A Cold Cry

The Wrong Truth

Carras turned his head away in horror as Culathan approached him again.

I cannot bear it – not now – not yet. My resolve is dying.

Think on your honour, on your family. Think what you bind yourself to if you should succumb.

He heard the pleas like a mass of lard in his mouth; they were as empty as dust on the wind. There was no life to them anymore, no surety.

I cannot accept this darkness!

But you will. You know you will. Culathan's words they were, but his voice uttered them. The despair spoke in his head, cold and ravenous, grasping for the power that was so near now.

He cried out silently against it, but in vain. It was growing too strong for him.

"Not so hard," Culathan's voice came above him. "Not so hard, when you think of all that lies behind. King Eofin knows of your failure, Carras. He has seen your fall, and is filled with wrath. Thought you that the day would ever come, Carras, when your beloved friend forbade the mention of your name among his house?"

"No!" Carras' sharp, pain-filled cry filled the cave. "You lie, Culathan, Deceitful Man!"

Culathan looked calmly at him. "I do not lie."

Carras hid his face against the icy stone, his restraint exerted almost beyond endurance as he sought to contain his grief.

"'Tis but the first." Culathan's foot bore down on his back. "Do you think that it will end there? They will all know, and they will all despise you for what you are." He looked down at Carras, and smiled as he saw the last strains of defiance sink away from his body. The fight was at an end.

With his boot he shoved Carras onto his side, and made him meet his eyes. " 'I submit'; you have but to say it."

"I–" His voice choked in his throat, as though he could not push the words out.

"Come now, why do you hesitate?" Culathan maintained the steady flow of taunting persuasion with ease. "For indeed, you could do nothing now. Even the king is come under my sway. All Enedhwin is mine. For he is here, Carras, in this very house."

A gasp like a sob escaped Carras. Culathan smiled, and spoke on.

But Carras heard nothing. Turmoil roared within him, fire blazed burning trails in his veins.

He is here.

He is in these walls.

If I can but warn him–

Let me be a liar, and my name cursed forever, but let not Enedhwin fall.

He looked up at Culathan, a light in his eyes, and the merest trace of a smile, grim though it were, touched his lips. "What did you say, lefiredda?"

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lefiredda: "spun person": a Thiredanian idiom translating roughly to "long-winded one".

CARRAS MADE A JOKE LET'S ALL PARTY