Sins of Calate: BOOK II OF THE FOUR REALMS SERIES

Part XXIV | Theodan

'Sander will lead you back,' Corryn told him. 'I'll send word to you at dawn.'

Outside the dining tent, his swords were as he had left them, and in the same order he removed them he began to re-arm himself. Then he turned fully to Corryn.

'I'll take Azura back from Zybar with or without you, but who else could entice her men to take up arms again?' He asked. 'I also happen to believe that her new queen is best served by someone as loyal to its previous one as you were.'

Corryn listened, appeared to be deep in thought, though offered no response. They took a different route back towards the pavilion, a meandering mud track past a cluster of animal-skin tents. Family groups sat huddled around small campfires, some women with babes in arms, fathers chastising small children. When they reached the raised tent in the centre of the camp Corryn spoke, finally. Facing Theodan, he let out a deep sigh.

'Even if you take the city and succeed in driving Torrik's forces into the sea; there is no guarantee you can hold it. No guarantee you will have Calate's support to help you take the rest of the realm back from Zybar.  All of it seems perilously uncertain to me, Theodan, and so would it have to the commander I used to know.'

How to tell him he had not been the commander he used to know for some time? Since he first looked into the large golden-brown eyes of Fara of Calate. Or did the look in Corryn's eye say he already knew that? 

'I'm not sure why I would risk my men, and my women, and my children to such uncertainty.' Theodan understood now that the route back had been a demonstration of all that he might lose should he agree to this.

'Then what else will you do?' Theodan asked. 'Do nothing and wait here for Zybar to find you.'

'It would take years for Zybar to find us: You're only here now because your Varveh carried you over the pass. My kin and I could wait it out right here. Let all of you kill each other down there so that when we finally come down from these mountains, there is no one left to fight.'

'There will be a victor, Corryn. That much is certain. I suppose the question is, who would you rather face when you do finally come down from this mountain.' He considers not saying the next words. What good could it do to remind Corryn of what he had lost; what Theodan had helped take from him? He decided the risk worth the taking. 'Arielle saved Fara of Calate's life. She likely gave her own life to ensure the princess lived. With Galyn and Sylvan already dead, I believe she knew what such a thing might mean for Azura. It was perhaps the second last decision Arielle ever made. What I do now only honours that decision.'

Corryn watched him closely, the moonlight gleaming in his black eyes. 'What is it with this princess? Galyn lost his life and his realm for her, Arielle too. Now you want to hand her a crown and you're willing to risk everything to do it. It makes no sense to me. Vala thinks you are a fool.'

Theodan sighed. 'Vala and I rarely agree on anything Corryn, this much has always been true. But she does not know Fara of Calate as I do.'

'Is that so?' Corryn's eyebrows raised.