Read Vault Of Heaven 01 - The Unremembered for Free Online Page B

silence. The rumble of the hall continued unabated; a minstrel beginning to play his cithern, making expert melodies with his hands but bad accompaniment with his voice. After a few moments, Vendanj looked over the room behind Tahn and Sutter, studying the faces of those who had convened to eat and exchange words.
    As though satisfied, he spoke, staring at Tahn. “I’m here for you .”
    A chill of warning shuddered through Tahn. The bustle of the Fieldstone faded in his ears. He saw and heard nothing, retreating inside himself where he could only repeat the old phrase for comfort: I pull with the strength of my arms, but release as the Will allows .
    Then he thought of Wendra, Balatin gone to his earth … the Velle this morning.
    Suddenly, he could see Vendanj again looking across at him, peering, Tahn thought, past his eyes into his mind. “I need you to come with me, Tahn, and leave the Hollows. Much depends on this. Soon, we will talk more about where we will go, and what must be done. But others must join us, and I have one errand for you first.”
    Tahn stared back, dumbfounded.
    “I commissioned your smith. It should be nearly done. Simply use my name. Retrieve it for me on your way to the sodalist.” Vendanj stood.
    “Sodalist? You mean Braethen? Who told you he was a sodalist?” Tahn craned to look up at the man.
    Vendanj gave him a hard stare. “I have heard it spoken.”
    “He’s as much a sodalist as I am a reader,” Sutter put in.
    Vendanj seemed to consider. “Bring him anyway. Meet me back here as quickly as you can. Keep to the main roads, and don’t venture beyond the town proper.”
    Vendanj drew his cowl forward and spared an even look at Sutter before crossing the floor to the double doors at the front of the hall. There, he paused for an instant as another figure appeared at his side. Tahn barely saw her. She moved with the simple grace of a plains deer, but also with the stealth of a mountain cat. Each motion seemed swift and sure. Tahn saw her light grey cloak for just a moment before she stepped through the door and disappeared, as quickly as vapor from a boiling pot. But in that moment, he thought her eyes had alighted upon him.
    “Glad he’s gone,” Sutter exclaimed. “What a tangle of contradictions. I thought he was about to remove my head, and then he’s complimenting me.”
    “Did you see her?” Tahn asked, staring at the door.
    “The girl in the grey cloak, you mean?” Sutter laughed.
    Tahn spun on his friend. “Yes. Have you ever seen her in the Hollows?”
    “Barely saw her this time. She glided out as quick as a Far.”
    “Far,” Tahn said, staring after her. “That’s a reader’s story.” He tried to remember what his father had said about the Far. He recalled something about a great commission. They had been given the breath of life for but a short time in the world. Legend told that the Far lived a brief existence. It seemed a cruel matter to Tahn if it was true, but the Far themselves were little more than a myth in the Hollows. Even Ogea spoke about them so rarely that they hardly seemed real.
    The one tale that the reader did share about them spoke of their city being consecrated by the First Ones at the founding of the world near the far end of all creation. It was said that is how their race got their name—being at the far end of everything.
    Sutter broke Tahn’s reverie. “Please, friend, don’t tell me the Change is so quick upon you. Father will use it against me if you find yourself a wife and I’m still supping at his table.” Sutter reached over and clapped Tahn on the back.
    “I ask a question and you’ve got me married,” Tahn said, a wry expression tugging his face into a smile. He turned again, though, toward the door the girl had just passed through.
    “I see the look in your eye,” Sutter retorted. “No. I’ve never seen her in the Hollows. But she left with Mr. Charming. What does that say about her character?” Sutter dug a