Chapter Twenty Two

"But Evan, she's dangerous!" Istelle was positive she couldn't let the old man go alone. "She has magic!"

"Istelle, he put her there in the first place," said Gwanwyn, eyeing Evan with a small frown, his head was down again. "I don't think she can harm him. He has magic too, after all."

"But he's been weakened from keeping the rain back!"

"But so has Cyan," said Nayana slowly, "she's been weakened from the lack of rain too…"

Istelle didn't understand why Gwanwyn and Nayana were suddenly so under protective of the old wizard. She looked to Talion and Pendre, "but he could get hurt! He should at least have someone there with him, just in case…"

Pendre shrugged, "I think he'd be fine, I mean like, why not?"

Talion also shrugged a shoulder, "what could go wrong?"

Ace and his wizard team looked a little uncomfortable. "Should we...go back to training now?" he started to leave "no, wait!" Istelle said, "what do you think?"

Ace thought for a moment, "I'd be willing to go or have any of the wizards from 5 go with him, but I think he wants to go alone, and I think he's more than capable of defending himself if Cyan tries to attack from her waters…"

Istelle looked around at them. "...okay."

Evan looked back up at them. He was quite serious looking. "I do not need to obtain any of your permission to go. But I will need someone willing to take my place and hold the rain while I am gone."

"...right," said Istelle, looking around at the others.

"Someone very strong. And with magical abilities." He looked at Ace.

"I...I think we can find plenty of wizards who match that description in 5…" Ace said.

"We need to do this quickly," said Istelle, "that lake needs to be gone by tomorrow."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Then one of Ace's wizards, Barrett, who did indeed look quite strong, stepped forward, his hand raised, "I will do it."

The others backed away for the transferring of the rain from wizard to wizard. It took them about twelve minutes.

By the time it was over, Barrett was sitting, slightly hunched on Evan's seat, struggling to sit straight, with his hands in the air, palms up, and Evan was on the ground, slowly standing up after days of sitting on that chair, holding so much weight. When he was finally able to stand, he began striding around, getting used to walking again. It was interesting to see.

Evan came back to them, grinning. "Everything is so light now that I am not carrying anything."

"Oh?" Nayana said

"Yes, now that I've given all that weight away...everything is so much easier. It is wonderful."

The group watched as he descended the hill, and he was nearly at the base before any of them had processed exactly what was going on.

"Good luck Evan!" was all Istelle had time to call to him before he disappeared into the trees.

Evan walked into the forest and out until he reached the river. It was more than a day's hike for him, though a horse would speed it up to less than half a day...luckily he was a wizard.

Evan began magically transporting himself down-stream, each time, he went a little further. It had only taken him half an hour before he found himself in the trees behind the field where Veiled Lake was hidden. He knew this place well, but it had changed much in the course of thirty years.

Through the thin layer of trees, he could see the willows that surrounded what was once a large puddle and was now a small lake.

Carefully, he exited the forest and entered the meadow. He walked towards the willow trees until he saw the lake.

The moss was soft.

Evan had barely finished uttering the words on the white marble before Cyan rose above the surface. He knew she had seen him coming and had identified him as who he was.

"Oh Lloyd, how you've aged."

Evan took several steady steps backward until he was almost at the edge of the moss and the start of the field.

"Being old doesn't suit you, you know."

"I am powerless against time."

"How unfortunate. As you can see, that problem has been fixed for me."

"Yes indeed. Shouldn't you be grateful then?"

"Far from it. I could have been ruling the world by now."

"Still so ambitious...has anything changed with you?"

"Nothing at all."

"How are your magic skills doing?"

"Quite well, actually. I can still practice some from here. And the ones I can't do, I can do the motions at least. I always have a lot of time to kill."

"I can imagine."

"Yes. I didn't know how to be bored before."

"I remember."

"What else do you remember?"

"The way you used to glare at me. Though you glared less and less the more time we spent together."

"It didn't have the same effect on you as it did on others, there was no point."

"And I remember the way you used to come just to vent about your classmates. You didn't know I existed until you met me that day, did you? I'd seen you exiting the schoolhouse before."

"I had no reason to pay attention to the other people. They were bound to be as annoying as the one's in my class."

"And yet you came into the woods every day to see me, putting me even before homework after that day."

"You were good company."

"Ah, okay. And I remember the cherry picking."

"We only did that once."

"Yes, and you adored them."

"They were sweet."

"I enjoyed watching you enjoy them even more than I enjoyed eating them."

"Oh yes, you just couldn't stop staring at me."

"You make me sound like a creep."

"You were a creep. What else do you remember?"

Evan took a seat on the moss. "I remember how vexed you used to get at your parents."

"Well, I always had reasons."

"They rarely sounded like good reasons to me, though I didn't say so."

"Oh? You seemed so sympathetic back then."

"I remember that night, back in May...you know which night."

There was a pause.

"The baby was stillborn."

Evan's eyes flickered around the Lake. He said nothing.

"Well, what else do you remember?"

"I remember when I told you I was a wizard. You were so angry that I hadn't told you."

"You should have told me the day we met."

"And then two years later you came to me and told me you were a witch."

Cyan began floating along in circles, making a whirlpool in her lake.

Evan watched her.

After a few minutes, she looked back up at him from the water. "Go back to before you left. Before the argument."

"I remember the star watching. When we saw the shooting star, we made a wish together."

Silence once more, as they each remembered.

"I remember your strange fascination, how you watched me processing my animals. The blood didn't seem to bother you."

"There was no reason why it would."

The memories continued to flow from the old wizard's mouth. "I remember when we were attacked by a wolf during foraging."

"I remember when you accidentally cursed my pillow."

"I remember when you were frightened by the storm and came to me."

"I remember when we had to kill that bird to get your flower from it."

Cyan began to recall as well and soon the area was flooded with the two's memories, overlapping and bouncing around. For hours they sat there.

They became so engaged in their remembering that neither heard the faraway sounds of many approaching or the ever so slight vibrations in the ground, created by the many hooves moving towards them from several directions.

"I remember sitting here, looking at the stars…" Evan smiled happily.

"The stars. We were always together under the stars," Cyan agreed.

"Right here, where I'm sitting now. That's where I sat that night…"

"Yes. That night."

"That night…"

"The night before you betrayed me."

Cyan was towering as high as she could above her lake. When she looked down at him, her eyes were suddenly cold. Void of the warmth they had held only a few minutes ago, brought on by happy memories.

She was suddenly cold and full of hatred. She began to quiver. "You...you put me here, after everything," her voice rose to a shout, "you never spoke to me about the reasons I shouldn't pursue the quest!"

"Cyan, you were already—"

Cyan didn't let him finish. "You were never honest! You stripped me of all I had and left me here alone in the water!" Her hand that had been pointed accusingly at him dropped as her voice caught. "You never gave me a chance."

"Listen," Evan began rising to his feet, "Cyan. I need to warn you, there's something—"

"Lloyd. Do you really think I'm so foolish?" She paused. " I don't trust you anymore."

He didn't have time to move or defend himself before the bolt of lightning struck Evan Lloyd Greene dead to the ground.