It took Brian ten minutes just to get AJ to where he wanted him. He helped him into the castle and up all the stairs. Instead of taking him to the bedroom where they stored their things, he took him up to the tower top where they had celebrated together the night of their joining ceremony. He’d run up and prepared it before he’d gone done to join AJ. In their bond he had been able to feel the exhaustion that was permeating AJ’s entire body and mind.
How his lover had managed to keep going when he was running on such low reserves, Brian had no idea. He’d been pushing himself too hard for too long. The worst part was, Brian knew why, and he knew that it wasn’t going to change. There was nobody, not a single soul that was on their side that could command the sheer amount of power that AJ could.
Since becoming fully elvish, AJ had grown in power. Brian had seen it, and marveled at it. His own power was growing, little by little, but AJ’s powers had almost doubled in strength. Others were noticing it, and they took it for granted that he would do what they needed. In reality, there wasn’t anyone else who could do everything that AJ could, all at the same time. Brian knew that he would have been able to handle the web over Galiina, and the shield over Ero, but that would have been the extent of his abilities. Any more magic than that would have been beyond his abilities. AJ had handled both of those, and still had been capable of doing other magic.
But all of that was unimportant at the moment. Magical or not, strong or not, AJ was at the end of his rope. He was barely coherent as Brian took him up the last set of stairs and through the trap door at the top of the tower.
Just as it had been the night of their ceremony, the tower top was covered in lush green moss. Brian had used his own magic to help make the moss thicker and cushier. Over the top of them, like a dome to cover the tower top, Brian had built and tied off a shield that would not only keep magic from getting in, but hid AJ’s presence from anyone above them. That had been a shield that Tripha had shown him how to make.
AJ moved like a child almost fully asleep. It was easy for Brian to move him up the last step, and to get him lying down on the moss. He gently stripped him down until he was in just breeches. AJ barely made a sound when Brian stripped him, but once he was lying there he sighed and snuggled down into the soft bed of moss.
Smiling, Brian grabbed the blanket that he’d left up there and tucked it around AJ loosely. He kissed his brow and smoothed his hair back. “Sleep, lovely.” He whispered, cupping the side of his face.
Eyes at half mast, AJ looked up at him and yawned. “I…plans. Gotta change plans.” He mumbled. Brian just smiled and continued to smooth back AJ’s hair. “We’ll handle it when you wake, heart song. What you need is sleep, to recharge some.”
“So much to do.” AJ’s voice was barely there, but he was putting all his will behind it. Looking at him, Brian knew that AJ was going to fight sleep as hard as he could for as long as he could. He shook his head, thinking what stubborn fool he was with. So he borrowed a trick he’d learned from AJ. Brian brought two fingers up, putting them against AJ’s temples, and helped nudge him toward sleep. Almost instantly he saw AJ’s eyes closed and his lover sighed as sleep stole over him.
Letting go, Brian leaned down and kissed his forehead again. “Sleep, my love. Sleep.”
Rising to his feet, Brian quietly went back down the ladder, closing the trap door and sealing it with a shield. AJ would be safe up there until he got back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody was exactly where he had left them before. Brian felt his anger grow with each step he took back toward the crowd. His eyes were focused on the two humans that sat in the midst of all the magical beings. They were who were at the center of his anger. There was only so much stupidity that he could tolerate from anyone. Up until then, he thought that he’d been keeping his temper pretty well under control.
But they had pushed that one fatal button. The one button that, even when everything had been normal and the band had been going strong, they had known better than to push. Don’t mess with him when it came to AJ. That was a quick way to fire up Brian’s temper, which, at one point in time, had actually be hard to trigger.
His vision narrowed on the two he wanted to speak with, shutting out everyone else. That was why he didn’t notice Isleen or Howie moving to stop him until they were on either side of him, holding his arms. Brian felt Isleen sway slightly under the strength of his emotions and had to remind himself that she was an empath, and susceptible to what he was feeling. He pulled back from her hand and took a moment to try to lock down his anger.
“That’s it, Brian. Calm yourself down some.” Isleen said soothingly. “We’ll all be after keeping the peace, here.”
Her words didn’t soothe as she’d intended them to do. Brian got better control of his temper, but that didn’t mean that it was gone. It just meant that it wouldn’t spew forth, out of control. He brushed away from their hands and stepped forward again. When they both tried to hold him back, he turned his glare from one to the other. “Let go of me.” His voice was hard and cold. Instinctively they both let go.
A few more steps and he was in front of Nick and Kevin, who sat beside the King. Brian ignored Flreu, something that he would normally have never done. But his attention was focused on his cousin and his best friend. “I want to know who the hell you two think you are?” he asked them in a low voice.
Kevin’s back instantly straightened and his eyes grew slightly hard. “Excuse me?” he demanded.
“You heard me the first time. Who on earth do you think you are to question him that way? What kind of friend can you call yourself that you’d stand there and question and condemn him for doing what he had to do? Who the hell do you think you are?”
His words had them flabbergasted for a moment, unable to speak. In their eyes Brian could see that they both were slightly afraid. He felt it with his extra senses, just as strong as the righteousness that they both felt. They honestly believed they were right in acting the way that they had; in feeing the way that they did. Brian caught something else on their emotions as well. It shocked him, straight down to his core. “You two really think he tortured her, don’t you?” he whispered.
Nick had the grace to look ashamed, his eyes darting down to his lap. But it was Kevin who held his head high. “We don’t want to think that about him, Brian. I’ll be the first to admit that after the vision he gave us, I was angry with him for a while. I didn’t understand who he was, or what he even was. But he and I found an easy peace between us, and it was getting better. This…well. This is entirely different. I can respect his office. I can respect capturing a prisoner, and putting them on trial. But he took her down there, questioned her where no one could see what he was doing, claims that all she told him is true, and then killed her. There was no trial. No sentencing. None of that.”
Frustrated all over again, Brian brought his fingers up to rub at his temples. He tried to calm his emotions enough to respond in a logical way. A way that would have them understanding. “There is no higher authority in this than him, Kev. In that room he was judge, jury, and executioner. That is his right. All here know that whatever punishment he gave to her was justified. No one here dares doubt his word.”
“We don’t have that sort of blind obedience when it comes to him, Brian.”
Jesus. He would keep calm. He would. Throttling his cousin would get him nowhere. “It’s not blind obedience. It is faith. Love. Respect.”
“Just because he carries this trulion title?”
Rolling his shoulders to ease the tension, Brian shook his head at his cousin’s stupidity. “Not just that.” He looked over to where Richard and Geoff sat. “Why do you two follow Alex?” he asked them.
Geoff raised his head proudly. “I follow him because he is my friend.” He said solemnly. “Because he has always been there for me, to help me no matter the cost to himself. He has never told me no when I need him, or steered me wrong. When I was hurt, he did everything in his power to heal me. Even as he healed me, he took some of the pain into himself so that I wouldn’t have to feel it. He does not lie, or cheat, or steal, or intentionally hurt.”
Nodding at Geoff’s words, Richard added on “He has earned my respect time and time again through our long existence. He helped me to find who I am, and to make peace with that inside of myself. He is loyal to a fault, and thinks always of others before he thinks of himself.”
It looked like Kevin would speak, but Brian ignored him and turned to Flreu. “What would you consider your grandsons faults to me?” He asked, switching to a new tactic. A smile curved Flreu’s lips. He took no offense to Brian’s tone. Indeed, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
Leaning back on his hands, Flreu grinned. “He is stubborn, as one of my blood is bound to be. Hardheaded when he feels he is in the right. He trusts too easily, and loves more deeply than most, even for people who have done nothing to earn that love. His heart is big and easily bruised, when I wish that he would be able to shield it better at times. He can be quick to anger, and occasionally indulges in temper tantrums. Yet I would counter all that with the fact that he has immense control. He may be quick to anger, but he can control it from spewing forth. He may care to easily, and his heart be too big, but because of those he sees the good in everyone around him, whether anyone else can or not. I am honored to follow him.”
Brian nodded at him, grateful that Flreu hadn’t held back his opinions. They would help to make his point. He looked back at his cousin. “We follow him on faith, Kevin Richardson. Not blind obedience, but faith and love. Respect. For those reasons alone, everyone here would walk through fire for him. With Alex, we will question him, and offer our opinions, and sometimes we argue with him. But when the trulion speaks, we listen, and we do not question him.”
“We’re not his subjects, who have to take his word for it. We’re his friends, and we have the right to question his decisions.”
Part of Brian’s temper broke free and he glared down at them. Without realizing it, one hand moved to rest on the pommel of his sword. “You think you are not his subjects? That because, what? Because you’re human you are less under his rule? That you are freer than us? Do you think it’s just the magical world he’s protecting? You are fools!”
“Now see here-”
“No, you listen to me, and you listen good.” Brian hissed. “Roth may be seeking to enslave us all, but its humans he wants to destroy. Its humans that are the root of all his anger. He longs for a time when humans had yet to destroy the planet with their progress and technology and everything else like that. He dreams of putting down every shenag like the dog he thinks they are, and starting the world over with what is left behind.”
Brian paced away, his anger burning inside of him. He spun back to glare at them, his hands trembling. “Alex fights for all of us in this battle. He fights to protect the lives of every race that walks this planet! You think you’re somehow above him? That you don’t have to follow orders because you’re human? Like that somehow makes you better than us? Open your eyes! Look around you at what is happening! Look at this person you call a friend, and what you’re doing to him! If he was the friend you claimed he is, then how the hell could you have sat there and questioned him that way on something that so obviously hurt him down to the depth of his soul?”
As had happened their entire life, Brian’s temper sparked Kevin’s. He rose to his feet, ignoring Nick, who was trying to pull him back down. “He needs to remember that he’s not just this famous king among everyone! That he’s just like the rest of us! No more, no less! In God’s eyes we’re all the same, Brian Thomas Littrell, or have you forgotten this? Did you leave your faith behind with your mortality?”
“You pompous windbag!” Brian shouted at him. Wind tore through the courtyard, whipping their hair and clothes back and forth. Brian couldn’t bring himself to control it. He didn’t care if he did. “That man has more honor, more courage, in his heart than you will ever begin to comprehend! How dare you stand here and try to claim yourself as his equal? If you lived for a thousand years you would never measure up to who he is on the inside. You could never do what he has done, live through what he has, and still manage to be a sane, loving, wonderful creature!”
“Creature is the key word here.” Kevin sneered.
Everything in Brian’s vision hazed red. He lost all ability to think for a moment, his rage was so great. The wind around them all stilled, so that not even the breath of a breeze stirred the air. “You son of a bitch. Rot in fucking hell for all I care. Just get the hell out of my sight.” He spun, intending to leave before his temper got the best of him.
A presence came up behind Brian, one that he didn’t recognized, and he felt it launch toward him. Then, from the totally opposite direction something slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, and Brian’s skin flared with heat for the instant it took for his brain to recognize the body on top of his as AJ’s. He yanked his magic back under control, aghast that he had burned his loved one. But AJ paid no attention. He was flinging a hand up, casting a shield around something.
Whatever was happening Brian couldn’t see through the sheet of AJ’s hair. But he felt the power of the magic AJ was working, and recognized it as a strong shield, but what else was in there he had no idea. The weaves were so complex, and flung so fast, that he barely had time to register them. AJ released it and tied it off, and then turned to wave at everyone. “Hold!” he shouted. “I said hold, damn you all! Not a soul move toward them!”
Very slowly AJ moved off of Brian, his body sliding into a defensive crouch over him, all signs of exhaustion gone from his body. In an instant Brian could see what the enemy saw on AJ that made them so afraid. Even without a weapon in his hand, crouched down as he was with a snarl on his lips, AJ looked deadly. He had no need of a weapon. He was the weapon. The lethality in him gave Brian pause for a minute.
Then his eyes traveled further up, and he saw who it was that was wrapped tightly in a shield. Snapping and snarling, banging at the walls of his shield, and letting out loud, unearthly shrieks, Kevin tried any way he could to break free. But AJ’s shield was seamless.
“Why is Kevin shielded like that?” Brian whispered in shock.
AJ’s eyes looked to Brian only for a moment, checking to make sure that he was ok, before turning back to Kevin. “That’s not our Kevin.” He hissed, shifting in response to Kevin’s movement. “Something’s possessed him, and if I hadn’t felt the magic in the air, you’d be dead by now.”
Looking back at his cousin, Brian felt the shock down to the very marrow of his bones. What the hell was going on?