the wide doorway of the ritual chamber at the base of the tiered clefts near the cascade. Oudan and the rest of the shamans moved to help, some already beginning the blessing and the litany that would seal the oval chamber from evil spirits and prying ears and open it up to the gods.
“I’ve left a small group of acolytes behind in the archives attempting to reconstruct the research that Benedine has been doing for the past few months, but it will be difficult.”
Aeren paused in the act of slicing a piece of gaezel meat and stared at Lotaern, who sat across from him at the low, portable table set up on the grass of the plains. They’d traveled with the Alvritshai envoy the full length of Lord Peloroun’s lands and were about to enter the land that the dwarren claimed as their own. Aeren hadn’t had an opportunity to speak to Lotaern since they’d departed Caercaern, the Chosen of the Order having first dined with nearly all of the other lords who outranked Aeren, starting with the Tamaell. Aeren could have insisted, but he didn’t want to draw any attention to how closely he’d been working with Lotaern recently.
Setting his knife aside, Aeren dipped his hands into a tiny bowl of water and dried them on a towel set to one side. “Why is that?”
“Because following Benedine’s logic-what thought led to which reference, what material he looked at first-is nearly impossible. He looked at hundreds of texts, including the Scripts, but most of those lead to dead ends. We don’t know which of those texts were important, and finding them will take time.”
Aeren nodded. “I see.”
Lotaern gave him a strange look. “You’ve been rather quiet. What is it that concerns you?”
Aeren caught Lotaern’s eye and thought back to the day the envoy had departed Caercaern. All the lords had gathered in the plaza before the Sanctuary before dociern, as the Tamaell had requested. Only the Chosen and his acolytes had yet to arrive. When the bells of the Sanctuary began to chime, everyone on the plaza turned toward the doors to the Sanctuary, which had already begun to open. But unlike a typical dociern ceremony, the acolytes who emerged didn’t begin drifting among those gathered to offer up blessings and prayers or give alms and accept donations. Instead, the Chosen of the Order stepped out into the sunlight in robes of vivid white. Four files of acolytes marched out behind him, dressed in light armor, every footfall in sync, moving in precise columns that lined up behind Lotaern in formation. Two of the acolyte warriors carried tall banners, a white flame against a blue background, signifying Aielan’s Light. They fell into place on either side of Lotaern. Behind the Chosen, more acolytes emerged, this time leading a slew of horses and two wagons. One of them led a white horse to Lotaern’s side and handed over the reins.
The spectacle had drawn a murmur from the gathered Alvritshai, from the lords and the Phalanx. Aeren hadn’t realized the Order had their own warriors. The Order shouldn’t have warriors. Were they simply for show? Or could they actually wield the cattans they carried?
Aeren drew a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I did not realize that the Order had trained warriors. It didn’t when I was an acolyte.”
Lotaern stilled for a moment, then set his own knife down and finished chewing before answering. “There is nothing in the Scripts that forbids it. In fact, there are references to the Order having its own army, the Order of the Flame, brethren who felt that Aielan and her Light must be defended at all costs.”
“And is that what these acolytes-this Order of the Flame-are for? Defense?”
“Yes. For the defense of Aielan and the Order, to help protect us against those who would oppose the Light. And against those creatures like the sukrael and the Wraiths who abhor the Light, who may seek to destroy it.”
Aeren met Lotaern’s gaze. “You must have begun training the members of the Order of the Flame years ago to have them prepared at the level I have seen on this march. Training that began long before the sukrael or the Wraiths were an issue.”
Lotaern’s eyes narrowed. “I would have thought that you, of all of the lords in the Evant, would be supportive of the Order and the Flame.”
“I do support the Order,” Aeren said, “but I am also Lord of House Rhyssal. The Order was never intended to have its own Phalanx. It’s how the balance of power between the Evant and the Order remains stable. It’s how the Tamaell retains his power and keeps the Order separate from the Evant. The Order was never intended to be a rival to the Evant, the Chosen a rival to the Tamaell. It is intended to serve the people, to offer them solace and guidance in their everyday lives and to give them hope in times of strife. I cannot be the only lord in this envoy who has expressed concern over this.”
“No, you are not. But I believe that you will find the Flame useful before all this is done. They are skilled at more than swordplay. They have other talents. And I do not intend to oppose the Tamaell or use the Flame against any of the Houses. But the world is changing. The arrival of the humans was only the beginning. Now we have the sukrael, the antruel, the Wraiths… I do not see an end to the changes in sight. The Order is simply preparing.”
Aeren didn’t answer, the tension between them thick. He knew that some within the Order had power like that which Colin displayed, although not as great. He wanted to ask how Lotaern had trained his contingent of warrior acolytes without anyone in the Evant learning of it, but he already knew. He’d been in the depths of the Sanctuary himself when he’d gone to pass through Aielan’s Light to earn his pendant. He’d seen the empty chambers deep within the mountain where the Alvritshai had once lived. Lotaern could have trained an army ten times this size within those halls, and no one outside the Order would have known.
The thought sent fingers of unease prickling along his arms.
But Lotaern’s small force-a hundred and twenty acolytes altogether-was the least of Aeren’s concerns at the moment, and it was not the main source of the tension and unease that had preoccupied him since they’d reached the edge of Alvritshai lands.
Aeren glanced out toward the falling darkness and the rest of the entourage heading to the plains. Nearby, Eraeth and Colin sat beside one of the many fires lit for cooking and for the coming night, Eraeth drilling Colin in the Alvritshai language, using the light to show him the corresponding words on scraps of parchment. A few of the Rhyssal Phalanx had gathered around to watch and were tossing in their own contributions. Ever since the trek across the plains and the meeting with the dwarren, the Phalanx had taken Colin under the Rhyssal wings, more than even declaring him Rhyssal-aein warranted. They’d begun training him with the knife he carried in his bag, spending hours after the convoy halted, sparring until the light faded. Beyond them, the convoy stretched out into the distance along a swath of trampled and wheel-rutted grass, so large he could barely discern Tamaell Fedorem’s banners at the head of the column. They were arranged according to their power in the Evant, the Tamaell at the front, followed by Lords Khalaek and Peloroun, Waerren and Jydell, Vaersoom and Aeren, and finally Barak.
The size of the group had grown since they’d departed Caercaern.
“I find it troublesome that Lord Peloroun added over one hundred of his own House Phalanx to his escort when we reached his estate,” he finally said. “I could have let that pass without comment, could have accepted it as a mere precaution on his part. He has dealt with the dwarren on more occasions than nearly any of the rest of the lords. And as he said at the Evant, he has suffered more of their attacks. But then, at the border-”
Lotaern shifted at the change in conversation, then nodded in understanding. “At the border, we were joined by no less than one thousand of the Phalanx, composed of members of the Houses Duvoraen, Ionaen, and Redlien.”
“Precisely.” Aeren turned to gaze out over the hundreds of fires that now lit the night. “What began as a simple envoy has begun to feel more like an army. An army marching to war.” He paused, then turned to face Lotaern directly. “There are now nearly two thousand Phalanx in this envoy, five hundred of them the White Phalanx. When we left Caercaern, the entire envoy contained only four hundred. It’s begun to feel like a repetition of the Escarpment.”
Lotaern caught the undercurrent in Aeren’s tone and poured a glass of wine, forehead creased in thought. “You think this is a ploy, a means to get all the dwarren clan chiefs together in one place so that we can finish them off in one crushing defeat. You think Tamaell Fedorem intends another betrayal.”
“That’s exactly what I fear.” The words were more bitter than he’d intended, loud enough that Eraeth glanced over with a frown. “But I can’t tell. He had me convinced he intended peace with the humans at the Escarpment. Why shouldn’t he do the same again?”
“He doesn’t have the army gathered here that he had at the Escarpment.”
“Near enough. But he doesn’t need such a large army now. We’re only meeting with the dwarren. They
