Thoraus
The falkon swoops through the opening above the door into my office. “Cohthel is en route.”
I nearly drop the ceramic mug I’d pressed against my lips. “Truly?”
“Yes. Would you like me to halt him? Nolen is escorting him.”
“N-no, no. L-let him in.” I wish I had an idea about what the boy wants so I can prepare my defense or fight back. Knowing my wife had, without my permission, given Cohthel lodging in my castle, I still didn’t expect him to return for a visit. The shadow of his last visit still molders in the chair on the other side of my desk.
The knock on the door shoots barbs of anxiety through me. I deafen my fears with a loud, “Enter!”
The door opens and a black cloak entombing a stranger steps into the room. For a split heartbeat, neither of us move. Then Cohthel pulls back his hood, exposing a rumple of sandy curls and the blue mask hiding the right side of his face, throwing my reflection back at me.
“Please.” I indicate the chair in front of me. “Sit.”
As if forced, the boy sits, and my tense shoulders slacken now that we sit on equal levels of prowess.
I clasp hands on top of my desk. “What can I do for you?” And I mean it.
“Quite the opposite. I’m here to do something for you.”
I raise an eyebrow, ashamed I thought this boy incapable of any emotion besides anger and coldness. My sympathy desires deeper inquiry about Cohthel’s stilted soul, but I don’t take much thought remembering I planted the roots of all his problems.
“I want to talk to you about Neleci.”
“No.”
“You falsely accused me of kidnapping two dragon eggs, sentenced me to death, and you won’t even allow me to talk about your daughter?”
Oh, the damnable guilt, and Cohthel not ashamed using the weapon against me. I shut my eyes and inhale. “Tell me.” With eyes closed, I could have said those words to anyone, even the falkon perched above my door might have been the one about to tell me something.
“Your rumors were true, about the dark elves attacking her on the road. However, they didn’t kill her. They kidnapped her. She worked so well for their motives during her forced captivity a year prior that they wanted to try their luck again. When I rescued her and brought her here, they brought her above ground and held her inside a Nightmare camp. Influenced by the dark elves and Nightmares for so long, no one can blame her for being brainwashed into supporting their ideals. I’ve brought her home and have been helping her heal. She’s lost all desire to return to the Nightmares.”
Eyes still closed, with the ensuing silence, I can imagine the boy left, allowing me again my ignorant bliss.
“Talk with her, Thoraus.”
“I hear you. Falkons reported you packed your belongings like you’re leaving.”
I register the boy’s disappointment, but he does not press. “I am. I also came to talk to you about the Dream.”
Oh…But I will no longer hold silent against telling this boy the truth of everything. “The Dream is what we call it. It looks like a giant soap bubble right over the dark elf gate on the Element Plains. You can see weird images swirling inside if you stand right up to it. Dream-like images. Spies walked through and never came back. So we sent spies in there tied to a rope and pulled them back out and they’ve all said it’s a literal living nightmare personalized for each kindred. We know the Nightmares are in there. Falkons report them entering and leaving. We just don’t know how to enter and exit ourselves otherwise we’d send armies in there to silence our eight-month problem.”
The barest of smiles splits the boy’s face.
“You won’t come back out.” Anxiety worms its way into my chest for the boy I feel too much guilt over already.
“Oh, I will. I’ll find the way in, and we’ll flush out the Nightmares.”
I moan, torn between allowing the boy to sacrifice himself for nothing and allowing him to find something to fulfill the life I ruined. I want to embrace him, hold onto him to physically show my regret for turning him into a bladehand, sentencing him to death, not refusing his offer to penetrate the Dream. I’ll bear the shame of Cohthel’s death the rest of my days, and still to my last breath I will think of ways to make recompense to him.
コメント