Sins of Calate: BOOK II OF THE FOUR REALMS SERIES

Part II | Fara

She was jolted awake by the landing, by the thud of the Varveh's hooves as it hit the earth. Her mind echoed with fragments of a dream - or rather, a nightmare.

Theodan knelt in the centre of a wide dais in front of a group of women dressed in plain white gowns. Behind them more Leothine stood; a jury of scowling faces she recognised as the Council. Surrounding Theodan stood a row of guard dressed in black - The Menodice. From the centre of the row one guard stepped forward and raised a gleaming black sword above his head and brought it down.

Her heart hammered in her chest as her cold clammy hands gripped hard to Elyon of Lethane's tunic. A nightmare, nothing more. He lived still, she felt it.

When she lifted her head she saw they were in some dusty, flattened valley where peaks of solid earth stretched out around them on all sides. A shallow stream cut through the centre of it, the cool rushing blue journeying downward and around the curve of a grassy rise. Her mouth ached thirstily at the sight of it.

Elyon brought the Varveh to a gentle halt and turned his head over his shoulder to check if she was awake.

'We will stop here,' he told her as he slid down from the saddle, moving to unloosen the straps of her harness. He didn't look at her while he worked, but lifted his eyes to hers when he'd finished and offered out his hands and lifted her down.  The base of her spine ached, the inside of her thighs, her upper back, and she had a burning knot in the crease of her neck owing to her awkward sleeping position. But it was the dull ache in her chest that groaned louder than any other complaint. Loss and fear, dread and regret. It emptied and filled her at the same time. 

As she raised her arms to stretch out her aches she watched Elyon lead his Varveh to water. While the beast drank he removed the bag affixed to the saddle and moved to take a seat in the grass, his back pushed up against a large boulder and his long legs pulled up at the knees. The saddlebag between his legs, he first pulled out a lump of something wrapped in thin grey cloth. Then a leather-bound skin of something which he held out to her.

Her mouth lurching with thirst, she crossed to where he sat and reached out to take the jug from him. The water was cool and refreshing and she let it rush down her throat in several long gulps. When she held it back out to Elyon, he shook his head, indicating to his belt where a slightly smaller leather flask hung. Next, he handed her one half of the chunk of dark bread he had unwrapped. Fara glanced at it and shook her head. She wasn't hungry.  Her appetite replaced instead by something thick and nauseating, churning loudly. Dread and fear.

'You must eat,' Elyon said. It was not a command, not like Theodan might have commanded her. It sounded more like a helpful suggestion. He held it out to her a moment longer before wrapping it back up in the cloth with a soft sigh of impatience. His chunk he tore with his teeth and chewed at happily. Not wanting to sit again, she moved instead to stand by the large boulder and leaned her back against it.  Words rose and fell on her tongue like waves upon the shore. 

'What will happen to him?' She asked finally. 

Elyon looked up at her, a question in his eyes.

'The Visier will know what he's done,' she said. 'She will know and he will be brought before them.' 

Elyon raised an eyebrow. 'Then you speak of Theo, not your brother?'

Guilt flared. She had of course considered Panos's fate may well be the same as Theodan's, it was only that she had far more readily accepted the idea that she would never see her brother again. He was a soldier of an enemy army. Leoth would have no cause to spare him, she had to accept it. It was Theodan she worried for now; it was his death she feared more than any other.