The Winds of the Past [Rune Factory 4]

Chapter 63

Dylas, Chanda, and I all jumped up at once, Dylas shouting “What the fuck?” while Chanda let out a prolonged stream of foreign-sounding profanity. But before I could say anything, Avani scrambled to her feet with surprising speed and darted out the back door. I chased after her, catching up to her just as she leaned over the fence and vomited. When she was done, she stood clinging to the fencepost for a moment, silent except for the sound of her ragged breathing, then still without a word, she turned to me and leaned her head against my chest. I could feel the tears as they ran down her cheek to my bare skin, and she trembled beneath my hands.

“My Lady?” I said, soothingly, as I stroked her hair. “You needn’t continue if it distresses you so much. It’s your story to tell—or not, as you and you alone choose.”

She continued staring at the ground, pale and stricken. “Do… do you even want to know more? Or have you heard enough about… about my past?”

I hesitated, uncertain how to answer. I did want to know more—I wanted to know all there was to know about this delightful enigma whose destiny was so interwoven with my own. But only if she told me willingly—I had no desire to pressure her for more than she was prepared to divulge.

Wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her still-wet cheek against my chest, she whispered, “It’s all right, Leo. Just tell me honestly. That’s all I ever want, honesty. Whatever… whatever it is you want to say, whatever it is you’re thinking about me right now… I’ll understand.”

I paused for only split-second longer, then put my arms around her and replied in a low voice, for her and her alone to hear, “Then, my love, I want to know everything about you—the good, the bad, the silly, the serious… everything. But only when and if you are ready to tell me. I never want you to feel coerced again.”

At my reply, she gripped me tightly, trying and failing to choke back a sob. Then she relaxed, and turning her face to press her forehead against me, she said, laughing shakily, “You always seem to know just exactly what I need to hear, Leo.” Then she looked up at me, her smile like a ray of sunshine breaking through the storm clouds, and she led me back in.

Avoiding the others’ eyes as she resumed her seat on the rug, she again wrapped her arms around Baldur, leaning into his soft fur as he whined and licked her, sensing her distress. I sat down close to her, put my arm around her, and waited.

Dylas, still standing, spoke first, his face and voice both shocked and disbelieving. “I don’t get it. Why… why did you let him get away with that? That’s not like you at all! Why didn’t you kill him, or at least give him a good beating? Or use that… that teleport spell thing to get away? Why didn’t you—”

Before he could say another word, though, Baldur slowly rose to his feet, hackles raised, and growled a low, menacing snarl at the startled  young man. Avani, looking as surprised as everyone else, murmured soothingly to the wolf as she pulled him back down. He lay, reluctantly, but placed himself between the two of them as he continued to stare fixedly at Dylas, a barely-audible growl still escaping his throat.

Chanda recovered first, turning to glare at Dylas. “Who the hell do you think you are, anyway, talking to her like that? I don’t know what her reasons are, but I know her well enough to know they have to be damn good ones. I didn’t even know… she never said anything to me, or I-I would have—”

“That’s precisely why she didn’t tell you, Chanda,” Rishi interrupted. “She didn’t tell anyone what he put her through. Only… only I knew….” His voice trailed off, and I realized with shock what he was implying.

Apparently Chanda caught on, too, as her face turned white. “You mean… you mean that you….”

Sharmila nodded. “Yes, Rishi was… was there. He didn’t yet know how to cut off communications with her, since no one knew about their link. He… saw, heard, felt… everything. And he was helpless to do anything to help her. He tried to tell their father, finally confessing to the link between them. His father was too shocked by his admission of telepathy—which he referred to as witchcraft—to even pay attention to what Rishi was trying to tell him. The day after the wedding was over, he sent his son to the temple, to be ‘cured’. That was when we first learned of his ability—and when we began to teach him to control it.”