She pulled her hand away. 'Then he took her with him, Prince Tichane. Yes, and now she's at the Adamantine Palace. She'll be sitting on my throne. My palace. My soldiers. My throne. My everything. They'll be fucking in my bed, if Jehal can still fuck at all.' She cracked a grim smile. At least that was one little thing she could savour, when she wasn't grinding her teeth.
'No,' whispered Prince Tichane. 'She went with his uncle. We will trap them both in the Pinnacles.' He was so close that she could feel his breath on her hair. There was no doubting what he wanted.
She stepped away, hiding a shiver of revulsion. 'I want him dead. I want her in chains at my feet. Let them quiver in their beds at night!'
'She will not escape. When my father has finished smashing King Narghon's eyries into little pieces, the south will be ours. And when he knows you didn't die at Evenspire, the Night Watchman will fall over himself to put the Viper in chains. It will all be ours in a stroke.' He moved beside her again and slipped a hand around her waist and across her belly, spreading his fingers wide, pressing himself against her. This time she leaned into him and purred. He was no Jehal, but he was every bit as easy to use. And Valmeyan did have a lot of dragons.
'I want that mongrel who's sitting on my throne in the Pinnacles dead. I want the rest of them hanging in cages where I can watch them die for days. I want a blood-mage so I can keep them alive for ever and wake up every morning to listen to their pain as I break my fast. Promise me.'
'I promise. You'll have your palace back and I will make you an empress. There will be no one to stop us.'
She smiled. 'No one.' Oh, Lystra, Lystra, if there's a cage for anyone… She put her hand over his and sighed.
Epilogue
Rider Semian clenched his fists. 'This isn't how it was supposed to be!' he screamed. 'I was supposed to serve the Great Flame! I have a destiny! Damn you all!'
He was standing on the top of one the taller peaks of the Worldspine. It would have been easy to circle even higher on Vengeance's back, but he needed the stillness, the quiet, the calm of being alone. He'd landed the dragon as close as he could and then he'd climbed, damaged leg and all, through the snow and the ice, still wrapped in his dragon-scale armour and his riding furs. He'd almost had to claw his way up at the end. But he had prevailed. He stood on top of the world, in the still quiet air, in a cold so bitter that it seemed to freeze his words to his lips. There wasn't even a breath of wind. Despite conquering them, the mountains and the Worldspine scorned him with their silence. Prince Jehal had broken him. His Red Riders were destroyed. And that was how it was going to end, in a battle too small to even have a name? 'I have a destiny!' he screamed again. Unless the Great Flame had chosen a new champion. Unless he was discarded, old and used up and no good for anything any more. Had he done what he was sent to do? Had the Red Riders served their purpose?
No. That couldn't be. He'd drunk the dragon-venom. He was chosen.
Standing alone so high gave him clarity. There was no need to be angry. Perhaps the Red Riders had served their purpose. Perhaps he alone was meant for other things. He didn't know what his new destiny would be, but did that matter so much? War was coming. Men and dragons, eyries and castles and cities and palaces, all of them would burn. A whole generation of men would die. The Great Flame would be served well.
Yes.
Semian started. The word had come into his head, but it wasn't his. He fell to his knees and almost wept for joy. That was why he'd climbed all the way up here. To hear the voice of the Great Flame itself.
I remember you.
'Yes. Yes, remember me. And in return, I will serve you.' He looked about in case the red priest had come to him, but there was nothing but stillness and empty space and mountains.
No. Not you.
The cold suddenly seemed to crash in through the cracks in his armour. 'What have I done?' He took a deep breath. No, no, there was no need to be afraid. No need at all. That was a mistake. 'I have a destiny…'
Do you?
Semian stood up again. He could hear something coming on the wind. And the voice, the voice in his head. The Great Flame, coming for him. To make him whole.
He turned around as a great white shape soared up the side of the mountain to meet him. Huge, wings outstretched, filling his sight, with the sun casting a halo of fire around her. He couldn't speak, but over and over he heard the words of the priest. Out of the sun there shall come a white dragon.
The dragon soared closer and reached out its neck towards him. And the dragon shall be Vengeance. And as its jaws opened wide to carry him to his destiny, he thought he heard it speak in another voice, quite different and quite distinct.
Tittle one, I am hungry.
