107 Stories of Rowaelin

14. Rescue

Suggested by Tidela471. I have no clue what to call this. See people, if you comment, I will use your idea!

     Rowan was tired. So tired that he couldn't even shift. If he could have taken his hawk form he would have been off this gods-damned ship hours ago. Instead, he sat on his bed, their bed, clutching that shirt. The white shirt stained with her blood. he couldn't do anything but rub the bloodstained cloth between his fingers. He knew he should sleep the kind of long sleep to replenish his magic, but sleep eluded him, as exhausted and drained as he was. He kept remembering what he'd thought weeks before. The thought was like a dagger within him, carving him up until he was nothing but an empty shell. He'd though no one could get to Aelin, that he, and Aedion, and Lysandra and even that gods-damned witch would be there. To protect her, shield her. And look where that had gotten them. His Fireheart, she-- she was shut in the dark, her blood on her iron bonds. He'd felt Cairn whipping her, felt her anger and agony, and though she tried to hide it, her fear. All he could feel was emptiness and his own exhaustion. He was so tired. Rowan didn't sleep that night, just fitful bursts of dozing. Still clutching her shirt, through the night.
     It was dawn, or nearly so. Rowan heard the voices of the sailors and Gavriel and Lorcan's voices. He also heard uneven footsteps walking down the hall. Elide. He didn't want to talk to her. In fact, he didn't want to talk to anyone, and he especially didn't want to be consoled. So, when she knocked at his door, he responded with, "Go away."

     "Rowan. I want to talk to you."

     He couldn't even muster a clever response. "Go away, Elide."

     Any normal person would have left at the tone his voice took, but she persevered. "I think there's a way that we can track Aelin."

    He caught his breath at her name. "Fine. Come in."

She eased open his door, took a deep breath, and launched into her idea, without any sort of introduction. "My nurse, Finnula had a twin brother, Ben. She could always find where he was and always knew if he got hurt. When Vernon had me in that tower, I was so bored that one day I had her walk me through how she did it. Doesn't the carranam bond work in much the same way?"

     She made sense. And the connection would be strengthened by, oh gods, the mating bond. Rowan dipped his head in acquiesce. "Worth a try."

     Elide gave a little huff of relief. Now that he'd agreed to try her idea, she seemed more confident. She more than a bit more imperious as she ordered him to get some rest. Despite himself, Rowan did.

     "Um, close your eyes. And uh, think about Aelin." Rowan was really tempted to take to the skies and search. Elide seemed to have very little idea what she was doing. Gods-dammit he thought about Aelin all the time. Elide repeated her instructions, more steadily this time. Rowan rolled his eyes, but lowered his eyelids and thought about his mate.
    He brought up memories of her, the way her hair caught the light, the way her laugh stirred something deep inside him, how her lips were soft against his, how being with her made his so filled with joy he thought he might simply explode from it.
     Distantly, he heard Elide's voice, sounding sure and steady. "Look inside yourself. You should find a thread. It will always connect you." Rowan ventured farther into his soul. He found not one thread, but three braided ones twisted together. Blood oath, carranam, mates. But twisting its way between them he saw one more. A tiny, golden thread. He knew what it was. His oath to her. That he would always find her. Even in death, even throughout all the realms, he would find her. Elide was still speaking, but he couldn't hear her, and he already knew what to do. That thread stretched across distances. Rowan followed it, followed it over endless realms of space and time until he could go no further. A wall of black adamantine stretched in a circle. The bond went through it, but Rowan found no opening. He knew whose shield it was. He hit the shield, slamming into it. The black wall held completely firm. Through the space and depth of his mind, he heard Elide speak again. "Use your powers." He did.
     He was a prince of ice and wind, and though he could not burn out the darkness he could blow it away. A whirlwind slammed into the wall. It bounced off. Rowan growled and ice shards shattered against the black stone. He could feel Maeve's laughter at his pitiful attempts. Rowan roared his fury to the skies. He harnessed all his power and threw it at the shield, over and over and over. Though he could blow away the darkness this was stone and his wind could make no dent in it. He opened his eyes, his real ones.
    Gods that was exhausting. The minute he returned to his body he could feel the toll that had taken on him. Elide was still watching him from her position. "How long has it been?" he asked groggily.
She eyed him. "About an hour. I'm guessing no luck?"
He shook his head. "Maeve's shields are too strong. I can't make a dent."
She dipped her head. "We'll try again tomorrow. She must have a weakness." Rowan stood up, groaning at the stiffness. He would find his Fireheart. Maybe not today. Maybe not soon. But he would keep his promise to her.
"Not again Elide. I can't." It had been a week and Rowan could still hear Maeve's laughter at his pitiful winds and ice shards breaking at her shields.
"May I suggest something?" Lorcan pulled his sword out of the bit of the deck he'd been using as target practice.
There was a moment of awkward silence, with Elide deliberately not acknowledging or even looking at Lorcan, instead staring at the bit of space next to Rowan's head. He cleared his throat and finally said: "Go ahead Lorcan." Even an idiot couldn't mistake the tone in his voice for anything but ice."
Lorcan ignored the tone, brushing nonexistent splinters off his sword. "Use the bond. It must go through the shields. Use it as a weapon. Even if it is dampened by the shields so you can't track Aelin of the Wildfire, it cannot be broken."
There was another moment of silence after which Rowan said: "Thank you Lorcan."
"Go away," Elide said at the same time, finally acknowledging Lorcan's existence.
Lorcan watched her with sadness in his eyes. "Elide-- I--"
"You've done enough. I would thank you for this advice but I'd sooner do without it and you, considering that you're the one who got us into this in the first place. Now I'd say you should go burn in Hell but I don't actually give a shit."
    Lorcan legitimately looked like someone had punched him in the gut. He just turned away, disappearing into the belly of the ship.
    Rowan turned to Elide. "You should fix things with him."
    She just told him "Use what he said. The bond." Seeing that he would get nowhere with this, Rowan closed his eyes without further complaint.
     It was the same. The bond drew him along to the walls of black adamantine. But he didn't strike this time. Instead, he studied the bond where it met the shield. There didn't seem to be a hole but Rowan knew it went through all the same. "Use the bond as a weapon," Lorcan had said. What if he used the bond to break the shield? Not entirely sure what he was doing, Rowan placed both hands on the bond. It thrummed, alive beneath his hands. He grabbed it in one hand and felt it turn into hard steel, a weapon beneath his fingers. He turned to the shield.

     Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius struck Maeve's shield. It shuddered. He felt the dark queen's shock. He struck again, seeing cracks spiderwebbing across the black wall. One more hit. He struck again, for his mate, his queen, their oaths to one another, the threads that would bind them, even in death, even across worlds.

    The adamantine wall shattered. Rowan was back in his body. He screamed. Oh gods oh gods oh gods what must she be feeling oh gods it hurt, the whip marks down to the bone he could feel them oh gods oh gods oh gods. He could feel her pain down the bond, stopitstopit stop hurting her stop stop stop I will find her and I will kill anyone who hurt her like this stop stop stop let her go I will kill you stop stop stop she is my mate stop stop stop.

     Lorcan was slapping him in the face. "Gods dammit, Whitethorn that is not your pain. Hers. Not yours. Fight it." And slowly, the pain ebbed, flickering below the surface, as Rowan went to find his mate.

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     Darkness and pain. That was her only world. Punctuated by bursts of blinding sunlight that accompanied the iron-tipped whip striking her flesh. Then it was back to the darkness as she lay upon her flesh wounds, the cold iron digging into her. Aelin, the dark woman called her. Was that her name? She didn't care anymore. Didn't care, didn't feel, only that black abyss. The only thing she longed for was Death. Hellas's realm called to her, but it would not reach out and take her away. She begged and pleaded but Death just lurked in the shadows.

     Screaming on the deck. The thud of metal on flesh. Something awakened inside her, something that longed for another. She could feel the other approaching, hear footsteps on the deck. And then the coffin was open and there was sunlight, but there was no whip, only warm arms around her, and ice shattering her chains, and she remembered her name.

     "Fireheart!" That was her name too and the Fae warrior was Rowan and he was her husband and her mate. Oh gods. Her mate. 

     "I'm sorry," she tried to say, but her mouth was full of ashes. She tried again, succeeding at a rasp this time. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about-- that we were mates and you hate me-"

    "Shhh shh, Aelin, Fireheart, it's alright. I could never hate you." He held her closer. People were pushing at him, a girl with a brace around her ankle and twin daggers-- Elide-- and a golden-haired warrior-- Gavriel. Lorcan was beckoning them aboard. So much light, so many people. Aelin closed her eyes.

    Silken sheets against her face. Bandages on her back. A hand stroking her hair. She was lying facedown on the bed. Rowan was running his hand through her hair. "Fireheart. You're awake." She tried to turn over and hissed at the pain. "We couldn't heal your wounds fully-- they-- they were so deep." His voice cracked. He helped her sit up, and she leaned into him. Her Rowan. "I am going to slaughter Cairn."

    She mustered so semblance of a grin. "Without me? Don't you dare." He laughed roughly as he pulled her closer. And as he kissed her, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius knew she was home, and that she would never, never leave.

Sorry this one's a long time in coming. If you post an idea, I swear I won't take nearly as much time. Geez, this one's almost 2000 words. =D