Realm of Light - Deborah Chester [52]
“I am not dead. I am not a ghost. Caelan, look with truth. Don’t let your fear blind you.”
“What is the truth?” he asked hoarsely, dragging in a breath. “How do you still come to be here? How are you still alive? Who cares for you? What happened to you?”
“I told you this is a place of sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary? What do you mean?”
“A place of protection. The gentle spirits keep it. Anyone who comes here is safe. I knew this when I used to play here. You knew it when you left me here.”
“I knew nothing,” he said savagely. “Except that I abandoned you to starve.”
“You knew,” she insisted. “Instinctively, if nothing else. And when you told me to stay here until you came back, I did. In a way.”
He looked away angrily. “Impossible! Why do you lie?”
“Why do you refuse the truth?”
Her words were gentle; her tone was reasonable. But he couldn’t believe her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking hurt. “I thought you would understand by now. I shouldn’t have approached you this way. But I was so glad to see you, so happy. After all these years I had the chance to bring you back to me.”
“I don’t understand.”
She met his gaze, and her eyes were clear and guileless. “I wished you to come back to me, and you did. When I saw that you were coming through the Gate of Sorrows, I—”
“How do you know about that?” he demanded sharply, his suspicions reawakened. “Unless you are yourself some vision from the shadow world, how would you know about—”
“How do you know what you know?” she countered. “How do you see deeply into the souls of men, so deeply you find their threads of life? How do you command a warding key simply by holding it and wishing it to work? How do you walk among demons and men, known to both? Do you think it is possible that only you can do such things, when I am your sister, with the same blood and the same heart?”
He stared at her, letting her words sink in, and felt cold to his marrow. “What are we?” he asked.
She hesitated a moment, then said, “We are Choven.”
His mind surged within him, as though he might almost believe it; then his skepticism crashed back. “Impossible.”
“Do not fear the truth.”
He glared at her. “Choven don’t look like us. They aren’t—”
He broke off abruptly and didn’t finish his sentence.
Lea’s eyes never wavered. “They aren’t human?” she finished.
Furious, he said, “I have been called everything from casna to donare. But—”
She slapped her hand against his breastplate loudly enough to silence him. “Hush!” she said, her blue eyes snapping. “Oh, how angry you make me when you are stubborn. Are the Choven evil? Are they?”
He frowned and reluctantly shook his head.
“They are mysterious and rarely seen. Does that make them evil?”
He sighed impatiently. “Of course not.”
“Then do not fear the truth.”
“But, Lea, I do not look like any Choven ever seen. Nor do you. We look like our parents. We were born in E’nonhold, our births witnessed by people who helped bring us up.”
It was her turn to sigh impatiently. She crossed her arms and began to tap her foot. “Stubborn and stupid. You have so many lessons to learn. Will you insist on seeing only the most obvious explanation? Or can your mind accept alternatives?”
“Explain.”
“I am trying to, but you won’t listen to anything.”
Wearily he tipped his head back against the wall. “I am tired, sister, and beset with worries. My chief responsibility is the life and safety of the empress sovereign. Make your words simple and don’t twist my mind with complications.”
“I’m sorry we have quarreled,” she said, her anger vanishing at once. “Of course you are tired, but you need not worry. You are safe, and the empress is safe as long as she stays here.”
“She has little time,” Caelan said. “The venom—”
“It cannot do its evil while she lies here.”
He looked into his sister’s eyes and felt the tension in his body relax. Closing his eyes, he murmured, “Gault be thanked.”
“Come,” Lea said, tugging at his sleeve. “You need care. Come and rest.