Free Leviathan's Blood by Ben Peek Page B

Aelyn’s house – in her replica of the house she had once lived in – he could not escape the
sense of loss that she held for Maewe. It surprised him that she still had the wound. Yet that had defined her reaction to him here, in Yeflam. Aelyn feared that she would lose Yeflam.
    Would Zaifyr’s other siblings be any different? Eidan had lost the twisting mines of Mahga. The wealth and beauty he had drawn from the ground had been melted and buried by the volcanoes
and earthquakes he had caused to destroy his own empire. After his release, Zaifyr had spoken to Eidan on two different occasions and both had been defined by their brevity. But Yeflam was
Eidan’s construction. Anything Zaifyr could say about Aelyn could be just as easily said about Eidan.
    There was no trace of Tinh Tu in Yeflam, however. She had retreated to the lost library of Salar after Asila and, from all that Zaifyr understood, rarely left it. The library lay in the marshes
of Faer, in an area where the trees and swamps moved, where a person could go mad trying to navigate to the centre. But, whereas Aelyn and Eidan had chosen a new piece of land for their country,
Tinh Tu had built her library in the land that had held her empire. She even used the same name, leading Zaifyr to believe that she, like Aelyn, still carried the wound of what she had lost.
    And Jae’le . . .?
    His eldest brother was not like the others. He had not rebuilt a kingdom. He had not begun to give animals voices again. He had left his previous life behind and he would come to Yeflam, Zaifyr
was sure of that. Jae’le would not have to be asked. He would arrive out of loyalty, out of concern, and out of a sense of responsibility. He would come, also, because he knew what was taking
place in Leera. He knew about the child. Zaifyr was not convinced that Jae’le had known that she was a god, but he had known that she was something different. If he had known she was a god,
his brother would have surely killed her. For all the power that Zaifyr had, for all that Aelyn, Eidan and Tinh Tu had, they lived in Jae’le’s shadow.
    When Kaqua arrived, Zaifyr had almost finished cleaning and repairing his charms.
    The Pauper was one of the oldest beings in Yeflam. A tall, lean man with a serious face, he had midnight-black skin and appeared to be anywhere between the ages of forty and sixty. His black
hair was cut short and touched with grey, because of which Zaifyr had always thought of him as an older man. Before Zaifyr’s arrival in Yeflam, Kaqua would have in fact been second to Aelyn
in terms of age: he had been born in the centuries after the War of the Gods, in the period when Zaifyr and his family had been creating the Five Kingdoms. In those years, however, he had remained
hidden; he had not challenged Zaifyr’s family as so many others had, or offered to join them, as had those whose power was weaker or less well formed than the family’s. He had simply
lived on what would later become Illate until Aelyn found him.
    He was a man who was preceded by a sense of humbleness. It was not uncommon for people to believe that he had only simple and honest advice to give, that he cared only for what was fair, and
Zaifyr was not surprised that Aelyn had sent him. The Pauper had long spoken for her with his deep, sonorous voice, and he had used that voice to convince others that what they wanted was not for
the best.
    Zaifyr met him at the door.
    ‘Qian.’ Kaqua wore a faded multicoloured robe of brown and white and grey, the colours entwining in the folds around his shoulders and waist. He carried an old leather satchel.
‘I am here to discuss your trial.’

10.
    ‘It is a gift,’ Xrie said to her, after she had picked up the sword. ‘Nothing more.’
    It was a short-bladed weapon, simple in its design, but well weighted. Seated across from the Soldier, Ayae turned the blade over in her hand, then returned it into its leather sheath.
‘You need to bring better