Erys: An Eragon Fanfiction - (Under Editing)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

A Loyal Friend

Keilith's body, already beginning to stiffen in death, was settled in Eirdain's arms.  He knelt, lying the body on a bed of grass beneath an Elder tree.

He let his tears fall, not ashamed to cry.

"Here."

He held a shovel out to her.

"I can't. I should've...he died defending me, and I—I...never gave him my trust," Erys choked.  "Never..."

Eirdain knelt next to her.

"There's naught you could do for him in life. Honour him now in death."

He offered the shovel again. He dug beneath the tree.  As Erys began to dig, she felt his eyes burning into her back.  She turned to see the sad spectre staring through her; his entrails hung from his stomach

"Let the dead be dead." Eirdor's warning startled her.

"Not Keilith."

Du Thirr fuelled their own emotion through her, numbing the pain if only slightly. She returned to her work, his eyes still burning into her.  Her tears wet the ground as she dug it up.  Her arms burned, but she did not cease.  Even when they stood in a hole eight feet by four, she did not cease.

"Ailden?"

She turned to face Eirdain.

"It's...my fault," she whispered.

"You didn't kill him."

"I killed the others...because I feared who they were.  That Kull did the same."

"And we're avenged for that."

"And he's still gone," Erys sneered.  "Revenge didn't bring him back." She puled herself from the grave, with aid from Vanilor.

"I tried to tell you," Eirdain muttered quietly.

She knelt next to Keilith's body.  She bowed her head, not caring for the tears leaving trails through her dirt smeared face, though she had enough sense only to keep them from ruining Keilith's funeral clothes.  She pressed her head against his own, her grief choking her.

Fighting past the lack of air and the pain squeezing her chest, she managed, "You knew me better than any.  I'm sorry."

"You don't get to be sorry," the spectre hissed.

"I didn't mean for it to happen!"

"It's not your fault," Eirdain whispered.

"I should have left you in Ceunon."

"You did what you had to—"

"And look where it got him!" she yelled. "A fucking hole in the ground!"

"That wasn't your doing."

"He was no better than our prisoner."

"He chose to come with us.  That was his decision."

"Only because we forced it on him."

"Help me," Eirdain said softly. 

He manoeuvred himself to the head of the grave and reached for Keilith's shoulders. Erys lifted his feet and pulled him to the grave.  Together, they lowered him into the abyss.  Erys offered Eirdain her hand.

He pulled himself free and set to replacing the dirt.  Erys knelt and drew Keilith's blade.  She raised it overhead and plunged it through the roots.

"Malthinae," Erys said.

As one, Eirdor, Vanilor, and Valdr dipped their heads to the tree, gently touching the bark.

The sword and the roots became one. Magic flowed from Du Thirr. A ripple shook the tree as a soft wind began to blow. Erys was too distraught to ask what they'd done.

Erys put a palm against the tree.  It left a ghost of an impression on her soul; had she known better, she would have believed the tree had tried speaking to her. She withdrew and turned away.

Eirdain took his place by her side.

"A loyal friend," Eirdain said, "for the short time we knew him."

Guilt twisted sharply in Erys' gut.

Du Thirr dipped their heads.  A loyal friend.

"A loyal friend," Erys repeated, fighting to speak clearly past the lump rising in her throat.  It choked her, cutting her off. She turned away from the grave site and Keilith's spectre.

"You know it wasn't your fault."

Erys said nothing.  If she'd stayed with the group rather than riding on ahead, Keilith might have survived. The loss cut deeper with the force of guilt behind it. A single tear slipped down her cheek before she locked her emotion behind the barrier, though it still raged inside her. She stood straight, held her head high, and clutched the pendant on her necklace, grateful at least she couldn't be scried. It was the protection they had needed, but cost more than she'd been willing to pay.