Trinity (31 page)

But by some miracle, it hadn’t.
As he continued to turn the winch round the rope slowly coiled
around it like an endless snake. The entire city was more intact
than it should have been after a millennium of abandonment. It made
no sense. The wooden bucket rose into sight. It was dripping wet
and filled with water. Tentatively Nidan dipped his fingertips into
the water. Surprisingly, it felt fine. He scooped a small amount
into his hand and sipped it. There was a slight metallic tang to it
but it tasted refreshing enough. “It tastes fine.” He looked at
Skaric. “Maybe the source of the water is too deep to have been
affected by Miale’s death?”

Skaric shrugged. “How would I
know?”

Nidan rolled
his eyes in a teasing manner. “You
are
the expert when it comes to
magic.”

Skaric narrowed his eyes and
looked away. “Hardly.”

Nidan shook his head slightly.
“Whatever the reason, the water seems good. We can drink, fill up
our flasks and maybe have a bit of a wash. I’ll be glad to get some
of this ash and grime off my skin.”

Kiana grinned. “So will I.” She
dipped her hands into the bucket and drank deeply.

As Skaric walked away Kiana’s
shoulders drooped. She stared at the water droplets as they escaped
through her fingertips and splashed back into the bucket.

“
He’s going to
leave, isn’t he, once this is all over?” Kiana looked up at Nidan,
her eyes dark with regret.

Nidan frowned and scratched his
hairline. “Maybe, maybe not.” He knew that wasn’t the answer she
had wanted to hear.

Kiana scowled. “He’s become so
distant from us suddenly.”

Nidan looked
at her. “Are you trying to convince yourself that he
is
going to
go?”

Kiana looked away, laced her
fingers together and ran the toe of her boot through the ash that
covered the ground, tracing a spiral.

“
He’s in a lot
of pain and he doesn’t know how important he is to you,” Nidan
said. “If you want him to stay you just have to tell him how you
feel. You know that, don’t you?”

Her eyes grew wide as her
eyebrows slid up her forehead. “I… I don’t know what you mean.”

Nidan rested
the bucket on the edge of the well, took hold of her shoulders
gently and turned her to face him properly. “Come off it, Kiana.
I’m not blind, but Skaric
is
. If he doesn’t know how much he
means to you, why should he stay?” He released her.

Kiana hung her head. “Are you
angry with me?”

It was Nidan’s turn to be
shocked. “What? Why would I be?”

“
Because he’s
a Wolf? Because of the things he’s done?”

Nidan laughed. “Does any of
that matter to you?”

Kiana shook her head.

“
Besides, he’s
not a Wolf anymore.” Nidan wondered when he had made that decision.
Had it been in Norlea or later in Linden? It didn’t matter. All
that mattered was how much Kiana obviously felt for Skaric. “He’s
the man that’s given up everything and risked everything:
for
you
.” Nidan
ruffled Kiana’s hair. “Tell him. If you let him walk away, you’ll
regret it.”
Just like I would have
regretted forcing you to go to Valgate
. It
felt like an eternity had passed since that day.

Kiana sighed heavily. “Do you
think he’ll stop hating himself?”

Nidan shrugged. “With help.” He
pondered the ramifications of his next words before allowing them
to escape his lips. “I did.”

Kiana stared at him. “Why would
you have hated yourself?”

Nidan splashed water over his
face. He felt grey rivers of ash running down his cheeks and
neck.

“
It’s
something to do with your sister, isn’t it?”

“
That
obvious?” He splashed more water on his face.
I opened up this door. I knew she would ask
me
.

“
You don’t
have to tell me,” Kiana said.

“
You’re right.
I don’t.” Nidan regretted the shortness of his words instantly, but
his only recourse was to continue to clean his face. Eventually he
let out a long sigh. “It was my fault she died.” It had been a long
time since he had said those words.

“
How could it
have been? You told me she died in the last time of Thanatos. It
was no one’s fault that she was gripped by madness.”

Nidan smiled at her sadly and
shook his head. “She wasn’t gripped by madness, Kiana. I was.”

Kiana stared at him. More than
once, she looked like she was on the verge of words, but she never
managed to say anything.

Nidan curled
his hand over the pommel of his sword. “It’s all right. I made my
peace with what happened.”
Most of the
time it’s all right, anyway.

Kiana slid her arms around his
waist and squeezed him gently. “Is that why you became a
Guardian?”

Nidan nodded. He returned her
comforting embrace and then gently pushed her away. The pain hadn’t
subsided; he doubted it ever would. Nothing would bring Brid back.
He looked up at the sky. The sun had climbed to its highest point.
“Let’s rest down here for the day and go into the castle at first
light tomorrow.” It was the only thing he could say to change the
subject.

Kiana was
shaking her head. “What if Berend
is
following us? There’s plenty of
daylight left. We should go to the castle as soon as we’re cleaned
up.”

Nidan began to laugh, glad that
the serious moment had passed.

“
What? What’s
so funny?”

“
You! When did
you become so practical and sensible?” He smiled at her, pride
warming him from within. “You’ve changed, Kiana. You’ve
grown.”

Kiana smiled. “We all have.”
She looked in the direction of the temple and her smile faded.

“
Tell
him,” Nidan said.

She shook her head. “What good
would it do? Maybe Skaric is just too broken by his past.” She
followed Nidan’s example and began to clean the ash from her face.
“We have to go to the castle today.”

Nidan nodded and bowed
formally, striking his arm across his chest. He knew his actions
looked less convincing due to the grin that had spread across his
face. As he stood tall he leaned down so that he could whisper in
her ear. “You’re wrong about Skaric. Don’t give up on him. Life’s
too short for regrets.”

*

They walked up the steep road
to the castle in silence, concerned that the massive door was
closed. Skaric’s skin crawled with coldness although it was the
hottest part of the day. It was strange to feel so cold when he had
felt nothing but the warmth of fire since he had been ten summers
old. At least he was relatively clean. It felt good to have the sun
on his skin again without a layer of muck and ash in between.

His companions
looked more human as well. Kiana’s beauty was evident again in more
ways than one. Without really trying, Skaric was able to see the
purity of the aura around her, bathing her in radiance despite
everything she had been through.
She
wouldn’t have gone through any of it if it hadn’t been for
me.
He turned away from her, set his sights
on the castle and increased his pace so that he was walking ahead
of his companions.

Skaric didn’t stop until he
reached the top of the road. Up close, he could see that the door
was blanketed in green moss. The wall towered above him: dizzyingly
tall. It wasn’t battle damaged but it was crumbling. The
battlements were disfigured by the elements, and in places, the
stone was so worn that it was possible to see through to the other
side. There were so many spots that would have been perfect for
nesting birds but, like the rest of Orholt, there was no life at
all. Loneliness clung to Skaric like a shroud, even though he
didn’t have to be alone.

He turned his
back on the castle and looked down at the city below him. Orholt
looked oddly small in comparison to the castle that lorded over it.
Despite that it was the largest permanent settlement he had ever
entered. Briefly, Skaric tried to picture the streets packed with
people, carts, wagons and horses, just like Linden had been. And
guards. And Guardians. He shuddered.
Maybe
I do have to be alone
.

Then Skaric’s eyes narrowed and
he forgot to breathe.

“
What’s
wrong?” Kiana asked as she reached him. Her cheeks were flushed and
she stood slightly bent, hands on hips as she breathed in and out
harshly.

Nidan reached the top moments
later. They had left the horses tethered in the market square.

“
Berend.”
Skaric had to force the words out of his dry mouth.

Kiana followed his gaze,
squinting. “It looks like he’s alone.”

Skaric
couldn’t tear his gaze away from the dark rider who was about to be
hidden by the city walls. There was no doubt in his mind; it
was
Berend.

“
Why would he
be alone?” Kiana asked.

Skaric
shrugged. It didn’t feel right. Even if Berend was
really alone it didn’t matter.

“
If he’s
unaided, we can beat him,” Nidan said.

Skaric shook
his head. “Berend is a skilled fighter: fierce, ruthless and
utterly
fanatical.”
And he wants to kill
Kiana.

“
But he’s
still just one man,” Nidan said.

Skaric managed
to look away from Berend’s distant form. He turned his gaze on
Nidan. “So are you.” He looked down at his hands. They had once
held the potential to wield power that was only limited by the life
force he could feed it. Now, they were useless. He curled his
fingertips into his palms.
I chose
this
.

“
We should get
inside, then,” Nidan said. “Find… whatever it is that we came here
to find.”

Skaric turned
his back on Nidan. “How?” He pressed his palms hard against the
door. They sank through the spongy moist moss until he felt the
rough surface of the wood beneath his fingertips. He pushed hard,
gritting his teeth together until his jaw ached. They’d come too
far to be foiled by something as pathetic as a door. There
had
to be a way
in.

Skaric almost fell forward as
the wood gave way beneath his hands. It fragmented and crumbled,
pattering to the ground on the other side.

Nidan stepped up beside him and
began to tug the wood away from the hole that Skaric had made. “One
thousand years is a long time. It’s not surprising that the wood is
rotten.”

Skaric helped him and together
they made the hole large enough to get through. He kept glancing
over his shoulder. For a while he couldn’t see Berend at all; then
he caught sight of the war leader, galloping down the central road
towards them.

Skaric’s mind
became dull. He
had
to pull himself together. He’d faced Berend and survived,
there was no reason why Nidan would lose.
Except Berend underestimated me. He won’t make that mistake
again
.

After squeezing through the
hole, Skaric led the way into the courtyard. It was long, narrow
and home to several crumbling stone buildings that lined the left
hand side. On his right was the castle, which had one grand
entrance and a couple of simple doorways. Skaric walked slowly,
gazing at his surroundings, forcing his mind to think.

The roofs looked to have been
made of slate but had long since caved in, leaving each of the
buildings open to the elements. Skaric ducked inside the first,
which he thought might have been a stable block by its height and
the oversized doorway. He could just see the remnants of stalls,
except the wood had almost completely disintegrated leaving a few
soft splinters behind.

“
How strong do
you think these walls are?” Skaric said as he turned to face
Nidan.

Nidan shrugged
and tested the stable wall by pushing against it with his arms. His
muscles bulged as the wall groaned under the strain. There was a
grating sound; one of the bricks moved fractionally and some of the
mortar flaked onto the floor. “Pretty strong. It would take some
work to collapse one of them.” He stared at Skaric thoughtfully.
“That
is
what you
were thinking, isn’t it?”

Kiana stared at them both
blankly.

Skaric moved
round them to leave the stable block, unable to look Nidan in the
face. Guardians were renowned for fighting honourably, something
the Wolves had used against them far too often. “I know it’s a
cowardly plan.”
But it’s better than
facing Berend again
.

“
I think it’s
a pretty sensible idea,” Nidan said. His expression became
thoughtful. “Was Berend the one that tried to strangle
you?”

Skaric stopped and raised his
fingertips to his neck. It felt like an age ago that Nidan had
healed his wounds, but he could recall the pressure of Berend’s
hands around his neck, squeezing the life out of him.

He carried on walking through
the courtyard looking at each building to see if any of them looked
fragile.

Nidan jogged to catch up with
him. “Berend wants Kiana dead. I’m not going to let him anywhere
near her. Tell me how good he really is with a sword.”