Thorn
The Shepherd, Book III
A Novel by Jeffrey B. Linn
All Rights Reserved

Chapter V

I conveyed the artifact to the gatekeeper, taking care not to insert myself between he and that central eparch, the interlocking of their gaze as palpable as an iron rod. The messenger reclaimed his station, and I returned to mine, trying to read tactile clues from the thing in the palm of my hand as I walked, yet not daring to miss the gatekeeper's appraisal of the sherd.

As he beheld it, his countenance altered, a barely perceptible tightening.

The eparch seemed elated. "It reads 'Lanthano meta Klaio Dunatos'," he announced, "which you know well enough denotes Lanthano, the regent for Klaio of the clan Dunatos." The gatekeeper stood unanswering.

I studied the eparch, his face suddenly lit with a soiled mirth. "The same Klaio, who, in fending off the forces of the south, succeeded, but at a cost so dear he was deprived of his wits and Lanthano ruled in his stead thereafter." He stepped forward. There was a rustling in the brush behind us, but the gatekeeper held his place, though his eyes now seemed averted from the glare of the eparch.

"Thorn is an heir of Dunatos! Nothing like to his race has been seen in this world. And this chat has been merely a diversion."

An expellation of air close by. Then a whispered rebuke from Bebaios, "Steady!"

The spokesman thrust a finger in the face of the gatekeeper. Heavy steps thudded behind us, but the gatekeeper held his hand aloft. The lips of the eparch pursed, then spread into a grin. His skin, through some unnatural means, paled to gray within the interval of two heart beats, then went limp, causing the bones of his face to protrude. With one motion, the sentry eparchs and the man-beast behind them threw off their cloaks.

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