Heart Stone

3. In the Garden-1

3

IN THE GARDEN

Two months later, the sun blazing down on his neck, Dayvian looked up the main road into the Demion capital of Umzulio with mixed feelings. He had spent the entire trip doing his responsibilities for the circus but with his mind elsewhere. Rashel's offer of magic burned in the pit of his stomach, haunted his nights under the stars, and dampened even Carsin's enthusiasm. At least Dayvian had the sense not to share his disquiet with his chatty friend. The last thing he needed was advice from someone like Carsin; bold and brainless, leaping off the cliff with no care if the lake had gone dry. All the input Dayvian wanted, he could hopefully get from Tanzaa. Her steady, thoughtful insight would open his mind to where he must go.

Dayvian ran through hundreds of ideas and possibilities buzzing like gnats in his head during the trek. Overall, they were fanciful and ridiculous, but he had nothing else to think about during the tedious traveling between tour stops. He could practically play his music in his sleep, so what else was his fevered mind supposed to concentrate on? 'What about getting Tanzaa out of the city and having Rashel protect her without me taking the Heart Stone?' 'What if Tanzaa immigrated to the Land and the King never could trace her, if Dayvian did the protecting?' 'What if Dayvian offered himself in trade for Tanzaa, and the King felt it was a better sacrifice because he was this magician instead?' All of these ideas seemed too melodramatic to even verbalize, so Dayvian tossed them aside as soon as they came through his head. He felt like an i***t considering all of these scenarios.

And then there were the nightmares; horrible dreams where he witnessed the future for Tanzaa. He woke nightly in a sweat, having dreamed of Tanzaa's dancing in flames, or atop a bloody altar, smiling manically or dancing for the king in her wedding gown, with a sacrificial knife in her heart. He never actually saw how her death happened, for he was always too mesmerized by her movements, but Dayvian woke convinced of her impending death. No, his nightmares haunted him into realizing no matter all his fanciful daytime plotting, Tanzaa would end up dead anyway. And that was if he did accept the Heart Stone magic. What good was such power if it couldn't change her fate?

As the circus moved over the mountain border between the two countries, he also wondered if someone out there was listening to his thoughts and overactive imagination. When the circus troupe traveled through Rayvgild Pass and they officially left the Land, Dayvian was reasonably sure that Rashel or Yeolani were in the company. Mysterious things kept happening. He found six spools of coiled guitar string in his footlocker so he didn't have to purchase any with his precious savings. Carsin conveniently kept getting distracted elsewhere by some lady he saw in the party, and so it left Dayvian the chance to think without interruption.

Even his music grew better despite the lack of attention he paid to his work. He found himself improvising and enriching the melodic line effortlessly. He wished briefly that there was some way to write down the enhancements. Carsin gave him alarmed and pleased looks as they performed, but didn't comment on the strange improvements. Dayvian wouldn't have been surprised if the sheet music to their routine didn't find its way into his things with the extra notes penned in for him. That would mean Rashel or Yeolani had followed him on tour, and they wouldn't give themselves away like that, he assumed.

And now the time had come; the circus arrived at Umzulio three days before midsummer. He and Tanzaa had a standing meeting at midnight in the grove of trees in the central city park on the first day the circus came into town. Tanzaa would know when they were scheduled to arrive and would always find a way to slip out of the palace to meet him. Unaccountably, Dayvian felt nervous as the caravan came down into the capital. What if she couldn't get away, considering her changed status in the court? What if Rashel interrupted them? Dayvian didn't think the Queen of Growing Things would be so rude, but he already had the sense that he was being listened in on, and it niggled at the back of his thoughts. Like a puppet, he went about his duties, helping set up tents, passing out fliers announcing the circus for the next day and going through the motions of rehearsal, but his mind could only function with Tanzaa in his eyes.

Finally, with the circus settled in for the night, Dayvian slipped out of his cot, found his guitar in the dark and wove his way past other sleepers. As he lifted the tent flap he heard Carsin's encouraging voice. "Tell her ardeli for me."

Dayvian didn't acknowledge his friend's advice, but he hoped the Demion word applied. Tanzaa didn't speak the language of the Land but fortunately, traveling for most of his life, Dayvian understood them all. Now if he could invoke the words to make this tangled magical mess function in some way to bring them safety and happiness, Dayvian would be relieved. He left the circus grounds and slipped through the night, finding his way by memory to the grove of trees where he knew Tanzaa would await him.

"Do you ever regret that I didn't court you, the way Dayvian is courting Tanzaa?" Yeolani asked his lovely wife as they sat invisibly in the woods, waiting behind a shield of silence for the two lovers to arrive. "You're such a romantic; I really should have managed to give you flowers once at least."

Rashel tried not to laugh. "Flowers? Really? It's not like you'd be killing some of my friends or anything." She sighed then and put her hand in his. "No, you rescued me, so I consider that romantic enough. It isn't your style. If you brought me anything, you would have brought me…what would you have brought me?"

"I'm sure I could dig up a diamond or emerald somewhere, but don't ask me to cut and polish it."

Rashel chuckled, "A rock? No, my love, I don't need jewels or flowers. You make me laugh and that's more than I could ask for. Laughter is our kind of romance."

Yeolani unexpectedly swept Rashel off the ground and pretended to steal her away. "Or we could just go find somewhere more secluded and do some other things for a bit? Otherwise, I might get embarrassed watching this. Maybe Dayvian has some tricks that I can learn from."

Yeolani's suggestion made Rashel laugh again, but she put him off, knowing her husband's teasing nature and Yeolani put her down again. "Here he comes. Can you sense the girl yet?" They waited in their invisible hiding place as Dayvian found one particular tree within the grove, sat up against it and began tuning his guitar, playing softly as if luring Tanzaa in.

Over the past weeks, the two Wise Ones had taken turns following the circus, monitoring Dayvian's thoughts, making sure he held firm to his relationships and didn't let his emotions run away with him. As a result, they were both pretty familiar with his mind. They could hear Dayvian’s growing excitement. They had also noted how gifted he was, to the point that they wondered if there might a magical component to his musical dexterity. He also had a vocal skill, singing in each performance in every village on the trek. He even proved adept at moving through multiple instruments: guitar, pipe, harp and even drum. Rashel did not doubt a magical element to his musical talents, but she didn't see how it would ever apply to becoming a Wise One. How would music and magic blend? Dayvian’s gifts certainly must have bewitched an impressionable courtesan girl as well.

"I think I hear her," Rashel interrupted her own thoughts silently to warn her husband.

"It's about time. His music is getting downright lusty," Yeolani replied, wrapping his arms around Rashel suggestively, though he knew she was focused on this liason about to unfold.

They watched intently as a girl, lithe and graceful, wearing dark gauze in a vain effort to camouflage herself in the dark, came running into the trees. Her white-gold hair and pale skin stood out in the darkened grove, and her movements might have made someone casually think they had spied a fairy. She moved so quickly and with an eerie grace.

"I don't think Dayvian's the only one with a gift here. They are a pair," Yeolani commented, completely serious now. "Can you sense if she's magical?"

Rashel silently agreed. "She's got something. Perhaps she's blocking it. The King of Demion or some demon in his court would surely sense it. Maybe she uses this dance-magic naturally and no one trained her. She’s like Dayvian. Something is different with her. He has the music; she has the dance. You are right. They are a matched pair."

Uncomfortably the Wise Ones watched as Dayvian rose from his playing and let the guitar slip from his fingers to greet Tanzaa. He enfolded her in his arms and kissed her passionately. But before they could get too far into their reunion, Dayvian stopped himself and broke into a frantically whispered monolog in the Demian language. Rashel immediately recognized a problem.

"We're in trouble. How are we going to help him if we cannot understand what they're saying?" the Queen of Growing Things muttered silently.

"All your grand plans, poof, and they're gone because we don't speak Demian. Well, I can think of something else we can do while we wait for him to have his discussion," Yeolani suggested roguishly.

Instead, they listened carefully to the words Dayvian was explaining, noting his careful thought process and occasionally hearing a word they knew; Umzulio, Tanzaa, and once Rashel. It was supremely frustrating for enchanters, accustomed to knowing most of what happened around them, to not have a mental track on potential problems. In the end, all they could do was sit back and wait.

Dayvian spoke as quickly as he could. They had little time before Tanzaa would be found missing. And then there were Tanzaa's issues with language. Raised in the court where speaking was discouraged, and often beaten out of the courtesans, Dayvian had learned to be efficient in his explanations to Tanzaa. That she rarely spoke didn't mean she did not have a great ability to listen. She understood better than most. She held his hands to keep him from nervously rambling as he explained the offer of magic and that he would not accept the offer if he couldn't be with her as well. When he made this statement, she only had one thing to say.

Tanzaa looked down and whispered, "One drowns or we both drown."

Dayvian had to work a bit on understanding the meaning within that analogy although he had already applied the imagery of drowning to this situation once before. Analogies were one of the things he loved about Tanzaa; her intelligent use of metaphor to get across so much information. So, she felt that by rescuing her, he was dooming them both, like a drowning man was likely to pull any rescuer under and then they would both drown. He understood the logic but he didn't want to accept her conclusion. Warily he looked down into her gray eyes, growing silver with tears. He could become mesmerized and completely willing to do anything she wanted. Did she have any other suggestions?

"Split the gift?" she asked.

Could they both escape; her from the King, him from eternal life of magic duties without her. Dayvian would gladly give up the potentially immortal life, sacrificing a couple of thousand years for the right to live with her just a few years. But no, he doubted it. Becoming a Wise One seemed like an all-or-nothing option. Instead, he thought carefully about Tanzaa's analogy of drowning. What would he do if it were as simple as that; she was drowning and he wanted to rescue her? He knew for his love’s sake, regardless of his swimming skill, he would jump in. One of them would be saved and one would drown. He wanted Tanzaa to be the saved one.