‘Why did you kill it?’ she asked.
‘Perhaps it was coming to kill you, dear sister. Did you never consider that?’
Vorizh’s moods were rarely predictable, but after centuries they followed well-trodden paths. ‘Did you send it to kill me?’ she asked in weary irritation.
‘That would be madness,’ Vorizh countered, a sly smile on his face. ‘It barely merited the name of daemon; it was little more than a scavenger on the shore of this Land. It could never pose a threat to one such as you.’
‘That’s no answer.’
‘Yet answer enough,’ he spat. ‘What do you care for them anyway? They are not mortal; you do not feel their deaths in your gut — leave the loss of immortals to your betters, to those of us elevated to a higher station.’
‘A higher station now, is it?’ Zhia asked. ‘Does that make your damnation less than mine, or greater?’
‘Greater in all ways!’ he cried. ‘You cannot begin to understand my suffering; you cannot hear the death-song of this Land and its Gods.’
‘That was a tune we both played once. Are you not bored of it?’
‘Me?’ Vorizh exclaimed. ‘You ask that of me? Your hands drip with the blood of mortals as yet unshed — I know your part in this, the games you continue to play!’
‘Ah, outrage and condemnation, the tyrant’s call down through the ages. What future for Vanach, dear brother? You think our deeds comparable?’
Vorizh stopped, his face changing to a picture of calm with such speed Zhia felt her skin crawl. ‘Comparable — yes, sweet sister, and complementary too. You play your games with mortals and I with immortals; that is the difference between us.’
‘I’m immortal.’
‘And you too are caught in my web. The roots run deep, dear sister, most especially within the blood we share. You obey your blood, the instinct within.’
Zhia bit back her response. Fantasy and reality blurred into one with her brother, she knew that, but she was certain he did not guide her actions. He could not even know of some of her deeds. She had learned millennia back that to believe all he said was to forget his madness and the tint it cast on all things.
‘What of King Emin, Isak — do they obey your machinations?’
‘The mortals I leave to you,’ Vorizh scoffed, ‘and in their failures I see your weakness.’
‘Failures?’
‘This land you pass though, these villages and towns that worship your enemy. Your king fears to encourage the tales being spread about him, and so he spares his enemy’s worshippers: the very power-base of a God left untouched.’
‘He has his reasons,’ Zhia said firmly, ‘and I do not control him. The Walls of Intercession are torn down, but only a monster slaughters tens of thousands just to undermine a weaker enemy. The Legion of the Damned has slaughtered enough to expunge their comrades’ thirst for it.’
‘An irrelevance; those battles determine nothing. They are not the true test of power.’
‘Is there a point to all this?’ Zhia demanded, her patience running out.
He gave a sly smile. ‘The more a fly struggles, the more it’s lost to the web.’
‘A lesson for me? Oh thank you.’
Vorizh suddenly peered suspiciously at her, staring so closely he almost seemed to be hunting for her soul through the windows of her eyes. ‘Have you made your move?’
‘Move?’
‘Don’t pretend you’re content to simply allow this to play out. They are less than cattle compared to us. What power do you wield over events?’
‘Why would I tell you?
‘Our goals are the same; together, none of them can oppose us.’
Zhia shook her head and started to walk away, but Vorizh darted around her with unnatural speed and grabbed her arm. ‘Tell me, sister! Events move apace — are your games with the mortals complete? You claim not to control this king, and that’s a risk we cannot afford.’
‘Our goals may be the same,’ Zhia said slowly, her eyes fixed on the hand gripping her, ‘but that does not mean you can give me orders or lay your hands on me.’ Vorizh’s fingers were as pale and slender as any woman’s, and even after all these years he still wore a signet ring. Once it had been made of gold, but now it was some greyish-black metal she couldn’t identify. The pressure on her arm increased a touch, then Vorizh stepped back, satisfied he’d asserted his dominance.
‘You will know the plans I’ve laid as they play out,’ Zhia said, ‘but not before. As for you, the damage you’ve done to the Land is severe enough. If you wish to be involved, take your orders from Isak or King Emin. This is the time for mortals, their decisions and deeds.’
She started towards the Narkang camp, but paused after a few steps. ‘And brother dearest, next time you lay your hands on me, you’ll die. Do you understand?’
Vorizh’s sapphire eyes gleamed at that, but he said nothing. Zhia turned her back on him and walked away, leaving her brother to the shadows.
‘Shouldn’t we tell him?’
King Emin looked up, momentary surprise on his face. The tent was dark, and smelled of mud and cold soup.
Vesna looked between the faces of his companions: Emin, weary-eyed and thin, showing his fifth decade at last. Isak, all expression lost to the scars and abuses of the Dark Place. Legana, all the more breathtakingly beautiful in the gloom of a single lamp, her green eyes shining with inner fire, as predatory and terrible as a Goddess’s should, while the sinister handprint on her throat was pitch-black against her pale skin.
And what about me? Vesna asked himself. Do I look the part of a God? To soldiers who’re desperate for a warrior, perhaps, but to the rest? Hah! Only the Gods alone know. I don’t carry it like Legana, marked by injury though she is. Maybe it was then she found her wisdom; I still have to find mine. He touched the ruby on his cheek, the sign of Karkarn’s covenant with his Mortal-Aspect. No, the Lady chose well — I guess she had better folk to choose from. We soldiers, we turn on ourselves too easily, but we’re all Karkarn has.
‘Tell him?’ Emin asked at last. ‘Why?’
‘You don’t think he has the right to know?’
‘When do rights come into it?’ Isak asked.
‘He’s my friend,’ Vesna insisted. ‘He has been for a long time now. How am I meant to hide that from someone, knowing it’s a secret that’s likely to kill him?’
‘ What if we do tell him? ’ Legana said into their minds. ‘ A general cannot be loyal just to his friends. ’
Vesna stared down at his hands, the one covered in black-iron twice the size of his normal one. ‘I don’t know what’d happen,’ he admitted.
‘So can we risk it?’ Emin said, his tone making clear his opinion.
Vesna shook his head. ‘It feels like a betrayal.’
‘There’ll be enough of those to go round,’ Isak said.
Vesna glanced at the white-eye, unable to tell if that was a callous joke or not, but Isak’s face gave nothing away. He lowered his gaze again. ‘More than enough,’ he muttered. ‘Too much for all of us to bear. You really want to add to it?’
CHAPTER 30
Doranei looked up at the thick clouds and scowled, unable to gauge the position of the sun behind that uniform covering. Past midday, but beyond that it was a difficult call. The army snaked along what passed for a road in these parts: traders’ routes to the Circle City had seen little traffic of late, so tolls had been poor and repairs non-existent.
‘Copper for your thoughts,’ Veil said from beside him, nudging Doranei’s elbow as he spoke.
‘Just a copper?’
Veil smiled. ‘Never heard one of yours worth more’n that.’
