Best Laid Plans Read Online Free PDF

Frater Jarmin.’
    ‘I rather suspect, Frater Narcus, that the truth is not dissimilar to a mirror in this land of limbo,’ Jarmin said.
    ‘Tajen, Tajen,’ Milo said, raising his hands in mock dismay. ‘How quickly you have sullied the soul of our new brother. Where is your trust? How can we best help you?’
    There was genuine concern in the big man’s words and no hint of any concession that Tajen might be right. Indeed, Shader could see nothing but absolute, unquestioning harmony in all those assembled, with the exception of Tajen and Jarmin. Perhaps they were simply not ready yet. Maybe Araboth had its layers, different degrees of peace and luminosity, just as some of the Paters had speculated.
    Milo turned his attention back to Shader. ‘Besides Frater Jarmin, you are the first to enter Araboth for centuries.’
    ‘No one else has come here? Then why us?’ Shader asked.
    Milo spread his hands and let out a great sigh. ‘Humans never learn. They cannot easily let go their inner darkness. They are closed to Ain’s gift of life. The longer human society endures the more evil it seems to become. Jarmin and you are rare exceptions of holiness.’
    ‘Poppycock!’ Jarmin growled from beneath his rock.
    Milo merely smiled benignly.
    ‘But my father…’ The memory of Jarl bobbed to the surface of Shader’s mind, an island in an empty sea. ‘Was he rejected because he had no faith? What about all the priests? The Ipsissimi? Why are they not—?’
    ‘Will you walk with me, Deacon Shader?’ Tajen asked, his brow furrowed with concern.
    Shader eyed him for a moment and then nodded. Something felt very wrong. If this was Araboth, why did he feel an old familiar knotting in his stomach? Whatever brief harmony he had first felt was already being dashed apart by waves of discord. It made no sense. What was he doing here when far better people had not made it?
    ‘Be wary of the tempter,’ Milo said as the two set off. ‘Frater Tajen has fallen at the final hurdle, I think. If he does not drag you down, then perhaps you can help us bring him back to Ain.’
    Shader and Tajen walked in silence for an age. The sun never once shifted its position in the sky, which was alive with the majestic movement of brightly coloured birds and butterflies. Tajen kept his eyes on the ground; his presence was dull and leaden in comparison with the tranquil beauty that surrounded them.
    ‘Would you stay here for all eternity?’ Tajen finally asked, seating himself on a verdant hillock.
    Shader sighed and lowered himself to the ground, running his hands through the grass and savouring its sweet scent. ‘It’s certainly peaceful.’
    Tajen watched him closely until Shader felt compelled to speak again. ‘If not for you, and Jarmin,’ he said carefully, ‘my contentment would be complete.’
    Tajen did not look offended. He nodded thoughtfully before dropping his gaze and idly drawing in the earth with his finger. ‘Have you no thought for those you so recently left behind?’
    Lightning ripped through Shader’s mind, dispersing the fog. He gasped for air as if he were waking from being buried alive. He had completely forgotten Rhiannon, Maldark, the priests, and the White Order knights. Were they still trapped in the crypt beneath the templum? What if the Dweller had—?
    ‘Ah, good!’ Tajen clapped his hands and, for a moment, actually looked lively. ‘You feel some guilt.’
    ‘That’s a good thing?’
    ‘Milo and the others believe we need no longer be concerned with the world. The only thing that matters to them is eternal peace.’
    ‘Perhaps they are right,’ Shader said.
    ‘If Ain is concerned for Creation,’ Tajen said, ‘for human life on Earth, then should not we be?’
    It wasn’t just Shader’s memories that had returned. The jagged edge of his cynicism reasserted itself like a rusty blade. ‘How do we know that is what Ain is like?’
    ‘Nous! That is how we know! That is why we are Nousians, is it