Perhaps it would be better if she crammed both stories into one day.Perhaps it would be better if she crammed both stories into one day. She debated. What she wanted, more than anything else, was to save Aimee's life. To preserve her from the horrors and pains that Teltirray inflicted upon her in his demands for more. She knew that he must have been making demands of both her personal strength and the magickal strengths that Darryn was helping to build within her. Although no mage can give another magical strength, when it exists in one, another can help give it meaning, focus, exercise, strength. Like the muscles of the body and the mind, the strength of magic must be exercised. Like the strength of love, and even that of compassion, doing leads to the strength to do more. Bethsany had chosen her path, as Darryn had his. She hoped Aimee' would have a worthy path to choose. "Take me," she finally said. Brandy turned and walked down the stairs. Down one flight, and then another, into the basement where Rissim, the chirugeon Beth kept in her employ, was applying alcohol to a wound over Aimee's left breast. It looked like a burn. Although she bore it stoically, the pain in the young girl's eyes was both apparent and undeniable. There could be no surcease. "Forgive me, Miss Bethsany, I... The chirurgeon will not allow me to kneel." "Don't you dare, Aimee'," Bethsany said, reaching down to touch Aimee's face. "You need not bow to me. You know that better than I do. Do not bow to me." "Yes, Miss." "Aimee', he will kill you." "Probably, Miss. This may even be our last talk." "I feared as much." Bethsany closed her eyes. "I had, at first, the wish to tell you two tales in as many visits, one of my day amongst the Braban, and of the day I lost Myr. I shall, instead, tell both together, although they were separated by many years. I want you to hear both of them, Aimee'." In her sickened heart, Bethsany cursed Teltirray. He at least had the "common decency" to allow his girls to hide themselves and then kill themselves when he reached this stage. |