“Yes, Da?”
“Did you take something from Lecern when you ran into him earlier?”
Lecern stood off to the side, gazing off into the distance and listening intently to the silence following the king’s question of his son. After the silence fully settled around the three of them, he ran his fingers his hair, pulling it away from his face before letting it fall once again to his shoulders.
“Sorren, you’re not going to get into trouble. It’s just that letter was important and it belongs to your father. I know it seemed like a good idea to get back at me for taking the comb away from you, but this isn’t a game anymore. Please give it back.”
The boy stared at Lecern with wide eyes.
“Really, Da? I’m not going to get in trouble?”
The expression on Mordaen’s face said there was a sound lashing in Sorren’s future, though it softened after a few moments, becoming the usual fatherly concern he was known for. Reaching forward, he ruffled his son’s soft, light hair between his fingers.
“No, you won’t get into any trouble. I simply need that letter. It’s important, as Lecern said. You give me the letter and you can stay out here and play a while longer. Just be in the halls for dinner?”
“Yes, Da.” The boy pulled up his trouser leg and slipped out the heavy paper of the letter then offered it to his Father. “I’m sorry, Lecern, I didn’t mean to get you into trouble.”
“You’ve got to stop deviling your sister, Sorren, and then maybe working on keeping your fingers out of other people’s things.”
“What did you do to Jalcina, Sorren?”
“I took her comb, so she’d chase me. It was a joke, Da, I promise.”
“Was it now?” The man tapped the letter against his hand, each tap heavy with judgment. “I think perhaps you ought to apologize to your sister for that joke at dinner and then take part in clearing the tables when it comes time.”
“But Da, you said I wouldn’t get into trouble.”
“Not for taking the letter, but for what you did to your sister again.” Mordaen turned on his heel. “You’re still free until dinner time. I suggest you make good use of it. If you don’t apologize well to your sister, then you may not find yourself with much free time in the coming days.”
Sorren stomped to the other side of the tree and dropped to the ground, his faithful dog following him with the mouse still dripping bloody from its jaws. Mordaen gestured for Lecern to join him as he started back toward the tunnels, the grass swishing around his boots with his rapid pace. Lecern glanced back, once, to the child they were leaving behind before doubling his pace to keep up with the older man.
“Do I need to tell you how embarrassing it is that you were pickpocketed by a ten year old?”
Lecern stumbled, nearly ending up in the grass before he managed to recover.
“I’m sorry, sir. I simply didn’t expect it.”
“If you’re going to replace your father someday, may that day take its time in coming; then you need to be prepared to deal with everything that comes. I doubt he would have found himself having to bargain with a child to get back something this important.”
Mordaen waved the letter under Lecern’s nose so close he could nearly taste the wax of the seal of Berlman.
“I understand, sir, I am once again, very sorry.” He pulled his head back to avoid possibly being hit with the heavy paper.
“Sorry does little. Insure that it does not happen again.”
“If I may be so bold,” Lecern began. “Perhaps you should teach your son not to steal.”
“My son knows not to steal; however, he will also do anything to gain attention. A problem I have been dealing with quite often of late.” Another field mouse ran across the king’s path, heading further into the fields, lying fallow. Yet Mordaen did stop, running one hand over the back of his browned and scarred neck. “I will speak to him about it. These games of his are best ended sooner rather than later. For the best for all of us.” Blowing his breath out with a sound like a bellows, he started forward again, leaving Lecern to catch up.
The younger man said nothing further until they were in the cooler shadows of the tunnels beneath the mountain which composed most of the kingdom of Sartol. The torches of the tunnels swayed before the valley’s breath as it entered bringing both scent and warmth with it.
“Sir, will you be needing me further?”
“Do you consider your duty done in bringing me the letter or do you think perhaps you ought to remain so that I can send a response to your father should I desire to?”
“I’m certain Darien would be happy to carry it and I…” Lecern caught himself ducking his eyes at what he already knew was going to be seen as him shirking his duty. “I was hoping to meet Jalcina to see the sunset.”
“I take it you’ve already made this plan and as such have promised her?”
“I have.”
“Then you had best meet her. Women are not forgiving of men who do not keep their word. If she cannot trust you in the little things, then it will be hard for her to look to you in greater things.” The expression on Mordaen’s face was far away, but Lecern hardly saw it through the haze of happiness descending on his own senses. With a hurried goodbye to his king, he took off at a run through the tunnels.
The walls changed colors as he moved through the layers of rock toward the far side of the mountain. It was a distance to go, but he kept running. He would be sweaty and out of breath, but if he could manage it, he would still be able to meet her on time. The colors swept from the slate gray with its veins of maroon to a bluish cast with silver veins and black snowflakes caught within. At the tunnel mouth he exited, the stone was nearly white, the edges carved with symbols of protection meant to keep the snows of winter out.
As he passed, he could remember being brought to this very entrance with his father as little more than a child to watch the wind howl past with its weight in snow floating through the air to show how strong those protections were.
You need never fear so long as you remain within the kingdom, my son. Within the kingdom you are safe. It will always be safe here.
Crunching onto the gravel path, he slowed to a fast walk. Though his eyes saw the drop near to his elbow like an overly-helpful friend, he paid it no mind. Like the winters of the mountains and the valley harvests, Lecern knew the drops of the cliffs. They had been with him all his life and now he gave them their due without fear, careful though he did not stop hurrying. The sun was already starting to dip below the horizon, throwing warm light onto the wall beside him. Every few feet, he touched the wall gingerly, his eyes already imagining Jalcina standing at the cliff where she often was when he arrived, bathed in a glow of golden light, her hair taking on a shimmer like a carving. Ahead half a boulder blocked the path forcing him to slow again. He slipped around it, holding on with the edges of his fingers and creeping along on his toes.
Beyond the boulder there was another curve, but this one was wide, well-worn, easy leading finally to the cliff some called the Lover’s Rest. Far below, but still in sight, a pair of boulders lay nearly against one another. From the top of the cliff, one appeared to hold the other in its arms.
Like the boulders, he swept his beloved into his arms, burying his face in her dark hair and reveling in the scent of her.
“I’m sorry it took me so long. I swore I would be here in time.”
Jalcina continued to gaze toward the horizon and the dying sun. The day was going away to rest as it did every night, but Jalcina felt a restlessness under her skin. It had come like a breath from the canyon below as she waited for Lecern to come. Her eyes were drawn to the horizon, and something beyond it. Even when she closed her eyes, she could feel it, a string of silk tied to her soul tugging her toward something she did not know.
Lecern’s body pressed against her own, his breath across her neck only made her shiver. The tie broke, and a smile rose to her lips.
“I knew you’d be here. Did you finish
your business with my father?”
“Yes.” His mouth closed instinctively over the details, preserving for at least a while longer his fragile dignity. “I have no doubt he may need me again later, but for now, he’s released me to be here with you.”
“Good.” Jalcina dipped across the space between them to give him a quick kiss. “We haven’t had much time for each other lately.” Her arms looped around him pulling him closer. Resting her head against his chest near his shoulder, she breathed him in slow.
“No, we haven’t. But then with your siblings and your father, you always have so much to do. I can’t wait until we’re married and we don’t have to spend so much time trying to find time.” His cheek against her hair he could draw in full breaths of her smell mingling with the air. Lecern closed his eyes, forgetting about the sunset in the warmth of her embrace. “When do you think he will say we can marry?”
Jalcina shut her eyes and shook her head, pulling back a half-step to look into Lecern’s eyes.
“You know I’m all the help he truly has until Sorren, Amela, and Kedran are grown. And it will be still be three years before Sorren can even begin to take on such duties. We talked about this.”
Lecern pressed his forehead down to hers. Their two hearts beat together.
“I know, but can you truly fault me for wishing it would be sooner? Another three years to wait when we have our hearts set on this.”
“I can’t fault you for wanting things to happen more quickly, but I can for bringing it up every time we’re alone together as if you wish to wear me down. I am not a mountain and you are not a river, so stop behaving as if you can work a canyon through this decision.”
Beyond them, the sun slipped further below the horizon and above the sky deepened into the bruise purple of oncoming night. Jalcina took a step back, but not further. The cliff would support the two of them together and certainly allow them to stand apart, but only so much. It was little more than a wide shelf along the face of the mountain.
“Lecern.”
“Don’t. Please. I know. I asked too much. I upset you.” He gripped her arms, attempting to pull her back into his embrace.
“Yes, you’ve upset me again because you think of no one but yourself and what you need. Always, Lecern. My Father needs me and so our marriage will have to wait.”
“Forgive me. Again.”
When he grinned his apology, Jalcina rolled her eyes then kissed him on the cheek.
“You’re forgiven. Now I have to go see to about Amela and Kedran.” Jalcina left Lecern standing there as the sun slipped past the edge of the horizon, giving up dominion of the sky to the stars and its pale sister, the moon already waiting on the far side of the mountain.
4
Jalcina moved around the table picking up dishes still half-full with the remains of dinner, bits of bread and gravy left behind by the two youngest children, their stomachs still too small to truly clean their plates. The dogs would be happy with what was left. Sorren’s place sat with a clean plate at Mordaen’s elbow. She hadn’t commented on his absence, only looking to her father with a raised eyebrow at the fact the boy had not appeared while the food was out.
“He can go to bed without dinner, if he so desires.”
There was no need for anything else to be said. She continued to clear the table as he got up and took the younger two away. They would be in need of bedtime stories and they far preferred their father to tuck them in to the sister who seemed to always be around. It was only after the youngers were away, she finally asked.
“Where’s Sorren?”
“I don’t know. We spoke this afternoon and I told him he was supposed to be back in time for dinner so that he could apologize to you for his behavior.”
“Nothing since then?”
“No.” Mordaen stood outside the bedroom where his two youngest children were already settling into the routine of sleep, his hand against the wooden door as if to brace it in place. “I will speak with a few of the guards, perhaps they have seen him.”
“It’s late, Father. If he isn’t within the tunnels…”
He did not respond, taking her warning to heart. With a heavy tread, he started away from the door. Jalcina slipped into her own bedroom and pulled her long cloak around her shoulders and followed him.
“You need to stay here.”
“No, I don’t. Those two will be fine here for the time it will take us to find him. They’ll sleep through it and know nothing about it tomorrow.”
“Jalcina, I want you to stay here with them.”
“I won’t. Not with Sorren out in the fields alone.”
“We don’t know that.”
“If he were closer, don’t you think he would have come home?” Her voice rose as her fingers curled tight along the edge of her cloak. “You’ll need every eye and the time you waste stopping me is time we could be using to find him. Tell me you would rather fight with me about this than make sure he is alive and well.”
Mordaen breathed his anger out into the air.
Spirit his daughter had. Perhaps moreso than brains at times. Still he could not deny she was right. They were wasting time and she knew her brother as well as a mother would. Jalcina was practically the only mother he knew, having been born only a few years before the disappearance of their mother.
“Come quickly. Stay close to the tunnels, please. I can’t risk both of you being out in the dark and possibly lost.”
“I will go looking for him, Father, just as anyone else would. Sticking close to the tunnels won’t help us find him.”
The pair headed out of the private quarters of the ruling family of Sartol.
Jalcina swept through the tunnels and picked up a torch guttering against the wall as she moved out into the inner fields. Mordaen went to the nearest guardsman and sent him searching for others to send out into the darkness. The mountains stood high and forboding in the dark. They ringed in the kingdom of Sartol with protection, but now they felt like witnesses awaiting an execution. Jalcina looked up at them and breathed a prayer in hopes some divine might hear and place a hand of protection on her little brother.
Sorren, his faithful companion at his side, had gone from the edge of the fields as far away from the tunnels as he could, hiking until the night curled dark fingers around the world bringing with it a bone shivering chill.
Blowing his breath out his nose, he slogged forward, wrapping his arms around his body to keep in what little warmth he had left.
“Come on, Puppy,” he cajoled the dog as they reached the towering trees at the edge of the valley. They could get lost in these trees. Live off squirrels and rabbits. Maybe even get good enough to bring down one of the deer said to still wander the woods near the water. Sorren’s head was full of the thoughts of his new, free, life when the first wisp of smoke slipped past his body.
His dog stopped, hackles up, low growl issuing from his throat.
Sorren climbed across a heavy root and kept going, oblivious to the fact his dog had stopped until he was several yards further in beneath the canopy, nearly swallowed by the dark. He cursed the fact he hadn’t brought the beginnings of a fire with him. He used a curse word he’d only heard from his father a time or two.
“Come on, Puppy.”
No cajoling would bring the dog further in. While the animal had been more than happy to traipse beneath the trees in the more cultivated areas of the kingdom, but now, in these woods, the animal showed no happiness. Its tail hung low, his ears back, the growl in his throat only increasing in volume. The mist grew, strengthened, wrapping long gray-white fingers around Sorren’s body.
“Stupid dog,” the boy said and continued his walk in the woods now without his companion. The animal began to bark, loud and sharp, then whine, the sound following Sorren into the heavy darkness.
He tripped over a root and went down on his hands and knees, crawling forward with his own soft cry. The cold gripping him made him slow, and he found himself curled on the
ground in a tight ball, teeth clattering as he shivered.
The grand plan of running away from home seemed less wonderful now, the shine worn off. He lay there and closed his eyes. As soon as the sun came up, he would go home. Just as soon as the sun came up.
Soft, breathy, misty fingers wrapped around Sorren’s balled up form and stroked his hair. It called to his mind.
Come a little further in.
He opened his eyes, little slits in his face. The fingers smoothed his hair away from his face, curling the length around his ear.
Come a little further in.
Sorren opened his hands, flopping over and putting his knees under himself. Pushing up, he kept going. The fingers beckoned him, leading him and when he slowed, pulling him gently. He stumbled against a stone, scraping his arm deep enough to leave a smear of blood on the stone. The light in the circle was not moonlight, though Sorren did not notice. His eyes were empty, his footsteps shuffling, hands opening and closing as if he tried to hold something that wasn’t there. Among the stones, the ground lay undisturbed. Not a single footprint marred the gray surface as if stones had been ground to powder here in the forest. The mist beckoned him to the center, a sigil of small white rocks.
Come a little further in.
He stumbled forward, striking his head on one of the rocks, blood rushing from the small wound far stronger than its size would show. The white rock became red and the red spread from stone to stone like blood would spread over ground. The fingers of mist subtly shaded pink as the voice laughed with a musical sound.
The searchers began at the tunnels and worked their way across the cultivated fields each of them checking whatever hiding holes they could think of as they moved. Each staying within the sights of the torches nearest to them. Jalcina moved slightly ahead of the line, nearly running as the time slipped by.
Sorren was not going to be anywhere in the places where the people were. He had the Divines only knew how many hours between him and his home. They had to find him.
Chains of Fate (The Fate Circle Saga Book 1) Page 3