Light of Eidon (Legends of the Guardian-King, Book 1) by Karen Hancock Page A

length he forced a laugh.
“But, of course, there’s no proof, is there? And no one but you saw this awful
thing.”

    “No.” Raynen turned from the window. “No one but me.”
    “Well then …” Eldrin gestured vaguely. “It’s your word against his.”
    Not to mention all common sense.
    Frustration darkened Raynen’s face. “You think I’m lying?”
    “No.” He believed his brother was telling him the truth so far as he understood it. But it was night, and he’d just witnessed a monstrous evil. He could
have seen anything. “I just don’t believe it was Saeral you saw.” He wondered
if his brother had been a Terstan as long ago as when their sire had died.
    Something in his face must have given his thoughts away, for Raynen’s
expression soured. “You think I’m mad. The crazy Terstan king.” He shook
his head, turned again to Meridon. “You were right. He’s beyond hope.”
    “Maybe not, Sire. May I have leave to speak?”
    Raynen gestured for him to proceed. The Terstan turned to Eldrin. “You
asked for proof, Your Highness-that Saeral is not who he seems to be, that
you are being used…. There is a chamber below the vesting rooms that
encircle the Well of Flames. A secret chamber, reached only by a hidden passage.”
    Eldrin cocked an ironic brow. “I’m just a Novice Initiate, Captain. I’m not
allowed into the vesting rooms.”
    “Take the south opening, go down three doors. You’ll find the panel in
the wardrobe at the back of the room. Make sure you go during the day.”
    And how is it that you know about this place?”
    “I have been there in my service to your brother. More than once, in fact.”
    Eldrin started. A Terstan in the heart of the Holy Keep? Impossible.
    “It’s very important that you go during the day,” Raynen reiterated
soberly.
    Eldrin scowled at him. “Don’t worry. I’m not about to violate Eidon’s
rules of sanctity just to prove this madness wrong. I already know it’s wrong.”
    “Not Eidon’s rules, my lord,” Meridon corrected, drawing his gaze. “The
Mataio’s.” The Terstan paused, his brown eyes deep and strangely piercing.
“When you were touched this morning-did it really feel like Eidon? You’ve
studied the Words for eight years, and I am told you’ve longed to know him all your life. Do you really believe revulsion and terror would be your
strongest feelings if you were truly meeting him?”

    Eldrin’s heart suddenly thundered in his ears. How did he know? How
could he possibly know?
    “Go to the room, my lord. Then you’ll know for sure, one way or the
other.” He glanced questioningly at Raynen and, when the king nodded,
stepped to the door and pulled it open. Clearly the interview was over, but
for a long moment Eldrin couldn’t move, unnerved, still, by the way the man
had hit so precisely on the discomfiting elements of this morning’s touch.
Elements he had refused to identify until now. But how had this man, this
Terstan, known that?
    “Highness?”
    With a scowl, Eldrin broke free of his thoughts, bowed his good-bye to
the king, then strode past the captain into the weapons-lined antechamber
and back to Brother Rhiad.

C H A P T E R

6
    The Midnight Hymn crescendoed as the Flames surged upward in the
midst of the bowl-shaped Sanctum, a scarlet column reaching for the high,
domed window. On the third and highest tier, standing among the other Novices, Eldrin gripped the railing before him and stared in awe, his skin prickling
with its power. He had never seen the Flames burn so brightly. From the
lower levels they must be breathtaking, a beacon of hope that chased away
the darkness.
    The Flames subsided as the hymn’s last notes faded to a hum, and Guardians from the lower tiers poured into the aisles, descending to the Sanctum’s
central floor. Encircling the dais, the holy men formed into lines at the four
compass points and converged on the Flames, each quartet casting their sinladen