The Raie'Chaelia

Prologue

Waves pounded the shoreline, spraying mist into the wind that stirred white sands glittering in the moonlight.  A dark ship with dark sails, anchored in the reef, swayed with the movement of the water and the wind.  In the distance, black, threatening thunder clouds roiled in the sky over the ocean, hurling fierce lightning bolts through the rain.  It was a magnificent storm that was swiftly approaching.

From the glistening beach, moist air blew upwards, carrying the ocean’s salt toward a towering cliff.  Wind in the subterranean caverns that wove deeply into the heart of the land whistled a musical sound that echoed through the winding passages, falling just short of discovering underground secrets that were lost to the ages.  Outside, the sea spray floated up the side of a cliff that ended at the foot of colossal walls of a great, white palace.  Constructed of a series of concentric towers, the palace was resplendent, even in the night.  The constant touch of wind, sand, and water never dulled its shine.  

The salty mist came to settle upon an ominous scene in the inner garth of the keep, the highest structure.  On the dais, in the middle of the courtyard, lay a fair-haired, bearded man chained to a marble altar.  A man in black stood just above him facing the front of a ring of spectators lingering in the shadows.  The man in black was tall and broad, with thick black hair sleeked back from his brow and dark eyebrows that slanted menacingly.  He appeared anxious.  His eyes combed the light of the torches that spotted the mantlet wall of the ward, as if he were looking for minute cracks in it that held the answer.

The man on the altar appeared calm, but his fatigue, to his great relief, could mask even his fear.  He was dressed in white robes.  It seemed that at least his captors had allowed him that.  It was small thing, but a blessing, for the marble was cold … and the night was cold …

I am such a fool! he thought to himself, as he lay there helpless, reflecting upon his mistakes and his regrets, pondering the string of betrayals that had led to this moment.  There was nothing he could do about them now.  Yet, he couldn’t help but dwell on them, asking himself the same questions he had asked a million times before.  Why did I ever lock it away so carelessly?  I should never have taken it off.  His thoughts taunted him.   Why did I let Braywin study something so dangerous, even for the most skilled of the Readers?   Sighing, he answered himself.  A father’s love, I suppose, but I could have stopped her from the same folly.  He sighed again.  A husband’s love.  He worried about his wife.  Alaenia, wherever you are, stay there!  Do not return to the palace.

He turned his head toward the man in black.  “You will never get away with this, Lucce.  You know that.  It cannot be done,” he rasped.  His intense blue eyes blazed with an icy rage that he was too weak to physically muster.

Lucce glanced down, temporarily interrupted from his vigilant anticipation, the torchlight dancing devilishly across his face.  He glared at the chained man with hateful eyes, dark and full of scorn, shimmering with a red gleam of fire.  They wanted to burn what they saw before them.

“Quiet, Duquaine,” he said with a smugness that masked his apprehension.  Lucce looked up again, searching, scanning the courtyard for any sign of movement.  “We’ve heard enough from you, I think.  Now that it comes to me, I should have done this first,” he hissed as the blood red stone hanging from the cord around his neck shone brilliantly in the darkness, bathing the scene in an ominous red light.

Duquaine tried to call him a traitor, but his head straightened, forcing his face upwards to peer into the deepness of the night, and then he felt his jaw and hands freeze.  He could no longer move any part of his body except his eyes.  Chained down, unable to move at all, he regretted his decision to protest.  He should have kept silent.  At least he had been able to move his hands.  He could have used them to escape, somehow.  But now it was too late.  He was bound.