Read Online Dolor and Shadow by Angela Chrysler - Free Book Online

The candles were unlit. The hearth was cold. The queen’s bower was dark save for the streak of bedroom light that spilled into the sitting room.
    The smell of death grew stronger as they drew closer to their mother’s bedchamber. The inane ramblings became clearer until they approached the threshold where they could hear the words.
    “Please forgive me…Caoilinn? Please…I didn’t mean to—I didn’t mean…”
    Rune pushed open the door. On the bed, his mother lay. And on the floor, by her side, sat his father. Weeping, Tryggve clutched his wife’s cold hand.
    “Swann…Sweet Swann,” he muttered, smiling at Caoilinn’s lifeless eyes. “With silver eyes…” he said. “So like yours. They glisten like pearls. Can you see them, Caoilinn? See them.” His lips quivered and his face turned down with anger. “Won’t you look at me? Look at me. Please look at me, Caoilinn. Please? It’s because I killed them, isn’t it? That you won’t talk to me?”
    Bergen stopped at the door beside Rune and both brothers watched, unable to speak.
    “I killed them…” Tryggve said. He stroked her golden hair. “I killed them all…every child…every mother…every soldier…I killed them all. I had to. They killed our Swann…our precious…” Tryggve pursed his lips. “Please talk to me, Caoilinn. Talk to me...Won’t you speak to me? You’re mad at me. Because I couldn’t…Forgive me? You must forgive me. Please forgive…”
    Bergen turned without a word and stomped back through the sitting room to the corridor. Down the steps into the Great Hall, he ran, not bothering a glance to the empty throne seated between the High Seat pillars engraved with wolves.
    His hands struck the great oak doors and Bergen ran down the steps, past the stream of mead into the courtyard to the stables around the west tower.
    “Bergen!”
    Bergen paid his brother no mind.
    “Bergen!” Rune was already closing in on his heels, but Bergen kept running. “Where are you going?”
    “To the mountains, Brother.”
    Rune stopped at the stable door as Bergen began saddling his horse.
    “The Dvergar,” Rune said. “Bergen. You can’t go. They’ll kill you.”
    “Their enemy is my enemy,” Bergen said. “They will help us.”
    “They will kill you!”
    Bergen stepped in so that he stood face to face with his brother.
    The soft sob at the stable door quelled the argument and drew their attention to Torunn. A beam of moonlight flooded her reddened face enough that they could see the fresh wave of tears. He knew that shadow that clung so desperately behind her eyes.
    “The king…” she spoke between sobs. “Your father…he…”
    Shaking her head, Torunn turned. Hugging her arms, she wandered back to the keep alone.
    “No!” Bergen screamed and lunged right into Rune’s fist. Bergen fell back, shook the initial shock off and returned a punch to Rune’s jaw. Before Rune could recover, Bergen slammed himself into Rune, who dropped his hands hard onto Bergen’s shoulders and held him there.
    “He isn’t!” Bergen growled and Rune dropped his brow to his brother’s. “Not Father! Not…” Bergen’s breath punched the air as his head spun as if desperate to find something to cling to.
    Zabbai.
    His chest throbbed with that pain that twisted his insides.
    Swann.
    Rage burned his skin from the inside out.
    Mother.
    “Breathe, Bergen,” Rune said.
    Now Father.
    “No!” Bergen shouted and shoved Rune back. “I will go to the mountains!”
    “Bergen, they will kill you,” Rune said.
    “I have no choice!”
    “You always have a choice.”
    Bergen shoved his hand through his hair again and again, each time he saw Zabbai then Swann then Caoilinn…
    “Do I?” Bergen gasped. “What choice is there? To stand here and watch you die? Do you call that a choice?”
    “It’s a risk I must take as king,” Rune said.
    Bergen studied the silver-blue eyes so like his. Apathy was taking his brother, the king. Bergen knew the