Page 276 of Of Empires and Dust
“He did,” Gaeleron answered. “Det er myia haydria ar myia thranuk to bære denír amiar. Ilån denír går indil myia sidir.”
“It is my honour and my privilege to wear this crest. From this day until my last,” Therin whispered in Ella’s ear. She had heard the elf approach but was too focused on Gaeleron to turn and meet his gaze.
“It is mine to see you wear it.” Calen grasped Gaeleron’s pauldron. “Du gryr haydria til myia elwyn, myia yíar.”
Chora wheeled herself forwards. “It’s good to see you, Calen.”
Calen held Gaeleron’s gaze for a few long moments before turning to meet Chora’s. When he did look at her, Ella saw something cold in his eyes, and she thought sharp words weren’t far from his tongue. But then something shifted within him. “We found something.”
He didn’t wait for Chora to reply. Instead, he walked back to the doorway of the house and pulled something from a satchel left there. When he walked back to face Chora, he held a scaled egg larger than his head, cream with streaks of emerald running through it like lightning.
“There were nine.” Calen placed the egg into Chora’s hands, a smile beaming on his lips. “Kollna hid them in a chamber below the western tower.”
Chora took the egg and nestled it on her lap. She gave a soft smile, but the scents of sorrow and loss wafted from the woman, filling Ella’s nostrils, the wolf within her whining. “You did well, Calen. You did well.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She drew a long breath in through her nose, exhaling in a deep sigh. “The Epherian eggs do not hatch.” Genuine sympathy entered the woman’s voice, a thing Ella hadn’t thought Chora capable of. “I fear your hopes are far too high. We will have the Dracårdare begin warming them and testing them for the Calling. What of Kallinvar and the knights? Did they find this ‘Heart of Blood’ they were looking for?”
Calen looked genuinely dejected by Chora’s change of topic, his gaze fixed on the egg, his lips forming unspoken words. “I… No.” He shook his head. “No, they didn’t. At least, I don’t think so. The chamber contained many of Alvira’s possessions – weapons, armour, journals, chests. The knights took them to have their Watchers search through everything for a clue or a hint or something. Anything that might set them on the right path.”
“You just let them take everything?”
“It was that or the eggs.”
“You let them take Alvira’s journals, her chests, her… you… for eggs? Wehaveeggs, Calen. Hundreds. There are thousands of eggs across Epheria. Eggs that haven’t hatched in four hundred years. You have no idea what might have been in those journals, in those chests.”
“They will return everything once they are done.”
“And what if they choose to keep something? We’ll never know what might be missing.”
Valerys craned his neck over Calen, baring his teeth, a deep growl in his chest.
“Oh, fucking eat me then!” Chora roared up at the dragon, her eyes wild. She clasped her hand to her forehead. “Fuck.”
Ella watched the dejection in Calen’s eyes shift to rage, then fade away to something far colder. Her brother stood straight. “Unlike you, I have not lost my ability to trust. I did what I thought was right. I’d do it again. Master Kollna died for those eggs. She bled out on the floor before them. It was the last thing she did, and I chose to honour that.” Without waiting for Chora to respond, Calen took the egg from her lap. He turned to Gaeleron. “Send word to Yanîr and his Dracårdare. Tell him that we have new eggs that are to be warmed immediately, and that any soul brought to test the Calling is to be brought to those eggs first.”
A soft whisper sounded behind Ella, so soft even the wolf in her blood barely heard it.
“Mother…” Ella looked over her shoulder to see the giant, Asius, standing at the edge of the plateau, watching from a distance. He smelled of sadness.
“At once, Draleid.” Gaeleron signalled to two of the Dracurïn, issued their commands, and sent them off back down the path that led to the plateau, heading for the Eyrie.
“Was there something else you needed, Chora?” Calen asked, the cold anger still radiating from him.
The look on Chora’s face shifted from one of shock to one of uncertainty and eventually settled on something Ella thought was – strangely – pride. “The leaders of the varying factions across Illyanara have arrived, bar two or three. Some are rather impatient to meet you. And I use the word ‘impatient’ lightly.”
“It’s been a long journey, Chora. Valerys and I are exhausted. He has injuries that need to be seen to. We will meet them come the morning in Mythníril.”
“Calen.” Therin raised an open hand. “Castor Kai is among them.”
“He’s alive?”
“He is. He left Argona before the Dragonguard burned it. But he has taken these past weeks to rally his forces. He arrived barely two days after you left.”
Calen pursed his lips. Purple light misted from his eyes, and above him Valerys let out a deep growl.
How did Calen know the High Lord of Illyanara?
