CHOSEN (7 page)

“May the Gods go with you both,” he said, as he recapped the vial. “Now, we’re finished.”

Maralt eased back, not certain what had just happened, but knew there was more to it than Gradyn fainting. Back with Carryn, he took her by the arm and drew her through the side doorway out of the Temple with him. There was something wrong and there was only one place he knew to look for a problem.

“The Room of Orbs,” Carryn said and Maralt nodded.

They waited until they were out of sight to hurry down the outer hallway. The corridor moved by in a blur, following the line of the sanctuary and then a series of short halls, turning right, left, and then left once more as they rushed from the Temple.

Maralt didn’t know what to expect. He’d seen the High Bishop in the room on occasion, but couldn’t go in himself. He’d been warned, a number of times, it would mean his death if he dared it.

He and Carryn stopped at the entrance. A strange, low-pitched vibration came from the room. The crystals weren’t clear any more but nearly filled with roiling black, like storm clouds accelerated in their formation. Even as they watched, a coiling band detached from one orb and joined another.

“How is that possible?” Carryn said, breathing hard more from fear than the rush to get there.

Maralt responded by pulling her behind him, and putting an arm in front of her. She looked around him to see the room when he wanted to take her as far away from this place as he could.

“The Six aren’t contained anymore,” he said, trying to fathom how that could have happened. There wasn’t any other explanation for what they were seeing. “They aren’t here in the world. Yet. I don’t know what’s stopping them.”

An undulating band came from the center most crystal, and shot forward to the entryway. For a second, Maralt thought it would keep coming, breach the tenuous barrier and enter the world. He tensed, wondering what he could do to prevent the next catastrophe.

It came right to the plane of the entryway and held there as if it was looking at them.

Carryn pulled him by the arm, making him take a step back. “What could cause this?”

“I can think of a few things,” Maralt said, watching the coil pulsing as if testing for weaknesses. It looked like the same dark bands from Carryn’s vision.

“The talisman is the only...” Carryn said. “You’re talking about the talisman? Dynan has it?”

“I don’t know.” Maralt pulled her back from the room. He didn’t like the feel of it. “We should go.”

Carryn agreed and they retraced their steps back toward the Sanctuary, but didn’t feel any lessening of the sense of evil. They rounded a corner and the veil of dread lifted abruptly. Maralt looked around for the cause, confused since they were alone, until he heard voices approaching. He saw the blaze of light advancing toward them.

“Your hood,” he said to Carryn, and pulled on his own.

Carryn yanked the hood down to cover her face and stuffed her hands into the sleeve of her robes to hide the fact that she was a woman. They both put their backs to the wall a second before the King’s entourage came to the corner.

Maralt could see through the weave of the fabric that the High Bishop was with them, surrounded by other members of the Palace household, and trailing a line of monks. Gradyn walked with Dynan on one side and Dain on the other. Each held an arm out for him to lean on and they moved with slow care.

While he seemed all right, Maralt thought Gradyn was just holding on until everyone left. It was difficult to tell because of the glowing white light that enveloped him. Standing inside that nimbus was probably the only reason he was still on his feet.

“Forgive me for the distraction,” Gradyn said, “and the disruption. The reception would have been the most enjoyable part of the day.”

Dynan shook his head without looking up from the floor though he did smile for a second. Maralt could feel his relief.

“We don’t mind, Eminence,” Dain said for him. “Really, we don’t.”

“Of course. I suppose the best part is having it all over with,” Gradyn said with a dry laugh. He patted Dynan’s hand. “I think today, I completely agree. Thank you again for your quick reaction. You saved me quite a bruising. Both of you.”

“Are you sure you’re all right now?” Ambrose asked as he stopped at the intersection of halls. “Dr. Elger can stay if you want him to.”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary. It’s passing. Eldelar doesn’t have a cure for old age anyway.”

“Not yet, though I do keep asking him to work on it,” the King said with a slight smile. “All right then. We’ll leave you to a much more restful afternoon, and don’t worry about the reception. We’ll have something in a week or two at the Palace. You can come over for that. If you’d like.”

“I’d like it very much, Your Majesty. I appreciate your understanding.”

Dynan and Dain let him go and at their father’s nod left the building through the side door. The hall seemed suddenly plunged into darkness.

Maralt waited for all the pleasantries to conclude and for the rest of the Royal exit before moving to Gradyn’s side, sensing that he was at the end of endurance. The door closed, cutting off the warble of the transfers pulling away.

Maralt wrapped his arms around Gradyn as his knees gave out. He dismissed the other hovering monks with a wave of his hand, holding the High Bishop up.

“What is it?” Maralt asked as Carryn moved to help on the other side.

Gradyn couldn’t speak, though he tried to, clutching at Maralt without effect.

“The Room of Orbs—” Carryn started to say, but Gradyn cut her off.

“He’s gone,” he said.

Maralt tightened his grip as the High Bishop collapsed unconscious. Carryn looked with bewildered eyes as Maralt leaned and picked him up. He hardly weighed anything at all.

“Who?” she said. “Who’s gone?”

~*~

Chapter 6

Maralt knocked softly at the door to the High Bishop’s bedroom and then didn’t wait for an answer to look in. Carryn sat in the small room by his bedside and she shook her head in response to the unasked question. They’d taken turns through the night watching over him, but Gradyn hadn’t stirred. He was breathing. His heart beat as usual. A Temple physician had checked him again and found nothing wrong.

“I’ve got this,” Maralt said. “Go get some sleep.”

She shook her head again, but dragged to her feet. “What’s happening at the Palace?”

“Nothing. They spent the rest of the day in their rooms yesterday. Dain was drawing and Dynan was...I don’t know exactly.”

“Does he have it?”

“I couldn’t tell. It’s hard to get near him without Dain coming right in. It’s like they never separate. Since yesterday, every time I tried to reach Dynan, I ran into Dain instead. I’m not sure I could stand that kind of over-protective, constant presence.”

“You’re the same way with me,” Carryn said.

“I am not.”

“Are too,” she said. “You don’t even realize you’re doing it. I don’t mind. I imagine that Dain is the same way toward Dynan. Watching over his brother is a part of who he is, just like you watching over me is part of you. There are some things it’s just not worth arguing about, Maralt, and this is one of them. What about the orbs?”

“The same. No worse. No better.”

“What are we going to do?” Carryn asked.

“I could get to Dynan, and find out if he has the talisman, but I might not be able to make him forget the intrusion. Dain will be all over me so I’ll have to make him forget too. It would hurt them both to force it, quite a lot.”

“I can’t believe we weren’t warned,” she said.

“It isn’t your fault, Carryn. You haven’t ever had any control over what you see.”

“I feel like I’ve let everyone down.”

“You haven’t,” Maralt said, looking down at the High Bishop. “He would say the same thing. Go get some sleep. If things change, I’ll need you here.”

“Don’t try to reach Dynan,” she said when she reached the doorway, and nodded to Gradyn. “He wouldn’t want you to.”

“The alternative is to wait for him to tell us. In this case, I’m not so sure waiting is a good idea.”

“I think until we know who’s gone, especially since it isn’t Dynan or Dain, we don’t have a choice,” she said.

“You sound just like him,” Maralt said.

“I do not.”

He nodded instead of answering and she rolled off the door, leaving him to the watch.

“I do not,” her thought reached him, and Maralt laughed over her stubbornness. She would argue if he answered, so he blocked his thoughts from her until she let it go.

He settled back in the chair by the High Bishop and waited until Carryn was asleep in her room. Maralt thought about not reaching Dynan for a moment or two, but didn’t listen to the internal arguments for long. He concentrated. It was a little like tiptoeing up behind someone, hiding back in the shadows of other thoughts.

It wasn’t quite dawn yet so he didn’t expect either of the twins would be awake, but Maralt found Dynan looking out one of the windows of his rooms. He was dressed for the day. Dynan wore a cloak over a coat and gloves. Maralt knew their schedule. There wasn’t anything on it to suggest they would be going out at this hour.

Again, being this close to Dynan was like standing in a pool of liquid flame, not quite being burned but not entirely comfortable either. The eddying glow was distracting. It was intoxicating being inside it, throwing Maralt into a state of near euphoria that made thinking clearly difficult.

Dynan turned around sharply, searching his room. Too close, Maralt concentrated on the wall paneling, studying the way the grain of the wood ran in lines and loops, the shade of stain and how it saturated one area and not another. It was difficult but not impossible to hide this way, invisible to Dynan by making him see what was familiar instead of Maralt.

The Prince was sensitive, but untrained. Maralt managed the visual cover for a moment or two. Dynan frowned over it, staring hard at the wall, but then went back to looking outside.

Maralt meant to look for the talisman in Dynan’s thoughts, but found he couldn’t get any closer. A palpable wall kept him out. He couldn’t get by it without using force and making Dynan aware of him. The shadow was still there and Maralt wondered if it was self-propagating. He shook his head at the thought. The talisman was an object, not a living thing.

Sensing Dynan was about to discover him, Maralt backed off. He realized too that he was using a huge amount of energy to stay hidden. He felt himself shaking. Fatigue flowed through him. He couldn’t stay much longer and remain unseen.

Dynan pulled a comboard from a pocket and looked at it briefly before setting it down on the table by his bed. Everyone carried one, so leaving his behind was deliberate. Without it, he couldn’t be traced.

Dynan turned from the window then and left his bedroom. He moved down the hall toward the kitchen, but stopped about halfway, across from a guest bedroom where a chair stood in an alcove with its high back against the wall. The next instant, Dain was there. He was wearing his sword and Maralt realized Dynan was too.

“Did you get the gold?” Dynan asked as he approached. Dain nodded, but his expression changed as he looked hard at his brother.

The surroundings melted and frayed, blending with the stone wall of the High Bishop’s room. Maralt’s body shook as he sat by the old man, trying at the same time to stay at the Palace.

Dain was tucking away a bulging leather coin purse into an inside coat pocket. He wore a heavy cloak too, and drew on a pair of gloves before stepping up onto the chair. He attached a small spanner to the back, which then sealed the chair to the wall with a click. Maralt didn’t understand why until Dain climbed up onto the upholstered high back, and perched there while he popped the alcove ceiling out of place. He lifted the piece up above the roof beams of the Palace, sliding it out of the way. The next moment, he pulled himself up into the hole. Dynan followed him.

Maralt meant to stay with them, but his strength failed right as he caught sight of the Palace rafters. Dain was already making his way along a thick beam aiming for the far corner of the building. Maralt wanted to know where they were going, but Dain looked back. It was like getting body slammed and Maralt’s vision blurred. When it cleared, he was sitting beside the High Bishop again.

“You’ll find staying with them increasingly difficult,” Gradyn said and startled Maralt. “They’ll see you eventually.”

“Maybe it’s time they do,” Maralt said, and poured a glass of water. His hands were shaking when he held it out.

Gradyn pushed himself to a sitting position, wincing as he moved, and took the glass. He sipped the water and shook his head. “Not like this, no.”

“I think Dynan has the talisman,” Maralt said.

Gradyn only nodded, setting the glass on the table and drew his legs over the side of the cot.

Maralt knew it was true before this confirmation, but it still came as a shock. “How?”

“Does it surprise you that enemies of the light have the means to so easily change what we know?” Gradyn shook his head. “I’m too old for these times, Maralt. This shouldn’t have happened.”

“But it has, and we have to do something to counter it.”

Gradyn shook his head again. “Some things can’t be changed back.”

“I can take the talisman from him,” Maralt said.

“The talon was a catalyst, a way to weaken the boundary so they could break through.”

“I can stop this.”

“No, Maralt, you can’t. Not alone. You were never meant to do this alone.”

“Then with who?” Maralt asked. He didn’t think Gradyn meant Carryn and the old man seemed reluctant to explain. “You said yesterday that someone was gone. Who?”

Gradyn frowned over it, holding an internal debate visible in his aged face. He said often enough he was afraid of revealing something that could change the future. It was the same reaction he had when Carryn had a vision they had questions about. All his life, Maralt had seen the High Bishop struggle with this burden. He didn’t want to add to it.