Free The Legend of Asahiel: Book 02 - The Obsidian Key by Eldon Thompson

The only question that matters now is this: What do you intend to do about it?”

CHAPTER FOUR
    T HE ANSWER TO THAT HAD SEEMED OBVIOUS ENOUGH.
    Between the two of them, Torin and Marisha uttered only a handful of protests to the plan that Darinor laid out for them. Despite a host of unreconciled concerns, Torin saw little room to argue. For he believed the man’s account. Despite a great many details which they had not the time to discuss, the renegade Entient’s story fell into place so snugly with what he already knew, filled in so many of the gaps that had long existed in this land’s history, that he dared not doubt it. There were at least as many questions as answers, but this much he understood instinctively: Though he had yet to meet his enemy face-to-face, he could not wait to do so before taking action against it.
    He had begun his preparations straightaway, as soon as their clandestine meeting had come to a close. Breakfast was forgotten; he had no appetite for food. Taking Stephan aside, he instructed the chief seneschal to lay out provisions as quietly as possible for an expedition party scheduled to leave on the morrow. Torin wanted no word to be leaked of any of this until he’d had a chance to meet with the Circle. He gave a rough estimate of numbers and emphasized the need for swiftness. He tried not to be cross, but Stephan plied him with questions he did not then care to answer, forcing him to send the steward off with his tail between his legs.
    By then, Allion had returned from his morning rounds. Torin went to his Fason at once, skipping over the daily report on the welfare of the city in order to relay all that Darinor had told him. He did so in search of the man’s counsel, but at the same time, worked to impress upon his friend the need to do as the mystic suggested—much as he had months earlier, following his surprise reunion with Queen Ellebe and the charge he’d been given then.
    As before, Allion was not easily convinced.
    “He looks and smells like a corpse himself,” his friend complained.
    The pair had been briefly introduced just before Marisha had whisked her estranged father into a private council, allowing king and captain to do the same.
    “He nearly was, to hear him tell it.”
    “Then how can we trust him? How do we know he’s not one of these Illychar himself?”
    Torin motioned for the other to keep his voice down, even though theyhad found their way into a private audience chamber and posted a pair of guardsmen outside.
    “Because,” the king replied, his own voice lowered, “if he were Illychar, why would he have come to warn us like this?”
    “To get you out of the way, it seems,” Allion snapped.
    “Why? Why not just kill me and take the Sword for himself?”
    “Perhaps he means to do just that.”
    Torin shook his head. “I already offered him the blade.”
    “What?”
    “You think I want any part of this? I bade him take it before I make things any worse. I’m merely a foolish human, after all, while he’s an Entient—or at least, close enough that I don’t know what else to call him. He turned me down.”
    Allion hesitated. “Why would he do that?”
    “He said mine is the greater need. The Sword is vital to this quest, not only as a matter of survival, but to convince those who must be found. He, on the other hand, must stay here in order to marshal the land’s defenses.”
    “He’s not going with you?”
    “He alone knows how best to direct our armies so as to contain our enemy’s numbers.”
    “That may be, but how does he expect you to accomplish this other task without him to guide you?”
    “I asked him that very question.” Torin sighed. “He said that since I am the only living man to wield the Crimson Sword, I am the most qualified person to do so. It’s my mess, he said. I should be the one to clean it up.”
    “And what if you or the Sword are lost? If any of what he says is true, it seems to me that’s the best weapon we have.