The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

034: Rion

Crevan thundered out of Adara's chamber, slamming the door hard enough to break its hinges. Rion! Rion had changed his mind and was inside the mountain with-- Kahlest! Were they even now planning to free the searcher girl?

He knew what he'd seen even if Adara did not. He had seen the Harpyiae Rion had just told him he was not going to meet with again! And there he was!

Hot rage poured through him. Rion was betraying him! His closest brother!

He took the steps to the ramparts two at a time. At the corner, he found himself near the top of the castle built into the steep mountain walls overlooking Auditorium. What he should do was find the scepter himself, free the girl himself, and use it and her to destroy Quildor and Adara.

Then he would ally with the Harpyiae and become the most powerful man on the planet.

He... could do this!

A saner side rationalized.

It couldn't be what he thought! The Harpyiae were powerful but limited. They were young and inexperienced, they needed help! Kahlest had no way to free the searcher girl herself, that was why she had come to him! He had to contact her, and formulate a plan!

He started back the way he had come to find Rion.

*****

Adara bent over the huge alabaster shell inlaid in her summoning table. She held it with both palms. Would Crevan help her? She'd been a fool to go to him. She overestimated her allure. She must have misread the signs of his attraction to her. He was Captain of the Quarso. Of course, he would go to Quildor, and Quildor would have her executed.

Fear.... ugly, impossible, fragmented.... fear!

Not for the first time Adara was seized upon by a series of random thoughts. In her brittle mind, she saw her sister, Nimiane, as she had been as a beautiful young girl. They two had played together in such a carefree manner as children, hadn't they? They'd been so close once! They'd held such promise!

Nimiane! Nimiane! It is time for us to ally once more! You must help me, sister! I cannot stay here any longer!

She recalled them both as older teens, long black hair, and ruby red lips, enticing and inviting. The tri-realms beckoned.

Both had been assured that their lives were important. When their mother died, they would become respected Council Women. Their training had come easy for them. They were clever, quickly grasping complicated political and mystical concepts.

Betrothed to powerful men from the most elite families, they would be Queens someday!

Nimiane loved her future husband from the first moment she'd set eyes on him. Quildor Aquaria was the son of the Highest King in the Tri-realms. He would someday rule in Etrusia with his alliance to her.

But Sebille, as she'd called herself then, had not been quite as fortunate. She'd been given a land kai, unusual for the times, when everyone who received kai was given sea creatures. She was to be married to Archer Valdemar, the highest ranking official in the land city of Valdemar. The thought of breathing the toxic air was abhorrent to her, the thought of bedding a man whose body was not kai melded but actually mutated was revolting. 

There had always been jealousy after her mother had told the young girls of their betrothals.

Nimiane may have been happy, but she soon realized that her betrothed was in love with another. She met Ondrea Carrigah in Etrusia, where the future Councilwomen were often trained. She was betrothed to Taan, the eldest son of the High King. She was an ambitious and talented young woman, rumored to be the most beautiful in all the tri-realms.