The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador Read Online Free Page B

friend. What was he becoming, she wondered, now that the crown pressed its mark on his brow?
    “ Sister.” His voice broke the silence after only a moment. She was surprised, expecting to have to wait until he had finished. “I'm glad you've come.”
    He rose with Blassen's help, the old guardsman as straight-faced and unreadable as ever. The guard to his left was unfamiliar to her.
    “ Brother,” she responded, kneeling and touching her forehead with two fingers. A flush crept up into her neck as she held the pose. The last time she had seen him he had yet been uncertain of his position, had still sought her counsel. She could tell by his tone that he had grown considerably in the last year.
    “ Please, Rain.” There was a smile in his voice, “You don't have to bow to me. At least not in private.”
    She rose, allowing relief to make itself felt before she remembered her charge. But before she could get the words out she found her brother directly in front of her. Oh Rendin, her heart sank. How you've aged. His beautiful golden curls had thinned to wisps. Blotches covered his once porcelain skin. A shadow of his former self, he appeared well over twice his age.
    She reached out to touch his face, finding it cold and clammy under her calloused fingers. He winced as if in pain, then looked into her eyes. The intensity was still there. The deep, passionate man lived on within this shell. She could see that in an instant.
    “ I've seen him, Rain.” His hand found hers on his cheek as she studied his face. “I know he's escaping. I know that's why you've come.”
    Her mind snapped back to her message, but it seemed as though she had been preceded. “You know?”
    “ Yes,” he said as his strength seemed to give out momentarily. Blassen was at his elbow in an instant, steadying his King as he lowered him to the steps to sit. “He has help from the outside. It would appear he has found new friends, and we are helpless to stop them.”
    “ No, brother.” She lowered herself until she was at eye level with him again. “We have friends too, ones who are more powerful than we could have hoped for.”
    “ That is good news indeed.” Rendin smiled kindly, but his heart was not behind it. “But I fear your friends will prove too little, too late.”
    “ Can you dispatch soldiers to the mountain to help him?”
    Rendin sighed as he picked the silver circlet off his head and placed it on his lap. He rubbed the line in his forehead with one hand as the emeralds on his crown dimly caught the passing torchlight. “We have no army that can stand against the Relequim alone, Rain.”
    She felt her hope die to hear the words, because coming from Rendin, she knew they were true.
    “ At least not at the Tomb. He won't be constrained by the mountains. There's no way to force engagement, and even if there were, who knows what damage he would wreak?” He sighed again as their eyes met. “The Magi are gone, Rain; I can feel it now. I never thought I would carry father's legacy where his magic was concerned, but at the very least I know them to be gone.”
    She could only nod in silence as she watched her brother break before her. She knew it to be true as well; it was everything she had been told.
    “ The Brethren may return, but who's to say they can perform without the help of the Magi? And we haven't armies to stand as we once did.”
    “ But he certainly can't have much of an army either, Rendin.” Her tone wasn't nearly as encouraging as she had intended it to be.
    “ He doesn't need much of one, little sister. He only needs enough to tie us up, to hold us off. He's working on something, some weapon or witchcraft. I don't know what it is, but I have seen it in my dreams.” His face drew taut as his eyes reached up to meet her own. “I have seen it in my dreams, Rain. We need to move quickly. We need to find the heart of what he's doing and strike at it now... or we're lost.”

T HREE
     

    T HE GROUND IS COLD THIS