The House Of Gaian

“You wouldn’t have been faithful to her, Lucian.
    You know that.”
    “Faithful.” Lucian spat out the word. “That’s a human word. I cared for her . But if what I offered wasn’t enough to convince her to stay, I would have let her go with that fool. Despite the problems it would have caused for my Clan, despite my own feelings, despite everything, I would have let her go .” His voice broke. He put his hands over his face.
    Aiden couldn’t stand seeing a man who had once been a friend and was still kin break under a year’s guilt and grief.
    “Lucian ...” He stepped forward, rested a hand on Lucian’s arm. “Do you mean that? You really would have let her go?”
    Lucian lowered his hands away from his face, and said wearily, “If it had been Lyrra, wouldn’t you rather know she was living somewhere without you than to have died under the Black Coats’ hands?”
    “She survived.” Aiden tried to stop the words, tried to think it through, but he couldn’t think anymore, could only feel. “She got away from the Black Coats.”
    He watched all emotion drain from Lucian’s face.
    “Morag lied to me?” Lucian said in a queer voice.
     
    “No,” Aiden said quickly. “No. She told you Ari was gone, and that was true.”
    “She knew what I’d think. What Dianna and I both thought.”
    Lucian stared at Aiden. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew Ari wasn’t dead.”
    Aiden shook his head. “I suspected. I hoped. But I didn’t know for sure.”
    Lucian took a step to the side. “You knew. All this time, you knew.”
    “I didn‘t know.”
    “Then how can you be certain now?” Lucian demanded. “Just because she got away from the Black Coats doesn’t mean she survived.”
    “We saw her when—” Uneasy now as he watched anger fill Lucian’s eyes, Aiden finished clumsily, “We saw her when we were traveling in the west.”
    “You saw her, and yet you said nothing until now, sent no messages to me or Dianna.”
    “There was no reason to say anything, no reason to send any messages. Ari is happy where she is. She’ll never come back to Brightwood.”
    “My sister was challenged and lost to that cold-blooded bitch because her power was being drained by having to be the anchor for our Clan’s territory—something Ari should have been doing.”
    “No,” Aiden said. “You said you would have let her go.”
    “Where would she have gone?” Lucian said furiously. “If Morag had gathered that human when Dianna asked her to, Ari would have stayed.”
    “And she would have died! Neall got her away from the Inquisitors. That’s the reason she survived.”
    This wasn’t right. Where was the grief, the guilt, the regrets that had filled the room a few moments ago?
    Where was the relief that the woman Lucian cared about had survived?
    “So he survived as well. That’s something that can be changed, and once Ari is back at Brightwood—”
    “Lucian, no .” Aiden grabbed Lucian’s arms. “They’re in love, and they’re happy, and she’s growing fat with their first child. You can’t take her away from her husband and home. You said you cared for her.
    Be glad she’s well, Lucian, and let her go.”
    “Be glad of what?” Lucian snapped, jerking his arms to break Aiden’s hold. “That she let a human fill her belly?”
    Was that what the anger was about? That Ari had chosen a human over the Lightbringer? “Not a human, Lucian. Neall is Fae. A Lord of the Woods. He has a human face, true enough, but he’s Fae.”
    “No!”
    “Yes!”
    “Where is she?”
    Aiden shook his head.
    Lucian stared at Aiden. “You went west to find the Hunter, didn’t you? You brought that bitch down on us.”
    “She would have come regardless. After the Black Coats attacked her Clan, she would have come east to fight them whether I found her or not.”
    “You wouldn’t have stayed long in one place while you were looking for the Hunter. And you would have wanted to stay, at least a day or two, if you’d found Ari first.”
    Aiden didn’t dare say anything. Here was the anger he’d seen over the past year—the sneering anger that had cost them all so much.
    “The Bretonwood Clan. Isn’t that where the Hunter comes from? Yes, I’m sure that’s the Clan that was mentioned. Does Bretonwood have a witch to anchor the shining road in the Old Place? A witch who should be living at Brightwood ?”
    Aiden said nothing.
    “Just as well you don’t answer. You lied to me, Bard.”
    “No