Sacrifice (Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

“Well, I suppose with Chertanne dead that I am now the Shadan of Aughmere again. I turn command of this little party over to you, Gen.”
    Gen turned to the elf. “Falael, you and I will scout down the canyon and see if they are near.”
    “Don’t leave me, Gen, please,” the Chalaine begged. Dason eyed him narrowly.
    Gen turned to explain when Torbrand grabbed his arm. “I’m just as good in the wild as you. Stay with her. My son-in-law is with Mirelle, remember?” Gen nodded, and Torbrand and Falael ran out into the canyon. Gen returned to where the Chalaine sat, head in one hand with Dason stroking the other.
    “If you have the strength, your Grace,” Dason said, “a little healing would not go amiss.”
    “Leave her be, for pity’s sake, Dason,” Gen chided him. “The black eye will heal, and you’ll have your looks back. Help me find a couple of straight branches for a litter.” Dason scowled at him but complied.
    They stayed near the grieving Queen, and Gen ached for her. His time with her had taught him that she feared one thing above all—to prove a failure and doom the world. While any rational creature would never assign her any blame in the day’s events, he knew her diffident heart pounded her with guilt. He understood what it was to feel as she did, and it had taken a great deal to pull himself out that hole.
    She needs her mother, and she needs a purpose, he thought.
    While Dason cleared a branch, Gen crossed to her and removed his cloak. “Chalaine, listen to me. This cloak is special. We will make your litter with it, but do not lose it. It is elven and imbued with magic. By its power we were able to survive the fall from Echo Hold. It can be very useful in the right places.”
    “Then you keep it,” she said. “You should take your stones back, too.”
    The numb apathy in her voice shocked him. “No. Mikkik is not going to come for me, Chalaine. He wants you.”
    “Why? I am unimportant. Chertanne is the one who had Eldaloth’s blood.”
    Gen furrowed his brow. “What?”
    “Padra Athan explained it to us. It was a part of the Apocraphon they kept hidden. Chertanne’s blood was what held the power to destroy Mikkik.”
    Gen sat as he absorbed the information, trying to puzzle something out that tickled in the back of his mind, but the Chalaine’s renewed weeping pulled him back to her.
    Leaning close, he whispered so only she could hear. “Chalaine, please. Nothing that has happened today is your fault! It’s more mine than anyone’s! Even if you had done something wrong, I would not love you less. If you had never borne the title of Chalaine or been as beautiful as every sunny spring day piled on top of each other, I still would have fallen in love with you in that canyon. I know it was a mistake you fault me for, but I could hardly help it. Please remember that while all of Ki’Hal only knows you as the Chalaine, there are those of us who know you as much more.”
    She hugged him fiercely. Dason returned quickly, frowning.
    “What did you say to her?” he asked grumpily.
    Gen disentangled himself from her arms and stood. “Just the truth, Dason, just the truth. Be at ease.”
    “Ho!” Torbrand shouted some distance off. “Gen! We have a problem!”

    “You cannot do this! There are too many!” the Chalaine yelled a short while later, voice hoarse and frantic with desperation. Rather than the friendly forces of Rhugoth marching to their aid, a column of Mikkik’s host two thousand strong surged up the canyon. Torband mentioned a narrow gap where they might bottle the army for some time, and Gen had decided immediately—he and Torbrand would buy escape time while Falael and Dason bore the Chalaine away.
    Gen smiled at her as he and Shadan Khairn adjusted and tightened their armor. Gen’s eyes were hard and resolute, while Torbrand’s lit up with childlike anticipation. The heat of the late summer afternoon beaded sweat upon their brows.
    “Don’t worry,