Treason Keep

Tarja hobbled his mount and finally got around to eating something long after dark, although hard cheese and jerky barely counted as a meal. He had been spoilt, he decided, living on the border. There was a time when he didn’t mind trail rations. Had he been tougher then – or just less discerning, he wondered?

“Tarja?”

He turned, a little surprised to find Adrina weaving her way among the picketed horses toward him. Her breath frosted in the moonlight and she held her borrowed jacket tightly closed against the cold.

“I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

“Sleep?” she laughed humourlessly. “That’s a joke. Who can sleep with a thousand Defenders over the next hill and the Kariens riding us down?”

“You need to rest, then, even if you can’t sleep. The last few days are going to seem like a picnic compared to what lies ahead.”

She reached up and patted Shadow’s forelock. The mare nuzzled her hopefully for a moment then returned to her feedbag when she decided the princess had nothing better to offer.

“Can I ask you something, Tarja?”

“I suppose.”

“If I wasn’t here, you wouldn’t be doing this, would you?”

She knew the answer as well as he did. He wondered what was really behind the question.

“Cratyn probably wouldn’t be on our tail, but we’d still be hiding from the Defenders. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

She smiled. “Actually, I’m a little surprised at myself. Taking the blame for things is not my style. I’ve never been known for my selflessness.”

Tarja found that very easy to believe.

“I keep thinking I should just go back to Cratyn and be damned.”

“What good would that do?” He hoped he hadn’t let his astonishment show. Such an offer from Adrina verged on the miraculous.

“R’shiel is missing, Tarja. You should be helping her, not saving me from my own stupidity.” She smiled self-consciously, as if she was startled to have made such an admission. “I have a feeling that the demon child is more important in the general scheme of things than one disgruntled princess.”

“She’s right, Tarja.”

Brak appeared out of nowhere a pace behind Adrina. The princess spun around, startled by the unexpected voice. A thousand questions leapt to Tarja’s mind at the sight of him, but one question overrode every other, even his astonishment at Brak’s sudden return:

“Where is R’shiel?”

“Closer than you think,” Brak replied, then he bowed to Adrina. “You must be Hablet’s girl. Adrina, isn’t it? The one who married Cratyn?”

“Who are you?” she demanded. “Tarja? Who is he?”

“Brakandaran,” Tarja told her, fighting to keep an even temper. What in the name of the Founders had happened to R’shiel? How did Brak get here? “He’s Harshini. He was supposed to be looking after R’shiel.”

“You can’t blame Brak, Tarja, it wasn’t his fault.”

Tarja started at the new voice and turned to find Dace standing behind him. The God of Thieves was grinning broadly, rather pleased with the effect of his dramatic entrance.

“What are you doing here?”

“You know, most people would prostrate themselves when confronted with a god,” Dace pointed out, a little miffed at Tarja’s less-than-enthusiastic reception.

“I’m not ‘most people’. What happened to R’shiel?”

“That’s a god?” Adrina asked. She looked awestruck, but then, she was a pagan. Being confronted with one of her gods probably meant a great deal more to her than it meant to him.

“Unfortunately, yes. This is Dacendaran. He’s supposed to be the God of Thieves, I think. Personally, I think he’s the God of Unreliable Fools.”

“Don’t be absurd, Tarja, there’s no such entity. If you’re going to be like that, then I won’t help you.”

“That’s an empty threat under the circumstances,” Brak remarked.

“But he can’t be a god,” Adrina scoffed. “I’ve seen him in the Defenders’ camp. He was hanging around with Mikel.”

“My newest and most fervent... no actually, he’s more like a reluctant disciple.”

“Brak, what the hell is going on?”

He held up his hand wearily to stay Tarja’s avalanche of questions. “Look, I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and I will, I promise. But let’s find Damin first. I don’t want to have to go over this more than once.”

Chapter 60

“Before I tell you where R’shiel is,” Brak began, looking at each one of them in turn, “I have to explain a few things.”

They had gathered around a brightly burning fire, safe in the knowledge that Brak’s magic concealed them from prying eyes. Tarja was sceptical when he promised they would not be seen, and his men were decidedly edgy, but even Almodavar seemed satisfied with the Harshini’s assurance that he was protecting them. The fire warmed them more than it should have, and he wondered if Brak’s magic was responsible for that too. The half-Harshini’s eyes were completely black, a sure sign he was drawing on his power. It reminded Tarja sharply how alien the Harshini really were.

“You’d better tell them the rules, too,” Dace added.

“What rules?” Tarja asked warily.

“I’ll get to that. There are other things you must understand first.”

Tarja shifted restlessly. He knew from experience how futile it was to demand answers from Brak when he wasn’t ready to give them. Damin sat on his left, with Adrina curled up beside him. On the other side of the fire sat Almodavar, Ghari and Dace, who seemed quite content to let Brak do the talking.

“As you’ve probably figured out by now,” Brak continued, “the Kariens were waiting for us when we reached the Citadel.”

“I tried to warn you,” Dace interjected.

“You knew they were waiting for you? Why in the name of the Founders didn’t you turn back?”

“Dace warned us Xaphista had believers in the Citadel, Tarja. Even he didn’t know Terbolt and his priests were there.”

“So much for the infallibility of the gods.”

Dace glared at him, but let the comment pass.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if Dace had given us the disposition of every Karien on the continent, there were forces at work that would have seen to it that we did not succeed.”

“How could you fail with the gods on your side?” Adrina scoffed.

“That’s just the point. The only side the gods care about is their own.”

Dace snorted with disgust at the comment, but he seemed unusually reticent tonight and offered no other sign of his displeasure.

“Anyway, we reached the Citadel and everything went according to plan until Joyhinia appeared at the Gathering. The real Joyhinia that is, as lucid as she ever was.”

“How? I destroyed her wit. Her mind was gone.”

“The Karien priests found her another mind and transferred it into her body. Once Joyhinia appeared things