The TwiceBorn

The Shadow Of A Secret

"There is always danger for those who are afraid."--Shaw

Alora frowned.  She’d seen cleaner stables than the room Darius had secured.She tested the lock on the door and found it stout which made it a little easier to overlook the hastily swabbed bloodstain on the floor.

 A hole in the wall with poorly crafted glass served as a window and Alora walked over and gazed down at the shambling Hynti.  The sun had become red-tinged, signaling the beginning of its slow descent into the horizon and she watched as it took on the overtones of the endless balefires.  Red fingers reached out across the sky and the soft edges of blackness cradled them than danced away.

She no set. She quail.  She quail at first dark, for soul.

The whisper in her mind was only a pale ghost of its former self but as always, Alora heard and listened.

“When can I expect you back?”

She’d thought Darius had scurried on off; she’d pointedly ignored him as she’d walked up the stairs and headed into the room.

“You’ll know I’m back when you see me ride into town,” She replied.  “The wind will settle once the sun goes down.  Keep your fires strong.”

“Providing the wind doesn’t shift, we have more than enough rations to burn.” Darius sniffed as he looked about the squalid room.  “Your concern for us is touching.”

“I don’t give a shit about you or your people,” Alora didn’t bother to turn from the window.

“Just remember what I told you about Islinn.  And Lochedge.”

“At this point in time,I don’t know if that would be a threat or a blessing,”  Darius gave a bitter laugh.  He glanced at Islinn and she looked away, uncomfortable.

“No harm will come to her here.”

“Good,” Alora turned and looked at Darius.  “Then our business together is done for now.”

She watched as Darius dropped his mouth open and prepared himself to ask her about his brother, about the coin he was expected to deliver, how long everything would take, when the Hynti would stop and on and on and on.

She raised a brow.

There was a fever intensity about Darius, and his white strained face, and even though he hadn’t bowed and scraped like many others in her presence she knew he wanted to wrap his hands around her neck and throttle her. 

His will power was amazing actually.  There was strength to the man, a dark river of will that ebbed and flowed with power.  And there had been times he’d lost his hold on it; she didn’t need to touch him to know that.

  He held his emotion and power in a closed hand and a closed hand was nothing more than a fist.  And that fist had battered its way to a position of superiority in this town but now…now… he’d stumbled.  The difference between a bone-jarring fall and a simple mis-step was her.  And what it was he wanted her to do.

She watched as he abruptly closed his mouth and, with a grand flourish, turned and left the room.

“Will you be gone long?” 

Alora looked at Islinn as the girl gingerly sat down on the edge of the worn mattress.  And oh, how she wanted to stay.  Nevermind the stain on the floor, or the chaos downstairs and never mind that who she was called to her from beyond the door.  To ride out into the coming moonlight and hold court with the Hags in blackness.

What she loved beyond breath was here, in this room.

In this girl.

Alora crossed the room and knelt down. She’d meant it to be a reassuring gesture but she could tell by looking into the girl’s eyes that it only caused more alarm.