He basked in her dimpled smile and watched her bend to retrieve her daughter when the babe escaped Cian and Isolde and ran laughing to her mother.
“You’re in love with Lady Tanon,” Cian guessed when they were alone.
Madoc’s blood drained from his face. “Don’t be a fool.”
“I think we all are a little,” Cian reassured with a short laugh. “She’s brave, braver than any woman I know. She’s pleasant to the eye, like a spring valley, painted in the colors of earth and water. She’s—”
“Enough!” Madoc fired at him. “You don’t have to convince me. It’s why I must go.”
“Go where?” his brother asked wide-eyed.
Madoc turned away.
After a moment with no response, Cian rushed to him. “Are you leaving? Will you leave Gareth?” He shook his head before Madoc could answer. “No. No, you wouldn’t. None of us have been apart for too many years to—”
“I’m in love with his wife, Cian,” Madoc groaned in a hushed voice. “I love him too much to hurt him, and yet, I find my heart turning from him more each day—every time I see him with her.”
He raised his gaze from the flames in the hearth and into his brother’s wide, horrified stare.
Madoc never wanted to see this kind of expression from his little brother when Cian looked at him. Good. Now he understood why Madoc had to leave.
“I’m coming with you.”
Madoc cast him a surprised look. “No.”
“I’m coming.”
Madoc scoffed. “I don’t even—”
“Madoc,” Cian cut him off, his chin and his tone, resolute. “I’m coming.”
Where were they going? Madoc didn’t know but he dreamed that night of running to her, telling her everything he felt, and then…
He left his bed two days later, and with Cian at his side, stood before Gareth in the prince’s private solar to tell him he was leaving.
“I need to be away and clear away all the nonsense and folly in my head.”
“About Tanon?” his friend asked with almost casual indifference.
“Yes,” Madoc admitted, not wanting to deceive him any longer.
“I know you care for her.” As the words reached his ears, Madoc’s eyes grew moist. What could he say? There was nothing. “I admire you for doing the right thing,” Gareth told him. “I wish there was another way, brother. I will miss you immeasurably.”
Cian wept and promised to return with songs about Gareth’s great deeds.
After a tight hug between the men, Madoc and Cian left Gareth for the first time.
“Where are we to go?” Cian asked him when their horses were saddled and ready to leave.
A late autumn breeze blew some of Madoc’s dark waves across his eyes as he set his menacing smile on the north. He thought of doing the only thing that would help him forget and feel better. “Let’s find some of our enemies and show them to their graves.”
Cian nodded and with a flick of their reins, they left everything and everyone they knew behind and headed north like a winter storm.
In the Forest of Elihad…
Elihad stood on a high rock and looked up, letting sunshine wash him in warmth and light. He smiled and nodded his head. She’d been pulled into the darkness of battles and deceit, but she survived to continue to pour out light on those around her. Indeed, like her passionate father, Tanon Risande’s fire couldn’t be extinguished. In it, she possessed the power to subdue a king, tame a dragon, and bring peace toCymru. She did well.
The old man turned his gaze north and shook his head. Stars. Sometimes they shined, sometimes they fizzled out and died. Two of them would set a path for the northern region. Would they find war in their search for peace? Or would they discover that the north holds more for them than fighting?
Everyone, yes, everyone had their part to play in the fight for peace.
The End