Harshini

“What do you care?” she asked, pushing past him into the apartment that Garet had allocated him. “You're Harshini. You don't need to sleep.”

He closed the door and turned to look at her with a frown. “We don't need as much sleep as humans, R'shiel. That doesn't mean we don't need to sleep at all. A point you would do well to remember. When was the last time you slept?”

“I can't remember.”

“Well, I can. It was four days ago. I'm seven hundred years old. I need my rest.”

She smiled at him. He was fully dressed and alert and every candle in the room was alight. The fire was crackling cheerfully and an open book lay on the table beside the large chair near the hearth. He had not been sleeping.

“Well, demon child, what is so damned important that it can't wait until morning?”

“I have to destroy Xaphista.”

“Really?” he asked with wide-eyed astonishment. “And it's taken you exactly how long to come to this startling conclusion?”

“Don't make fun of me, Brak. You know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do, but I can't understand why it's so important at this hour of the night.”

“I think I've figured out a way to do it.”

“How?” he asked, with no trace of mockery.

“I was just talking to Kalianah. She said I had to tackle the core of his power, not nibble at the edges like a terrier trying to chew up a mountain.”

Brak smiled. “That sounds like Kali. What else were you two discussing?”

“We had words,” R'shiel admitted, “about what she did to Tarja.”

“That must have been interesting.”

“She said you knew about it,” she accused.

He nodded and moved away from the door. R'shiel followed him with her eyes, but he was impossible to read when he didn't want her to know what he was feeling.

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“It wouldn't have made a difference.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I've seen it before. A geas is no small thing R'shiel. Tarja was smitten and there was nothing to be done about it.”

“What about me?”

“You were never under Kalianah's geas. Not even the Goddess of Love would have risked such a thing for the demon child.”

“But I loved him,” she said, afraid her voice had allowed some hint of the pain she was trying so hard to deny.

“You didn't need Kalianah for that R'shiel. You grew up worshipping the ground Tarja walked on.”

“If she hadn't interfered, would he... ?”

“Would he have truly loved you in return?” Brak finished for her with a shrug. “I don't know.”

“He despises me now.”

“No, he doesn't. He just doesn't know how to cope with what's happened. The fact that he doesn't actually believe in the gods who did this to him won't make it any easier on him, either.” He poured two cups of wine and crossed the room, holding one of them out to her. “He'll get over it eventually. Drink up. Lost love always looks better through the bottom of a glass.”

“I don't want a drink.”

“Well I do, and it's bad form to drink alone. Humour me.”

She took the cup and sipped the wine sullenly, letting its warmth spread through her. Despite Brak's assurances, it made absolutely no difference to how she felt. Brak resumed his seat by the fire and took a long swig from his glass.

“So, are you going to tell me what this brilliant idea is, or do we have to keep rehashing the story about poor old Tarja for a few more hours?”

“Why do you take such delight in ridiculing my pain?”

“Because you're a lot tougher than you realise, demon child. I know you're hurting, but deep down you knew this would happen. As soon as Xaphista told you about the geas, you knew that Tarja didn't love you willingly. For all your human failings, you have an innate sense of what is right. It's part of being Harshini. You might lament losing him, but you know, in your heart, that it's better this way. The sooner you admit it openly, then the sooner you'll get over it.”

“Better?” she asked bitterly. “How could it be better?”

“Tarja was the chink in your armour, R'shiel. Xaphista would have exploited that weakness to its fullest. Don't you remember what you told me about Xaphista when he tried to seduce you into joining him? He used Tarja then, and you almost gave in.”

R'shiel had no wish to be reminded of that dreadful journey through Medalon, but she could not deny the truth of what Brak told her. She sank into the chair on the other side of the fire and stared at the flames, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing that she knew he was right. She need not have bothered. Brak knew her too well.

“A moment ago you were bursting to tell me how you could bring Xaphista down. Do we really have time for you to sulk?”

She hurled the goblet at him. He ducked it easily and the glass shattered harmlessly against the far wall.

He smiled. “Feel better now?”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don't. You just hate the fact that I'm right.”

“It's the same thing.”

Brak sighed, as if his patience was wearing thin. “Ask me what you came to ask, R'shiel. I really do intend to get some sleep in what's left of this night.”

“I have to attack the core of Xaphista's power,” she told him with considerably less enthusiasm than she had had when she burst into his room earlier.

“So you said before.”

“We have to go after his priests.”

Brak frowned. “You won't turn a single Karien priest, R'shiel. Even if you managed to win their minds to your cause, Xaphista owns their souls. Each priest is linked to the Overlord through his staff.”

“Then that is their weakness. If I can use that link, I can reach every priest in Karien and cripple Xaphista overnight.”

“In theory, yes, but how are you going to do it?”

“Kalan had an idea that set me thinking. I have to get a close look at a staff, though. I want to see how it works.”

“I'll tell you how it works, R'shiel. Very, very well. Don't you recall what happened the last time you had a close encounter with a Staff of Xaphista?”

“I'm never likely to forget. But you told me the staff destroys magic. Well, if it can do that, then the staff has to use magic, too. And if it can use magic, maybe I can do something to change its purpose.”

Brak sighed and climbed to his feet. “Come on then.”

“Where are we going?”

“You want to take a look at a Staff of Xaphista? Garet Warner has more than a hundred of them piled up in a cavern under the amphitheatre.”

She jumped to her feet in astonishment. “You think it'll work?”

“No. I think it's the most misguided excuse for a plan that you've ever come up with, but I know you won't let it go until you've discovered that for yourself.”

She hugged him impulsively. “I knew you'd help me.”