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Authors: Elaina J Davidson

Tags: #dark fantasy, #time travel, #shamanism, #swords and sorcery, #realm travel

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BOOK: The Echolone Mine
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“I will fight
you.”

Elianas closed
his eyes. “Do not tempt me, for god’s sake.”

Torrullin
fought for control. “Go to the cottage. We shall meet you
there.”

Elianas jerked
a nod.

“Elianas.
Directly to the cottage.”

Another
unreadable stare.

“Swear.”

“No.” Elianas
left.

Chapter
4

 

And now we
dance … and smile until our jaws ache.

The feeling of
being forced

 

 

The Dome

 

T
he Dragon ogive chimed, and silence fell.

Kaval stared
at it and then at Tristan, who immediately ceased speaking at the
console. All eyes returned to the ogive.

Torrullin
strode in, for the Dragon ogive would always admit him. He headed
to Tristan and the console went mad. “Hush,” he said, waving a hand
over it. It stilled. “Forgive the interruption, Tris. How are you
faring?”

Tristan
smiled. “It’s going well. We have …”

“I am not here
to check on you. I have need of Lowen; can you spare her?”

“Of course,”
Tristan murmured.

Torrullin
faced the marble table. “Greetings all.” He found Lowen. “Will you
come?”

She rose and
headed around the table. “Let’s go.” She headed to her ogive.
“Where?”

“Cottage,”
Torrullin called and stalked to his and Tristan’s ogive. Seconds
later, two chimed in unison and they were gone.

Tristan and
the Kaval stared at each other.

 

 

Mariner
Island

Sanctuary

 

Lowen and
Torrullin arrived simultaneously.

Elianas paced
before the cottage and had not bothered to unlock. He came to a
stop when he saw them. “We are not staying here.”

“Ceta, I
think,” Torrullin murmured after a moment, and glanced at Lowen.
“Keep up until I tell you what is going on.”

She nodded,
studying both frankly. Something was clearly wrong.

Elianas
snapped, “Lead, Torrullin.”

Torrullin led,
and they were gone.

 

 

Ceta

 

He took them
into the heartland where people were few and nature was benign.

In a paddock
the size of a small country, he faced Elianas. “Happy?”

“Happy?”
Elianas echoed. “Oh, blissful.”

“All right,
what?” Lowen demanded. “You two vanish for ten days and that’s fine
- you did warn everyone, after all. But, honestly, I expected it to
be quite a while longer before we saw you again, and here you are,
peeved. Spill it.”

“Brothers,
lovers or enemies,” Torrullin muttered.

Lowen drew
breath. That had been the mighty question when Torrullin left ten
days ago. How would they emerge, she thought at the time. She
quirked a brow.

“At this point
we are virtually enemies, and lovers are but heartbeats away.”

Elianas
growled.

Lowen sucked
at her teeth. “Who asked that I stand in the middle?”

“I did,”
Elianas said. “Keep him in line.”

“What
happened?”

They ignored
her. Elianas said, “You should have left me to it; at least I would
not be so pissed off now.”

“Goddamn it, I
am not the one who messed up her life!”

“You messed
with mine!”

Quivering with
anger, they glared at each other.

Lowen took a
breath and said, “Tell you what. Why don’t we make it a threesome
and then all of us can get some satisfaction.”

The two men
snapped to her.

She closed in,
gripped Elianas by his tunic, Torrullin by his, and pulled them
close to her, one on each side. “If you prefer Torrullin in the
middle, Elianas, I’m happy to oblige.”

Elianas stared
at her and then put his hand over hers. Taking it to his lips, he
planted a kiss there. “I am sorry. Thank you for coming.” He let go
and stepped away.

Torrullin was
still contrary. “Would you really do so?”

Before she
could answer with a snide comment, Elianas pulled Torrullin aside.
He pushed him back, back, and left him only long enough to draw his
sword.

“Come,
brother, let us draw some blood this hour.”

“No, damn it!”
Lowen shouted.

Torrullin had
Trezond to hand, eyes glittering.

They engaged
untidily, fury driving them. It was a stupendous battle, for
neither gave quarter. In the silence of Ceta it was incredibly
loud. Soon both suffered cuts, and hair was wet with perspiration.
In a flurry of blows, Elianas shredded Torrullin’s tunic and,
snarling, he countered with a similar dance.

With cloth and
hair fluttering, hampering, they fought on.

Lowen could
only watch in fascination. They were astonishingly good, both fast
and strong. Dressed alike in black, long, lean legs dancing, they
were also extraordinarily sexy. Her heart hammered as she began to
understand they made each other by the strength of their
personalities.

Then came an
almighty swerve and parry, and both blades went flying beyond
reach.

A moment of
dead silence ensued, and then a kiss that reverberated through the
spaces.

Lowen fell to
her knees as two bodies virtually climbed into each other and hands
dug into hair and shoulders.

Torrullin
broke away and sank to his knees as well, hands clawed into the
ground, head hanging. “Get away from me.”

Heaving,
Elianas stood over him like a vengeful god. Blood dripped from a
host of cuts upon his chest and arms.

Lowen
swallowed and did not move.

Elianas was on
his knees before Torrullin. He forcibly took up the man’s hands and
placed them upon his chest, holding them there. “Look at me.”

Torrullin
lifted his head and they locked gazes.

“A heartbeat
away from lovers,” Elianas whispered. “I did not realise you were
telling no lie. However, we are not enemies and I prefer my brother
to this … tension. Heal me, please, and we move on.”

Silence and
then, “Take your hands away.”

Elianas
dropped his hands from Torrullin’s wrists. Stoically he endured the
ensuing healing caresses on his chest, arms, neck and cheek and one
on his thigh. Torrullin’s hands on him; now he knew what they felt
like.

The healing
was done. Those hands were removed. “Thank you.”

Torrullin
stared at him again and then began his own healing.

Elianas
knocked his hands aside. “I shall do it.”

With hooded
eyes, Torrullin watched the self-control Elianas imposed upon
himself as he healed. “Nemesis,” he murmured.

A slow smile
curved Elianas’ lips.

By the time he
was done both had locked away intensity and the familiar taunting
was in place.

They
remembered Lowen then. Both turned heads to find her.

She picked
herself up. “Now I see why you needed me.” Lowen sauntered over and
kneeled alongside them. She leaned in to claim Torrullin’s lips
gently, touching his face, and then drew back with a smile, and
leaned in to kiss Elianas as well. Both men responded. She drew
back. “There, now I have joined the conspiracy. Shall we go on from
here?”

Elianas
grinned.

Torrullin
managed a rueful laugh and stood. Extending a hand each to Lowen
and Elianas, he drew them up.

Lowen dusted
at her knees and eyed them critically. “You look like you’ve been
in a fight. You can’t go wandering around like that.”

They snapped
fingers simultaneously, and both were dressed.

Ah,
yes,
she thought,
two enchanters also.

Elianas held
his power in reserve during the journey through Time, until
Torrullin remembered his past. Then, a thought - neither needed the
other for healing.

They came
close this day, too close.

 

 

Knowing a
network of sites existed meant it could be felt.

There were now
faint tugs at the subconscious, although without definition and
direction; on Ceta also, a world chosen from a proverbial hat for a
showdown, and thus they transported to a statue of an angel in a
forest.

“Cetans were
more comfortable with religious figures,” Elianas said. He frowned
at the angel, not liking it. He always felt statues of angels and
cherubs were no more than a soothing device. Akin to a lie.

“Likely,”
Torrullin said and moved away. “There is nothing to learn here.” He
did not like the angel either.

“Has our focus
changed? We intended to track history of others; are we now
tracking the net?” Elianas demanded.

“Gods, how can
we not?”

Lowen now knew
of the ancient connection between worlds, and said, “It seems to me
early history will have a Valleur connection … any world.”

Elianas
muttered, “It feels like more of the same.”

“It isn’t,”
Torrullin said. “She isn’t written into history that made it
through time. Whatever we uncover now is different.”

“Purpose,
Torrullin?”

“You were the
one mouthing off about purpose. Well, here it is at our
fingertips.”

Elianas
studied him. “Different can lead to a whole lot of crap this
time.”

“It always
does.”

“True.”
Elianas pointed at the statue. “If we are tracking the net, and
this is a point on it, then we owe this due consideration.”

“You do not
like angels.”

A quick grin.
“Neither do you. Still, why was an angel placed here in the woods,
and not a fountain? This suggests a Lifesource site is not
automatic to connect the grid.”

Torrullin
murmured, “We ask someone.”

“You can’t
ask
, for Aaru’s sake,” Lowen said. “You’ll scare Ceta’s
leaders. And they won’t know anyway.” She stood arms akimbo. “You
can be so dumb. Did you not say this net thing maintains past,
present and future, a heritage through time?”

“Yes. So?”

“Torrullin,
the past is with us here. Examine it.”

“We prefer
words. We have had our fill examining the past,” Elianas said.

Lowen arched a
brow. “Please, you do it every time you look at each other. And
memory, tales and legends aren’t always true. If you want to know
what happened, do it my way.”

Elianas folded
his arms.

Torrullin
approached the fountain to lay his hands upon the angel and closed
his eyes. He frowned when he opened them. “This is six thousand
years old. It was built after the Valleur used the Rift to
Ardosia.”

“The net grows
independent of Valleur rulership,” Lowen suggested.

“Which begs
the question; where are these site masons coming from?” Elianas
muttered.

“Ceta
underwent upheaval six thousand years ago,” Torrullin went on.
“Drought, malnutrition, starvation, and the angel was erected to
beg of their god an end to the suffering. A sculptor was
engaged.”

“Valleur, I
assume,” Lowen said.

“This site is
more like the Round Temple on Valaris,” Torrullin murmured.

“Purity of
heart, I see,” Elianas murmured. “How long before Ceta turned
around?”

“Within a year
it rained, crops were harvested and people on the road to
recovery.”

Elianas placed
his hand over the spot where the angel should theoretically have a
heart. “Not just a net of worlds, but reaching out to people in
time of need.”

“Something
Cassiopin would have insisted upon,” Torrullin said. “Ensnare, yes,
remind, yes, but know she also forgave.”

Elianas leaned
his forehead on the angel. “I hope so.”

That part
Lowen knew nothing of. “Cassiopin? Nemisin’s daughter?” Lowen also
knew how to read the nuances. “Oh. Elianas, I am sorry.”

He
shrugged.

Torrullin
shook his head at her, and she took the hint. Torrullin sat at the
base of the statue. “When have we last slept?” He slid down
further, pillowed his head on his arms and promptly fell
asleep.

Elianas smiled
over him and glanced at Lowen.

“It was
evening on Sanctuary when I left. Sun or no sun, I could sleep.”
She lay on the cushioning pine needles and closed her eyes.

Elianas moved
to a point where temptation could be still.

Sleep was
elusive.

 

 

Shouts and
screams assaulted them, tore through the spaces, the tug and shove
of uncaring hands.

It was night,
but Ceta was never dark due to its multiple moons. There was,
however, nothing to be seen.

Elianas
crawled to Torrullin. “Restless spirits,” he whispered.

Lowen came
from the other side. “They’re not real, just sound.”

A hazy form
leaned over her, and she screamed.

Torrullin
pulled her closer. “They cannot hurt you.”

The form
hovered again and cackled, “Heart of Darkness!”

She clutched
at Torrullin and buried her face in his chest.

The form moved
to Torrullin, inclined its head this way and then that. “Heart of
Darkness!” Then it was at Elianas’ feet. It did a rough pirouette
and shouted, “Heart of Darkness!” A floating arm swept the air.
“Hearts of Darkness! What have you done to the future? You have
meddled!”

An instant
later all was silent and undisturbed, except for three hammering
hearts.

Torrullin
clambered unsteadily to his feet. He put his hands on the statue,
and then snatched them away. “Gods, that was not there before.”

Elianas
touched warily and hissed, “It’s alive.”

“It has a
beating black heart. What does it mean?”

“Curse,”
Elianas said.

“I think we
should leave,” Lowen said.

“Not without
destroying that,” Elianas said.

Torrullin
considered. Destroying a sacred site was never healthy, but this
region was uninhabited and the statue was an abomination. “Do
it.”

Elianas lifted
a hand and the angel exploded. “The site itself remains,” he
murmured after. He glared at the empty space. “No angels for me,
ever.”

BOOK: The Echolone Mine
11.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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