David Dalglish - Blood Of Gods

How wonderful for you. You bond, while I lay here and rot, slowly poisoned with each passing day.

Suddenly annoyed, she inched closer to the slats and cleared her throat. “Why are you here?”

“To make sure you are well.”

Aully laughed, and with her coarse voice she sounded much older than her fourteen years. Her uncle tilted his head at her, moving closer to the gap, a frown on his lips.

“So tell me,” she rasped. “Do I look well ?”

Detrick leaned closer to the boards, angling the candle he held through the gap and straining his eyes to look into the area beyond. Seeing the precious light up close, Aully mindlessly moved toward it, reaching out like it was a holy relic promising immeasurable power. Her uncle’s gaze found her.

“My goddess,” he gasped. “Aully, you are all skin and bones!”

She grabbed an empty clay bowl off the ground-she kept it close to the wall of boards, for if her jailers couldn’t find it when they came to bring her more slop, she would be left unfed until they returned the next day-and jettisoned it through the space between the boards. The bowl missed her uncle by inches, shattering when it struck the wall behind him. He fell back, almost losing hold of the candle when he withdrew his hand from the gap.

“I’m being poisoned, uncle,” she said. “Each day I grow sicker. My brother is trying to kill me.”

Detrick sighed and rubbed at his temple. “He is not trying to kill you, Aully. That would defeat his purpose for placing you in here.”

“If that is so, why am I sick?”

He waved his hand at her. “You have been living in your own filth, breathing it in. It is painful, yes, but not fatal. . so long as you are allowed out of here soon.”

A gasp froze Aully’s throat. Just the thought of freedom made her feel dizzy.

“Uncle, please,” she said, pleading. “Please, release me. Break those boards and let me out. Let me gather up Kindren and my mother and flee this place. You can come with us! You’ve long told me how much you despise Carskel. . and after what he did to your hand, after how he betrayed your brother. . please, please, Uncle, help me! We can run away and find a safe place where we never have to look at his face again!”

Detrick looked away. His eyes watered.

“I am sorry, Aullienna. I cannot.”

Aully deflated, her moment of hope dashed. She crumpled again on the soiled ground and rolled into a ball, squeezing her eyes shut. “Go away,” she whispered, but it was so quiet she didn’t think her uncle could hear.

“My sweet niece,” Detrick said. His hand was on her then, his fingers running through her muck-soaked hair. “It would do no good to flee. The gods clash not two hundred miles from us. The lands to the east are burning. There is bedlam all around us. The only safety we have is here, in our forest.” She opened her eyes and saw him shaking his head through the gap. He smiled, and it was forced. “As much as I hate your brother, as much as I wish him dead, he is right. The only way to guarantee our safety is to change, to conform. It may not be so bad. Carskel was young and brash when he hurt our dear Brienna. With you, he may be gentle. With you, he may be noble.”

“Go away,” she breathed.

“What was that?” her uncle asked.

“I said go away !”

Detrick flinched and pulled back his mangled hand. “I am sorry, Aullienna, but I know no other way.”

“Of course you don’t,” she muttered, remembering her father’s words when she’d asked him why he had been made Lord of Stonewood when Detrick was the older of the two. “My brother is docile,” Cleotis Meln had said. “Detrick is no leader. He is a follower through and through. It is simply what he does best.”

“You can’t save me,” she said.

“That’s right,” her uncle answered. “I cannot.”

“Then what am I to do?”

He leaned back into the boards, and they creaked. “Your brother will visit you in three days. When he comes, he will ask you questions, and he will expect you to answer correctly. He wishes for you to love him, Aullienna, for you to dedicate your life to him. You must do this. It is our only hope. Should you do this, and should he find your answer true, you will be free. Your mother will be safe. I will be allowed to marry her, to assume the Lord’s Chair at her side.”

“You?” she asked, her voice still drained. “What of Carskel?”

“He is nervous. He’s had trouble bringing the whole of our people to his cause, and he has not heard from his contacts in Dezerea for quite some time. So after you are wed, you and your new husband will leave Stonewood and head for Dezerea with the Dezren prince. After that. . to be honest, my sweet niece, I have no idea. I have heard from Ethir Ayers that Carskel has been promised a position on the Quellan council for his part in their schemes, but I don’t know for certain.”

She heard what he offered, and this time Aully couldn’t keep from crying.

Detrick’s hand found her yet again, gently caressing her filthy bare shoulder. “Hush, child. It is difficult, I know. But please, I beg of you. . accept what your brother offers. Swear your love to him, pledge him your hand. I tire of seeing you suffer so. I tire of all our suffering.” His tone changed, becoming deeper, almost accusatory. “If you are given a chance to end that suffering, and you refuse, it would be most selfish of you.”

Those words stilled her sobs. She glanced up at him, seeing only the frame of his eyes and upper brow through the gap. Her lower lip quivered and she sucked on it, tasting the grime caked there.

“Selfish?” she asked.

“Yes, my sweet niece. Selfish.”

She bowed her head, hatred flowing from deep within her. She had to keep from lashing out at her uncle, from reaching through the boards and scratching out his eyes with her chipped fingernails. And yet his words also told her exactly what she needed to do.

“I’ll do it,” she said.

“Do what?” Detrick asked.

She sat down and looked up at him, doing her best to act the little girl he surely thought she was. “I’ll promise to love him as best I know how.”

“Do you promise, Aullienna?”

She nodded. “Yes, Uncle, I promise.”

“Very good,” Detrick said, and he gave her a genuine smile. “I know how much of a sacrifice this is. I know how hard it will be for you. Simply stay strong, and remember your loved ones-”

“Uncle, please stop,” she said, cutting him off. “I wish to be alone now.”

“Alone? Why?”

“Because I have three days to learn how to love my brother. Let me be alone with my thoughts.”

“Ah, yes. I see.” Her uncle then drew back from the slatted boards and bent over. When he reappeared, he slid a bowl containing three apples and a halved and salted beet. He also slid in a flask of wine. “Think well, my sweet niece. I pray you will be successful in your efforts.”

With that, her uncle walked away, taking the precious light with him. Aully was cast back into darkness, but this time she didn’t care. She smiled instead, thinking on what she’d told him. I will promise to love him as best I know how. Those words weren’t a lie, for the best way Aully knew how to love Carskel was to set his whole body aflame.

Celestia forgive me, she prayed, and pushing aside the thoughts of what would happen to her loved ones once her brother died, she took a bite from the apple instead. She had never tasted anything so sweet.

Veldaren was bordered to the north by a thick wood that stretched all the way from the river in the west to where it ended when it curled around the Road of Worship. It was through that wood that Laurel, Pulo, Roddalin, and Jonn marched, silence among them as the gray day slowly darkened. Hunting had become a rare occupation of late, what with it being winter and there being few experienced hunters remaining in the city. Even the women who’d learned the art of trapping stayed away. It was tough enough to catch a squirrel or rabbit during the warmer months; in the snow and cold, it was a useless endeavor, a waste of good traps and precious time. So for two hours they walked in silence, seeing nothing, hearing no one, until the wood ended and Karak’s Temple loomed before them.