Mortals & Deities Read Online Free PDF Page B

No, his instructor had simply delivered the message he was told to, a message sent to him from Hath’oolan. Sier Sarlimac must believe him dead as well if he had told his parents this. Alant paced over the trampled wheat he had slept on. It was the only thing that made sense. Sarlimac would not have betrayed him.
    Yet, how could he have thought me dead before the Elmorians took me down to the Chi’utlan?
    “Son?” Tanin reached out and grasped Alant’s sleeve, ripping him from his thoughts. “Are you in trouble? Did you run away?”
    His papa’s question was so obviously the answer, all Alant could do was gawk at him open-mouthed. “Aye.” How could he have missed it? It seemed so clear to him now. “Aye! I ran away! That must be it!” He remembered it now. Those last few moments in the Chamber of the Chi’utlan. The fear he held for the Gralet’nars. Them drawing their swords and advancing. All he thought of was running. Fleeing to somewhere safe. “Home! That is where I wanted to be! Here, safe at home! It was my last thought before it happened.” He frowned at his papa. “Still, how? How did I come here?”
    “Son, you are making no sense. You must be delirious from traveling so far all alone. Though I cannot imagine how you crossed the Great Ocean as a runaway.” Tanin slipped his arm around Alant’s shoulders and started to guide him to the road. “Come, let us get you inside. You must have been traveling for moons now. Your mother will be—”
    “Traveling!” He pushed his papa away. “That is what I did! I Traveled!”
    Concern washed over his father’s features, and he once again slipped his arm over Alant’s shoulders and pulled him toward the road. “Aye, son. You have been traveling. You are not well. Come with me. Let me care for you.”
    The sincerity in the man’s tone made Alant laugh. The shocked look that his papa held hearing him laugh made Alant laugh even harder. “Nix, Papa. I am well. Answers are falling into place for me. Answers to questions you do not know have been asked. Come.” Alant flipped his arm around Tanin’s shoulders. “You say Ma thinks her son is dead? Let us prove to her she is mistaken. Besides, I am starving!”
    His papa, not looking convinced, let Alant pull him out onto the gravel road.
    When they arrived at the stead, Flinnok Nime stepped out of the gate and came down the road to meet them. “Tanin, first one, now the other of your dead sons have returned. Though this one looks more the worse for the wear than Arderi did.”
    “Arderi is here?” With all that had been thrust upon him, Alant had forgotten that his brother would have been Tested by now. He knew his brother held the power within him. Though he had not known how at the time, he felt it in his brother long ago. “Why is he not at the Chandril’elian in Mocley?”
    “Nix, Arderi is not here.” His papa nodded to Flinnok and gripped his outstretched hand. “He was. Left the morn after he returned from the Nektine.”
    “Arderi was in the Nektine?” Alant was stunned. “Why did he not go to Mocley?”
    Tanin smiled at him. “You are not the only one who lives with secrets, son.” Looking back to Flinnok, his smile grew. “If you will excuse us, Nime. I think this boy’s Ma will be put off if she finds out we lingered at the gate.”
    The old Guarder grunted. “Aye, I suppose she might at that. Good morn to you both.” Spinning on his heel, he walked back to the small building just on the inside of the walls. Before he stepped through the door, he turned. “And do not think I will not ask how you knew he was out there, Tanin. Yet, for now, get the lad home to his Ma.”
    When they rounded the corner that led to the fielder housing section, Alant took a deep breath. Near three turns of the seasons had passed and yet the place still looked, felt and even smelled the same.
    Simple. Safe…Home.
    A sense of peace filled his spirit like the grin filling his face. With each step he