329Disclaimer: I don't own Eldest.
…Give thanks, friends, and especially thank xXFallenSakuraXx52 for spurring me on. It's not that ground-covering of a chapter, but it does give a little more solidity and depth that I've been lacking. So yeah, helped me straighten things out, and now OFF TO BATTLE!
Happy Thanksgiving
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The night was silent. Only the slight wind made a sound apart from the slosh of the boat as it ran up the bank. Alycie pulled at the bow while Elian pushed from the water, letting the vessel stop once it reached the brush. Alycie sat back on the grass, leaning back on her hands and looking out over the river. Elian emerged from the water and flopped down beside her, propping his arms under his head and crossing his ankles. Alycie looked at him.
"If we set out at dawn we can reach the Varden by tomorrow," she said. Elian nodded, closing his eyes. Alycie looked back at the water. "We can warn them." Elian shifted slightly, and Alycie saw his eyes were open once more.
"Why are the Varden in Surda? I mean...I thought they were in the Beors."
Alycie didn't speak. A thread of panic briefly ran through her, but she pushed it away.
"I suppose...I suppose since the battle...I mean..." Alycie struggled for a response. Then something flickered in her memory, and she put a hand to her forehead, groaning. "The Twins..."
"What?"
"Of course, the Twins would have told Galbatorix where the Varden were hiding...Farthen Dûr wouldn't be safe anymore after that..." Alycie drifted into silence. Elian sat up abruptly, making her jump.
"Then how do we know where they are?" he demanded. Alycie opened her mouth, then stopped, suddenly sheepish. Elian read it in her face. "We don't know where they are..."
"If we keep to the river, we'll probably run across-"
"Surda is a whole new land, Alycie, have you ever been there?"
"Well, no, but-"
"They could be anywhere!"
"Just give me a second..." Alycie brought her knees to her chest, studying her feet contemplatively. She had to know where they'd gone...she'd lived with them for weeks. Surely she knew...
"We came all this way for nothing," muttered Elian. Alycie frowned at him.
"Oh we've accomplished quite a lot, I'd say," she remarked. "You've been exiled from the desert, we've become renowned criminals, I've stopped having visions, we broke into Urû'baen, I burnt down my hometown, and now we've rowed all the way down to the Surdan border where our criminal status is celebrated."
Elian kneaded his fist into the soft earth unenthusiastically.
"So in all of your visions, did you not once see anything about a huge battle?" he asked finally. Alycie shook her head, but then stopped. A fragment of a fragment of a memory floated back to her, through her lips.
"It fights the first on plains of hell..."
"What?"
"The Burning Plains..."
"Is that where-"
"Hang on..." Alycie changed positions, sitting cross-legged with a finger to the dirt, writing out the words as she mouthed them. What was the rest of the poem?
"So you have seen something?" asked Elian, crossing his legs as well and looking at what she was doing. Alycie shushed him and closed her eyes.
"A ghost it seems
In armor clad
Is chained to one
Who is but mad
With shining blade
And palm as well
It fights the first
On plains of hell"
She looked up, and saw Elian staring at her slack-jawed. He closed his mouth and shrugged.
"Well, that's wonderful. What does it mean?" Alycie licked her lips, thinking hard.
"It means the Rider is going to fight," she said after a moment.
"How do you know?"
"It said an armored ghost with the shining palm is going to fight...chained to one...a Rider under the control of Galbatorix. One who is thought to be dead." Alycie felt a pang, and she bit her lip, staring hard at the water. "Murtagh is going to fight."
Elian was silent for a minute. Neither he nor Alycie spoke for a time, both looking out at the water. Elian sighed.
"Can I ask you something?"
"No."
"When the time comes, will you be able to face him?"
Elian looked at her, but Alycie's face was resolute, staring determinedly at the rushing current. He went on.
"What do you think will happen if you meet him on the battlefield, Alycie?" he asked. "Do you think he'll sweep you up in his arms and kiss you? Do you think he'll renounce the Empire and fly off to the sea with you on his dragon? Do you think he will show any mercy-"
"I don't know," said Alycie quietly. Elian stared at her with hard eyes.
"He will be ruthless. In war, everyone is. He will kill the Varden, and perhaps Eragon. And what will you do?"
"I don't..."
"If the Empire wins and you are left alive, what will you do?"
Alycie didn't answer. Elian put a hand to his forehead, anger threatening to burst out of him. He turned to her.
"So that's it, then. That's as far as your devotion goes. You don't care about the world at all; just yourself. If Eragon should be killed and the Varden fall, you won't care as long as you have your Rider. You have no allegiance except to him, do you?" Elian moved so that he was in front of her. She tried to look away, but he caught her by the chin, forcing her to look at him. "Do you?"
Alycie looked at him with a dead gaze. She opened her mouth slowly, and her words quivered as she spoke.
"What else is there for me?"
Elian let go of her face, getting to his feet. He looked down at her miserable form, feeling his blood rise like lava.
"I thought you were strong," he said, voice controlled. "I thought you were a revolutionary. I thought you cared about your people, about how they suffered. But you only care about his suffering-no, your own suffering. You're not sacrificing yourself for his sake, anymore, this is to quell the misery of your own heart."
Alycie got to her feet, her eyes locked with Elian's. She raised her hands slowly, and punched them against his chest, sending him flying into the water. He shook his head, spluttering, and glared up at her. She pointed a finger at him.
"Don't think you know me so well, Elian," she said in a voice he had not yet heard. This was not Alycie's voice of anguish, or her voice of warning. This was a new voice...more real than any of the others he'd heard. Truer. She stared at him with a deadlock gaze, no longer gray and emotionless, but one fueled by an inner fire that burned more blue than red. "I'd like to make a few things clear to you before we go any further with this.
"I was born into slavery. So was he. We grew up with no one to care for us. I had my brother, but he was often gone. He had his mother, but she too was gone. We were both eventually separated from these people. When I met him, I was free for the first time in my life. So was he. He'd run away, as I had, though he had a better understanding of the world. Traveling with him, I saw that he was still held by chains he could not break. I had broken mine, and wanted to break his as well. We had both suffered, at great length, and I couldn't leave him captive where I was free. I understood his pain, and I accepted him as he was. And this is how we fell in love.
"I don't hold allegiance to anyone, contrary to what you've been led to believe. Allegiance is just another form of slavery as I see it. So know that I will never work for anyone other than myself. And as for 'my people,' as you call it, 'my people' are not the citizens of Alagaësia. My people are the enslaved. Murtagh is one of the enslaved, and so I remain loyal to him. I won't stand for slavery in any way, shape, or form, and so I work for freedom wherever I see it needed. This is what drives me.
"As for what you've asked of me, what I will do in this war, I don't know. I will fight on the side of the Varden because it means the downfall of Galbatorix. However, if the Varden should fall, I will not stay and fight for fallen comrades. I fight for those who struggle, not those who are already freed or lost. The free make their own way, and the lost drown in it. But the struggling need a light to guide them to freedom, and I will not let them become lost.
"Now, Elian, that you have heard my reasoning, what will you do in this battle? Will you stay with the Varden and subject yourself to whatever battle plans and twisted political webs they create, or will you remain free, and work away from the power struggles and corruption?"
Alycie turned and started walking away without hearing an answer. Elian stood, stepping onto the bank and walking quickly towards her. He seized her shoulder and turned her around, holding her still.
"I fight with you," he said," wherever you go." And he pressed his lips to hers roughly. Alycie did nothing to fight it. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he pulled her close.