The Grave Thief by Tom Lloyd

Author:Tom Lloyd [Lloyd, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780575077317
Goodreads: 1116845
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2008-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

Vesna didn’t hear the discreet knock on his apartment door. Slumped in a chair before the fire, he had even forgotten the bandaged wound on his head that nagged constantly. His focus was entirely occupied with the blood-red gem he turned over and over in his hands, feeling the slick surface of the cut faces and watching the light glitter through the stone. He’d never seen a stone like it, but for all its beauty it made him more fearful than anything else. For days now he’d spent hours after everyone else had retired, sitting and staring at the stone. Questions ran through his head, but any answers just slipped off those glassily smooth facets and vanished.

The knock came again, this time louder. Vesna gave a start and sat up, his heart racing as he looked around the room in confusion before realising it was someone at the door. He hauled himself up, tucking the gem into a pocket before he called for the person to come in.

Tila came in, her hair falling loosely about her shoulders and a worried look on her face. She had wrapped a thick blanket around her.

‘Damn. Sorry,’ he started, ‘it’s late isn’t it?’

Tila nodded. No doubt he didn’t look quite at his best, bandaged up and with bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.

‘I’d hoped you had just fallen asleep,’ she started, ‘but I saw the light under the door.’

Vesna crossed over to her and took Tila in his arms. He hugged her close and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. ‘I’m sorry,’ he started. ‘I meant to come to say goodnight, but I hadn’t realised how late it was. My mind’s all fogged at the moment - this damn cut.’ Even in Scree, Vesna had made a point of going to say goodnight to Tila at her bedroom door, and that had continued even after she had moved into Isak’s rooms to keep Xeliath company as much as to help her.

‘Is it still hurting?’ she asked, immediately concerned. ‘Do we need to get the healer back up here?’

‘No, no,’ Vesna said, dismissing the matter with a wave of the hand, ‘the stitches need time, nothing more.’

‘Then what else is it?’ she persisted. ‘You’ve had injuries before - did they always make you act so strangely?’

‘I—’ Vesna faltered, disarmed by the look on his betrothed’s face, and admitting, ‘No, this isn’t normal.’

‘Then tell me what the matter is.’ Tila urged him back to his chair and knelt beside it, keeping hold of one of his hands in hers. ‘We’re to be married in a few weeks; is that the problem? Just a case of nerves?’

Vesna saw in her eyes she didn’t believe that for a moment and he didn’t even try agreeing. He sighed, realising the time had come. ‘No, that’s not it, believe me. That is something I could not have happen soon enough.’ He squeezed her hand.

‘Well ?’

‘The night I was ambushed,’ he started, then paused. ‘Tila, there’s something I didn’t tell you about that night.

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