Deadly Twilight

Dramatis Personae

Arnal Solea

Danno Solea

Deadly Twilight

Arnal was desperate to kill and bind Tyl Mael and get this affair over with. No, desperate wasn’t a strong enough word for it.

“Let’s run away together,” Hav Mael hissed softly in Arnal’s hair. A boyish, innocent face nestled in between his neck and shoulder. His black hair was cropped short to perfectly frame his delicate features, large, sparkling fishlike eyes and ghostly skin. 

“This again?” Arnal turned to the lithe body reclined beside him, Hav gazing back at him as if he were a nearly-ripened fruit. Hav Mael - until a moon ago, the advisor had held undying loyalty to Tyl Mael, even in the throes of their tryst. 

“Yes. We can disguise ourselves …” Hav rambled, “... Take sanctuary in Wychazel…”

“Darling, please,” Arnal laughed. Hav’s laughter, higher pitched and a little unhinged sounding, rattled along with him in chorus.

“Arnal,” Hav snapped, causing Arnal’s muscles to stiffen. “I’m serious this time.”

Hav took a long breath and sat up, hugging his knees. “Ever since the Nuivre mining campaign, he’s changed.”

Arnal was well aware of that - it was why his people had a bounty on Tyl Mael’s head. The Sinnox were the only race immune to the effects of Nuivre, and they knew why those ancient mines had been abandoned even if no one else would listen.

It was rare for De to have black hair, and Hav Mael’s hair reminded Arnal of charcoal, of pitch. Of himself in a more primal form. It aroused him in a very distracting fashion, keeping his brother waiting for updates.

“And whatever is happening to him, I don’t want it to happen to me,” Hav said, so full of longing and desperation that Arnal truly believed him. What it did to other species could be apocalyptic if one of the more predatory creatures were to wield it. Arnal was not a deep thinker, but he sympathized with the plight of other sentient creatures. Unlike-

“Also… he’s going to run out of patience,”

“Hav,” Arnal warned fruitlessly.

“Danno!” Hav broken the unspoken taboo they shared. “Do I have to say his name to snap you out of it? You have to get away from Danno!”

The name echoed in his head uncomfortably when his brother’s messages piled up at the door. He burned them. He had time to think, though the days went by faster and faster, it seemed, as the championships were underway, Arnal was able to avoid giving Hav an answer. But, he realised, he was running out of time to find an opening… if he even could. Would Hav still love him if he killed Tyl Mael before they left? Did Hav even love him at all?

Arnal washed himself of Hav’s scent at the saltwater bathhouse, crouching over to run his hands through his hair. It was crowded, humid, and noisy enough that it drowned a lot of the external pressure out so he could focus on the matter at hand.

“Darling,” 

Hav had gazed down at him, bony fingers letting go from the grip on Arnal’s hair. Arnal glanced up, eyes hazy with lust. His mouth was wet and swollen, but all he could think about was the quiver of Hav’s pale lips and pining expression. 

“I need an answer by tonight. Or I’m leaving without you.”

“Arnal.” A familiar voice, partially lost in the echo of other voices, snapped him out of his deliberation. So did the heavy footsteps of his brothers’ guards, even barefoot.

He let Danno take his devastated expression as being overwhelmed with emotion, as the older brother outstretched his hand. “So here’s where you’re hiding.”

“Brother,” Arnal acknowledged, standing up to embrace his brother customarily. Danno’s sun-kissed skin was warm and dry, Arnal’s cold and wet. It sent a shiver up his spine when Danno didn’t hug him back. “What a… pleasant surprise!”

Danno’s eyes widened, black pupils unsettlingly dilated, and so unlike the glimmering eyes of Hav Mael. “Surprise? So you haven’t been receiving my letters then?

Arnal took the first idea he could think of. “I’ve had to change lodgings a few times. To stay… out of sight.”

Danno gave him a kind but patronizing smile. “That explains it then. I was getting a little impatient, but when the terms changed, I was handed the perfect opportunity to visit.”

Danno’s smile had faded by the time Arnal took them to a new inn and got an empty room. His skin was crawling with anxiety. Danno took the bed, sitting delicately on the edge as Arnal stood.

“So, a change of terms?” Arnal asked.

“More accurately, a change in target,” Danno said, glancing out the small, clouded window. “It seems Tyl Mael’s network is too tight knit to fall if he’s taken out. So we need to pick his allies off, one by one. But twice the body-price. Any of Tyl Mael’s advisors are up for grabs. Much easier – especially since you had one under your thumb, did you not?”

“I…” Arnal sharply inhaled, Danno staring intensely at Arnal. “I did, I do, yes.”

“Which one – it was Hav Mael, right? Well, he’d be fitting.”

“No, not a Sinnox. Why do you think that Hav is fitting?” Arnal said, his mouth going dry, assured that Danno was mixing them up. Tyl Mael had no Sinnox in his council. They were all De - all of them.

“Well,” Danno said slowly, “Hav Mael is not a De. He is a Coriniaid. The Nuivre has no effect on him.”

The words rang in Arnal’s ear like temple bells, eyes closed as his head felt heavy.

“And whatever is happening to him, I don’t want it to happen to me."