Ciara Gold by Celestial Dragon

Author:Celestial Dragon [Dragon, Celestial]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Dane rushed through the portal, his cape flapping about his body. Startled, the Elders rose to greet the heir apparent, their own faces ravaged by grief.

“Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me my father still lives.”

“Calm yourself, Fen Dane. It does no good to carry on so.”

“Nay, I’ll not accept such news. I traveled with all haste to fulfill my mission—to fulfill my father’s wish.

He cannot have died before seeing my success.”

Elder Treym approached Dane, his face full of compassion. The man’s kindness only intensified Dane’s emotion. He wanted to cry, to fight, to roar until his vocal chords erupted. A dragon’s fury scorched his insides.

“Fen Dane, your father rested all his hopes on you ever since Tared’s death. No matter what, he was always proud of you. He talked of nothing else.” Elder Treym’s voice cracked with honest pain.

“Yea, Fen Dane. We are all proud of you.”

Dane sank into a chair. Alone. First Tared and now his father. Fate seemed cruel. Numbness claimed his heart as he tried to digest what it meant for Zan Kione to be gone.

“Fen Dane?” Elder Treym said.

“Yea.”

“You were successful in bringing the women?”

Dane nodded, his mind distracted by other thoughts.

Elder Fyolt, another of his father’s trusted associates, came to stand beside Treym. “We felt a disturbance when you arrived, a force we couldn’t quite identify. The eve of Geldengough approaches, and with it, Zan Burlorek’s envoy. We must hide the women lest he discovers what we’ve done.”

Again Dane could only nod. He knew they expected him to take the lead, to give them orders, but at the moment he needed time from his responsibilities. Time to grieve for a father who’d meant the world to him. He felt Treym’s hand settle upon his shoulder.

“Be patient with him, Fyolt. Our prince just had a terrible blow.”

The room became quiet. Finally, Dane lifted blurry eyes. His gaze found Marolt, Del Geod’s father and Zan Kione’s best friend. “Tell me how he died.”

Marolt cleared his throat. He appeared uncomfortable with the question. “Anxious, he waited for your return, worried you would not make it home before Zan Burlorek’s spies discovered your absence. He had the rest of the Verside working day and night to prepare a hiding place for the women. He … he came to me on the eve of his death with talk of news. He bade me meet him in private where he could confide his findings. I waited, but he never came. We found him slain at the base of the Terionk forest.”

“Murdered? Here?”

“We suspected Zan Burlorek of sending us a spy, but we’ve found nothing to support this opinion. Only the Elders are aware of the circumstances surrounding his death. The judicial body approved the scanning of each man’s thoughts only to reveal no enemies among us.”

“You did this without their knowledge?”

“Yea. It was the only way to insure they wouldn’t block our probes.”

Dane nodded his approval. Scanning the thoughts of a member of the Verside could only be done while the man slept, otherwise he would detect the intrusion and block the probe.

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