Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards

Author:Graham Edwards
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781781081990
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2013-10-01T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

'Tharn tells me you have questions,' said Cabarrath, seating himself by the fire. He moved his long limbs with economy and grace. His face was sad and open. He did not look like a killer.

In Talus's experience that meant nothing at all.

'Yes,' said Talus. 'My questions are few, and they are simple. Are you ready to answer them?'

'I will tell you what I know. Anything to catch the demon that is loose in Creyak.'

'Demon? So do you believe the spirits are responsible for the deaths of your father and brother?'

Cabarrath shook his head. There were dark rings under his eyes. Grief could keep a man awake. So could guilt.

'All I know is that I helped carry my father's body from the snow into the cairn, and that I held my brother Gantor in my arms as he died. How these things happened, I cannot say.'

'Where were you on the night your father was murdered, Cabarrath?'

'In my own house.'

'Can you prove it?'

'I do not understand.'

'Was there anybody else there with you?'

'Tharn was there. We live in the same house.'

'I suppose that, if I asked Tharn the same question, he would say he was with you?'

'Of course.'

'Your house lies near the maze, does it not?'

'Yes.'

'And you heard nothing?'

'Not until the screaming.'

'The screaming?'

'When my father's body was found.'

'Who screamed?'

'Fethan. He told us he woke from a nightmare and went outside to clear his head. He walked out of the village towards the maze. That was when he saw it.'

'It was Fethan who found the king's body?'

'Yes.'

Tired as Cabarrath clearly was, he seemed relaxed. His answers were swift and certain.

There was no guile to him, no sense that he was anything other than what Talus saw before him.

Of course, that might have been an act.

'What sort of relationship did you have with your father?'

For the first time, Cabarrath faltered.

'I was his son,' he said at last.

'Evidently. Were things well between you?'

'I don't know what you ...'

'Did you fight?' said Bran.

Again Cabarrath hesitated. 'We had been through a difficult time,' he said finally. 'Do I have to say more than that?'

'I would welcome the whole truth,' said Talus.

'Very well.' Cabarrath watched the smoke from the fire spiral up through the hole in the roof. 'My father was angry with me. I had disobeyed him and he was angry. It was a serious matter. I had hoped that, in time, there would be peace again between us.' He hung his head. 'Now it is too late.'

'And for your part?' said Talus. 'Did you feel anger towards your father?'

Cabarrath stared at the bard. He was the second-eldest of the king's sons, a man in his own right. Right now he looked like a boy.

'Yes,' he said. 'It hurts me to say such a thing, but ... yes.'

'What happened between you?' said Bran.

'A woman.'

'You fought over a woman?' Bran raised an eyebrow at Talus. Talus gave a tiny shrug. Such things happened sometimes between father and son.

Cabarrath shook his head. 'Not in the way you think. The woman came from Sleeth.

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