Shadows of the Keeper Read Free Page B

unspoken promise found
within his grasp.
    Dezenial sensed
the hovering spirit, yet remained blind to its presence.  Unless he swayed
to his father’s calling, the sight of Otherworld was not his to use. 
“Keer’dra, Xyn will use you again, should your soul return.  I will not
allow him the cruelty, not to you.  Rest forever, little one, my father’s
realm impenetrable.”
    “They . . .
will need me.”
    “They will
forsake you as they have done before—as they do now!”
    “They never
came for me, nor did Pendaran return.  I obeyed, never using their power
entrusted . . . to me.”
    “You are a
gatekeeper, a pawn, Keer’dra.  They allowed you to be killed before. 
Why does their betrayal surprise you yet again?”
    “Send me to
your father, that Xyn may never call upon me to be the Keeper.”
    Ignoring the
shout uttered by the hovering spirit, Dezenial sank his fangs deeply into
Aurelia’s neck, taking her soul.  As her colorless hand slipped into the
snow, so too did the flicker of light in the black heart of the lethal god
holding her.  Head thrown back, Dezenial’s bereft howl cast day into
night; Hades’ golden chariot the singular light for many long moments before
Apollo dared peek again, returning to mortals, their precious sunlight.
    A smile teased
her blue lips.  A smile the Outlander had not placed on her mouth in a
very long time.  Pendaran sighed deeply, feeling his age, though his face
belied the numerous millennia he had walked this earth.  Had he not warned
his father they were making a grievous error entrusting the Forest Lords with
her care—again?  “Otherworld is where she resides now, Outlander. 
Perhaps this time, Hades will refrain from releasing her,” Pendaran said,
lifting Aurelia’s lifeless body.
    “Hades?” 
Broc shouted in reckless anger.  Eerie Elvish chanting silenced. 
“And what of mi’ own people?  Is the life of one woman your only concern
for grief?”  The Forest Lord ignored sparks in the druid’s onyx
eyes.  He and his men had been rendered motionless, forced to observe as
the Lumynari swine dropped his mouth against Aurelia’s neck.  “That
murdering Lumynari drank from her!”
    “No, he took
her soul.  They are entwined.  Always have been; always will
be.  It remains far beyond me to interfere, once Dezenial has found
her.  Each time, my father thinks to hide her and each time, your kind
cause her death.  Should she return ever again, I will be powerless to
keep them separated.  Theirs is a path meant to entwine.”
    “Returns? 
You surpass madness.  None return from death.”  The gore that had
once been Aurelia’s smooth stomach riveted the Forest Lord.  “Not even
your magicks, druid, will bring her back.”
    “Think you this
be the first time your kind has caused her brutal death?”  Pendaran
advanced, his burden cradled in his arms as Broc’s grip tightened around the
hilt of his blood-dripping sword.  The druid’s long black hair manifesting
into crackling dark flame did little to disquiet Broc’s rage.
    “Do you know
what they would have done to her, had Prince Dezenial not arrived and killed
Ardra?  If Aurelia herself had not called upon death— soul death,
Outlander, not just the customary death of the body!”
    “Since when do
those heathens protect any?  He drank her blood!  Proof he is nothing
more than savage, yet you dare honor his wishes, praise his prowess?” 
Livid, Broc squeezed his hilt, itching to slay.  “Has the surrounding
stench o’ death fallen short of wafting to yer’ nose?”  Broc hissed from
clenched teeth.  “Perhaps it is but mi’ mind’s trickery, sobbing I hear
from those grieving the slaughter of loved ones.  Blood rivers under yer’
boots—“
    Broc’s sword
swung.  Pendaran’s magic countered with lethal speed.  The Outlander
catapulted several feet from the druid.  Elves prepared for attack from
defending Forest Lords, though none dared rush to their