Lorelle of the Dark, page 12
The noktums were scattered over the whole continent of Noksonon, seemingly at random, and it didn’t matter if it was the top of a mountain or the depths of a cave, the Laochodon Forest, or the middle of the Claw Sea. The noktums could be anywhere. Lorelle had heard that far away—much too far to see from here—there was a noktum that swallowed almost an entire quarter of the sea.
“You long to be free,” the Nox said from behind her. “Your need radiates out from you.”
She forced herself not to start this time. Instead, she turned, and this time she saw the whole of him.
He stood on the dock behind her, tall and lean and wide-shouldered. His dark hair lifted to the side on the light breeze, as did his rippling cloak. There were no pockets of shadows to hide him on the pier, and he cut a black silhouette against the wood deck, the quiet buildings behind him, and the moonlit sky. He was taller than her. Lorelle stood at six feet, which was tall for a Human woman but only slightly above average for a Luminent female. The Nox himself was six and a half feet—taller even than Khyven, though much more slender.
“Free…” she said, and longed for it. How glorious it would be. Freedom from the pain. Freedom from the burning bond. It was right at her fingertips, if she tried to finish the bond with Khyven. She could have peace at any moment if she simply capitulated. “No,” she said roughly. “I want my friend.”
“Rhenn Laochodon.”
The name cut through the constant pain, woke her senses. The Nox had said Rhenn’s name like he knew her, like he knew Lorelle’s situation. “What do you know about Rhenn?”
He held out his hand. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”
“Come with you where?”
“To a cessation of your horrible pain. To the life you were meant to lead. To the life that has been denied you by lies.” He paused. “To freedom.”
“Denied me by lies?”
He tilted his head. “I know the tales told by Luminents. I can guess what you believe the Nox to be.”
“And what is that?”
“Evil. Malicious. Killers. Luminents who fell from the light,” the Nox said.
Lorelle lifted her chin as he enumerated exactly what the legends said about the Nox.
“Would you like to know the truth?” the Nox asked.
“Your forgot ‘liars,’” she said.
He chuckled. “Ah yes… Evil. Malicious. Killers. And liars. But answer me this, beautiful Lorelle, if a liar calls another man a liar, who is to be believed?”
“You’re saying my parents lied to me?”
“Your entire culture lied to you,” he said. “And that has never mattered to you before. It was never relevant before, I would guess. But it is now.” He pointed slowly and purposefully at her chest.
The raging fire inside her flared, and her eyes watered as she tried to push it down.
“Tell me,” she said breathlessly.
“I will tell you all. You suffer needlessly. I know why you only come out at night, and why you stare at the noktum with such longing. Your instincts want to bring you home. Instincts that have been there since the birth of our race.”
“Our race?”
“You were told the Nox were Luminents who fell from grace, who repudiated the light and embraced evil. As though evil and darkness are somehow the same. They told you to stand in their daylight and feel their sun on your face. They told you the light stood for goodness and to shun the shadows, because that’s where the monsters are. Do you want to hear what they didn’t tell you?”
Lorelle’s heart hammered.
“The Nox did not come from Luminent culture. We did not repudiate the light and flee into darkness. We were born in darkness, in the noktum. We came from the Dark. The Luminents broke away from us. We did not flee into the noktum. They fled to the light—”
“That’s a lie,” she said.
“You’re so certain, are you? Because you’ve heard your Luminent stories. Because you’ve read your Luminent histories. Tell me, have you read any Nox histories?”
“I’m sure their lies are just as slippery as yours.”
“Those who do not explore the world themselves are reliant on others to shape their views. Who do you think wrote those histories, Lorelle? Who created those stories your parents so confidently passed off as fact?”
“More trustworthy souls than you, I’m sure.”
“You don’t sound sure.” The Nox smiled wryly. “They rewrote their histories, Lorelle. They twisted the story around…”
“Shut up.”
“… until the renegades who broke from the noktum convinced themselves that they’d always lived among the Lightlanders. That they were born into a land of blasting sun, pretending to be Humans.”
“Lotura’s Heart, you’re exactly what the legends say you are.”
“It is the truth. We are not the ones who fell from grace. You are.”
“Shut up!”
“If you want proof, you need only look as far as your own soul.” Again, he slowly and purposefully pointed at her chest. “They did that to you, the ancient liars of the Luminents. They told you this was your fate, inescapable, and you believed them because you didn’t know what else to believe. But I am telling you there is more, and I can show it to you. The Dark calls you. I’ve seen it on your face. I know what that call feels like, and I know you resist it. But have you ever asked yourself why? Can you give me one reason other than, ‘because they told me so’?”
“You’re insidious,” she whispered.
“I am trying to open your eyes. Eyes that have been burned by the light for so long that you cannot see the truth that lies right before you, resting in the shadows. You are so lost you will stand there and burn to death because of a nameless fear. You will stand there and burn to death because of a lie.”
With a cry, Lorelle charged him and jumped high into the air. She leapt completely over him and landed on the dock beyond, running for all she was worth back toward the city.
“Rhenn Laochodon isn’t on Noksonon anymore,” he said.
That pulled her up short. She skidded to a stop at the beginning of the dock and spun around, eyes wide.
“What do you mean?” she demanded. “Where is she?”
“I do not know,” he said. “But I do know there are other worlds besides this one, and the one who took your friend went to one of these other worlds.”
She held her breath. Her heart stilled at the hope, her emotions tangled up in all the things the Nox had said. He’d woven a spider’s web of everything she wanted to hear. That’s what liars did. This was like everything else he’d said. False. Meant to trick her.
But… what if it wasn’t?
“Why would you help me?” she said. “Say I believe you. Why are you doing this?”
“Because I am a Glimmerblade. In Nox Arvak, my home, we have specialized warriors called Glimmerblades. The sole purpose of a Glimmerblade is to go into the daylight world, to seek out Luminents who are close to seeing the truth, and to bring them back into the fold.”
“I don’t want to be part of your fold!”
“I know you believe that, but if you would just open your eyes, you would see there is more. If your decision, after you know the truth of everything, is to come back here and live in the light, then I will honor it. But until you know the entire story, how can you make that decision? Come with me and I will show you. And I will show you where you can secure a Plunnos—a real one.”
He strode slowly toward her until he stood only a foot away.
“You need me.” He looked down at her, his smooth midnight face hovering over hers. His dark hair swung forward, almost touching her cheek. “You don’t know it, but you do. The aberration the Luminents created is burning you up. Even your blind Human friends can see it.” He slowly lifted his hand, palm up, between them, an offering. It was near enough to touch her, but he didn’t.
Part of her wanted to take his hand, wanted it so badly her fingers twitched. She needed to know if he was telling the truth, but she couldn’t risk it. Everything she knew about the Nox told her this was dangerous. They lied. They cajoled, then they knifed you in the dark. Once he had her in his power, she’d be at his mercy.
“You can… end the soul-bond? How?” she managed to say.
He stared down at her for a long moment, his eyes compassionate. “I’m going to return for you, Lorelle,” he said softly. His hand slowly descended, vanishing into the folds of his cloak. “I’m going to hold my hand out to you a third and final time. I pray you’ll take it, for it will be the last time.”
He leaned back into his cloak and it swirled around him, wrapping him in utter blackness. The blackness twisted into a knotted ball, and then there was only empty night before her.
Chapter Fifteen
Lorelle
Lorelle paused before the council room door. She’d left the wharf and roamed the streets for an hour before returning to the palace. The Nox’s words wheeled across her mind like stars across the sky. All of it was twisted up in an indecipherable knot, impossible to unravel. Was any of it truth? And if even a portion of it was, could she risk not knowing? Even if he’d lied about her soul-bond and the Plunnos, if he actually knew something about where Rhenn had gone, it would be more than she currently knew.
She placed light fingers on the wooden door and her keen Luminent ears assessed the room. Not only could she hear the conversation, but she knew in an instant that only Khyven and Vohn were present. Slayter was not.
She silently opened the door.
The lanterns burned brightly, hanging from wrought-iron arms on the walls. Khyven and Vohn huddled over the map of the kingdom of Usara spread out on the table. They did not hear her enter.
“… problem is Lord Bericourt,” Vohn said, tapping his finger on the map. “He almost has enough troops to make a go at the throne.”
“I hate Bericourt,” Khyven mumbled.
Vohn raised an eyebrow.
“He tried to have me murdered.”
“Did he?”
“Well, I killed his son,” Khyven said.
Vohn frowned. “Oh, and he was upset about that, was he?” He thumped the map with his finger. “He’s the closest,” he continued. “And he has allies. But the power dynamics have shifted wildly since Rhenn’s return. Many of Bericourt’s allies could be pulled away now that Rhenn sits on the throne. I’d bet some of them would enjoy crawling out from under Bericourt’s shadow if the queen showed them even a little favor. Rhenn knew that. She’d started her inroads before she left.”
“So, we need the queen to show them favor.”
“I just said that. Except we have no queen.”
“I wonder if we could make one.”
“That may be the dumbest thing you’ve ever said. How did you ever survive fifty bouts in the Night Ring?”
“It was forty-nine, actually.”
“We send Lord Harpinjur.” Vohn ground his finger into the map for emphasis.
“No,” Khyven said.
“Why?”
“Because I hate Lord Harpinjur.”
“Well, who don’t you hate?” Vohn threw his hands up.
“I don’t hate you yet.”
“We send Lord Harpinjur,” Vohn repeated.
“And what do we tell him?”
“Everything.”
“Oh no.” Khyven shook his head. “We can’t—”
“Lord Harpinjur was the first noble to come to Rhenn’s side,” Vohn said. “He came to her in the early days, when it was almost a certainty she’d be destroyed by Vamreth. That was an all-or-nothing risk for him. Harpinjur could have lost everything, but he stood by her anyway. If there’s anyone we should bring into our little cabal, it’s him.”
“He’s going to spit and curse and blame us for losing the queen,” Khyven said.
“We have come to the end of what the three of us can do, of what we can hide. We are holding together a cracking dam with our bare hands, and unless we can actually ‘create a queen,’ as you so casually put it, we need an authority figure to continue this ruse. Lord Harpinjur is that man.”
Khyven shook his head. “If more than two people know a secret,” he said as though reading it from a script, “it’s not a secret anymore. We already have four. I don’t trust anyone else.”
“You never trust anyone else!”
“That’s why I’m still alive—”
“No, you’re alive because of those you did trust.”
Khyven opened his mouth, snapped it shut. “That’s fair,” he mumbled.
“So shut up and listen.”
“Harpinjur would have let me die. I’m just saying.”
Vohn rolled his eyes.
Lorelle’s eyes stung watching them. Vohn, so passionate. He never gave up on any of them or any problem put before him. He simply kept working for a solution. And Khyven, the cynic, who somehow always saw hope anyway, who could make the miraculous happen.
The burn in her chest intensified seeing him. Lotura, she loved them all. In another moment in time, in another life where Rhenn was safe, this family could have worked. But without Rhenn… it was falling apart. Lords like Bericourt would move in when they discovered Rhenn was gone. They’d hang Slayter as a traitor. They’d kill Vohn as a demon. They’d throw Khyven back into the Night Ring, and a new Vamreth would sit the throne.
She cleared her throat.
“Lorelle!” Khyven spun. Of course, he immediately started toward her. She held up a hand and, bless him, he stopped.
“I’m going,” she said.
They both looked confused.
“Going…” Vohn said. “Going where?”
“Away. Far away, I suspect.”
“You don’t know where you’re going?” Khyven said.
She didn’t answer, but Khyven put it together. The man’s ability to judge people was uncanny.
“That Luminent,” he said. “You’re going somewhere with that shadow Luminent.”
“Shadow Luminent?” Vohn said.
“He’s a Nox,” Lorelle said.
“What’s a Nox?” Khyven asked.
“There’s a Nox?” Vohn demanded.
“All you need to know is that I can’t stay here,” she said. “It’s not… helping Rhenn. And I can’t help you with what you must do. You’re right, you have to run the kingdom. You’re… you’re doing what you have to do. We have to preserve Rhenn’s kingdom until I can bring her back.”
“Wait, what? Lorelle, if you know how to get through the Thuros, you have to tell us,” Khyven said.
“I don’t yet, but I will soon. I have a lead on where to find a Plunnos.”
“I thought you had one.”
“No.”
“Well, where is it?” Khyven asked.
“The Nox. He knows. He’s going to take me there.”
“You’re not going anywhere with that guy,” Khyven said.
“Could someone catch me up here?” Vohn asked plaintively. “There’s a Nox. And he has a Plunnos. When did this happen?”
“It’s our best option, and I’m going to chase it down,” Lorelle said.
“All right,” Vohn said calmly. “Everyone needs to calm down and not go anywhere until we’ve discussed this. There is a Nox who has promised you a Plunnos?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you can’t go,” Vohn said. “You should know better than anyone: Nox are liars. They’re killers. They abduct Luminents, Lorelle.”
“And yet it’s the only avenue I currently have to find Rhenn.”
“We all want Rhenn back,” Khyven said.
“And I’m the one who can get her. There is no other way.”
“Of course, there is,” Vohn said.
“Name it.”
Vohn opened his mouth but said nothing.
“I’ll name it,” Khyven said. “Not trusting someone who sneaks into the palace and who-knows-where-else and cuts me with a sword.”
She averted her gaze from Khyven’s intense eyes, focusing on Vohn instead. She just couldn’t look too long at Khyven without the burn becoming unbearable. She was already panting with the effort of keeping the pain in check. She couldn’t be in this room with him for much longer.
“One of us needs to look for Rhenn and only look for Rhenn,” Lorelle whispered through the pain. “And even if this is the slimmest chance, even if I die in the attempt, it doesn’t matter—”
“It matters to me,” Khyven interrupted.
“And me,” Vohn said.
“Stop it!” she shouted. “I made the mistake! It’s my fault she’s gone. If I’d been faster. If I’d… if I’d been paying attention, Nhevaz would never have had her!”
Vohn’s eyes widened. Silence fell in the room.
“Lorelle, you realize that’s ridiculous,” the Shadowvar said.
Lorelle couldn’t be here. She had to get out of here. Their words were like little hammers clinking on her head. She’d come here to say goodbye to them, but it was just getting twisted up. She should have known they wouldn’t let her go easily. Why couldn’t they see that this was the only way? Someone had to sacrifice themselves to get the Plunnos, to unearth the impossible and make it possible. And this time, it had to be her.
“He’s lying about the Plunnos,” Vohn warned again. “That’s what they do.”
“Why?” Lorelle shouted.
“Why?” Vohn asked.
“Yes!”
“Because he’s a creature of the dark!” Khyven interrupted. “A monster with a face that looks like ours! Can’t you see that?”
“A monster, is he?” she said.
“He’s a beast of the noktum.”
“So, what if I am, too?” she blurted. The burn in her chest flared so hot she gasped and pushed her hand to her chest.
“Hey…” Khyven said softly, his eyes filled with worry. “Let’s just calm down and talk, like Vohn said. Let’s just talk it out. Tell us what’s happening, Lorelle. We are your friends. We will help you. We would die to help you.” He started toward her like he was going to hug her.
She held her hands up and backed away. “You can’t help me,” she said brokenly.
“This Nox creature is twisting your mind and selling you lies. Clearly, he wants something from you. If he really wants to help us find Rhenn, then let him come here. Let him bring the Plunnos to us. There’s no reason for you to go with him.”
