The Kallanon Scales (54 page)

“I’m like
her?”

“It is none of
my business.”

“You made it
yours. Am I?”

“What do you
want to hear? That you are like Saska? You are not, not in looks or
outlook, but you are as obstinate and brave and crazy as she ever
was. I don’t care to know what your relationship was, or is, or
will be … gods, he is my father! I can tell you that Saska is more
than that and he is obsessed with her, okay? Walk away, and don’t
ever let her know how you feel. She is no wilting flower, that
one.”

“Obsessed?”
She latched onto that. “Not a good thing.”

“No, and you
are going the same route.” Tristamil frowned and stood, bending to
retrieve his boots. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to hurt you. I don’t
even know you.”

“It’s not your
fault.”

He extended
his hand and when she took it, pulled her up. “Let us find
Krikian.”

Krikian clasped
Tristamil in a rib-cracking embrace and kissed him soundly on both
cheeks.

“My lord! I am
so glad you are all right!”

“Gods, Krik,
please not the ‘my lord’ bit. This is all I am, but I admit to
being mighty glad to be in one piece. I near had a heart attack
when that Dragon lifted me into the heavens!”

“So did your
father.”

“That hurt
most, yes.”

“What
happened?”

“It will have
to wait until I have told him. Where is he?”

“He contacted
me twenty minutes ago, but I don’t know. He is cloaked. He said we
weren’t to use sorcery.”

Tristamil
rubbed the side of his nose, thinking. “Fill me in on what
happened. Obviously he managed to get away from and sway our
captors.” He sat on a narrow bunk. Krikian and Matt shared a tiny
cell. Matt was with Lowen. Cat hopped onto the bed beside
Tristamil, intending to miss nothing. “Maybe I can figure his next
move.”

Krikian
related an abridged version of events and wound down when Matt
ambled in.

Grinning, the
Xenian pumped Tristamil’s hand. “You are okay!”

“Looks that
way.”

“Your father
will be relieved.”

“As long as he
doesn’t go looking for me, he will manage until he knows.”

Matt cocked
his head. “Lowen says she told him you went to get your sword and
that you are fine.”

Krikian’s
eyelids flickered. “Sword?”

Tristamil did
not bite. Instead, he said, “How did my father react?”

“He accepted
it, apparently.”

“Smart
girl.”

“Lowen?” Cat
queried. “How can she know anything?”

Tristamil
shrugged and changed the subject. “Krik, tell me more of
Grinwallin.”

The Valleur
lifted a shoulder. “I know nothing more.”

“Grinwallin,”
Tristamil murmured. “Something in there, that name, the word the
city is. If it rings in my head, it is speaking to my father.
Grinwallin could be the key, but to what? I cannot wait until you
leave to make rendezvous, especially not without sorcery. No war
will leave a leyline clear, and I need to go now. I leave at first
light.”

“Right,”
Krikian grinned. “Me, too.”

Tristamil held
a hand aloft. “This place is spared, it is safer here.”

Cat burst out,
“Bunch of old sods! I’m also going!”

“Not a good
idea.”

“He is right,
sis,” Matt put in.

She glared.
“Try and stop me.”

“I can,
easily,” Tristamil said, facing her.

“With sorcery?
You are not supposed to.”

“This is a Web
point, sorcery is expected here.”

“Don’t be
pig-headed, Cat,” Matt muttered.

“You wouldn’t
dare.” Cat glared at Tristamil.

“Wouldn’t
I?”

“You are just
like your father!”

“That is
indeed the greatest compliment I have had from anyone, thank you.”
His smile gentled when she subsided into sullen silence. “Cat,
relax. You can come.”

“Yes!” She
stared Matt into acceptance.

“I am not
travelling with everyone here, that will delay us further.”

“Well, I’m
going.” Matt said, causing his sister to grin.

“I never
thought otherwise. The four of us. We bring the others when we can
safely use sorcery, that way they don’t have to traverse a world at
war.”

“Lowen will be
safer here than on the road,” Matt said. “Her father will flay the
flesh off me if he knows the danger she is in.”

“Tris, your
father told me to stay with Skye and the others.”

Tristamil
glanced at Krikian. “The responsibility is mine. I need you with
me.” By his tone, they knew there was more to the coming reunion,
as well as the journey towards it, than he was at present prepared
to confide. He rose and squeezed through to the door, glanced at
Cat. “Will you show me where to find Skye?”

“Sure, we
share a hole.” She pushed after him.

Skye burst into
tears.

She hurtled
into his arms as Cat ducked out of the way.

“Your father
will be so happy!”

His arms
closed around her and he lowered his face into her hair and
murmured, “I would that you be happy, too.”

Ah. Cat looked away, bending to murmur to Lowen. She had
better warn Matt about
this
little twist also.

“I
am
,”
Skye said.

Tristamil
released and drew her onto the dark balcony. They leaned over the
rail to stare into the well of the courtyard. There was nothing to
see.

“I don’t know
where he is.”

She nodded,
gripping the rail. “You know?”

“I saw it two years ago, and danced sweetly to prevent him
seeing it also.” He thought of her as a sister and protected her as
one, but the fact that she had adult feelings for his brother
caused him to see her in a new light, until that morning in the
Throne-room when he looked at her and saw
her
for the first time.

“Your father
told me to put it aside.”

“I can
imagine. Do you love my brother, Skye? Or is it infatuation?”

She leaned
against him. “I have known you my entire life, Tris, and both of
you were like brothers to me. I could tell you apart …”

Thus my
blasted brother behaved in her presence.

“… but that
changed, seeing you and Ty as brothers, I mean. I thought I knew
where my heart lay.”

“Now you are
not sure?”

She straightened. “You saw, you say?
I
saw, too. You were not aware of
your feelings for me, Ty wasn’t aware of mine, and I was glad he
wasn’t, because I didn’t want to hurt you. We were growing up and
we realised we were not related. In some ways I was in the
middle.”

He stared at
her.

She nodded at
him. “In the middle.”

He turned to
the darkness. “Where does your heart lie?”

She put a hand
on his arm. “I hated him on Lucan.” She withdrew her hand, feeling
him stiffen. Long moments passed before she said, “I mean not to
replace Tymall with you, Tris, it’s not like that.”

“You had the
clearest view. You love him or you don’t, you love me or you don’t.
What could be simpler?”

“It’s not simple! Tris and Ty, hard to tell apart, treating
me the same! I don’t
know
whether I fell in love with you and then him, or
with him and then you, or both of you. You two are linked in my
mind.”

“Yet you tell
my father where your heart lies, and he warns you. Sometime you
made a choice.”

She nodded.
“Right.”

“You love my
brother.”

“I love the idea of your brother …
loved
. I had time to think during
the journey.”

He was about
to explode. “It sounds to me I may be the replacement. I care for
you. I thought that would surprise you, but you seem to know how I
feel better than I do. I am relieved you are having second thoughts
about Tymall, but have some compassion.” Tristamil set his mouth
and did not look at her, his hands white on the rail.

He was forced
eventually to look. She watched him, but her face was in shadow and
he could not read her expression.

She reached
out to lay a hand on his cheek. “Compassion? All I have is
compassion. Always seeing all sides, me, the eternal watcher.” She
smoothed her thumb over his cheekbone and he did not dare move.
“What I was trying to say, rather badly, is that I care about you.
The fact that I think I love Ty comes after that, as having it
wrong also comes after.” She dropped her hand. “Whatever I feel or
don’t feel I couldn’t confide in you. You didn’t know where your
heart lay.” She laughed, a little hysterically. “Not that any of it
matters, does it?”

“It
matters.”

“I am not
Valleur. Were I to declare undying love to you or to Ty, to any
Valleur boy, it would avail me nothing.”

He made a
sound in his throat and drew her into his arms. She choked and held
on.

“I don’t care
that you are not Valleur.”

Skye leaned
back in his arms and looked up. “We know each other well, and maybe
we love each other, but you are not alone in choosing a mate, and
the way things go, you will be Vallorin.”

He cursed and
released her to turn back to the courtyard. “My father ensured
…”

“You are not
your father and I may be shy and unobtrusive, but I can tell you
now, if I love a man I won’t share him. Whatever the reason. Do you
hear me? Never!”

A smile tugged
at his lips. “Good.”

She nodded
emphatically and swung away.

“I hadn’t
intended this, this night. I wanted to see that you are all right
and warn you about Ty, and now look, we are both thoroughly
confused.”

She
laughed.

“Shall we
leave it here? For now?”

“I need to
sort myself out, don’t I?”

“Me, too.”

They looked at
each other.

“Skye, I am
leaving in the morning with Krikian, Matt and Cat. You have to stay
here, it is safer.”

“Skye stays,
as always.”

He swore. “I
cannot worry about you.”

“Sometimes you
are just like your father.”

“He loves
you.”

She understood
he said he loved her. Taking his hand, she said, “Please be
careful.”

He cupped her
face and kissed her. “For you I will be extra careful.”

Prost

Camot and his
ten reached the burning city as the sun rose.

Inhabitants
wandered like sleep walkers, moving because the sub-conscious told
feet to. It was eerily silent despite the crackling of fire and
hopeless moans of wounded crowding the streets. A pall of smoke
pervaded every space.

Camot gagged
on the smell of charred remains, and hurled the contents of an
empty stomach at the sight of the mutilated bodies. So many of
those were children.

“Come, war
leader. Let us get to the ships, there is nothing we can do here,”
a soldier murmured.

A ship to
Tunin. That was the plan of the day. Camot plodded behind his troop
as they found a way through the debris of a once proud city to the
water’s edge.

The sea, the
Middle Ocean according to yesterday’s guide, was tranquil.

“Goddess,”
another soldier said. “It’s still beautiful.”

Ships burned,
but one - a rust bucket into harbour after the attack. Camot led
his troop to a smouldering jetty, and found the vessel crowded with
survivors.

“What now?”
another asked.

“I am not
about to throw them off,” Camot said. “They feel safer there. We go
south to … what was it? Hadib. Maybe conditions are better, maybe
we will find a ship.”

They retraced
their steps and turned south along the beach.

An hour after
sunrise the Murs came again.

This time
Alders vanished in a massive sand cloud and when it settled and the
sun penetrated Alders lay buried.

Beware the
passion of

Such
beauty

~ Kallanon
Prophecy

Invin

Tunin
Continent

T
orrullin and his companions came to
Invin on Tunin.

They brought
Hallari, for the old man was a wealth of information and happy to
share.

Invin was dry,
but not as Alders had been. Here the city was brick and mortar,
colourful roof slate, large picture windows and wraparound
balconies. Trees, hardy and drought resistant, grew in profusion,
and the broad, paved streets led to open squares, musical
fountains. Invin had an underground water source, carefully
monitored.

Hot during the
day, Invin was blissful at night, and cool fog rolled in without
fail every morning off the ocean.

Hallari led
them to a grand old house on the beachfront. He maintained it for
his infrequent breaks from teaching.

As they
approached, Torrullin said there was something he and Caltian
needed to do. The two peeled immediatelyaway.

It was an hour
before dawn, the sky grey. Fog whispered in and cast Invin under a
thick, moist blanket. At that early hour, no one was about.

Torrullin
strode with purpose. Caltian followed the indistinct form, sensing
something important was to unfold.

They came to a
seaside inn, a double-storey building ghostly in pre-dawn fog. It
was barred and locked, and Torrullin touched the mechanism. The
door swung open.

Torrullin
strode to the stairs and stalked up. Caltian followed, heart
hammering. He did not know why it was they were there, only that
the Vallorin was not to be swayed. Torrullin strode to a door on
the first floor, touched the lock there. He slid inside without a
backward glance and Caltian hurried after, making little noise
himself, but feeling clumsy in Torrullin’s presence.