Page 16

Chapter 16

Elliot

L orne was nothing like anything Elliot had been expecting, but he liked the old man. He could tell his affection for Avery was genuine, and he spoke of her grandparents and parents with real grief. He also seemed to know a startling number of her cousins. But given the decades he had spent traveling the kingdoms, Elliot shouldn’t have been surprised. He just hoped Lorne also knew something that would prove to be of help in Elliot’s situation.

When they gathered around the fire in Lorne’s study that evening, Lorne’s manner was reassuringly serious. But even so, Elliot struggled to open his mouth and start the story. His eyes met Avery’s, and she gave him a reassuring smile and a small nod.

He drew a deep breath. He had told her that it was time to try a different approach, and he had meant it. Now he had to follow through. He gripped his knees with his hands to hide how his fingers trembled and began.

His first few words were hesitant, but as he continued, the tale of his birth and his connection to the candelabra flowed more naturally. The trembling stopped, and by the end he was breathing easily.

Lorne considered his words in silence for a moment, and Elliot glanced around at the bookshelves while he tried to contain his impatience. The shelves covered every available inch of wall and held the accumulation of decades of travel through the kingdoms. Surely there was something in there that could help him.

“Let me get this straight,” Lorne said at last. “Instead of being tied to a kingdom, you’re?—”

He broke off, his head slumping.

Elliot let out a shaky breath and glanced at Avery. “I think having already told you made it easier. But that was still difficult.”

Avery smiled encouragingly. “I’m sure it will get easier each time.”

Elliot winced. How many people was he going to have to tell?

“—tied to a candelabra?” Lorne finished, reclaiming both of their attention. “What a remarkable tale!” He beamed at Elliot, appearing as unaffected by his mini sleep as ever.

“Lorne.” Avery leaned forward, her voice reproving. “I know you would have loved to be tied to something portable, but it’s been a nightmare for Elliot. He doesn’t want to travel. He’s only doing it now because he’s stuck with me.”

“Stuck with you?” Lorne’s brows rose, and he looked questioningly at Elliot.

Elliot frowned, not looking at Avery. “I wouldn’t put it quite like that.”

“But it is like that,” Avery said indignantly, and he tried not to feel offended.

She kept her eyes on Lorne. “It was bad enough when he was tied to a candelabra! But then someone stole it and sold it to a smith who melted it down and made my lamp, so now he’s stuck with me. And he suffers dreadfully if he gets too far from the lamp. Think how vulnerable that makes him!”

Elliot shifted uncomfortably. Nothing in her words was untrue, but he didn’t like thinking of it in quite those terms.

“It’s a lamp now?” Lorne looked a little confused. “Then why don’t you sell it to him, Avery? Don’t tell me the issue is coin? You may be a merchant, but your parents taught you better than that.”

“Of course it’s not about the coin,” Avery said hotly. “But I waited six months for that lamp. It came from the smith in Henton.”

From Lorne’s expression, he knew the significance of the Henton smith. It made Elliot wonder why he hadn’t heard of the man before his unfortunate encounter with him. He obviously hadn’t known as much about the kingdoms as he thought he did.

“I can’t give the lamp up,” Avery concluded, “because it was a special commission for…for someone who needs it desperately.”

Elliot didn’t miss the sideways glance she gave him, although he’d been doing his best to look nonchalant and not desperately interested.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Avery told Lorne, who looked almost as intrigued as Elliot felt. What had happened in Bolivere that they had such desperate need of a lamp made by a smith from across the mountains?

“That sounds like a whole other story,” Lorne said, sadly not pressing Avery to tell it. “But I see that it makes the present situation difficult.”

He steepled his hands and rested his chin on them, looking at Elliot with piercing eyes. “I think we can accept that it is a matter of import that you break your tie with this lamp. And with any luck, when you do, you’ll find yourself completely untethered—just like young Avery here.”

“You think it’s possible to break the connection, then?” Elliot watched him carefully, hoping the man wasn’t just speaking empty sympathy.

“Most enchantments can be broken,” he said. “We just need to find the key.”

“But the Legacies can’t be broken,” Avery protested, despite the fact she had been the first to suggest they break his bond.

“Not broken, no,” Lorne said, “but bent a little, perhaps?” He chuckled. “You’re hardly the first to find a way to turn the Legacy’s original intent in another direction.”

“Yes…That’s true.” Avery’s hands tightened on her satchel, making Elliot’s mind race.

Had the people of Bolivere commissioned the lamp in order to resist some aspect of the Legacy’s power? What was it going to help them do? He could ask Avery about it—he suspected that if he told her the full truth about his history, she would give him the details about her mission for Bolivere. But he had sworn to forget his own history, and he had no desire to dredge it up for Avery and Lorne. Dealing with the present was hard enough.

“We know the power of your tie can be transferred in some way,” Lorne said to Elliot, clearly more focused on the matter at hand than Avery’s secrets—as Elliot should have been. “It was transferred between the candelabra and the lamp without issue.”

“Well…not entirely without issue,” Elliot said. “The connection has gotten stronger. The ramifications of moving too far from the lamp are worse than they were for the candelabra. I’m not eager to try melting the brass into something else—I might end up needing to keep it strapped to my body at all times.”

“Hmmm…” Lorne’s eyes slid out of focus as he considered Elliot’s words. “It’s true that despite the transformation, the connection remained with the brass—which isn’t what we want to achieve. But what if we don’t try severing the connection, just moving it out of the brass?”

“What good would that do?” Avery asked with a frown. “It would just transfer the same problem to a different object. Admittedly there are objects that would be easier to keep on his person than a brass lamp, but it would still be at risk of being lost or stolen.”

Lorne gave her a smugly satisfied smile. “That’s assuming the connection is transferred to an object. I was thinking more like a person.”

Elliot’s eyes flew instinctively to Avery, a flush stealing up his neck. Did Lorne mean Avery? Did he want to tie Elliot to Avery permanently? He knew he should be horrified by the idea, but it was hard to muster up the reaction. The idea was almost…appealing.

He shook his head at his own foolishness as Avery stared at Lorne, clearly as appalled as Elliot should have been.

“What are you thinking?” she cried. “That would be much worse! Elliot would be at significantly greater risk than he is now with the lamp.”

Lorne chuckled softly. “What have I always told you, girl? Look at things from all angles—don’t always leap to the first conclusion.”

Avery sat back, her brow furrowing. Suddenly her eyes widened, her face lighting up.

“Oh, of course! How silly of me. That would be the perfect solution!”

Elliot cleared his throat, apparently the only one in the room who was still at sea. “I don’t understand.”

“The person Lorne wants to move the connection to is you,” Avery said triumphantly. “It would be the perfect solution. You can’t separate from yourself or leave yourself behind. Even if someone steals you, you’ll still be there.” She chortled to herself at her own humor.

Elliot blinked. “You want to bind me to…myself?”

“You have a body made of physical matter just like the lamp, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible,” Lorne said. “And it would solve all your problems. The trick, of course, is working out how to move the bond.”

“A small matter,” Elliot said dryly, refusing to get his hopes up. It would be too cruel if he allowed his hope to run away with him only for them to fail.

“Yes, that is the true trick,” Lorne murmured in agreement. He clapped his hands together, his voice turning brisker. “But we have to start somewhere. Avery, please fetch that book for me. The red one on the sixth shelf.”

He indicated a leather-bound red book that had been piled sideways on the shelf beneath a tall stack of other books. Avery shot to her feet to retrieve it, but standing on her tiptoes, her fingertips could only just reach the book in question. She began to wiggle it back and forth, inching it out of place.

“Caref—” Lorne started a warning only for his head to drop before he got a full word out, his body relaxing into upright sleep.

Avery didn’t appear to hear Lorne’s partial attempt at a warning, continuing to inch the book out from underneath the others. As the pile above it wobbled, Elliot leaped to his feet. In two strides he was behind Avery, reaching her just as the books above the red one toppled forward.

Reaching above her head, he caught the books just in time to push them back onto the shelf. Avery whisked her book free, and the books Elliot was bracing steadied.

He breathed a sigh of relief only for the breath to catch in his throat as Avery turned to face him. His hand was still raised to the books, and she was wedged between him and the bookshelf, practically in his arms.

His arm dropped, but he didn’t step back. He wasn’t sure he was even in control of his legs.

She looked up at him, a look in her eyes he couldn’t interpret. If she was surprised at his sudden proximity, she didn’t indicate it, and neither did she attempt to push him away. Instead, she remained frozen in place, as if her limbs had also forgotten how to move.

Did they also burn the way his did—lit on fire by her nearness?

“Avery—” he whispered, but he didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t know what he wanted to say.

Her expression turned almost hopeful, and something in his chest wrenched, squeezing and turning. What did she want him to say? What thoughts were locked behind those luminous eyes?

“Careful of the books above…” Lorne’s warning trailed off. “Oh,” he said as he absorbed the change in Elliot’s position. And then, in a knowing tone, “Ohh.”

Elliot backed away hurriedly, his legs colliding with a small table and nearly knocking it over. He twisted, awkwardly catching it and nearly falling again in the process.

When he finally straightened, he tugged at his vest, smoothing it out as he resumed his seat. He tried not to look at Avery, who was resuming her seat in a much more elegant manner, a small smile on her lips.

“The books nearly fell on her head,” he said with attempted nonchalance.

“Mmmm,” Lorne said in noncommittal agreement. “I should have asked you to fetch the book for me since you’re taller.”

Elliot agreed, but he had no interest in drawing out conversation on the topic—not when Lorne was watching the two of them with knowing amusement in his expression.

“What’s in the book?” Elliot asked instead, trying to get back on track.

It didn’t matter how much he responded to Avery—it didn’t even matter that he hadn’t minded the thought of being tied to her. He and Avery were incompatible at the most basic level. Avery was a roving merchant who loved spending her life on the road, and Elliot wanted nothing more than to settle down and build a true home. The tie between them was temporary, and his heart had no business getting involved in the matter. He was only setting himself up for pain.

“It’s a history,” Lorne said, replying to the question Elliot had already forgotten asking. “I just want to refresh my memory on something.”

He hummed and muttered to himself as he flipped pages, skimming his knobbly finger down paragraphs. Avery and Elliot exchanged glances, their earlier tension lost in shared amusement at the stereotypical absent-minded scholar appearance Lorne presented.

“Ah ha!” he exclaimed, stabbing his finger at a passage and looking up at both of them with bright eyes. “I found it. I wasn’t remembering wrong.”

Avery stiffened, leaning slightly forward. “You know a way to do it?”

“Ah, no,” Lorne said apologetically. “I should have clarified. This is an account of someone else who achieved it—or rather, a passing mention of them. It doesn’t go into detail, but it should steer you in a helpful direction.”

“Oh.” Avery sat back, clearly disappointed.

“You are the key, in fact, my dear,” he said, making her sit upright again. “Or rather your ancestor is. Most people believe the original roving merchant managed to break his tie to his kingdom. But according to this old account—a rare one, by the way, this is the only copy I’ve ever encountered—your ancestor didn’t break his tie, he transferred it to himself. And he passed that trait on to his descendants.”

“It’s really been done before?” Elliot asked, excitement finally rising in him. He turned to Avery. “You mentioned that your family keeps records. Surely they have a more detailed account of how he did it?”

“The roving merchants do have detailed records,” Lorne agreed. “Ones they don’t allow anyone but their own family to access.” He chuckled. “And I’ve tried many times, believe me. Just think what a fascinating read those records must be!”

“But I can read them,” Avery said with as much excitement as Elliot felt. “And the cousin who’s the current family historian lives in the capital of Glandore. That’s upriver from here so it’s on our way to Bolivere. We would have stopped there anyway, so we can visit her and check the records.”

She turned to Elliot, her grin blinding. He locked eyes with her, equally excited. But as their gazes held, something else wormed its way in to sour his hope. He should have been delighted at the idea of breaking his tie to the lamp so soon and avoiding the need to travel all the way to Bolivere. But that would mean leaving Avery. He had gotten used to the idea that they would be together at least as far as northern Glandore.

Did he dare hope it was the same realization that caused Avery’s face to fall, her eyes darkening as the silence stretched out?

A light snore from across the room made them both start and chuckle, as much from relief at the broken tension as amusement at Lorne’s timing. Lorne woke with a start and smiled at them both, obviously happy to have shed some light on Elliot’s problem, however minor.

A yawn burst out of Elliot, almost making his jaw creak with its intensity.

“Sorry,” he said, embarrassed. “I’m not usually so tired at this early hour of the evening.”

Lorne chuckled. “That’s the Oakden effect. We have a slower pace of life here.”

As soon as he said it, Elliot felt foolish for not realizing the source of his tiredness for himself. And even more foolish when he thought about their journey to Ethelson. He’d even entertained the idea that Avery might have set the pace for an unspoken reason of her own. Ridiculous to have considered that possibility when he should have known it was just the Oakden Legacy all along.

He surged to his feet. “I’d better get to bed, then. Especially if we mean to leave first thing in the morning.”

He looked inquiringly at Avery, who nodded. Lorne tried to protest, but Avery insisted they needed to keep moving. Elliot knew it was because of her mysterious mission for Bolivere, but he was still grateful. Now that they had learned the first puzzle piece of how to separate him from the lamp, he was eager to learn more. The sooner they were on the river, the better.