The Tales of Miriela: Shadowborn

Chapter 29: Tallion

"No," Guthrum pushed Tallion's hands away and lunged towards Rowland's body. He pulled him out of the well and set him gently on the ground. Guthrum's hands moved from his brother's chest, to his face, as he held Rowland's head in his arms. Tallion knew the look on Guthrum's face, it was one that he so often saw, rage.

"Alina. This was Alina's doing Tallion. From the beginning, sitting and plotting, planning and scheming. Don't you see it now, Tallion? All along we were but pawns, serving a means to an end!" Guthrum stood from the ground, tears still fell from his eyes.

"She would not disown or betray us, brother. Your sight deceives you in your rage. She is like a mother to us. We were to sit with her on thrones of our own, beside Alina as our Queen. I will not believe it. I will not believe that she has taken him from us." Tallion's voice raised as he addressed his brother's accusations.

"Brother, she controls the wells, wells that she commanded us to post. You know her better than anyone. You know that her secretes grow greater with each day's pass. Only she knows her true intentions. She cannot be trusted. My fate would have been the same as Rowland's, had I not felt the well was simply a stage for death. I did not trust her planning from the start, surely not enough to place myself alone in a well against the strongest soldiers in Miriela. If only our brother would have listened and done the same, he may stand and breath with us still. It was her hand that cast this death upon us all. We must strike Tallion, strike now, before her power is too great," Guthrum said. Even his own brother's death could not lift the veil from his eyes.

Tallion paused as the sharp words of his brother fell upon his ears. What his eyes saw did not match what his heart felt. He truly believed that Alina cared for him and his brothers alike. How could she lead them to a fate such as this?

"She needs us Guthrum. Alina wants a revolution, but it will never come without us. We are her most valued men. Isn't it worth fighting for something?" Tallion said.

"She's taken Oaskguard and with it, Lord Gessel's army. I'm sure she has plans to take the two other armies of this city. Trained soldiers, with experience in combat. Why would she need a band of revolutionaries? She flooded the wells to provide her new army with the armor of the Vanguard." Guthrum took a step back and looked towards the horizon. "As for us, brother. We never were anything more than a way for Alina to take what she wishes. How many caravans did we ransack, how many lives did we take, all for what? To be drowned in a tunnel? Three puppets, that is all we are, Tallion. We served the purpose we were intended to serve, like a torn sail, we were thrown out, to be replaced by another." Guthrum's words fell heavy on Tallion's heart.

"Perhaps your words are true, younger brother. Perhaps she has cast us aside, like the ash which follows a flame. Perhaps there is no place for us in Oaksguard. It may be that after giving our brother a proper burial, we should gather our things and make our way to another land. But I cannot convince my heart to hate so quickly. I must see Alina, and converse with her myself," Said Tallion.

"Tallion, if you travel to see Alina, you may not return. If she did indeed want us dead in the wells, then why not have us killed at first sight?" Guthrum said.

"What you say is true. Our presence in Oaksguard may be a risk. This is why I will travel there alone. Make your way outside the city gates, travel South, to the Mildrin Hills. Bring Rowland's body with you. Prepare it for burial. If I survive a council with Alina, I will meet you there by the next day's nightfall. If I do not arrive, assume me dead, bury our brother and leave the city. I wish the best for us both, brother, but I cannot yet turn my back on Alina," Tallion said.

Alina was the one who Tallion loved most. He had never known a true mother, but he could not imagine Alina was any less. The only hope that Tallion had in his life, was the hope that Alina had brought him. She had taken the three in at a young age, tended to them, fed them, parented them. One thing seemed certain in Tallion's life, and that was Alina's love. It was the foundational block upon which his world was built, the central truth which he knew.