The Whispering (29 page)

I summon the dragon
’s energy, the core of its healing powers and I lean down and pass it on to Tharin in a kiss.  At first it resists, refusing to leave me, but I am stronger now than when I first received the gift.  I have to be.  For him.

The final essence of the Healer
’s gift slips away and leaves me weak and dizzy.

Tharin moans, but doesn
’t open his eyes.  A strong hand grabs me by the arm, pulling me up hard.  Unfamiliar lips crush mine with such force I know they have to be bleeding, if not bruised. 

Harlu pulls back, whispering harsh
ly, “I know what you did, my love.  You are now powerless against me as you were the last time we were here together.”  He looks down at Tharin.  “He will be out for a while, but if he wants you back, he’ll bring me his brother and the key.”

He pushes me and I stumble forward about to
fall into Morlo.  But before the orc can react, Dorlan pushes him away, catching me at the last minute.

“
Don’t touch her,” he says in a deadly quiet voice.

“
Why Dorlan,” says Harlu, “I didn’t know you had an eye for my sister.”

Still holding onto me, the assassin turns to Harlu,
“I don’t, but I won’t have a filthy orc touching the queen.”

“
Why you stinking…”  Morlo doesn’t finish when he finds a silver dagger at his throat.

“
Ha,” chuckles Harlu derisively.  “That’s fresh from a traitor with the Sithide.”

Dorlan doesn
’t respond but takes me by the arm, leading me to the balcony.  We wait as Harlu stops to look through the double doors to Lea’ith’s suite. 

“
You’ll have to show me how to open the doors, sis.  I’m dying to try the bed, with you in it of course.”

I don
’t know why, but I find myself moving closer to Dorlan.  I feel his eyes on me and when I look up, he frowns at me.  With the exception of his blue eyes and black hair, he looks so much like Alorn.  I back away a little, remembering who has me.  I take one final glance toward the garden as Dorlan picks me up.  Before leaping from the balcony I reach out to Tharin, hoping he is conscience enough to be opened to me.

“
I love you,”
I whisper. 

~ * ~

Chapter Twenty-Eight

~ Tharin ~

I come to slowly in an unfamiliar thela.  Although my eyes remain shut, I don’t sense any danger in the room, only him.  The makeshift bed I’m lying on is no more than a thin sleeping bag full of leaves.   Despite it being close to the floor, the leaf mattress is warm and comfortable.

A stabbing pain spears the back of my skull, forcing me to lie still, but a need to move provokes me to try and adjust to what is happening to my body.  My back is stiff and sore and there is a stitch when I move my shoulders to loosen up.   I attempt to move my head an
d flashes of gold light explode forcing me to squeeze my eyes tight even though I haven’t opened them.  I feel nauseated and the overwhelming need to throw up causes my stomach to cramp up.

“
Here,” he offers, placing a bucket in front of me.

I push it away as I gulp in air, trying to steady my head and forcing my stomach to calm down.  To my surprise, the flashes fades and my focus returns, the severe headache that appeared when I came to is gone and my stomach relaxes as the nausea disappears.  I feel as if Tolan just healed me but when I open my eyes the only one I see is Alorn.

“Tharin,” he asks quietly as he kneels beside me, “where is Lily?”

I look at him perplexed
.  “Lily?  I left her in the queen’s suite.”

He takes hold of my arm and helps me sit up before moving away, allowing me some room.  I moan as the stitch at my back feels like
I’ve been stabbed not once, but several times.  I can feel the healing that was started, but not completed.  I close my eyes and focus on the area and I can actually see three wounds in my mind.  My self healing should take care of it in a couple of days but once I see Lily or Tolan, they can have them healed in several hours.  At least that is my thinking, until from somewhere within a golden energy rushes to the wounds and begins the healing.  What the hell?

Is this Ka
’s core I have somehow awakened? 

I force myself to ignore the daunting presence in the room that is Alorn.  I focus just on what is going on inside, starting on the healing energy at the knife wounds in my back.  The energy is unfamiliar
, but there is a trace, a hint of her, of Lily.  And with that the memories of the past several hours invade my psyche, slamming me back on to floor.

Alorn is
at my side instantly.

“
Breathe.  Tell me,” he says, his tone soothing and easing some of the sharp pain in my head.

I lie still
, shutting my eyes.  I try to calm my thoughts, put them in order and find a way to form the words needed to describe what happened.

“
I knew Lily had come looking for me in the garden, not knowing I backtracked to the king’s suite.  She had at least an hour ahead of me.  At one point, I lost her essence and I stopped to call out for her.  I waited for awhile before continuing on.  By this time I was in a state of panic that I allowed something to happen to her by wasting time on the path.  Next thing I know I wake up in...in me.”

Alorn doesn
’t react, just continues to stare at me, waiting for me to go on.  I shake my head, not sure how to explain, or even if I can.

“
It was like I was staring up at a dark sky and I could see the entire universe.  Then it started to tremble and resist at the same time, as if it was trying to hold onto its foundation.  And I was trying to hold on, but something was wrong – I was weak, as if I were drugged.  And because of that I couldn’t fight when a dark entity, an evil being took over.  I could literally see the universe being pushed aside and I knew it was me.  I tried fighting back, but I was speared by lances of fire, evil and malicious.  The fire bore into me, slowly killing me and finally imprisoning me in my own body.  Then the evil pulled back, but something else, someone else took over.”

I look up at Alorn
.  “It was Harlu.  And the evil I felt before him was Kolinest.”  I grab his arm.  “I felt him...so much evil, so much hate.”

Alorn places his hand on my shoulder, trying to calm me. 
“Breathe.”

I do as he says and lie back.  Once again I feel the dragon
’s energy soothe my panic.  I let it overtake me and Lily’s own energy strengthens me, holding me still.  Lily.

I spring to my feet staring at Alorn as he rises
, and by the look on his face he knows I remember.

“
Harlu has her,” I say as I look around me, trying to get my bearings.  I reach to the back of my neck, feeling the hole where the dart hit me.  Cowards, couldn’t even face me to try and take me down.  I turn back to Alorn.  “How did you find me?”

“
Tolan,” he answers.  “He sent me after you when I got back.  I found you in the garden, out cold and no Lily.  We’re on the path to the Jōmon Sugi clan in one of the thelas I’ve used before.”

I shake my head, remembering what Harlu left me with. 
“He wants me to bring Tolan and the key to him.  To the garden.”

“
But Tolan said you took it from Julia.”

“
I did,” I nod.  “Harlu didn’t know I had it on me.  Which tells me he doesn’t know what it is or that he can sense it.  And, there’s a traitor at the Willow.”

Alorn sighs heavily, shaking his head
.  “Damn it.  I thought we got all of them at the Day of the Seating.”

“Kolinest can take over anyone.  That’s how Harlu knows I’m now king and that Lily and I are married.” 

“
Which means,” he finishes, “he no longer needs you in the picture.  But if that’s the case, why keep you alive?  He could’ve found another way to get the message to Tolan.”

I think about that
for a minute and finally shake my head.  “I don’t know.  I can’t think any more.  But there was something I got from Kolinest before he let Harlu in.  I just can’t remember.  We should go.”

I make to leave, but he holds me back
.  “Tharin, I have to ask.”  He looks me in the eye, “Are you compromised?”

I look at him as if looking at a stranger, but it hits me.  He has a right to ask.  I was possessed by everything that is of a demonic nature.  Kolinest lost any resemblance
to all that is elfin after being imprisoned in the UnderRealm since the rendering.  I should know, I felt it. 

I sigh, shaking my head
, unsure.  “I was marked by demon fire; it scarred my soul.  When Harlu attacked Lily, all I could do was watch and listen...and feel.  I felt her kiss; I felt it when he bit her, causing her pain.  I felt it when she blasted me with her shield.  And there was nothing I could do about it except feel the hate building from within.  I was blind to everything I know of honor, of family, of love.  All I wanted to do was kill and what drove me was my hate for him, for what he was doing to her.”

“
And what saved you, Tharin?” he asks.

“
She did,” I answer quietly.  I finally face him.  “Lily gave me the Healer’s gift, to save my soul.”

“
How is that possible?” he asks incredulously.

“I don’t know, but I do know what the gift is – it’s a piece of the dragon, Jarhan.  And when she died, she gave a part of her spirit to infuse with the gift.  Lily carried part of the core of the dragon, until she gave it to save me.”

Alorn eyes widen
as he realizes the same time I do.  He says it out loud for both of us, “She’s unprotected.”

I nod
.  “Yes, but not completely.  Don’t forget, Lily was coming into her own before receiving the gift.  She’s not completely defenseless as Harlu might think.”

“
I’d feel better if we have her, all the same,” says Alorn as he grabs my coat now dry.  “What’s our next move?  Did you get anything from Harlu on where they might be keeping her?”

I grab the coat from him, slipping it on. 
“No, but they might have taken her to Gastah Point.  We should start there and make our way back to the tower through the city.”

Alorn hesitates
.  “Are you fit to go?”

I
feel my face harden.  “He has Lily, Alorn.  While he possessed me I felt what’s in his heart and what he has planned for her.  If I have to crawl with one breath left, I will get her back.”

We
made our way to Gastah Point only to find it empty.  The giant white oaks are bare, their silver leaves gone.  They are now skeletal and bent in reaction to Jarhan’s death.  We slipped back through the city gates and stayed within the shadows.  Once again we make our way through the streets, now infested with orcs, goblins, trolls, demons and who knows what else from the UnderRealm.  Any light we see are from bonfires or fires from smaller buildings surrounding the tower.  Our people were evacuated; at least those who survived the attack when it happened.  Those who didn’t were either imprisoned or killed.   

Alorn leads us through the backstreets, using the dark seedy underbelly of the city to give us cover.  Rain, that hasn
’t touched the Oak Clan grounds since the rendering, pelts the streets relentlessly.  We move through the shadows quickly, working our way back to the tower when muffled sounds from a dark alley cuts through the downpour.

“
I count three, and another getting his ass kicked pretty badly,”
reports Alorn.

“
And I know who that ass belongs to,”
I say as I walk out of the shadows and into the rain.

The two orcs and a troll stop their
beating of the thief to turn toward me.  Obviously they don’t know who I am as one of the orcs addresses me with some hostility.  He must be the leader.

“
You with him?” he asks, tilting his head toward the guy on the ground.

I remain quiet, my hood keeping my face covered.  The orc who spoke looks at the others behind him then back at me,
taking a step forward.  He reaches behind him and pulls out a short blade.  The other two move to stand at his sides, weapons in their hands.  A second later the two drop, with the troll’s head rolling to a stop at the leader’s foot.

“
What the hell?” he says, looking down at his fallen comrades.  He steps back and turns to run only to end up at the tip of Alorn’s double blades.

I walk over to the thief and help him sit up.

“Careful, prince, you’ll dirty your hands,” he says coughing.  He turns and spits out blood.

“
You’re slipping in your old age, Molker,” I say as I release his arm.

“
Yeah, well who the hell let the demons out to play?  The city was attacked without warning and it didn’t come from outside the gates,” he says, eyeing me questioningly.

“
You of all people should know, thief,” remarks Alorn, wiping his blades on the dead orc lying at his feet.

Molker looks at Alorn and then smirk
s at me.  “Ah, the faithful watchdog.” 

Before Molker can blink the rain off his lashes, the tip of Alorn
’s Shakira blade is at his throat.

“
Ah, Prince Alorn,” back peddles Molker, “you look exceptionally princely this bright and sunny night.”

The blades disappear as Alorn grabs Molker by the
collar, picking him up and slamming him through the nearby door of an abandoned cafe.  I follow, looking around for a source of light, nothing.  I pull out a panswa and keep it dimly lit, willing it to flow over to a small table.  Alorn drags Molker along and forcibly sits him down.

The glow from the small sphere lights up the damaged face of the thief.  Again, he spits another wad of blood onto the floor.  Wiping his mouth, he glares at me. 
“Another ten minutes earlier, Tharin.  You couldn’t have gotten here ten minutes earlier?”

I sit down slowly
.  “Yeah, let’s just call it karma.  How did you end up alone in a dark alley with a couple of orcs and a troll?  They look more like the mercenaries in your guild.”

Molker shakes his head,
saying, “Not my men.  But Jokni, the ugly one, he and I had history.  Once my men were cut down, he saved me for himself.  The beating was just foreplay.”

“
What happened?” I ask.

“
I’m in for a routine visit and everything goes as normal,” he says.  “Then suddenly, out of nowhere all hell breaks loose; I mean literally.  Demons led by orcs, goblins and trolls running rampant, killing everyone in sight.  Mercenaries and creatures I’ve never seen before cutting my people down.  By the time the king’s soldiers arrived, it was too late.  Not that it mattered.  A woman I’ve never seen before led the attack, she was ruthless.  She tore through the king’s men like a woman scorned.”  He smirks, staring me in the eye.  “Are there any other kind?”

“
He’s talking about Aureinia,”
says Alorn. 
“Kolinest is having his daughter lead his armies.  We take her out first.”

I nod.  Molker, thinking the nod is for him, smirk
s again.