“Unfortunately, Jala, many out there wish to pit themselves against a worthy adversary, and Torrullin is that. Some desire the ultimate challenge, while others wish to prove they can succeed.”
“In succeeding, they claim mastery over Reaume,” Kila nodded. “Idiots. You’re right; this will create monstrous waves for us.”
“Then you need to give them something else to focus on.” Jala murmured. “Distract them.”
Both Jimini and Kila swung their heads in a slow fashion to the tattooed woman, eyes gleaming.
“Excellent advice,” Kila stated.
“Maybe you have an idea or two?” Jimini prompted.
Smiling, Jala waved at the Grunway Hall. “Soon you will have a host of soul warding amulets. I say use them to achieve something unexpected.”
Kashdar Forest
“HOW I WISH Quilla was still with us,” Tristan muttered. “If anyone can get through to Teighlar of Grinwallin, there is the one.”
Pacing the animal trail ahead of the threesome, Alusin said, “You’re thinking Teighlar needs to know as soon as possible.”
Glancing over his shoulder at Gabryl bringing up the rear, Tristan said, “I’m thinking a father has more insight when it comes to finding his missing daughter.”
Gabryl did not say a word, but he did nod.
Noticing how tense the Diluvan was, Tristan went on, “I am well-placed in Teighlar’s affections, but Alexander requires someone like, goddamn it, Torrullin.”
Alusin abruptly halted to swing back. “In this time, Tris, that is you.”
“I agree,” Gabryl murmured.
Waving a hand for Alusin to continue leading them out of the forest, Tristan sighed. “I hear you.” He inhaled deeply a moment later, releasing the massive breath in a drawn out manner. “Once we’ve eased Tian and Savier, I’ll head to Grinwallin.”
The stuttered breath Gabryl released after that proved to Tristan just how terrible the man’s expectation had become.
All gods help them now.
Eurue
The Fortress
THEY CHOSE THE area near the edge of the cliff to arrive upon; knowing an appearance within the fortress would see Gabryl summarily lose his head.
As it was, twenty Valleur instantly surrounded them and twenty swords levelled at the man’s throat from various angles. Tristan’s presence alone prevented them from decapitating the enemy.
Raising his hands, palms open, Tristan said clearly, “Lower you weapons, Valleur. He is with me.”
Nobody moved. It was true, after all, that coercion could be in play. Commander Krestin shoved his way into the centre of the circle and stood arms akimbo before Tristan.
“Password, Lord Tristan,” he requested.
The words changed from week to week, but ever there were two; one to declare all was well, the other to warn of subterfuge.
“Apnor,” Tristan stated.
The warriors relaxed and lowered their blades, although not one among them sheathed. Krestin nodded, and gestured for his men to open a path. Leading the way, he strode towards the forbidding stone edifice under a glowering sky.
“Another storm,” Alusin huffed, looking up as he fell in beside Tristan.
Both men had waited for Gabryl to move into position in front of them, thereby placing him between themselves and Krestin’s dwindling form. The Diluvan had not uttered a sound or even offered an expression to read. The Valleur soldiers watched him warily, hands clenching around hilts.
Once inside, Krestin preceded the three men to the smaller chamber, bypassing the library area where the rest of the Kaval sat talking in pairs. Tristan noted that neither Chaim nor Belun were among them.
Something had happened.
It did not sit well with him, this segregation.
He halted.
“Commander Krestin,” he called out.
Alusin had stopped as well, and watched him as warily as the Valleur kept an eye on Gabryl. “Tris?”
“My Lord?” Krestin said from further along the passage.
“We shall discuss our news with everyone, Krestin. Please summon the others to the library.” Without awaiting a response, Tristan swung into the library and proceeded to greet his team.
Alusin followed, with Gabryl on his heels.
“You place yourself above your Vallorin?” Gabryl murmured as he came to rest next to Tristan.
“This isn’t Akhavar,” Tristan snapped, giving him a glare meant to silence.
Offering a lopsided grin, Gabryl shut his mouth.
Minutes later Savier entered with Tianoman at his side. The two men fixed their gazes on Gabryl first and the expression in both pairs of eyes proved to Tristan that something altering had indeed come to light.
Savier approached Alusin then, while Tianoman moved towards his cousin. Belun winked at Tristan over the shoulders of the smaller Chaim.
“We know,” Tianoman stated as he halted in front of his cousin. He shared his attention with Gabryl. “We read Cathian Lowry’s tale.”
Gabryl inhaled. “Do you know where she is?”
Tianoman shook his head, asking, “Is this why you campaigned for recognition? To find your sister?”
“Yes,” Gabryl stated.
“Therefore she is alive,” Tianoman nodded. “I thought as much.” He stared at Tristan. “You are resonating.”
His lips quirking, Tristan offered his arm for the formal greeting. Tianoman, eyes narrowing, stepped into the clasp. The cousins stood in that manner, connected, observing each other, listening to each other, for a while, as everyone stilled into silence around them, watching.
Sighing, Tianoman eventually stepped away. “I understand.” He then bowed, hand over heart. “My Lord.”
“Oh, fuck off, Tian, don’t do that with me,” Tristan growled, and gripped his cousin’s shoulder. “Family first, hear me?”
Grinning, Tianoman placed his hand over the one on his shoulder. “Always.”
The tension in the room released and everyone hurled out questions. There was no way to answer even one, and thus Tristan moved to the fireplace, put his back to the flames, and hollered, “Silence!”
It arrived within seconds.
Tristan pointed at Gabryl. “Whatever anyone thinks about Gabryl Lowry, set it aside, and open your minds to a different tale. We will discuss detail in a while, but know from the outset that Gabryl is now part of this team. Quiet! Secondly, our new mission is to find someone as swiftly and effectively as possible. To that end the Kaval will employ all resources to find Gabryl’s sister, Cathian Lowry.”
As the noise level threatened to overwhelm anew, Chaim stepped closer and clapped his hands once. “Decorum, please.” In the resultant quiet, he faced Tristan. “Why do we need to find her?”
“She is missing. Is that not enough?”
The old Jew inclined his head. “Indeed. Under normal circumstances. Nothing to this point has been normal, my lord Tristan, and therefore there is more to the finding.”
Gabryl moved to stand beside Tristan. “I will tell you why.”
Chaim eyed him. “You are different. You …” He blinked then. “Oh. Your true name has set you free. You are now Alexander’s son.”
“Indeed. That is why we need to find Cathian. For Alexander.”
Somewhere Jonas groaned. “Oh, just wonderful. We’re going to release bloody Alexander Diluvan again. Do you not remember what happened the last time he stepped forth?”
“What happened?” Gabryl frowned at Tristan.
“The Senlu and Valleur rattled sabres at each other,” Tristan muttered.
“Imagine what he’ll do to Eurue if he thinks this world held captive his firstborn,” Chaim murmured. “Considering the Valleur host is here, those sabres may do more than rattle this time. Teighlar too has an army.”
Paling, Savier and Alusin locked gazes.
Chapter 40
Sight is about far more than eyeballs connected to a brain
~ Icin – Sor
cerer ~
Eurue
The Fortress
ALUSIN DREAMED.
Ensconced in his massive bed in his chamber as the storm raged outside, he left the world Eurue for another to be found only in the realms of the unconscious.
Groaning, he tossed beneath the covers, but was entirely unaware of it. Sweat drenched the sheet, causing him to shift from one side of the mattress to the other, but only his body was conscious of the discomfort.
In the adjoining chamber, Tristan, sleepless, gradually became cognisant of sounds other than the demonically whistling wind outside and the horrifically creaking timbers throughout the fortress. When a low whine, almost a growl, overrode even the harsh rat-a-tat of the rattling windows near the head of his bed, he sat up to listen.
Alusin.
Padding bare-footed, in only a hose for sleeping in, to the door separating them, he placed an ear to the ancient wood. When the Kemir groaned as if in death throes, he shoved the door open and strode across the carpeted expanse.
At the side of the bed, he halted.
Alusin moved restlessly, his head whipping back and forth, and the oddest sounds escaped his lips. More than groans, whines and growls; it sounded akin to words, yet not in a language he recognised.
Reaching in to lay a hand on the man’s shoulder, he paused. His fingers curled into a fist when he realised how hot the man was. This was not a dream; this was a vision. For it to affect him in this manner meant Alusin had not sought it out. Whatever journey he was embarked upon in the realms beyond was not of his choosing. And, thus, it was intense. Alusin, after all, had ages ago mastered the seer’s talent. For something to capture his essence without his express permission …
Tristan shoved the thought aside.
It was also possible that Alusin had let his guard down, being exhausted, and now suffered a nightmare as normal people occasionally did.
He grimaced a moment after thinking that. No, this was a vision. The Kemir’s temperature revealed that far more eloquently than his restlessness did.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Tristan waited, shivering in the cold, and while he waited, he listened. The words made less and less sense, and yet he committed them to memory.
Unexpectedly, Alusin flung bodily from his back to his front, and then crouched on all fours, his lips bared in a snarl. Tristan nearly left his skin, his fright for the man’s apparent suffering - and rage - undoing his every intention.
If Alusin did not snap out of it in the next minute, he would grip the man’s legs and haul …
“Tristan.”
His grey gaze swept up to meet the Kemir’s dark blue orbs.
Aware orbs.
Tristan deflated and simply stared at him.
Shuddering as the cold assailed his sweaty skin, Alusin swung into a sitting position, pulling the covers around him until only his pale face remained visible.
“We need to find a turret,” he whispered.
His shivering intensified until his teeth chattered uncontrollably. Ignoring the revelation, Tristan hauled him covers and all from the drenched bed, and marched him through to his bedchamber. There he removed the covers and the man’s soaked night-shirt, and shoved him into his bed. Clambering in behind him, he dragged Alusin into a spoon position, offering the man his own warmth, almost leaving his body when icy skin cleaved to his.
“Tris …”
“Hush. Later.” Tristan tucked the covers around them and concentrated on projecting heat to ease and warm both of them.
Soon, they were deeply asleep.
PALE RAYS LIT the world outside to herald the new day.
Alusin awakened and opened his eyes to a place different from where he went to bed the night before. A heaviness encircled his chest - Tristan’s arm.
Inhaling carefully so as not to wake the man asleep at his back, he lay there, feeling for the first time in a long while unconditionally safe and cared for.
Amusement found him next.
If it took night terrors to offer up this kind of result …
“I can hear you,” Tristan snorted behind him.
Grinning, Alusin shifted until he faced the fair-haired man, keeping that arm in place. His sense of humour evaporated when he viewed the silvering orbs dissecting him to his very soul.
“This isn’t the place or time,” Tristan said in a low tone, “but I swear to you, when serenity returns to our spaces …”
Alusin placed a finger over those moving lips. “Do not make promises. The future is too uncertain.”
“Then know the intent is present.”
Swiftly and briefly placing his lips upon Tristan’s, Alusin sat up. “Intent will do.”
Sighing, Tristan flopped onto his back and laced his hands behind his head. “What did you see?”
Assuming a meditative pose, Alusin stared at the wall opposite. A tapestry depicting a boar hunt in faded hues adorned most of the available space there, and yet he saw nothing. His sight grew ever more distant as he recalled the vision.
“I had a look at Cathian’s journal last night before coming up, and something I read there prompted the sight. She has power, as her brother has power, although their talent is different to ours. I found myself upon a stone road, not cobbled or paved, but boulders placed to a certain uniformity. We’re talking massive scale. A lifeless place, stone dunes, extremely hot, far more than the heat experienced on Akhavar before its recovery. Yet, I do not feel the actual location as desert, rather everything I saw served as a pointer to utter isolation. Wherever Cathian is, is terribly lonely.”
“You said ‘turret’ last night,” Tristan murmured.
“It was akin to the fairy tale tower,” Alusin frowned, focusing to glance at his companion. “Incredibly high, sheer, no entry at the base. One needs to scale it to attain the quarters at the apex, a dangerous task, and there is no escape.”
“Sorcery?”
“Oh, yes. Rampant.”
Sitting up as well to loosely clasp his knees, Tristan mused, “A lonely place, a proper cell, protected with enchantments. She is being kept alive for a purpose, but she is also being withheld from discovery. This smacks of another. Someone holds those reins.”
Groaning, Alusin slumped backward and covered his face. “Damn it. Wasn’t Gabryl enough change already?”
“This has something to do with Teighlar.” Swearing foully, Tristan freed himself from the bed clothes and strode for the bathroom. “Now that everyone is aware of what has come to pass, it is time to go to Grinwallin. Tian reckons he will accompany us.”
“I am to go to Grinwallin?”
“I’m not bloody facing that conundrum alone.”
Watching golden skin vanish into the chamber beyond, Alusin swore more quietly.
Bloody hell.
Grinwallin.
City of Eternity.
City of the Abyss.
DOWNSTAIRS, SAVIER and Tianoman were deep in discussion, the rulers of lands kind. By Krestin’s vigilant presence just out of earshot, it was evident no one was to listen in.
As Tristan approached despite the restriction, Tianoman lifted a detaining hand without looking at him. Frowning, Tristan halted. Belun neared and he swung to the Centuar instead.
“Time to head back to the Dome,” Tristan murmured. “Alusin had a vision of Cathian’s location, pointers we can employ. Speak to him and gather the team. I will be with you shortly.”
Nodding, Belun moved towards the Kemir, gesturing to Jonas and murmuring to him. Jonas, in turn, called everyone together.
Situated between the Kaval and two rulers, Tristan wondered where exactly he fit into the present. What exactly were a Timekeeper’s duties? How did his music keep the beat of ages?
Lost in thought, he did not hear Tianoman approach.
“Tris?”
Blinking, he smiled at his cousin. “You and Savier?”
“All good. We have agreed to commence trade negotiations and to swap ambassadors. Eurue has large stockpil
es of various metals, perfect for sword manufacture. For a tenth, the Valleur will train a unit of guards, which in turn will train a larger army. Until they are ready to protect themselves, Valleur warriors will remain here.”
“Not the host, surely?”
“No, but that is something we need to deal with as well. With the daetal threat negated, do you need the host here?”
“Keep a unit at this fortress, and I would like the trackers on hand, but the rest may leave.”
Tianoman nodded. “And a unit will accompany Savier back to Kemirin. I will speak to Krestin now.” He moved off immediately.
Savier collared Tristan next. “Perhaps I should accompany you to Grinwallin.”
“Absolutely not. Alusin will stand proxy for the Kemir. Teighlar will go easier on him due to his connection with me; he will not afford you the same at this point.”
“You sound wary of this man.”
Tristan snorted. “I am. This man is my grandfather’s best friend and why are they friends? Because they are very much alike.”
“You do not like him?”
Smiling, Tristan murmured, “I grew up in Grinwallin, Savier. Teighlar is as much my father as my own was. I love the man, but that doesn’t blind me to his enchanter contrariness.”
“And a son of his heart is about to present to him a son of his spirit,” Gabryl murmured, closing in from the hallway.
Tristan glared at him. “We agreed I would talk to him first, ease him into the truth.”
Gabryl shook his head. “If he is as you claim, I do believe he will appreciate the truth directly. Embodied.” He swirled a wrist to indicate himself.
At that moment returning from his words with Krestin, Tianoman said, “I agree. Don’t pussyfoot with that Emperor. From what I hear, Teighlar bemoans his fate, bored without Torrullin around. Focus him. He will do all in his power to find Cathian.”
“You’re not coming,” Tristan stated.
Eurue- The Forgotten World Page 29