CYRANIt is Elwyn. I'd know those brown laughing, eyes anywhere. But not the raggedy look, the torn clothes and the coldness in his gaze. His hair is matted to his skull with sweat, and even from this distance, he smells dirty.I wish I'd known, had believed earlier when Veesa had said so. I'd have shielded Saelyna from the sight on time. But then, it would not have been any good.She's staring, wide-eyed in his direction, not quite as rigid as she had been at Halden. I look over her head, at Quain and he stares back with something akin to ruth. 'I tried to tell you,' he says, 'He killed Allos'.Fareedah is cursing under her breath, while Filen is actually holding Edril back from attacking Elwyn, while he looks on with an amused expression, like he is watching a very entertaining play. Those eyes, the sharpness to hisfeatures…I do not know this man at all.I look to Caivan, but he's staring directly at Pedran, and Ronn, both of whom seem not to notice. I hold my breath as a stone sai
SAELYNAI'm running through the village. My eyes are hot with tears, stinging with the smoke that blocks the air, my throat burns with my brother's name. I stumble on a body; it's an elf, his open dark blue eyes piercingly accusing, hand flung out as if reaching for mine.I gasp as I pick up and continue my deranged search. The screams echo through my very being, I can taste their tears, the blood.Quain stands in front of me, eyes wide with fear. His thick hair falls over his face, and there is no burn on the left side of it. 'Come on!' he yells, reaching for my hand. 'Cyran!' I yell back, 'I have to find my brother!' He gives me one last frantic gaze before disappearing around a corner, fast as a hare.Quain.One second I'm staring at death, the next he's in front of me and his name replaces their screams in my head. Right next to the horrible crack of breaking bone, as he falls to the ground with a thud that sounds so very far away.I barely have time to register the pool of blood
CYRANThe world is a haze of a furious, dark blue, and everyone I see are black shapes within it, claws and all, they are threats to me. I can't stop. I have to get out of here. We have to. Another steps in front of me; mage or wolven, I cannot tell; his eyes glaring a weird violet through the harsh blue. Saelyna throws her arm forward, and hurls a bolt of iden at him, ripping him cleanly in half. We storm forward, through the forest, two unstoppable forces brining anything in our path. Someone calls out my name and hers. I pause, more because it is a roar, loud and reverberating through my bones. We both turn at the sound. A wolven, fully transformed stalks towards us, as tall as Argell but more terrifying. I still can't see properly, and the magic within threatens to burst at the slightest impulse, but I don't need to look any further when I recognize the deep sea green eyes of Veesa. Someones zips at her, a flash of horns and fangs, but she grabs the hybrid out if the air like a
KEILENIt is large, not so large but big enough to cover my entire palm, and warm to the touch. I stare at it closely, at the swirling patterns on its shell, the colours blending within the oval. Beauty in solid form.I can't take my eyes away from it, even though I want to so badly. There is a strange fascination that posseses me, not of my doing, but decidedly eerie. Maybe it's because I'm too disoriented to know a thing. No, that's wrong. At least I know where I am.The void. The name comes quickly, a sharp, instinctive response to an unasked question. But it fits this crushing web of darkness that threatens to be my end, that keeps me trapped as long as the spider wants.I increase the pressure on the stone, and close my eyes. Even that makes no difference, though it's a bit lighter than the bleakness around me.I flip my eyelids open and she's in front of me, her lips part slightly in a wide, wholesome, perfect grin. I yelp, flinging out my claws with surprise, and it catches her
CAIVANThe smell of burning thatch is thick in the air, and it still lingers on my coat if all traces of the inferno have vanished. Barely minutes ago, someone had set flames to Eldad. And I sit here, among the soft grass of the plateau, in the quiet peace of the morning sun, watching the last thick tendrils sail upwards, its black soul tarnishing the tranquil blue of the sky above.The wolf snarls something at me. I scoff quietly but I don't reply. I wouldn't know what to say, being half-wolven and all. The irony tugs at the back of my mind and I want to laugh again. I've been wanting to do so since the chaos that ensued yesterday. Since coming up here and finding the wolves had been killed in their sleep; how, I know not; but one had the sense to flee the attack. And he's been behind me since I found him nursing his wounds behind a particularly giant rewan tree near the creek, on one of many reconnaissance missions.He snarls at me again, and this time, I think he's asking what happ
RONNUsing a map looks easier than it actually is. Argell had a certain fluidity to it, the way he'd tilt his head and frown impressively while he stared at the very same map I now hold in my hands. And all it is to me is a network of blue lines, red dots and yellow impressions. I can barely make out the name, "Tussel" and even then, the lines jumble up the whole thing.They don't mean a river, though, I'm sure of that; the creek runs across the plains and ruins of Eldad behind me, separating these parts from the forest that line the borders of Asthan. No, these lines mean something else, most probably some secret meant for the "inner circle".And where are they now? Argell, Veesa, Haron, Jenna. The twins. Caivan. The son of a bitch who had vanished immediately those beasts attacked. I had caught a whiff of his scent, above the starks smell of smoke, but was in no mood to go for a bleeding scout. And definitely not in a mood to see his face. There is only one place they would all have
CAIVANThere is a reason these back roads are not plied regularly, or at all, for the same reason the valley is called Delagad. They are not the safest to follow, especially not when winter is close, even if they are removed from clear sight. Gazens constitute a major part of my angst, however; one or two we can handle, but a herd? Lian; the name had come naturally to me, the Sneyan name for Lupion's forerunner, and he seems to like it; sniffs at a cluster of purple flowers beneath a large tree to my left. I'm about to point out that curali are not exactly nose-friendly when he sneezes violently, backing away from them with a snarl. 'Keep your nose to yourself,' I caution. Not that I should bother. This wolf is particularly bull-headed. I squint down the path that winds through the tress ahead of us like one giant snake, crossing my fingers with superstitious instinctiveness at the thought of the dreaded creature. I've only taken the back roads this far south once, and I had been wi
CAIVANBy the gods, they are fast, even for me. There is no telling their number and that has got to be the scariest fact that faces me (or in this case, pursues me). I take a sharp turn, veering off the path and into the unmarked parts of the forest. Another warning tugs at my mind, one that I studiously ignore. Lian, the big brute, is a long way ahead of me, too fast for me to follow, and a sure temptation to transform.Come now, Caivan. You can evade them. No need to give in to that scary part of you.Something catches at my foot, and I go tumbling down a slope I had not seen in the first place. Plants catch at my hair, scratch my cheeks, have at my clothes. I reach out sharply as soon as the ground becomes smooth enough for my grip, and dig my claws into the earth, just as a pond comes up to meet me. Lian growls softly at me a little way to my left, half-hidden beneath some bushes. The beast must had tripped me up, bless his hide. I limp over to the small outcrop overlooking the