Bertan`s quest - Michelle Tarynne (best beach reads of all time txt) 📗

won't kill you from the distance before I get the chance to talk," she said tightly, waiting for him to drift off for good to wrap him tightly in the fabric.

She took his sleeping body into her arms and marched swiftly in the direction of the Sword three-tracks built on this side of the Wall. Time was of the utmost importance and the platform would spare them whole Cycles, if not more of walking, she tried to assure herself into what felt like walking right into her own death row.

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Why did you do that for Grand Duchess? Wouldn't it be easier and less dramatic to just talk to us first?" dark haired Aru the Swordsman asked. He was the first one to regain his senses right there at the Duchess' feet. "It's a nightmare to come back from the other place, your darts sucked us in." His fellows were still lying on the floor. A tortured groan attested to the truth of his words.

Hunn was still totally out of it, the Duchess noted with a grimace, he had taken the dart aimed for his young companion, who had been fidgeting so much then that she had missed. She had been very disappointed with herself at that point. It was the first time ever that she missed her mark. It irked her, even more, to realize that the boy had been gone ever since. It wasn't the way she had planned for the events to play out. The fact that the boys decided to make a Calling truly played on her nerves, she should have foreseen that, but it was yet another thing that slipped her mind. Vlad had been warned of trouble, and that was a very bad thing. She wanted to avoid it happening at all costs, but it was out of her reach now too.

She knew that nothing could be hidden away perfectly enough to remain hidden forever. There were forces in her world that guided unsuspecting ones, over and over again, to discover uneasy truths. For some reason, lies were always out in the open while eternal truths' only fate was to be snatched and buried deep before others could make use of it. Every deception, on the other hand, was being followed ruthlessly by its expiration date set to zero its existence. The Oracle herself made it impossible to obscure any truth throughout the ages and the only purpose of the Elders and Vlad's 'plan' was to unearth the things that were better off buried deep down below their feet.

"I had my reasons boys. It could not be done differently without having to argue with Vlad over the Oracles at some point," the Duchess said stiffly, wishing her dry voice could regain some of its power.

"Right… where is he?" Aru asked after he looked around to notice there were only three of them lying on the floor.

"He went on with his plan I suppose," she admitted begrudgingly. It was yet another huge failure of her to let him go, just because he had been warned by the Calling.

"He just left us all here?" Aru asked incredulously, "To die?"

"In brief… yes. He would not act differently under any circumstances. Time is of the essence in his plans… But all in all no one wants you dead, yet," she mused absently. Her hazel eyes glazed dreamily for a moment, a habit she had not been aware of. "He believes in your training and abilities, I believe in it so too…"

A loud knock on the door immediately brought her back to the reality she had to face, her tasks and plans. She opened the doors furious that someone had the gall to disturb her peace.

"What now? Do you not know what time it is now?" the Duchess unleashed her rage at the two guards standing at the doors.

"It is of no meaning now, Duchess. The Red Axe King hails you now," the darker guard's rigid voice carried the authority she hadn't encountered in ages. She forgot how dangerous it could be to have someone utterly unafraid in her presence. One more failure was noted in her mind.

The Duchess proudly let herself be guided to wherever the King wanted to meet her. One more failure, she thought, and she might not live to leave this place. She was being gnawed on furiously by the thoughts of change that occurred within her recently. It's not just the recent failures but the holes big as mountains in her assessments and plans. She had to admit her mind worked slower, unable to focus on what happened around her for some reason, and she wasn't ready to admit that her age was finally catching up with her mind.

Bewildered, she stopped mid-thought only then aware where they were going, just then noticing the echoes of their steps, slow breathing of the guards and the silence when they finally stopped by the Throne Room main gates. All of her attention tended to turn inwards from time to time, without her control, without her consent, as if she was being possessed by her own ego and nothing concerning her body and the outside circumstances was important enough.

"The King awaits you." Words void of any emotion brought her up to reality yet again.

The Gates opened to reveal the utter destruction of the ancient room. She walked lightly through the debris examining what had been done there, just moments before, judging by the dust still shifting in the air. The Duchess focused her attention on the lone, seemingly lost King sitting on his bare throne. It took no time for her mind to know what would be asked of her. And yet, she stood poised and still as a prey that plays dead, not far from him, watched him and waited.

"I know you know what I want," the Red Axe King stared intently straight into her eyes.

"I know you know the price for it," the Duchess said unaffected by his hostility.

"I will not give you my daughter," he roared.

"Why are you always forgetting she is of my blood too?" she would not let her temper-fire up again.

"Because now, I know exactly who you are, and why you came to me," the King seethed in hate.

"We both know it's not the only reason that you refuse to let me see Lar, my King," she almost spat out the last words she addressed him with.

"As I said before, I know that you know what I want from you," he said calmly taking control of his own anger.

"It's becoming boring to have the same conversation over and over again. Why did you call me today into this wretched chamber then? To argue in the dust of your demolishment?" she gestured around the Throne Chamber, clearly dishonest in her amazement.

"It's not that… there might be a major security breach," the King calmly gritted out through his teeth.

"Here? In the throne chamber?" she was really surprised this time, and that was pretty worrisome.

"Yes, I heard the noise from below the floor earlier. The machinery noise that has never been heard here since…" his voice faltered as he tried to find the way to word his suspicions.

"Since the Axes claimed this Block and all land as theirs," the Duchess finished the sentence absent-mindedly. Her gaze was fixated on the throne, "You have not been extracting from that part of the Mine ever since. All of your production focuses on the western and southern mines."

She wasn't aware that she crossed the distance between them to examine the metal structure. Her eyes glazed in the sheer pleasure of touching it and seeing its beauty unobstructed. "It's a beautiful piece of machinery, such shame you had it covered all those years," her mouth uttered the words without her conscious consent, "Haven't you known that?" she asked, looking straight into him with the eyes he knew should not belong to her at all.

"Known what? That it's a machine or that it looked ugly to you?" his voice was tight and hand traveled to his weapon, ready to strike, "How could it still work today, when no one remembers its purpose?"

He watched her struggling to absorb that question as her eyes shot into a full attention.

"No!" she whispered. Cold truth ravaged her body suddenly, "That damn fool!" The Duchess broke into the run to go back to her room, right after she managed to say, "I will tell you as I have told you countless times before. Bring Lar to my rooms. I won't say a thing before I have her in my arms again. My king."

"You will never put your unholy hands on my daughter again, I swear by it!" Red Axe King roared into the sky.

"Well then, you have sealed your own destiny," she whispered on her way out.

It was hard to believe that every male she had encountered in her life was such a total disaster.

 

After the Duchess had left her spacious chamber, Aru could not help but wonder, what were her plans and how much it would cost them to stay alive. When she came back riding on the wings of fury, he hoped this place wouldn't become his tomb. Electric undercurrents that were following her left all the males breathless and numb.

"Is Hunn awake yet?" she demanded as she entered her rooms once more.

"No," Aru drawled lazily enough to force her to calm down.

"Work on it then, he has to wake up now. Beat him back into life if you have to!" she got closer and closer to losing her temper, yet again. The electricity undercurrents thickened even more.

"We could spare some time if we had an antidote for the poison, my Duchess," his lazy and logical answers made her hover even closer to the edge of madness.

"What favors could bring shooting darts covered in anything that has an antidote? It makes no sense boy!" She scolded him, bemused with his ignorance.

"Well, maybe, but it would help to avoid the situations like now," he reasoned ever so patiently.

"I don't have to like the situation we are in right now either. I can't have any of you in here right now that somebody has decided to ride down into the mines unprepared," the Duchess said unwillingly for the panic to take over her reason.

"It's probably Vlad, we have separated earlier," the Two, who was still lying on the floor, took both of them by surprise with his sudden awareness.

"I know, the Fool. Fool!" she screeched madly, "There is a time for everything, and what he has done may endanger everyone now."

"Who do you mean by everyone exactly if I may ask Duchess?" The Two asked a little bit confused at that point. He got the full control over his body just a few moments earlier. He had never read or even talked about the Oracle, joining this quest only because he was one of the few Seekinglanders who did not panic at the slightest detail going awry. Life is life, he thought, and in life, crap always falls down. There had to be someone reasonable among the true believers.

"Seekinglanders of course, who else?" the Duchess said taken aback, "Why would anyone care for any other tribe? After all, Seekinglanders are the only ones deemed worthy to survive the coming war. The Oracle herself said so all this time ago."

"What about the Axes?" the Two supplied frowned, visibly unhappy with her answer.

"Why would I worry about them? They are not of our kind," she scoffed at the idea as if she was chasing a stubborn fly away with enough force to kill the poor creature if it was too slow.

"But they are living, breathing people, we share bloodlines with them," the Two would not let this go easily. Of mixed origin, he adored his Axe mother beyond any reason and he would kill the first person who would imply into his face that she was of a lesser kind. There would be no differences nor divisions for him, not when people as a whole were regarded.

"That