Divided by Rae Brooks Page B

overdone.  There was a large, black fountain and unnatural
flowers growing all around it.  The gardens would have been pretty if Calis
hadn’t been so unnerved by their colors.  Garden lanterns draped across it,
with the same mirrors that had been in the lanterns in the grand hall.  The
moonlight danced along the flowers and created a strange feel.
    Footsteps behind him startled him only for a moment before
he turned to see Lee, dressed in a very plain green tunic.  So Lee knew what
they were doing as well.  Calis shouldn’t have been as impressed as he was. 
“Are you going to tell me what happened as we go to this most certainly
scandalous event?”
    Calis offered his friend a smile and nodded his head.  They
both headed towards the Dark Wall.  Lee led the way since he was the only one
who knew where they were going.  Neither of them wanted to converse too much in
the courtyard about which nobles could be lurking.  Once they were sufficiently
far enough away from the silly ball, Calis began his explanation.
    Firstly, he gave Lee only the facts.  They had established
this process a very long time ago.  If Calis was going to vent to Lee, his
advisor wanted to know the story before Calis’s emotions cluttered it.  When
Lee had given Calis the ultimatum, he had assured him that this would help
Calis as well.  Calis had found that it had, and it was a process of which he’d
grown rather fond.  Once he’d finished with the unedited version, he informed
Lee of why it bothered him.
    As they both pulled themselves up over the Dark Wall, Calis
was still talking to Lee.  “I don’t even want my father’s bloody position, and
yet all he can do is flaunt it in Tareth’s face.  Tareth isn’t precisely
stable.  I just don’t want a civil war on top of this business with Cathalar. 
Father has enough enemies.  I don’t want to make them too.”
    They reached the top, and Lee actually responded—which was
rare.  Normally, he just watched Calis and listened without interruption.  “You
would be a better ruler than Tareth, unfortunately,” he said.  “And both of you
better than…”  He cut himself off—surely knowing that words like that could get
him hanged.
    “I’m aware,” Calis said.  This wasn’t necessarily a
compliment.  Only Lee’s acknowledgement that their current ruler was a fool and
a barbarian.  Telandus would fall in the war, and Calis knew that.  “It won’t
matter.  Once Father finally pushes Lord Veyron to war—Telandus will not
survive.”
    Lee looked a little mournful, but there was no denying that
simple truth.  Cathalar was not without faults, but Veyron was nothing like the
brute that Lavus was.  He ruled his lands forcibly, and was not liked by all,
but he certainly was not hated by all either.  While Lavus’s life had been
filled with one drama after another, making enemies constantly—and never
failing to be whispered about in distant lands, Veyron’s only moment of
notoriety had been the unfortunate loss of his second-born son.
    Calis didn’t know much about it.  Only that the boy had left
Cathalar, after giving his father fair warning, and had not been heard from
since.  Calis was sure that he was dead, as even a competent person didn’t
survive in the wilds for five years.  And if the boy had escaped into one of
the other lands, surely they would have reported to Veyron.  For months,
everyone had searched for the kid.
    This impressed Calis more than anything, for if he had ever
abandoned his family then he would be sought after for execution.  Veyron had
not only accepted his son’s decision, but he had attempted to find out if his
youngest son was alright. 
    “Tareth is my brother, fool that he is, and I don’t want him
to hate me,” Calis said as they both dropped into Dark District.
    Dark was a fitting title for it now, as most of the flames
were put out and the entire district was lit only by the moon.  The sounds that
usually