Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 10

in the cold night air. Now surely he's endured enough and you're going to go down to retrieve him?"
    "It takes more than a little weather to kill an Agorian."
    Gael raised one perfectly arched eyebrow at his friend's dry response. He had thought that after Anzel, Gael's brother and Lord of the lower realm, had finally released the boy, his friend Con would swoop down and bring him back here. Apparently he was wrong, yet again. Damn Anzel for his treachery his brother was responsible for all of them being in this position.
    Gaelin Duchane was the commander and leader of the entire upper realm of Orestes, a beautiful country that boasted some rather distinct contrasts. In the upper realm of Orestes the land was dotted with tall mountain peaks, lush forests and ample green pastures that supported the country's livestock. However, the farther south you went in Orestes, the more the landscape changed. There below the mountains, lay a cold and barren wasteland that was barely able to sustain life.
    Early on in Orestian history, a law was decreed that the fate of those who broke the law would include banishment to the lower realm. The upper realm was home to the proud race of Agori, known as the heaven dwellers. The name was misleading for this was a human race possessing no remarkable powers save the right to boast of a long life. Most Agori lived to be over 200 years of age. The people here coexisted in peaceful harmony, taking up arms in battle only when an enemy threatened their way of life.
    The cold and barren lower realm was where the Nephali lived. Once citizens of Agori, the Nephali were the dregs of Orestes' society. Here, dwelling in enforced banishment for crimes against their fellow man, lived men whose hearts were blacker than the night and whose coldness knew no warmth beyond the meager heat which was given off by the occasional fires that burned from funeral byres when they buried their dead.
    Between the two realms stood a locked gateway that was under constant guard. The key that would give access to anyone desiring admittance hung from a heavy gold chain around the neck of the Orestian second in command. This should have been Anzel, Gael's brother. When their father had died several years earlier, Anzel was to assume this position and rule with Gael over both realms. But Anzel was greedy, and saw no reason why there shouldn't be only one commander to whom all others would bow.
    In an effort to achieve what he desired, Anzel set about trying to find a way to get rid of Gael completely. After a botched assassination attempt on Gael's life, Anzel had been banished to the lower realm; to say that Anzel was bitter over Gael's decision was putting it mildly.
    Anzel's banishment also allowed for Gael's boyhood friend, Con, to step up into Anzel's place as second in command, a move that prompted bitterness to grow between Anzel and Con. As time went on, Gael and Constantine watched with growing unease at the hatred that seemed to boil in Anzel's veins. As Anzel's animosity grew so did the frequency of the attacks on Agori territory, a fact that did not escape either Gael's or Con's observation. It was his brother's obsessive spite that convinced Gael to attribute the last assault on the upper realm to Anzel himself, even though Anzel had made a great show of sending some of his own troops to fight the opposition.
    After finding out that the enemy actually included former members of Anzel's own special guard, it had been almost impossible for Gael to believe his brother's claim that he was innocent of any involvement. Especially not after Con had found documents written in a hand so very similar to Anzel's, detailing Agori's structural defenses and their weaknesses, giving the enemy a distinct upper hand in the skirmish. But as usual, definitive proof that Anzel was the mastermind behind the assault dangled just out of reach. Consequently, Con had to break the bad news that Gael would have to release his brother from protective custody, even as the latest assault of the enemy raged on around them and Anzel's guilt was blatantly clear to them both.
    On the day of Anzel's release, Con watched as the brother swept aside Gael's personal squire, and mounted his horse without assistance. It was easy for Con to read the signs that Anzel was determined to leave behind a small reminder of just how angry he was at Gael for holding him prisoner. As he was heading for the gate, Anzel turned his horse suddenly and drove the