tone. She then turned to Damin and smiled. It was obvious R’shiel was fond of the Warlord and the thought sent an unexpected spear of jealousy through her.
“I wasn’t kidding, Damin. If you marry Adrina, and Hablet still wants to attack Hythria, he’ll have to go over the Sunrise Mountains. Fardohnyan law demands a peace treaty between both Houses in the marriage. It may not keep him out of the rest of Hythria, but at least he won’t be able to take the easy road. He’ll be unable to set foot in Krakandar Province until he figures a way around the marriage contract.”
Damin nodded thoughtfully. He seemed to accept the suggestion with remarkable composure. “It would delay him, I suppose, assuming I was willing to go along with such a ludicrous plan. But he could just as easily deny the marriage had taken place and carry on regardless.”
“I’ll have Jelanna perform the ceremony herself, if that’s what it takes.”
Adrina gasped. Somehow the idea that this girl could command the Goddess of Fertility, the goddess her father worshipped with almost fanatical intensity, was more terrifying than anything else she had done this morning.
But things were moving a bit too fast and R’shiel had not even asked her what she thought about this rather hasty decision.
“Do
“Why?” R’shiel asked. “Were you planning to object?”
“That’s not the point. But as a matter of fact, I was planning to object. I’ve had all the arranged marriages I want, thank you. Besides, I’ve been a widow for just over an hour. It’s indecent.”
“Don’t be such a hypocrite,” R’shiel said bluntly. “You’ve been sleeping with Damin for ages and he obviously loves you, or he would never have been so stupid as to try to keep you from returning to Karien.”
Adrina felt herself blushing, something she had not done since she was sixteen and was introduced to her first
R’shiel did not seem to notice, or care, about their feelings.
“Denjon, if you truly mean to undermine the Karien occupation of Medalon, then the first useful thing you can do is give me a few experienced men and enough supplies to reach the Citadel.”
“I’d have thought the Citadel was the last place you’d want to go.”
“There is something that I have to take care of. Or rather, someone. I had it pointed out to me very recently that I take the easy way out, too often. That’s about to change.”
“I’ll see to it,” Denjon agreed. “Unless you want to wait until Tarja...”
“No. This can’t wait and I’ve done all I can for him. Brak will watch over him until he regains consciousness. In the meantime, you’d better do something about those priests I let loose. You don’t want them reaching the border and warning the Kariens about what’s happened here.”
“There’s the rest of Cratyn’s troop out there, too,” Damin reminded them. “You’d be well advised to do something about them before the day is out.”
“We can take care of a few hundred Kariens,” Denjon assured him.
“As for you two,” R’shiel said, turning on Damin and Adrina. “Get one of the captains to marry you; they can perform the ceremony at a pinch under Medalonian law. Once Tarja has recovered, Brak can go to Talabar to deliver the news to King Hablet. If one of the fabled Harshini walking his palace halls doesn’t convince him, nothing will.”
Damin was no more able to argue with her than Adrina was. This was not R’shiel speaking, this was the demon child finally come into her power. She had no intention of marrying Damin Wolfblade and was quite sure he did not want to marry her; but she would wait until R’shiel left for the Citadel before she announced it. Adrina was not foolish enough to defy R’shiel in her current mood.
“There’s a vineyard just south of Testra, that we used as a headquarters during the rebellion,” she continued, addressing the captains once more. “My guess is that Tarja sent his troops there. You’ll need to get a message to them. Once I’ve taken care of what I have to do at the Citadel, I’ll join you.”
“And then what, R’shiel?” Damin asked cautiously.
She hesitated for a moment, as if some weighty decision hung in the balance.
“And then I’m going to put a stop to this insanity, Damin. I am going to kick the Kariens out of Medalon and make damned sure they never stick their noses over our border again.”
“I don’t know how you think you can manage that,” Dorak scoffed.
“It’s quite simple, Captain,” the demon child replied. “I am going to bow to the inevitable and fulfil my destiny. I am going to destroy Xaphista.”
Chapter 67
R’shiel rode far from the Defenders’ camp under a leaden sky, her face flushed and tingling from the cold. She had told nobody the reason for her journey, just that she needed to be alone. She had especially avoided Brak. He may have guessed what she was planning and she did not want to give him the opportunity to object.
The Hythrun mare stretched her legs as the camp dwindled behind them. She had no particular destination in mind and in truth, for a good while she simply enjoyed the ride and the speed of the magnificent sorcerer-bred horse. It was the first time in a very long while she had done anything for the sheer joy of it, and she was reluctant to end it too soon.
Eventually, she came to a small rise on the undulating plain and looked back to discover the Defenders’ camp was completely obscured by the fold of the land. She dismounted and stroked the lathered mare’s neck, urging her to seek out what feed she could on the sparse winter plain. With a nicker of understanding the mare wandered off. When R’shiel was certain the horse was a safe distance from the knoll, she turned and looked up at the sky.
“Zegarnald!”
She received no answer other than the soughing wind rustling through the dried grass like a satin skirt brushing against a taffeta petticoat.
“Zegarnald!”
“Demon child.”
She spun to find the War God standing on the knoll behind her. He was dressed in golden armour that glittered in the dull afternoon light. He was enormous. The battles that were tearing this world apart had made him as strong as he had ever been.
“You defied Xaphista, I see.”
“No thanks to you.”
“Brakandaran seems to have taught you disrespect, along with survival.”
“Brak didn’t teach me survival, and I don’t need any lessons in being disrespectful from anyone,” she retorted.
“Then why did you call me, demon child?”
“My name is R’shiel.”
“You are the demon child.”
“I am R’shiel!” she insisted. “The demon child is a creature you invented. It’s not who I am!”
“Then you refuse your destiny?” The god sounded puzzled. Such fine distinctions were beyond his ability to comprehend.
“I’m not refusing it, Zegarnald. I’m accepting it. I will do as you ask. I will restore the balance and destroy the gods who have skewed things by becoming too strong.”
“Gods? Surely you mean only one god?”
R’shiel smiled ingenuously. “You surely don’t think I can just remove Xaphista without affecting any other gods, do you?”
Zegarnald pondered the problem for a moment and then nodded slowly. “Yes, I see. I had not considered
