The Taming

A Familiar Voice

Her eyes narrowed. And her lips whitened.

"Yes, you would try." He set the chalice back to the table. "I thought as much."

Thus, why I can never take you out of these walls.

"What would happen if I...tried?" She choked on the word that implied she'd not succeed.

"I'd never take you out with me again." His voice cracked through the empty room like a whip.

"And if I did not?"

You wouldn't be able to resist.

Still he responded. "Perhaps I'd let you out of WaterRose more often. Extend your freedom?" He suggested temptingly.

"One day maybe we could reach the point where I'd let you go wherever you wished," His voice lowered. "As long as you returned to me."

Those words landed in the room stones in a pond. Sending out ripples of endless promise.

The enticing proposal to hunt with Sebastian still hovered in the air between them as he waited with breath baited, for her answer.

Elsabet's lips parted in interest as she drew a long breath.

He saw her eyes brighten. She's intrigued.

He sensed her conceding, preparing to agree to his terms. He found himself leaning even further forward as he awaited the words.

Then a single word tore through his mind with the violence of a sword cutting through his body. "Sebastian..."

***

That one word racked Sebastian Bodane hard enough that he rattled in his chair.

But it wasn't what was said. It was the voice that had done it.

One man's familiar voice.

One I've not heard in so long... He leapt to his feet, toppling his chair, and upsetting his full chalice. Tossing red wine over the tabletop and full trencher.

Elsabet hissed. Recoiling briefly from his sudden movement.

"Merlinus!" He roared back. His head tossing as he tried to catch the direction it came from again. In the hopes of pinpointing it. He willed the man to somehow hear him.

Hear me.

Respond to me!

"Elsabet-"

"I know. I know." She sighed. "You have to go."

Sebastian was already turning on his heel. Black cloak unraveling down his back as he strode from the Dining Hall and ran through the foyer. Ripping the double doors open with such force, he nearly pulled them from the hinges as he skipped down the steps and launched across the bailey.

Elsabet took a quiet sip of her drink and gripped the chalice with a white-knuckled hold. Staring at where he'd been sitting.

She jerked when Quandary's feral cry startled her. Telling her that they went together.

"Be careful, My Friends." She whispered. "You take what is left of my heart with you."

Bast heard the faint words but didn't have the chance to analyze them.

Not yet. Wait until I'm back.

Shaking his sleek black head, he focused on the voice he'd thought lost.

Raese Merlinus. Calling to me.

***

Back in the Dining Hall, Elsabet played over the near-promise to grant her some level of freedom. Then she considered the odd word he'd cried out.