Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Fourty Five - Psionon at the Dom Terrace

And I couldn't resist those golden eyes for long so I gave him a smile to let him know I accepted he'd been acting in my best interests.

With that, he drew himself up into his familiar professor's pose. "Your mother loved you more than you can ever know," he said. "She sent me away at the end, sacrificing her own chance of survival to get me away. I was to look after you, though for a long while I was not able to find you. This much I have told you."

"Yes."

"The full truth is this. At the start of the Year of Flame and Sword, when you were just a few weeks old, your mother and I were ambushed up by the Rhian flute by the combined forces of the Quaro and Hendon Houses. It was evident from the outset that we would be unable to resist them without assistance so we battled our way back down to the Dom terrace. There we could expect and demand aegis from our sworn ally, the House of Rhian.

"But when no such support was forthcoming, it was evident that our cause was lost.

"Your mother instructed me to save myself so that I could be there for you. In the midst of the fray, she span an illusion of me which allowed me to conceal myself with a more straightforward illusion and flee. I have told you before that I consider myself something of a master of illusions but that magnum opus, created in the midst of battle, was the ultimate expression of our art.

"I slipped off the terrace and, not knowing what else to do, I sank down toward the base of the Edifice in, I suppose, the irrational hope that she could save herself and I could be of assistance.

"Of course, as soon as her illusion of me was hit, it vanished."

"Quaroclethyfur struck a mighty blow," Jenko quoted, "and the body of her faithful servant, Psion, shattered into a million pieces."

"At times your dear, departed mother exhibited a slight tendency towards the melodramatic," Psion reminisced with a faraway look in his golden eyes.

"Anyway," he gave a bit of a sigh, "there was no way she could resist the attentions of all those attackers indefinitely."

"Hendonnas's jaws closed on Psionon," Jenko quoted again, "and she was transformed into a stream of pure energy that rose into the heavens as a column of light that dazzled all who saw it and illuminated the entire Edifice."

"At the last, her sense of drama served some purpose," Psion said. "Whilst they were all frantically chasing her illusion out through the mouth of the Edifice, I could bring her poor broken body to this unused lair, which I happened to know. And there she is."

He pointed out the little urn on the pedestal at the back of the dais. "I cremated her and was waiting until I found you so that we could give her a proper funeral."

I nodded, wiping a tear from my eye.

"As the Year of Flame and Sword was in full flow, I had little difficulty retrieving her more treasured possessions and arranging them fittingly. Once that task was completed, I set out to look for you. The rest you know."

"And there's nothing else you're holding back from me?"

"I give you my word that, from now on, I will never again withhold anything of significance from you."

"Thank you," I said simply. The two of us stood in silence for a few moments, each in our own thoughts.

"Right," I said at last, turning to Jenko. "You might be able to survive this whole thing, no matter what happens to us."

He looked pretty dubious but didn't say anything.

"We brought you here against your will and, of course, as soon as we let you go you'll hurry over to see Janenas."