Free Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 by Mark E. Cooper

“This is... was Kevlarin. He entered the Other World almost ten years ago.”
    The portrait was of a much younger and happy seeming Jessica sitting with an older man. Jessica glowed with happiness. Ordinarily Julia would have called Kevlarin brooding, ominous even, but the artist had captured a different feeling. It was love pure and simple. Kevlarin was wearing rich velvets in dark colours as if trying to fade into the background, but the way he was looking at Jessica gave him a different aspect altogether. It was as if Jessica’s presence shone a light upon him, one which he could not escape. The adoration in his eyes was obvious. Jessica could only have been twenty or so when the portrait was commissioned, but it wasn’t Jessica’s beauty or the age difference that made her lord husband seem plain. There was something familiar about Kevlarin that Julia couldn’t quite put her finger on, something about the eyes? She shrugged. Whatever it was she couldn’t dredge it up out of the jumble she laughingly called a memory.
    “He is... strong looking,” Julia said lamely.
    Jessica laughed. “You mean plain don’t you? It’s all right, everyone remarked on it at the time. Oh Jessica, you can do sooo much better. Oh Jessica, you should marry Athlone, he’s sooo handsome.”
    “And were they right do you think?” Julia said stifling her laughter.
    “Bah! Kevlarin is beautiful in my eyes and that’s all that matters. Athlone was, and still is by all accounts, a brigand. I wanted nothing to do with him. He married a beauty a while later and I never heard from him again... well not directly. He has caused some trouble for Keverin since then.” Jessica’s eyes shone with her memories and glistened with tears, but they didn’t fall. Jessica was a strong woman.
    Julia remembered those nightmare months after her parents died, and envied Jessica that strength.
    “I loved Kevlarin very much,” Jessica went on quietly. “He was older than I as you can see. He was lonely. This pile of stone takes a lot of work to manage. He kept himself busy by building up the fortune. His mother wanted him to marry a girl from Chulym to tie Athione to the masters there, but he resisted.
    “Anyway,” Jessica went on in a more upbeat tone of voice. “His mother had arranged a banquet and invited all the lords. In those days this place was bustling. This lady or that lord would come to visit, and children would be running in the corridors playing. Every day felt like a holiday. This old place feels dead now, but you should have seen it forty years ago before the troubles began.”
    “Then what happened?” Julia asked breaking Jessica’s reverie.
    “Oh well, my parents brought me with them when they came to visit. Kevlarin was there all dressed in black and brooding in the corner. He did it on purpose of course. His mother was livid, but what could she do? He was Lord of Athione in his own right. Most of the ladies were afraid of him for being so big and ugly in their eyes, but I saw something different behind the scowl he wore.”
    Julia listened as Jessica transported her to an Athione of long ago...
    “Excuse me a moment would you?” Jessica said in a distracted voice. “I want to have a word with Lord Kevlarin,”
    Athlone bowed stiffly. “As you wish.”
    Jessica walked away, hardly aware of Athlone’s disgruntlement, and headed directly for Kevlarin. She didn't see her mother's knowing smile or hear the comment she made to her dance partner. Lord Padrig faltered at his consort’s words and looked worriedly toward his daughter. Another whispered comment made him relax suddenly tight shoulders and he concentrated upon his dancing.
    The music was beautiful and the ladies danced gaily with the lords. The hall was decked in bunting and the chandeliers seemed to blaze brighter than the sun. Kevlarin made an ominous figure dressed as he was all in black. It accentuated his strength, though Jessica was sure he didn’t realise