'Never mind,' she said, her face flushed red. She let go of his hand, but he didn't pull it away.
'Ashara,' he said. 'If I had ever before in my life admitted to loving something or someone, I would have been laughed from the army, mocked by anyone around me. You're the first person who has ever accepted the possibility. If that were all, that would be enough. But there are so many more reasons why I do love you.'
She seized his hand again and pressed her lips to his palm. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she smiled between each kiss. 'Hold me,' she whispered, and he gathered her into his arms.
Her voice came out muffled against his chest. 'That canyon was a place of evil, Cart. We should never have gone there, we shouldn't have tried to tap into the power in the crystal there. The forge was evil in its making, evil in its purpose, evil in its use.' She sobbed. 'We let it out, Cart-I let it out. I'm filthy with the taint of it.'
Cart heard again the voice of the Secret Keeper in his mind, a harsh whisper that sapped his will as he walked through the narrow passage to the Dragon Forge.
'You walk boldly to your doom,' the presence in shadows whispered. 'You think to stand before a power that was already great when Karrn the Conqueror took his first infant steps. Malathar the Damned will consume your body and annihilate your soul.'
'It lies,' Gaven protested. 'Truth would burn its tongue. It's the Keeper of Secrets.'
'You think she cares for you? You think she could ever dream of loving you?'
'It's trying to sow despair,' Cart said, feeling the despair clutch his chest and squeeze the energy from his body.
'We stopped it,' he whispered, stroking her hair with his clumsy metal-bound hand. For a moment he dreamed that he was flesh, like the vision the quori had planted in his mind, and her body was soft and warm against his. In that moment he saw the taint in her, smelled and tasted it on her skin and her soul, and he started to recoil-until he realized that it was in him as well. The revulsion faded, replaced by a new understanding, and he held her closer.
Havrakhad had spoken of the spirit of the age-the unfathomable being at the heart of Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams. The present age had a spirit of malice and darkness, and so many things he saw now as expressions of that spirit: the influence of the Secret Keeper escaping through the Dragon Forge, the barbarians attacking the Eldeen Reaches, the nightmares of the city, Haldren and Kelas's plot against the queen. The turning of the age, Havrakhad said, draws near-and the hope of the kalashtar was that the spirit of that new age would be one of light, il-Yannah, 'the Great Light.' The darkness could be fought, yes, but even more important were the ways they sought to express the Great Light.
Though his body was wood and metal, fiber and stone, he held Ashara as tenderly as he could manage, clinging to the hope that the love he felt was a bastion against the darkness that threatened to overwhelm her.
Gaven glared at the priest, who wore an expression of smug self-satisfaction. 'She told you to let us go,' he snarled.
'The sons and daughters of Aerenal will do nothing to impede your departure,' the priest said.
'Except keep me busy with questions while someone fetches the watch. I hope you enjoy your next conversation with your ancestor.'
The soldiers, though, seemed reluctant to approach. Aunn had his mace in his hand and faced them warily, so Gaven slid the sword off his back.
'Give yourselves up!' one of the soldiers ventured, clutching his own sword in a trembling hand. He was a human man of maybe twenty with a long scar down his face, perhaps a mark of the Last War-or of some back-alley scuffle. The other soldier, an older human woman, shot him an incredulous glance.
'You seem to have some inkling what you're up against,' Aunn said calmly. 'I suggest you leave us in peace. You can tell your officers that we were gone when you arrived.'
The older soldier looked as though she were considering the offer, but her eyes went to the two elves who would certainly complain to the watch and contradict that lie. The young man shouted back, 'I suggest you surrender. Give yourselves up to justice!'
Gaven scratched his cheek, listening to the patter of rain in the courtyard outside. 'We don't want to fight you,' he said, 'and it's clear you don't want to fight us, either.'
'You were warned about us,' Aunn said, advancing slowly. 'Who told you? What did they say?'
The soldiers exchanged a glance, then the woman spoke up. 'The Royal Eyes issued warnings about both of you. They said you killed some people in the Tower of Eyes, and he killed some spies in Chalice Center. Right in the open.'
'I didn't kill anyone in the Tower of Eyes,' Aunn muttered. 'But I should have.'
They were close enough now that Gaven could see past the soldiers and out into the courtyard, where rain was splattering against the cobblestones.
'No, I'm the killer here,' Gaven said. 'Once the storm gets started, it's hard to stop it. Look outside, it's already raining.'
The soldiers stepped back at that. Clearly they had heard how the spies in Chalice Center met their end.
Even as the soldiers retreated, though, Gaven saw two other figures enter the courtyard at a run, then slow as they splashed into the puddles already forming among the cobblestones. The one in front was a tall woman in a leather coat, wearing chainmail beneath it, a rapier at her belt. Lagging a few paces behind was a dwarf in a scarlet shirt.
'It's the Kundarak,' he said to Aunn.
'And it looks like she has a new friend,' Aunn noted.
'Too bad. I rather liked Bordan.'
Aunn shrugged. 'So much for getting out of here without a fight.'
The two women hurried across the courtyard. At the bottom of the stairs, the human looked up and took in the scene.
'Fairhaven watch!' she cried out. 'Stand down, by order of the Sentinel Marshals!'
The soldiers looked relieved, and immediately backed away from Gaven and Aunn, afraid to turn their backs but not too proud to retreat. Gaven followed them outside to the top of the stairs. The rain was cold, but it soothed his skin.
'Thank you, Sentinel Marshal,' he said, resting his greatsword on his shoulder. Thunder boomed overhead, and Gaven felt a thrill pass through his body. His dragonmark was gone-stolen, now-but the storm was willing to answer his call again. He was still the Storm Dragon, he realized.
'Don't thank me, vermin,' the Sentinel Marshal said. 'I was only trying to protect them.'
'I'm grateful you got them out of the way before the storm grew too violent.' Lightning flashed across the sky, casting strange shadows across the plaza.
'Gaven,' the dwarf rumbled. 'I suspected I'd find you here.'
'You're quite persistent, Kundarak, I have to grant you that. But my position hasn't altered since we last met in Stormhome: You're wasting your time chasing me. And you don't have Rienne to take hostage this time.'
'Don't I?'
A bolt of lightning struck the roof of the temple as fury surged in Gaven's heart. 'You have her? Where is she?'
'I don't have her,' Ossa said, 'but I know where she is.'
'Oh!' Aunn exclaimed from behind him. 'I'm sorry, Gaven, I forgot to tell you-Rienne was briefly imprisoned in Thaliost last week.'
'Imprisoned in Thaliost?'
'She left with a Lyrandar pilot who paid her fines.'
Ossa scowled, and Gaven suspected that Aunn had just told him all the information that Ossa had hoped to use as a bargaining chip. So Rienne was with Jordhan. The sky rumbled with his pang of jealousy, but he felt relief as well, knowing that she had safely returned from Argonnessen and escaped whatever prison she'd been in.
The Sentinel Marshal was a few steps up the stairs, with Ossa right behind. 'Gaven, excoriate of House Lyrandar,' the Marshal said, 'by authority of House Deneith, I place you under arrest for murder. I suggest you come without a fight, rather than adding to your crimes.'
'Oh, so you make that suggestion out of concern for me?' Gaven said. 'Not out of fear for your life?'
