Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,14

didn’t find disarming at all. Or attractive.

One of the yellow-robed elders cleared her throat. She appeared elvish-like, with brown curly hair and a beautiful face, and she was smiling at Crow as though she could read his mind.

“I am Aelfflaed,” she said, bowing her head, her voice musical. “Seer of truth.”

“You both have many questions,” Aelfflaed said.

“Which we need answered,” Crow snapped. “If you are a seer, how did you not foresee this?”

“I see the truth,” she replied. “Not the future. I see if your words or actions match your heart.”

Crow repressed a growl. So she could see that Crow found Tancho beautiful?

Great.

“Alchemical bond? Yes,” Maghdlm said, ignoring Aelfflaed and answering Tancho’s question.

Tancho gave a nod. “Then it can be broken.”

“But the stars are at work here as well,” Maghdlm replied. “The basis of alchemy is the process of change by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form. As I did with the boy’s dagger, you see. The reaction of your birthmarks we witnessed yesternight was of the old, old ways. Before my time, before even my magick’s time. Your bodies are elemental, we all are. But you two are different. The metals, the elements, are one and the same. From the same source, and this golden sun, when the stars align to complete the alchemy, your stars must meet again, and they will decide your fate.”

“Our stars?” Crow asked. This was becoming more absurd . . .

The old woman opened the book and ran her gnarled finger down the page to a heading. It was in ancient script that Crow could not read.

“Yes,” Maghdlm said, reading the words. “Demidium, meaning half. You are two halves of the same whole. Fate has left its mark on you both. Not only for the golden sun, but the lacuna as well.”

“Lacuna?” Tancho repeated.

“Yes,” Maghdlm said, her voice a whisper. She looked up at Crow, then Tancho, then went back to her book and read the ancient words out loud. “The space between. The part that is missing,” she said, “from each of you, is found in the other. Your fate will choose either way, but the space between you will be no more, and as it is done in alchemy, returned to its original form.”

Crow tried to get her words to make sense. “Returned?”

Maghdlm referred back to the ancient script and hummed. “There is a line that connects the crow to the fish, Corvus to Pisces.” She smiled up at them. “The stars will align during the Golden Eclipse.”

Crow had lost patience with the riddles. “What does that mean?” he barked at her.

She met his gaze with a cool indifference. “It seems fate has already rolled the dice. Your destiny is chosen. The lacuna is done.”

Crow was about to lose his temper completely when Tancho looked at him, meeting his gaze. And the fire in his eyes was gone, replaced with resignation.

He understood.

“What does that mean?” Crow asked.

“Our birthmarks have already chosen,” he whispered. And finally it dawned on Crow what it all meant, though it was Tancho who spoke it out loud. “And they have chosen that we cannot be apart.”

Chapter Six

Maghdlm asked for more time for further studies, to be absolutely certain of her findings. There were scripts and scrolls in the belly of the Aequi Kentron that she was yet to go through. Even though Tancho wanted all doubt removed, time seemed to be something they had very little of.

The Golden Eclipse would be upon them soon, so either way, Tancho had little choice but to wait. Training all his life for this one moment, only to have it all change moments before he was to take the stage was unsettling.

He prided himself on his control—self-control and control of that around him—and to have that taken away from him left him uncertain and a little lost. He felt . . . off-kilter and ill-composed.

Maghdlm, Gabel, and two other elders hurried out of the grand hall back to the library with promises to relay any new findings immediately.

They were no sooner out the door than a messenger came in. He stood before Adelais in his pristine yellow robe. “Apologies, but the King of the Southlands and the Queen of the Eastlands grew tired of waiting in the courtyard,” he said ruefully. “They’ve taken to fighting.”

“Fighting?” Adelais asked, unable to hide her stricken surprise.

“Ah, yes. Each other. It appears to be in good spirits, though the commander suggested I let you know.”

She gave a hard nod. “Thank