knitting needle this time.”
“Thank you for bringing this handsome young man here, Ilea,” Tamara said to Lady Sardontine. “I would be grateful if you could leave us for a while.”
“It was a pleasure, my dear,” said Lady Sardontine. “One I hope to have the chance to repeat soon.”
“So here we are again,” said Rik. The voices jabbered in his head. They were afraid of the sword, afraid that if he died they would lose their last toehold in life. He could not blame them for that.
“I would say the situations are reversed since last we talked,” she said.
“You surely don’t intend to kill me here,” he said. “Not with all these high ranking Terrarchs around. Or is the Kharadrean Liberation Army about to claim another victim.”
“One of the things I like about you, Rik, is your sense of humour.”
“That is reassuring.”
“There are times you remind me of my father.”
“Believe me, that is a path you don’t want this conversation to go down.”
“I hear you had a meeting with him and his interesting friends in Harven.”
“News does travel fast.”
“I believe you rather impressed him. He did not expect you to survive your last meeting. My father is usually right about such things.”
The chorus in his head swelled in anger. He tried to force them down, to make himself concentrate. How did Tamara know about what had happened in Harven? The voices refused to be silenced. They wanted Malkior dead. In truth, he wanted Malkior dead. It did not seem particularly diplomatic to point this out. “He very nearly was.”
“And yet here you still are, just like after the Serpent Tower. You have a talent for survival it seems.”
He looked at the sword in her hand. “Is it poisoned?” he asked. He felt sure that with the spells Asea had taught him he might be able to survive that but he was not sure he could survive the thrust of an ordinary blade, not with Tamara wielding it. He was going to do his best though. There was still a huge well of power within him from his encounter with the Quan and he still carried his concealed dagger and pistol loaded with a truesilver bullet. That would give him a chance, even against her.
“No,” she said. “But it is woven round with some particularly nasty spells. I would advise you to keep your distance.”
She seemed as wary of him, as he was of her. At least he had that small edge. “Why am I here?” he asked.
“I wanted to know if you had considered the offer I made you the last time we talked.”
He could not help but laugh. “I think your father’s behaviour puts that out of the question.”
“The offer does not come from my father. It comes from me.”
“I thought your interests were the same.”
“I once thought so too, but father had become rather erratic of late. I think the magic he uses to preserve himself has some strange side-effects that have finally caught up with him.”
I am in a position to testify to that, thought Rik. The voices whispered agreement. Tamara seemed completely serious. Of course, she would do. “I think Malkior would object to the way this conversation is going. And I think he wants me dead anyway.”
“Jaderac and I will soon be in a position to protect you from him.”
“I doubt that.”
“In the not too distant future Jaderac will be high in the favour of the Queen-Empress. Not even my father will go against her.”
“He had already killed one Queen Empress. I don’t see why he would stop at just the one. I don’t think he is entirely sane.” Rik did not think that he was entirely sane anymore himself, and if one exposure to thanatomancy could do this to him, what would it do to someone who had practised it over centuries, if not millennia. He noticed that Tamara did not seem particularly surprised by the news about the Old Queen’s assassination.
“I agree with you. That is why I am making this offer. You have survived an encounter with him when he wanted you dead. You are perhaps the only person in history to do that. You could be just as useful to us, as we could be to you.”
Rik inspected the proposition from all the angles he could see. Had Tamara really turned against her father and sided with his rival Jaderac? And what was the sorcerer up to that would soon return him to the favour of the Dark Empress? Rik was willing to bet it was nothing good or healthy to the cause of Talorea.
“The world is changing, Rik. The First are dying or going mad. The reins of power in the Terrarch lands will soon shift to younger hands. You could have your share of that power.”
“Or I could get a knife in the back as soon as I have done what you want.”
“Why would we do that? You are a useful Terrarch, Rik. More useful and more powerful than you seem to realise. Why do you think that Asea has cultivated you so assiduously?”
“For my startling good looks and rough charm obviously.”
“That might be part of it, but that’s not the way Asea thinks. You of all people should know that.”
“I am not going to kill her for you.”
“You are certain of that?”
“Yes. And if you don’t stop pointing that sword at me, I am going to take it away from you and beat you with it.”
“You really think you could?” Rik listened to the voices whisper within him. They wanted to kill. They wanted to feed. The slimy presence of the Quan Exarch moved to the forefront of his mind. By the way her eyes widened, he could see that Tamara could tell the difference in him.
“You have changed,” she said eventually. “I think you may be possessed.”
“Ask your father,” Rik said, deciding to add his own section to the vast labyrinth of lies and deceit in which they were all enmeshed. Why not? Everybody else was doing it. “He knows what happened.”
“So you have decided to side with him? He made you a better offer than we could.”
“Ask yourself this, Tamara — would you still be alive if that were the case? Given what you have just said to me.”
“Perhaps you simply want time to report me to him.”
“No, Tamara, when next I meet Malkior one of us is going to die, and if I have anything to do with it, it will be him. And you would be wise to stay out of my way while I am doing it.”
“You cannot kill him. No matter how strong you have become, he is still stronger.”
“We’ll see.” A look of sudden dread and realisation flickered across Tamara’s face.
“I know what has happened to you. You are just like he is, after he has fed.”
Rik smiled at her coldly. She did not know how useful this information was to him. Now all he had to do was get out of the Sardontine mansion with it.
“Why would he share that secret with you, of all people? Or did you find it out yourself, or from Asea? I am starting to wonder if you are really what you seem to be at all. Perhaps you are one of the new ones, from through the Gate.”
Rik had to fight to keep his features under control. Tamara could only mean one sort of Gate, and if people were coming through it, they were most likely only coming from one place. The Princes of Shadow really might have gained a foothold in this world. This was something that he needed to report to Asea. Tamara looked at him suspiciously as if her own words had just put a number of things into place for her. He did not want to disabuse her of any notions she might be forming. He wanted to get out of here with his skin intact if he could, and avoiding a battle with her seemed like the best way of doing that, despite his earlier bravado.
“I can’t persuade you to join us?” she said.
“I will make you a deal,” said Rik eventually.
“And what would that be?”
“I won’t try and kill you, if you won’t try and kill me. This is between you and me, and includes no one else. Not Jaderac. Not your father. Not Asea. Let us keep our options open. The situation is fluid and all our positions might be subject to change. You may need someone on my side soon, or I might need someone on yours. There is no need for violence between us. Not now, anyway.”
