Page 75 of The Sundered Realms

Even fleeing as she had without physical possessions and marked for death, Liris had still had her enormous education to fall back on, without which Vhannor would never have rescued her from obscurity. Now, at the university, she was still insulated from concerns she knew academically most adults and too many children had to face. Her days were spent with students and diplomats, not scrounging for bread.

For another person, a Forgotten priest might be their only hope for something different.

All Forgotten temples were neutral ground, which in practice made them hotbeds for criminal exchanges. Their mark was a knife in the back for a reason: people dealt with them at their own peril, and if the favors they traded came back to haunt them, no one could say they hadn’t been warned.

Liris bowed, and the priest returned it: an acknowledgement that she had been duly warned and understood what it meant.

Her quick understanding intrigued him, but Neroth opened his arms wide to Vhannor. “What do you want to know? Anything for an old friend, of course.”

Vhannor took a step forward. “Tell me what Jadrhun is up to.”

Neroth’s arms stayed where they were. “Jadrhun, is it?”

“Don’t play stupid,” Vhannor snapped. “Jadrhun was never interested in politics. There’s no way he’s been suborning all these people, acting in Dianor, without you knowing how and to what end.”

Neroth lowered his arms, nodding agreeably. “And?”

“And,” Vhannor growled, taking another step, “since you haven’t had the decency to warn me, you’re going to tell me how deep this goes, now.”

The priest sighed, walking behind the wooden block. “Vhann.” Vhann? “You know perfectly well I can’t just give you that for free. I don’t betray confidences like that.”

But he would, for the right price? Interesting—what could Vhannor offer—

Vhannor slammed his hands down on the block. “You will talk to me before more people die!”

Okay, maybe he was somewhat angrier than she’d appreciated.

Liris thrust her arm out to her side, blocking Shry, who’d started forward, and said, “People are always dying though, aren’t they? There are always people in pain, and on the edge, that no one is helping. That’s always the leverage someone has.”

The priest looked her way with interest. “Yes,” he said softly. “What an unexpectedly open-minded woman you’ve partnered with, Vhannor.”

The Lord of Embhullor’s fierce glare might have quelled another person who wasn’t so unimpressed with his current behavior. “If you didn’t want me to talk, you should have specified that in advance,” Liris told him.

Neroth choked on a laugh.

“The question,” Liris said, “is why people think a demon servant can solve their pain.”

It wasn’t the priest that answered her, but a voice from one of the shadowed arches.

A sharp voice she recognized, as he strode forward with the same high-collared, asymmetrical black coat, the same jagged cropped hair.

“No,” Jadrhun said, as Shry shifted her stance. “The question is what pain am I solving.” Facing Vhannor he said, “And you shouldn’t need to bully the neutrality to know that.”

Liris had thought the tension in this Forgotten temple high before, but it was nothing compared to how she had to remind herself to breathe now.

Vhannor’s eyes blazed as his hand clenched on his spell pad; Jadrhun’s hung loosely in his hand; Shry had one knife pointed his way and another at the priest. Violence poised to erupt at any moment.

Vhannor said, “You can’t turn back time and make the Sundering not have happened, Jadrhun.”

What?

Jadrhun sneered. “You have no idea what I can do, Lord of Embhullor.”

The demon servant turned to Liris, and she froze, then forced herself to breathe, ordering her body not to signal any attacks in advance.

She learned fast, but so did he, and he had years of practice. Jadrhun would be fast enough to stop her.

“We meet again, Liris,” Jadrhun said with a slight tilt of a bow, keeping his eyes up. “That was well played in Serenthuar. I can’t tell you how delighted I am that you found another way.”

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