The Nemesis Blade Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Why we couldn’t wait for your Coming-of-Age.”
    “I see now,”
Tianoman nodded.
    Torrullin’s
mouth tightened. “Let us eat, boys, then we talk.” He grinned a
moment later. “Boys? You aren’t boys anymore, and you, Tristan, are
now a year older than I am physiologically. How … strange.”
    “Rather,”
Tristan muttered as they followed him indoors.
     
     
    Torrullin
cooked a light meal to much banter, and they ate from their laps
before the fireplace in one of the sitting rooms.
    The day grew
colder and gloomier. Wind howled around the corners of the
villa.
    “Are you
coming to me with fact or rumour?” Torrullin prompted
eventually.
    “Rumour,”
Teroux said.
    “Then I don’t
need to hear where you got it from. Just give me the tale.”
    Teroux and
Tianoman both looked at Tristan, a gesture not lost on
Torrullin.
    “Well, it
concerns Sanctuary. People say you are preparing an army here.”
    Torrullin
lifted his brows. “Let them sniff around, then, and go away
appeased.”
    “Yes, but they
say you are using the Kaval and this mythical army to make the
universe yours.”
    “A far-fetched
notion, don’t you think?”
    “You want to
make the Valleur as before, rulers over all, and in particular
there is to be three kingdoms,” Tristan added.
    “Ah. One for
each of you?”
    Teroux
nodded.
    “Untrue.”
    “Rumour may be
believed,” Tianoman murmured.
    Torrullin
poured three glasses of wine, handed them over and then poured
himself one thoughtfully. “And if rumour is to be believed, you
think someone may conceive of another force, a foil for mine. I see
your reasoning, but it would …”
    He stilled.
Then his glass smashed upon the stone floor.
    “Why the rock,
layers of texture and colour, like time built on time, if not to
point the way … but backwards. Backwards, by god.”
    The three
Valla cousins stared at him.
    He ignored
them. “An ancient threat or one long foretold … and she found it.
Go back to the source. Sanctuary is built on ancient foundations,
on singing stones.” He rose and paced away. “An army to meet an
army, the stones foretold.” He stared at the three without seeing
them. “Three kingdoms inundated on this world. Who would know that?
Lowen, after unravelling the mystery, and one who sees as she does
… or is an Ancient.”
    He sat and
stared intently at Tristan.
    “Tell me
everything you know, even who you heard it from.”

Chapter
5
     
    The man knelt
before the altar, looking at the stones his knees rested on. I ask
you, friend, how can anyone know what is in this man’s mind?
Penitence? Or is his a liar’s action?
    ~ Arc, poet
     
     
    The Dome
     
    T he Dragon ogive chimed.
    The Kaval
straightened. Elixir had been long absent from the Dome.
    He strode in.
“Belun!”
    “Yes, my
Lord?”
    “Seal the
ogives immediately.”
    “Gods,” the
Centuar muttered to himself and did as bid. He moved away from the
dais as Torrullin headed to it.
    “Is everyone
here?” Elixir demanded, and passed his hands over the blinking
lights of the dais. It sought recognition from Elixir as others
once sought recognition from it.
    “All currently
present,” Fuma, the Deorc Immortal, murmured.
    “Why is that?”
Torrullin frowned at Jonas, in charge of assignments.
    “We have an
interlude in effect, m-my Lord,” Jonas stammered in reply.
    “Ah, and I do
not believe in coincidence .Very well, take seats. I have new
assignments for each of you.”
    Seats were
found at the semi-circular conference slab.
    “I have
unsettling news. Lowen has vanished without a trace, but before she
did she managed to send a clue as to her whereabouts. This is not
personal, Kaval, understand that.” He stared at them and then,
satisfied, continued. “Further to her disappearance, unpalatable
rumours have come to my attention. I believe the two are
linked.”
    He gave an
account of the rumours and briefly related what he knew of
Lowen.
    His Kaval did
not see a connection.
    A