Starborn
Page 29
Sandor smiled a brief smile. “I would very much like to be there to witness that, but someone needs to remain behind to protect the temple and the priests.” She turned her gaze to Deo. “It is said that three men bearing your mark have been seen in Jalas’s company. They are most prodigious fighters and have at their control a strange magic that defeats even the strongest of foes.”
“The Banes,” Deo said, his gaze narrowing on his father. “Did you not say they were in a safe place?”
“They were,” Lord Israel said slowly. “I sent them to Doom’s End. Jalas must have tracked them down.”
“If they are siding with him against me, I will have their heads,” Deo said simply. Idril made an annoyed sound and moved to his side. “We will stop in Abet and fetch my birthright.”
“The boon I brought you?” I asked, pretending not to see the narrow-eyed look Sandor turned on me. Clearly, she hadn’t forgotten the fact that like the moonstone, I had liberated Deo’s boon from her keeping.
Deo nodded. “It will be useful in the fight ahead.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask just what it was, but Sandor turned to face Hallow. She was silent for a moment, studying him.
“Go ahead,” he said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping. “Tell me the worst. Has the captain of the guard incited the spirits of Kelos to rebellion? Has Thorn haunted the ruins in spectral form, driving everyone insane? Has my previous apprentice returned with a demand to take him in?”
Sandor didn’t so much as bat an eyelash as she said, her gaze now moving to me, “I fear it is far worse. The Eidolon who have slept for so long beneath the ruins of Kelos have risen. One of the three kings who once ruled Alba before the coming of the blessed goddesses is now amongst us again…and he is not of a mind to share Genora with the living. I fear you have an extraordinarily difficult task ahead of you, arcanist, for they have claimed Kelos for their own.”
I looked at Hallow. He looked at me. “I have a feeling our bath is going to be delayed,” I told him.
He said nothing, but wrapped an arm around me, holding me against his body. I didn’t know what the future would hold—how we would deal with the Racin, Eidolon, Jalas, and even Darius, not to mention the fact that I was now well and truly out of Kiriah’s favor, but at least I had Hallow at my side.
We would face the future together.