Page 94 of The Darkland

“If you are ill, then mayhap you should rest. Steven can give up his bed for one night. In fact, you have not seemed well since we arrived in Ireland. Is something the matter?”

Corwin closed his eyes as Kirk spoke, bowing his head as if to block out the question. Before Kirk was finished speaking, he made a strange choking sound and fell back against the stone parapet.

“Oh, God…Kirk!”

Kirk was gravely concerned. He grasped Corwin by the arms to steady him. “Corwin, what’s the matter?”

Corwin’s brown eyes gushed over with tears. His gaze, wide and frantic, met Kirk. “I cannot… I cannot go on like this any longer! It is killing me!”

“What is?” Kirk demanded softly. In truth, he was a little frightened. “What is killing you, Corwin?”

Corwin suddenly grabbed him, holding his arms so tightly that Kirk lost feeling where the fingers bit into his flesh. “This… silence.” He gasped as if it had taken all of his strength to spit it out. “I have been silent for too long and the torment is killing me!”

Kirk tried to remain calm, to make some sense out of what Corwin was trying to say. “I do not understand, Corwin. What silence?”

Corwin drew in a ragged breath, sagging as Kirk held him steady. The auburn head hung slack, lolling from side to side as if losing all control.

“This silence I have carried with me for years,” he whispered. “Silence that has eaten away at me, a dark silence that you can hardly comprehend. But I cannot be silent any longer! You must know what is happening!”

Kirk’s composure was slowly slipping. “Then tell me, Corwin. What is happening?”

Corwin’s head drooped again and he stared at the ground. Finally, he swallowed hard in an attempt to regain his composure. He would need all of his strength to get through this. “Dear God, Kirk, you must forgive me.”

“For what?”

“For not being truthful with you. For not telling you what I knew, for not helping you prevent the deaths of nine innocent women.”

Kirk stared at him, the flicker of disquiet in his soul bursting into a roaring blaze. “Then be truthful with me now. What do you know?”

Corwin lifted pain-filled eyes. “I know that Edmund ordered me to help him murder those women. He threatened to kill Valdine if I did not help him. He gave me little choice but to keep his dirty secrets.”

Kirk drew in a long, steadying breath. “I see,” he murmured. The truth as he had always suspected. “Then it was you helping him all along. But the rumors pointed to Niles.”

“Edmund started those rumors to take suspicion off me. He knew you suspected that one of us was aiding him and he wanted you to believe it was Niles.”

“Because he had leverage against you,” Kirk finished softly. “And you did what you felt you had to do in order to keep your wife safe.”

Corwin nodded miserably. “I hated myself for being so weak, Kirk. But I had no choice. Edmund gave me no choice!”

Kirk released the man, allowing him to bump softly against the parapet. “I understand what you are saying, lad. But I do not understand why you have chosen this particular moment to confess.”

Corwin seemed to pale further, if such a thing was possible. “It… it involves Micheline….”

Kirk grabbed him again, so hard that Corwin yelped with pain. Stone-gray eyes blazed at him. “What of Micheline? You haven’t…?”

“Nay.” Corwin shook his head quickly. “But Edmund wanted to. He ordered me to kill her, but I couldn’t. Instead, I locked her in the tower where she remains to this day. I was hoping you would return from Quernmore in time to take charge of the situation, but instead we were routed to Ireland sooner than expected.”

Kirk emitted a harsh sigh, his volatile emotions surging. “Damn you, Corwin! Has she been harmed?”

“Nay.”

“What does Edmund know of her death?”

“Only that she is dead. That I disposed of the body, as we have disposed of all the rest.”

Kirk released him, roughly, and the knight stumbled back against the stone abutment. But what terrified him the most was the fact that he wasn’t finished yet.

“There’s more, Kirk.”