The Second Sundering by Emeph Alvarado

Author:Emeph Alvarado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emeph Alvarado
Published: 2023-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Divine Illumination

Alharic kept his mouth shut as he followed the furious Heir but allowed his own thoughts to run free.

Obviously, Iarth had creative ways of getting information and made clever use of their Sparrows. It had taken Rhandon a day and a half to get everything he needed to put the Consorts in their place, through the aftershocks and everything else. Alharic would have to find out how he did it.

“Cousin.”

The word halted all thought in his head. He looked at Rhandon as the Heir stopped in the hallway, at the top of the stairs leading down.

“Yes, S-Sacredness?” He felt the title was completely inadequate after his performance. Divinity. That was what Rhandon was at that moment.

Rhandon gave him a slight smile. “I can be full of myself, can’t I? Refresh my mind. Jeskha is the oldest twin?”

“Pardon?”

“Which of you is the older twin?”

Oh. “Jeskha is,” he answered, adding unnecessarily, “by a heartbeat.”

Rhandon nodded quietly. “Follow me,” he said and headed down the stairs.

Alharic did so, noting that Tradition had gone the way of all things. Kesshar had moved behind him, so that Alharic was next to Rhandon.

The hallway sloped downward, so gradually that he didn’t notice until he looked at the angle of the wall. They were the same as the others, bordered with gray agate and aquamarine, but now the floor had a thin strip of the same stone leading down into the semi-darkness. When they reached the end, he looked at the low opening, then watched Rhandon continue without a falter in his step.

They entered a small open area and the air pressure almost stopped up Alharic’s ears. He could reach up and place his palm flat on the ceiling; Kesshar actually ducked when he entered. He looked down at the intricate mosaic covering the floor, fascinated. The pattern picked out on the black circle background was a triangle within a circle, bisected with lines and smaller circles. The symbol pricked at the back of his mind as something he’d seen before but couldn’t place.

Rhandon knocked on the door once. Alharic wondered who would rate such a secluded room.

There was only darkness behind the Heir as he opened the door and turned to Alharic.

“Are you coming?” he said quietly, his voice filling the room like a rich, dark smoke.

“Sacredness,” Kesshar said quietly, a warning.

“They’re twins,” Rhandon answered. “It should be okay. Technically.”

“I don’t—”

“Nothing is lost by trying.” “Except your head. Maybe.”

Alharic wasn’t quite sure about that smile that crossed Rhandon’s lips.

The Heir looked up at him once more. “Are you coming?”

Alharic didn’t need to be asked again. He ducked through the opening and straightened to face a room much larger than it looked from the outside. The mosaic on the floor continued inside, covering the space with dark tiles laid out in a pattern that Alharic couldn’t make out in the semi-light. While the other two halted just inside the door, strangely still, he stepped forward and looked around, drawn toward the table.

The space reminded Alharic of a dark storage room, without the usual jars and bags or shelves stacked around the walls.

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