[Lanen Kaelar 03] - Redeeming the Lost Read Online Free Page A

long years, and lo, even in this dark hour,
the Winds have sent you as a flame to brighten my soul’s darkness. It is good
to see you, Iderrisai.” He smiled then, and his soulgem—no longer part of him,
as nature meant it, but worn in a circlet of gold that held the stone against
his forehead—burned for that moment bright and clear. “I see you were not
content to let mine be the only great tale of these times! You and Hadreshikrar
have between you accomplished a work that will be remembered as long as our people
live and memory lasts. You have brought us all home.” He leaned forward and
touched his soulgem briefly to Idai’s faceplate, a deeply personal gesture used
only between the nearest of friends.
    I was grateful that Idai closed her eyes in
that moment, for Vnrien’s sake. He could not see the years-long sorrow rise in
them, pain and weary loneliness that struck my own heart in the instant. I had
to close my eyes against the depth of it. By the time Varien pulled back from
the contact, though, Idai was in control of herself again.
    “You are well, then, Ak—Varien?” she asked.
Her voice wa-vered only slightly. Varien might well put it down to her
weariness.
    “I rejoice to see thee and my people safe at
last, but in truth, I toll thee I have seldom been worse, Idai,” he said, and
as his voice deepened I heard the anger in it rising. If he had been in his old
shape his wings would have begun to rattle. In this body, his hands curled in
upon themselves and the skin of them began to turn white. “Hath Shikrar told thee
of the great ill that hath befallen us, Lady? That a demon-master hath stolen
away my beloved from my very side, and I helpless to stop him?” A tremor in his
voice betrayed the depth of his feeling. “And that I know not where she bides,
or whether she is quick or dead?”
    Even I was shaken. Varien in his fury was
using the style of Gedri speech he had learned hundreds of years before. “I
have told her, Varien,” I said aloud, adding silently, “Your speech be—i trays
your anger. You must not fail now, Akhor. We are here and our strength is
yours. Do not let your heart’s wound blind you. We cannot fly in force and
destroy this Berys at once—he is a demon-master and we know not the extent of
his strength. Remember the Demonlord, who destroyed the half of our Kindred
upon a single day! I do not counsel cowardice, my friend, only prudence. And
such a battle, such a war, would not be kind to those innocents around about.
We are new-come to this land. Would you arrive as a destroyer?”
    “I would arrive as one bent on saving the life
of my beloved!” he cried.
    “We will find Lanen, by my soul I swear it,” I
answered solemnly aloud, “but we must go softly at first, lest we break all
hope of living here in peace with the Gedri, or break ourselves J like fools
upon the power of this demon-master.”
    “Oh, I expect you’ll have a good chance of
living in peace here,” ji said a calm voice from near the ground. The Lady
Rella stepped I forward and bowed briefly to Idai. “Welcome—you’re the Lady
Idai, aren’t you?” Idai nodded once, and Rella grinned. “I remem-ber you from
the Dragon Isle. I don’t think we ever exchanged names, but Lanen told me about
you. Well-met, Lady, and welcome to your new home. I for one am delighted to
see you.”
    Idai hissed her amusement. “Rrrellla, the
strong arm that kept Llanen safe from her own kind. Yess, I recall you.
Well-met, and I thank you for the welcome, but I do not know if it will outlast
my first request.” She turned to me. “Have you eaten, Hadreshikrar?”
    I instantly wished she had not said that, for
of a sudden I was aware of my empty belly and a raging hunger surged through
me. “No,” I replied shortly, and both Rella and Idai laughed as a noisy rumble
from my interior nearly drowned out my answer. “No, I have not eaten, apart
from a morsel here and there since I arrived. The prospect of fighting