Mordraud, Book One by Fabio Scalini Read Free Book Online Page B

accept that simple fact. There weren’t different worlds, there was no wall separating them. The Aelians failed to realise they’d been cheated by themselves, by the terror of something they hadn’t seen with their own eyes: the Endless Night, Ealon Sial’nar as the Aelians called it. The event that had destroyed their empire, leaving the way free for domination by the Khartians, Varno’s people.
    “ Don’t you know what to reply? Are you already tired of living with me?” Varno asked her, squeezing her hips. A twist of unwelcome fear hovered in his words.
    “ No, I was just thinking that coming here with you was more natural than I would have believed,” Eglade answered, transfixed by that warm moment, with Varno behind her and the last of the day’s sunlight filtering through the window. “I suffered in the beginning, of course I did... I was afraid... Then, gradually, I realised there was nothing for me to be homesick about. Two separate worlds don’t exist. We’re the ones who invented them, by hiding ourselves away... and you, by forgetting about us. We hoisted up a wall between our peoples. We built it with our fears, and sealed it with hatred.”
    “ I’m the one who should be saying romantic things, and instead...” Varno muttered apologetically. “But I’m ignorant, I’m not like the Aelians...”
    “ Say nothing more,” Eglade broke in, turning in his arms. “Comparisons mean nothing. I love you, Varno... and I like you as you are, even though you’re always worrying the opposite is true. I liked you the instant I met you, because you managed to convey to me how much you cared about living. I too wanted to feel that same passion for my own life, yet I realised I’d been born to resign myself to a senseless exile. I was born to merely await death. You’ve given me so much... I came away with you, because I wanted you. And I wanted this house and this child...”
    Eglade moved her hand to her stomach.
    “ You can’t even begin to imagine the boredom of never being able to do anything different, except waiting for something to happen,” Eglade sighed gloomily to herself.
    “ I was tired of feeling bound by a limit I failed to comprehend.”
    Varno stood in silence for a moment, enjoying the sensation of his fingers on Eglade’s belly. A simple emotion – just the sort he liked.
    “ And if I were to tell you I’m happy to live with you... simply because I love you?!” Varno exclaimed, laughing, bending forward to kiss her. Eglade returned the kiss, but had to pull back at once, startled. Varno stared at her in concern.
    “ Can you stay home off work for a couple of days?”
    “ Why?” Varno inquired, holding his breath.
    Eglade took his hand and placed it beneath hers, just at the height where the tiny heart was beating, muted and distant like a war drum.
    “ It won’t be long now. Not long at all.”
    Varno nodded, inebriated on delight. And perhaps a glass of wine too many, drunk in the village before returning home. “Have you decided what you’d like to call him?” Eglade asked.
    “ What do you suggest?”
    S he considered for a moment. She had a name in mind, but wanted to hear what he thought too. She liked the idea of calling him after her grandfather. A good Aelian. Famed for his intelligence and sophistication.
    “ Dunwich... What do you think?”
    “ Hmm... Dunwich,” he repeated, savouring the word like a tasty morsel. “Dunwich, son of Varno... It sounds a bit eccentric, but... I like it!”
    “ So that’s settled!” she burst out, throwing herself into an awkward sort of embrace hindered by her belly.
    “ Our son will be called Dunwich.”
    ***
    Eglade hadn’t been wrong. The next night she brought a male child into the world, without the need of assistance. As handmaiden to the older women, she’d helped at many births, and it was quite easy for her to put into practice for herself the arts she’d learnt: she knew which herbs were right for soothing