“Stravad Leader.” Kalas inclined his head toward Thalandar.
“Kalas.”
His gaze shifted to Tyla’s husband. “Jarrett. The girls were hoping you’d join us.”
“I’m all yours.”
“After I’m finished,” Tyla scolded.
“Of course, my wife,” he said, giving her a mischievous wink. “Proceed.”
Tyla glared at him, then she clasped her hands, facing the gathering. “I asked you all here because this is an auspicious occasion, but one that I don’t think a host of people ought to share. In fact, I think it best this remain between the six of us.”
Kalas frowned. “Fine.”
“Are we all agreed?”
Everyone gave their consent.
“To the best of our knowledge, the three of us are the only living heirs of Talar Eldralin, direct descendants of Eldon himself.”
Kalas gave her a skeptical look. “You called me here for a history lesson.”
“Shut up!” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“I’m on holiday, Tiger,” he protested. “I want to go swimming.”
Placing her hands on her hips, she scowled. “You’ve always been like this, Kalas. Never listening…”
Thalandar cleared his throat.
Tyla drew a calming breath and released it. Kalas thought Amaroq’s confused expression was amusing.
“When I got your message that you were bringing Amaroq here to receive training in controlling his power, I thought the Karhartadon emerald might be of some help. It helped Tash summon his power, and it helped me focus mine. It did the same for our father.”
Kalas shifted weight. He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he’d always regarded the emerald as something best left untouched. “All right,” he said skeptically.
“I keep the talisman in this box, as you can see, except when I want to use it. After I got your message, I went to retrieve it, but it fell out of my hands – the box that is, and landed on the ground. I don’t know what happened. I thought I had a firm grip on it, but apparently I didn’t.”
Kalas was growing more and more puzzled. Tyla usually didn’t rattle on like this.
“When I opened the box...well, you can imagine my surprise. The emerald had broken into three pieces. One large one, and two smaller shards.” She reached down and lifted the lid on the box.
Kalas looked inside. Just as she said, there was a large piece that thrummed even now with power, making his skin itch, and two smaller pieces. Platinum wire had been wound around each shard, ending in a loop that could be worn on a chain about one’s neck.
Tyla gaze up at him. “It seemed like fate.”
“What did?”
“The emerald breaking into exactly three pieces. So I thought…”
Kalas took an involuntary step back.
“I thought each of us could take one, each of us could carry a part of our legacy, and therefore, wherever we wind up, we’ll have something that draws us together.”
She lifted the second to largest piece and motioned for Amaroq to stand. He did so and she placed it in his hands. The shard flared, the light suffusing Amaroq’s face. He sucked in a breath and lifted his gaze to her.
“It’s hot,” he said, bewildered.
“Yes. It’ll warn you when there’s danger. It’s also a good conduit for your power. When you need to concentrate, you can focus on it and it will help block the rest of the noise. I’ll show you how to use it.”
Amaroq swallowed hard, but he accepted it from her.
Reaching into the box again, she picked up the smallest shard. The glow from this piece was muted, still Kalas didn’t want anything to do with it, his eyes fixated on the gem.
She held it out to him. “This is yours, Kalas.”
He shook his head, tearing his eyes from it and meeting hers. “No, Tyla.”
Her face fell. “Why? I don’t feel the same sort of power in it as the other ones, Kalas. It’s perfectly safe.”
He shook his head, trying to pull his thoughts around him. “I can’t.”
She gave him a bewildered look. “I promise you it’s all right.”
“What if it isn’t?”
“What?”
“What if it brings out something in me?”
“Like what?”
“Like power.”
“Would that be so terrible?”
She didn’t understand.
He drew a deep breath and released it. “I watched you when we were children, Tyla, I watched you suffer with the power, and I’ve seen Wolf, how it torments him, rides him until he’s exhausted.” He touched the center of his chest. “I felt it once, remember? I felt it tear out of me and I never want to feel it again.”
“I don’t think it will have any effect on you, Kalas.”
“But what if it does? What if it wakes something that’s dormant inside me now? What if it brings it to the surface? I’ve seen what it does, and I like not having it. I watched it rip out of our father, bringing death and destruction, and I don’t want any part of that.”
She lowered her hand. “Kalas, it won’t be like that.”
Amaroq studied him, then he turned to her. “Leave him, Tyla,” he said. “He’s right.”
“But it won’t have that effect on him.”
“How do you know? You can’t possibly be sure of that.” He moved closer to her, touching her arm. “Doesn’t one of us deserve peace?”
Her shoulders slumped, then she looked at Tash.
“Oh, hell no. I already did my time with that demonic piece of glass. I’m too damn old to carry that damn thing around again.”
“I don’t feel any power in it,” she protested once more.
“I don’t care. I remember what it was like myself, and I’m mostly Human.”
She exhaled in defeat, but her gaze lifted and speared Thalandar. She moved around the table and sank down to her knees before the old Stravad. “Thalandar of Temeron, past Stravad Leader, you have always been the teacher of our family. First you taught my grandfather, then my father. Finally, you helped me refine my control and you are teaching my brother. You have been and will always be a loyal mentor, friend, and ally. Will you take this shard as a token of our undying gratitude and the bond that knits our two lines together?”
Thalandar smiled at her and reached out, accepting the shard. “I will, and I will always be the humble servant of the Eldralins.”
Kalas dropped his eyes, wondering if Thalandar understood what he’d just pledged. He didn’t much believe in fate and destiny and prophesies, but even he had to admit, the moment seemed heavy with import.
* * *
“I should have known you’d return here.”
Duard’s head snapped up from studying the flames and he reached for his sword. Scrambling to his feet, he drew it and crouched. “I want no trouble with you, Halish.”
The Nazarien stepped into the light of the fire. “Then you should have done as you were told. The King of Dorland lives.”
“I was told to break him, but he didn’t break. He grew stronger.”
Halish held out his arms. He didn’t hold a visible weapon. “Why did you return here?”
Duard shot a look around his ruined homestead. “I didn’t know where else to go. Kalas Eldralin has a bounty on my head.”
“Mine too.” Halish pounded a fist against his chest. “Mine too!”
“That’s your own doing. You wanted to draw the Nazar to Nevaisser, you wanted to destabilize the region, but you didn’t want to bloody your hands with Eldralin’s blood.”
“Kalas Eldralin is off limits.”
“That was your mistake. Had you killed him, the Nazar would have returned and you could have had your revenge.”
“I’ll still have my revenge, Duard. Stravad live longer lives than Humans. I can wait.” He began to edge around the fire.
Duard moved with him, keeping the flames between them. “I did what you asked!” he sh
outed. “Leave me!”
“No, you die tonight.”
A flash of movement behind Halish drew Duard’s attention – a shadow glided over the ruined homestead, then another. He blinked, clearing his eyes, but he didn’t see anything more. Simply a trick of the moonlight or the eeriness of the ravaged place. Halish however, shook his head, blinking rapidly a few times. Then he stopped moving. He turned and looked over at the homestead.
Duard thought to leap over the fire and attack him during his moment of inattention, but something loomed out of the darkness behind Halish. Duard let out a cry and stumbled back, losing his footing. He landed on his backside, the sword clattering on the stones ringing in the fire.
A creature stood there – seven feet tall, gleaming white in the fire’s light, large black eyes like polished stone. The skull sloped to an odd point and was bare of all hair. It wore voluminous robes that covered it from neck to feet.
Duard’s mouth worked, but nothing came out.
Halish stumbled away from it, clutching his head.
The creature advanced on him, moving as if it barely touched the earth. Halish pounded his hands against his temples and tried to flee, but his legs crumpled, bringing him to his knees. “Stop saying that, stop saying that!” he moaned. He fell forward on his hands, his head hanging.
Another of the creatures appeared beside the first, materializing out of the darkness. Halish moaned in pain, panting.
“I don’t know,” he cried.
Duard didn’t know what was happening, but a shiver raced over him and he snatched the sword up, gaining his feet. Halish gave a strangled cry and rolled his head on his neck. Blood flowed from his nose and dropped on the ground.
Duard stumbled backward, watching as Halish fell face forward, writhing in the dirt, then his back suddenly arched, flipping him over, his heels kicking at the ground as his hands clawed against his chest. Duard didn’t need to see anything more.
Whipping around, he came up against an unyielding surface. With a cry, he brought the sword up between himself and a third pale creature. The black eyes bore into him, the slash of a mouth thin and cruel. He circled around it, keeping the sword between him and the creature, his body lowered in a crouch.
“Let me go!” he warned as he worked his way into the darkness beyond the fire. “I don’t want trouble.”
The creature followed him around, then it lifted a skeletal white hand and pointed at him. Pain exploded in Duard’s head and he felt as if something had ruptured. White light flashed behind his eyes and he heard a single sound, a single word, then he was running like he’d never run before.
He didn’t know how long he ran, but he ran until he could no longer see the glow of the fire behind him. Gradually he slowed to a walk, then stopped completely, bending at the waist and bracing his hands on his thighs. He still held the sword in a death grip.
Something tickled under his nose and he swiped at it with the back of his hand. Staring down at the damp spot in the moon’s glow, he caught his breath. Blood. He was bleeding.
And worse than that was the fact that the single word continued to reverberate obsessively in his mind, over and over again, like an echo.
Eldralin.
THE END
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The Complete Peyton Brooks’ Mysteries Collection:
Murder in the Painted Lady, Volume 0
Murder on Potrero Hill Volume 1
Murder in the Tenderloin Volume 2
Murder on Russian Hill Volume 3
Murder on Alcatraz Volume 4
Murder in Chinatown Volume 5
Murder in the Presidio Volume 6
Murder on Treasure Island Volume 7
Peyton Brooks FBI Collection:
Zombies in the Delta Volume 1
Mermaids in the Pacific Volume 2
Werewolves in London Volume 3
Vampires in Hollywood Volume 4
Mayan Gods in the Yucatan Volume 5
Haunts in Bodie Volume 6
Menehune in Kauai Volume 7
Zion Sawyer Cozy Mystery Collection:
Cappuccino Volume 1
Café Au Lait Volume 2
Espresso Volume 3
Caffe Macchiato Volume 4
Americano Volume 5
The Avery Nolan Adventure Collection:
Swift as a Shadow Volume 1
Short as Any Dream Volume 2
Brief as Lightning Volume 3
Momentary as a Sound Volume 4
The Complete World of Samar Collection:
The Talisman of Eldon Emerald Volume 1
The Heirs of Eldon Volume 2
The Star of Eldon Volume 3
The Spirit of Eldon Volume 4
The Sanctuary of Eldon Volume 5
The Scions of Eldon Volume 6
The Watchers of Eldon Volume 7
The Followers of Eldon Volume 8
The Apostles of Eldon Volume 9
The Renegade of Eldon Volume 10
The Fugitive of Eldon, Volume 11
Stand Alone Novels:
Ravensong
Jaguar
Serenity
The Year of Discovery
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
The Moon Light Trilogy
The Moon Thief
The World of Samar Box Set 3 Page 134