“Broken-down?” Zephyr’s eyebrows rose. “Bay, you’re one of the most accomplished people I know. Your work in cultural preservation has saved hundreds of traditions from extinction. You speak six languages fluently, and I’m pretty sure you could outpace me in a footrace. With or without the cane.”
“But she doesn’t want that version of me,” Bayard interrupted. “She wants the man I was supposed to be. The young, promising, agile field agent. The partner who could keep up with her. The wizard who wasn’t... damaged.”
Zephyr was quiet for a long moment. When he did speak, his voice took on a gentler tone.
“You know,” he said, “you’ve never told me exactly what happened that day. All I know is that one moment we were thethree musketeers tearing up the field together, and the next you were manning a desk in the home office.”
“I messed everything up.” Bayard’s hands tightened on his cane.
“You had an accident. We were still a team. Just a different kind of team. And I’d really love to hear the real story of what happened in the gorge that night.” Zephyr put a hand on Bayard’s shoulder. “If you want to tell it to me, that is.”
Bayard sighed. It was so long ago. Nobody who might have cared was even around anymore. What did he have to lose? He gripped the railing tight with both hands. The air was metallic in his nostrils, and he didn’t want to drag it out. So he launched right into it.
“We were so young. So stupid, Agent Thorne and I. We snuck off together—we weren’t supposed to, of course, but Exandra wanted to practice boulder rolling in the river, and I relished any chance to impress her with my water wielding skills.” He laughed humorlessly. “Neither of us anticipated the landslide.”
“Wait… Agent Thorne was there with you that day?” Zephyr’s eyes grew wide. “I thought you’d gone AWOL alone.”
“That was the story we settled on, Exandra and I. There was no point in both of us getting kicked out of the program.” Bayard shook his head sadly. “But the truth is that we went down to the gorge together. Even though we’d been explicitly told to avoid it.” Bayard rubbed his hands together and Zephyr held out the flask for his old friend to take another swig. Bayard took it and resumed the story a moment later.
“She was rolling boulders and I was dodging them, showing off, manipulating the water to carry me up and over the stones. I made it freeze into ridiculous shapes, lifting me up and out ofthe way—a chariot, a rocket, an ice dragon—anything to make her laugh. I was so distracted by her laughter, I didn’t notice the current shifting as the river rose. I didn’t even sense the danger until it was too late.” His voice dropped. “It all happened so fast. The shockwave, and the hillside crumbling. I slipped and fell at the worst moment. Exandra’s boulder took me down like a bowling pin and then the river of mud came rushing through. It pulled me deep under the rushing river and smashed me against the rocks. Thankfully, I was unconscious by then. I don’t remember it. But I know I would have drowned if Exandra hadn’t dove in after me. She saved my life, Zeph. “
“My gods!” Zephyr held a hand to his cheek, eyes wide with disbelief. “What were the two of you thinking?”
“We thought we were invincible.” Bayard shrugged. “Like I said, young and stupid. I knew as soon as I came to that something was seriously wrong with my leg. I didn’t want Exxie getting in trouble. I made her swear not to tell them the truth about where we’d been, that we’d both snuck off together. We concocted a whole story. She told them she’d been out for a run and found me on the riverbank. She actually won a service award for carrying me to the infirmary so promptly. You know the rest. The Society promoted the two of you to field work shortly after that. Rightly so. You were both brilliant, brave, exactly what they needed. And I...” He gestured to his cane. “Even after months of healing, physical therapy, and learning to walk again, I was deemed unfit for field duty. Fortunately, they offered me a supporting role, doing research and running scenarios from the home office instead.”
“Which you excelled at.” Zephyr’s voice was gruff. “You always said you didn’t mind.”
“I didn’t mind it, actually.” Bayard took another sip from the offered flask. “That’s the irony. I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm at heart. Doing research and solving puzzles was always my favorite part of our training. But do you know what Exandra said to me, the day they told us? She said, ‘I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.You must want todie.’ And that she wouldn’t blame me for hating her.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Zephyr said firmly.
“Not at all. I didn’t hate her. And I certainly didn’t want to die,” Bayard said. “I was actually pretty glad to still be of service. I fancied myself the brains of the operation. There to watch over and keep the two of you safe. But that’s not how Exxie saw it. She could barely look at me and when she did, all she saw was a failure. A failure of a broken man that was all her fault. She still sees me that way.”
The wind howled around them, snow stinging their faces. Neither man moved.
“Come on, Bay, you don’t actually think that’s how she sees you?” Zephyr asked.
“Don’t you?”
“We couldn’t have done half of what we did in the field without you being back in the home office to support us,” Zephyr said slowly. “I’ve never thought less of you because of that cane and I don’t think for one minute that Exandra sees you as damaged goods, either.”
“What makes you say that?” Bayard leaned against the rail and rested his head in his hands.
“Well, for starters, she’shere. Right now. On this cruise. Investigating a case that, if we’re being honest, seems like an oddly timed excuse to keep her near you.”
“She came because she has some misguided notion that she’s got to protect me.”
“Or…” Zephyr was beginning to get exasperated with his friend. “Hear me out. Maybe she’s here because she still wants to be a part of your life?”
Bayard’s heart lurched. For a moment, he struggled to catch his breath. It was like having the wind knocked out of him. He held up a hand. “Don’t, Zeph.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t give me hope.” His voice cracked. “I can’t... I can’t bear it, Zeph.”
Zephyr turned to face him fully, his expression serious. “Bayard. I’ve watched you and Agent Thorne dance around your feelings for each other for decades. And I’ve watched Exandra these past few days. The way she looks at you when you’re not watching? The way her face matched her hair every time Blythe Meadowsweet flattered you?” Zephyr chuckled. “I honestly thought she was going to bulldoze the barn with her fists if that overly affectionate witch touched you one more time.”
“My money was on the jealous dwarves throwing the first punch.” Bayard’s blush only warmed his cheeks a little in the driving wind.
