Mark Anthony - The Gates of Winter (The Last Rune, Book 5)

Contents

For Carl, Carla, Aurora, and Aidan
With warm memories of our own winter adventure together
in Salt Lake 2002

Love shall yet defy you.

It was the dead of winter when he reached Ar-tolor.

Dusk was falling, and gold lights shone from the windows of the castle on the hill above, beckoning with the promise of crackling fires and steaming cups of wine. He could not remember the last time he had been warmtruly warmand these last few leagues had been the coldest yet. His feet might as well have been lumps of stone, and despite the rags he had wrapped around them, his fingers were raw and bleeding. All he craved was to ride up to the gates and beg hospitality.

Instead, he turned his gelding away from the road and urged the beast toward a grove of trees that clung, feathery as fog, to the slope beneath the castle. That was where he would find hernot in the bright halls of Ar-tolor, but here, where blue shadows gathered.

He brought the horse to a halt at the edge of the trees, climbed from the saddle with clumsy motions, and threw the reins over a branch. The horse snorted, breath ghosting on the air, and dug at the snow with a hoof. It was Geldath now, the Ice Month; the beast would find nothing to eat. He left the gelding and trudged deeper into the grove, boots crunching on newfallen snow.

Branches wove themselves overhead, sharp and black as ink on parchment, making a broken mosaic of the colorless skyjust as the webwork of scars made of his face. Here and there, where branches intersected, he fancied he could make out the familiar shape of a rune. There was Lir. Light. And over there, three twigs that sketched Krond, the rune of fire. He imagined stretching his fingers toward dancing flames....

Those were foolish thoughts; the cold had frozen his mind as it had his hands and feet. However, he knew he had to thaw his wits, for if he did not choose his words with care, they would betray him. Just as he meant to betray her. He muttered Ber, the rune of strength, and kept walking.

It was the silence that warned him. Somewhere off in the grove, a mourning dove had been singing. The music ceased. He turned around, and his heart became a lump of ice in his chest. A figure in a black robe stood next to a tree. The hem of the robe fluttered, though there was not a breath of wind. Only one set of footprints marred the snow: his own.

He shivered, and not simply from the chill. Every instinct told him to flee. Instead he willed his stiff legs to move, bearing him toward the other. He clutched a hard bundle beneath his cloak as he came to a halt an arm's reach away. At her feet lay a dove, its neck twisted. Blood spattered the snow like winter berries.

A voice emanated from within the robe's hood, sharp as breaking sticks. Why has it taken you so long to come?

It is a long journey from the Black Tower. His lips seemed molded of clay; it was an effort to speak. I rode with all possible haste.

Is that so? Your steed did not seem overly exhausted when I came upon it.

He peered back the way he had come. Through the trees, he could just make out a large form sprawled on the snow, slender legs splayed. That was my third mount. The last dropped beneath me in eastern Calavan.

What fragile things they are. I would not tolerate such weakness in my servants.

He said nothing, and she drew closer, drifting over the snow. A precipitate of frost dusted the fabric of his tunic.

Are you certain, she said, you did not stop at the fortress of your brethren before coming here? It is not so far away from Ar-tolor. Perhaps you desired to show them what you've found.

They are my brethren no longer. I am forbidden ever to return to my homea condition I believe is familiar to you.

Within the cowl, he caught the glint of a milky eye. Be careful, mortal man!

He laughed, no less surprised by this reaction than she. Don't you think it's far too late for that, Shemal?

She clucked her tongue. So, do you have it?

I do.

Quicklyshow it to me!

He drew out the cloth bundle he had kept next to his heart all these leagues. Forgive me, my friend. Hoping she thought his trembling due to cold alone, he unwrapped the cloth, revealing a disk of creamy stone as large as his splayed hand. Inlaid in its surface was a silvery rune. Tal. Sky.

She reached out hands as pale as the disk.

Do you want to hold it, then?

A hiss escaped her, and she snatched her hands back. Do you mock me?

He kept his tone disinterested. I shouldn't think so. However, as he wrapped the bundle again, he felt a spark of triumph. He had guessed she would not dare touch the rune; surely its magic was at odds with her own. She needed him still, to bear the rune. And to break it.

True, there were two others in the world Shemal might have used to break the rune of sky. However, the runelord Kelephon served the Pale King, not her. And the man the Witches believed was the Runebreaker of prophecy, Travis Wilder, was a tool of her foe Melindora Nightsilver. So Shemal had sought out another Runebreaker, one she could make her slave, and she had found him. She had made him bow before her, and he had done so eagerly, pledging himself to her.

In all, the plan was nearly perfect. There was just one problem. He did not know how to break runes. And if she discovered that fact before he found a way to break the rune of sky, all hope was lost.

You're thinking of something, she said. I see it in your eyes. Tell me what it is.

I was thinking of our master, he lied quickly, trying not to look at the dead dove as he spoke. He has been banished for more than an eon. Will he truly have the strength to do what he seeks?

Such petty thoughts! I had not believed you to be as weak as Liendra. How can you doubt the power of the Lord of Nightfall?

He was defeated once. He was banished beyond the circle of the world by the elder gods and the deities of Tarras, just as you and I were banished ourselves.

Yet we will all have our victories in the end. And those who dared to cast us out will prostrate themselves at our feet before we destroy them. She brushed slender fingers against the trunk of the tree, and its bark turned black where she touched it.