south.

After we reached a busy crossroads, we had to stay to the right side of the byway due to constant traffic headed in the opposite direction, and I asked Minkin if she might know where those people were headed.

She pointed her thumb to the northwest. “Ristat, I would think.”

“But why?”

Sweetie answered for her. “All of Hestia’s on the move. No one wants to sit by and wait for death, do they?”

I repeated what Demius had said. “The city walls are no protection.”

Tearloch stopped, so our party came to a halt. “What did you say?”

“That’s what Demius said. When people asked him where they should go, he said it will not matter. And he said the city walls would be no protection.”

Tearloch shrugged and started walking again. “No walls can keep out a dragon.”

I nodded and fell into step. “Nor a prophecy.”

Ahead, someone in tattered, dusty clothing walked on the far-left side of the road. I could tell by their steps they were close to collapse, and I pitied them. At least I had some strangers with whom to travel. As we passed, I turned to look at their face. It was a girl, all alone!

Even though Tearloch had claimed that the Prospectors were no longer a threat to young women, I couldn’t help but worry for her. If we couldn’t make it inside the city walls before dark, then it was impossible for her, in her weary state. I had to do something!

Tearloch had noticed her to and was watching Minkin and me over his shoulder. He shook his head sharply, his message clear—we were not to invite her to join us.

My surprise left me speechless, and yet I kept walking.

After we were far enough away, he turned and spoke quietly. “If we take on every waif between here and Sunbasin, we will be tending a mob.”

I couldn’t do nothing. “Let me at least give her some water.”

He shook his head sharply and faced forward.

It took me a moment to remember that I no longer had a master, and Tearloch had no say in what I did or did not do. But if I defied him, I might not be allowed to rejoin them…

It didn’t matter. The girl and I would have each other. It wasn’t a family, but it might be a start.

I moved to the left side of the road, stepping through a break between travelers. I sent Minkin a smile of thanks, knowing I might not see her again. Then I strained to see past the flow of bodies, looking for the waif. She was much further back than expected, and I feared she walked even slower than before.

I moved to the edge of the crowd and started running, worried the girl might collapse before I could reach her. And with the push of bodies and wagons, she might get hurt.

But someone else reached her first. While I was still a dozen paces away, a man grabbed her by the shoulders, turned her, and pulled her into his embrace. A distraught woman and boy joined them, wrapping their arms around each other in a mass of limbs and grasping hands.

My ears caught a few words between their sobs. “Lost you… Stay together… Never again.” The little family was oblivious to the logjam of Hestians cursing them for blocking the way. Then the mob started cursing me.

A large, forceful hand grabbed my upper arm. I gasped and turned to protest as they urged me further from the road. It was Tearloch. He’d come for me, but why? To keep me from helping the girl? Or to bring us both back into his little fold? It was impossible to tell.

He studied the little family. The girl was all but hidden from view, and it was clear she had all she needed.

Unbidden, tears poured down my cheeks, and I tried to dry them with my sleeve before he noticed. But I wasn’t quick enough.

“Come on,” he said. His hand tightened again, but gentler than before. “They’re waiting.” He led me back to the west side of the road. In the distance, a set of horns and a man’s head stood out above the rest. Travelers veered around Sweetie like water diverting around a boulder.

“Dragon!” someone shouted.

Everyone stopped and looked up. A small dark cloud separated itself from the darkening sky and swooped toward us, wings beating, body undulating closer and closer, never slowing. I turned to bury myself against Tearloch’s chest at the same time his arms came around me. I shut my eyes tight, caught my breath and held it, and braced for pain.

I’m not ready! I am not ready!

But pain never came. The shadow passed. But still, I couldn’t get my feet to move. I should have stepped away from him, but I clung to that soft but solid protection. “I’m not ready to die,” I whispered, trying to explain why I still stood there.

I shouldn’t have looked up into his face. I should have just turned and walked. But I didn’t. And neither did he…