Shadows Return

minutes, then shuffled his feet a little to make a noise. Those silvery eyes snapped open and it looked around, identifying the source. Seregil moved his feet again to show it. It stared at him for a moment, and Seregil felt the hair on the back of his neck prickling, strong as if there was lightning in the air. Apparently deciding that he was either no threat or very uninteresting, it returned to its semblance of sleep.
    The light was stronger now, showing Seregil something he’d missed before; there was no mistaking the resemblance. Pale and unnatural as it was, the creature truly had Alec’s face, or at least the face as it might have looked when Alec was a child. As he compared the two, he noticed something else. Alec looked different somehow, and it wasn’t just from dust and exhaustion.
    He looked more ’faie.
    He shook his head. “What did they do to you, talí?”
    Alec slept on, and Seregil returned his attention to the horizon as the day grew warmer, watching for dust rising against the sky. He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation they were going to have when Alec woke up.
             
    A few hours later Alec yawned and sat up. The rhekaro rose, too, and huddled close to Alec, as if it sensed what was coming. Behind them, Ilar was still sound asleep.
    “Alec, you know we can’t keep this creature,” Seregil said, getting right to the point.
    “What are you talking about? Of course we can!”
    “Oh, yes. He won’t raise any eyebrows when we get to Aurënen, with those looks, now will he?”
    “Seregil—”
    “Or in Rhíminee. What sort of explanation will we give there, eh? That he didn’t get enough milk as a babe, or enough sun? Alec, I’m no wizard, but even I can feel a strangeness around this thing.”
    And there was that sudden stubborn set of the jaw again. “I don’t know what we’ll tell them, but we’ll think of something. We always do! And he’s not a ‘thing.’ His name is Sebrahn, I told you.”
    Seregil sighed. “This isn’t some stray kitten, Alec. It’s not even a child.”
    “Then what do you suggest? Just leaving him here to die?”
    “Of course not. That would be cruel. I’ll take care of it for you.”
    Alec sprang to his feet and put the rhekaro behind him. Then he did something he’d never done before: he drew his sword on Seregil. “You’re not going to kill him!”
    Seregil rose slowly and held his hands out by his sides, making no effort to protect himself, though his heart was hammering in his chest and he felt sick to his stomach. “You’d choose
that
over me? So all that’s happened between us comes to no more than this?”
    Alec lowered his sword at once, eyes brimming with tears. “No! I mean—Don’t make me choose!”
    “It’s unnatural! For all we know, it’s dangerous, too.”
    “Yhakobin said he could heal. He was making him for the Overlord, to cure his son. And he
is
alive, not just some—thing. He can learn. Yhakobin taught him to do simple tasks around the workshop. He understood me when I asked him to bring me things. Look, I’ll show you!” He tapped the rhekaro on the shoulder and said, “Bring me the cheese.”
    It immediately went into the barn and returned with the scant remains of the cheese.
    “What else does it—er, he know?” asked Seregil, surprised.
    “I’m not sure, but I think if you show him something and name it, or how to do something, he remembers. You try.”
    “All right. Hey you, Sebrahn, bring me the bundle.”
    The rhekaro just stared at him.
    Alec retrieved the bundle and put it in the rhekaro’s hands. “Bundle.” Then he carried it a few yards off and Seregil repeated the command. The rhekaro fetched it and brought it back to him, setting it at his feet.
    Alec touched his chest. “Alec.” He touched Seregil’s arm. “This is Seregil. Go to Seregil, Sebrahn.”
    The rhekaro stood and walked to Seregil.
    “See? I told you, he has a mind. He learns.”
    “So it seems. Can he speak?”
    “I’ve heard him cry out in pain, but never words.”
    Seregil tried again to imagine what it would be like, trying to sneak unobtrusively through a village or port with this thing in tow. “So, are you ready to tell me why you’re so attached to him?”
    “The alchemist
made
him from me.”
    “I guessed as much, when I saw you in that cellar.”
    “I don’t remember you there. How often did he bring you?”
    “Just once. Ilar was quite happy for me to see you like