A Walk on the Water

"I gave him good advice and he gives me double the pleasure!" she said to Alannah with a wide smile,

Everyone in the household made its way to the very large dining room, Alannah noticed that any chill in the air was now gone. She saw huge logs were blazing in the fireplace, candles were burning on the mantle and on the table, and she gasped when she saw that the table had been laid out in preparation for this moment.

"Yes," Señora Beringer told her with an amused smirk on her face,"'we all knew this moment would come, and we were very well-prepared. I would say that Maria has outdone herself, si? Now, beautiful one, please brush away those tears, before you soak the front of poor Dominic's shirt, sit, both of you! The time has come to celebrate this joyous occasion with food, wine and friends. This is truly a happy day, commerating the fact that there will soon be a host of noisy little Beringers underfoot."

"Damn it and damn them to Hell!" Eraldo muttered. "The one time they don't make use of the glass room is the one time that I might have had a clear shot at the lot of them! It's no good - here put the gun away! These people have the luck of a host of Angels."

"You said that you wouldn't kill the girl," Troy said in a whiney voice that only irritated Eraldo even more. "You promised and the old man himself promised that you wouldn't hurt her."

"I have no intention of killing her, maybe just knick her." Eraldo muttered, his thoughts were elsewhere. "She is bound to go riding again, and when she does we will be watching, and then my impatient friend, then we will be able to take her as planned. Then we can take her into town and get away from this maze of an island." He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep sighing breath. "The old man will not be pleased if we have not succeeded before his arrival. He has been plagued by bad dreams - premonitions lately. They drive him to the brink of madness, he becomes more and more dangerous as each day passes, dangerous to us all. Who would have thought that so much would ride on the fate of my sister?"

"What has she to do with any of this?" Troy asked him.

Eraldo grimaced and shook his head. "When we were growing up, it was necessary for our father to dispell those who did not agree with him. My brothers Jakob and Eraldo were exiled from Ireland. I was sent was to keep an eye on them. I lost Jakob, so I assumed he was dead. I managed to keep a good eye on Erik. It was long after Erik was Exiled that Alannah ran away, she managed to slip through fathers grasp for five years. That had not pleased father one bit, he now wants to punish her for running. Our father is a tyrant and he demand respect much like that of a Titan, he has lost his grip on reality, and his confidence because of Alannah. What follows is the unthinkable: when a titan loses their confidence, then the world itself will lose the sun."