thought that the mastermind was Kelas ir'Darren.'
'I know the Galanatyr name,' Mauren said. 'She was head of the Royal Eyes during the war, right?'
Aunn nodded.
'But I don't know ir'Darren.'
'He was my superior in the Royal Eyes. He brought together Jorlanna, Arcanist Wheldren of the Arcane Congress, former Colonel Janna Tolden, and a few financial backers to overthrow the queen.'
'You said you feared it was more than just a plot against the queen. What more did you mean?'
'I'm not sure yet.' He turned to Gaven. 'Listen. You know how the Prophecy confuses me. But I realized something this morning.'
'Is this the time to talk about it?' Gaven said, glancing sidelong at Ossa and the Sentinel Marshal.
'We don't have much time left, Gaven. Listen. Nara's been masterminding this whole affair, from breaking you out of Dreadhold'-he saw Ossa stiffen-'to the Dragon Forge. When I talked to her she was excited about the 'storm and dragon reunited' line. But that's crazy. That means that she knew you were the Storm Dragon, even when Haldren thought it was Vaskar. She knew you would face the Soul Reaver but you wouldn't become a god, because you had to be around for the Time of the Dragon Below. Each time you've thought you were taking control of your own destiny, you were doing what she expected you to do. You were fulfilling the Prophecy in the way she planned for it to be fulfilled.'
Gaven scowled. Aunn could understand why he might not want to think along these lines, but he had to convince him.
'So she's planning to overthrow the queen, but now Kelas is dead and her plan is in a shambles. Or is it? Maybe she's counting on someone else carrying it out-she already has another changeling lined up to stab the queen, and Janna Tolden is snooping around Kelas's office in the old cathedral. But maybe she's planning for them to fail as well, because she knows that we're aware of her plot. Maybe the Prophecy says she's going to fail-but that means it's not a failure! It's what she wants to happen, because it's not her true goal.'
'So what is her real goal?' Mauren said.
'I have no idea!' Aunn put his hands on Gaven's shoulders. 'You're the only other person who could possibly know. There has to be something in the Prophecy that's her real goal, something that's supposed to happen in the Time of the Dragon Below. Or maybe something that's supposed to happen years from now.'
Gaven frowned. His eyes were focused somewhere behind Aunn's head, and his lips moved without forming words. For a moment Aunn was afraid that Gaven was sinking back into the catatonic state he'd entered at the Dragon Forge.
Then Gaven gave voice to the words on his lips. 'His are the words the Blasphemer unspeaks, his the song the Blasphemer unsings.'
'What is he saying?' Ossa demanded.
Gaven whirled on her. 'You, Kundarak, have been chasing me for months, since I first set foot outside of your family's impenetrable prison. And all this time, here is what you have failed to understand: My destiny does not lie in Dreadhold.'
'Any common thief might make that claim.'
'That's what Bordan said. But I am not a common thief. My fate is woven into the verses of the Prophecy.'
'And what is that fate?' Mauren asked.
'I must face the Blasphemer.'
Mauren cocked a quizzical eyebrow at Aunn, since Gaven's gaze was still fixed on the dwarf.
'The leader of the barbarian horde,' Aunn explained.
'And what?' Ossa said. 'You're the one who kills him? You save Aundair from the rampaging barbarian menace? Is that what the Prophecy says?'
'No.' Gaven's voice was quiet, distant. 'The maelstrom swirls around me. I am the storm and the eye of the storm.' Thunder rumbled again, but it too seemed far off.
'What does that mean?'
'In the city by the lake of kings, the city scourged with his storm…' Gaven's voice trailed off.
'I don't understand,' Mauren said. 'You say your fate is to face the Blasphemer, that it's part of the Prophecy that ir'Galanatyr has been trying to fulfill. But you're not saying that you're going to defeat the Blasphemer-in fact, as far as I can make out you might be saying the opposite. So you're saying we should let you go so that you can go get yourself killed by the Blasphemer, which might be exactly what Nara wants to happen.'
Aunn frowned. Mauren was right-Gaven's words didn't exactly fill him with confidence about a potential confrontation between the Storm Dragon and the Blasphemer. 'What happens in the city, Gaven? Is that Varna?'
'Who is Nara?' Gaven whispered, his eyes wide.
'Gaven!' Mauren grabbed Gaven's shoulders and shouted into his face. Thunder rumbled and Aunn winced, but the explosion of wrath he feared didn't come. 'We need you to talk to us, explain what's going on!'
'It is simple,' Gaven said. 'In the Time of the Dragon Above, the Storm Dragon arose after twice thirteen years, he walked the paths of the First of Sixteen in the Sky Caves of Thieren Kor, and he faced the Soul Reaver and blocked the bridge to the sky. In the Time Between, the pivotal moment of history, the touch of Siberys's hand passed from my flesh to Eberron's blood at the Dragon Forge. Now the Time of the Dragon Below is upon us, and both history and prophecy flow toward the city by the lake of kings, the city scourged with my storm, where storm and dragon will be reunited, where the Words of Creation will be sung and unsung, where the Blasphemer will meet his end. I will be there-you will not stop me. You might as well try to stop the world from spinning.'
'Simple?' Mauren said. She looked utterly bewildered.
Ossa crossed her arms and glared up at Gaven. 'Four of us came before the Lord Warden when you escaped, you know. Four representatives of four dragonmarked lines. Sentinel Marshal Evlan d'Deneith. Bordan d'Velderan of House Tharashk. Phaine d'Thuranni. And me. You killed the other three. Now I'm the only one left. I'm the-'
Gaven interrupted her. 'Killed Bordan?' he said. 'I didn't kill Bordan.'
'Then who did?' Ossa demanded. 'He chased you when you fled Stormhome. I followed with my team, but he outdistanced us. By the time we caught up to him, his lifeblood was soaking into the sand.'
'I never saw him again after I left the city,' Gaven said. 'I wouldn't have wished him dead.'
'The Sentinel Marshals you killed, though? And now Phaine?'
Gaven turned away.
'Anyway,' Ossa said, 'the point is that I am now the only one who can restore my family's pride and honor as the keepers of Dreadhold. And I can do that only by returning you there, because even Haldren ir'Brassek is dead now, I'm told. I can't tell you how much it would please me to lead you back to Dreadhold in chains, slung across the back of a manticore and wracked with its poison.'
'You can't take me.' The threat was gone from Gaven's voice, and no thunder underlined his words-it was a simple statement of fact.
Ossa dropped her hands to her sides and her shoulders slumped. 'No, I can't. But maybe I have to live with that. Perhaps there is more at stake than the honor of my family. If what you say is true, this is about more than bringing a fugitive to justice.' Her hand rubbed absently at a spot beneath her left collarbone-Aunn guessed that was the location of her dragon-mark. She looked as though she were torn between her duty to her House, symbolized by her Mark of Warding, and the thoughts she was straining to put into words.
Aunn glanced at the Sentinel Marshal, who looked similarly uncomfortable. Both of them seemed to be contemplating what could be seen as a serious dereliction of their duty, in service to a higher purpose. Aunn could understand why they found it so difficult.
'Your duty is to capture Gaven,' Aunn said. 'But your duty isn't always the right thing to do.' He thought of Sevren Thorn and Zandar Thuul, screaming out their last breaths in the Demon Wastes, because Aunn had done his duty. He thought of Vor Helden, cut down by the giant's blade in the Labyrinth, because Aunn had done his duty.
Kalok Shash-the Silver Flame-burns brighter.
'You could not understand, changeling,' Ossa said. 'Even Gaven might not understand, because his mark was the touch of Siberys. For those of us who bear the more common dragonmarks, the mark is our destiny, not just our duty. It is how we fit into the symphony of the world, the part we play. I carry the Mark of Warding.' She
