“So I'm to be sacrificed to save Senet from a civil war?” she concluded bitterly. “If you really loved me, you'd fight a dozen wars for me, Kirsh.”
He tried to take her in his arms, but she pushed him away impatiently.
“Marqel, please try to understand. I am doing this for you. I won't let Dirk denounce you. I won't let him remove you and I won't let him destroy the Shadowdancers. But you saw what happened in Bollow after the eclipse didn't eventuate and those fires didn't burn. That will happen again, all over Senet, if I don't do something to nip it in the bud.”
Marqel realized anger wasn't getting her anywhere, so she decided to try a different tack. “But he's dangerous, Kirsh,” she said, leaning into his arms. “I'm afraid for you more than I'm afraid for myself.”
“I'll be fine, Marqel,” he promised, pulling her close. “And you'll be safe in Omaxin for the time being. Once this is—”
“Omaxin?” she cut in.
“My father wants to go to Omaxin to speak to the Goddess. You'll have nothing to worry about. Nobody will be able to harm you up there. I'll send plenty of troops with you. You'll be well protected.”
She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly filled with crystal tears. “You're sending me away?”
“It's for your own safety, Marqel.”
She pushed him away impatiently. “And did you want me to sleep with your father while I'm there? Is that all I am to you? Someone you can pass around the family? Thank the Goddess Misha's gone, or I suppose you'd have me servicing the Crippled Prince as well.”
Her accusation cut him to the core—which was precisely what she intended.
“I'm trying to keep you safe, Marqel,” he said, begging for her understanding.
“No, you're not,” she accused. “You're trying to save your own precious neck. My fate runs a poor second to that.”
“Then what do you want me to do?” he cried in frustration.
“Kill Dirk Provin.”
He shook his head helplessly. “Don't you think I have as much reason to want him destroyed as you do? But I can't, Marqel. He's got me by the balls.”
“That would account for why you don't seem to have them anymore.”
“Marqel …”
“Don't even bother, Kirsh,” she told him coldly. “If you need Dirk Provin to hold your hand while you try to sort out the mess he created in the first place, you're not the man I thought you were.”
She turned on her heel, heading for the door. Dirk was right. Why settle for the boy when you can have the man? Antonov would never have let himself be manipulated like this.
“I'm divorcing Alenor.”
She stopped and turned to stare at him.
“You're what?”
“I'm divorcing Alenor,” he repeated. “When all this is straightened out, we can be together, Marqel. No more hiding. No more sneaking around. Just like you wanted.”
“Does Alenor know?”
“Not yet. But she won't object.”
“What about your father?”
“My father's dead, Marqel. The man who inhabits the shell of his body is not the Lion of Senet. You'll realize that as soon as you see him.”
Marqel stared at him in wonder. “So you're the Lion of Senet now?”
“In practice, if not in reality.”
A world of possibility suddenly opened up to Marqel. Her eyes filled with compassion, she hurried back to Kirsh and threw her arms around him. “Oh, Kirsh! That's awful!”
“Nobody must know he's mad, Marqel.”
“They'll not learn it from me,” she promised. She searched his face for a moment and then let the light of comprehension dawn in her wide, ingenuous eyes. “That's why you want me to go to Omaxin with him, isn't it? To look after him. To keep his terrible secret. Oh, my love, I'm so sorry. You should have explained. I didn't mean those awful things I said just now. Of course I'll go to Omaxin. And I'll stay with your father for as long as you need me to.”
“You have to cover for him, Marqel. If anybody learned the Lion of Senet was no longer capable of ruling… even if they smell a hint of weakness …”
“It's all right, Kirsh,” she said soothingly. “I understand. I won't let anyone near him. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, he will be simply deep in his devotions to the Goddess.”
He kissed her and then held her close. Marqel bore his embrace patiently, although she was itching to get away from him now. This was an unbelievable opportunity and she wanted time alone to savor its full potential.
“I wish I didn't have to send you away.”
“We'll be together soon,” she promised. “Just be careful while I'm gone. Don't let Dirk get the better of you. And don't trust him.”
“I can handle Dirk,” he assured her.
Don't kid yourself, Kirsh, she replied silently. He'll play you like a balalaika. But you're too dense to realize it.
“I know you can, my love. Just promise me you'll be careful.”
“I promise.”
She sighed heavily. “I suppose you want us to leave as soon as possible.”
“Sergey's getting things organized now.”
“Then I should go and pack,” she said, disentangling herself from his arms.
He let her go reluctantly. Marqel stood on her toes and kissed him lightly and then she fled the morning room, afraid if she stayed any longer Kirsh would see the excitement in her eyes.
he Queen of Dhevyn had spent her entire life living in a palace, so the experience of staying at an inn, even a good one, was something she found rather novel. It was Jacinta's idea, of course. Although there was no question Alenor would be welcomed at the palace in Avacas, Jacinta thought it prudent not to risk placing themselves within the power of the Lion of Senet any more than was absolutely necessary.
It would take just one small carrier pigeon from Bollow to change their status from guests to prisoners, and she didn't intend to let that happen to her queen.
The inn they found was located in the better part of Avacas, a little too close to the palace for comfort, but Jacinta reasoned their anonymity demanded it. The better inns were discreet and solicitous of their guests' privacy. Putting the Queen of Dhevyn up in a dockside tavern, even under an assumed name, would be as good as hiring a town crier to broadcast their presence to the whole city.
Tael and his men had shed their uniforms at her insistence, although she wondered why she had bothered suggesting it. The Guardsmen rode like Guardsmen, they walked like Guardsmen, they even ate like Guardsmen. If they had been standing stark naked in a field full of naked men, she could have picked them out, just by the way they carried themselves.
“You're looking very pensive,” Alenor remarked.
Jacinta was sitting by the window, looking out over the busy Avacas street, lost in thought. They had been at the inn for six days now and the queen was feeling trapped.
“I was thinking about a field full of naked men, actually.”
“Jacinta!”
She turned to her cousin with smile. “One has to do something to pass the time. It beats wearing a hole in the carpet.”
Alenor self-consciously stopped her pacing. “Tael's been gone a long time.”
“He's hardly been gone any time at all, Allie. Stop fretting.”
“Do you think he'll be able to find us a ship?”
“Avacas is the busiest port in the world. I'm sure he'll manage something.”
“I hate this sneaking around. I was never any good at it.”
“We're not ‘sneaking around,’ Alenor,” Jacinta corrected.
“We're keeping a low profile. There is a subtle but distinct difference.”
“Well, I'm glad you can see it. Do you think Alexin got away safely?”
“I'm sure Avacas would be abuzz with the news if he hadn't.”
“Where do you suppose he went?”
Jacinta sighed. “Alenor, if I knew the answer to that, I would have told you. On one of the several thousand
occasions you've asked me the same question in the past few days.”
“I'm sorry. I just can't help but worry about him.”
“Worry if you have to, Allie, but at least think up a new question every now and then.”
“You're mad at me, aren't you?”
“Of course I'm not mad at you,” she exclaimed in surprise. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“You've been really snappy ever since we left Bollow.”
“That's probably because I've never been thrown out of a whole country before.” Jacinta smiled. “I've been thrown out of a university. And a tavern—don't ever tell my mother that— but not a whole country. I'm not sure if it means I'm moving up in the world, or down in it.”
“Why don't you ever take anything seriously?”
“I do so take things seriously.”
“Not the really important things,” Alenor observed. “The more serious a thing is, the more you joke about it.”
“Have I made any tasteless jokes about Alexin?”
“No,” Alenor conceded. “And you haven't said a word about Dirk, either.”
“What's to say?” Jacinta shrugged. “By now I imagine the Lord of the Suns is swinging in the breeze by a very long rope, feeding the ravens through his eye sockets. Unless Kirsh burned him, in which case they might use him for fertilizer.”
“There!” Alenor exclaimed. “That's exactly what I mean. You're joking about it.”
Jacinta looked back over the street, not willing to meet the young queen's alarmingly perceptive gaze. “It doesn't mean anything, Allie.”
“It means you're worried about him. Seriously worried.”
“Aren't you?”
“Of course I am, but then he's my cousin and my friend. I didn't realize he meant so much to you.”
“Don't be absurd!” she snapped. “I spoke to Dirk Provin only a handful of times the whole time I was in Bollow.”
“You like him, though, don't you?”
“It's really rather a moot point what I thought about him,” she shrugged. “He's probably dead by now, swinging in the aforementioned breeze.”
“There! You're doing it again!”
“Oh, do stop this nonsense, Alenor,” she grumbled. “Making snide and rather tasteless remarks about Dirk Provin's execution does not imply that I feel anything for him.”
“I never said you felt anything for him. Is there something you're not telling me?”
Jacinta was rescued from this decidedly bizarre and uncomfortable conversation by Tael's return from the docks. She called permission to enter before he'd even finished knocking on the door.
“Did you find a ship that will take us back to Kalarada?” she asked as soon as the captain stepped into the room.
“Yes and no, my lady,” he replied. “I can get you and the queen a berth and perhaps a third of the men, but we'll have to find another ship to get the rest of the guard and the horses back to Dhevyn.”
“When does this ship sail?”
“Just after first sunrise,” Tael told her. “It's a Dhevynian trader. Not the grandest ship afloat, but I thought speed was more important than comfort.”
“That's all right,” Jacinta assured him. “We don't mind roughing it a bit, do we, your majesty?”
She shook her head, but she wasn't really listening to the question. “Did you hear any other news, Captain?”
“If you mean about Captain Seranov, your majesty, then no, there's not a whisper about him. There's news aplenty about what happened in Bollow, though.”
“I can imagine,” Jacinta agreed. “Is it anything new, or just the same rumors we've been hearing for days?”
“Mostly the same. The word on the streets is that nothing much will happen until Prince Kirshov and the Lord of the Suns return to Avacas tomorrow.”
“Kirsh didn't waste any time finding a replacement for Dirk, did he?” Alenor said bitterly.
Jacinta stared at her in wonder. “But he can't.”
“Can't what?”
“He can't replace the Lord of the Suns. That's Church business and not even the Lion of Senet can interfere in it. If Dirk was executed, that means he didn't die by natural causes and that means he can only be replaced by an election.”
“The fastest election in the history of the Church by the sound of it,” Tael remarked.
“No, you don't understand,” she said. “We're not talking about a show of hands by anybody who happens to be in the room, Captain. We're talking every Sundancer and Shadowdancer in Senet. And Dhevyn. And Damita. Even as far away as Galina, if there are any of them there. It's something that takes months to arrange.”
“What are you saying, Jacinta?” Alenor asked with a puzzled frown. “That Kirsh has defied Church law?”
“That or he's changed his mind about executing the current Lord of the Suns.”
Hope suddenly flared in Alenor's eyes. “Then Dirk is alive?”
“I don't know,” Jacinta shrugged. “I guess we won't know until they get here tomorrow.”
“Oh, Jacinta! That's wonderful news! But what made Kirsh change his mind?”
“We don't know that he has, Allie,” she warned. Jacinta wasn't quite as ready to believe the unbelievable. It was far too dangerous to allow that sort of hope to grow, only to have it dashed again when they learned the truth. “All we have is a rumor we can't substantiate until tomorrow.”
“And your ship sails tonight, your majesty,” Tael reminded her.
“But we can't leave now,” Alenor cried. “Not if Dirk is still alive.”
“Whether he's alive or dead, you must get back to Kalarada, Alenor,” Jacinta advised. “Senet is a tinderbox waiting to explode and we are sitting far too close to the kindling. There is no question of you staying in Avacas.”
“But…”
“The Lady Jacinta speaks the truth, your majesty,” Tael added.
“Then you must stay, Jacinta,” the queen decreed.
“Kirsh ordered me out of Senet, Alenor. He'll not be too pleased to discover I didn't leave.”
“You're not afraid of Kirsh,” she scoffed. “Anyway, two-thirds of the guard will still be here until they can find another ship. You can always claim you sent me on ahead because you couldn't find a berth. And if Dirk is alive, I'm certain he won't let you come to any harm.”
Jacinta shook her head doubtfully. “I don't know, Allie …”
“I'm not asking your advice, my lady,” Alenor told her regally. “I am ordering you, as your queen, to stay here in Avacas and find out if the rumors are true. If they're not, then you can come straight home to Kalarada on the next available ship.”
“And if your cousin lives?”
“Then ask Dirk what he needs of us.”
“Your majesty …” Tael ventured uncertainly.
“Yes, Captain?”
“There may be another explanation. One a little less palatable, but a tad more believable than the notion Prince Kirshov suddenly changed his mind about the High Priestess Belagren being murdered and simply let the Lord of the Suns go.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you considered the possibility that if Dirk Provin lives, it's because he may have bought his freedom?”
“With what?” Alenor demanded.
“With anything he could use as currency, your majesty,” Tael suggested grimly. “Up to and including Dhevyn.”
irk gave Kirsh little time to rethink his decision to release him, even though he thought Kirsh optimistic in the extreme to think he could conceal Antonov's current state of mind for long. Already, rumors circulated in Avacas about his behavior after the ceremony and the fact that he hadn't been seen publicly since then merely lent credence to the rumors.
But Kirsh wasn't interested in the long-term consequences of his attempts to preserve his father's reputation. He simply wanted to hold Senet together until Misha could be returned and then leave his brother to deal with the problem. So Dirk stepped in to relieve the prince of as m
uch of the tedious detail involved in managing the crisis as he was able to, with little complaint from Kirshov.
Dirk found plenty of things to keep Kirsh busy. The riot in Bollow had proved one thing Dirk had always suspected: Kirsh was a cool head in a crisis. But when bogged down in the mundane day-to-day tasks of government, he grew morose, moody and difficult. So Dirk set Kirsh to tasks that used his talents best, which left Dirk free to deal with the rest of it.
Trouble flared up frequently in the days following the ceremony. There was trouble in both Tolace and Paislee and another riot in Talenburg—albeit on a much smaller scale than the Bollow riot—in which the Shadowdancers' temple was attacked. Most of the damage, however, came from looters taking advantage of the disturbance. Kirsh had no sooner arrived in Avacas than he was forced to turn around and head back to Talenburg with a sizable force, leaving Dirk to deal with Lord Palinov.
Antonov's chancellor was less than pleased to find himself taking orders from Dirk Provin, even if he was now Lord of the Suns. Palinov was an oily creature, whom Dirk had never liked much. He did everything he could to undermine Dirk's authority, even though Kirsh had made it patently clear before he left for Talenburg that Dirk spoke with the full authority of the Lion of Senet.
The morning after Kirsh left, Dirk let himself into Antonov's study to meet with the chancellor for another conference that would no doubt turn into a subtle battle of wits between them. He understood Palinov's irritation. Although snide and condescending, the man was a capable bureaucrat and was used to being given a free hand during Antonov's frequent absences from Avacas. In that, Dirk had no quarrel with him. He was only interested in keeping Senet from falling into anarchy. This was the most powerful nation on Ranadon and if it fell, the rest of the world would tumble down behind it like a house of cards. To protect Dhevyn, Dirk had to protect Senet. But right now, he had no more interest in the size of next year's corn harvest than Kirsh did.
He stopped just inside the door for a moment. The second sun was shining brightly, illuminating Antonov's desk and bathing his empty chair in light. It was strange to think he was about to sit in that chair.
“You'll be wanting to read all of these, won't you, my lord?” Lord Palinov announced, pushing through the door behind Dirk. He was followed by two scribes carrying a mountain of documents and several large ledgers. The scribes dumped their load on the desk, sketched a hasty bow and fled the office, leaving Palinov standing there with a faint sneer on his lips.
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