Sins of Calate: BOOK II OF THE FOUR REALMS SERIES

Part IX | Theodan

The walls of the tunnel glimmered from slick wet heat that ran in oily rivulets down its face. He'd felt unsettled since they'd landed in the grove outside. No, before, since he'd said farewell to Vala on the edge of the scaress grove. Something hovered on the cusp of his consciousness, as though a vision chased him just beyond the shadows of his mind. It pressed against his skull, behind the lids of his eyes, down upon his chest.

Not now. Please, Gods, not now.

He stopped and braced himself against the wall, squeezing his eyes closed as he tried to force it back.

'You have fought them your whole life. It is no longer an option for you.' She sounded almost concerned. He prised open his eyes. She leaned now on the wall adjacent, watching him intensely. Nothing she had done so far made sense to him. Not truly. 'Each is a message. You must learn to interpret and bind them to your will. Then will come the rest.'

Still, he tried to fight it, just as he fought every encroachment upon his mind. Anything else was submission.

'Stop it,' he hissed, his voice a low growl. 'If this is some kind of lesson, then I welcome it, but there is no time for it now.'

'You are weak,' she told him simply. 'In the same way that all males are weak. It is why females were chosen to harness and interpret His gifts. The all-sight is lives lived; lives to be lived. What can a male know of harnessing life within them?'

'And yet I have carried this curse within me, alone, my whole life.'

'An inkblot on an ocean compared with what you now possess.'

He smiled weakly. 'I wondered how long it would take you,' he gritted. 'Perhaps your intention was always to lead me to the dungeons? Tear the succession from me upon the Andur?'

'It was your idea to break into the dungeons of the Ebon Reach, Theodan,' she reminded him. 'Your idea to risk our lives for that of the prince of Calate. And for what? The delusion of love?'  

'He will be far more useful to us alive.'

She smiled, sardonically. 'I am not Vala of Estrerus, you need not bother hiding your true intent behind a feeble facade. I am not in love with you.'

'Thank the Dark One for that,' he muttered, pushing past her. 

She rushed to catch his strides. 'But I assure you, if it were possible to rip it from you, I would have done so already. The succession cannot be taken by force. It is given and accepted freely. And you, warrior, will be worthy of it.'

He stopped and turned to her. 'A threat?'

'Think it more as a vow.'

Not wide enough for them to walk side by side, the entrance to the dungeons through the foot of the rock was a steep winding incline carved through the mountain itself. Hot, airless, and dark he had to reach out and pull Ismene up the last section before it began to level off and round to the left. As they stopped to catch their breath at the top of the rise, Theodan leaned around the curve of the rock. A slice of light cut through the dark from beneath a door up ahead.

'It may not have worked,' she said quietly. 'Are you prepared to kill another Leoth to save this human?' Her pale eyes glowed slightly. There was no judgement in her voice, only curiosity. Perhaps even a bud of concern. She'd said nothing as he'd relayed his plan. Not a word as Vala had railed and protested against it, decrying it as madness, that the danger was too great, that to enter the court again was lunacy. She'd said nothing even as Vala told him she'd never forgive him for risking his life like this.

'No one shall die,' he vowed.

She studied him a moment. 'I have never been able to decide if it is vanity or foolishness which moulds you.' She sniffed, turning from him to hurry toward the door. Made from battered reinforced steel, the door had a small viewing panel cut into the centre of it. Ismene raised her hand and pounded hard on the door.