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Uthe i toe-to-toe with aher point It reht him that first tiel, Shahnaz Was he nificent?"

"He was" A wistful look crossed her features "He touched o of er, the scars would be only on my face, not my soul As he departed, I saw several others with hiue, and then they were gone, following him back into the clouds"

Uthe came back to the present and the silk clad body at his feet If the angel had destroyed the demon, ould Uthe's life have been? Possibly not much different fro on the sorceresses to find the solution while he became involved in the politics and future of va this ht pull him away from the vampire world without notice, but he'd learned it made more sense to live his life fully

In a heartbeat, anything could end life as one knew it Anticipating that was no way to iven hi his brethren at the tragedy of Hattin, and it ho he'd iven Shahnaz access to the Shattered World There was no telling where life would take a ave him

After dislodging enough rock to for over Fatima, he knelt and said the necessary prayers for her soul and his grief Rising, he placed a hand on one of the rocks

"It won't be in vain," he proure out the clues you left hable, if he felt like laughing Instead, he found hi for Keldwyn's coh he had no idea what the Fae was thinking after he'd s But honesty was all he had now, and his only deive hiht have to accept painful truths, but he preferred thear-coated lies

Enough of that He had s to address, a puzzle to solve He headed back toward thefull of ciphers awaited It had taken generations of sorceresses nine hundred years to find the solution for sending a de to translate it from Fatima's walls

Chapter Eight

When Uthe returned to the main chamber, Keldwyn didn't ask hi the sorceress to rest, so Kel let hi and walls, and his examination of Fatima's books and notebooks, while Kel stood watch at the cave opening He would go hunting once he sensed other deo so far out of range that he couldn't return to Uthe's side in a matter of moments

While Keldwyn had been frustrated by Uthe's secretiveness, he knew Uthe was very much like hiue: lives lost, secrets jeopardized Withholding information was driven by those concerns, not a covetous need to keep everything to oneself, or an inability to extend trust when needed Well, not entirely Keldas still reviewing Uthe's harsh words in his mind On each replay, they roused a different reaction in him

Uthe was an intellectually gifted h he'd frequently noted the fit hardness of Uthe's body, the battle readiness of it, Keldwyn had rarely seen the un to think of hiist, than a vampire ready to combat violence in any situation The day he'd watched hian, he'd beenin the sun suddenlyasp

When they'd fought their way into the cave, Uthe's htful consideration to every matter of import had been replaced by quick, brutal decisiveness

"Thus in an astounding and unique entler than lambs yet fiercer than lions" Keldwyn had read the three texts Uthe kept by his bed: St Bernard's "In Praise of the New Knighthood," The Rule of the Templars and that anonymous letter addressed to the order around 1130 The quote came fro in truth, the way Uthe unleashed an inner savagery for battle

Now--that deadly warrior side put away--Uthe leaned forward, tracing one of those hundreds of sy up the walls The motion made the tunic pull across his shoulders and buttocks Uthe stretched upward as he followed a line of text with his fingertips along the arch of wall to ceiling His dark brown eyes were flickering, histo himself

Keldwyn's first direct exposure to vahan Keldwyn had been confounded by his best friend's inconceivable love for a feed species He'd brutally rejected the idea, trying in every way to dissuade him It was incomprehensible, that a Fae could truly love a creature so inferior to hih Fae, Lyssa's father was a cut far above, linked by blood to both the Unseelie and Seelie royal families

Keldwyn had been several hundred years old then He hadn't recognized his opposition to Reghan's relationship with a vampire was fueled by han if he pursued it He had reacted to his own hurt at being rejected Yes--trite as the saying was--love was indeed blind

Until his death, Reghan had counted Keldwyn his closest and best friend Never had one word had the potential to hurt so much, but Kel eventually understood the value and honor of being the male's friend He hoped he'd honored what it hadhis best to protect both of Reghan's daughters in the face of often violent politics, but in finally getting over his heartbreak enough to bring the two races closer together It had taken hiy, but the Fae were known to hold a grudge

In his defense, during that time, he'd experienced vampires ere nowhere near as commendable members of their species as Uthe and Lyssa More than once, he'd decided his initial ience due to the inescapable hold of blood lust and an inability to overcome their predator instincts was correct, the exception far less common than the rule But then he'd seen the formation of the Council He'd watched while Lyssa and others like her had detered--to guide and channel it with such concepts as the va basic behavior to protect vaeneral human awareness of their existence

Lyssa was half-Fae, though He'd ultimately expected such sensible behavior from her It was Uthe who'd taken Keldwyn's in disfavor and tolerance into a belief they could be somore

Lord Varick Uthe Varick was a good name for him, far better than Uthe Keldwyn's lips twisted Perhaps it was no different froo Then he'd used his belief in the inferiority of vampires to mask his resentment that Lyssa's father had chosen one over hience to avoid the truth One particular vaht his attention for far more personal reasons

It had ht hand of the Council, but that had not included weekly chesshistory, social inequity, or trading stories accu Uthe spar with Daegan, Keldould have added practice coular interactions, but this task had interfered with that pleasurable prospect

Kel, you have becohan is, he is laughing at you All the han had set that situation up himself What w

ould Uthe think when Kel finally revealed that?

Before he was to be executed, Reghan had called Keldwyn to him He remembered every word his friend had spoken to hi hand, as vividly as if it had happened a o But the words that had meant the least to Keldhat had resounded in his head the first time Lyssa had introduced hiht hand advisor on Council Once upon a tiht, so he tends to be more honorable than the rest of us"

Kel, there ht will make himself known to you Help him however he needs help, for his cause is just and vital

He'd assumed the plea was moot when the Templars were disbanded in the 1300s Still, his curiosity about a vampire who had been a Tehan's final words And curiosity had beco more

Despite his occupied thoughts, Kel continued to change vantage points at the cave point, watching for trouble Still nothing He glanced over his shoulder, checking on Uthe Vampire males were handsome, but the wisdom and character in Uthe's dark eyes h he'd had male lovers ere far prettier, Uthe's body was a perfect sculpture of sht arse and iift of mind and matter both

Keldwyn stared back into the night As he did, he recalled his first awareness of his attraction Uthe had been waiting on his next chess move The vampire had laid his head back on his chair, one hand loose on the arh as he closed his eyes Keldwyn's gaze had been drawn to the exposed throat, the set of his ers traced the carved arm of the chair without impatience Kel could take a minute or an hour to decide hisleisure time like this

They had both lived enough years, experienced the necessary trials Neither of thenificance was given careful consideration froles Decisions werewas expedited by coo

"You're settled in your head," Catriona, his ward, had once told him "You understand so much, you don't even think about most of it anymore But you don't really feel it, either, because you've felt it soBut every story can be told a different way, and you can fall in love with it all over again"

Thanks to her twenty years trapped in a tree in the huarbled like that, but when he was studying Uthe's face that night, he'd understood what she'd h to feel startled to the core by the truth of it When the male's lips ers on the chairbunched He forgot to concentrate on his chess move His whole focus was on what Uthe would do next

At length, the dark eyes opened, a brow rising at Keldwyn's regard, then his lashes swept down to exa he hadn't , unsure of everything that was in his expression and lacking his usual compulsion to ain "If you're considering how ayou at chess,on that for some time The only answer is the one you won't accept I'ame"