Lords Of The Dark Fall - Fabian by C A Nicks Page B

stimulated him. They were like two eddying currents fighting for dominance of the seas. No, he thought. More subtle than that. He was a mountain, hard and unmoveable. Tig was the gentle wave lapping at its base. While he remained implacable and seemingly unchanging, she flowed around him, searching for cracks, constantly adjusting her approach. Silently eroding. She had learned the art of compromise. He was only now learning to fashion the word on his tongue.
    Her stance was a front. A woman like her would not see a man walk to his death without trying to help him.
    “Feel this,” he said and lifted one of her hands to his heart. He covered it with his own and held it there while she gazed at it, puzzled, but listening, with him, to the steady beat.
    “I was an immortal. Like my brother. Do you know what that means?”
    Tig swallowed. Frowned. “You live forever?”
    “That’s just the beginning. It means freedom such as you could never imagine. I have never known the fear of riding into battle, wondering if it will be my last. Never had to worry about the consequences of my actions. Now I am forced to count each breath I take. To listen to the beating of this heart and wonder when it will finally stop. Have you any idea what I have lost?”
    Tig seemed to have gone beyond surprise. “Have you any idea what you’ve gained?” she countered. “Everyone lives as though they’re immortal. Until that one day when life comes up and slaps you in the face and screams you most certainly aren’t. That’s the moment we actually start living. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Fabian, and start living the life you have left.”
    Her hand circled slowly over his heart, soothing even as she berated him. “I don’t know how,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
    “I’ll teach you. It’s not easy. I’m no saint that I’m not jealous of those who have more than me, but this is what I’ve been dealt and I make the best of it. And if that sounds defeatist, then I’m sorry.” Tig shook off his hand and stepped away. “Have you any idea what
I’ve
lost? They’re all out there. My mother, what remained of my father and brothers.” No anger in her tone, only a weary patience. “I miss them with a pain you couldn’t begin to imagine, but if I spent my life reliving that pain, I’d stop right here and never move again. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”
    His mind clouded with confusion. She spoke truths he didn’t want to hear.
    “Existence,” he said. “What you describe is existence, not life.”
    “Existence with hope that it might someday get better,
is
life. I think I’ve said enough. You’ll make your own way, regardless. Men like you always do. Just remember to stop and smell the roses along the way. And yes,” she said in response to his raised eyebrows. “That was intended as a pun. Look, I need to change. Animals to feed. Pots to fire. Keep your head down, get some rest and I’ll see you later.”
    The onslaught of her logic left him helpless, floundering. His purgatory was by no means over, he realised. “I should repay your hospitality,” he said. “What would you have me do?”
    Tig patted his shoulder as she passed him for the stairs. “Try not to get either of us killed. That’s what I’d like you to do.”
    She left him with the scent of roses.

Chapter 4
     
    The dogs.
The rumble of cart-wheels, excited barking. Oh hell, she’d forgotten about the dogs. Tig pushed back the curtain and caught sight of her two hounds going berserk in the courtyard while a tall, bearded man, who’d seen better days, climbed down from the cart. He glanced around the courtyard and then turned to stare directly at the bedroom window. Tig dropped the curtain and flattened herself against the wall, heart pounding.
    The bedroom door flew open.
    “You have a visitor.”
    She didn’t miss the accusation in Fabian’s tone.
    “My nearest neighbour,” she said moving swiftly to the door,