Cross Purposes (Chronicles of Ylandre, Book 5) Read Online Free

yearned for the day when he could stand on his own two feet and not be beholden to anyone for his sustenance.
    He hailed a public carriage and clambered on board. There were only two other passengers, a father and his child. Tristen took care not to stare at them though the adult piqued his fascination.
    The Deir was slender and somewhat rounded of shoulders and there was a delicacy to his features and manner that had naught to do with weakness or refinement but rather effeminacy, an extremely rare trait in the world of Aisen. Verily, he bore all the hallmarks of a throwback to the past, when the Naere, the Deira’s forebears, first came to Aisen and shared it for a while with its indigenous people. The gelra had once walked the very streets of Rikara, male and female alike, before they were assimilated by the Naere and ceased to exist as a race apart.
    The Inception it was now called—that period of engineered racial evolution wherein the Naere sought to adapt themselves to the world to which they had fled amidst the death throes of their ancient home. They systematically mated with the gelra, or rather with the males of that now vanished race. For the dual-gendered Naere had no need or liking for the female of the species being themselves capable of conceiving progeny, as well as begetting them on one another.
    This selectivity resulted in their evolution into a stronger, more resilient people while retaining the Naere’s longevity and ability to withstand physical hardship. It also ensured that they remained androgynes, though they slowly lost almost all traces of the softer lines and facial features that had heretofore distinguished the Naere from the gelra males. However, it heralded the death knell of the gelra as a race and especially the extinction of female-kind. Ylandre saw the passing of its last female almost two millennia ago. None now existed in any of the five continents of Aisen. But every so often, a Deir would be born bearing the marks of the androgynous Naere and the female gelra of old.
    Born with a healer’s instinct and curiosity, Tristen could not help being intrigued by this deviation from the usual. He surreptitiously studied the pair as the carriage rumbled its way down the main avenue of the capital, his would-be physician’s mind tidily tucking away every detail for future retrieval. He wondered if the child would grow up to be like the parent who had sired him or his birthing father—Tristen could not think of the Deir before him as being other than a child bearer. It simply boggled his mind to imagine otherwise. In any case, he came away from the experience all the more certain he was meant for the healing profession.
    At length, he disembarked and trudged down the narrow street to the inn where he and Veare were staying for the duration of their fortnight in the capital city. They chose the inn because it was reasonably priced and situated in the east district, rather than the seedy south. The other reason was Keosqe Deilen’s current absence from the city. Had the Sidonan noble been in town, Tristen did not doubt Veare would have asked him to let them stay at his townhome.
    He did not tell his brother so, but he’d been relieved to learn Keosqe was away. He was uncomfortable with Veare’s sense of entitlement when it came to asking anything of Keosqe. And there was also the matter of his aversion to being in debt to anyone. Keosqe was Veare’s good friend, but Tristen could not banish the fear that the Deilen heir might one day decide enough was enough and demand recompense for all he’d done for the Marantes.
    He reached the inn and, crossing the small front foyer, hastened up the narrow stairs to the second floor of the three-story building. He walked the length of the corridor to the room he shared with Veare—the rear chambers were slightly larger and had wider beds and more spacious closets.
    It was a fairly comfortable inn and the owner kept everything spic and span. But like