Sam Bowring - Soul's Reckoning

Bel wasn’t sure – they had simply come when required.

Do you use the shadowdream against me? A dangerous game to play, Blade Bel.

Would you like to go further back, perhaps? See how Fenvarrow has attacked Kainordas for a thousand years?

Only if we can also see how Kainordas has attacked Fenvarrow. You want to use the dream – let’s use it, then.

A flotilla of barges brimming with blades and lightfists worked its way down the Dragon’s Sorrow. They passed the Hinter Swamplands and entered the Dimglades Delta, where the going became ponderous, and soldiers leaned on poles to poke the vessels through the shallow mire. At the edge of the Delta was a town populated by pixies and goblins, from which shouts rang out as the approach was spotted. Barges nudged the banks and soldiers poured into the town, quickly and vastly outnumbering its denizens.

Never rebuilt , said Losara.

Recompense, I imagine, for some other atrocity.

And recompense for some other, and some other, and some other, way back into the folds of forever. You lecture me on right and wrong, Bel? You really think Kainordas is good and Fenvarrow evil?

Elessa sat in a tavern room somewhere, alone and disconsolate, looking in the mirror and trying not to touch her own face.

You condemn our use of undead, yet when it suits your own purpose, apparently there’s no issue.

Battu and Fahren were walking over a bridge of light in the Morningbridge Peaks.

You showed me Battu the tyrant – but you seem to forget that he was cast out, rejected by the Dark Gods for his nefarious and self-serving ways. Yet you took him in and made him one of your own.

And who’s this? replied Bel, as a spectral weaver bird flitted onto the bridge. Could it be someone cast out from our side, someone your lot took in?

Why, yes – the difference being that we took the weavers without a great need to.

Because you share their love of evil acts.

Because we accepted them for what they are, even though they were created by our greatest enemy.

At least Arkus can admit when he’s made a mistake.

Then they were back in the barracks, again with Brahl and Fahren, who were now talking about what to do regarding Thedd Naphur.

Brahl licked his lips. ‘I could arrange for something to …befall him,’ he said.

Murder, Bel, of the rightful heir to the Throne – something you were a party to considering.

We didn’t do it.

Only because you found another way. And you, personally, I now recall, were all for it.

We could ill afford one such as Thedd.

Why do you think Fenvarrow’s ‘tyrants’ are chosen for their strength? At least we are open about our process.

We were operating under unusual circumstances.

During which you broke every moral you profess to defend. Look at this …

Fahren, in his tent, stared down in horror at the prostrate Querrus, whose eyes were empty, a trickle of spittle oozing from his mouth.

‘Forgive me,’ murmured Fahren. He waved a hand over Querrus, who stiffened for a moment, then fell still. Fahren reached down to close his eyes, then opened the ground beneath to swallow him up.

Bel could not believe what he was seeing. Fahren had said Querrus had been sent off on some errand!

That did not happen. It is some trick, some lie.

We are close enough now that you would sense if I was lying. And while we’re taking a look at Fahren, let us glimpse one possible future …

The battle raged across the Grass Ocean, just as it had been doing when Bel had left it – except that he saw himself still there, fighting wave upon wave of attackers. Meanwhile Losara and his mages were gaining ground, Kainordans falling in their hundreds, the tide turning vastly against them. Fahren blasted a Graka from the air and spun, desperately seeking Bel. Bel, lost in his frenzy, did not notice Fahren approaching. They were surrounded by the enemy, closing on them like a giant fist. The light was losing.

This is not how it happened.

But if it was , said Losara, then what would Fahren do, I wonder?

Fahren saw Losara looming, his shadow growing larger up the funnel of a hurricane that blasted aside lightfists like leaves.

‘Blade Bel!’ he called, but Bel did not turn, merely howled as he put his sword through another foe. Fahren paused, tears in his eyes – then he shot a light bolt into Bel’s neck. Bel was flung flat on his face and Losara reeled, the hurricane unspooling as both of them died together.

You see , said Losara. Even your greatest advocate could potentially betray you.

He had no other choice , said Bel dully.

Perhaps if your leaders had implemented conscription , your army would not have been overwhelmed.

We have NOT been overwhelmed . This is but conjecture.

It is an outcome that Fahren has considered. Do not fool yourself – if it came to this, he would kill you if it meant killing me also. Better to return to balance than be defeated.

Would Fahren, as good as any grandfather, really do such a thing? But then he was also the Throne, and as such had to make difficult decisions.

Perhaps I would not blame him , said Bel, though he was thankful the theory had not been tested.

This is not about blame. It is about you supposing to know the difference between good and evil, and attributing them in a broad sweep to entire lands, when in fact they are hard enough to discover in individuals, and certainly have little to do with the conflict between us.

What do you call this, then?

Lalenda rose from hiding to fly out and attack Jaya in the stream.

How can you profess not to know evil, and yet love one such as her?

Losara watched his little pixie, her face a mask of rage, as she struggled to slash at Jaya.

She is not evil , he said sadly. She is driven to hate by love, for she fears the light will take me away.

So she directs a malicious attack on a woman who never did her any harm?

She fears that once you and I combine, we will love Jaya and not her. I have tried to reason with her, but passion and logic do not share a bed.

Oh, I don’t know. She has reason for concern.

Why? You did not choose Jaya, nor she you. You were assigned to each other by some echo of ancient magic, love not earned, but arbitrary. Look at this …

Bel and Jaya sat together on the ridge, watching Hiza and Fazel collecting firewood while Gellan healed M’Meska. Bel had just learned that Fazel would obey him because of his soul’s shared connection to Skygrip Castle.

‘It was enough,’ said Bel, ‘when I realised that Losara’s life is tied to my own. And now this.’ He turned to her. ‘Not seeing some slick of shadows under my skin, I hope?’

‘Would it matter?’ she said, sounding more contemplative than reassuring.

Would it matter? asked Losara. Would it matter if her man was on the side of shadow or light, when she has no choice but to love him?

Do not belittle us, Losara . Look at her – how beautiful she is, how strong, how cheeky …the soul kiss of the Sprites is not arbitrary, and if you had any understanding you would not say so. It is a recognition of compatibility, not the creation of it – and if I was not a Sprite, I would love her anyway. Even you cannot deny that you have been curious about her. You even saved her from the Mireforms against the possibility that losing her would one day be your anguish.