told him. “With luck, it won’t need to be done again.”
“No one ever lives,” Eresa muttered, continuing to stare at Vaelin, a small measure of fear creeping into her gaze until Luralyn voiced a pointed cough. “Apologies, my lord.” Eresa gave a bow that was a clumsy approximation of Far Western etiquette.
“For what?” Vaelin clasped her shoulder, raising her up. “You did what I commanded.”
Sehmon stepped forward bearing Vaelin’s weapons and armour, whilst Alum stood off to the side, a faintly reproachful scowl on his features. “You take many risks,” he said as Vaelin donned his hauberk. “I’m unlikely to find our children with you dead.”
“You could have left,” Vaelin reminded him, looping his sword belt over his shoulder. “Continued the search on your own. As I’ve said more than once, you have no obligation to me.”
“We both know that not to be true,” the Moreska replied. “And I hold true to my cousin’s word.”
They straightened as one as the plaintive but resonant sound of many signal horns blowing in unison drifted across the temple precinct. “Attacking in daylight,” Vaelin said, looking at Luralyn. “Your brother changes tactics.”
“No,” Ahm Lin said, eyes narrowed and head tilted in the now-familiar pose that told of a new tune from his song. “This is no attack.”
“What else could it be?” Nortah wondered.
“Parley,” Luralyn said with a sorrowful sigh. She took a breath and strode briskly towards the temple gate. “My brother wants to talk.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
Kehlbrand Reyerik, Mestra-Skeltir of the Stahlhast and Darkblade of the Unseen, rode alone towards the northern gate. He wore no helm but was clad in unadorned armour of pure black that caught the midday sun, the enamelled metal bare of any blemish or scratch. His army stood at his back, a dark line of steel-clad humanity and horses extending a mile in either direction. The entire army chanted prayers as he approached, Vaelin noting how Luralyn’s dismayed gaze tracked from the ranks of the Tuhla to the Stahlhast.
“So he has claimed them all now,” she said. “The Darkblade rules without challenge or restraint.”
She rode her white stallion at Sho Tsai’s left whilst Vaelin rode Derka on his right. From the way the beast tossed his head and continually sought to spur from a canter to a gallop, Vaelin divined he hadn’t taken well to prolonged confinement in the garrison stables.
Sho Tsai raised his hand to bring them to a halt just within bowshot of the walls. A dense line of crossbowmen were arrayed on the battlements, ready to unleash an inescapable and deadly hail at the general’s signal.
Kehlbrand reined to a stop just beyond range of the crossbows, leaving a distance of no more than ten paces between them. His expression was a marked contrast to the occasionally sardonic and often knowing face Vaelin had come to despise. Now he appeared every inch the grave, resolute warrior, complete with a reluctant cast to his eyes presumably intended to convey the sense of a soul facing a dire but necessary duty.
The chanted prayers died as Kehlbrand held up a hand, absolute silence descending on his army in an instant. “Little colt,” he said to Luralyn, the words clipped as if to strip them of any betraying but still deeply felt emotion. “You are well?”
“No,” she replied, her own voice roughened by an unconstrained pain. “My brother went mad and killed a great many people imagining himself to be a god. So no, Kehlbrand. I am not well.”
Vaelin saw a brief flicker of something beneath Kehlbrand’s mask then, a slight shift to his eyes and bunching of his cheek that could either signify real hurt or anger. But it was gone almost immediately, the resolute warrior’s mask in place once more.
“For so many years,” he said, voice rich with regret Vaelin knew to be entirely false, “we were all the other had. The only love I knew was the love of my sister. What did I ever do to drive you so far from me? To render you into this”—he closed his eyes for a second, letting out a shuddering breath—“state of traitorous heresy.”
“Everything,” she said. “Every action you took since touching the stone, if not before. I am as I am because this is what you made me. For the world to endure, I had to become your enemy.”
“I cannot accept that.” He raised his arm, casting it out to encompass the majesty of his army. “You see here thousands of souls redeemed in my sight. No