incompetent drummers. They were my only bodyguards. Even Ram was absent. The drummers cleared a space against a wall.
I told the prince, “That’s the way I wanted it.” I hoped I looked sufficiently impressive in costume. Atop my great black stallion I loomed over the Prahbrindrah, whose chestnut was no dwarf. The priests noticed him and started whispering. Eight hundred men whispering make as much noise as a swarm of locusts.
I positioned us with the wall behind and the drummers in front.
Would it work?
It had, wonderfully, for my husband, so long ago.
“Soul lords of Taglios.” Silence fell. I had that spell right. My voice carried well. “Thank you for coming. Taglios faces a severe test. The Shadowmasters are a threat that cannot be exaggerated. The tales out of the Shadowlands are ghosts of the truth. This city and nation has one hope: turn a single face toward the enemy. In faction lies defeat.” They listened. I was pleased.
“In faction, defeat. Some of you feel I’m not the champion for Taglios’ cause. More of you have been seduced by lust for power. By factionalism. Rather than let that worsen and distract Taglios from its grand mission I’ve decided to eliminate the cause of factionalism. Taglios will present one face after tonight.”
I donned my helmet while they were waiting for me to announce my abdication. I set the witchfires free.
They began to suspect then. Someone shouted, “Kina!”
I drew my sword.
The arrows began to fall.
While I was talking Narayan’s picked men had placed barricades in the narrow streets entering the square. When I drew my sword, soldiers inside the surrounding houses let fly. Priests screamed. They tried to flee. They found the barricades too high. They tried to turn on me. My talent was enough to hold them off, beyond my terrified drummers. The arrows continued to fall.
They surged this way and that. They fell. They begged for mercy.
The arrowfall continued till I lowered my sword.
I dismounted. The Prahbrindrah Drah looked down, face bloodless. He tried to say something, could not speak. “I warned you.”
Narayan and his friends joined me. I asked, “Did you send for the wagons?” It would take dozens to haul the bodies to an unhallowed mass grave.
He nodded, no more able to speak than the prince. I told him, “This is nothing, Narayan. I’ve done lots worse. I’ll do worse again. Check them out. See if anybody important is missing.” I walked across the killing ground to tell the bowmen they could release the people who lived in the houses.
The Prahbrindrah never moved. He just sat there and stared, painfully aware that his presence made it seem he approved.
Ram found me there. “Mistress,” he gasped. He had run all the way from the barracks.
“What are you doing here?”
“There is a messenger from Ghoja. From Blade. He rode night and day. Come immediately.” He was not affected by the mass of bodies. He might have been watching the neighborhood women at the well instead of Narayan’s cronies finishing the wounded.
I went. I spoke with the messenger. For a minute I was furious with Blade. Then I saw the silver lining.
Blade’s actions gave me an excuse to move the troops out before they got wind of what had happened here tonight.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The Prahbrindrah Drah sat there an hour, staring at his bedchamber wall. He would not respond to his sister’s questions. She was shaken. What had happened?
He looked at her at last.
“Did she go through with it? Did you hope she wouldn’t? I told you not to go.”
“She didn’t resign. No. She didn’t.” He laughed squeakily. “Not by a long shot.” His tone was spooky.
“What happened?”
“She resolved our problems with the priests. Not permanently, but it’ll be a long time before...” His voice trailed off. “I’m as guilty as she is.”
“What happened, dammit! Tell me!”
“She killed them. Every last one of them. She lured them there by making them think they were going to humiliate her. She had archers cut them down. A thousand priests. And I was there. I watched her walk among them afterward, cutting the throats of the wounded.”
For a moment the Radisha thought it was some grisly joke. That was impossible.
He said, “She made her point. Did she ever make her point. Smoke was right.”
The Radisha began pacing, lending only half an ear to his self-flagellation. It was grotesque. It was an atrocity surpassing comprehension. Things like that did not happen in Taglios. They couldn’t.
But what an opportunity! The religious hierarchies would be in disarray for years. Atrocity or not, this was a chance to achieve all they had worked for. It could mean the return of the primacy of the state.
He heard a sound. She whirled, startled, gawked.
The woman was there, having penetrated the palace who knew how. She still wore her bizarre armor, covered with blood. “He’s told you.”
“Yes.”
“The Shadowmasters attacked Dejagore. They were repelled with heavy losses. Blade is moving south to relieve the city before they gather reinforcements. I’m going to join him. I have no one to leave here to continue my work. You two will have to handle it. Send the construction crews back to the fortress. Continue enrolling volunteers. There’s a slim chance we may get past the worst in the coming few weeks, leaving no one but Longshadow to deal with. But it’s more likely we’ll face a prolonged struggle that will require every man and resource available.”
The Radisha could not speak. The woman had the blood of a thousand priests on her hands. How could you argue with someone like that?
“I’ve handed you an opportunity you always wanted. Grab it.”
The Radisha willed herself to speak. Still nothing came out. Never had she been so terrified.
The woman said, “I have no ambitions here. You have no need to fear me-so long as you don’t interfere with me. I will destroy the Shadowmasters. I will fulfill the Company’s undertaking. And I will collect its reward.”
The Radisha nodded as though a hand had grabbed her hair and forced her to move her head.
The woman said, “I’ll come back after I’ve seen what’s happening at Dejagore.” She moved to the Prahbrindrah, rested a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t take it on yourself. They wrote their own destinies. You’re a prince. A prince must be stern. Be stern now. Don’t let chaos claim Taglios. I’ll leave you a small garrison. Their reputation should be enough to enforce your will.”
She strode out.
The Radisha and her brother stared at one another. “What have we done?” he asked.
“Too late to cry about it. Let’s do what we can with it.”
“Where’s Smoke?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him for days.”
“Was he right? Is she really the Daughter of Night?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know. But we’re on the tiger’s back now. We can’t let go.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
