Dark Rain by J. C. Owens

Author:J. C. Owens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: M/M Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-949719-17-8
Publisher: Etopia Press
Published: 2018-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

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Hredeen

Hredeen navigated the crowded revelry of the hallways with a calm dispassion that cleared the way for him. People moved aside without truly even recognizing that he was there, and he slipped through their ranks with an almost ghostly feel to his passage, so that several shivered without even knowing why.

Once within the private corridors, he walked alone, only the guards watching with silent appraisal as he approached the private rooms of the Imperial heir.

Two Shadows stood guard. Hredeen was not sure if they were Nie and Weis. If so, they were tireless, in the manner of their kind, as though human frailties held no sway over them. Exhaustion, hunger seemed no impediment to them. Time and again, Hredeen had seen them accompany the emperor from place to place within the walls of the palace, so alike in form and size that it was near impossible to tell them apart.

Perhaps that was how they were chosen, purportedly as children of six years, to begin a training that was so brutal, so intensive and secret, that no child ever returned from the cold fortress high in the Montaige Mountains. Whispers and rumors held that any who did not complete the training died there, buried in the deep glacier that bordered its western wall. The truth had never been revealed in the two thousand years of their existence, and even the manner of their vow of protection of the emperor, the where and how of its creation, remained a complete mystery.

It was enough that they existed, and that they protected the long line of emperors who had sat upon the golden throne of Anrodnes. The royal family saw them as part of their heritage. Beyond the inner chambers of the palace, people were terrified of them, often making signs of the gods to ward themselves as the shrouded warriors walked by. Hredeen, strangely enough, had never felt any fear of them. He understood them utterly. Perhaps his impressive empathy, so powerful, enabled him to detect their intent, and he had never felt in the least threatened by them. Respect, certainly, but not fear.

In their turn, they seemed to regard him with a quiet respect as well, often touching their foreheads as he passed them. He always returned the gesture with a nod, as between two beings that knew their own worth and strength and had no reason to prove it.

One of the Shadows opened the door to the heir’s apartment with a slight bow. Hredeen smiled at him as he passed, the door closing with exquisite silence behind him.

It was painfully silent within the rooms, as it often was. Within his own private sanctum, Prince Taldan wanted no noise, no people, no indication of what he had to deal with beyond these walls.

Hredeen felt a familiar sadness wash over him. Taldan was an enigma. It had always bothered Hredeen that the heir had been so completely molded into what was needed as emperor, leaving bits of himself stuffed down into hiding.

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