The Nemesis Blade Read Online Free Page B

for me during those Abyss dreams, and he
has come over the years when we needed him to be our grandfather.
He came when we achieved adulthood, as he will for you. He is
Elixir, yes, but he’s still Torrullin, a man who loves his
family.”
    Tianoman spoke
next. “Your father should be the one, Tristan. Let Samuel go … or
we wait until my Coming-of-Age.”
    Tristan gave a
mirthless smile. “We are afraid of him. I won’t add to my father’s
troubles right now and I don’t think we should wait almost a month
to tell him something he needs to know immediately.”
    “Maybe he
knows,” Teroux suggested.
    “And maybe he
doesn’t.”
    “What do you
suggest?” Tianoman asked.
    “All three of
us go.”
    Sirlasin
nodded.
    Teroux gave a
heartfelt sigh. “When?”
    Tristan said,
“Well, let us not set alarms ringing for the Beaconite downstairs.
After the man leaves in the morning, we go.”
    Tianoman
pulled a face. “Fine. Sirlasin, let us get back to Vall to
organise.” The Elder agreed and the two left.
    Teroux looked
at Tristan. “Why are we afraid of Torrullin?”
    “He can see
through us into our hidden thoughts, I guess.”
    “So?”
    “Ah, Teroux,
maybe you have nothing to hide, but Tian certainly does and I think
I may have, too.”
    “Like what?”
Teroux whispered.
    “That bloody
Throne, my brother. It plays with us now.”
    Teroux looked
away. “Yes.”

Chapter
4
     
    A place to lay
my head, Samaritan, please. All gods bless you.
    ~ Beggar to
passer-by
     
     
    Sanctuary
     
    T orrullin agreed on this world as sanctuary not only
because it offered the kind of benign natural order to aid
restoration of the soul, body and mind, but over its timing in
seasons and day-night cycles.
    Sanctuary
closely matched Valaris in both. When it was morning on Valaris, it
was morning on Sanctuary, and when it was winter here, it was
winter there.
    He swore to
stay away from Valaris to spare his homeworld - for trouble
invariably accompanied him - and had stayed away, other than the
two Coming-of-Age ceremonies. Every day was a battle to ignore his
world.
    Thus
Sanctuary. In living the same cycles he could be there in mind. It
was how he coped.
    The weather
was bleak and cold this mid-morning,. Winter set her tentacles onto
the land and would soon burrow in. Already there was ice on Lake
Averis in the mornings and soon Lake Altar would sport icy patches
also. Fortunately neither froze completely, or shipping would be a
trial during winter months.
    He stood on
the jetty jutting into Lake Averis staring at the swirling mists
rising from the small island two and a half sals from where he was.
The island was uninhabited and unnamed, a strange little place he
tended to shy from.
    His thoughts
were on Lowen, although not with her, for Lowen had vanished so
completely it was as if she never existed. Teighlar, it appeared,
was the last to see her. Grinwallin was the final place she visited
before vanishing.
    No trace, no
word, no clue and not even Elixir’s sight could find her. And no
more dreams.
    Where was she?
What happened to her? Why had she sent a call through the spaces?
It had been a call, he now realised, and something befell the
Xenian seer; it was not premonition and it was not a dream.
    He used the
sight to delve the universe, known realms, and even resorted to
Wiccan scrying to find her … and nothing.
    It was time to
set his Kaval to investigating her absence, the project she was
working on and her movements over the last year - more, if it
proved necessary. Lowen was Kaval; they would not question the
task.
    Three forms
materialised on the grassy bank, and seemed unsure. Their backs
were to him, facing his home, but he knew them, far better than
they suspected and definitely more than they knew him.
    Tristan,
Teroux and Tianoman. His three grandsons.
    Why had they
come? This was the first time they had been to Sanctuary and it was
also the first time he sensed a shared mission. Something was
wrong.
    Lowen,