Son of Ereubus by J. S. Chancellor Read Free Book Online Page B

one wasn’t looking for it. At its base was a small room, lit only by the dwindling light of the hearth. In a chair nestled in the corner was an elderly woman, the healer Aulora, her head resting sideways where it had fallen onto her shoulder.
    “ Tu denai nordumbra led estrinigh ,” he whispered.
    She looked up and studied the girl for a moment before answering him in the same tongue and motioning for him to set her onto the bed nearby.
    “Is she human?” Michael asked.
    Aulora ignored his question and began to tend to the girl’s wounds, chanting softly as she worked. He’d turned to leave her to her art when the healer spoke, “She is not human.”
    He stared back at her, praying she’d give him a direct answer for a change. “Was she escorted, or did she enter alone?”
    The healer hummed a bit more and then smoothed an unruly red curl from the girl’s forehead. “No, this one is not human.” After patting the girl’s cheek affectionately, she pulled the cloak from around her and studied it in the firelight. He hadn’t taken the time to examine it, but the markings he’d noted as Ereubinian also indicated authority. Feeling that Aulora had said all that she was going to, Michael took the cloak and started out the door.
    None but Adorians were able to pass the divide. All others simply passed over it as if Adoria didn’t exist. It had been this way for so long, thousands of years, that the time before the divide that protected them seemed merely legend.
    While Michael waited for the elders to assemble, he walked the corridors, running through options in his head. He eventually stopped outside their chambers, waiting to be summoned.
    Michael breezed through the doorway into their presence. There were twenty-four of them, both men and women. This had been the governing body over Adoria since the dawn of the first age of war, answerable to the man who once held the title of King. Michael, who currently held the seat of sovereignty, was the son of the Adorians’ most honored soldier.
    Gabriel, Michael’s father, had led many battles and had protected many villages from ruin. He was the last to lead the Braeden — an elite group of male Adorians whose wings were removed at birth so they appeared to be human men. Trained from infancy, they were taught the art of warfare and the customs of Middengard, the human realm. Deadly accurate in their abilities to both wield a sword and shoot a bow, they’d held off the total captivity of man for centuries.
    There had once been Adorian women in Middengard as well, but not many. The few remaining who were not killed had returned to Adoria after the elders decreed that the age of guardianship had come to an end, after Gabriel’s death. Michael never agreed with this and still rode with his men, doing everything in his power to keep Palingard from Ereubinian reign. In the end, though, his effort simply wasn’t enough.
    The elders rose from where they sat several rows deep in a circular pattern that was sunken into the floor of the room, as Michael took his place at the center.
    “My Lord, we have been informed that forces have been sent to the border?” Jenner’s statement — more of a question — was spoken on behalf of the elders. Jenner functioned as the elders’ voice much of the time, leading their discussions with Michael, and he remained standing after the others had reseated themselves.
    “What you have heard is true. With the healer now is a girl I found near the southern stone, an Ereubinian.”
    “How can you be so certain she is Ereubinian, my Lord?” a voice asked from behind him.
    Michael held up the cloak, clenching his fingers into a fist through the wool. “Not that Aulora needed to comment on her adornment, but she confirmed that our visitor is not human.”
    Jenner stood wordless for a moment, unable to argue with what Michael revealed. The healer was never wrong. She spoke very seldom, but what she said was never questioned. The Elder’s