She sighed unhappily. “I know.”
Mikhail returned his attention to Torrullin. “What are you asking?”
“That you accompany us.”
Alik swung to him. “Where does that come from?” Green eyes spit fire. “To protect him? By putting him in the line of fire along with Rose, Lowen and me? How is that … oh, god, you are kidnapping him, aren’t you?”
He turned his head. “I am asking.”
She marched to him. “But not really.”
“Torrullin?” Rose whispered.
Lowen gave a voluble sigh. “We need leverage as well.”
“Lowen!” Rose gasped.
She shrugged. “He will not be harmed, Rose, and you know it. And, honestly, wouldn’t he be safer with us? Do you want him to land up wherever the others are?”
Torrullin grimaced.
Lowen understood that. “You will not use him as bait. I bow out if you dare go there. He is innocent.”
“Alik is innocent,” Torrullin snapped. “Where …”
Alik was before him and she nearly shoved him into the fire. “If you want a lure, use me.”
“No!” Mikhail shouted. Again he was on his feet.
Alik and Torrullin squared off. “Your father is my best friend, Alik, and all three my grandsons are taken from me, and Elianas will suffer the most. Do you suggest I sit on my bloody hands?”
She prodded him. “How dare you use people?”
“I dare because I love.”
She closed her mouth with a snap. And then swore. And then swung around to face Mikhail.
He forestalled her. “If you need me as lure …”
Torrullin sighed. “That will not be necessary. You are not big enough bait.”
Rose murmured, “Soon now the dean and guard will start making waves. Make your decisions.”
“Who is a big enough lure?” Lowen demanded.
“I am,” Torrullin stated.
“I hope you are not suggesting sitting in plain sight to enable it. You are supposed to protect us, remember?”
He smiled into Lowen’s eyes. “A huge lure, that.”
“Torrullin, for Aaru’s sake, think straight. We need aces also.”
“And meanwhile Elianas gets hurt.”
Alik stepped in. “Elianas has power …”
“… which has been taken or subdued,” Torrullin said. “And because he has power, he is the greater target.” A distortion, but he was not sure how much she understood about Elianas. He was not about to enlighten her.
“Oh,” she said in a small voice, and again she looked at Mikhail.
He threaded a hand through his hair. “How do you want to kidnap me?”
Torrullin laughed. “I like your spirit. I am thinking a ransom message delivered to the dean on the island, and we will be gone before he gets here.”
“Ransom?”
“An exchange. You for them. I hope your father loves you.”
“He doesn’t, but he wants an heir waiting in the wings, one he can groom to his needs. I do not think he will bow to it, though.”
“I do not expect him to. He might, however, make demands of his sorcerer.”
Enlightenment blossomed. “And that is how you can track him.”
“It is a strategy. We shall see how it plays out.”
Torrullin moved to the desk under the window and found paper and ink there. He scratched out the message that would eventually land up in Bannerman’s hands, and then flexed his right hand for the hidden dragon signet ring, pressed it to the paper and flexed it away again.
His unique signature mark now adorned the ransom demand. He folded it and sent it magically on its way.
“Leave your bag here. We shall gather gear en route. Lowen?”
She shook her head at him in a long-suffering way. “Yes, yes, my cottage.” She took Alik and Rose by their hands and vanished with them.
Mikhail stared at Torrullin. “How bad is it, really?”
“Bad, son. You may hate your father when this is done.”
He licked his lips. “So be it.”
Torrullin took him away.
TEN MINUTES LATER SABIAN and Quilla arrived for the meet, only to find the place deserted.
Across the water of Averis Lake a shuttle skimmed, and appeared headed directly for the villa.
Quilla squinted at it. “I do not like the looks of that.”
Sabian nodded. “Lowen’s signature is traceable.”
The birdman shook his head. “What has he done now? Follow it.”
They were gone before the shuttle landed to spill the dean, the bodyguards and security personnel from Mariner Island.
Chapter 25
A place of safety is less than a sanctuary. It is a place to hide. Be wary.
~ Awl ~
Luvanor
Lowen’s cottage
THE MOMENT TORRULLIN arrived with Mikhail, Alik had the young Bannerman in hand, leading him away along the beach.
They were soon in conversation.
Rose was at Torrullin’s elbow. “He loves her.”
“That is the main reason he came with.”
“What about his studies?”
Torrullin stared in the direction the two had taken. “A dispensation can be arranged as for Alik.”
“I doubt that school will listen to you now.”
“They will if we win this.”
“She might love him, I think.”
“She is sharp enough to realise a relationship with a human is doomed.”
“As you were?” Rose muttered.
“Touché.”
“Sorry. It is just that you are riding roughshod over feelings.”
“My number one concern is …” He paused. “… getting them out.”
“Elianas, that is who you mean.”
He glanced at her. “I love my grandsons, Rose.”
“I know, I really do. I saw how you were with them in the Time realm. But for you Elianas is the one most at risk here.”
He looked away.
She touched his arm. “This comes too soon on the heels of returning memory. I know what it is like to try and make sense when your mind is in turmoil. I am not happy that you involved Teroux, but I also know he went and got himself embroiled, so I am here if you need help. No judgement.”
“Thank you.”
“But, Torrullin, you need be impulsive now, act on the spur of news.”
“Your point?”
“We cannot follow you around.”
He looked at her again. “And what do you suggest?”
“We need a citadel. This is about brinkmanship also.”
He continued to look at her. “Very clever. And where would this mighty edifice be?”
Rose stared up at him. “When the storm gathers, batten down the hatches. When life is in danger, run to the safe haven. Light the fires and pray for salvation.”
He angled his body to her. “Where, Rose?”
By way of answer she spoke of something else. “When I was younger I needed to hide from my father and from my uncles. When I started showing signs of womanhood, I needed to hide even deeper. I needed to be safe, if only for a short time. Imagination creates, doesn’t it? Well, need creates also, and often with greater result. There is a place only I know of.”
“Why did you not stay there? Why did you go back?”
She shrugged. “I got hungry.”
Torrullin leaned forward. “I can remove those memories.”
She touched his face. “You have a good heart. I might have accepted that once, but now I know they have formed me, and Teroux understands me as I do him. I am beyond the pain now, but I thank you for the offer.” She withdrew her hand. “It is harder when one forgets, I think.”
He closed his eyes and moved away. “It is remembering again that is hard.”
“Why do you blame Elianas?”
“Because it is easier. It is hard to look at oneself and know the real fault is within.” He
looked at her again. “I was not strong enough. Despite all my power and persuasion, I simply was not strong enough. I fractured.”
She nodded. “I have been there. I thought I was weak also.”
He waited.
“And then you realise there is the one person who is the light in the darkness, and you are made strong again. You are reborn,” she said. “And once you acknowledge that and do not apologise for reliance, none of what went before is important. I have someone like that now and so do you. Stop hurting him, Torrullin. In the end there is no one else you can count on more.”
He looked away.
“He counts on you like that.”
“You cannot know that.”
“Why did he keep you safe for four months? I don’t think he was trying to punish you, Torrullin. He needed you whole, because he needs you.”
A beat. “He lied to me.”
“You lied to yourself every time you reincarnated. Every time you were someone else. And every time you had to remember Torrullin again, and yet you would admit it was necessary to cope with rebirth. Well, he did exactly that for you. Why punish him for doing what was best? From what I have heard, Rayne never really left.”
He closed his eyes and admitted, “He is with me always.”
“Then it was not a lie, was it?”
His gaze was troubled when he looked at her again. “So wise.”
She smiled. “Not in the least. Just think next time you see him.”
Then two forms materialised nearby and he was reaching for his sword. An instant later he swore under his breath and released the hilt.
Quilla.
And Sabian.
His gaze went to the fair man first, and he understood exactly why he had come.
Grey eyes pierced Quilla next, and he said, “Rose, leave us.”
ROSE NODDED A GREETING at the two and headed into the cottage behind her. Lowen followed her in from the porch, having watched her in conversation with Torrullin without interfering. Further along the beach Alik and Mikhail turned and began the return journey. They were still in conversation.
“QUILLA, YOU ARE interfering again.”
Sabian stepped forward. “I told him I would only act upon your command. I swear I shall not do anything unless you ask it first.”
Torrullin said nothing for a beat, two, and then nodded. “But the option is given, I see. Very well. Welcome, Sabian.”
The fair man smiled and offered his arm.
Torrullin gave a grin and clasped it. “I am happy you chose to remain in this realm, my friend. The Path of Shades is a terrible place. Know this one could get real ugly.”
“When isn’t it?” Sabian laughed. “I was getting bored.”
Torrullin faced Quilla next. “Rose has a citadel.”
The birdman’s eyebrows shot skyward. “Really?”
“Once we are there only I can leave and return. I have no signature.”
“I have not either,” Sabian murmured.
Torrullin glanced at him. “True. Make that Sabian also.”
Quilla exhaled. “I have a choice to make. Stay on site or do not accompany you.”
“The women could use your help.”
“And I am of more use out here.”
“The choice is yours.”
The birdman lifted a shoulder. “I stay here.”
Torrullin nodded. “Good.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t yet know.”
“Is that the Bannerman lad with Alik? Did you kidnap him? Is that why the shuttle was speeding to the villa?”
“He came of free will,” Torrullin murmured.
Quilla harrumphed. “I wonder. Never mind, I understand the reasoning. Did he know anything?”
“No.”
“Tight-lipped, are we? Fine, I am going where I am more useful. I suggest employing the Dome as point of contact.”
“Agreed.”
Quilla glared at him, and was gone.
Sabian wisely held his peace.
Then the two young people were there, and they prepared to move into hiding.
Beacon
THE PAPER SHOOK IN Bannerman’s hand. His wife grabbed it from him and paled as she read.
Thereafter she was in full tirade. “Take warships to Avaelyn, Valaris and Sanctuary right now! This affront must be answered!”
He snatched the ransom note from her. “I cannot spread myself that thin. Sit down!”
She sat. “He can’t get away with this.”
“He will not.”
“What can you do?”
“Think it through. We have family of his and now he has Mikhail. It is tactics, Lucia, and we need to think.”
She studied him. Yes, he would think and he would act, for he could not afford to allow his authority to be undermined. But, and now she thought clearly, he was going head-to-head with Elixir, and that was a dangerous place to be.
“He is recovering from an event four months ago. Now is the time to hit at him.”
Andor Bannerman sighed. “We have hit at him, Lucia. We even took Excelsior out to make it happen.”
“Take Valaris out. Today.”
He stared at her. “Have you any idea of the repercussions?”
“They will cower in fear, Andor, the rest of them, and they will give you what you want because they do not want the same doom visited on their worlds. Sanctuary will fold, Xen, Ceta …”
“And Luvanor? Millions of Valleur, each with a bone to pick with Beacon in the aftermath.”
“Then take Luvanor out first. Today.”
He swung away. “I need to think.”
She smiled privately and rose. Approaching him, she kissed his cheek. “Think well about Beacon passing to Mikhail and to his son and so forth. We can start an empire this day, my husband.”
Her face stern, she left him to his thoughts.
Grinwallin
KYLIS SPRINTED DOWN THE final incline and found Dechend where they had agreed to meet.
Sun filtered through the trees into the clearing south of the city and leaves whispered together in the light wind.
“Sorry, couldn’t get away from widow Moss.”
Dechend rose from his perch on a fallen branch. “No matter.”
“What is so urgent?”
The tall Elder sat again. “It is all hitting the dung heap, Kylis. Word has filtered down that Teighlar was taken when Excelsior went vacuum, and now voices of dissent are louder. I overheard the ambassador from Beacon talking to the ambassador from Xen and he basically told the man to watch the skies, for the time is ripe for revolution.”
“Our skies?”
“That is the impression I received.”
“What does it mean? That Beacon is sending technological aid for revolutionaries? Or that magic is weighing in on their side?”
Dechend shrugged. “That is just it, I do not know. Both fill me with foreboding and with Teighlar gone …”
“You need detail.”
“Right. As you are already asking questions and folk know you have been assigned the task of investigation …”
“It might not be hard to slip other questions in. I see. Consider it done.”
Dechend bowed over his hands. “Thank you. Anything new on the culprit?”
Kylis licked his lips. “I have a lead, yes. Still tenuous, though.” He paused. “I intend following him tonight.”
“May I ask who it is?”
“I would rather not say until I am certain.”
The Elder sighed. “That sounds ominous. Need I watch my back?”
Kylis nodded.
“That bad. Very well, I leave it in your hands.” Dechend headed out and vanished through the trees.
Kylis sat on, but had anyone looked into his mind, it would have revealed something other than leads and questions.
He thought of Alik, and wondered how it would end for her.
Rose’s Citadel
IT WAS A FOREST SO dense only animals
knew the tracks to navigate the undergrowth.
Caught in the shadow of a gigantic mountain, it never saw light and heat, and now it was winter as well; snow lay feet thick on the ground and in drifts over the impassable brushwood. It was a place to be wary of, a place to get lost in, freeze to death, and it was completely isolated.
The citadel was of wood, great, strong and weathered logs. A narrow open space surrounded a central building and a palisade enclosed the whole, twenty feet in height. Massive branches interlaced overhead to shut out the light and hid the hideaway from view above. Unless one knew it, this place could not be easily discovered.
Rose, enveloped in Torrullin’s lack of signature, led them into the space surrounding the building. There was a gate to the forest, but it was frozen shut, and the space between palisade and building was cluttered with fallen branches, seed pods, pine cones and general forest debris, covered in patchy snow, a hazard underfoot.
It was so cold, breath froze.
Torrullin looked around as Rose headed to the door on the other side - a blank log wall faced the outer gate - and thoughtfully agreed it could be defended and it would hide them well for some time if they were careful with entry and exit.
Lowen hung back, waiting for him. She shivered uncontrollably, already blue about the lips. He came upon her as he headed after Rose and the others, and placed an arm around her, drawing her close.
“We will be warm soon.”
Her teeth chattered. “I-I the-think this is a b-bad idea.”
“Why?”
“It’s not r-real.”
It was not real, and that was the beauty of it. Somehow Rose’s desperation as a young girl had conjured solidity from imagination, and her desperation must have been so intense it lasted even now. It was hard for another to find something that did not exist.
He said so, and she responded, “It c-can vanish.”
Torrullin gave that some thought, and responded, “Only if we become complacent.”
They were at the rough entrance, and entered into the darkness beyond it. Scuffles were heard. He tossed a globe of light up, and a circular space was revealed in shadows and spider webs.
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