Mortals & Deities Read Online Free PDF

and start back down the road. “Papa?” Tanin Cor froze. He did not turn around, instead stood in the middle of the road like a statue. “Papa, is that you? What are you doing out here?”
    As if the added sentence broke some spell, Tanin spun around to face his son. Looks of shock, fear and elation all fought for dominance on his face. “Alant?” His lower lip quivered as if he were about to cry. “My son?” The two men stared at each other for long, anxious moments. Then his papa’s face scrunched and tears fell from his eyes. “My son!” Tanin ran into the field. When he reached Alant, he stopped, as if unsure of what to do next. Reaching out a shaking hand, he brushed Alant’s cheek. “It really is you.” Before Alant could reply, Tanin embraced him and Alant fought to breathe under the crush of his papa’s hug.
    Loud sobs broke from Tanin when Alant returned his hug. “Aye, Papa. It is me.”
    Tanin pulled him away to arm’s length. “Let me get a look at you, boy! Let me get a good look at you!”
    Elation over seeing his papa was replaced by fear of what the man would see, and Alant pulled away, turning his head. “Papa, I…”
    “Alant, son, what is wrong? What are you doing out here?” Tanin reached out, cupped his fingers under his son’s chin, and pulled his head back to face him.
    “I do not know, Papa. Please do not be afraid of me.”
    A chuckle escaped his father as he wiped the tears from his face. “Afraid of you, boy? Why, by the Twelve, would I be afraid of you?”
    “My eyes, I do not know what has happened to them, yet…” Alant flinched as Tanin leaned closer.
    “What of your eyes, son? I see nothing wrong.”
    Raising a hand, Alant touched his cheek. “They are not red?”
    “Aye, a little bloodshot mayhaps. Yet, nothing a good eve’s rest will not cure.” Tanin glanced around the field, his eyes coming to stop on the spot Alant had slept last night. “Why are you out here? How did you get here?” His father waved a hand around the area. “Is that where you slept? Why did you not come home? I am sure the guarders would have let you inside, even after dark.”
    Alant glanced at the crushed wheat stalks he had used for his bed, then shrugged his shoulders. “Why are you out here, Papa?”
    Tanin reached up and rubbed his chin, still staring at the spot where Alant had slept. “I had the weirdest…” He looked back into Alant’s eyes. “I saw you. Late last night. Your calls woke me. You needed me. Kept calling out to me. You were…here.” He waved a hand encompassing the field. “I felt I had to come here.” He laughed again. “Your Ma said I was crazy for leaving before firstmeal. Even once they opened the gates, the guarders did not want to let me go out alone. Had Flinnok Nime not been on duty, I think a few of them would have dragged me off to the Shapers, thinking me ill.” Tanin reached out and put a hand on Alant’s shoulder. “Yet, that does not explain anything. I thought you had been sent to Elmorr’eth. I thought you were…”
    Pain danced through Tanin’s eyes so deep that Alant reached out and put a hand on his papa’s arm. “Thought I was what, Papa?”
    A single tear escaped Tanin’s eye and raced down his cheek. “Dead. We were told you had died during your training with the Elmorians.”
    “When? How?” Alant’s knees went weak.
    “Near a tenday gone now. We received a Crystal from some Shaper in Mocley.”
    Looking back at his papa, Alant no longer felt weak. Anger replaced it. “Shaper? Who?”
    Tanin looked at him in surprise. “The name he gave was Sarlimac. Sier Baroth Sarlimac. He said he was one of your teachers.”
    Fists clenching, Alant’s mind raced. “Aye, he was .”
    “Son, did he wrong you in some way?”
    Did he? Did my instructor betray me somehow? Send me off to die at the hands of the Elmorians? Nix. Sier Sarlimac gave me the Tarsith. He warned me about the Elmorians.
    Reason took hold and his anger abated.